Cai Yan (1)
A short puff escaped Liu Hong, and the corner of his mouth swelled.
"Puhah...! You want me to grant you the Liu surname?"
He clapped his hands, then pointed a finger at me and laughed. His laughter alone raked through the air that had settled over the room.
"Brother-in-law, did you hear that? Elder Brother Aman, did you hear? This Xiongnu child wants the Liu surname bestowed upon him!"
He Jin's expression did not change. Perhaps, to him, I was nothing more than today's fresh cut of meat for the slaughter. Cao Cao had gone pale all the way to the tips of his ears.
"I have never heard a demand so insolent — and so entertaining! I have held the throne for sixteen years now, and today is the first time I have thought it was worth becoming emperor. To think I would live to see a spectacle this rare."
Was this the "you're the first person who's ever laid a hand on me" kind of remark... or a countdown to my death?
"You don't think you're asking for too lavish a reward?"
If the Legacy of Huhanye perk only improved the odds, there was no guarantee the negotiation would succeed. Holding my ground against Liu Hong while still capturing his interest — and somehow staying alive — was ultimately on me.
"If Your Majesty regards the provinces east of the passes as nothing more than 'conquered foreign lands,' then this subject believes he understands why you place such trust in the eunuchs."
With a face in which a snarl that bared his teeth and a smile were grotesquely entangled, Liu Hong jerked his chin, telling me to go on.
"Even in the last campaign against Tanshihuai, you did not leave the matter solely to the three generals. You sent the eunuch Wang Fu to supervise them."
"...I did."
The war against Tanshihuai had been a defeat, and Wang Fu had died without delivering a single result that would have satisfied Liu Hong. It was a sensitive subject, one I would have to handle with care — but I needed that incident as my example.
"Is it not that Your Majesty has been searching for a eunuch with military talent?"
A gamble I could only take because I knew the history: that Liu Hong would one day create an imperial guard corps called the Western Garden Eight Colonels. And the man who would stand at the head of those Eight Colonels was the eunuch Jian Shuo.
"So long as you do not grant that eunuch the right to adopt an heir, then no matter how ambitious he may be, his power dies with him. It ends in his own generation."
Even the most loyal minister, if he holds power across generations, will eventually harbor thoughts he should not. So it had been with every generation of imperial in-laws. This pattern would repeat not only in Han, but in every dynasty that followed.
But a eunuch who could not sire children — that man could be finished in a single generation. He could not grow a faction across the decades. Even if that eunuch had kinsmen, they were only kinsmen. Not direct descendants. They would not inherit an "adoptive father's" mantle.
"And yet Your Majesty has been unable to find a eunuch of any real military gift."
Jian Shuo was large and skilled in martial arts, which was why he would be placed at the head of the Western Garden Eight Colonels — but under the checks of Zhang Rang and He Jin, he would die soon enough.
"So I should use the Xiongnu? And grant them the Liu surname while I'm at it?"
"Even if this subject receives the Liu surname, the most I could ever gain is to be called a 'false imperial kinsman.' My Xiongnu origins will never be erased, not in this lifetime. Even if my descendants bear the name Liu for generations, they could never pose a threat to the imperial house."
I smiled.
"We would wear the name of imperial kin, yet because we are Xiongnu, we could never reach for the throne. And yet, under that very name, you could keep us at your side. We have lived our whole lives with horses — we are unmatched in the handling of cavalry. What if such Xiongnu became a new army that Your Majesty could wield as you pleased?"
Liu Hong and I both fell silent. No one in the room could speak.
All manner of thoughts would be turning over in Liu Hong's mind. They had lost the campaign against Tanshihuai, but the Xiongnu army had fought hard and preserved its strength. And though he had sent Dong Zhuo to assist, it was the Xiongnu army's strength that had inflicted defeat upon Tanshihuai — a defeat so crushing that Tanshihuai himself had died of it. The Xiongnu army was, without question, useful.
"...Not enough."
At last those words left Liu Hong's mouth.
"Not enough. That alone is not enough. So what of it? Even if I use you Xiongnu as my arms and legs — where am I supposed to put those limbs to work? Against rebels? I can already do that well enough with the current Colonel Protector of the Xiongnu."
If the Han army and the Xiongnu army had both taken heavy losses, as they had in the original history, that might have been a different matter. But not now. Liu Hong, however, was not talking about a practical problem. He wanted me to put more on the table. Greedy emperor.
Still, this was a good sign in its own way. It meant Liu Hong wanted something from me.
I decided to play another card I had been holding back.
If, as Cao Cao had discerned, there was something between the Taiping Dao and the emperor — and the Yellow Turban Rebellion still broke out next year... then perhaps the negotiations had fallen through over some unresolved point. In that case.
"What if this subject were to summon Zhang Jue, the Great Worthy Teacher of the Taiping Dao, to Luoyang? Or I could go to Zhang Jue myself and convey Your Majesty's will. And if even that proves difficult—"
I looked at Liu Hong's face, which had gone rigid, and drew the words out a little.
"Then this subject will have a word with 'Zhang Jue's disciple, who is in Luoyang even now.'"
"Have you lost your mind?!"
At the gesture that meant get out, Cao Cao hustled me from the room in a fluster. As if terrified that Liu Hong might at any moment say, No, wait — drag him back. No, just kill him, he seized my arm and strode out in long, urgent steps.
"We agreed not to bring that up!"
"His Majesty's back itches where his own hand cannot reach. I merely offered to be that hand."
"Whose mouth do you think His Majesty will believe that talk of the Taiping Dao came from? He'll assume I told the Xiongnu Khagan!"
"Well, I'm sorry about that — but surely Gentleman Cao felt it too. This is no time to proceed at a leisurely pace."
I knew the Yellow Turban Rebellion would erupt at the beginning of next year. It was already past the fifth month of 183. Less than a year remained until the uprising in the second month of 184. Of course, even without knowing that future, the Taiping Dao congregations swelling across the provinces would already be cause for alarm. Cao Cao in particular had already sensed there was a connection between the emperor and the Taiping Dao. He would be turning over the question of what, exactly, the emperor intended.
"If we wait until we've figured out the emperor's intentions, it will be too late. Whatever those intentions are, we go in offering to cooperate... That is how we find out what he wants, and quickly."
Cao Cao's mouth worked soundlessly. Then he released my arm and waved a hand.
"Next time, at least warn me first, Khagan."
"Fine, I will."
"So... in the Khagan's view, where does His Majesty's will truly lie?"
"There will be a war. One way or another."
Either the negotiations between the emperor and Zhang Jue would collapse, as they had in the original history, and Zhang Jue's disciple Ma Yuanyi would be torn apart by chariots in Luoyang, igniting the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Or Liu Hong would hear my words, change his mind, and cooperate more closely with the Taiping Dao... and even then... even then...
There was only one thing that would follow such a partnership. A great purge of the great clans, carried out with the power of the Taiping Dao. Blood would flow across Ji Province, Yan Province, Yu Province, Qing Province... across every region, on a scale that would make the Disasters of the Partisan Prohibitions look like nothing.
"The emperor spoke as if he were sick to death of putting down rebellions every time they broke out — of putting them down, and putting them down again."
"...He did."
"Does Gentleman Cao not feel it as well?"
Cao Cao dragged a hand across his jaw as if he meant to tear it off.
"Surely he wouldn't go that far... no."
I could see it in Cao Cao's eyes: he had arrived at the conclusion that Liu Hong was more than capable of going that far.
"Tens of thousands died in the last war, and he didn't seem particularly sorry about it."
"...He wouldn't grieve if millions died across the empire."
To Liu Hong, even Zhang Xiu, the former Colonel Protector of the Xiongnu, and Regular Attendant Wang Fu had been nothing more than instruments. To him, every human being was nothing more than an instrument.
"You can't mean... he'd use the common folk of the Taiping Dao to slaughter every great clan in the empire? The clans would rise in rebellion at once. And after that, who would even want to become an official?"
"Great clans, renowned scholars, the gentry. Whatever you call them, they are Confucians."
"They are. Confucians..."
Something had connected in Cao Cao's mind.
"...The Confucians of the Confucian school."
"And if he means to kill them all and remake the entire realm along Daoist lines?"
"That kind of madness..."
"There was an emperor who buried the Confucians alive and tried to dye the world in Legalism."
They all pretend otherwise, but every emperor is, in the end, an aspiring Qin Shi Huang. They swear they will not repeat Qin Shi Huang's blunders, that they will practice the kingly way of the Confucians — and yet, in a moment of urgency, what bursts out is Qin Shi Huang's brand of tyranny. Emperor Wu of Han was the classic example. There was a reason people coined the phrase Qin Huang and Han Wu.
And come to think of it, Liu Bei as well... had he, in the end, been a man who wanted to become that kind of emperor? A shame we parted ways before I could find out.
Anyway.
Cao Cao had taken my hand in preparation for the chaos that would come someday. Today I had given him a hint of the concrete shape that chaos would take.
"Gentleman Cao will have to make a decision soon enough. We Xiongnu have taken your money, so we will move when you ask — but it won't do if the employer himself cannot decide what to use us for."
Whether I cooperated with Cao Cao, or, depending on the circumstances, simply ignored his appeals altogether.
"For that to happen, my army has to be able to enter Sili in the first place. I needed to win the emperor's favor."
Cao Cao nodded.
Cao Cao's reputation stood high for beating Jian Shuo's uncle to death — but by birth, he himself belonged to the Turbid Stream. And so he would be torn. Would he use me to check Emperor Liu Hong's rampage? Or would he stay at Liu Hong's side and ride that rampage all the way to its end?
Cao Cao walked in silence, lost in thought, and I followed behind him. Just as we were about to rejoin Xiahou Dun, who was waiting outside this quarter of the palace—
"Xiongnu prince!"
Someone burst out from behind a pillar and seized my hand. My first thought was assassination attempt, and I was thoroughly startled — but Cao Cao stepped between me and the stranger. He reached to grab the man by the collar, then barely stopped himself.
"Is that not Lord Cai?"
The man who had burst from behind the pillar was Cai Yong. Having nearly taken a blow from Cao Cao, Cai Yong's eyes went wide; then he straightened his robes.
"Gentleman Cao, forgive me for startling you."
"Not at all — it is I who... I nearly made a grave mistake. What brings Lord Cai here?"
"You have both just come from an audience with His Majesty, I take it. Come with me. To my home."
Cai Yong took Cao Cao and me by the sleeves and pulled. He offered no explanation, as if he had no intention of giving one. And so we went, all the way to where Xiahou Dun was waiting.
"Mengde?"
Xiahou Dun saw Cai Yong's face, then saw the man dragging Cao Cao and me by the sleeves, and his eyebrows shot up as if to ask what on earth was going on.
"One of Gentleman Cao's men?"
"Ah — yes, he is, but—"
"He comes too."
And so, swept along by Cai Yong's force of will, we left the palace.
I had thought that if I came to Luoyang, I ought to meet her. No — that I wanted to meet her. And yet another part of me had believed it would be impossible. How could a barbarian like me ever meet a woman of such an illustrious gentry house? Even the bond of my previous life had only been possible under the abnormal circumstance of my abducting her.
When I thought about it, what I was doing now was a contradiction in itself. For her to be happy, the Han dynasty had to be at peace. And yet I — this "I" who had possessed the Xiongnu's Liu Bao — was trying to bring Han down.
But.
Every one of those thoughts vanished the moment I saw the late-born daughter come running out with a cry of "Father~" and bury herself in Cai Yong's arms.
A girl of perhaps seven this year, who peeked at the unfamiliar guests and hid behind Cai Yong's legs. The woman whose tragic life and genius would be spoken of for ages.
At last, I had met Cai Yan.