Young Lord (1)
With every policy settled, I moved at once—there was no reason to waste time. I paid a personal visit to each of the Jiangdong magnates in turn, Liu Yao excepted, and handed the officers under my command the task of dealing with the few bandits that remained and the remnants of the Shanyue tribes.
...Though in truth, there was hardly any subjugation to speak of.
"Urgh! I surrender! I surrender! Just spare my life!"
The moment their stronghold deep in the mountains was discovered, every last one of them threw down their arms. As the saying goes, word travels a thousand li on footless legs—they all seemed to know exactly what had become of the comrades who had stood against us.
"Aww, no fight this time either."
"Hehe. No news is good news, wouldn't you say?"
Lü Bu, who had bolted out the door the instant word came that there might be a fight, and Zhang Liao, who had marched out to back her up, each offered their own review of the campaign.
If I remembered right, the Sun Quan of the original history had dealt with the rebel forces lingering in Jiangdong and put the surrenderers to work developing the region. Population was short enough as it was, so I borrowed that policy and threw every surrendered man into labor.
Not that this meant I'd become some bloodless, tearless slave trader... I simply put the prisoners—criminals, after all—to forced labor in proportion to the weight of their crimes.
Anyone who still refused to surrender and was holed up in the mountains was, a hundred times out of a hundred, guilty of something. Some were Shanyue who had done nothing but bide their time, ready at any moment to smash the back of my skull; others were bands of criminals whose misdeeds had earned them a kill order ages ago.
Strictly by the book, the rule was to club them to death the moment they were taken into custody... but given the circumstances, surely there was a better option?
Under the standing policy of "new slaves welcome at any time," the prisoners thus began a labor life that was, frankly, delightful. A roll in the dung heap still beats the grave—am I right?
It wasn't as if we lacked the administrative capacity to manage prisoners, so we snapped them up, happy as could be, as free labor. I was beginning to understand why the Sun Quan of the original history had thrown herself into securing slaves. Given the capacity to manage them, they were bound to be a mighty engine for developing Jiangdong.
By now, you may be wondering who was actually overseeing the slaves. Sima Yi, who normally ran military affairs and was at this very moment torturing Ze Rong in a cell? Or Zhuge Liang, who had laid out the grand vision for how I should develop Jiangdong?
It was neither.
A genuinely unexpected person had taken the overseer's post—even by my standards.
Pang Tong, courtesy name Shiyuan.
The timid little strategist in her enormous hat, forever dodging people's gazes, was at that very moment supervising the slaves pouring in from every corner of Jiangdong.
I still remember how dumbfounded I was when the proposal first reached my ears.
"...Will she really be all right?"
"Yes."
At my question, Sima Yi seemed to recall something and answered with a stifled laugh.
"From what I've seen, there's no need to worry."
...
Sima Yi wasn't one to hand out empty words—she only drove home the heavy facts. So, though my face must have read as pure puzzlement, I left the management of the slaves to Pang Tong.
The slaves had trembled at the prospect of falling under Sima Yi, she of the dungeon horrors—but once the seemingly meek Pang Tong took charge, they began sizing her up as a pushover and showing every sign of doing as they pleased.
Watching it unfold, I resolved to bide my time and step in only if trouble actually arose. There had to be a reason Sima Yi had recommended her, after all.
And the little strategist proceeded to reveal a side far more terrifying than I had imagined.
"I-I don't want to do this...! But if you keep defying my orders, I'll have no choice...!"
"GYAAAAH!!"
"This exhausts me just as much as it exhausts you...!"
"S-Stop it!"
Her voice shook like a leaf in a gale, and yet she was carrying out every last thing that needed doing.
What startled me more was that Pang Tong wasn't acting. Genuinely terrified—and still, insisting that "this is the job," she kept right on drawing blood.
Timid though she was, Pang Tong was not the sort to simply quiver at the back of the room. Full of fear, yet no coward. Looked at one way, wasn't that the very picture of irony?
Just as people fear what they cannot comprehend, the slaves, once they witnessed Pang Tong's contradictory behavior, began groveling and fawning in abject terror.
...If history had flowed the way it does in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I think I finally understood how Pang Tong had once pulled off the Lianhuan Ji—the Chain Strategy—on Cao Cao at the Battle of Red Cliffs. That someone so timid she trembled at the smallest things had in truth devised the whole scheme purely to ruin him? I'd have found that hard to swallow myself.
"H-How am I doing? See? I'm working so hard!"
"...Good."
I stroked the hair of Pang Tong, who was pleading her own case for all she was worth, and said:
"If it ever wears you down, tell me anytime. I'll replace the overseer."
"Yes...!"
Pang Tong simply giggled, plainly delighted by the hand on her head.
And so, several days passed in which we secured the roads between our cities, locked down our labor force, and set preparations in motion to relocate the populace in great numbers—
"Ugh... I don't wanna."
Quite suddenly, I wanted nothing on earth so much as to not work.
"...What on earth are you saying all of a sudden?"
"It means I need a day off. Today."
...
Sima Yi, who had been combing through bamboo slips nearby, met my shamelessness with silence.
Her glare was fierce indeed. She looked ready to fire lasers from her eyes.
But I was not a man who would cave to that. I was the lord of this domain, wasn't I? A man ought to rest when rest is due! I refuse to die having done nothing but work!
On any ordinary day I'd have quietly dodged her glare, but this time I stared the little strategist dead in the eye. Believe it or not, I had never once lost a staring contest.
"...Nnngh."
As if to prove my prediction right, Sima Yi held my gaze for a long moment, then made a strange little sound and turned her head away.
Watching her, I said, plain and simple:
"I've been working hard for days on end. I've earned today off, haven't I?"
"Oh, honestly... What am I supposed to do when you look at me like that..."
So muttering, Sima Yi replied in a voice she had deliberately made sulky.
"Fine. Do as you please. Today I won't care a whit what you do or where you go."
Score.
Sima Yi nagged me day in and day out, but she granted every request I made. What a good girl.
I gazed at Sima Yi—the very model of a tsundere—and flashed a grin.
"Then I'm off to enjoy my rest. You all take it easy today, too."
"Yes, yes, message received—now go, quickly."
Sima Yi pulled an exasperated face and rose from her seat.
"Hmmm... I suppose today calls for a long, unhurried nap..."
Ever the meticulous manager of her own well-being—she wasn't about to let a chance to rest slip by. Whatever else Zhuge Liang needed to learn, that one trait of Sima Yi's was surely worth copying.
I turned my head and called over the adjutant at hand.
"Sun Quan."
"Yes! You called for me!"
"See to it that every last person is informed that today is a day of rest."
"Leave it to me!!"
Sun Quan, my aide at my side, answered in a way that made it feel as though every exchange in our conversation added another exclamation mark to her replies.
"I, Sun Zhongmou, swear to see my lord's command fulfilled before the sun reaches its zenith—!!!"
"...Right."
I could only watch, dumbfounded, as Sun Quan tore off with staggering momentum, dirt and dust swirling every which way in her wake. Just when did that monstrous energy ever run dry?
Her overflowing vigor certainly took after her father, Sun Jian—and her elder sister, Sun Ce.
Having granted every officer a surprise holiday in recognition of their labors, I was now whiling away the hours staring blankly inside my room. What did "taking a break" even amount to, anyway? An office worker with nothing to do is a creature for whom the simple act of breathing is a joy. Saying it out loud does make me a little sad. But what can you do? It happens to be the truth.
...
For the first time in an age, I gathered Seo Yeo into my arms and toyed with her cheeks exactly as I pleased. Opportunities like this had been scarce of late. Back when I was in Luoyang, the baby had claimed my lap as though it were her birthright. ...No—it really was her birthright. With child-rearing in the picture, there had been no room left for husband-and-wife time.
They say we lose our memories of infancy as we grow—but still, how do I put this. There's such a thing as mood. Mood. The moment any ambiguous atmosphere began to form, the baby's unblinking stare became impossible to ignore. And one could hardly leave the child alone, could one? Utterly stifling.
The moment a parent's attention wandered, a baby would attempt to depart this world by the most outlandish means imaginable. Rolling over all on her own, then failing to roll back, whimpering because she couldn't breathe... or finding some random object fascinating, gumming at it curiously, then trying to swallow it whole...
I prided myself on a courage tempered across every battlefield I had crossed, but a baby's sudden antics had the power to shrivel even that courage in a heartbeat. Well, Diaochan was in Luoyang, working hard on my behalf, so I could set such worries aside—
BANG—!
"My lord! Are you within!"
"...Hm?"
Midway through teasing Seo Yeo's cheeks, I turned toward the source of that oddly buoyant voice.
"Hearing you would rest today, I came running at once!"
There stood Sun Ce, wine bottle in hand, beaming.
"M-My lord. Pardon the shamelessness of my intrusion."
And there was Zhou Yu, fidgeting, showing herself with timid embarrassment written across her face.
"...Ah. I see."
Having grasped the situation, I gave a slow nod and spoke.
"Right. A promise is a promise. I'll have food brought out, so wait a moment."
"Yes!"
"...Yes."
At my words, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu plopped down where they stood, each in a manner that laid her personality utterly bare.
...First order of business: keep an eye on the drinking.