The Eve of Great Chaos (1)
He Jin's assault was less swordsmanship meant for men than the butchery of a man carving flesh from a beast. Cao Cao and Xiahou Dun turned the blows aside and gave ground a step at a time. Watching them, Yuan Shao clenched his fist.
A household retainer had just reported that the carriage carrying Jian Shuo and the priests had already slipped through the city gates. The news dragged the old habit up with it.
It was a habit born in childhood. Whenever his lowborn birth mother suffered some humiliation—and whenever he, her son, was made to share in that disgrace—Yuan Shao would clench his fist and swallow his rage. Grinding his teeth showed too plainly on his face, so he clenched his fist instead. In time it hardened into habit.
Brother Benchu. Of all the times to finally call in that bastard Yuan Shu…!
As if he had known this was coming, Cao Cao had stationed Yuan Shu near the western gate. Yuan Shu had put arrows through the household troops Yuan Shao sent, then drawn Jian Shuo and the priests out of the city.
Mengde. So you're on Yuan Shu's side after all!
Paying consolation money to the families of the dead retainers was no trouble. But if today's affair reached the ears of the clan elders as a quarrel between Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu… they would take Yuan Shu's side.
The same men who, even after he had observed six full years of mourning for his adoptive father and mother, still fretted that he might obstruct the path of Yuan Shu, the trueborn son. And all the while they were busy boasting to the world what a filial house they were.
The revulsion made Yuan Shao want to spit. He held it in.
His eyes narrowed.
I didn't want it to come to this—but perhaps I have to take Mengde.
It was the sort of thing that could easily swell into a feud between the Cao clan and the Yuan. Seize Xiahou Dun beside Cao Cao as well, and the Xiahou would be dragged in too. But if he took the two of them, then immediately invoked the military authority of He Jin, Governor of Henan, and of himself as Commander of the Rapid Tigers, stormed the imperial palace, and denounced the collusion between the eunuchs and the Taiping Dao?
That Xun You who lent He Jin his counsel was a Yingchuan man as well. Through his own strategists, Yuan Shao thought, he might work with Xun You and draw the support of the entire Pure Stream.
Until, that is, other footsteps rang out—click, click, click, click.
Cao Cao and Xiahou Dun swept their hand-halberd and sword in a wide arc, knocking He Jin's attack aside, then fell back farther still. Seeing the soldiers who had ringed the two men as if to guard them, He Jin lowered his blade for the moment.
"…Benchu."
At He Jin's summons, Yuan Shao answered with a low hum.
"Cao Cao called up his household troops too."
"What took you so long?"
Cao Cao asked it in a near-whisper of the oldest among the soldiers who had come up beside him.
"None of us expected this. Everyone had scattered off to rest."
"Even so, when your master calls, you come."
"The master is your father, young lord. And sneaking out without the old master knowing takes time—we couldn't bring everyone, either."
"Hrm…"
The veteran retainer was right. This fight had to end as a brawl in the middle of the marketplace. It could not become a clash between a Gentleman Consultant and the Governor of Henan—or between a Gentleman Consultant and the Commander of the Rapid Tigers. If it did, the affair would swell beyond what either side could contain.
And so the fight had become a contest of whatever household troops Cao Cao and Yuan Shao could muster.
I only hope Brother Benchu hasn't noticed how short we are on numbers.
Bastard son or not, the household troops Yuan Shao could draw from the Yuan clan far outnumbered his. It was not only because of the six years of mourning. Yuan Shao's legal parents were both dead, which left him free to claim his share of the clan's resources with a measure of independence.
As for those six years—if one weighed their true effect, they had done more to build his power outside the clan than within it. How generously had the celebrated men of Runan and Yingchuan, all those who hoped to lean on Yuan Shao, thrown their support behind him?
Cao Cao's own reputation—at best, that of a Captain of the Northern District who had beaten Jian Shuo's uncle to death—could not begin to approach Yuan Shao's fame. In the Great Han, where fame was itself a form of wealth, that difference naturally became a difference of force.
And besides…
Cao Cao glanced sidelong at the crowd. Among the merchants in the market were more than a few who were not pure merchants at all—men who wore a trader's face but were, in truth, the bondservants of some great house.
This was precisely why Liu Hong mocked the hypocrisy of the Pure Stream. They scorned merchants and commerce, yet sent their slaves into the marketplace to trade so that they might reap the profits all the same. And what did those slave-merchants sell? Goods from the great clans' own estates, of course. Those vast holdings were not farmland alone. Mines, timber yards, forges… they had everything they needed.
Scholars, farmers, artisans, merchants—the four occupations, all under one roof. You could call it a kingdom unto itself.
How many of the merchants around them belonged to the Yuan clan? Had Yuan Shu even thought that far?
No—are there no merchants indebted to the Cao house? Given Father's fortune, there shouldn't be too few…
Then he saw Yuan Shao step forward in front of He Jin.
"Just what possesses you to shield those Taiping Dao priests so fiercely, Mengde?"
To keep the Pure Stream from being slaughtered in droves.
But he could not say that. Cao Cao answered without lowering his hand-halberd.
"I am a Gentleman Consultant, and I follow His Majesty's will. The Governor of Henan may be His Majesty's brother-in-law, but that does not weigh heavier than the Emperor's intent."
"Whether that is truly His Majesty's will, or the eunuchs usurping His Majesty's name, is hardly something we can know. Mengde, you yourself…"
Cao Cao gave a short, dry laugh.
"…can't be trusted because you're a eunuch's grandson. We're all in it together, is that it?"
"I don't see why you insist on inflating an affair that would end if you simply handed over a few priests."
"And I don't see, Brother Benchu, why you're taking a risk that could easily become treason."
Cao Cao's gaze left Yuan Shao and settled on He Jin.
"Does the Governor of Henan realize the Regular Palace Attendants know what he's doing? And the Empress?"
He Jin said nothing. He seemed to have left the talking to Yuan Shao.
"Planning to summon Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong, are you?"
"If Jian Shuo, who left the palace on His Majesty's orders, has been ambushed, wouldn't the eunuchs inside naturally make a move? And yet here stands our own Yuan Benchu, Commander of the Rapid Tigers—doing what, exactly? Unable even to mobilize the Rapid Tigers he's charged with."
As he spoke, Cao Cao had to fight the urge to swallow. Given Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong's natures, they might well pretend they knew nothing of Jian Shuo's predicament. Of course, the priests falling into He Jin and Yuan Shao's hands would hardly please Zhang Rang… but Zhang Rang was also related to He Jin by marriage.
Then someone approached Yuan Shao and made a report. Yuan Shao listened, then, for the briefest instant, glared at the man who had brought it. He would have said he had hidden his expression—but Cao Cao, who had played with him since they were children, could tell.
"Brother Benchu. Things didn't go as you planned, I take it."
This time Yuan Shao, too, was silent.
"A man like you would certainly have posted cavalry outside the walls. Did Gonglu scatter them?"
Cold sweat ran down Yuan Shao's temple. The plan had come apart completely.
That Hu child—a mere boy—had drawn a bow from atop the carriage and dropped several of Yuan Shao's men. He hadn't looked more than ten years old. How could he draw a bow that far?
Yuan Shao could not bring himself to look toward He Jin, but he could feel his dignity being pared away all the same.
"We seize the Taiping Dao priests and wring a confession from them—collusion with the eunuchs, or a plot of treason, either will serve. The Emperor will lop off a few eunuchs to save himself, and Your Excellency will memorialize the throne to lift the Disasters of the Partisan Prohibitions, using the 'conspiracy of rebellion' inside Luoyang as your pretext. I will lay bridges to certain celebrated men of the Pure Stream. If the matter goes well, the Governor of Henan will have the Pure Stream's support."
He had said it so smugly.
No. He could not withdraw here. At least in front of He Jin, he had to bluff—as if he had expected a setback of this size, as if he had a second plan ready.
Yuan Shao forced out a loud, hearty laugh.
"You got one in, Mengde."
Cao Cao still had his hand-halberd leveled this way. Which meant Cao Cao's words had been a bluff as well. Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong would send no reinforcements.
But if they killed all of Cao Cao's household troops and arrested Cao Cao himself… would He Jin agree to inflating the affair that far?
Damn it. We had to take those priests.
With that failure, every plan he had built on top of it had come apart as well.
"We'll withdraw for now. But don't imagine you're the only one who can lay schemes, Mengde. We can see well enough how you move in Luoyang."
With that, Yuan Shao turned. Then he spoke to He Jin.
"Is Cao Mengde not as cunning as I told you? Things having come to this… I must discuss our next move with Xun Gongda."
He Jin's head turned toward Yuan Shao, very slowly. For an instant Yuan Shao felt a chill—as if He Jin's blade might swing toward his own throat. He could not read what feeling, what thought, moved behind He Jin's gaze.
At last He Jin broke the silence.
"…Do that."
The moment I put arrows through two men, Yuan Shu dropped the reins and clapped.
"Oh! So this is Xiongnu archery! Even a child shoots like that—magnificent!"
Then he bellowed at his swordsmen.
"You see that? You're going to lose to a kid?!"
At Yuan Shu's words his men roared, wheeled about, and charged Yuan Shao's pursuers.
It was not the equal of what I had seen when I fought Tanshihuai, but a grim slaughter unfolded all the same. Cavalry crashed through cavalry. A few riders punched through Yuan Shu's men and came pounding toward the carriage.
"Ha!"
Yuan Shu ripped his sword free and charged. Two riders went down under his blade.
"Even the Yuan clan's wastrel young master trained longer than the likes of you!"
At that swaggering cry I loosed a few more arrows. The riders who slipped past Yuan Shu and came on toward us either knocked the shafts aside or ducked low in the saddle to let them pass.
"Allow me to add my strength as well."
A beautiful voice spoke right beside me. Jian Shuo had drawn his sword.
"Please sit, Xiongnu Khagan. It is not for you to protect me. His Majesty commanded me to protect you."
One rider Yuan Shu had not managed to cut down finally caught the carriage. His saber met Jian Shuo's sword.
"Wha—?"
The man had clearly not expected such strength from a beardless youth. A moment later his blade clattered from his hand. Jian Shuo reached out, seized him by the collar, and let go over the carriage wheel.
"Gaa—"
The scream had not even finished before there came a wet, crunching smash. The carriage lurched hard once.
"Nngh—"
The driver clenched his teeth and somehow steadied the carriage. But another rider was already charging the wagon—this one with a spear. Jian Shuo's sword would not be enough.
The thought had barely formed when an arrow punched through the man's throat.
"Nephew!"
I had not known how glad I would be to hear that voice. I turned toward it. Reinforcements were coming on at a gallop.
Huchuquan and Zhang Liao.
And Xiahou Yuan, calmly nocking another arrow to the string.