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A skylark traced an arc through the air and alighted upon a tree within the courtyard. It cocked its head slightly, preened its feathers with its beak, then pushed off with its legs and soared back up into the clouds.
Fei Min tapped his fingers on the desk and spoke slowly: "Nephew, in Bingzhou—how much do you truly hold in your grasp?"
This was the moment to lay their bargaining chips on the table and weigh them. Fei Min needed to know precisely how much Fei Qian actually had in hand before he could determine just how much he himself ought to wager in this venture.
Fei Qian deliberated for a moment, then said: "Pingyang, Yong'an, Beiqu, Dingyang, Diaoyin... all are within my grasp. As for troops and horses... cavalry: three thousand Han, two thousand Hu; infantry: five thousand..." Fei Qian dared not say too much and deliberately shaved down the current situation somewhat before revealing it to Fei Min. He did not mention the Peach Mountain Academy, nor the trade networks that now stretched across Xihe, Hedong, Henei, and even reached into Ji Province and You Province. Yet even the information Fei Qian did disclose was enough to make Fei Min draw a deep, sharp breath.
Fei Min then closed his eyes. Behind his lids, his eyeballs could be seen darting rapidly. "Before the sacrificial ceremony..." Fei Min opened his eyes and spoke through gritted teeth, the flesh of his cheeks twitching. "This matter must be swift! I shall go at once to seek out a few close friends..."
Fei Qian was somewhat surprised. He had not expected Fei Min's judgment to be so remarkably precise. This very time window was precisely the one he himself had planned to use for his extraction. The auspicious omen sacrificial ceremony was Wang Yun's current maneuver to smear a layer of gloss over his own face. Before it was completed, in order to ensure the ceremony proceeded smoothly, no disruptive moves would be made. But once the ceremony was concluded, riding the majestic, overawing momentum to crush down from above...
Fei Min did not even ask Fei Qian whether he chose to remain in the capital or stay in Bingzhou. Given the territory now in Fei Qian's hands, if he were to stay and take up a post in Chang'an, a promotion upward would mean nothing less than being appointed one of the Nine Ministers. And at this moment—was that even remotely possible? Thus, the only path was to remain in Bingzhou. That was where the greatest benefit lay, and it was also in the best interest of the Fei clan.
"Your nephew shall go at once to pay his respects to General of the Household Cai," Fei Qian immediately followed.
"Good!" Fei Min said. "Let Fei Lu accompany you, nephew. If there is any change in the situation or any news..."
"Understood, Uncle. Your nephew takes his leave." Fei Qian cupped his hands in farewell.
Fei Min nodded and said, "There is no time to lose. Your uncle must also make some preparations." With that, he rose, escorted Fei Qian a few steps, and the two exchanged a glance and a nod before each set off on their separate errands.
Fei Qian mounted his horse and flicked his riding crop. A sudden swell of emotion rose in his heart. Was this perhaps the first time since arriving in the Han dynasty that he was truly cooperating with his own clan? He truly did not know whether to find it ironic, or to conclude that nothing in this world was absolute.
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At the Cai residence, within the study.
"Your seizure of Shang Commandery was accomplished far too easily," Cai Yong said, sitting perfectly upright. He stroked his beard, and after hearing Fei Qian's account, fell into contemplation for a moment before speaking.
Too easily? Did he mean that he had launched the campaign to reclaim Shang Commandery too early, or was it something else?
Cai Yong rose, searched among the bookshelves in the study, and withdrew a bamboo scroll, which he handed to Fei Qian. He gave a slight lift of his chin, signaling Fei Qian to read.
Fei Qian accepted it and unrolled the scroll. At the head of the first two rows of bamboo slips were written the words: "Your servant has observed in private that the Late Emperor, desiring to open the Western Regions and establish a Colonel there, planned and deliberated for over ten years before launching the grand strategy to strike the Xiongnu in the north and dispatch envoys to the west..."
The Han dynasty's utter lack of punctuation was truly maddening. Fei Qian filtered and sorted through the text in his mind, then looked up and asked, "The memorial submitted by Ban Dingyuan?"
Cai Yong closed his eyes and gave a slight nod, saying nothing. Fei Qian thus continued reading.
Ban Chao's memorial was not long—about five or six hundred characters. Fei Qian quickly finished reading it and then furrowed his brow in deep thought. Ban Chao was a ruthless figure who had forced open the path to the Western Regions for the Han dynasty: he had killed envoys, dispatched assassins in secret, employed stratagems to sow discord, leveraged strength through others, guided events by exploiting circumstances—using every conceivable means, he had forged the Han dynasty's enduring and powerful influence in the Western Regions. So what exactly did Teacher Cai Yong mean by handing him this scroll?
One must not simply dismiss Ban Chao as a figure of the Western Han. His memorial was, in fact, composed in the most formidable style that later ages would call the "McKinsey method." First, in fewer than a hundred characters, he concisely stated the core thesis of the entire document. Next, he constructed his argument from the four aspects of "past and present, domestic and foreign." Then, he extended this to his own actual circumstances for elaboration and set forth several feasible, actionable measures. Finally, he concluded by extolling the splendid rivers and mountains of the motherland and expressing his fervent hopes. Even submitted for the later-age college entrance examinations, it would effortlessly earn a top-tier essay score.
Fei Qian re-examined the memorial. Stripping away the formulaic courtesies at the beginning and end, and further removing the sections specifically pertaining to Kucha, only a few sentences remained:
"Your servant, prostrating himself, reflects in his private thoughts: a mere rank-and-file soldier and minor functionary, I earnestly wished to follow the example of Gu Ji and offer my life in the farthest, most forsaken frontiers, hoping perhaps to emulate Zhang Qian and abandon my body in the desolate wilds."
"Previously, your servant, along with thirty-six officers and men, received the imperial mandate and ventured into these forsaken territories, enduring every manner of hardship and peril."
"From the time I defended Shule in isolation until now, five years have passed. The true circumstances and sentiments of the Hu and barbarian tribes—your servant has come to know them quite well."
The earnest, wholehearted devotion to the nation was there. The record of extreme hardship and towering merit was there. The corroboration of seasoned experience was there. Translated into the parlance of later ages, it meant: "You lot of carping critics, get lost! When I was making my way in the Western Regions, you were all still suckling milk at home!"
Thus, coupled with what Teacher Cai Yong had just said about things being "far too easy," the implication was that the carping critics in the court and the provinces had once again felt their hearts stir—and so they had begun to act. Because Shang Commandery had previously been administered in exile, a great deal of information had simply never reached the ears of the court and the wider officialdom.
Many people had no understanding whatsoever of the actual situation in Shang Commandery, much like the state of affairs before Ban Chao had been dispatched to the Western Regions. They knew there were some people over there, but what exactly the situation was—they did not know. Whether it could be conquered—they did not know. Therefore, many high ministers of the court would not lightly set foot into such an uncharted and uncertain territory. Yet this fog of war had been parted by Fei Qian. Instantly, a great many people discovered, to their astonishment, that Shang Commandery was actually...
A man barely twenty years of age had, in the blink of an eye, effortlessly seized such a swath of territory there, beginning to reclaim the commandery and its counties. In that case, if someone with even richer experience—someone who had been engaged in governance or military command for many years—were to take over, wouldn't it be...
God dammit! So this was what it was about! Who wouldn't want to claim such merit? Who wouldn't want to seize such an easy advantage? And as it happened, Fei Qian belonged to the category of a "rank-and-file soldier and minor functionary" who had only just been promoted not long ago. Dealing with him would simply be all too easy.
Fei Qian set down the bamboo scroll, silently rolled it up properly, and placed it on the desk. "In that case... Huangfu?"
Once that layer of gauze used to cover the shame was torn away, many hideously ugly details would be laid bare. Who, across the entire court, possessed a higher rank than Fei Qian, greater seniority, a more illustrious reputation, and more experience in commanding troops? Among the civil and military officials of the court, those who had actually led troops before originally included Lu Zhi, Zhang Wen, and Zhu Jun. Regrettably, one had gone into seclusion, one had been killed, and one had fled into exile. The only one remaining was Huangfu.