They Can No Longer Call Me to War
"Your Majesty, since the capital was moved from Luoyang to Xudu and proclamations sent out beneath heaven, we must now reform the inner and outer courts and settle the realm."
"Quite so. And how do you mean to do it?"
"Your Majesty, the remnants of the traitors Li Jue and Guo Si's Sili bandits, and the leavings of the White Wave Bandits who showed their true colors while escorting Your Majesty, still haunt Yuzhou and Jing Province. I beg you to issue the order for their destruction."
"It shall be done."
Not a debate. A notice. And the emperor complied.
The hall ran exactly that way, and Cao Cao, easy in the knowledge that every thread was his, smiled.
Well, Liu Bei had no reason to object. If there was a rebel host to crush, he would have to march.
The moment the imperial conference ended, Cao Cao called in Liu Bei's party, and me with them.
"Come, Inspector Liu of Yuzhou. Now let us speak properly of putting these traitors down."
"Grand General, why not debate it in court? Why draw us off by ourselves?"
"Among the old ministers of the court, do you imagine there is one who understands war? And when we lead the armies of the state, why would we lay the plan before every ear?"
For a breath, no one answered.
Cao Cao laughed outright in front of Liu Bei and beckoned them on.
Ranked as Grand General, he naturally held the right to open his own office. He led them all into the Grand General's headquarters and served tea.
"Here, men who know war may speak of war as it ought to be spoken of. So let us take it slowly."
All leisure, he poured tea he had brewed himself and set a cup before each of them.
Xun Yu sat on the left, Dian Wei on the right, and we of Liu Bei's camp, myself among them, sat down as well and resolved, for the moment, to listen.
"Wenruo. Explain."
Xun Yu spread a great map and began in earnest.
"First. The powers that most threaten Xudu at present are two, just as we reported to His Majesty."
One was the remnant of the Sili bandits in Nanyang of Jing Province.
After Li Jue and Guo Si fled, Zhang Ji, who remained, had led that strength into Nanyang Commandery and settled on the lands that lay between Liu Biao and the court.
"Yet Zhang Ji could not cast off the bandit stock he was born to. He ravaged Jing Province, and while he was reaching on the field for Inspector Liu Biao, a stray arrow took him. His place passed to his nephew, Zhang Xiu. Zhang Xiu has refused to submit to the court. He holds Zhang Ji's power intact and keeps an army in the field."
Zhang Xiu's host was a dagger laid under Xudu's chin.
As a preventive war, or simply to cut out a root of trouble, if Zhang Xiu would not surrender, he had to be destroyed.
"As for the other," Cao Cao said, "the White Wave companies gathered their strength and made for Lujiang in Yang Province. That can only mean they mean to go over to Yuan Shu and Lu Bu, join forces once more, and scheme against the court."
White Wave to the east. The Sili bandits to the west.
"Therefore, to crush them both, we must open a war on two fronts."
"So that's the shape of it. Inspector Liu, you hold Yuzhou. How would it be if you yourself went to put down the White Wave remnants?"
"Then the Grand General's strength attacks on the Nanyang campaign?"
"I will go myself."
Cao Cao, Nanyang, and Zhang Xiu. That doom flag is being planted with admirable care.
Whether he knows a pretty widow is waiting out there, I couldn't say. But if he means to go in person, I'll cheer him on. Grand General Cao.
At Liu Bei's side, Zhang Fei and Lu Su leaned in and whispered.
"My lord, the White Wave remnants are the larger force, but Nanyang will be the harder fight."
"First time Cao Cao's volunteered himself for the ugly field. Let's play at not being able to refuse, and take it, brother."
If even Zhang Fei was saying so, I thought we might simply let it pass. And then—
"Inspector Liu—no. Xuande! There is something I must say, and it bears on this war."
"Speak."
"We are a joint regime now, and both of us stand at the center for the court's sake. To bind the two armies, I would have us exchange generals on this campaign, so that both hosts fight as one combined force. What do you say?"
"Exchange generals... is that what you mean?"
Wait. Hold on.
What Cao Cao had just proposed was this: he would march on Nanyang himself, and take a general of Liu Bei's with him.
And when Liu Bei's army set out to crush the White Wave remnants in Yuzhou, it would fight with a general Cao Cao had sent along.
"Xuande, I'll be plain. The man who has always shone brightest when you take the field is Guan Yunchang, and he is now Colonel of the Huben, the Rapid-as-Tigers, guarding the imperial house. You need a fierce vanguard, do you not? I will gladly send my own kinsmen and generals to aid you."
"I thank you for the words alone. But generals of such different temper, thrown in together..."
"Were you not a man who loves unity and concord in the service of the court? You would hardly slight our army."
This stank. Cao Cao meant to pluck the talent he'd been eyeing out of our ranks and win them over on the road.
And Nanyang—even if Zhang Xiu fell quickly, once Cao Cao's shameless hunger for a widow turned into the disaster it was bound to be...
I don't care if Cao Cao ruins himself. But if a general who went with him gets dragged under, there will be no taking it back.
Lu Su hastily read the room and moved to advise again, but Liu Bei smiled and lifted a hand.
"I will consider it. Still, Grand General, hearing you make such an offer, I take it some general under this unworthy man has caught your eye?"
"I am in need of a fine strategist. How would it be if you sent me Zhang Baijin?"
He's lost his mind. Naming me outright and hauling me off? Cao Cao has truly set himself on this.
Becoming a talent in his eye was all well and good. I wanted none of it.
"...Grand General. Zhang Baijin is no general. He is Palace Aide to the Censor-in-Chief, charged with oversight of the inner court. You mean to take a civil official of the court on campaign?"
"I am Grand General, and I can give him a place within my own headquarters. Zhang Baijin excels at supply, at stratagem, and at the intelligence peculiar to a man born a merchant. He would be of great use in the field. I will give him a general's seat inside the Grand General's office."
A generalship of the outer court, so that I would hold both at once—general of the inner and outer courts, and Palace Aide—and march with him.
"Xuande, if you wish it, I can even send my own son on your campaign. And you refuse? An ally in the same boat?"
I was curious how Liu Bei would answer.
If I go, I'll tell Cao Cao first to keep clear of women, and if it comes to it I'll sit down and strike a bargain with Zhang Xiu...
"I will send my wife's brother. He is a general of a wealthy house, with judgment the equal of Baijin's, and he is skilled in the war of information."
Liu Bei offered Mi Zhu. Cao Cao shook his head.
"A fine talent, yes. But I have seen Zhang Baijin's record, and I am taken with him. What am I to do?"
"Then I will send my younger brother as well."
"Wha—?! Brother, no!"
"Yide. Can you go, and assist the Grand General?"
The moment Liu Bei declared, in that very room, that he would dispatch even Zhang Fei on Cao Cao's campaign, it was Cao Cao's brow that twitched.
"Grand General, my youngest brother Yide is a warrior whose skill stands level with Lu Bu, and whose valor is scarcely second to Yunchang. He will be a great strength in settling the realm and destroying traitors."
"Heh. Heheheh. You would lay your sworn brother on the table just to keep hold of Baijin?"
"It is not a matter of laying him down or not. Rather than let you carry off a civil official who ought to be steadying the court from within, I recommend a brother who knows the field."
Cao Cao only smiled, bitter, and Liu Bei was in earnest enough to stake Zhang Fei.
"Very well. Since you send me kinsmen—a younger brother and your wife's elder brother—I, Cao Mengde, will likewise send men both valiant and indispensable, to aid in crushing the White Wave."
The conference ended there. In the bargaining between Cao Cao and Liu Bei over whose generals would be exchanged, I was the one left behind.
Liu Bei came out of the Grand General's headquarters and went straight to our house.
"Yide. Surely you do not resent this brother?"
"Your will is already set. How could this brother hold a grudge?"
Zhang Fei answered not in his usual rough burr, but in sober, measured words.
I had never expected Liu Bei to hand a sworn brother over to Cao Cao so readily.
Perhaps because he thought our house safer than anywhere else, the whole of Liu Bei's party came in, and Seol and Yeong, together with Zhao Mi and Diaochan, rushed to lay the wine.
Lu Su was the first to open the channel.
"My lord, Cao Cao's design is plain, and I fear the piece you showed was too large."
"If I had not, Brother Mengde would have used any means at all to pry us further apart."
"Better, if they were determined by any means to throw Zhang Baijin of the inner court onto a battlefield, that we demand to be allowed the use of Xun Yu, Cao Cao's own man in the inner court."
Had it gone as Lu Su said, Cao Cao might have laughed and let it pass. Liu Bei would not.
"Baijin and Wenruo alike are talents who must spend their strength on governance, not on war. I had no wish to answer force with force, an eye for an eye."
As he spoke, he beckoned me, Zhang Fei, and Mi Zhu closer.
"I will say this to the three of you. One thing is certain. Brother Mengde wants our talent in his hand, and the men I have sent into his army are men who will not forget me, wherever they are posted. Have I judged wrong?"
Looking at Liu Bei with his heart laid bare, who would dare say they were hurt?
No. The generals he was sending Cao Cao were tokens of trust—men who would never betray him.
"Brother's right. Even if I'm Cao Cao's man out on the field, how's my head supposed to forget you, or the oath of the Peach Garden?"
"My lord, from the day you took my sister to wife, I settled it that I was your man."
Zhang Fei and Mi Zhu burned with resolve, and I set them straight.
"Once the Nanyang campaign is finished, Cao Cao cannot push any farther. Jing Province is the domain of Liu Biao, who bears the imperial surname of Han. He has not come to court, true, but he already drove out the Sili host and took Zhang Ji. Cao Cao has no just cause."
"So we grab Nanyang quick, don't look back, and come home. That it?"
Zhang Fei nodded, and Liu Bei prayed, in all sincerity, for their fortune in war.
Then I made a place to feast them.
The drinking began early, and I called Zhang Fei aside.
"Master Baijin, no need to grab me by the arm. I'll come. Walk easy."
I took him to a reception room of the house and spoke.
"Thinking it over again—that Inspector Liu refused to send me, and sent you, Brother Yide, instead—that was no small thing. So I want to speak for your sake."
"Speak, then. Don't tell me Cao Cao's cooked up a scheme to use me as a sword-catcher and get me killed."
"That, certainly not. No. There may be something more dangerous."
At that Zhang Fei pricked up his ears and glared at me.
"Just what is Cao Cao scheming, and how'd you sniff it out, Master Baijin? Spit it out."
"First, the Nanyang campaign itself. If the assault goes quickly, Cao Cao's army will loosen and indulge itself. If it goes hard, they'll fill with rage, and there'll be a slaughter to vent it."
"Hm. And after that?"
"The problem is what happens inside a surrendered domain. Especially if, for the sake of refined pleasures on campaign, he throws a drinking bout and brings women in..."
I told him, one by one, what could come to pass as it had in the original history.
Zhang Fei's eyes grew wider and wider. Because he was Zhang Fei, and not the gentle, mild Mi Zhu, I could tell him a method he could actually carry out.
"You have to do it. If you and Zizhong are to come back safe, and return to Inspector Liu as if nothing at all had happened."
"Mm, good! I'll turn Master Baijin's advice over even in my sleep, and come back whole!"
I would go to neither battlefield. I would watch both from the center, and run them from there.
I finished with Zhang Fei and was heading back to where the wine was laid.
"Master Baijin, while we're gone, make us a good pile of friends alongside Brother Yunchang, the one leading the Huben."
"I'll keep at that."
"Way I see it, that Cao Cao bastard struts around calling himself Grand General, and sure, he's got the troops—but his lot's more than double ours, so he just bulldozes us with bodies, don't he? Means we've gotta swell the folk who follow Brother, much as we can."
"Yes. That's right. And Cao Cao's term as Grand General... it won't last long."
"Oh-ho?"
"Before long, Cao Cao will step down from the Grand General's seat himself."
Whether by his own will, or by someone else's.
Of course, Cao Cao seemed to know it too. There was what Master Chen Ji had said of Yuan Shao the last time, and the fact that this Grand General was not accepting the imperial credential and the battle-axe—whether on purpose or not.
With the White Wave campaign and the strike on Nanyang both set, men came to Liu Bei's side as well.
"I offer my greetings. This humble one is of the Cao clan of Pei, a kinsman of the Grand General: Cao Xiu, courtesy name Wenlie."
"Ha! Brother Mengde has sent me a man no different from a son?"
A tall young officer, shoulders broad with spirit, bowed to Liu Bei with full courtesy.
"Never thought, in all my days, I'd come as staff to any lord but the Grand General I've served. Anyway. Greetings. Guo Jia. Courtesy name Fengxiao."
"Are you not the strategist of whom Master Chen said that in ability, at least, the reputation was true? You are welcome. Lend this man's army a great deal of your help."
Cao Cao sent his kinsman Cao Xiu and Guo Jia this way, and attached ten thousand troops and even a supply battalion.
Cao Xiu, of all people—was he not of the golden blood within Cao Cao's host?
When his eyes met mine he smiled and offered a greeting, and for the moment I returned it.
So Cao Cao set out to lay siege to Wancheng in Nanyang, taking Zhang Fei and Mi Zhu with him.
And Liu Bei set out to crush the White Wave remnants in Yuzhou, taking Cao Xiu and Guo Jia.
In that strange pairing, the two warlords took the field.