Bugok (2)
The General-in-Chief—the highest military office of the Han dynasty, vested with supreme command over its armies.
During the Han era, the rank carried one distinctive privilege: its holder could raise and deploy bugok for his own military undertakings—private corps that generals and provincial magnates were licensed to maintain against the breakdown of local order in the late Eastern Han.
The power to establish such a bugok and appoint subordinate officials to it—officers attached to a chief's personal staff—belonged only to the very summit of the bureaucracy: the Chancellor and the General-in-Chief. Simply put, the state had formally sanctioned a man building his own private army and appointing its commanders besides.
These were not the ordinary sort of "soldiers"—the word that lumps together noncommissioned officers and common infantry—but private soldiers, a term of an entirely different meaning. And what does private soldier mean? An army raised and kept at one powerful individual's sole discretion. A second army existing independently within the frame of the Han military: the General-in-Chief's own army, lodged inside the army of Han itself. Those who joined a bugok ordinarily followed their master to the grave, and so the bugok was, exactly as the name implied, a force that existed for its lord and no one else.
And right now, I was face to face with the woman asking me to appoint her as the subordinate official who would command that very force.
"You wish to become a subordinate official of my bugok?"
"Yes."
I could not hide my bewilderment at Liu Bei's answer, and Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, who had been listening quietly at her side, widened their eyes in apparent shock. Were they about to talk her out of it? Whichever choice the two of them settled on made no difference to me.
……
……
I watched them for a moment, but they quickly settled and recovered their usual expressions. They looked for all the world as if they understood Liu Bei's proposal, which only left me feeling more adrift.
The bugok of a General-in-Chief was ordinarily commanded by a Colonel—and yes, the very rank everyone's thinking of. The most representative example was Cao Cao, who had served as Colonel Who Directs the Army, one of the Eight Colonels of the Western Garden that commanded the palace guards. In truth the title meant little in practice, since effective authority over the guards rested entirely in the hands of Jian Shi, the Colonel of the Upper Army.
I exhaled an inward sigh and spoke.
"...Even if you did become a subordinate official of my bugok, the furthest you could rise is a colonel's post, you know?"
"That is of no concern."
Why so resolute? Puzzled by her attitude, I arrived at a single conclusion. Liu Bei was surely planning to use a colonelship as a stepping-stone toward some higher office. Even Wei Yan—mocked in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms as wearing "the face of a rebel"—had, in actual history, climbed from a bugok detachment commander all the way to Grand General Who Conquers the West, an outrageous string of promotions.
I went on, making it plain that she had no need to bind herself to my bugok.
"In consideration of your service, I could grant you a generalship this very day—not a colonel's post leading my bugok."
True, it would be a general of miscellaneous rank, a step below the directional generals such as General of the Left or General of the Right... and yet it was ample footing for a leap toward higher office. The highest tier of the military ladder, above even colonel, had always simply been called "general." That alone should tell you a miscellaneous generalcy was nothing to dismiss.
Meek as she looked, Liu Bei was unmistakably a woman with an appetite for power, and I assumed that appetite was her angle for joining my bugok. In the Romance, after the Yellow Turban Rebellion, her party was said to have been heartbroken when, despite all the merits they had stacked up, she was fobbed off with no more than a county magistracy. In the first place, crawling up from the very bottom of the world to become emperor was a feat impossible without hunger for power.
I pressed on.
"If your aim is a higher office through my bugok, there is no need—so name something else you want instead."
"No."
Contrary to my expectation, however, Liu Bei rejected my offer without a flicker of hesitation.
"I made this request because I wish to serve at your side and support you, General-in-Chief."
……
It was something I had sensed about her from the very start: Liu Bei had a quietly reckless streak. There was the time she strolled into Luoyang alone, thinking nothing of what might come, and got herself seized by the guards. Or the way she had begged me to leave whatever needed doing to her, regardless of the blank look on my face. To put it crudely, Liu Bei was the very picture of a charge-first, plan-later type. Even now, asked what she desired, she was simply insisting—reason unexplained—that she wanted to be my subordinate official. I could not fathom the why of it, but I could see that this desire of hers was entirely sincere.
When I held my silence a moment, Liu Bei spoke up, her voice faintly deflated.
"...I hope my request has not become a burden to you."
"No—it is nothing of the sort."
I hurried to wave off her worry. If Liu Bei of all people became my subordinate official and moved like an extension of my own hands, that was nothing but good for me. Better yet, if she came, that pair of matches-for-ten-thousand, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, came bundled in like free commemorative merchandise. Wasn't this practically one of those "Boss, you've lost your mind!" mega-deals?
"If you would be my subordinate official, then I could only welcome it. But are you truly certain?"
"Yes."
Asked once more whether she was sure, Liu Bei showed nothing but acceptance. I turned my gaze slightly toward Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, who bowed alongside her.
"And you two—are you content with this as well?"
Each answered in her own unmistakable way.
"I merely follow Lady Xuande's decision."
Guan Yu replied in a calm register that suited her striking appearance.
"Well... if that's what big sis Xuande chose, then I guess..."
Zhang Fei still wore a trace of dazedness, but she accepted Liu Bei's choice all the same. Seeing their reactions, I doubted either would harbor any resentment even if I truly appointed Liu Bei as my subordinate official.
Right. Liu Bei must have her own reasons for making a request like this.
Questions still lingered unresolved, but I set the matter aside and nodded.
"Then, Liu Bei Xuande."
"Yes."
"You are now a subordinate official of the General-in-Chief's bureau."
The instant my approval fell, Liu Bei expressed her gratitude.
"I thank you for your grace, General-in-Chief."
"...There is no grace to speak of."
If anything, what puzzled me was that she had turned down a generalship. Was it truly to serve at my side? That much I would learn in time, simply by watching. Decision made, I told Liu Bei and her party I would summon them separately later, and dismissed them for the day.
After her audience with the General-in-Chief ended and she was on her way home, Liu Bei glanced back over her shoulder and spoke.
"Thank you."
"...?"
At this sudden word of thanks, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei wore expressions asking what on earth she meant. Liu Bei smiled warmly at her sworn sisters.
"You followed my decision without asking a single question, calm as anything. That's what I'm thanking you for."
"...As I told the General-in-Chief just now, I merely follow Lady Xuande's choice."
Guan Yu said it in an even voice.
"Lady Xuande's judgment cannot err, and for my own part, I do not think ill of the General-in-Chief."
"...Hm? That's the first I've heard of it."
This time it was Liu Bei who looked surprised at Guan Yu's remark.
"It has been a long while since we first came to Luoyang."
Guan Yu continued, the very picture of her usual composure.
"In that time, I was able to judge what manner of man the General-in-Chief is."
……
"A man who knows benevolence and righteousness—things rare beyond words in this age."
There she stopped, and then, most unusually of all, a smile touched the corner of her mouth.
"Could I possibly dislike such a virtuous lord?"
Hearing her out, Liu Bei met Guan Yu's eyes. In those clear azure depths there was not a shadow of doubt about the General-in-Chief.
……
That Guan Yu had—against all precedent—provoked no conflict with even one scholar-official, those men of high office and illustrious houses.
After a brief silence, Liu Bei looked to Zhang Fei and asked, almost softly.
"...And you, Yide? Are you of the same mind as Yunchang?"
"Huh? Me?"
Zhang Fei pointed at herself.
"I don't really get fancy words like benevolence or righteousness the way big sis Yunchang does, but anyway—nobody in Luoyang was being trampled on without reason, you know?"
There Zhang Fei gave a firm nod.
"Seeing just that much was enough for me to get why big sis Xuande made the call she did."
"I see."
Then Zhang Fei scratched her cheek with a somewhat sheepish look.
"...And, well. I quite like the man himself, too."
……
At that, Liu Bei let her thoughts drift slowly down a different path. Her sworn sisters looked altogether ready to fall head over heels the moment some catalyst came along. Perhaps they might tip over even without one. Liu Bei briefly weighed whether to point this out, then chose to hold her tongue. If things unfolded as she suspected, that too would make for a rather amusing and delightful affair.
Picturing what would happen—something that would leave the General-in-Chief trembling, were he ever to find out—Liu Bei allowed herself a small smile.