After Long Deliberation, the Worst Move — A Scheme Amidst Disaster
I entered the Inner Palace.
"Is that not the Deputy Imperial Censor? What brings you to a place like this...?"
"May I go in?"
"A pass is required. And I must send a report up."
"Then go and tell the Commander of the Tiger-Brave Imperial Guards that I have come. In place of a pass — this is a censor's tally."
However knife-edged the court had grown, I still knew exactly how to spend my office and my name.
"I have come to inspect the condition of the Tiger-Brave Guards' armaments. You aren't unaware, I trust, that this too falls within the Censorate's inspections? Should a rusted blade or a broken spear happen to turn up..."
"That will never happen. We tend our weapons with absolute thoroughness, every single day!"
"Mm. Then a reward would be in order, wouldn't it."
A short while later, Guan Yu himself came at a run.
I offered my greeting, stepped into the Inner Palace, and looked over the armory.
"The rest of you, step outside for a time."
"Yes, Commander!"
At Guan Yu's word, the Tiger-Brave Guards moved as a single body.
When only the two of us remained, I examined the weapons one by one. Sure enough, there was not a mote of dust on them, not a fleck of rust — arms truly well forged, and better kept.
"The weapons are in fine condition, Brother Yunchang, and the air among the men is one of absolute devotion to you. Even so."
"Can this host truly be set in motion, and Cao Cao taken?"
"It is utterly impossible. All we can do is drag the time out until Imperial Uncle Liu finishes the campaign against Yuan Shu and comes back."
"Hmm."
Something in Guan Yu's expression would not settle.
Don't tell me he's hiding something.
"Brother Yunchang — has His Majesty the Emperor said anything to you apart, in private?"
"No. No, he has not."
"Can you look me straight in the eye and say that?"
"Hah. I am a man whose charge is to keep faithful watch over the Inner Palace. There is nothing I hide."
The Emperor, I was more and more certain, would not hold out until Liu Bei returned. I wanted to go find him, seize him by the collar, and tear the notion out of him — this was the worst choice a man could make... Haah. And who was I supposed to blame?
"Since I came out under the name of an inspection, I will set it down as a record for now and look over a little more of the Inner Palace."
"I'll attach an escort."
"No. This I have to do alone."
I had the measure of where Guan Yu stood. I turned and made another circuit of the Tiger-Brave Guards' quarter of the Inner Palace.
Go in too deep, and I would be at the hall of the imperial presence and the Empress's residence. Those were not grounds to set a foot on lightly.
I was looking here and there when a voice called out to me all at once.
"Deputy Imperial Censor!"
I jerked around.
A senior palace lady, her veil fluttering, blinked at me and beckoned.
"Ah. My lady, the senior palace lady?"
"Might you follow me for a moment?"
"This is a quarter forbidden to men — the Inner Palace, is it not?"
"It is all right. Come along. Permission has been given."
What was this? She wanted me inside the inner quarter, where the women of the imperial house lived? Nobody but a eunuch was supposed to set foot in there.
And so, glory of glories, I was brought all the way to the Empress's residence — into the presence of Empress Fu Shou, the Emperor's principal wife, and, ranked beneath her, Noble Consort Dong.
"Deputy Imperial Censor Zhang Qian comes before Your Majesty."
"This servant is overwhelmed — overwhelmed, Your Majesty the Empress!"
"I have heard that His Majesty was safely rescued in Hedong, and that the loyal officials and palace women of Hongnong were saved, and that all of it was your merit."
"I am told the Deputy Imperial Censor is a loyal subject who exerts himself for His Majesty."
"You overwhelm me. This servant merely walks the righteous path."
"Can you lift the worry that now lies upon His Majesty?"
"..."
So now even the Empress had come out to cling to me like this. However I tried, alone, to wrench them off a road that only sank deeper into the mire — was it simply beyond me?
"In days past... this person was held captive in Chang'an, and with these two eyes I watched His Majesty starve for three days in the rebels' keeping, weeping tears of blood. The ornaments of his jade belt were leather, and he said they could be chewed and eaten — he crushed them and shared them out to me and to the Consort. That horror might as well have been yesterday."
"Such a thing must never be allowed to happen again, Your Majesty."
"Deputy Imperial Censor — of all of us, those who have suffered most are His Majesty, and Noble Consort Dong, who carries his imperial child. The Consort's father, the General of the Guards, has staked his life upon this affair more than any man."
Empress Fu Shou's voice burned thinner and thinner, as if it were charring away.
"Can you, and the General of the Guards, and the Commander of the Tiger-Brave Imperial Guards, truly bring His Majesty's will to pass?"
"This servant will give it his whole heart. But there is a plea I must lay before His Majesty — one I cannot even set down in a memorial."
"Imperial Uncle Liu will return before long. I beg you, entreat His Majesty to trust him and wait until the very end. That is the swiftest way."
"Haa..."
I knew Liu Bei would not finish Yuan Shu by the first month of next year. Wait it out by inches, and he might not come until spring. But even that short a span... we had to wait. An emperor still thrashing in his trauma — and yet, just one last time...
"And His Majesty has words he wishes conveyed. The moment you have heard them, you must forget them."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Righteous men who were in Hongnong have come to Xudu, to aid the Son of Heaven and the imperial house."
I went still.
"Have you heard of a unit called the Yulin Army? Among them are military officers of the Tang clan."
The Tang clan? That Tang clan — the Princess of Hongnong's, wife to the Prince of Hongnong?
The Yulin Army had been disbanded when Dong Zhuo deposed Emperor Shao and demoted him to Prince of Hongnong. After Dong Zhuo died, Li Jue and Guo Si absorbed them, and most were condemned as traitors. Loyal men of principle left standing in the middle of that... This was not good.
But I would say it here, and say it plain.
"Inasmuch as you trust this small servant and follow him, I will protect the imperial house. Those words, and nothing else, are my true heart."
"I will believe you. I shall lay everything before His Majesty..."
Please. Let him choose wisely...
Some time later.
The Minister of Works had taken to his sickbed and fallen away from the business of court.
At first, that was the reaction of the senior ministers — what was that man scheming to try this time?
But word had it that Cao Cao was in earnest. A migraine had come over him without warning; he was clutching his head and sending out in every direction for physicians of rare skill.
Zhang Qian, as if he knew of it, had gone so far as to visit the sickbed in person. And what he told Dong Cheng was this.
"He does seem to be truly ill. Even so, I do not believe it is an opening."
He had put everything he had into those words.
And yet, in the end, it was Dong Cheng who crossed the line first, driven on by his own impatience.
"I am Ji Bi, Director of the Imperial Physicians, charged with the care of the imperial house. I can take up an imperial command whenever I am given one, prescribe Cao Cao his medicine, and cure him."
At Ji Bi's words, Dong Cheng, Wang Zifu, Wu Zilan, Chong Ji, and the rest all turned their eyes on him.
"Of course, should it be Heaven's will, I can also bestow upon the traitor a draught of death."
"Director, you must think very carefully. If you are found out, everything turns to nothing."
Wang Zifu hesitated a little. Ji Bi did not.
"I can cut off a finger where I stand and show you that resolve."
He was already a man who had once bitten through a finger to write, in blood, the round-robin pledge denouncing Cao Cao. Why should a second time be beyond him? Before a hardness like that, Dong Cheng too accepted the righteous fire of it.
"Then let it be tomorrow. I will at once gather those of our mind who lie hidden in Xudu."
"Imperial Father-in-Law Dong — fortune to your sword!"
"Director, every man here will remember your loyal heart."
They were men gathered in that room on a single heart: the Son of Heaven ruling in his own right, and the casting down of the powerful minister.
Zhang Qian and Guan Yu had heard the news as well, but they were to make contact with the conspirators on the day of the deed itself.
And so Ji Bi, bearing the Emperor's command, took the medicinal ingredients from the imperial storehouse one by one and went to find Cao Cao.
Even while the illness wore on him, Cao Cao was not keeping to his own house; he ate and slept in the offices of the Ministry of Works. It was there that Ji Bi, Director of the Imperial Physicians, came to him.
"Minister. The Director of the Imperial Physicians has come."
"...Show him in."
Cao Cao's voice was badly spent. Beyond the bamboo blind, Ji Bi looked on the strengthless shadow of the man lying on the bed, and a thin smile stole across his mouth.
"The Director of the Imperial Physicians, who ought to be guarding the Son of Heaven's jade person... what brings you all the way to this man?"
"This lowly one is a physician. The Minister, who bears the great charge of the realm, lies so deep in sickness — how could I stand by and only watch?"
"My state just now is too unsightly... I can hardly show myself."
Cao Cao gave a dry cough. The serving women raised the bamboo blind only a fraction, tidied his robes, and had him roll a sleeve and put an arm out.
"The right arm, was it? Or the left?"
"Either will do. Then allow me to read the pulse."
Cunning even now, Cao Cao offered nothing but the arm, and kept his guard up. Ji Bi knew it, and felt his way along slowly, as a physician takes a pulse.
The beat was uneven, and it ran unusually fast — the pulse one sees in a man drawn tight.
"It seems an illness born of too much agitation, and of overwork. The pulse is rapid, and the hand is exceedingly cold."
"At a time like this... what medicine am I to take?"
"This lowly one will present a decoction prepared with his own hands. Nine packets, to be taken across three days. As it happens, there seems to be a stove in this place."
"Shameless of me to ask... but I must impose upon you. Cough — cough!"
Ji Bi swallowed a laugh and made to compound the medicine — and found a man planted square outside the door.
A general of freakish strength, said to heft an eighty-jin great halberd in a single hand: Dian Wei, Colonel-Protector of the Army.
"Come to brew medicine for the Minister, have you?"
"Th-that is so."
"And it's proper medicine you're making, is it? I came prepared for this, too."
Dian Wei rummaged in the breast of his robe and drew out a silver spoon.
Testing a decoction for poison with silver was the commonest method there was. Inwardly, Ji Bi sneered.
Brainless lump of muscle. You think I'd compound a poison clumsy enough for a thing like that to catch?
In the art of preparing medicine, Ji Bi was the foremost man in Xudu, and with the attendants' help he compounded the ingredients one by one, as if nothing at all were amiss.
"Ahhh. Isn't this the Director of the Imperial Physicians?"
Ji Bi started.
The man's appearance was slovenly, but the eyes were wickedly sharp. Guo Jia came toward him.
"His Majesty must truly cherish the Minister, hm? Why else would an imperial physician compound, with his own hands, the medicine to cure his illness?"
"Ha ha. It is the grace of His Majesty, a sage sovereign."
"There, ah... I suffer from headaches a little myself, you see. If it wouldn't be an imposition, might I have a look at how it's prepared?"
"W-what?"
"Curiosity, that's all. If it really is a remedy for headache, I thought I'd learn it, hand it to the physicians of some private house, and keep a store of it on hand."
Guo Jia slid in like an old snake and asked to be taught the formula.
Ji Bi flinched, but he laughed it off and waved a hand.
"My mind's in a whirl with the making of it, so let's talk a little later. Once I'm finished, I'll write the formula out for you myself."
"Hmmmm?"
"You're welcome to bring a silver spoon and dip it in the medicine, and if you're still suspicious, drink a spoonful yourself. But just now I have to concentrate."
A strange, lingering look came over Guo Jia's face. He nodded, and watched Ji Bi the way a man stands guard.
Right on cue, the soldiers of the Ministry of Works were out drilling at the march.
Ji Bi felt as if he had walked into a tiger's den. Even now it seemed the beast's keen fangs and claws were crushing down on his heart, ready to tear it open — and still he compounded the medicine with every scrap of calm he could muster.
"Prepare a light refreshment to clear the palate. I will present the medicine."
Hours in the making, he carried the finished decoction in with his own hands — the very medicine Dian Wei had watched, and Guo Jia had never stopped suspecting.
"The prescription?"
"Ha ha. Does the Minister require one as well?"
"If the effect is good, we'll need to make it whenever we please, won't we? Without the burden of the Director's kind assistance."
"Here it is."
Ji Bi produced the prescription he had prepared beforehand, and Cao Cao passed it around to the men nearby who looked to be physicians of private households.
Dian Wei stirred the medicine with the silver spoon. Guo Jia checked the formula a second time, and a third. The palace women each took a mouthful, lifted a spoon, blew on it — hoo, hoo — and at last brought it to Cao Cao's lips.
One spoonful. A second. Slowly, the medicine went into Cao Cao's mouth.
"By now, the result ought to be known."
Dong Cheng, Wang Zifu, Wu Zilan, Chong Ji, and the others wore taut faces, and their hands stole up to the armor they had put on beneath their court robes.
Kreeeeak—
A secret passage opened, and men in black, masked, who had waited swallowing their breath, showed themselves one after another.
In time with them, a company of masked troops came all the way into the rear garden of Dong Cheng's residence and offered their salutations.
Gathered so, they were an elite of more than a thousand, and to hear that every one of them had come bearing a great purpose set Dong Cheng's heart aching.
"The hour has come at last. Let none of you slacken, not to the very end. We begin."
"Yes, Imperial Father-in-Law!"
Then a man in a black mask, with familiar eyes, came up to them.
He drew the sword at his waist still in the scabbard, set it on the ground as it was, knelt, and made his greeting.
"This humble servant, Tang Mo. For the sake of those gathered here for the great work, I have brought our comrades together — and I have also brought before you that man who prepared all of this."
"Oh!"
"He is one who served the late emperor from the old days of the Eight Colonels and the Yulin Army."
To Dong Cheng and the officials beneath him, the words struck a feeling wholly new.
The father of the present Emperor, the late emperor of Han in the reign of Emperor Ling — the Eight Colonels of the Western Garden of those days, and the Yulin Army. That the men of that time had risen to punish traitors set a fire truly burning in his gut.
The man Tang Mo had introduced came quietly toward them.
"I did not know those here would move for a purpose so great. As a man of the old days of the Eight Colonels of the Western Garden, it gives me a great many thoughts."
A voice that had lived through that age — and, unexpectedly, a voice that sounded of years.
Dong Cheng nodded and raised both fists in the clasped-hand salute.
"A righteous knight-errant's heart, and a loyal one. I will remember you."
"For the great work of this day, I will seal our pledge."
And then the commander of all that black-clad host quietly began to undo the mask he wore, from behind.
Tang Mo saw it, rose, and loosened the mask for him, and the masked man of the great bulk attended him as well.
Knot by knot, through several bindings, they came undone — and at last, in the instant the face came clear...
Shhhraaaak—
A gaze spilling cold killing intent. Lips twitching. The black-clad troops moving like drawn blades.
"It's me. Dong Cheng!"
"Wh— ah?!"
"I said it's me! Cao Cao, Minister of Works — I, who commanded the Eight Colonels of the Western Garden!!"
"——————!"
The true face of the black-clad commander who had gathered every soul into this place and ringed the loyal officials round was Cao Cao himself.
In a single instant every masked man flung away his hood, and the greater part of them were officers of the Ministry of Works.
When the biggest of the masked men tore his off, sweat streaming down him, Colonel Xu Chu raked the loyal officials gathered there with eyes that flashed.
"It was me the whole way, from the very start! Dong Cheng, Wang Zifu, Wu Zilan, Chong Ji!"
"Y-you wicked traitor!!!"
Dong Cheng made to draw his sword, but Xu Chu lunged in, snatched his wrist, and snapped it where it was.
Screaming, Dong Cheng dropped the blade and sank to the ground.
In the instant the other loyal officials went for their swords, a dozen and more edges were already laid against their throats.
Cao Cao, who had made playthings of every one of them with a scheme past believing, picked up the sword that had fallen to the ground, drew it, and turned the flashing edge upon Dong Cheng.
"This is what life is. Life was always like this — and all that's left for the pack of you now is to drop dead!"
His victory perfect in his grasp, Cao Cao raised the sword.