A Grueling Hour, a Farewell
The rush of having finally pulled it off, as I put Xudu behind me, lasted a good long while.
I could have ridden the whole night and still had energy to spare. An hour or two of shut-eye was enough to keep my body moving. So this was what people meant by a state of extreme excitement—and I only lifted the whip higher.
"When we get there, I'll feed you bean porridge with sugar heaped on! Thousand-li horses of the Western Regions—let's go!"
I shouted it at the top of my lungs all through the dawn and kept riding until the morning sun climbed into the sky.
Leaving Xudu, I did not take the road toward Chen, Yang, and Pei, the lands Cao Cao had ceded to Liu Bei. I swung wide through Runan instead, passed the kingdom of Chu, and chose the way to Shuchun.
Once he had sent me off, Cao Cao would have sealed those three kingdoms again so Liu Bei's army could not come back into Xudu, and thrown up a defensive line behind them. Better, then, to push straight through Runan to Shuchun than to drop down by way of Xiaopei. The road was longer, but it would buy me time.
Frrt— frrt—
After riding through the night I found a decent place to rest: the bank of a stream. I climbed down, worked the stiffness from my body, washed my face, then took the preserved rations from the carriage and set water to boil.
Tang Xi, who had not spoken a word inside, quietly stepped out.
"If it's a meal, I could..."
"No, no. It isn't for me. I'm preparing it for Your Majesty."
"!"
"We can't know what might happen, so I'll drink only water, snatch a little sleep, and set out again. In the meantime, please take at least a bite."
"Why give a meal to me alone?"
"Because we don't have the same stamina to burn?"
Half a joke. In truth, if I ate something warm just then, I felt sure I would close my eyes and drop straight into a dead sleep. Anyone might come bursting out of anywhere, so I meant to sleep as little as I could and move again.
"You needn't go so far on my account. If we eat, we eat together, and we will depart together."
"Is that something Your Majesty ought to say? I, the Marquis of Anxi, will attend you properly."
"That form of address as well... To be frank, I am nothing now. Merely my lord's possession—a woman of the Tang clan, bearing the name Xi."
"Please don't speak that way. Rank and authority are burdens one carries for life."
"..."
Honestly, a former Empress of Han coming into the household as a wife—that would be dinner-table talk for the rest of my days. A burden, yes. And necessary all the same.
"You must be badly shaken, and from here on the world's gossip and its stares may weigh on you. But once we reach Imperial Uncle Liu and the two of you have formally greeted one another, Your Majesty's presence becomes a bond between His Majesty in Xudu and Imperial Uncle Liu's faction."
"...I see. So that is what I have become?"
"Of course I mean to protect you in earnest, and to lead you into a new life, so the brutal history behind you can be forgotten. The days ahead will be hard..."
I rose before Tang Xi and offered her a proper bow.
"Even so, I'm counting on you."
Not a trace of powder on her, and her eyes were full of emptiness—and still she was a beauty so staggering it stole the breath. She had entered the palace by selection while still very young. Younger than I, the Empress quietly lowered her head.
In Xudu, Xun Yu had gone days on end with his eyes open, throwing himself into the work like a madman.
Reforms he had never managed to push through. The opening of wasteland. A revision of the taxes. The reorganization of the army. A strengthening of the Minister of Works' authority over campaigns beyond the walls, and, after the execution of Dong Cheng's faction, relief grain to soothe the people. Xun Yu ate nothing and barely slept. He sank himself wholly in the labor.
The world you dream of won't even begin to turn until Cao Cao drops dead.
The words Zhang Baijin had left behind had become a sharp dagger in his mind. The lord he had chosen, and his own will, as a scion of the pure stream, to raise the Han again. In truth, the man who wanted Zhang Baijin dead more than anyone was Xun Yu himself.
He had opposed Liu Bei in days past as well. You must never share the authority of holding the Emperor! And when the bargain was struck regardless, he had counseled that the split be nine to one, that Liu Bei be given only the barest authority and made to serve as nothing but a signboard—and so he had kept the man in check.
Liu Bei would someday be a blade aimed at Xudu. Zhang Baijin was the whetstone that would let that blade be swung again and again.
"Prefect! Prefect!"
"!?"
"...Are you all right? Keep on like this and you really will collapse."
"Ah, Fengxiao. You've come."
He had barely greeted Guo Jia, come to the office of the Masters of Writing, before the man dropped down in front of the heap of bamboo slips.
"You've prepared a great deal. This and this ought to go to Brother Gongda, who's commanding troops for the Ministry of Works, and this one to Wenhua, who's putting Luoyang in order?"
One sweep of the eye, and Guo Jia pulled out only what mattered, sorting the documents to be carried straight to Cao Cao.
"Still hung up on that man?"
"We've turned a penned tiger loose in the forest."
"Catch that tiger, though, and every beast on the mountain comes running. Elephants, bears, oxen, wolves, eagles—leopards too."
"If we gave chase even now..."
"!"
At Xun Yu's murmur, Guo Jia's eyes narrowed by degrees. And, timed to that exquisite moment, someone came in.
"Well, well. Everyone getting along?"
"General Jianwu—you've come?"
Xiahou Dun had heard the voices from outside and slipped in to take a seat among the Masters of Writing. In this suppression, too, he had performed splendidly as Cao Cao's closest man and second-in-command, and his momentum and his standing rose by the day.
"Prefect of the Masters of Writing, and Advisor Guo. I am setting out to occupy Chen, Yang, and Pei again—the three kingdoms around Xudu—for the sake of the defensive line."
"You're leaving at once?"
"I am. The generals I'm taking are already assigned. Li Dian, Yue Jin, and Yu Jin."
Xiahou Dun had caught their talk from the middle of it. With a confident face, he put the question to Xun Yu and Guo Jia.
"Suppose, while I am out on inspection, I happen to find that Zhang Qian who slipped out of Xudu. What then?"
In an instant Guo Jia's expression hardened, and he warned him.
"General Jianwu, he is a man the Minister of Works passed out with a transit token and ordered sent on his way."
"And if, by the purest accident, he dies of illness on the road to Liu Bei?"
"Once the truth is known, it will be taken as defiance of the Minister's command. Your head may leave your shoulders."
"Ah, is that so? Then let this head come off. Our Lord Aman has risen as far as Minister of Works and steps forth for the great work of all under heaven—why shouldn't I serve as an offering?"
Xiahou Dun laughed as if it were nothing, picked up a brush from the desk, and truly drew it across his own throat. Sssk. The stroke of ink circling his neck in a single line—strike here, it said, when you behead me—laid his resolve bare.
"Zhang Baijin will know of Chen, Yang, and Pei as well, and will certainly have made for Shuchun through Runan Commandery. Your paths will miss each other. Once the campaign against Yuan Shu is finished, Colonel Zhou and Commandant Zhao will come by way of Yang."
"So that's how it is. Then shall I go and take the air toward Runan, starting now?"
At the words Xun Yu had let fall, almost idly, Xiahou Dun checked the sword at his hip and rapped the table. It was as good as a declaration. He would run Zhang Baijin down even now, and land the blow himself.
The fatigue I had bottled up through that extreme excitement seemed to burst all at once.
I had only meant to close my eyes a moment. As my head slowly cleared, I heard a rustling. My whole body was wonderfully warm, and my eyes opened of their own accord.
"!"
"Ah!"
The instant I opened them, Tang Xi's face was right in front of mine. Snow-white skin, a small face. She had been about to bring her hand to my cheek, blinking, when she startled and drew back.
"I—I'm sorry."
"This blanket?"
"It's mine. You looked so worn out."
"Ugh— how long was I asleep?"
It looked to be late afternoon, the sun about to set. The horses, sensing me, blew steam from their nostrils and tossed their heads. We were not simply riding; we were hauling a heavy carriage, so the going took time. Even so, with Tang Xi aboard I had to travel as safely as I could. I gave the blanket back, and we set out.
"Come on. Let's go!"
From Xudu to Shuchun was well over a thousand li, so I had to keep moving at a brisk pace. We took our meals and our rest in the carriage. Whenever a stream or a lake turned up, we washed, and along the way I tossed the occasional joke in to Tang Xi, sitting quiet inside.
We reached Gushi County, and Ruyin was not far off, when I saw a strange shadow racing up from behind.
"Hm?"
To the eye it was no bigger than a little fingernail. Even so, the sound rolled in together with the dust.
"This is bad. Your Majesty!"
"Yes?"
"We're going to ride hard. Hold on tight!"
I cracked the whip and poured fighting spirit into the two horses. They ran like mad things. Somehow I had to reach the walls of Ruyin with distance still between us.
I had deliberately looped all the way around Yingchuan Commandery beyond Xudu and Cao Cao's sphere, skirting the forts that lay between. Liu Bei really had scraped Yuzhou's troops clean when he pulled everything he had, so once I was clear of Xudu and Yingchuan a man might have thought he could finally stretch both legs and rest. This was not that kind of road.
I ran, and I ran. A small village showed nearby—the very moment I would have had to pass that by as well.
Thud-thud— thud-thud-thud—
The hoofbeats swelled until a troop of cavalry had chased us to within a stone's throw. The man at the van was Xiahou Dun, both eyes perfectly intact and glittering, and he hefted a spear high.
"Damn it!"
At a gap no carriage could ever open, Cao Cao's iron cavalry finally closed around us. We could not punch through. These were the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry he boasted of.
"Hah... General Xiahou, is it not? Have you some business with me?"
"I do. You left something behind, so I came to return it."
"I gave everything away handsomely when I left Xudu. There is no need to hand me anything."
"Even so, it seemed less than proper courtesy."
Xiahou Dun raised the spear at once and set himself to hurl it at my chest.
"You mean to present a spear to a civil official?"
"Receive it well. Such is the regard of Xiahou Yuanrang!"
"Haa..."
Nothing came of me but a long sigh—and then:
Bong—
"!?"
"What? Who's striking a bell?"
Bong—
"That is a bell marking the hour. It must be about the hour of the Goat."
"A worthless bell... You will have the ill luck of dying a stranger's death on this spot before the hour of the Monkey."
In that instant, with the bell, a black shadow surged into view.
"Say that once more."
"!?"
Shwaaaak—
The bodies of two Tiger and Leopard riders blocking my front were sliced apart in a flash, and out of the spray of blood, standing at my side, rose the giant of the Green Dragon Crescent Blade. Guan Yu had burst in and planted himself before Xiahou Dun.
"Not a bell to tell the hour—a dirge for the pursuit! General Xiahou, what a pity!"
"Y-you bastard!"
"Xiahou Dun. Come one step closer, and your life is forfeit."
Xiahou Dun had thought the quarry already in his hands. Guan Yu's sudden appearance turned his face crimson. On either flank stood Yue Jin, and that young fellow who looked like Li Zheng... Li Dian, was it?
"Wenze! Aim for Guan Yu!"
Xiahou Dun and Yu Jin charged him at the same time. They were few, but they had brought the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry on a pursuit. Was turning back now too great a loss of face?
Clang— clang— kraaang!
Alone, Guan Yu met Yu Jin and Xiahou Dun driving in from both sides, the Green Dragon Crescent Blade sweeping.
"Baijin! Leave this to me, and go forward!"
I lifted the whip to ride again—and a chill ran up my back, so I ducked on reflex.
Shhhk—
I was not even wearing a helmet. An arrow passed a palm's breadth from me, and when I looked back, Li Dian had a bow in hand and was already nocking the next shaft.
"Damn it all..."
In that instant an arrow flew the other way and punched through the head of Li Dian's horse.
"Guh?! G-gaaah!"
He lost his seat and fell. In front of me a company of archers took their places and leveled their bows at the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry.
Kraaang!
"You son of a—!"
Crack!
"Gaaah!"
Guan Yu, who had been fighting the two of them, smashed Xiahou Dun's face with the haft of the Green Dragon Crescent Blade as if it were an iron club.
"General Jianwu!"
"Kh— kuh!"
Blood streamed through the hands clutched to his face. The moment Xiahou Dun took them away, the blood at the corner of his left eye would not stop. He shook it off somehow and tried to fight again.
Not the eye itself... The ridge of the brow is torn open. Like catching a straight right in a boxing match.
"Xiahou Dun. Next time, I really can dig out one of those eyeballs."
"You think I'll withdraw just because you—"
In that instant Yu Jin seized him. He shook his head as if to say this was not the fight, and in the end, after the standoff, Xiahou Dun had no choice but to pull back. They turned their horses not toward Xudu but north—toward the kingdom of Chen in Yuzhou, it seemed.
"Whew."
When I left Xudu, Guan Yu had said he would wait for me somewhere along the way. I had not thought it would be right here. I had expected to meet him only once I reached Ruyin.
"When you return, give the Minister of Works my regards. Tell him I will be sure to call on him again!"
I held out my palm, blew across it—hoo—and offered one more farewell.
"Brother Yunchang, we meet again alive, don't we?"
"Baijin! Why did you pass by places like Ruyang County and Shangcai County? Do you know how I suffered, hunting for your trail?"
"Those were too close to Yingchuan. If I had stretched both legs and rested easy in that neighborhood, the pursuit by now would have... No—Brother Yunchang. What was that bell?"
"This place was given over to herding from the first, so there are many farmers who raise cattle and sheep, and a great bell that marks the hours. I struck it, trusting that if you passed this way, you would hear."
"It came through to perfection. I'm glad we met again before Ruyin."
Instead of answering, Guan Yu gripped my hand tight, and at last, as if to say that was enough, he smiled. A handshake exchanged because we had lived to meet again, just as promised—that, I would welcome any time.