29. Seven Catches and Six Releases
The next morning, everyone was preparing for another battle. Zhang Xing Cai had been up at first light to receive orders from Zhuge Liang. As they were told last night, Ma Chao would ride up river and Zhao Yun would go down river.
"But Master Zhuge Liang, having our generals go out as scouts would endanger them both. Wouldn't it make more sense for the scouts to go scouting? They've been trained to be stealthy and all that." Ma Yun Lu pleaded.
Cai didn't add anything. Instead, she waited quietly for Zhuge Liang to answer.
"It might, but Ma Chao and Zhao Yun aren't just going on a hunting party. This is Hanzhong after all. They will more than likely run into some Nanmans."
Yun Lu nodded, sadly.
"Xing Cai, would you mind staying behind? I would like you to temporarily act as Yun Lu's personal guard."
"Of course, Master Zhuge Liang."
She knew that he was only doing that to make it easier for Zhao Yun to leave Yun Lu behind. Oh well. Now she was getting along with Yun Lu, she wouldn't mind it as much.
x
Although she was supposed to be Yun Lu's guard, more like officially ordered to be friend when no one else wanted to deal with her mood swings, she decided that she would make sure that Zhao Yun and Ma Chao were ready to depart. She found Zhao Yun and Yun Lu discussing something in his tent. She figured that it was a private conversation and that she shouldn't intrude. So she didn't. Instead, she went out to the stable tent to find Ma Chao shoeing his white stallion. He held the stallion's hoof up with one hand. With the other, he pounded the nails through the shoe and into the hoof itself. He used three nails on either side of the shoe. That added up to six square nails per hoof, twenty four total.
When he finished pounding in the latest nail, he reached for the next one, that's when he saw her standing there.
"Xing Cai, is there something you need help with?" He asked as he let his stallion's hoof go.
Then he stood up straight and stretched his back.
"It looks like you need the help." She stated.
He smiled and let a chuckle escape him. Then he patted his stallion on the withers.
"Are you offering help?"
She nodded.
"Then could I have you hold his hoof up while I pound the nails?"
"Sure."
She moved over to the hoof that Ma Chao had left off on and ran her hand down the stallion's leg. The stallion picked up his hoof. She kneeled down and rested the hoof on her thigh. Ma Chao kneeled next to her and continued pounding with hammer.
Then they moved on to the next hoof and the next and finally, the last one. When they were done, they were both sweating slightly and stiff. The shoeing had taken the highest toll on their backs. Kneeling that low while holding that much weight was never easy.
Ma Chao walked around his horse as he examined the job he had done with the shoeing.
"How does it look?" She asked him, hoping that they were done.
"Fine, I just wanted to get some new shoes on him." Ma Chao answered as he gave his stallion a final pat on the neck.
"Good, is there anything else you need some help with, preferably not shoeing?"
Ma Chao laughed.
"If you wanted, you could help me saddle up."
"Okay."
x
Meng Huo's first catch my have been easy, but his second didn't require any work at all. He had poisoned the river that the Shu army would have had to cross for the second battle. They would have fallen for the trap, but Ma Chao found the source of Meng Huo's supply route. So they went there for the supplies instead of where they were going to meet for the second battle.
Meng Huo's men were so discouraged by the loss of supply base that they betrayed their king and handed him over to Zhuge Liang. The Sleeping Dragon's plan was already working. The only bad part was that everything by the river stunk for days. Otherwise, it couldn't have gone better if they planed it to.
However, Cai became worried once again when Zhuge Liang gave Meng Huo a tour of their camp! She knew he had a plan and all, but what was he thinking!
At the present time, Cai was with Yun Lu whose morning sickness had kicked up to the next level thanks to the stench of the poison. She gave her friend a few heavy pats on the back to help her chook up what was left of her previous dinner. When she was done, she sat up and wiped her mouth dry.
"Oh Cai, I'm so sorry that I've put you through this."
Cai smiled slightly.
"Don't worry about it, I understand."
However, little did Ma Yun Lu know how well Xing Cai actually did understand her condition.
"We just have to be ready to leave soon." She finished.
"Leave?" Yun Lu asked.
Cai nodded.
"Zhuge Liang says that we have to be ready to leave as soon as he gives the order to. After he gave Meng Huo a tour of the camp, I don't think anyone's wondering why."
x
When Meng Huo returned, he charged their camp, only to find it empty. As they searched for any signs of an ambush, they fell into pits the Shu soldiers had dug a few hours earlier.
After being captured once again, he still didn't give in. So Zhuge Liang let him go yet again. The pattern then repeated itself again and again.
After being captured and released for a total of six times, Meng Huo became desperate and pulled out his 'secret weapon'. That secret weapon was a batch of fighters with 'indestructible' armor.
"Ha! I bet that armor can't protect them from fire." Ma Chao mocked.
Zhuge Liang smiled. He had them set out explosives that would burst into flames if anyone stepped on them. It was Xing Cai's, Yue Ying's and Ma Yun Lu's job to do it. It was hard work, but it was the easiest work they could find for Yun Lu since she refused to 'sit around and do nothing' even though her baby might come within the next week or two.
So far, Xing Cai had taken part in every charge. This was no exception. She felt as if she as apart of Shu again and she didn't want to miss anything. These feelings made her glad she came all the way here. It was exactly what she had being hoping she would find here.
This was the seventh charge. If Meng Huo didn't surrender now, he never would. All the other tribes' kings were dead. He should have admitted defeat already, but he hadn't. He would now for he had just entered into the field where she and the other two ladies had placed the mines. At first, they had spaced them out. Then as Meng Huo would move closer to them, they placed them tighter together. Zhuge Liang had them do it that way so they would travel as far into the field as they possibly could before the mines started going off. That way, the mines would take out more than just the vanguard.
The Nanmans were halfway through the field when the first explosion erupted. They were too deep into the field to turn and run. So they could only continue charging toward the still Shu force.
"When will we charge?" Zhao Yun asked.
"When all the explosives have gone off." Zhuge Liang answered.
"How many are there?"
"A dozen." Cai answered.
One had already gone off. Oh! That made two. Three. Now four! Hahaha!
Two violent eruptions of fire happened at once on either side of the Nanman's vanguard. Five, six. They only had a quarter of the way through the field to go now. Just as they recovered from the two that went at once, the remaining six all went off. The six had been placed in a straight line to make a wall to halt their charge dead in their tracks, literally. That way, Shu would have the momentum of the charge.
"CHARGE!" Zhao Yun and Ma Chao shouted at the same time.
The heavy and light infantry crashed into the front of the Meng Huo's army. Shu's cavalry rode around and attacked from the back. They had the barbarians pinched between them.
Cai swung her spear back and forth. She blocked and attacked with speed and precision, just as Zhao Yun had taught her to.
Zhao Yun and Ma Chao were a short distance away on their horses. Ma Chao had led the cavalry around the Nanman force. So him being here must mean that the cavalry had already made it through. Wow, that didn't take long.
x
When Meng Huo was captured for the seventh time, he surrendered and vowed his allegiance to Shu. It had been quite a scene to witness.
"I don't care what you think! My people will never submit to you!" Meng Huo shouted as he plopped himself down on the ground.
He crossed his arms and pouted, resembling a small child. Zhuge Liang only shook his head.
"It is not you submission that we seek. Will you help us to create a brand new empire?"
The strategist waved his feathered fan to gesture toward the north.
Okay, yeah. I got tired of the whole Nanzhong battle pretty quick. I never liked it, but I do admit that Zhuge Liang was an absolute genius, other than the fact that he showed Meng Huo the Shu camp! If it weren't for the info he got from Meng Huo's brother, that could have cost him the battle. Personally, I think that he just got lucky there.
