Yuan Shao's Capital Gambit
This politically insane bastard… This guy pulled off a Northwoods operation two thousand years early. No… at least that could be excused as building a pretext to strike an enemy nation. This was building a pretext to seize power within his own country, which made it even worse than Northwoods. Then again, Northwoods was scrapped, so maybe he really was a greater political monster than even twenty-first-century America. After all, no ordinary lunatic would endure six years of mourning. Right. Anyway, since they themselves called them Black Mountain bandits, I treated them as such. The Black Mountain bandit leader… was it An Liang? In any case, that fellow would have been dangerous if he had fought from horseback. It was true that I had spent the past few years training in mounted archery, but because I preferred a StarCraft-style approach—commanding a reasonably reliable large army—over a Warcraft-style gamble of staking everything on a single hero, I had never particularly honed my own martial skills or tried to recruit the greatest talents of the era. Fortunately, he was not mounted and not wearing armor, so I was able to cut his head off unilaterally, but with the era of nameless warriors fast approaching, it seemed tactical reinforcement would be necessary.
Ah, right. That Ye-bong? Ye-bo? Ah, Lu Bu. I knew the story that Lu Bu possessed the greatest martial prowess of the age. Since You Province and Bing Province were adjacent, I had some interest in meeting him someday. If I could see the strongest warrior of the era with my own eyes and devise tactics tailored to that strength, perhaps You Province would never be breached.
“Sorry about this. Since there aren’t enough boats right now, I’ll take only myself and a hundred guards by ship. The rest will have to go via Anping to Bohai.”
Ships of this era were not very large. Moreover, the Yellow River was narrow, swift, and full of natural reefs formed by silt, making it far from ideal for water transport. Naturally, there were not many vessels that crossed the Yellow River and headed out to sea, nor were there transport ships permanently docked that could carry a thousand troops. I formed a guard unit of ten heavy cavalry and ninety infantry to escort the Prince of Bohai to his post, while the remaining nine hundred would head north along the route they had originally planned to return by. Jeon Hae, who had been with me since the Yellow Turban Rebellion, had now grown enough to serve as a battalion-level commander, and the regular troops of Liaodong received the highest pay and treatment by the standards of this era, so there was no need to worry about disloyalty. In fact, these men themselves preferred walking back rather than sailing the Yellow River as flood season approached.
“Urp!”
“Uweeegh!”
As expected, the Yellow River’s muddy waters were receiving a little more natural yellow dye. The little Prince of Bohai was no exception; the child had forgotten all dignity and was crouched at the bow, repeatedly inspecting the contents of his own stomach.
“My apologies for soiling the boat every time.”
“Haha, it’s fine. As long as you pay properly, a little cleaning is nothing.”
“Don’t worry about that. This Gongsun Zan is not stingy with money.”
Was the world small, or did fate truly exist? Or was it simply that there were few ships capable of transporting even a hundred people along the Yellow River? One of the merchant vessels I had hired this time was the same ship I had taken before, and the boatman seemed somewhat more relaxed, perhaps because he had grown accustomed to me from the previous voyage.
“You’re not changing ships at Donglai this time?”
“That’s how it turned out. Since we’re receiving the new Prince of Bohai, we must sail safely along the coast even if it’s more troublesome.”
Though my premonition had not been good and I had been moving hastily along the Yellow River, I still had to guarantee at least minimal safety. Four more days until we reached Bohai Bay. A wind perfect for sailing was blowing in.
---
Yuan Shao had become Colonel of the Capital. In other words, he had become the commander of the capital defense forces. Like most military posts of this era, it was a lucrative and prestigious position that carried judicial authority, and it also oversaw the administration of Sili Province. In a sense, it was like taking the extralegal powers he had wielded during his time with the White Wave Army, shrinking their scope to Sili Province while greatly expanding the actual authority. In modern terms, it was equivalent to holding the combined powers of the Capital Defense Commander, the Governor of Gyeonggi Province, and the Prosecutor General. It was easy to guess how insane a post this was.
Cao Cao, appointed as adjutant to Grand General He Jin, had technically been demoted in terms of rank alone, but since he was spending his days with the Grand General and had been designated as his successor, it was effectively a promotion. Meanwhile, the Clean Stream faction was promoting its own members, the Turbid Stream faction was promoting its own, and the Ten Eunuchs’ faction had all been dismissed by the Clean Stream’s sharp blade. In fact, several had been beheaded or hanged because their crimes were simply too great. The vengeful fury of the runaway Clean Stream faction was something not even He Jin alone could restrain.
Naturally, the Ten Eunuchs, who had been made into one-sided scapegoats, poured out their grievances, and it was Grand General He Jin who had to absorb them.
“Does this even make sense?! Why won’t you understand why we gave wealth to the Black Mountain bandits and extended a hand of reform? Eight out of the thirteen provinces were already in chaos—if the Black Mountain bandits had run rampant in the rear as well, the five-hundred-year history of the Han would have ended that very day! Wang Mang at least had deep ties to the imperial family. Were we supposed to hand everything over to those who only enjoy pseudo-Confucian nonsense?!”
“I understand, Elder. Please calm down… it’s not good for your health.”
“Grand General! How many years have we served the country with loyalty? I, Guo Sheng, have been loyal to the country for a full cycle of sixty years. I admit I’ve been greedy, but that’s not a crime worthy of death, is it?!”
Of course, compared to the original history’s Mengjin Harbor incident, the Clean Stream’s accusations were relatively mild. Originally, Colonel of the Capital Yuan Shao and the regional warlords would have risen up to suppress the Black Mountain bandits, flooding the capital region with troops, which would have worsened public security, which in turn would have intensified public opinion against the Black Mountain bandits, which would have strengthened the pretext for purging the Ten Eunuchs. However, because of the historical distortion caused by a modern person’s intervention, the Black Mountain bandits’ (for now) rampage had been halted in a single day, public order in the capital remained relatively stable, and the Black Mountain bandit incident could be concluded by merely cutting off a few limbs of the Ten Eunuchs. Though the Ten Eunuchs had survived in a far more advantageous position than in the original history, the experience of having their limbs severed one by one was hardly pleasant, and they now clearly recognized the danger posed by the Clean Stream faction. Their next move was naturally a large-scale counterattack against the Clean Stream.
“Grand General… I’ll speak honestly. Please save us!”
“No, Elder, how can you do this!”
It had been Guo Sheng who wrote the recommendation letter for He Jin in his snot-nosed days and placed his younger sister, Lady He, on the throne as Empress Dowager, but kneeling before eunuchs and bowing his head was not a blow to his pride. If he had any pride to begin with, he would never have castrated himself in the first place.
“Yuan Shao, that traitor to Confucian teachings is trying to cut off all our heads. How can I just sit still? That fellow will listen if it’s the Grand General speaking, so please stop him!”
“Ah, I understand, so please let go of me and stand up. I’ll speak with Colonel Yuan properly.”
“Not just Yuan Shao! Wang Yun, Jin Shang, and Zhan Zhi are the same! The Clean Stream faction is trying to turn the country upside down and make the Emperor a puppet!”
“But they no longer have a pretext. There are also suspicious points about the Mengjin Harbor incident, so please endure a little longer.”
“We will only trust the Grand General.”
“Please wait just a little longer, Elders. Good results will come soon.”
The Ten Eunuchs were corrupt. That was a fact. But removing the eunuch faction did not merely tilt the political balance—it erased it entirely. That meant the collapse of the country, and it was not what He Jin, the greatest vested interest of the Han, desired.
---
“The sea… is vast.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. I only now realize that there can be a place with this much water, that all of this water is saltwater, and that life can live even in this saltwater. The world is truly vast, and I am terribly ignorant.”
“A king’s duty is not to know everything in the world. A king’s duty is to summon those who know everything in the world and let them do what they do best.”
Travel was always tedious. After leaving the Yellow River and reaching the Yellow Sea, then sailing north along the coast for the long journey, the Prince of Bohai began speaking to me in a relaxed manner, as if all awkwardness had disappeared. Honestly… he was a little more affectionate than my own daughter, so answering him was rather entertaining. Woon-i was cute too, but lately she seemed to be going through puberty and was keeping a slight distance. It was a sad thing.
“To be honest, I’m worried about my older brother.”
“He’ll manage.”
It was an empty reassurance. With Dong Zhuo’s story and the schemes of that political monster Yuan Shao now roughly confirmed, it was obvious that a bloody wind was blowing through Luoyang right about now. Of course, the worse things got in Luoyang, the more stable the frontier would become, so there was no problem. If I could properly handle the Prince of Bohai, I could make him stop paying attention to Liaodong, and the merchant ships that had sailed far abroad and seemed to have vanished were gradually returning. Last year, a merchant we had thought missing returned from a place called Ural with pepper. We still didn’t know how many of the merchants presumed dead were still alive or how far they had gone, but people who had visited increasingly bizarre places were starting to appear. It was hard to believe, but merchants of this era were pirates, traders, and wanderers all at once—madmen who, once their greed for money peaked, would set sail on a single junk toward distant seas, and at the same time adventurers willing to risk that danger just to lay eyes on hidden realms.
Information from all corners of the world was beginning to accumulate in Liaodong, and books about all sorts of strange devices that had never been recorded as invented in this era were arriving in an instant. While Luoyang was turning moment by moment into a powder keg of the Eastern world, Liaodong was wholly absorbed in enjoying its own belle époque.
“Colonel.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“If chaos breaks out in Luoyang, could you save my older brother?”
That was… a bit difficult, wasn’t it? The distance from You Province to Luoyang was enormous. Moreover, my post was in Liaodong. It already took a full week just to travel from Luoyang to Bohai, and even sailing to minimize time, it would take at least four to five days. The journey from Liaodong to Luoyang would take at least a week to ten days no matter how fast one traveled. And if I were to lead an army, I would also have to plan supply lines to feed and clothe them, and grease the palms of local gentry. By the time all that was finished and we entered Luoyang, everything would obviously already be over. Setting all that aside, the Inspector of You Province would never grant permission.
“If the Inspector of You Province permits it, I will follow at any time.”
Unless civilian massacres occurred, that good-natured uncle who was the great mother of the northern tribes would never turn the Liaodong army toward the capital. So I had no choice but to offer pleasant empty words.