The First Domain

After the banquet, Lü Bu turned to Zhang Yang.

"Jianyang's face looked like he'd swallowed something rotten. What's eating him?"

Zhang Yang pulled a peculiar expression. His eyes went wide and rolled this way and that, his chin drawn in so far the flesh doubled over his neck — the look of a man who wasn't sure he ought to say what he was about to say.

"Fengxian, you serve under the Colonel Protector of the Xiongnu, so you might not have caught this. Ding Jianyang and Governor Dong... they've been at odds since Dong was Inspector here."

"What? Why? Zhongying seemed like a hearty fellow today. Wouldn't he and Jianyang get along?"

"Well, Jianyang's hearty enough in his own way. They're just... different kinds of hearty, I suppose."

Zhang Yang seemed to sort something out in his head, then went on.

"Do you know what Zhongying's first campaign was?"

"I heard he fought the Qiang under Colonel Zhang Huan, back in the day. And that he put on a hell of a show holding the empty Three Adjuncts while Grand Commandant Duan Jiong was off in Wuwei."

"After that he bounced around posts like Wuji Colonel of the Western Regions. You know what that is?"

The Protectorate of the Western Regions had been established by the Han to govern the lands beyond the passes. The Wuji Colonel was the officer who managed the military-agricultural colonies under that protectorate. When a pro-Han state in the Western Regions came under threat, or when an anti-Han revolt broke out, he would lead the colony troops out to suppress it.

Later, as Han control over those lands weakened, the Protectorate was abolished. But the Wuji Colonelcy remained — a post kept in reserve for the day the Western Regions might be recovered. To put it plainly, it was the lingering attachment of Han emperors. A leftover dream they could not quite let go.

"It's old news, so it might just be rumor, but apparently Zhongying submitted a proposal to recover the Western Regions around then. People say that if it had gone through, he'd have followed in the footsteps of Zhang Qian, Marquis of Bowang, or Ban Chao, Marquis of Dingyuan — and left his name in the history of Western expansion."

Zhang Qian, who had opened the Western Regions in the Former Han, widened the empire's horizons, and driven the wedge of victory into the wars against the Xiongnu. Ban Chao, who had recovered those lost lands in the transition between Former and Later Han, and brought enormous wealth pouring into the Central Plains. And Dong Zhuo, following in those two men's footsteps.

"But it didn't go the way he wanted, from the sound of it."

"What happened?"

"I don't know the details. They say he committed some offense and got dismissed from the Wuji Colonelcy... but the truth of it is, he was Zhang Huan's man, and the Grand Commandant took a dislike to him."

"Mm. I think I see."

If Dong Zhuo, a man of Zhang Huan's faction, piled up merit, Duan Jiong's standing would shrink. So Duan may well have moved to keep him in check.

"When a man with that kind of background was appointed Inspector of Bing Province, a lot of people had hopes for him. Think about it, Fengxian. A capable general who'd been jerked around because he picked the wrong superior, or because he was a frontiersman, coming in as Inspector of Bing. How do you think the warriors of Bing felt — men with plenty of grievances and even bigger ambitions?"

"And Jianyang was one of the ones who pinned his hopes on Zhongying?"

"...But the Inspector Dong who actually showed up in Taiyuan was nothing like what Jianyang had expected."

"Different how?"

"Jianyang figured that if he served Zhongying with everything he had, Zhongying would lead his men out, smash the Xianbei, and they'd all win great glory together. That sort of thing."

From what Zhang Yang said, Dong Zhuo as Inspector had been surprisingly reluctant to pursue military merit — nothing like the rumors. It was true that an Inspector faced more constraints on mobilizing troops than a Colonel or a Commandery Governor. But Dong Zhuo, for reasons of his own, kept putting things off. That's the Governor of Yanmen's job. That's for the Colonel Protector of the Xiongnu.

"And the Qiang retainers he kept as his personal following? He wouldn't release them for anything, they say."

"...If that's how it went, Jianyang, sitting there in the Inspector's office, must have felt like every chance at glory had slipped through his fingers."

"And now that same Zhongying, after a stint as Governor of Hedong, comes back to Bing Province, takes command of him again, and even uses Qiang troops to attack the Xianbei. You can see why Jianyang would be thinking, what the hell is this?"

Lü Bu folded his arms and cocked his head. He could understand Ding Yuan's feelings well enough. Hadn't he seen it himself, when he'd gone to visit Cai Yong after the scholar's exile to Bing Province? How many of Bing's men of letters had flocked there, desperate for a single word of good evaluation.

If Ding Yuan had dreamed of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it — I, a frontier warrior of Bing whose path to advancement is blocked, fighting alongside a Liang Province soldier equally shut out of the mainstream! — then the disappointment would have been crushing.

"But I still can't figure Dong Zhongying out."

Humble, yet never cringing. Seemingly passive, yet never weak. But the strangest part was the way Dong Zhuo treated the Qiang he kept as his personal following.

The Qiang lived in the southern reaches of Bing Province as well, so Lü Bu had dealt with them. He had never thought about them the way Dong Zhuo seemed to. Lü Bu himself was called half-Xiongnu by the people of eastern Bing — and yet Dong Zhuo's manner felt somehow closer to the Rong and Di than his own. If Dong Zhuo possessed any virtue, it was not the virtue of the Han. It was the virtue of the steppe peoples.

He had turned down Dong Zhuo's offer, unable to leave his disciple Bao, and Bao's father Yufuluo, who was like a brother to him. But still.

I'll have to talk this Dong Zhuo business over with Bao.

Dong Zhuo entrusted Ding Yuan and Zhang Yang with returning the Inspector of Bing Province's command authority. The three men went back to their respective posts.

Hozheng departed with his own troops as well. Grandfather Qiangqu and Father Yufuluo took a share of the spoils and returned to their own pastures.

I seemed to have been left standing alone in the ruins of Duman City — but I had not been abandoned. That was thanks to a little maneuvering I had done before the chieftains of the other tribes and the Gudu Marquesses took their leave.

Perhaps because I had defeated Tanshihuai, just as I had prophesied. The men who had looked at me with suspicion now offered up "donations" with an embarrassment and apology that ran as deep as their former doubt. Those donations came as livestock — sheep and horses — as armor stripped from dead Xianbei soldiers, and as silks and other treasures they had been carrying themselves.

Each time I received such gifts, I did not refuse. Instead I said:

"Tengri will know that your labor went into laying the foundation stones of Duman City's temple..."

How hard I worked not to grin.

If the West had its Gothic cathedrals, then the East would have Hunnic temples dedicated to Tengri... No. I was trying to reform a folk faith into a proper religion. I should not be having thoughts that would earn me a Reformation of my own.

It was true that I needed to build facilities at Duman City where my inner circle and I could stay if it came to that — but first I had to do something about the crumbling walls. And the Xiongnu notables had not donated purely out of Tengri faith. After using Duman City as a field hospital for the wounded in this last battle, even they had come around to the idea that the place needed to be turned into a proper stronghold before any future northern expedition.

"Finding laborers for the wall repairs isn't going to be easy."

The Xiongnu were subjects of the Han now. They could not simply put Han slaves to work the way they used to. We would have to hire people.

"Master?"

"...All right. I'll put the word out across Bing Province's commanderies and counties that we're looking for men. But this isn't corvée labor the state can simply impose. It'll be expensive."

"We'll do what we can."

In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms games, siege battles always showed city walls as smooth stone with iron gates... but in this era, you could count such fortresses on one hand. Even Luoyang, even the Ye that Cao Cao would one day build — they were just rammed-earth walls. Sun Quan's Jianye never even finished its walls; they had to patch the gaps with bamboo palisades. The gates were those same woven bamboo screens with rice-straw mats thrown over them. Disappointing as it was, our Duman City was not going to be any better.

With that more or less settled, I turned to Zhang Liao and the rest of the party.

"Well then... shall we go take Shouxiangcheng?"

Shouxiangcheng lay a short distance northwest of Duman City. The name, unpacked, meant "City of Receiving Surrender." Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, had sent General Gongsun Ao to build it — a fortress that would ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠accept any Xiongnu who grew discontented with their own people and came seeking to defect. An arrogant name, if there ever was one.

Like Duman City, it was an old abandoned ruin — but in better shape. I rode through what had once been the gate.

The sixth vision unfolded.

Perhaps because I was already half-independent from Hozheng, it did not bother asking whether I wanted to occupy the place or not. No special event text appeared. Just a choice.

So encircling the enemy was on me — but if I pulled it off, the damage they took would go up by five percent. It felt a bit like a game, though that damage figure might well have been based on what Child Chanyu Wushilu had inflicted on Zhao Ponu.

While I was lost in thought, another option surfaced.