General Guan Yu held complete authority over the southern theater. If he gave the order, war could begin immediately. But moving a large naval force into position was never something that happened overnight.
Even the street vendors carrying woven rattan baskets around the Jiangling docks could sense that something was brewing.
"That's the ninth warship today," one peddler muttered while shifting his basket onto his shoulder. "Are we heading into another war?"
For the common folk surviving a chaotic era, this conclusion was simple logic. Survival instincts kicked in immediately, and anxiety spread quickly through the docks.
Before long, groups gathered near the wharves, whispering restlessly among themselves.
Officially, travel and trade between the northern and southern territories had been sealed off by military order.
In reality, merchants always found hidden routes around such restrictions. A large portion of the silk passing through Jiangling's docks eventually found its way north through illegal trading channels.
For merchants who lived by profit, the idea of falling under Cao Cao's harsh administration sounded less like order and more like disaster.
"Commander Zhou Yu took an arrow. If he's laid up and that bastard Cao Cao marches south again, who is going to stop him?"
"We either stop him or die. What else can we do? Run all the way to Jiao Province?"
"Jiao Province is full of deadly swamp diseases and giant insects. I'd rather stay here and gamble on survival. Maybe Cao Cao's army isn't as terrifying as people claim."
Several wealthy merchants nearby immediately scoffed.
"You can't even use normal coinage in the north anymore," a silk merchant said disdainfully. "How exactly is that supposed to be a good life?"
Another merchant leaned in with a knowing smirk. "You know what happens to rich merchants under Cao Cao's administration? They tax you until your bones turn to dust, then draft your sons into the infantry as a bonus."
A third merchant nodded grimly. "I heard in the north they arrest you if your silk robes are too fancy. Apparently luxury is a crime now."
"So Cao Cao wants to conquer us, steal our trade routes, abolish our currency, tax us into poverty, and throw our sons into his endless wars." The silk merchant began counting on his fingers. "And people are actually debating whether to surrender?"
"Maybe he'll give us a discount on the taxes if we surrender early?"
"He won't. Cao Cao doesn't do discounts. Cao Cao does 'your entire family is now state property.'"
"At least General Guan Yu is polite. He mostly just glares at you until you reconsider your life choices."
"That's because General Guan Yu doesn't need to tax us. He just needs us to keep the docks running so he can afford more of those nightmare warships."
"Speaking of which, did you see the size of that thing? It looked like someone strapped three watermills to a floating fortress and called it a day."
"I heard they have a whole department of engineers in Chengdu now. They just sit around all day inventing new ways to make Cao Cao's life miserable."
"Finally. Someone is doing the ancestors' work."
"So we're staying?"
"We're staying. Worst case, we bribe a Wu official to smuggle us east."
"You mean the same Wu officials who just saw Zhou Yu take an arrow and are probably panicking harder than we are?"
"...Fair point. Maybe we bribe a Shu official instead."
"Shu officials don't take bribes. They're too busy being righteous and historically significant."
"Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting."
The original peddler lowered his voice.
"Hey, don't lose hope, guys. Maybe General Guan Yu can actually win and kick Cao Cao's ass?"
Someone farther back immediately laughed.
"Are you stupid or what? Maybe your head got kicked by a donkey. General Guan didn't exactly win Red Cliffs by himself. You can't win a war running solo. That's suicide."
A local supporter immediately spun around and jabbed a finger at the skeptic.
"Shut your damn mouth. I was at Baima. I saw it with my own eyes."
A few people nearby instantly turned toward him. The man puffed up his chest, his voice rising with excitement.
"General Guan Yu rode out alone. One horse. One blade. Yan Liang had thousands of troops lined up behind him. You know what General Guan Yu did? He didn't stop. Didn't slow down. Didn't even bother looking around. He just charged straight through their entire formation like a hawk diving into a flock of sparrows. By the time the northern army realized what was happening, Yan Liang's head was already in his hand and he was riding back to our lines."
The man slapped his thigh hard.
"Thousands of soldiers stood there frozen. Nobody moved. Nobody even breathed too loud. That's the man you're betting against."
He crossed his arms and glared at the skeptic.
"So go ahead. Tell me again how General Guan Yu can't win."
Another man instantly scoffed.
"You know what? Yuan Shao supposedly commanded a million troops and still got crushed by Cao Cao. A million men. Not sacks of grain. If Yuan Shao was a fraud, then Yan Liang was probably a fraud too."
"This is pointless. I'm taking my family and heading to Chengdu before the fighting starts."
"You coward! You'd run before a single arrow is fired?"
"I'm a silk merchant, not a frontline infantryman! What do you expect me to do, throw rolls of fabric at Cao Cao's cavalry?"
"At least die with some dignity!"
"I'd rather live without dignity than die with it. Dead men don't sell silk."
"You're a disgrace to Jiangling!"
"I'm a disgrace with a full grain cart and a head start. Enjoy your siege."
"Get back here!"
"Absolutely not!"
The argument cut off instantly.
"Hold on. What in the name of heaven is that?"
The argument died mid-sentence. Every head on the dock turned westward.
A warship was approaching. But calling it a warship felt wrong. It looked like someone had taken two normal ships, stacked them on top of each other, then strapped giant wheels to the back just to see what would happen.
"It's enormous," the silk merchant whispered, his earlier smugness completely evaporated.
"And... strange," added the man who had just been threatening to flee to Chengdu. He was no longer talking about running.
The vessel glided past the docks, dwarfing every merchant boat in sight. Compared to this monster, the surrounding ships looked like bath toys.
Then someone noticed the stern.
Three massive circular mechanisms churned violently against the water, spinning like carriage wheels possessed by demons.
"Is that... are those wheels?" the skeptic from earlier stammered, his cocky demeanor gone. "Why does a ship have wheels?"
"They're not touching the bottom," the former soldier breathed. "They're paddling. Like a watermill. But on a ship."
"That doesn't make any sense."
"It doesn't have to make sense. It just has to work."
The peddler who had been defending Guan Yu earlier crossed his arms and smiled slowly.
"Guys, you still want to run to Jiao Province? Enjoy the swamp diseases and giant insects?"
Nobody answered him.
The crowd stood motionless as the colossal vessel disappeared downstream, the rhythmic churn of its wheel-mechanisms echoing across the water long after the ship itself had vanished.
Finally, the original peddler spoke in a quiet voice.
"General Guan Yu promised the flames of war would never reach Jiangling."
The merchants exchanged glances. They remembered every promise the red-faced general had made over the past two years. Every single one had been kept.
The silk merchant exhaled slowly. "I suppose... we stay."
"We stay," the skeptic muttered, shaking his head in disbelief. "But if this goes wrong, I'm haunting every single one of you."
Meanwhile, one man quietly slipped away from the crowd. He moved through the city's narrow alleys with practiced ease before disappearing through the heavily guarded rear gate of a sprawling estate.
Deep inside his luxurious manor, Liu Zhang reclined lazily against a pile of expensive silk cushions. He peeled a piece of fresh fruit, rolled it generously through a bowl of crystallized cane sugar, and tossed it into his mouth.
The sweetness exploded across his tongue.
Liu Zhang narrowed his eyes in satisfaction and adjusted himself into an even more comfortable position. His attention drifted back toward the center of the hall, where two dancers swayed slowly to the rhythm of soft music.
Beside him sat two scholars in formal robes, serving as his companions for the evening.
A servant hurried into the hall, bent down beside one of the scholars, Zhang Yu, and whispered urgently into his ear. The messenger quickly bowed and retreated.
Before Zhang Yu could even speak, Liu Zhang lazily beat him to it.
"Why so serious, Nanhe? We sit safely inside an unbreakable city. We eat sweet fruit. We watch beautiful women dance. Winter cannot freeze us, and summer cannot scorch us. What else does a man really need?"
Zhang Yu, courtesy name Nanhe, kept his expression carefully neutral. He lowered himself into a formal bow.
"When the lord suffers humiliation, the minister should be willing to die. Yizhou may be filled with cowards satisfied by temporary peace, but the true hearts of the people still long for justice. They are waiting for you to reclaim your rightful authority!"
Liu Zhang did not answer immediately. His eyes remained fixed on the ornaments hanging from the dancers' waists. Small emerald-colored glass rings clinked softly together every time they moved, producing a strangely pleasant rhythm.
"My Lord!" Zhang Yu pressed, unable to tolerate Liu Zhang's indifference.
Liu Zhang sighed faintly.
"I hear the people of Yizhou constantly praise Liu Bei. So where exactly is this longing you speak of?"
Zhang Yu shuffled forward on his knees, lowering his voice.
"The common peasants do not represent Heaven's will. I speak of the great families. The Cun clan of Yong. The Cuan clan of Tonglao. The Qiang, Yan, and Chen clans of Hanzhong. The Liang clan of Luocheng. The Xu, Qiu, and Tu clans of Yinping. These are the true pillars of Yizhou. All of them are waiting for your signal."
Liu Zhang looked thoroughly uninterested. He calmly peeled another fruit and dipped it into the sugar.
Seeing this, Zhang Yu grew visibly anxious and edged even closer.
Suddenly, Liu Zhang paused and asked an entirely unrelated question.
"When Liu Bei first entered Chengdu, he sought you out for a reading, did he not? What exactly did he ask you?"
Zhang Yu froze briefly before recovering.
"Liu Bei knew I was skilled in physiognomy and fortune reading. He asked me to examine his general Zhang Fei and predict his lifespan."
"And what did you tell him?" Liu Zhang asked with genuine curiosity.
"I warned him that Zhang Fei would meet disaster in the year of Dingyou. Liu Bei merely laughed and had me thrown out. He completely ignored the fate hanging over his own sworn brother."
The year of Dingyou...
Liu Zhang silently calculated the date in his head. Only six years remained.
Zhang Yu suppressed the bitterness in his expression. At the time, he had expected Liu Bei to urgently ask how the tragedy could be avoided. Instead, he had been dismissed outright.
Pushing the memory aside, he quickly returned to the matter at hand.
"The Jingzhou front is about to erupt into war. Cao Cao is preparing another great southern campaign. We must rally the loyalists within Yizhou and strike from the inside once his forces advance."
This time, Liu Zhang became completely still.
He appeared to seriously consider the proposal for several long moments before slowly nodding.
"Very well, Nanhe. Make the arrangements. But keep everything hidden for now. Wait until Cao Cao's army reaches Jiangling before you strike."
Zhang Yu's face immediately brightened with excitement. He bowed deeply before rising to his feet. As he turned to leave, he cast a smug glance toward the other scholar in the room, who had remained silent the entire time like a carved statue.
Then Zhang Yu strode out of the hall, eager to ignite rebellion.
The moment his footsteps disappeared, Liu Zhang turned toward the silent scholar.
"My apologies for the trouble, Zhongzhi. Please take a walk and deliver every family name he mentioned directly to Liu Bei's intelligence officers."
Zhou Qun nodded calmly. He had already memorized the entire list.
Without another word, he stood, adjusted his robes, and quietly left the hall.
Liu Zhang remained behind alone with the music. After a moment, he let out a long sigh.
"These fools... did they somehow forget that my surname is Liu as well?"
He shook his head before suddenly shouting toward the dancers.
"Add two more glass rings to your waists! Bring in more musicians from the courtyard! Keep playing! Keep dancing!"
The sharp twang of stringed instruments soon filled the hall once more, blending perfectly with the crisp clinking of emerald glass.
Out on the river, the enormous paddle-wheel warship cut cleanly through the water.
Zhao A stood near the bow, his eyes practically glowing with curiosity.
Military discipline aboard the fleet was insanely strict. Leaving your assigned position during active sailing, unless combat had broken out, earned you five brutal lashes across the back. Zhao A had memorized the regulations purely for survival. He had no intention of testing whether the officers actually enforced them.
Still, he stretched his neck as far as possible, trying to study the mechanics of the strange new vessel.
In the end, he really had left Zigui with nothing but a sack of clothes and a clay jar stuffed with copper coins, heading downriver to Jiangling to enlist under General Guan.
Growing up beside the raging Yangtze basically meant Zhao A had learned to swim before he learned to walk. Joining the naval infantry had been the obvious choice. Besides, sailors received an extra fifty coins each month as hazard pay.
That bonus alone had decided his entire career path.
Military life itself was exhausting. Every day meant memorizing operational codes, learning battlefield first aid, drilling synchronized rowing formations, and practicing savage boarding actions. Most days, he barely had time to scratch his head.
But honestly?
Zhao A loved it.
Stabbing spear dummies was infinitely more interesting than spending his life staring at the rear end of an ox in a muddy field. And the barracks were packed with guys who actually knew how to joke around.
"Zhao Five, wipe that stupid grin off your face. Commander Zhao's coming up," one of his squadmates whispered sharply.
A naval squad consisted of five men, and rank inside the unit was naturally determined by age. Zhao A was the youngest, so everyone simply called him Zhao Five.
Zhao A carefully turned his head.
Sure enough, Commander Zhao Lei stood atop the observation deck, discussing something with a junior officer while pointing toward the distant shoreline.
Zhao A narrowed his eyes through the drifting river mist.
A city slowly emerged on the horizon.
As the warship drew closer, his excitement instantly crashed.
"That's Jiangxia?"
The walls looked short. The roads near the docks were cramped. Even the civilian traffic looked weak. The entire city gave off serious backwater energy.
His squadmate snorted quietly.
"Jiangling's one of the richest trade hubs in the entire realm. You got spoiled living there. Jiangxia's already considered a decent fortress."
Seeing that Commander Zhao Lei showed no intention of inspecting their section of the deck, Zhao A leaned slightly closer.
"Then why are we even sailing toward this place?"
"We're borrowing the river route to reach Dangyang," the squadmate replied, rolling his eyes. "Were you asleep during the briefing? We stop at the Dangyang docks for resupply, camp a few days, then head out to kill Cao Cao's troops."
Zhao A immediately felt his blood heat up.
Fighting Cao Cao's army.
That name brought back memories.
Back then, Cao Cao's cavalry had chased his former employer, Old Master Li, all the way to Zigui in complete panic. Honestly, it was a shame the old man was not around to witness this counterattack.
Zhao A suddenly felt a little nostalgic.
Then another thought abruptly entered his head.
Wait a second.
Cao Cao's army had also chased Lord Liu Bei all the way south.
So technically...
Did that mean he and Old Master Li actually owed Cao Cao a thank-you for accidentally delivering Liu Bei straight to their doorstep and giving him this high-paying job?
Standing aboard a revolutionary warship, Zhao A found himself trapped in an extremely confusing philosophical crisis.
---
High atop the stone walls of Jiangxia, Lu Su stood silently, watching the gigantic warship dominate the river below.
A messenger came sprinting up the steps, completely out of breath. Before the man could even kneel and deliver his report, Lu Su spoke first in a calm, icy tone.
"Let them pass."
The messenger froze for half a second, swallowed his words, saluted quickly, and rushed back down the wall to relay the order.
Beside Lu Su, Bu Zhi shifted uneasily.
"General... an armed fleet of this size moving through our waters is highly unusual. We should immediately notify our lord in the east."
Lu Su's expression remained unreadable.
"Our lord already knows."
Bu Zhi immediately stopped talking.
Silence settled over the battlements for a long moment. Then Lu Su quietly exhaled.
"That is an extraordinary warship," he murmured.
Bu Zhi instinctively frowned.
"It has never even fought a naval battle before. How can you already judge its quality? Besides, they're sailing north to use naval infantry against cavalry on land. By that logic, even floating driftwood would count as an advantage."
Lu Su did not seem offended. Instead, a faintly bitter smile appeared on his face.
"Zishan, you personally supervised the replication of their water-powered mills. Tell me honestly. How do our copies compare to the originals in Gong'an?"
Bu Zhi wanted to defend Eastern Wu's pride.
But facing Lu Su's calm gaze, he could not bring himself to lie.
After a long pause, he sighed.
"Ours are slightly worse."
"I've been listening to the merchants traveling out of Jiangling," Lu Su said slowly. "They have a new term now. 'Engineering.' They apply it to everything, especially shipbuilding. Even if that vessel sinks during its first battle, the fact they successfully built it at all means they've already stepped into the future."
Bu Zhi fell silent.
The people of Eastern Wu had always prided themselves on their mastery of rivers and ships. They were supposed to be unmatched in naval affairs.
And yet Liu Bei's faction, a group originally made up of northern warlords who barely understood water warfare a few years ago, was now surpassing them in innovation.
That reality felt deeply humiliating.
What stung even more was the attitude of the Jiangling merchants these days.
In the past, they looked at officials from Eastern Wu with admiration and caution. Now their gazes carried a strange casualness, almost indifference.
The balance of power had shifted frighteningly fast.
"Zishan," Lu Su said suddenly.
Bu Zhi immediately straightened.
"Go to the docks personally. Supervise the fleet's passage. Make sure no accidental conflict breaks out between our patrols and their sailors."
Bu Zhi suppressed the unease in his chest, bowed sharply, and hurried down the wall.
Once he was alone, Lu Su slowly pulled his right hand from within his sleeve.
Hidden in his palm was a highly confidential order from Sun Quan himself.
The instructions were perfectly clear.
Officially, Lu Su was to condemn Guan Yu for recklessly reigniting war. At the same time, Lu Meng had already begun mobilizing twenty thousand elite troops toward Jiangxia, preparing to exploit any opening that appeared.
Sweat dampened Lu Su's palm.
The silk edict had become smeared and unreadable.
For several long moments, Lu Su simply stared at it.
Then he extended his arm beyond the battlements and loosened his fingers.
The wind instantly caught the ruined silk, carrying it high into the air before it vanished into the violent currents of the Yangtze below.
Lu Su watched the river silently, frustration weighing heavily in his chest.
"What do you mean, 'if an opportunity appears'..." he muttered bitterly into the wind. "The opportunity is right in front of us. Why can't we just march north together, coordinate our attacks properly, stop this damn broken world from burning, and make it a better place for people to live?"