Matters Come Suddenly, and the Decision Cannot Wait
I had learned a great deal, and only now could I begin to think in anything like the proper key of the Three Kingdoms.
“What is the reputation of Yuan Shao, the man who presently rules Jizhou?”
“His reputation scarcely needs reciting. He is a scion of the illustrious Yuan clan, which has already raised men to the Three Excellencies for three generations running. Born of a concubine, he observed the full three years of mourning for his father and for his father’s principal wife, and for that the Confucian scholars of the Qingliu hail him as the filial son who will pacify this age of chaos.”
“Setting personal reputation aside—what of his ability?”
“Words can hardly exhaust it. Say what anyone will, was it not he who took command of the allied lords to seize the traitor who burned Luoyang, the capital of the realm, and murdered the late emperor—and who then claimed Jizhou for himself?”
“So. He is of that order.”
“And yet the old master was never quite easy about him.”
“Why was my father uneasy, when the man enjoys so fine a name?”
“In truth, servants such as we only tend the businesses assigned to us. Even so, there was the matter of the old master’s patronage of the Governor of Jizhou who preceded Yuan Shao…”
From the modern histories I had known Zhang Shiping and Su Shuang as little more than Horse Trader A and Horse Trader B—the sort who simply lent out five hundred warhorses when volunteers were raised against the Yellow Turbans. The longer I listened, the more interesting the story became.
In this age it was no renowned aristocrat, nor any man who had climbed into office, but a merchant who put up the coin to sponsor the warlords. I had never once seen my father’s face, and yet I felt it anew: he was a man who did not flinch from tremendous risk, so long as the trade that remained was tremendous too.
“As I understand it, the magnates said to be worth more than a thousand gold are my father in Hebei, and then Mi Zhu, Cao Hong, Lu Su, and others of that rank.”
“Truly, you are the young master. Whenever did you find the time to study the great fortunes beyond Hebei?”
Yue Jia looked at me with a still more admiring light in his eyes, and went on.
“Lu Su—Lu Zijing—is not, in truth, a man one ought to call a Thousand-Gold Merchant. He is certainly a magnate whose trading caravans ply between the Yangtze and the Central Plains, but he falls a cut short. Mi Zhu, now—if one judges by the tales alone, he is a considerable rich man. They say that at one time the slaves, maidservants, and private soldiers of his house approached ten thousand.”
“A man who keeps ten thousand under his command…”
“And Cao Hong. He is by birth the younger cousin of Cao Cao, Inspector of Yanzhou. Their house entered the family as the adopted sons of Cao Teng, the Regular Palace Attendant of old—a eunuch who once wielded tremendous power. As his adopted grandsons they have lived in plenty, and their hands are said to reach every profitable interest across the Sili region. That fortune, too, is staggering.”
So those were the men known as the greatest fortunes of the Three Kingdoms, and if Lu Su sat a cut below the title, then we stood richer than that. Hearing it laid out, the scale seemed even more immense…
“Young master! Young master, are you within?”
“What is that commotion outside?”
When Yue Jia called out at the shout beyond the door, a servant answered in a rush.
“Men have come from Zhongshan. They say they must escort the young master at once.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
Yue Jia started up in alarm and rushed out, and I followed.
Zhongshan—that was where my father, Zhang Shiping, resided. And wasn’t I supposed to be out here in the hinterland, undergoing a trial?
Outside, a party of riders had stopped only long enough to trade their spent horses for fresh ones from the stable, already bristling with the urgency of setting out again.
“Young master of our allied house! Where are you?”
“Master Su—is that you?”
The man who called me young master of the allied house looked to be in his early or mid-forties. The moment he saw me, he hurried over and seized both my hands.
“Young master! I have ridden in haste all the way from Zhongshan. A grave matter has befallen the house, and I must escort you at once.”
“Wait—just a moment! What has happened?”
A Master Su who barged in and called me kin by marriage. One of Su Shuang’s people, perhaps? Then were Zhang Shiping and Su Shuang father-in-law and son-in-law? No—before any of that, I still didn’t know what the emergency was. First things first.
“There is no time! I will explain on the road. Come, we must go.”
“This very instant? Are you certain it is my father who summons me?”
“I am!”
At a word from the master, everyone burst into hurried motion. I hardly knew what was what. The thing had struck without warning, and I seized hold of my wits and moved.
“Young master, from what Lord Su has said, the matter is truly urgent. Take care of yourself, and go at once to see the master.”
“Very well. And those two things I mentioned this afternoon—see that they are secured without fail. Don’t trouble yourself over quantities. Scrape together every last bit you can find.”
“Understood. I will see to all of it!”
For the present: northern soybeans, and dried kelp.
The rest could wait. I climbed into the carriage of this Master Su who called himself my in-law, and we raced away.
On the road to Zhongshan in Jizhou, I heard a great deal indeed.
First, my father, Zhang Shiping, was famed as the foremost merchant magnate of Hebei, based in Zhongshan Commandery of Jizhou. Later he came into competition with Su Shuang, who led a rising great trading company around Zhuo Commandery in Youzhou. Then, beholding the sworn brothers of Zhuo—Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei—and their volunteer host, he was moved by their righteous spirit. Their purposes aligned, and he became their patron.
Afterward Zhang Shiping took particular note of Su Shuang and introduced him to his own daughter—my elder sister—and the two houses became kin. When his health failed, he entrusted the greater part of the business to his son-in-law. Now he lay critically ill in Zhongshan, and had sent for me in haste.
And so I arrived at the greatest mansion in all of Zhongshan Commandery, was shown in at once, and stepped inside.
“Has Qian’er come?”
“Ah—brother-in-law!”
There stood my brother-in-law Su Shuang, a reasonably handsome man of about thirty, and beside him my sister, who resembled me very closely and could not stop her tears.
“Thank heaven you are not too late. Come in with me.”
When we went in, the air was thick with the deep smell of medicinal decoctions, and a crowd of physicians attended a single patient.
“Father.”
“Mm… Qian’er… is that you?”
His face was gaunt, and his belly swelled unnaturally even beneath the quilt. He lifted a strengthless hand, barely, searching for me, and I went to him at once and clasped both his hands tight.
“Father…”
“It is Qian’er.”
This was the first time I had looked upon my father since coming to inhabit this body in this age, and he was a man for whom today or tomorrow might be the last. And yet, seeing me, he smiled broadly even in that extremity, and nodded.
“Since Qian’er has come… I will speak… Physicians, all of you… withdraw.”
“My lord!”
“Do… as I say.”
Only I, Zhang Qian, son of Zhang Shiping; my elder sister, Zhang Yanhua; and her husband, Su Shuang, remained.
Father Zhang Shiping raised himself with effort. His face was bloodless and pale, and he forced a smile as he looked at each of us in turn.
“Father…”
“Though a house… hold accumulated thousands in gold… a man’s span of years… is appointed.”
While Su Shuang soothed my sister, who could not cease her sobbing, Zhang Shiping turned his eyes to me.
“Qian’er.”
“Yes, Father.”
“Ha… hahaha. At last you do not shrink from your father in fear… Yes. Only now can I entrust even a little of what is to come.”
The son of this body’s former life, I had been told, was painfully withdrawn, ignorant of the ways of the world, and so afraid of his father that he could not even meet his eyes. But I held the hands of a man taking his last leave, and I bowed my head.
“I… wished to become a hero. Yet I could not walk the path of learning, nor the path of arms, and the only thing I knew… was trade. And so I did not spare coin… on the trade of raising men.”
A Thousand-Gold Merchant who had, each in his turn, patronized Liu Bei, Yuan Shao, Gongsun Zan, and Han Fu, and prospered alongside them.
“Yes. I will carry on my father’s will without fail.”
“Ha… haha… yes… you have truly changed… That is enough.”
Zhang Shiping: the great merchant who, unable to become a hero himself, had not stinted his patronage across the realm so that he might make one.
I will follow that will. The time was short, but I will keep it, truly, in my heart. Father.
“Son-in-law, there is no one who does not know you for the steward of this house. Henceforth Qian’er shall be head of the family, but the keeping of the house must fall to you and Yanhua.”
“Father…”
“I will remember, my lord! Upon my life, I will protect this clan, and Qian’er, and Yanhua!”
Hearing Su Shuang, Father Zhang Shiping smiled and closed his eyes.
!
In that instant, the words did not go on.
It was the moment the life of the Thousand-Gold magnate came to an end.
The year 193. The fourth year of Chuping.
Zhang Shiping, great merchant of Hebei and Jizhou, breathed his last, and a mourning hall was raised in Zhongshan Commandery. Mourners came not only from the lands around Zhongshan, but every man of any name throughout Jizhou, until the house murmured and seethed without cease.
“I pray the departed may rest in peace. Your late father was a benevolent magnate, who willingly opened his coffers to look after a starving people.”
“Thank you for coming.”
Chen Yan, said to be a great clan head of Zhongshan, had come to pay his respects. From Su Shuang I had heard that the brothers and sisters of that house were men and women of extraordinary beauty, and indeed Chen Yan, head of the clan, was a fine-looking man.
“Brother-in-law, look there.”
!
Through the press of mourners came a new figure in court robes: a thickset man with a bushy beard, leading his own following.
“The brothers Ju Shou and Ju Zong, of Guangping Commandery in Jizhou.”
“That man?”
Ju Shou—was he not the famed strategist of Yuan Shao’s army? They called him a clan magnate, and here he had come in person at the head of his kin.
“Well now. I come to pray for Master Zhang’s peaceful rest.”
“Thank you for coming. This is Baijin, the late master’s only son.”
“I am Zhang Qian.”
Ju Shou looked me over slowly, then seized my hand in a firm grip.
!?
“I pray the departed’s rest with all my heart. This man owes your father a very great debt.”
“Ah… yes.”
As Ju Shou led his younger brother Ju Zong and their kinsmen to offer incense, bow, exchange greetings with the chief mourner, and go in to the meal, Su Shuang went on quietly.
“He is Yuan of Jizhou’s man now, but he was originally a native magnate of Hebei. From the days of the previous Governor, he drew heavily upon the funds of our house.”
Ju Shou had not originally followed Yuan Shao. A native clan head of Hebei, he had served Han Fu, and only afterward attached himself to Yuan Shao when that man came up from the Central Plains. And the figure who arrived after him was no ordinary man either.
He was in his early or mid-fifties, very tall, with a weight of gravity settled into his face—the very image of a scholar-official.
“Ah—Elder Biejia, is it you?”
“Hm. The Ju clan is here as well?”
Su Shuang hurried out to receive him, then came to me and made the introduction.
“Master Tian, this is Zhang Qian, the master’s only son.”
“Zhang Qian. My courtesy name is Baijin.”
“I pray for the departed. I am Tian Feng of Julu Commandery. My courtesy name is Yuanhao.”
After Ju Shou, even Tian Feng. He too was a renowned magnate and noted scholar of Jizhou, and he had come all this way to offer comfort. Seeing the famous men of Hebei arrive one after another to mourn, I could well believe it: my late father had truly been a man of extraordinary goodwill.
And after that first day of the funeral, mourners without number continued to come.
“Offerings of condolence have arrived from Bohai Commandery in Jizhou.”
“My lord, these have come from Youzhou.”
“The clan magnates of Qingzhou have sent theirs, and the Inspector of Qingzhou has written a memorial poem in his own hand.”
Over several days a great many mourners came, and as I committed most of their faces to memory, I felt again, after a long while, just how exhausting it is to stand as chief mourner. I had played that part once before and been properly ill for days.
Then, late at night, when the mourners had thinned toward dawn, Su Shuang and I opened a casket inlaid with jade within our chamber.
“Brother-in-law, you have inherited everything. Now you ought to confirm the final testament the master left behind as well.”
It was a dying charge meant for the sole heir. I meant to break the wrapping from the bamboo slips within and talk through their contents with Su Shuang.
I opened the casket that held the last instruction of a magnate of a thousand gold.