Shuchun (1)
A fair stretch of time had passed since I captured Yuan Shu and seized Shuchun.
The territory had more or less settled down, and Cao Cao — who had marched off at the head of her troops to patrol the Shuchun region under the pretext of restoring public order — had finally returned as well.
“So you've finally made your decision, I see.”
That was what she said the moment she returned, her gaze sweeping over the people around me.
“Two at once, was it? My, what daring tastes you have.”
…….
How on earth did she know that?
Cao Cao had seen straight through the fact that I'd taken Seo Yeo and Lü Bu into my bed on the very same night.
I scrambled to open my mouth.
“...What are you going on about all of a sudden?”
“Hm? Ah — ah. Do you mean it's a touch embarrassing to discuss such things out in the open?”
…….
And there she goes, reading into it again.
When I could only stare at her, at a loss for words, Cao Cao flashed her usual mischievous grin.
“In that case, we shall have a nice, leisurely talk about it later.”
As though her business here were concluded, she brushed past my side and dropped her voice to a whisper.
“You simply must tell me how you managed to fell your bodyguard general and that Matchless Under Heaven in bed.”
…….
“I'll send someone along later.”
With that, Cao Cao breezed on as though nothing had happened and slipped away.
For a long moment, I watched her retreating back.
She was a woman like a rugby ball — you could never guess where she'd bounce next. No, she was so wildly unpredictable that comparing her to a rugby ball felt almost insulting to the ball.
I prided myself on having met all manner of people in my time, yet never before had I encountered a woman so utterly one of a kind.
“Honestly unbelievable.”
I muttered the words under my breath and turned toward Seo Yeo.
“It's nearly time. Let's get going.”
…….
“...Seo Yeo?”
A puzzled sound escaped me as I looked at her.
Is this a woman or a statue?
Seo Yeo wore the expression of someone whose most closely guarded secret — a secret no one was ever meant to learn — had just been dragged into the light.
“Hmm...”
I studied her, frozen stiff in her seat, and felt utterly at a loss.
Then, at last, her lips parted.
“Master.”
“Hm?”
“...I-if, by some chance... something should go wrong...”
Wait. That was what she'd been worried about?
Seo Yeo had been fretting that the night of passion she'd shared with me might bring some terrible calamity down upon my head.
You could call it the sight of a woman once blinded by love belatedly coming to her senses.
It was a rare glimpse of the human side of Seo Yeo, who until now had shown me nothing but a robot's face.
I opened my mouth, letting the mischief into my voice.
“So you threw yourself at me because you wanted it — and now that it's actually done, you're having second thoughts?”
…….
“Don't worry.”
I chuckled and reached out, ruffling her hair with slow, easy strokes.
“It was a decision I'd have to make someday, one way or another.”
If anything, I was the grateful one.
Without Seo Yeo's headlong offensive, I'd probably still be agonizing over it to this day.
“This is mine to take responsibility for. I might as well accept it with grace.”
“...Master.”
After that night, a conviction I couldn't quite explain had taken root in me — the sense that as long as things stayed at this level, everything would somehow work itself out.
Whether Seo Yeo and Lü Bu were simply weak, or whether I was abnormally strong, I couldn't say.
Just look at her even now: since that night, Seo Yeo had quietly abandoned every covert attempt at seduction and thrown herself into nothing but her duties, as if every stray thought she'd been nursing inside her had simply evaporated.
And yet she jolted and flinched each time our bodies happened to brush, which was, frankly, adorable.
That said, whatever went on around her, she still responded to one thing alone — anything that involved me.
...Even that was so very like Seo Yeo.
And what of Lü Bu, absent from this room?
Lü Bu was a girl whose temper grew more savage in direct proportion to the hours I spent nowhere near her.
I'd thought this before, and the comparison still held: she was like a junkie wracked with withdrawal symptoms.
But since that night, her temperament had mellowed on the whole.
Perhaps because a weight had been lifted from her heart and left her room to breathe, she now let slide things that would once have sent her into a rage.
The soldiers went wide-eyed, wondering what on earth had gotten into her, and even the officers closest to Lü Bu could sense something was off.
True, the junkie streak — growing ever more high-strung the longer I stayed away — hadn't vanished entirely, but wasn't that just another of Lü Bu's charms?
I said, half in jest:
“Even if something does happen, you'll be there to save me. That's what I'm counting on.”
“...Yes.”
Something in my words seemed to reach her; Seo Yeo answered in a resolute voice.
“If your worries are settled, let's go. We have a meeting to attend.”
In a sense, this would be the last piece of business I conducted in Shuchun.
Gangdong, like Xiliang, lay far too distant for a light trip there and back.
This was not an age where cars and trains came rolling along, so distance pressed down on everything like a physical weight.
With Seo Yeo's Ochyma or Lü Bu's Red Hare, there would be no cause for worry — but since when were horses like those ever common?
As for the horse I rode day to day, I honestly couldn't say; I'd never once pushed it into a true gallop.
Judging by the affair in Jing Province, it was certainly a clever creature.
It stood about as large as Seo Yeo's Ochyma beside me now, so I could tell it had eaten well, grown well, and come from excellent stock.
If my horse proved to be a thousand-li steed in its own right, it would be perfect for making surprise inspection tours.
I'd keep my health up in the saddle while catching corruption red-handed — two birds with one stone, no?
...Though given how much I preferred being at home, I doubted the habit would last long.
In any case, once this meeting concluded, I would be returning to Luoyang before long.
So what was on the agenda?
A council to decide our course of action going forward — and whom to appoint as Grand Administrator to govern Shuchun.
The government office of Shuchun. Even granting that it housed the machinery of state, the building was needlessly colossal — every line of it a monument to Yuan Shu's hunger for display — and inside, the meeting was in full swing.
“With winter soon upon us, I submit that it would be most judicious to devote our strength to internal stability and prepare for the year to come.”
“It's not as if we have any reason to start a war this very moment, so taking things slowly is the right call.”
The first to speak were the fledgling strategists of our faction — Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi.
Just as the pair of them said, there was no reason to strain ourselves expanding our territory while shouldering winter's wretched conditions.
How many armies in this world could fight at full strength in an environment where flesh peeled away and bones froze stiff?
Waging war while enduring that kind of monstrous cold was, quite literally, a guaranteed path to staggering losses.
Why else would General Winter have earned himself a place in the annals of military history?
It was Russia's pitiless cold that destroyed Napoleon's French army, and Russia's pitiless cold again that drove out the Axis powers in the Second World War.
Napoleon and the Axis alike crumbled for good after those campaigns — proof enough of just how terrifying the cold could be.
Comparing Russia to China might be a bit of a stretch, but whether it's forty below or twenty below, either is more than cold enough to freeze a man dead.
Human beings are, after all, creatures exquisitely sensitive to temperature.
In a way, the fledgling strategists had simply pointed out the most obvious factor of all, and everyone around the table nodded along in agreement.
I opened my mouth and threw out the next question.
“In that case, what should our policy be for this place — Shuchun itself?”
“...W-wouldn't it be best to make it our b-beachhead for pacifying Gangdong...?”
The one to answer my question was Pang Tong.
I turned my head. “Beachhead?”
“Y-yes...”
“Why do you think so?”
“Th-that's... uhhh...”
Pang Tong's lips flapped wordlessly; she seemed to have plenty to say.
Apparently she had thought a great deal but prepared to explain none of it.
Pang Tong, still a timid girl, ducked behind the strategist nearest her, and that strategist laid out what Pang Tong was trying to say in crisp, orderly logic.
“Liu Yao, Inspector of Yangzhou; Wang Lang, Grand Administrator of Kuaiji; Sheng Xian, Grand Administrator of Wu Commandery — and their ilk.”
…….
“They are said to make a shield of the Yangtze and, on occasion, even band together in alliance to bar outside powers from forcing their way in.”
These Liu clansmen really do turn up everywhere, don't they?
Keep this up and I might actually grow fond of them.
“And with the Shanyue Tribe thrown in as yet another complication, a clash will likely be unavoidable.”
Jia Xu regarded me with those blue eyes that radiated cool composure.
“In other words, we'll have to cross the Yangtze — just as Yuan Shu attempted.”
“That is correct.”
As I listened to Jia Xu's explanation, a question suddenly occurred to me, and I spoke up.
“Who governs Lujiang at present?”
“Lujiang... did you say?”
“Yes.”
Thinking of the powerful clan that had once answered my invitation, I'd assumed the seat would be sitting empty by now.
Jia Xu sank into brief thought, then answered in an even voice.
“A man named Yan Baihu has proclaimed himself the Virtuous King of Eastern Wu and seized the place, I'm told.”
……?
Why on earth does that name come up here?
My reaction was pure bewilderment, and those around me were no different.
“King of Virtue... as in, a king of virtuous repute...?”
Zhuge Liang, White Feather Fan in hand, wore the same slack-jawed look I did, while Sima Yi snorted and twisted the knife.
“He seizes a single commandery and crowns himself king... Give him two, and I suppose he'll be usurping the imperial throne next.”
I nodded, picturing the man.
Even here, Yan Baihu was quite the character.