Moths Drawn to Power
A savage north wind scourged the city of Ye, and winter had come at last, keen enough to cut the flesh from the bone.
Yuan Shao summoned Xu You to the government hall.
The man was arrogant to the marrow and ravenous besides, yet his mind was packed with a quickness and cunning none could rival, and so, whenever Yuan Shao struck a difficult pass, it was Xu You he sent for. An old friend of many years, together with Feng Ji, he had by now become a trusted pillar among the lord's ministers. After their bond of lord and vassal was formally sealed within the Jizhou Inspectorate, Xu You observed the proper courtesies even in private — and in Yuan Shao's presence he was careful indeed.
"That witless hog Dong Zhuo seems to have taken leave of his senses."
Xu You let the words fall lightly, wearing the arrogant smile peculiar to him.
"He's inviting the famous scholars of the realm one after another and recommending them to the great offices. Thanks to that, the seething unrest in Luoyang and beyond has settled. They say even dung has its uses — I never thought that grotesque brute had a trick like this in him. Well, well."
For all the lightness of Xu You's tone, a dark shadow settled over Yuan Shao's face as he listened.
Beginning with the lavish courtesy by which he had invited Cai Yong, the great scholar of Yanzhou, Dong Zhuo had recommended Kong Zhou as Inspector of Yuzhou, Jiao He as Inspector of Qingzhou, Liu Dai as Inspector of Yanzhou, Liu Biao as Inspector of Jingzhou, and Chen Yu as Inspector of Yangzhou, and in a still more startling stroke he had confirmed Tao Qian in his post as Inspector of Xuzhou. Every one of them was a man of towering renown and solid experience in the actual work of government.
Those who hated Dong Zhuo — the man who had deposed the Son of Heaven — fiercely enough to tear him apart with their teeth still abounded. Yet before personnel measures so admirable, even hearts that had frozen began to thaw, and the current of opinion was shifting in subtle ways. Little by little, Yuan Shao's own heart grew urgent.
"If things go on like this, the plan to take that man's head and set the Han to rights will only slip further out of reach."
At the heavy sigh, Xu You cackled aloud and tapped his own brow with a finger.
"When the blade grows dull, one ought to use this uncommon head, wouldn't you say?"
From within his robes he drew a letter he had brought in secret and offered it up with due respect.
"Do you remember the Grand Administrator of Dong Commandery?"
"Qiao Yuanwei. I know him. Did he send this?"
"He did. The man has hatched a scheme that is truly astonishing. Read it. Even I was startled."
The Grand Administrator of Dong Commandery was Qiao Mao, courtesy name Yuanwei. With a doubtful eye, Yuan Shao unfolded the letter and ran swiftly through it. A hollow laugh rang through the hall.
"Ha. This is beyond belief. Spread a false rumor that Dong Zhuo has poisoned the deposed Prince of Hongnong, and so provoke the fury of the realm? Then, on that pretext, gather volunteer troops from every quarter and march on Luoyang?"
"Crude as it looks, it will work. The people's anger may have subsided for a moment, but they stand ready to blaze the instant someone tosses them a spark. What we needed was tinder sensational enough to set the whole realm alight at a stroke, and Grand Administrator Qiao, cunning devil that he is, has handed us the very stuff."
Yuan Shao set the letter down and slowly closed his eyes. His long, pale fingers tapped the desk in a steady rhythm — the sound of fierce calculation passing through his mind.
This was, without question, a superb chance to cut off Dong Zhuo's breath. And yet Qiao Mao's vulgar proposal sat ill with him.
If I raise an army on a fabricated lie, I too will fall under suspicion of having trumpeted a false cause. Then how am I any different from the traitor Dong Zhuo?
The pride of the illustrious Yuan clan pricked him with a moment's self-reproach. It lasted only an instant. Blue-black rage toward Dong Zhuo, and the vast ambition to stand at the center of power, crushed that thin scruple flat. Had he not, in order to drive out the Ten Attendants, burned Mengjin and tacitly accepted the sacrifice of countless innocents? A true hegemon does not quibble over means in pursuit of his end.
"If we take Dong Zhuo's head by this stratagem, the realm will find its peace again, will it not?"
"Of course, my lord. And in place of the puppet Dong Zhuo has set up, you must restore the deposed Son of Heaven to the supreme seat. Only then will righteousness stand upright."
At Xu You's honeyed whisper, Yuan Shao gave a heavy nod.
Should this immense design succeed, the foremost merit would of course belong to Yuan Shao, the man who had led the coalition against Dong Zhuo. The absolute power Dong Zhuo now enjoyed — beneath one man alone, and above all the rest — would roll intact into his grasp.
But if, by some chance, we fail?
The word failure flicked across his mind, and Yuan Shao's countenance turned sharply cold. The realm would surely be swept by a storm of blood more terrible than anything now imaginable.
"Listen, Ziyuan."
"Yes, my lord."
"If our will is broken and the enterprise ends in failure, what do you think will become of the realm?"
When Yuan Shao conferred with Xu You in secret, he called him not by his office but by his courtesy name. At that pointed question, the light smile on Xu You's face stiffened. He sat frozen a moment, sunk in thought, then his heavy lips stirred.
"...The realm will sink into a morass of chaos beyond all control. Perhaps the savage age that came when the Western Han collapsed and the Eastern Han was founded anew will be born again upon this land."
"And at the end of that chaos, what will there be?"
A fierce ambition flickered in Yuan Shao's glittering eyes.
Xu You glanced about for any sign of listeners, then bent low and offered his counsel in a voice as secret and cautious as a snake's.
"It means the master of this realm... may no longer be a Liu. In truth, the master of the realm was never a Liu to begin with."
It was a declaration of treasonous intent sufficient to warrant the extermination of nine clans. Yet Yuan Shao did not rebuke the impious man. He merely closed his eyes and sat still. A heavy silence pressed down upon the hall, and then his mouth opened.
"Truly a reckless thing to say. Is that the speech of a man who eats the realm's salary? I shall pretend I did not hear it. Guard your tongue hereafter."
"I am ashamed. This mouth committed a slip."
Xu You bowed his head with a show of contrition, and Yuan Shao added, coldly:
"We must only devote our hearts to setting this disordered realm to rights. In the course of it, we must grasp at no private gain. Send secret letters to the men of purpose east of the passes, and gather their views. That beast Dong Zhuo plays the shrewd man now, raising talented men to office, but where would a nature as savage as a wild animal's go?"
"I shall obey your command."
Xu You offered a light salute, a thin smile on his lips.
Guandong meant the lands east of Hangu Pass — in ordinary usage, the vast sweep of Jizhou, Yanzhou, Qingzhou, Xuzhou, and Yuzhou.
The talk seemed finished, but Xu You, turning to go, looked back and ventured one more word.
"Ah — and, my lord."
"Speak."
"Do you mean to leave those disagreeable men, Tian Feng and Zhao Yun, as they are? Had you handed down a clear disposition and placed them on inactive duty, they ought to have taken the hint, packed their bags, and gone home to the country. I cannot fathom how they cling so shamelessly to the Third Young Master's side, like leeches."
He clicked his tongue in displeasure and pressed on.
"That the Third Young Master is brilliant and uncommon is known to all the realm, yet he is still far too young. I fear, deeply, that the old fox and the sinister bear may cloud his wits, whisper wicked counsel into his ear, and twist him awry."
"...I shall look into it."
Yuan Shao answered lightly, his face giving nothing away, and waved Xu You off.
The door closed. Alone in the hall, Yuan Shao at last let out the hollow laugh he had been holding back, low in his throat.
"Ha. Look at this fellow."
Xu You's arrogant delusion — that the youngest was being innocently used by Tian Feng and Zhao Yun — struck him as thoroughly absurd. Whenever he recalled the insight his youngest had shown in Luoyang, so sharp it raised the hair on the neck, at every crisis of life and death amid that storm of blood, a chill still ran down his spine.
"So Shang saw virtues in them that I did not?"
He gazed out at the bitter winter wind beyond the window, sunk in thought. Tian Feng's inflexible stubbornness. Zhao Yun's unbending pride, so difficult to handle. His brilliant youngest could not fail to know the very weaknesses for which he himself had cast them aside. That the boy fretted so earnestly to take both men into his embrace meant he had found in them a worth overwhelming enough to cover every flaw.
"Past all understanding. When an eye that fearsome flashes, I am half afraid he isn't of my blood at all. He'll manage well enough. Nothing for it but to watch. Well, well."
Yuan Shao shook his head faintly and smiled. He had no thought of forcing his way into his youngest son's inscrutable course and overturning the board. He meant only to watch, quietly and sharply, from the side, as his extraordinary son advanced of his own accord.
Elsewhere, the eldest brother, Yuan Tan, sat face to face with Guo Tu in a heavy conversation.
"These are words Zhizhong Xu let slip by mistake, mind you."
"Hah! Mistake, my foot! The wretch is puffed up with our lord's favor and bragged of it on purpose. Tsk."
Hot-tempered Yuan Tan laid his dislike of Xu You bare, and Guo Tu's brow creased.
"Young Master. This is no time to sit in judgment on the man who broke wind. What matters is the dreadful thing that came out of his mouth."
That cold, reproving gaze struck like a blade to the heart. Yuan Tan flinched, coughed to cover himself, and straightened in his seat.
"F-forgive me. I let my feelings run ahead. Go on. I'm listening."
"The stratagem the Grand Administrator of Dong Commandery has laid before our lord is..."
In a deliberately dry voice, Guo Tu set out the plan now in motion, and Yuan Tan's face went white with shock. To inflame the inspectors and grand administrators of every region with a false rumor! It was cruder and more reckless even than the old method of dragging jackal-like Dong Zhuo and Ding Yuan into the capital on the pretext of slaughtering the Ten Attendants.
"Has he gone mad? What if it goes wrong? Our lord could end up bearing that terrible responsibility all by himself!"
He could not bring himself to speak the dreadful words — treason enough to exterminate nine clans — and swallowed hard. Watching Yuan Tan, frightened to the point of innocence, Guo Tu's snakelike eyes sank colder still.
"Young Master. I say it again: this is no time to worry over a paltry life."
"Th-then what, exactly, matters more?"
"If this vast game ends in failure, the realm will fall into a morass of chaos that no one can set right. Zhizhong Xu judges that the coming storm of blood will rival that savage age when the Western Han collapsed and the Eastern Han rose in its place. Loose-tongued and arrogant the man may be, but in that hair-raising genius for reading the times, he yields to no one under heaven."
Yuan Tan broke into a heavy sweat, his great eyes rolling as he wrestled with it. Guo Tu's deep, black intent was beyond him entirely. Sadly for him, he had inherited none of Yuan Shao's meticulous ruthlessness and brilliance — only a rough strength of arm and a stubborn simplicity.
"My head can't begin to guess at it. Stop circling, and explain it so I can understand."
"Had that dreadful age of chaos never come, the great Emperor Guangwu, founder of the Later Han, would have grown old and died as an ordinary magnate of Nanyang."
"S-surely not! You mean our lord is—!"
"It is only this man's forecast. But the board is very likely to roll that way, and so, Young Master, you must prepare from this moment as though you were cutting the flesh from your own bones. When an age of contending heroes arrives, the inspectors and grand administrators of every region will hold power no different from that of feudal lords — no, of kings. If our lord comes to stand at that summit... do you take my meaning? The succession of that vast kingdom must never be meekly surrendered to the Third Young Master, a mere babe still wet from the womb."
"So that's it. Ah — how could I have missed it? I'll remember! I've been a fool. Help me from now on, Master Guo!"
Overcome, Yuan Tan seized both of Guo Tu's hands. Without that cold counsel, he would have had no answer at all to a game in which the realm itself was being overturned. And yet one innocent question still drifted, unresolved, through his simple mind. Why should a man as cold and clever as a snake guard so obsessively against that charming youngest brother, who still smelled of milk? Eleven years old, at most.
"But tell me, Master Guo."
"Speak."
"Do you truly believe little Shang will stand in this elder brother's great road and threaten it?"
"Ah, you are impossible, Young Master!"
Guo Tu cast off his cold mask, twisted his face into something ugly, and struck his own chest with both fists. At that rough, merciless force Yuan Tan flinched and hunched his shoulders.
"Young Master! Even now Colonel Wen Chong and Major Ren Jun style themselves that child's sturdy limbs. And that is not all! Major Wu Yi, and Colonels Wu Ban and Zhang Liao, all bear the Third Young Master a deep goodwill! Nor does it end there. Zhao Yun has taken it upon himself to guard the babe and clings to him like a shadow, and Tian Feng — once the second man of the Jizhou Inspectorate — summons the child into a sealed room every few days and pours secret instruction into him for hours on end! Please, I beg you, put away that paltry talk of age and look straight at how the Inspectorate actually turns, thin ice under every step! So long as you stay trapped in the number eleven, you will never see the Third Young Master's brilliance!"
At that bitter rebuke, poured out as if Guo Tu were spitting blood, Yuan Tan's mind cleared at last, as though someone had struck him across the back of the head. He had remembered only his own dull eleventh year, when he had been a snot-nosed boy showing off his strength, and had complacently assumed his youngest brother was nothing more than a clever pet performing tricks.
Guo Tu steadied his roughened breath and returned to his original, chilly voice.
"The Second Young Master is incompetent and has no ambition for power at all, so you may ignore him as you would a stone in the road. The Third Young Master is different. He possesses a talent so outstanding it chills the spine. From this very moment you must weigh your light conduct, discipline it, and show the magnanimous bearing of a lord, as befits the eldest son. Once you hold a firstborn's authority, famous scholars will gather to you of their own accord. The men of the realm are bound, in any case, by the principle that however rare a talent the youngest may be, the succession must of course pass to the eldest. So you must never, under any circumstances, give them a single flaw to seize upon."
"I-I understand! You're right a hundred times over, Master Guo."
Yuan Tan set his jaw in grim resolve and nodded hard. In that simple breast, at last, a blue-black flame of ambition kindled.
If, as Guo Tu said, an age of upheaval truly came and Yuan Shao reigned as king of the realm, then the quarrel with little Shang would no longer be a mere struggle between brothers of one house. It would be a blood-spattered contest for the heir apparent of a vast empire. The fierce ambition that had slept in the veins of this simple, violent man woke. That absolute power, at least, he would never yield — not to his charming youngest brother, not to anyone.