[Three Kingdoms 365 · Day 167] The Morning Two Names Vanished — Cao Cao strikes Cai Mao and Zhang Yun from his fleet’s roster after a forged letter.

Dawn at Cao Cao's (曹操) camp. On the northern bank of the river, several hundred ships lay anchored, and upon the hill behind them stood the general's tent. Jiang Gan (蔣幹) dismounted from his horse and walked, step by step, toward the front of the tent. Inside the breast of his robe, the letter remained intact.

Cao Cao had opened his eyes at the high seat of the tent. He had clearly been awake since before the night ended. To Cao Cao's right sat Xun Yu (荀彧) and Cheng Yu (程昱) side by side. To his left, one pace apart, stood Cao Hong (曹洪) and Xu Chu (許褚).

Jiang Gan bowed his head before the door of the tent.

"Chancellor. After spending a night at Commander Zhou's main body, this man has brought one piece of evidence."

Cao Cao's eyes rested upon Jiang Gan's face.

"Ziyi (子翼). What is that evidence?"

Jiang Gan drew the letter from within his breast and offered it with both hands before Cao Cao. The letter was set upon Cao Cao's desk. Cao Cao lifted it.

The moment Cao Cao's gaze touched the first line, his eyes opened wide. "To Commander Zhou. The condition of the northern force is greatly tilted. The Chancellor's suspicion has not yet reached us…" Down to the second line, the third, and the final signatures, his gaze moved line by line. The two signatures — Cai Mao (蔡瑁) and Zhang Yun (張允) — were in red ink.

Upon Cao Cao's face, anger settled in a single layer. Xun Yu quietly offered a line beside him.

"Chancellor. To examine this letter one more time would be —"

Cao Cao raised his hand and cut off Xun Yu's line at once. Cao Cao's nature preferred decisions that passed through long calculation; yet, once he had become angry, he often omitted that calculation. This dawn, anger covered over the place of that calculation.

"Bring Cai Mao and Zhang Yun to this seat. At once, this moment."

Within less than half an hour, Cai Mao and Zhang Yun were dragged before the tent. Upon their faces sat a layer of puzzlement, not knowing the reason. The two men were generals who had submitted to Cao Cao together with Liu Cong (劉琮), Liu Biao's (劉表) son, and they were the two commanders in charge of Cao Cao's naval training.

Cao Cao threw the letter before them. It fell to the floor.

"You two have been secretly in contact with Zhou Yu of Jiangdong. This letter is the proof. Will you say that the two signatures upon it are not your own?"

Cai Mao looked down upon the letter. The signature resembled his own. Yet it was not, exactly, his. There was a trace of forgery.

"Chancellor. This letter is not ours. The signatures resemble ours, yet they were not written by us; they are a forgery by someone's hand. Please examine it again."

Zhang Yun, beside Cai Mao, raised his head.

"Chancellor. Since our submission, we two have had no communication with Zhou Yu of Jiangdong. This letter is plainly Zhou Yu's plot — a plot using the names of us two to cloud the Chancellor's decision."

Cao Cao heard the two men's words. Inside the hollow of his chest, a short tremor rose. Yet behind that tremor, the anger that had settled since last night stepped forward once more.

Cheng Yu, beside him, quietly offered another line.

"Chancellor. The question of whether this letter is a forgery may be examined separately, even if it takes some time. The names of Cai Mao and Zhang Yun are still pillars of the navy. To set down these pillars first and then examine the forgery — "

Cao Cao raised his hand and cut off Cheng Yu's line as well. This dawn too, Cao Cao's nature tilted more toward anger than toward calculation. He let fall a single line.

"Erase the two names at this seat, at this moment."

Half an hour later, Cai Mao and Zhang Yun were erased from the roster of Cao Cao's navy, a single black stroke drawn through them in place of the red ink. The bodies of the two men ended beneath a tree beside the tent. The two pillars who had been training the navy vanished, upon a single morning, upon a single letter.

Jiang Gan stood still at a corner of the tent that morning. Upon his face, a layer of merit had settled. Yet inside that merit, the weight of the hand that had secretly lifted the page beside the pillow last night was present together.

Cao Cao rose from his seat. The anger was slowly settling. In the space of emptiness left after it had settled, a sliver of regret passed lightly. Yet that regret did not come out beyond his lips. Cao Cao turned his back and returned inside the tent.

The ninth morning of Book 6 was closing quietly before Cao Cao's tent. It was a morning on which two names had been erased at once. The weight of Cao Cao's camp, now without two pillars of its navy, was being quietly conveyed to Commander Zhou's main body across the river.

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