Luoyang and Jingzhou 5

As soon as the day broke, I quickly finished getting ready and stepped out of the house. Even though the funeral was over, I had no intention of laughing, chatting, and enjoying myself yet, even if not observing the heart mourning according to etiquette.

‘We’re going to gather in official robes anyway. Is there any need for fancy decorations or makeup?’

Although it’s said to be an era where men’s makeup has become commonplace, it felt rather unnecessary. Due to the lack of scientific development, the toxicity of makeup is also considerable.

The banquet hall was prepared grandly. It was a scale and splendor incomparable to any banquet of Han I had seen before.

It wasn’t without a feeling of falling slightly short compared to the banquet at Dongzuo Terrace hosted by Cao Pi when I went to Wei as part of the condolence delegation. However, even this level made me freshly realize how much Han had developed.

The Han banquets I had seen so far were limited to the one held in Luocheng before and the short banquet held after gaining Hanzhong. At most, the sacrificial ceremony cum banquet held when declaring the founding of a new dynasty in Chang’an was comparable to this banquet.

Even then, there were deficient parts as many resources were consumed to establish control over Guanzhong and build defense lines. In other words, this banquet can be seen as one that Han prepared properly with full attention.

There was a reason for Han to hold a banquet consuming enormous budget.

Unlike Wei and Wu who have fallen into chaos, we have the leisure and capacity to hold such a grand banquet! That must be the purpose of such internal and external display and boosting of pride.

“You came early.”

“Ah, if it isn’t Lord Yi Shou.”

“Lord? That’s too much. Please just call me Yongnan comfortably.”

Yi Shou, who uses the very familiar name Yongnan (永南) as his courtesy name, was one of the talents Zhuge Liang cherished. It was even said that if the Ma clan has the Five Constants, the Li clan has the Three Dragons.

I heard that Zhuge Liang greatly cherished Yi Shou and made him the Director of the Bureau of Appointments, which is a sub-organization under the Chancellor’s Office, but…

‘Does the Director of the Bureau of Appointments handle banquets?’

The Bureau of Appointments is a department that oversees personnel management. There shouldn’t be any particular reason for it to be involved in hosting banquets.

Perhaps noticing my puzzlement, Yi Shou said with an awkward smile:

“The Chancellor personally assigned it. There must be some intention behind it.”

Come to think of it, Yi Shou is the one Zhuge Liang left in Chengdu as his Deputy when he personally set out on expeditions. Perhaps he’s thinking of using this banquet to build up achievements and promote him further in preparation for the upcoming Jingzhou recovery campaign.

Zhuge Liang’s preparations were being steadily made even in such small details. While Zhuge Liang’s command ability in battle is quite good, isn’t his true value in this kind of preparedness?

‘Yi Shou is indeed a talent worthy of being entrusted with important responsibilities. The problem is that Yi Shou doesn’t have much life left…’

His current complexion doesn’t look particularly bad. It would be nice if health issues were resolved like Liu Ba and he lived longer than in the original history, but I’ll need to keep a close eye on him.

While I was looking around the banquet hall with Yi Shou, other officials began to arrive one by one and fill their seats, following after me.

The high-ranking officials would come all at once later, and those coming now were mostly lower-level officials who would occupy the lowest seats or thereabouts of the banquet.

But I paid attention to such people as well. Who knows? There might be hidden talents with outstanding abilities like Fei Yi who remain in lower positions due to bad luck.

Those whose names I know but couldn’t find because I didn’t know where they were or what they were doing at this time. Well, didn’t I unearth Guo Yi by chance when I couldn’t recall him?

‘Is it right to say ‘unearthed’? Guo Yi came looking for me on his own, after all.’

Anyway, after parting with Yi Shou, I focused on observing the banquet attendees.

Those who were walking leisurely, thinking they had come early before the banquet time, were startled upon seeing me and hurriedly adjusted their clothes and postures again.

It was plainly visible how they were glancing at me, wondering if I would look their way. They seemed to be trying to pretend not to, but to my senses honed on battlefields where life and death hang in the balance, it was all obvious.

It felt exactly like being a teacher looking down on students who think they’re not being caught while doing something else.

‘No one particularly stands out even when I hear their names. No one with a notable attitude either.’

Just as I was starting to get bored, a big shot appeared faster than expected.

When Yu Ba, the Minister of Justice, who is on the level of the Three Excellencies along with Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong, made his appearance, a stir spread among the people gathered in the banquet hall.

As I was about the only one to greet him, one of the Three Excellencies, I quickly approached him.

“My, how did the Minister of Justice come so early?”

“I sent word to the Zhang family to go together, but they said they had already left. So I hurried a bit too.”

Perhaps due to hearing the news that Yu Ba had arrived early at the banquet hall following me.

Even the high-ranking officials, who would normally arrive at the announced time, quickly came to the banquet hall.

Not long after Yu Ba arrived, most of the seats had their respective owners present. However, the highest seat in the banquet hall, located right below the Emperor’s seat, was still vacant.

And finally, just before the announced banquet time.

A group of people appearing with the sound of footsteps as background music from the entrance. At the very front, Zhuge Liang, the owner of the vacant seat, was walking.

Right beside him, his elder brother and the chief envoy of this Wu delegation, Zhuge Jin, was walking together, exchanging words with his younger brother. Although the content wasn’t clearly audible, judging from their expressions, it didn’t seem to be an entirely pleasant conversation.

‘Where’s Zhuge Ke?’

He’s there.

Right behind Zhuge Jin. He seems to have received firm words of caution from his father, Zhuge Jin, as he’s keeping his mouth tightly shut.

‘At this rate, he won’t be able to say anything. Has the card I prepared ended up without results after all?’

I had tried to give authority to Zhuge Ke in preparation for this situation, but it seems it was far from enough to escape Zhuge Jin’s control.

Judging from how Zhuge Ke was viewed favorably within the Wu delegation, the direction itself doesn’t seem to have been bad. Or maybe Zhuge Jin’s control was just too formidable.

In any case, as it was already over, I withdrew my gaze from Zhuge Ke.

As Zhuge Liang and Zhuge Jin took their seats in the banquet hall, along with the sound of music announcing the start of the banquet, shouts announcing Liu Bei’s procession resounded.

It was the beginning of the banquet.

§

The banquet flowed very smoothly.

Liu Bei comes forward to give words of blessing, and Zhuge Jin, the representative of Wu’s delegation, comes out to exchange words hoping for friendship between the two countries.

After mourning the death of Zhang Fei, which was the pretext for the delegation’s visit, the banquet officially opens.

At first, Zhang Ran’s heart was pounding. When would Zhuge Liang step forward? What kind of justification had he prepared? She fidgeted with such expectations.

However, as time passed, the expectations disappeared and instead, anxiety began to creep up.

‘Why is he staying still? At this rate, the banquet will just end?’

But thinking carefully after setting aside the excited anticipation, it seemed that even for someone like Zhuge Liang, it would be burdensome to openly pick a fight in front of his own elder brother.

‘But if he presents the justification and declares the recovery of Jingzhou after Zhuge Jin leaves, isn’t that a bit late?’

Is he buying time because he knows something will happen in Huainan? Zhang Ran’s words disappeared into anxiety amidst such worries.

Zhang Ran wasn’t the only one feeling anxious.

Zhuge Ke. He too was closely watching the flow in anxiety.

While it was unlikely that Zhuge Jin, who had been acting passively until now, would strongly argue for the restoration of the Sun-Liu alliance and lead to an attack on Luoyang, it wasn’t an issue that could be blindly trusted.

If Zhuge Ke had known that Zhang Ran was sharing the same emotions as him, he would have stepped forward with even more confidence. But not knowing this, Zhuge Ke was conversely feeling even greater compulsion because of Zhang Ran.

Zhuge Ke saw Zhang Ran glance at him once and then turn her gaze away.

Zhuge Ke, who was already falling into confirmation bias, intensified his bias even more with this action of Zhang Ran and increased his own anxiety.

Anxiety, unease, compulsion, impatience, these were the driving forces that made Zhuge Ke rise from his seat.

“Your Majesty can achieve even greater glory, how can you be satisfied with this situation!”

“Th-that bastard…!”

Seeing Zhuge Ke finally breaking his promise and acting recklessly, Zhuge Jin convulsed as if about to fall backwards and burst out in anger.

‘I believed he would raise our family with his ability! That fellow will end up destroying our family in the future!’

Zhuge Jin made the evaluation 10 years early that he would later make when seeing Zhuge Ke strongly pushing for the pacification of Danyang despite opposition from those around him.

But the water had already been spilled.

Zhuge Jin had mounted a tiger’s back before he could do anything.

“What does the Chancellor’s nephew mean by that?”

Liu Bei asked, addressing Zhuge Ke familiarly.

As all eyes in the banquet hall gathered on him, Zhuge Ke, being a natural performer, shook off the negative emotions that had been gnawing at his mind and shouted excitedly:

“The opportune moment to overthrow Cao Cao has come! Currently, our country’s Lu Du Du is achieving brilliant military feats in Huainan and pushing back Cao Cao. The Lu Du Du, who can be called the best of the age, will surely defeat Cao Cao before long, so how is this moment not the right time to achieve great deeds?”

Zhang Ran didn’t miss Liu Bei’s eyebrows twitching.

At the very last moment, the card named Zhuge Ke was played.