Those boarding ships from Jiaozhou toward Jingnan were not only soldiers of Jiaozhou. Among them was also a contingent from Yizhou.
This Yizhou force had been borrowed temporarily and was led by a man named Zhang Ni.
Zhang Ni spoke little. Yet whenever he did speak, his words struck directly at the heart of the matter. Moreover, there was an indescribable bearing about him, something quiet yet weighty. Shi Hui had previously felt such a presence only from Mister Gan.
Standing on the upper deck, Shi Hui inclined his head slightly toward Zhang Ni, maintaining proper restraint, and watched as the man boarded the ship and headed north. As the sails unfurled, Shi Hui's thoughts returned to the three strategies Mister Lu had laid out for him earlier.
In truth, they were not complicated. Mister Lu had said that Jiaozhou had only three possible paths.
The upper strategy was to submit to Liu.
The middle strategy was to hold fast and defend oneself.
The lower strategy was to submit to Sun.
At the time, Shi Hui had not fully understood. If all were forms of reliance, why was submitting to Sun and submitting to Liu so vastly different?
Mister Lu had merely asked calmly in return.
"If Cao destroys Liu, what do you think he will do next?"
Shi Hui had been left speechless. Mister Lu then patiently broke the matter down, explaining each layer until it was unmistakably clear.
Cao and Liu both harbored ambitions over the realm. They could be called true rivals.
The Sun clan set its sights only on Jiangdong. It was not worth deep concern.
Even if they seized power for a time and divided the realm by the river, what then? No matter whether Cao or Liu emerged victorious in the end, neither would tolerate a Sun clan entrenched in Jiangdong.
To submit to Jiangdong was like boarding a ship with a rotten hull. How could it not be the lower strategy?
It was only then that Shi Hui slowly savored the true meaning behind upper, middle, and lower. Stirred by youthful temperament, he chose the upper strategy without hesitation.
Yet at the very end, that same youthful pride had pushed him to ask, unwilling to concede.
"Does Mister Lu believe that Jiaozhou truly has no chance to stand on its own?"
That question, which Shi Hui had thought entirely reasonable, had been answered with Lu Meng's hearty laughter and Gan Yi's undisguised mockery.
Now, recalling those words that betrayed his ignorance of heaven's height and earth's depth, Shi Hui wished he could find a crack in the ground and crawl into it.
He had once believed that the Shi family's hold over Jiaozhou gave them the qualifications to wait for the right moment. Yet after traveling to Yizhou and witnessing with his own eyes the elite troops who had pierced through Nanzhong, that mindset vanished completely.
The cold, disciplined aura of the soldiers alone was enough to make Shi Hui uneasy. The ferocity radiating from Wu Yi and Zhang Ni made him feel genuine admiration.
Seeing it with his own eyes made the disparity unmistakable.
Especially after Mister Lu's explanation of the situation under heaven, Shi Hui could judge even more clearly.
The force that had broken through Nanzhong was merely one auxiliary army under Liu Huangshu.
Yet Shi Hui could also judge that if this auxiliary army turned its blades toward Jiaozhou, breaking through it would hardly be difficult.
If even Nanzhong had fallen, then Jiaozhou's miasma and fevers were nothing worth mentioning.
Thus Shi Hui straightened his posture and, following exactly what Mister Lu had instructed in advance, carefully laid out the changes in Jingzhou, sparing no detail, and then cautiously offered his own proposal.
"If the general wishes to pass through Jiaozhou and enter Jingnan to suppress the rebels, I am willing to provide provisions and levy troops to accompany the expedition."
Wu Yi, Governor of Nanzhong, did not deliberate for long. In the end, he divided off three thousand troops and had Zhang Ni lead them through Jiaozhou into Jingnan to support the front.
Wu Yi himself showed a trace of regret on his face, saying that rebels still stirred unrest in Yunnan and refused royal authority. He would soon lead troops together with the Adjutant Sima to pacify them, striving to bring all of Yizhou completely under control.
This decision made Shi Hui quietly breathe a sigh of relief. He had truly feared that General Wu might simply wave his hand and march the entire army through Jiaozhou into Jingnan.
After witnessing the might of Yizhou's soldiers firsthand, the fear of borrowing a road only to lose the state inevitably surfaced in Shi Hui's heart.
Ten thousand troops passing through was no different from placing a blade against one's own neck. The relationship between the Shi and Liu families had not reached that level of trust.
Three thousand was just right. It would not strain Jiaozhou's ability to supply provisions, nor would it cause his father Shi Xie to feel threatened.
Now, watching as the three thousand Yizhou soldiers all set sail, Shi Hui's spirits gradually rose.
Though it was not quite as he had once imagined in idle daydreams, he, Shi Hui, had finally stepped onto the stage of the struggle for the realm.
Just as he raised his hand, ready to speak, General Gan suddenly leapt forward beside him.
"Sons of Jiaozhou. Now is the time to win merit and establish deeds. March forth."
The shout was vast and resonant, carrying across sea and marsh. On the training ground, a cacophony of wild cries erupted as the native soldiers raised their weapons in response to the imposing general.
Shi Hui froze, then could only smile helplessly and shake his head.
In terms of heroic bearing, Mister Gan did not lose to General Wu Yi in the slightest. Indeed, he was far more suited than Shi Hui himself to command troops.
Yet recalling the experiences of just this half month, Shi Hui could not help but sigh in his heart.
How generous heaven has been to me.
The only thing that truly puzzled him was this. By all accounts, should not these two gentlemen be bowing their heads to him instead?
This was not what the Central Plains scholars had described at all.
Gan Yi laughed loudly at the front, shouting with the soldiers in the few local phrases he had managed to learn. Lu Meng remained behind, standing quietly at Shi Hui's rear, his expression calm as he watched everything unfold.
Shi Hui's face was full of excitement. He intended to take this battle as his first true trial.
Far to the south of Jiangling, Shamoke's face was filled with bloodthirsty ferocity. The heavy iron club in his hands spun with deceptive ease.
Relying on finely crafted rattan armor and his imposing physique, Shamoke and dozens of his guards could be said to sweep all before them.
With another earthshaking roar, he found that he had failed to achieve further merit. Soon after, drums sounded from the Jiangdong side, signaling a retreat.
He spat heavily, made no effort to conceal his exhaustion, and took the water offered by a guard, gulping it down.
Only after draining two full bowls did he have the strength to speak.
"By the ancestors, I will capture that accursed Pan clan and flay them alive."
Shamoke ground his teeth in hatred.
Gongan lay directly north of Hanshou, with a county called Zuotang between them by the banks of the Li River.
Shamoke had originally led troops here hoping to seize an opportunity to strike Gongan and earn merit. That plan collapsed quickly.
After staying in Zuotang for only one day, Jiangdong troops came by boat from Yunmeng Marsh, sailing straight up the Li River. At the same time, Jiangdong forces stationed in Gongan also set out, advancing directly toward Zuotang.
Jiangdong had shown Shamoke ample respect this time. Together, the two forces numbered nearly thirty thousand, pressing down with overwhelming intent.
Fortunately, Shamoke had always appeared crude while hiding cunning beneath. Sensing something amiss, he immediately withdrew toward Hanshou. Thus Jiangdong failed to complete the encirclement.
At first, Jiangdong even sent envoys to persuade him to surrender. Shamoke responded in true barbarian fashion, sending the envoy's head back, leaving no room for reconciliation.
The mixed tribes retreated south. Jiangdong forces relied on superior numbers and pursued relentlessly. From Zuotang to Hanshou was little more than a hundred li, yet the two sides fought more than ten engagements large and small over seven or eight days.
From the very start, a doubt had gnawed at Shamoke's heart. Jiangdong's two-pronged advance was deliberate and precise, as though they knew his movements all too well. It was as if information had leaked.
He needed only to retrace the steps of his own mobilization to arrive at a likely culprit.
Yet the other side proved even more calculating than he had expected. Before he could even return to Hanshou, a tribal soldier arrived with urgent news.
"The Pan clan has turned traitor. They attacked the county offices and seized Hanshou."
Thus the change in Jingnan fully revealed itself.