Between the Wars
Shen Dan and Shen Yi received me and my troops with open arms. They came all the way out to Xicheng to meet us, and they saw us personally to the lodgings where we were to rest, missing no chance to impress upon us how sincere they were toward Liu Bei.
The moment our luck turns, they'll betray us. I know it perfectly well.
In the original history, once Guan Yu was dead and Meng Da fled to Wei, the brothers Shen Dan and Shen Yi drove Liu Feng out and followed Meng Da over to Wei.
Opportunists to the bone. As if I wouldn't know them. I kept that thought strictly to myself, though, and praised them instead as loyal vassals the like of which the age would never see again.
We rested a while and unpacked, and then we went to the banquet hall the brothers said they had prepared. The two of them had come ahead of us and were waiting.
"Ah, come in, come in. Please, sit."
The seat of honor went to me and the two Shen brothers. The officers who had followed me sat on the right, and the retainers who served the brothers took the left.
It rankled, seeing my own deputies — men who held proper office — set on a level with their household retainers. But the brothers had surrendered before any fighting, and they had their dignity to think of. I swallowed it.
Staring holes through my face, though — that I will not swallow.
Shen Yi had been stealing glances at me from the moment we met, and now that the mask was off he didn't even trouble to hide it. Shen Dan, at least, knew when to look away.
"Is there something on my face? You haven't taken your eyes off it."
"Ah, that is..."
"F-forgive us. This one has always been hopelessly curious. Let me offer a cup, by way of apology."
Shen Yi could only hem and haw, with no excuse to hand, and Shen Dan stepped in at once to pour. Shen Dan seemed genuinely bent on submitting to Liu Bei. Shen Yi did not, not in the least. The difference showed in more than their manner toward me. It was plain in what they meant to do with their families.
"Chengdu is a fine place for an education, I hear. Lord Qiao Zhou is there, and Master Wolong — the Sleeping Dragon — as well."
"Yes. It is a good place."
"So I mean to send my wife and children to Chengdu while I have the chance. A man ought to swim in deep water, shouldn't he? I thought to petition His Lordship, and let them learn how wide the world is. What does the General think?"
"If it is my lord, he will receive them gladly."
What ruler alive would refuse a man offering hostages with his own hands? They would be paid for it, of course — high office, or leave to go on governing the Shangyong region as before.
Where Shen Dan was plainly trying to climb aboard the Liu Bei coin in earnest, Shen Yi, ever since I had taken him to task, had done nothing but sit quiet and sip his wine.
"I hear you have sons of your own, Lord Shen Yi."
"Ah... yes. I do."
"No great interest in scholarship, then?"
Shen Dan meant to send his children to Chengdu for their education. I was asking, by a roundabout road, why he himself sat still. Shen Yi looked cornered.
"W-well, yes. He's a boy who likes to be on the move. That's all."
"Oh? Then what if your son came with me on campaign? Your family is here in Xicheng, I understand, so we can ask him his own mind. All the better."
"Ha, ha... the thing is, he's still a child. He hasn't even received his courtesy name..."
"I was told he was already past fifteen."
"Yes. The elder turns eighteen this year."
"Then he's only a year younger than I am. Hmm. Is there some difficulty?"
"Parent and child we may be, but how should I decide for them a thing they do not want?"
"Then we have only to ask."
"...You there. Bring Shen Hou and Shen Ping."
At Shen Yi's word several maids left the hall, and before long they returned with two boys about my own age.
The elder, Shen Hou, was eighteen; the second, Shen Ping, seventeen. The younger brother was the larger of the two.
"F-Father. You called?"
No one could have doubted whose sons they were. Neither Shen Hou nor Shen Ping could tear his eyes from my face. The elder flushed crimson and stammered; the younger simply gaped, mouth hanging open. Like father, like son.
Even so, I spoke as if it were nothing at all.
"I mean to take the two of you with me. What do you say?"
"I-into the army, you mean?"
"Yes."
"If you would have us — it would be an h-honor!"
"Yes! We'll follow gladly!"
They didn't need telling twice. I turned to Shen Yi with a thin smirk caught at the corner of my mouth. He was staring into nothing, and when his eyes met mine he dropped his head.
"Your sons' wishes are plain. Well?"
"...Do as you will."
"They are your sons, after all. I'll be considerate, and let you send soldiers along to keep them safe."
I called it consideration. Anyone could see what it was. I had his sons for hostages, and I was telling him to hand his private troops over to me and yield his command.
If the seed of a traitor cannot be used, better to pull it early. And if Shen Yi refused my offer and pushed back, that would not be so bad either.
Xicheng and Shangyong, the ground the brothers stood on, were not even commanderies to begin with — only counties. Scrape together every man they had and the numbers would still be modest. Let them come at me too stupid to be afraid, and I had only to stamp them flat.
Shen Yi was quick to read a room. He must have been furious, and still he kept his temper in hand.
"You have... my thanks."
"I'm grateful for the cooperation. The discourtesy you offered me — I'll consider it forgotten."
So the banquet ended, and with it I had pried hostages and military authority out of Shen Dan and Shen Yi. It sat a little wrong with me, as if I had sprung a honey trap on them with my own looks — but you use whatever will serve.
I passed through Xicheng and came to Shangyong, and with Shangyong's soldiers added to my own I turned toward Fangling. Five thousand five hundred men — my original five thousand, with the brothers' private troops on top — encircled Fangling, and an envoy arrived from Kuai Qi.
"He asks why we persecute those who have sat quiet and done nothing. The magistrate says he follows the imperial house of Han as a matter of course, and that we are to withdraw."
"Does he? Then go back and tell him this. He is to choose — die a loyal minister of Cao Wei, which holds the imperial house in its grip, or remain a true loyalist of Han as brother-in-law to Military Advisor Zhuge. There is no middle ground."
Kuai Qi's reply came quickly.
It could not have been more concise.
And my order was every bit as short.
The next day I occupied the government residence of Fangling. Kneeling before me, as a matter of course, was the man who had chosen to resist — Kuai Qi.
"General, what will you do with him?"
"What do all of you think?"
The officers were divided. Wang Ping, Gou Fu, Zhang Yi, and Ma Dai held that he had not surrendered, and so ought to be beheaded. Liu Yin, Ma Zhong, Wang Si, and Fu Qian thought that he was Zhuge Liang's brother-in-law all the same, and that it would be better to send him back as a prisoner.
"And you, General of the Household? What is your view?"
"...I believe it right to follow the General's will."
That was a more unexpected answer than I had looked for. In the history I remembered, Liu Feng had failed to save Guan Yu while he feuded with Meng Da, and yet, unlike Meng Da, who turned his coat, he had gone back to Liu Bei prepared for punishment and begged to be judged. Zhuge Liang had reckoned him too fierce, a source of trouble in the years to come, and Liu Bei, attached as he was to an adopted son, had put him to death for the sake of the future. Stubborn he had been, but his heart toward Liu Bei had been genuine.
The quiet competitiveness he let show toward me made one thing plain enough: he did not think well of me. I had not thought a man like that would bend to me so readily.
"His Lordship appointed you commanding general. Those who have already come over to us are one thing. Kuai Qi held out and would not surrender, and so his life and his death rest with you."
"Good. Every one of you has a point. We have fought many enemies, won, and taken many of their commanders, but wherever we could we have preferred to win them over. This time is no different. General of the Household."
"Yes, General."
"I charge you with escorting Kuai Qi and the other prisoners, and with carrying the report of our victory. Take Dexin with you."
With the surrender of Xicheng and Shangyong, and with Fangling taken, the orders laid on me were fulfilled.
As in Baxi Commandery before, all that remained was to stand in the empty place where authority had been, and wait for the officials Liu Bei would send.
The taking of Fangling had ended so tamely it was almost a shame to call it a battle, but a military merit was a military merit all the same. Liu Feng had stood at the van of it. When he went back, he would hear at least a kind word from Liu Bei.
Liu Feng, and Liu Shan. Even now, Liu Bei's heart had quietly passed over to Liu Shan, and he would be thinking hard about how Liu Feng ought to be treated. Some, like Zhuge Liang, would say the seed of discord had to be cut out entirely.
Even so — better to bring him along, if I can. Liu Feng isn't the sort to covet Liu Bei's succession by force.
If he were, he would have fled to Wei with Meng Da. What he wanted was nothing more than to be acknowledged as Liu Bei's son. Hand him a fair share of the credit, and lead him so he committed no blunder, and he could serve very well as a capable commander.
With that in mind, when I submitted my report as commander I quietly tucked in a passage speaking up for Liu Feng. For a while after that I gave myself to soothing the three counties of eastern Hanzhong and settling them firm.
I took care that the private troops I had pried from Shen Dan and Shen Yi were folded fully into Liu Bei's army, and I set a quiet pressure on the local magnates until they thought it best to show their sincerity of their own accord.
Comforting the common people I left to Wang Si, handling the magnates to Zhang Yi, and drilling the soldiers to Wang Ping, and everything ran smooth.
No wonder the men at the top strain so hard to keep capable subordinates beneath them. But the reckoning of merit would come soon enough, and once it did, most of them would likely step out from under my command. That was a pity.
Thinking of the future, of course, it was only right that each of them rise higher. Still — when would I ever field a roster this fine again? Perhaps only once I myself had climbed a good deal further.
I did not have to wait long. Liu Feng, who had gone to make his report to Liu Bei, returned to Fangling in person as Liu Bei's own envoy.
And the news he brought was nothing short of a shock.
"His Lordship has submitted a memorial."
The memorial he spoke of was a document a subject lays before the emperor.
And now there was only one memorial Liu Bei would lay before the throne.
It was a proclamation that he would raise himself King of Hanzhong, as Liu Bang had done when he founded Han.
And it was Liu Bei's letter of challenge — his declaration that he would step, in earnest, into the contest for all under heaven against Cao Cao, King of Wei.