Coming Full Circle
Coming full circle…
Sun Quan had smashed a coral tree? Could this be…?
“By coral tree, you mean the kind that grows in the sea?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“And you’re saying Sun Quan smashed it himself?”
“Yes. I heard he took an iron club to it and shattered it completely.”
In one sense it might have been a trivial matter, yet it snagged at something in my mind all the same.
“Lord Deng Zhi. Did you hear where the object came from?”
“From the rumors, it was a gift sent from Wei.”
“From Wei? Was the source of that object, by any chance, a man named Cao Wei?”
“What? How did the Left General know that?”
Deng Zhi looked mildly startled. I nodded.
So that was it. It seemed the thing had found its way back to Sun Quan after all. I gave Deng Zhi a brief account of how I had met Cao Wei on the road while traveling to Xuchang with the diplomatic mission.
Deng Zhi nodded, his expression clearing with understanding.
“So that was what happened. Sun Quan must have flown into a rage after being swindled by that Cao Wei fellow.”
“Yes, that could well be…”
They say good news struggles to cross a threshold, while bad news travels a thousand li.
Sun Quan had personally smashed a precious treasure like a coral tree, so of course the rumor had spread far enough to reach Deng Zhi’s ears—and from there, winding its way around, it had come back to me.
I had expected Sun Quan to be furious once he learned the truth, and his rage was hardly surprising. Still, something about it left me uneasy.
“Do you happen to know who the envoy was that brought the coral tree?”
Deng Zhi thought for a moment before answering.
“Hmm. I heard it was a man named Sima Yi.”
“Sima Yi!”
“Yes. Do you know him?”
How could I not know Sima Yi? The man who would one day become Zhuge Liang’s great rival.
“He’s a member of the renowned Sima clan of Luoyang. His courtesy name is Zhongda.”
“I’ve heard of the Sima family as well.”
“Yes. He’s the second son of Sima Fang.”
“I see. I didn’t know that much.”
Sima Yi would not truly make his name until the reign of Cao Rui, so it seemed he had yet to distinguish himself so prominently at this stage.
But knowing who he was, those three syllables—Sima Yi—struck me with considerable weight. Even in talent-rich Wei, he was a man of the highest caliber.
Would they really entrust something as simple as delivering a coral tree to a figure of Sima Yi’s stature?
Sima Yi was also on close terms with Cao Pi. Whatever scheme he might have set in motion, I would not have been surprised.
I couldn’t say exactly why, but I had the distinct feeling I had been drawn into something strange.
“I’ve heard of Cao Wei and the coral tree from General Seyoung before,” Pang Tong said. “A rather troublesome fellow, by all accounts. I never expected to hear that name again here.”
“Indeed. I heard of it as well. General Jin—is there something about this that troubles you?” Xu Shu asked.
“Sima Yi has yet to fully distinguish himself, but he is a man of exceptional cunning and a deeply calculating nature,” I said. “Before the last campaign for Jingzhou, I heard he went to Wu in person and proposed a secret alliance. He may well become our greatest enemy in the days ahead.”
Pang Tong and Xu Shu spoke in turn, and I answered.
“Then could Wei have once again proposed a secret alliance to Wu?” Deng Zhi asked. “Pretending to ally with us while arranging another surprise attack on Jingzhou?”
I thought for a moment before speaking.
“I doubt that’s it. If that were the case, they wouldn’t have acted so openly. They would have moved more quietly, more discreetly. This time, I suspect they’ve touched something emotional rather than purely strategic.”
Pang Tong, who had been listening in silence, asked,
“Didn’t General Seyoung say that Cao Pi bears her a grudge? She mentioned it after returning from the diplomatic mission.”
“Yes, it seems so. As it turns out, I did something in Hanzhong that made an enemy of him.”
I spoke with a somewhat bitter smile. Beside me, Xu Shu said,
“I’ve thought before that if Cao Pi dislikes General Jin, he might well devise some plot or scheme against her. If this affair is connected to that… Cao Pi may have employed a strategy of sowing discord.”
Cao Pi using a divide-and-conquer scheme. It suited him perfectly. Honestly, if I were Cao Pi, I would have thought of splitting Shu and Wu myself.
“Yes, Yuanzhi. I had the same thought,” Pang Tong said. “And during the last Jingzhou campaign, General Seyoung defeated Sun Quan’s main force. He may have judged the conditions ripe for driving a wedge between us.”
And Zhou Tai, a general as close to Sun Quan as his own right hand, had met his end by my hand as well. Come to think of it, I had managed to earn the hatred of the rulers of both enemy states.
“It’s only speculation, of course, but it may well be so. Lord Deng Zhi—if you go to Wu as an envoy again, would you keep an eye out for any untoward movements on their part?”
“Of course.”
Pang Tong spoke again.
“Still, I don’t think Wu will break the alliance anytime soon. If they have any sense, maintaining the alliance with us is the strategically correct choice for now.”
“Agreed. One way or another, they need to join forces with us to stand against Wei. Severing the alliance outright would be a poor decision for them as well.”
Having avoided the Battle of Yiling, our Shu was stronger than in actual history—while Wu had grown weaker. In a sense, one could say Wu had absorbed the damage that Yiling would have inflicted.
Even so, Wei remained formidable. More than twice as strong as Shu and Wu combined, perhaps?
Two weaker powers uniting against a single stronger one was the course Sun Quan ought to take for now. Of course, that was our thinking. There was no telling how Sun Quan himself might choose to act.
“We’ll need to discuss this with His Majesty in Chengdu as well,” Pang Tong said. “But if we launch the northern expedition, we will request that Wu send troops as well. We’ll need to watch carefully how Wu behaves when that time comes.”
“Yes, Military Advisor Pang. If our Shu achieves results and Wu does not… there’s no guarantee a second Jingzhou campaign won’t break out.”
The ideal picture for the northern expedition was for Shu and Wu to raise armies at the same time and push north together.
But if we expanded our territory while Wu failed? They might seize the opening left by our northern campaign and strike at Jingzhou by surprise.
Xu Shu considered something, then spoke.
“If Wu breaks the alliance again and launches a surprise attack, we could prepare in advance and turn it against them—just as we did last time. Or we could exploit Wu’s own sources of instability.”
“By instability, do you mean the Shanyue, by any chance?”
“Yes, General Jin. We could make use of the Shanyue tribes.”
The Shanyue. A people who could be called the foreign tribes of Jiangdong. They lived mostly hidden in the mountains and had never truly reconciled with Wu, remaining a constant headache for Sun Quan.
“If Sun Quan strikes at Jingzhou again, we could use the Shanyue to harass their rear. I’ll discuss this part in detail with Lord Ma Liang.”
“Yes, I’ll leave that to you, Military Advisor Xu. Ah—speaking of the Shanyue reminds me of something.”
“What is it?”
“If we can use the Shanyue, it occurs to me that Sun Quan could do the same. With the Nanman, that is.”
“The Nanman. You’re saying Sun Quan could make use of the Nanman?”
“Yes. Exactly.”
If the Shanyue were the foreign tribes settled in Jiangdong, the Nanman were the foreign tribes settled south of our Yizhou. In the original history, Sun Quan had instigated the Nanman into rebellion as well—though Zhuge Liang had suppressed it.
“We started talking about the northern expedition and somehow ended up on the Shanyue and the Nanman,” Pang Tong said. “Very well. As for the Nanman, I’ll consult with Kongming when I reach Chengdu. If anyone can find a way to secure the rear, it’s him.”
I hadn’t expected the conversation’s scale to swell this far either. I had thought we would simply finish discussing the northern expedition and be done.
Sun Quan had deteriorated in his later years, but at this point in time he was still a sharp and capable ruler. So why was this Sun Quan acting this way…?
“Well then—let us bring the subject back to the northern expedition.”
Sun Quan’s strange behavior.
For now, unless someone climbed inside Sun Quan’s head and came back out again, there was no precise answer to be had. So the topic returned to the northern expedition.
“General Seyoung. Do you have any further thoughts on the northern expedition?”
“Hmm. Yes—I believe I’ve shared nearly everything I know… If anything else comes to mind, I’ll speak up.”
And yet I had the nagging sense that I was forgetting something. Was it because I had been thinking about too many things at once?
“When I return to Chengdu this time, General Ma Chao will accompany me,” Pang Tong said. “He’s from Xiliang, so his presence will be a great help to the northern expedition. Of course Pang De and Ma Dai, who are like his right and left arms, will go as well, along with the cavalry he so prides himself on. With so many of Jingzhou’s talents and forces departing, the roles of Yuanzhi and General Seyoung will grow all the heavier.”
Ah—that’s right! Speaking of talent reminded me! How had I nearly let this slip?
“Military Advisor Pang. One more thing, if I may.”
“Go on.”
“Jiang Wei! Jiang Boyue of Tianshui. When you go to Tianshui, you must recruit the man named Jiang Wei.”
“Jiang Wei?”
“Yes. Jiang Wei. He will become a great talent for our cause in the years to come.”
The prodigy of Tianshui. I could not afford to let him slip away!