After the Alliance, Each Makes Ready
Life in Xudu was hectic, and yet it was a great deal of fun. Development went on without pause, as if we were livestreaming a domain-building game, and by now Xudu had at last begun to look like the capital of a proper realm.
Cao Cao himself made no particular move. If anything, he applied himself so earnestly to courting the elder ministers—and so willingly emptied his private purse to shore up the shortfalls in the imperial treasury—that I sometimes wondered whether this was truly the Cao Cao we knew.
"I'm back."
"Oh, my lord husband."
In the meantime Xue and Ying, living on in Xudu, had both given birth safely. Xue bore a son and Ying a daughter; we had agreed to choose their formal names only after the first birthday.
Xue and Ying had taken good care of themselves since the births, and before long Diaochan and Zhao Mi arrived as well. Waited on by my four wives, I closed out the day in comfort. Tonight, it was Zhao Mi's turn.
She was the most forward of them, and lively even in matters beyond the inner quarters. Let those smiling, narrow eyes open even a fraction, and an inscrutable allure showed through, together with a sharp and calculating mind.
"I am honored to be with you tonight."
"Mm. You're certainly lovely, I'll grant you that. But there's something we ought to do first."
"Yes~"
Zhao Mi drew nearer and nearer until she was astride my thigh, rubbing herself against me for all she was worth. Affection was welcome. What mattered still had to be heard. A plain report would have done nicely. Instead she pressed in close, trailing the heavy scent of perfume, nibbled at my earlobe, and whispered.
"I report on the restaurant's affairs today. Word got out that dried abalone had come in, and the General-in-Chief's household descended on the place, ate their fill, and packed a great deal away besides."
Cao Cao was said to be especially fond of abalone, yet he never once set foot in a restaurant I had opened. His kinsmen, though—Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan—came, ate, drank, enjoyed themselves, and left.
"I hear you and Diaochan pick up quite a lot whenever you make the rounds. What were they saying today?"
"Nothing of note. They don't even bring courtesans. Only wine and food."
"Short of eavesdropping in the open, we wouldn't know more than that."
"They were waiting for someone, though. Of that I am certain. What was the name? Jihua? Zihua?"
"It'll be Zihua. Zilian, Zixiao, Zixiu, Zihuan—the General-in-Chief's kinsmen all share the generational character zi."
"Ah, yes. Zihua it is. Someone asked when he would arrive, and the answer was, 'Six or seven days—though he may come sooner.'"
I had opened the restaurant in grand style, bringing in every sort of ingredient and famous cooks from across the realm. On top of that I had quietly set out a few dishes of my own—Deep-Fried Chicken, and not a fish sauce drawn from the sea but a soybean sauce brewed from beans—and exalted guests had come swarming.
"So Zihua, out in Qiaoxian, will be here within six days."
"That was the gist of it. They also asked a great many questions about you, my lord."
"Such as?"
"Whether it is true that, with a wife and three concubines, one of those concubines was a maid Lü Bu once kept. Whether, aside from the principal lady, any daughter of a distinguished house is among them. Whether you are a man who likes women a great deal. Questions of that sort."
"The things they ask... No. That isn't it."
"No. I believe they are weighing a political marriage. Not a legitimate daughter—a concubine's daughter, or a daughter of the clan."
"Tell them I'm not interested."
"Then am I to be your last wife?"
"..."
"And aside from them, who else?"
"Just as I thought. You won't answer that. Next—it was mostly the elder ministers of the court who came and went."
"Who stands at the center?"
"His Lordship Yang, of Hongnong. By rights the office of Prefect of the Masters of Writing ought to have gone to him, and many seethe that it went instead to a subordinate of the Inspector of Yanzhou."
Yang Biao. A senior minister of Han who had served as Grand Commandant and overseer of the Imperial Secretariat, and head of the illustrious Yang clan of Hongnong. He stood among the same first generation of great ministers as Cao Cao's father Cao Song, Minister of the Masses Wang Yun, Master Chen Yuanfang, and Shi Sunrui. He might well have held the Prefecture of the Masters of Writing himself, and it seemed to rankle that the much younger Xun Yu had taken the post out from under him.
"Does Lord Yang resent it?"
"Not in the least. Rather, whenever such talk arises he flies into a rage, tells them to be grateful they escaped Chang'an with their lives, and I have heard him rebuke the senior ministers more than once."
The great ministers who had fled by way of Chang'an might look like useless old men shoved into back rooms. In truth they were the dangerous ones. They had survived the burning of Luoyang, the forced move to Chang'an, Dong Zhuo's death, and the chaos of the Three Adjuncts. Every one of them was head of a great house, able to gather the powerful clans who followed him and raise a faction whenever he pleased.
They were also the men who, from the late emperor's reign, had handled the practical business of government while keeping to legitimacy and ritual. For settling the institutions of the realm, they were a buffer one could not do without.
"So that's how it is."
"Ah—and this I heard from Diaochan. No, from Miss Wang. She says a great many women have been coming into that laundry house you established to take in piecework sewing, and that lately many of them are trying to have silk robes worn all to rags repaired."
The laundry house was interesting in its own right.
"They bring in silk that is worn through, or filthy, to be washed?"
"Yes."
"That's a good thing."
"Why?"
If people were bringing silk to be mended, then folk from houses once distinguished enough to wear such cloth were quietly finding their way in. It meant talent was still hidden here. The realm concealed a great many able people yet, and I meant to gather them while I still could.
"Anyway. You worked hard today as well."
"And might I be well rewarded for it tonight?"
Zhao Mi opened those fox-like eyes and, ever so casually, drew my hand to her breast. Even the mole at the corner of her smiling lips seemed to flush crimson—the third wife's coquetry, insisting that come what may, her share would be hers.
That night burned hot. The next day I rose at dawn, before any birdsong carried under the sun, and made ready my court robes.
"My lord."
"You're up awfully early."
Diaochan had risen before me and was waiting with the robes in hand. She attended me from the morning bath through my dressing, and only then did I step out into the cold wind.
"Baekgeum. You're up early."
I had meant to arrive first and be the one waiting, but Liu Bei was already there. Guan Yu, Commander of the Tiger-Brave Imperial Guards, was already on night duty within the palace, and Zhang Fei—now a Court Gentleman for Consultation and a military aide to the Inspector of Yuzhou—had gone briefly to Yuzhou with Jian Yong, the Army Major.
"Come, Palace Assistant Imperial Clerk. Let us be off."
Walking side by side with Liu Bei, I quietly set in order what I had learned the day before.
"Inspector Liu. Before long, I think Cao Cao will be bringing something considerable out of his army at Qiaoxian."
"Oh?"
"It should be about six days from now."
"Hmm."
Bring him intelligence of this sort, and Liu Bei would tell me I ought to stop—while giving no real reaction at all. Since taking office at court he had been meeting far more people, and he had even enlarged the vegetable plot at his residence and tilled it with his own hands. These days he looked idle, and yet he was harder than ever to read.
On the road to the palace, Colonel Lu Su, Cavalry Commandant Mi Zhu, and Secretariat Gentleman Zhuge Jin came up and offered their greetings.
"Left General! And the Palace Assistant Imperial Clerk is with you as well?"
"Our apologies. We are a little late."
After Liu Bei became Left General and concurrent Inspector of Yuzhou, the inspectorship of Xuzhou had gone to Chen Gui. Chen Deng moved back and forth between Xuzhou and Yuzhou, keeping the two in concert, so these men served, in effect, as Liu Bei's innermost counselors.
"My lord. We have been looking into the remnants of the White Wave bandits, and it seems they mean to make an even worse choice."
"You mean they intend to aim at the court again?"
"They appear to mean to take what strength remains to them and borrow the power of some other warlord."
At Lu Su's words Liu Bei let out a long sigh, and Zhuge Jin added a report of his own.
"The defensive line at Xiaopei is holding, and Tian Yu is a man we can trust, so I do not expect trouble on that front. Even so..."
"Let us discuss that once the morning court is finished."
When we all entered the palace for audience, Cao Cao and his faction had already arrived.
"Oh! Inspector Liu!"
"Liu Bei, Left General and concurrent Inspector of Yuzhou, greets the General-in-Chief!"
"Ha ha ha! I only just arrived myself. Come, let us go in together. Well, well—the Palace Assistant Imperial Clerk has come along too?"
Cao Cao stepped forward and received us with a warmth that bordered on excessive, then climbed the steps toward the throne hall.
"Inspector Liu, what I have my eye on today is war."
"A battlefield somewhere else?"
"Just so."
That much he said to Liu Bei. Toward me he only gazed for a long moment, then smiled and spoke.
"Palace Assistant Imperial Clerk. Within six days, the cavalry I raised in Qiaoxian will arrive."
"!"
Cao Cao simply told me outright what had passed the day before.
"A cavalry host I nurtured with great care in Qiaoxian, bearing the might of tigers and leopards. The time has come to blood them. I mean to show them to His Majesty, and to use them in punishing traitors."
He spoke with all due courtesy, and yet he deliberately laid the whole of it out, letting me know that another ten thousand cavalry would be coming to Xudu at his back. Then he added one last thing.
"If there is anything you wish to know from now on, come find me, and ask as much as you please."
"Would I be permitted to come and go in private at the residence of the General-in-Chief, who commands the armies of the realm?"
"Heh. I only said it because you seemed exceedingly curious. And whenever my people visit your establishment, the treatment is rather lavish."
"I don't see it that way at all. If they are guests who have come because there are things hard to say at home, or because they wish to enjoy wine and food at their ease, then I receive them."
"Send me the bill for everything my people have eaten. I'll pay it in silver, on the spot."
"Ordinarily I might refuse payment. But since they hold public office, I will collect the cost of the food, every time."
"Ha ha ha ha!"
The moment Cao Cao burst out laughing, Liu Bei cut the exchange short.
"General-in-Chief. You seem very eager to share a great many private words with the Palace Assistant Imperial Clerk."
"Ah. The other day, just in case, I had my people pry into his family connections and his affairs with women. I thought it might have been rude, so I am saying as much to the man himself, here and now."
So this was what Zhao Mi had meant, when she said they kept digging into me. Not only a political marriage—were they trying to uncover me outright and seize on some weakness?
As expected, Cao Cao was not a man to take lightly. However one looked at it, he too was staring straight through this place, forever hunting a gap and a weakness—a political monster, and a vast warlord who could lead an army of his own and make a show of force whenever he wished.
"Come. Let us enter the throne hall."
Everyone went in for the start of the imperial council, and the Emperor—a Son of Heaven as he had never been able to feel himself in Luoyang or Chang'an—sat the throne and held a proper court.