Lü Bu and Sun Jian
Gudu Marquess.
Among the Xiongnu the title meant something close to a chancellor, or an inspector — a rank charged with the work of internal government. Just as the Chanyu — dargwa, in their own tongue — divided his heirs into a Left Wise King and a Right Wise King, so too were the Gudu Marquesses split into Left and Right. Beyond those two seats there were further Gudu Marquess titles granted to powerful houses. The Xubu Gudu Marquess, held by the Xubu clan, was precisely such a rank.
Xubu Chang, the Xubu Gudu Marquess.
Zhang Xiu, who had just been told he was dismissed from the post of General of the Household Protecting the Xiongnu and ordered back to Luoyang, came first to see him. The look on Zhang Xiu's face as he regarded Xubu Chang was somewhat milder than the one he wore before the aged Chanyu.
It must be Wang Zhaojun's blood in him.
That was the thought that crossed Zhang Xiu's mind as he studied the man. The face of Gudu Marquess Xubu Chang was neither alien nor ugly. By Han standards, he was handsome — strikingly so.
Wang Zhaojun. A palace lady in the reign of Emperor Yuan, great-great-grandson of Emperor Wu. When the Xiongnu split into east and west, the Chanyu of the Eastern Xiongnu came seeking Emperor Yuan's aid, and was granted the palace lady as a bride. The daughter she bore after that marriage was in turn wed into the Xubu clan, and the man sitting before Zhang Xiu now was her descendant.
Even his name is styled like a Han man's.
Among the Xiongnu there were those who, now and then, took single-character names in the Han fashion. The Chanyu's great-grandson, they said, had named himself Bao. Zhang Xiu had heard that Wang Mang, the traitor who destroyed the Former Han, had forced the custom on the Xiongnu, and that it had spread from there.
Wang Mang, seeking to fracture the Xiongnu, had used the Xiongnu princess — Wang Zhaojun's own daughter — to summon the Xubu clan, and had even set them up as puppet Chanyus. Interestingly enough, the Xubu Gudu Marquess seated before Zhang Xiu believed, as his ancestors had, that he too held a rightful claim to the title of Xiongnu Chanyu. These various threads were precisely why Zhang Xiu opposed the present Luandi Chanyu and kept a private understanding with Xubu Chang.
"I hear you are bound for Luoyang."
A courteous way of saying: so they dismissed you from General of the Household Protecting the Xiongnu.
Zhang Xiu smiled, a little wearily, at Xubu Chang's words.
"It seems the Chanyu has already stretched a hand as far as Luoyang."
"And what becomes of our arrangement, then?"
The vanity of a man arrogant enough to think he could snatch the Chanyu's seat from the Luandi clan. Zhang Xiu had been using that vanity as a tool, plotting to absorb the Southern Xiongnu entirely. Now that the scheme stood on the brink of collapse, Xubu Chang wanted a plan — and if there was no plan to speak of, their bargain was off. That was what he was saying.
"I will return."
"There are a great many things in this world that resolve alone cannot accomplish, are there not?"
"This isn't desperation. Sudden as it is, I already have a plan to come back. Only..."
"Only?"
"Whether you can hold out until I return, Gudu Marquess. That is the problem."
Xubu Chang cocked his head.
"You need my help, then?"
"No. On the contrary..."
Zhang Xiu drew the words out as far as they would stretch, and only when Xubu Chang had passed from curiosity into impatience did he let them fall.
"I will be the one helping you — from Luoyang. Until then, survive. By whatever means you must."
"I am Zhang Min, newly appointed General of the Household Protecting the Xiongnu."
"A pleasure."
Zhang Min did not treat the Chanyu as some sort of king. Unlike Zhang Xiu, however, he at least observed the courtesy one owed a fellow servant of the same Emperor. He had left his men outside and entered the Chanyu's palace yurt with only two young warriors. For the people of the Chanyu's court, who had endured Zhang Xiu's insolence for so long, even that much was more than enough.
"Your reputation as General of the Household has reached us even here, in Xihe Commandery of Bing Province. They say you pacified the rebellion in Yang Province?"
"My talents proved insufficient. It took me more than two years to put it down. I am ashamed."
"Had it not been for you, General, the lands south of the Yangtze would have been in peril. You are far too modest."
Tute Ruoshi Gongzhu Chanyu said this, then turned his gaze upon the young men standing to Zhang Min's left and right. One of them was still a boy.
"Ah — this is my son, Zhang Hong."
Zhang Hong offered a brief, proper bow.
"And this is Sun Jian, who followed me in putting down the rebellion and rendered great service."
"Oh?"
The Chanyu's eyes lit up.
"I have heard of a valiant commander who, from boyhood, won great distinction suppressing bandits."
Sun Jian, a little flustered, made his respects.
"That the Chanyu should know even the name of a warrior as insignificant as myself — I am nothing but ashamed."
The Chanyu turned his eyes toward Left Wise King Hozheng.
"These are honored guests. Bring wine and meat, and be generous with both."
"So even a Hu, it seems, is a sovereign when he sits a throne."
The banquet Tute Ruoshi Gongzhu Chanyu had laid was over, and they were riding back toward the walls of Lishi County. Zhang Min walked his horse at an easy pace, his son Zhang Hong at his side, and with them Sun Jian — a subordinate he cherished like a second son.
"Mentioning me like that — he was showing off. 'I can see all the way to the Han's southern frontier.' That sort of thing."
Sun Jian offered his own reading. Zhang Min gave a short laugh.
"Cooperate, but never let yourself be looked down on. That is the relationship between the General of the Household Protecting the Xiongnu and the Xiongnu Chanyu, is it not?"
"Knowing my record and yours, General — and speaking Han so fluently besides... the Xiongnu Chanyu is a curious man."
"About as curious as you quitting as Assistant of Yandu County to come all the way out here, I should think."
"Well... a County Commandant I could have lived with. An Assistant would have bored me to death."
A commandery was governed by an Administrator. Beneath him, each county was governed by a Magistrate. The Magistrate's aides were the County Commandant and the County Assistant: the Commandant handled military affairs, the Assistant the civil.
Zhang Min shook his head and offered a word of counsel to this hot-blooded young subordinate.
"Leading troops and crushing enemies is well and good. But learning how to govern a land once the fighting is done — and how to govern a land that has never known war at all — that matters too, Wentai."
"Even so, for a while yet I'd like to stay with you, General, and get a feel for the military affairs of the north."
Yandu County belonged to Guangling Commandery, which faced Sun Jian's native Wu Commandery across the Yangtze. It was a long way from any battlefield, and naturally had almost nothing to do with the kind of merit a warrior might earn. It was no country for a man of Sun Jian's temper.
"Well, learning the military business of the north as well as the south will serve you later, I suppose. When this posting is over I mean to submit a memorial recommending you as a County Assistant again. Don't refuse it when the time comes."
"Understood."
Zhang Min looked at Sun Jian with a fond eye. These were hard times — but if more young men like Sun Jian entered service, the empire's future would not be so dark. River fighting on the Yangtze and every other waterway; campaigns driven through the mountain country of the interior; amphibious landings that swung out to sea and came back in behind the enemy — there was nothing this subordinate could not do, and do well. That kind of talent could only have been born, not made.
"But, Brother Wentai."
This time it was Zhang Min's son, Zhang Hong, who used Sun Jian's courtesy name.
"At the banquet earlier, and on the road — you kept looking around. Why?"
"Ah, that..."
Before Sun Jian could answer, Zhang Min spoke for him to his son.
"The Chanyu takes an interest in the south. Why shouldn't a warrior from the south take an interest in the north?"
"Brother Wentai — is there someone among the northern warriors who's caught your eye?"
"I hear the Xianbei raid the north constantly. Men die easily up here. But there's one who entered the ranks as a boy and has survived for years. Lately they've started recognizing what he's done, and he's been rising."
"If the rumors are true, he must be a formidable warrior."
"His name is Lü Bu, courtesy name Fengxian. Same age as me, they say."
Zhang Min grinned.
"Lü Bu. I have a feeling you two will make fine friends."
"I hope so. I'd like to meet him soon."
That day came soon enough.
The Xianbei crossed the border whenever a gap appeared — and when none appeared, they made one. Even without the great raids Tanshihuai himself led, the tribes along the frontier would slip across on their own. The moment a beacon flared from a watch post, every soldier who could move in a hurry went. To be a soldier in Bing Province was to stand in a place where a Xianbei arrow or blade might take your life at any hour. A comrade's death, the recruit who filled his place, even the death of a recruit you'd only just begun to like — all of it was ordinary here.
A man who had come to such a posting as a boy and survived nearly five years could not help but be respected. The knowledge that your odds of living went up, if only a little, under Lü Bu's command only deepened that respect. Among the Xiongnu who had fought at his side, his name had risen as well. The rumor that he and Right Guli King Yufuluo were as close as friends did its part too.
The first meeting between that Lü Bu and Sun Jian, the tiger of the south, was a strange one. They came to know each other without ever standing face to face. It happened like this.
A band of Xianbei horsemen made to raid a village of Han farmers, and Lü Bu gave chase. He spurred his horse with the thought of cutting them down before they could harm the peasants — but he was a fraction too late. Perhaps that particular band was simply faster than most. Either way, there was no means of dealing with them before they reached the village.
The farmers stood transfixed as the Xianbei cavalry burst from the village boundary and smashed into the fields. A few more strides and those merciless blades would take a peasant's head.
And then —
The farmer vanished.
The Xianbei rider who had been about to cut him down, and Lü Bu and his men who had just crossed the village boundary, were equally stunned.
The Xianbei horseman had a sudden realization. Ordinarily the children and the women screamed at the sight of them. Getting drunk on those screams and butchering all the harder — wasn't that what a raid was?
He got that far, and then he died.
Infantrymen, caked in dirt from head to heel, erupted from among the crops with spears and ji polearms already in their fists. They slashed and stabbed without mercy at the Xianbei horses' legs and bellies, and the branched blades hooked the riders and tore them from the saddle. The momentum of the charge and the snap of the fall were enough: Xianbei soldiers died with their skulls burst or their spines snapped.
"So even an ambush like that is possible."
Infantry shattering cavalry — a sight almost never seen in Bing Province. Lü Bu thought of the new General of the Household's subordinate, the one who had just arrived. He did not stand there gaping.
"Support our allies! Hit them from behind!"
The Xianbei horsemen were no easy prey. The survivors recovered from the chaos with startling speed and peeled off to the side. Left alone, they would break out of this village and fall on the next — that much was certain.
Sun Jian, regretting that his ambush had not dropped as many as he had hoped, watched Lü Bu handle his cavalry.
"Hnh."
Lü Bu drew his bow. His men raised theirs as one and drew with him.
Thrum—!
A relentless volley, poured onto the right-hand leaders of the fleeing Xianbei band and nowhere else. Under that pressure the direction of their flight twisted, strangely, off its course.
"Oho. This is... he's herding them. Toward us."
Sun Jian gestured to his men.
"The man commanding those cavalry is a genius at the driven hunt. Come on! Let's sweep up the game he's gone to the trouble of flushing our way!"
Lü Bu, for his part, was thinking the same thing in reverse.
"The infantry commander is pressing them exactly the way we need."
And so, by the combined work of Lü Bu's cavalry and Sun Jian's infantry, not a single man of the Xianbei band that had raided the village escaped alive.