Be a Man. Be a Man (4)
Right after Qingzhou fully surrendered, I reassured Tian Kai and the soldiers who had come from Yuzhou.
“If our lord thoroughly crushes that Gong Sun Zan this time, I will personally take responsibility and bring your families here. Really. I swear it.”
Waahaaaah—!!!
Even though these were the ones I had fought on the battlefield, the soldiers who had their families held hostage as leverage cheered loudly at my confident words.
“Lord Tian.”
“Hmph.”
“Haha… I never imagined I’d see you like this.”
“Me too. It’s truly regrettable for me. Meeting you as an enemy, and heaven didn’t even lend a hand.”
Tian Kai’s bitter smile made me feel a twinge of guilt.
But… there was something far more important left to handle.
“What… Since it’s come to this, are you thinking of joining our side?”
“Under Yuan Shao’s command?”
“That’s right. After thinking it over a hundred times, our lord is much better than those Gong Sun Zan types.”
“…Are you saying that?”
Directly trying to persuade Tian Kai.
With Tian Kai’s help in incorporating Qingzhou into our territory, it would be much smoother, so convincing him was crucial.
After pondering my words for a long time, Tian Kai shook his head.
“Not yet. If our lord finds out that I and the Yuzhou soldiers have joined under Yuan Shao’s command, he will never hand over our people to me.”
“…Sigh. We both ended up with the wrong master, what a mess. Right?”
“Haha. Still, you did switch masters well. When I saw you suffering under Xuande’s command, I regretted not trying to stop it.”
“……”
Wow, that was harsh.
Actually, the reason I was trying to help him now was because he had helped me several times before, and I wanted to repay that kindness.
“Lord Tian really does seem like a true man. Even with your family held hostage, you made the decision for the people inside the city. That is the virtue of a true man. Isn’t that right, Guo Yang?”
“What… That’s true. If it weren’t for someone like you, we would have suffered even more before surrender talks even began.”
I continued praising Tian Kai’s manliness along with Tian Yu, who was also acquainted with him, and threw all our efforts into restoring the flooded areas near Dingtao.
***
Pingyuan City, Pingyuan Kingdom, Changshan Zhongwei.
“General Gan has received Tian Kai’s surrender!”
“…Already?”
“Yes! Prince!”
“……”
Yuan Tan had laughed at the news that Gan Ning and Guo Jia would quickly capture the Qingzhou governor’s residence and force surrender.
After all,
Qingzhou’s governor’s residence was in Linyi County, the former capital of the Qi state, so its scale was large, and moreover, it was built of stone rather than earth, making it even more so.
‘Damn it. When Father sees me this time, what will he say I did?’
Yuan Tan was looking at the Qingzhou governorship his father had promised him, but if things went like this, it might become Gan Ning’s instead of his own, as the son-in-law of the Yuan family.
“Military Advisor Guo. What should we do?”
“What… Our lord doesn’t change his mind easily, but in matters like this, ministers can intervene.”
“…!!”
Who were those ministers?
The Yingchuan faction beside him now was already the minority, and they were staying in Qingzhou with him.
The ministers beside Father Yuan Shao were, in other words, only those supporting Yuan Shang.
“Then what should I do?”
“Well… right now, there’s only one way.”
“A, a way?”
“Yes. There is a way.”
Guo Tu smiled smugly at him, but Yuan Tan wasn’t in the mood to smile, so he urged him on.
“If you think you must obtain the Qingzhou governorship… why don’t you borrow Xuande’s strength?”
“Xuande… you mean Liu Bei?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
Use Liu Bei?
What did that even mean?
Yuan Tan racked his brain to figure out Guo Tu’s intentions, but he couldn’t read the man’s mind.
“Heh heh.”
“Military Advisor Guo. Don’t laugh. Explain why.”
“Understood. First, Liu Bei is about to take the position of Xuzhou Mu.”
“Hm… Do you mean he will pass it to Yuqian?”
“Yes. So as the new lord, you will have the authority to recommend him as a worthy official.”
“…Ah! That’s right.”
A worthy official was a method where the lord or governor recommended one person per year to the court to be appointed as an official.
Actually, this was a position far harder to break into than even the filial piety recommendation, and without connections, it was extremely difficult to enter.
Therefore, receiving the Qingzhou governorship right after being recommended as a worthy official would normally have been impossible,
but since Ji and Guo in the court weren’t the type to think about such things, Guo Tu’s explanation was that they would simply follow the form and appoint him as governor.
“And when Liu Bei sends an envoy to our lord requesting an alliance, what did he say?”
“Ah! At that time, clearly…!! He said that if I inform him of the person appointed as Qingzhou governor, the court will recommend him and raise a memorial!”
Guo Tu continued as if he hadn’t finished speaking.
“Yes, that’s correct. Moreover, now that Xuande is following Yuqian to take the Xuzhou Mu position, we will need our help, so he will have no choice but to accept our request.”
“Yuan Gonglu… because of that guy?”
“Yes. It’s no secret that that man is eyeing Xuzhou.”
Yuan Gonglu, Yuan Shu, had always dismissed his father Yuan Shao as a coward, but after being defeated by Cao Cao and trapped in Xuchang, everyone had laughed at him,
but he was still a formidable warlord, and he would become a huge threat to Liu Bei, who had just taken Xuzhou.
“Then… sending someone secretly to Liu Bei…”
“I will handle that myself.”
“…Thank you. Military Advisor Guo. Truly, thank you.”
“Heh heh. Not at all. Didn’t I say? I am on Yuan Gongzi’s side.”
Yuan Tan felt gratitude toward Guo Tu’s words, but one thing still bothered him.
“Then how do I explain this to Father…”
“That’s obvious. You should report it after receiving the official governorship from the court.”
“…!! Is, is there such a method?”
“Yes. The court will appoint an official, and no matter how close you are, interfering with that is an act of defying the court.”
Only then did Yuan Tan understand Guo Tu’s advice to seek help from Liu Bei.
How perfectly it fit.
Since they were both gaining benefits, the two of them would naturally grow closer with each passing day.
***
Third year of Xingping (194 AD), December.
Our lord Yuan Shao, who had not yet finished the double front against Gong Sun Zan and Zhang Yan, was dissatisfied with the stagnant situation and kept calling me,
but
“Just say I can’t go.”
“…But our lord asked me to go, so it’s better to go, right?”
“Then finish everything here in Jizhou and Qingzhou first.”
“……”
I wanted to go, but I couldn’t.
Damn it. He really is that cold-blooded, emotionless guy.
Probably retaliating because I called him a crazy dog that bites people last time.
“Ah. Fine. I’m really petty. Just don’t go.”
“Even if you don’t go, you still have to finish the work.”
“No… There are people like Lord Tian and Guo Yang here, why are they using me like this?”
“That’s because you’re the one who works the hardest among us.”
“……”
They say the one who works the hardest is the one who gets ordered around the most.
Guo Jia probably thought of me as some kind of secretary or document slave.
Kiiiiiick—
“Whoa. What’s this?”
As the door to the office opened and a carriage full of countless dead skins was brought in, I nearly dozed off.
“Kwaaaaah—!!”
“I can still do more!!”
“What more?! I can’t anymore!! I’m at my limit!!”
“No!! I can do more!!”
Summarizing our month-long conversation with Guo Jia, that was everything.
So I had been worked hard.
Anyway, as the sun was about to set, another spam email arrived from Yuan Shao.
“What the hell… I can’t even block this…”
After untying the sealed string and reading the contents, my face stiffened on its own.
Why did the letter make me so stiff?
[Yuan Tan asked me to recommend him as a worthy official to Xuande of Yuzhou without going through me, and the court appointed him as Qingzhou governor at the same time as recommending him as a worthy official. Yuan Tan will arrive at the Qingzhou governor’s residence soon, so stall as much as possible and come up to Pingyuan.]
It could be summarized like that.
“…Sigh. Did I eat something bad?”
I was truly amazed at what Yuan Tan had done.
Passing the point of absurdity, it felt like he had reached the level of performance art.
“I should have smashed his head back then…”
Regretting not killing him on the spot when he had widened his eyes in front of Yuan Shao.
Isn’t that right?
Is there any crazy person who would trade with another faction without permission from their father and lord?
This was clearly an act of treason.
“Who does this guy think he is, some Yuan Shu or Gong Sun Zan’s puppet? How could I think that?”
Moreover, even knowing that Yuan Shao had clearly suspended his alliance with Liu Bei, he still did this…
“He’s determined to eat Qingzhou no matter what.”
He would rather hand Qingzhou over to someone else in the Yuan army than to anyone else.
And among the people in the Yuan army, the most likely candidate for the Qingzhou governorship was…
“…Me. So that’s why.”
Exactly me.
After all, the guy had always looked down on me, so if I lost the governorship to him, it would be worse than just a stomachache—it would feel like facing a deadly enemy.
In a way, I had eased a troublesome task, but now was not the time to quibble.
“Military Advisor!!”
“Hah! Yes!”
“Hey… Why are you sleeping in such a comfortable place?”
“Ah… I was dozing off while handling work. But… did you call for me?”
I silently showed Guo Jia the letter from Yuan Shao, and his face stiffened as well.
“He’s gone mad.”
“…That’s true, but isn’t this too honest?”
“What do you think Lord Gan would say after seeing this?”
“That he’s gone mad.”
“Yeah. This is truly insane.”
This wasn’t something to dismiss as a private deal where I would give him my position in exchange for protection.
“In doing so, we will be placed in an adversarial relationship with Yuan Shu’s army in Xuchang, and we will have an uncomfortable relationship with Cao Cao of Luoyang.”
Guo Jia seemed to have shaken off his sleep, as he shot up and began hurriedly dressing.
“Where are you going?”
“Taking over the governorship. We must hide this.”
“…Oh.”
“Since our lord asked us to stall for a bit, hiding the takeover is the best method.”
I felt a surge of excitement at Guo Jia’s words.
Searching for treasure, how exciting.
Of course, the one searching for treasure was Yuan Tan, and I was the one hiding it,
but actually, hiding things was more fun.
“Great! Let’s hide it perfectly! Hehe!”
“…This isn’t a joke.”
“Hey. What’s there to be serious about? After all, the one more anxious than us… is Yuan Gongzi, right?”
“…That’s true.”
Guo Jia seemed to relax a bit at my words, smiled foolishly, and led the way to Tian Kai, who was still holding the governorship.
“Hiding the takeover?”
“Yes. By some crazy human who did a crazy thing.”
“Hmm. I see. Follow me.”
Following Tian Kai, Gan Ning and Guo Jia looked at the box containing the governorship and thought where to put it,
and just as one would hide a treasure in a forest rather than an open field, we placed it in the Qingzhou governor’s warehouse along with similar items and bought identical boxes from the civilians to fill it.
And finally, Yuan Tan arrived at the Qingzhou governor’s residence.
“Hahaha! Is this the Qingzhou governor’s office?”
“Yes, Prince. From now on, you are the lord of this place.”
“Hahaha! That’s right. I am the lord of this place. Hey, Hupai. Where is the governorship?”
“Well… I don’t know.”
“…What? I am ordering you as the Qingzhou governor. Bring the governorship at once.”
“You received the decree, but to order me, you need the governorship, don’t you?”
“Wha, what?”
Actually, my words were a trap, but since he didn’t know, what could he do?
“Y, you! You’re causing trouble to the end! Good! I’ll find it myself, so get out of the way!”
Yuan Tan shoved me hard and tried to enter, but I wasn’t weak enough to be pushed by this human.
“Wait… May I give you one piece of advice?”
“…What?”
“It’s just a simple piece of advice. If you don’t want to hear it, don’t listen.”
“…Go ahead.”
Watching Yuan Tan barely holding back his irritation, I sincerely gave him advice.
“…Seriously. If you’re going to cause this much trouble with just one governorship, why were you so bold when you went to cling to Liu Bei to get the position?”
“…!!!”
“Be a man. Be a man. You have two balls, so stop acting like a eunuch.”
“W, what?!?!”
“Didn’t I clearly give you advice?”
“W, what kind of advice is that?!?!”
Then what is this if not advice?
Seeing Yuan Tan, who didn’t listen to even my sincere advice, I returned to a light-hearted face and teased him as I left.
“Go look for it well!! Hehe!!”
From behind, the sad cry of a fawn echoed, but I pretended not to hear and left the Qingzhou governor’s residence.