Wu and Yue in the Same Boat (2)
Two days after my private audience with Zhuge Liang.
"General Guan Suo, His Majesty requests your presence."
This time it was Liu Bei who summoned me.
...Quite a few people have been looking for me lately.
Even as the thought crossed my mind, I made my way to the imperial palace where Liu Bei resided.
"It has been some time."
Liu Bei was seated on his sickbed, still unwell.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
I studied his complexion.
I'd heard his health was improving...
Perhaps it was the bitter grief of failing to avenge his sworn brothers, or the crushing guilt of having sent countless innocent soldiers to their deaths. He looked even more haggard than he had at the merit awards ceremony. It was hard to believe this was the same man who had so fiercely insisted on war at Yiling.
If he called me here alone, he must have something to say.
"...I owe you an apology for what happened before."
Liu Bei bowed his head toward me in contrition.
"I refused to heed your loyal counsel and clung stubbornly to my own will, and so brought about this catastrophe."
"Please, Your Majesty, raise your head."
I waved my hands urgently, trying to stop him. It was unthinkable for an emperor to bow his head to a mere general.
"I summoned you today because there is one thing I wish to ask."
"Yes, please speak."
"Why did you oppose the war with Wu?"
"......."
"The enemy was Wu—the very nation that murdered your father. And yet you, of all people, the one who should have led the charge for vengeance, stood against the war. I found it strange."
Liu Bei had seen the memorial arguing that we should make peace with Wu and destroy Wei, so he understood the logic with his head. But he could not help wondering how an inexperienced young general could remain so unswayed by emotion. Just look at Guan Xing and Zhang Bao—both of them burned with the hunger for revenge.
"I ask this not as your emperor, but as your uncle. Speak freely, without reservation."
Before recounting what I had told Zhuge Liang, I began with something else.
"I know well the oath Your Majesty and my father swore."
The Oath of the Peach Garden.
Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei had sworn brotherhood beneath the peach trees, vowing to die on the same day in the same hour.
"I, too, felt as though my very entrails were being torn apart by my father's death. The depth of Your Majesty's grief, after decades at his side, is something I cannot begin to fathom."
I lowered my head slightly, my expression dark.
"But during my convalescence, I thought about the future."
"Even if we poured the entire strength of the nation into barely destroying Wu, Cao Pi would never stand idle and watch."
Word had already reached us that Wei was mobilizing its armies against Wu.
"Is it not Cao Pi and the kingdom of Wei who are the vile traitors that ended the Han dynasty with their own hands?"
I deliberately invoked the usurpation of Emperor Xian. Liu Bei's brow twitched at the words. For a man who had spent his entire life dreaming of restoring the Han, the death of his sworn brothers and the fall of the Han were both sacred wounds.
I was reminding him once more of why Shu Han had been founded.
"We established this nation to destroy Wei and succeed the Han. Striking at Wu is no different from aiding the traitors."
Shu Han had been founded to succeed the Han that Wei had destroyed. Yet striking Wu would only be helping the very kingdom that had brought the Han to ruin.
Liu Bei listened in silence, then asked:
"So you desire peace with Wu?"
"Yes. Setting private feelings aside, I have resolved that we must strike the usurper who seized the imperial throne."
Had I said this to the Liu Bei who raged with the need to avenge his sworn brothers, I would have been punished. But this was a Liu Bei who had tasted bitter defeat, and so he only wore a conflicted expression.
"...I understand your meaning."
Liu Bei let out a long, regretful sigh.
"I am sorry. I already knew from Kongming what you meant by opposing the war."
Two days earlier, Zhuge Liang had relayed his conversation with Guan Suo to Liu Bei.
"But a part of me still could not accept it, and so I called you here."
Liu Bei valued loyalty and filial piety above all, and so he struggled to understand Guan Suo, who prioritized practical advantage.
"I understand."
"How can a man so swayed by emotion hope to carry on the great enterprise?"
Liu Bei turned his bitterness upon himself and lamented.
"Perhaps it would be best if I abdicated the throne—"
"Your Majesty, may I speak?"
Before the seed of disaster could take root, I cut him off. Interrupting the emperor might be considered disrespectful, but Liu Bei himself had told me to speak without reservation.
"In this subject's humble opinion, abdicating the throne would be premature."
"Why?"
"I failed to keep my promise to my sworn brothers, and I failed to avenge them."
Liu Bei hung his head as though he had no face left to turn toward Heaven.
"Not only that—I caused the deaths of countless soldiers and forced the dismissal of blameless officers."
The hands clasped upon his knees trembled violently.
"How can a man who launched a war for private vengeance, who cost the common people their lives, continue as emperor?!"
He was tormented by guilt over having started the Battle of Yiling.
"Perhaps even now I should follow my sworn brothers—"
"Your Majesty."
I cut through his lament and asked:
"This may be disrespectful, but I believe I must say this."
"What is it...?"
"In the Oath of the Peach Garden, what did you swear together with the two of them?"
"...What did we swear? Why, that was..."
Beneath the peach trees of the garden, the three men had sworn an oath: to set right a world thrown into chaos by the Yellow Turban Rebellion, and to restore the Han dynasty. For decades they had ridden across battlefields, cutting down countless enemies to reach this point. Their purpose had shifted when the Han fell—it had become the destruction of Wei.
No—it should have become that.
"If Your Majesty were to meet my father, what could you tell him you accomplished as emperor?"
I left Zhang Fei out of the question, since he had thrown his support behind avenging Guan Yu.
"That is..."
Nothing. The only thing Liu Bei had done after becoming emperor was the Battle of Yiling. A man who had always prized the people's hearts had brought only misfortune upon the common folk of Shu.
"...I would have nothing to say..."
Even Zhang Fei, who had clamored for vengeance for Guan Yu, would have regretted his actions if he could see the catastrophe of the present.
"Whether going to meet the two of them is the wrong choice is not something I can declare with certainty."
If it were purely Liu Bei's personal wish, I would have nothing more to say.
"But this kingdom of Shu was built by the great and small ministers who followed and loved Your Majesty."
They were men who fought for the Han imperial house, or who followed Liu Bei for his renown. Zhao Yun and Zhuge Liang among them—and the officials who had come from Jing Province as well.
"Does Your Majesty intend to abandon them all and go to meet the two of them?"
In a way, it was a rebuke.
"If Your Majesty passes, Shu will fall into chaos both within and without, and the foreign tribes stirring in Nanzhong will rise up with spears and blades in hand."
"......."
Liu Bei could give no answer. He had clearly been trying to flee. Guan Suo had corrected that impulse and, in doing so, comforted him. So Liu Bei thought, admiring Guan Suo's thoughtful consideration.
...Of course, Guan Suo's actual thoughts were rather different from what Liu Bei imagined.
Taking responsibility was fine.
But dumping the bomb on us and trying to run off somewhere? Not a chance.
After all the effort we'd put into saving those officers, I wasn't about to let him shirk his responsibilities and bolt. After Liu Bei's death in the original history, how hard had Zhuge Liang worked to stabilize the chaotic political situation both inside and out?
Liu Shan in particular was the very definition of a passive man—an emperor who handed all governance over to his chancellors. An emperor who would only hold back Zhuge Liang when the man was already busy enough with the northern campaigns. Better to keep Liu Bei on the throne even if his strength was failing.
"...May I continue as emperor?"
"Of course, the decision is Your Majesty's alone. It is not for me to say yea or nay."
Having said everything I needed to, it felt a little absurd to add this now.
"But in this subject's personal opinion, this nation still needs Your Majesty."
It wasn't that I failed to understand his feelings.
They swore to die on the same day, at the same hour—and he alone survived, without even avenging them.
Losing the will to live would be only natural. His health had improved compared to the original history, but Liu Bei was still contemplating following his sworn brothers.
That could not be allowed.
When I intervened at Yiling, saving the other generals was important—but so was saving Liu Bei. Above all, I would not tolerate someone starting a whole mess and then trying to leave with a peaceful look on his face.
Work until you die.
"...Very well."
The persuasion seemed to have taken some hold—a flicker of light returned to Liu Bei's eyes.
"Thank you. You may withdraw."
"Yes. I shall take my leave."
Having nothing more to say, I rose and left.
After Guan Suo withdrew, Liu Bei wore a bitter smile.
...I've grown weak.
He had been trying to run away. From the painful reality of having lost both his sworn brothers and being left alone. Guan Suo had opened his eyes to that truth.
"You raised a fine son, Yunchang."
The boy he had once dismissed as a wastrel had grown, before he knew it, into a proper warrior. It pleased him inwardly. Truly, a tiger's cub is a tiger still.
Compared to his own timid, despondent son, he envied Guan Yu.
"...I am sorry, Yunchang. Yide."
Liu Bei murmured as he gazed out the window frame at the palace grounds beyond.
"I hope you will wait a little longer before we all gather in one place again."