Nanman (11)
The first move made by the toddler strategists, to whom I had delegated full authority over the migration policy, was a simple one.
"Find out exactly how many people are currently residing in Nanzhong. ...Right now."
"Yes, ma'am!"
A census, in other words.
After all, unless you knew how many people were settled in each district, how were you supposed to collect taxes — or carry out a relocation, for that matter?
Sima Yi, who had snapped the order at an adjutant waiting nearby in a voice cold as drawn steel, clutched at her head.
"Haah... I saw it coming, more or less, but the cleanup is going to fall entirely on us, isn't it."
Her voice practically radiated exasperation.
It gave me a glimpse of the lazybones from the original history — the one who had feigned illness and held out for years against Cao Cao's summons to office.
...Though perhaps it hadn't been simple laziness. She may well have seen through Cao Cao's character early on and chosen to keep her distance.
Just then, Zhuge Liang, who had been observing Sima Yi's reaction, spoke up with a perfectly calm expression.
"If the work wearies you, please rest as long as you like."
"...I beg your pardon?"
"Whatever our lord has entrusted to us personally, I shall see to it myself."
"......"
So saying, Zhuge Liang flashed a sweet smile.
There was a peculiar force packed into the words our lord and personally — or was that just my imagination?
On its face it was plainly considerate, yet I couldn't quite shake the sense that something was off about it.
"...Tsk. Never mind, then. As if I wouldn't see through whatever you're playing at."
Evidently Sima Yi had caught on to why Zhuge Liang had said such a thing to her.
Why is it always just you two who get it? Let me in on it too, sometime.
Watching the pair wage their battle of wills in some mystic realm forever beyond the reach of ordinary mortals, I could only stand there with a baffled look on my face.
"Um... there's something I'd like to ask..."
"Yes! What is it!"
Meanwhile, Pang Tong — who had wisely put distance between herself and that duel from the very start — turned to Meng Huo standing nearby.
"D-do you happen to have documents like land registries or household registers...?"
"......?"
At Pang Tong's question, Meng Huo tilted her head.
Anyone could see she hadn't understood a single one of those difficult words.
"Could you perhaps say that a little more simply?"
"Ah. W-well, you see..."
When Meng Huo asked her to try again, Pang Tong flushed with embarrassment and offered a plainer explanation.
"Documents that record information about land and households..."
"Aha! Is that all you meant!"
Only now grasping everything, Meng Huo laughed heartily.
"I am, after all, a king who governs a territory in my own right!"
"Y-you mean...?"
"Of course we have documents like that!"
Oh. Now that was a surprise.
I'd assumed a people who lived gathered in caves and mountains would have little use for writing things down.
But even if Meng Huo was weak on the thinking side of things, there had been a reason she managed to unite the tribes under one banner.
She was, rare for someone from Nanzhong, the sort to read treatises on warfare and hone her learning in her own fashion. The way she had labored to raise city walls with what little skill she possessed said as much — Meng Huo, unexpectedly, had the makings of a true leader.
Well, anyone who could repeatedly mobilize armies numbering in the tens of thousands was clearly no mindless primitive whiled away her days in a cave.
Hers could fairly be called another nation entirely — one with a genuine foundation as a state.
...Though with an environment so hostile to human life, it was only natural that foundation remained shallow.
Meng Huo turned to Pang Tong.
"Fair warning, though — they're quite old, so they might be a bit out of date! Will that still do?!"
"Th-that's fine. Better than having nothing at all..."
And so, while the dragon and the tiger bared their fangs at one another, the phoenix quietly pocketed her gains and soared up into the sky.
So this was how far the little bird had come — the one who used to do nothing but shiver in the background whenever those two fought.
...Though is this really the direction she ought to be growing in? I couldn't say why, but she seems to have evolved along a rather peculiar path.
Sima Yi and Zhuge Liang remained locked eye to eye, while Pang Tong set off with her escort in tow, following Meng Huo's guidance.
A bewildering tableau, if ever there was one. I gave a faint wry smile.
I granted the soldiers, worn down by the long campaign, a rest period of considerable generosity.
Her Majesty the Empress back in Luoyang was no doubt longing for me day and night, but what could I do about that? Push troops fresh from a battle in unfamiliar territory straight into a forced march without proper rest, and stragglers were guaranteed to start dropping from the column.
And this was hardly a crisis where every second counted; I had no reason to drive myself and my men that hard.
This was an ultra-long-distance march — a solid month of walking, at minimum.
I at least had a horse beneath me. I couldn't begin to imagine what went through the mind of a foot soldier trudging along in armor that looked exhausting just to glance at, shield in hand.
Come to think of it, even Rome over there across the sea was notorious for the crushing weight of its kit, if I remembered right — gear and rations combined supposedly tipped the scales well past twenty kilograms.
Then again, weight aside, the simple fact of marching for over a month was hell enough on its own.
"My lord! So this is where you were!"
"Hm?"
Just as I was sinking deeper into idle thoughts, a familiar voice rang out nearby.
A healthy bronze complexion, golden hair spilling down to her waist. A woman whose face and figure could steal any man's gaze in a single heartbeat.
Meng Huo — the very axis around which the Nanman people revolved — was looking straight at me.
I met her gaze and asked, "What is it? Has some problem come up?"
"Hmm... in a manner of speaking, I suppose I must say yes!"
Meng Huo mulled over my words for a moment, then nodded with great vigor.
"Someone might overhear if we're careless, so shall we talk this over somewhere quiet?"
"Lead the way."
What on earth had happened, that she was being this careful about it? Pray let it not be anything complicated.
I followed her at my usual pace. She ushered me into a small building, then spun around to face me and cried out.
"My lord!"
"...Yes?"
That boundless energy of hers — I'd never get used to it, no matter how often I saw it.
Her younger sister Meng You was just the same; between the two of them, I kept thinking of a runaway locomotive with no brakes.
Even as I mused on this, Meng Huo pressed on.
"I know it is a shameless thing to ask — but would you bestow your grace upon me!"
And with that cry, she folded neatly at the waist and bowed low before me.
"Grace?"
A faint, uneasy premonition stirred at those words.
What exactly was she planning to ask, that she had to start invoking grace?
"Ah — my apologies, I put that a touch too formally!"
Catching my puzzled look, Meng Huo spoke as though realizing her slip.
"Please — let me bear the General-in-Chief's child!"
"......"
At that bombshell from out of nowhere, not only I but Seo Yeo and Lü Bu standing nearby froze solid.
"What kind of bullshit is th— mmph!"
I clamped a hand over Lü Bu's mouth as she surged forward, and asked evenly.
"...Might I hear why you're making such a request?"
"The reason is simple!"
Meng Huo bobbed her head eagerly, as though it were the easiest question in the world.
"So that we may proclaim it before everyone — that the people of Nanzhong and the people of Han have truly become one!"
"......"
So, something along the lines of a political marriage.
Iskandar the Conqueror.
Alexander III, they say, likewise urged the officers and soldiers under his command to wed the women of the lands they conquered.
The reasoning was simple enough.
It was a policy of assimilation — lashing peoples of different cultures together with the unbreakable bonds of blood.
Though he died young at thirty-two, so far from that policy bearing fruit, his vast realm promptly shattered into fragments.
Still soothing Lü Bu as she whimpered and squirmed against my chest, I deliberated a moment before speaking.
"Seeing to it that you bear my child is no difficult matter."
"Is that so!"
"But would that truly be enough for you?"
"Pardon?"
I looked her dead in those green eyes.
"Before long, I must return to Luoyang, far away from here."
"......"
"And with Her Majesty the Empress of all people coddling me the way she does, I doubt I'll be able to visit often."
It was only the convenient pretext of state business that had let me come this far at all this time.
If I left Meng Huo pregnant here, I would be nothing but an irresponsible father who'd scattered his seed and bolted.
We'll count Cao Cao as the exception. That woman is bound to appear at a moment I never see coming and catch me completely off guard.
"Unless you intend to follow me, then, set that proposal aside."
"Is that so?"
At my concern, Meng Huo broke into a radiant grin.
"Then the problem solves itself if I simply go with you!"
"Huh?"
"I, Meng Huo, have always been terribly curious about the teacher— no, forgive me — about Han!"
She definitely started to say 'teacher' something before swapping the word, didn't she?
Apparently she hadn't yet finished shedding her old country habits of speech.
Meng Huo fixed me with a long, earnest stare, her eyes all but showering starlight.
"And to think you worry this tenderly over a woman who would be left all alone! Then all the more reason I simply must hold on to you!"
"......"
"Now then! Please toy with this body that has never known a man, to your heart's content!"
Her sheer aggressiveness left my mouth hanging slightly open.
I flatter myself that I've seen every kind of person there is by now, but this was a first even for me.
As the old saying goes, it is the brave who embrace the beautiful.
And Meng Huo was that adage made flesh.