The Choice
Late April found me hurrying to Tian Feng's office at his urgent summons.
"Be seated."
The face that received me was cold. He indicated a place, then drew breath after breath, struggling to settle his mind. Tian Feng was a man who wore every feeling plainly, and I knew at once that some grave disaster had broken over Luoyang. Had the coalition under my father suffered a bitter defeat after all, just as history had recorded it in my previous life?
"Young master. A messenger from our lord has just arrived. The forces at Suanzao under our lord, and the forces at Luyang under the General of the Rear, meant to strike from both sides and choke the life from Dong Zhuo. Regrettably... they met with a crushing defeat."
At those two heavy words I knit my brow, as if startled. In one corner of my heart, though, a strange relief unfurled. Thank goodness. Had my counsel twisted history — had Dong Zhuo died too soon, and my father seized power and steadied the realm — the age of chaos might never have come. This bone-deep defeat, however, seemed to have sealed its coming beyond all doubt.
"A crushing defeat, even after driving at him so hard from both sides? I can scarcely believe it."
When I voiced the doubt, Tian Feng clicked his tongue, let out a long sigh, and only then explained.
"The General of the Rear, blinded by hunger for glory, moved his troops on his own authority a full ten days ahead of the date he had pledged to our lord. He put blind faith in nothing but the talent of Sun Jian, the Tiger of Jiangdong. Yet the very force he trusted so utterly was cut to pieces by a general named Xu Rong. Dong Zhuo, riding that momentum, at once turned Xu Rong and the Liangzhou troops back toward Sishui Pass. Our lord was locked in a desperate fight, the balance dead even, when Xu Rong fell upon his rear with the Liangzhou army, and in the end... that even battle tilted in an instant and collapsed into a crushing defeat."
Yuan Shu. Just as I had thought. I did not mean to belittle the man. He lacked both the experience of real war and the eye to read the realm, and was stuffed with nothing but empty ambition. A result this wretched was only to be expected.
"But, young master."
"Yes. Please speak."
I sheared off the trailing thread of thought and turned my eyes to Tian Feng.
"This general, Xu Rong... how did you know of him?"
The eyes that put the question were deep and sharp. Tian Feng was not a light man, given to asking on a whim merely to feed his own curiosity. Then the question was my father's. Father trusted my judgment more than anyone's, and he would have trusted it this time as well. Even so they had lost, because Yuan Shu had acted alone, and while a new plan was being framed he must have wondered how I had known of Xu Rong. Too awkward to ask me himself, he had borrowed Tian Feng's mouth.
"Xu Rong is a general from Liaodong Commandery, out on the northeastern frontier. Dong Zhuo's officers and men are drawn from Liangzhou in the northwest, and they are fiercely hostile to anyone from another region. The exclusion must have been severe, and yet a general out of Liaodong overcame it and rose to a vital post. That means his gift for command and control is overwhelming — that he is a true general, one who can form a tactic and carry it through. By rights he was the man we ought to have guarded against above all others, and so I offered my father nothing more than a frank warning. Even I never foresaw that so hideous a catastrophe would follow."
At the clean line of my reasoning Tian Feng regarded me in silence, and then put a second question.
"Then... would you forecast once more how the field is likely to turn from here?"
That settled my certainty. This, too, was surely my father's urgent instruction. Caught in crisis, he needed my next counsel very badly.
"It is said that he who ties the knot must be the one to loose it. The General of the Rear wrecked this board with empty ambition. In the end, will it not fall to him to set it right?"
"You have Sun Jian in mind?"
"I do. The General of the Rear's whole part is to furnish military supplies from the rear. Cutting off Dong Zhuo's breath belongs to Sun Jian alone. He took a bitter blow from Xu Rong and suffered a stinging defeat, yes. But among all the coalition hosts gathered at Suanzao and Luyang, the only commander who possesses both the experience and the ability to meet Dong Zhuo's army head-on and beat it is Sun Jian."
"Will our lord not re-form the army and move with force again?"
"I wonder. It will not be as easy as one might think. They were savagely beaten, so in the camp at Suanzao the cry to hold our lord responsible will rise hard, and a chain of command already like loose sand will grow more confused still. While our lord quiets that clamor and sets the chain of command back on its feet, Sun Jian — his venom risen, burning for revenge — is very likely to strike for the imperial capital on his own."
Tian Feng nodded slowly, though a heavy worry still clung at the corner of his mouth. It was not the bracing answer that would lift my father's crisis at a stroke. Even so he did not press me any further, and I judged that his duty as my father's proxy ended here.
"Before that — may I look carefully through the losses of each force, and the state of the battle?"
"Examine this report."
I took the letter he held out and traced the lines with a finger, reading the outcome of the fight in calm order. They had come apart thoroughly, and wretchedly, on every front.
"With damage this severe... some inspectors and grand administrators will withdraw for home."
"Our lord voiced the same fear in his own letter."
"I understand."
"We had best end the lecture for today. My mind is far too weary, and too tangled..."
"Yes. Rest."
I rose quietly and started out. It was then that something flashed through my mind.
"Master Tian."
"Speak."
"If I were to ask you for troops, would you give them willingly?"
"Is Zhao Yun, who keeps your side, not enough? You already hold three hundred elite cavalry you may use as your own. I should think that sufficient."
Tian Feng narrowed his eyes and asked it like a man on his guard. With my father absent, Tian Feng was the man who bore final charge of Ye. If I moved the troops on some private whim and it led to a great mishap, the blame would fall on him entire. He could not answer lightly.
"Let me put it another way. For the present, whatever unilateral action I may take beyond these walls, simply watch in silence, and do not check me."
Tian Feng fixed me with a fierce stare. Through the brief silence he reckoned gain against loss with a hard intensity, and then his heavy lips parted.
"......Very well."
"You have my sincere thanks."
I offered my gratitude with due courtesy and stepped outside.
Leaving Tian Feng's residence, I went at once to the office of Shen Rong, the gatekeeper who governed passage through the city gates. Nephew to Shen Pei, a formidable power within the Inspectorate of Jizhou, Shen Rong was a clever young official, quick to judge a situation and sharper-eyed than most. After my father rose to Inspector of Jizhou and Shen Pei was appointed Granary Director, Shen Rong had been posted at once as gatekeeper, and he had taken the work in hand with speed.
"Young master, what brings you to this place at so late an hour?"
Finding me as I entered, he set his work aside, rose at once, and received me with proper courtesy.
"I've come to look into something quietly."
"Then speak. Whatever it may be."
"I want to see the records of everyone who passed this gate, from last year through today."
"That is a long span. It will take considerable time. The caravans and crowds that have moved through Ye are vast..."
"I don't need them all. Only the record of an envoy party that set out from the imperial capital, Luoyang, bound for Liaodong Commandery."
At a demand so precise and so weighty, a sharp light cut through Shen Rong's eyes. He brought several thick ledgers of gate control out from the inner room and began turning the pages with swift, familiar hands. His gaze stopped. He turned the book so that I might read it easily.
"Here. Exactly one month past — the record of that envoy party reaching Ye and lodging here."
"So late..."
A short sigh escaped me. Far, far too late. A month was time enough for the envoys to have reached Liaodong already, or at the least to have come within a step of it.
"Has some grave trouble arisen?"
"It has... but with this much time lost, I fear I am already too late."
Unable to hide my disappointment, I made to turn away. Quick-eyed, Shen Rong shut the ledger at once and added one thing more, his voice low.
"Young master. If you mean to send fast cavalry after them, it is not too late to leave even now."
"What do you mean?"
"The old eunuch who led the party fell suddenly ill around the time they reached Ye. Because of it they were stuck inside the city for quite a long while, and only ten days ago did they set out, with difficulty, his sickness not even fully shaken off. They have baggage wagons in train, and the patient has no strength for speed. Elite cavalry riding at a full gallop now can certainly tread upon that column's tail."
I stared at Shen Rong, my eyes flung wide. Had it not been for that keen and nimble insight, I would have let a precious chance slip through my fingers for nothing.
"You have my true thanks. Gatekeeper Shen's eye has been a very great help to me."
I started from the office in haste, then stopped short and turned my head.
"Will you keep it secret that I looked through these records today?"
"Yes. Of course. I'll wipe it from my mind."
He answered without so much as a heartbeat of hesitation. From where he stood, word of the envoys was no secret of any great weight, and he had no reason at all to sour the temper of the third young master — a star rising so fearfully of late — over a trifle such as this.
I cut across the city and drove my steps toward Zhao Yun's camp. A warm wind met me as I walked, and inside my head the gears turned with a savage speed.
Right now Liaodong is a perfect vacuum of power. After the rebellions of Zhang Chun and Zhang Ju, when Yang Zhong, Grand Administrator of Liaodong, was killed, the court in effect abandoned that barren land. Then, of all men, Xu Rong recommended Gongsun Du, a man of his own homeland, as the new grand administrator, and Dong Zhuo snatched at the recommendation and put his name before the Emperor. The envoy now creeping toward Liaodong in that sluggish carriage is, eight or nine times in ten, carrying the edict that will set a grand administrator's formidable power in Gongsun Du's hands.
I cannot allow Gongsun Du, Dong Zhuo's creature, to take the seat of Grand Administrator of Liaodong. Before long, when my father returns from Luoyang to Ye, the true age of chaos will raise its curtain. I want a man who stands within my father's influence seated in that place. When the day comes for a war to the death against Gongsun Zan, hegemon of the north, the Grand Administrator of Liaodong will check him from the rear.
Once the capital is shifted to Chang'an and the hideous tyranny of Dong Zhuo and Li Jue's faction begins, the realm will pass into a chaos no one can govern. From that hour the warlords of every region will send the Emperor memorials that are nothing but empty shells, plant their own subordinates in local office as they please, and the disorder will only deepen. Even if the paper is not a true edict stamped with the Imperial Jade Seal, a false edict issued by a man of power will carry, in an age of chaos, tremendous pretext and force for the moving of armies. So I must, by whatever means, seize this genuine edict bound for Gongsun Du, bind his feet, and buy the time for my father's man to take hold of Liaodong.
In truth, there was little a boy of twelve could do at once. My heart had already climbed into the high sky and was gliding there like some great eagle, but the self that walked the ground was only a fledgling just beginning to beat its wings. Even so, this was a matter I could attempt with the hands and feet I had, and the chance of success stood very high.
While one thought bit the tail of the next, I arrived, before I knew it, at Zhao Yun's camp.
"Young master. Your face is bitterly cold, and heavy. Has something refused to go as you wished?"
Zhao Yun read the killing edge and the worry on my face at a single glance. I beckoned him close, and opened my mouth in a voice from which every feeling had been stripped.
"Zilong. Ten days ago an envoy party left this city of Ye, carrying the Emperor's edict to Liaodong Commandery. Fortunately the eunuch who leads them is failing, and their pace is said to be wretched. If you take cavalry and ride at full speed this very moment, you can be on their tail within a few days."
"......And once we have overtaken them, what then?"
Zhao Yun's handsome face had gone hard. He had taken the measure of the matter with a cold eye, and already sensed the weight of the order about to fall.
"Cut that eunuch's throat, and bring me the edict he carries, whole. As for the petty attendants left behind, scatter them, and have done. Guards of that sort won't even manage to fix the faces of the men who struck them."
Zhao Yun's eyes shook as if the earth had split beneath him.
"Young master! How can you attempt a throw so reckless? They are envoys, plainly bearing His Majesty's solemn imperial command. If so much as a trace of this is found, not only you, but the entire house of Yuan, could be branded traitors to the realm and suffer the extermination of the clan!"
It was the warning of a loyal commander — too painfully true, and too firmly planted in the real. But I met his eyes without the slightest sway, and struck back.
"Zilong. Our lord has already joined with the inspectors and grand administrators east of the passes, and he is marching a host of tens of thousands upon the imperial capital, Luoyang. And Dong Zhuo has coerced His Majesty into ordering those armies to disband. What do you make of that?"
"......"
At the cold line of my reasoning Zhao Yun seemed to lose his words, and swallowed his breath. But his reason still stood guard against the worst.
"If this comes to light, and our lord in his great wrath calls you to account for it — what will you do then?"
"Don't be afraid. I won't stain one of my own with blood he doesn't deserve. Every consequence of this affair, I alone will bear. I'll give you a written order this instant."
"......I receive your command."
Before my unyielding manner Zhao Yun at last accepted the order. I drew the writing desk to me at once, took up the brush, filled the order in dense lines, and signed my name. No vermilion official seal was pressed upon it, and so as a document it sat light in the hand, but it was enough to carry a grim resolve. I folded the order and passed it to Zhao Yun. He took it and stowed it deep in the innermost fold of his robes.
"They must not take us for government troops, so I'll disguise the men we send as a vicious band of bandits, finish the work so that neither rat nor bird ever knows of it, and come back. And I'll kill them all. Once a thing is begun, it's best to see it through cleanly."
"Do that."
Soldier to the marrow, Zhao Yun had already, in that short span, laid even the tactics that would wipe away every trace.
I took his hand in both of mine and held it warmly.
"I'm sorry to lay so heavy a burden on you, Zilong. Think of nothing but the mission. Focus only on settling the most urgent matter in front of you. You're precious to me, and I don't want you hurt — so please, don't be hurt. Come back safe."
"Yes, young master!"
Recognizing that the warmth was sincere, Zhao Yun answered short and firm, then left the office at once to muster the cavalry.
Left alone in the emptied camp, I looked up at the ceiling. I could not know whether this bold attempt would close in perfect success, or return as a hideous failure and close around my throat. But I did not regret it. I would only do my utmost, from the place where I stood, at what I was able to do. If I went on that way, that place would become one no man could challenge.
Gongsun Du. Don't call yourself wronged. This comes of your own great ambition.
I swore it, and swore it again. I had to make myself as cold as I could.