Dong Zhuo (1)
"So what's the plan now?"
"From here on, the moment we catch any of those Xiliang bastards doing their wicked deeds without a care in the world, we beat them half to death."
"I like that plan."
Having turned my back on Dong Zhuo and declared open hostility, I traded words with Lü Bu on the road back.
"Killing them risks handing him a pretext to kick up a fuss... but the worst of them, we kill anyway. The rest we turn into cripples—tastefully."
"Got it."
"Then we'll see what a royally pissed-off Dong Zhuo does about it."
To anyone wondering why I would deliberately poke a hornet's nest to bait him into moving—there was a reason.
Bing Province, its land ravaged by one war after another, was in no shape to feed itself, which meant we hadn't been able to haul much in the way of army rations on the march here.
In other words, once our supplies ran dry, we would have no choice but to turn back for Bing Province.
And buying grain with coin was out of the question—the price of provisions here was simply ruinous.
Is it a universal law, everywhere in the world, that prices run steepest near the capital? It was a truth I could have done without learning.
If we meant to settle this, we had to settle it fast.
Every day that passed, the odds tilted a little further against us.
Dong Zhuo was wracking his brains over the news of late.
Ever since that day, the man called Jeong Reung—hostility toward him worn openly on his sleeve—had been roaming the city meting out his own brand of law and order.
Judging criminals, tending to the wronged and the robbed, he was winning the hearts of the common folk one street at a time.
Whose backing a criminal might have mattered not one whit to him.
The Xiliang soldiers who had run wild through the city swaggering under Dong Zhuo's name were no exception.
What truly made his blood boil was that, for Xiliang soldiers alone, this Jeong Reung would now and then kill a man outright and then plead ignorance.
Even when Dong Zhuo seized on it as pretext to press the matter, the man would claim his memory failed him and brush the whole affair aside without a copper in compensation—enough to drive Dong Zhuo clean up the wall.
"My lord. You must not waver. That man is carrying on like this with every intention of dragging you into a fight."
Li Ru, standing at Dong Zhuo's side, spoke up.
BANG!
Dong Zhuo ground his teeth and smashed his fist down on the table.
"My men outnumber his and have far more battle experience under their belts! Why in the world must I not fight?!"
"It is not a matter to be taken lightly. The soldiers this Jeong Reung leads are, like your own, elite troops forged through endless war against every tribe on the frontier."
If Dong Zhuo in Xiliang had spent his years at war with the Qiang, then Jeong Reung in Bing Province had stood against the Wuhuan, the Xiongnu, and the Xianbei.
Li Ru continued in a voice of perfect calm.
"Your army would no doubt carry the day. Yet against the Bing Province army led by Lü Bu, the Peerless Under Heaven, our own men would surely bleed deeply."
"Right. Lü Bu... that bitch was there too."
Even in Xiliang, half the world away from Bing Province, Lü Bu's name carried tremendous weight.
When the Qiang heard the Xiliang cavalry was coming, they fled in terror; when the Wuhuan, the Xiongnu, and the Xianbei heard that a single woman—Lü Bu alone—was coming, they fled as though their heels were on fire.
Yes. Foreign tribes turned tail and ran from one solitary human being.
"Should your soldiers bleed so, the others circling for their chance will bare their fangs at us without hesitation."
"Yes. Say no more—I take your meaning."
Li Ru fell silent and bowed with careful courtesy.
Dong Zhuo let out a long breath and sank deep into his chair.
"Then what in the world am I to do?"
"Clashing with him head-on would be the worst of all choices. I have made some inquiries, and the Bing Province army's provisions are hanging by a thread."
"Short on food, you say?"
"Yes. Given the nature of Bing Province, they can scarcely have carried abundant stores this far."
Mountains crowded out the arable land and made farming a bitter struggle. The population was too thin even to till the little field they had. And whatever food they bled and sweated to raise was hauled off by raiding tribes. A province crushed beneath this triple curse had never once in its history known full granaries.
"For the time being, restrain your soldiers and bar the gates fast. Stall him for even a week, and the Bing Province army, its grain spent, will have no choice but to march home."
Dong Zhuo nodded at Li Ru's counsel.
"Yes. That is what I shall do. Without you, this would surely have gone ill."
"You honor me far beyond my deserving."
"Hm... now we have a problem."
Contrary to my expectation that he would lose his temper and come charging out at any moment, Dong Zhuo had instead reined in his soldiers and bolted his gates.
A falling crime rate was all well and good, but the trouble was that I could no longer get a rise out of the man.
"Zhang Liao. How much grain do we have left?"
"Setting aside what we'll need to eat on the march back to Bing Province? No more than three days' worth."
"Hmmm..."
We could hardly starve our own soldiers, so in three days we would have no choice but to turn back.
But if we let this moment slip by, our one chance to stop Dong Zhuo's outrages before they ever began would vanish for good...
"These gutless bastards. I call for one fight and they won't even give me the time of day."
As I crossed my arms and sank into thought, Lü Bu at my side spat out a curse.
I turned my gaze on her.
"Watch your mouth. Nice words."
"...Those gutless... fellows?"
"Yes."
"..."
When I nodded in satisfaction, Lü Bu stared back at me like I'd lost my mind.
It was then that Zhang Liao addressed me.
"Doesn't my lord slip out a curse now and then himself?"
"...I'm doing my very best to hold it in."
"..."
Feeling the weight of Zhang Liao's and Lü Bu's stares, I turned my head slightly.
My eyes met Seo Yeo's, and she gave a small nod.
"In my eyes, my lord looks splendid even when he curses."
"That venomous witch. Even now she's angling for points."
Lü Bu wore an expression of utter disbelief.
"You two get along nicely, don't you."
"Huh?"
It was then that a voice I had never heard before drifted over from behind me.
"Is this the first time you've traded words so merrily?"
A silver-haired girl, her straight locks long enough to sweep the ground.
"Jeong Hwahyeon."
It was her—the girl who had pierced me through with silver eyes the very shade of her hair, back in the days when she stood opposed to Dong Zhuo.
"...And who might you be?"
She had been nagging at the back of my mind anyway, so I asked her name, intending to settle the matter here and now.
At my question, the girl's face fell into a look of gentle disappointment.
"After I chased you all over Julu in those days, too. I am a little wounded."
"...Huh?"
No way.
"Then commit it to memory from this day forth."
The girl cleared her throat with great ceremony.
"..."
"Let us get along splendidly, you and I, from here on."
The protagonist of Romance of the Three Kingdoms had finally appeared before me.
Having given her name, Cao Cao told me her business.
"You say someone wishes to meet with me?"
"Yes. When you learn who it is, you will surely be aston— no. No, I suppose you won't."
Cao Cao, halfway through her sentence, conceded the point to herself out of nowhere and nodded.
"After all, you already know full well who is calling for you."
"..."
I really don't, though.
What on earth was she imagining?
Cao Cao had taken an uncanny, almost unnatural interest in me, who had done absolutely nothing to earn it.
Which was exactly what made her so unnerving.
Zhang Jue had never frightened me—so why did this woman?
Was it simply the weight of the name Cao Cao?
"It seems you and Dong Zhuo will be crossing blades on a grand scale before long."
I shrugged at her observation.
"That's exactly what I'm hoping for."
"You feel no fear?"
"Why would I? I'm going to win."
We were, admittedly, badly outnumbered.
But just as Dong Zhuo had been routed and sent fleeing by Zhang Jue during the Yellow Turban Rebellion, I too was confident I could hunt him back to Xiliang.
"Dong Zhuo must sense he would lose as well—why else bar his gates and refuse every challenge?"
"..."
"Let him so much as show his face. I'll kick that fat ass of his clean over the walls."
Cao Cao, listening, allowed herself a faint smile.
"You truly are a fascinating creature."
"You don't have to be."
"All the more fascinating, then."
Has she actually lost her mind?
Is she one of those? The kind who only burns hotter the more you shove her away?
I walked a short way in Cao Cao's wake until she came to a halt before a perfectly ordinary house, indistinguishable from any other on the street.
"A shame, but here we are already. You will have guessed—the master of this house is the one who calls for you."
"I hadn't guessed at all."
"Pushing me away this late in the game will avail you nothing."
This woman is going to be the death of me.
"...She's not quite right in the head, is she?"
"I think so too."
I nodded along with Lü Bu, who had followed me here.
Zhang Liao had not come along; she had turned back to the army camp to see to the soldiers.
Seo Yeo, naturally, was shadowing me as always.
Cao Cao, mercifully blind to my inner thoughts, simply flashed a smile, pushed open the door, and stepped inside.
"Benchu. I've brought him."
"Please, come in."
The only Benchu I knew of was Yuan Shao.
Could it truly be her?
"I have been waiting for you."
Following Cao Cao into the room, I found a golden-haired woman receiving me with a deep, courteous bow.
"I am called Yuan Shao Benchu."
"Ah—yes. A pleasure to meet you."
It really was Yuan Shao.
I returned the bow as gracefully as I could manage, and beside me Cao Cao put on that wounded look yet again.
"Why is it you'll never speak formally to me?"
"Because you've been talking down to me since the moment we met."
"Hm. True enough, now that I think on it."
Cao Cao nodded, satisfied by my answer.
It felt like we were rehearsing some two-person comedy sketch.
"...Hehe. How amusing. To think you and Mengde would hit it off so well."
Yuan Shao, watching the whole scene, smiled faintly.
'Hit it off,' she says. Now that's going too far, even for a joke...
Cao Cao read my expression and spoke up in that same aggrieved tone.
"Being told you get along with me should be cause for joy, no? Why make such a face?"
"Think it through carefully."
"..."
Cao Cao chewed on my words in silence for a long moment before she finally opened her mouth.
"I know not, but—"
She really should have stopped talking.
Yuan Shao watched the two of us as though we were the finest entertainment she had seen in years.