The Leopard's Dash Through Luoyang
"You said you'd either summon Zhang Jue, persuade him, or try negotiating with his disciples here in Luoyang."
"I did."
"Frankly, I don't believe a word of it. Just some lie to wriggle out of this mess in front of Us. But I'll give you a chance."
Emperor Ling turned his head toward a corner of the garden.
"Jian Shuo!"
At that, a eunuch slid into view as if gliding across the ground. How does a man even walk like that? No—never mind the walk. Could a eunuch even be this... massive?
Of course, history recorded Jian Shuo as the head of Emperor Ling's personal guard, the Western Garden Eight Colonels. He had been appointed Shangjun Xiaowei and commanded the other seven colonels. Muscle rippled visibly beneath the thin robes; he was a warrior so imposing you had to wonder if he was a eunuch at all. Then you looked at his face—the place where a beard should have been was smooth and clean. He was a eunuch, all right. A stray thought crossed my mind: if Jian Shuo had never been castrated, just how much more enormous would he have become?
"This boy is Liu Bao, prince of the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu Chanyu ranks immediately below Us, above every other vassal king. You will regard Liu Bao as Our cousin."
Cousin. So he intended to treat me as something like a younger cousin.
"...I shall obey."
I was startled once more by Jian Shuo's voice as he knelt and answered. When you think of a eunuch, you imagine a voice that's neither male nor female—sly and shrill. Jian Shuo's was extraordinarily beautiful. By modern standards, it was lovely enough for a singer or a voice actor. Was this what a castrato sounded like—those boys castrated to preserve the voice they had before it broke?
Emperor Ling's orders continued.
"Escort Liu Bao and Cao Cao to Ma Yuanyi."
"Yes. Your Highness, this way..."
Before I left the garden under Jian Shuo's courteous guidance, I looked up at Emperor Ling once more. There was still a question I needed to ask. Perhaps it was because I still hadn't decided how to judge this man.
"Your Majesty, permit me a question."
"Speak."
"Why tell me something like this... something that could become a weakness for Your Majesty?"
"Because sharing a weakness forces you onto Our side."
Emperor Ling chuckled, a low, dark sound—then, as if the laugh had never happened, his face went hard.
"If We should ever leave this world—"
"Your Majesty, such words are far too—"
"Shut your mouth and listen. That you are the same age as Bian, that We introduced you before the Empress Dowager and the Empress today—that was no jest. When We are gone,"
Emperor Ling's eyes flared with intense light once more, boring straight into me.
I was a little surprised. The Records of the Three Kingdoms—whether the official histories or the Romance—all claimed that Emperor Ling had chosen the brilliant Liu Xie as his heir, only for the wicked He clan to put the dull-witted Liu Bian on the throne. But from Emperor Ling's own mouth, it was Liu Bian's name that came, not Liu Xie's.
"The moment I die, those Qingliu bastards will slander the Empress as lowborn trash and say Bian is too stupid to be a sovereign because he came from a cheap mother. Meanwhile they'll praise three-year-old Xie as a prodigy..."
He spat the words as if vomiting his contempt for the Qingliu.
"Bian will succeed me. Xie will grow into a powerful kinsman who supports Bian. Xie will have no maternal clan to lean on—only his elder brother. He'll grow into a loyal king. Bian won't feel the need to be wary of a Xie who has no in-laws backing him. But if those Qingliu ever put little Xie on the throne and start devouring the entire realm as they please—that cannot be allowed. ...Bao. You will protect Bian with the strength of the Xiongnu."
I glanced sideways at Jian Shuo, who was staring at the ground.
"You feel that the eunuchs alone aren't enough."
"Didn't you say it yourself? You're a Xiongnu, so you can be a kinsman who shares Our surname without ever reaching for the throne. That's why We will use you to cover the eunuchs' weakness."
A sigh escaped Emperor Ling's lips.
"The eunuchs can wield power only because We are alive. The moment something happens to Us, someone will call for the eunuchs to be purged—and the first to be left powerless will be the Empress and the Empress Dowager."
The castrated men through whom the women of the palace exercised power. Removing them was the same as castrating the palace women themselves.
"The He clan—the 'powerless in-laws' We created—will also be helpless if the eunuchs fall. We designed it that way. The moment right after We collapse is the most dangerous. Beating back every challenge from the Qingliu will only be possible with sufficient military force."
For a fleeting instant, the arrogance and madness seemed to vanish from Emperor Ling's eyes.
I followed Jian Shuo out of the palace, turning the conversation with Emperor Ling over in my mind. He was trying to build a nation that had never existed in the Central Plains—not an agrarian state, but a mercantile one. In one light, it was revolutionary. In another, it was madness. But my mind was already straining toward a different question: how would you actually make Emperor Ling's vision real?
He was a madman. He was a villain. And yet, contradictorily, he was a fascinating human being. I found myself repeating the same thoughts: if I had been his advisor... or if I inherited his ideas and applied them to my own Xiongnu empire...
Then Jian Shuo stopped walking, and my thoughts stopped with him. Come to think of it, this eunuch stopped walking quite often.
"Is it because meeting a Taiping Dao priest has to be done in secret?"
He understood the question immediately.
"That's part of it. But we also have to stay out of Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong's sight."
That massive frame with such a sweet, beautiful voice. I still couldn't get used to it. More importantly—was Jian Shuo a different faction of eunuch from Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong? Perhaps Emperor Ling was running a separate operation through him, behind their backs.
And that wasn't the only problem. Cao Cao had said he'd wait for me to come out of the palace, and Emperor Ling's order had been to escort both of us to Ma Yuanyi. But Jian Shuo and Cao Cao's relationship...
"Um, about... Gentleman Cao..."
I'd only gotten that far when Jian Shuo shook his head.
"I don't particularly hold a grudge against Gentleman Cao."
Did he consider it just Cao Cao doing his duty as Colonel of the Northern District?
"But your uncle died."
"Hmph..."
Jian Shuo let out something like a light sigh, then pointed at his own lower body.
"You're a Xiongnu, not a Han, so filial piety may not mean much to you—but I'll tell you anyway. Why do you think I became a eunuch?"
"...Ah..."
"Serving His Majesty is a great honor. But the memory of the day I was castrated doesn't fade. Neither does the resentment toward the uncle who castrated me and sold me into the palace. His Majesty sent Gentleman Cao off to Dunqiu as magistrate for a while, but frankly, I don't think that was even necessary."
I hadn't expected a story like that...
Before I knew it, Jian Shuo and I had come out of the palace. Outside, Cao Cao and Xiahou Dun were waiting.
"Gentleman Cao."
Jian Shuo offered a light bow. Cao Cao nodded back.
"Shall we go."
Following Jian Shuo's lead, we headed toward a market a short distance west of Luoyang's Northern Palace. This vast marketplace, I was told, supplied goods to the imperial palace, government offices, and the residences of high officials. Ma Yuanyi and his fellow priests were staying deep in the market's winding alleys, several turns in.
"...Ordinary-looking men. Or perhaps that's the disguise."
That was Cao Cao's first impression, whispered in my ear as he looked at Ma Yuanyi and his companions. I'd already seen Zhang Jue, so I wasn't particularly surprised. They were called Daoist priests, but they were peasants at the root—people who took the yellow earth as their Heaven.
"Let's do the real negotiating outside the city. We'll go to the Cao family estate. It's too dangerous inside Luoyang."
Ma Yuanyi agreed, and we emerged from the market alleys onto the main road leading to the western gate.
...It hit me like a wave. The scent of the man who'd stood beside Emperor Ling when I first met him. No—a presence so intense I'd mistaken it for a smell.
"Hmph."
A snort, as if appraising the quality of meat he was about to butcher. A giant of a man, a slaughtering knife in each hand, walked slowly toward us, grinding the blades together until sparks flew.
"The Governor of Henan...!"
It was He Jin. Cao Cao and Jian Shuo stepped forward at the same time, spreading their arms as if to shield me, Ma Yuanyi, and the rest of our party. From behind He Jin, a man who looked every inch a young nobleman stepped forward. Cao Cao called the man's name through gritted teeth.
"Brother Benchu...!"
Benchu. So that was Yuan Shao.
"Mengde. Hand over the priest behind you. This concerns a conspiracy."
"I have no idea what basis you have for saying that. Don't you see the Junior Palace Attendant standing right here? This is His Majesty's will."
Junior Palace Attendant was a eunuch office, like Regular Palace Attendant.
"Whether this is truly His Majesty's will, or someone usurping His Majesty's will—that's an open question."
"If you don't know, then you should come with even more solid evidence."
"We'll get the evidence from those priests."
So they meant to torture them. Come to think of it, the histories give two accounts of how Ma Yuanyi was captured. The first: that a subordinate or colleague betrayed him and turned him in. The second: that He Jin uncovered Taiping Dao's treacherous scheme. Put the two stories together, and He Jin might have tortured the priests into a confession. The result: Ma Yuanyi's execution and the Yellow Turban Rebellion.
"Hah."
Cao Cao laughed, and Yuan Shao's eyebrow twitched.
"From the look of it, the men you and the Governor of Henan brought don't look like government troops. ...Private retainers?"
"...Mengde."
"Meaning even you know you can't formally mobilize government troops for this. All the more reason I can't hand these priests over."
"I was recommended by the Governor of Henan and made Commander of the Rapid Tigers. Gentleman Cao will immediately—"
"Yuanrang!"
Before Yuan Shao could finish, Cao Cao called Xiahou Dun's courtesy name. Xiahou Dun pulled something from the carriage and threw it. Halberds—two short-hafted hand-halberds. Cao Cao caught one in each hand and dropped into a stance.
"I'll show you why even after I tore through a Regular Palace Attendant's mansion, his retainers still couldn't catch this Cao Mengde!"
"Mengde, you— Governor of Henan! Wait!"
He Jin didn't wait for Yuan Shao either. The two knives that carved animal bone and flesh flashed toward Cao Cao's throat.
In the next instant, I understood why Cao Cao would one day be called the Martial Emperor of Wei.
There's a story: that Cao Cao once broke into Zhang Rang's mansion, swinging hand-halberds in a rampage, and that no one could stop him or even restrain him until he chose to leave. I'd always thought it meant Zhang Rang simply didn't dare lay a hand on Cao Teng's grandson.
He Jin's blades bounced off Cao Cao's hand-halberds. He Jin swung with a speed that seemed impossible for a man of his bulk; if those attacks had all landed, Cao Cao would have been minced meat. But the hand-halberds flashed brilliantly, turning aside every single strike. When Xiahou Dun drew his sword and joined in, He Jin could press no further.
"Junior Palace Attendant! Take the prince and the priests and get out the western gate! Once you're through the western gate, they won't be able to do a thing!"
I was in the carriage before Jian Shuo could even open his mouth. Jian Shuo and the priests leaped in after me, and the carriage lurched into a run toward the western gate.
"Seize them!"
Yuan Shao's order rang out behind us. Immediately after—
"Gah!"
I looked back at the scream. Cao Cao was pulling a hand-halberd out of a fallen Yuan retainer. A pitiful man. Today's death would be papered over as a "minor clash" between the Cao and Yuan families.
The carriage raced toward the western gate like a thing possessed. Hoofbeats sounded behind us. Even Cao Cao couldn't stop mounted soldiers. Damn it...! If I'd just come on my own horse, we'd be faster than this! I could still outrun them even with Ma Yuanyi on my back!
A cavalryman drew up right beside the carriage, about to spear the driver, when—
Thwick.
An arrow dropped the cavalryman from his saddle. Wh... who?
Ahead, in front of the western gate we were racing toward, another commander stood with men of his own. Not retainers, exactly. Knights-errant—men who looked for all the world like Liu Bei's kind of people. His armor glittered with gold ornamentation, and the silk robes worn beneath it were so lavish you could tell at a glance they were of the highest quality.
The young nobleman, who looked a great deal like Yuan Shao, shouted this as he nocked another arrow. The shaft flew with a snap, and another cavalryman went down.
"These are guests of this Colonel! Get the hell out of here!"
The retainers Yuan Shao had brought took one look at Yuan Shu and fled the other way. Even if Yuan Shao punished them harshly, it would still be better than whatever they'd get for touching Yuan Shu.
Clip-clop, clip-clop. Yuan Shu rode up to the carriage, peered inside, confirmed Jian Shuo first with an "Oh, it's the Junior Palace Attendant," then looked at me and grinned.
"So you're the Xiongnu khagan or whatever Mengde was talking about?"
"Th-thank you, Colonel..."
Yuan Shu grinned and waved it off as if it were nothing.
"If it means stuffing shit down that bastard's throat, this Yuan Gonglu will ride anywhere!"