The Jade Belt's Secret Letter — A Way for All to Live
I came home, called every one of my wives together, and told them plainly.
"The Left General is offering you a chance to help with his lady's prenatal care — her home is Xiaopei — and to visit your own hometowns while you're at it."
"Shall I begin packing at once?"
"As it happens, my sister-in-law was just saying she missed Xiaopei. This is perfect."
Zhuge Xue and Huan Ying were on their feet at once. I could even take my sister Yanhua, and my nephew Sogeol with her.
"Hee~ Is that so~? So the wives and the children are all going to Xuzhou?"
Zhao Mi's long fox-eyes opened a fraction, as if she had caught the scent of blood. She caught Diaochan by the collar and smiled with her eyes alone.
"It will be quite some time before you come safely home, won't it?"
"My lord... I pray your fortune in battle holds."
"And if we're wishing anyway, some of us are rather looking forward to a night before the march, you know~?"
The beauty mark at the corner of her smiling mouth twitched.
What exactly are you imagining, you fox-faced wife of mine?
The baggage was packed in short order, and I chose the man who would see them all safely there.
"Yanyun. You are of the Wang clan, are you not?"
"Why ask a thing like that now? This Gentleman-Consultant, Wang Ling, takes pride in the Wang clan of Taiyuan in Bingzhou, and lives to show the same righteous spirit as my uncle!"
I soothed him and asked again.
"Yes. The late Minister over the Masses, Lord Wang, was a loyal subject among loyal subjects. And you are his nephew?"
"That goes without saying."
"One of my wives is a Wang — a foster daughter the Minister himself took in."
"Is that so, sir!"
"Then my wife is Lord Wang's daughter, and you are Lord Wang's nephew. In all but name, we are one household. Isn't that right?"
"Of course~!"
"Then I leave them to you. My sister's family, and the Left General's household as well."
Wang Ling's face set with resolve. He pressed his fists together and bowed.
"I will stake my life on this journey and return, Deputy Imperial Censor!"
Quietly, he had taken up the role of household steward — Jian Yong's post, under Liu Bei. I trusted him, and decided I would find him a fine horse and a good sword as a gift.
The house had taken on the bustle of a move when someone who was never going to sit quietly and listen chose that moment to appear.
"Heh heh. I come after so long, and what in the world is all this?"
"Ah— M-Minister Cao?"
"!"
We had been setting the household in order when Cao Cao himself walked in on Wang Ling and me. Once again Xiahou Dun and Cao Hong came with him, and behind them trailed the troops of the Ministry of Works. It was the look of Xudu's true master, displayed without the slightest reservation.
"Returning to the countryside, are we?"
"Hardly. A brief family occasion."
"Hoh."
Interest lit his face, so I explained exactly as planned.
"I hear the Left General's wife is with child. Her home is Xiaopei in Yuzhou, and they are sending her on a journey of prenatal care to pray for an easy birth. My own household is going with her."
"Is that so. A joyous matter. I shall have to share a cup of congratulation with brother Xuande before long."
He said the words, and all the while he watched my wives, my sister, and the children more closely than ever.
"And yet, your whole family going together — isn't that a touch too much loyalty for a prenatal trip?"
"As it happens, that country is my wives' home as well, and they were showing the signs of homesickness."
"Dear me. So long a road — I ought to attach an escort for you."
He meant to hang a watch on us and call it a courtesy. He glanced once at Xiahou Dun, once at Cao Hong, and nodded with a smile.
"I shall send my brothers. They will keep every one of you safe upon the road."
"I am truly grateful. But they are men of the Ministry of Works, generals of the realm. How could I use them for a private matter?"
"Baijin. Since when were we strangers?"
He was being still more blatant: he would fasten his own men to the road my household traveled. Wang Ling made to step forward. I stopped him at once.
Not a word. I'll handle this.
"Minister, you have my sincere thanks. Even so, we will go on our own."
"Why disappoint a man who offers you kindness? I say I will escort Xuande's people and yours. Is there some reason it cannot be done?"
"There is. I hesitate to say it, but most of them come from Xuzhou."
"!"
For an instant that easy face twisted. Xiahou Dun and Cao Hong both bulged their eyes as if to demand what I thought I was saying, but Cao Cao lifted a hand, checked them, and spoke with a show of generosity.
"If not an escort, then let me at least add carriages and horses. Travel safely."
"Thank you, Minister. That, I will accept."
Cao Cao went off with a soft laugh, and the Ministry's troops withdrew behind him in a clash of armor rings. With both eyes they performed it, wordlessly: I am watching you.
"Deputy Imperial Censor... what in the world is about to happen at court?"
"Hmm."
"No matter how I turn it over... this isn't a simple journey. It's an evacuation arranged in advance, isn't it?"
"You'll understand it all later. Guard them well."
Wang Ling made ready to take the families to Xiaopei. At just the right moment, by Liu Bei's order and by an official command of the Censorate, I sent them all off together under the pretext of a property survey around Xiaopei and a report on the fortress works near the Huai River, south of Xuzhou.
A thorough escort. An airtight pretext. One by one, they slipped away to safety. With no family left behind as hostages, I had a wider field in which to move.
Some days later, on an idle afternoon, Liu Bei and I went out alone in ordinary clothes and made for a lake beyond the city walls.
"Yide may be indifferent to a great many things, but he truly hates fishing."
"A hobby of sitting still and waiting like a tick — wouldn't that set him itching?"
"Hardly. You should see how he concentrates when he paints a landscape or writes calligraphy. One jar of wine and a single brush, and there is nothing that fellow cannot do on his own."
We talked of Zhang Fei's sharply divided hobbies, and of other matters at court, while we watched the float on the line.
"The man meant to succeed Elder Shisun as Grand Minister of Agriculture was clearly Master Kong Wenju, and the man meant to succeed Lord Yang as Grand Master of Splendid Happiness was Jia Wenhua."
"And the two of them were swapped, weren't they? The Grand Minister of Agriculture, who ought to hold the realm's purse, is staying in Luoyang rather than Xudu."
"And why do you think that is? He's minding the cost of the Luoyang works, and keeping an eye on the land in Henan Commandery where they mean to lay out military farms."
It was a hijacking so clean it was almost beautiful. Jia Xu had been robbed of the post without so much as showing his face, and as the court's Grand Minister of Agriculture he had even taken on the minding of the Ministry of Works' wealth. And yet, thinking it over... on the eve of the Girdle Edict, would that god of self-preservation, Jia Xu, really jump ship because Liu Bei looked more advantageous than Cao Cao? I couldn't say.
"Do you truly mean to do it?"
"Baijin, I have told you again and again. The Colonel of the Guards and I spoke of nothing but ordinary things. I cannot imagine what you are so eager to hear from me."
"Talk comes easily while one waits for the fish."
"Heh heh. What a fellow. I haven't the faintest idea what you're saying."
That was when it happened.
Far off, someone came shambling toward Liu Bei and me. A middle-aged man with a straw hat pulled low, wheezing under whatever he was carrying, picking his way along. When I looked closely, I knew him.
"Heh heh heh. Are the fish biting?"
"Good heavens — Lord Imperial Father-in-Law!"
"Ah— the General of Chariots and Cavalry?!"
Dong Cheng, the imperial father-in-law, had come to the lake with his own fishing gear. Two horses and a carriage waited in the distance. He greeted us warmly and set about tending his rod.
"Baijin, is there anywhere we might brew tea?"
At Liu Bei's words, I took the hint and made myself scarce.
"No tea, but there's bamboo-tube wine among the things we brought. I'll fetch that, at least."
"Good."
I headed off toward where our baggage lay.
"Imperial Uncle Liu. Have you thought it through?"
"Before that, I would ask you this. Was that truly His Majesty's imperial command?"
"It was!"
An emperor with too few men to lean on had bitten his own finger and written a blood letter, passed the letter in secret to Noble Consort Dong, and she had carried it to her father, Dong Cheng, General of Chariots and Cavalry.
"His Majesty's words were plain. When he meets his twentieth birthday in the first month to come, he wishes to take the government into his own hands. He says he can trust Cao Cao no longer."
Liu Bei remembered what Colonel of the Guards Wang Zifu had told him, and he remembered the imperial jade belt he had been given.
"I have not spoken of it even to my brothers, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. Nor to Baijin yonder, who is as my own kin."
"Imperial Uncle, I need your strength. You alone can drive out the traitor Cao Cao."
"I am resolved to bury blood and bone for the Han. Yet I have no wish to fail and drag every soul down with me. If a life must be staked, then I will stake this one neck, and this one neck alone, for His Majesty."
He meant it. When he had seen the Son of Heaven's blood letter hidden in the jade belt and confirmed the emperor's will to cast Cao Cao out, Liu Bei had bowed before that imperial command and resolved to follow it. But Cao Cao's power was simply too vast. One misstep, and every man of his in the capital could die. So he had chosen the sacrifice. The secret edict in the jade belt would be known to him alone, and if death came, he would take all of it into his arms and die by himself.
"The Deputy Imperial Censor is young, but he is a truly extraordinary talent. More than once, while the Left General was absent, that man blocked Cao Cao's tyrannies at court."
"He is a friend with far too much still to do for the realm to stain him with the blood of factional strife. I cannot bring myself to tell him to bite his finger."
"Even so, that man must be with us. Even without a blood letter... His Majesty himself will summon the Deputy Imperial Censor."
"!"
Liu Bei hesitated at that, then asked with care.
"Then, the other day, when His Majesty ordered my brother Guan Yu, as Commander of the Tiger-Brave Imperial Guards, to gather warriors who might be levied into the next Tiger-Brave Army...?"
"Just so. Commander Guan did no more than look them over once. We went back and combed through them again, and gathered the men who will come to Xudu and give their loyalty whenever they are called."
Liu Bei remembered what Guan Yu and Zhang Qian had told him — that on the road to Hongnong they had met men from the General of Chariots and Cavalry's office, offered sacrifice at the tomb of the Queen of Hongnong, and come home. He understood now that all of it had had a reason. No wonder the emperor had stayed quiet at the report that no one had particularly caught the eye, while the general's office only grew busier. They had not failed to find such men. They had chosen not to bring them.
"All that shows for now is a few dozen added to the Tiger-Brave Army. But watch. Soon I will gather those who, once they know His Majesty's heart, will swear their loyalty."
"Will you be all right? In this affair, it is you, Imperial Father-in-Law Dong, who runs the greatest risk."
"Even should the matter go wrong, how could the world forget a righteous spirit such as this? I am already a man resolved."
His sons had been lost to him in their youth, taken before their father, and with one daughter already a noble consort he had nothing left to lose. The old servant of the imperial house was burning with that resolve.
"Left General, I understand your will. Yet Zhang Qian, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei, though they write no names upon the joint pledge, will still come before His Majesty."
"Indeed. I take your meaning."
Liu Bei nodded, accepting that it had come to this. Once he called Cao Cao to mind. Once, His Majesty the Emperor.
"Even so, I too have no wish to see great blood spilled in Xudu. Elder Brother Mengde may be drunk on power now, but his rescue of His Majesty was sincere. I will find an answer before the greatest bloodshed. Until that day, I beg you, hold back from any reckless rising."
"You mean that you yourself... will settle it in a direct parley with the Minister of Works?"
He meant it.
And when Zhang Baijin — already half-suspecting, kin to him in all but blood — came trudging back with the bamboo flask of wine, Liu Bei welcomed him warmly. Zhang Baijin looked from Dong Cheng to Liu Bei and smiled a smile no one could read. The boy had certainly caught on to something. If trouble came, Liu Bei swore it inwardly: he might throw his own life away, but he would shield Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and that boy Baijin.
It was a day that threatened rain.
Once again Liu Bei was tending his vegetable plot, desperately pleading that the court's terrifying plan be put off, groping toward some new road — a man who wanted, at all costs, not to see blood. And toward that Liu Bei, visitors came.
"Left General! Left General! We've come from the Ministry of Works!"
"Hm?"
To Liu Bei, hoeing the field alone, Cao Cao's armed soldiers had come.