Gathering Forces (2)
Sun Jian.
There is no one who does not know the "Tiger of Jiangdong" who crushed countless rebellions.
The rebellion in Xuchang
The Yellow Turban Rebellion
The Bian Zhang and Han Sui rebellion
Sweeping freely across Guandong and Guanxi, he piled up achievements without number. Sun Jian's name for valor—charging headlong and slaughtering rebels without a shred of hesitation—truly matched that of a tiger.
And yet,
Years of dazzling service never brought him promotion.
He came from a rising local clan on the frontier, and his family lacked any real prestige. Even after a decisive contribution to suppressing the Yellow Turban Rebellion, injustice prevailed: he was stuck cycling through petty posts.
"Those bastards! When the Ten Regular Attendants were butchered I allowed myself a little hope... but forget it! The Imperial House and Court are rotten!"
"Our brothers of Jiangdong fought with more courage than anyone—why do we still get treated like dirt!"
They had fought with their lives.
Never a moment's hesitation when charging an enemy line.
Parrying the bite of spear and sword,
throwing their bodies into arrow storms that fell like monsoon rain.
The result was the life of a vagrant army.
For months they had received no salary, and they had to secure funds and provisions themselves just to keep the unit running. When Dong Zhuo—who'd been hostile to them—seized the Imperial House and Court, things became truly desperate.
"King of Chen, Liu Chong..."
When they escaped Luoyang and reached Xingyang Prefecture,
a completely unexpected offer reached them.
The King of Chen, Liu Chong.
To be precise, the proposal came from Liu Seong-hwi, the Crown Prince of Chen Kingdom.
"He says if we come south he will grant the office General Who Defeats the Barbarians and a feudal title. And he'll pay the officers and troops months of back salary in one lump sum, on behalf of the Imperial House and Court."
General Who Defeats the Barbarians
A military office he'd craved his whole life.
And the unprecedented offer followed right behind: land and ennoblement as a feudal lord.
Every copper of back pay would be covered.
For soldiers ground down by brutal poverty, that would be enormous comfort.
The instant Liu Seong-hwi's offer was laid out, Sun Jian's officers and men agreed as one. At last someone recognized their ability and their service.
"If it were some nobody lord in name only, I'd dismiss it as empty talk. But King of Chen Liu Chong is the only vassal king who's beaten down every bandit crew in the Central Plains."
"An offer like this won't come twice. Accept it, my lord!"
The decision took less than a quarter of an hour.
True to Jiangdong's reputation for big-hearted character, even a once-in-a-lifetime choice came crisp and clear.
"My wife will surely be happy. Chen Kingdom is a fief in Yu Province but close to the south—we can see the family again. The men are already celebrating at the thought of reuniting with the kin they left behind."
"Ce'er, Quan'er... they must've grown so much I wouldn't recognize them."
Six years.
Six whole years since he'd seen his family.
Once he'd gone up to Luoyang chasing the dream of rising high and making his name, he'd never once come home. He'd sworn to himself that he would not see them until his dream was real.
"Begin the march. We go to Chen Kingdom now."
"Yes, my lord!"
Huang Gai. Cheng Pu. Han Dang. Zu Mao.
The commanders who served Sun Jian mounted their horses.
And the Jiangdong troops stepped forward, their march begun.
* * *
The reply accepting the proposal arrived from Sun Jian's army,
and at the same time, a letter flew in from Bohai Prefecture in Ji Province.
— We are quietly forming a coalition army to crush the tyranny of Dong Zhuo, who deposed and poisoned the Emperor and the Empress Dowager. If His Highness the King of Chen leads his great southern host to join us, the lords of the Central Plains will gladly honor him as Alliance Leader.
An anti-Dong Zhuo coalition.
An offer to take up the position of Alliance Leader of the Guandong Coalition Army.
Yuan Shao.
A luminary of the Pure Stream Faction vouched for her identity.
If a kinsman of the Han Imperial House—a vassal king descended from Emperor Guangwu—commanded the coalition, the uprising would gain both a righteous justification and political legitimacy. The arrogant lords would hardly dare defy a vassal king's orders, which was probably why they wanted to put him forward as Alliance Leader.
"Will this alliance succeed?"
"It will certainly fail."
Liu Chong asked.
I answered without hesitation.
"The resolve is admirable—to gather lords who all have their own schemes and defeat a traitor who's usurped absolute power. But... Dong Zhuo is a warlord who has commanded great armies his whole career, a rebel to match Wang Mang. The fighting will be savage."
That bunch is nothing but a pack of feckless commanders who lost to Yellow Turbans barely worth calling an army.
Strategically, they're stone-headed.
But Dong Zhuo's Leadership—his capacity to control a large host—is first-rate.
The Xiliang officers and men are fierce and brave but fatally short on unity. Dong Zhuo is the man who wrung unwavering loyalty from those brutish wild animals.
"Then would it be wise to refuse?"
"Father, you are an elder of the Han Imperial House and a vassal king who commands the south. If you show a lukewarm response to a just cause to destroy great evil, the scholars Out of Office will be deeply disappointed."
"Quite the problem. The Talented Woman of a family that calls itself Four Generations of Three Dukes has handed us an awkward puzzle."
"T-Talented Woman...? In any case, you need not treat this as difficult. There's always the option of saving face by supplying provisions and weapons without sending troops."
Renown and esteem must be protected at all times.
Taking in royals so broke they'd been begging door to door had itself been a matter of renown and esteem as a vassal king.
Best to avoid giving a firm answer for now.
Giving Yuan Shao—the one hatching the coalition—leverage over us is a real risk.
At that, Liu Chong nodded and accepted.
"Ah, Sun Jian of Xingyang has passed through Runan Prefecture, I hear. He'll probably arrive today."
"That army earned great merit, only to get contempt and injustice from the Imperial House and Court. If Father welcomes them with full courtesy, wouldn't they follow with true hearts?"
"Taming a tiger takes sincerity."
"And a bridle and a whip."
Unlike the other would-be lords of the era, all of them open schemers, Sun Jian was viewed favorably enough that later historians gave him the nickname "the loyal and upright commander."
But there were also those who rated him poorly—rash, reckless, full of foolish bravado.
How to tame the Tiger of Jiangdong.
Everything going forward would turn on the answer.
* * *
As more than a hundred thousand people poured in from the Central Plains, a capable bureaucracy and administrative capacity to govern the counties efficiently became desperately needed.
And not only in Chen Kingdom.
Jiujiang Prefecture and Lujiang Prefecture—both crammed with refugees—were struggling too.
If they kept hitting saturation, control would break down.
Food would run out fast.
Public order would collapse, and all the refugees would slide into vagrancy.
Regrettably, I lacked the qualities of a civil administrator. If a scholar who possessed the right Ability Scores and specialty skills for internal affairs taught me, I could eventually pull my weight—but this was no time to sit idly at a desk grinding stats.
"The Crown Prince of Chen presents himself before the worthies of Jiangdong. I beg you forgive the discourtesy that the urgency of events forced upon me."
The Two Zhangs of Jiangdong
I had called in the worthies living Out of Office to escape the chaos of the Central Plains.
Zhang Zhao. Zhang Hong.
The men who had been recruited by Sun Ce's army and laid Wu's foundations.
The Two Zhangs of Jiangdong were the foremost contributors who raised Sun Ce's army—up to that point little more than a warlord fixated on martial power—into a hegemon of Jiangdong. Without them, brought in on Zhou Yu's recommendation, Sun Ce's force would have remained nothing but a gang illegally occupying territory.
'Sun Ce figured out early that her own head was a block of stone and handed full authority to Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong. Being thick is fine; the real problem is the stubbornness of refusing to admit you're thick.'
You have to admit your own shortcomings.
Only after that can you recruit the talent that fills them in.
The Two Zhangs, who would take full charge of internal administration, were merely a start. From now on I intended to pour every effort into bringing in more talent.
If we joined the anti-Dong Zhuo coalition—
I would need people to assist Father in my place.
"We are nothing but students of Confucius. The Crown Prince's welcome leaves us at a loss."
"Even deep in the valleys we've long heard of the renown of His Highness the King of Chen and the young lord who defended the south. Feeble though our strength may be, if you entrust us with office we shall devote ourselves utterly."
I won acceptance from the Two Zhangs in one meeting.
Watching Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong agree so readily, I let out a relieved breath.
Too often,
recruitment failed for lack of reputation or some other reason.
"Then let's proceed with the salary negotiation. To start, how about six hundred dan as the initial stipend?"
Across all times and lands, an official's pay is a matter of weight.
Six hundred dan.
For a first offer, not a bad figure.