The Empire's Melancholy

I could not claim any deep knowledge of the Han imperial palace and its statutes, but I knew at once that this was no audience hall where ministers gathered for formal court.

Ordinary officials would never be admitted here. The Empress, the Empress Dowager, the consorts of the inner palace — none of them would be allowed anywhere near this place. Only eunuchs granted special leave, and men bound to the Emperor by something closer than duty — men like Cao Cao and He Jin, today — could set foot inside.

I had come in on Cao Cao's account. When this day ended, I might never be allowed to return.

Cao Cao, He Jin, and I arrived in a chamber that was not grand, exactly — though the chair set at its far end was unmistakably a throne. I knelt and bowed my head as Cao Cao had instructed. He and He Jin seemed to do the same.

I could not have said how much time passed after that.

No voice cried out that His Majesty the Emperor was arriving, but I felt Liu Hong enter the room all the same. It was much as it had been with He Jin. There are men whose mere presence in a space is enough to make their existence felt, and Liu Hong was such a man.

But Liu Hong possessed something that reduced He ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Jin to a trifle. It was nothing like the slaughterhouse reek that clung to the General-in-Chief. This man had no smell at all. Perfume had not covered it. Something that froze even scent itself was walking toward us from the far side of the room.

"Brother-in-law! And Brother Aman! What's the occasion?"

The voice and the lilt of it belonged to a cheerful young man. I wanted to lift my head and look at his face, but I held still. Cao Cao had told me to stay bowed until he brushed my shoulder.

Brother Aman, though. Calling a man nearly thirty by his childhood name was, in its way, a humiliation. Liu Hong did it without the slightest hesitation. That, I supposed, told you everything about the two of them. He offered Cao Cao an easy familiarity and, in the same breath, made the hierarchy brutally clear: I may treat you however I please. Cao Cao had to swallow the insult and play along with the warmth.

"Why are you all still on the floor? Get up."

At ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that, I heard the rustle of robes as Cao Cao and He Jin eased their upper bodies off the floor.

"Brother-in-law. Closer."

He Jin rose at once and seemed to take his place at Liu Hong's side. That left only Cao Cao and me on the 'lower' side of the throne.

"What's that, Brother Aman?"

That. He was treating me as an object outright.

"He is a junior descendant of the house, sent by the Xiongnu Chanyu as a token of his pledge to aid Your Majesty."

"Is that so? We thought you'd brought Us some Hu boy to make into a new eunuch."

Ugh. My crotch gave a sympathetic twinge. Dying was frightening enough — but I could have ended that way too. I seemed to remember a story from one of the Western Regions: a kingdom had sent a prince as hostage, the emperor had him made a eunuch, and the whole relationship had collapsed.

"Can't he speak the Han tongue?"

"He can, Your Majesty."

"Then he ought to get up."

I raised my upper body before Cao Cao could give the signal.

"Look at Us."

At Liu Hong's word I lifted my head with care. A young man handsomer than I had expected stood on a dais set a little higher than where I knelt.

If you thought about the Eastern Han imperial line, the good looks were no surprise. Emperor Guangwu, Liu Xiu, founder of the restored dynasty, had taken as his second empress a woman named Yin Lihua, who was said to have been a beauty beyond compare — and from Emperor Ming, the second sovereign, every emperor after him had been her descendant. Liu Hong was no exception. The women his predecessors had taken into the palace would all have been beauties too. It would have been stranger if he were not handsome.

"Child of the Hu. What are you?"

I saw Cao Cao dip his chin so slightly it was almost invisible. A nod. I had leave to answer. I lowered my eyes again and opened my mouth.

"This subject is a junior scion of the Xiongnu Chanyu's house. My name is Bao."

"Subject?"

A thread of laughter ran through Liu Hong's voice as he turned the word back on me.

"You named yourself Our subject?"

Ah?

Did I just make a mistake?

I flicked a glance at Cao Cao. He looked no wiser than I was; a cold sweat had started along the side of his neck.

Liu Hong came down from the dais in three long strides. In the brief instant I had no power to do anything at all, he was standing in front of me. His hand closed on my head. An eleven-year-old's skull fit easily in his grip. It was not rough, exactly, but neither was it pleasant. If I had to put it into words… it felt as though I had become one of those plush toys in a claw machine, back in the modern world, and Liu Hong's hand was the crane.

"Brother Aman, look at this. This little Xiongnu child just called himself Our subject. Do you truly believe you are Our subject, Bao?"

He had committed this bizarre performance and still, in the middle of it, committed my name to memory. He was doing this on purpose. I was certain of that.

"…I do, Your Majesty…"

"And why is that?"

"Because the Xiongnu are Your Majesty's subjects."

"Ha."

Liu Hong's hand left my head. I started to bow again — and then I didn't. I lifted my face and looked straight at him. It was an insolent posture, but I had the unshakable sense ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that if I put my head down now he would take it as an attempt to escape his eyes. As proof I could not stand with a clear conscience.

Liu Hong went back to the throne and sat. He Jin took up his station beside it.

Seen like this, they were nothing so much as a Demon King and one of his Four Heavenly Kings. Three of the four seats stood empty, but still. And of those Four Heavenly Kings, He Jin's post was surely the Butcher Demon.

"You have no idea how many barbarians come before Us and name themselves 'subjects.'"

Ah-ha-ha. The mockery rang against the ceiling.

"The King of Goguryeo, who raids Our borders the moment he sees a gap, calls himself Our subject. And the so-called King of Buyeo? 'Goguryeo has rebelled, so this subject will strike Goguryeo for you'… Ha. He wants more land and more of Our treasure, nothing else."

Liu Hong flicked his hand as if the whole business tired and irritated him.

"Do you know how many letters those Xianbei 'lords' have sent Us since Tanshihuai dropped dead? They style themselves loyal subjects as if they had never once made war on Us."

"Rebellion today, rebellion tomorrow…"

He muttered it, then snorted, then muttered it again.

"The Qiang, the Di, the Ba, the tribes of Nanzhong and Jingzhou — they rise in revolt and still call themselves Our subjects. The same packs that just slaughtered Our soldiers will, the moment We draw a blade to put them down, slice off their own chieftain's head and deliver it. Then the new chieftain names himself Our subject, plays king over his camps, and… rises again."

Liu Hong said it plainly. This, he told us, was the work he did.

"This is what We do every day, Bao. How far are We supposed to trust your words? How far are We supposed to trust your granduncle when he names himself Our subject?"

Until now I had always believed that the Middle Kingdom, in its boundless arrogance, merely played at being emperor over the peoples around it — that after Qin Shi Huang invented a title higher than king, the Han had simply gone on forcing the kings of neighboring states to become 'subjects of the Emperor.'

Looking at Liu Hong now, I was no longer so sure. From the Central Plains' point of view, a barbarian's pledge of subjecthood was nothing but a scheme: a hypocritical performance of loyalty, staged to wring some advantage out of Zhonghua. The Han, with a realm as vast as its borders were long, clung even to words as thin as I am Your Majesty's subject, if those words might buy a scrap of safety.

Set the Han against any one barbarian state, and the Han would win. But if every barbarian people inside the empire rose at once, and every barbarian people outside it struck the frontiers together? There was no nation on earth that could withstand that.

"By the statutes of the Great Han, We ought to refuse their kingly titles outright — just as Wang Mang reduced the King of Goguryeo to Marquis of Xiagouli. Instead they invent a special name for themselves, 'outer vassals,' and howl to be treated as exceptions. Is that any different from what the Qingliu, the celebrated scholars, and the great clans do in front of Us?"

They named themselves subjects, and the naming was nothing but a device to extract from the Emperor whatever they wanted. They named themselves subjects, and they did not regard Liu Hong as emperor in the slightest. There was no obedience in it. No loyalty.

He was looking at the great families beyond Luoyang the same way he looked at the barbarians beyond the frontier. The question he had thrown at me was simple: And are you any different?

I understood. There was no way, here, to prove the 'devotion' of my granduncle Hozheng, or of the Southern Xiongnu, or of myself. Liu Hong's accusation was correct in any case. I did not have a scrap of loyalty toward him or toward the Han.

If I bowed again and started in about being His Majesty's subject, I would die. Or he would have my crotch carved out and make a eunuch of me.

Forgive me, Cao Cao. I cannot lean on you in this, and I cannot do as you would wish. I intend to live.

"I have heard that Your Majesty, wary of the Taiping Dao gathering strength in the provinces of Guandong, means to make use of a Xiongnu army. This subject ventures to guess, however, that Your Majesty's true intent lies elsewhere."

Cao Cao started and began to turn his head — then stopped halfway, so that he was looking at me only from the corner of his eye. The eye itself was wide open.

Liu Hong's head tipped a fraction to one side. The gesture of a man whose interest had been caught.

"And where do you imagine Our intent lies?"

"Your Majesty is wary, as you have just said, of those who name themselves subjects while their loyalty remains in doubt."

Sun Jian's words came back to me. The Mandate of Heaven was a story dressed up to look convenient; the truth was only that Liu Bang had fought better than Xiang Yu. The house of Liu played master of the realm for no better reason than that. Men served them with their mouths, calling them Son of Heaven and Lord of Men, and inwardly ranked them somewhere near the Chu monkeys who had seized the land of Qin and Hanzhong.

If that was not Sun Jian's thought alone — if most of the great clans and celebrated scholars, everyone outside the Liu surname, thought the same —

I spoke as if I were asking for one of the three vacant seats among the Demon King's Four Heavenly Kings.

"If, in Your Majesty's eyes, the land beyond Sili is no different from barbarian country, then the Xiongnu to whom this subject belongs and Your Majesty's other subjects are no different from one another either. In that case, what this subject should lay before you is not some clumsy oath of loyalty, but how I might be of use when you move to crush those who harbor treason."

Before Liu Hong could answer, I cried out in my mind.

At once the reserved perk for the occupation of Shouxiangcheng unfurled before me, arrayed with its choices. There was no time to hesitate.

Giving up the attack bonus that came with a successful encirclement was a pity — but looked at coldly, the moment an encirclement succeeded, that battlefield was already won. So I surrendered the siege-assault bonus without sentiment, and put everything into tipping this bargain with Liu Hong my way.

"You want Us to use Xiongnu cavalry when We sweep the traitors away. Is that it?"

"It is, Your Majesty."

"Like every ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠other barbarian, you will want a reward. Through the devotion of the Xiongnu, what do you mean to take from Us?"

That was not difficult. The answer had already been decided.

"This subject is of the Luanti, the royal house of the Xiongnu — and for generations the Xiongnu royalty have taken women of the imperial house as wives. So it may be said that the blood of the imperial line already runs in this subject's veins."

It was a gamble that might call up the High Emperor Liu Bang's humiliation at Baideng Mountain. I threw it down anyway. This was a place you could not leave except by breaking through.

"That has a certain plausibility. Continue."

"I have heard that after the High Emperor crushed Xiang Yu and accepted the surrender of the Xiang clan, he bestowed upon them the surname Liu. This subject wishes to receive the same reward from Your Majesty."

I lifted my gaze and looked Liu Hong straight in the eye. Here in Luoyang, I would not remain Luanti Bao. I would become Liu Bao.