Chapter 21: The Chaos in Shanggu

While Liu Bei waited for the Gongsun family’s retainers to brand the horses, Jian Yong handed Zhang Shiping and his cohorts over to Zou Dan, who had just recovered from his injuries. Zou Dan’s face was still somewhat distorted; his nasal bone had likely been completely shattered. As the Chief of Thieves, Jian Yong was responsible for public security and arresting outlaws, so naturally, it fell to him to deliver the horse thieves. Once the Chief of Thieves made an arrest, it was standard procedure for Zou Dan, the Magistrate of Justice, to handle the legal proceedings.

However, Jian Yong told Zou Dan directly that the stolen property was currently in the hands of the Magistrate, and that it would be best for the Magistrate of Justice to dispose of the thieves quickly. He also explicitly stated that the thieves claimed to be from the Zhang family of Yuyang and had acted as a gang. When Zou Dan ran to the government stables and saw that the stolen goods already bore the Gongsun seal, he grew anxious. Having previously failed to manage Gongsun Zan’s reputation, which led to rumors throughout the county about the "Magistrate plundering abroad," Zou Dan was naturally worried about further complications. Moreover, as a retainer to Gongsun Zan, he knew that his master was indeed capable of such things.

Consequently, Zou Dan acted with extreme speed. With a stroke of his brush, he turned the theft of the horses into an ironclad case, meticulously fabricating the time and place of the crime. Zhang Shiping never even got to see Gongsun Zan; he was immediately branded a criminal, and the verdict was severe. Due to the excessive number of horses stolen, Zou Dan wrote a sentence of death. Under Han law, stealing one horse was punishable by corporal punishment; stealing up to three incurred labor or exile, but exceeding three was a capital offense. The legal basis was indisputable. Of course, as the Magistrate of Justice, Zou Dan could only draft the verdict; a death sentence required the Magistrate to sign off and report it to the commandery for final review. Thus, Zhang Shiping was temporarily thrown into the dungeon.

Gongsun Zan, meanwhile, was preoccupied with the joy of acquiring the white horses. Although Zhang Shiping repeatedly cried out his innocence from the prison and demanded to see the Magistrate, Gongsun Zan ignored him entirely. He had never liked the Zhang family of Yuyang to begin with, so he had no interest in meeting Zhang Shiping and never bothered to sign the final order.

***

After delivering the horses to Gongsun Zan, Liu Bei went to the guesthouse. Zou Jing was lying there recuperating. His wounds were not fatal, but they were numerous; he had not felt the pain initially, but once treatment began, he found it difficult to even stand. Upon seeing Liu Bei return safely, Zou Jing was deeply moved. "Officer Liu saved my life; this great debt must be repaid! I left in such a hurry before that I did not ask for your courtesy name, young man?"

"My name is Xuande. How are your wounds, Commander? Is it serious?"

Liu Bei’s inquiry was not merely about his physical condition, but an offer of assistance. After all, a high-ranking official nearly being assassinated was a grave matter of treason, and there would surely be much to attend to.

"Just flesh wounds, nothing to worry about, though I truly cannot travel for these next few days... If you do not fear the trouble, Xuande, could you assist me?"

Zou Jing did not stand on ceremony; having nearly been killed, he had little appetite for pleasantries.

"I am, of course, happy to serve, but I do not yet know what befell you, Commander. Could you tell me the full story?"

Liu Bei understood that since Zou Jing had fled for his life alone, without a single attendant, he likely dared not trust anyone but him at this moment.

"This story begins when I took up the post of Colonel Protector of the Wuhuan..."

Two years ago, when Liu Bei had just become a "second-hand" traveler, Emperor Liu Hong, incited by the eunuch Wang Fu, had launched a war against the Xianbei. The result was a crushing defeat. Due to heavy losses and the deaths of most of the Han troops beyond the borders, the former Colonel Protector of the Wuhuan, Xia Yu, and others were demoted to commoners. Zou Jing had succeeded Xia Yu after that.

Upon arriving at his post, Zou Jing discovered something suspicious about that campaign. The Wuhuan had been loyal to the Han for years and held a long-standing grudge against the Xianbei. After suffering countless casualties while following Xia Yu on the northern expedition, they were continuously encroached upon by the Xianbei. The city of Gaoliu was seized, and most of the Wuhuan tribes had retreated to the areas surrounding Yuyang, Shanggu, and Dai Commandery. To pacify the Wuhuan, Zou Jing had stayed beyond the frontier for a long time, often traveling with a light escort to visit the tribes. Some of the Wuhuan who had participated in the war told Zou Jing that whenever the Wuhuan cavalry followed the Han army to attack the Xianbei, they would fall into ambushes, as if the Xianbei were the ones commanding the Han army. While some of this was due to the rashness of the command—the war having been launched in such haste without proper preparation—the primary reason, he suspected, was that someone had colluded with the Xianbei and sold the Han army's intelligence to the Xianbei leader, Tanshihuai.

By the beginning of last year, when the Xianbei invaded, Zou Jing found that the border troops in Shanggu, Yuyang, and other areas faced the same issue: no matter where the commandery troops went, the Xianbei seemed to know in advance. In May of last year, the Shanggu commandery troops reported another Xianbei invasion, and simultaneously reported that the Commandery Commandant—the highest military officer in the commandery—had been killed in battle.

Zou Jing knew that the barbarians usually would not invade at that time, as May was the season when the water and grass were lush. Xianbei invasions always occurred in winter, when the north was covered in deep snow and survival was difficult. Even if barbarians occasionally crossed the border in summer, it would not have resulted in the death of a Commandant. Thus, he took his attendants to Shanggu to investigate, only to discover that there were no Xianbei in the commandery at all; instead, there were many commandery troops operating without banners, pillaging the countryside.

In other words, someone in Shanggu was killing civilians to claim false military merits, and had even murdered the Commandery Commandant, pinning the blame on the Xianbei. These were internal commandery matters, so Zou Jing informed the Administrator of Shanggu, Hou Yan, of his findings. However, not long after, Hou Yan suddenly died of a "violent illness." Both the Administrator and the Commandant of the commandery had died under unclear circumstances.

Zou Jing then sent dispatches to Luoyang, but several reports in succession vanished into thin air. Whether he used the official post or sent his own trusted retainers, none of the messengers ever returned. Realizing he was being watched, Zou Jing attempted to return to Luoyang himself, but was intercepted and attacked before he could even leave Shanggu Commandery. The man who led the ambush was Zhang Sheng, who had been the Military Sima when "Nine-Foot" was a commandery soldier. Furthermore, they had used Xianbei warriors for the hit, threatening to frame Zou Jing for the crimes of killing civilians for merit and colluding with the Xianbei.

However, Zhang Sheng was merely a Military Sima in Shanggu. Colluding with the Xianbei and killing people was one thing, but pinning such a massive crime on a Commander was something a mere Military Sima could never achieve.

"Killing civilians for merit, murdering the Administrator and the Commandant, and ambushing the Commander of the Wuhuan... so brazen... There must be a greater evil behind Zhang Sheng, and the mastermind must be a powerful figure in the imperial court. Otherwise, it would be impossible to so easily frame a Commander."

Liu Bei felt that the situation had spiraled out of control; he feared his own modest strength was insufficient to take on such a task.

"Indeed, Zhang Sheng is certainly not the mastermind; he is merely an executor of orders," Zou Jing nodded. "And you, Xuande, you may be in danger now as well."

"I know... What do you need me to do, Commander?" Liu Bei nodded, knowing that from the moment he saved Zou Jing, he had already placed himself in harm's way.

"I would like to ask you, Xuande, to deliver a letter for me. Report this matter to Luoyang and hand it to the Colonel of the Retainers, Yang Fangzheng, and ask him to thoroughly investigate the true culprit behind the scenes."

Zou Jing frowned as he spoke. "I dare not trust the officials here in Zhuo County, so I must trouble you to make this journey. But those Xianbei cavalry know I have entered Zhuo Commandery, and Zhang Sheng surely knows it too. If this news reaches Luoyang, his entire clan will be wiped out, so I suspect he will make a desperate, final attempt to intercept you... If you help me, it will be extremely dangerous."