Empty Seat

The grand plan for the Northern Expedition, completed by five people including Zhang Ran staying up all night, was immediately reported to Liu Bei.

Even Liu Bei, who had entrusted full authority and actively accepted any of their opinions, couldn’t give an immediate reply this time.

Liu Bei canceled court audiences and shut himself in the palace. Without meeting even Zhuge Liang, Liu Bei left himself alone.

What thoughts must have gone through Liu Bei’s mind at his ministers’ proposal to cause the fall of the Eastern Han and open a new era?

Reluctance towards the downfall of the Later Han he had tried so hard to protect?

A cold evaluation of the plan they had created?

Or ambition that he himself could become Emperor?

Whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t with a light heart.

And when Liu Bei came out to the world again, it was when he heard the news that Fa Zheng was critically ill.

“My lord, how could you come all the way here…”

“Lie down. I’m sorry I’m too late.”

Liu Bei carefully held Fa Zheng’s shoulders and laid him back down, then wrapped Fa Zheng’s bony, withered hands with both of his own.

He couldn’t properly feel any warmth, and the skin was dry and cracked. It was a touch announcing that death was approaching.

Disliking that, Liu Bei held Fa Zheng’s hands even more preciously. Hoping his body heat would be transmitted.

Feeling Liu Bei’s sincerity transmitted through his hands, Fa Zheng thought. His judgment was never wrong. Liu Bei was truly his rightful lord, and the one and only person who could unify the world.

Even Fa Zheng doesn’t think that betraying Liu Zhang and handing over Yizhou to Liu Bei was truly right.

Outwardly he proclaims it was just, but inwardly he knows it was wrong.

However, even if he were to go back in time and face that choice again, Fa Zheng would unhesitatingly follow the same path.

Because that was who Fa Zheng was, born a petty man but dreaming of great undertakings.

Therefore, Fa Zheng could speak without regret:

“My lord, when I die, hold a grand funeral for me. And you should wear mourning clothes and neglect state affairs, put luxurious burial goods in my tomb. If you do so, Cao Pi will be more at ease and follow our country’s grand plan.”

He could willingly say to use even his death as fertilizer for the great undertaking.

“On the other hand, my lord should act in front and attend to state affairs behind the scenes, and when Wei’s spies turn their eyes away, dig up my tomb and retrieve the burial goods back to the national treasury.”

“Xiaozhi!! How could I do such a thing!”

Digging up a tomb and taking out burial goods was a terrible insult to the deceased, regardless of the era.

Even for most criminals, unless it was a crime deserving of mutilating the corpse after execution, they were given tombs, but to dig up the tomb of Fa Zheng, a meritorious official of the country.

It was something that could not and should not happen.

Even as Liu Bei shouted in shock, Fa Zheng’s will was firm.

“How could our country’s resources be wasted in the tomb of someone like me when they are for the great undertaking of the world? My lord, do not forget righteousness.”

Liu Bei couldn’t bring himself to answer. He just silently held his hand tightly.

Fa Zheng, who always followed Liu Bei’s will and matched his mood, for the first and last time forced his own will on Liu Bei.

“My lord, please promise.”

“…Xiaozhi.”

“My lord, it is this humble servant’s last wish.”

Lowering his face distorted from holding back tears, Liu Bei tightly closed his lips and choked up. Then soon he accepted Fa Zheng’s last request.

“I will do so. I will follow your words.”

“Your grace is boundless.”

It was done. A sense of liberation that he had finished everything, even about his own death, shook Fa Zheng’s mind.

As the willpower holding his soul to his body disappeared, death instantly ate away at Fa Zheng’s soul.

But Fa Zheng was no longer afraid of it. Rather, he was at peace. In the relief that he had finished everything entrusted to him, Fa Zheng asked:

“My lord… has this humble servant, fulfilled his duty?”

“Of course, of course. Xiaozhi, how could you have been lacking… You were my wing. A wing that lifted me high into the sky.”

It was two brothers who raised him who had been crawling on the ground.

It was his Shuijing Jiao, Zhuge Liang, who showed him direction when he had risen but didn’t know where to go.

It was Pang Tong who taught him how to run beside him as he walked endlessly towards a goal he didn’t know when he would reach.

And finally, it was Fa Zheng who gave him wings to fly towards the sky.

To him who had wandered breathing in the dust of the world, Zhuge Liang gave Jingzhou, Pang Tong gave Yizhou, and Fa Zheng gave Hanzhong.

On the foundation created like that, now they wrote the inscription to be carved on the stele. The story of Liu Bei and the new Han dynasty to be established.

At Liu Bei’s tear-filled words, Fa Zheng cut off even the last strand of lingering attachment.

With his last remaining strength, he tightly grasped Liu Bei’s hands holding his own.

“Forgive my disloyalty for not being able to assist my lord to the end.”

“Xiaozhi… how could that be disloyalty. How could I not know your loyalty? There is nothing to forgive, how can you say such things…”

Fa Zheng was satisfied.

How many subjects in history have had their lord watch over their deathbed?

Though he served Liu Bei for less than ten years, a short time, how many subjects received as much favor as Fa Zheng?

Looking back on his own life, Fa Zheng considered he had lived a blessed life.

He met a lord who understood his will, and under him discussed the world with talents equal to or greater than himself.

Though his blood relatives did not inherit his talent, he also had a successor to take over his vacant position.

‘How could this not be a blessed life? I have lived as happily as possible.’

Facing the approaching death, Fa Zheng smiled.

In the early winter of the 25th year of Jian’an.

Fa Zheng fell into a long winter sleep.

Liu Bei immediately bestowed a posthumous title on such a Fa Zheng:

He was called Marquis Yi (Wing).

§

The world is cruel, and no matter how great a person dies, it flows on indifferently and does not preserve their vacant position. For the world, there was no permanent retirement of numbers.

Fa Zheng, who was one of the three heads leading Shu Han under Liu Bei, was no exception. Heartless as it was, that was the way of the world.

After Fa Zheng’s death, Shu Han’s political world changed rapidly.

The grand plan Fa Zheng participated in for the last time was tacitly accepted as national policy. Of course, it was a matter known only to Liu Bei, the approver, and those who proposed it.

Personnel movements were made based on that.

The position of Minister of Works that Fa Zheng had held was succeeded by Huang Quan, following his will.

Pang De, who succeeded my position as General Who Conquers the North, was dispatched to Tianshui, and the General of the Left Ma Chao, who had been stationed in Tianshui, returned to Chengdu.

In Hanzhong as well, Deputy Governor Wei Yan was appointed as Governor of Hanzhong, and Father was called to the center along with Ma Chao.

As rumors spread that they were considering the two, Ma Chao and Zhang Fei, for the Crown Prince’s maternal relatives, most people thought it was for that reason.

After Fa Zheng’s grand funeral was all finished and the coffin containing Fa Zheng’s remains entered the tomb, Liu Bei went into seclusion right away.

With Liu Bei’s disappearance, state affairs came to be led by civil officials of ministerial rank such as Zhuge Liang, Huang Quan, and Liu Ba.

But without the king’s approval, there were inevitably limitations, and Shu’s internal affairs, which had been perfect, began to show slight shaking.

It was because he held onto his authority intact while letting go of state affairs, rather than completely delegating authority to Zhuge Liang and going into seclusion.

With the center like this, how could the regions not waver?

Jingzhou, where Guan Yu and Fan Jun were in perfect harmony, didn’t have major problems, but the Hanzhong area, which suddenly lost two top military generals, Ma Chao and Zhang Fei, at once, was very unsettled.

“That’s aimed at too, but.”

Jingzhou, which borders both Wei and Wu and has flat land and waterways spread out, could really be invaded if we showed weakness carelessly.

But Hanzhong and Tianshui are such good places for defense that it’s somewhat okay. Pang De and Wei Yan, assigned as successors, aren’t incompetent generals either.

Thus, this winter passed busily with funerals and personnel adjustments.

And when spring came, Zhuge Liang submitted a memorial. It was a memorial requesting to go on a campaign.

“I, Liang, humbly report. The Man people in the south and the Rong tribes in the west privately invade our country’s borders and do not hesitate to exploit the people. I intend to go forth to subjugate them and uphold the banner of Great Han, so I beseech Your Majesty the King of Hanzhong to bestow upon this servant troops and a tally to punish them.”

Though a rebellion hadn’t broken out, there were certainly disturbances occurring in the governance of Nanzhong.

Such people are always looking for an opportunity to start a rebellion.

They are seeds of rebellion that would rise up immediately if we showed weakness.

Zhuge Liang’s Nanzhong expedition was intended to root out such seeds of treason and completely transplant our country’s administrative system.

“Do as the Military Advisor wishes.”

Liu Bei casually gave permission, telling Zhuge Liang to do as he wanted. He even handed over the selection of personnel for the Southern Expedition Army to Zhuge Liang.

In fact, while in the Romance Zhuge Liang appears as a genius military strategist who defeated Xiahou Dun and led the victory at the Battle of Red Cliffs, it was during the Nanzhong expedition that he fully demonstrated his military talent by holding military authority.

This means the current Zhuge Liang hasn’t properly proven his military capabilities. To assist such a Zhuge Liang, Zhang Yi and Ma Chong were accompanying him.

But perhaps because his grief at losing Fa Zheng was great, Liu Bei additionally attached Feng Xi and Xiang Chong, whom he had been keeping an eye on.

Xiang Chong, who was such a talent that Zhuge Liang said he could be entrusted with the defense of the capital succeeding Jin Dang, and Feng Xi, whom Liu Bei with his good eye for people even appointed as Grand Commander.

It was an extravagantly talented lineup for what wasn’t even the suppression of a large-scale rebellion with established forces.

Perhaps he still felt uneasy even after that. Liu Bei called me and said this:

“Mingjing, as the world acknowledges that you possess insight in recognizing talent, this uncle would like to ask you a few things.”

Afterwards, Liu Bei asked for character evaluations of various people.

When I answered, he would agree happily saying it was the same as what he saw, or burst into laughter at some evaluations, or fall into contemplation as if some words were different from his own thoughts.

And finally, Liu Bei brought up what he really wanted to ask.

“Then what about Kongming?”