Chapter Eleven: Gan Ning, Matchmaker of Wu
Beyond the Red Cliffs looms the difficult political task of strengthening alliances.
Music, dazzling firecrackers, and the enticing aromas of delicacies being prepared all signaled a great celebration going on in Wu. Indeed, the night following the great battle of Chi Bi found most of that kingdom gathered on a giant floating pavilion lit up by multi-colored lanterns in the shapes of lotus flowers. Plenty of laughter and merrymaking filled the air, as jar after jar of wine was passed around and one general after another rose to make toasts, some to the Sun Clan, others to the Wu kingdom, still others to a speedy defeat of Wei and the reunification of China.
With the approach of nightfall, the atmosphere mellowed out somewhat, and a group of lovely dancers and songstresses, with the two Qiao sisters in the lead, made their graceful entrance.
As the musical performance began, Zhou Yu picked up his silver goblet and left his seat. He nonchalantly strode up to Sun Jian, and the two men spent the first few minutes lavishly toasting each other on their hard-won victory over the Wei kingdom. Then, Zhou Yu brought up the real reason for his visit.
"My lord," he spoke up in a low murmur, so as to not upset Sun Ce and Sun Quan, who were seated nearby, "Cao Cao must be burning for revenge after his humiliating defeat at Chi Bi...and a second victory over Wei will prove to be an impossible task for Wu alone."
Sun Jian sighed and leaned back into his seat, absently tapping at his chin as he considered the words of his strategist.
"The only chance that Cao Cao might be defeated for good is if Wu and Shu forge a more permanent alliance, and unite once and for all to strike at Wei," he mused out loud, then heaved a regretful sigh before adding, "Yet such a solid alliance in these uncertain times is almost impossible. Unless..."
At that moment, Sun Shang Xiang's happy, carefree laughter broke into their conversation.
The two men exchanged knowing looks, before Sun Jian stood up as well and followed his strategist out of the room and onto the teak deck of the pavilion. Once free of all the noise, music, and spirited laughter, a stretch of contemplative silence settled between the two men.
Finally, Zhou Yu quietly brought up a certain piece of news.
"My lord, I've heard that Liu Bei's wife, Lady Gan, has recently passed away," he disclosed meaningfully.
Daybreak slowly peeked over the Shu base camp, where Liu Bei was preparing to launch an expedition into Jingzhou and conquer it from Cao Cao's forces. He was in the middle of poring over a large canvas map of that province, with Zhuge Liang occasionally pointing out strategic locations using the tip of his white feather fan, when a footsoldier entered the tent and reported, "My lord, a tall man with bells around his neck is requesting an audience with you."
Liu Bei looked up and frowned, digging into his mind and trying to conjure up a face to match that unique description.
"Tell him to come back another day," he finally replied with a dismissive wave of one hand, returning to his map as he added, "I'm afraid I don't have much spare time right now."
"My lord," the infantryman insisted, "this man claims to be an ambassador from the Wu kingdom."
"Oh?" The distracted look left Liu Bei's eyes, to be replaced by a mixture of interest and curiosity.
After a moment's hesitation, he consented to meet with this so-called ambassador. "Very well, let him in."
"Yes, sir." And the little soldier obediently turned and ran out of the tent.
Minutes later, a tall man with bells around his neck did, indeed, enter.
Gan Ning of Wu looked strangely ill at ease as he tripped his way to meet with Shu's leader. After Sun Jian and Zhou Yu had conceived of the idea for a marriage alliance, a certain hapless ex-pirate had apparently been saddled with the task of playing matchmaker. All the officers of Wu had drawn lots to see who would get the honors, and as luck would have it, Gan Ning happened to draw the losing one.
Now, as he tried to put on an air of dignity which he felt was befitting of an official representative of the entire South, he began to clumsily stumble his way through a badly-rehearsed speech about unity and the evil that was Cao Cao.
"After all, can we expect to beat the Wei kingdom all by ourselves?" Gan Ning asked rhetorically, and before Liu Bei could answer, he'd already plowed ahead.
"Oh, and by the way, the Sun Clan has heard that Lord Liu Bei's wife has just died—is that true, and if it is, has Lord Liu Bei noticed that the princess of Wu, Sun Shang Xiang, has now reached the marriageable age?"
As Liu Bei sat back and gaped in confused silence, Gan Ning hurriedly untied a bundle from his waist, unrolling the delicate parchment to reveal a lovely portrait of a petite young beauty. She was dressed in frosty blue silk, and posing against a background of heavenly clouds, daintily holding a small branch of red mei flowers in one hand. The girl's short, boyishly-cut hair and openly mischievous smirk, however, seemed strangely at odds with the demurely pastel background and elegant silk outfit.
While Gan Ning was handing over the scroll to Liu Bei, he silently prayed the latter wouldn't notice that the painting was actually a portrait of Da Qiao, with Sun Shang Xiang's face simply painted over that of the elder Qiao beauty's. Without meaning to, his mind wandered back to the day when the warrior princess had found out that she would soon be acquiring a husband...
A court had been held at Wu, since this marriage alliance—if it were to happen—would play an important role in that kingdom's politics. A renowned artist had been hired, courtesy of none other than Zhou Yu, to paint the most flattering portrait possible of Sun Shang Xiang, with the hopes that Liu Bei might be mesmerized enough by the princess's beauty to agree to the alliance.
The minute that Sun Shang Xiang was called to attend, she knew that something must be wrong. Never before in her eighteen years had she been so formally invited to a political assembly: Her father was just beginning to get used to the idea of his little girl fighting in battles, her mother had never been too happy with that fact to begin with, and neither of her parents wanted to further compromise their daughter's femininity by entangling her in the world of politics in addition to that of warfare.
Needless to say, Sun Shang Xiang entered the Wu meeting hall at a slow gait and with a suspicious frown. She knelt down and bowed in reverence of her father, who noted with relief that his daughter had opted to leave her Sol Chakrams in the training field. One just never knew with that girl and her temper.
Sun Jian cleared his throat, wondering how to begin; he'd always envisioned the girl's mother as being the one to bring her news of weddings and other such domestic issues. That Sun Shang Xiang's betrothal had now turned into a political affair was something he should have foreseen when he'd established the kingdom of Wu all those years ago, but had somehow managed to overlook nevertheless.
"Shang Xiang," he slowly began, "you may have realized that the only reason this kingdom was able to defeat Cao Cao at Chi Bi was because of our alliance with Shu."
Sun Shang Xiang nodded suspiciously, but for the moment remained silent.
"Well," her father continued in a quiet voice, "alliances aren't always easy to maintain. We need Shu in order to defeat Wei, and to do that, we must forge a stronger, more personal alliance with Liu Xuande."
"Pop and Zhou Yu want to marry you off to the old guy," Sun Ce broke in bluntly, fearing that the meeting would never finish at the rate his father was beating around the bush.
The outcry that his younger sister set up at hearing this was deafening.
"Liar!" Sun Shang Xiang screamed, leaping up and reflexively bringing one arm over her shoulder as though to throw her chakrams at her oldest brother.
Whirling around to her father and aiming her fury at him next, she cried out, "How could you marry me off to a virtual stranger for your stupid alliance? Tell me it's not true!"
Sun Jian couldn't have looked unhappier as he said, "I'm sorry, Shang Xiang, but it is true. Zhou Yu and I—"
"I knew it!" Sun Shang Xiang swung her anger toward the strategist now. "If you're so eager to set up some stupid alliance with Shu, why don't you marry one of their women?"
Zhou Yu's lips turned white under her verbal assault, and Sun Jian spoke up sternly, "Shang Xiang, you're being unreasonable."
The Wu princess relapsed into seething silence, and after a while, Sun Quan tactfully spoke up, "You don't have to get married right now. Why don't you let Mr. Chen—" Here, he pointed at the artist—"paint your portrait first? Then, we can actually invite Liu Bei to Wu, and..."
That hadn't been one of his prince's smarter moments, Gan Ning, now safe on the northern shores of the Chang Jiang, decided. (The other none-too-smart moment had been when Sun Quan had recently kicked Pang Tong out of Wu for being too bizarre and ugly to make a respectable court official!)
Needless to say, after Sun Shang Xiang was done venting, the poor artist was terrified at the very thought of going near her. Sun Ce and Sun Quan had felt the full power of their baby sister's Sol Chakrams when they'd tried to hold her down to have her portrait painted.
In the end, Da Qiao had taken pity on the Sun Clan after seeing her husband's black eyes at the hands of his sister, and had volunteered to take the princess's place. Sun Jian, with every appearance of suffering from a tremendous headache, had scrounged up a year-old scroll of his daughter, posing gleefully atop her warhorse and painted on her last birthday, for the artist to copy onto Da Qiao's head.
Now, as Liu Bei examined the patched-together portrait, he thoughtfully remarked, "Forgive me for my bluntness, but I had heard that Lady Sun was substantially taller than this."
Gan Ning gulped and started at this comment, and the bells he always wore around his neck jingled merrily at his movement.
Meanwhile, Liu Bei was holding up the scroll so that Zhuge Liang could see. The Prime Minister of Shu darted one brief glance at the painting of "Qiao Shang Xiang" and began to smile knowingly, while Gan Ning inwardly cursed him for being so damn clever.
"I'm honored that the people of Wu think me worthy of Lady Sun, but the two of us simply won't make a good match," Liu Bei started to decline apologetically. "After all, I'm so much older than she...And I hope you won't be offended if I say this, General Gan, but I simply don't feel right about remarrying so soon after my wife's passing; besides, I'm much too preoccupied with the Jingzhou campaign right now to make an attentive husband—"
At that moment, Zhuge Liang calmly spoke up.
"Therefore, my lord hopes that the Sun Clan will understand why he can only manage a very short visit to Wu," he declared with a look of veiled confidence in his eyes.
Liu Bei turned to give his master strategist a shocked look, but the man known as Sleeping Dragon merely smiled and continued slowly swishing his fan back and forth.
Gan Ning grinned to himself at how easily his matchmaking mission had gone. Prudent for what felt like the first time in his life, he was swift to thank both men before eitherof the two could change his mind. Within a short ten minutes of his entrance, the ex-pirate was already on his way to the port where his ship was docked, happily preparing to sail back to Wu and deliver the good news.
It took Gan Ning a while to think of the consequences of his actions—namely, how Sun Shang Xiang might react to her future husband's visit. A chain of scenarios flashed across his mind—none of them too pleasant—and as he pictured these, his enthusiastic grin started to droop.