Kongming's Trap
“General. Letters have arrived from your father and Chancellor Zhuge.”
“From Father and the Chancellor? All right. Leave them there.”
Zheng Sui stepped into the official residence where I had been handling military affairs, set two letters before me, and withdrew.
Letters. And from both Father and Zhuge Liang at the same time?
The First Northern Expedition had ended, and for a while I had been enjoying relatively peaceful days. It was not as though there was no work, but my deputy officers handled most of the ordinary matters.
Even so, I had always told myself, Someday the days of frantic busyness will come again.
That day arrived far sooner than I expected. And it began with the letters Zheng Sui had left behind.
I reached first for Father’s letter, then hesitated. Something ominous seemed to radiate from Zhuge Liang’s.
Father and I exchange letters often enough, so that is one thing—but why would Zhuge Liang send me a direct letter?
In the end I opened Zhuge Liang’s first. His elegant handwriting, unmistakably Kongming’s, filled the page at a glance.
Chancellor Zhuge Kongming to Left General Jin Seyoung
The opening contained the usual greetings and well-wishes.
Yet the further I read into the true substance, the more an inexplicable chill crept down my spine.
— While I was in Chengdu I heard tell of you. Even while confined to a sickbed, your loyalty and diligence in service to the state were enough to move even me to admiration. The development of the new throwing axes is one thing, but the invention of the abacus is a meaningful creation that can raise this nation’s administrative power by an entire level. I felt the same when you spoke previously of the repeating crossbow: you possess a special talent for original ideas. Therefore I wish to make you a proposal. What say you to withdrawing for a time from the front lines and joining me in research and development? I have long felt that your diligence and passion for work would mesh well with my own. Would it not be safer for you to remain here in Chengdu rather than on a high-risk frontier? Here, too, you will be able to fully realize your great ambitions. Of course I pledge, upon my name as Chancellor, that your treatment will leave nothing to be desired. Moreover, General Jin Do—your honored father—also hopes for your return to Chengdu. I ask that you give my proposal positive consideration…
It was a rather long letter, but boiled down it was simply an invitation to come to Chengdu and work with him on research and development.
Zhuge Liang was summoning me directly to the capital.
This…
This was Kongming’s trap…!
The throwing axes and the abacus I had conceived while ill were nothing more than products of my future knowledge, yet he seemed to have mistaken me for some tremendous workaholic.
And working alongside Zhuge Liang would mean a workload that was no joke…
Last time he had tried to scout me and I had slipped free; this time the determination to take me with him was plain.
What was I supposed to do? How was I supposed to refuse? The war had paused for the moment; I had finally been about to rest a little.
And Father wanted this as well? What was that about?
I opened the letter Father had sent.
To Seyoung.
After the brief greetings, the contents ran as follows.
— Do you know how startled I was to hear you had been gravely wounded fighting Zhang Liao? Thank heaven you recovered safely; do you know how this father fretted? You are the only blood I have left. I care far more that you remain unharmed than that you win military glory. Chancellor Zhuge will make you a certain proposal. If you remain in Jiangling, there is no telling what sort of raid Wu may launch next, so I hope you will return to Chengdu. Examine the matter carefully and make a wise decision…
This was bad. The misunderstanding ran deeper than I had thought.
Working with Zhuge Liang meant certain overwork—how was I supposed to refuse that…
While I was turning over possible pretexts for refusal, another insurmountable threshold arrived. One I could not dodge.
“Left General Jin Cheong, receive His Majesty the Emperor’s sacred command.”
No one else—Liu Bei himself had issued the order.
— Set aside your excessive duties for a time and return here to Chengdu to collaborate with the Chancellor. We ourselves judge it better that the Left General follow the Chancellor’s proposal rather than remain in a place of danger. Together with the Chancellor, your will and talent may be raised to still greater heights. And it is not you alone who are summoned. We also wish to call Our son Shan to Chengdu. Therefore return to this capital together with Shan. Moreover, there is someone here We wish to introduce to you…
There was no wriggling free now.
Liu Bei himself had issued the sacred command; all that remained was to go to Chengdu. No—I had to go.
“Yes. Left General Jin Cheong receives the imperial command…”
Liu Bei had given the order in person, and I was to bring Liu Shan as well. With incidents continually erupting in Jiangling, even Liu Bei must have grown reluctant to leave his heir there.
I summoned Yu Eun and told him to prepare for the return to Chengdu.
Once the decision was made, preparations proceeded smoothly.
First I selected those who would return with me. Yu Eun and Zheng Sui always accompanied me wherever I went, so they would come this time as well; I also chose a number of soldiers and attendants.
Liu Shan, his guard commander Guo Yi, and the rest of his escort would travel with us too.
While I was at it, Gan Yong, Mi Zhu, and Ma Su decided to return to Chengdu as well. Gan Yong was overjoyed at finally going back to the capital; Mi Zhu’s illness had fully healed and he chose to travel with us on this opportunity.
Ma Su, for his part, got along surprisingly well with Liu Shan in certain respects, so he came along too. He was good at answering the boy’s endless questions and curiosities.
Looking at the group, it had become a considerably larger party than I had first imagined.
And my own unit?
As always, Wang Ping would serve as my deputy and take command.
Come to think of it, though it was my unit, Wang Ping ended up leading it in my place more often than not.
By both merit and ability he could have left my command long ago and led a force of his own, yet he gratefully continued to remain my subordinate. The same was true of Yu Eun, Gou Fu, Liu Min, and the others.
I also bid farewell to those who would continue to hold Jiangling after my departure—Xu Shu, Ma Liang, Pan Jun, and the rest.
Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, for their part, had to guard the northern border and so could not meet me in person; I conveyed the circumstances by letter instead.
“Then we depart for Chengdu. Your Highness the Crown Prince, shall we go?”
“Yes, General!”
Liu Shan answered cheerfully from inside the carriage, cradling his beloved cat, Golden King.
Thus I left Jiangling—my base for quite a long time—behind and set out for Chengdu.
“General, once you go to Chengdu this time, won’t you have to remain there permanently?”
Yu Eun asked me along the road.
“Hardly. The moment something breaks out I’ll be thrown back in. My unit is still in Jiangling, after all.”
Until the realm was stabilized, there was no chance I would spend the rest of my life in Chengdu.
“I heard, though, that under Chancellor Zhuge you will focus on research and development rather than military affairs.”
“Yeah. Somehow it turned out that way. Making weapons and armor can still be considered military work, in a sense.”
Since the subject had come up, I asked Yu Eun something I had been wondering about.
“Hyuyeon—do I really look like someone who works that much?”
“Pardon? Yes, you do. Is there anyone who works as hard as you, General? Of course, I serve right at your side, so I may feel it more keenly—but from military administration to combat, calming the people’s hearts, educating His Highness the Crown Prince, inventing things, even diplomacy—you handle all of it.”
Yu Eun answered as though he found the question odd. So more people felt that way than I had realized.
“No. Absolutely not. Chancellor Zhuge is in the rear, so the sheer volume of his work is on a different level from mine. Rear-area duties are endless.”
That Shu had been able to field such a great army in the recent Northern Expedition with almost no shortages of supplies was largely thanks to Zhuge Liang.
On top of rear logistics he was handling internal administration, diplomacy, inventions, and every military matter as well.
The old saying about eating little and working oneself to exhaustion did not come from Zhuge Liang for nothing.
How had it come to this? All I wanted was for the realm to stabilize quickly so I could retire and live quietly.
“Anyway, it’s been a very long time since we last went to Chengdu. There will be many people to see.”
“Ah, true. I’ll give you leave, Hyuyeon—once we arrive in Chengdu, go home for a while.”
“Oh! Thank you, General. Truth be told, I’ve been thinking of home.”
Many of the subordinates traveling with me, Yu Eun and Zheng Sui among them, had their hometowns in Yizhou. So I planned to give them all a little travel money and some leave this time. I would also have to arrange for my men still in Jiangling to visit their homes in rotation.
As for people to meet…
There were many. Father, Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang—but one other person came to mind.
I wonder how Lady Sun is doing?
In the original history, Lady Sun—Sun Ren—had tried to abduct Liu Shan when Liu Bei entered Shu, failed, and returned to Eastern Wu. Here she had followed him to Chengdu and eventually risen to the position of empress.
That much would have been fine, but the problem was that she was Sun Quan’s younger sister.
And I was the one who had inflicted two bitter defeats on Sun Quan.
Back in the Gong’an days we had gotten along well enough; I wondered whether we could still do so now.
“General! Chengdu is in sight!”
Zheng Sui called out beside me.
The long road from Jiangling through Yong’an and Jiangzhou. At last the walls of Shu’s capital, Chengdu, came into view.
Chengdu. We had arrived.
The place had been peaceful ever since the conquest of Yizhou, yet somehow I had the feeling that the work awaiting me here would not be limited to research and development alone.