Dong Zhuo (4)
Dong Zhuo belatedly realized that his words had made him far too many enemies — and to placate them all, he reached for a single policy of appeasement: he coerced the Emperor into issuing an imperial edict of very particular contents.
And what did that edict say? It flung the title of Grand Administrator — the office presiding over each regional commandery — out to the four winds.
Dong Zhuo handed governorships to the realm's warlords as if to say, let us be friends now — and not one of them took the gesture to heart. Quite the opposite: his enemies used those very posts to conscript soldiers and forge an anti-Dong Zhuo coalition.
But the coalition fizzled into nothing, and the warlords across the land, robbed of their common foe, began at last to bare their ambitions to the world…
That was precisely what the original history called the age of Warlords Carving Up the Realm.
"Seriously, Dong Zhuo, you bastard."
If he had to run, he could at least have run with a little grace — but no, right before fleeing to Chang'an, he sprayed an absolutely enormous pile of shit in every direction and bolted.
And he'd pulled it off at the exact moment our battle was about to begin, so I couldn't so much as react.
Lü Bu, apparently remembering how her own language had been called out before, shot me a sideways glance and said, "You're supposed to use pretty words, you know."
"…Dong Zhuo. That son of a bitch I could chew up raw and still not feel satisfied."
"……And I'm supposed to call that pretty words?"
Well — no actual profanity, so it was fine. I handed the imperial edict I'd been holding back to Yuan Shao at my side.
Yuan Shao's expression turned uneasy. "Do you have some inkling now of what is about to befall the realm?"
"Warlords of every ambition will rise in every corner of the land, and as they war upon one another, the realm will sink into even deeper chaos."
No one would heed the central government's authority any longer. Even if we sent new men now to replace the governors, they would only end up imprisoned or killed. With the central armies that might have restrained them all gone, the Han Dynasty had become a tiger with every tooth pulled — an empire with no power left at all.
"And what will you do now, General?"
At my question, Yuan Shao gave an unreadable smile, oddly drained of strength. "In an age like this, one who does not move swiftly is simply weeded out… I intend to go north to Jizhou, where many powerful clans support me, and build a strength of my own."
"Jizhou, hm. Right next door to Bing Province, isn't it? I imagine we'll be seeing each other again before long."
When I teased her lightly, Yuan Shao's face darkened.
"…Hold on, why are you making that face?"
"Because neither of us can say what we will be to one another when next we meet."
She had a point. An age of chaos where yesterday's enemy could become today's ally, and yesterday's ally today's enemy — that was precisely what made an era a calamitous one.
I asked, only half in jest. "I hardly dare ask this, General… but you aren't planning to stab me in the back someday, are you?"
Yuan Shao hastily waved her hands. "N-no, of course not! How could I ever do such a thing! It is only that I find myself worried…"
"Haha. Then there is no need to worry."
I chuckled briefly and went on. "So long as you govern for the sake of the people, I shall never count you my enemy."
"……"
"And I trust that you — you, who prize honor above all else — would never do such a thing in the first place."
"…Yes."
And what if we left Yuan Shao to her own devices and she grew too powerful? Well, what of it? Unless Yuan Shao turned out rotten at the core, the answer was simple: she would only ever have to fall in under me. I had no particular hunger to become Emperor, nor any longing to sit upon some throne the whole world gazed up at.
Recalling what sort of person Yuan Shao had been in the original Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I extended my hand to her. "I ask only one thing: never let power and glory blind your eyes."
"…I shall keep those words close."
Yuan Shao reached out in turn and clasped my hand. "I look forward to what lies ahead."
"As do I."
After finishing my talk with Yuan Shao, I stepped outside — and spotted a familiar figure nearby.
Someone pressed flat against the very building where Yuan Shao and I had just been talking.
Looking utterly pathetic, for all the world like an eavesdropper caught in the act, she earned nothing from me but exasperation. "What are you doing over there?"
"Eavesdropping."
"……"
A woman who was candid to the point of derangement. Cao Cao wore not a shred of shame, as if she had every right to be proud, and it left me speechless.
"Aren't you embarrassed?"
At my question, Cao Cao straightened her posture and opened her mouth. "I was merely curious. My dear friend entered a building alone with a man, after all."
"Lü Bu and Seo Yeo were with her too, no?"
"A sworn guard counts as part of one's own body."
Her mental wiring really had come loose somewhere. This girl was supposed to be the protagonist of the Three Kingdoms…?
I let out a sigh. "So? What were your impressions?"
"Only that I was disappointed it was not a secret tryst between a man and a woman."
"……"
When I failed to produce a single word, Seo Yeo spoke up. "My lord. I believe it would be wisest not to go near her."
"…Seconded. Let's hurry back."
Lü Bu agreed with Seo Yeo and looped her arm through mine, tugging me away. I shook my head and asked Cao Cao, "And where are you headed?"
"Me?"
Cao Cao considered a moment, then grinned. "I intend to settle in Yanzhou."
"…Yanzhou? There won't be a single opening left to wedge into there."
Chenliu — the town that could be called Cao Cao's early stronghold in the original history — sat in Yanzhou. But now, barely any time having passed since the Ten Attendants' Rebellion, every seat there would surely already be taken…
"I made some inquiries of my own. Word is, Yellow Turban remnants are squatting in Yanzhou."
"……"
"And by all accounts their numbers are far from small. In which case, would not the subjugation of those bandits open up any number of vacancies?"
Right. In the original history, while crushing the Yellow Turbans who had taken root in Yanzhou, the province's Inspector, Liu Dai, met his death. If even the Inspector himself perished, what chance did the offices beneath him have? Even in the original history, Cao Cao drove a keen wedge into exactly that crack and made Yanzhou her own.
"When the time comes, I intend to use my family's assets to raise a volunteer army."
"Now that you mention it, your family's supposed to be fabulously rich, aren't they?"
"Heh heh. My grandfather was a man of exceptional talent, you see."
An incident everyone in the know knew about. How else could Cao Cao have beaten a relative of the Ten Attendants — the true power behind the state in those days — to death and walked away unscathed? It was all thanks to her grandfather, Cao Teng.
"Come to think of it, I hear Bing Province is dreadfully poor."
"Oh, it is."
It was the kind of land that could never grow rich no matter how it longed to be. A wretched, godforsaken dungheap of a place, that's what it was.
"Hm. Let me think… Perhaps you would like me to lend you some money?"
"Where did that come from?"
I'd have accepted gratefully if she offered, mind you — but I hadn't the faintest idea when I could ever pay it back. Just then, Cao Cao fixed me with eyes that sent a chill crawling up my spine.
"And if repaying in coin proves difficult… well, there are other ways."
"…I'll have to decline."
Even as I said it, her gaze swept down my body in one slow, appraising glide — for all the world a slaver pricing a debtor for the block — so I refused on the spot.
Reading the look in my eyes, Cao Cao said, "Hm. I haven't the faintest idea what you are imagining, but I can promise you it is not that."
"You'd sell me straight off as a slave the moment I defaulted, wouldn't you? I see right through you."
"…Just what do you take me for?"
Cao Cao shot me a look of pure incredulity. Regardless, I held out my hand to her, exactly as I had with Yuan Shao.
"Hm? And what is this meant to mean?"
"Yanzhou makes you my neighbor — same as Yuan Shao."
With Dong Zhuo driven out and Luoyang in my grasp, I now held a foothold in Sili as well. And right beside Sili lay Yanzhou.
"Just… don't go massacring innocent civilians, all right?"
"…I am not a woman so devoid of blood or tears."
Sure you aren't. If history ran its course, she would absolutely swing the butcher's blade across Xuzhou. Sleep or waking, Cao Cao cherished her father Cao Song, who cherished her just as dearly in return — so if that incident ever came to pass, she would doubtless lose herself entirely to rage. And if it could be stopped, then it had to be stopped.
"Then — I'm counting on you from here on."
At that, Cao Cao said nothing at all, only boring her gaze into my outstretched hand.
"…Hm. Am I meant to read this as two-timing?"
"Hey."
"Haha! A jest, merely a jest. Likewise — I look forward to it."
And Cao Cao took my offered hand.
Having been wretchedly routed by Lord Jeong Reung and slunk into Chang'an at the head of a mere handful of troops, Dong Zhuo sealed himself inside the palace and did nothing but drink.
"More. Bring me more."
"…My lord."
"Did I not command you to bring more—?!"
KRA-KOOM!
The instant the frenzied Dong Zhuo hurled his drinking table to the floor, yet another table was smashed to splinters.
Li Ru offered not a word of protest. He merely flicked a glance at a servant, ordering a fresh table and more wine brought in.
Dong Zhuo — drinking straight from the jug now, without even troubling to pour — muttered, sunk deep in gloom. "The chance to grasp everything was close enough to touch."
"……"
"Then what in blazes am I supposed to call this sorry spectacle?"
Dong Zhuo — the same man who had swaggered with unshaken confidence even in flight after his defeat at Zhang Jue's hands — was showing weakness for the very first time.
"Not only the loyal soldiers who stood beside me since the lean years — even Hua Xiong lies dead."
"……"
"Li Ru. Is there anything at all left to me now?"
Though there had been times the man had frightened him, tears gathered at the corners of Li Ru's eyes — for his service to Dong Zhuo had always been sincere.
Just then, a strategist entered Dong Zhuo's chamber and bowed with low, practiced courtesy. Dong Zhuo turned his gaze upon the newcomer.
"Who are you?"
"Li Su, at your service, my lord."
"Li Su? An unfamiliar name."
At Dong Zhuo's puzzled frown, Li Su pressed on. "My lord. What would you say if the Peerless Under Heaven herself were to follow you?"
"…Speak. Every detail."
Dong Zhuo had witnessed Lü Bu's martial might with his own eyes, and he coveted that skill above all things on earth — all the more so now, stripped of most of his generals and Hua Xiong besides. If the Peerless Under Heaven fell into my hands, nothing would stand between me and Luoyang. I would march back and take everything.
"I was born in the same hometown as Lü Bu, and so I know her temperament well. From childhood, she scorned all people and clung to nothing but wealth."
"And so?"
"Send treasures opulent enough to move even that woman, and I am quite certain her heart can be turned."
"But surely Lü Bu is already showered with riches enough where she serves?"
Would mere trinkets ever induce Lü Bu to shoulder the infamy of betrayal and defect to his side?
Li Su answered Dong Zhuo's doubt with a slick, knowing grin. "I hear, my lord, that you have of late acquired a famed steed — one said to run a thousand li in a single day."
"…Hm. That much is true."
Red Hare — a coat like molten copper, a mane the color of fresh blood. Any general who lived in the saddle would covet that horse above all others, and yet it carried one fatal defect: its temper was so vicious that not a single living soul had ever managed to mount it.
A beast so wretched in disposition it refused even its own master its back. But if that white elephant could buy Lü Bu's interest, the trade would leave Dong Zhuo handsomely ahead. Ordinary horses could never endure her battles — she had burned through mount after mount — so this one would surely win her favor.
Dong Zhuo lifted his head and studied the man before him. "You are confident, then?"
"Absolutely, my lord."
Li Su bowed deeply in reply. Dong Zhuo raised the wine jug to his lips, drank deep, and spoke.
"Then go. Show me."