Ye Province (7)
Ye Province, Yingchuan Commandery.
To some, this would be a region more familiar under the name Xuchang—the one the state of Wei would bestow upon it in a later age.
Gong Ju, who had surrendered the seal of the Inspector of Ye Province, lowered himself before the figure standing in front of him and spoke in a deferential voice.
"Th-the Prince of Chen, Yu Chong, is a master of the bow and crossbow, and a man of valiant temperament."
"Hmm... is that so?"
"Yes. He is not the sort to fear leading soldiers at the front lines himself, so no ordinary means will make him budge an inch."
Hearing Gong Ju's explanation, Zhang Liao nodded slowly in understanding.
If what he said was true, then the prince who ruled Chen was not a man who would surrender to his enemies even if it meant dying in battle. In other words, the moment war broke out, there would be no taking it back. She could safely assume there was no way to unite their forces in peace short of one side's annihilation.
So what was the most important move right now?
To avoid planting needless hostility in the heart of Prince Yu Chong.
"In that case... it would be best to arrange a meeting for talks first."
If she came marching with her army in tow, just as she had done a short while ago, Yu Chong would send his own forces out in response, and the air between them would turn unmistakably grim.
"A-an excellent choice."
At the very least, the Prince of Chen would not bow his head the way this man did, furtively reading her mood from mere steps away.
Not that she looked upon such behavior with contempt.
Abandoning what one had so that blood would not be spilled in vain, bending even one's pride, and entrusting one's life to another was never an easy thing to do.
Thinking it would do no harm to put in a good word for him, Zhang Liao looked at Gong Ju and smiled.
"I shall send an envoy to the Prince of Chen."
"......"
"Mm... the letter should simply say that we would like to sit down and talk, shouldn't it?"
Nothing would be more absurd than tacking something strange onto that message and touching off a war because of it.
People who do not fear the outbreak of war usually hold their convictions with a certain firmness—whether that conviction points toward good or toward ill.
'Silence! Are you not the very traitor who tramples the imperial house underfoot!'
Liu Biao, Governor of Jing Province, who had not shrunk from war itself for the sake of his own power.
'I am the Emperor of the Zhong dynasty, I say!'
Yuan Shu, who had walked several steps past even Liu Biao and proclaimed himself Emperor outright.
'You, of all people—I will kill you if it is the last thing I do!'
And even Dong Zhuo, who had never so much as blinked no matter what monstrous evil he committed....
Their compass may have pointed the wrong way, but every one of them had followed his convictions to the letter.
Then what manner of conviction did Yu Chong hold?
"......"
Only time would reveal the answer.
Chen State sat so close to Yingchuan Commandery that the two might as well have been neighbors, and so the letter took no great time to arrive. It was a distance one could cover in less than a day of hard riding—and to the General-in-Chief's soldiers, tempered by every manner of grueling training, that much was hardly different from a stroll.
"Your Highness. A letter has arrived from the force we have been keeping under close watch of late."
"...Luo Jun, is it? Let me see it."
The general of calm bearing called Luo Jun bowed once, then respectfully presented the letter to his lord.
Prince Yu Chong of Chen.
Though his face had aged with the passing years as any man's must, he radiated a fierce, unbroken vigor that outmatched everyone else in the room. It was something like a badge—one that only a man who had spent his entire life on battlefields could wear.
The man, whose body was carved with scars here and there, read the letter and murmured.
"Hmph. So she asks to meet me in person and talk."
"Such insolence—how dare she—"
At Yu Chong's words, the officials around him showed open alarm.
"Even a personal request from the General-in-Chief herself would scarcely suffice—and yet a mere general presumes to summon a prince of the realm?"
"A proposal not worth a moment's consideration! Send the envoy back, and instead command the General-in-Chief to come to you in person!"
When the civil officials around him cried out in this vein, Yu Chong called for Luo Jun.
"Luo Jun."
"Yes, Your Highness."
"What say you to this proposal?"
At Yu Chong's question, Luo Jun stepped forward and answered.
"I believe accepting is the wiser course."
At that answer, the officials attending Yu Chong shouted as though they had been waiting for exactly this.
"Do you hear yourself! Just whom is it you serve—"
"Enough."
"I asked Luo Jun for his opinion, if I recall."
"F-forgive my presumption...."
Meeting the frost-cold gaze of a general who had lived his whole life on the battlefield, the official flinched and bowed low, trembling.
Yu Chong turned his gaze back to Luo Jun. "There was a bit of noise just now. So then—why did you give that answer?"
"It is very simple."
The powerless commoners who had fled the chaos of the age all the way to Chen—and the man of great renown who had opened his own coffers to help those people settle—spoke in a calm voice.
"It is because the General-in-Chief currently enjoys the boundless favor of Her Majesty the Empress."
"......"
"One need only look at how Her Majesty personally arbitrated between the General-in-Chief and the officials who stood against him."
At first, it had been only natural for the established ministers of the imperial house to look upon the General-in-Chief—then nothing more than a stone that had rolled in from who knows where—with displeasure. Their own positions shrinking was part of it, but above all, they remembered every last atrocity Dong Zhuo had perpetrated at court. There had naturally been check after check against him, yet the moment the Empress herself stepped forward, every one of them lost its teeth.
"Though we hold the offices that govern Chen State, even those we hold by Her Majesty's grace alone. However mighty the power of a king ruling yet another land, it cannot stand beside the Empress's."
The Son of Heaven. Another name for the sovereign—the one whom Heaven itself had chosen. Whatever anyone might say, the wellspring of all power was the ruler of the realm.
"For Her Majesty the Empress, confiscating our offices anew would be as easy as turning over her palm. So what do you suppose would become of us, were we seen belittling the General-in-Chief who basks in Her Majesty's favor—treating her as someone to be summoned at our whim?"
With that, Luo Jun looked Yu Chong dead in the eye. An act of gross insolence—unthinkable, from a subject toward his lord.
"Do you intend, Your Highness, to raise your banner against the Han like the other traitors?"
"...Hahahaha!"
Yet Yu Chong, meeting his gaze, only roared with laughter.
"I hereby appoint you a prince of the realm."
Long years had passed since then—years enough for the realm to change hands many times over. Yu Chong was a man who had lived through that tide of time in his own flesh.
The stamina that had once seemed inexhaustible had dwindled little by little, and the armor that had always felt like part of his own body had, somewhere along the way, begun to weigh heavier.
Was this how Qin Shi Huang, the first to unite all under Heaven, had felt? Yu Chong could now understand why those growing old let themselves be beguiled by empty tales of elixirs of immortality.
Flesh, mind.... A long stretch of years in which everything a person possessed fell slowly into ruin.
And yet one thing had never changed.
Han.
That single character, settled deep in his heart, had not changed. How could he ever let go of that name—the name that had bound the myriad people of the world into one for hundreds of years?
Yu Chong stroked his beard. "Decades have flowed past since I took my seat as Prince of Chen."
"...Your Highness."
"Very well. Moving this old body of mine once more is no great labor."
Yu Chong, whose colossal frame made it impossible to think of him as an old man, rose from his seat.
He would hear her out with his own ears, watch her with his own eyes, and only then pass judgment—whether this General-in-Chief was truly a subject loyal to the state, or a traitor who merely blinded Her Majesty's eyes and ears while monopolizing the governance of the realm.
If she proved a loyal minister, he need only bow his head and offer the Han his allegiance, as he always had.
But if she was a traitor....
The soldiers of Chen would stand against her to the very last man.
Yu Chong knew all too well how vast the gulf was between his forces and the General-in-Chief's. She held more than half the world in her grasp; his was a minor power, grand in name alone and meager in all else. Even if he raised a rebellion, they would swat it aside as nothing more than a bothersome insect.
And yet there are moments when a man must take up arms even knowing the cause is hopeless.
"Send a reply saying I accept the damn offer."
"Yes."
Hearing Yu Chong's firm answer, Luo Jun bowed once more in respectful courtesy.
Rising from his seat, Yu Chong bored his eyes into the letter's contents as the commander of that army came to mind.
"Zhang Liao... Zhang Liao, was it..."
If he remembered rightly, she was the general appointed Left General.
The Left General. One of the seven generals who attended the General-in-Chief—the most prestigious of the Four Direction Generalships, though set beside a prince of the realm like Yu Chong, its luster inevitably dimmed.
Still, a high office was a high office; she was owed treatment to match.
And with that, Yu Chong found himself pondering, just a little, how best to make his entrance so as to cut the most impressive figure possible.