Jing Province, Nanyang Commandery (7)
Ask anyone to name the wealthiest land in the Three Kingdoms, and the answer would almost invariably be Jizhou under Yuan Shao's rule — yet Jing Province under Liu Biao was a realm that yielded hardly anything to it.
Jizhou counted roughly 900,000 households and a population of some 5.9 million. The terrain was gentle and the roads ran smooth, which made it an economic powerhouse of a region. And Jing Province? There the registry swelled to a staggering 1.4 million households and 6.3 million souls. About a third of that was packed into Nanyang Commandery, once Yuan Shu's domain — but say it the other way around, and it meant the remaining two-thirds, everything beyond that third, sat in Liu Biao's hands. If Jizhou was the granary of China's north, it was no exaggeration to call Jing Province its equal in the south.
That was why, in the original history, the kingdom of Wu had clung to Jing Province so obsessively — and why Shu Han, grumbling all the while about how it hated to give the place up, never actually returned it. Sure enough, after Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao, the one faction still judged capable of standing against her was Liu Biao's. Even while fending off Sun Quan — a woman who was all but his mortal enemy — as she sailed over from Jiangdong again and again, he still earned the verdict that he could give Cao Cao a real fight. The trouble was that when Liu Biao fell ill and died, his house surrendered limply before ever crossing blades with Cao Cao, and the whole province was gone in an instant.
Nanyang Commandery lay very close to Luoyang, so once I had returned to the capital, I was leafing through the household survey records in my hands when I turned my head. I put the question to Jia Xu, who stood in attendance nearby.
"Is Liu Biao still keeping his silence?"
Jia Xu answered with grave courtesy.
"Yes. The envoy Her Majesty dispatched has returned to Luoyang, but Liu Biao maintains his silence still."
"So that's how it stands..."
After seizing Nanyang Commandery and returning to Luoyang, I had set one particular scheme in motion: dispatching an imperial envoy to Liu Biao in the Emperor's own name. The gist of the edict ran roughly as follows — your service in bringing stability to Jing Province is held in high esteem, and an even loftier office awaits you; therefore, Liu Biao, return to Luoyang as in days of old and attend the Emperor in person.
Naturally, the wording bore my fingerprints all over it. For Liu Biao, it had to be an edict to agonize over until his head split open. After all, obeying it and coming back to Luoyang amounted to throwing away the entire power base he had built in Jing Province — while refusing it would hand me a perfect pretext for war, leaving him unable to reject it thoughtlessly, either.
There were two reasons I had not simply marched my army straight at Liu Biao. Measured against my own forces his fell short, but as I said, the faction that had ruled Jing Province still had one last reserve of strength in it. They say even a cornered rat will bite the cat, and I had no wish to provoke him needlessly and only widen the bloodshed. And then there was the other purpose: you might call it a loyalty test of sorts — a question of whether the Han still had a home anywhere in his heart.
Liu Biao was, after all, an exceptional man — one who had arrived in Jing Province utterly alone and risen to become its ruler. In the original history, Jia Xu had once passed judgment on him as well. And her verdict went like this:
"In a well-governed age, he is a man quite capable of rising to the Three Excellencies."
...
"But he is suspicious by nature and wanting in decisiveness. In a chaotic era, I fear he must be judged an incompetent man."
That was how Jia Xu answered when I asked what she made of Liu Biao.
And in practice, Liu Biao's lack of resolve showed itself time and again. In the original history, after the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao — having received Yuan Tan's plea for support — marched into Jizhou to settle accounts with Yuan Shang. Liu Bei, who had been keeping clear of Cao Cao under Liu Biao's wing, seized on the opening and urged Liu Biao to strike at Cao Cao's rear. And what did Liu Biao do upon hearing that counsel?
Nothing. He did absolutely nothing.
He neither adopted Liu Bei's proposal nor lifted a finger; he simply watched events drift by. This despite having Guan Yu and Zhang Fei — a pair of living human blenders — sitting right there in his camp. Even so, he left Cao Cao's rear untouched and kept his peace. Yuan Shang, meanwhile, was being hammered by Cao Cao all the while and begged Liu Biao for relief over and over, but Liu Biao ignored the pleas to the very end — and so Cao Cao pacified Hebei without a single hitch. With no one to bar her way, she rose to stand as the mightiest power under heaven.
Seen in that light, Jia Xu had it exactly right: capable in times of peace, helpless in times of chaos. One critic even likened him to a wooden doll — a man who sits planted where he is and never acts.
Look at all that, and you might well ask: so Liu Biao simply had no ambition? And yet the man wore the Emperor's garments, dined as the Emperor dined, and even performed the sacred rites reserved for the Emperor alone — so no, he was not entirely without ambition either. Given how distrustful he was said to be, he most likely could not bring himself to trust the talents under his roof, and lived in dread of committing to any bold decision.
Seen that way, Liu Biao was a man who would have been far happier serving under someone else than reigning in his own right.
And in fact, if Liu Biao did give up his faction and come to Luoyang, I fully intended to employ him with real weight. The one thing that might have nagged at me was how the Sun family would take my receiving him — but even that I did not particularly worry over.
Because... shortly before dispatching the envoy to Liu Biao, I had once summoned Sun Ce for a conversation.
"You called for me?"
"I did."
The moment Sun Ce appeared — a woman whose beauty was, frankly, exceptional — I straightened in my seat and spoke.
"Today I called for you because I wanted to hear your thoughts."
"On what matter, may I ask?" Sun Ce asked, sounding puzzled.
A flicker of tension crept over me as I answered slowly.
"Before long, I intend to send Liu Biao an edict urging his surrender. I couldn't help worrying you might take it ill."
...
At my words, Sun Ce fell silent at once, and I watched her with mounting unease.
Unable to bear the awkward air a moment longer, I tacked on a few more words.
"If for some reason it's truly impossible, then so be it — but still, for my sake, nothing would please me more than if you turned a blind eye to the man."
Sun Ce spoke.
"...General-in-Chief."
"Uh... umm."
"To think you would look after a general who was once your enemy like this. You truly are a kind soul, my lord."
"And by that, you mean...?" I asked, letting a sliver of hope slip into my voice.
Sun Ce did not betray that hope.
"It is quite all right."
"Truly?"
"Yes."
I could hardly mask my astonishment at the unexpected answer.
Having accepted my reasoning with perfect composure, Sun Ce went on.
"True, my father was once struck by an arrow from Liu Biao's army and his life hung by a thread — but was it not you, General-in-Chief, who saved him?"
...
"Had you proceeded without consulting me, I would never have taken it amiss. That you hold us in such regard is honor enough for a lifetime."
Sun Ce delivered all of this with the utmost deference.
...Was this really the Little Conqueror with the infamous temper? It was a face she should never have been able to show unless Zhou Yu had an antenna bolted to her head and was steering her with a remote control. Or was this actually someone else disguised as Sun Ce?
Sun Ce continued, her courtesy unwavering.
"...Even so, I doubt I shall ever be close with Liu Biao. This much, I beg you to bear in mind."
And yet, watching that, she did seem like the Little Conqueror again after all.
That was my thought — but in fairness, Sun Ce's character and gift for winning hearts were both first-rate. There was how she had come to be sworn friends with Zhou Yu, for one; and in Zhang Hong's case especially, she had called on him again and again while he was in mourning for his mother, shedding real tears, until at last she brought him to her side. Zhang Hong had already turned down every summons to take office, yet Sun Ce had succeeded, against all odds, in persuading even him.
I nodded.
"That alone is more than I could ask. Thank you — truly."
"This much is nothing at all."
At my thanks, Sun Ce broke into a smile like a flower bursting into full bloom.
...No wonder they called her 'Young Master Sun.' Even recalled now, her looks were extraordinary.
Zhou Yu, though — I'm genuinely afraid to talk to her face to face.
When Sun Ce had surrendered to me, I did catch a glimpse of the woman presumed to be Zhou Yu. It had felt much like the first time I laid eyes on Diaochan, so I had hurriedly torn my gaze away — that was all. Diaochan I could manage these days, but Zhou Yu's beauty ran on an entirely different axis, and I suspected it would take some time to grow accustomed to. If Diaochan's allure was womanly grace, what should I call Zhou Yu's? Boyish charm, perhaps. Put her in a tailored suit, and I had a feeling it would suit her devastatingly well. In the original history she had been hailed outright as the 'Meizhou Lang' — the Beautiful Zhou Lang — so reborn as a woman, the destructive power was truly staggering.
...Wait, how did I drift all the way here?
Ah, right — I started thinking about Liu Biao and wandered this far.
Stream of consciousness is a genuinely frightening thing.
Reining my thoughts back in, I opened my mouth again.
"Jia Xu."
"You called."
Having called her name, I put a single question to her.
"Do you truly think Liu Biao will surrender quietly?"
...
After a moment's deliberation over something, Jia Xu answered slowly.
"I cannot swear to it... but as I told you before, Liu Biao is a man ill-suited to a chaotic age."
"I see."
I accepted it calmly. I had extended him the courtesy of a little time, so Liu Biao would surely send his reply before long.
And if he did not surrender...
There would be losses, some — but I would have no choice but to lead an army against him.
I had opened the road to survival, plain and clear. Whether he walked it or not rested in Liu Biao's own hands.