Liu Biao (4)
When Liu Biao refused the offer to surrender, the Grand General set about readying his army as though he had been waiting for precisely that.
The Grand General's forces began their march preparations with the same speed they had shown when they swooped down on Nanyang Commandery back in the days of Yuan Shu's rule — and Liu Biao, who had kept his eyes fixed on the Grand General's every movement, dispatched envoys the instant he caught wind of it.
Yuan Shao of Jizhou. Cao Cao of Yanzhou. Zhang Lu of Hanzhong. Liu Yan of Yi Province.
To every power he judged to lie within any reach of the Grand General, Liu Biao sent envoys — and gathered all of Jing Province's soldiers and supplies into Xiangyang Castle.
With the provisions of every commandery and county pooled in a single place, Xiangyang now stood stocked with grain enough to feed every soldier in Jing Province his fill and still have mountains left over.
Not long after Liu Biao completed his preparations for a siege, the Grand General — who, like him, had finished every last arrangement — marched out from Nanyang Commandery.
The vanguard under Sun Ce took to their ships and sailed down the river, while the main host under the Grand General's personal command advanced overland.
As the main force pushed along the land route, the Grand General stationed escort detachments at every major supply line. Thus the army crept forward, securing its lines of communication step by step — a disposition made in anticipation of attacks on the transport columns, and one that carried a second message as well: however long the taking of Xiangyang Castle might prove, he did not care in the slightest.
Sun Ce's force, which reached the vicinity of Xiangyang Castle first by water, proved itself every bit as formidable as its commander's father — the man they called the Tiger of Jiangdong.
He brought the Jingzhou magnates who had not yet made it into Xiangyang over to surrender, held his troops under iron discipline, and moved carefully so that the populace's sentiment would not sour once the castle fell.
A son of Jiangdong through and through, it seemed: though Sun Ce had seldom campaigned at his father's side, he directed the naval forces with striking fluency.
With Sun Ce leading the army at the fore and Zhou Yu lending him her brilliance, Liu Biao's power base around Xiangyang was swept away without a trace and passed into the Grand General's grasp.
A fortress blessed by nature itself — a great mountain looming at its back, a fierce current rushing before its walls.
Xiangyang Castle, which had held the Song dynasty safe against the Mongol Empire for five years, now stood across Jeong Reung's path.
“……”
Chenliu Commandery, Yanzhou.
Cao Cao, her silver hair grown long to her waist, held a bamboo slip in hand and stared at it as though she would bore straight through it.
"Unchanged as ever."
After studying the slip for a long moment, Cao Cao gave a little laugh.
Written on it was the justification for attacking Liu Biao, and it ran, in full:
Liu Biao has arrayed himself in the Emperor's own vestments, been attended at his meals as an emperor is attended, and offered sacrifices that none but the Emperor may offer — flaunting his ambition and defiling the Imperial House!
Not content with wielding power for private ends, he has pleaded illness to refuse even the summons of the court. If this is not treason, then what is!
Therefore, as a subject of the Han Imperial House, I hereby proclaim the punishment of this traitor. Let any who dare obstruct this campaign take heed — they shall not preserve their own lives!
Jeong Reung had explained exactly why he was attacking Liu Biao by picking apart everything the man had done up to now.
He had even reached for a register of speech he did not ordinarily use, apparently striving to commit the words to bamboo with all the dignity he could muster — and to Cao Cao's eyes, the result was nothing short of adorable.
"So what will you do now?"
"Hmm... what indeed shall I do?"
It was Xiahou Dun, attending her close at hand, who asked — and Cao Cao who answered, in a playful lilt.
Hearing in that playfulness that some decision had already been reached, Xiahou Dun heaved a sigh.
"...I can guess well enough, so how about you just give me your orders and be done with it?"
At the jab, Cao Cao asked back in a brusque tone:
"Must you suck all the fun out of everything?"
"You've had me putting up with it since we were children. What more could you possibly want?"
said Xiahou Dun, recalling all the times Cao Cao had teased her in the old days.
She pretended otherwise, but in truth she had been keeping score all along.
Catching the sharp glint in Xiahou Dun's eyes, Cao Cao gave up on further teasing and spoke.
"Yuanrang."
"What."
"Take Miaocai — Xiahou Yuan — and lead the army to stand by at Weishi County."
"Weishi County?"
Weishi sat at the very edge of Yanzhou, with Ye Province practically at its doorstep. Recalling that any march on Jing Province would have to pass through Ye Province, Xiahou Dun asked with a puzzled look:
"Don't tell me you actually mean to fight?"
"Now, now. What sort of talk is that?"
Cao Cao said, in a tone that dismissed the very notion.
"Whatever else may be said of it, Liu Biao of Jing Province and I are on friendly terms, are we not?"
"Sure. And what's that got to do with anything?"
"When a friendly power falls into danger, feigning ignorance of it is just the sort of thing that can get you denounced for lacking good faith."
Not that she might be denounced — she absolutely would be. The blockheaded old fogies of this world held everyone to a ferociously strict standard on precisely such matters.
Cao Cao went on in an even voice.
"At the very least, I ought to make a show of helping, no?"
"...So in the end it's a farce — covering everyone's eyes and calling it aid."
People were no fools; they would hardly fail to notice that Cao Cao intended to do no more than pretend to send reinforcements.
To Xiahou Dun's question, Cao Cao answered:
"Hm? Whatever do you mean?"
"...?"
"I gave my very utmost to help, and this is my thanks. Truly, a grievous injustice."
So saying, Cao Cao smiled with practiced innocence.
"Which means anyone who slanders a woman so devoted as I can only be presumed to harbor ill intent."
"...Right. Of course you will."
And there she goes again, sniffing out yet another pretext to turn some noble house upside down.
Word was that the physiognomist Xu Shao had taken one look at her friend and pronounced her a cunning hero. Clever, she certainly was.
Perhaps I should get a reading of my own someday, when the chance offers.
Xiahou Dun shook her head and stepped outside to carry out Cao Cao's orders.
Watching her go, Cao Cao let her thoughts drift. Liu Biao had answered the Grand General's justification like so:
You, who toy with the Imperial House as it pleases you — are you not the true traitor who defiles the throne!
All under heaven knows full well that you wield power no differently from Dong Zhuo!
If you are determined to attack Jing Province all the same, then know that I shall not sit idle and be devoured. Be prepared!
Jeong Reung had declared Liu Biao a traitor for refusing the Emperor's summons; Liu Biao, in turn, declared Jeong Reung the true traitor, for kneading the Imperial House like dough to suit his own will.
An age of chaos. Because this was an era in which the central government had lost its grip upon the provinces, such a justification could be raised at all.
That the Grand General now held the politics of Luoyang in his fist was simple fact; there was no denying it.
The thought of him wrung a smirk from Cao Cao.
Liu Biao's argument amounted to handing every other power in the land a pretext to attack the Grand General as well. March on him crying that you would wrest the Emperor from his clutches, and few would cry shame.
Liu Biao's little proclamation was, at bottom, a nudge telling herself and Benchu that they need not mind the eyes of the world — that they should commit their armies.
But what was she to do? She had no intention whatsoever of stabbing the Grand General in the back.
Cao Cao let her gaze slide to the bamboo slip sprawled across the floor — the letter Liu Biao's envoy had delivered, the one she had pretended to skim before flinging it away.
Its gist, as she recalled, was that the hour was at hand and she should march her army posthaste.
Liu Biao had gone to the trouble of remembering his friendly powers, had even prepared a justification for attacking the Grand General on their behalf — and now every last bit of it had come to nothing.
"Truly a pity."
Murmuring the hollow words, Cao Cao pictured Jeong Reung at this very moment leading his army — no doubt heaving sigh upon sigh, cursing Liu Biao for turning his work into such a chore.
She didn't need to see it to know.
Wasn't that simply adorable?
Had Xiahou Dun heard it, she would have concluded that love had well and truly sealed her lady's eyes shut.
That aside, though...
With the thought, Cao Cao turned her head — toward the north, where Jizhou lay.
Gazing that way, she murmured:
"I do wonder what decision Benchu will make."
Judged by appearances alone, Yuan Shao's face was the very portrait of composure — but Cao Cao knew full well the monstrous appetite that slumbered beneath it.
Speak of hunger for power, and that woman came to mind before anyone else. Would she take up Liu Biao's offer and move to check the Grand General? Or would she lean on Gongsun Zan as her excuse, send no relief, and simply watch how the board unfolded?
If the former, her rivals would thin; if the latter, they would thicken.
Benchu, too, must surely owe the Grand General a debt of her own.
Just as he had helped her bring her own family out safely, Yuan Shao too had once received the Grand General's aid where her kin were concerned: he had left her clan, then residing in Luoyang, without a single scratch, and sent them home whole.
What words the Grand General had spoken to the Yuan clan as he saw them off, Cao Cao did not know — but from that day forward, the clan cast Yuan Shu aside and began to back Benchu.
Cao Cao asked silently:
Yuan Benchu — have you changed since then? Or do you still chase power, as you always have?
It mattered not to Cao Cao which way Yuan Shao chose.
Whether her rivals multiplied or dwindled, either outcome redounded to her benefit and no one else's.
Was love not a thing to be seized?
For a woman whose ambition was to be loved more than the primary wife herself, one more rival added to the tally was hardly worth a thought.