The Three Kingdoms: The Sacred Oath

by Luo Guanzhong

  “You do not look ill, though—your face wears the very bloom of health,” said the guest bluntly.

  His host could find nothing to say. The visitor shook out his long sleeves and rose to depart. He sighed deeply as he walked down the steps, saying to himself, “Not one of them is any good, there is no one to save the country.”

  This speech sank deeply into Dong Cheng’s heart. He stopped his guest and said, “Who is no good to save the country? Who do you mean?”

  “My breast is still bursting with rage over that incident at the hunting expedition the other day. But you, a near relative of the Emperor, can pass your time in wine and idle dalliance without any thought of doing away with the rebel. Can you be counted as one who will save the country?”

  Though his words sounded true Dong Cheng’s doubts were not set at rest. Pretending great surprise he replied, “The prime minister is an official of the highest rank and has the full confidence of the Emperor. Why, then, do you utter such things against him?”

  “So you find that ruffian a good man, eh?” said Ma Teng indignantly.

  “Please lower your voice: there are eyes and ears very near us.”

  “Those who covet life and fear death are not the ones to discuss any great undertakings.”

  So saying he rose to leave. By this time his host’s doubts were cleared—he was sure that Ma Teng was loyal and patriotic. So he said, “Do not be angry any more. I will show you something.”

  Then he invited him into the library and showed him the decree. As Ma Teng read it his hair stood on end—he ground his teeth and bit his lips till the blood came.

  “When you take action, remember the whole force of my army is ready to help,” he offered.

  Dong Cheng introduced him to the other three and then the pledge was produced and Ma Teng was asked to sign his name. He did so, at the same time smearing his lips with blood as he said the oath. “I swear I would rather die than betray this pledge.”

  Pointing to the five he said, “If there are ten of us we can accomplish our design.”

  “True and loyal men are but few,” said Dong Cheng. “One of the wrong sort will spoil all.”

  Ma Teng told them to bring in the name list of all the officials. He read on till he came to the name Liu of the Imperial clan. Clapping his hands he cried, “Why not consult him?”

  “Who?” cried the others altogether.

  Ma Teng very slowly and deliberately spoke his name.

  To a relative of the state comes the Emperor’s decree,

  And a scion of the ruling house can prove his loyalty.

  The name of Ma Teng’s hero will be told in the next chapter.

  Footnote

  * An important minister in West Zhou Dynasty. After the death of his brother, Emperor Wu, he became regent, helping the young emperor suppress rebellions by various lords.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Cao Cao Brews the Wine and Talks about Heroes

  Guan Yu Slays Che Zhou to Regain Xuzhou

  At the end of the last chapter Ma Teng was about to disclose the name of a person who could be trusted with effecting the Emperor’s decree.

  “Who is it?” was the question they asked him.

  Ma Teng answered, “Liu Bei, Governor of Yuzhou. He’s here and we can ask him to help.”

  “Though he is an uncle of the Emperor, he is at present a partizan of our enemy. I don’t think he’ll support us,” said Dong Cheng.

  “But I noticed something during the expedition,” said Ma Teng. “When Cao Cao advanced to acknowledge the cheers of the crowds Liu Bei’s sworn brother Guan Yu was behind him. I saw him reaching for his sword to cut down Cao Cao. However, Liu Bei checked him with a warning look and he did not. He would willingly destroy Cao Cao, only he thought the tyrant had too many claws and teeth around him. You can ask him. I’m sure he’ll consent.”

  Here Wu Shu interrupted. “Don’t be too hasty,” he cautioned. “Let’s consider the matter more carefully.”

  They dispersed. The following night Dong Cheng went to Liu Bei’s lodging, taking with him the decree. As soon as he was announced Liu Bei came to greet him and led him into a private room where they could talk freely. The two younger brothers, as always, stood at his sides.

  “It must be something unusually important that has brought you here tonight, sir,” said Liu Bei to his guest.

  “If I had ridden forth by daylight, Cao Cao might suspect, so I came by night.”

  Then wine was served and while they were drinking Dong Cheng said, “Why did you hold back your brother the other day at the hunting expedition when he was going to slay Cao Cao?”

  Liu Bei, greatly startled, asked: “How did you know?”

  “Nobody noticed but I saw.”

  Liu Bei could not deny any more. “My brother could not help getting very angry at Cao Cao’s presumptuous behavior,” he explained.

  The visitor covered his face and wept. “Alas, if all the officials were like him, there would be no worries for lack of tranquillity,” he sighed.

  Now Liu Bei suspected that he might be sent by Cao Cao to test him so he cautiously replied, “Why worry about lack of tranquillity while Prime Minister Cao is running the government?”

  Dong Cheng changed color and rose from his seat. “You, sir, are an uncle of His Majesty and so I showed you my innermost feelings. Why do you try to deceive me?”

  “Because I feared you might be deceiving me, and I wanted to find out,” replied Liu Bei.

  At this Dong Cheng showed him the decree. Liu Bei was deeply affected with sorrow and indignation. Then the guest produced the pledge, on which were only six names.

  “Since you are acting on the decree of the Emperor, I must do all I can to help,” said Liu Bei. At Dong Cheng’s request he put down his name and signature underneath the others and handed it back.

  “Now we need to get but three more, which will make ten, and we will be ready to act.”

  “But you must move with the greatest caution and not let this get abroad,” warned Liu Bei.

  The two talked till an early hour in the morning, when the visitor left.

  In the meantime, Liu Bei, in order to guard against possible attacks from Cao Cao, began to devote himself to gardening, planting vegetables, and watering them with his own hands. His brothers were puzzled.

  “Why do you neglect great matters of the country but tend to such lowly things?” they asked.

  “This isn’t something you’ll understand, brothers,” he replied. And they said no more.

  One day when the two brothers were absent and Liu Bei was busy in his garden, two officers came with an escort from Cao Cao’s palace and said: “The prime minister commands that you go and see him at once.”

  “For what important affair?” he asked nervously.

  “We know nothing. We were ordered to come and invite you.”

  All he could do was to obey. When he went in to see Cao Cao, the latter laughed and said, “That is a great business you have in hand at home.”

  At this remark Liu Bei’s face turned the color of clay. But Cao Cao took him by the hand and led him straight to his back garden. “The business of learning to grow vegetables is not easy.”

  Liu Bei breathed again. “Hardly a business, just to while away the time,” he said.

  Cao Cao said, “I happened to notice the green plums on the trees today and my thoughts turned back to a year ago when we were thrashing Zhang Xiu. We were marching through a parched district and everyone was suffering from thirst. I suddenly thought of a scheme. Lifting my whip I pretended to be pointing at something in the distance and said, ‘There is a plum orchard ahead.’ The soldiers heard it and it made their mouths water and they were no longer thirsty. Now I owe a debt to the plums and we will pay it today. Besides, I have brewed some wine which has been heated very hot so I have invited you, sir, to come and share the fruit and the wine with me.”

  Liu Bei was quite composed by this time and went with his host
to a small summer house, where the wine cups were already laid out and in the dishes were green plums. They sat facing each other and drank to their hearts’ content.

  As they drank, the weather gradually changed. Dark clouds scudded across the sky and a storm was in the making. Some servants pointed out a mass of clouds that looked like a dragon hung in the sky. Both of them went over to the window and leaned against the railing to look at it.

  “Do you understand the evolution of dragons?” asked Cao Cao of the guest.

  “Not in detail.”

  “A dragon can assume any size, can rise in glory or hide from sight. Assuming gigantic sizes, it can generate clouds and evolve mists; reduced in form, it virtually disappears from our vision. Rising, it can soar to the heavens; sinking, it hides among the deep waves of the ocean. This is the season of late spring and the dragon chooses this moment for its metamorphosis, like a man realizing his ambitions and dominating the world. As an animal the dragon can compare with the hero of the human world. Now you, Xuan-de, with your experience, must know the heroes of the present day. Tell me who they are.”

  “How can my dull eyes recognize heroes?”

  “Don’t be so modest.”

  “Thanks to your kindly protection I have a post at court, but as to heroes, I really do not know who they are,” said Liu Bei.

  “You may not know them by their faces but you have at least heard of their names,” insisted Cao Cao.

  “Yuan Shu, with his rich resources—is he one?”

  His host laughed. “A rotting bone in the graveyard. I will put him out of the way sooner or later.”

  “Well, Yuan Shao, then. The highest offices of state have been held in his family for four generations and his friends are many. He is firmly posted in Jizhou and he has many able men under his command. Surely he is one.”

  “A bully and a coward. He is fond of grandiose schemes but is indecisive; he attempts great things but grudges the necessary toil. He loses sight of everything else for just a little advantage. He is not a hero.”

  “There is Liu Biao. He is renowned as one of the Wise Eight and his fame has spread on all sides. He must be a hero.”

  “He is merely a man of vain reputation, not a hero.”

  “Sun Ce is young and valiant, a leader in the east. Is he a hero?”

  “He is relying on his father’s reputation—he is no hero.”

  “What about Liu Zhang?” asked Liu Bei again.

  “Though he belongs to the reigning family, he is nothing more than a guard dog. How could he be counted as a hero?” sneered Cao Cao.

  “How about Zhang Xiu, Zhang Lu, Han Sui?”

  Cao Cao clapped his hands and laughed very loudly. “These mediocre people are not worth mentioning.”

  “Apart from these I really know none.”

  “Now heroes are men who cherish lofty aspirations in their hearts and know how to accomplish them. They have all-embracing schemes and the whole world is at their mercy.”

  “Who can be such a hero?” asked Liu Bei.

  Pointing first at his guest and then at himself, Cao Cao said, “The only heroes in the world are you and me.”

  Liu Bei was so frightened at the remark that his chopsticks rattled to the floor. Just at that moment a tremendous peal of thunder announced the onrush of the rain. Liu Bei calmly stooped down to recover the fallen article. “How powerful was that thunder! It was quite a shock!” he said.

  “What? Are you afraid of thunder?” said Cao Cao, laughing.

  Liu Bei replied, “The wise man in the ancient days paled at a sudden peal of thunder or a fierce gust of wind. How can one not fear?”

  Thus he was able to conceal the real cause that so startled him.

  Constrained to lodge in a tiger’s lair.

  He played a waiting part.

  But when Cao disclosed the real heroes

  Then terror gripped his heart.

  But he cleverly used the thunder peal

  As excuse for turning pale.

  Oh, quick to seize occasions thus!

  He surely must prevail.

  The shower had just stopped when all of a sudden there appeared two men rushing into the garden with swords in their hands. Pushing past the attendants, they forced their way to the pavilion where Cao Cao and Liu Bei were drinking. These two newcomers turned out to be Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.

  The two of them had been outside the city practicing archery. On their return they heard that their brother had been led away by two of Cao Cao’s officers. They hastened to his house and were told that their brother was in the back garden with his host. Fearing something might have gone amiss they rushed in. Now when they saw their brother quietly talking with Cao Cao and sipping wine, they took up their usual places behind him, their hands on their swords.

  “Why did you come?” asked Cao Cao.

  “We heard that you, sir, had invited our brother to a wine party and we came to amuse you with a little sword play,” said Guan Yu.

  “This is not a Hongmen Banquet,”* replied Cao Cao. “What use do we have for two swordsmen?”

  Liu Bei smiled. The host ordered wine to be served to them to allay their fear and, soon after, the three took their leave and returned home.

  “We were nearly frightened to death,” said Guan Yu.

  Liu Bei told his brothers about what happened at Cao Cao’s place. They asked him why he should say that he was afraid of thunder.

  He explained: “Remember I’ve been learning gardening these days. That is to convince Cao Cao that I have no ambition at all. But I little expected that he’d name me as one of the two heroes. I was so startled that my chopsticks dropped to the ground. I thought he had some suspicions. Happily, the thunder at the moment supplied the excuse I wanted.”

  “How very clever you are!” they said in admiration.

  On the following day Cao Cao again invited Liu Bei over, and while the two were drinking, an officer, who had been dispatched to find out what Yuan Shao was doing, came to present his report.

  He said, “Yuan Shao has completely overpowered Gongsun Zan.”

  “Do you know the details?” asked Liu Bei at once.

  “They were at war and Gongsun Zan had the worse of it, so he acted on the defensive. He built a wall around his city and on that erected a high tower, where he stored a huge quantity of grain. He took up his quarters there but his troops still passed in and out of the city without ceasing, some to give battle and others returning to rest. When one of them was surrounded by the enemy, the others asked Gongsun Zan to rescue him. He said, ‘If I rescue one, then later on everyone else will want to be helped and will not exert himself.’ So he did not go. This disgusted his men and many went over to the enemy so that his army diminished.

  “He tried to seek help from the capital but the messenger was captured by Yuan Shao’s men. Then he sent a letter to Zhang Xiu to arrange with him for a joint attack against Yuan Shao, but the letter was again intercepted. His enemies disguised themselves as Zhang Xiu’s men and lit a fire outside the city, the signal given in the letter, to flush him out. Thus Gongsun Zan fell into an ambush. He lost heavily and retreated back into the city, where he was besieged. Later, Yuan Shao’s men dug a subterranean passage to his tower and set fire to it. Gongsun Zan could not escape. So he slew his wife and committed suicide. The flames destroyed his whole family.

  “Yuan Shao has added the remnants of the vanquished army to his own and so become yet stronger. However, his brother Yuan Shu in Huainan, is so arrogant and cruel that his army and the people have turned against him. Therefore he sent a messenger to his brother to say that he would yield to him the title of Emperor, which he had assumed. Yuan Shao, however, also demanded the Imperial Seal, and Yuan Shu promised to bring it to him in person. Now he has abandoned Huainan and is about to set out for Hebei. If the two brothers join forces it will not be easy to overwhelm them. We must take immediate action to prevent this from happening.”

  Liu Bei heard the stor
y with sorrow in his heart, for he remembered Gongsun Zan’s kindness to him in the past. Moreover, he was anxious to know the fate of Zhao Yun.

  He thought to himself, “What better chance am I likely to get to set myself free?”

  So he rose and said to Cao Cao, “If Yuan Shu goes over to join his brother he will surely pass through Xuzhou. Give me an army and I will intercept him on the way. That will finish Yuan Shu.”

  “Present a petition to the Emperor tomorrow and then you can start on the expedition,” said Cao Cao, smiling.

  So the next day Liu Bei went to obtain permission from the Emperor and Cao Cao gave him command of 50,000 soldiers, horse and foot, and sent Zhu Lin and Lu Zhao to accompany him.

  Liu Bei went to bid farewell to the Emperor, who wept as he saw him leave. As soon as he reached his lodging he set about preparing for immediate departure, returning his official seal and assembling his weapons. The army started the march at once.

  Dong Cheng hurried out of town to see him off.

  “You need not worry about my leaving—this journey will assuredly help with the scheme,” said Liu Bei.

  “Keep your mind fixed on that,” said Dong Cheng, “and never forget what His Majesty requires of us.”

  They parted. Liu Bei’s brothers asked him why he was in such a hurry to get away.

  He replied, “I’ve been a bird in a cage, a fish in a net. This is like the fish regaining the open sea and the bird soaring into the blue sky. Now I’m no longer in confinement.” And he gave orders for the army to move faster.

  Now Guo Jia and Cheng Yu had been away inspecting stores and supplies when Liu Bei left. As soon as they heard of his expedition they went to see their master, asking him why he had let Liu Bei go in command of an army.

  “He is going to cut off Yuan Shu’s advance to Hebei,” said Cao Cao.

  Cheng Yu said, “Formerly, when he was governor of Yuzhou, we entreated you to put him to death, but you would not hear of it. Now you have even given him an army. You have allowed the dragon to reach the sea, the tiger to return to the mountains. What control will you have in future?”