"Both the Pengcheng Liu clan and the Bohai Gao clan have flourished into great, leafy trees — but what relation might your honored family bear to Garrison Commander Gao, now at Jiangsheng?" A man in a tall cap and crimson robe edged with yellow leaned in from beside the seat of honor to ask — though of course it was no Master Du, but the register-conferred Celestial Official presiding over the banquet here.
That Official, naturally, had received his registers from Master Du's own hand and counted as a disciple in good standing; he claimed the Donghai Xu clan, presumably genuine great-clan birth — more than enough to preside as master in a place like this.
"Our families have been friends for generations. When Garrison Commander Gao later moved his whole household south, he lodged with my family, in the stretch between Pengcheng and Pei Commandery." Liu Huzi, seated stiffly before an empty table, was himself a proper great clansman of Northern Chu — how could he not know how to make such basic answers? And what he said was true.
"So that's how it is! Then your family's settling in the valley to the north was Garrison Commander Gao's idea as well, for convenience of mutual support?" Preceptor Xu continued to probe.
At this Liu Huzi's heart wavered — not that he couldn't answer, but that he didn't know how. When the other party had earlier refused to sell them the good things, he had already had his guesses: one, that they were newcomers and trust had yet to form between the two sides; the other, precisely that they had landed in a spot too close to the other party's fortified manor, which made things touchy.
In his hesitation he looked, almost by instinct, at Liu Cheng — the one whose words had brought them all here.
Liu Cheng had no words for it. What was there to it? They had already settled here; so long as you showed no nervousness, what answer wouldn't serve? He cut in ahead of his turn: "We were hereditary friends to begin with, and life-and-death matters have since been added on top. Looking out for one another is only natural."
Preceptor Xu nodded, then gave Liu Cheng an interested, lingering look... There was no helping it — the three were dressed far too unevenly, and the last one's coarse short jacket stood out even more starkly from the other two's: "Did you just say that you, too, were born of the Pengcheng Liu?"
"I am." This time Liu Cheng had learned his lesson. "But our branch moved to Qiao Commandery three generations back, and my grandfather and father were scattered into Hebei amid the chaos. This time we were fortunate enough to meet with clansmen..."
At that Preceptor Xu burst out laughing almost at once, then turned to the original guests: "Brother Gu, A-Song — these sons of the Pengcheng Liu turn out to be in exactly your position!"
Of the guests opposite, the older one gave a rueful smile on the spot: "So they are. A-Song and this youth especially — strikingly alike."
The last, a young man of about twenty, rose outright and saluted with joined hands: "Lu Song of Fanyang — also three generations in another commandery, and then fathers and grandfathers all caught up in Hebei. Now Shi Zhao has collapsed, and we have fled south in a sorry state, fortunately meeting clansman Brother Gu and Uncle, and making our way here together."
Only then did Liu Cheng understand. "Fellow sufferers indeed. But is the north really in such disorder that even the Fanyang Lu clan cannot gain a footing?"
"What does it matter that we're the Fanyang Lu?" It was the older Lu Gu who answered, his words bitter. "You come from Hebei yourself — do you not know the Jie's cruelty? I'll not hide it from you: my grandfather's name shook the world, yet they seized him as a hostage, and to this day we don't know whether he lives or dies... As his descendant, I am ashamed, truly."
Liu Cheng did his best to reply: "Your grandfather's name shakes the world, Brother Gu — sooner or later there will be word of where he is. My father and grandfather carry lesser names; I fear that for them, come what may, there will never be even news."
As he spoke he could only bow his head—
Who would have thought Lu Gu would seize the moment and break into open weeping, drawing the other Lu sons into sobs with him.
Gloom settled over the seats, and the sobbing would not stop.
Through it all, Preceptor Xu, Liu Jili, and Lu Song could seemingly still endure it, but farther down Liu Huzi was already plainly unable to sit still... One, he was anxious over the business of buying equipment; two, he was young after all — how was he to stomach all this blubbering?
Luckily, Liu Cheng was out of patience too. After a few sighs he rose suddenly, walked empty-handed to Preceptor Xu at the seat of honor, took wine and a cup for himself, poured one, and then, beneath the preceptor's mildly startled eyes, raised the cup to console the men: "Gentlemen — if we cry from day into night and night into day, will that cry the Jie to death? The elders were willing to make themselves the sacrifice precisely so that we might restore our family's name... Brother Lu — let us borrow Preceptor Xu's wine and drink to your honored elder's long life."
Lu Gu's distress did not lessen, but when someone had come to bless his family elder, what could he do? He rose and lifted his cup in reply; the several Lu sons, Lu Song included, likewise had no choice but to rise, cups in hand.
At the head of the room, Preceptor Xu caught the mood and threw a glance at the Daoist by the door, who at once passed word below. By the time the men had drained their cups, the bare tables before the three Lius had, remarkably, acquired food and drink much like everyone else's.
Meat and wine; vegetables and soup.
Far better than the fare at Gao Jian's place.
But then, the other side's earlier contempt had been on plain display as well.
Now, three Lius driven to such straits should by rights have lost all restraint and gorged themselves — yet against expectation, once the wine and meat truly arrived, all three held their composure, guilty of no breach of manner worth the name, until Preceptor Xu, after watching a while, gradually straightened in his seat, and the Fanyang Lu guests began, of their own accord, to make conversation.
For there was no other explanation: men who in their present state could still hold themselves in must have eaten and enjoyed fine things before, and must be true great-clan stock.
And if so, though poor and rich were not equal among them, their standing was of a kind — even, in a sense, that shared suffering. Little by little the company drifted into talking of the situation in the north.
At the mention of it, even Liu Huzi's attention was caught.
For a while all went smoothly, generalities only; then the argument began. The Fanyang Lu side, being of Youzhou stock and having in the early years thrown in wholesale with the Duan Xianbei, had as good as watched the Murong Xianbei's rise from start to finish; so these two Lu men had a real feel for the Murong Xianbei's strength, and both held that the Murong clan would certainly defeat Shi Zhao and occupy Hebei. Liu Jili, on his side, still could not give up on his Hebei Han: if the Di and the Qiang left Hebei, the Han would surely rise, and Shi Min and Li Nong might yet accomplish something... Liu Huzi naturally despised the Hu too, and chimed in after him.
After a few exchanges, since both sides were arguing the situation from afar and neither could convince the other — and there was proper business to attend to besides — Liu Jili fell quiet of his own accord, though he turned to Liu Cheng: "Perhaps I flatter myself. But this clansman of mine, A-cheng, came from Hebei like you, and he too believes the Murong Xianbei will have the day, and that Shi Min and Li Nong are not to be counted on..."
"Just so." Lu Song nodded, satisfied, and looked again at Liu Cheng, who had hardly spoken since the argument began. "Does Brother A-cheng also know of the Murong Xianbei's might?"
"I have heard, naturally, of the Murong Xianbei's might, and I know Murong Ke and Murong Chui to be famous generals of the age." Liu Cheng, calling up the fashionable talk of the age before his transmigration, answered in earnest. "But to me it is all as hazy as flowers seen through fog... The one thing I see more clearly is that Ran Min and Li Nong cannot be relied upon."
"Flowers through fog — well put." Lu Gu laughed along with him. "Still, that you even know Ran Min's surname is Ran shows you truly understand the Hebei situation... I would hear it in full."
"When it comes down to it, Ran Min and Li Nong look to be one body with Shi Zhao, but they are Han all the same, and are in fact dreaded by those Jie barbarians; sooner or later the two sides are bound to crack apart..." Liu Cheng knew better than to show a thread of timidity now, and met the company head high. "So they must not only contend with the Murong clan — they must first carry the day inside Shi Zhao itself. In other words, one internal feud must come first, perhaps several; a great round of slaughtering their own before they can face the Murong. And with the Murong's iron solidarity and grasp of the great design, they are certain to have the patience to sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight it out first."
"True enough."
"That is the sense of it." The several Lu men all concurred.
"As for Ran and Li: they must win inside Shi Zhao, and then resist the Murong on their own — all they can lean on comes down to the two words 'Hu' and 'Han': rouse the strength of the Han, raise the divide between Han and Hu, and strive with everything to repel the Hu." Liu Cheng went on with easy fluency. "But here lies the trouble. Shi Le before him was, starkly, a hero — it was the Great Jin court that abandoned the Central Plains, and he who swept them — so the Han heroes of the north, Ran Min and Li Nong included, could only follow Shi Zhao. And then Shi Hu proved cruel and merciless to the uttermost, and at that, Han men like Ran Min and Li Nong, bound body and soul to Shi Zhao, turned accomplices in it..."
Here Liu Cheng simply shook his head with a rueful smile; the Fanyang Lu sons opposite shook theirs too, as if recalling certain things.
"And that begets a difficulty," Liu Cheng continued when he had done smiling. "Suppose they do wake up, and take to shouting 'repel the Hu, revive the Han' on the spot — which Han beneath them would dare believe them? Let them make a move or two that lets the northern Han strike at the Hu in the opening — the moment after, they would cast them aside all the same, as things discarded and forgotten. And without the Han as their root, these onetime insiders of Shi Zhao are water without a spring, trees without roots: overbearing for a season, they cannot stand fast, and one defeat means death for themselves and extermination for their clans... That is why I say Ran Min and Li Nong cannot be relied upon."
"It's not only that the Hebei Han will not follow them — I fear the court will hardly acknowledge them either... More likely it will acknowledge the Xianbei." Liu Jili had caught up by now, his face gone very dark. "The court has always been strait-laced: Ran Min and Li Nong, though Han, are Shi Zhao's issue; while the Murong, though Xianbei, have been deferential to the court all along, and go by the name of loyal ministers."
"True." Lu Gu nodded agreement. "The court will surely acknowledge the Xianbei. And what you don't know: though the Murong are Xianbei, their upper ranks were sinicized long since; the various Murong mostly study Confucian learning, and before the Northern Expedition, the gentry who fled calamity to Liaodong were past counting, all of them received with courtesy. So even for the Han sons of Hebei, the heart may lean somewhat toward the Murong..."
"By that reasoning, then — if the Murong grow into a power, both sinicized and loyal ministers — could they give the north peace?" Preceptor Xu at the head cut in suddenly.
The Lu men looked at one another, none finding it easy to reply.
"No." It was Liu Cheng again who blurted the answer out, and with utter certainty. "The Murong were weak before, so they looked sinicized; but once Hebei is in their grip, ambition will breed of itself, and they will stand against the Great Jin. Nor is that all: set against the Great Jin on one side, charged with sustaining the Murong's own foundation in Hebei on the other, they will — without ever meaning to — walk the Jie barbarians' old road again, the way of the small lording it over the many... When that day comes, I'll not say they will be crueler than the Jie, but inside they will surely be much the same... And this is the very root from which chaos in the north grows!
"If this young fellow may say so: for the north to know peace, either you sit and wait while the various Hu — a Murong succeeding a Shi, and so on — fall into disorder time after time, until they see for themselves that without sinicization there is no going on, and one day, staking life itself, sinicize outright; or Han heroes must uphold the great cause from beginning to end, press the Hu with Han strength, and re-found the house of Han... Otherwise there is nothing for it but to wait for the imperial army to march north!"
The hall fell silent. This time the Lu sons, who had been nodding along all this while, said not a word; Liu Jili and Liu Huzi only watched this clansman lad, half lost.
To put it plainly: these men had seemed to endorse Liu Cheng's theories, but there was misunderstanding folded in. In their mouths, "the northern Han" was probably equated with the northern Han gentry clans — which was not what "northern Han" meant to Liu Cheng... And by now it had simply become the case of not following a word yet being impressed regardless.
Even proper great-clan sons who had fled back from the north and seen the real anatomy of the upheaval could not be expected to ponder its root causes; the farthest their thought went was "Shi Zhao is finishing, the Murong are rising." When would they ever wonder what comes after the Murong?
"Little Brother A-cheng is young in years, but his insight is no ordinary thing." After a good while, Lu Gu did his best to put on a grave face — the truth being he hadn't understood what the other was saying, yet it had somehow sounded reasonable, and was hard to refute. "Hebei is precisely in this situation... You will have seen it: in this Northern Expedition of the Grand Commander's, the force sent ahead was meant to receive the Han people of Qingzhou — and Li Nong defeated it... That is what comes of Li Nong's long habit of doing the tiger's bidding: he cannot perceive that the great tide has turned."
"Isn't it so? They have just butchered so many Han who were ready to flee south; let them cry 'repel the Hu, revive the Han' — which northern Han would believe them?" Lu Song laughed coldly, likewise leaving untouched the question of what comes after the Murong. "Never mind the Xianbei — I'd say they are not even the equal of the Di and the Qiang."
"That I would not say." Lu Gu waved a hand. "The Di and Qiang attack the fleeing Han too... The logic is the same: they simply reckon that people streaming south will strip them of recruits and revenue, so they swallow population to fatten themselves. But the Di and Qiang are Hu after all — they will never have to raise the Han banner hereafter, so what is done now is simply done; and they plainly intend to return to Guanzhong. But Li Nong, Ran Min, and their kind? Having done this today, how will they ever raise the Han banner hereafter? Even did they wish to offer themselves to the court, the court would not believe them. Yet, as little Brother A-cheng says: without the court, without raising the divide between Hu and Han, on what grounds would they stand against the Jie, and then go on to beat the Xianbei?"
"In short, this Ran Min and Li Nong of yours are indeed bound to lose..." Preceptor Xu at the head seemed to be eating it all up.
"Born what they are, they never had a chance of winning." Lu Song's hatred sharpened. "It's only a pity for the northern Han, who must be dragged down for them yet again — and still they clutch them and will not let go!"
At that Lu Gu's face froze stiff, on the point of weeping once more.
So Preceptor Xu hurried to change the subject: "Who would have thought little Brother A-cheng, at his age, would have such insight."
So this was the stuff of legend — hold forth on the great trends of the realm, and a famous general or famed gentleman looks at you with new eyes, then bows to the ground?
A flicker of excitement ran through Liu Cheng, but he did not dare believe a famous general would truly defect to him. He called up those half-true talking points from his previous life's forums; his real hope was simply that the act would land, that it would please the host, and that they would then part with a few restricted weapons — at a discount, best of all.
So he hesitated hardly at all, joining his hands to the company that instant: "All idle talk, hardly worth the telling. As things stand we don't even know how we'll live through the winter — that's why we're so anxious to hunt a tiger before the Double Ninth Festival... I hear Preceptor Xu has strong bows and long spears here. Might you be willing to help us a little?"
"Gladly, gladly." Preceptor Xu shook his head, laughing. "Those great-family gentlemen in Kuaiji hold forth on the Mystery, and if their talk is subtle enough, someone sends high office after them. We, a pack of down-and-out men, can only talk of the times... Little Brother, your talk was so subtle — mystery upon mystery — how could I not send you a few tiger-hunting implements?"
With that he waved toward the door: "Bring out whatever implements we have and let them choose — none of this small-mindedness... The Celestial Masters' teaching tells us: 'the receiver goes before, the bearer comes after.' Aid others today, and the reward is certain hereafter."
The man outside gave an obedient "Yes" and turned to go.
At these words Liu Cheng fell to wondering: was this Daoist notion of karmic retribution transmitted from the Buddhist school, which was only now beginning to flourish mightily, or was it the fruit of Han-era thought on the resonance between Heaven and man?
There was no time to think it through. In a trice, seven or eight big men with crimson headwraps shouldered in implements wrapped in oilcloth and, at Preceptor Xu's direction, spread them on the floor — instantly riveting the attention of Liu Huzi and the rest.
Liu Cheng too was startled on the spot. For besides long spears and stiff bows, he saw with his own eyes four or five crossbow sets — some plainly with their stocks replaced, some still carrying smears of what looked like blood. Yet when he went forward to examine them, the trigger mechanisms — the heart of the weapon — were identical in material and size, and every sighting scale bore grinding marks along its side. These had unmistakably been rotated out of a real army, then wiped clean of the inscriptions of the official arsenals or official workshops.
A little more searching turned up what he expected: iron bolts, uniform to a one, all dressed in tung oil and packed in oxhide bags.
In fairness, to Liu Cheng's eyes these crossbow sets were worth no less than gold and silver — worth more, if anything... As a transmigrator not yet full-grown, one who had been through an exile besides — however cheerfully he took each day, how could he not know the necessity of force?
And how could he not know that this was the one ability, the one safeguard, most lacking in a man who lacked everything?
He had not yet learned the bow; riding behind Liu Huzi had jolted his backside sore; with a long spear he could shut his eyes and see himself unable to swing it. So what could be more heartening than a set of army crossbows?
Nor was it Liu Cheng alone: Liu Huzi was running his hands over a stiff bow, Liu Jili gripping a long spear, neither able to let go.
From the seat of honor Preceptor Xu watched a while, then suddenly narrowed his eyes: "That one there... Brother Hu — can you draw that bow?"
Liu Huzi blinked at the question — and would show no weakness. Right there in the hall he stripped off his shirt, baring arms flushed red; several big men stepped up to help him string the bow; and then, under the company's mixed gazes, Liu Huzi strained and bent it — and drew it round as the full moon.
Liu Cheng was first to clap.
Preceptor Xu clapped and laughed too: "Fine strength — a keen young warrior! All three of the Pengcheng Liu are stalwart fighting men! Then let it be so: the implements in your hands I give to the three of you, and buy nothing more. We are neighbors now, and neighbors must look after one another. Over and above, ten long spears and ten stiff bows, and three more crossbow sets... More than enough for the tiger hunt... And when you have used them, whatever remains, just bring it back to me some day."
Liu Huzi was overjoyed; several of the Lu sons laughed out loud as well.
Liu Jili instinctively glanced at Liu Cheng, saw his face as calm as ever, and then accepted the gift with solemn thanks.
Chapter 13