Leadoff: Restoring Order to Xuzhou
It was settled that Su Shuang would go to Yecheng, meet Brother Yue, look over the state of the finances, salvage whatever could still be salvaged, and only then sit down with Yuan Shao to discuss the grand design I had laid out.
"Brother-in-law, I'm counting on you."
"Don't fret. There are plenty of things I can confirm only if I see them with my own eyes."
For this, he was the one man I could trust above all others.
"And you watch yourself as well. Even if Cao Cao's army out of Yanzhou broke them, I'm told there are still plenty of independent warlords with real strength left. Persuading them one by one will be hard to—"
At that moment a vast shadow fell across my back, and a hand the size of a pot lid settled on my shoulder.
"—well. Perhaps it won't be."
"Master Su, Zhang Yide here will keep this young head of the house good and safe."
"Now those are words a man can lean on. I'm counting on you."
"Mm."
Zhang He arrived along with Zhang Fei, and with the soldiers Liu Bei had attached to me they would serve as my escort. I could set out with an easy heart.
When I returned home and announced that I would be making a circuit of Xuzhou, two wives were waiting for me at the Hebei residence.
"My lord, Lady Zhuge says she has something to tell you."
"All of a sudden?"
At Ying's words Zhuge Xue came forward with a shy hesitation and dropped into a full, formal bow. The silk brought up from Hebei fit her perfectly—a vision of beauty in the very act of kneeling.
"Sit at ease, and speak."
"I heard you mean to leave Xiapi and tour the length of Xuzhou. Might I make one small request?"
"Speak."
"Please take Liang with you."
"Hmm. That..."
When the family had come together from Xiaopei to Xiapi, Zhuge Liang had come along in the company of the ladies. He was still so young. Was he already putting himself forward?
"Liang says he wants to see the world and gain experience. You know better than anyone how bright that child is. I beg you."
"Well, if you press me that far, I can take him. But it shouldn't come through you. He has to seek me out himself and say it, or I won't allow it."
That was when it happened.
"Truly?"
"!?"
Wondering where the voice had come from, I turned—and the door opened as Zhuge Liang stepped out.
"Kongming?"
"The truth is, I told my sister, then waited quietly in this room for the answer."
The little schemer. He'd done it on purpose.
He had pinned my promise down so there was no slipping out of it, and now he would accompany the tour of Xuzhou as a matter of course. Young as he was, that mind of his was the genuine article, and if he wanted practical experience, I would take him along and show him everything there was to see.
"Fine. We leave soon, so from this moment pack thoroughly for the journey."
"Thank you, brother-in-law."
"We'll need two sets of luggage, then? I'll get young Master Zhuge's ready as well~"
"Oh, Sister Huan! That's for me—I'm his own sister."
"No, no. My lady only needs to rest."
Huan Ying hummed to herself and set about packing Zhuge Liang's things as well.
The next day, with everyone ready, we set out first for Mount Tai.
Zhang He was as steady and comforting as a bowl of hot stew, and Zhang Fei—did the man even need an introduction? I had traveled with Guan Yu many times, but my expectations of Zhang Fei were enormous.
We had been riding the whole day toward Mount Tai when it happened.
"My lord, the night has grown very late. Should we not make camp here?"
True enough, it was pitch-dark, and pressing on by torchlight alone was no way to travel. Everyone would be exhausted.
To one officer's suggestion, Zhang Fei answered with perfect cool.
"Quiet. We haven't even covered half the road I figured on."
"But if we keep going like this, I fear everyone is far too worn out."
"On the first day? I've let you lot get too soft."
"N-no, sir! We'll advance at once!"
Good heavens. He meant to keep going?
Zhang Fei hadn't even raised his voice. He had simply tossed the words out, and every man was rigid with fear. Under that threat the pace picked up again, and Zhang He, watching from the side, offered a quiet word.
"I can't help thinking you're spending the men's strength by pushing too hard."
"You, the general who came up from Jizhou—watch and learn. This is what it takes to forge a man worth a hundred."
"Nothing but the whip, and no rest at all? Give it three days and they'll all be flat on their faces."
"Care for a wager? We'll hit Mount Tai inside of eight days."
The road ahead was some twelve hundred li, and he meant to eat it in eight days? That looked brutally hard. Zhang Fei had calculated it in earnest and meant to go straight through. I decided to wait until we were actually granted a rest, then raise the matter directly.
And when, after a long while, Zhang Fei finally announced that we would camp for the night, I sought him out on the way to our lodging in a nearby village.
"I'll grant you the first day. But if we keep on like this, they'll all collapse before we ever fight."
"You may be a man our army cannot do without, but when it comes to handling rank-and-file soldiers, I know better than you."
"I only want to head off the disaster of them dropping on the march."
"Men I've tempered don't die that easy. Start whimpering, and they'll die under my fists instead."
Terrifying.
I had heard that Zhang Fei treated his subordinates as roughly as his valor was great, but this was a straight line with no give in it at all. While I was still searching for what to say, my brother-in-law Zhuge Liang, who had come along, stepped up.
"The horses are spent, and the saddles have rubbed them raw. Can we really keep forcing them like this?"
"Boy, get used to it and it's nothing much."
Zhuge Liang took in that blunt refusal and whispered at my ear.
"Brother, could you do that thing you're good at?"
"!"
I understood at once.
"Lord Yide, then might I offer just one suggestion?"
"Go ahead."
I drew a deep breath and shouted to the soldiers who had been reduced to rags in a single day.
"Listen, all of you! We have to cover the road to Mount Tai in Xuzhou in eight to nine days!"
"!?"
"Aigoo..."
Sighs rose here and there. They would have to hold this mad pace and somehow eat a road of more than a thousand li inside that time. Morale plummeted, and just as despair settled over them, I played the card I was actually good at.
In an instant the eyes of the despairing soldiers flashed.
"Double, and I mean it. The moment we reach the seat of government, I'll pay you myself in coin and cloth! A guaranteed double reward!"
"I-is that true?"
"When we get back, the reward is really double?"
"I'll request the money from the Governor of Xuzhou, and if he won't give it, I'll empty my own purse to pay you!"
In a heartbeat the bloodless, leaden mood caught fire. Given what a soldier's wages amounted to in these times, double was enough to make even a brutal march worth attempting, and their resolve blazed up.
After I had said it, I ruffled the hair of Zhuge Liang, who had given me the hint, and turned to Zhang Fei. He nodded, unruffled.
"If they're going to make the date they've been set, shouldn't they at least be paid properly for the distance they cover?"
"No need. Even if they can't, I can make them able."
"Even the lowest soldier will pile up resentment if you drive him with nothing but unreasonable labor and give him no promotion or reward when the moment calls for it. At the very least, when the cauldron boils, you have to let the steam out."
"I'll mention it to Big Brother."
Zhang Fei ending on that rough country cadence meant he was pleased.
And so, even after a day of forced marching, when we set out early the next morning the soldiers' eyes were different from the first. Come back from this expedition, and they would receive double the reward. Trusting in that one thing, I called everyone together before we departed.
"Kongming, bring that out."
"Yes, brother-in-law."
While we lodged in the village, as we broke camp to leave, I had bought something there in bulk. It was cloth—somewhat stained, and of a quality only the common folk of this age would use. But it had a purpose of its own.
"Over nine days on the road, the first thing to take a beating will be your feet. Each of you, cut what you need from this cloth and take it. Foot wraps have to be changed constantly."
"!!!"
"What are you waiting for? First come, first served."
In that instant everyone rushed in a mob, and Zhuge Liang himself cut the cloth for foot wraps and handed it out.
Once we had properly secured supplies for the march and set off again, Zhang He came up from the rear and fell in step beside Zhuge Liang and me.
"That was very finely done."
"I only raised their morale."
"That too. But when Yide said eight days, you hedged it as eight or nine, then went and promised a double reward if we arrived within nine. Yide noticed, and let it pass."
Zhang He had caught that as well? Impressive. I had thought everyone would be swept up in the mood and swallow it whole. Zhuge Liang shrugged, and the second day's march seemed even faster than the day before.
And so we truly reached Mount Tai in nine days.
Not one of them looked worn out. They were so full of drive that, as things stood, they seemed ready to charge like madmen no matter who stood in front of them.
"The warlord who rules this place, Zhang Ba, holds the office of Cavalry Commandant. The previous Governor of Xuzhou entrusted him with the defense of the Mount Tai region, but he was beaten back in Cao Cao's invasion and has never sworn loyalty to the present governor."
"Then this is the moment to make it perfectly clear who his master is."
Once I had explained Zhang Ba, Zhang Fei took up his serpent spear and walked slowly forward.
"He's the power in the Mount Tai region. Meet him head-on and we could bleed badly."
"No. In a case like this, that heavy bleeding is exactly what has to happen."
"What do you mean to do?"
"Baijin. Junyi. You just watch."
Was he in his right mind?
Serpent spear in hand, Zhang Fei was riding alone, slowly, toward the earthen fort where Zhang Ba's force was stationed.
"Halt! Who goes there?"
"Where'd you come from?"
"The dogs around here are noisy."
"What'd you say, you bastard?"
When Zhang Ba's men barred the way to his stronghold, Zhang Fei opened those tiger eyes and leveled the serpent spear at them.
"I am an envoy of the Governor of Xuzhou. The governor's own subordinates wouldn't come when called, so I came myself."
"Ha—you say you came from Xiapi?"
"Ring the bell. Now."
At Zhang Fei's appearance they startled, the bell rang, and Zhang He immediately ordered the thousand troops to prepare for battle. We had come this far in a single stretch, exhausted—could they really fight? And yet morale was sky-high, fire in every eye.
"Hmph."
But Zhang Fei thrust out a hand and checked the movement behind him, going forward as if he meant to settle it alone. Impossible to read. They sang of him as a peerless warrior, a man worth ten thousand—did he truly believe he could face an army of ten thousand by himself?
CRACK!
One swing of Zhang Fei's serpent spear shattered a wooden palisade before the earthen fort into splinters. Zhang Ba's army, come running at the bell, milled about in shock, and someone shouted.
"It's a raid! These madmen have come pretending to speak for the Governor of Xuzhou!"
"...What?"
"Who recognizes Liu Bei as Governor of Xuzhou? We are the army of General Tao's day, and now we follow the Cavalry Commandant—"
SHHHK—
The instant Zhang Fei swung the serpent spear again, the officer who had been spouting those words was cut in two, blood spraying.
"Anyone who nodded along with that nonsense just now, step for—"
"M-monster!"
"One stroke, and the officer—!"
The thousand soldiers we had brought were mere decoration. Zhang Fei alone looked ready to shake the whole of Zhang Ba's army on Mount Tai. In that standoff, I stepped forward.
"Hear me, army of Mount Tai! We have come under formal orders of the Governor of Xuzhou to speak with Cavalry Commandant Zhang Ba! Even if blood is shed out here, there will be talk—and even if this standoff ends, there will still be talk!"
I moved up beside Zhang Fei and shouted at Zhang Ba's men, who held their blades at a killing edge, and Zhang Fei reached out an arm to shield me.
"What'll it be? From here on, will Mount Tai walk a different road from Xuzhou?"
That was when it happened.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
"That's enough."
"!"
A general approached slowly, applauding as he came. He was short, but broad in the shoulder, and the flashing scale armor he wore—unlike any of the other soldiers—marked him as Zhang Ba.
"You said you'd come under the Governor of Xuzhou's orders?"
"We did."
"I am Zhang Ba. My courtesy name is Xuangao. I think the greetings have gone on long enough, so come in."
"Your tongue runs awfully short before an envoy of the Governor."
Zhang Fei stepped toward Zhang Ba, ready for another round, but Zhang Ba did not give an inch.
"Whiskers. I am a Cavalry Commandant of the court. My rank is not the same as yours."
"Oh? Is that so?"
"I said I'd negotiate, so put down your weapons and come in. If not... shall we try it? You, the thousand you brought, and every soldier here."
Disarm and walk in, in a situation like this? I didn't much mind, but Zhang Fei...
"Lord Yide, this is a negotiation. Calm yourself for now."
"Fine. Disarm? Then I'll disarm!"
BOOM!
Zhang Fei hurled the Serpent Spear into the earth and drove it there like a pillar, then swung down off his horse. Dusting those pot-lid hands, he walked up to Zhang Ba.
"Think I can't take a man's head off with my bare hands?"
I followed Zhang Fei in. Zhang Ba wore a smile no one could read and guided the two of us inside. From the very first step, it felt like walking into a tiger's den.