Three Kingdoms Romance

by Guanzhong Luo

  Cao Cao at once had him taken into a secret chamber and questioned him. Quin Quington gave the names of the conspirators, saying, “Wang Zifu, Wu Zilan, Chong Ji, Wu Shi, Ma Teng, and my master have been meeting secretly. My master has a roll of white silk, with writing on it, but I do not know what it means. Yesterday, Ji Ping bit off one of his fingers as a pledge of fidelity. I saw that.”

  Quin Quington was kept in a secret part of the palace, while his late master, Dong Cheng, only knowing that he had run away, took no special means to find him.

  Soon after this Cao Cao feigned a headache and sent for Ji Ping as usual.

  “The rebel is done for,” thought Ji Ping, and he made a secret package of poison which he took with him to the palace of the Prime Minister. He found Cao Cao in bed. The patient bade the doctor prepare a potion for him.

  “One draught will cure this disease,” said Ji Ping.

  He bade them bring him a pot, and he prepared the potion in the room. When it had simmered for some time and was half finished, the poison was added, and soon after the physician presented the draught. Cao Cao, knowing it was poisoned, made excuses and would not swallow it.

  “You should take it hot,” said the doctor. “Then there will be a gentle perspiration, and you will be better.”

  “You are a scholar,” said Cao Cao, sitting up, “and know what is the correct thing to do. When the master is ill and takes drugs, the attendant first tastes them; when a man is ill, his son first tastes the medicine. You are my confidant and should drink first. Then I will swallow the remainder.”

  “Medicine is to treat disease; what is the use of any one's tasting it?” said Ji Ping.

  But he guessed now the conspiracy had been discovered, so he dashed forward, seized Cao Cao by the ear, and tried to pour the potion down his throat. Cao Cao pushed it away, and it spilt. The bricks upon which it fell were split asunder. Before Cao Cao could speak, his servants had already seized the assailant. Said Cao Cao, “I am not ill; I only wanted to test you. So you really thought to poison me!”

  He sent for a score of sturdy gaolers who carried off the prisoner to the inner apartments to be interrogated. Cao Cao took his seat in a pavilion, and the hapless physician, tightly bound, was thrown to the ground before him. The prisoner maintained a bold front.

  Cao Cao said, “I thought you were a physician; how dared you try to poison me? Some one incited you to this crime; and if you tell me, I will pardon you.”

  “You are a rebel; you flout your Prince and injure your betters. The whole empire wishes to kill you. Do you think I am the only one?”

  Cao Cao again and again pressed the prisoner to tell what he knew, but he only replied that no one had sent him; it was his own desire.

  “I have failed, and I can but die,” added Ji Ping.

  Cao Cao angrily bade the gaolers give him a severe beating, and they dogged him for two watches. His skin hung in tatters, the flesh was battered, and the blood from his wounds ran down the steps. Then fearing he might die and his evidence be lost, Cao Cao bade them cease and remove him. They took him off to a quiet place where he might recover somewhat.

  Having issued orders to prepare a banquet for next day, Cao Cao invited all the courtiers thereto. Dong Cheng was the only one who excused himself, saying he was unwell. The other conspirators dared not stay away as they felt they would be suspected.

  Tables were laid in the private apartments, and after several courses the host said, “There is not much to amuse us today, but I have a man to show you that will sober you.”

  “Bring him in!” Cao Cao said, turning to the gaolers, and the hapless Ji Ping appeared, securely fastened in a wooden collar. He was placed where all could see him.

  “You officials do not know that this man is connected with a gang of evil doers who desire to overturn the government and even injure me. However, Heaven has defeated their plans, but I desire that you should hear his evidence.”

  Then Cao Cao ordered the gaolers to beat their prisoner. They did so till Ji Ping lay unconscious, when they revived him by spraying water over his face. As soon as he came to, he glared at his oppressor and ground his teeth.

  “Cao Cao, you rebel! What are you waiting for? Why not kill me?” cried Ji Ping.

  Cao Cao replied, “The conspirators were only six at first; you made the seventh. Is that true?”

  Here the prisoner broke in with more abuse, while Wang Zifu and the other three conspirators exchanged glances, looking as though they were sitting on a rug full of needles. Cao Cao continued his torture of the prisoner, beating him into unconsciousness and reviving him with cold water, the victim disdaining to ask mercy. Finally Cao Cao realized he would incriminate none of his accomplices, and so he told the gaolers to remove Ji Ping.

  At the close of the banquet, when the guests were dispersing, four of them, the four conspirators, were invited to remain behind to supper. They were terrified so that their souls seemed no longer to inhabit their bodies, but there was no saying nay to the invitation.

  Presently Cao Cao said, “Still there is something I want to speak about, so I have asked you to stay for a time longer. I do not know what you four have been arranging with Dong Cheng.”

  “Nothing at all,” said Wang Zifu.

  “And what is written on the white silk?” asked Cao Cao.

  They all said they knew nothing about it.

  Then Cao Cao ordered the runaway servant to be brought in. As soon as Quin Quington came, Wang Zifu said, “Well, what have you seen and where?”

  Quin Quington replied, “You five very carefully chose retired places to talk in, and you secretly signed a white roll. You cannot deny that.”

  Wang Zifu replied, “This miserable creature was punished for misbehavior with one of Uncle Dong Cheng's maids, and now because of that he slanders his master. You must not listen to him.”

  “Ji Ping tried to pour poison down my throat. Who told him to do that if it was not Dong Cheng?” said Cao Cao.

  They all said they knew nothing about who it was.

  “So far,” said Cao Cao, “matters are only beginning, and there is a chance of forgiveness. But if the thing grows, it will be difficult not to take notice of it.”

  The whole four vigorously denied that any plot existed. However Cao Cao called up his henchmen, and the four men were put into confinement.

  Next day Cao Cao with a large following went to the State Uncle's palace to ask after his health. Dong Cheng came out to receive his visitor, who at once said, “Why did you not come last night?”

  “I am not quite well yet and have to be very careful about going out,” replied Dong Cheng.

  “One might say you were suffering from national sorrow, eh?” said Cao Cao.

  Dong Cheng started. Cao Cao continued, “Have you heard of the Ji Ping affair?”

  “No; what is it?”

  Cao Cao smiled coldly, saying, “How can it be you do not know?”

  He turned to his attendants and told them to bring in the prisoner, while he went on talking to his host about national illness.

  Dong Cheng was much put about and knew not what to do. Soon the gaolers led in the physician to the steps of the hall. At once the bound man began to rail at Cao Cao as rebel and traitor. “This man,” said Cao Cao, pointing to Ji Ping, “has implicated Wang Zifu and three others, all of whom are now under arrest. There is one more whom I have not caught yet.”

  “Who sent you to poison me?” continued Cao Cao, turning toward the physician. “Quick, tell me!”

  “Heaven sent me to slay a traitor!”

  Cao Cao angrily ordered them to beat Ji Ping again, but there was no part of his body that could be beaten. Dong Cheng sat looking at him, his heart feeling as if transfixed with a dagger.

  “You were born with ten fingers; how is it you have now only nine?”

  Ji Ping replied, “I bit off one as a pledge when I swore to slay a traitor.”

  Cao Cao told them to bring a knife, and they lopped o
ff his other nine fingers.

  “Now they are all off; that will teach you to make pledges.”

  “Still I have a mouth that can swallow a traitor and a tongue that can curse him,” said Ji Ping.

  Cao Cao told them to cut out his tongue.

  Ji Ping said, “Do not. I cannot endure any more punishment, I shall have to speak out. Loosen my bonds.”

  “Loose them. There is no reason why not,” said Cao Cao.

  They loosed him. As soon as he was free, Ji Ping stood up, turned his face toward the Emperor's palace and bowed, saying, “It is Heaven's will that thy servant has been unable to remove the evil.”

  Then he turned and smashed his head into the steps and died.

  His body was quartered and exposed. This happened in the first month of the fifth year of Rebuilt Tranquillity (AD 200), and a certain historian wrote a poem:

  There lived in Han a simple physician.

  No warrior, yet brave

  Enough to risk his very life

  His Emperor to save.

  Alas! He failed; but lasting fame

  Is his; he feared not death;

  He cursed the traitorous Prime Minister

  Unto his latest breath.

  Seeing his victim had passed beyond the realm of punishment, Cao Cao had Quin Quington led in.

  “Do you know this man, Uncle?”

  “Yes,” cried Dong Cheng. “So the runaway servant is here; he ought to be put to death.”

  “He just told me of your treachery; he is my witness,” said Cao Cao. “Who would dare kill him?”

  “How can you, the First Minister of State, heed the unsupported tale of an absconding servant?” “But I have Wang Zifu and the others in prison,” said Cao Cao. “And how can you rebut their evidence?”

  He then called in the remainder of his followers and ordered them to search Dong Cheng's bedroom. They did so and found the decree that had been given him in the girdle and the pledge signed by the conspirators.

  “You mean rat!” cried Cao Cao. “You dared do this?”

  He gave orders to arrest the whole household without exception. Then he returned to his palace with the incriminating documents and called all his advisers together to discuss the dethronement of the Emperor and the setting up of a successor.

  Many decrees, blood written, have issued, accomplishing nothing,

  One inscribed pledge was fraught with mountains of sorrow.

  The reader who wishes to how the fate of the Emperor must read the next chapter.

  CHAPTER 24. Cao Cao Murdered The Consort Dong; Liu Bei Flees To Yuan Shao

  The last chapter closed with the discovery of the “girdle” decree and the assembly of Cao Cao's advisers to consider the deposition of Emperor Xian. Cheng Yu spoke strongly against this, saying, “Illustrious Sir, the means by which you impress the world and direct the government is the command of the House of Han. In these times of turmoil and rivalry among the nobles, such a step as the deposition of the ruler will certainly bring about civil war and is much to be deprecated.”

  After reflection Cao Cao abandoned the project. But Dong Cheng's plot was not to go unpunished. All five of the conspirators with every member of their households, seven hundred at least, were taken and put to death at one or another of the gates of the city. The people wept at such merciless and wholesale slaughter.

  A secret decree in a girdle sewn,

  In red blood written, the Emperor's own,

  To the staunch and faithful Dong Cheng addressed,

  Who had saved him once when enemies pressed.

  And who, sore grieved at his Sovereign's fate,

  Expressed in dreams his ceaseless hate,

  Carried misfortune and death in its train,

  But glory to him who died in vain.

  Another poet wrote of the sad fate of Wang Zifu and his friends:

  Greatheartedly these signed the silken roll,

  And pledged themselves to save their king from shame.

  Alas! Black death of them took heavy toll,

  To write their names upon the roll of fame.

  But the slaughter of the conspirators and their whole households did not appease the wrath of the Prime Minister. The Emperor's consort was a sister of Dong Cheng; and, sword in hand, Cao Cao went into the Palace determined to slay her also. The Emperor cherished her tenderly, the more so as she was then in the fifth month of pregnancy. That day, as they often did, the Emperor, Consort Dong, and Empress Fu were sitting in their private apartment secretly talking of the decree entrusted to Dong Cheng and asking each other why nothing seemed to have been done. The sudden appearance of the angry Prime Minister, armed as he was, frightened them greatly.

  “Does Your Majesty know that Dong Cheng conspired against me?” said he.

  “Dong Zhuo died long ago,” replied the Emperor.

  “Not Dong Zhuo — Dong Cheng!” roared Cao Cao.

  The Emperor's heart trembled but he gasped out, “Really I did not know!”

  “So the cut finger and the blood written decree are all forgotten, eh?” The Emperor was silent. Cao Cao bade his lictors seize Consort Dong. The Emperor interposed asking pity for her condition.

  “If Heaven had not interposed and defeated the plot, I should be a dead man. How could I leave this woman to work evil to me by and by?”

  Said the Emperor, “Immure her in one of the palaces till her confinement. Do not harm her now!”

  “Do you wish me to spare her offspring to avenge the mother?” said Cao Cao.

  “I pray that my body may be spared mutilation and not put to shame,” said Consort Dong.

  Cao Cao bade his men show her the white silk cord. The Emperor wept bitterly.

  “Do not hate me in the below realms of the Nine Golden Springs,” said the Emperor to her.

  His tears fell like rain. Empress Fu also joined in the lament, but Cao Cao said, “You are behaving like a lot of children.”

  And he told the lictors to take Consort Dong away and strangle her in the courtyard.

  In vain had the fair girl found favor in the sight of her lord.

  She died, and the fruit of her womb perished.

  Stern and calm her lord sat, powerless to save.

  Hiding his face while tears gushed forth.

  When leaving the Palace, Cao Cao gave strict orders to the keepers, saying “Any one of the imperial relatives by marriage who enter the Palace will be put to death, and the guards will share the same punishment for lack of zeal.”

  To make more sure he appointed three thousand Imperial Guards from his own troops and appointed Cao Hong to the command.

  Then said Cao Cao to his counselor Cheng Yu, “The conspirators in the capital have been removed, it is true, but there are yet two others, Ma Teng and Liu Bei. These must not be left.”

  Cheng Yu replied, “Ma Teng is strong in the west and would not be easily captured. He might be enticed to the capital by suave words and kindly praises, when he would be at your mercy. Liu Bei is at Xuzhou, strongly posted in an ox-horn formation, and not to be lightly attacked. More than this, Yuan Shao is at Guandu, and his one desire is to attack you. Any attempt on the east will send Liu Bei to Yuan Shao for help, and Yuan Shao will come here at once. Then what will you do?”

  “You are at fault,” replied Cao Cao. “Liu Bei is a bold warrior; and if we wait till he is fully fledged and winged, he will be more difficult to deal with. Yuan Shao may be strong, but he is not to be feared. He is too undeciding to act.”

  As they were discussing these things, Guo Jia came in, and Cao Cao suddenly referred the matter to him.

  “If I attack Liu Bei, then Yuan Shao is to be feared; what do you think of it?”

  Guo Jia said, “Yuan Shao by nature is dilatory and hesitating, and his various advisers are jealous of each other. He is not to be feared. Liu Bei is getting together a new army and has not yet won their hearts. You could settle the east in one battle.”

  “This advice is in harmony with my t
hinking,” said Cao Cao.

  And he prepared an army of two hundred thousand troops, to move in five divisions against Xuzhou.

  Scouts took the news of these preparations to Xuzhou. Sun Qian first went to Xiapi to tell Guan Yu and then went to Xiaopei to tell Liu Bei. The two discussed the position and decided that help must be sought. So letters were written to Yuan Shao and given to Sun Qian, who went north, sought Tian Feng, and asked him to arrange an interview with Yuan Shao. Sun Qian was introduced and presented his letters.

  But Yuan Shao was of melancholy countenance, and his dress was all awry. Tian Feng said, “Why this disarray, my lord?”

  “I am about to die,” replied Yuan Shao.

  “But why do you utter such words?”

  “I have three sons, but only the youngest is clever enough to understand my ideas. Now he is suffering from scabies which places his life in jeopardy. Think you that I have any heart to talk over any other affairs?”

  “But,” said Tian Feng, “the present combination of circumstances is unparalleled. Cao Cao is going to attack the east, and Xuchang will be empty. You can enter it with a few volunteers and so perform good service to the Emperor and save the people from sorrow. You have only to make up your mind to act.”

  “I know the chance is excellent, but I am worried and distressed and fear failure.”

  “What are you distressed about?” said Tian Feng.

  “Among my sons only this special one is remarkable; and if anything happens, I am done.”

  Thus it became evident that no army would be dispatched. In confirmation of this, Yuan Shao said to Sun Qian, “Go home and tell Liu Bei the real reason, and say that if anything untoward happen, he can come over to me, and I will find some means of helping him.”