More Than a Few Will Waver at the Sight of Baijin
Liu Bei returned home in a blaze of glory.
The Emperor himself came forth to receive the Imperial Uncle and welcomed him with full ceremony. Once the honors were done, Liu Bei met with Guan Yu and me.
"Yunchang!"
"Elder brother, you have truly suffered."
The two men clasped hands, hot with feeling, and renewed their resolve.
"Baijin."
"You have no idea how anxious I was while the Imperial Uncle was away."
Liu Bei pulled me into a sudden embrace and patted my back.
"You've had a hard time of it. A truly hard time."
Zhang Fei, Lu Su, and Zhao Yun applauded me in turn, nodding their approval of the support I had given. That night the talk ran long.
"So you held out by slaughtering the horses — even by eating seaweed?"
"It was hard. I have never fought a battle that cost me so much."
Sending Su Shuang had been the right decision after all. All that remained was the whale he had been sent to present, and the question of how he meant to obtain one.
"Lord Su said as much. Whale-hunting looks impossible, so instead he will purchase a specimen of whale bone already taken and kept in Donghai Commandery as a numinous treasure, and offer that to His Majesty."
I had not been sure the court would accept it, but Lu Su had the answer ready.
"From of old, the bones of southern dragons, the bones of ancient tortoises, and the like have been held to carry a spiritual virtue, and ground bone is taken as a restorative. It should be treasure enough to present to the throne."
"Well, if that's the way of it."
We left the war there and spoke of everything that had happened in the meantime. A complicated play of feeling crossed Liu Bei's face, and he let out a long breath.
"Elder brother, let us simply take Cao Cao's head. He grows more outrageous by the day."
"Yunchang, are we common street thugs? However far Brother Mengde overreaches, he is still one of the Three Excellencies of the court."
"Then — what is it called! Removal, impeachment, either one. Submit a memorial and have him investigated. Would that not serve?"
"Impossible. Can you face a great host of two hundred thousand in the region of Xudu?"
Lu Su cut the notion off cleanly and told Guan Yu it could not be done. I was not the only one who had labored. Lu Su, too, had taken the measure of things at once and laid the situation bare.
"From the very beginning, when we went in to rescue His Majesty the Emperor from his confinement in Chang'an, we went in at odds of nine to one. Even pooling our strength over a Xuzhou scorched to ash, Cao Cao's army stood at a hundred and fifty thousand, and we could barely fill thirty thousand."
In that moment everyone but Liu Bei turned to look at me.
"With two Thousand-Gold Merchants backing us, the balance now stands thus. Cao Cao can field two hundred to two hundred and fifty thousand. We might scrape together seventy or eighty thousand."
I had thought we had closed the gap by an astonishing margin, but the original disparity was simply too great. We held a little more than three-tenths of Cao Cao's strength, and from there we would have to keep building. The forces we had meant to recruit had been hijacked one after another, yet we would find another road, and in time we would win back the men who had been taken from us. In the end only Liu Bei and Cao Cao would remain beneath heaven, and I would make Liu Bei the victor.
"Then... those old ministers out of Chang'an, the ones who fart like they own the place and call themselves senior statesmen — if we win that lot over, would the scales even out?"
"It would be difficult."
"Damn it all — what are we even doing this for!"
When Zhang Fei burst out in frustration, Liu Bei, who had been sitting in silence, spoke.
"Do what is righteous, and there will surely be those who come to understand our purpose. We have only to act as our will demands."
It was the sort of answer to make a man grind his teeth — and yet, ironically, it was the truth of the matter.
"More to the point, Baijin, is there not a wedding? Your wife's younger brother, and Ziyu's younger brother."
"The first month of next year."
"So soon. Once the autumn rains have passed and the harvest is in, and this winter is behind us — the wedding follows at once?"
"Yes."
"Hahaha. Good. Have Kongming summoned. It is time he learned to drink the wine his elders pour."
At Liu Bei's word to fetch Kongming, I rose at once and went out. Someone followed me, carefully.
"Zijing?"
"Baijin, your designs have always been drawn on a grand scale, and now we have fastened even the first button of the charge laid upon us."
Lu Su had distinguished himself in both civil government and military affairs, and this time, too, he had returned with a great result in hand. And he told me what he had seen with his own eyes.
"Shuchun — that Yuan Shu put considerable effort into remodeling it as an imperial palace for his capital. When the day comes that we have need of it, it will suit us perfectly."
"Master Zijing, how far into the future are you looking, to speak so?"
"Endure long enough at the start with few men and little strength, and there will come a moment when they try to push us out. We gather our foundation steadily, and then we break Cao Cao's power in a single stroke. Ten years will be enough."
"Zijing?"
"Xudu is not our land. But it is also land we can take, if we are willing to spend the time."
This man Lu Su — his thinking ran the same course as mine, and sure enough, he had read the situation clearly.
"Let us speak of that another time, apart from the others."
"Yes. Let us."
Around Liu Bei there were hot-blooded generals in plenty, but there were also many strategists who looked upon the situation with a cold eye.
Jian'an, the third year, the first month.
For the first time in a long while, the followings of Cao Cao and Liu Bei gathered in one place to celebrate a fine young man and a fine young woman.
He ought to have been seething, and yet Cao Cao, to my surprise, congratulated Zhuge Liang and Cai Yan with perfect composure. He wished them a hundred years of growing old together, gave flowers to Cai Yan and the nuptial cup of union to Zhuge Liang, and blessed them in earnest, without the slightest hesitation.
"To think Liang is taking a wife... so now only Jun and Hua remain. Oh..."
"My lady, what tears are these, on a day as fine as this?"
Zhuge Xue showed her tears in the end, and everyone else offered their congratulations as well.
"I would stay longer, but I fear I cannot."
Joyful as the day was, Zhuge Xue was not the only one who withdrew at the sight of Minister of Works Cao Cao. Lu Su, of course, and Mi Zhu, who had come a long way, and Bu Zhi, and Zhuge Jin — all of them fled the place in haste. Of course they did.
The very man responsible for the Xuzhou Massacre was standing there. How many people of Xuzhou would sit down to eat and drink and make merry in his company?
Cao Cao, however, let nothing show as he came toward Liu Bei and me.
"Xuande! And Baijin!"
"Minister of Works —!"
"Take a cup, each of you. Today is a glad day."
Cao Cao called us by our courtesy names. Liu Bei addressed Cao Cao by his office.
"Xuande, between the two of us there have been a great many sights unfit to be seen. Come. Let us drink a cup."
"Hahaha. I only hope a man who cannot hold his wine doesn't make a drunken scene at a wedding."
Cao Cao caught Liu Bei and pressed him to drink, and the mood shifted into something strangely delicate. Liu Bei stepped forward with reluctance and shot me a look. I merely waved him on. Even the most atrocious villain is still a man, and a man has occasions like this — and I would wager Liu Bei could drink Cao Cao under the table.
"Haa—"
Zhuge Liang, all smiles, could not stop gazing at Cai Yan in her crimson bridal robes, and when our eyes met he laughed and gave a firm nod. From his breast he drew the travel pass for Jing Province and showed it to me: his resolve to bring back every man of talent in that region, without fail. But a day like this, a man was allowed simply to enjoy himself, wasn't he? I am a feeler by nature, after all.
The congratulations had run their course, and whoever remained looked ready to talk of other things, so I rose to take my leave. That was when someone approached me.
"Palace Aide!"
"Prefect of the Masters of Writing?"
Xun Yu came up, offered a greeting, and caught hold of me.
"I am weak with wine. Would you take tea with me somewhere?"
"Heh. This is my own house, when all is said. Rooms are hardly in short supply."
We took a room, and as Zhao Mi happened to be on hand, I told her to bring tea.
"A fine occasion, and a fine atmosphere. I am glad of it."
"Perhaps because the Minister of Works stood as officiant, and so many senior ministers attended, my brother-in-law's wedding turned out quite splendid."
Xun Yu smiled quietly, drank his tea, and then put a question to me.
"It sits ill to speak of affairs of state, and yet — after the landslides that followed the torrential rains in Yuzhou, you purchased several thousand oxen and aided the restoration with carts."
"The army of Imperial Uncle Liu must not suffer even the slightest hindrance while it punishes a traitor."
At my words Xun Yu nodded, and began again.
"Of late the dining house kept by the Palace Aide's family has opened its doors once more, and I hear the beef in particular is superb."
"They simmer the ox bones long and slow until a milky broth rises, then serve it as a hot soup crowned with blanched beef. It has become that popular."
Ox-bone soup was genuinely revolutionary in this age — so much so that the scholar-gentry said a man simply had to come and eat it. Xun Yu heard me out and gave a bitter smile.
What was he working up to now? Was he about to take me to task for speculating in oxen?
"The state has need of a great many oxen. For the sake of law and institution, above all."
"Are you opening some vast tract of new land for farming?"
"How could I dress it up in circles? A tax law that requires such oxen is passing back and forth even now."
"Then I will present them for the imperial house and the court. Take every last one."
Xun Yu's composure cracked.
In any case, were there so many oxen in Xudu that I meant to run a ranch in the capital? The cattle I wanted for dairying I could fetch as I pleased from Xuzhou and Yuzhou, and build the farms there.
"You would give them, just like that? Without even asking the reason?"
"Do I need a reason? Surely the state does not mean to practice usury with oxen?"
"No, no! Of course not, but..."
Xun Yu dreamed of reviving the Official Oxen Law and the Official Fields Law, for the sake of Han taxation and the security of the people's livelihood. The reform would go forward in the name of Minister of Works Cao Cao, and for that he needed land and oxen — and here was Zhang Qian, who had bought those oxen up on speculation, offering to hand over the lot.
"I have one condition."
"Haha. A condition? You speak of offering them to the state, and then you set a condition upon me..."
"Imperial Uncle Liu punished Yuan Shu, who dared to style himself emperor, and occupied Shuchun, the traitor's own base — and yet I consider the reward he received inadequate."
Xun Yu went still.
"When the military grain ran late and the punitive army nearly starved, Imperial Uncle Liu slaughtered his own horses and served the men meat. For a man such as this, is there to be nothing material at all?"
"What you desire... is new horses?"
"Twenty head at the least, if it can be managed. Fine steeds not only for Imperial Uncle Liu, but for Zhang Yide and Guan Yunchang as well — and at the very least, horses finer than the one that Flying General Lu Bu is said to ride."
"Why ask this of me..."
"Because if you speak the word, it will be given in the Minister of Works' name."
In that instant Xun Yu looked at me, and his brow trembled. It was a good day, so I answered him with a smile.
"..."
After he emptied his tea, Xun Yu could say nothing more.
And that night—
Late into the night, a guest arrived at Zhang Qian's dining house.
"I am sorry, but the kitchen will be closing soon, and the master is also— oh!"
The steward started in alarm and did not know what to do with himself.
"I mean only to drink a little and be on my way. Might I have a single seat?"
"Unthinkable! That the Prefect of the Masters of Writing of the realm should come in person! At once — food, and singing girls—"
"No, no, I need none of that. Just a bottle of wine, and whatever food is suitable."
Xun Yu had told no one. Alone, he stepped into Zhang Qian's house, entered the room the steward showed him, and received the wine table laid for an honored guest.
"Here. Payment for the wine."
"Aigo, no. Guests from the court, at least, we keep on a separate account..."
"Take it."
Xun Yu pressed a piece of silver into the steward's hand, sent them all away, and looked over the lavish spread of delicacies from mountain and sea before he lifted his chopsticks. One piece, and it was a taste of heaven. He raised the ewer, filled his cup to the brim, and drank it down alone in great gulps.
"Haa—!"
Bearing a feeling he could not put into words, Xun Yu — a man who did not even drink well — tipped cup after cup in solitude, and then quietly took his leave.
And from that day forward, time went on flowing through the joint rule of Liu Bei and Cao Cao over the Han.