Mountains Beyond Mountains
Mountains beyond mountains.
Father's eyes wavered.
Beneath the crush of watching gazes, the prospect of discussing strategy with his young son plainly sat ill with him. He hesitated a moment, then seemed to reach a decision. Deliberately lifting his voice, he strode over.
"You brat! Do you have any idea where this is, that you dare show your face?"
He scolded me for show and bent at the waist until our eyes were level. In that brief instant, for all the thunder in his voice, his gaze was nothing but worry.
"Get inside at once. What will you do if some blind arrow comes flying?"
"I will be fine. More than that—that man is Jia Xu. He keeps poison on his tongue. You must not lower your guard for an instant."
I whispered it so no one nearby could hear, staring straight into Father's eyes. By the art of reading faces, I had every chief official and commander in Luoyang fixed clearly in memory.
"If they withdraw without a struggle, that itself is the trap. They will have hidden, behind their backs, the blade meant for you. Look only at what stands before your eyes, and you will be taken. He is a truly frightening man. Even if you reach an accord, you must prepare for the counterstroke. Drop your guard, and Dong Zhuo's sword will find you."
At my words Father gave the slightest nod. He had understood.
Then his expression changed completely, and he bellowed loud enough for every ear.
"Get inside this instant! Step out of line again, and I will not forgive you!"
"Forgive me!"
I ducked my head as if driven off and ran into the room. Behind me came the sound of Father clearing his throat and setting his robes to rights.
"Yuantu."
"Yes, Sili Xiaowei."
Feng Ji stepped forward at once.
"You will be the one to meet him."
"Give me the terms of the negotiation."
"End this without bloodshed. That is all."
"I will bear it in mind."
Feng Ji offered a short, crisp military salute, then walked toward Jia Xu without a moment's hesitation. The officers and men of both sides had turned their blade-points to the ground, yet the taut standoff was still very much underway.
A suffocating stillness filled the room.
Jia Xu strolled about with his hands clasped behind his back, taking the chamber in at his leisure. Costly porcelain, shelves of books, pillars of antique grace—he ran a hand over them all.
"A fine house. A shame to burn it as it stands."
He clicked his tongue and slipped the threat in sideways. Feng Ji did not so much as blink. A thin smile touched his mouth.
"Set your mind at ease. Will only this place burn? The General of the Front's residence will burn with it."
Jia Xu smiled faintly, and his eyes narrowed.
"Let us speak plainly. All the Sili Xiaowei has left is his pride, is it not? The General of the Front has even absorbed the troops of the Bingzhou Inspectorate. The disparity in strength is great. Can you bear it? This is an egg dashed against a rock."
At the claim that even the Bingzhou Inspectorate's troops had been swallowed, Feng Ji went cold with shock. A heartbeat later he showed his own venom and struck back.
"And if that egg is no ordinary egg, but one that carries poison? Would the tale not change?"
He let the words hang, then drove the point home.
"When the egg breaks, the poisoned shards will stab the General of the Front in the eyes. Can you bear that?"
"Hoh..."
"The General of the Front means to hold the emperor and command all under heaven, does he not? And yet he would do battle here with the house of Yuan? Then that ambition will be difficult indeed to fulfill. Do not make light of the weight of years the Yuan have piled up while holding power."
Jia Xu's brow twitched. The thrust had found the quick.
He could kill Yuan Shao. But he would have to reckon with the Yuan's friendly powers, spread through every corner of the realm. Even Dong Zhuo himself had risen to office because Minister of the Masses Yuan Wei summoned him. To that degree, the strength of the Yuan reached everywhere—dense, and vast.
"A threat?"
"Counsel."
Feng Ji drove the wedge home without yielding.
"If you wish to live, go back empty-handed."
Jia Xu studied him for a moment. He had never intended to fight in any case. Still, he had to come away with something certain. A cold smile slowly spread across his mouth.
"Very well. You have a point."
He nodded as if in perfect accord.
"But I have conditions. Do not let the manner of our withdrawal be crumpled. A picture in which the Sili Xiaowei preserves the General of the Front's face and sees him off. That will suffice."
"That much is no difficulty."
"And this is nothing of consequence. Since you say the power of the Yuan is so great, raise the General of the Front to Grand Commandant."
Feng Ji's face went hard.
Grand Commandant was one of the Three Excellencies, the highest offices of the Han, the seat that held supreme command of the empire's military authority. Give Dong Zhuo the name, and let Yuan Shao keep the substance—at Jia Xu's proposal, Feng Ji's expression darkened. But this was a matter for Yuan Shao to decide.
"I must lay it before the Sili Xiaowei and receive his leave."
"This is the precondition. Otherwise I will not shrink from battle."
The two opened the door side by side and went out, as if they had not been aiming at each other's throats only moments before.
When Feng Ji returned, the strategists swarmed him in a rush. But once they heard the terms of the negotiation, their faces turned the color of ash.
Vicious wretch. With a shabby trick like this, he reaches for the Grand Commandant's seat?
Yuan Shao's brow knotted with rage. His gut boiled, but his mind ran cold. If Dong Zhuo had truly swallowed even the troops of the Bingzhou Inspectorate, the situation was no longer the same. Lose Colonel Wu Kuang's Imperial Guard on top of that, and every means of checking the man would vanish.
Even if I yield the Grand Commandant, the Imperial Guard must remain in my hand. Only then will I still have a sword-hilt to set against the nape of his neck.
Yuan Shao made his decision. He would grant Dong Zhuo's excessive demand. Confirmation, of course, was essential. If the claim that he had absorbed the Bingzhou Inspectorate's troops was empty bluster, then he could overturn the board when the time came and render the whole thing void.
No. By the man's nature, it will not be a lie. He is not fool enough to tell a falsehood that would be seen through at a glance.
He ran the numbers. The Imperial Guard Wu Ban had brought was about nine hundred—only a portion of the full strength of the General-in-Chief's Manor. Add one hundred household troops and the Sili Xiaowei's main body of four hundred, and the total came to fourteen hundred. Dong Zhuo's strength would be roughly ten times that, but it was at least enough to keep him in check.
"Sili Xiaowei, draw a sword here and we perish together. For now it is right to accept, and lay plans for another day."
At Xu You's counsel the other strategists nodded as well.
Yuan Shao slowly raised his head and looked across. Dong Zhuo, listening to Jia Xu's whisper, met his eyes, twisted the corner of his mouth, and smiled the smile of a victor.
"Very well. Let us do so."
Yuan Shao strode forward.
"Lord Dong. A moment ago, this one's voice rose somewhat high. It was unsightly. I ask you to understand it with a broad heart."
"Unlike you, Lord Yuan. It is nothing. I pressed my greed a little far myself."
"Dawn will soon be up. Shall we stop showing one another such ugly sights and withdraw our troops? There are many eyes upon us. I ask it of you."
Yuan Shao offered the formal bow first, and Dong Zhuo bent at the waist in return.
"Let us. Still, to end it in words alone is a little tepid. Won't you write me a verse?"
"If that is your wish."
At Dong Zhuo's oily demand, Yuan Shao at once ordered a writing desk brought.
Within ten days, Dong Zhuo shall be recommended for the office of Grand Commandant.
He pressed the Sili Xiaowei's seal firmly beneath the spare, unadorned lines and handed the pledge over. Dong Zhuo scanned it, and, seeming satisfied, waved a hand and turned his army about.
Where the storm had passed, a long sigh settled. However it had ended, the crisis was behind them, and the choicest troops had been kept. A truly breathless night.
"Strategists, wait in your chambers. Liang—you, together with Tan and Xi, see to the officers and men. Grasp the state of the Bingzhou Inspectorate as well."
Yuan Shao treated Yan Liang as a younger brother, and so he called him by his given name rather than his courtesy name.
"I receive your command."
Yan Liang answered stoutly and withdrew. Yuan Shao then called the brothers Wu Yi and Wu Ban close, easing the force from his voice to soothe them.
"You must be furious. But he has taken the troops of the General-in-Chief's Manor, and the Bingzhou army besides, so there was no help for it. Even so, I will never forget Colonel Wu's grievance. When the time comes, I will certainly have your revenge."
"We will trust and follow only the Sili Xiaowei."
The brothers, deeply moved, offered a military salute and withdrew.
Having swiftly set the company in order, Yuan Shao's gaze stopped suddenly on the empty air.
Truly strange.
He had crossed the great mountain called Dong Zhuo, and all at once his youngest son came to mind.
However brilliant he may be, how does he best strategists with their minds full grown? On the board as it stands, our youngest is furthest ahead of all... How am I to explain this?
"Father."
I rose at once and vacated the seat of honor. Father sat there with a hard face. The deep crease between his brows spoke the tangle of his heart.
"Shang'er."
"Yes."
"You. Can you see what is to come?"
He tossed the question out as if without a thought, then let a hollow laugh escape, as though he himself found it absurd.
"No. A jest. Do not think deeply on it."
"Sometimes I wish I could."
At my joke the corner of his mouth lifted, then fell. One cleared throat, and the air changed.
"From this moment I will treat you not as a boy of eleven, but as a man who bears a man's share. You are worthy of it."
"Thank you."
"This is about that cur Dong Zhuo. We have passed the crisis, but the road ahead is pitch-dark. A greedy wretch like him will never abandon Colonel Wu's troops. He will twist my neck, Sili Xiaowei though I am, to take them."
Father had struck the heart of it. I nodded and matched him.
"Of course. Only by seizing every military authority in Luoyang can he command the realm. The title of Grand Commandant is mere justification. In truth, Dong Zhuo's aim is to disarm you. He does not want military power divided."
"As expected. You have an eye."
Father propped his chin on his hand and stared at me. It was not a testing look. It was the look of a man earnestly seeking counsel.
"Well then. What do you think? How far do you suppose that Liangzhou rustic will go?"
"Father."
"Yes. Say whatever you will, and say it freely."
"Dong Zhuo will scruple at nothing. No—he will choose methods beyond common sense, the sort one cannot readily foresee."
Father tilted his head. Beyond common sense—he could get no hold on it. I steadied my breath and put a question.
"From Dong Zhuo's seat, who would gall him most? You, Father, head of the Qingliu? The remnants of the Ten Attendants? Or else the existing Turbid Stream faction?"
"Hard to say. Would he not be wariest of me, above all?"
"No. It is Her Majesty the Empress Dowager."
Father's eyes widened.
"Her Majesty rules as regent in the emperor's place. She is the summit of legitimacy and authority. If Dong Zhuo is to monopolize power, he must break the authority of the Empress Dowager, who sits at the very crown of that power. Only then can he work the court to his will."
"Surely not... You mean he would persecute Her Majesty?"
"Persecution will not be enough. He will try to strip the Empress Dowager of her power altogether."
Father knotted his brow hard. He had not yet fully read my intent. I needed a more immediate example.
"Do you remember Liang Ji, forty years ago?"
"How could I forget that traitor of the age? The wretch who poisoned Emperor Zhi and ruined the realm across four reigns."
"Dong Zhuo is a villain no less than he. Let this son suppose himself Dong Zhuo. To seize power, I would depose the emperor and raise a new one. In that instant Her Majesty's power would drift up into empty air, and Dong Zhuo would become the highest power in the land."
The blood drained clean from Father's face. His mouth fell open, but no voice came. A shock that vast swallows even a scream.
What I had said was language fit only for a traitor. If it leaked beyond these walls, even the house of Yuan would suffer grievously. But it was not treason that had struck Father. It was the vision of Dong Zhuo holding everything, while he himself was driven, desolate, from Luoyang. Of all the counsels I had ever offered, was today's not the most shocking?
"If that succeeds, the existing map of power becomes scrap paper. Her Majesty's authority will fall into the dirt, and Dong Zhuo will hold a power none may oppose."
"Depose His Majesty... Whom would he raise? Surely not."
I said it with the finality of a wedge driven home.
"Do you remember Empress Dowager Dong? In life she cherished the Prince of Chenliu beyond measure. Dong Zhuo will drag in even a forced bond of the shared surname Dong and manufacture a justification from it. Empress Dowager Dong was of Hejian Commandery, and Dong Zhuo of Longxi—different houses of Dong. It is madness, but Dong Zhuo is more than capable of it. Seizing power comes before all else. Once he has that power perfectly in hand, he will come running to deal with you, the thorn in his eye. By then the gap in strength will have grown too wide for you to meet him."
A heavy silence filled the room. Father's pupils shook, rough and ungoverned. I watched him, calm.
I wondered whether I had given him too much. But shock was the treatment required now. However firmly we held the Imperial Guard, once Dong Zhuo stood where he could command the imperial will, it would be the end. In the history I knew, Dong Zhuo had replaced the emperor. We had to prepare from this moment.
We had entered the tiger's den. To survive, we would have to grow more ruthless than the tiger.
I waited for Father to swallow this fear and recover his cold clarity. The next piece was already in my hand. If he played it, he could turn crisis into opportunity. And my place would become immovable.
Forgive me, brothers.
Yuan Tan and Yuan Xi rose unbidden in my thoughts.