A month had passed since Kongming (孔明) took his seat upon the cushion at Xinye (新野); it was early autumn.

In the seventh month of the autumn of Jian'an 13 (208 CE), the great army of Cao Cao (曹操) in the north at last began to move south. The three characters 赤壁候 (Await Red Cliffs) upon the ninth slip on the western wall of the Chancellor's residence at Xudu (許都) were now becoming reality beneath marching banners. Cao Cao's southern campaign (南征) numbered three hundred thousand in all. At its vanguard stood Xiahou Dun (夏侯惇) and Yu Jin (于禁). At the center stood Cao Cao himself. At the rear stood Cao Ren (曹仁) and Xu Huang (徐晃).

A month from now, in late autumn, the southern army would reach the northern border of Jingzhou (荊州). Xinye stood at the very front of Jingzhou's northern defensive line. A slip from Kongming lay before Liu Bei (劉備) this morning. At its top, two characters in deep ink.

空城.

Liu Bei drew a deep breath. Emptied city. It meant empty Xinye. It meant, at a stroke, to empty a seat of six years — no, now the seventh.

"Master Kongming. Why must it be emptied?"

Kongming opened his fan. This was the winter fan, not the summer. The autumn wind was already turning from north to south.

"Your Lordship. Before a force of three hundred thousand, holding a seven-year yard is not a matter of losing seven years, but of losing the twenty years to follow. Empty the yard. Only — in the manner of the emptying, one art (術) is required."

"What art?"

"Leave a single fire in the empty yard, and keep the banners upon the gate as they stand. When Cao Cao's great army reaches the walls of Xinye in the evening, let them, not knowing the city is empty, camp beneath those walls for a night. Within that night, the people of Xinye may cross the river southward and flee."

Liu Bei was long silent. Then he asked quietly.

"How many are the people of Xinye?"

"Twenty-four thousand. Men, women, old, young — all."

"Those twenty-four thousand, to cross the southern river within a single night?"

"One night is not enough. It takes three days. Three days of preparation begin today. From this afternoon, the elderly and frail go first; from tomorrow afternoon, the able-bodied men next; from the afternoon after, the remaining middle group — each column sent south in turn. On the night of the third day Cao Cao's army will reach the walls of Xinye."

Liu Bei bowed his head. A yard of seven years would, within three days, become an empty city. But if the twenty-four thousand who had walked round his back yard for seven years could cross the river southward without losing a single one, then the resolve of those three days would stand firmer than the resolve of those seven years.

"Master. Who leads each of the three columns?"

"The leader of the first column is General Yide (翼德). It is the column of the old and frail, so its pace will be slow. General Yide's voice will pull that pace along. The leader of the second column is General Yunchang (雲長). It is the column of able-bodied men, so its pace will be quickest. Yunchang's Green Dragon Blade (靑龍刀) will guard the rear. The leader of the third column is Your Lordship himself. Lead the remaining middle group in person. Until the moment the last person crosses the river, Your Lordship must remain at the south gate of Xinye."

"So I am to be a fourth column, the last to leave the city?"

"So you are."

Liu Bei's eyes sank a measure deeper. The two characters on Kongming's slip, 空城, lodged large inside them. Empty city was not a word of abandonment, but of preparation for return. Today's emptied Xinye, on some spring morning of the twenty years to come, would return again — to sit once more beneath Liu Bei's name. That was the meaning of Kongming's slip.

Liu Bei laid both hands upon the slip.

"Master. From this afternoon, within three days, the twenty-four thousand shall cross the southern river without losing a single one. My two younger brothers and I shall move together. In which column are you?"

"This man shall sit upon the cushion in the west room of the magistrate's office at Xinye, all three days through. From upon the cushion, I shall count the rhythm of every step of the twenty-four thousand. At the hour the last person crosses the river, this man too shall rise from the cushion and pass the south gate of Xinye."

The black dot of Cao Cao upon the north of the map in the west room began, this afternoon, to come down south, large. The ochre dot to the south began, this afternoon, to withdraw southwest. The first rhythm in the motion of those two dots began from today's two-character slip — 空城.

The emptied city was being prepared. Within it, the three-day motion of twenty-four thousand people was beginning. The first rhythm of the emptied city rose quietly, this afternoon, into the autumn sky above the roofs of Xinye. A city that empties well is a city that keeps faith with its own return.

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