Cao Cao and Liu Bei, Baijin and the Jade Belt

A short while later, Liu Bei and I were summoned to the Ministry of Works.

With no notion of what the talk would be, he took the lead, his face drawn and ill at ease.

"Left General. Deputy Imperial Censor. You have come?"

"Open the gate."

"Yes, Left General!"

At some point the officers of the Ministry had taken to wearing armor far sturdier, and far more splendid, than either the imperial Huben Guard or the provincial troops of the Left General's headquarters. A man who saw them might well have muttered that this was the true household guard.

"Shall we have the Left General's armor changed as well?"

"Leave it. This isn't a review of someone's private army."

To Liu Bei, the Ministry's heavy panoply was nothing but a useless display. All the same, we came before the man who had invited us both.

"Aiyo! Xuande, Baijin—you've come?"

"Left General Liu Bei pays his respects to the Minister of Works."

"Deputy Imperial Censor Zhang Qian likewise pays his respects to the Minister of Works."

He had been at his sword-dance again. Caught in the middle of a rest, he came hurrying over, seized both of Liu Bei's hands, and fussed over him with theatrical warmth. After the dubious suicides of the Jo Eon clan he had clamped a reign of terror down upon the court; now he had slipped back into this oily geniality as if none of it had ever happened.

"Why have you summoned us?"

"Hahaha—what a fellow you are. Come in first. What do you say we take tea together?"

Cao Cao served a fine tea, then laid before us a mountain of bamboo slips.

"Minister, what is all of this?"

"New policies for the Han. New institutions."

I went still.

"Xuande, read them without prejudice."

He passed one of the slips to Liu Bei. Liu Bei flicked a small gesture my way—read it with me—and what lay inside was a set of radical reforms.

Every one of them was staggering. If the court actually drove them through, the backlash would be anything but mild. When surprise showed on Liu Bei's face as well, Cao Cao only waved a hand, perfectly at ease.

"The loyal ministers who came all the way from Chang'an were the Confucian scholars of their age, officials of great renown—but their time to step aside has come. Well, Xuande? What do you think?"

"I know too little of politics to say what this is."

"Oh dear. Then what does your policy man, Baijin, make of it?"

I was in no position to hold a deep debate on tax law or the finer knots of statecraft, but I knew well enough that this must not be rammed through as written.

"I oppose it."

"Heh. Out of hand?"

"Let us begin with the military farms. If generals of the outer campaigns—those at the rank of the Four Campaigning Generals and the Generals of the Four Quarters or higher, men entitled to open their own headquarters—work these farms and divide the proceeds, then the day the court falls into the monopoly of a single faction, the abuse will be no small thing."

"That can be made into a system. Strict control, and capable men with a thorough gift for inspection—men like you—set above it."

"And the rate? Is this rate correct? Five-tenths of the harvest, and six if they use the state's oxen?"

Whatever else might be argued, the tax on these farms was simply indefensible.

"You conscript the soldiers, send them into battle, set them to breaking wasteland—and then take six-tenths of the harvest? Is that not an excessive levy?"

"To restore a Han house brought down by countless traitors, such pain must come with it. That is the way of things."

"In every age, men have raised institution after institution in the name of reform, only to find they cannot reckon the abuses until afterward. This is not something one proposes to introduce lightly."

At that Liu Bei cut in at once, caught my hand, and spoke to Cao Cao himself.

"Minister, I grant the driving force behind your reforms. But as Baijin says, this needs at least two or three more years of review, and time to weigh the real gain against the policies already in place. It is not a matter to settle lightly."

"Ha—hahahaha!"

Cao Cao laughed aloud and lifted his tea.

"You aren't opposing me blindly. You give your reasons and show your convictions. Then I have no pretext to force it through."

So he said. But that endless heap of bamboo slips—the Yingchuan school, of course, and Cao Cao himself, and scholars gathered from every region—had surely been prepared with meticulous care over several years. For the moment we had stopped it on the moral hazard of radical reform. If Cao Cao set his mind to it, though, every one of those proposals could pass.

"Minister, let me make one thing plain. I myself will study these new institutions at length, so that our discussions may be constructive. Kindly stop treating men as obstacles to reform, and stop putting the existing opposition to death."

"Heh. Hehehehe. Hehehe!"

Cao Cao laughed long and waved us away.

As we rose to leave the Ministry, he spoke at our backs.

"Both of you—think carefully on what true loyalty to the realm really is. Old men with not a scrap of power, content to spend a whole life at the Emperor's side? Or reformers who will leave their names upon the world?"

"We will... bear it in mind."

We quit the Ministry quickly, the air heavy behind us.

On the road back Liu Bei let out a long sigh and spoke his mind.

"He's extreme."

"If everything until now has been driven by a conviction like that, he is all the more dangerous."

"Mm."

Looking at the Cao Cao I had watched so far, I could judge him with certainty. A man who treated all the blood he had spilled for his ideal—his great enterprise—as nothing but minor footprints. A belief that he alone, holding every power in his own hands, could change the world. The warped certainty that if it was not him, then it could be no one. A mind that would tolerate not the slightest resistance, that meant to crush it without mercy and drive straight through. I could have talked of Cao Cao from dawn until dark.

"In politics they call that a monster. History, I am told, calls it a powerful minister."

"As Zhou Yafu was for the Han. As Huo Guang was."

"And if one goes further than that..."

For a moment I looked at Liu Bei, and could not bring myself to say it.

"Whom were you thinking of?"

"It is nothing."

Further than that would be Wang Mang—but after Mang and Zhuo, one does not speak such names aloud.

"Let us go to my house. As it happens, there's something to celebrate."

"Oh? There has been little good news of late. If it is cause for the Imperial Uncle to celebrate..."

"Lady Gan is with child."

Oh! So this was before Liu Shan. With his foundation secure, Liu Bei had certainly been vigorous. True enough, he was in his late thirties now, which in this age counted as rather late—and a son would be a fine thing.

"My congratulations. I'll take it as the feast for a son, and gladly."

"The ladies are still young. They'll bear many children in time. Your own are growing well?"

On the strength of that rare piece of warm news we went into Liu Bei's house, and the kitchen garden caught my eye: garlic chives, bok choy, and the other vegetables coming up strong in their plots.

"My lord, you've returned—ah!"

"I pay my respects to both of you, my ladies."

Lady Gan and Lady Mi came running, saw me, and bowed in a flurry.

"The Deputy Imperial Censor is with you, my lord. And a guest arrived before you."

"Mm?"

"The Colonel of the Imperial Guard is here."

"Ah!"

Wang Zifu? Then something very large was being discussed. The timing was poor, and I meant to slip away.

"Imperial Uncle, I think I had better offer my congratulations another time."

"No. Wait a while in the upper room. I'll have a brief word with the Colonel and come back."

"No, I'm quite all right—"

"Wait at your leisure. Our upper room is well prepared for guests."

"Ah, that is..."

"Lady Mi, escort Baijin to the upper room and see that he is served."

"Yes, my lord."

And so, while Wang Zifu met with Liu Bei, I had no choice but to wait in discomfort in another room.

Wang Zifu, calling on Liu Bei at this hour? It could only mean that someone who had received something from the Emperor had drawn Wang Zifu in—and that Wang Zifu, in turn, meant to draw Liu Bei in. This, mere minutes after we had left Cao Cao at the Ministry of Works. To speak plainly, the odds were thin. One misstep, and we were all dead.

However brave our generals, however many troops the Left General kept in Yuzhou and Xuzhou, our heads were already thrust inside the enemy's ring, while Cao Cao moved freely with only one arm tied. At the very least a man has ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to pull his head back out and climb onto the canvas with his body whole before it can be called a fight. Honestly, if the thing blew open, I had no sense of how many would answer, or how.

Lu Su had already judged a head-on clash between Liu Bei's army and Cao Cao's inside Xudu to be suicide. His strategy was to mass troops at Shuchun and Xiaopei and, whenever the moment came, encircle Yanzhou and Xudu and strike. Tian Yu—we had scarcely spoken—but strangely enough, he was said to be raising fortifications among the cities along the border of Yanzhou and Yuzhou.

The trouble was that those, too, were men who would fight. What of Liu Bei's household still in Xudu? What of me? What of everyone else's families? Was slipping my own body free supposed to be the end of it? No. From the wives down to the children, every one of them had to be moved somewhere safe. That was the fundamental rule. I thought on it, and thought again.

As expected, the meeting with Wang Zifu ran very long. Lady Mi asked more than once whether, once the food was gone, she should bring more. I waited, step by step. Only when the night had grown late did I hear the departing guest.

"Left General—whatever anyone may say, you are the true scion of the imperial house of Han, acknowledged by His Majesty the Emperor."

"You do me too much honor. Go safely. I will see you at the court assembly tomorrow."

Liu Bei saw Wang Zifu off.

Colonel of the Imperial Guard Wang Zifu had shared truly astonishing words with Liu Bei. Even afterward he kept glancing about him, and on the hurried road home the jade belt he had given Liu Bei as a gift would not leave his mind.

The blade has already left the sheath. What remains is the will of men...

Late that night, a shadow watched him from afar, hidden.

"When they first went in, it was the Deputy Imperial Censor and the Left General. But Colonel of the Imperial Guard Wang Zifu was already there before them..."

Yang Xiu, Registrar in the service of the Ministry of Works, took it all in and nodded. Then, deep ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in the night, he turned his steps sharply toward the court.

"Aiyo—Baijin, I've kept you dreadfully late. Be generous with me. I'll treat you handsomely to wine and meat."

"How heavy a matter did the Colonel of the Imperial Guard bring?"

I asked it straight. Liu Bei, without the slightest ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ripple, laughed softly and turned the question back.

"Mm? Whatever do you mean? We spoke of governing the state, and of the organization of the Guard General's office and the Huben Guard, and it ran a little long, that's all."

"Is that truly all?"

"The notion was to enlarge the Huben Guard, so that anyone holding office as one of the Three Excellencies or as Grand General may keep no private ceremonial force beyond the Emperor's own Huben."

That was a system from the old days, when the imperial authority of Han was secure—a check upon ministers who held military power. The aged loyalists men called elders meant to revive an ancient institution and restore the balance between today's powerful ministers and the throne. A restorationist move.

"If that is all... I understand. A restoration worth considering."

If this was as far as he was permitted to speak, I would dig no further. What I had already decided, however, I meant to lay before him exactly as planned.

"Imperial Uncle, has your lady not conceived? Consider this a treat for the child."

"Hmm. Is it, now?"

"I wish to offer my congratulations—and one small gift."

"Ho. And what is it?"

"My lady's homeland is Pei County in the State of Pei, the land called Xiaopei, birthplace of Emperor Gaozu of Han. For the sake of her prenatal care, might she stay there for a time?"

For an instant the hand in which Liu Bei held the wine ewer trembled, ever so slightly.

"And not only Lady Gan. Is Lady Mi's home not also Juxian, in Donghai of Xuzhou? They say that to look upon the sea is to receive a good influence, and to bear a healthy child."

"Well, now. To come out with such a thing so suddenly..."

"Imperial Uncle, the truth is I have had a worry of my own. Three of my wives are from Xuzhou."

Zhuge Xue, of Yangdu County in Langya, Xuzhou. Zhao Mi, of Xiapi County in Xiapi, Xuzhou. Huan Ying, of Pengcheng County in Pengcheng, Xuzhou.

"Xudu is pleasant enough, but lately it seems they've come down with homesickness. What am I to do?"

"Homesickness... You mean your wives?"

"Yes. Homesickness."

At that Liu Bei lifted his cup with a truly heavy face. I shared the cup with him, drank it straight down, and set the measure out as if it were nothing at all.

"The principal lady, for her prenatal care. The second lady, to a homeland where she may see her brothers. And, as it happens, my own wives and concubines, ill with homesickness, to go along with them. Women together, children in their arms, taking their leisure among the flowers of Xuzhou and then coming home. I should like to send them. What do you say?"

"...Baijin."

Liu Bei swallowed a breath he had been holding and stared straight through me.

"Imperial Uncle, I have spoken only of a road home for our ladies."

"...Yes. My ladies... viewing the flowers... prenatal care..."

It had been nothing more than a proposal that the women and the children go safely to see their homeland, and come back.