Raising the Son of Heaven, a Dogfight in the Mud
Once we had finished settling matters around Donggan and put the mountains of corpses behind us, we decided to fall back to the rear.
"Zhang Qian, isn't it? I'm glad you're safe — but the troops?"
"The main force has already set out for Anyi. They'll save His Majesty the Emperor there."
"Oh — that is a true relief."
Mi Zhu let out a breath of relief and led us all into the tents he had prepared.
Soldiers who had spent the whole day rolling through pools of blood could finally rest, and the court refugees who had come with us clutched one another and wailed, at last certain they had crawled out of hell.
"Zizhong, we'll need a great deal of hot water, and the granaries opened wide."
"Don't trouble yourself over that. I've prepared everything."
Hot water, food, a change of clothes, even foot-wraps and shoes — Mi Zhu had laid it all out so thoroughly that it had become second nature for Liu Bei's army to fight richly supplied, wherever they went. Supply was no longer my private obsession. Inside Liu Bei's army, it had become the first priority of all.
After that rest, I sat down with Zhang He and Mi Zhu to talk about the road ahead.
"How far is it from Anyi to Luoyang?"
"Hm. About five hundred li, isn't it? A large march hauling wagons — six days, maybe seven."
If the Emperor was saved there, he would certainly make for Luoyang. The trouble was that Luoyang, as it stood, was nothing but a ruin, crawling with the White Wave Bandits and their like — a place that could not possibly be run as a capital.
"According to our reports, the White Wave Bandits were among those who helped His Majesty escape this time. If they are the ones escorting him, they will come face to face with the Inspector of Yanzhou and the Governor of Xuzhou."
Zhang He was right, and I could already guess at what would follow. Mi Zhu, though, seemed not to know the White Wave well, and his face went blank with confusion.
"Even so, they're just a rabble of bandits, aren't they? In the late emperor's day the realm was in chaos, so they were tossed temporary offices to buy them off. Sooner or later they'll be cleaned up."
"Master Zizhong, I know them well. I was an officer on the campaigns to put down the White Wave and the Black Mountain Bandits in Hebei. Their strength is not something you can take lightly."
In the end, whether this could be settled cleanly came down to a single question: how Liu Bei and Cao Cao, with the White Wave Bandits as the wild card, would reach an agreement and safely declare that the Son of Heaven was in their keeping.
Now, if history had run its old course, the imperial carriage would have taken refuge as far as Luoyang, and when Cao Cao came up from Yanzhou the White Wave Bandits would have proposed restoring their old base in the Sili region and starting over from there. Cao Cao, for his part, had wanted to receive the Emperor in his own base of Yanzhou, but most men opposed him, and the compromise struck at the midpoint — Xu County in Yuzhou — became the capital known as Xudu.
Honestly, if we succeeded in holding the Son of Heaven, I was prepared to agree that the capital should be set in Yuzhou rather than Sili or Yanzhou, with our family taking charge of Luoyang's restoration. The condition, though, would be this: crush Lu Bu's power in Yuzhou for good, and let Xuzhou reach down through Yuzhou into Yangzhou, Jingzhou, Jiaozhou, and Yizhou, drawing every southern power into our design.
"Things were so urgent I never got to say more to Governor Liu. If I'd been there myself, it might have gone differently."
Lu Su and Chen Deng would play their parts well enough. What mattered was bringing the Emperor in unharmed.
"Luoyang — we are going to Luoyang!"
"Your Majesty, let it be so! We shall escort you at once!"
Ever since Dong Zhuo had dragged him out of Luoyang and shut him away in Chang'an, the boy emperor had not been treated as a human being. He had spent his reign as a favorite doll passed from hand to hand among traitorous warlords. When he could endure it no longer and fled, countless ministers and palace ladies died around him. He had only just bored his way through mountains of corpses to reach this place — shaking with a terror close to madness — when the pursuit of Li Jue and Guo Si came down upon him.
Even the Tiger-Brave Guard had not been enough. Only with the White Wave Bandits' help had he come this far, and just when he thought it was truly over, new men arrived.
Cao Cao, Inspector of Yanzhou. And Liu Bei, Governor of Xuzhou.
The two of them could not have been more different.
"Your Majesty, your servant Cao Cao has come — Cavalry Commandant, and Inspector of Yanzhou by acclaim. I am the adopted grandson of Lord Cao Teng, Regular Palace Attendant to the late emperor, and the eldest son of the late Grand Commandant Cao Song, who met an unfortunate end."
Leading tens of thousands, Cao Cao had smashed the armies of Li Jue and Guo Si and displayed his power in triumph.
"Your Majesty, this disloyal servant has come far too late. My name is Liu Bei, a descendant of Liu Sheng, Prince Jing of Zhongshan, born of the Liu clan's home village in Zhuo County of Youzhou. As a man born bearing the Liu surname of the Han, only now have I saved Your Majesty from the hands of traitors."
Liu Bei, having shown astonishing martial might, introduced himself as a Liu of the Han.
In that instant the Emperor judged them better than Li Jue and Guo Si, and wanted only to escape this hell. Luoyang had burned. Even so, he longed to return to the place where he had been born and raised. So he ordered the march on Luoyang. Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and the White Wave Bandits escorted the procession of the Son of Heaven's carriage, and the road might have been a smooth one — if only every sort of objection had not begun to rise along the way.
"Your Majesty, Luoyang is already a ruin and a den of bandits, a harsh waste where there is no land to till and scarcely a single wanderer to be found."
"Imperial Father-in-Law, even so, We are going there."
"Yes, yes! Your Majesty — we can reach Luoyang. The trouble is what comes after: the hunger of the soldiers, and the raising of a palace where Your Majesty may reside."
When Dong Cheng put it that bluntly — that Luoyang had not one decent house in which a man might stretch his legs beneath a roof — Cao Cao stepped forward, perfectly assured.
"Your Majesty, through three generations of service to the court, your servant's Cao clan has gathered some small wealth. I will gladly spend it for the realm."
"Oh! Oh!"
The moment Cao Cao, brimful of confidence, pledged to open his own fortune and protect the imperial house, Liu Bei stepped forward.
He was remembering the "thing" Zhang Qian had spoken of.
"Your Majesty, your servant Liu Bei has something to report while the army is on the march."
"Th-then speak. We will hear it on the road."
"Your Majesty, my men routed the traitor armies of Guanzhong at Donggan, and in doing so they recovered the treasure scattered to cover Your Majesty's escape — and they saved the senior ministers and palace ladies who had been used as bait! We mean to gather that treasure up again and present it to Your Majesty."
"Is — is that true?"
"I will summon them to Luoyang at once."
In that instant the Emperor's body, seated in the carriage, simply gave way.
"Your Majesty."
"Oh — Your Majesty!"
Noble Consort Dong and Empress Fu, beside him, rushed to hold him up. Tears ran down his face even as the corners of his mouth smiled. Only someone who understood the heart of an emperor worn thin by a long exhaustion could have known what that meant.
Hearing those words, Cao Cao's lips moved, just slightly.
Cao Hong, you fool. If you saw a chance like that, you should have been the one to take it! You let them snatch it from you!
He had meant to be the only one to save the Son of Heaven whole. Liu Bei's army had wedged itself in and, quietly, carried off the choicest share of the merit. The White Wave Bandits gnawed at him just as much. He could grant that those fellows had saved the Emperor — yet they had flung offices about like relief grain, generalships and court posts and grand administrators alike. Worse, their base lay across Bingzhou and the Sili region. He could not receive the Emperor in Yanzhou, and he could not allow the Emperor to remain inside their sphere. And the White Wave Bandits were doing the same in return, keeping Liu Bei and Cao Cao in check and watching both with no friendly eye.
Insolent bandits, risen overnight. This will not go as you wish.
Thinking that, Cao Cao went straight to Liu Bei and lowered his voice.
"Xuande."
"Ah, Brother Mengde."
"Once every soldier is gathered at Luoyang, we'll have to talk about what comes after. But be careful of those men."
"Pardon?"
"When His Majesty sees the state of Luoyang, he will know of himself that he cannot stay long. A temporary capital will have to be chosen, and they may oppose it — worse, they may show their true colors, just as Li Jue and Guo Si did. Those men are the White Wave Bandits."
"Mmm..."
Liu Bei, too, had wanted to end this on good terms, but his brothers' reactions had made it hard to mediate. Guan Yu in particular, a man of Hedong Commandery in Sili, flushed crimson the moment he laid eyes on the White Wave Bandits, every fine vein standing out across his body in sheer rage. Had Liu Bei not been there, he looked ready to put a fist through them on the spot. A man's bitter past is something brothers do not ask after; that is the way of sworn brothers. But seeing how violently Guan Yu loathed the White Wave Bandits, Liu Bei doubted they could walk the same road for long.
"For now, let us speak of it in Luoyang."
"Brother Mengde, I understand what worries you. But right now they are comrades who saved His Majesty together with us. Don't be so quick to fight men who share our boat."
"Heh heh heh. You'd do well to keep my words in mind."
With that, Cao Cao flicked his fingers in quick succession. At once strategists such as Xun Yu and Guo Jia came running, and Lu Su and Chen Deng closed in beside Liu Bei just as fast.
"My lord, I will bring Zhang Qian and Mi Zizhong."
"Good. Tell them to come to Luoyang quickly — and have them escort in safety the elder minister we saved, Lord Shisun, Grand Minister of Agriculture, together with all the palace ladies and eunuchs."
"Yes, my lord!"
Each side moved quickly, and already the ending was taking shape along a different line.
"Orders from our lord! His Majesty the Emperor has been rescued and has set out for Luoyang. All troops standing by are to assemble at Luoyang at once."
"There it is!"
First of all, the Emperor's rescue was a success. Everyone moved at once, together with Chen Deng, who had come as courier.
"Lord Shisun, are you well?"
"This old man lives because of you gentlemen. I will certainly report this affair to His Majesty and see that your merit is praised."
Shisun Rui, who in the history I knew would have died a splendid death here holding off Li Jue's army, had lived. So had some of the countless eunuchs and palace ladies who, during the Emperor's escape, had fallen into the Yellow River begging to be taken aboard the little skiff — the ones the old tale said were killed when blades chopped away their clinging fingers and dropped them into the water. Some of them, at least, had survived the pursuit. These were people who had lived through the road from burning Luoyang to Chang'an, and now from Chang'an all the way to a Son of Heaven held safely in hand. The circle around the Emperor would be a little firmer than it had been.
After seeing Shisun Rui on his way, I rode alongside Chen Deng and Zhang He and asked, lightly:
"How do things stand?"
"It isn't only the Inspector of Yanzhou and the Governor of Xuzhou who hold merit. The White Wave Bandits' service in escorting the Son of Heaven's carriage from Hongnong all the way here is great as well. They've been given quite the spread of offices, from miscellaneous generalships all the way down to grand administrators."
"At the very least, Governor Liu ought to receive rank above that."
"On that, we are all of one mind."
Chen Deng nodded, already warming to the thought that Xuzhou's people would at last stand at the center.
"My father, guarding Xuzhou in the Governor's stead, will be glad of it too. I had a letter. He says he is holding the province without a crack for water to leak through."
With the three sworn brothers and the chief generals all gone, Xuzhou's cohesion was formidable. Chen Deng's father, Chen Gui, served as acting governor, with Zhao Bao, Chancellor of Xiapi, and Yan Jun, Bu Zhi, Chen Qun, and Xu Sheng beside him, while Chen Ji and Zheng Xuan drew the great clans together. At the front, Zhuge Jin held the line with Zang Ba. Yuan Shu, already broken once, had vanished into an uncertain future, and Lu Bu, too, would not stir beyond the southern slice of Yuzhou he had barely managed to take.
"The White Wave Bandits are not men you can trust for long. They will surely try to set themselves above the Governor of Xuzhou and the Inspector of Yanzhou. The two of them will have to join hands and drive them out."
"Brother Junyi, you've been saying that every step of the way."
"I know, because I've dealt with them..."
Joining hands with Cao Cao, or joining hands with the White Wave Bandits. Turn it however you like, Cao Cao was obviously the match one was meant to make. Suppose, just suppose, someone looked at the present tide and thought to seize Cao Cao early by clasping hands with the White Wave! He would not even be caught — and worse, you would be treated to a fine spectacle as Yuan Shao, who had been quietly watching, and Liu Biao, Yuan Shu, and the lords of Jiangdong, who had not moved at all, all came surging up at once. This loose and yet taut tightrope between the powers was difficult for exactly that reason.
"We in particular started with three thousand, and we have no further reinforcements, so we must be all the more careful. Look at the heart of the three forces: our army may be the strongest, but our numbers are few, and that can make us look the easiest to slight."
"Ah. On that, I have a definite alternative."
"An alternative? Qian — don't tell me you've got troops hidden away?"
Chen Deng and Zhang He turned to me at the same time, hungry for the answer. I nodded and pointed at the sky.
"Reinforcements are coming from a place absolutely no one expects. Even Governor Liu doesn't know."
"But how could you..."
"To Governor Liu, I said only this: 'Three thousand is not the whole of it. If things go wrong, I will make additional escort troops, one way or another. So don't worry — concentrate only on rescuing His Majesty.'"
At that, Zhang He seemed to remember something, and asked me:
"Are you going to buy off the White Wave Bandits, the way you usually do?"
"However much money I have, would I pull a stunt like that? And besides — if the 'roots' of these 'White Wave Bandits' are still what they are, what do you think happens when a merchant offers money first?"
I had shown a generous face through these troubled times, but even that had to be done with an eye on the person and the situation. You do not deal with men who will turn the moment they taste money.
And so Chen Deng, Zhang He, and I arrived safely in Luoyang, bringing the remaining soldiers and the elder ministers, eunuchs, and palace ladies we had saved.
The capital of all the ages had been reduced to cinders. Not one stretch of wall stood properly intact; the ruins were packed with nothing but the camp tents of soldiers. But the Emperor was here, and everyone had come back and gathered.
The first button was fastened. Next came the second.