Acting Sima Yuan Shang
Yuan Shao brought the perilous matter of the posthumous adoption to a decisive close, then at once dispatched an official letter to Gongsun Zan, Dudu of Youbeiping, requesting his military cooperation.
Two days later, Ju Zong—newly appointed Administrator of Liaodong Commandery—set his first foot upon the long road to distant Liaodong. An iron escort closed about him: five hundred Jizhou cavalry and two thousand five hundred Jizhou infantry, led by the fierce general Zhang Liao.
It was the beginning of winter, and the journey north was cold and grinding.
"Lord Administrator. I hear the north has grown unsettled of late. They say the headquarters of the Dudu of Youbeiping has begun to show open hostility toward the Inspectorate of Jizhou."
Lord Administrator was the honorific for a commandery administrator. From the moment they left Ye, Zhang Liao had taken it up, for in Liaodong he would be bound to Ju Zong's orders. He sat his horse without a sway, eyes keen on every side, and spoke with his usual martial candor—though a thread of worry ran beneath it.
At that heavy report, Ju Zong answered with care.
"Your guess is sound, Colonel Zhang. I feel the north's unrest in my very bones. Even so, the Dudu of Youbeiping will not dare bar our road by force when we ride under our lord's command. He has no wish yet to break with our lord. If I read him rightly, the day he and our lord come to open war for supremacy in Hebei will fall after this year's harvest—or else in the spring of next year."
"Why are you so certain?"
Zhang Liao asked it with courteous curiosity.
Ju Zong tightened his reins, fixed his eyes on the road ahead, and laid out his reasoning with calm precision.
"As you know, Colonel, the three commanderies under the Youbeiping headquarters—Youbeiping, Liaoxi, and the Liaodong Dependent State—are wretchedly barren land. Their armies live in chronic want of grain. That is why they have been helplessly jerked about by the strict audits of the Inspector of Youzhou, so long as he was the one feeding them. Early this year, however, Gongsun Zan bargained with our lord and secured five years' tax rights over the fertile Bohai Commandery."
"Ah...! So the Dudu of Youbeiping means to fill his storehouses to the brim with the vast grain that will pour out of Bohai at this year's harvest—and only then draw his sword and show his ambition in the open?"
"Precisely."
A faint, certain smile touched Ju Zong's mouth.
"The Inspector of Youzhou is as straight as split bamboo, and he loathes war, because when war comes it is the people who pay in full. If the Dudu of Youbeiping were to start a war against our Inspectorate of Jizhou with no just cause, the Inspector of Youzhou would cut off his grain at once, and without mercy. So before he can fight, he must scrape grain out of Bohai and loosen the noose about his own throat. If they were foolish enough to block our road with force now, our lord in his anger would void the treaty that ceded Bohai's tax rights and choke the grain off entirely. For Gongsun Zan, that would be strangling himself."
Ju Zong's logic meshed like gears, without a gap, and his voice carried a confidence so hard it was almost cold.
The world muttered that he was smaller and lesser beside his elder brother, Ju Shou the Military Supervisor, a genius of the age—but that was only because the man he was measured against was too great. He himself was plainly one of Jizhou's fine and keen talents, with an eye that could see through a tangled situation.
"Indeed... I learn once more from Your Lordship's deep insight."
Zhang Liao nodded, heavy with genuine admiration.
In that short exchange, Ju Zong—the man he must guard in Liaodong and serve as his superior—had stamped a keen eye and a cautious hand firmly upon Zhang Liao's heart. A deep respect for his commander settled in that steadfast gaze.
"My reading may be wrong, and he may strike this very spring. Advance with your guard up."
"Understood."
"Come. We have no time to waste. Make haste! We must reach Liaodong quickly and deliver our lord's stern command to Gongsun Du, coiled there like a snake. Our lord has summoned him at a stroke, offering the fertile Administratorship of Julu Commandery in place of barren Liaodong. Cunning as he is, Gongsun Du will not dare refuse so sweet a proposal. And once he shifts his seat beneath the weight of our lord's favor, the Gongsun clan—the great native house of Liaodong—will have no choice but to cooperate fully with our rule there."
Having finished every calculation in cold blood, Ju Zong cracked his whip and drove his horse to full speed.
"All troops—pick up the pace!"
Zhang Liao's roar rolled out with the order. He deployed the cavalry to seal Ju Zong on every side without a gap, and drove the infantry behind them to a fierce pace.
The first month of the year 191.
The new year arrived on a biting cold.
Welcome intelligence came: Ju Zong, the new Administrator of Liaodong, had passed safely through Gongsun Zan's domain of Youbeiping and was entering Liaodong. And at last Father summoned me in person and formally appointed me Acting Sima of the Inspectorate of Jizhou.
I sent word of that overwhelming news to Jia Cong as well, the former Inspector of Jizhou, now Administrator of Runan. He had cherished me like his own grandson; surely the news would crease his deep wrinkles with a contented smile. I folded into the letter my earnest wish that he live long, and in health.
It was only an acting post, yet it was an office my father himself had granted, and it gave me the right to sit formally in the council of the administrative hall. Within the Inspectorate of Jizhou, my standing rose a full step.
Those who supported me came crowding in like clouds to share the joy, but I would not hand anyone a pretext. I pressed my excitement down with reason and sent them carefully away.
The gaze my eldest brother Yuan Tan—forcibly entered as the adopted heir of Uncle Yuan Ji—turned upon me was sharp enough to flay skin, and foul with ill will. Father soothed him, saying that even struck from the family register he was still Father's son, but Yuan Tan, who believed himself unjustly shoved aside, no longer seemed to treat me as a brother of the same blood.
Better this way. The curtain on a bloody struggle for power will rise soon enough. If Eldest Brother draws so cold a line and treats me as a stranger, my heart will be far lighter on the day my blade points at him.
I honed my resolve until it was cruel. Even so, he was still the eldest brother of my blood, and a pang in one corner of my chest was something I could not help.
Two days later, I put on my official robes with care and, for the first time in my life, set foot in the administrative hall—the heart of power in the Inspectorate of Jizhou.
The interior was less splendid than austere, heavy with an old and imposing quiet. Surely the hand of the frugal elder Jia Cong still lingered there. Father, too, since taking up the Inspectorship of Jizhou, had been buried without a breath to spare in grinding war and affairs of state. He would have had no leisure to adorn the hall.
"Until our lord questions you first, you must on no account open your mouth. Only listen in silence to the officials' deliberations."
Li Feng, who managed the hall, came quietly to my side and cautioned me in a whisper. Surely he was passing on Father's warm care, meant to shield me.
"Thank you."
Li Feng bowed respectfully and withdrew to one side of the hall.
I was thirteen now, and the office was firmly in my hand, but my seat was the very last among the ranked files of civil and military officials.
"Hmph."
Yuan Tan entered late. The moment he saw me he jerked his head aside as if he had seen an insect, and dropped into his seat.
Then my second brother, Yuan Xi, came over and patted my small shoulder with affection.
"Shang'er, this isn't your fault. Don't lose heart before you've even begun. But Eldest Brother's mood is very sour just now. Don't act arrogant and scrape his pride. Understand?"
"Yes, Brother."
Yuan Xi gave me one warm, smiling look, as if to wash the unease away, and went to his own place. On a floor as thin as ice, it was a rare and steady warmth of blood.
Thereafter, whenever Jizhou's brilliant civil and military officials filed in, I rose and bowed my head in strict courtesy. Those who backed Yuan Tan looked at me like beasts with grievances in their bellies, but before a manner so correct they could find no fault, they too did not dare seize a pretext, and returned the courtesy in full.
"How does it feel, rising to Acting Sima?"
Then Guo Tu approached, chin lifted, pouring a cold look over me. His manner was arrogant, as if he meant to press me down. He had treated me this way for a long time, so I felt no particular revulsion.
"I'm still dazed. I'm young, and I lack a great deal. I hope you'll guide and correct me often from now on."
"Cunning little thing."
Guo Tu let a thin sneer slip and needled me lightly, and I struck back without yielding.
"Surely that's better than growing up a know-nothing? Uncle Guo."
I smiled and pricked his arrogance with a private form of address. Guo Tu's brows drew together.
"This is the solemn administrative hall. Public and private must be kept distinct. Refrain from such familiar address hereafter."
He was thorough. Even while looking down on me, he pressed me again by invoking the laws and the line of the hall. A difficult man. I could not lower my guard for a single moment.
But that did not mean I had to shrink.
"Then you, Uncle, ought to give me the full courtesy the hall's law requires. Outside I may be thirteen, but in this hall I am plainly the Acting Sima."
When I struck back without retreat, Guo Tu stared at me like a snake, then burst into a hollow laugh. Yet he had no intention whatever of showing me respect. To the end he went on in the same arrogant familiarity.
"Speaking of which—how on earth did Fengxiao know?"
My heart dropped.
Guo Jia. A man I absolutely need for the great work to come. I sent Li Hui with a secret invitation. Don't tell me he showed my letter to Guo Tu. Is Guo Tu trying to step in and steal him away as Yuan Tan's strategist?
My mind denied it—that could not be—but facing those cold eyes, a sudden fear rose that I could not help.
"We happened to meet once in Luoyang, and we spoke."
I hid the tremor in my eyes and answered in a level voice.
"A hopeless scapegrace, badly brought up. Keep a man like that at your side and he'll only stir trouble on your road. Keep a proper distance. No—better not cling to the notion at all. Pack him off to Yingchuan."
Guo Tu flung the rough advice as if he had bitten into a worm, then returned stiffly to his seat.
Watching that arrogant back, I unclenched the fist I had locked inside my sleeve and let out a deep breath of relief within.
Good. Guo Jia must have received my letter and sent word to his elder cousin Guo Tu, quietly sounding out the situation in Jizhou. And above all, Guo Tu himself loathes Guo Jia and guards against him so fiercely that the genius will never crawl into the shade of my eldest brother Yuan Tan merely to be slighted. Of that I am certain.
Nothing could have pleased me more. Even in the heavy air of the hall, a hot current was already swirling in my chest, as if I held the world.
"We will begin the council."
Feng Ji, the Biejia Zongshi, rose smoothly and declared it, low and clear.
The heart of the Inspectorate of Jizhou—my first council in that solemn hall. Countless fierce scenes were already crossing in my mind. I expected that here, where the geniuses of the age had gathered, matters so grave that ordinary men could not even foresee them would be debated, and sharp stratagems for a chaotic age would pour out like a waterfall.
But when the lid came off, the hall was quite different from what I had imagined. Rather, it was dull enough that a yawn nearly escaped me.
The heads of each department announced practical business in level voices, and unless a matter could shake the Inspectorate's very survival, it passed as smoothly as flowing water. Father ran his eyes down the summaries on the desk and, for a sound report, only nodded.
A cold, rational leader. Had a great blunder or some corruption come to light, a thunderous rebuke would have fallen at once, but the officials were doing their share, and he strictly refrained from needless questions. Of course, because of the chill pressure of Father seated at the head, the faces of those who rose to report were plainly drawn tight with tension.
That quiet, dry air changed the moment Military Supervisor Ju Shou rose quietly from his seat. Father, who until a moment before had been turning documents at his ease, straightened his back from the chair and set his posture anew.
"I expect the Dudu of Youbeiping to gather every measure of grain he can scrape from Bohai Commandery this year, and fill the empty storehouses of the north."
Ju Shou laid out the situation in his characteristic meticulous, calm tone.
"Their cavalry is already renowned throughout the realm. Once their grain is secure as well, the chance they will turn their eyes upon fertile Jizhou is very great."
"When do you expect that time to come?"
Since the council began, Father's heavy lips opened for the first time.
"At the earliest, this autumn, when the harvest ends. At the latest, the spring of next year. The inspectors and administrators of Guandong are reading the current of this chaotic age and moving their troops, and it is most reasonable to judge that the Dudu of Youbeiping will move in perfect step with that current."
"A truly troublesome business."
Father nodded heavily, as if in deep agreement with Ju Shou's cold analysis. To the detailed military reports that followed, he closed his mouth again.
Thus a full double-hour slipped past, and as the council neared its end, Father's keen gaze fixed precisely upon me, seated at the tail of the ranks.
"Acting Sima."
"Yes, my lord."
"Speak your view of today's deliberations."
Father's eyes treated me as a formal official.
My heart beat cold, without the least fluster. I had already ordered my thoughts against this moment, and I was confident. When I rose, robes stirring, dozens of gazes in the hall turned upon me at once. I steadied myself with a breath, then spoke at my ease, and with weight.
"First, watching from beside them the excellent wisdom and sharp insight of my senior officials, I have gained a truly deep instruction. I thank you sincerely."
I bowed my head and offered courtesy from the heart. But I had not risen in this place to offer empty greetings. The real matter was only beginning.
"I assess the man called Dudu of Youbeiping from a view somewhat different from the Military Supervisor's."
"Oh? Go on."
"In recent years the Dudu of Youbeiping has fought bloody battles against the Wuhuan and the Xianbei. His base, too, is barren Youbeiping Commandery, within arm's reach of those foreign tribes. By contrast, the officials of our Inspectorate of Jizhou are, without exception, men of Guandong. If we try to predict that northern beast's actions by the frame of common sense we possess, calamity is all but certain. We must prepare for the most hideous of worst cases."
At that provocative, cold logic, the air of the hall froze.
"For example—what hideous move do you mean?"
"The Dudu of Youbeiping may not merely carry the registers into Bohai and collect the set tax. He may wring blood without mercy from great clans and commoners alike, plunder them, and fill his storehouses. If he does, he will gain the vast grain he wants in the shortest time, and the moment he strikes at Jizhou may come far sooner than we expect."
"Nonsense! If he plundered so stupidly, the great clans and people of Bohai would rise, and the outcry would be enormous. Has he gone mad, digging his own grave?"
As if he had been waiting, Yuan Tan cut me off roughly and objected at once. But Father did not waver in the least. With one light, decisive gesture he pressed Yuan Tan back into his seat. Reason and coldness before private feeling.
"Military Supervisor. What do you make of the Acting Sima's view?"
When Father again asked Ju Shou for an objective judgment, Ju Shou turned the reckoning in his head with an unshaken gaze, then answered calmly.
"It is certainly a radical view that leaps past common sense, and at a glance it may look like an overreach. But if we recall how the Wuhuan and Xianbei of the north once plundered Jizhou and Youzhou with cruelty, we cannot exclude the chance that the Dudu of Youbeiping—who has fought them in blood—will borrow that hideous method without hesitation. I will take the Acting Sima's sharp counsel deeply to heart, strengthen our scout net in the north, and prepare with thoroughness."
Father nodded with a deeply satisfied look at Ju Shou's rational acceptance, then turned his gaze to Feng Ji, skilled at handling men.
"Biejia Feng."
"Yes, my lord."
"At once send quiet word to the Administrator and the county magistrates of Bohai. Tell them, without saying it outright, to prepare for the plunder that may come. Making too much of it may raise a sore and stir the people's hearts, but the Dudu of Youbeiping is a man unlike us in many ways. Look at Dong Zhuo, who ran mad in Luoyang. He was not content to drag His Majesty down from the throne. He went so far as to poison him with cruelty. The Acting Sima's forecast may sound excessive and brutal, but the inner minds of men who grew up clashing with foreign tribes on a rough frontier must be watched with care."
"I will bear it in mind. I will tell only the Administrator and the magistrates, quietly, and have them prepare thoroughly. Even if nothing comes of it, I will see that no confusion spreads."
Feng Ji, humane and rational as he was, understood Father's order at once, and answered in a gentle voice that he would handle it short of harm to the people.
Satisfied, Father rose, and the dozens of civil and military officials in their ranks rose as one with a rustle of robes.
Before leaving the council, Father turned his head and met my eyes for a moment, where I stood at the end of the line. A faint, warm smile touched his mouth.
You have done truly well, my son.
He did not speak it aloud, but it seemed he said as much. In Father's eyes I felt a boundless trust, and praise meant for me.