The Skirmish Before the Tiger's Den

"Hmm. The quality looks even better than last time."

"Every tailor and blacksmith in Xuzhou came together to make them."

I looked over what they had made, then pulled a pair on myself.

"The leather boots you spoke of, my lord."

"A few campaigns taught me this much. Too many soldiers go walking through the wreckage, step on a blade, and are finished — useless from that moment on. Horses, too."

"In all honesty, a shoe that could take a caltrop and come through unharmed is beyond us... But we have doubled the leather until it is very stout. Ordinary shards will not trouble it."

They had turned the things out in quantity — combat boots of tough hide, with soles built like armor. For a trial I smashed a ceramic wine jar and stepped down on the pieces. When the porcelain failed to pierce the sole, I passed them and ordered them made in earnest.

"From now on, a thousand pairs. And every time I give the word, another thousand."

"As you command, my lord."

I had commissioned research into new methods of forging, and the spears, the blades, the boots, and the field kit that came of it were things no other army could match. If we lacked the time to season true elites, then the gear itself had to be better — good enough to put us unmistakably ahead of every rival host.

"Making shoes, are we?"

"Ah — Governor Liu!"

I had been living in the yamen of late, and Liu Bei had slipped out without a sound to turn the combat boots over in his hands, studying them from every side.

"Remarkably thick heels. A short general could wear these for ceremony and stand a head taller."

"That was not quite the use I had in mind..."

"Oh, it happens. A commander who rides to the front short and plain has a hard time lifting his men's spirits, so some of them go about on purpose in tall caps and high-heeled ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠shoes."

I had a feeling I would meet that sort someday. Liu Bei's army, at least, stood so tall and carried such overwhelming physical presence that no one could ever have taken them for men of this age.

"I used to make shoes and straw mats myself, long ago. So I know better than anyone how much a shoe matters."

"The kit is in place. All that remains is to raise the elites."

"Yunchang and Yide are both drilling the men without mercy. I make time for it myself, of course."

"The moment Zijing and Zizhong return, we negotiate with Cao Cao and wait to see how Guanzhong answers."

"Good. Until then, I'll keep honing my swords."

Liu Bei trusted me without reservation, and the preparations to rescue the Emperor were complete. In the history I knew, Cao Cao's army alone would have seized the Son of Heaven and commanded the lords in his name. But Liu Bei had burst onto the stage with a flourish, and the two of them would enthrone the Emperor together. What followed would still be brutally hard. Even so, if his power was to keep growing past Xuzhou, this was where we had to win, and win cleanly.

Some time later, Lu Su and Mi Zhu returned. Each had come back in the guise of a merchant, trade goods in tow, and before me and Liu Bei they poured out everything they had seen with their own eyes and heard with their own ears.

"My lord, Lu Su will report first. Guanzhong at present is nothing short of a living hell."

"That bad? Worse than in Dong Zhuo's day?"

"Among the people they say Dong Zhuo was the lesser evil — that is how complete the screaming chaos is. The starving scrape up tree roots and dirt to eat, and the moment anyone tries to give relief, the troops of Li Jue and Guo Si seize every last measure and kill the man who handed it out."

"Heavens!"

"Even when His Majesty sells the privy purse and the treasures of the imperial house to feed them meat gruel..."

"Don't tell me they steal that too? The Emperor's own gift to his people, taken by those bandits?"

"They do."

So these were the four whelps of dogs and swine they called the Four Bandit Chiefs. They were madder than I had imagined. Li Jue and Guo Si were not villains one mentioned in jest; they were truly wicked, and what Lu Su described went beyond anything I had expected.

"Seizing a merchant's capital, chest and all, is a matter of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠course. Sell a better lot to one of the other chiefs, and another comes with a blade at your throat."

"To you, Zijing?"

"That is not all. They are no longer four — they are three. They fell to fighting among themselves, and Fan Chou, who styled himself General of the Right, is dead. I saw his head hung from the gate."

They had devoured all of Guanzhong, then turned on one another until one of them died. With things that far gone, of course the Emperor would flee. The chaos of the Three Adjuncts had not erupted for nothing. And we had to be ready to save him when he did.

"Hearing you, Zijing, my heart feels as if it will tear. We must seize those whelps of dogs and swine — lower than beasts — and save His Majesty."

Everyone shared Liu Bei's thought. Next came Mi Zhu's report.

"I report on Yanzhou. The families of the great clans who raised their banners against him have been purged in droves. Cao Cao is raising a new army, and he means to spread his will."

This was exactly when Cao Cao would grow strongest. From Yanzhou, the very heart of the central plains, and with Yuan Shao's formidable backing behind him, his power already dwarfed Xuzhou, Yuzhou, and Yangzhou. I had to admit it. The question was how far we could close that gap.

"Around Qiaoxian in particular, he is said to be raising ten thousand elite horsemen — the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, with the ferocity of tigers and leopards — and he is gathering every warhorse in the central plains to that place."

I had meant to quietly buy serviceable warhorses hidden among the pack animals. Was Cao Cao's army making even that impossible?

"Zizhong, you went all the way to Qiaoxian and saw this yourself?"

"He may be Xuzhou's chief enemy, but when it comes to rescuing His Majesty we may share a boat. I went so I might learn the details more closely."

"Warhorses out of the central plains will be hard to come by."

When Liu Bei said it quietly, Mi Zhu looked at me and smiled.

"And yet, thanks to Zhang Baijin, I found a way. Would you all be so kind as to step outside?"

He called everyone out to see what he had prepared. He said he had taken a hint from my words, so I went with them, curious — and outside the yamen stood a considerable number of horses. They were a sorry sight. Fat rolled on them, muscle stuck on any which way; most were fit for nothing but packs, and there was not a single well-turned warhorse among them.

"For now I scraped together some eighty head."

Cao Cao had swept up every horse in the central plains to build his cavalry, and this was what Mi Zhu had managed to bring back?

"Baijin said it himself. 'Hide good warhorses among the pack animals, and buy them that way.'"

"—!"

In that instant, something among those horses caught my eye.

"These are all pack nags — or else fit only for the butcher and a pot of horse ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠meat."

I looked at Liu Bei as he judged them, and understood at once.

"Governor Liu, Mi Zhu is lying."

"Hm?"

"Eighty head? There are more than a hundred and fifty horses in front of us right now."

"Ehh?"

At that, Mi Zhu laughed aloud and raised a thumb.

"You see it, then?"

"Every one of them is a mare in foal, isn't she?"

"We call them belly-borne mares. The merchants Baijin sent have a sharp eye for horseflesh. Mares on the very verge of showing could not be chosen, so they brought in only those in the earliest days, when no one can yet tell they are carrying."

It was a brilliant method. Raise them properly, and we had just secured foals that could become superb warhorses.

"Ho! What a remarkable trick!"

"That is how Yanzhou stands. Next time, my lord, I think we shall have to go up into Hebei for horses."

I nodded at Mi Zhu's words and made my own report.

"That is already in hand."

"Oh?"

"My elder brother-in-law and my wife's younger brother are even now making the circuit of Donghai Commandery and the Kingdom of Langya. Send them a letter, and we can obtain warhorses out of Qingzhou."

Zhuge Liang had been so eager to go out on this errand, hadn't he? Now he would be given a mission that mattered even more.

And so the envoys brought back livestock, supplies, and intelligence on Yanzhou, Sizhou, and Guanzhong, and our preparations grew that much more thorough.

At last, the hour had come.

The reports had come in through Guanzhong. If we set out now, Liu Bei's army could wait along the approaches of Sizhou and save the imperial party — not by turning them back from Hongnong toward Chang'an, but by catching them as they fled outright.

"Governor Liu. This intelligence, and with it a letter from the Deputy Director of the Masters of Writing. The time has come at last."

"I will ready the army at once!"

The moment he saw the reports and the court's formal plea for rescue, Liu Bei did not look twice. He prepared to rise and save the Emperor. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, of course, and Zhao Yun and Zhang He as well, all nodded, their will for this fight burning hot.

"Now it is my turn to move. I leave for Yanzhou at once."

"Baijin — you mean to negotiate with Cao Cao?"

"I'll go with you!"

"I'm goin' too!"

"I will go as well."

This time we would truly sit down with Cao Cao and, through negotiation, collect the debt he had never paid. It was a road we walked with our lives in our hands. For this company I had to choose men Cao Cao could never dare to kill, and silver tongues who could hold a battle of words even before his own counselors.

"I will go, and those who come with me... will be the men Governor Liu recommends."

"I'll ready men who can see you safely to Yanzhou and safely home."

And so the Yanzhou negotiating party was formed.

"Sun Qian. Courtesy name Gongyou. I studied in the school of Master Zheng Kangcheng."

Sun Qian — disciple of Master Zheng Xuan, the great scholar of Hebei, whom even Yuan Shao treated with scrupulous respect and recommended to the court as Left Commander of the Gentlemen of the Household. Speak of Sun Qian, and the image was of a diplomat who could negotiate his way through any situation. That reputation rested on an enormous backing: his teacher was the great scholar Zheng Xuan. In a Han founded upon Confucian learning, the name of a great scholar's disciple was one that even a thoroughly rotten bandit chief had to receive as an honored guest, unless he was past all saving.

"Baijin, set your worries aside. I am going. With me beside you, no one will dare take aim at you!"

Guan Yu, who insisted on going with me no matter what to meet Cao Cao of Yanzhou, would travel at our side. If he stood in a contest of presence against Cao Cao's army, we were already halfway to winning before anyone opened his mouth.

"I place great hopes on you, Zijing. When it comes to true diplomacy and the hard business of negotiation, you are a far abler scholar than I."

"Haha, you flatter me... Yuanlong, who will join us when we stop at Xiaopei, is the greater talker. He can more than hold his own with Cao Cao."

Lu Su and Chen Deng would go as well. It would be a meeting of Xun Yu, Xun You, and Cheng Yu on Cao Cao's side, and Lu Su, Chen Deng, and Sun Qian on ours.

"From Jizhou to Xuzhou, and now from Xuzhou to Yanzhou... Still, traveling with you, Danzhu, gives me a certain confidence."

"Brother Junyi, I'm counting on you again."

Zhang He, too, took a place on this journey to Yanzhou.

And last of all...

"Until not long ago I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was the one scouting Yanzhou and gleaning what grain I could. Is there truly a reason I must go along?"

"There is. Of course you must come, Zizhong."

"Heavens. At least tell me why. If it is a matter of trade, you and Zijing are already going."

"That too. But you are also the man who counts the Governor of Xuzhou — master of this province — as his brother-in-law."

"—!"

A disciple of the great scholar Zheng Xuan.

A kinsman bound to Liu Bei by a marriage alliance.

Liu Bei's brother, absolute and unquestioned.

A general dispatched from under Yuan Shao of Hebei.

Xuzhou's greatest magnate, and a negotiator with ties even to Yuan Shu's side.

And I, the Thousand-Gold Merchant.

Not one of them could be touched lightly, even by a man who wished to try. A company no hand could reach had gathered.

We set out. For Yanzhou...