Po Sanniang (3)
The two of them set out together for Jiangling.
Guan Suo recommended Po Sanniang, but Guan Yu’s response was less than favorable. He stroked the silk-like beard that was his hallmark—a magnificent beard worthy of the epithet Lord Beautiful Beard.
“This is a post that demands strict military discipline and command over the troops. How can a woman be raised as a general?”
Guan Yu’s mind was broad enough to appoint even a former bandit as an officer if the man had talent. Even so, he had never considered placing a woman among his commanders.
“It is not enough simply to be skilled in arms. One must answer for the lives of the soldiers.”
“Sanniang is no ordinary woman.”
Having watched her closely, Guan Suo pressed his case with his father.
“She has already built a record suppressing bandits, and she has led people before through her work as a wandering knight.”
“Hm…”
“She has the martial strength to overpower most grown men, and her spirit and courage are so outstanding that the soldiers will admire her and follow her gladly.”
Guan Yu had already heard the rumors of a heroine who had gone about catching bandits. Having once belonged to a company of righteous wanderers himself, he found what Po Sanniang had done rather admirable.
“Father, at least grant her a chance to sit for the examination.”
“Very well. I will allow her to take the martial officer’s trial.”
If she truly possessed outstanding military talent, there was no reason not to use her. With that thought, Guan Yu gave Po Sanniang her opportunity.
Without hesitation she answered every question on which formation to deploy according to the enemy’s movements. She also displayed swordsmanship fine enough to floor rough, burly men. Given her first real chance, Po Sanniang passed the examination with distinction and succeeded in becoming the military officer she had always hoped to be.
“Congratulations, Sanniang.”
Guan Suo presented her with a beautiful flower as he offered his congratulations. True to the nickname Flower Guan Suo, he clearly had an eye for blooms.
“Thank you, Yuji. It’s all because of you.”
Receiving the flower, Po Sanniang bloomed into a radiant smile of pure delight.
Having become a general in Jing Province, Po Sanniang sent word to her family.
To think she would end up serving under Guan Yu himself…
Without leaning on his influence at all, his daughter had become the military officer she had so longed to be, and at last Po Yuanwai accepted her dream. And this was no mere minor officer—this was Guan Yu, the peerless warrior whom even Cao Cao acknowledged.
Unwilling to stand as an obstacle in his daughter’s path, Po Yuanwai moved the main household from Ji Province to Jing Province.
Then came the time when the campaign for Fan Castle drew near.
Having realized her dream thanks to Guan Suo, Po Sanniang made up her mind to propose. She had already been drawn to him by the wholehearted way he had supported her for so long.
The problem was that Guan Suo, born with both pedigree and looks, was immensely popular with the opposite sex. Sensing her own feelings, Po Sanniang resolved to act before anyone else could snatch him away.
On a clear, bright spring day, she chose to propose to Guan Suo.
“Yuji, I am in love with you.”
His striking appearance and formidable martial skill had already won her regard. But more than anything, he was the man who had affirmed her dream and helped her achieve it. There was no reason not to love him.
“Will you make a lifelong vow with me?”
His reaction to the proposal, however, was lukewarm. Both of them had already come of age, so marriage was perfectly possible.
I’m sorry. I don’t feel that way about you yet.
Guan Suo held a certain fondness for Po Sanniang, but it did not rise to romantic love. He himself was not fully aware of it, yet at heart he had a nature that took a lively interest in women.
As the son of the peerless warrior Guan Yu, and gifted with such handsome looks besides, his romantic history was extensive. His kindly manner toward every woman he met made misunderstandings all too easy.
When we were only friends, it never bothered me much…
Now that same romantic history felt more unsettling than ever. It would not have been strange if, a few days later, he turned up setting up house with some other woman. After wrestling with how to handle the matter, Po Sanniang played her boldest card.
“Then, if you will enter into a betrothal with me and promise to marry me later, I will not mind however many wives or concubines you take.”
It might have been called a self-defeating move, but she had no other choice. The betrothal itself was made on the understanding that if their hearts did not match, they could break it off. At first he meant to refuse even that, yet under her earnest pleading Guan Suo accepted her proposal.
She felt a pang of regret that she could not have him to herself—but she wanted, at the very least, to be first in his life. Guan Suo, for his part, recognized that the offer was more than considerate of him, and so he accepted.
Not long after their betrothal, the siege of Fan Castle erupted. Po Sanniang marched out as Guan Suo’s adjutant, but during the assault he sustained a serious wound. On Guan Yu’s orders, she withdrew from the front with him and made for the Po Family Manor.
Having heard Po Sanniang’s story, I nodded in understanding.
So that was how it was.
I found myself looking at Guan Suo in a slightly new light. I had taken him for nothing more than a playboy who went around charming women.
Well, a womanizing wastrel he certainly was…
But to think his wild living had sprung from the pressure of having such a great father. Surprisingly, there had been some reason behind it after all.
And judging by how he comforted Po Sanniang, he had a decent depth of character, too.
In this age, women’s standing was low, and a female general was exceedingly rare. Even in the Records of the Three Kingdoms, setting aside the odd royal exception, one could hardly find a woman among the commanders. One worry, however, had begun to form.
“Then… what about me as I am now?”
“Pardon?”
“You said my personality has changed a great deal.”
The man she had fallen for was the Guan Suo from before I had possessed this body—someone different from who I was now.
“I went around at Yiling giving orders as if I knew everything. Didn’t that bother you?”
I asked out of genuine concern that I might have offended her. From Po Sanniang’s perspective, knowing nothing of the truth, she would have had every right to take offense.
“No. I still think highly of you.”
“Hm?”
“At first I didn’t understand, of course.”
He had suddenly risen from his sickbed and headed for the battlefield while his wounds were still unhealed. He had done things he never would have done before, and made requests that at the time made no sense at all.
But every one of them had been an act of devotion for Shu’s sake—and in the end, at Yiling, he had saved Liu Bei and countless officers and men.
“If anything, I fell for you all over again, Nanggun.”
Po Sanniang looked at me with a pure, clear smile. That lingering gaze felt a little heavy, so I turned my head aside and asked,
“By the way—why don’t you and Yinping get along?”
“Ah… that.”
At my words, Po Sanniang gave a sheepish little laugh.
“We don’t really fight. When it’s just the two of us, we actually get along quite well.”
Guan Yinping also aspired to become a general, she said, and so the two of them were close.
“Huh?”
It had never looked that way to me.
“Then what was all that arguing about the rooms yesterday?”
I clearly remembered the two of them locking eyes and sparring with each other. When I looked puzzled, Po Sanniang only laughed as if she found it amusing.
“We’re surprisingly good friends. We only act like that in front of you, Nanggun.”
According to her, it was nothing more than a little sister’s childish possessiveness after having her older brother stolen away. When Guan Yinping learned that Guan Suo had become betrothed to Po Sanniang, she had rushed over at once to object. But they only ever quarreled in words; they had never truly fought in any serious way.
“She’s simply resentful that her beloved older brother was taken from her by me.”
The reason was that, once her close older brother had acquired a fiancée, the time they could spend together had dwindled.
“And knowing that, you deliberately provoke her?”
“I’m going to marry you someday, Nanggun. We ought to grow closer while we do this.”
Sharing stories of the past, I felt we had grown considerably closer. Po Sanniang and I talked easily as we made our way back home.
A few days later, his health improved, Liu Bei returned from Baidi City to Chengdu.
He was renowned as a benevolent and wise sovereign, yet the people’s reaction to him was mixed. More precisely, those who had lost family members met him with nothing but coldness. He had launched a war not for a greater cause but out of personal vengeance, and innocent people had died for it.
A natural response, if one thought about it. In their eyes he was little better than a dark ruler who had willfully raised an army and drained the strength of the state. Liu Bei knew this well, and he bore it.
As the Emperor walked toward the throne, the assembled officials who had been murmuring among themselves bowed their heads as one.
…He hasn’t lost the people’s hearts quite as badly as I expected.
I did not know what judgment the ministers had passed on the Liu Bei who, in the original history, had died at Baidi City. All I knew was that after entrusting the orphaned heir to Zhao Yun, Zhuge Liang, and Li Yan and then passing away, those who remained had fallen into grief.
Encouraged by Zhuge Liang, Liu Bei had recovered a great deal of his strength. True to a sovereign-and-minister bond called as close as fish and water, they seemed to place deep trust in each other even when their opinions differed.
Most of the generals, including Feng Xi and Cheng Ji, were demoted for their responsibility in the defeat. Since they had requested it themselves, there was no room for complaint.
Feng Xi, who had been Chief Commander, had intended to resign his post entirely to take responsibility, but Zhuge Liang settled the matter by reassigning him to a quiet post. A man capable enough to have held the office of Chief Commander could not simply be cast aside.
It wasn’t Feng Xi’s fault we lost in the first place, anyway.
That said, two officers were promoted. One was Zhao Yun, who had saved Liu Bei’s life in the hour of crisis. The other was…
“Let Commandant of Cavalry Guan Suo be raised to the rank of Deputy General.”
…He’s promoting me?
It was true that I had distinguished myself in the great battle at Yiling, but I had not expected a promotion. I had shown no hesitation in acts that crossed Liu Bei’s temper.
By offering opinions without going through my superiors, I had drawn the eyes of the other generals as well. I had assumed that the merit I had earned this time would merely earn me a pardon. I had scarcely expected to be advanced.
Even if it is only the lowest grade of generalship, to promote me to a general’s rank… Is it because I saved his life?
Once the awards and appointments were finished, I was turning over Liu Bei’s intentions in my mind and about to head home when someone called to me from behind.
“Lord Guan Suo.”
“The Prime Minister requests your presence.”