Master Fengchu
"Military Counselor Colonel Fa Zheng of Yizhou?"
The moment I heard the name Fa Zheng, I felt my heart begin to race. An indispensable figure in any account of Liu Bei's army — and the man who would hand us an opportunity like no other.
"That's right. Fa Zheng of Yizhou."
My attention had locked onto the name Fa Zheng, but Zhuge Liang laid particular stress on Yizhou.
Yizhou. The province also called Bashu, Western Shu, or simply Shu.
It made sense. His grand design — the Longzhong Plan — treated the seizure of Yizhou as both its completion and its beginning.
Yizhou in the west, belonging neither to Cao Cao nor to Sun Quan. Take that land, and you divide the realm into three and build the foundation for unifying the world. The man who held the key to it was coming here now; of course every eye would turn toward him.
I asked as if I knew nothing.
"Ah — I'd heard talk of welcome preparations for some time. So today is the day. But why would Yizhou send someone to us?"
"We'll know once we hear him out. But if things go well, we may meet an opportunity that will never come again. That is why His Lordship and everyone else are preparing."
Gong'an was in an uproar over those preparations — livelier even than the welcome for Lady Sun. Would Lady Sun feel slighted if she saw this?
Just then a servant's voice called from outside.
"Master Strategist Zhuge. Military Advisor General of the Household Pang has arrived."
"Ah — show him in."
"Yes, sir."
Zhuge Liang smiled faintly.
"Right on time, as expected. Usually so leisurely, yet when it matters he can be remarkably quick."
"Master Strategist — if you mean Military Advisor General of the Household Pang, is that by any chance…?"
"Ah, of course. This would be your first time meeting him, wouldn't it?"
While the two of us spoke, a man strode in and greeted them with easy cheer.
"Kongming. I'm here."
"Ah, Shiyuan. So you've come. What brings you all the way out here? You're the sort who would rather lounge about in the official residence if you could help it."
"Lounge about? When have I ever lounged about? Do you know how hard I've been working lately?"
"Just hard enough that His Lordship won't scold you, I expect. The fact that you've come in person tells me this business really is important."
"Of course it is. How could I sit out something this big?"
Watching the usually mild and measured Zhuge Liang open up and chatter like this, I could tell the two of them were extraordinarily close.
Spotting me a beat late, the newcomer spoke.
"And who is this?"
"Quick to ask, aren't you. This is the famous Colonel Jin Cheong."
"Yes — I am Jin Cheong. I hold the rank of Xiaowei."
I bowed at the waist in greeting, and the man let out a sound of admiration.
"Ahh! So it is, so it is. I've heard a great deal about you, but I've been so busy I never managed to meet you until now."
"Stop pretending to be busy and introduce yourself first."
"I'm not pretending — I really am busy."
After a moment of banter he bent at the waist and presented himself.
"This one's name is Pang Tong, courtesy name Shiyuan. I serve as Military Advisor, General of the Household."
"Yes, Master Strategist Pang. I've wanted to meet you for some time myself, but one thing after another kept us apart until now. Please, speak freely with me."
"Hahahaha! Just as the rumors said — straightforward! Then I'll drop the formalities."
At last we had met. Pang Tong. The prodigy also called Fengchu — the Fledgling Phoenix.
Face to face, he was not the ugly man modern accounts made him out to be. He lacked Zhuge Liang's refined handsomeness, but his features fell well within the ordinary range. And he had a manner that was both familiar and quietly blunt.
"So what were the two of you discussing? This welcome banquet?"
"That as well — and Lady Sun."
"Lady Sun? I've heard she's been causing trouble, but I thought General Zhao Yun was handling that. You've been fretting over that too?"
"How could I not? It isn't a small matter. It's tangled up with diplomacy."
Pang Tong heaved a long sigh.
"Take it a little easier. I've told you again and again — if you fuss over everything from one to ten, you'll wear yourself out."
"As it happens, Colonel Jin here has been a great help, and things have settled considerably. I've been able to breathe a little."
"Is that so. Then that's something to be grateful for."
Pang Tong offered me his thanks, and I said it was only what I ought to have done.
Come to think of it, I had found Zhuge Liang fretting over Lady Sun that night as well. Thanks to that, I had formed an unexpected bond with her.
"Honestly, this friend of mine is such a perfectionist he can't sleep unless everything has passed through his own hands. At this rate he won't live out his natural span."
"My good man — what kind of curse is that to lay on someone?"
"It isn't a curse. It's worry."
They bickered, but the way they spoke made their closeness plain as day.
"Lady Sun seems to have been left in capable hands, so enough of that. Let's hurry along. Do you think I came all this way for nothing?"
"Very well. Yuanzhi should already be there as well."
Their working styles could not have been more different. Where Zhuge Liang personally oversaw every detail with meticulous care, Pang Tong was leisurely in ordinary times and stepped forward only for what he judged most important.
But when something truly demanded his presence, he seemed the type to move all the more aggressively.
Perhaps that very aggressiveness was what would one day bring him to grief in Yizhou?
Turning such thoughts over, I followed the two of them toward the welcome banquet.
The atmosphere in Gong'an was, in a word, that of a festival — a festival for one man alone. And that one man now stood face to face with Liu Bei.
"I am Fa Zheng, Military Counselor Colonel. Thank you for receiving me with such ceremony."
"I am Left General Liu Bei. You have come a long way; it must have been a hard journey."
Fa Zheng was a man with sharp eyes, and his first impression was not a warm one. In truth, his temperament was said to be thoroughly unpleasant.
Even so, he committed no breach of etiquette, and Liu Bei smiled throughout and treated him with unfailing courtesy.
When the grand welcome concluded, Liu Bei led Fa Zheng into the official residence. Those who entered with them were his innermost strategists — Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, and Xu Shu. They would now discuss in secret the matter of entering Shu.
The day we would ride across the western lands of Bashu was drawing near.
"My lord. You mean to enter Bashu according to Fa Zheng's proposal, do you not?"
"I do, Master Strategist Zhuge. Is this not a once-in-a-lifetime chance? If all goes well, even your plan to divide the realm in three need not remain a dream."
On the surface Fa Zheng had come to request Liu Bei's aid, but his true purpose was collusion. Thoroughly sick of his incompetent lord Liu Zhang, Fa Zheng meant to conspire with Liu Bei's army and offer Yizhou up to him.
"Master Strategist Zhuge. While I am gone, I leave Jingzhou in your care."
"Set your mind at ease. But — do you intend to take that child as well?"
"Who? Ah. You mean Colonel Jin?"
"Yes. Precisely."
"Of course I must take her. She begged me earnestly for it, as it happens. She insisted I bring her along. She seemed certain there was something she absolutely had to do once she got there."
"You appear to favor Colonel Jin a great deal."
At Zhuge Liang's question, Liu Bei stroked his beard, fell silent in thought for a moment, then answered.
"Jin Cheong. That child possesses a peculiar insight. A talent for anticipating what others cannot foresee, and for piercing through what others fail to grasp."
"I have felt the same at times. Looking back on all that has happened — and when I have spoken of her with Yuanzhi as well."
"Indeed. An unusual talent. And yet, so long as she is on our side, she is also a talent who somehow sets the heart at ease."
Several more days passed. The grand welcome and the secret councils ended, and Fa Zheng returned the way he had come.
Not long after, it was decided that a relief force would be sent to Shu in answer to Liu Zhang's request for aid against Zhang Lu of Hanzhong.
On the surface it was a relief force, of course — but the plan to seize the land of Shu itself lay hidden within, and that was a fact known to Liu Bei and all his innermost circle. Of course, I already knew it as well.
Before departing for Shu, I paid a visit to Lady Sun.
"My lady — it seems I too will be leaving for Western Shu before long."
"Yes, I'd heard the army would move. But you're going with them?"
"Yes, I am."
"My husband and a great many generals are going. Must you go as well?"
Sun Ren looked regretful. It was only natural — I was the only person here she could speak with freely.
She seemed to regret my leaving more than her husband's. I wasn't sure whether to feel flattered or not.
"Yes — regrettably, I too am a person of the army. I must follow my orders."
"Thanks to you, I haven't felt lonely even staying here. But I can hardly stand in the way of a road you've chosen to take. Come back in good health."
"Yes. Thank you, my lady."
I couldn't quite bring myself to say, Please don't cause any incidents while I'm gone. She had been quiet for a while, but I worried what she might do without me around.
In truth, she would cause an incident. A rather spectacular one, at that.
Thinking of the future, I even wondered whether befriending her had been a mistake. But there was no undoing it. I possessed knowledge of the Three Kingdoms — not the power to reverse what had already come to pass. Which was all the more reason I had no choice but to go to Shu.
Zhuge Liang and Zhao Yun would handle whatever trouble arose. I needed to focus now on what I had to do in Shu.
"Kongming — while we are away, I leave Jingzhou in your care. Don't overwork yourself."
"Shiyuan — you for your part, do nothing reckless. Yuanzhi must come through unharmed as well."
"Don't worry about us. Just stay healthy."
Time flowed on, and at last the day of departure for Shu arrived. The three friends — Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, and Xu Shu — exchanged their farewells.
Liu Bei likewise took leave of his sworn brothers, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.
"I trust only in you, my brothers. Guard Jingzhou well."
Liu Bei would lead the army into Shu, with Pang Tong and Xu Shu accompanying him as advisors. Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, Liu Feng, Ma Su, and my father Jin Do would also take part. And of course, so would I.
The road into Shu was as harsh as I had heard. All one could see was mountain after mountain after mountain.
Attacking this place from the outside would indeed be extraordinarily difficult. Only because there were those within who answered our call could Shu be taken; without them, it would have been many times harder.
And at a place called Fu County, we met him — Liu Zhang, lord of Yizhou.
Liu Zhang received Liu Bei without a shred of suspicion. He seemed a decent man, but honestly he was not a man suited to a chaotic age.
He would believe with absolute certainty that Liu Bei's army had come to help him. He would never dream that his own subordinates — Fa Zheng among them, along with Zhang Song and Meng Da — were betraying him and preparing to serve Liu Bei as their lord.
From his perspective it would be a matter for bitter tears. But what could be done? This was simply how events were flowing.
The year was 211. And so we entered Shu. I was sixteen years old.