Seeing a Thousand Li from One's Seat
It seems you overindulged yesterday? Your complexion looks rather poor.
“That’s… well….”
Xun Yu approached me first at court, smiling as he spoke.
Not only me, but Cao Cao as well had been suffering from a hangover since morning. He was sweating more coldly than usual, complaining that his stomach felt sour, and handling official business in a half-hearted manner.
“We should avoid drinking gatherings for the time being.”
“I have some excellent tea at my home that’s perfect for times like these. Would you care to stop by?”
Xun Yu suggesting tea when one’s stomach was unsettled. It was obvious he had something he wanted to discuss.
And so I was able to visit Xun Yu’s residence that very afternoon.
When I entered, members of the Wei Merchant Group—both courtesans and traders—were busy preparing food and distributing the goods they had brought.
“Lord Cao.”
“Ah!”
Huayan and Jinlian rushed over and bowed deeply to me.
“So we meet here. Have you been well?”
“Yes. Sir Xun invited me for tea.”
“Indeed. We have tea leaves brought from south of the Yangtze. Since the head merchant is also present, please try some.”
The head merchant—did that mean Wei Hong had come as well?
That woman truly had nerves of steel. After the intense drinking party last night, here she was, moving between Cao Cao and his chief officials across the Xuchang region as if nothing had happened.
Before long, other familiar faces appeared.
“Uncle Xun, I’ve arrived. Oh? Captain Cao is here as well?”
“Ah, Gongda.”
Xun You was already at Xun Yu’s home.
And shortly afterward, Guo Jia also arrived at Xun Yu’s residence.
“I like wine, but tea is really not my preference….”
“On a day like today, let us soothe our stomachs a little. Frequent heavy drinking harms one’s health.”
Xun Yu spoke gently, yet Guo Jia looked thoroughly bored. He smacked his lips, clearly searching for a wine jar.
“So, calling us together past noon just to drink tea—I take it some interesting tale is about to unfold?”
When Guo Jia brought up the subject, Wei Hong quietly brewed the tea leaves and poured for Xun Yu, myself, and Xun You. Unlike the previous night, she now resembled a refined noblewoman performing an elegant tea ceremony.
“Yesterday, Lord Ziyue received our lord’s permission to make full use of our merchant group’s information network.”
“Oh? That is something to celebrate, is it not?”
Xun You’s nod suggested that Cao Cao’s core strategists already knew everything worth knowing and used everything worth using.
“I intend to speak of the recent state of the realm. It is said that in Hebei, Yuan Shao has seized Bing Province.”
Wei Hong opened with a weighty topic. In the end, Yuan Shao—who had received the title of Grand General after accepting the imperial edict—had finally begun his conquest of Hebei.
“He took Bing Province first. Then Qing Province will be next?”
At Xun You’s question, Wei Hong nodded.
“Yes. Grand General Yuan is preparing to occupy Qing Province. He is gathering a great army with his son Yuan Tan as vanguard.”
“Yuan Tan—I have heard of him. They say his military talent is outstanding, yet his origins are rather humble.”
Guo Jia added his own comment.
“Yuan Shao himself is the son of a concubine from the Yuan family of the Three Excellencies. In his youth he took a woman from a lowly household, so naturally he could only choose a daughter from an insignificant clan. That is why his next wife came from the imperial Liu family of the Han, correct?”
I already knew the rough details of Yuan Shao’s sons. Unlike Yuan Shu, who was born of the legitimate wife, Yuan Shao was a bastard son born to a slave. Before his famous performance of wearing mourning clothes for six years, he had been treated as a discarded child. Thus his first marriage was to a woman from a humble family.
However, once Yuan Shao rose as the leader of the Pure Faction and expanded his power throughout Hebei, he immediately took a wife listed in the Han imperial genealogy from the Hebei region—Lady Liu, his second wife. She was the biological mother of Yuan Shao’s third son, Yuan Shang.
“They are moving quite noisily in both Bing and Qing Provinces.”
“It is not merely territorial expansion. They are also aggressively pursuing marriage alliances to absorb the local powerful clans of Hebei. Recently, I heard that ‘Yuan Shao’s second son, Yuan Xi, was married into the Jian family of Zhongshan Kingdom.’”
“??????”
Clang—
“Ah, Lord Ziyue.”
“My lord, why have you dropped your teacup?”
Xun You asked in surprise, but the moment I heard those words, hostility toward Hebei surged within me. And that bastard Zhou Ling! He had said he wanted to join Cao Cao’s army, so I let him stay in Ye and even asked him to keep an eye on the Jian family and send word if anything happened!
“Ah! I think I understand. When Lord Cao visited Yecheng last time, he went back and forth to the Jian family of Zhongshan. Something must have occurred.”
Guo Jia approached with a teasing grin and poked me in the side.
“Which of the three Jian sisters have you taken a liking to?”
“Why are you asking that?”
“Head Merchant Wei, please tell that story as well.”
“What story….”
At that moment Wei Hong answered.
“There was an interesting development in Hebei. The Jian family of Zhongshan is a renowned powerful clan throughout the Jizhou region, and their daughters are especially famed for their beauty.”
“…”
“However, the third daughter, Jian Fu, rejected the Yuan family’s marriage proposal.”
“!?!?!?!?”
“The Jian family’s eldest and second sons, Jian Ye and Jian Yan, died young. So Yuan Shao of Hebei sent a marriage proposal to take one of their daughters. Yet the third daughter, Jian Fu, refused, claiming it was not yet time for her to marry. Such a young girl, at that.”
Jian Fu… had turned down the Yuan family’s marriage offer?
“Therefore the eldest of the three sisters, Jian Qiang, entered the Yuan family as a daughter-in-law in her place.”
Instead of Jian Fu, her older sister Jian Qiang… Well, they had still taken a daughter-in-law from the Zhongshan Jian family.
“That woman is truly remarkable—refusing to become a daughter-in-law of the Yuan house. Does she have a lover in mind?”
“Sir Gongda, I can make a fair guess as to who that lover might be.”
Guo Jia continued grinning at me, clearly trying to draw me out, while Xun You, still unaware of the situation, simply listened to the conversation.
“Didn’t Head Merchant Wei previously mention the four great beauties that the merchant group had heard rumors about?”
“Ah, the rumor has spread in a slightly different form. Cai Sohui of Chang’an, Jian Fu of Hebei, Diaochan the concubine of Lu Bu, and Lady Wu of Jiangdong….”
Yes, the rumor of the four great beauties had indeed circulated.
“In truth, those four women are not only beauties, but they became famous because of what the physiognomist Xu Shao said about them.”
“Xu Shao’s words?”
“Master Xu, who is skilled at reading faces, declared that those four were born with the destiny of ‘Royal Beauty’—women fated to give birth to kings or emperors.”
“Women possessing the quality to create a king… Just hearing the term, it sounds like they would make excellent inner helpers for their husbands.”
That fellow Xu Shao had not been wrong.
In the original history, Diaochan became Dong Zhuo’s maidservant and later Lu Bu’s concubine. Though she never married an emperor, she wielded comparable power.
Jian Fu became the first empress of an entirely new empire.
Lady Wu became the wife of Sun Jian, then mother to Sun Ce, the King of Changsha, and Sun Quan, the first emperor of Eastern Wu.
And Cai Yan, who—if not for me—would have become the wife of the Great Khan of the Xiongnu, that is, the queen of a barbarian king.
“Now, now, it seems we have spoken too much of women. Moreover, one of those mentioned is Lord Ziyue’s wife, so let us stop here.”
When Xun Yu intervened, Wei Hong smiled and once again brewed and poured the tea.
“My apologies. Yet the reason such talk continues is exactly as stated: marriage alliances among the powerful clans of Hebei are occurring with great frequency.”
“I understand that Yuan Shao seeks to absorb the local clans while seizing Bing and Qing Provinces. In three or four years, the Yuan faction’s power may grow even stronger.”
Xun Yu recalled the purpose for which he had summoned us and spoke of the current political situation.
“That takes care of the elder Yuan. I wonder what the younger Yuan is up to.”
After Yuan Shao, it was now Yuan Shu’s turn?
“Strange and rather unpleasant rumors are coming from the Huainan region.”
Was Wei Hong referring to what I thought she was?
“Strange rumors? Are they gathering Taoist priests in Huainan to manufacture auspicious omens, or are heroic tales of the chaotic era spreading among the common people?”
Guo Jia had grasped the situation precisely.
“Chief Strategist Guo is correct.”
“That is… not proper. For a feudal lord to privately spread prophetic texts is an act meant to unify his own forces in turbulent times, is it not?”
“It does not appear it will end with that alone.”
“What do you mean?”
As Xun Yu, Xun You, and Guo Jia waited for Wei Hong’s next words, she spoke quietly.
“After Luoyang was reduced to ruins, it is said that the imperial seal which vanished from that place was taken by ‘someone,’ and its whereabouts have since been unknown.”
“Such rumors do exist. But what of it? Has some madman appeared who would swallow it for himself rather than present it to the Emperor?”
I spoke up immediately.
“It seems the imperial seal is in Yuan Shu’s possession.”
At that instant, silence fell. Everyone turned to stare at me.
An eerie stillness descended. Guo Jia was the one who broke it.
“Gathering Taoist priests to create strange anecdotes, letting those stories circulate among the people, and then discussing the Mandate of Heaven—if there is a madman doing all that, then it must be him.”
“Impossible! If he truly possesses the imperial seal, the proper course would be to present it to the court at once and open negotiations.”
Xun You spoke of the court’s authority, yet in this chaotic age the warlords were openly discussing “striking a deal with the Emperor.”
And I summed up the entire situation in a single song.
In the Yuan family they’re a nobody~ In the court they’re a nobody~
In the midst of all that, what can raise one’s self-esteem~
It’s founding an independent kingdom in one’s own territory~
Since they get no respect anywhere, they’ll get it in their own land~
And just like Chen Sheng and Wu Guang in the old days, shouting about “the seeds of kings and generals,” they openly walk the path of treason!
That bastard won’t die a natural death~
“???”
Xun You stared at me with a dumbfounded expression. Xun Yu quietly sipped his tea. Guo Jia clapped along to my rhythm.
“A proper large-scale war is about to erupt across the Jiangdong region.”
And it would unfold exactly as he said.
Jian’an third year.
Yuan Shu declared independence from the Han Dynasty. He founded a state called “Zhong” and proclaimed himself Emperor.
Moreover, he displayed the imperial seal that had vanished from Luoyang, claiming that the Mandate of Heaven rested with him, and raised an army of two hundred thousand men.
All of it happened exactly as expected. The court moved at once.
Of course, Cao Cao—who held the court firmly in his grasp—also planned to use this opportunity to sweep away the entirety of Xuzhou and the western regions of Huainan.