Above the Runner, One Who Flies
Above the man who runs, there is always one who flies.
The door flew open without warning, and in burst Yuan Tan, eldest brother, all bluster and hot blood.
The visit was sudden, yet I did not show so much as a flicker of surprise. I guided him calmly to the seat of honor and set a cup of warm tea before him.
Big as he was, he fidgeted with the cup and stared at me in silence. Then he drained the lukewarm tea in a single swallow and spoke, heavy-voiced.
"Youngest."
"Yes, Elder Brother."
"Lord Tian and Zhao Yun are men Father found troublesome and cast off. So why have you dared to keep them close?"
The scolding was put on, but the sternness in it was real enough.
I left my innocent look unbroken and tipped my head.
"They're difficult for me too. Their tempers don't bend easily."
"Then why take a risk like that?"
"Zilong is strong enough to be worth using as a guard, and Lord Tian is learned, so I simply keep him as a tutor in letters. Does having them near require some grander reason?"
"For a petty reason like that? You little fool. Men with that much ability and learning are scattered all over this vast land of Jizhou."
"But they're already here in Ye. Why wear out my shoes hunting for others far away?"
I looked up at my eldest brother with bright, shining eyes, every inch the child who knew nothing.
He clicked his tongue as if the whole thing were hopeless and took me to task in rough words.
"Tsk, tsk. You little idiot. If you mean to use a man, you look at his character before his ability. Sooner or later they'll have to be your hands and feet and do the dirty work, and if they cling to their own stubbornness and won't obey, what use are they supposed to be?"
"You planning to throw them out too late and go picking new men all over again? The world's a wide place, and men of talent beyond counting. Don't tell me you think Luoyang and Ye—the only places those eyes of yours have seen—are the whole of the realm?"
"Ahaha... Luoyang and Ye really are the only world I've ever seen for myself. It's embarrassing, in front of you."
I scratched the back of my head and smiled, sheepish on purpose.
Faced with that bland, empty-headed sweetness—an adorable youngest brother who knew nothing of the world—the tension knotted through Yuan Tan's shoulders collapsed all at once.
He let out a short sigh, as if there were nothing to be done.
"Forget it. Still, for a boy of eleven to think even that far is something. When I was your age, this foolish brother of yours was busy playing in the dirt and showing off how strong he was. In a way, you're better than I was."
His guileless force had broken. This was the moment to strike the heart of it.
"You praise me too highly. But, Elder Brother."
"What is it?"
"Before you came here... did Uncle Guo say something to you?"
"Wh-what are you talking about?"
His eyes flew wide.
I did not miss that instant of wavering. Behind the eldest brother clumsily aping a patriarch's dignity, I caught it with a beast's instinct: the cold shadow of Guo Tu, cunning as a snake, lying in wait.
I hunched my shoulders and put on a face so cowed it looked ready to crumple into tears.
"The truth is, I've been afraid of Uncle Guo for a long time. Every time I see him he wears that stern face, picks some fault, and does nothing but scold me. Father praises me now and then, tells me I've done well, but Uncle Guo only snaps at me to stop wasting my time and go study my letters. And today you came so suddenly and questioned me so fiercely... I was terrified you'd heard him speak ill of me."
At the tearful complaint of his eleven-year-old brother, protection and superiority surged up from deep in the hot-tempered eldest brother's chest.
"Nonsense! This brother of yours is already past twenty. My own mind is perfectly clear. How could I be yanked this way and that by somebody else's idle tongue?"
"Whew... then I'm truly glad. Elder Brother, even if you meet Uncle Guo later, please don't bring me up. He'll seize on some absurd pretext and thunder at me again. Ugh, just thinking of that sharp glare..."
I shuddered as if the thought were dreadful and wrapped my small arms around myself.
In a stroke, I had reduced Guo Tu—the sinister strategist who meant to hold the realm in his palm—to a spiteful, nitpicking uncle who bullied the neighborhood children.
"You! A man squares his shoulders!"
Completely taken in, my eldest brother laughed with a show of heartiness, seized my narrow shoulders, and gave them a shake.
"No matter how many clever, accomplished men there are in Ye, in the end they're all nothing but Father's hands and feet. Hasn't Father always said it? Talent is a tool. You use it when you need it, and the moment it's useless, you throw it away without a second thought!"
"Th-then even frightening Uncle Guo...?"
"And what exception would he be? What matters most is the blood of the great Yuan. If a man is no help to our house, then Guo Tu and his like can be cast out on the spot!"
"Haa... what a relief. I thought I'd have to spend my whole life watching Uncle Guo's mood and swallowing his rebukes."
"You—don't fret over nothing with a heart the size of a chestnut. If that man ever torments you again for no reason, this brother will step in front and stop him!"
"I'm truly grateful. You make me feel so safe, Elder Brother!"
"Hahaha! This brother is already helping Father in earnest with great affairs. Later, when I rise to a higher seat and greater power, you put aside any other thoughts and help me with all your strength. Understood?"
"Yes! I'll remember!"
I answered stoutly and smiled wide, and my eldest brother could not hide his pleasure. With a rough hand he scrubbed and petted my head.
A short while later he left the chamber, walked slowly through the garden, then stopped short and turned his head.
I had come out as far as the door to see him off, and I bounced in place with a bright face, waving. So innocent, so small, so harmless and cute was the sight that a soft laugh escaped him before he knew it.
Guo Tu. Has he been nursing a private grudge against the youngest and venting his spite? No. Sharp-eyed and clever for a babe in arms, that's true enough, so it was probably nothing more than counsel to be careful, in his own way.
And yet... I am the eldest son of the Yuan house, and the gap in our years is vast. By what means could that snot-nosed child possibly threaten my place?
He laughed and waved back at me, then turned away in high spirits, resolving that he would watch his youngest brother's movements carefully, just in case—but that he would not, like Guo Tu, guard against the boy with a sick suspicion, nor hound his little brother out of ill feeling. That sort of petty thing, he would not do.
A fierce north wind cut to the bone over Pinggang County, in Youbeiping Commandery of Youzhou.
Gongsun Zan had planted his administrative seat here and, with raw force of arms, pressed down the three commanderies of Youbeiping, Liaoxi, and the Liaodong Dependent State, ruling them in all but name.
"Damn it. This place is as viciously cold as Liangzhou."
Yang Ding, dispatched as Dong Zhuo's envoy, shivered to the marrow and pounded on the massive gate. When he announced himself as Dong Zhuo's man, the sealed gate opened with a grotesque groan, rough and grudging.
"Long road. You've had your trouble."
Gongsun Zan welcomed him with a light gesture, tiger-fierce eyes gleaming. But on that face of bold, heavy lines, distaste was plain. He dwelt on the northern frontier, far from Luoyang, and was no master of the capital's secret news—yet even he had heard of Dong Zhuo's outrageous crime in daring to depose the Son of Heaven. That he had not taken Yang Ding's head, and had recognized him as an envoy at all, was already a great deal of restraint.
"I have come to deliver a letter from the Chancellor."
Sensing the dangerous air around Gongsun Zan, Yang Ding spoke with great care.
"Chancellor? What are you talking about?"
Gongsun Zan's thick brows twitched.
"Ah—you haven't heard. His Excellency the Grand Commandant has now risen to Chancellor, the seat below one man and above all others."
At Yang Ding's calm explanation, Gongsun Zan nearly spat the curses boiling in his gut. Not content with replacing the Son of Heaven, the man had seized the highest power a subject could reach. Worse than a beast, he thought.
He snatched the letter with a rough hand and swept it with his eyes.
"You've suffered on a hard road. Stay at the post station for now and thaw yourself out."
His voice gone a little softer, he hastily summoned guards and removed Yang Ding from his sight.
Left alone, he stroked his beard roughly, sunk in thought, then called for his trusted man, Guan Jing. Gongsun Zan had sworn brothers thicker than shared blood—Li Yizi, Yue Hedang, and Liu Weidai—and no shortage of fierce generals who stormed the field: Yan Gang, Shan Jing, Tian Kai, Zou Dan. But when a tangled matter had to be resolved, he always sought first the shrewd and loyal strategist from Bingzhou, Guan Jing.
"What do you think? Speak plainly."
The moment Guan Jing entered the residence he was handed the letter. He read the lines and fell into thought. When the silence stretched a little long, Gongsun Zan—hot-blooded and short of temper—could not bear it and pressed him for an answer.
"General. This is a perfect chance to slip completely free of the upright Governor of Youzhou, who checks your military power at every turn and hobbles you."
Guan Jing's eyes shone, rational and keen.
"I know that much. But owing a favor to that traitor Dong Zhuo, and having to take his orders—setting aside that I don't like it, it turns my stomach. And as things stand, a great share of the grain our troops eat has to come from the Governor of Youzhou, so this measure is only a glittering half-measure, isn't it? Making an enemy of the Yuan clan, that great house of the realm, sits ill with me as well."
Gongsun Zan tapped the desk with a thick finger and poured out a complaint that was simple and entirely practical. He did not yet harbor a grudge sharp enough to go to war with Yuan Shao, Inspector of Jizhou, and he had no appetite for needlessly making a vast enemy on every side.
"Even so, what this letter offers is far too tempting."
Guan Jing persuaded his lord in a measured, calm voice.
"The three commanderies you now hold down by force alone—it gives you the perfect pretext to govern them formally, in the Son of Heaven's name. Nor does it tell you to cross blades with the Inspector of Jizhou and spill blood right away. It only asks you to keep him in check. Look at the letter. If the Inspector of Jizhou rashly raises an army, stop him then. Isn't that what it says?"
"That cunning Inspector of Jizhou is hardly likely to overreach at once. And if, by some chance, such a nuisance does arise, we can worry about it when it does."
Before that clear, calculating analysis, even bold Gongsun Zan's heart soon inclined.
"Good. You're right! You'll follow that Yang Ding to Luoyang yourself and bring the imperial edict back without fail. While you're there, take a look at how rotten Luoyang has become. On the way back, stop in Ye in Jizhou and grasp, in every particular, the mood inside the Inspector of Jizhou's headquarters. The realm's situation is not normal. Something is surely about to break."
"I receive your command, General."
Guan Jing bowed deeply from the waist, without a shred of hesitation. There was as yet no edged tension between Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan, so Guan Jing posing as Youzhou's envoy, stopping in Ye, and lodging there a few days would pose no problem at all.
"Dudu of Youbeiping..."
Gongsun Zan rolled the office Dong Zhuo had promised over his tongue. The more he turned it in his mouth, the more it made his mouth water—a seductive post. On the surface it was Youbeiping alone, yet Liaoxi Commandery and the Liaodong Dependent State would lawfully be laid at his feet as well.
If Guan Jing brought back the edict, Liu Yu, the straitlaced Governor of Youzhou, would no longer be the superior who held Gongsun Zan's leash and shook it. For a while, of course, he would still have to humor that exacting Liu Yu well enough to draw military grain—but from where Gongsun Zan sat, it was a bargain in which he lost nothing.
"That aside, why is this greedy pig suddenly tossing me a scrap of meat like this? Does he truly think that Inspector of Jizhou is nursing other intentions and about to move his troops, and has he taken a solid fright? Coward. If the Inspector of Jizhou starts a war, you meet him, fight him, and break him. That's all. Tsk."
"By the talk of the world, the Chancellor and the Inspector of Jizhou get along like water and fire."
Guan Jing, who had been standing quietly in attendance, answered.
"Hmph. Even so. A man shut up in Luoyang, reaching all the way to Youzhou. A warrior speaks with his blade. Scheme with petty tricks like this, and you're a dead man."
Gongsun Zan clicked his tongue as if he simply could not fathom Dong Zhuo's black intentions. He pulled the writing desk close, seized a brush roughly, and began to scrawl a personal letter to Dong Zhuo. He had not the slightest intention of wagging his tail at a traitor and swearing loyalty—but since meat had been thrown, he could write a honeyed oath to bark a little and cooperate, as far as his mouth went. Because with one scrap of paper, he could take in his hand the formidable power of Dudu of Youbeiping.
When Guan Jing withdrew with the letter, Gongsun Zan was left alone. He stared quietly up at the ceiling and muttered low, like a beast.
"Dong Zhuo. What in the world are you plotting? Well, fine. For now, I'll gladly dance to your vulgar tune. Only for now, mind you."