Peach Blossom (桃花) (2)
Early in the morning, I set out for Xiapi Port accompanied by Liu Bei, Governor of Xu Province, and Senior Assistant Officer Mi Zhu. The purpose was to inspect the majesty of the fleet that would conquer Jiangdong.
"As you commanded, Crown Prince, four hundred merchant vessels have assembled at Xiapi Port."
They were merchants built for trade with Samhan, Wa, and numerous other states. As befitting ships tasked with foreign trade, their hulls were constructed large and imposing to withstand the violent ocean.
Four hundred vessels.
The fleet of Xu Province numbered a full four hundred ships.
No other prefecture could have possessed such a vast fleet, save perhaps Jing Province, which had conducted a thriving foreign trade along the Yangtze River. This was only possible because Xu Province had managed eastern trade for centuries.
"It's incredible, seeing so many ships all at once... I should have brought Yunchang and Yide along."
Hundreds of Tower Ships filled the blue-jade sea.
Crewmen could be seen busily moving about the decks.
Sails spread wide.
Sturdy, proud bows.
And the banners of Liu Chong's army fluttering in the sea wind.
It called to mind an artificial island erected upon the sea. If the ships were chained together to minimize their rocking against one another, they would truly function as a sea fortress.
"Assuming each ship embarks two hundred soldiers, we can land tens of thousands of troops in Jiangdong at once."
Preparations for the Jiangdong conquest were complete.
Now there was nothing left but to await the order to march.
We had decided to entrust the main thrust of the Yang Province campaign to Sun Jian's army. Since most of Sun Jian's officers and men hailed from Yang Province, they would be familiar with the terrain and climate, and the scholar-officials and local gentry of Yang Province who admired the Tiger of Jiangdong would surely add their strength to his.
"There were reports that Liu Yao has been appointed Governor of Danyang. Is that intelligence from Yang Province accurate?"
"Yes, it was conveyed by merchants returned from the province. They say Liu Yao, who was to be appointed Inspector of Yang Province as Chen Wen's replacement, has instead been named Governor of Danyang."
Liu Yao.
Had history followed its original course, he would have been selected as the new Inspector of Yang Province after Chen Wen was killed in the invasion by Yuan Shu's forces.
A descendant of Liu Bei, King of Qi—the eldest son of Emperor Gao of Han, Liu Bang.
He was a cadet member of the imperial clan with high renown across the Central Plains.
It was said he had refused one weighty appointment after another from both the Imperial House and the Imperial Court.
If he had continued piling up achievements and fame out of office, severed from the mundane world, he would have been widely known to posterity as a great scholar of the late Han. Regrettably, however, in the original history, Liu Yao accepted the post of Inspector of Yang Province—left vacant by Yuan Shu's invasion—and met a miserable end.
'If Liu Yao has been appointed Governor of Danyang, then I wonder if Taishi Ci, that peerless warrior of Jiangdong, has come down from Qing Province yet... Liu Yao himself means nothing to me, but I can't afford to let Taishi Ci slip away.'
Taishi Ci.
A fierce general who fought the Little Conqueror to a draw in a Duel.
Losing such an outstanding warrior would be tantamount to throwing away rare gold.
I mentally logged Taishi Ci as my number-one recruitment priority and called to mind the other talents native to Jiangdong one by one. No matter how many capable people you brought in, there were never enough, so I had to make every preparation to recruit them all without missing a single one.
'Should I move the departure forward as much as possible? If I want to subdue Jiangdong swiftly and decisively, I need to hurry. And there's no reason to hesitate against third-rate rabble like Yan Baihu and Wang Lang anyway.'
Just when should we cross the Yangtze River?
I was pondering that question when—
"Governor of Xu Province, I think you need to return to Pengcheng urgently."
"What's the matter?"
A messenger had arrived from Pengcheng.
And in a plainly frantic voice, he announced a disaster.
"A fight has broken out among the soldiers. It involves more than a few dozen men. A brawl erupted when the Danyang Troops clashed with the Governor of Xu Province's soldiers."
"...We'll head back right away."
Fistfights among stout, hot-blooded soldiers were an everyday occurrence in camp. But when the scale of the brawl reached hundreds, that was a serious matter.
This was no time to be leisurely inspecting ships.
I resolved to return to Pengcheng as fast as possible.
* * *
To Liu Bei's army, the Danyang Troops were an arrogant and insolent lot for mere surrendered soldiers. To the Danyang Troops, on the other hand, Liu Bei's forces were worthless curs from nobody-knew-where.
Drifters who'd roamed the realm.
Nothing more than a mercenary band of uncertain origins and background.
Composed solely of officers and men from Danyang Prefecture—the hometown of Inspector of Xu Province Tao Qian—the Danyang Troops possessed formidable pride as an elite corps. And their commander, Retainer Cao Bao, was the foremost figure in Tao Qian's army and, as a member of the local gentry who represented Xu Province, enjoyed great renown.
'For Liu Bei's army, once a mere collection of wanderers, to swallow Xu Province in a single gulp... Cao Bao and the Danyang Troops can't help but feel resentment and a sense of dispossession. On top of that, a cadet imperial clan member who used to weave mats got appointed Governor of Xu Province—how much worse must that make it for them.'
I had appointed Cao Bao as General of Valiant Cavalry and promised rewards to the officers and men of the Danyang Troops. I'd also devoted effort to an appeasement policy: raising official posts and their feudatory estates, and the like.
But there was no way that alone could cover up their sense of loss.
When Liu Bei's sworn sisters Guan Yu and Zhang Fei received the offices of Governor of Xiapi and Governor of Langya, the officers and men from Tao Qian's army were pushed to the background. While most of the officers and soldiers seemed to accept it with indifference, Cao Bao and the Danyang Troops reacted with open defiance.
- Clear off, big-eared bitch!
- We won't follow some country wench who used to make straw sandals!
- We served in Elder Tao Qian's command for many long years... Why in the hell should we be the ones shoved aside!
In the end, Liu Bei's army would take every key position in Xu Province.
The Danyang Troops' discontent had erupted all at once.
"Setting aside the men who joined in later... How many were the main culprits who started the fight?"
"Twenty-five in total."
Hoo.
I let out a heavy sigh.
At that, a beautiful woman with long black hair bowed her head.
"It was my failure to keep my subordinates under strict control. I will accept due responsibility."
From Liu Bei's army and the Danyang Troops, I ordered a caning punishment for the twenty-five officers and men identified as the main culprits.
They had violated military law and started a fight.
Worse, these officers and men had committed the blunder of brawling openly in the public square.
Countless commoners in that square had witnessed the ugly spectacle. Through physical violence, it had been exposed that Liu Bei's army and the Danyang Troops were hostile toward one another.
"Simply meting out severe punishment isn't the answer by itself. Governor of Xiapi, what are your thoughts?"
"I am not defending subordinates who broke military law, but General of Valiant Cavalry Cao Bao does not recognize my older sister, the one appointed Governor of Xu Province, as his superior. If you, Crown Prince, should leave Xu Province empty for the Yang Province campaign, Cao Bao will without a doubt plot something disgraceful."
She was right.
Cao Bao did not acknowledge Liu Bei's rule in the slightest.
He had merely submitted to force.
He had no intention at all of following her sincerely.
Even in the original history, hadn't he refused to accept Liu Bei's army after they succeeded Tao Qian's forces and then raised a rebellion? He'd even gone so far as to draw in Lü Bu's army—then stationed at Xiaopei City as a guest general—and driven Liu Bei's forces out.
"Ah."
"What is it?"
"Where is Zhang Fei, Governor of Langya?"
"Yide is, most likely...!"
With the reckless temperament of that girl with the flowing lavender hair, she would never forgive the Danyang Troops' officers and men for insulting her eldest sworn sister.
Nine chances out of ten.
No,
a certainty, practically.
In the original history, after Zhang Fei killed Cao Bao, the Danyang Troops' rebellion broke out. In Zhang Fei's eyes, Cao Bao—not content with merely opposing Liu Bei's rule, but going so far as to heap insults upon it—was 'someone who absolutely had to die.'
"Mmm... Still, her own men seemed happy enough to be whipped. Might Cao Bao also take a whipping and change his ways?"
"Wha, what are you saying...! There's no chance of that!!"
Alright.
I was just indulging in a little happy fantasy.
I thought this while looking at Guan Yu's elegant face, now tinged with agitation.
"A gr-grave emergency! The Governor of Langya has... single-handedly beaten down the General of Valiant Cavalry and his men!"
"Did she beat them with her bare fists?"
"P-pardon?! I don't know that much!"
"Understood."
The fault clearly lay with Cao Bao and the Danyang Troops' officers and men, who refused to recognize Liu Bei's rule. The surrendered general and his surrendered soldiers from the battlefield had been throwing their arrogant pride around without knowing their place.
In addition,
the commander who had appointed Liu Bei the new Governor of Xu Province was the King of Chen, Liu Chong.
Refusing to accept that decision constituted defiance of orders, and persisting in such arrogant pride until the end was tantamount to enmity and rebellion against Liu Chong's army.
"Arrest Cao Bao and his men. And... have the Governor of Langya brought to my office."
"I shall carry out the Crown Prince's command."
I spoke while looking at Guan Yu, who was awaiting my instructions.
At that, Guan Yu nodded calmly, as if she had expected it.