Negotiation 2

Soldiers surrounding us on both sides, and warriors in front of Cao Cao exuding intense intimidation.

And officials glaring at us sharply as if they would dissect us.

They were all our enemies. We were standing right in the middle of enemy territory.

But as if they were nothing to him, Guan Yu strode forward with large steps.

Guan Yu’s spirit remained unshaken even under the glares of Wei’s renowned civil and military officials.

Conversely, the weight of Guan Yu looking down on his surroundings gave the impression of crushing those numerous people.

Guan Yu, having thus captivated the audience, looked straight at Cao Cao and said:

“It seems there are too many troops for a guard.”

“It feels few compared to the God of War.”

There was a strange power in Cao Cao’s voice. It wasn’t that his voice was loud or that his tone was unusual. Nevertheless, Cao Cao’s voice was somehow different.

However, it seemed to feel different to Guan Yu.

“Your Excellency has aged a lot.”

“Is that so? But you remain robust despite the years.”

“I’ve aged too. If it were my younger days, I would have aimed for a counterattack rather than negotiations.”

Cao Cao laughed heartily and agreed with Guan Yu’s plain but pointed words.

The conversation and attitude of the two seemed more like old friends exchanging sharp jokes after a long time, rather than people meeting for ceasefire negotiations.

“Seeing even the great Guan Gong age, time is indeed fearsome. It’s been nearly 20 years since you returned to Xuande… Ah, much time has passed.”

“And many things have changed.”

“I still regret sometimes. I should not have accepted Xuande then, I think.”

Suddenly, Cao Cao’s gaze turned to me.

“If so, that child too would not have remained as Xuande’s follower.”

It was unexpected. To Cao Cao, I should be like a mortal enemy, having killed his beloved younger brother Cao Hong and Wei’s famous general Zhang He, yet he addressed me intimately.

As Cao Cao’s attention turned to me, Guan Yu’s eyebrows twitched. Ignoring Guan Yu’s discomfort, Cao Cao spoke to me.

“I heard from Ying. That it was you who returned Miaocai’s body.”

I did ask Xiahou Ying, Xiahou Yuan’s fifth son and my maternal uncle, to take care of the funeral when I spared him.

As I nodded silently, dissatisfied and uncomfortable coughs and throat-clearing sounds erupted from Cao Cao’s subordinates around us.

Guan Yu glared at them with fiery eyes. But they too were strong-willed talents representing Wei.

As the battle of spirits between our envoy group including Guan Yu and Wei’s officials intensified, Cao Cao raised his hand.

Then came sudden silence.

No matter how old and tired, is a dragon still a dragon to the end? Cao Cao’s grip was still strong.

As Wei’s officials withdrew obediently following Cao Cao’s will, we also put away our displeasure.

Amidst the lowered silence, only Cao Cao’s voice resonated inside the official residence.

“Blood like yours flows in my body.”

Pointing to his chest where his heart is with his right hand, Cao Cao spoke poignantly.

“Miaocai cherished and loved your mother more than his own children. There was a time when fathers ate their sons due to famine and even noble families became bandits to survive. Miaocai sacrificed his young son to save Huia.”

I knew that Xiahou Yuan had cherished my mother more than his own children.

On the day I wanted to enter the military, my mother was saddened by the inevitable fight between Xiahou Yuan and me.

And remembering my love for my mother, I spared Xiahou Ying as a meager atonement and returned Xiahou Yuan’s body to him.

“After the defeat in Hanzhong, I looked into you. I faced my past that I had wanted to ignore. I also heard that Huia grieved on the day Miaocai died. So… I will forgive you.”

To Cao Cao speaking of forgiveness, I brought up a fact he had not mentioned.

“I also killed Cao Hong.”

“Yes, you did. You killed Zilian and Junyi. They were all pillars of this Wei, like my limbs.”

Cao Cao’s eyes turned red. I thought he might be shedding tears, but it was not just from sadness but also from anger.

“It’s my fault. My careless handling killed them. So I will forgive you. I even forgave Zhang Liao and Jia Xu who killed Anyi. Moreover, aren’t you my blood kin?”

It’s true that he forgave and accepted even Zhang Liao and Jia Xu who killed his eldest son Cao Ang and his beloved general Dian Wei.

However, what was Zhang Liao’s end like? He ultimately chose suicide due to Cao Cao’s neglect and Cao Pi’s inhumanity.

Only Jia Xu, whose political acumen was among the best not just in the Three Kingdoms but throughout history, truly received their forgiveness and lived out his natural life.

Of course, as Cao Cao said, I am Xiahou Yuan’s maternal grandson and thus his blood kin, so there would be a difference from Zhang Liao, but it was difficult to fully believe those words.

Therefore, I was not swayed by Cao Cao’s subsequent proposal.

“Come to me. Then I will rightfully place you on the same level as princesses, and properly enfeoff you as a marquis and make you a general of the state.”

It was unprecedented. Cao Cao, who often used the system of granting surnames, treated those he brought into his family well, raising them together with his own children, but he never truly placed them on the same level as his own children.

But he said he would truly treat me the same as his own children.

No matter how much Liu Bei’s Guanxi has become stronger than in the original history, Wei was still the strongest among the Three Kingdoms.

In this era where population equaled national power, the strength of Wei occupying the Central Plains was this great.

Just as I parted my lips to answer, Guan Yu stepped forward from beside me and stood blocking between Cao Cao and me.

“Your Excellency, this child is Yide’s daughter.”

“Miaocai’s great-granddaughter.”

“The King of Hanzhong has his eye on this child.”

“Is that so? It’s news to me that she has a marriage arrangement.”

“Please allow me to continue respecting Your Excellency as ‘Your Excellency’.”

The true meaning in Guan Yu’s words was a threat that if he went any further, he would no longer respect Cao Cao.

Cao Cao seemed to find it difficult to strongly refute these words and stepped back. The problem was that the direction he stepped back was towards me.

“Rather than us going back and forth like this, isn’t the opinion of the person concerned most important?”

Even Guan Yu showed implicit agreement through silence, as if at a loss for words to that statement.

Only then could I finally utter the words that had been on the tip of my tongue.

“I refuse.”

“…As expected.”

“Hmm.”

The contrast between Cao Cao and Guan Yu is quite dramatic.

Unlike Cao Cao, who was skilled at managing his expressions, Guan Yu didn’t hide his satisfaction at all.

He was truly a person whose outside and inside were completely in sync.

“How regrettable. But wouldn’t you show your face? That Huangshuo fellow, how he goes on about it. Won’t you show this uncle of yours?”

Huangshuo was the nickname of Cao Zhang, Cao Cao’s second son.

Cao Zhang’s brief comment that my face was “the best under heaven” after seeing it spread rapidly and became my new nickname.

I didn’t particularly like Cao Cao as a person, but I had respect for him as a giant of the era.

I remove my mask and reveal my bare face. Once again, there was a commotion from the audience who had been clearing their throats at my rudeness.

This time, it wasn’t displeasure and reproach, but sighs of admiration.

“Huangshuo’s words were not wrong.”

Cao Cao’s reaction, embodying both the hegemony of a ruler and the spirit of an artist, was different from others.

Revealing his aspect as an artist, Cao Cao looked at me seriously like a critic appreciating a work of art.

Seeing that this could go on endlessly, Guan Yu cut off the conversation at this point.

“Let’s discuss the negotiation now.”

“Right. I forgot for a moment that this was a place for negotiation. When Wang Zhaojun played the qin, wild geese fell, thus ‘Falling Geese’. If you remove your mask, even the moon would hide its face in shame, so ‘Hiding Moon’ would be fitting.”

Sinking Fish, Falling Geese. Hiding Moon, Ashamed Flower.

These were phrases symbolizing the Four Great Beauties of China. Sinking Fish corresponded to Xi Shi, Falling Geese to Wang Zhaojun, Hiding Moon to Diao Chan, and Ashamed Flower to Yang Guifei.

Unlike the others, Diao Chan, who took the role of Hiding Moon, was a fictional character created by Luo Guanzhong, but I’m not sure if it would be different in this history.

After briefly showing his aspect as a literati, Cao Cao returned to his face as a ruler as if performing a quick-change act.

Turning his gaze to Guan Yu, he spoke in a calm, settled tone:

“Return the generals including Cao Ren, Man Chong, Yu Jin, and the soldiers of the seven armies captured as prisoners.”

“What is the price for that?”

“Your safety.”

It’s a bluff.

Guan Yu also knows about the rebellion that occurred in Ye city. Guan Yu, who understands that Cao Cao is at a disadvantage if we weigh the pros and cons, said firmly:

“Then we will only fight.”

They say that in negotiations, it’s common to ask for much higher than what you want to get, but this was too much of an overreach.

The fact that Guan Yu’s manner of speech towards Cao Cao changed from the highest level of respect to a normal level of respect was evidence of his displeased state of mind and his sincerity in continuing the fight.

However, Cao Cao acted as if his words were true.

“I still have an army of over a hundred thousand left. Even though Cao Ren and Man Chong are trapped in Fancheng, and Yu Jin has been captured, I still have Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, and Zhang He. Not only that. I also have advisors like Jia Xu, Chen Qun, Zhong Yao, and Sima Yi. So how could it not be us showing mercy?”

For a very brief moment, Guan Yu’s eyes wavered.

I realized that I was mistaken. There is a discrepancy in information between me and Guan Yu. It’s because I haven’t fully shared the future information I know.

No matter how outstanding Guan Yu is, he can’t know what he doesn’t know.

He doesn’t know how much effort Sun Quan put into attacking Jingzhou, and how effective our preparations to prevent that will be.

Above all, he didn’t know that Cao Cao didn’t have much time left to live.

So Guan Yu must be thinking like this:

No matter how much rebellion occurs in Ye city and Cao Cao’s control is shaken, if Cao Cao himself returns to Ye after leaving the Jingzhou front to his subordinate generals, he can regain stability anytime.

Cao Cao’s mention of his subordinate generals rather than himself is probably to subtly induce such thoughts.

It wasn’t strange for Guan Yu to judge that although we have the advantage now, if the war becomes prolonged, there could be a reversal of fortunes again.

Certainly, Cao Cao is not easy to deal with. He was perfectly controlling not only verbal expressions but also paralinguistic expressions like tone, speed, and intensity of speech, and nonverbal expressions like facial expressions, gestures, and eye contact.

Even in such an advantageous situation for us, he makes it seem as if they are truly showing mercy.

Before Guan Yu wavered, I had to step in. I passed by Guan Yu’s side and came forward, reciting a verse from my memory:

“I swear not to refuse sleeping in the open, being blown by the wind while eating.”