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Zhang Liao stepped forward. "Reorganized and ready, Your Majesty. Master Sima Yi, Chen Deng, and the other masters are finalizing the logistics, ammunition for the new cannons, grain sacks, arrow bundles. By noon, the vanguard can begin the march west. The main host will follow by dusk."
Lie Fan nodded, a predator's satisfaction in his eyes. "Good. We march at noon. The road to Tong Pass is open. Cao Cao will be digging in, turning that old stone throat into a clenched fist."
He looked westward, as if he could see the pass itself. "But a fist cannot hold forever against a hammer."
He glanced at Muchen, including him in the strategic picture. "And while we approach from the east, remember the south. Fa Zheng has Jianmen Pass. By now, his armies are likely besieging Wudu, or perhaps have already taken it and are moving on Hanzhong. He will methodically chew through Cao Cao's rear. When we meet at the walls of Chang'an, it will not be one army, but two. A pincer. We will have the numbers, the momentum, and the tools."
He patted the sun warmed stone of the battlement. "And we will have taken from Cao Cao his city, his cousins, his strongest brute, and his heir. A man can only lose so many pieces before the game is no longer worth playing."
His plan was clear, brutal, and comprehensive. The march to Tong Pass was not a pursuit, it was the next deliberate move in a checkmate sequence. He would pressure the front door while Fa Zheng dismantled the back wall.
The final objective was not Tong Pass, but Chang'an itself, the heart of Cao Cao's remaining territory. By seizing it, they would sever him from his western domains and resources, trapping him in a final, inescapable cage.
"The goal," Lie Fan said, his voice firm, leaving no room for doubt, "is to break Tong Pass swiftly with our new advantages, then drive straight for Chang'an. We will rendezvous with Fa Zheng's southern army there. With Chang'an under siege from two directions, Cao Cao's last line of supply and retreat vanishes. He will have a choice, surrender in his capital, or be captured in the field. His era ends at the gates of Chang'an."
He turned from the view, his decision made. "Generals, to your commands. We move at noon. Prince Muchen," he said, looking at his son, "you will ride with me at the head of the column. It is time you saw how an empire moves its borders."
The orders rippled out from the gatehouse. The machine of war, momentarily paused to heal a city and itself, began to thrum back to life, its gears oiled with victory and its path set toward the final, legendary stronghold of its last great rival.
As noon approached, the drums of Hengyuan began to sound, not the frantic beat of battle, but the deep, steady rhythm of marching.
Columns moved with clockwork precision. Cavalry units formed at the flanks, infantry at the center, siege engines rolling forward under careful guard. The cannons, cleaned and oiled, were positioned like patient gods of war.
Muchen watched as the army began its advance, dust rising in a vast cloud that shimmered beneath the sun.
Zhao Yun leaned closer to him. "Remember this sight, Your Highness."
"I will," Muchen said quietly.
Ma Chao grinned. "You look like you're already planning your own campaigns."
Muchen flushed slightly but did not deny it.
Lie Fan mounted his horse, the movement smooth and practiced. He looked back once more at Hongnong, the city that had cost so many lives, the city that now stood as proof of his empire's reach.
Then he turned west.
"To Tong Pass," he said.
And the Hengyuan army followed.
On the other hand, at Tong Pass, slowly soon night fell.
Torches lined the walls, casting long shadows across stone and earth. The pass bristled with defenses, spikes, trenches, barricades layered one atop another.
Cao Cao stood alone on the ramparts, staring into the darkness beyond.
Somewhere out there, Lie Fan was coming. Somewhere out there, Cao Ang was alive or dying.
The thought gnawed at him relentlessly.
He pressed two fingers to his temple as a familiar ache pulsed, threatening to bloom into agony. He forced himself to breathe slowly, evenly.
"I will not fall," he muttered to himself. "Not yet."
Behind him, footsteps approached softly.
It was Xun Yu again.
"Your Majesty," he said quietly, "the fortifications are proceeding well. The men are settled tonight for rest."
Cao Cao nodded. "Good."
A pause.
"The Second Prince has been escorted to his quarters," Xun Yu added. "He has not spoken since."
Cao Cao closed his eyes briefly.
"Leave him be," he said. "For now."
Xun Yu bowed. "As you wish."
He hesitated, then spoke once more. "Your Majesty… Lie Fan has issued proclamations in Hongnong."
Cao Cao's eyes opened. "What kind?"
Xun Yu swallowed. "Mercy. Order. Compensation for the fallen. Humane treatment of prisoners."
Silence stretched.
"A clever man," Cao Cao said at last, bitterness threading his tone. "He knows how to wield kindness like a blade."
Xun Yu inclined his head in agreement, his expression grave in the torchlight.
"Your Majesty is correct," he said quietly. "Lie Fan is doing this deliberately. These proclamations are not mercy alone, they are strategy. He wants the idea of defeat to seep into the bones of our army before his cannons ever fire again."
Cao Cao did not look away from the darkness beyond Tong Pass.
Xun Yu then continued with a low voice. "He parades the fact that he holds General Xu Chu, Generals Cao Hong, Cao Ren, Li Dian, Yue Jin… and now, the Crown Prince. He wants our soldiers to hear it. To know that the strongest arms in Wei are in chains, and the future of the throne itself balances on his whim. It tells them our combat power is crippled and our succession is in jeopardy. It makes every man wonder, what are we fighting for, if even our best have fallen and our future is held hostage? The proclamation is not just words, it is a poison, slow acting and deadly to morale."
Cao Cao's sigh was the sound of a man carrying a mountain. "Then we must be the dam. Stop the information from spreading among the ranks for as long as you can. The soldiers cannot know about Xu Chu and my son's capture before the battle is joined. To know your champion is caged and your prince is a prisoner… it would turn resolve to ash before the first arrow is loosed. Do your best, Wenruo. Contain the rumors, spread counter whispers of their valiant last stand, anything."
Xun Yu bowed his head. "I will do all within my power, Your Majesty. But in a camp this size, with fear already in the air… secrets have wings."
"Then clip them," Cao Cao said, his tone leaving no room for failure. He then turned to the other, perhaps greater, threat. "And the south? What of Fa Zheng? Does Wudu still stand? Does Hanzhong hold?"
This time, Xun Yu's hesitation was palpable, a beat of silence that was more telling than any report. He swallowed, the sound audible in the quiet of the night.
"Wudu… has fallen, Your Majesty. The messengers arrived just before dusk. As for Hanzhong… they are fighting. They send desperate pleas. They say they cannot hold much longer. Their plan is to conduct a fighting retreat to Chang'an if… when… the walls are breached."
Another piece of the world, chipped away. Cao Cao absorbed the blows without visible reaction, but his knuckles were white where they gripped the cold stone of the battlement.
"This information as well. It does not leave this wall. The men must believe their rear is secure, that they have somewhere to retreat to. Let them think Hanzhong is a bastion, not a burning house."
"Understood, Your Majesty." Xun Yu bowed again, preparing to withdraw and enact the grim orders of silence and deception.
But as he turned to go, Cao Cao's voice stopped him, softer now, using his courtesy name with a familiarity that was rare and laden with meaning. "Wenruo."
Xun Yu turned back, his expression guarded.
Cao Cao wasn't looking at him; he was staring into the eastern darkness where Lie Fan's army now undoubtedly slept, readying for its march.
"If Wei falls… if I, Cao Mengde, lose here at Tong Pass, or at the gates of Chang'an… what will you do? Will you go and serve Lie Fan? Serve the Hengyuan Dynasty that will have, by then, achieved the unification we all once dreamed of?"
The question hung in the frigid air, more shocking than any news of fallen cities. It was a question from beyond defeat, from the perspective of a ghost of history. Xun Yu stood utterly still, his mind reeling.
This was not the pragmatic strategist speaking, this was the man, the friend, the lord he had followed for decades, asking for a truth that existed outside the framework of loyalty and command.
He found his voice, though it was thick with emotion. "Your Majesty… if that day comes… I would not serve another. The only emperor, the only dynasty, my loyalty is sworn to… is you, and is Wei. I would take my family and go into exile. To live out my days in obscurity, rather than bend the knee to the man who ended you."
Cao Cao finally turned to look at him. For a long moment, he said nothing. Then, a loud, genuine laugh burst from him, a sound so unexpected it seemed to startle the very night. It was a laugh of pure, unadulterated appreciation, devoid of bitterness.
"I truly did not recruit the wrong man," he said, shaking his head, a real smile touching his eyes for the first time in days. "Your loyalty, Wenruo, is a thing of stubborn, beautiful stone. It heartens me more than ten thousand fresh troops."
Xun Yu bowed, deeply moved. "Thank you, Your Majesty."
But Cao Cao wasn't finished. The smile faded, replaced by something infinitely more complex, a weary, profound acceptance. "And yet… while your answer makes me proud, it also makes me sad."
He looked back to the east, his voice dropping.
"Because in the end, Wenruo… the dream was never just about me on a throne, or the banner of Wei flying alone. The dream, the one that kept us going through all the blood and the betrayal, was a united land. A end to the chaos. Peace. Order. If I cannot be the one to give it… then I do not want the men who served me, men of brilliance and integrity like you, to be excluded from it. I do not want your exile. I would want… for you to be a part of the peace we all fought for, even if it wears another family's name."
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Name: Lie Fan
Title: Founding Emperor Of Hengyuan Dynasty
Age: 35 (202 AD)
Level: 16
Next Level: 462,000
Renown: 2325
Cultivation: Yin Yang Separation (level 9)
SP: 1,121,700
ATTRIBUTE POINTS
STR: 966 (+20)
VIT: 623 (+20)
AGI: 623 (+10)
INT: 667
CHR: 98
WIS: 549
WILL: 432
ATR Points: 0