Run, Listen, and See with Your Own Eyes
By now, everyone who needed to know the grand plan I had drawn up knew it.
From here on I was going to be frantically busy, buried at home under stacks of bamboo slips and gathering every scrap of news from the surrounding lands as it came in. It was precisely then that one of the family came looking for me.
"Brother-in-law, I have something to say."
"Why do I have the feeling I already know what it is?"
Zhuge Liang came hurrying up with that resolute face of his, and a sudden unease prickled through me.
Even so, he was one of only two brothers-in-law I had. The least I could do was hear him out.
"I thought it through very carefully. I even asked my teacher before I decided."
"You want to go to Chang'an. Or to Yanzhou. That's it, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"You do realize that if I hear you out and give my leave, your sister—carrying your nephew even now—will be furious enough to bring the house down?"
"Yes."
"And that if Ziyu, back in Xiaopei, catches wind of it, he'll come after you with a club?"
"Yes."
Utterly unshaken. Truly, this was Zhuge Liang.
"Come inside. We'll talk there."
"Yes, brother-in-law."
We went in, and over tea I decided to take it slowly.
"All right. Where did this sudden hunger for glory come from?"
If he so much as said I want to make a name for myself by accomplishing something, I was fully prepared to summon his brother and sister and have them scream at him in two-part harmony.
"I want to broaden my knowledge of the world, and to see with my own eyes what it means to save people, one by one."
"Be more specific."
"Studying under my teacher, I feel every day how lacking I still am—and how powerless. Precisely because of that, I want to hold in my heart the conviction that even a weak man can save everyone."
"Kongming. Do you even know where we're going, and how? This is trade, yes, but it's also espionage. The caravans move with their lives on the line, straight into the places where the White Wave bandits, the Black Mountain bandits, and the heretic outlaw bands all gather."
"I will take that into account. From this moment on, I will learn the sword—or the staff, if I must."
"Aigoo! Enough of that racket!"
"Elder brother, I truly beg you."
Zhuge Liang went down on his knees, and the situation was genuinely enough to drive a man mad.
If Zhuge Jin, Zhuge Hua, or Zhuge Jun back in Xiaopei had known, they would have had plenty to say on the spot. And yet he sincerely wanted to go out into the world.
"Haa..."
And then, at that moment, something occurred to me.
"Even so, sending you to Yanzhou or to Guanzhong is absolutely out of the question."
"..."
"There is, however, something even more important than either. If it fails, it will deal a heavy blow to our great undertaking. It was work your brother-in-law meant to take on himself—but if you want it, I'll let you come along."
"Truly?"
"You may accomplish everything you hope for. But remember this, and remember it well: from first to last, this is a matter of seeing the world."
"I will!"
In the end, I shaped a mission to match Zhuge Liang's resolve and placed it in his hands.
It would be handled entirely in writing. From the first item to the last, I set down in exacting detail everything he was to do.
Zhuge Liang's eyes grew wider and wider as he read. Then they narrowed again, and he nodded, his face full of determination.
"Deliver this to Lord Su. The moment he has confirmed it, tell him to burn it. The only ones who may know of this are Governor Liu of Xuzhou, myself, and the one who reads it."
"Yes, brother-in-law!"
"If you understand, then go."
Zhuge Liang bowed until his forehead nearly touched the floor and went out. Not long after, Zhuge Xue came in.
Her belly had rounded. Through all the months the child had been growing, I had made certain she never missed the good food and restorative medicines to be had in Xuzhou, and she was living at ease alongside Huan Ying.
"My lord, did Liang, in another fit of ambition, say he meant to do something dangerous again?"
"You siblings truly know one another far too well."
"Hea—heavens!"
"Don't worry. I'm not sending him anywhere dangerous. He'll simply travel with Su Shuang, my brother-in-law, to see something of the world. From Donghai Commandery they'll work their way up and look over the roads the caravans take."
Zhuge Xue had startled, but she seemed to settle a little once she heard me out.
"He'll be watching how the goods are traded and the accounts kept, and looking over the commanderies and counties along the way. Think of it as him clearing his head."
"Truly? Then I can rest easier, I suppose."
"As it is, my sister is busy enough recuperating after childbirth."
"Because of that, among the sisters in the house, Lady Zhao and Lady Wang take turns helping their sister-in-law through her lying-in."
"Ah. So this is what they mean when they say family is a fine thing."
In any case, I reassured Xue two times and three that Zhuge Liang would face nothing dangerous, and that she was not to worry.
That said, not long afterward Su Shuang came running, and I did hear him get out exactly one sentence: You want me to do all of this?
"Truly staggering. Is this Chang'an—the capital of all the ages?"
Lu Su, who had led a caravan into Guanzhong with his life in his hands, could find no further words for the wretched sight before him.
Chang'an, the capital of more than a million souls that Emperor Gaozu of Han had raised when he founded the dynasty, had become a scene beyond the human world, where the crows tearing at the corpses of the dead outnumbered the living.
There was not a spark of life in the eyes of those who still drew breath. Their clothes hung in tatters, their hair was a wild tangle, and the refugees held out hands thin as withered reeds toward the passing caravan, begging for anything at all.
I have no words for this. But I have to see the state of Guanzhong clearly with these two eyes, set it down, and carry the truth of this place back!
Looking out over Chang'an, Lu Su bit his lip hard and first sorted the cargo he had brought, seeking out the lot meant for each buyer.
General-in-Chief Li Jue. Grand Marshal Guo Si. General of the Agile Cavalry Zhang Ji. Right General Fan Chou—four litters of curs and pigs. And besides them: Yang Biao, Zhong Yao, Han Bin, Yang Ding, Wang Zifu, Zhao Wen, Wang Kang...
How much trade could even be done in a place like this? He went in all the same.
He sent the caravan's merchants out to each of the men on the list, and ground his teeth at the countless people of Chang'an filling his sight.
"I cannot simply stand here and watch. Chief Yue, boil up some seaweed, at least."
"Here, my lord?"
"No one can object if we do no more than boil a broth and share it out."
In haste, Lu Su found a great cauldron in the market street, boiled nothing but seaweed in water, and portioned that soup out among the crowds.
They gulped down broth still at a rolling boil. When someone dropped a bowl, the rest swarmed like hungry ghosts, scrambling to snatch up even a scrap of seaweed fouled with dirt. It was the moment human dignity vanished.
"They don't offer even the barest relief..."
"Hey! You there!"
"?!"
At that voice the people of Chang'an started in terror and fled for their lives on their skeletal frames.
Lu Su turned his head. A huge warrior in a shaggy fur cloak was riding toward them, with troops at his back.
"You wretch! How dare you fail to show respect before the General-in-Chief—what do you think you're doing?"
"Ah—ah! Forgive the discourtesy!"
"What's all this?"
Li Jue, wrapped in that shaggy fur, dismounted and came over to where Lu Su stood.
Unable to bear the sight of the relief being handed out, he grabbed a fistful of the dried seaweed meant for the pot.
"Sniff. Sniff-sniff! I smell salt."
"I present myself to the General-in-Chief! This humble one is a merchant come from the Central Plains. Chang'an is the first post this caravan has assigned me, and I failed to confirm the proper forms. I am deeply sorry!"
"Who gave you leave to scatter food around here? You tired of living?"
"Forgive us! I was waiting with the gold, silver, and jewels our chief ordered me to present to the General-in-Chief, and the people looked so pitiful that I..."
"Gold, silver, and jewels?"
The moment Li Jue heard that, he set his men to tearing through the baggage of the caravan Lu Su had led.
"Oh—ohh?"
"General-in-Chief, look at this! The chest is packed with silver ingots."
"Hoh?"
"There's a fair amount of goldwork, too."
Li Jue's eyes went wild at the sight. He turned a gold ring this way and that, then bit down on it hard.
Crack.
"Decent gold."
"I am ashamed, General-in-Chief!"
"Heh heh heh. You offer me this—what are you after?"
"H-horses! I need horses. Packhorses or warhorses, it doesn't matter, and oxen as well—anything that can plow, or draw a cart."
"Li Li! Show this fellow the way."
"Yes, Uncle!"
Li Jue's nephew, Li Li, jerked his chin for Lu Su—who had come to trade for horses—to get up. Meanwhile Li Jue tucked a chest of silver under his arm, mounted, and rode leisurely home.
"Ah, you said you were a merchant? Scatter food around here without leave one more time, and you'll catch it badly. Anything like that, you bring it to me and my soldiers!"
With that, Li Jue dumped the fistful of dried seaweed he had snatched into his mouth and chewed with a wet crunch.
"I-if you eat it like that—!"
"What? And what if I do?"
Lu Su had heard about dried seaweed from Zhang Baijin. Eat it that way, and it swelled severalfold in the belly until a man was seized with vomiting and flux—and Li Jue had just dumped the whole handful into his mouth.
In that inferno of Chang'an, an abyss of wailing where white bones lay heaped and the living dug up corpses to tear the flesh from them, Lu Su had to survive, gather what he could learn, and run himself ragged in every direction if he was to find the people worth saving.
That night Li Jue clutched his stomach and vomited without end, and they said he lay sick for days. By great good fortune, he pulled through.
Seaweed or no seaweed, he had already stuffed himself with every fine delicacy Chang'an still possessed, and the physicians diagnosed it as nothing more than a simple upset stomach.
Meanwhile, in Yanzhou, Mi Zhu was trading in person and opening dealings with the local merchants.
"Oxen and pigs, we've plenty of those. Horses, though—finding one here is like plucking a star out of the sky."
"But why? Even so, the Central Plains never used to lack for fine horses, did they?"
"Aigoo, that's all ancient talk! These days, the moment a single foal is born anywhere, someone comes running like a shot and takes it."
"And the reason?"
"Th-that... say it wrong, and my head might come off..."
Silver chimed as Mi Zhu set the coins down and leaned in to whisper.
"I've put in a little more than the price of fifty oxen. Call it the good faith of a first dealing, and tell me just a little. That's how I'll know what goods to bring the next time we trade."
"Hmm. Ahem! You mustn't repeat this anywhere!"
The merchant counted the silver, glanced about, and whispered so that only Mi Zhu could hear.
"The Governor of Yanzhou is raising an enormous army. Word is he's building a great cavalry force near his hometown of Qiaoxian, and every last horse is being sent there."
"Ah. Training cavalry?"
"What did they call it? A swift cavalry, like tigers and leopards, they said."
"Oho. Is that so?"
Mi Zhu smiled, finished the deal, looked over the oxen bound for Xuzhou, and closed out the livestock trade for the time being.
"So Cao Cao is gathering the warhorses of the region to raise an elite cavalry of his own. That's why even packhorses have grown scarce in Yanzhou..."
The surest method was to confirm it with his own eyes in Qiaoxian.
"Lord Mi, what's weighing on you so?"
When Jian Yong, the guard accompanying him, looked bewildered, Mi Zhu whispered back.
"Once we finish our business here, we go to Qiaoxian. I'll introduce myself as a horse trader and take a look around the area."
"What? Straight from Dong Commandery to Qiaoxian?"
"Let us go. I suspect I'll have a great deal to pass on to Baijin."
Having come all the way to Yanzhou, Mi Zhu resolved to press on to Qiaoxian and scout the mounted host Cao Cao was rearing—a cavalry with the vigor of tigers and leopards.
"My lord, it's ready."
"Let me see."
In the government office at Xiapi, I examined the craftsmen's work piece by piece.
What I had ordered was a military pack—one sturdy enough that its contents would survive a march of a thousand li, and with ample capacity besides.
"We sewed it from pigskin. It should hold ten mal of rice."
"Fill it."
At my word the craftsmen brought rice sacks and packed it truly full.
I called over soldiers who had finished their training in Xiapi and shouted.
"You soldiers! Anyone who can shoulder this and run a hundred paces gets one tael of silver as a reward!"
Ten mal of rice pushed a hundred and eighty pounds. The soldiers' eyes nearly started from their heads. Just getting the pack onto their backs was agony enough; running with it as if it were nothing belonged to a realm beyond human limits.
"What's this?"
"Ah, Lord Yide. That's a sack of rice!"
"Hmph!"
Zhang Fei lifted in one hand the rice pack of ten mal that the soldiers were groaning and struggling under, heaved it onto his shoulder, and jumped on the spot.
"What's so hard about this?"
While he was at it he even broke into a run, kicked once off the office wall, charged over to me, and flung the pack.
"My boys ain't got the muscle, that's all. Gone soft, the lot of 'em. Gonna have to grind 'em harder."
The strap of the pack Zhang Fei had hurled came undone, and rice poured out in a rush—but at least nothing had split, and nothing had leaked.
The craftsmen had certainly built it tough, exactly to the order I had given.
"Brother Yide, at least buy the men who suffered through it some wine and meat."
"What's there to like about this sorry bunch! Bah!"
Even so, he took the silver I handed him and ordered wine jars and meat brought in. Tonight, Zhang Fei's company was feasting.
"How is it, my lord?"
"Sturdy work. Then make me about three thousand of them."
"Aigoo—that many?"
"I'll inspect the quality of every one myself. If even a single pack leaks or tears, you'll be having a conversation with the gentleman who was just running under ten mal of rice."
"Heh... hehe! Of course."
While the craftsmen poured sweat, I passed them the specifications for the next piece of work.
"Prepare it exactly as written here."
"Yes... five pairs of foot wraps, one spare pair of leather shoes, three pairs of archer's thumb rings, ten short arrows with the points capped, two leather waterskins, two rain hats?"
"All of it has to fit, and the pack must never burst. And it would be better if everything you just named were made light."
"Isn't this more than the load an ordinary soldier carries?"
"You can manage it, can't you?"
More than twice the supplies of soldiers from any other army, and materiel that could be cycled through several uses—I had ordered three thousand such packs, and how many more would follow was something only time would tell.
Lu Su, Mi Zhu, Su Shuang, and Zhuge Liang were each doing their part, weren't they?
I, too, prepared steadily in Xiapi for the day the operation would begin.