Chapter 124

On the first of the third month, the fourth year of Yong'an, the grand court met as usual. Emperor and ministers rose at the fifth watch, and after a string of elaborate rites it was the start of the si hour before the real business of governing began, not in the great hall but in Dongming Hall.

The ministers waited outside the hall, called in one by one by the Emperor's custom to report, advise, take orders, and so on.

Each emperor by his own liking called the ministers in a different order. Yang Zao cared especially about the Board of War, and the first always called was the Board of War minister Sun Shouyi, then the Board of Revenue, then Personnel, then Punishments, then Rites, and last Works.

The grand court was pressed for time and generally no important matter was spoken of. It was more a ritual procedure, elaborate, wearying, and yet not to be done without.

And Chen Dasheng, as an imperial guard, was on such days freer than the ministers, than even the Emperor.

The guards could change shifts quietly among themselves, find an empty spot for a cup of tea and a rest.

So Chen Dasheng, as usual, stepped back, and Yu Qingguan took the doorway post, standing straight with his saber in hand.

Going down the steps of Dongming Hall, Chen Dasheng heard someone call him, and turning saw it was the Board of War Left Vice-Minister Zeng Anbang.

Chen Dasheng went over and made a proper bow. "This humble officer greets you, my lord, but I don't know what you call me for?"

Zeng Anbang had always been on good terms with the Long Saber garrison. In the early days when Chen Dasheng and the rest were just starting out, he and Guo Qian had done no little to look after the old sabers.

Seeing Chen Dasheng come over, the ministers awaiting their call looked at them curiously. Standing about as they all were, those whom the Emperor called in, who could speak their minds to him alone, were all weighty ministers.

Chen Dasheng was a Board of War man, and Zeng Anbang naturally stood on no ceremony with him, and said, "Feilian, do you carry any of that everyday clear-the-head, settle-the-heart medicine on you?"

A guard's work, call it hard it wasn't so hard, call it difficult it wasn't so difficult, but a year-round grind, and being out of doors, now and then something would come up.

Officers like Chen Dasheng liked to bring everyday medicines when they went up the mountain, for staunching blood, for chills, for heatstroke, sorted by the season.

Chen Dasheng opened his little calfskin pouch and took out a small vial of heart-clearing pills and handed it to Zeng Anbang.

Zeng Anbang, restless at heart, tipped out a pill before everyone and swallowed it dry.

In truth, for a weighty minister like him to take medicine in public was a great taboo. For one thing, ministers didn't want to retire and could hold office a long time, and if they let slip any sign of illness, either the Emperor would do you in or your political rivals would find the chink and do you in.

To the Emperor, a minister could be replaced. To the ministers, to be above the ten thousand and below only one man was the pursuit of a lifetime, and once seated who'd wish to rise from it.

Even a minister coughing blood at home, hair gone white, could stand ramrod-straight at the grand court and not sway for two hours together. That was the groundwork of holding office.

Seeing Zeng Anbang take the medicine, Chen Dasheng asked with concern, "My lord? Is something the matter? Is it something you can speak of?"

Zeng Anbang sighed helplessly. "Feilian, a great calamity's come down on our Board of War. Can it be spoken of or not, by the time this morning's out it'll be known across the realm. Do you know, the tribes of Eastern and Western Tan have joined and invaded, Zuoliang Pass is lost, the pass-defending general Shangguan Yizhi fell in battle, four counties west of Zuoliang Pass have been raided, and our border folk killed and wounded without number..."

Chen Dasheng, a soldier, was startled on the instant. His brows knit, he looked back at the great hall and said, "When did this happen?"

Zeng Anbang sighed. "Five days ago. We only learned it just now by the eight-hundred-li express."

Chen Dasheng said no more, nodded to Zeng Anbang and the other Board of War colleagues, and turned away with a hand on his saber.

This was not a thing the Chen Dasheng of now could take part in.

Today's morning court ran especially long. After Sun Shouyi was called in, the Board of War ministers went in one by one and came out no more.

Then a eunuch came out with the command, summoning the Board of Revenue and Board of Works ministers inside to confer, and the rest of the boards, having nothing pressing, were to withdraw first. Today's chief business was the Board of War's.

So the fourth-rank and higher officials of the Six Boards made their proper bows and withdrew.

Know each other though they did, they would never be seen whispering head to head. Between one minister and another there was a good three feet of distance at least, and with a hundred and more walking, their official bearing goes without saying, but their feet were soundless, their coming and going very quick, and between them there was never a word, not even a meeting of the eyes.

If they had friendships or business, they arranged in private to speak in private. In the open they were always thus.

Only the fifth-rank and below, the officials who stood in the courtyard, would go out with a bit of a hubbub. In She Qingling's words to Chen Dasheng, once an official entered the fourth rank, he came to a long, lonely stage of having to think for himself and grow for himself.

What you did, the world you now saw, was a level the strategists and aides you'd once leaned on couldn't see, and their experience was of no more use to you.

Lean on outside strength any further, and your official road ended there.

Behind the stone steps of Dongming Hall was a triangular slope-roofed room. The inner guards had taken it over and made a place to rest and snatch a nap.

Never mind the place, sometimes in wind and rain, while the fourth-rank and higher ministers endured outside awaiting their call, one could half-recline in here with a hot drink, even sleep a while, and that was a subtle sense of privilege.

Of course, behind the steps was no fine spot, and even to let the old lords come in and lie down, they mightn't be willing.

Chen Dasheng didn't mind such things. He came in, half-reclined, took a cup of hot tea a young eunuch had boiled, ate a piece of pastry, and relieved himself a little in the chamber-pot in the corner.

In truth these two days his mood had been strangely uneasy, and he'd kept having the same odd dream. He dreamed his brothers were all gone, and vast as heaven and earth were, he had not a tie left in the world. In the dream he couldn't even call to mind that he had a father, or a wife... Behind him a lone city burned in ruin, and he stood outside its gate with a crowd of the wounded and sick.

And across from him he couldn't make out who it was, only a stretch of barren black, and the thin, scattered neighing of horses. Were they the wronged souls of the warhorses he'd killed, come for revenge?

Looking closely, no. They were pairs of eyes belonging to men and demons. They were coming... he was about to die... yet why did he hold pent in his chest a fierce breath that could wipe out ten thousand armies.

That breath couldn't be let out, and it woke him in a fury.

The low door was pushed open, and Yu Qingguan came in, and seeing him said, "Erdian and Yougui are on, old Liu's set three shifts, and I reckon we'll not get out today till curfew."

Chen Dasheng made room for him, and Yu Qingguan sat down and let out a long breath. "Other years the trouble always came after autumn. This year's strange, how's it come now?"

Chen Dasheng raised his eyes at him. "You've heard?"

Yu Qingguan nodded. "Mm, everyone has. Old Liu, who usually slacks off wandering about outside, didn't dare slack today."

He pointed up. "Listening over by the window."

Chen Dasheng looked up overhead, then suddenly asked him, "Qingguan, do you like your life now?"

Yu Qingguan paused, then laughed. "Listen to the chief. Why wouldn't I? An old mother and a wife, a son and a daughter, hot food, a cool shirt in summer and a fur coat in winter, neither cold nor hot and all just right. In the old days I'd not have dared dream of it, and now when I do dream now and then and see myself still in the Long Saber garrison, it near kills me with grief!"

Chen Dasheng laughed in spite of himself.

As the two of them talked, Zhang Minwang's adopted son Wang Xiang came in and asked Chen Dasheng, "Little patriarch, today's likely to drag on long. We can call the kitchen for something to stave off hunger. What would you like?"

Chen Dasheng thought a moment, then gave his orders out of long habit. "Keep it modest just now. The Emperor's temper won't be good from today on. Have them roll a few dozen meat-cakes, ready some water-skins, share some out to the Jinwu Guard too. Dare not drink much water, hold your piss and wind in tight, bring two more chamber-pots over and have them ready, and don't let the charcoal fire here go out. Oh, and today everyone keep sharp. Other days a slip was just a slip, but today, even if I make the mistake, there's still no mercy to be had, understand?"

Wang Xiang nodded his yes and left carefully.

Once he'd gone out, Yu Qingguan said idly, "Thanks to our Little Seven, I've been to no few lectures at the Imperial College of late, and I remember when the teachers spoke of the frontier they spoke of the Tan. He said, Tan to us is a fine word, open and candid, but over by the Tan River west of Zuoliang Pass, Tan is a disgusting word, and has disgusted us for several hundred years.

"Since of old the small men of that place have been a vexation. When our inland was rich and strong in arms, they'd come with tribute and call us father, and when we met with hard times, they'd start their provoking. The old dynasty was a weakling, one man full and never minding whether the border folk lived or died, and if they weren't to fall, who was? Isn't that so, Chief?"

Chen Dasheng nodded. "The sage said long ago, a small punishment is a great warning, and that's the small man's good fortune. Had there been one hateful, hard-fought war down the generations, they'd not be so bold..."

When he'd said it he rose, left the wedge of a room, stood watch outside the hall again, and listened to the Emperor's furious cursing all day long.

Even the Emperor's favored minister Wen Fengshu took a day's scolding.

There was no help for it. Great Liang, newly founded, had a hundred things waiting to be set right, and had put the whole country's strength into backing Chang Mianshen's three years of putting down the revolt. It was poor. It couldn't afford to fight.

The weighty ministers in Dongming Hall were scolded a day long, and by the time they dispersed it was truly curfew.

Chen Dasheng came down with the old lords, and saw from afar how several of the older ministers, having stood a whole day, forced down their distress as they left the palace, and the moment they saw the servants come to meet them went weak at the knees and were carried bodily into their carriages.

He went back alone to the prince's mansion, and sent word to Guard Lane to tell his father and his wife that for near a month he likely couldn't come back.

Only he didn't expect that, coming back the next day from his palace watch, his wife and father had already arrived.

Seeing a table of hot food, Chen Dasheng's mood lifted a little. He quickly took off his armor within, washed in a hurry, and only then came to the table and ate ravenously.

She Qingling quietly picked food into his son's bowl, and as he did urged him, "Eat slower."

Chen Dasheng shook his head. "The Emperor's mouth is all blisters, and today no one dared go to the wedge-room, we all stood the whole day. I'm starved, it's been so long since I went hungry."

Qi Qian'er, seated to one side, was brisk as ever. Her belly didn't show yet, only felt hard to the touch.

Hearing Chen Dasheng say he'd gone hungry, she said, "Why don't I bring you something to stave it off tomorrow?"

But Chen Dasheng shook his head. "The Emperor can't get food down these two days either..."

Before he'd finished, She Qingling set down his chopsticks heavily and snorted. "Heh. He's got what he deserves. I said long ago Chang Mianshen's front line shouldn't be stretched too long, the country's strength shouldn't be spent too far, and have the Jiusi Hall seep in slowly instead, but he wouldn't hear it, insisted on fighting fair and open. 'War is the way of deception,' is that 'deception' truly sneaking about in the dark? These bookworms do no end of harm! Well, four years of this upheaval and the whole stock's gone, and let's see how he gets out of it now!"

Anger flaring up in him, he rose and strode out.

Qi Qian'er had seldom seen Father in such a temper, and went and sat at the table, and added a little soup to Chen Dasheng's bowl, for he liked rice steeped in soup.

"Father seldom loses his temper like that."

Chen Dasheng nodded, his mood heavy. "Today's express came, two more cities on the frontier are lost, the Tan..." His face turned fierce. "The Tan have put a city to the sword."

With that he lowered his head and loudly ate at least three times his usual.

It was an old habit from before, eating each meal before a battle as if it were a last meal before the block.

Chen Dasheng wanted to fight!

Watching him, Qi Qian'er felt a subtle thing. For this, in truth, was the first battle in which Chen Dasheng lost his brothers, but in the last life Great Liang had not been so hard-pressed. The man called Shangguan Yizhi had had fierce generals in hand, and dragged out the war by main force, wearing down troops against the Eastern and Western Tan, and Chen Dasheng's brothers had been lost one by one, and he himself threw twenty years, and his very life, onto the frontier.

Qi Qian'er stroked her belly, a hundred tastes rising in her heart.

She was a Great Liang woman, and did not like the word "put a city to the sword."

Who knew how many old women, how many An'ers, were in those six lost cities.

That night, She Qingling, who so avoided entering the palace, went into the Great Liang palace of his own accord.

When he went in, the Emperor was drinking alone in his gloom in the hall, and Consort Xiao and Empress Cao, uneasy, waited in a side hall.

Seeing She Qingling they breathed easier as one, rose to take their leave of the one within, and told the Emperor She Qingling had come.

But unexpectedly a heavy object crashed against the door, and the Emperor roared within, "Tell him to go back! I've no joke for him to watch!!"

Empress Cao, without the Emperor's favor, went pale at this, but Consort Xiao had the nerve, and pulled her away.

When all around had gone, She Qingling slowly sat down with his back to the hall door.

Before long Zhang Minwang came with a tray and set down a pot of wine for him.

And so the two, as brothers, began to drink, one within the door and one without.

A pot of wine down, She Qingling said, in his unhurried voice still, "Your Majesty, this is your first time being an emperor too. It's not your fault..."

The one in the hall was caught mid-drink, and fell to coughing hard.

She Qingling's words were lazy, and quite unguarded. "A man is born into this world to take losses, and when he's taken enough he comes to understand. The Tan problem isn't of this dynasty. It's that the old dynasty, caring nothing, fed them too full. You're a poor man, you can't feed them anymore, and so the trouble came..."

"You're mocking me."

"No, your brother-in-office is mocking himself. They say I look down my nose at everyone, hold no one in regard, but in truth your brother-in-office is hollow within too, and so I force up a front, frighten others off first, and then they don't dare provoke me..."

"You mean the Tan? Heh, I'd like to frighten them, but when a great army moves, grain and fodder go first, and the seed's just gone into the ground now, and what little the state granaries have you know better than I..."

"Inland and borderland have been tangled together several hundred years, and if your brother-in-office may guess, perhaps at first they too only meant to frighten, but the knife went in, and they found it was a block of bean-curd, and got the taste for it..."

"...Guo Xiaoshan said the same."

"Him? What else did he say?"

"Useless words, all useless words, ai!"

She Qingling's lips curved, and unwilling to add any opinion for another's sake, he kept the Emperor company drinking till they fell down drunk, and that night rested in the old place.

From that day the eight-hundred-li express came five times a day at the least, and the border folk's wretched state slowly reached Yanjing through the mouths of escort agencies and travelling merchants.

To steady the people's hearts, the Board of War massed troops to drill, but all who knew the inside of it knew the court hadn't the silver and grain to send out an army of tens of thousands.

This day, home from court, Chen Dasheng took wine out again from the house, and came back drunk at night.

Qi Qian'er asked the guard who'd gone with him where he'd gotten drunk, and the man said a soldier had come to the capital bearing an urgent dispatch from the frontier, and Chen Dasheng and Liu Daya had gone to see him, asked after the frontier news, and gotten drunk with the soldier.

The more the guard spoke the worse he felt, and at last could not hold back a sob. "Madam, the Tan, they take no captives, they carry no one off, not even the women, they want none of them..."

Hearing this, Qi Qian'er went numb all over.

Taking no captives, carrying no one off, there was only one outcome: they left none alive.

That night Qi Qian'er stood a long while under the moon, a hand on her belly.

She'd been only a timid woman before, who knew just that her husband was a pass-defending general, just that her husband's brothers had all fallen in battle, and never thought deeply, no, never even imagined, what part these seven old sabers had truly played on the frontier.

This life, with six words she'd changed the old sabers, and Chen Dasheng had risen in office and wealth, but she'd never thought, never dreamed... that Zuoliang Pass without the old sabers would rot to this?

How could it be? How could it be. The Tan were a host of thousands, and they were but seven men, mere bodies of flesh and blood. Then what had happened in the last life, to bar the Tan outside the pass?

Who had played the key part in it? And by what means?

So many dead, and Qi Qian'er with child besides, her thoughts could not help but tangle, and the bouts of morning-sickness came on her again.

For five days more the court's mood grew tenser still. Great Liang had no lack of generals, a whole heap who could fight, and yet could not send out troops.

This day, father and son, away from home some days, came home at last, and after supper She Qingling had both Qi Qian'er and Chen Dasheng called to the Quzi stele.

From the moment he came in Chen Dasheng hardly dared look at Qi Qian'er. He sat down, and She Qingling took up the wine-pot and poured him a cup with a smile. "Try this wine, Sheng'er."

Chen Dasheng had had only a few days of good living and couldn't tell good from bad in it, and took up the cup and drained it at a draught.

Seeing his son drink, She Qingling poured him another and said, "Does my son blame his father?"

Qi Qian'er, silent till then, was startled in an instant, jerked her head up to look at father and son, and without thinking reached to touch her belly.

She Qingling dared not pour his daughter-in-law wine, but took a fresh cup, poured her plain water, rose, and holding it in both hands said to Qi Qian'er, "Dasheng's wife, today after court, I... I gave His Majesty a plan..."

In that instant Qi Qian'er knew. These days she'd been restless sitting or lying, always feeling some matter was coming, and now the matter had come at last.

Stunned, she took the cup, did not drink, but set it slowly on the table and sat down again.

Chen Dasheng drew a breath and forced up a smile for Qi Qian'er. "Wife, this has nothing to do with Father, it's for my good in truth. My footing in office is unsteady now, I've no greater merit to stand on. The merits of before were all won in the Tan army, and can't be counted to the time ahead..."

Qi Qian'er, holding down her anger, slapped the table and growled low, "It's been more than ten days! The two of you coming and going and treating me like an outsider. I asked this way, nothing's the matter, I asked that way, you tell me to eat as I eat and drink as I drink? And what, now there's a verdict? Were you two only fooling me?"

Chen Dasheng, struck by the nameless gust of her anger, tipped his neck back and dodged, and She Qingling, seeing his son so useless, reached out and gave him a slap. But Chen Dasheng still couldn't straighten up, and with a sheepish smile steadied Qi Qian'er, coaxing, "Don't be angry, don't be angry, it's all my fault. Mind yourself, don't startle our An'er, all right? Wife? When you fret, our An'er frets, when you grieve, our An'er grieves..."

Qi Qian'er drew a breath, narrowed her eyes, and holding her belly thought, don't tell me my child and I are truly fated to be a widow and orphan?

But Chen Dasheng's voice came to her ear. "Wife, truly this isn't Father's fault either. I went to the Emperor three times myself, in private, to beg for the frontier war. And not only me, my brothers are all of one mind. Great Liang can't fall into chaos..."

Qi Qian'er opened her eyes and looked at Chen Dasheng. "That's a host of thousands, do you take me for a fool? The court can't afford to send troops, it's all show on the surface, but even if you few go... what use will it be? To pad their horses' hooves?"