Watch Your Back (1)
Look at the shape of Julu Commandery and you would see Guangzong County jutting out between the kingdoms of Anping and Ganling—a salient that seemed equally ready to drive into both realms, or to be swallowed by them.
It was on that three-sided border, where Julu met Ganling and a man might still slip across into Anping, that Liu Chong, King of Ganling, had pitched his camp.
He had already heard that the Yellow Turbans' stronghold lay in Guangzong County. Before striking at that nest, Liu Chong sent out scouts.
"Great King, what are you waiting for?"
Liu Chong swallowed a bitter smile as he regarded the Qingliu notables of Jizhou who styled themselves his chief strategists and addressed him as Great King.
They had joined the King of Ganling's camp as though they had made some momentous decision in the name of righteousness, swearing to root out a heretical cult. In truth, they simply wanted to seize the land of the Taiping Dao peasants.
Beasts who slaughtered every man they met on the march and violated every woman—keeping the ones they fancied as concubines and tossing the rest to their household troops.
Was it not laughable that men who had been at such bestial work only moments ago now stood in camp crying Great King this, Great King that, what shall we do, how shall we proceed?
Yet Liu Chong could not let such thoughts show. The men called Qingliu notables—or scholar-gentry—held vast estates across Jizhou. They commanded bonded retainers and slaves in numbers to match those estates, and that wealth became their supplies and their soldiers, the very strength that propped up the King of Ganling.
Nor was that all. Their support had allowed Liu Chong to wrest real power from the Chancellor of Ganling and take personal command of the kingdom's army. The other three kings would be in the same position.
And so the King of Ganling wore a gentle smile as he explained himself to the Qingliu notables.
"As you have seen on the way here, the Yellow Turbans are no longer content to simply take their beating. Sensing the danger, they have gathered and armed themselves. Of course, our army has easily smashed the rabble's forces thus far, but…"
The closer they drew to Guangzong County, the larger the Yellow Turban units became. Some of those units had stood and fought to check Liu Chong's advance; others had fallen back toward Guangzong. It was not a thing one could simply celebrate as the enemy losing its nerve. It meant the enemy was concentrating at Guangzong County with its strength intact. Advance blindly, and they might find themselves facing a host that Ganling's army alone could not handle.
"We must send scouts first to take the measure of the enemy. If their numbers and their spirit exceed ours, we will have to call for reinforcements."
The mission entrusted to Liu Chong in Luoyang had been, from the start, to ambush Emperor Ling—Liu Hong—on his imperial progress. He needed to survey the situation at Guangzong County, yes—but he also needed to discover where Liu Hong was going.
Liu Hong's destination was the Kingdom of Hejian. Before he reached it, word that the four kings had risen in revolt might frighten him into turning back for Luoyang. Liu Chong had to seize him before that happened.
If he captured Liu Hong first… A chill settled over Liu Chong's chest even as the vision swelled inside him, almost too large to contain. The four kings who had raised their armies this time—and Emperor Ling himself—were all descendants of Liu Kai, King of Hejian. Look further back and they were descendants of Emperor Zhang as well. There was no reason he himself could not become emperor.
Liu Chong waited, masking that insolent fantasy behind a leisurely smile—until his scouts delivered news that made every man in the tent go pale.
"A general in golden armor, believed to be His Majesty the Emperor, has entered the Yellow Turbans' main camp?"
Liu Chong's face twisted. The notables who styled themselves strategists stirred in equal agitation.
"Are you certain? You haven't simply picked up some wild rumor?"
"I did not see it with my own eyes, but this was no tale the common folk could have invented. Eunuchs, other generals, even regular government troops are said to have entered the main camp. And more than that…"
"What?"
"The man in the golden armor is said to have cried out, 'I am the Emperor you so despise!'"
The restless eyes of the Qingliu notables began, little by little, to turn on Liu Chong with accusation. The look said that if he had ridden straight for Ye County in Wei Commandery instead of lingering to take the measure of Guangzong, this would never have happened.
"This may be for the better."
Liu Chong spoke as if forcing himself to remain calm.
"They've gathered in one place, so we can take them both at once. And if anything unfortunate should occur, we need only lay it all at the Yellow Turbans' door. So until reinforcements arrive, let us see that no one slips out of Guangzong County."
The armies of Liu Shi, King of Pingyuan; Liu Xu, King of Anping; and Liu Hai, King of Hejian arrived at the King of Ganling's camp near Guangzong County.
Liu Chong, King of Ganling, and Liu Hai, King of Hejian, were the Emperor's second cousins once removed, which made the two of them third cousins to each other.
By the rules of imperial lineage, Liu Shi, King of Pingyuan, stood as the Emperor's uncle—though originally, like Liu Xu, King of Anping, he had been only a first cousin once removed. The King of Pingyuan and the King of Anping were first cousins, and of the four they greeted each other with genuine warmth.
To the kings of Ganling and Hejian, the kings of Anping and Pingyuan were great-uncles of a sort—cousins of their grandfathers. The courtesies were observed, but at that remove there was little affection to spare. Which is to say that, save for the bond between Pingyuan and Anping, the four kings were not on particularly good terms.
Each had looked at this uprising and thought, Perhaps I might become emperor… and naturally assumed the others harbored the same ambition. They were allies until the revolt succeeded—but they already expected they would one day be rivals.
They regarded one another with more wariness than warmth, then agreed, for the moment, that Guangzong County must be surrounded. The armies of the four kingdoms raced to every approach of Guangzong County and sealed the roads that led to other counties.
"They're not even bothering to hide anymore. Good thing we grabbed the city when we did."
Emperor Ling said this from the walls of Guangzong County, glancing back at me.
An agreement had been reached with Zhang Jue, at least on the point of occupying Guangzong County, and the Taiping Dao army had advanced on the county seat with Emperor Ling at its head. At the sight of the Emperor in golden armor leading a Taiping Dao host, the magistrate of Guangzong County had come tumbling out as if the ground itself had spat him forth, and surrendered the city. He had not managed to hide the look that said, The Emperor joining hands with the Taiping Dao? How can this be?
The Taiping Dao forces had arranged not only the main camp they had built near Guangzong County but also several additional stockades raised close to the walls, so that each position could lean on the others and support the defense. Even if the four kings attacked all at once, it looked as though they could be held off without much difficulty.
Zhang Jue had entered the city of Guangzong as well. He still did not trust the Emperor, and was no doubt worried that this entire affair might be some scheme of Liu Hong's. That was why Zhang Jue's side had flatly rejected Liu Hong's proposal that if I go out in person and call on them to surrender, the enemy will collapse at once.
I had opposed it too, of course. Things being what they were, the enemy would rather see Liu Hong meet an "unfortunate death" in the fighting than surrender to him.
"Now we wait for Dong Zhuo—that Grand Administrator of Hedong you called in—and the Southern Xiongnu army."
"There are also Taiping Dao forces from the western and northern reaches of Jizhou."
The question was whether they could hold out against the four kings' assault until those forces arrived. Emperor Ling snorted and pointed beyond the walls, toward the kings' camps visible in the distance.
"They won't dare come at Us. Look at those positions the Great Worthy Teacher threw up so fast. They're sitting there counting the corpses it'd cost them."
"Because they're already thinking about… after they win?"
"Hah. Wouldn't you? Every last one of them figures, We got to be Emperor, so why can't I? Anyone with Liu for a name thinks like that."
I thought of Liu Bei, who had said outright that he wanted to be emperor. Not that bringing up Liu Bei now would do any good. Four imperial clansmen far more dangerous than Liu Bei have their blades pointed this way.
"Once they've put Us and Zhang Jue in the ground, they'll walk into Luoyang and fight over who sits the throne. Until then they'll want every soldier they can keep. So those bastards won't attack for a while."
Xu You left the residence where Xun You was staying with a vacant look on his face.
The carriage rattled from He Jin's mansion toward the Yuan family's residence. Midway there Xu You struck himself hard across both cheeks—once, twice—and the man who had heard a plan too heavy to bear vanished. Yuan Shao's strategist sat in his place.
His face gone cold and hard, Xu You muttered to himself.
"So even Xun Gongda can spin lies without so much as batting an eye."
He Jin, Huangfu Song, Zhu Jun, Lu Zhi… he had tossed those names around, but by what means was he supposed to move them? With a proclamation? And even granting they could be moved, there was no chance they would move for the reasons Xun You had given.
In the first place—was there any sense of camaraderie among those who called themselves Qingliu? Xu You could say with certainty that there was not. Had the Qingliu scholar-gentry not turned their backs even on military men who stood close to their own faction, dismissing them as frontier swordsmen of Liang Province?
Differ by a mere commandery, never mind a whole province, and it was all too easy to become worse than strangers. Unless the Turbid Stream, with the Emperor at its apex, threatened the interests of the Qingliu as a whole, one would never see the entire Qingliu unite. The notables of Yingchuan Commandery would think nothing of using and discarding the notables of Nanyang Commandery—or those of Jizhou, Yanzhou, Qingzhou—whenever it suited them.
"Xun Gongda knows I won't dance to his tune anyway."
The moment Xu You arrived at the Yuan residence, he changed into the sort of clothes the servants wore and walked out through a door on the opposite side. He passed through the gates of Luoyang and walked on until he found a stable belonging to the Yuan clan. There he obtained a horse and rode north, toward Mengjin.
At Mengjin, too, a man who knew Xu You's face—another in the Yuan family's employ—took the horse and put him on a boat. And so Xu You headed for Hebei.
Liu Chong, King of Ganling, was blocking the road that ran west from Guangzong County, all the way toward Wei Commandery in the distance. He kept watch in case Yellow Turbans might come pouring in from Wei Commandery, or someone might appear to rescue the Emperor—and all the while he watched for a chance to strike at Guangzong County.
He waited for the moment when the spirit of the Yellow Turbans gathered at Guangzong would flag, when some turn of fortune—provisions running out, or the like—would present itself. That will be the time to crush the Yellow Turbans and take the head of their ringleader, Zhang Jue. And while we're at it… if the Emperor happens to die in the chaos, so much the better.
Then a report reached Liu Chong. An army was approaching from far to the west.
Liu Chong went out to the camp gate himself to look. He could see the two characters marking the Colonel of the Rapid as Tigers, and the surname Yuan.
He turned to his officers and the Qingliu notables and beamed.
"Yuan Benchu, whose filial piety has won him the respect of the entire Qingliu! He will take our side!"
Moreover, according to the messages exchanged with Luoyang, Yuan Shao was deeply involved in this plan. Liu Chong stepped farther forward from the camp gate. He would greet Yuan Shao in person, and if things went well… might he not win Yuan Shao's support ahead of the other kings?
On Yuan Shao's side, too, they approached to a certain distance, then dismounted. Yuan Shao, coming on at a measured pace, was every inch the imposing man. He offered a courteous salute.
"Yuan Shao, Colonel of the Rapid as Tigers."
Then he glanced about as if searching for someone, and Liu Chong stepped forward.
"I am the King of Ganling."
"Is that so?"
Something cold whispered across his throat. In the next instant it felt as if a white-hot iron had been pressed to his neck. Acting on the naked instinct to seize a life that was pouring away, Liu Chong clutched at the wound, choking—but it did no good.
Yuan Shao looked down coldly at the king as he crumpled forward, then raised his voice at the stunned officers and the notables of Jizhou.