Looking Upon Cao Cao
Cao Cao was the first to offer a greeting as Liu Bei approached.
Age had settled upon him, yet he was still the man Liu Bei remembered.
"Lord Xuande. How long has it been?"
"Your Excellency. To see you like this again stirs something deep in me."
The meeting of those two great men began with nothing more than ordinary courtesies.
The atmosphere between them was hard to reconcile with the fact that, until only recently, they had been enemies crossing blades. Behind them, however, the generals of both sides still kept their eyes sharp and their attention fixed on every corner of the surroundings.
Only Guan Yu, who had once shared a measure of friendship with Cao Cao, softened his expression slightly as they spoke.
"And Lord Guan. That robust figure of yours is unchanged — that beard as well. Though it has gone rather whiter than when I last saw you. Haha."
"Yes. Your Excellency does not seem quite the same as before, either. It is not my place to say so, but… are you well?"
"Thanks to you, I am still in health. Hahaha."
An old and ailing body. A body already waiting for death. Yet Cao Cao answered with a laugh. The words could have been taken as a barb, but his tone was light enough that those listening received them as a joke.
"Lord Guan, there was a time I wished to make you my own man. But you shine brightest at Liu Bei's side."
"You are too kind. I still remember how you sent me on my way, saying every man has his own lord."
Then Cao Cao looked at Zhang Fei.
"Lord Zhang. I believe this is the first I have seen you since Changban."
A great deal of time had passed since Liu Bei and Guan Yu had last faced him, but Zhang Fei they had met in the not-so-distant past. It had not been a pleasant memory.
"Ah… well. I may have spoken a bit harshly that day."
"Haha. You did it for your lord. I understand."
A few more polite exchanges followed before Liu Bei brought the conversation to its purpose.
"But Your Excellency — why did you ask to see me?"
"Ah. Yes. We should speak of that."
Cao Cao stroked his beard once and went on.
"Lord Xuande. What do you make of this war?"
"What do I make of it? I have wandered the realm for decades, and this is the first time I have shared such talk with Your Excellency. All I can say is this: I have no intention of withdrawing from here."
Liu Bei's tone was firm. Cao Cao's smile turned bitter.
"The Han imperial house."
At the words Cao Cao newly produced, the light in Liu Bei's eyes changed. It was a presence heavy with meaning for them both.
"Do you truly believe you can rebuild a Han imperial house already collapsed into ruins? I have dreamed of sweeping the rubble aside and founding a nation newly remade."
"Even if it has fallen, gather the broken stones and draw people to the work, and it can be done. Your Excellency once served the Han yourself. I believe you understand my heart better than most."
"Xuande… it seems you and I will never stand side by side and look up at the same sky."
"I am sorry I cannot meet your hopes. But the sky looks different to every pair of eyes that gazes upon it."
Cao Cao had once tried to make Liu Bei his man. He had failed in the end, and that too would now remain only a memory.
I called Liu Bei a hero once. My judgment was not wrong. This man will never bend to anyone. He simply walks his own road.
After that brief exchange and its bitter conclusion, Cao Cao at last came to the heart of the matter.
"Xuande. I believe it is time this meaningless fighting ended. If you will accept my terms, I will withdraw my army."
"Terms?"
"I ask that you release Cao Ren and Yu Jin, who are in your custody as prisoners of war, along with the soldiers."
Cao Cao's senior generals, Cao Ren and Yu Jin, were still captives, and though a great many had already been freed, tens of thousands of soldiers remained imprisoned within the walls of Jiangling.
No one said it aloud, but nearly everyone present — Liu Bei included — wished for the war to end here.
"If I accept those terms, you will withdraw cleanly?"
"Ah. There was one more condition."
"What is it?"
Cao Cao did not answer at once. A shadow of melancholy crossed his face before he spoke.
"…Miaocai. I wish to have Xiahou Yuan's body returned. If there is no body, then at least his personal effects."
"Yunchang has kept his remains carefully. Knowing you would ask, we brought them with us."
"Oh? Is that so?"
At Liu Bei's signal, several guards came forward from the rear bearing a coffin. It was not ornate, yet it lacked nothing in proper form.
Thud.
The coffin was set before Cao Cao, and the lid slid open. He swallowed a low sound.
"Miaocai. How have you come to me looking like this…"
Because the body had been salted and preserved, Xiahou Yuan's remains were not badly decayed. Cao Cao stood staring at them in silence.
"It is all my fault. All of it…"
After a moment lost in feeling, Cao Cao ordered his soldiers to take the coffin away.
"We will give him a proper funeral upon our return."
With Xiahou Yuan's body withdrawn behind him, Cao Cao faced Liu Bei once more.
"Your answer to my proposal?"
"I accept."
"Good."
And so the armistice between the two sides was sealed. Then—
"It would be a pity to part like this. What say you we raise a cup one last time, and remember the old days?"
It was no grand banquet. Only a single table of food set between Liu Bei and Cao Cao.
After the formalities of testing the dishes for poison had been observed, the two men poured wine and talked.
"Already twenty years. Since the two of us last sat across a wine table like this."
"Yes. Does Your Excellency still remember?"
"How could I forget?"
As they spoke, Cao Cao's gaze drifted past Liu Bei's shoulder to the generals he had brought with him.
Behind Liu Bei stood Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Jin Do, and Jin Cheong.
Behind Cao Cao stood Xu Chu, Zhang Liao, Wen Ping, and Cao Zhang.
"Lord Guan, and Lord Zhang — you are sworn brothers, are you not? Born on different days, yet vowing to die on the same. Does that oath still hold?"
"It does. It is a vow we will keep until death."
Guan Yu nodded with a faint smile, while Zhang Fei bristled his whiskers as if to ask what kind of question that was supposed to be.
When Cao Cao had put forward strength and cunning, these men had put forward righteousness — and claimed one pillar of the realm for themselves.
Even as they were broken and bent, they never scattered, and for a time he had hated them for standing always in his path.
But now, having let the dream of the realm go with the years, Cao Cao felt something else.
Wonder.
Not a drop of blood shared between them, and temperaments wholly different — yet that bond of righteousness ran deeper than kinship.
Cao Cao envied their yi. Envied it enough to wish his own sons might learn from it…
"I see. That brotherhood. That righteousness, at least, is worth emulating."
Having said so, Cao Cao shifted his gaze to the general standing beside Zhang Fei.
Jin Do. Brave and loyal commander of Liu Bei's personal guard. That had been Cao Cao's assessment of him — until recently, when he found himself wondering whether he ought to add one more line.
Perhaps, of all the men I know, this one has raised the finest child.
Cao Cao had once passed judgment on Liu Biao's sons in similar terms.
If you are going to have sons, they ought at least to be of Sun Zhongmou's caliber. Liu Jingsheng's boys are little better than dogs and pigs.
But of late even his opinion of Sun Quan had grown somewhat murky. Word had it the man suspected his own subordinates, or envied their abilities…
Jin Do's daughter. The only woman present at this gathering, and a general in her own right. She was a beauty of fine, clean lines, yet she wore armor and helmet no differently from any other commander, and the sight of her was not the least bit out of place.
Even among the tiger-like generals thronging this place, she showed not a flicker of being cowed, carrying herself with a dignity and presence entirely her own.
Liu Bei truly is blessed with talent. I have gathered many fine people myself, but to think there would be a heroine like this. If only I had brought her under my banner sooner… Hm?
There was something unusual in the light of those beautiful eyes. Looking more carefully, Cao Cao saw she was locked in a silent contest of wills with Cao Zhang, who stood directly opposite her. Had this been a battlefield rather than a conference, she looked ready to draw her sword at any moment.
Come to think of it, she dueled Chang'er again and again in Hanzhong. He even got a taste of her fire once — good schooling for him, I hope.
He and Liu Bei and the other generals had all entered the twilight of their years. The only ones here still flaunting the full blaze of youth were Cao Zhang and Jin Cheong.
I will be gone soon enough. The future belongs to those young ones.
The thought rose unbidden that he should have recruited Jin Do and his daughter long ago. Had he done so, she might have been matched with Chang'er, and the realm would have seen a peerless pair of heroes for husband and wife…
"General Jin Do?"
"Yes? Yes, Your Excellency."
Jin Do, who had not expected to be addressed, swallowed a flicker of surprise and answered.
"Come to think of it, I have scarcely ever spoken with you, General."
"Yes. That is so. Given the nature of my post…"
As commander of the personal guard, Jin Do had always put Liu Bei's safety first, above contact with others.
"I never realized — looking at you now, General, you are quite the remarkable man."
"Pardon?"
"A thought that came to me looking at your blood. No need to be startled. Even I, Cao Cao, have never managed such a thing. How could you not be remarkable? Hahaha."
"Ah… haha…"
Jin Do, briefly taken aback, relaxed once he understood Cao Cao was joking. Beside him, Jin Cheong, catching that the talk concerned her, likewise eased her expression.
"General Jin Cheong?"
"Yes. I pay my respects to Your Excellency. Given the nature of this gathering, my greeting comes late. I am Jin Cheong. My courtesy name is Seyoung."
At Cao Cao's summons she inclined her body slightly in salute. The voice was calm and clear — a far cry from the martial edge she had shown only moments before.
"I have heard a great deal about you, but this is the first I have seen you in person. I only wished to hear your voice once — think nothing of it."
"Yes, Your Excellency."
She seemed faintly flustered, but returned at once to her duty, watching the surroundings and guarding Liu Bei's person.
His brief small talk concluded, Cao Cao decided to bring the conference to a close.
Having secured the promise that Cao Ren, Yu Jin, and the prisoners would be returned, he had no regrets about coming this far.
Yet the knowledge that he would never again witness the stories of those who would write the next chapter of history left a lingering regret he could not quite shake.
"Well then. We should end this gathering. I would stay longer, but circumstances being what they are…"
"Yes. We will set a date and return the prisoners."
"Good. I will prepare for withdrawal as well."
The short drinking session ended. As he rose from the table, Cao Cao spoke softly.
"Lord Xuande. Had this been an age of peace, we might have prolonged this wine a little longer."
"I have thought the same myself."
And so the two dragons exchanged formal courtesies, and turned their backs upon each other.