Fa Zheng (5)
Meng Da possessed no martial ability worth comparing to Lu Bu — the "Flying General" of the early Three Kingdoms, famed as a master of betrayal — and yet he still carved out a legacy every bit as memorable through treachery alone.
If Fa Zheng was the one who led Shu to its golden age in the Hanzhong campaign, Meng Da was the chief architect of Shu's decline in the siege of Fancheng.
During that siege, Guan Yu captured Yu Jin, one of Wei's Five Elite Generals, and cut down even Pang De, the so-called White Horse General, until Cao Cao and the entire state of Wei trembled before him. Cao Cao was so rattled by that momentum that he even weighed moving the capital.
While Fancheng and Xiangyang lay under siege, Guan Yu had called on Shangyong for reinforcements — and the man who refused, on the grounds that he could not risk unsettling troops only newly subjugated, was none other than that bastard.
The result: Guan Yu, a peerless general by his own and everyone else's admission, was buried beneath a cascade of calamities — Wu's backstab, the betrayal of his own officers, and more — until at last he was taken captive and put to death.
Caught in that butterfly effect, Shu — which had pacified Yizhou, seized victory in the contest for Hanzhong, and seemed to ride an unbroken streak of triumphs — plummeted overnight.
And in a bitter twist of irony, scarcely any time after Guan Yu's death, even Fa Zheng — Meng Da's closest friend and a genius of military strategy — departed the world.
Stripped of his last connections, and terrified of Liu Bei's retribution now that he had helped doom Guan Yu, Meng Da surrendered to Wei. In doing so he cost Shu Xincheng Commandery, the springboard for any thrust into Wei, along with the invasion routes through northern Jing Province.
With Shu's pool of talent mowed down by the Battle of Yiling — the war Liu Bei launched to avenge his sworn brothers — Zhuge Liang would spend the next several years wading through a shitshow of northern expeditions out of Hanzhong toward the Liang Province front, grinding through one hell after another.
Then, after Cao Pi's death, once Sima Yi — who had always kept a wary eye on a man who'd coasted through life on connections alone — stood at the very center of power, the living icon of betrayal grew anxious for his safety yet again and sent Zhuge Liang a letter seeking to return to Shu. Exposed at last, he died at the hands of his own former subordinates, the brothers Shen Dan and Shen Yi.
By the Romance of the Three Kingdoms' creative license, he even chalks up a "feat" there, shooting dead Xu Huang with an arrow as the general came to arrest him — though from the standpoint of Xu Huang, the Undefeated General, that may well have been a deeper disgrace than a natural death.
I imagine the author threw it in believing that in that era, to fall on the battlefield was more honorable than to die in one's bed. But honorable or not — getting shot dead by a man Xu Huang could have cut down in a single exchange? How is that not an injustice?
Zhang Liao, after all, had fallen to Ding Feng, Wu's human killing machine — whereas Xu Huang breathed his last with an arrow from an opportunist who had no real martial skill to speak of.
So, in a single sentence, the conclusion is this...
'A man like that simply isn't worth the trouble of recruiting.'
I piled up all that buildup just to deliver that one line.
Of course, Meng Da wasn't a man devoid of ability. You need only look at how he held his power base in the eastern Hanzhong region, a strategic crossroads where three provinces converged.
But he had flaws on top of the treachery, and that was what made me reluctant to take him in.
Zhang Song — homely as he was, brilliant and quick-witted — helped Liu Bei, who cherished his people unlike the hopelessly indecisive Liu Zhang, win Shu. Fa Zheng, a genius strategist, won him Hanzhong, the launching point of the northern expeditions. Set against men like them, Meng Da was a traitor not worth the breath it took to discuss.
Besides, he was one of the men who drove Guan Yu — one of my personal favorite generals — to his death, so I had no particular desire to recruit him anyway.
"Xiaozhi! I was wrong!!"
Meng Da was still groveling in undignified fashion. The sight of him brought to mind a man in a period drama, spurned by the woman he loves and clinging to her skirts all the same.
"I'll make it up to you!! Please, just come away to Yizhou with me!!!"
"...What utter bullshit. Honestly."
Shaking off Meng Da and stepping inside the house, Fa Zheng spat out a sneer and paid him no further heed.
'If he's so eager to go to Yizhou, he can go alone. What's with all this yapping at my heels?'
Back in 196, when famine struck Fufeng Commandery, the man who had swept Fa Zheng off to Yizhou was none other than Meng Da. Looked at a certain way, even Liu Bei's gain of Fa Zheng owed something to that bastard's doing.
Watching his outrages, I had genuinely considered killing him — but afraid of earning a name for cutting down talent at the slightest provocation, I held myself back and settled for borrowing Pang De's hand to throw him out.
"Pay him no mind. Now then — bring us some tea."
"At once."
Fa Yan straightened in his seat and gave the attendant his instructions, then bowed his head to me where we sat facing one another.
"I offered my thanks the very day you rescued me, but allow me to say it once more. Thank you, truly, for saving this old man."
"Think nothing of it. But might I ask why you hold that man in such contempt?"
I asked out of simple curiosity — I wanted to know what lay behind Fa Yan's dislike of Meng Da.
"Meng Da's father, Meng Tuo, called on the Ten Attendants as a guest, pressed his bribes into their hands, and bought himself the post of Inspector of Liang Province. And the son who lived fat and dissolute on the strength of that — no, I could never trust such a man either."
'...Like father, like son, I see.'
"Setting that aside — what business brings you to speak with me? If it concerns the matter of my entering your service, I would still like time to think it over..."
Fa Yan let his skepticism toward my offer show plainly.
"Would you tell me what gives you pause?"
"I may have lost my post, but this is the land where I was born and raised. How could I abandon it and remove myself to Liang Province?"
"...Could it be that you are wary of me — a man from the Liang Province frontier?"
When I asked whether it was because I was a Han man with Qiang blood in my veins, Fa Yan shook his head.
"...I am deeply grateful that you answered my daughter's plea and saw me safely rescued. And yet I have a reason still to remain in Fufeng Commandery."
"...Is it His Majesty the Emperor?"
"It is. His Majesty's health is failing, and the evil called the Ten Attendants runs rampant through the realm. The eunuchs may have stripped me of my office, but how could I abandon this place for some distant frontier?"
Fa Yan's worries were entirely well-founded. Two years from now, Emperor Ling would pass away and Emperor Shao would ascend the throne — and the court would descend into a struggle for power. As one charged with the very altars of the Han state, his anxiety for the emperor marked him as a truly loyal minister.
"Father, you're being impossible. We can build our strength in Liang Province, beyond the Ten Attendants' reach, and when the moment comes, we shield His Majesty ourselves. Isn't that enough?"
Fa Zheng, evidently as frustrated as she sounded, clutched at her chest as she pleaded.
"...Xiaozhi. I will not stand in the way of your future. But this father of yours is afraid to leave while the court is in such turmoil."
Fa Zheng had no answer for that.
Even the official histories had little to say about Fa Yan, Fa Zheng's father — only a brief note that he was a man of the Clear Stream Faction who had held an office assisting the Minister over the Masses. Of whether he lived or died, the record was all but silent. When Fa Zheng left for Yizhou on Meng Da's heels, later readers could do no more than guess that Fa Yan had perished.
'Or perhaps he stayed behind, returned to office, and paid for it with the Ten Attendants' revenge.'
Petty, narrow, and vindictive as the Ten Attendants were, they would never have left in peace a loyal minister of Han who had crossed them. Cao Cao, for his part, had once beaten the eunuchs' kinsmen half to death with a club and survived regardless, shielded by his father Cao Song's protection and his merits from the Yellow Turban Rebellion — but Fa Yan had no such backing. And there was always the danger, as with Xu Shu in the Romance, that some other warlord might take his parents into their keeping and force him to defect at spearpoint.
'...Then I simply have to persuade him.'
"You may not be aware of this, sir... but my father has a connection with Lord He Jin."
"...Your father? Lord Han Sui? He has ties with the Grand General?"
"Yes. After earning merit suppressing rebels to prove his allegiance to the court, he leveraged that connection to obtain the title of Administrator of Jincheng."
"Then that would mean..."
"Yes — you might say my father belongs to the Clear Stream Faction, the Grand General's own camp."
It was a lie.
The connection was real enough, but Han Sui belonged to no Clear Stream Faction, and his friendship with He Jin was nowhere near close enough to boast of. I merely expected that when He Jin later summoned frontier men — Dong Zhuo, Ding Yuan, Gongsun Zan, and their ilk — to drive out the Ten Attendants, our family would be counted among them. A man feels safer calling in administrators he appointed himself than in strangers whose loyalty he cannot gauge.
"When General He Jin moves against the Ten Attendants, we will build our strength where the court's power cannot reach — and devote that strength to one purpose alone: the revival of the Han imperial house."
That was a lie, too. To be precise, that strength would be devoted to the people; I had no intention of feeding precious soldiers into the grinding quarrels of the powerful. And He Jin, already drowning in the Yellow Turban Rebellion and his running war with the Ten Attendants, had never had a moment's attention to spare for Liang Province — which was no doubt why he had accepted our allegiance so readily. It had probably never even crossed his mind that our taking Liang Province might be of use to him.
"For the restoration of the Han, Liang Province needs your wisdom, Master Fa Yan."
"...I see. So that is why General He Jin granted Lord Han Sui his office."
At my claim that we were He Jin's men, the tension in Fa Yan's face visibly eased. Hailing as we did from Liang Province — a lawless frontier where the tribes ran wild — he had apparently been reluctant to lend us his strength without reservation.
After a long moment of anguished deliberation, Fa Yan reached his decision.
"...Very well. I have already been cast out of office regardless. I accept your proposal."
"Ah — thank you!!"
When the skeptical response turned into a firm yes, I bowed my head in deep gratitude. I'd have counted it a blessing merely to draw a favorable reaction; I never dreamed he would decide on the spot.
Fa Yan withdrew to rest, and just as Pang De and I were about to return to our lodgings, Fa Zheng came up to me.
"Thank you, my lord. For persuading my father."
"'My lord,' you say?"
"You are the one I serve now. Surely calling you 'my lord' is only natural?"
Fa Zheng pressed close to me, a seductive smile playing in her eyes. Pang De's brow creased faintly at the blatant display, but having witnessed the girl's stratagems firsthand, she did not intervene.
"Had you failed to persuade my father, there is no telling what indignities the Ten Attendants would have visited upon him."
"...You foresaw that, my lady?"
"I did. And please — no more 'my lady.' Call me by my name. I am your subordinate now."
What was this? Fa Zheng's manner toward me felt startlingly close. Was she the type who, once she fixed on a lord, obeyed without question? It was not a side I had expected from a woman with her fiery temper.
"By the way, my lady... no — Fa Zheng. You say you would become my subordinate... but isn't that rather hasty, decided without any deliberation?"
I asked out of genuine puzzlement at her choice to take me as her lord. Of course, if Fa Zheng joined me, I'd be thanking my lucky stars — but shouldn't an offer like this take days of agonizing first? True, I had been a great help in rescuing her father from the bandits, but at some point Fa Zheng had come to trust me enormously. She had accepted my offer without a flicker of hesitation, and had even lent her strength to persuading her own father.
To my bewildered question, Fa Zheng answered with a warm smile — the very opposite of the venomous face she had shown Meng Da.
"It is only natural."
"...Natural?"
"Yes. However brilliant a strategist's counsel, it is worthless if the one above will not act upon it. Yet you granted my request without asking any reward, and you endorsed the advice of a stranger you had met only that day without a moment's doubt."
Huh...?
That was... only because I trusted the abilities history had recorded under Fa Zheng's name...
"And on top of that, you possess the compassion to hand out relief grain to the common people. How could I possibly let such a lord slip through my fingers?"
A lord with the decisiveness to accept a strategist's counsel without hesitation, and the benevolence to think of the people besides — an ideal sovereign. Fa Zheng had no intention of letting him go.
Having explained to Han Yeong why she had chosen to follow him, Fa Zheng bowed her head, raising her cupped fists in a formal salute.
"I, Fa Xiaozhi, pledge to you, my lord, the toil of a dog and horse, unto my dying day."