The Heir
Min Chun's counsel had been right.
Once I took up a commander's register in the main hall of the Zhaodudu and pulled the reins of discipline tight, the officials' bearing changed before my eyes. At first the words sat awkwardly on my tongue. Issuing orders to ministers old enough to be my father or my uncles—men of illustrious houses—had not come naturally. But Min Chun worked behind them, persuading the bureaucracy and shoring up my authority, and when I held to a dignified bearing they bowed their heads without protest. A few still hid what they truly thought. Even so, with one eye on my father, the absolute power of Jizhou, they wore perfect obedience on the surface.
Change the mind, and the conduct follows. I had altered nothing but my manner of speech, and yet the giving of orders and the driving of work took on a sharper, more daring force.
In the month after I assumed the office of Zhaodudu, three rebellions broke out along the fringes of Zhaojun, stirred by remnant bands of the Heishan Bandits from beyond our borders—men who refused to settle. I offered not a shred of compromise and ordered their immediate suppression. Separate-Division Major Sui Gu led the slaughter, cutting the rebels down with particular savagery. As a general of the Zhaodudu he meant to prove his worth, and to draw a hard line between himself and the bandits he had once been. In the aftermath Agricultural Colonization Major Guo Daxian wove a tighter net of watchers, and no large-scale revolt rose in Zhaojun again. Petty disturbances never quite ceased, but such things happen everywhere in an age of chaos, so I left them to Guo Daxian, the man charged with the work.
Then, early in the fifth month, word came from Ye City: enter at once, without delay. I summoned Min Chun and Guo Daxian, charged them strictly with the administration of the Zhaodudu, and rode hard for Ye. Li Hui took the escort.
Ye City.
I met Shen Rong, who governed the gates, and then Li Feng, who managed the administrative hall, and took the measure of the city's mood. Nothing struck me as especially grave. I could not see why Father had called me with such urgency.
Guided by Li Feng, I stepped into a secluded side chamber beside the hall.
"Sit there."
Father had a great map spread across the table. His gaze rested on Youzhou.
He is bracing for Gongsun Zan to strike Jizhou. As early as next month, the moment the barley is in, they could come driving south.
I took my seat and ran swiftly through Gongsun Zan's lines of attack, and the answers we might make to them.
"Boy."
Father covered the map and looked me full in the face.
"I hear there was a rebellion in Zhaojun. Remnants from outside stirred it, did they?"
"Yes. A man called Yu Du, once close to Sun Qing, shook the bands. We crushed them without mercy, so they would never again nurse a divided heart. There is no reason to show mercy to men who have slipped the leash."
"As it should be. You did very well. Had you reached too quickly for conciliation, this father would have been disappointed."
"That will not happen. To those who cast down their weapons, submit to order, and mean to become farmers, I will give grain and every aid I can. But a man who rises with a blade in his hand will not be forgiven. Never."
Father nodded, a satisfied smile on his face. He seemed pleased that I did not fear the shedding of blood.
"Are you worried the Dudu of Youbeiping will come driving down?"
"I am. This father's eyes want the Central Plains and the south, yet the savage tiger of the north will not loose the nape of my neck. The Dudu of Youbeiping and I are bound by a vicious fate. Both of us hold mighty hosts, and the ambitions we harbor are no less vast—and of all places, we stand staring straight at one another. One of us will likely have to die before this stubborn enmity ends."
"I am certain you will defeat him and take all of Hebei."
"Ha ha ha ha!"
Father threw his head back and broke into a great booming laugh. He had probably been waiting, quietly, for just those words. At the same time I could see the regret beneath them. To the south, Yanzhou, Yuzhou, and Qingzhou had no absolute strongman; warlords swarmed, and the lands were in disorder. With the overwhelming strength of the Inspectorate of Jizhou we could have driven straight down and swept them aside. But Gongsun Zan, the deadliest rival of all, pressed upon Jizhou's northern flank, and it must have been enough to drive a man mad.
"If he is an enemy we cannot avoid, then we must crush him underfoot and rise. How can one embrace the realm by walking only the easy road? I, too, will help you, Father."
"That is why I called you."
My heart hammered. Jizhou's great host would move. I expected to take one wing of it and join the campaign. But in the next moment an order I had not foreseen fell from Father's lips.
"Zhaodudu. As Inspector of Jizhou, I will issue a command."
"Yuan Shang, Zhaodudu, awaits my lord's order."
Father wiped the mildness from his face all at once and put on the cold mask of a man of power, and I straightened in haste. A brief silence pressed heavily on the room.
"M-my lord."
"Why have you not yet received the order!"
"Yuan Shang, Zhaodudu, receives my lord's strict command. For two years I will remain in Zhaojun, make the Heishan Bandits into peaceable farmers, and bring Zhaojun to stability."
Father held out the Inspector of Jizhou's order, the seal already stamped upon it. I took it in both hands. And so, whether I wished it or not, I was bound fast to Zhaojun for the next two years.
"Are you disappointed?"
The chill left his face, and the mildness returned. I opened my mouth with care.
"Father. I have heard that the Youzhou cavalry of the Dudu of Youbeiping stands a cut above the cavalry of Jizhou. I wish to lend my strength at your side."
"I know. Of course I know. That is why I have given this order. If a great war breaks out, I will draw off a portion of the Jizhou troops stationed in Zhaojun."
He let out a heavy sigh.
"Do you remember what I charged you with when I named you Zhaodudu? I said that if you created a situation beyond control, or failed to collect the taxes promised after two years, you would never again set foot upon the path of office."
"I remember it exactly."
"That is why I mean to leave you in Zhaojun. If you took the field and stayed at your father's side, offering flashes of counsel, I am certain you would be of immense help. The insight you showed in Luoyang was like a shaft of light. But what if, while you were gone, the Heishan Bandits rose again in Zhaojun? What if Zhaojun suffered great harm because of it? You would have to bear every consequence and lay down your office. For a very long time. This father fears that. It weighs on me."
"Father..."
"This father's health is not what it was. So you must not suffer even a single fatal failure. Tan, the eldest, was adopted by his uncle and then cast out of the house. Xi, the second, has no ambition to contend for the realm. Then you must grow safely—and you must grow perfectly."
A deep affection stirred in his eyes.
"Yes. I will engrave it upon my heart."
"Boy. You wanted badly to take the field and help your father, didn't you."
He patted my shoulder. I held my tongue. This was not the moment to set myself against him. For two years I would gather my strength in quiet and meet the expectation he had set upon me.
"Two years is long, if one calls it long, and endlessly short if one calls it short. Build your power by your strength alone. When those two years are done, so that no one can bar your way, you must stop glancing left and right. You will have to run—fiercely—with your eyes on nothing but what lies ahead."
"I will answer your expectations. Without fail!"
"Good. That is my son!"
He broke into a great, open laugh. Carefully, I offered a counsel.
"Father. May I raise just one matter?"
"By all means."
"If it comes to open war with the Dudu of Youbeiping, do not try to meet him with raw strength. A head-on collision with their Youzhou cavalry on the open plain, above all, is suicide."
"You mean I should bind them with stratagem. Military Supervisor Ju Shou stands at your father's side, and brilliant strategists besides. Don't fret over that."
If he entrusted the overall command to Ju Shou, I could rest easy. In the running of an army and the framing of plans, at least, Ju Shou was the finest man in Jizhou.
"I dare ask that you place Colonel Qu Yi in a post of weight."
"You mean that rough fellow out of Liangzhou?"
"Yes. In all of Jizhou there is no commander so versed in the cavalry tactics of the foreign tribes. Set him to study anti-cavalry tactics as his sole charge, and I believe a time will come in the battles ahead when he proves of great use."
"Hold the Youzhou cavalry with Colonel Qu's anti-cavalry tactics? That will do."
Father nodded slowly. My tongue itched to say more, but I offered nothing further. One must touch only the heart of the matter, and briefly. Meddle in every petty tactic, and he would take my advice for an overreach and grow uncomfortable with it. However much he cherished me, he was the absolute power of Jizhou.
Only after I had heard his charges repeated, and repeated again, was I permitted to leave the room. I hesitated a moment, then went straight to find Qu Yi.
"Ah! Commander Yuan. What brings you all the way here?"
Qu Yi had been tending his weapons. He sprang up and offered a military salute.
"I am just come from an audience with my lord."
We shared no great familiarity, so after a brief exchange of courtesies I came at once to the point. The commander's register sat easily on my tongue now, and as Zhaodudu I outranked a colonel, so I spoke with confidence. Qu Yi checked for an instant, then accepted it.
"My lord is gravely concerned that the Dudu of Youbeiping will attack Jizhou."
"Any commander who draws his pay from the Inspectorate of Jizhou worries over that. The Youzhou cavalry, especially, sits ill with us."
"That is why I strongly recommended Colonel Qu to my lord. To break the shock tactics of that mighty Youzhou cavalry, I told him, we must set at the van a man who has cavalry warfare in his very bones. Drill your anti-cavalry tactics properly, and when the great war comes I am certain the name of Colonel Qu will shake the realm."
Qu Yi's rough face twisted, subtly. But a fierce light leapt at once into his eyes.
"Because this lowly general comes from Liangzhou, no one has ever taken a deep interest in my anti-cavalry tactics. I never dreamed Commander Yuan would see clean through to what I can do—and carry a counsel to my lord with his own mouth."
"It is all for the Inspectorate of Jizhou, is it not? I hope that on the field you will prove that worth and win great merit."
"The chance you have given me, and the grace—I won't forget them even in death!"
Qu Yi offered a formal military salute, his face moved. In the great battle to come, he would surely seize the chance to stand in the van. Show a fierce general hungry for merit that someone has recognized his true worth and laid the board for him, and you can make him yours beyond any doubt.
Quietly, I set one more stone for two years hence.
Two full years passed while I drove myself at the civil administration of Zhaojun and drilled the army.
The first month of the year 193.
In that span the realm convulsed, heaving as if mad. First, Father fought Gongsun Zan in a decisive clash for the hegemony of Hebei. The anti-cavalry tactics of Qu Yi, which I had quietly arranged, proved their worth: they bound the feet of the Youzhou cavalry, and the day was ours. Cui Juye suffered a crushing defeat and the momentum of victory sagged for a time, yet Father never yielded a step. He mustered the overwhelming strength of Jizhou, struck again in fury, and at last routed Gongsun Zan in Bohai Commandery and drove him back to Youbeiping. Far sooner than history itself had allowed, Father closed his hand completely around the leadership of Hebei.
A great upheaval struck Chang'an as well. Lu Bu cut the throat of his adoptive father, Dong Zhuo, and seized the government, only to be driven from the capital by Li Jue's counterattack and to flee to Yuan Shu. Sun Jian, that fierce general, died a hollow death while attacking Jingzhou, and Yuan Shu wrung out every soldier he had to strike Cao Cao, only to suffer a crushing defeat in return. Before the solid alliance of Cao Cao and Liu Bei, Yuan Shu—with Sun Jian's sharp fang pulled—was nothing but a paper tiger. In the end he lost Nanyang Commandery to Liu Biao and was pushed back on Shouchun; yet from that base he seized Yingchuan and Runan in Yuzhou, and Lujiang Commandery in Yangzhou, and barely held his power together.
Then the Heishan Bandits invaded Yanzhou, and Inspector Liu Dai lost his life. Cao Cao and Liu Bei used the chaos to swallow the province. Liu Bei, whose strength was still small, took Liang Commandery as his base and, under Cao Cao's tacit leave, occupied Chenliu. Cao Cao, based in Pei Commandery, gained Lu Commandery and took the whole of Yanzhou into his hands, save Chenliu alone.
While the great men of the realm tore the flesh from one another, I quietly raised an elite army in Zhaojun and broke the shell of my years.
The administrative hall of Ye City.
Father sat heavily in the seat of honor, and the renowned civil and military officials of the Inspectorate of Jizhou stood ranked to either side, hardly daring to breathe. I knelt squarely before his face. I stood seven chi and five cun now—near five feet eight—and the years had remade me into a frame that was solid, imposing, assured. Today I was fifteen: the day I would undergo the capping ceremony and be made a true adult.
In a solemn, weighty silence, Father himself rose from the high seat and came down. He gathered up my long braided hair and bound it fast into a topknot, the rite of binding the hair. Then began the capping, the setting on of the cap that marks a man. The Three Cappings—three changes of dress, three caps—proceeded with strict form. Clothed in the deep robe of ordinary formal wear, I received the first cap. I withdrew behind the curtain, changed into the court dress of an official, and received the second. Last of all, arrayed in the sacrificial vestments, the highest garb worn for rites and the gravest ceremonies of the state, I set the third cap upon my head. Each time I changed and showed myself again in the hall, the heavy frame and the pressure of presence I had forged in the harsh winds of Zhaojun bore down upon the officials' eyes.
Ordinarily a capping is conducted quietly in a family's ancestral shrine. Father held this sacred rite in the administrative hall of Ye, the very heart of Jizhou, with every official looking on. It was a stern and weighty declaration. He would brand me upon the realm as the one and only heir of the Inspectorate of Jizhou.
His voice rang grandly through the hall.
"It means you are to make your name blaze upon the world, and to bring honor upon the house. Do you understand this father's will?"
"I will carve it into my very bones, and answer my lord's will."
I flung myself flat and set my brow to the floor. In the gaze he bent upon me I felt an immense expectation—the hope that I would inherit the Inspectorate of Jizhou whole and grow into a hegemon who trampled the realm and commanded it. It was written there, unhidden.
Father took my hand and led me himself up onto the dais prepared beneath the seat of honor, a place from which I could look down upon every civil and military official. He did not trouble to speak the word heir aloud. No such formality was required. Every official in the hall bowed his head as one toward me—fifteen, come of age, looking down on them with my head unbowed.
My heart beat as if it would burst. No tears of emotion fell. Only the stern weight of power, and a hot ambition to swallow the realm, boiled up through every vein in my body.
The long waiting was over. Now I would help Father and take a true part in the administration of the Inspectorate of Jizhou, and when war came I would lead an army in my own right, and I would win.
Map attached separately.