Chapter 148: Powerless (Part 2)

The autumn wind swept across the fertile plains, and the great river flowed southward.

This was the Great Liao River, the largest river beyond the frontier. The essence of the Han dynasty's five frontier commanderies all relied on the Liao River Plain, which this river had formed.

Even in the sparsely populated lands of Liao, the lush, water-rich areas along both banks of the Liao River were first-rate fertile fields that no one would ever dream of wasting. Thus the crops here stood in neat rows, millet drooping with grain in a sea of yellow-green, and countless common folk harvested along the river. Looking down from the hillside, it was truly a sight to ease the heart and gladden the spirit.

However, at this moment, the only ones on the hillside enjoying this splendid view were Lady Gongsun and her son, along with a fat cat squatting at their feet scratching an itch. As for the party that had just crossed the Liao River not long ago, they had gathered around Zhao Yun and obediently remained at the foot of the hill, waiting.

"You have worked hard, Mother." After mother and son had stood idly for a moment, Gongsun Xun glanced downward and spoke helplessly. "Earlier, Mother said she would settle accounts with me. Why, after we met, have we only looked at the scenery?"

"Don't you think Liaodong truly has excellent scenery?" Lady Gongsun, gazing into the distance at the Liao River with her spectacles on, tucked her hands into her sleeves and said. "The land is vast, far from trouble, and this place is suited for early planning and positioning. If one can truly accumulate strength, it is not necessarily impossible to achieve something..."

"I fear we would only be locked in by those five hundred li of wilderness in Liaoxi. Setting out from Yangle, crossing five hundred li to strike Lulong Fortress... could we even break in?" Seeing the other party so direct, Gongsun Xun also became much more forthright. "Although the scope here is far greater than Liaoxi alone, it is likewise a dead end."

"Why must it always be fighting and killing?" Lady Gongsun could not help but sigh at these words, her tone exceptionally helpless. "The greatest hope of my life is that both you and I can be safe and sound... at the very least, that while I am alive, both you and I can be safe and sound. Once I am dead, you can do whatever you want!"

Gongsun Xun's scalp went numb. The thought he had harbored earlier of stubbornly pushing back instantly vanished like smoke, and he immediately knelt to beg forgiveness.

"Get up." Lady Gongsun said helplessly. "A grown man, already starting to grow a beard and serving as a County Magistrate—how can you kneel at the drop of a hat like a child?"

In this era, no matter how old a person was, they had to kneel when begging forgiveness from their own parents. Gongsun Xun sighed inwardly but was unwilling to say more, merely rising as instructed.

"No matter what," Lady Gongsun, seeing her son yield once more, pressed on with her persuasion, "look at the foundation we have here in Liaodong. So many trading posts, so many connections... from the powerful families to the common people, who does not recognize us? When the chaotic times begin, as long as you hold onto the court's mandate, with a slight exertion of effort and the talents you have gathered under you now, Liaodong will have no choice but to bear the Gongsun name. Are you truly willing to cast this aside and ignore it?"

Gongsun Xun nodded repeatedly in agreement... This was not entirely pretense. In the end, these five commanderies were a foundation after all, and moreover, the fruit of his mother's painstaking labor. How could he be willing to abandon them?

Lady Gongsun knew in her heart that this was as far as she could push the matter, so she did not speak further on it. Instead, she smiled and pointed toward the group at the foot of the hill: "Earlier you asked why I wasn't settling accounts with you... Do you know why?"

"Please instruct me, Mother," Gongsun Xun quickly asked.

"We both misunderstood the situation," Lady Gongsun could not help but laugh. "We, mother and son, were concerned about that Bian Yu, and neither of us took Cao Jie's maternal granddaughter seriously. But the Zhao family only cares about that Feng Zhi—they didn't even ask about Bian Yu..."

A look of sudden realization appeared on Gongsun Xun's face... This meant the difficulty had been cut in half in an instant. No wonder they had arrived so quickly.

"And moreover, this Feng Zhi being taken as a concubine has nothing to do with you," Lady Gongsun raised an eyebrow slightly. "No matter how you look at it, the blame cannot fall on your head. The reason they waited so long in Liaoxi was simply your wife comforting and adjusting herself at her family home—they really didn't blame our family. However, that Cao Jie, from what A'Fan and Lu Fan recounted, is truly a remarkable figure... Speaking of which, this is also my fault. After all these years, I still haven't corrected this habit of mine—assuming anyone I don't personally know is just a nameless passerby. The man was clearly the leader of the eunuch faction a decade ago, a major figure controlling court politics. I had long heard his name and deeds, yet until it directly concerned me, I always turned a deaf ear. Son, do you know that when your mother-in-law heard that this man's maternal granddaughter was coming to be your concubine, she was nearly frightened to death? Your father-in-law, for all his great reputation beyond the frontier now, was also somewhat uneasy. It was only thanks to Old Madam Zhao that things remained steady."

"Cao Jie, Cao Hanfeng..." Recalling this powerful eunuch who had nearly engineered his utter destruction in Luoyang, Gongsun Xun was also momentarily filled with emotion. "If my guess is not wrong, he must feel that he is nearing death, and all his myriad ambitions and lust for power have dissipated. That is why he handed his troublemaking younger brother over to me for safekeeping, and then used his maternal granddaughter to tie a marriage bond, seeking the continuation of his family after his death. No wonder my wife's grandmother was so calm—she probably could understand his intent as well."

"Who says otherwise?" A gust of wind blew from the north. Lady Gongsun, somewhat moved, removed her precious black-framed spectacles and wiped them with her own hands. "Before, I only saw these people as characters in a story, thinking this person was so contemptible, that person utterly lacking in heroic spirit. But having lived long in this Great Han dynasty, and with my age advancing, I have gradually come to understand... The medical standards of this era are what they are, and the means of communication are likewise. At forty, one is old and decrepit. Once a person's body fails, no matter what kind of hero or stalwart they are, their heroic spirit instantly fades. What right do I have to mock them?"

Gongsun Xun's scalp once again went numb, and he hurriedly offered comfort: "Mother will live a hundred years."

Lady Gongsun could not help but laugh at these words, then put her spectacles back on and said: "My dear son, you think too much. 'Forty and decrepit' does not refer to me. In this era, dying at forty is perfectly normal, hence the term 'old and decrepit'... But I realized during that plague that my body is probably still the kind from my original place, where dying at seventy or eighty is normal. In other words, for me, who knows, there may still be thirty or forty years to wait? That Wei Yue calls me 'Old Matriarch,' and I find him somewhat annoying for it! How am I so old?"

Gongsun Xun was momentarily speechless and could only change the subject: "So this matter is settled then?"

"We can only accept it as it is. Since Lord Cao's father-in-law took the initiative to send his maternal granddaughter to our door, and such a little beauty at that... why refuse? Tonight, you shall take her in." Lady Gongsun was also quite decisive. "What I am truly worried about is still that Bian Yu!"

Gongsun Xun: "..."

"What were you thinking, going to Qiaoxian to find Cao Cao?" Lady Gongsun asked seriously.

"Naturally, I wanted to curry favor," Gongsun Xun answered helplessly. "I already told Mother in my letter about Cao Cao's family connection to Empress Song. Now that he is at the lowest point of his life, having persuaded He Jin to help collect his cousin's corpse, I naturally had to go and inform him... Of course, since Mother had previously said she was from the banks of the Guo River in Qiaoxian, I also took the opportunity to go and see it for myself."

"Cao Cao, and your affairs in Luoyang over the past six months—we will discuss those slowly when we return." Lady Gongsun immediately waved her hand. "Let us speak of the matter at hand first. Bian Yu truly gave me a fright, and even now I am still somewhat worried..."

Gongsun Xun was helpless; this, at least, he had guessed.

"At first, I thought you had stolen someone else's wife," Lady Gongsun said helplessly. "Do you know, at the time, I betrothed Lady Cheng to Wei Yue precisely because I was worried you might take a fancy to that young widow, just in case..."

"..."

"But later, after hearing Bian Yu recount everything in detail, it seemed instead as if Cao Cao was the one in the wrong. And not to mention Lady Ding or anything, even Cao Cao himself, I heard, stopped caring after just one night. So I have nothing more to say."

"Then why is Mother still worried now?" Gongsun Xun asked, puzzled.

"Naturally, it is the problem of raising grandsons!" Lady Gongsun let out a long sigh. "This Bian Yu, without even thinking, one knows she is the type to bear and raise children well. If she truly bears you three or four boys... People say the ones she bore in the Cao family were two of the Three Caos, two great literary masters, and then there was that yellow-bearded famous general. But if they are born into our family and just become wild children of a border commandery, what then? Wouldn't that prove my incompetence?"

Gongsun Xun stared blankly, clearly not having caught on.

"Setting aside that Bian Yu's parents died early, isn't raising children generally the grandmother's duty?" Seeing this, Lady Gongsun had no choice but to explain. "With just you, one son, I worked myself to exhaustion back then, and still raised you so poorly. If I am truly given three grandsons, raising a yellow-bearded military commander would be one thing, but how could I possibly raise two more great literary masters?"

"Actually, your son thinks..." Gongsun Xun finally caught on and immediately retorted. "Mother did not fail in raising her son. In Luoyang, Cai Yong praised my literary talent; Qiao Xuan praised me as 'steel within and a blade without'... This is clearly being accomplished in both civil and martial arts, no less than Cao Mengde, right?!"

"Your literary talent was all stolen from me, wasn't it?" Lady Gongsun immediately scoffed. "As for martial valor, who was it that took an arrow on that trip to Tanhan Mountain? At Liucheng, if not for Cheng Pu's skill, you would likely have been skewered like a gourd by the Xianbei, wouldn't you? Don't muddle-headedly take yourself too seriously!"

Gongsun Xun actually found himself with no retort.

"Forget it!" Another gust of north wind blew past. Lady Gongsun took her son's hand and headed down the hillside, the fat cat behind them rising and twisting its rear as it followed. "These are all matters for the future. Right now, I haven't even seen the shadow of a grandson... While you have this rare moment of stability here in Xiangping, you had best give me a grandson, and it would be best if your lawful wife bore him first. That way, things will be easier to explain to your father-in-law."

Listening to his mother's exhortations and watching his wife, leading the two concubines, bow slightly at the waist in salute at the foot of the hill, Gongsun Xun was momentarily filled with emotion—earlier, Cao Mengde had been trapped by the circumstances of the times, unable to move, and in his heart, he had secretly felt somewhat smug. But looking at today, was he himself not also trapped by familial affection and his household?

A predicament woven from good intentions... How exactly should he break free without harming these good intentions?

Arriving at the foot of the hillside, Gongsun Xun temporarily set aside this thought and turned to face his one wife and two concubines waiting there, a faint smile on his face.

——————I am a smiling dividing line——————

"The Grand Progenitor's Lady Feng was the maternal granddaughter of the Later Han eunuch Cao Jie. Her mother, Lady Cao, was Jie's adopted daughter, the natural daughter of his younger brother Cao Poshi. Later, as Jie grew old and infirm, and Poshi lacked virtue, Jie feared he would bring disaster upon the family. He therefore sent her to the Grand Progenitor's household in the lands of Liao to be watched over, with explicit orders for strict restraint, seeking only the preservation of her life. Poshi, living in idleness in Liao and unable to bear the restrictions, secretly sought an audience with Lady Feng. The Grand Progenitor was away, and Lady Feng thus appealed once more to the Empress Dowager. The Empress Dowager said in anger: 'A man without virtue—just the sort who should be reformed through labor!' The next day, she dispatched Cao Poshi to work as a shoe-weaver in the household, exchanging three shoes a day for his meals, and no longer permitted him to see her." — A New Account of the Tales of the World, Chapter on Worthy Beauties

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(End of Chapter)