Negotiate Softly, with a Giant at Your Side
After Zhang Fei had walked openly into Zang Ba's camp and torn the place apart, he came inside and dropped into a seat.
Late that night they laid out wine and meat, and Zang Ba filled the empty cups with his own hands.
"Ordinarily this is work for underlings. But if the men sent by the Governor of Xuzhou have come in person, I ought to pour for you myself."
He filled three cups—one for himself, one for Zhang Fei, and one for me. When he raised his own and drank, Zhang Fei threw his back in a single swallow, shook out his beard, and said,
"Quit sipping it like chick piss. Haul in a whole jar."
"After what you just did, you mean to drink by the jar? Heh. I don't even know what to call this."
Zang Ba laughed, at a loss, and I clapped my hands until the room attended me.
"He does the negotiating. I would rather deliver what I was sent to say, and talk it through in peace."
"Peace? Peace, is it?"
"Lord Zhang Yide, beside me, is a boundlessly peaceable man at a drinking table. And I was born disliking the sight of blood."
The look on Zang Ba's face asked, plain as speech, what manner of men these were. I shrugged, and he ordered a jar brought to Zhang Fei, whole.
Good. Now we talk properly.
"A new Governor of Xuzhou has taken his seat, and yet you, Lord Xuangao, still keep an independent force and have never once come to Xiapi. I thought we might begin there."
"I rose to Cavalry Commandant on General Tao's recommendation. My charge is the land around Mount Tai. The new Governor of Xuzhou has nothing to do with me."
"The new Governor you speak of is husband to the niece of the former Governor, General Tao. He ascended on that man's dying wish, and with the full support of the great clans."
"Not with mine."
"And what difference would that make?"
I could see the crooked pride behind the way he bristled, so I decided to say it as it was. I would not raise my voice. I would keep it very soft.
"I believe I know all too well why you are doing this, Lord Xuangao. That is why I would rather settle it in peace."
"Amusing. Let's hear it."
"General Tao came up from Danyang in Yang Province and ruled Xuzhou absolutely—a true warlord of the age. You arrived by much the same road and carved out a pillar of your own, an independent roving army you could wield as you pleased. The situation has changed. You simply don't wish to lose that army, or that authority."
Zang Ba's brow gave the faintest twitch. By then Zhang Fei had already emptied half the jar. Not a shade of color had changed in his face. He looked perfectly at ease, but if anyone in that room drew a blade, the iron lump of his fist would send the man's head flying before the steel ever cleared the scabbard.
"You count yourself a warlord of these troubled times. You have the standing and the strength for it, so what you pictured with the Governor of Xuzhou was not lord and vassal, but an alliance. Hold out long enough, you thought, and our side would be the first to offer a conciliatory hand."
Zang Ba's brow twitched harder. The eyes fixed on me were no longer ordinary.
"I understand. A man is not eager to set himself beneath another. Worse, through the first and the second of Cao Cao's invasions of Xuzhou, this stone that came tumbling in—a man you had never once sat down with, face to face, and spoken to frankly—built in a blink a power greater than your own and took the whole of Xuzhou to rule. The loss of it. The emptiness. Everything you have done until now begins to feel like nothing."
"Did you come here to mock me?"
"To negotiate. To negotiate. I want it said plainly, here and now."
I indicated Zhang Fei, who had been drinking alone.
"This is Lord Zhang Yide, younger brother to the Governor of Xuzhou, and he will report what he sees and hears here with perfect accuracy. So why not come once to Xiapi, boldly, and speak with the Governor from an open heart?"
"And if I go, and die there?"
"How can a man who nurses idle suspicions like that call himself the head of a faction?"
In that instant the composure broke clean off Zang Ba's face. I had not raised my voice by a fraction. If anything, I was lowering it.
"We came to negotiate, and you need not give me a firm answer this very moment. But if you truly have the confidence to face the Governor of Xuzhou like a man and settle it in a straight talk, then write us a letter before we leave. Of course, whatever follows will depend on your own heart, Lord Xuangao."
"Kh—heh heh!"
Zang Ba laughed as if the ground had dropped out from under him, called for a jar of his own, and drank like a madman. Then, panting, he glared at me.
"The way I hear it, a tycoon came down from Hebei with a fortune piled in the tens of thousands of gold, and made the present Governor of Xuzhou with his own hands. True?"
"Has that rumor spread so far already? Give it a little longer and the merchants will be venerating him, and we'll have a legend that a second Lü Buwei has appeared."
"If... if that merchant had backed me instead, would the Governor's seat be mine now?"
"Who can say? It seems that merchant never heard of Lord Xuangao's fame. Not even up in Hebei."
Zang Ba took that in, laughed hollowly, and turned his head.
"I'll make the time soon, and pay my respects to the Governor of Xuzhou."
"Ah. An excellent decision. But there is no harm in coming slowly."
"What did you say?"
Zhang Fei, chewing jerky, flicked a glance my way. I added one line more.
"This is Mount Tai, on the border with Yanzhou. Just now, in Yanzhou, Cao Cao's army and the native great clans—with Lu Bu at their head—are tearing into one another. If those sparks are to be kept from jumping this way, Lord Xuangao has to be here."
Zang Ba said nothing.
"Come to Xiapi yourself, meet the Governor, and show that you are willing to speak without reserve. When you actually arrive does not matter in the least."
"Ha—hahahaha!"
Zang Ba laughed loud, then dropped his head and clenched his fists. I watched those trembling fists at my leisure until, at last, he let out a long sigh.
"I lose. It's late, but I'll write at once. A letter congratulating Lord Xuande on his rise as Governor of Xuzhou, and another saying I will come to see him soon."
"Thanks to you, we'll eat well on Mount Tai before we go."
"I asked to come along because I wanted to sit in on a talk that large myself. Did you think I would shove into my elders' words and spoil them?"
"No. I told you it wasn't that. Zang Ba just yielded more readily than I expected, and it ended fast. I didn't think we'd finish the conversation that same night either."
The talks with the warlords of Mount Tai were behind us, and until we reached the next destination Zhuge Liang went on grumbling.
"Brother Ziyu scolded me fiercely too. What business did I have trailing after you to a place like that? But I came anyway."
His eyes were grave as he set his ambition out in the open.
"I mean to rise high, make my name known under heaven, and repay the kindness your house has shown me, brother-in-law."
"See that heart never changes."
"Yes. So this time, you must—"
"I know, I know. As it happens, this Mi Zhu we're going to see in Juxian of Donghai is famous for being a good man. Sitting in on the meeting shouldn't be any trouble."
After Zang Ba came Mi Zhu. He was called the greatest plutocrat in Xuzhou, a man whose wealth ran roughly even with our own house. Yet for whatever reason he had never shown himself through Cao Cao's first invasion or the second. He lived quietly in another county beyond the walls of Xiapi and answered no word that came from the outside.
"Lord Mi. There isn't a soul in Xuzhou who doesn't know that name."
"Tell me everything you know."
"He is from Juxian, in the Kingdom of Donghai. He made his start as a merchant of salt and iron, and he was the richest man in Xuzhou, with servants alone numbering ten thousand."
"I know that much."
"A few years ago a great fire broke out across Donghai. As it happened, the blaze started just as Lord Mi was moving the family wealth, meaning to shift into a larger house that could hold more retainers and servants."
"Hm."
"They say it did not burn so very much in the end. But Lord Mi called it the grace of the Star Lord of Fire Virtue, built a great shrine, gave a share to the private soldiers and servants under him, sent them all home, and threw himself into study. General Tao summoned him to serve as Attendant Officer. Not long after, he passed from one county magistracy to another, and now he is magistrate of his home county, Juxian."
The tale of the Star Lord of Fire Virtue. I had thought it nothing but unofficial history, and he had built an actual shrine? And after that affair, he had set about breaking up his fortune...
"Lord Mi is fond of omen lore. Whenever a Daoist priest comes, he donates generously, and when they hold rites praying for a rich harvest or a rich catch, he opens his granaries."
"A man who puts a great deal of faith in superstition, and fusses over sacrifices."
"And that is precisely why he enjoys such strong support as magistrate. He is also famous for a benevolent character."
I had a fair sense now of what sort of man Mi Zhu was, and the road to Juxian looked that much easier. Learning them one by one like this, I ought to tell Zhuge Liang one thing more.
"Kongming."
"Yes, brother-in-law."
"Of everything I've done so far, what do you think I've done the most?"
Zhuge Liang answered without a moment's hesitation.
"You have sought out the renowned talents of Xuzhou and gathered them beneath the Governor's name."
"Right? All I've really done is run a trade in talented men."
"Then what you do next will be something else?"
"The real work."
Zhuge Liang's eyes went wide.
What I had done was throw money around and gather men. Now that they were gathered, the things waiting to be set in motion were more than one or two.
"Traveling all over Xuzhou, looking again down the roads the slaughter had swept—it was a pitiful sight. Bringing ruined land back under the plow."
"You mean that with talent gathered and money moving, you will use them to do something greater."
"A very great deal greater."
Zhuge Liang heard that, laid his hand over mine, and nodded, his eyes full of resolve.
Once we had met Mi Zhu we would return straight to Xiapi, see Liu Bei, come full circle from the round we had made, and then put the project properly into motion.
"Welcome, my lords, from the seat of Xuzhou. You must be Lord Zhang, the Thousand-Gold Merchant, and this is the Lord Zhang Yide one only hears tell of—and this gentleman?"
"Zhuge Liang, courtesy name Kongming. Of the Zhuge clan village in Langya."
"Ah. Is that so?"
We had come to the house of Mi Zhu, Magistrate of Juxian, but the man himself was not there.
"I am Mi Fang, younger brother to Magistrate Mi Zizhong. My courtesy name is Zifang."
Not Mi Zhu. Mi Fang. He looked about my age, and his features were decent enough, though he had clearly eaten well; there was a comfortable plumpness to a face that still carried presence. With a fussy face and fussier gestures he showed us into a room, then dashed off declaring he would have a wine table laid at once.
"Peculiar sort of welcome."
Zhang Fei never turned down a drinking table, so he sat quiet. Zhuge Liang poked me in the side.
"It isn't even evening, and they are setting out wine first. Receiving us through his younger brother, instead of the magistrate we came to see, means they are taking our measure."
"Kongming. Keep going."
I meant to hear him through.
"If it is not merely a wine table—if they call in women, or go so far as gifts of money—then meeting Mi Zizhong will be difficult."
"You think so?"
Zhang Fei sat there saying nothing, but I saw his ear give the slightest twitch.
"Most likely he will make a show of sincerity and say he will receive you another time. Come again, and there is a good chance he will entertain you the same way and send you off once more."
Roughly what I figured.
Mi Fang coming out in his brother's place was not because something was wrong. They were putting us off on purpose, trying to weigh Liu Bei once. A local magnate with the absolute support of his region, a man like Mi Zhu, could afford to test you this far.
"Keep insisting that every word of it must be said to the magistrate himself. If he has been away a long while, go further and ask whether we might simply stay here. That should draw an answer."
"Good. Let's see whether our Kongming can actually land one."
Young as he was, that brilliance of his was not going anywhere.
And a little later, it happened exactly as Zhuge Liang had said. From early evening a lavish wine table was spread, and musicians and courtesans came in to offer their greetings.
"Humble as it is, we would receive the guests who have come from Xuzhou."
"Ah, I'll just—"
"Those two over there are a fresh bridegroom and a little lad. Send the whole lot over to me and we'll get along just fine."
Zhang Fei thumped his chest and boomed it, and whether it was the rough masculine impression that landed, several of the courtesans flushed. In any case Mi Fang waited on me with extreme courtesy, and there amid the delicacies of mountain and sea I came to the point.
"So. When does the Magistrate of Juxian arrive?"
"My lord, I am truly ashamed to say it, but my elder brother is away at present."
"Away where? I am prepared to wait, and to stay a few days."
"I am truly sorry. He has taken a boat down the river and out to sea, to offer a rite praying for a rich catch."
"What?"
This was a bit much.
"Along this Donghai coast, the herring catch—salted fish, fish oil, and meat for the table—has been the chief livelihood since old times. So every year my brother, as magistrate, leads the fishing fleet out to hold the rite for a rich catch. As luck would have it, he left two days ago."
"When does he return?"
"There is no fixed day. Which is why, if I might have a moment..."
Mi Fang suddenly caught my collar. I rose, and Zhuge Liang followed as a matter of course. We came to a room of the house, and the servants there bowed to Mi Fang.
"My lord. You've come?"
"Open it."
Armed servants, inside the house. The moment the men with swords at their belts opened that door, I took in what lay within. Gold, silver, and jewels—a whole room packed with gold, silk, and ornaments.
"Our house, too, knows what has passed in Xuzhou, and how you, my lord, freely opened your private fortune to save countless people of the province. It is a small thing, but we prepared this in return."
Treasures worth what looked to be several thousand taels of gold. Enough, truly, to stuff a man's throat with gold and jewels, and he meant to hand all of it to me.
"My brother said that while he was absent, I was to deliver this to whoever came from Xuzhou, and to congratulate the new Governor. So please, take it this time, and next time, without fail..."
"No. No. I will wait until he comes."
Taking it would have recovered some of the principal I had already spent. It was not enough if I truly meant to meet Mi Zhu and settle things face to face.
"My lord, this is by no means ill-gotten wealth. All of it may go to the Governor of Xuzhou and be used to restore the ruined lands of northern Xuzhou."
"Of course I know that. But these treasures—how shall I put it. They're too little."
"T-too... too little?"
"Geliang. Go fetch a brush."
"Brother-in-law. It's Liang."
"I wanted to call you that at least once."
Zhuge Liang said nothing. It was a joke you could only play on a man with a double-character surname, and he grumbled as he drew out the brush he kept ready in his robes. I took up a bamboo slip of the sort we used for vouchers and wrote.
Director Zhang Qian
Hereby guarantees the sum of
Ten Thousand Taels of Gold
Even with the odd change trimmed off, it came to more than double. I handed it to Mi Fang, standing there before the heap of treasure.
"That's the lodging fee for staying here until Magistrate Mi returns. Look after us."
"M-my lord!?"
"Oh, and for the record, I like pork. Nothing fancy. Just a whole cut roasted in coarse salt. It's cold, so make the bedding a thick fur blanket."
If I wanted to meet Mi Zhu, I only had to take my ease here—eat, idle, and wait.