I. The Mountain Pass
The fires on Mount Tiandang had died, but the struggle for Hanzhong had not. Tiandang had held stores for Cao Cao‘s army. After Huang Zhong and Yan Yan took it, Zhang He and Xiahou Shang withdrew with the survivors toward Mount Dingjun. Liu Bei could hold the captured stores and still fail to open the road into Hanzhong: Dingjun guarded the approaches to Nanzheng, where Cao’s forces could gather. If that mountain fell, the camps and supply routes behind it would be much harder to keep together.
At the campaign map Liu Bei asked Huang Zhong, “After Tiandang, will you take Dingjun too?”
Huang Zhong had been following Zhang He’s line of retreat with one finger. He looked up. “Our men have learned the road. Shall we make them find it all over again in the dark?”
Zhuge Liang touched the pass on the map. Xiahou Yuan held the mountain. Cao Cao had entrusted him with more than a chance to win a fight. The road was steep and narrow; a force pushed uphill from the valley would be exposed before its rear ranks could even turn. At a reference to his age, Huang Zhong’s face tightened. Before he could answer, Fa Zheng moved a wooden marker to the west of the mountain.
“Let us see the ground before deciding where the blade must fall.”
Liu Bei sent Fa Zheng with him. Huang Zhong folded the map and said no more. A quarrel in the tent would not bring the garrison down from its height.
When the report from Tiandang reached Xiahou Yuan, he first asked after the grain wagons and the men still withdrawing. Zhang He told him the mountain was lost, but the rear guard had yet to come in. Xiahou Yuan weighted a dispatch from Nanzheng at the corner of his map and ordered every approach watched. Cao Cao’s army was on its way. Until it arrived, Dingjun had to hold. Huang Zhong challenged him at the foot of the mountain more than once, and he did not come out. Zhang He’s report had already told him that the older general could fight and could command. The height was worth more than the pleasure of answering a challenge.
The lost stores made the defense harder. Wagons bound for Dingjun had to take other roads. Xiahou Yuan broke up the convoys rather than let them jam a single pass. Zhang He marked two slopes by which Liu Bei’s men might climb, and Xiahou Yuan added night watches. They still had ways to defend the mountain. Each lost ridge, however, left them fewer choices.
Cao Cao reached Nanzheng and sent a letter to Xiahou Yuan’s camp. By lamplight Xiahou Yuan read its warning: a commander must temper force with restraint and not trust courage alone. Cao also expected him to prove worthy of the name Miaocai. Xiahou Yuan handed the letter to Zhang He.
“If we wait until the king’s army fights this battle for us,” he asked, “have we defended the mountain?”
“If the mountain is still ours, we have,” Zhang He said. “Huang Zhong has brought Fa Zheng. Before we ride out, we must know what they want us to do.”
Xiahou Yuan did not dismiss him. He folded the letter and prepared a force that could leave the mountain while the garrison remained in place. The hard question was when defense should become attack.
At the pass Huang Zhong tested the approaches. Each time Cao’s camp stayed closed; each time he found signs of men hidden among the slopes. If he sent the whole army up, the leading ranks would emerge from the narrow ground under fire from both sides. He strengthened his camp and sent small parties to examine the paths. The drums that called him out would not choose his hour for him.
II. The Captives
Xiahou Yuan was testing him too. Xiahou Shang came down from Dingjun and formed up outside the Shu camp. Huang Zhong was about to mount when his officer Chen Shi asked for the fight. He took a thousand men through the pass. After only a few exchanges, Xiahou Shang turned and fled. Seeing his rear ranks lag behind, Chen Shi urged his men after him into the ground between two hills.
The first stones struck the path ahead. More came down from both slopes, breaking his column into separated pieces. Chen Shi tried to turn back. Xiahou Yuan appeared behind him with another force. Chen Shi was captured; the survivors who reached Huang Zhong’s camp were too shaken to say how many men remained in the valley.
Huang Zhong had the route drawn out for him. He asked the fugitives which slope the stones had come from and where Xiahou Yuan had entered the pass. Fa Zheng studied the narrow road.
“He wants you to hurry after Chen Shi and take that same path.”
“Chen Shi is still in his camp.”
“Then give him someone he wants back.”
Huang Zhong distributed rewards among his men and advanced his camps a little at a time. They occupied one position, secured its flanks, and only days later moved to the next. From above, Xiahou Yuan could see both the advance and the invitation hidden in it. Zhang He urged him to remain on the mountain. Yet every new Shu camp would tighten the roads below. Xiahou Yuan sent Xiahou Shang down again to test the line.
Huang Zhong rode out himself. Xiahou Shang had scarcely crossed the open ground between the armies when Huang Zhong closed on him. Their weapons met; Huang Zhong pressed in with his horse and took him captive. Now each army held an officer of the other. Xiahou Yuan sent an offer to exchange Chen Shi for Xiahou Shang.
The next day they formed their ranks in a broad valley. The two captives, stripped of armor, ran toward their own lines at the sound of a drum. Chen Shi reached the men waiting for him. Xiahou Shang was still making for Cao’s standard when Huang Zhong drew his bow and shot him in the back. He staggered on toward his army with the arrow in him. Xiahou Yuan saw it and charged.
Huang Zhong met him. For more than twenty exchanges their blades crossed between the two horses. Xiahou Yuan tried to force him toward one side of the valley; Huang Zhong shifted his mount and came back around the outside. Then a gong sounded from Cao’s camp, ordering retreat. Xiahou Yuan wheeled away. Huang Zhong pressed after his men for a short distance, but did not follow them under the slopes. The engagement had drawn Xiahou Yuan out. It had not taken Dingjun.
Back in camp, Xiahou Yuan learned that an officer watching the field had seen Shu banners in a hollow and sounded the recall for fear of an ambush. He ordered the hollow examined and held his position. Huang Zhong made no claim that he had broken the enemy. Both commanders had tested the other’s blade; both still held their side of the pass.
III. The Opposing Height
Fa Zheng led Huang Zhong west of Dingjun. Beyond the valley rose another mountain, its top broad enough for men to stand and its slopes facing Xiahou Yuan’s camp. From there, the roads used for grain and changes of guard could be watched. Huang Zhong walked partway along its ridge and found a sheltered slope where men might wait below the summit.
“He can still hold his own camp if we take this,” Huang Zhong said.
“Yes. But he will have to hold it under our eyes.” Fa Zheng pointed across the gap. “If he lets us settle here, we shall learn every road. If he comes to drive us off, he must leave the ground that protects him.”
They agreed on a night attack. During the second watch Huang Zhong brought his men up the steep paths with drums and gongs. Du Xi had only a small force on the height. Seeing the Shu troops surge toward the summit, he abandoned it and withdrew. Huang Zhong did not rush straight on to Dingjun. He set his soldiers below the exposed crest, let them drink, and restored their order after the climb.
Fa Zheng took his place at the top. A white flag would mean that Huang Zhong must stay where he was, however loudly the enemy challenged him. Only when the men below had waited long enough to lose their edge would Fa Zheng raise the red flag and release the attack.
Du Xi brought the news to Xiahou Yuan. A Shu flag stood above the opposing mountain. From that height Huang Zhong could see the traffic and changing guards around Dingjun. Zhang He recognized Fa Zheng’s purpose and urged Xiahou Yuan to hold his own defenses. Xiahou Yuan listened, left Zhang He to guard Dingjun, and led a force to surround the captured height.
“If I leave him there,” he said, touching the open ground between the mountains, “tomorrow he may choose which of my roads to strike. I mean to bring him down here and meet him.”
His men formed below the height, with a rear force watching the way back. Huang Zhong saw shields in the front ranks and banners still steady behind them. He gripped his blade and rose. Above him, the white flag remained. Men in the rocks lifted their heads at the insults drifting uphill. Huang Zhong sent them back to cover.
An hour passed. The voices carried up on the wind and faded again. Cao’s men called them out in turns. Huang Zhong’s soldiers grew stiff from waiting, but he did not ask Fa Zheng to change the signal. Xiahou Yuan tried to rotate his front ranks. On the narrow approach, men leaving the line crowded those coming to replace them. Some dismounted to rest. Small gaps opened between shields, while the rear ranks still watched the road behind them.
Fa Zheng saw the spaces. He saw, too, that Huang Zhong’s horses and men were ready. He lowered the white flag and raised the red.
IV. The Red Flag
Huang Zhong waited for no second order. He drove his horse down the slope, and the men concealed below the crest followed. The cavalry gathered speed on the descent; the foot soldiers came behind, securing the slanting path toward Cao’s camp. Huang Zhong did not aim for the densest wall of shields. A change of guard had left an opening beside the banner. He turned his riders toward it. Men in Cao’s front hurried to mount and face him, but those behind were still closing their ranks. No single command could reach them all in time.
Xiahou Yuan saw the red flag and called for the scattered line to close. Beneath his commander’s canopy he prepared to meet the riders coming down. A soldier thrust a spear across Huang Zhong’s path. Huang Zhong beat the shaft aside and came through beside the banner. In an instant the distance was small enough for a blade. Xiahou Yuan rose to meet him. Huang Zhong’s cut fell with the force of his horse behind it. Xiahou Yuan had no time to parry. He fell at the front of his army.
The stroke was shorter than the twenty-odd exchanges they had fought in the valley. Huang Zhong did not turn back in search of another contest. His riders poured through the opening, and his foot soldiers pressed after them. Men beside the canopy tried to dismount and reach Xiahou Yuan, but the Shu attack cut them off. A standard bearer held a pole that had begun to tilt, waiting for the messenger to tell him where to plant it. The messenger was still looking for someone who could give the order. At the front Cao’s soldiers continued to fight; behind them men saw the canopy fall. One voice called for the standard to be held. Another ordered retreat. The two commands met in a line that could no longer move together.
Zhang He came to support the defense. Chen Shi joined Huang Zhong’s attack from the other side. Driven toward Dingjun, Zhang He found Zhao Yun‘s men across his path. Du Xi brought worse news: Liu Feng and Meng Da had seized the mountain camp. Zhang He led the survivors toward the Han River. The positions Xiahou Yuan had defended were still there, but the commander who had held their orders together was gone.
On Dingjun, Huang Zhong asked first how many of the men who had charged from the hillside had failed to return. He sent those still able to stand to guard the pass and had the wounded carried into the captured camp. Weapons left in the gate were cleared away. Fa Zheng came across from the opposing height and arranged a line of messengers between the two positions. Huang Zhong checked the casualty roll and sent soldiers back down the slope to look once more for the missing. The mountain had a new garrison. Its approaches still needed watching.
The report reached Cao Cao’s camp at Nanzheng. Xiahou Yuan was dead, the messenger said, and Dingjun was lost. Cao Cao asked where Zhang He’s remaining men had withdrawn. When he heard, he wept aloud. No one in the tent spoke. When the campaign reports were spread before him again, he ordered the scattered troops gathered and the stores and camps near the Han River accounted for. Then he appointed Xu Huang to lead the advance and set out from Nanzheng with his army for Dingjun.
