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Lü Bu was still unhappy about the unreasonably cancelled Hongmen Banquet and wondering what to do next when he was summoned by Xiang Yu.
After an entire day passed, Xiang Yu didn’t forget about the man who made great merits by bringing with him the means to give the Chu army a major turning point. He arranged everything then called him for an audience.
Han Xin led Lü Bu to the main tent again. Once he entered, he saw that there wasn’t only Xiang Yu this time. Two people sat on Xiang Yu’s left and right; both looked to be seventy or eighty years old, with one of them dressed more like a military officer.
Although they sat close to one another, their expressions were quite sullen. They had probably just argued and likely had a bad relationship.
Lü Bu took his time to glance around slowly.
Though the one on the left was old he could still stay in the barracks, so he could only be the famed Yafu; and the one on the right… it was hard to say, but his features were somewhat similar to Xiang Yu up on the main seat, so Lü Bu guessed that this was Xiang Bo.
As Lü Bu guessed, the identities of these two people were indeed Fan Zeng and Xiang Bo.
In order to buy time and find a way out for himself, Liu Bang had sent three envoys in a row, all bearing gifts and explanations for Xiang Yu.
Xiang Bo didn’t know that Liu Bang still had a hidden trick to move King Huai’s heart, but he did know that the situation was serious and he tried his best to cooperate; on the contrary, Fan Zeng didn’t want Xiang Yu, who had finally recognised Liu Bang’s treachery, to fall into a trap again, so he strenuously objected. Thus, every time a Han envoy arrived, it would be a verbal battle fought tit for tat, which annoyed Xiang Yu to no end.
As Xiang Yu saw it, one was a loyal counsellor, and the other was his trusted uncle. Both of them gave everything for Chu without hiding selfish intentions, but for some reason they just could not get along.
He wasn’t good at speaking let alone mediating arguments. Once he encountered this situation, he was at a complete loss and could only keep a blank face and turn a deaf ear as the two argued.
Lü Bu’s eyelids twitched.
This scene was too familiar to him.
It involuntarily reminded him of when Wei Xu and Gao Fuyi quarrelled, he always had no idea what to do…
“Greetings to the General.”
Lü Bu abandoned those messy thoughts, then saluted with a sonorous and powerful voice.
Although he was bowed, he could feel three pairs of eyes instantly focus on him.
Fan Zeng’s gaze was filled with kindness and the feeling that ‘this child can be taught’, Xiang Bo seemed calm but was in fact full of doubts, and only Xiang Yu’s eyes were full of appreciation as he silently let out a relieved breath.
“No need to be so polite,” Xiang Yu responded in a deep voice as he gestured to a seat, “Sit.”
“Yes.”
Lü Bu didn’t bother to refuse a few times like others might, he very straightforwardly dropped into a seat.
“I am overjoyed that Fengxian has come to me, as for the guarantee he brought…”
Here, Xiang Yu paused.
The title of ‘Attendant’ was already on his lips, but when he looked at the exceptionally heroic, dignified, and eloquent Lü Bu, he once again felt his admiration surge up and his lips inexplicably curved upwards.
Heroes were rare, they should not be constrained by common conventions.
It took only a moment to make up his mind. He didn’t blink an eye as he simply asked, “I’ll make you a lian’ao, what say you?”
Fan Zeng only listened calmly and didn’t react, but Xiang Bo looked at Lü Bu with more inquiry and surprise.
What kind of ability did this person have, what miraculous feat did he accomplish?! How could he get such grand appreciation from the proud Xiang Yu?
It should be noted that the position of lian’ao was a combination of lianyin and mo’ao, and ranked only behind the prime minister, their secretaries, the Grand Marshal, and the Left and Right Majors.1 a military rank exclusive to the Chu state, specific responsibilities are unclear; no direct translation to English ranks suitable for lian’ao, lianyin, or mo’ao, you just need to know they’re quite high ranking It could only be called a middling position in the grand scheme of things, but for an unknown soldier like Lü Bu, it was practically reaching the sky in a single step.
For example, Han Xin had been in the Chu army for two years. He first followed Xiang Liang then Xiang Yu to participate in campaigns and fought many bloody battles, and only after accumulating merits for a long time was he promoted to Attendant.
His rate of promotion was already considered quite good.
Now Lü Bu overtook him in a single leap!
What surprised Xiang Bo the most was that for the first time, there was a hint of questioning in Xiang Yu’s tone — if this person was greedy and asked for a higher position, would he allow him to bargain or even agree?
Meanwhile, Lü Bu’s eyes were blank.
What’s a lian’ao?
He couldn’t be less familiar with official positions in the Chu state, which had been abolished for a long time during his own lifetime, three hundred years in the future. And although his cheap brother Han Xin gave a brief explanation, he had stopped at Attendant because he didn’t expect Lü Bu to skip so many grades. Lian’ao hadn’t been mentioned at all.
With bright eyes full of anticipation, Lü Bu asked, “May I ask, General, this lian’ao… how many soldiers do they lead?”
Xiang Yu was silent.
The corners of Fan Zeng’s eyes twitched as he kindly explained, “Although lian’ao do not command soldiers, they have the important task of supervising the transportation of grain.”
Lü Bu was dumbfounded.
Although they prettied it up, wasn’t it just a porter!
He refused!
He was used to being a general who gave orders. Although he did come to the Chu army intending to start as a little soldier, his purpose wasn’t to relive his old dream of rising through the ranks step by step, he was here for the life of his nemesis’ ancestor!
Seeing as he somehow lost a perfectly good opportunity to kill Liu Bang at the Hongmen Banquet, his most urgent task now was to find another way to get close to him.
Thankfully he asked about it, otherwise if he really became a little official helping transport food and grass, who knew how many years it would be before he could touch a hair on Liu Bang’s head!
With that much trouble, he might as well join the vanguard as a foot soldier!
Seeing his wide-eyed, dissenting appearance, Xiang Bo who was already very worried about the threat to Liu Bang’s life finally couldn’t contain his irritability. “You’ve just arrived, although you’ve got some good points, you haven’t been to the battlefield and don’t have any merits to your name. You think you could reach anywhere as high as lian’ao without the general’s appreciation?” he ridiculed. “No matter how eager you are, you can’t be so presumptuous.”
He didn’t know what kind of miraculous achievement this little boy named Lü did, but he shouldn’t act so arrogant, he really didn’t know his place!
Lü Bu narrowed his eyes.
People like Xiang Bo, who were so brazen yet had no self-awareness, would inevitably remind him of the mediocre Wei Xu whom he treated favourably because he was his wife’s uncle. Yet in the end, love and hatred intertwined and Wei Xu betrayed him faster than anyone else.
Since it was just a traitor speaking nonsense, why should he care?
He said slowly, “Left Governor has misunderstood, I was only unclear on what a lian’ao is, how could I despise it for being too low a rank? I also know that my merits are few and it would be difficult to convince others that I deserve it… I deeply admire the prowess the general showed at Julu. If General does not mind, please make me your Attendant Sentry, so that I can stay by your side, and also keep Han-xiong company.”
The abacus in Lü Bu’s heart rattled as he said these beautiful words.
Being a sentry by Xiang Yu’s side naturally had its own advantages: he could chat with Han Xin, his cheap brother and colleague, in his spare time, and it would also be easier for him to monitor the Han army’s movements.
Besides, apart from the vanguard troops, the person most likely to meet Liu Bang was Xiang Yu himself.
A vanguard soldier had to kill a bloody path forwards and still may not be able to glimpse Liu Bang. But if Liu Bang’s brain twitched and he wanted to have a meeting with Xiang Yu, it must be a special event where he had little armour and few weapons — it would be far easier for him to act then.
In the past, he was Thief Dong’s2referring to Dong Zhuo, a warlord of late Han/early Three Kingdoms infamous for being a tyrant and all around bad person; it’s said that after his death, his corpse was left on the street with a lit wick placed on his navel, which burned for several days on the fat of his body. Wikipedia godson3义子 (yìzǐ), and its counterpart 义父 (yìfù), are less foster/adoptive/familial relationships and more of a mentorship, as in yizi would respect & revere the yifu as they would their father, while the yifu is responsible as a mentor & moral guide; it’s similar to godparents without the religious connotations. More detail in siumerghe’s Tumblr post. in name but had duties similar to a personal servant so he was very familiar with this job, it would be far easier to handle than moving grain.
Xiang Yu had heard a lot of flattering words lately. Not only were his ears calloused, he rarely took it to heart.
But it was different when the praise and admiration came from this straight-faced young man whom he appreciated.
The corners of his mouth rose slightly and his mood visibly improved.
What’s more, he had originally wanted to grant Lü Bu this position. In addition, he knew when to advance and retreat, and his arguments were well-founded, so Xiang Yu was even more satisfied and nodded without another word.
Hearing this, Fan Zeng labelled the man in front of him with the word ‘clever’. A lian’ao involved in grain transport was indeed ranked higher, but it was difficult to progress further. Instead, it would be better to be a sentry who was at Xiang Yu’s side day after day, where he could more easily be noticed.
Lü Bu was unaware that he had been stamped with an unprecedented ‘clever’ on his head. After leaving the main tent, he reluctantly plucked up his energy and went to get the uniform and seal for an Attendant Sentry.
But in the Han camp was Zhang Liang, a truly clever person. Seeing that the envoys had all returned in failure and disaster was imminent, he had to make some adjustments to his plans — namely, to quickly forge an edict from the King of Chu and send it to the Chu camp with people disguised as envoys from Pengcheng.
At this, Liu Bang was first shocked, then hesitant.
Whether it was the difficulty of forging a royal edict or their fates if it were discovered, this was a much more serious matter than the bloody clothing, not to mention that the clothing had already failed.
“General, please rest assured. As long as the king does not expose it, it will become a real edict,” Zhang Liang said calmly.
They only had two days. Even if the envoys whipped their horses all the way, they would only barely be able to reach Pengcheng.
Waiting for the King of Chu to decide on a response and send his own envoys would take another two days — by that time, the Han army might already have been exterminated and any rescue would only find dregs.
Since they couldn’t delay it, they could only forge a royal edict.
They only needed to send it openly and frankly. Even if Fan Zeng had doubts, determining its validity would take time, time which they could use to prepare. And if Xiang Yu became furious due to this, all the better; his anger would be directed at the King of Chu who was biased towards the Han, giving them some breathing space.
The key to the edict’s authenticity lay in the King of Chu alone.
And if the King of Chu wanted to stop being a puppet of the Xiang clan and to check and balance the powerful Xiang Yu, he couldn’t lose Han support — thus, he could only silently cover things up for them.
Liu Bang wavered at his words. “Then the one who will send the royal edict…”
He was reluctant to send his beloved generals to their doom, but this was a matter of life or death for the Han army and they couldn’t afford any mistake.
Before Zhang Liang could say anything, Li Yiji4a political advisor to Liu Bang. Wikipedia stood up. “I request the general to give an order, I am willing to take this edict to Chu.”
Translator:
Vote if you would like a glossary/character list, I can put more trivia in there than the footnotes.
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- 1a military rank exclusive to the Chu state, specific responsibilities are unclear; no direct translation to English ranks suitable for lian’ao, lianyin, or mo’ao, you just need to know they’re quite high ranking
- 2referring to Dong Zhuo, a warlord of late Han/early Three Kingdoms infamous for being a tyrant and all around bad person; it’s said that after his death, his corpse was left on the street with a lit wick placed on his navel, which burned for several days on the fat of his body. Wikipedia
- 3义子 (yìzǐ), and its counterpart 义父 (yìfù), are less foster/adoptive/familial relationships and more of a mentorship, as in yizi would respect & revere the yifu as they would their father, while the yifu is responsible as a mentor & moral guide; it’s similar to godparents without the religious connotations. More detail in siumerghe’s Tumblr post.
- 4a political advisor to Liu Bang. Wikipedia
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