Romance of the Three Kingdoms (vol. 2)

by Luo Guanzhong

  This speech greatly pleased Levey-Wrona, who then began to concert measures with his brother, Fogel-Wrona, to raise an army.

  Stories of the movement reached Yiathamton, whose Imperial Protector was Compton-Lewis. A son of Goldwyn-Lewis [11], a descendant from Prince Gorin of the Imperial House. Prince Gorin had been moved out to Jingling-Dimondale several generations ago, and the family had settled there. Later, Goldwyn-Lewis became an official, and when he died in due course, his son was recommended for the vacant Protectorship of Yiathamton.

  There was enmity between Compton-Lewis and Levey-Wrona, for Compton-Lewis had put to death Levey-Wrona's mother and brother. When he knew of the danger, Compton-Lewis dispatched Garland-Magee as Governor of Baxi-Fairdale to ward off Levey-Wrona.

  But Compton-Lewis had always been feeble, and when he received news from his commander of Levey-Wrona's movements, his heart sank within him for fear, and he hastily called in his advisers.

  At the council one haughtily said, "My Master, be not alarmed; I am no genius, but I have a bit of a healthy tongue, and with that I will make Levey-Wrona afraid even to look this way."

  When plots did grow about the west,

  It suited Jinghamton's plans the best.

  The speaker's name and lineage will be told in the next chapter.

  CHAPTER 60

  Leland-Hawkins Turns The Tables On Slade-Dion; Smiddy-Lindquist Proposes The Occupation Of Shu.

  The man who proposed the plan spoken of in the last chapter was Leland-Hawkins, who belonged to Yiathamton and held the small office of Supernumerary Charioteer. His appearance was grotesque. He had a broad forehead, protuberant at the temples like a countryman's hoe, and a pointed head. His nose was flat and his teeth protruded. He was a dwarf in stature but had a deep voice like a great bell.

  "What proposal have you to offer that may avert this danger?" asked the Imperial Protector.

  "My proposal is that we gain the support of Murphy-Shackley. As we know, he has made a clean sweep of the empire. Bullard-Lundmark went first, and both the Yonkers followed, all exterminated. Lately he has destroyed Cotton-Mallory. In short he is the one man against whom no one can stand. Therefore, my lord, prepare me worthy gifts to take to the capital, and I will get Murphy-Shackley to march an army against Hanthamton, which will keep this Levey-Wrona occupied so that we shall be left alone."

  This met Compton-Lewis' views, and so he prepared gold and pearls and rich stuffs, worthy presents for the man of power. And when these were ready, he appointed Leland-Hawkins his emissary. Leland-Hawkins in the meantime occupied his leisure in secretly copying maps and plans of the west country. When all was ready, he started with a small escort.

  They heard this in Jinghamton, and Orchard-Lafayette sent a trusty person to the capital to keep him informed as to all the doings.

  Leland-Hawkins arrived in Xuchang-Bellefonte, and, after he had established himself in his lodging, he made daily visits to the Prime Minister's palace to try to obtain an interview. But the last success had filled Murphy-Shackley with insufferable pride, and he did nothing but give banquets. He never appeared except for the most important affairs, and even carried on the business of the state in his own residence. So Leland-Hawkins waited many days. But when he got to know the persons who were nearest the Prime Minister, he bribed them and obtained an audience.

  Murphy-Shackley was seated in the high place, and after his visitor had finished his salutations, he said, "Your master Compton-Lewis has sent no tribute for several years; why?"

  "Because the roads are dangerous and thieves and robbers infest them. Intercourse is restricted."

  Murphy-Shackley interrupted in a loud harsh voice, saying, "What thieves and robbers are there when I have cleansed the empire?"

  "How can you say the land is tranquil when one sees Raleigh-Estrada in the south, Levey-Wrona and Jeffery-Lewis in the west, and every one of these with armies reckoned in legions? The weakest of them has one hundred thousand troops."

  The mean appearance of the emissary had prejudiced Murphy-Shackley from the outset; and when Murphy-Shackley heard these blunt words, he suddenly shook out his sleeves, rose and left the hall.

  Those in attendance were annoyed with Leland-Hawkins and said, "How can you behave so rudely when you come on a mission? Your whole attitude was blunt and discourteous. Happily for you, our lord remembered you had come from afar and did not take open notice of your fault. The best thing for you is to go home again as quickly as you can."

  But Leland-Hawkins smiled.

  "We have no plausible flatterers and glib talkers in our western country," said he.

  At this, one from below the steps called out, "So you call us plausible and glib then; and you have none such in your country, eh?"

  Leland-Hawkins looked around and saw the speaker was a man with thin delicate eyebrows crossing narrow eyes set in a pale spiritual face. He asked his name. It was Slade-Dion, son of the former Regent Marshal Brent-Dion. The young man was then employed as Chief of the Secretariat of the Prime Minister. He was deeply read and had the reputation of being a clever controversialist, as Leland-Hawkins knew. So on one side was a desire to confound and on the other overweening pride in his own ability, with contempt for other scholars. Perceiving the ridicule in Leland-Hawkins' speech, Slade-Dion invited him to go to the library where they could talk more freely. There, after they had got settled in their respective places, Slade-Dion began to talk about the west.

  "Your roads are precipitous and wearisome," said Slade-Dion.

  "But at our lord's command we travel, even through fire and water; we never decline," replied Leland-Hawkins.

  "What sort of a country is this Yiathamton?"

  "Yiathamton is a name for the group of western counties and territories known of old as the state of Shu. The roads are intersected by streams, and the land bristles with steep mountains. The circuit is over two hundred stations and marches and the area over one hundred thousand square miles. The population is dense, villages being so close that the crowings of cocks in one waken the people in the next, and the dogs barking in this excite the curs in that. The soil is rich and well cultivated, and droughts or famines are equally unknown. Prosperity is general and the music of pipes and strings can always be heard. The produce of the fields is piled mountain high. There is no place its equal."

  "But what of the people?"

  "Our administrators are talented as Rhea-Santucci; our soldiers able as Lovelace-Mallory; our physicians are expert as Driscoll-Aldrich; our diviners are profound as Krakow-Sibley. Our schools of philosophy and our culture stand forth as models, and we have more remarkable people than I can enumerate. How should I ever finish the tale of them?"

  "And how many such as you, Sir, do you think there are at the orders of your Imperial Protector?"

  "Our officers are all geniuses: wise, bold, loyal, righteous, and magnanimous. As for poor simpletons like me, they are counted by hundreds; there are cartloads of them, bushels of them. No one could count them."

  "What office may you hold then?"

  Leland-Hawkins replied, "Mine can hardly be called an office. I am a Supernumerary Charioteer. But, Sir, what state affairs may you control?"

  "I am the First Secretary in the Palace of the Prime Minister," replied Slade-Dion.

  "They say that members of your family held office for many generations, and I do not understand why you are not in court service actually assisting the Emperor, instead of filling the post of a mere clerk in the private palace of the Prime Minister."

  Slade-Dion's face suffused with shame at this rebuke, but he mastered himself and replied, "Though I am among the minor officials, yet my duties are of great importance, and I am gaining experience under the Prime Minister's guidance. I hold the office for the sake of the training."

  Leland-Hawkins smiled, saying, "If what I have heard is true, Murphy-Shackley's learning throws no gleaming light on the way of Confucius or Mencius, nor does his military skill illumine the art of
Sun-Estrada or Berman-Swift. He seems to understand the doctrine of brute force and holding on to what advantages he can seize, but I see not how he can give you any valuable training or enlighten your understanding."

  "Ah, Sir; that comes of dwelling in out-of-the-way parts. How could you know of the magnificent talents of the great Prime Minister? But I will show you something."

  Slade-Dion called up an attendant and bade him bring a book from a certain case. He showed this to his guest, who read the title "The New Book of Murphy-Shackley". Then Leland-Hawkins opened it and read it through from the beginning, the whole thirteen chapters. They all dealt with the art of war.

  "What do you take this to be?" asked Leland-Hawkins, when he had finished.

  "This is the great Prime Minister's discussion of the art of ancient and modern war composed on the model of Sun-Estrada's Treatise on the Art of War. You may be disdainful of the Prime Minister's talents, but will this not go down to posterity?"

  "This book! Every child in Yiathamton knows this by heart. What do you mean by calling it a new book? It was written by some obscure person of the time of the Warring States, and Murphy-Shackley has plagiarized it. But he has deceived no one but you, Sir."

  "But what is the use of your sarcastic insult in saying that your school children know the book by rote? It has never been given to the world, although copies have been made. It belongs to his private library."

  "Do you disbelieve me? Why, I know it and could repeat it."

  Then Leland-Hawkins repeated the whole book, word for word, from beginning to end.

  Slade-Dion said, "You remember it like this after only one reading! Really you are marvelous."

  He boasted not a handsome face,

  Nor was his body blessed with grace.

  His words streamed like a waterfall,

  He read a book and knew it all.

  Shu's glories could he well rehearse,

  His lore embraced the universe.

  Or text or note of scholiast

  Once read, his memory held fast.

  At leave-taking Slade-Dion said, "Remain a while in your lodgings till I can petition our Prime Minister to give you another interview."

  Leland-Hawkins thanked him and left. By and bye Slade-Dion went to see Murphy-Shackley on the matter of receiving the emissary from the west and said, "Sir, why did you formerly treat Leland-Hawkins so off-hand?"

  "He spoke very rudely; that is why."

  "But you bore with Bosley-Kendall; why not with this man?"

  "Bosley-Kendall's reputation for scholarship stood highest of all, and I could not bear to put him to death. But what ability has this Leland-Hawkins?"

  "To say nothing about his speech being like the River of Heaven, nothing daunts his talent for dialectic. I happened to show him your new treatise; he read it over once and could repeat it. From this, it is evident he is cultured and has a prodigious memory. There are few like him in the world. But he said the book was the work of an obscure person of a few hundred years back, and every school child in his country knew it."

  "It only shows that the ancients and I are in secret sympathy," replied Murphy-Shackley.

  However, Murphy-Shackley ordered the book to be torn up and burned.

  "Then may I bring him to see you, Sir, that he may see the glory of our court."

  Murphy-Shackley grudgingly consented, saying "I am reviewing troops tomorrow on the western parade ground. You may bring him there and let him see what my army looks like. He will be able to talk about it when he goes home. When I have dealt with the south, I shall take the west in hand."

  Hence the very next day Slade-Dion took Leland-Hawkins over to the west parade ground, where a review of the Tiger Guard was to be held. There were fifty thousand of them, and when drawn up in order, they made a very brave show with their gleaming helmets and bright new uniforms. Their drums rolled to shake the heavens, and their weapons glittered in the sun. Their discipline and order were perfect; their gay banners fluttered in the breeze. They looked ready to fly even, so alert and smart were they.

  Leland-Hawkins glanced at them contemptuously. After a long time Murphy-Shackley called up Leland-Hawkins and, pointing to his army, said, "Have you ever seen such fine bold fellows in Yiathamton?"

  "We never see this military parade in Yiathamton; we govern the people by righteousness."

  Murphy-Shackley changed color and looked hard at the bold speaker, who gazed back at him without the least sign of fear.

  Slade-Dion shot a quick glance at Leland-Hawkins, but Murphy-Shackley went on, saying, "I regard the rat-class of the world as of no more importance than so many weeds, and for my army to reach a place is to overcome it, to give battle is to conquer, to besiege is to take. Those who are with me, live; but those who oppose me, die. Do you understand?"

  "O Prime Minister, I know well that when you march out your army, you always conquer. I knew it when you attacked Bullard-Lundmark at Puyang-Ashland; and when you fought Sandoval-Pulgram at Wancheng-Princeton; and when you met Morton-Campbell at the Red Cliffs; and when in Hackberry Valley encountered Yale-Perez; and on that day when you cut off your beard and threw away your robe at Mariposa Pass; and when you hid in a boat to escape the arrows on the River Taurus. On all these occasions, no one could stand against you."

  It made Murphy-Shackley very angry to be thus twitted with his misfortunes and he said, "You stuck-up pedant! How dare you thus bring up all my failures?"

  Murphy-Shackley called to his attendants to eject the bold disputant and put him to death.

  Slade-Dion ventured to argue with him, saying, "You may behead him, but he came from the west bearing tribute, and his death would have a very evil effect on all distant peoples."

  But Murphy-Shackley was too angry to be reasonable and persisted. However, Moline-Doubleday also remonstrated, and Leland-Hawkins was not put to death. But he was beaten and ejected. He returned to his lodging and left the city that night, reflecting upon what he had intended and what he had accomplished.

  Thought he, "I did not expect such arrogance when I came with the intention of giving him a region. When I get back, Compton-Lewis will expect great things. Now I am returning empty handed and a failure to endure the laughter of my fellow country people. I will not go back. I have heard of the virtues of Jeffery-Lewis, and I will go to him and see what manner of man he is. Then I can decide what to do."

  So with his little escort and following he made for Jinghamton. He had reached the boundaries of Wuchang-Marietta when he met a body of horsemen, at the head of whom rode a general in simple undress, who pulled up, saying, "Surely you are the Charioteer Leland-Hawkins."

  "I am he," said Leland-Hawkins.

  The general quickly dismounted and humbly said, "I have expected you these many days. I am Gilbert-Rocher."

  Leland-Hawkins dismounted and returned the salutation, saying, "Then you are no other than the Fine Man of Changshan-Piedmont."

  "No other," was the reply. "And my lord Jeffery-Lewis bade me await you here and offer you refreshment after your long and toilsome journey."

  At this some soldiers brought forward wine and food which they offered kneeling.

  Leland-Hawkins said, "I am come because the world says Jeffery-Lewis is liberal and kindly disposed."

  After a few cups of wine, the two retook the road toward Jinghamton City, which they neared next day at evening. They went to the guest-house. Here they found a large number of people who received the visitor with the beating of drums and every sign of respect.

  And the officer in command, bowing low, said, "My brother sent me to meet you after your long and dusty journey and prepare the guest-house for your reception. My name is Yale-Perez."

  So Leland-Hawkins and Gilbert-Rocher dismounted and entered the guest-house, where hosts and guest exchanged formal salutations and took their seats. In a short time refreshments were served, and both men were most diligent in their attention to the traveler. This roadside banquet was prolonged to the time
of setting the watch, when they prepared for rest.

  Next morning, after the early meal, they mounted and continued their journey. Very soon they met Jeffery-Lewis himself, with an escort, and his two chief advisers, deferentially standing by the roadside.

  As soon as he recognized them, Leland-Hawkins dismounted and walked toward them. Jeffery-Lewis received him with extreme respect.

  "Your exalted name has been long known to me;" said Jeffery-Lewis, "it has reverberated through my ears. My one regret is that cloudy hills and long distances have hitherto prevented me from enjoying the advantage of your instruction. Hearing that you were passing through, I have come to meet you; and if you would be willing to notice me and condescend to rest for a time in my city, thus allowing me to satisfy my long disappointed desire to see you, I should indeed hold myself fortunate."

  Naturally the traveler's vanity was tickled, and he joyfully remounted. They rode bridle to bridle into the city. When they reached the residence, again they exchanged profound salutations and compliments before they took their various places as host and guest. And then a banquet was served. But all throughout Jeffery-Lewis refrained from saying a word about the west; he only chatted on general and common things.

  The visitor noted this steady avoidance and resolved to probe his host's thoughts.

  "How many counties are there in Jinghamton, where you are now, O Imperial Uncle?"

  Orchard-Lafayette replied, "Jinghamton is only ours temporarily; we have borrowed it from the South Land. They are always sending messengers to demand its return. However, now that our lord has married their daughter, his position is more secure. But it is still temporary."

  "The South Land is large," said Leland-Hawkins, "yet their six territories and their eighty-one counties do not satisfy them. The people are strong and the land is fruitful."

  Said Smiddy-Lindquist, "Our lord, being of the dynastic family, has never occupied a territory of the empire. Those others, thievish as they are, may indeed seize upon as much territory as they are strong enough to hold, but such deeds are not according to the wise person's heart."