The End of Guo Tu
Knock, knock.
I rapped the door on purpose before stepping into Guo Tu's office. No such courtesy existed in this age; I was only doing as I remembered from my previous life.
"Are you unwell?"
"Eh?"
"The moment you saw my face, the color seemed to drain right out of you."
"Of course you— I thought you were still on the battlefield..."
A dismay he could not hide flickered across Guo Tu's cunning face. I crossed the room at an easy pace and sat down opposite him at the desk. I took after my father, imposing and tall, and so my frame and bones already outstripped boys my age; I could pass for a grown man. Six chi and five cun—about five feet.
"And where did you leave that butcher who dogs your heels like a shadow? Come alone, have you?"
He asked it while sneering at Li Hui. A butcher. Crude, and exactly right. I had only to remember Li Hui on Qingxue Peak, sparing Sun Qing and Li Damu alone while he slaughtered dozens of bandits. I could never have been so ruthless myself.
"Ah, you mean Li Hui. At Qingxue Peak he took the Heishan chief Sun Qing and his deputy Li Damu alive. And while I was there, I happened upon an interesting letter. Would you care to see it?"
I drew a neatly folded sheet from my robes and set it on the desk with a soft tap. Guo Tu snatched it up like a viper that had sighted prey, eyes flashing as he raked the lines. An instant later he tore the paper to shreds and flung the pieces into the air.
"Tsk, tsk. What you just ripped apart, Uncle, was a copy, not the original. The man who stayed so composed in the administrative hall... flustered, were you? To lose your reason over a crude forgery you couldn't even tell from the real thing."
I let the mockery hang, then met Guo Tu's bloodless eyes and added, coldly, "The grand scheme of the renowned Uncle Guo amounted to this? I am truly disappointed."
Guo Tu shook from head to foot with rage and fear, then gulped down the tea in the ewer on the desk. A few harsh breaths steadied him. He fixed me with a viper's glare and began to strike back.
"Look at this arrogant little whelp, puffed up and prancing! You think a scrap of a letter like that can bind me, Guo Tu? Open your eyes and read it properly!"
"Nowhere in it is there a single line ordering the Heishan bandits to sabotage your suppression and drive you to your death! I'll grant you this much. As an official of the Jizhou Inspectorate, exchanging private letters with the Heishan bandits was improper and rash, and I admit it."
"If our lord disciplines me for that charge, I will take it gladly. But that is as far as it goes! You will not drag me down and destroy me with malicious guesswork and slander beyond it!"
"Uncle. Your tongue is far too long."
"Insolent brat! Don't call me uncle. Address me with due respect as Junzhen Zongshi!"
"What a ridiculous argument. You have never once called me Sima Yuan, nor treated me as that office deserves. Why, then, should I show you any respect?"
I studied his face, twisted with arrogance, and went on. "Frankly, when I found this letter in Sun Qing's robes, I thought your political life was finished."
"Still a babe who doesn't know the world. If you mean to take power, you fight with hard proof and a just cause, not circumstantial rubbish like this. Whine to our lord and cling to him about how wronged you are, and my position may grow awkward for a while."
"But get this straight. The years of bond and political alliance between me and our lord run far deeper and heavier than you imagine. I may suffer a spell of hardship. It will never be the end of my power."
"Without decisive evidence, that three-inch tongue of yours has almost no hope of bringing down a great house of Yingchuan Commandery. That is the law of this cruel world, and the true logic of power. Live a little longer, and you'll learn it on your own."
"Zhang Fan."
"......!"
"That Zhang Fan, your hands and feet. At sunset yesterday he fled Ye City in a panic, as if ghosts were chasing him. He passed the gate on the pretext of an errand for you, bound for his home in Yingchuan. Today I sent swift elite cavalry to take him."
"......!"
"That's right, isn't it? The go-between who delivered those chests of bribes to the Heishan bandits himself. Sun Qing may know little, but put Li Damu—the man who handled the stronghold's dirty work—face to face with Zhang Fan, and the truth will come out in broad daylight, piece by piece."
"Uncle, did you really misjudge so badly as to think the only card in my hand was this scrap of paper? To see the floor of a man once so meticulous prove this shallow... I am honestly about to feel sorry for you."
I looked coldly down at Guo Tu, ashen, his spirit gone entirely, and rose without a backward glance. He must have made some shallow calculation that he could still slip free of the crisis on the strength of his tongue. The moment I drove Zhang Fan's name into him like a knife—the most fatal point of all—he would have felt in his bones that the board was finished.
But a beast drunk on the sweetness of power thrashes uglily to the very end.
"Shut your mouth! You think a handful of paltry riders can catch him? How vast the world is! The back roads from Ye City in Jizhou to Yingchuan Commandery in Yuzhou are beyond counting!"
"True enough. Escape routes lie thick as weeds. But when a man's heart is urgent, terror drives him onto the fastest, most obvious road."
"Grant him a hundred times over that he circles by savage byways. To leave Hebei, he still has to cross the Yellow River in the end. Going all the way down to the Puyang Ford to make the crossing is far too long a way around."
"A flight that long, winding along side roads, would take a fortune just to eat and sleep, and a man who ran as if he were being driven out could not possibly have that much gold or silver in his purse."
"......!"
"You remember Ji Ying, the Commandant of the Passes and Fords who oversees Wushajin? A steadfast man who has sworn loyalty to our lord."
"I attached someone who knows Zhang Fan's face to the cavalry and sent them straight to Wushajin, with a letter asking the commandant to arrest him. Zhang Fan will never get across at Wushajin. He will be taken and dragged back to Ye."
"......You truly are a venomous thing. Stab you, and not a drop of blood would fall."
"I came to cut off your breath, Uncle. Would I have prepared carelessly?"
I walked over and took hold of the ring on the office door. I meant to open it and go, then stopped short, turned only my head, and drove a last wedge into Guo Tu where he sat sunk in despair.
"I advise you to keep to that seat for the time being, quiet as a dead mouse. I am going to seek a private audience with our lord at once. Try some strange trick to overturn this, and you will draw his deep suspicion. That anger will fall on you entire."
I flung the words at him coldly, opened the door, and stepped outside. A glance back through the crack showed Guo Tu seated with both fists clenched, trembling, his face crumpled as pitifully as a sheet of paper.
Bang.
The heavy wooden door shut.
Just like him. Arrogant Uncle Guo. Would he rather lose his head than his power? Death is at his nose, and still not one wretched plea leaves his mouth—no admission of fault, no begging for a single measure of mercy to let him live.
I steadied my breath outside and waited, in case he thrashed after all, but not a sound leaked from the office. Quiet as a dead mouse. I shook my head, cast off the stray thoughts, and turned toward the quarters where my father was staying.
I had made up my mind to end this long, vicious game of hide-and-seek, and to end Guo Tu with it. On the road to Ye I had even considered forcing him to his knees and using him to the last. His final expression told me that would be meaningless.
He had to die. Failing that, exile to the frontier, and his political life cut off.
I made my way to my father's office. The room beside the administrative hall was where he received officials in private, or sat alone to weigh the situation.
"Father. Have you been well?"
"Yes. You've grown again."
It could hardly be true, but in Father's eyes his youngest son, returned safe, seemed only a source of pride.
"I hear you handled matters in Yiyang County well."
"I am glad of your praise, Father."
"More to the point—if you were back, you should have come to your father first. Where have you been running about?"
It was less a rebuke than pure curiosity about his son's comings and goings. I deliberately hardened my face and spoke.
"Father. In this Jizhou there are men who do not wish your son to succeed."
Father's expression set. It was closer to a ruler's silence, testing the nature of power, than to anger.
"The closer you draw to power, the less every man in the Jizhou Inspectorate can be on your side. That is a burden you must bear, and overcome."
"Of course I must overcome it. But this check crossed the line by a wide margin."
I drew from my robes the original of the letter Guo Tu had sent the Heishan bandits and laid it on the desk. The moment Father confirmed the hand, his brow twitched. In the years when he had built his strength in retirement for more than a decade, Feng Ji, Xu You, Guo Tu, and the rest had been companions through all that time. A single glance told him the script was Guo Tu's.
"This foolish man."
A sigh broke from between his lips. It was no thunderclap of rage, only a deep sigh, and that was what put me on edge. For a senior official of the Jizhou Inspectorate to exchange secret letters with an enemy commander in wartime, in the midst of suppressing the Heishan bandits, was not mere defiance of orders. It was open betrayal of one's lord. A matter that ought, by rights, to have drawn fury.
"Shang'er."
"Yes."
"Is this all?"
"No."
I reported in a level voice: the surprise assault on Qingxue Peak, the capture of the enemy commanders Sun Qing and Li Damu, the secret letter taken from their persons, and the testimony that gold, silver, and jewels had been offered as bribes. I went on to the measures that followed—elite cavalry sent in haste to the Wushajin ferry to seize Zhang Fan, Guo Tu's closest man, who had fled.
The longer the report ran, the more astonishment colored Father's face. At length he lifted the teacup from the ewer with a hand that trembled slightly and wet his throat. That fine tremor was, paradoxically, proof of how stubborn the bond between him and Guo Tu remained.
Guo Tu has to die. If he survives this game, he will stand in my path later. He would grovel and bide his time. How could I leave him alive?
I read the wavering in Father's heart and hardened, inwardly, my intent to kill.
"So. How do you want this father to deal with him?"
"He colluded with the enemy and betrayed his lord."
"The fugitive Zhang Fan must be caught and confronted with Li Damu and Sun Qing. Only when firm evidence is in hand can we conclude that Director Guo betrayed his lord."
"Father. Do you apply so generous a measure to every civil and military official of the Jizhou Inspectorate? Is it that you cannot draw the sword, and hesitate, because the man is Director Guo, your old companion? If the one who did this had been a powerful clan of Jizhou stock, would you still have spoken of confrontations and granted him such leisure?"
When I pressed him, Father gazed at me for a long while.
"Your face today is truly unfamiliar."
"Father. You must be cold. If we are to end this age of chaos and settle the realm, we cannot be bound by private feeling. Who can say for certain how the realm will run from here? Some compare it to the turmoil when the Former Han fell and the Later Han was founded. Emperor Guangwu built his strength upon this very Hebei, and at Hao he ascended the imperial throne. That is present-day Gaoyi County, in Changshan Commandery of our own Jizhou."
I closed my mouth, having set Father's ambition ablaze. Emotions too tangled to name warred across his face. He was probably drawing, with care, a line between himself and Emperor Guangwu.
"Yes. Conduct of this degree can be called betrayal of one's lord."
After a long silence he raised his head, and his eyes had become a ruler's gaze, the old affection cut away. At last he had resolved to cast Guo Tu out of Jizhou.
"Go and rest. This father will handle it."
He dismissed me in a stiffened voice. I straightened my collar, offered a bow, and withdrew.
Yuan Shao summoned Meng Dai, the Statute Clerk who had charge of the law. Meng Dai heard him out, examined the letter, and spoke without hesitation.
"This is open betrayal of one's lord. His office should be stripped at once and he placed under confinement. Once the fugitive Zhang Fan is caught and confronted with Li Damu, if the crime is laid bare, he must be punished by beheading."
"Does this go so far as beheading?"
"Seven thousand of our troops were mobilized to suppress the Heishan bandits in Zhaojun. At so grave an hour he stands suspected of privately exchanging letters with an enemy commander and offering him wealth. There is no clearer betrayal of one's lord."
Meng Dai argued hard for Guo Tu's punishment.
"This subordinate will go to Director Guo himself and—"
"No need. I will go myself."
Yuan Shao rose. Meng Dai's reading of the law had just confirmed the charge.
"Wait a moment."
He sent the guards outside and entered Guo Tu's room alone.
"I attend upon my lord."
"Sit. There is no need for such formality between you and me."
A gesture, and Guo Tu sat. A heavy silence passed.
"My lord."
"Gongze. How long has it been since we formed our bond?"
"Twelve years."
"Yes. A long time. When you first came to me your face was still boyish, and now you are in your prime. You, and I."
Regret clung to Yuan Shao's voice, but Guo Tu's face was set. He knew Yuan Shao well—the resolve gathered behind that gentle tone.
"Why did you do such a thing?"
Yuan Shao's question was cold.
"......I am sorry."
"I did not come to hear an apology."
"Do you mean to cast me out?"
"That you ask it in your own mouth tells me the crime is real. Outside, the Statute Clerk is naming your offense betrayal of one's lord."
Guo Tu's hands trembled. The charge of betraying his lord tightened around his throat.
"It was about five years ago. There was a gift I gave you on your birthday. Do you still have it?"
"Yes, my lord."
A precious dagger, bestowed when both of them were in the full flush of their vigor. Yuan Shao rose slowly.
"I will preserve your final honor."
"I beg you... accomplish the great work."
Guo Tu bent deeply at the waist to hide his tears. Yuan Shao reached out in silence and patted his shoulder.
"You have labored long. Go in peace."
Leaving the office, Yuan Shao let out a long sigh. A blue sky without a wisp of cloud grated on his eyes today of all days.
That evening, word came that Guo Tu had taken his own life.
Yuan Shao declared the matter closed and ordered that Guo Tu not be mentioned again. A stern warning fell on me as well: dig no further into this affair.
A few days later, I turned my steps toward the administrative hall. Guo Tu had been dealt with, but a more important matter remained. The disposition of the Heishan bandits of Yiyang County still required the hall's approval. Whether his death would make that road harsher, or smoother, I could not yet tell.