Settling Every Account in Shuchun
"Husband!"
"Ah. Now I finally feel like I can breathe again."
In Shuchun I had borrowed a side room in the temporary quarters set aside for Liu Bei. He had offered, more than once, to put me in the main chamber, and I had declined with the utmost courtesy. I would be hunting for a house of my own soon enough.
Huan Ying was plastered to my side, purring like a cat, and I held her close. Zhuge Xue cradled our son in quiet contentment, a mother's smile on her lips, while Diaochan sat beside us with her chin lifted, every inch the proud beauty. All of us together again — I could not have been happier. I would have to go out again come evening, but for this moment, at least, I meant to be thoroughly at ease.
The door rattled open, and Zhao Mi came in. She set down tea. Diaochan took it and began to steep it properly, and all the while Zhao Mi watched me with a smile that meant more than it said. Those narrow eyes opened just a fraction, and the lips beneath her beauty mark worked as if she were tasting the words before she let them go.
"That noble lady who arrived with you today, Husband. They say Lady Gan and Lady Mi are attending her bath in the main chamber even now, and dressing her hair with flowers."
Why tell me that, and smile while she did it? Was she already sorting ranks for the woman who had come in as my fifth wife? Honestly, the whole question of precedence had been scorched to ash. I had been meaning to think, properly, about how I was even supposed to divide a principal wife from concubines.
Diaochan drifted over and whispered.
"When we were in Chang'an — the former empress of the deposed emperor. The one reduced to Prince of Hongnong, who has since passed, and whose posthumous title was King Huai. She was his principal wife, was she not?"
!
Of course Diaochan would know. Wang Yun's foster daughter, and a palace woman of Chang'an besides.
"His Excellency the Minister of the Masses always said that, deposed ruler or not, it was a pitiful business. The Tang clan even received His Majesty's command to see her remarried into a good house. I never imagined that good house would be yours, my lord."
Quiet and composed as she was, Diaochan said everything that needed saying when the moment called for it.
"I heard earlier that she was addressed as Her Highness the queen. But how did you, Husband…"
"Oh my. So the Marquis of Anxi and Her Highness, Queen to King Huai, were bound by marriage in His Majesty's own name? A command that august could hardly be refused, could it?"
Zhao Mi — teasing me, or fencing already? She narrowed her eyes again and let them rest on Zhuge Xue, and the air in the room turned very delicate indeed.
In the end Xue came to me first. She set Jian, the son she had been holding, on my knee, then bowed low before me.
"Husband, I cannot bring myself to treat a lady of the imperial house as a concubine."
"I never meant to ask that of you."
"Then I will yield. If you will only recognize Jian as the legitimate heir, my own place in this house may be whatever you decide."
She was offering up the principal wife's seat of her own accord, and saying that the Queen of King Huai of Hongnong — come to us under the emperor's own command — ought, of course, to be my legal wife. For Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Liang, that was going to be exquisitely awkward.
"Well then. When you go out to the banquet tonight, Husband, why don't we women hold a banquet of our own and come to know one another? I was astonished to hear she was coming, and there is a great deal I want to learn."
"Mi. Look after Lady Tang for me, then."
"Of course. I was going to anyway."
"Mmm. So was I."
Only then did I see it. The concubines had been walking on eggshells because of whatever lay between Zhuge Xue and Tang Hui. Now that Xue had stepped back first, calm as still water, and said she would settle the matter, they nodded to one another, and the house would be quiet and harmonious again.
I stepped outside. Before long Tang Hui emerged, attended by Lady Mi and Lady Gan. Fresh robes, makeup laid on more richly than before — my fifth wife was lovelier still, and happiness came up through my chest in a rush.
"Ah. Marquis of Anxi."
"I pay my respects to both honored ladies."
"Please, don't. We only congratulate you. It is an honor to attend so noble a person."
Liu Bei's two wives offered a quiet greeting and withdrew. Tang Hui, plainly unused to paint and flower-pins, hesitated, then came to me in silence.
"First… I ought to greet the wives and concubines already of this house."
"They're already laying out a welcome for exactly that. I'd be grateful if you would. They're good women, all of them. I hope you'll get on."
"It does not matter if I am not welcomed."
"Don't be absurd. This house is not like that. Not ever."
So I matched Tang Hui with the four, made every introduction myself, and only then slipped back out of that gathering of women.
"Haa. Was that really the first thing? And look how much else there is to do."
There was a banquet, they said. Zhuge Liang had married Cai Yan, daughter of Cai Yong, then gone to Jingzhou on a honeymoon that doubled as a hunt for talent, and I still had to meet the men he had brought back. I also had to sit the banquet of the three sworn brothers — Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei — and shape the strategy for the great work ahead. Lu Su and Yan Jun were in Yangzhou. Chen Deng had gone to see his father, Chen Gui, Inspector of Xuzhou. Bu Zhi and Xu Sheng were out inspecting the Qingzhou region, and when they returned I would need to hear how the land lay. Most important of all was the deployment itself: check Cao Cao for hegemony over Yuzhou, with a pitched battle on open ground already in mind.
"After that I take the capital I brought with me, plant this branch of the trading house as the new base, and get it moving again. Confirm the salt-distribution rights in Xuzhou, then — Xudu excepted — ask my brother-in-law where the goods ought to sell. Haaah."
It was not one task, or two. The thrill of the escape would have to be pressed down now that I was back. What remained was the settling of accounts. Tonight's banquet, at least — the suppression of Yuan Shu, the outrage Cao Cao had spewed in Xudu, and the worthies Zhuge Liang had brought home from his honeymoon — tonight I would have to stand the whole company a grand round.
"Qian."
I was still turning it over when Liu Bei called from behind me.
"Ease your shoulders. This is the safest house you have."
"There's so much to do I can't tell where to start."
"Then you start with the wine that celebrates a reunion. Where else?"
"Oh, I'll drink. Three days and three nights of it, greeting every soul in Shuchun one by one. Only…"
"Hm?"
I looked at Liu Bei, and at the strangers I would meet today, and something surfaced. Too many thoughts, as usual — but when one of them catches, the answer comes at once.
"Imperial Uncle, I have a favor to ask."
"What is it? Speak."
"My brother-in-law has just come back from his honeymoon. I mean to give him a little money to set up house."
"Ha! Then you should be the one to give it. Why ask my leave? If you need what's in my storehouse, spend it freely."
"It isn't that. The gift has to go out in the name of the greatest elder here — Imperial Uncle Liu."
I told Liu Bei one story out of the old histories. And I pressed him on a single point: why he was Liu Bei, and why he was a Liu.
"How glad I am to see every one of you gathered here. Now that we are all together, drink with a joyful heart!"
The place was the rear garden of the residence Yuan Shu had used as his private palace while he falsely styled himself emperor. No exaggeration: it was more than twice the size of the greatest mansion in Xudu, that monument to Cao Cao's power as a minister of the throne. Even before the usurpation, Yuan Shu's drowning in wine, women, and luxury was written all over the grounds. Dozens filled the garden, and hundreds more had gathered beyond it. Each man had his own table, and women hurried back and forth with food and wine.
I sat below Liu Bei, in the seat of honor. For the record: Zhang Fei on the right, Guan Yu on the left, Zhao Yun beside them, and Jian Yong across the way.
It was as good as the departure rite of Liu Bei, lord of an independent power in the provinces.
"And the man who, in that place, rescued His Majesty when the Minister of Works had threatened his sacred person — rescued the Empress and the Honored Consort as well — and brought them safely back: Imperial Vice Censor Zhang Qian. He has returned. Share the wine of reunion, and raise a cup for the realm!"
"Yes, my lord!"
The shout that went up as one was the very picture of Liu Bei's army, spirit enough to pierce the sky.
"I don't even know where I'm meant to stand after this. They took my seal. Strictly speaking, I have no post at all."
"I hold the governorships of Xuzhou, Yuzhou, and Huainan together. How does Major of a Separate Division suit you?"
"Oh. Not bad at all."
"You know what the separate division in that title means, don't you? Raise an independent office, and distinguish yourself as you please."
A Major of a Separate Division was nothing like a major of the army office or a major of the marching army. It carried the privilege of opening one's own office on the model of the Three Excellencies: a man of high rank might found a separate bureau and order its statutes after those of the Three. That was how Cao Cao had built the Ministry of Works, and how Liu Bei had built the office of the Left General. And within that Left General's office — within the Governor of Yuzhou's office — I could found yet another bureau of my own as Major of a Separate Division. An independent task force, in other words. Cao Cao's major of that same stripe, under the Ministry of Works, had been Cao Ren. So this was Liu Bei treating me on that level.
"Yunchang received a general's rank on the way here, so he needs no separate seat. Yide, too, was promised a recommendation during the campaign against Yuan Shu — up from Court Gentleman to Colonel — so he will be treated as a Colonel."
"What, Cao Cao snatched the seal, so we ain't gonna treat you as Imperial Vice Censor no more? You'll be takin' the inspections and the paperwork here all the same."
Just as Zhang Fei said, that was my lot inside Liu Bei's army as well. And if I built a separate division of my own, I would have no shortage of men to bring in.
"In any case, Qian stands apart from us and joins his strength to ours at the same time. I thought this would suit him better."
"Then I'll serve well, as Major of a Separate Division under the Left General."
"Hahaha. Good, good."
Once the drinking among us had warmed and the mood had ripened, Liu Bei did the thing I had asked of him.
"Kongming. Kongming, where are you?"
"Here, my lord!"
Zhuge Liang sprang up and came at a run. A great many men stood about even now, all of them, by the look of it, out of Jingzhou, and every gaze turned to him.
"So you've all gathered."
"I am truly glad my brother-in-law has returned."
"Hahaha. And how is married life?"
"Ah… I shouldn't say, but it is exceedingly good."
Everyone laughed at Zhuge Liang, who at moments like this simply opened his whole heart, and Liu Bei rose from his seat.
"Now then — all of you, look here."
At their lord's word, every eye fixed on him. From inside his robe Liu Bei drew out a single slip.
"Tonight we celebrate Yunchang and Qian, home safe. It is also a celebration for Kongming, the bridegroom who gathered so many of the men in this garden. He went to Jingzhou on his honeymoon and brought back scholars from under heaven. And so I mean to bestow a wedding gift, late though it is."
"My lord, you already gave a great sum at the wedding itself—"
"Shh!"
I stopped Zhuge Liang for him. Liu Bei lifted a brush and wrote the words upon the bamboo slip.
"Ten thousand taels of silver! This I bestow for the future of you both."
"M-my lord!"
A familiar tale, isn't it? Long ago, when Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang, was nothing but the chief of a pack of rogues in Pei County, he strolled into the housewarming feast of the Lü clan — the richest family in the neighborhood — and coolly wrote down a wedding gift of ten thousand taels. A promissory note he had no hope of covering.
While Zhuge Liang stood dazed under the weight of ten thousand taels of silver, I explained it to him quietly.
"Five thousand buys a house for the two of you, and the furnishings to fill it. Three thousand is for the people you owe, and for the men you've newly gathered — money to spend on them. The remaining two thousand you set aside. Think of it as an investment in the talent you mean to raise, every time you meet someone worth meeting from here on."
"This… did you arrange it, brother-in-law?"
"You're at a banquet. Take a cup."
I had decided to enjoy tonight's feast to the very fullest.