Shuchun (2)
Having heard out the strategists, I summed up the meeting in a level voice.
"So, in short — devote ourselves to internal stability until winter passes, and make Shuchun our bridgehead for the push into Jiangdong?"
"That is correct."
Zhuge Liang, having answered my question, continued in a tone of impeccable courtesy.
"At present, every warlord under heaven is locked in struggle with an enemy of his own."
"......"
"In Yi Province, Liu Yan wars against Zhang Lu; in the Central Plains, Cao Cao against Tao Qian; in Hebei, Yuan Shao against Gongsun Zan. While such conflicts rage across the land, should we not be building up our strength?"
Listening to Zhuge Liang, one question occurred to me.
"Then when would be the right time to begin pacifying Jiangdong?"
"A year from now would be fine. Two years would be fine as well."
Zhuge Liang answered without a flicker of hesitation.
"If you cross the Yangtze early, Liu Yao's forces — worn down by their long war with Yuan Shu — will perish without even mounting a respectable resistance."
"...And if we cross late?"
"Then they will tear each other apart from within."
Zhuge Liang, lips hidden behind her white feather fan, gave a knowing smile.
"After all, is there not a certain someone who, with no grasp of his own station, has dared to style himself the Virtuous King of Eastern Wu?"
"......"
"He will almost certainly push deep into Jiangdong to seize Eastern Wu for himself, exactly as he has proclaimed."
I caught on to what Zhuge Liang was driving at and nodded slowly.
Lujiang Commandery, currently occupied by Yan Baihu, lay quite close to Jiujiang Commandery, where Shuchun County sat. The geography was strikingly similar as well — like Shuchun, Lujiang could serve as a bridgehead for crossing the Yangtze.
In the original history, the man would have raised his army in Wu Commandery, just across the Yangtze — so why had he surfaced in Lujiang? Had he judged that snatching up Lujiang, sitting there ownerless, was a far better bet than throwing himself at some city still garrisoned by its governor? ...So the man does have a brain after all.
Zhuge Liang's argument did not end there.
"Of course, if he were content to live out his days meek as a mouse in some forgotten corner of Jiangdong, he might never stir up internal strife at all..."
"And a man like that would simply accept the surrender we've offered him."
At that, Sima Yi cut in without warning.
"......"
Zhuge Liang fixed Sima Yi with an unreadable gaze for butting into her argument.
What on earth was that look supposed to be? Those expressionless eyes, impossible to fathom, carried some indescribable air about them.
But then, when had Sima Yi ever been an ordinary person? She gave a single derisive snort and pressed on with her explanation.
"If he's a fool blinded by his own power who insists on fighting to the last, he'll make trouble from within, no question. But if he's a mediocre sort content with whatever perch he's given, the odds are good he surrenders to us."
I nodded along, calm and unbothered.
At the Battle of Red Cliffs, when Cao Cao came marching south, had not the ministers of Wu urged Sun Quan to surrender? It was much the same logic. In the official histories, Lu Su and Zhou Yu — and in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, thanks to Zhuge Liang's dazzling rhetoric — reduced such counsel to foam, but the mere fact that it surfaced at all was what mattered.
The violet-haired strategist in her black uniform spoke up with perfect composure.
"Think about it. How do you suppose our power looks right now, through the eyes of those other warlords?"
"A colossal power?"
"......"
At my answer, Sima Yi heaved a long, deep sigh.
She always wore that brusque, clipped manner, but look closely beneath it and you would find a heart full of concern for me — knowing that, a fond smile crept across my face.
Sima Yi flinched at the sight of it.
"W-what's with that face all of a sudden?"
"Hm? What face?"
Feigning total ignorance of her reaction, I pressed on.
"Keep going. I'm curious."
"...Something's off about you."
Red to the ears, Sima Yi recovered her composure and shot me a sidelong glare.
Does she have any idea that every one of those little gestures of hers looks adorable to me? I pictured her leaping straight out of her seat if she ever found out, then waited for her answer.
Before long, Sima Yi spoke.
"It's a rather crude analogy, but yes."
"......"
"Not everyone in this world is as dim-witted as Liu Biao or Yuan Shu."
To Liu Biao, who had in a single stroke been demoted to Yuan Shu's peer, I offered my sincerest condolences. See? This is why you surrender when you're told to.
"And while we put off pacifying Jiangdong, do you think we'd simply sit on our hands?"
"Hm?"
"Give it two years, and either Yi Province or the Central Plains will already be in our grasp."
That was true enough.
Deliberately holding off on Jiangdong meant turning our gaze elsewhere, and given the sheer scale of our power, it would have been stranger if we couldn't take those places. The only reason I was watching and waiting was my worry that the cost might swell too great.
"And once that happens, our prestige will only grow stronger — and the minor powers who've spent all this time watching the winds will come flocking to surrender in the end."
Sima Yi declared this with total confidence, deftly shrugging off Zhuge Liang's glacial glare.
...The open bickering may be gone, but this invisible contest of wills is still going strong. It was like watching Lü Bu and Zhang Fei, who growled at each other at the slightest provocation.
"U-uuu..."
Pang Tong, terrified by the spectacle of her own peers, could only keep darting her eyes about.
So that's what a phoenix trembling between a dragon and a tiger looks like. The phoenix was hardly some beast that groveled before others — what had gotten into her?
Thinking I ought to take Pang Tong out for a nice walk later, I spoke up.
"Then the one who takes Shuchun must be someone adept at civil administration, yet capable of fighting a battle at a moment's notice."
"Yes."
While the three pint-sized strategists were each busy being themselves, it was Jia Xu who stepped forward and answered.
...Helping Pang Tong adjust to her new surroundings lately, too — somehow, she really was like a nanny. She had the look of a woman who would raise a child splendidly if you handed one over. So that was why Mother had taken such a shine to Jia Xu, praising her as so sharp and capable?
My thoughts having drifted for a moment, I pulled my attention back.
"And all the better if they know the lay of Jiangdong inside and out."
"Indeed."
Jia Xu, catching on to why I was saying this, assented in her level voice.
I turned my head toward those who had been holding their breath in the corner seats all this while.
"Sun Ce."
"...You called for me."
A woman of hard, striking features and straight auburn hair answered my summons.
Sun Ce knelt on one knee and saluted me with flawless decorum, but the moment I heard her voice, I knew instinctively. I couldn't have said exactly why — only that the woman before me was trembling, ever so slightly.
Even the three pint-sized strategists had gone rigid where they stood, all eyes on me. Fairly used to such scrutiny by now, I spoke in my usual tone.
"I mean to entrust Shuchun to you. What say you?"
"Even if it costs me my life, I will hold this place."
Isn't that resolve a touch excessive? Anyone watching would think I was shipping her off to some death ground.
Hoping to get her to loosen those shoulders, I opened my mouth.
"There's no need to go that far — just do your part, in moderation. Talent like yours is meant to live a long life."
"...Yes."
Whether or not my meaning got through, Sun Ce answered looking considerably more at ease.
Had there ever, in this region, been a warlord capable of beating Sun Ce — the Little Conqueror — in the first place? This was the woman who, in circumstances far worse than these, had smashed every last old guard of Jiangdong and put even Cao Cao on her guard.
True, the fiery temper inherited from her father claimed her at the young age of twenty-five — but the momentum she displayed in her lifetime was worthy of comparison to the Hegemon-King himself. That was why she was called the Little Conqueror, and why the Sun clan, once a minor power at best, could rise to stand tall in the realm. And as it happened, Sun Ce's homeland was the very same Jiangdong as Xiang Yu's — could any epithet have fit better?
I leaned forward slightly and said,
"You may take every officer of the Sun clan who follows you. But on one condition — no reckless, spur-of-the-moment moves."
"......"
Sun Ce could not manage a word.
And small wonder — granting independent command to a surrendered general was a startlingly unorthodox personnel decision. What law said a general who had surrendered once would never surrender twice? That was precisely why the lords of this era never handed surrendered officers sole command. Even Zhang Liao, holding Hefei, had Yue Jin and Li Dian attached to her as assistant commanders by Cao Cao, and Zhang He, brilliant a tactician as she was, always had to campaign at someone's side, lending them her support.
But I chose to trust the woman Sun Ce was, and to hand her the city outright.
Well — if she truly does rebel, I'll simply write it off as disposing of one dangerous element.
"As it happens, your sworn sister Zhou Yu is commanding the fleet along the Yangtze. Coordinate with her closely."
With that, I turned my gaze to Zhou Yu, who stood wearing a dazed expression. Catching my look, she started and hurriedly bowed her head.
...Wow. Even the simple act of bowing her head is like a painting. It was genuinely astonishing.
Seo Yeo, however the meeting flowed, remained fixed solely on guarding me, while Lü Bu kept radiating boredom, as if to ask when this thing would ever end.
Those two really never change, do they.