The Rebellion of the Four Kingdoms of Ji-Qing (1)
The Emperor's leave had been granted.
The problem was...
"What kind of man is Yuan Shao?"
I put the question to Cao Cao and Yuan Shu together, in a place where the three of us sat as one. Yuan Shu had seemed uncomfortable keeping company with us ever since his talk with Ma Yuanyi, but the moment Yuan Shao's name came up, his eyes lit.
Well—thinking of how, after the coalition against Dong Zhuo, the Central Plains had been all but carved into three among Dong Zhuo, Yuan Shao, and Yuan Shu—I could guess at the shape of Yuan Shu's feelings. Take Yuan Shao down first.
Cao Cao shot me a look that said, quite plainly, Why would you drag that up in front of Yuan Shu again? I decided to hear Yuan Shu out all the same. His picture of Yuan Shao would be warped in any number of places, but they were brothers born and raised under the same roof. He would have testimony Cao Cao could never give me.
"You said once, Colonel, that Yuan Shao is a man who never lets go."
"Wouldn't be strange at all if that bastard started raining crossbow bolts on us right here."
"Honestly, I almost died at Yuan Shao's hands, so I don't think kindly of him. Gentleman Cao may have a reputation as a crafty hero—but I sometimes wonder if the real crafty hero isn't Yuan Shao."
At that, Yuan Shu clapped his hands and burst out laughing.
"Ah, hey—that. That actually tracks. Right? Mengde, what about you?"
"……"
I went on, scratching every place Yuan Shu most wanted scratched.
"If he dragged even He Jin, the Governor of Henan, into the scheme, it means he truly doesn't care what means he uses. And if things go sour, he'd pin the whole thing on the Governor and slip away himself, wouldn't he?"
"You've got a hell of an eye for people! They say the Xiongnu have sharp eyes—so this is what they meant!"
It was true enough that I had taken a dislike to Yuan Shao. But I also knew, quite well, what kind of man the histories had recorded him to be.
You cannot grasp the whole of the Records of the Three Kingdoms by reading the Records alone. You have to read the other histories too—the Book of the Later Han among them—before the shattered pieces fit together and the full picture comes clear.
There is, for instance, the story of He Jin summoning Ding Yuan and staging a false-flag burning of Mengjin, all to force a coup in Luoyang. Read that account by itself and He Jin looks like the cunning author of the plot. Read the memorial in which Gongsun Zan condemned Yuan Shao, and you learn who actually devised it.
The so-called Mengjin Massacre.
Even among modern Three Kingdoms enthusiasts, before I ever woke in this body, it was a standing controversy. Why does everyone condemn Cao Cao for the slaughter in Xu Province? Yuan Shao did the same. All the warlords were the same. That was the argument it always dragged in its wake.
Scale of the killing aside, what I had always marked in that affair was not Yuan Shao's guilt. It was that He Jin was the one left holding the crime.
"Yuan Shao is a snake of a man."
"Today I see light in the words of a young Hu. The Xiongnu's future is looking bright!"
Coming from the mouth of a man destined to be remembered for proclaiming himself emperor and dying with a cup of honey-water on his lips, the compliment sat a little strangely. Still—I had taken a great deal of help from Yuan Shu in this life. I could not quite bring myself to dislike him.
Proclaiming himself emperor. That, too, called up another story.
Fifteen years from now, in the year 199, Yuan Shu would die trying to pass the imperial title to Yuan Shao. Yuan Shao would hem and haw over whether to take it, then order a subordinate named Geng Bao to stage a little play—to come forward and urge him onto the throne. Geng Bao did as he was told and pressed Yuan Shao to ascend. The rest of Yuan Shao's officers leapt up in outrage and demanded Geng Bao's head. The opposition proved too fierce, so Yuan Shao said, When did I ever ask for that?—and had Geng Bao killed.
"Yuan Shao would rather not step forward himself. He likes to work other people from behind. He uses them and throws them away the moment it's convenient—and he's very, very good at making sure none of the damage ever touches him."
By the time I finished, Yuan Shu's regard for me had plainly hit its peak.
Cao Cao, however, was another matter.
"So what is it you mean to say."
The words came out clipped and dry. I decided it was time to come to the point.
"Yuan Shao will strike at His Majesty on the imperial progress, or he will strike at Zhang Jue when Zhang Jue comes out to receive him—or he will strike at both. And he will not do it himself. He will put other men to the work."
Liu Hong had summoned me to his side as the Emperor's "younger cousin."
To the ministers looking on, the sight of a child in outlandish dress standing at the Emperor's elbow could hardly have been a welcome one. But no one in that hall was prepared to sour the Emperor's mood over so small a thing and die for it. From the beginning, a Xiongnu Chanyu—or a hostage the Xiongnu had sent—had been received by the Han emperor with honors equal to a vassal king, or higher. Emperor Xiaoshun, when he set up his puppet Chanyu, had not even deigned to confer the seal and sash of office with his own hand.
In the end, this would serve me as well. I could not say whether some special privilege was at work—but favor of this kind from the Han emperor was as good as a declaration that he meant to raise me as the next Chanyu.
And there was a more immediate use. Standing beside my "elder cousin"—the Emperor, who had elected to become my cousin in name—I could take in Luoyang's principal ministers at a single glance.
"I will take Bian and the Empress with me."
The Emperor announced it on the eve of the progress, and I saw Yuan Shao's expression shift, just slightly. It may have been only that I was watching his face so closely. Even so, from Yuan Shao's seat the news could not have been anything but a shock.
He Jin's face did not change at all. What that butcher was thinking, I truly could not guess.
In any case—this was why I had memorialized the throne to use the imperial progress to Hejian as a pretext and move the capital to Ye.
Yuan Shao would scheme. He would do something. Beyond that single certainty, nothing could be predicted. What, precisely, he would attempt was impossible to know. The answer, then, was to put a limit on the schemes available to him.
Yuan Shao did not like to stand in the open. Commander of the Rapid Tigers was no mean office, but it was still too low a rung from which to weave a plot around the imperial house. That was why he had chosen to hide behind He Jin.
"Your Majesty—Your Majesty is the Son of Heaven and the lord of men. Your person is the realm itself. The common people are no more than leaves adrift upon the water, and they live with unease forever in their hearts. If the Prince and the Empress were left in the capital, to soothe that unease among the people…"
Some minister wound his way through an extraordinary thicket of courtesy and arrived, at last, at the point: if anything should befall the Emperor, Liu Bian's safety—and a swift settling of the court—would be far better served if Liu Bian and the Empress remained in Luoyang.
Liu Hong shook his head.
"We are a scion of the princely house of Hejian. Hejian is the land where We were born and raised, and Bian's own roots may be said to lie there as well. A father is not often given the chance to show his son the country of his birth. We will take Bian, Our eldest, with Us. The Empress likewise. Shall a daughter-in-law fail to pay her respects to the ancestors of Hejian, generation upon generation?"
Without the hidden purpose of moving the capital to Wei Commandery, Liu Hong would never have dug in his heels so hard. On this progress his aim was to meet Zhang Jue—and, in the same stroke, to spring a surprise transfer of the capital to Wei Commandery. Of course he would have to bring Liu Bian and Empress He with him to the new palace in Ye County.
At that stubbornness the ministers closed their mouths. On Yuan Shao's face I could read something very like dismay.
Had Liu Hong meant to leave the Empress and Liu Bian behind in Luoyang, Yuan Shao would have put He Jin forward and done his work.
"Brother-in-law."
Liu Hong called for He Jin. He Jin came forward and prostrated himself.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"As Governor of Henan, you will hold Luoyang."
He Jin took the order without a word of protest.
And so He Jin was parted from his sister, Empress He, and from his nephew, Liu Bian. In effect, we had taken the Empress and Liu Bian as hostages. He Jin's freedom to act had been cut down at a stroke.
"Yuan Shao."
This time Liu Hong called for Yuan Shao. Yuan Shao, too, came forward and prostrated himself.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"As Commander of the Rapid Tigers, you will lead the Rapid Tigers and follow Us as far as Hejian."
Yuan Shao likewise bowed his head and swore that he would.
And so we had parted He Jin from Yuan Shao. Denied the man he had meant to push to the front, Yuan Shao's freedom to act had been cut down at a stroke.
"There is no need to make too many preparations for the sake of pomp. We depart for Hejian at once."
On the border between Yingchuan Commandery in Yuzhou and Nanyang Commandery in Jingzhou, two Great Leaders of the Taiping Dao met.
Zhang Mancheng of Nanyang, and Bo Cai of Yingchuan.
"Have you heard anything?"
Zhang Mancheng asked, but Bo Cai could only shake his head.
"I've sent men to the mother temple at Julu more than once. They told us it was a sealed matter and would give us nothing."
"…We ourselves hold fast to the Great Worthy Teacher. But below the lesser congregations, the unrest is spreading."
The thing Zhang Mancheng feared was happening in Yuzhou under Bo Cai's charge as well. A rumor almost too wretched to speak aloud: that the Great Worthy Teacher, Zhang Jue, meant only to use the faithful of the Taiping Dao and then cast them aside.
"If we could guess even a little of what he intends, we might still the anxiety among the believers."
Bo Cai and Zhang Mancheng looked at one another. Looking did not conjure an answer. They stood a long while without speaking, until Bo Cai broke the silence.
"There seem to be men among the great clans who are uneasy about our rising."
"Mm. In Nanyang as well."
"They say they'll furnish us with supplies, if the Taiping Dao would only look kindly on them."
"Has the plan leaked? I wonder if they aren't simply bribing us so we won't touch their own lands."
"I don't know… I would like to think their hearts have left the Han and turned toward the Taiping Dao, but…"
Even as he said it, Bo Cai felt the wish sitting too near the sun.
Zhang Mancheng bowed his head as if turning something over, then spoke in a voice gone tight.
"We will have to be careful. If this goes wrong, we could take a government ambush before we ever raise our standard. Someone is weaving a nasty scheme. That much is certain."
"The rumors about the Great Worthy Teacher as well."
"If it comes to it… we may have to begin the work ourselves, without waiting on the will of the mother temple at Julu."
Zhang Mancheng's face and Bo Cai's hardened at the same instant.
The "work" they would have to begin. It was nothing less than making four characters a living thing upon the earth: The Yellow Heaven Shall Stand.
"The training is enough. And as I said—thanks to the supplies the great clans handed over, we have weapons and grain to spare."
"Perhaps the time is now… before those stores are spent. Perhaps this is the moment."
Zhang Mancheng's words drew no answer from Bo Cai. His legs trembled with the itch to decide—and still he wanted to wait for the will of their great teacher, Zhang Jue.
Still. For now.
The encirclement ran three layers deep.
Xu You narrowed his eyes, wonder and alarm both caught in the look he turned on Xun You's thoroughness.
Xun You folded a fourth finger.
"The encirclement is not finished."
"…There's more?"
"I've been of two minds about whether to use this one."
Xu You might fidget all he liked. Xun You kept his mouth shut for a long while, and only then spoke.