Tale of Xu Province (1)
The Donghai Mi Clan wielded renown as the great merchant magnates of Xu Province. Countless scholar-officials and local gentry enjoyed prestige across Xu Province, but the Donghai Mi Clan held an overwhelming advantage over them all.
Their household servants and bondservants alone numbered ten thousand.
Centered on Qu County, they possessed salt fields on a vast scale and broad, sprawling granaries.
Perimeter walls as high and solid as a fortress wall.
Storehouses stretching endlessly within them.
Even martial training yards and stables had been built in profusion, like an encampment where troops were garrisoned.
The whole compound approached the scale of a walled town.
Even if several thousand troops invaded, you could comfortably withstand a siege for a fortnight. Wells had been sunk across the entire estate against the danger of fire, so it would certainly hold.
"In all the confusion of late, I have been unable to pay my full respects properly; I beg your forgiveness."
A beauty with a deeply dignified impression prostrated herself meekly while offering humble apologies.
Mi Zhu.
Head of the Donghai Mi Clan.
She was simultaneously Senior Assistant Officer in Liu Bei's army and the figure who represented the local gentry of Xu Province.
Dark brown hair braided neatly to one side.
Eyes filled with gentle kindness.
And a mild smile that carried a quiet elegance.
Her courtesy and decorum were highly accomplished, exactly as befitted a young lady of a renowned house that had flourished for generations. Even a fleeting, light gesture of her hand was enough to convey her noble refinement and dignity.
"It's fine. Setting aside the cause and the legitimacy I put forward for the usurpation... I am the villain who shattered the peace of Tao Qian's army by invading Xu Province. So I'll have to accept countless denunciations and grievances."
"Your Highness the Crown Prince is a most interesting man."
I had visited the Donghai Mi Clan alone.
Liu Bei had volunteered to accompany me, but I had not brought her along because "the scholar-officials and local gentry would plainly grow suspicious of our relationship." I gazed at Mi Zhu as a meaningful smile played on her lips and quietly lifted my teacup.
"I imagine you have many questions. Do you not?"
"...Yes."
Mi Zhu answered after a brief silence.
Then she naturally raised a question about the 'usurpation.'
"Your Highness has proclaimed to all under heaven that you will topple a corrupt and incompetent Imperial House and Court and inaugurate a new dynasty. I, this humble one, do not set great store by the survival of the Imperial House and Court. I merely wait for an emperor who will bestow an era of peace upon the common folk, a sovereign who will guide the Central Plains with benevolent governance."
If she had been a loyal champion of the Han Dynasty, she would have slipped a lethal poison into the teapot for a usurper.
An era of peace for the common folk.
Mi Zhu gave a bold reply to the effect that 'the will of the people is none other than the will of Heaven.'
A gentlewoman of a renowned house raised almost like a hothouse flower, and yet her disposition was that bold. She was more fearless and audacious than most men.
"I won't tell you the shameless lie that I proclaimed Raising an Army to rescue the people of the realm from their misery. I simply wish to enthrone His Highness the King of Chen as the new Emperor of the Han Dynasty."
"For years I have heard the rumor that the common folk of the south all fervently support His Highness the King of Chen and Your Highness the Crown Prince. It is possible, I think, only because you hold to the ideal of loving governance that cherishes the common people. Moreover, I was deeply impressed to observe that the southern army that took possession of Pengcheng inflicted no harm of any kind upon the populace."
That had not been achieved through strict military discipline alone.
You must not lay a hand on the common people.
To molest helpless women and children is an atrocity that outrages Heaven itself.
Even though a grand army numbering in the tens of thousands entered the city, not a single untoward incident occurred. That was possible because, irrespective of rank, every officer and soldier had the precept "crime that harms the common people is forbidden" etched deeply into their minds.
Interesting.
She let out an exclamation at the orderly discipline of Liu Chong's army.
Plundering was a right naturally granted to officers and soldiers victorious in war. Moreover, in a chaotic age where humanity, righteousness, and law held no force, the forcible looting of the common people's goods and grain was perpetrated everywhere as though it were a matter of course.
The army of Liu Chong that had invaded Xu Province was different.
They understood that the greater cause achieved through winning the people's hearts was far more important than the spoils before their eyes.
"Senior Assistant Officer."
"Command me."
"Could you... lend me some money? It's not urgent. There are simply a great many things that need doing."
"M-money...?"
Lend me some money.
A request she plainly had not anticipated at all.
At that, the beauty with the flowing dark brown hair displayed a reaction full of perplexity.
* * *
In the original history, Mi Zhu counseled Liu Bei to take her younger sister as his consort and, simultaneously, staked the astronomical entirety of the family fortune on Liu Bei's army—an all-or-nothing gamble.
Thanks to that vigorous support from the Donghai Mi Clan, Liu Bei's army, which had been enduring an impoverished penniless existence, gained a chance to snatch life from the jaws of death. Because of that extreme wager, the Donghai Mi Clan, once the greatest of merchant magnates, would have to endure the life of misers until Liu Bei's army entered Western Shu.
"Greetings! I am Mi Fang, younger brother of Senior Assistant Officer Mi Zhu."
"Mi Fang, hm..."
Mi Fang.
He is a figure famous in a different sense in the modern era.
Mi Zhu's younger brother and the eldest son of the Donghai Mi Clan, Mi Fang was a young man of clean-cut appearance. His neatly dressed topknot and silk full-length robe seemed to emphasize that he was the young master of a wealthy house.
"I am honored to be received by Your Highness the Crown Prince, whose martial renown has spread across the realm! My elder sister may have shown a calm reaction, but I have been waiting with desperate longing for this very moment of meeting Your Highness!"
"..."
Was that sincere?
Or was it flattery?
I felt a moment's bewilderment at Mi Fang's reaction, which seemed as excited as a child's.
I wasn't especially interested in Mi Fang.
Aside from being the turncoat who betrayed Guan Yu, his Ability Scores were too garbage.
While not quite at the level of the Eight Sub-100 Officers, whose total Ability Scores added up to less than 100, they were so pitiful when compared with Mi Zhu, who was highly excellent as an internal affairs officer, that one felt sympathy for him.
Still, he did possess the Commerce specialty, so I could make some use of him one way or another. But if I was going to work a low-ability Mi Fang in internal affairs anyway, recruiting new talent from among those Out of Office would be far more advantageous.
"I judged that the support and cooperation of the Donghai Mi Clan, which represents Xu Province, is more urgently needed than anything else for the great cause to come. That is why I met with your elder sister. If the Donghai Mi Clan pledges its loyalty, I will certainly not treat it lightly."
"As if there could be any doubt! I too will try to persuade my sister!"
I had already obtained a definite answer.
The talented lady of that renowned house had, in the end, accepted even the preposterously rude request "Lend me some money."
No need to pour cold water on him.
I thought as I watched Mi Fang's eager and enthusiastic manner.
"Did you have some business?"
"Ah, no, nothing...! I was momentarily discourteous."
When Mi Fang stared fixedly at my face with a meaningful look, I put the question to him.
At that, Mi Fang flinched in apparent surprise and shook his head.
* * *
The rebels of the south had swallowed Xu Province whole.
Upon receiving the report, Dong Zhuo's first reaction was incredulity.
"Tao Qian's army... was annihilated without ever fighting a single proper battle? You expect me to believe this! Governor of Xu Province Tao Qian was plainly a warlord whose military achievements had no peer apart from Sun Jian!!
Like the Tiger of Jiangdong, the hegemon of Donghai who had suppressed countless rebellions was a figure counted among famous commanders. Though past his sixtieth year, had the old man's strength not remained undiminished?
Tao Qian had died a sudden, violent death.
Tao Shang, his eldest son and designated heir, had been the true culprit.
With the death by poisoning of the lord who had commanded Xu Province, Tao Qian's army collapsed and was extinguished in a single stroke.
"It is said that Liu Chong's army seized the troops and materiel of Tao Qian's army... Moreover, all the talents of Xu Province who had served Tao Qian were even won over to Liu Chong's army."
Tens of thousands of soldiers and horses from Tao Qian's army were absorbed wholesale into Liu Chong's army.
Without a single battle,
with only the bandit Que Xuan suppressed, the war was over.
The destruction of Tao Qian's army, which had boasted such formidable strength, came as a massive shock not only to Dong Zhuo's forces but to the many warlords dividing up the realm. Those allied with Tao Qian's army—Gongsun Zan's army and Chen Wen's army—were especially thrown into consternation upon hearing the news.
"Elder, word has arrived that the newly appointed Inspector of Jing Province Liu Biao has safely reached Xiangyang Prefecture."
"Hm... I do not mean to doubt your stratagems, but I cannot see how dispatching some cadet imperial clansman to Jing Province will alter the war situation. Can a mere White-Faced Scholar like Liu Biao truly subdue the many local gentry and unify Jing Province?"
They had summoned the current Inspector of Jing Province, Wang Rui, back and named Liu Biao as his successor.
Liu Biao.
He was a descendant of Liu Yu, Prince Gong of Lu, the fourth son of Emperor Jing of Han.
Since the time Yuan Shu's army had begun its southward advance from Nanyang Prefecture toward the heart of Jing Province, Dong Zhuo's regime had made the decision to appoint a new Inspector of Jing Province to check them. Though the matter was already four months in the past, Dong Zhuo still regarded the appointment of Liu Biao with distrust.
"Grand Master, Ma Teng and Han Sui have arrived. Also, the envoys from Liu Yan's army, who crossed through Hanzhong Prefecture, await you."
They had pardoned Ma Teng and Han Sui, who had raised repeated rebellions on the barren frontier, and simultaneously appointed them as General Who Conquers the West and General Who Guards the West, thereby securing them as subordinates. The Governor of Yi Province, Liu Yan, had been brought into alliance semi-coercively by holding all four of his sons detained in Chang'an City as hostages.
Soldiers and warhorses had arrived from Xiliang.
Furthermore, they had secured their logistics by procuring abundant supplies from Bashu.
The Southern Expeditionary Army.
These arrangements were the groundwork for a campaign to subjugate Liu Chong's army, which had brazenly proclaimed its usurpation.
Senior Assistant Officer Mi Zhu