Chapter Fourteen: Cao Cao's Scheme
Safe within the towering city walls of Xuchang, Cao Cao plots to avenge his defeat at Chi Bi.
Xi Tian looked at the remarkably beautiful features, cold dark eyes, and wisps of midnight-colored hair peeking from beneath their giant straw hat, and had no trouble identifying the man standing before her.
"You must be General Zhang He," she breathed in a soft, startled voice, before quickly adding with a flattering smile, "I've heard much about you, Great General."
She conveniently forgot to mention, however, that most—if not all—of what she had heard about him had more to do with his unique physical appearance than with his fighting prowess.
Zhang He, for his part, seemed quite pleased with Xi Tian's compliment. As a result, he momentarily forgot to be angry at the girl for wandering so far away from the Middle Land, thus forcing him to ride all those li under deplorable traveling conditions—and wearing such a hideously tacky disguise—just to rendezvous with her.
"What have you learned so far?" the striking general wasted no time in asking.
Xi Tian fidgeted at this simple question, absently twisting her rose handkerchief around her fingers, while she herself turned as pink as that delicate slip of silk. In the back of her mind, she'd always known that she'd pay one day for frivolously passing her time in Shu chattering with anyone who'd listen or chasing after butterflies; she'd just figured that her punishment would come from that nasty-tempered old cook, rather than from a Wei warrior whose great beauty could easily surpass that of either of the two Qiaos.
"Ah…Lord Liu Bei will be going to the Wu kingdom this week to be married," Xi Tian stammered guiltily, plucking at the most obvious answer.
One of Zhang He's eyebrows warily slanted upwards at hearing her awkward response.
"Everybody knows that already," the arresting warrior pointed out. "Sun Jian has offered his only daughter to Liu Bei in order to forge a more secure alliance with him; our spies brought in the news as soon as the Sun Clan sent its matchmaker to Shu."
Xi Tian broke into peals of laughter that were a bit too bright and merry in their effort to cover up their owner's nervousness.
"So you've heard about it," she chirped. "Bye now."
And she made a rather obvious attempt to escape into the safety of the crowds.
Zhang He tightened his hold on her wrist, pulling her back toward him with traces of a suspicious frown beginning to emerge on his flawless features.
"That's not enough, mei gu niang," he told her in a voice that held an unmistakably menacing timbre despite its veneer of perfect courtesy. "What have you gathered of Shu's ability to wage war? What are the individual flaws of its generals? How steady is its political alliance with Wu? Are its forces well-supplied? Are its battle formations beautiful?"
War? Generals? Political alliances? Never before in her nineteen years had Xi Tian been assaulted with such serious, masculine topics, so she chose instead to focus on more familiar territory: the word "beautiful."
"Oh, as beautiful as the moon and the stars," she lied with a straight face, for in reality, she'd been too busy dodging her chores and avoiding the old cook during her stint with Shu to even get a glimpse of that kingdom's training grounds.
Zhang He began to scowl. Cao Cao was renowned for his craftiness, but sending a female spy into the enemy lines was rapidly beginning to reveal itself as one of his poorer ideas. Sure the Xi girl was inconspicuous—yet she was also turning out to be careless, feckless, artless…
But at that moment, Xi Tian unwittingly redeemed herself before the narcissistic warrior's eyes.
"Are you sure you shouldn't be focusing more on the Sun-Liu marriage alliance, rather than on how beautiful the Shu troops are?" the pretty nineteen-year-old asked innocently.
At the disinterested lift of Zhang He's charcoal eyebrows, she proceeded to explain herself: "After all, Lord Liu Bei is very reluctant to even meet Lady Sun. There's potential for some serious conflict between their two kingdoms if the marriage fails."
Cao Cao swept a glance at his court with some semblance of a grim smile on his face. True, Wei had recently suffered a humiliating and sound loss, and at the hands of two inferior kingdoms, no less. But out of the ashes of Chi Bi, he'd managed to salvage what was most important for maintaining a warring state: gifted strategists and heroic generals.
And Cao Cao didn't plan on going unavenged for too long—the seed for both Shu and Wu's downfalls had already been sown.
Here, he turned to one particular court official seated to his left side.
"Lord Xi, I trust you found agreeable the amount of silver I sent you last week?" the ambitious king drawled in a regal voice.
"I am forever indebted to Your Majesty for your kindness," came the respectful response, coupled with a bow.
"I understand that mere silver is no replacement for your virtuous daughter," Cao Cao continued in a sympathetic-sounding tone. "However, let me personally reassure you that once her task is completed and China is again as one, Xi Gu Niang(1) will be well taken care of, in want of neither money nor a husband."
Xi Wen Qing suppressed a sigh and bit down on his lower lip at hearing this. The last thing he needed was for Cao Cao, of all people, to be playing matchmaker for Xi Tian—his poor child would probably end up with the former's hateful one-eyed cousin for a husband…or worse, somebody even more fearsome! If anything, it was bad matchmaking for the girl that had dragged the Xi family into this whole mess to begin with.
With a livid Lu Bu closing in on Jingzhou City from the north and the ominous words of the Taoist priest from over a decade earlier ringing in his ears, Lord Xi had had no choice but to become a virtual recluse. Life in the semi-wilderness around Dangyang hadn't been easy those early months, and bandit raids were rapidly becoming a dreaded weekly ritual.
While brave little Xi Ai was still around, she'd managed to keep the brigands at bay, but the day eventually arrived when the fortune-teller's ten-year-old prediction came true. Xi Ai, the youngest of the four sisters, had found herself heavily outmatched in battle against marauding river pirates. She ended up losing so badly that she'd ultimately been carried off by the outlaws during her gallant attempt to retrieve the Xi family heirlooms they'd stolen.
When Liu Biao's incompetent young son surrendered the whole of Jingzhou to Cao Cao soon afterwards, the latter had inevitably discovered Lord Xi's isolated country estate while surveying his newly-won territory. Recognizing a talented official in the bereaved father of four, Cao Cao had offered to cleanse the countryside of plunderers and ruffians, and had mostly stayed true to his word.
It hadn't been an act of altruism, however.
Soon after Chi Bi, Cao Cao had called on Lord Xi, demanding a return for his favor. Wei needed a spy to infiltrate the enemy ranks, to gather personal information on their warriors and leaders, which might prove useful when facing against these same people at future dates. But so far, the Middle Land had had disastrous luck when it came to spies—at least male ones—with its two most recent ones being executed just before the commencement of the battle of Chi Bi.
A woman, on the other hand, wouldn't be suspected of espionage as much. The lovely Lady Zhen Ji was unfortunately too well-known to be able to assimilate herself with the enemy…which was where Lord Xi, with his remaining daughter, came into the picture. The fact that Xi Tian had already endeared herself to one of the Tiger Generals of Shu would only serve to increase her chances of being welcomed into that particular kingdom.
What could Lord Xi do when confronted with this thinly-veiled order from Cao Cao? He'd had no choice but to arrange for an "accidental" reunion between his beloved daughter and the young hero of Chang Ban Slope, letting fate take its course from there on.
Lord Xi didn't have time to lament over his many woes for too long.
At that moment, a messenger scampered into the assembly hall, knelt down, and announced loudly, "My lord, General Zhang has returned."
"Send him in, of course," Cao Cao replied with a wave of one hand, and within minutes, Zhang He strode gracefully into the room, fixing his hair from where it had gotten messed up due to a long ride on horseback coupled with having to wear a tacky giant hat for innumerable hours.
This urgent hairdressing task taken care of, Zhang He proceeded to bow before his king.
When asked of what he'd learned from his recent trip to Jingzhou, the Peacock General proceeded to announce, "Xi Gu Niang tells me that there's already reluctance and strain in the pact between Wu and Shu. If the Sun-Liu marriage crumbles, so will the alliance."
Cao Cao sat back, looking pleased at this news.
"So soon?" he sneered derisively. "I myself have always believed in the sanctity of marriage, but for the Sun-Liu case, I think I'll make an exception. The sooner that union is broken, the sooner Wu and Shu will destroy each other, leaving Wei to swoop in for the easy conquest and reunification of China."
And then, he veered off-topic to put forth a question which had no apparent relevance.
"Lord Xi, how well-versed is your daughter in the fine arts?" Cao Cao asked.
Though he looked startled at first, Lord Xi obligingly replied, "She was home-schooled in all aspects of qin qi shu hua(2) while we were still living in Jingzhou City. Though fair at these four, I'm afraid my little girl never quite had the patience or devotion to fully master them."
"Fair will do just fine," Cao Cao reassured the ex-governor.
Having said that, he went on to write a few lines on paper, beckoning Zhang He over when he was finished as if to have him deliver the letter. Zhang He, however, visibly blanched at the mere thought of having to re-subject his beautiful hair to that nightmare of incessant bumpy rides and tacky hats, all for the sake of delivering a piddling little letter to a girl not yet twenty.
Xiahou Dun caught the pitiful look on his comrade's face, rightly interpreting its cause and scowling to himself in both irritation and disgust.
Storming up toward Cao Cao, the fierce one-eyed warrior bowed briskly and requested, "My lord, allow Xiahou Dun to deliver the letter in General Zhang's place."
Cao Cao saw few problems with switching messengers, so he conceded and gave his letter to his cousin instead.
"Liu Bei and his forces must be preparing to cross the Chang Jiang by now. It will be difficult trying to catch up to Xi Gu Niang by ship without attracting the attention of the Shu sailors, so I suggest you intercept her at Wu instead," he instructed.
"Understood," Xiahou Dun replied solemnly, before turning on his heels and striding out of the assembly hall.
1. Maiden, or Miss.
2. Music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, the four arts which all Chinese scholars were expected to master.