No Single Warlord Shall Monopolize the Son of Heaven
We arrived at Shanyang, the seat of Yanzhou.
"So this is what a real military city looks like."
Set beside Dong Commandery or Puyang, where trade had quickened and the streets ran thick with people, the place wore a plain, spare air. Yet wherever one turned, heavily armed soldiers packed the lanes, and the whole city gave off an edge as keen as a well-whetted blade. If I drew steel this very moment and shouted a single cry—Kill Cao Cao!—armed men would burst from every side and grind me down until not a scrap of flesh remained.
"This is the government compound where the Governor of Yanzhou keeps his seat."
The man guiding us was, with no small irony, Cao Ren. Seen again since Xiaopei, he was like some great pillar, and he led us on with a face so stolid that a needle might have drawn no blood from it.
"I cannot say how an edict out of Guanzhong ever reached Xuzhou. I have brought you this far because you asked it. Should the Governor of Yanzhou order your heads taken, the sword that does it will be mine."
"And do you think you could manage that?"
At those words Guan Yu, standing at Cao Ren's back with his arms folded, looked down on him with an arrogant face. For an instant Cao Ren turned and glared—but Guan Yu only opened a pair of tiger's eyes still more terrible, as if to demand who dared scowl at him, and let his killing intent roll forth.
In that hair-trigger moment, I clapped my hands.
"Let us end the contest of spirits here. We have already come as far as Shanyang. Trying to seize the initiative now is a meaningless gesture."
"Hahaha. Is that so?"
Guan Yu's expression broke all at once. He laughed aloud, thumped me on the back, and in that fashion we passed safely into the government office where Cao Cao waited.
Then, from behind them, a whisper reached my ears alone, faint as breath.
"Commandant, what is that fellow? They say he handles Guan Yunchang with perfect ease."
"Liu Bei's sworn brother Guan Yu, Zhang He the general sent by the Governor of Jizhou, Lu Su of Xiapi—those I know. That one, I do not."
You don't? When Liu Bei and his brothers slipped out of Xiaopei, the man standing with Lu Su against your army was me.
"Even so, that one looks exceedingly dangerous."
"Heh."
I had heard the whisper beyond the wall perfectly well.
At last I stood face to face with Cao Cao.
Wrapped in a crimson war-robe, he was shorter than Liu Bei, yet the weight of him seemed enough to press the whole hall flat.
"Zhang, come from Xuzhou, pays his respects to the Governor of Yanzhou!"
"And who is this? Can it be that the Thousand-Gold Merchant of Hebei, whom I have known only by hearsay, has come seeking me in person?"
He knows me.
And then, without preamble, he rose, came straight at me, and seized both my shoulders in a hard grip.
"I have wanted to meet you! The great merchant who flings thousand-gold fortunes about like so many stones!"
"...If it is all the same, might you call them seeds, rather than stones?"
"What manner of seeds?"
"Shoots of the future, meant to grow beneath the blue heavens."
"Ha—hahahahaha!"
Cao Cao laughed long and loud, drawing himself up where he stood.
"Cao Hong, lay a wine table. Honored guests have come from Xuzhou. We ought to eat and make merry for three days and three nights."
"Governor—now? You mean to feast these men?"
"Must I say it twice? Or is it that we lack the coin to entertain our guests?"
"N-no, my lord! I will prepare the banquet at once."
Cao Cao gave the order to Cao Hong. Guan Yu, Zhang He, Lu Su, Mi Zhu, Sun Qian, Chen Deng—every one of them had come here with his mind braced, and every one of them must have been struck dumb.
"I beg to address the Governor of Yanzhou! We are grateful for a banquet of welcome, yet we are envoys come bearing a great affair of the realm. Let us speak of that first. Food or wine, we will receive them after!"
The instant Lu Su cried out, Cao Cao laughed his rolling laugh and waved the words away.
"Ah, we shall discuss that as well—once every man has loosened his belt, eaten his fill, and may speak with nothing held back."
"Th-that is not..."
"Or is your head weak for wine? Do you mean you cannot trust a council held over cups?"
So this was how he meant to come at us? Cao Cao was throwing every form to the wind.
"Then, before the banquet is laid, we would change our clothes. Might you spare us whatever garments you have to spare?"
"Oh! That much courtesy toward a guest is only proper. Xiahou Yuan! Go and attend these gentlemen!"
"Yes, Governor!"
And so, under Xiahou Yuan's guidance, we were shown to the lodgings within the compound and given time to change out of the clothes we had worn down the long road.
"It isn't even particularly hot, and I have hardly worn this..." Mi Zhu muttered, casting off a robe of Ba-Shu silk as he changed into new clothes. I made use of the interval.
"A word to all of you. A drinking party is noisy by nature, and it grows noisier still when one keeps company with men of another province."
"Baijin. You mean someone may pick a quarrel in his cups, the way that fellow Cao Ren did?"
When Guan Yu asked it outright, I told them all.
"Warriors will be matched to warriors, and strategists to strategists, one man apiece. They say Cao Cao keeps a host of scholars as his advisors, yet from the moment we arrived, everyone receiving our embassy has been his own kin."
"Baijin, I understand at once. At the drinking party, each of us will have a man assigned to him alone?"
Lu Su seized the shape of it immediately, and Sun Qian, Mi Zhu, and the rest nodded.
"In that case, I should like to meet those strategists out of Yingchuan, the ones I have only heard tell of."
Full of confidence, Chen Deng wanted a look at the advisors of Cao Cao's Yingchuan faction.
"Brother Yunchang, shall we go and have a drink?"
"As much as you please!"
It was just as I had expected.
A splendid banquet opened from broad daylight, and Cao Cao split our company apart, setting one of his own men on each of us.
"I am told you are the greatest man of wealth in Xuzhou. What do you deal in, chiefly?"
"Salt and iron, and the trade routes along the Donghai coast."
"And what is life like in a town against the sea? We have only ever lived inland!"
It was Cao Hong who had fastened himself to Mi Zhu.
"I don't care for it. If it is a drinking party, let it be a drinking party; if it is a council, let it be a council. Do I look as though I want to talk business while I drink?"
"You say so, and yet the man seated before me seems to have a very great deal he wishes to say."
The man stuck to Chen Deng was Guo Jia of Yingchuan—the very Guo Jia of whom Master Chen Ji had spoken.
"Ho. A disciple of the venerable Zhang Gangcheng, Left Leader of the Court Gentlemen? I have met a truly formidable scholar."
"A-and you, sir scholar, are you not yourself a scion of the illustrious Xun clan of Yingchuan?"
Upon Sun Qian, of all people, was Xun Yu.
"For the military grain sent in Yanzhou's hour of need, we too are grateful. I am a man who favors Yanzhou and Xuzhou setting the past aside and speaking of what is to come."
"Since Lord Cheng of Yanzhou is gracious enough to say so, I will speak with nothing held back."
Cheng Yu had been set upon Lu Su, and...
"Junyi, how long has it been? It seems that since we left Hebei, both of us have taken firm root in the Central Plains. I under the Governor of Yanzhou, and you under the Governor of Xuzhou."
"This is not the sort of meeting I had pictured..."
And upon Zhang He, Zhu Ling had been set.
Cao Hong with Mi Zhu. Guo Jia with Chen Deng. Xun Yu with Sun Qian. Cheng Yu with Lu Su. Zhu Ling with Zhang He. Every one of them had been matched with a man of real weight. All I could ask was that they hold their liquor, and not be the first to fold.
And at last, at the highest seats of the banquet hall, I arrived with Guan Yu.
Cao Cao smiled and urged us to sit. At his side, two fierce generals the size of Guan Yu stared with eyes wide and glaring. Dian Wei and Xu Chu, was it?
"Those two are going to take a while," I murmured.
"I am not fighting."
"They may try some contemptible threat," Guan Yu added.
"Brother Yunchang, let us simply drink at our ease."
Cao Cao spread both arms in welcome and bade us be seated.
"Come, Thousand-Gold Merchant, envoy of my brother Xuande. Let us eat with a bold hand."
Sharp as a naked blade, he drove the table by sheer pressure, and with a serpent's cunning he had peeled Liu Bei's strategists away, one by one.
"And beside you sits Guan Yu, Xuande's sworn brother. I never thought the hour to drink with you again would come so soon. Hahaha!"
He was doing it on purpose. I had been certain he would greet Guan Yu first, and only afterward turn to me. Guan Yu, as though he had no wish to speak a single word, offered nothing but a silent salute and lifted his cup.
"Come, drink!"
The moment I swallowed the wine Cao Cao held out, a sting ran from the tip of my tongue clear to my throat, and heat flooded my face. This was vicious stuff. Nothing I had drunk in Hebei or Xuzhou could stand beside liquor of such strength.
"If you wish a frank word with this Cao Cao, you must speak only after three cups. Two yet remain."
So that was the game—wine strong enough to be sure of itself, and the talking to be done once our wits were already loose? Then I would drink, and gladly.
"Governor of Yanzhou, I am a merchant. A merchant, by nature, has a great deal to say in any seat."
The second cup.
"What brought us here is a secret letter of the Son of Heaven, come out of Guanzhong. We hold one. You, Governor, must surely hold one as well."
His eyes sharpened.
I emptied the third. My gut burned, but it was fine. The side dish was chicken; I could talk while tearing a leg free.
"Now then. Shall we negotiate?"
"Hahahaha!"
Cao Cao laughed aloud and set his cup down. Guan Yu was squared off against the two generals.
"All of you, ease off."
Waving them down, Cao Cao drained his own cup in one long pull and spoke.
"I ask you, Baijin, come in Xuande's stead. In Xuzhou you said you would rescue His Majesty the Emperor, did you not?"
"We did."
"By which road do you mean to go?"
"The way from Xuzhou to Guanzhong must pass through place after place without number. We wish to borrow a road through Yanzhou."
"To rescue the Son of Heaven in Guanzhong, you would lead an army through Yanzhou?"
"Of course. We know full well that Yanzhou's own host will march with us to rescue His Majesty, supreme sovereign of Han."
At that, Cao Cao stroked his beard, interest kindling in his face.
"Amusing. I had thought that I alone would answer the proclamation Zhong Yao sent from Guanzhong."
"Governor, the Governor of Xuzhou bears the royal surname Liu. He is a descendant of the imperial house of Han. How could he fail to answer?"
"What does not sit well with me is that you would borrow Yanzhou's roads—and at the head of an army. Most of Xuande's men will be men of Xuzhou, and their hatred of me will run deep. Can they be trusted?"
Cao Cao took up the ewer and poured. The fierce wine fell without a pause. The cup was already brim-full, so full that the least shake would send it spilling, and he held it out to me.
That was the moment.
"Governor. If you mean to keep pouring for Baijin's sake, may I drink in his place?"
"Heh. Yunchang would go so far as that?"
"The wine is good. I believe I could empty a whole jar."
Guan Yu took the brimming cup meant for me and drained it in a single shot.
"Good. If Guan Yu drinks in your stead, I will honor that loyalty. But you, merchant, will answer. What reason have I to lend you the roads of Yanzhou?"
"Does Yanzhou not owe a debt?"
"A debt? I have never lived in debt to a merchant."
"When you fought the faction of Lu Bu and Chen Gong, locusts and a great famine left your soldiers nothing to eat, and an ugly rumor spread that they had gone so far as to eat human flesh. Do you not recall the great shipment of military grain that came down from Hebei then?"
"That was sent to me by Brother Yuan."
"And the military grain Governor Yuan of Jizhou sent was the property of my house."
Cao Cao went still.
"The Governor of Jizhou gained pastures where he might raise warhorses on a great scale, and the salt fields of Bohai. The Governor of Xuzhou became Tao Qian's successor and came to command a whole province. The Governor of Yanzhou received a vast supply, enough to put down rebellion with ease."
"And you mean to say that all of it... was your design?"
"What a merchant does is merely loose his money. Gathering a power out of the money thus loosed—that is the work of lords such as you."
"Heheheh. What a thoroughly entertaining friend. Xuande has truly taken a helper possessed of a thousand gold!"
Cao Cao laughed once more, eyes flung wide.
"I will ally with Xuande and rescue the Son of Heaven. Only, the proportion of troops shall be ten to one."
If Cao Cao prepared a thousand, we were to bring a mere hundred. If he prepared ten thousand, we would bring only a thousand along. Even if we led an army, he would clamp a force ten times its size fast against us, watch our every move, and use us as window dressing.
"Go and tell my brother Xuande. If he cannot accept, then the whole matter is as if it never was."
"It is presumptuous of me to say so, but even should this proposal be carried to the Governor of Xuzhou, he will accept it gladly."
"Heheheh. My brother Xuande is a Liu, after all. Yes!"
"From the first, we have had three thousand men in mind."
"Hm?"
"By the Governor's own terms... a great host of thirty thousand will be stirring in Yanzhou, then?"
Cao Cao's face in that moment was a wonderful variety of colors. I can't read minds, but that look was unmistakably this bastard...
Thirty thousand against three thousand. He had force enough to send that host toward Guanzhong and still keep ample men to set Yanzhou's interior in order and hold Lu Bu off to the south.
"If we are to receive His Majesty, we cannot leave him in Luoyang, burned down to bare earth. A provisional capital must be decided, but that is a matter to discuss in its turn."
"Have you a place already in mind? Restoring Sizhou to Sili once more, somewhere near Luoyang—or perhaps Yuzhou..."
"That I will speak of with Xuande himself, not with you. We seem to have said too much for the first day. Did I not say we would be eating for three days and three nights?"
Quick as a cut, Cao Cao swept the negotiation off the table. There would be no more of it today. I pressed my palms together and bowed.
"Governor, you have shown a loyal heart for Han, and I thank you in all sincerity. The Governor of Xuzhou, too, will rejoice greatly and answer you."
"Xuande is truly blessed in the men who serve him. That he has gained a friend such as you may well be called the luck of heaven. Come—will you drink more?"
For as long as we remained in Yanzhou, it seemed I would not be slipping free of Cao Cao's eyes.