The Net Around the Emperor
Xu You sat across from Xun You and swallowed a sigh.
However he turned it over, going so far as to depose the emperor was a dangerously reckless idea. But looking at the men seated beside Xun You, he could not bring himself to say so.
Chen Fan, purged and killed alongside Dou Wu — and here sat his son, Chen Yi. Xiang Kai, who in the reign of Emperor Huan had thrown every argument he could muster, from the movements of the heavens to the doctrines of the Buddha, into a remonstrance, and had been packed off to serve as a common soldier on the frontier for his pains. All of them were men who had lost faith in the Han as it now stood.
No. It went further than that. Both Xiang Kai and Chen Yi were dangerous men who could fairly be said to nurse a grudge against the imperial house itself. That Xun You had summoned such people meant he had no intention of standing down.
If Xu You said, Let's drop this, they might well kill him first and sort out the rest later. That would hardly serve Yuan Shao either.
If there was no getting out of it… Xu You asked, as if merely confirming what he already knew.
"Gongda. After the emperor's 'abdication,' we are placing the Heir Apparent — Liu Bian — on the throne. That is still the plan, yes?"
"If we meant to raise anyone else, the Governor of Henan would never have agreed to help us."
That, at least, was a mercy. Try to put the Marquis of Hefei or some other imperial clansman on the throne, and it would mean genuine civil war. But if they merely retired Liu Hong as Retired Emperor… the abdication itself was an extreme act, yet the backlash could still be kept to a minimum.
"How does the plan work, specifically?"
"The second reason," I began, and swallowed a breath before answering Liu Hong's question.
Cao Cao shot me an uneasy look. His face said it plainly. What now, Liu Bao? What are you trying to pull this time?
I drew out a rumor I had heard while traveling through Jizhou and Youzhou, the eastern reaches of Bingzhou, and Hedong.
"Because a prophetic omen is circulating through the world: that Wei shall take the place of Han."
Cao Cao's face said that too. I'm going to lose my mind.
Liu Hong had not expected this either. His lips parted a fraction.
"…Go on."
The tone was unmistakable. If you're going to talk madness, let's hear how far you'll take it.
"When people hear a prophecy of that kind, they naturally assume a new dynasty will rise from Wei Commandery and drive out the House of Han. This subject, however, found himself wondering what would happen if the House of Han itself stepped into that prophecy and seized it."
"Stepped into the prophecy and seized it?"
"There is a prophecy that Yellow Heaven shall replace Azure Heaven, and another that the Virtue of Earth shall succeed the Virtue of Fire. Yellow Heaven, the Virtue of Earth, Wei — some treat all three as one and the same. But this subject is not a man of Han. This subject is a Xiongnu. And so I found myself holding one question."
"What is it?"
Liu Hong winced as if he had bitten into something that tasted wrong. Cao Cao looked as though he had forgotten how to breathe.
"The King of Hejian, the King of Anping, the King of Ganling, and the King of Pingyuan. Those four have agreed to help us."
Xun You said it as if he were remarking on the weather. Xu You felt a cold sweat break out. The thing was growing far too large.
"Kings? Actual kings?"
Liu Hai, King of Hejian. Liu Xu, King of Anping. Liu Chong, King of Ganling. Liu Shi, King of Pingyuan. Taken broadly, all of them belonged to the House of Hejian — descendants of King Xiao of Hejian, which was to say, of Emperor Xiaomu, Liu Kai. Trace the line further and their blood ran back to Emperor Zhang, the third sovereign of the Eastern Han.
"The King of Hejian and the King of Ganling are the emperor's younger second cousins. The King of Anping and the King of Pingyuan are his cousin-uncles. Ah — by the laws of succession, the King of Pingyuan is actually an uncle. The emperor inherited the throne as the adopted son of the late Emperor Huan."
"Of all people, the King of Pingyuan… no. That's why, isn't it."
Xu You's gaze slid toward Xiang Kai. Xiang Kai was a native of Pingyuan. It was not hard to guess that he had been the one to approach the King of Pingyuan and talk him around. And the talking would not have been difficult.
Pingyuan Kingdom sat in Qingzhou. Pressed against its northern border was Bohai Commandery in Jizhou — and Bohai Commandery had once been Bohai Kingdom. When its king died, the kingdom was abolished and a commandery raised in its place. The previous emperor, Emperor Huan, Liu Zhi, had enfeoffed his younger brothers as kings upon taking the throne. To one brother, Liu Kui, he had given Bohai Kingdom; to another, Liu Shi, Pingyuan Kingdom. Of those two, Liu Kui had died by the hand of the present emperor, Liu Hong — on a slander brought by the eunuch Wang Fu.
Or perhaps it had not been a slander at all. The late emperor's brothers might well have believed that they, as siblings of the former sovereign, had a better claim to the throne than Liu Hong, who was only their brother's cousin's son. In any case, ever since the emperor had put Liu Kui, King of Bohai, to death, the King of Pingyuan had carried the grudge of a murdered brother. If that was so, his joining this affair was understandable enough.
But once the thing was done, would Liu Shi, King of Pingyuan, meekly withdraw to Pingyuan Kingdom? Or would he decide the throne ought to be his after all, and raise hell to take it?
Damn it. This is exactly why I never wanted any part of a plan this heavy.
And the trouble did not stop there.
"Can these kings actually move the military strength of their fiefs under their own authority — and not through the chancellors of their kingdoms?"
After its founding, the Han had devised a mixed system of commanderies and kingdoms rather than adopt Qin's radical commandery-county order outright. Over the centuries, however, the commandery-county system had been driven through all the same. A king was a king in name only. The real business of each fief was handled by its chancellor — and a chancellor, despite the title, was a Grand Administrator in everything but name.
"That has been arranged as well. Wang Fen, the Inspector of Jizhou, will conceal the kings' movements."
Persuading the chancellors of the fiefs, seizing control of each kingdom's troops, shifting those troops in secret — Wang Fen, Inspector of Jizhou, was covering all of it, so that nothing would reach Luoyang's ears. Xun You's hand indicated Chen Yi and Xiang Kai.
"These two gentlemen are assisting in that work."
"So three kingdoms in Jizhou and one in Qingzhou. Four kingdoms in all. I understand that much. Let us say they are all brought into play as planned. How, then, do the armies move?"
"The King of Hejian and the King of Anping will strike Julu Commandery. Zhang Jue's stronghold is said to be in Julu."
"And the King of Ganling and the King of Pingyuan?"
"Those two will push up the Zhang River and attack Wei Commandery. Zhang Jue will be made to doubt the emperor, and the emperor to doubt Zhang Jue. In the hesitation that follows, we take the emperor."
"The Heaven and the Virtue of Han are not immutable?"
"In the eyes of this subject — who is, after all, nothing more than a lowly Hu — I could not understand why a change in the Five Phases should require a change of dynasty. If people must die every time the Phases turn, then no one at all could live upon the earth. A man rides the turning of the Five Phases; he does not live and die by their command. This subject believes a dynasty need only do the same — climb onto the change, and ride."
It was a jumble of reasoning that fit neither the Confucians nor the Daoists, and that showed not the slightest acquaintance with what great scholars had spent centuries working out. But words will serve whatever purpose you hang on them. I pressed on.
"If the Fire Virtue of Han is spent, then Han need only revere the Virtue of Earth. Let Han become Yellow Heaven. The capital was moved from Jingzhao — from Chang'an — to Henan, to Luoyang. There is no reason it cannot be moved to Wei."
Liu Hong burst out laughing, tried to hold it back and say something, then gave up and shook with it, shoulders heaving, for a long time.
"If Cai Yong had heard that, Bao, he would have seized you and lectured you for three days and three nights on exactly why you are wrong."
"And yet it is a story Your Majesty needs to hear."
"True enough. Instead of beheading the men who spread these wild prophetic diagrams, on the charge that they deceive the world—"
"You simply climb onto the prophecy. That is all."
There was no need to lie awake fearing a rebellion out of Wei. Move the capital to Wei Commandery, and that alone would mean Wei had taken the place of Chang'an and Luoyang.
"If Your Majesty meets with Zhang Jue and resolves to govern the realm by the principles of the Taiping Dao, then whatever the reality underneath, Your Majesty will have become Yellow Heaven, and will be revering the Virtue of Earth. Will you not?"
If some ideology wanted to raise the banner of anti-Han, then make Han itself the anti-Han. Some would call it reform. Others would call it revolution from above. Call it whatever you liked.
"To think you would propose that I move the capital!"
"Once the world's eyes are fixed on a transfer of the capital, even a man nursing treason in his breast will be too busy talking about the move to do anything else for a while."
A word game, perhaps — or you could call it burying one issue under a bigger one.
"Bring up a transfer of the capital and there may be resistance, so I announce an imperial progress and then simply sit down in Ye and refuse to leave?"
"Wherever Your Majesty resides is the capital. Is it not?"
"I don't know if taking you into the imperial clan was a wise thing to do. A twelve-year-old Hu, pouring flattery out of his mouth — and damned if it doesn't still hang together. Fine. I will go to Jizhou. I will go, and I will meet Zhang Jue. Let's hope he tells as good a story as you do!"
"Of course, the pretext on which the four kings move their troops will be this: that the Taiping Dao, which has spread through Jizhou and Qingzhou, is plotting rebellion, and that they are going in to put it down."
"There hasn't been a rebellion yet…"
"If the four kings' attack actually drives the Taiping Dao into revolt, we will merely have reversed the order of events."
Xu You recoiled at Xun You's faint smile. What in heaven's name was this man thinking?
As if he meant to answer even the questions Xu You had left unsaid, Xun You began to explain. He spread once more the map he had laid before He Jin and Yuan Shao.
"If Jizhou is Zhang Jue's stronghold, then Yanzhou and Qingzhou, which sit right against it, cannot be helped. But look here. Yuzhou and Jingzhou."
Xun You's finger tapped the two provinces.
"These lie far from Jizhou. However systematically the Taiping Dao has built itself through its Greater Fang and Lesser Fang networks, it cannot leap over distance. Messages take time to travel, and when the miles are this long, men cannot often look one another in the face."
His smile deepened.
"When I told the Colonel of the Rapid Tigers to open the Yuan clan's coffers, this is where it began."
"So it was not merely a bribe, telling the great houses of Yuzhou and Jingzhou to keep their hands off…?"
"That the emperor himself would go to Wei Commandery and meet with the Taiping Dao is already a rupture. He quieted the ministers who opposed him by calling it a progress through the Kingdom of Hejian, of course — but will it not be noisy inside the Taiping Dao as well?"
"Is it right to compromise with the emperor? Does it even fit the ideals of the Taiping Dao…"
"…And it would not be strange if a thought began to spread: that Zhang Jue is selling the Taiping Dao for a seat at court."
"Do you really think that's possible? The Taiping Dao—"
"Among the Greater Fang leaders, of course it is impossible. Their loyalty runs deep enough that they would die if Zhang Jue told them to die. But among the ordinary faithful, we can spread the poison of rumor far enough to set them stirring."
Xun You's hand swept the map from Jizhou through Yanzhou and Yuzhou, all the way to the north of Jingzhou.
"Does this not look as if it were aimed at Luoyang? Ji, Yan, Yu, Jing. Four provinces striking Luoyang at once, to take the city. Which is to say: until the Taiping Dao actually takes Luoyang, its chain of command will be split. Across ground this wide, the most they can run is an operation with a 'great objective' and a 'date of uprising' — and little else."
"The Taiping Dao's intentions are neither here nor there. After you have shaken the Taiping Dao in Yuzhou and Jingzhou — what then?"
"We shake them harder. We make the betrayal feel certain, don't we?"
Xun You spread three fingers.
"Huangfu Song in Anding and Beidi. Zhu Jun of Kuaiji in Yangzhou. Lu Zhi of Zhuo Commandery in Youzhou. I will send proclamations to all three generals."