The Night Before the Storm (1)
With the elevation from a royal house to an imperial house came many areas that now required caution—especially the rites and protocols, and above all, the increasingly cumbersome ceremonies and forms of address.
Imperial Crown Prince.
A status that would someday inherit the imperial throne.
Liu Chong often indicated that he would declare abdication once the great enterprise of unifying the realm was achieved. The honor and authority he had assumed in his eldest son's stead, he meant to return to their original owner.
"You must sit upright and straight-backed at all times. Please correct the habit of sitting at an angle. I fear the palace eunuchs and maids will find fault."
"This is comfortable. Could it be that my back is a little bent?"
"Your Highness the Crown Prince."
"I understand, Teacher."
Grand Tutor.
The office exclusively responsible for the education of the Imperial Crown Prince.
The man appointed Grand Tutor was Kong Zhou, who had previously served as Inspector of Yu Province.
Kong Zhou was a notable of the Pure Stream Faction who had been appointed to provincial office as part of the Appeasement Policy engineered by Dong Zhuo's army. When Liu Chong's army expanded its sphere of influence by sweeping through Xu Province and Yang Province, Kong Zhou surrendered, bringing his followers with him.
'Studying rites seated beside an uncle with a bushy beard... I would've progressed far faster if I'd learned from a married woman with a curvaceous body. But, of all people, the only one thoroughly versed in palace ceremony and protocol was the Inspector of Yu Province.'
Most of the notables who had taken office under Liu Chong's army came from Local Gentry backgrounds—they had studied Out of Office in the countryside rather than serving at the Imperial Court. They were therefore practically laymen when it came to palace protocol.
Kong Zhou.
Why the hell is his name Kong Zhou?
His mother must have wanted a pretty daughter and, well, made a mistake.
"I shall conclude today's lesson. You must diligently review what you learned today. If your progress should prove unsatisfactory, I will report every detail to His Majesty!"
"You're threatening your own Crown Prince..."
Are Pure Stream notables all fundamentally this stubborn?
This was why the eunuchs pushed them out.
A bitter and astringent herbal decoction that does your health good.
Honey-water that boasts a mellow sweetness but harms the body.
Naturally, anyone faithful to their desires would reject the decoction and choose the honey-water. And so, despite their erudition and insight, the Pure Stream Faction—possessed of a truly staggering lack of tact—were purged by the Turbid Stream Faction spearheaded by the eunuchs.
Of course, that doesn't mean all Pure Stream notables were righteous and incorruptible.
They were just better compared to the Ten Regular Attendants and the Turbid Stream Faction.
"It seems the Grand Tutor has high expectations of you. To burn with fervor for two shichen without a single break."
"That's exactly why it's torture."
Lucky it ended after only two shichen.
Normally, swelling with educational zeal, he would've kept going for three shichen.
If a maiden with flowing platinum-blonde hair hadn't been waiting for him, he certainly would have continued his lengthy discourse as usual. I looked at the girl with the bright smile on her pure-white face and offered my thanks.
"Once again, a supreme beauty has been of help to His Highness the Crown Prince. Just like when I helped persuade the Scholar-Officials and Local Gentry of Wu Prefecture to join. It wouldn't be strange if I were appointed Imperial Crown Princess Consort at once, you know."
"It's not quite at that level."
"Hmph! Adding an unnecessary remark to humiliate the most beautiful girl under heaven—His Highness's learning is indeed still lacking. I shall have to summon the Grand Tutor back."
"I'm sorry, just this once, please forgive me."
The daughter of the Wu Prefecture Lu Clan, once just a tomboyish girl, had grown into a young lady possessed of precocious charm and grace. Curves that had transformed in a feminine direction attested to her precocious development.
Her long-braided platinum-blonde hair.
Cheeks as white as if powdered and lips of vivid crimson.
And an eye-smile brimming with fresh charm.
Had the will behind her words manifested?
She had grown into the supreme beauty she'd spoken of like a verbal tic.
But despite having grown into a beauty of the age with a promising future, no marriage proposals came her way. For the daughter of the Wu Prefecture Lu Clan already had a match that had been designated for years.
"Naturally, I am to marry His Highness the Crown Prince. Though it's lamentable for all the countless men under heaven who adore a supreme beauty purer than dawn and lovelier than the night sky... I promised a hundred-year bond from the very first moment I met His Highness."
"First I'm hearing of this."
Lu Xun spoke, her deep-green eyes sparkling.
She made an extravagant gesture, one hand laid over her modest chest.
"I'm thinking of dealing with the large breasts that are beguiling His Highness. To begin with the bodyguards of lascivious figure who guard Your Highness's person, and the palace maids who, ever since your appointment as Imperial Crown Prince, have started seducing Your Highness while subtly exposing their large breasts—what if I were to remove them all?"
"...You. Just go join Cao Cao's army."
Lu Xun held out a list inscribed with a great many names.
Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhao Yun, Taishi Ci...
They were all names of women who boasted huge breasts.
"Is that a dispatch from Commander Zhou Yu? I heard matters on the Jing Province front have become quite noisy... enemy warships from Liu Biao's army have been appearing frequently."
"It's a sign that all-out war isn't far off."
The Calm Before the Storm.
It denotes the quiet stillness just before a gale.
That's because a typhoon's center forms powerful low pressure and draws in the surrounding air. This creates a state of relative high pressure near the ground, causing the wind to die down and clear weather to appear.
Warfare, however, is different.
Through many portents, it signals that the calamity of conflict is about to ignite. The Yang Province-Jing Province front, where a deadly atmosphere was surging like a harbor awaiting the storm, was telling the tale of a massive war approaching.
* * *
Commander Zhou Yu had already discerned that the Jing Province river pirates—who had raided as far as Yuzhang Prefecture in Yang Province with phantomlike elusiveness—were Scout Ships mobilized for tactical purposes.
The enemy's objective wasn't plunder.
It was to reconnoiter the scale and disposition of the Yang Province fleet deployed on the Yangtze River.
They were on another level from the rabble who did nothing but loot and commit arson. The river pirates subordinated to Liu Biao's army were demonstrating a specialized command ability comparable to that of veteran regulars.
"Gan Ning? That's a name I've never heard before."
"A ruthless chieftain originally from Yi Province. After receiving a sentence of extreme punishment from Governor of Yi Province Liu Yan, he murdered Liu Yan's close retainers and is said to have fled to Jing Province."
Gan Ning, originally a local magnate in Yi Province, had blockaded the waterways and monopolized the silk trade, amassing a staggering fortune. Further, as though born an innate killer, he'd gained notoriety for a cruelty that always delighted in staining a dagger with blood.
Even Liu Yan, who had styled himself sovereign in Bashu, had trembled before him.
Zhou Yu was deeply wary of Gan Ning, the pirates' chieftain.
"Somehow, we must devise a way to eliminate these elusive pirates in a single stroke. If all-out war erupts on the Yangtze, Gan Ning's band will be at the vanguard disrupting our fleet. And if our warships should, one after another, be engulfed in flames... a hell of fire will unfold on the water."
"..."
Gan Ning and her river pirates were an elite force specialized in Fire Stratagem. As if to prove the point, while the pirates who had penetrated Yuzhang Prefecture were being pursued, a warship had been observed burning to nothing in an instant.
Flaming arrows.
Oil jars.
Fire Ships laden with sulfur and piles of firewood.
The moment combat was joined, they would set an enemy vessel ablaze.
Warships built of timber were, naturally, inevitably vulnerable to Fire Stratagem. This was all the more true because the pitch applied for waterproofing was a dangerously flammable substance.
"What of this mountain of piled bamboo slips? They'd make good kindling."
"They are love letters sent to the Commander."
"...Not love letters sent to the Deputy Commander?"
"Yes."
Deputy Commander Lu Su, with a countenance and character as beautiful and saintly as a sage, received passionately ardent courtship from countless men. The one sole person who surpassed even Lu Su was Zhou Yu.
A man.
He was a manly man who had undergone his Coming-of-Age Ceremony.
And yet, because of a delicate and pretty face like a kingdom-toppling beauty, he was called Handsome Zhou.
Soft-green hair pinned with an ornamental hairpin.
A nape as pretty as a doe's.
Slender shoulders that stirred the urge to protect, and wide sleeves.
I know he's a man.
Even so, tens of thousands of sailors proclaimed themselves his passionate devotees.
"I'm a man! I said I'm a man! A proper manly man who's even undergone his Coming-of-Age Ceremony! I am sworn brother to Sun Ce, called the Little Conqueror of Jiangdong, and the family head representing the Lujiang Zhou Clan!"
"We are aware, of course."
"You send love letters knowing the truth...? Disgusting bastards!"
"..."
His pretty face crumpled into a grimace of revulsion.
Overflowing emotions of disillusionment and fury.
The men sending love letters weren't just common soldiers. Evidence had surfaced that Deputy Generals—officers who assisted their generals—were also sending love letters to Handsome Zhou, who boasted a kingdom-toppling beauty.
"If my uncle finds out, he'll tease me about it forever. For now, burn every last one of these letters, unpleasant by their very existence."
"Understood."
Whoosh—
The letters brimming with amorous admiration were reduced to kindling.
Zhou Yu, watching, clicked his tongue.
