An Empty Cup

"Ai-ya!" Sun Shangxiang hastily withdrew her left hand and looked indignantly at where the
dove had pecked her finger, viciously enough to draw blood. Seeing that her other hand was
loosening its hold on the frantic bird that continued flapping its wings wildly, Zhuge Liang
quickly took the dove from her, gentling it until it finally settled into it usual twitchy
placidity.

"Why does it like you and not me? If I can't coax even one bird into that cage, this plan
won't work at all. And isn't it going to look strange, to have a soldier carrying a cage of
doves around?" The princess asked, looking at Zhuge Liang plaintively. He continued slowly
smoothing down the dove's feathers, but his eyes were unfocused. Sun Shangxiang
hesitated, wondering if she should put her hand on his sleeve. Although growing up with
five brothers had long cured her of any shyness around men, Liu Bei's advisor was very
different than anybody else she'd ever known; he possessed an inner stillness that
sometimes made him seem the perfect confidant, and other times utterly unapproachable.

But while she was trying to decide, Zhuge Liang shook his head slightly, then refocused to
look at her, his expression kindly.

"Both excellent points, your highness. I shall simply have to come with you."

Sun Shangxiang gaped at him. He laughed delightedly. "Come, Princess, don't look so
skeptical! You shall go forward and become a soldier, and I-" he smiled whimsically. "I shall
step backward, and become what I once was."

********************************************************

Cao Cao looked on approvingly at the particular quickness of that one green player,
although he had to admit he was impressed by the adeptness of all of the cuju players in
front of him. Quickness, agility - these were qualities that were as important as strength
and power. But the game had gone on long enough. Fun and games were all very well to
raise morale and to assess the physical fitness of his soldiers, but tiring them out before
battle would be counterproductive. He leaned over to tell of his lieutenants to order an end
to the game, when a slight commotion over to the side of the field caught his attention.

It seemed that during the course of play, the ball had leapt over the boundaries and into the
crowd of spectators, and there was now some frantic scuffling to get the ball back onto the
field of play. After a few minutes of turmoil, the ball finally sprang back onto the field, but
somehow one of the spectators had gotten shoved into the fray as well, the wall of
spectators closed irrevocably behind him. Cao Cao raised an eyebrow at the sight of the
intruder; although the distance was far, it looked as if the man was dressed in off-white
peasant clothing, and he had a cage of birds, it looked like, hung on a stick he had slung
over his shoulder.

"What is a peasant doing in our encampment?" his lieutenant asked, bewildered. "Prime
Minister, should I have him removed..."

Cao Cao opened his mouth, then closed it. The peasant had initially turned back, trying to
get off the field, but the jostling of the other players swept him along.

"Oh, come now, brother! Join us, you're wearing our colors!" One of the white-clad players
called out gaily. The peasant hesitated for the barest moment, then laughed out loud.
"Hao ba!" And the peasant ran towards the scene of play, billowing clothes and caged doves
and all.

Cao Cao sat forward, looking sharply. It had been clear early on in the game that the green-
clad team had superior players, in particular the one player that Cao Cao had noticed
before, but the addition of the peasant changed the dynamic of the game. The man was not
particularly fast, especially since he was hampered by the cage he was carrying over his
back, nor was he adept at handling the ball; but what he was doing on the field was more
intriguing than what he apparently couldn't do.

The peasant seemed to be able to read where the game was heading, where the ball and
the players would move to, and accordingly adjust his own location on the field to provide
just the right nudge to help his own team score, to trip the key opposing player to prevent
them from getting a goal. Nothing obvious, nothing flashy; the man wasn't running fast, his
movements soft and almost gentle, but he knew where to go far before anybody else did.
Cao Cao narrowed his eyes; this was more than physical agility or strength, this was the
ability to read lines of quickly flowing power on a dynamic field of play. The white team
scored once, then twice. This... Cao Cao sat back, thinking.

"Stop the game," Cao Cao snapped to his lieutenant. "Have the players line up by team."

He made his way down to the field from the dais. The players knelt, the green on his right,
and the white on his left. Cao Cao saw that the peasant was last in line on the left, the
caged doves suspended above his bowed head. Well, first things first. He strolled over to
the green-clad player who had shown such skill.

"What is your name?"

"Private Sun Shucai," the man responded.

"You are an outstanding player, and a good soldier." Cao Cao said. "From this day forward,
you are promoted to battalion commander." The private looked up eagerly, his wide, honest
face shining with gratitude.

"Thank you, your highness." Cao Cao smiled benevolently, then turned to the rest of his
audience.

"Everybody must practice hard at Cuju. Only with tough bodies can we win this war! Once
the Southlands are subdued, your families will be exempt from taxes for three years!" The
crowd broke out cheering, the soldiers as well as players leaping up. Cao Cao turned, still
chuckling, and made his way to the peasant. The other man had risen to his feet, but unlike
his fellow players, his expression was calm, though watchful. Then the man turned to face
him, and Cao Cao felt the sight of him as almost as a visceral shock; the man was
extraordinarily handsome, the fineness of his features almost absurd.

"Well, as for you, I'm afraid I can't promote you if you're not a soldier." Cao Cao paused,
but the man was maddeningly silent; his head was bowed respectfully, but from little Cao
Cao could see of his expression, the man looked quietly amused. It was not, Cao Cao
thought, the type of reaction he was used to provoking.

"Your name?" At that question, the man raised his head, and paused. Cao Cao raised an
eyebrow.

"I go by Lu Er, these days, Prime Minister." Cao Cao pinned the soldier with a sharp gaze.
"Are you attempting avoid somebody, using that name?" The man's mouth twisted wryly.

"I was a farmer for ten years, in the northlands. But some years ago, my brother accused
me of sleeping with his wife, and so he chased me off my land. Since then, I've been
traveling as a trader, a peddler; when I first left, I fell into the habit of using the name Lu Er
to stop my brother from following me, and I've used it ever since, even after coming south."
Probably it was the brother's wife who wished to sleep with him, and when he refused, she
told tales to her husband out of resentment, Cao Cao thought dryly, eyeing the man's face
again.

"And you trade birds?" Cao Cao asked, nodding towards the cage of pigeons. Lu Er
shrugged.

"I trade whatever I find interesting, or useful. Or I trade whatever I think others will find
interesting, or useful. As for these birds..." Lu Er gestured, "braised pigeon is a specialty of
Anhui cuisine, Prime Minister. I was hoping to sell or trade some of the birds to your cooks
here." Cao Cao looked at the other man closely, observing his travel-worn garb.

"Do you know this region well? Have you traveled it thoroughly enough to become familiar
with it?" He queried sharply; although Admirals Cai and Zhang were natives of the
Southlands, he trusted only their expertise on water, not land- although trust was perhaps
too strong a word in any case. Lu Er blinked, then inclined his head.

"I know it well enough for my own purposes, Prime Minister." Cao Cao stifled to suppress a
smile at the man's audacity, even as his own interest sharpened.

"Well, I hope it will not inconvenience you to much to see whether you know the land well
enough for our purposes," Cao Cao said, clapping the man on the shoulders and steering
him towards the dais. "We might even be able to talk to some of the cooks about buying
your pigeons."

******************************************************

Cao Cao sighed deeply, as he strode ahead of his advisors away from the stench of the
rotting corpses piled high in the tent behind him. In some ways, typhoid was a more brutal
and terrible death than any encountered in battle, and it was certainly worse for morale.
Well, he thought, if he had it his way, low morale wouldn't be a problem for only his army.

"Have half a dozen small boats prepared, any that are ill-made or barely seaworthy, the
ones we can most easily afford to lose. We will cast off the dead to the other shore this
evening," he snapped to one of his commanders, who promptly bowed and left to obey. He
had hardly taken many other steps when another lieutenant appeared before him, one the
two he'd send off with Lu Er to tour the camp.

"Ah, Lieutenant Yang, how helpful was our wandering peddler?"

"Commander," the soldier saluted. "He did seem to be very knowledgeable about the local
geography and weather patterns, but most of it was information we already knew. He did
give us some advice on where to find more sources of fresh water, and where there were
groves of cassia tree for the infected, and he also recommended a few remedies that he
says the locals use to treat typhoid." Cao Cao nodded brusquely.

"Very well." The lieutenant hesitated.

"Commander, what do you intend to do with him? He's now seen our entire encampment,
and we don't know where he intends to go after we let him leave." Cao Cao smiled
predatorily.

"That's why I don't intend to let him leave; he may have some useful advice yet. Did you
search him and his belongings for anything suspicious?"

The soldier nodded.

"He had a few coins, some food, a length of cotton cloth he said he uses to bind the birds'
injuries if they get hurt, and couple curious trinkets, nothing valuable."

"Very well. Have him put in a tent near mine, with a guard assigned to him at all times. Any
reasonable requests he may have should be granted, and you are to allow him fairly loose
rein to look around, although he is never to be out of sight of at least one guard at any
time, is that understood?" Cao Cao barely waited for the soldier's brisk affirmative before
walking away. There was work to be done.

********************************************

Sun Shangxiang rubbed her hands against her armor, smiling and nodding uneasily at the
other soldiers in her unit milling around. Really, all she wanted right now was a tub of
steaming hot water and generous handful of soap-beans to wash her hands vigorously;
there wasn't much she was squeamish about, but being near so many typhoid-infected
corpses made her entire body itch with revulsion.

A loud shout, followed by raucous laughter caught her attention. Curious, she ventured
nearer, and realized from the good-natured teasing and clink of coins that some of the
soldiers had begun gambling on some sort of dice game. She was turning away when a
figure stepped forward from the flickering shadows thrown by the campfires. Sun
Shangxiang barely stifled a yelp before she recognized the figure standing before her.

"You! I-" Zhuge Liang quickly motioned for her to keep her voice down. "Where have you
been?"

"Cao Cao has decided to use me as his local expert, so he's keeping me here and assigned a
guard to me, although they did show me around the encampment. But it's not important;
did you use the dove I gave to you? Did you manage to tell your brother about the epidemic
here?"

"Yes, but I sent it off before I realized that Cao Cao was going to send the dead bodies over
to our camp! We need to send another message as soon as possible to warn my brother and
Zhou Yu! I-" Sun Shangxiang stopped when she realized that the color had drained from
Zhuge Liang's face; it was the first time she had ever seen him with anything less than
perfect control. "Did you not know?" He shook his head.

"They showed me the quarantined area briefly, but I didn't realize..." Sun Shangxiang
looked at him anxiously as he took a step back and pressed the back of his hand to his
mouth, head bent. He stood completely still and silent for a few minutes, and Sun
Shangxiang was just getting nervous about being noticed by the other soldiers when he
raised his head again.
"Princess, you need to return to your brother's camp as soon as possible; the typhoid
epidemic is too dangerous, and we cannot risk you getting infected. I've made a sketch of
the layout of their land forces," he said, pressing a small square of fabric into her hand, "so
as soon as you can get a look at how their naval forces are assembled, that will be enough
and you should leave immediately afterwards. Do you understand?" Sun Shangxiang
nodded, stuffing the roll of cotton up her sleeve.

"Now, I have to tell you- when the typhoid epidemic starts to break out among your
brother's camp and my Lord's forces, it... it's likely that my Lord will take his forces and
retreat, breaking the alliance-"

Sun Shangxiang felt her jaw drop. "What! You serve a man who would do something like
that-" He shook his head sharply.

"Princess, we don't have time to argue about this. It is likely that given enough time and
urging by Guan Yu and Zhao Yun, he will change his mind, but at the moment he will be too
worried about losing all of his men to sickness. If my Lord does decide to leave, tell your
brother and Zhou Yu that I intend to continue working with them on this campaign till the
very end, even if it means to the death. I will continue to stay in contact with the rest of the
messenger pigeons, to let you know what is happening here and what my own plans are."

"Do you think that even if we send a bird now about Cao Cao sending over the infected
corpses, that they won't find out in time?" Sun Shangxiang asked. Zhuge Liang shook his
head.

"I wish they would, but it may not be very likely. I will send a pigeon as soon as possible,
but we need to be prepared in case it doesn't fly fast enough." He looked at her keenly. "Do
we understand each other?"

"Excuse me," Sun Shangxiang turned to see another soldier standing over to the side. "Lu
Er," he said, addressing Zhuge Liang. "Is this soldier bothering you?" Zhuge Liang smiled,
again all calm placidity.

"No, of course not. He said he was interested in buying one of my pigeons, that's all. May I
return to my tent to get one for him?" Sun Shangxiang held her breath as the other soldier
eyed her suspiciously, but finally he nodded gruffly.

"All right, but hurry up." The soldier and Zhuge Liang left, and for the next few minutes Sun
Shangxiang tried to look busy; it was difficult to accurately tell how much time had passed
when her heart was beating fit to burst out of her chest like a drum. Finally, Zhuge Liang
returned; this time the soldier lagged behind, whether out of curtesy or laziness, Sun
Shangxiang couldn't tell.

"Princess," Zhuge Liang said quietly, as he put the cooing dove into her hands. "Remember
- tell them about the bodies now, get a look at the fleet, and then leave as soon as possible.
Clear?" Sun Shangxiang squared her jaw, and nodded. Zhuge Liang smiled briefly.

"Good." He bowed his head to her for a moment, then looked her in the eye. "Good luck."

******************************************************************

Cao Cao walked back slowly, lost in thought. Although of course it was always difficult to
visit sick soldiers that he was responsible for, it had been jarring to see Man Tun sick, when
in all his previous campaigns, the soldier had been among the heartiest in the army. He
paused suddenly, and cocked his head. The pure, silvery notes of a flute were drifting
toward him, in a tune that was strangely familiar.

When he pushed open the flap of the tent, Lu Er looked up calmly, taking the bamboo flute
from his lips before bowing his head. Cao Cao walked over and sat down.

"What was the song you were playing before?" Lu Er raised his eyebrows.

"Just an old lullaby, Prime Minister." Cao Cao settled in more comfortably.

"Play on, it sounds very familiar, but I can't quite recognize it." Lu Er once again raised the
flute to his mouth, and after a few minutes, Cao Cao smiled and began to hum along.

"I look to the edge of the sky, but cannot see my home..." Cao Cao trailed off, then let the
melody wash over him. When it finally came to an end, he let the silence linger for a few
moments; it seemed he could almost see the city of Xuchang spread out in front of him.

"That's an unusual song for you to know," Cao Cao said finally, looking over at the other
man. Lu Er smiled a little sadly.

"Remember, Prime Minister, I come from the north originally. And it is a song that has come
to hold much meaning for me, these past few years." Lu Er was silent for a moment, then
looked up. "I heard you talking to the men, just now. It is true that your youngest son is
sickly?" Cao Cao nodded.

"Ever since he was young, he has sometimes had trouble breathing. Dust, exertion..." He
shook his head, his heart aching.

"Forgive me, Prime Minister, but then why do you not go to him? From how you speak of
him, it is clear you dote on the child. Is this war truly so necessary?" Cao Cao looked the
other man sharply.

"And what would you know of it?" He demanded sharply. The trader bowed his head.

"Nothing, your highness. Except that my father died when I was eight years old, and there
is very little I would not do, to have had more time with him." Cao Cao paused, and then
sighed, but said nothing. After a few long moments, Lu Er continued delicately, "And I have
heard that the emperor is young, and inexperienced. It is perhaps possible that he would
welcome firsthand support from his most important ministers and officials."

"Enough! I do not know where you come by your information, but your advice is both
unwelcome and unneeded." Cao Cao said, getting up from his seat and moved toward the
exit. The music began again as he left, but he did not pause or break his stride.

*******************************************************************

Cao Cao resisted the urge to press a hand to his aching head, the throbbing pain increasing
in both tempo and intensity as he looked at the treacherous letter. He should have known
better than to trust these two turncoats, he thought.

"The handwriting is a perfect match, and full of the same grammatical mistakes," he said.
"This must be the work of Cai Mao." A flutter of white caught his attention at the corner of
his eye. He looked over to see Lu Er, standing among some of the other officers with his
cage of doves slung over his shoulder. He stared at the smooth white brightness of birds'
wings, and a seed of suspicion quickly took root in his mind.

"Lu Er," he said. "Did you catch those birds yourself, or did you trade for them?"

"I traded for them," the other man said. "A lady in Dansui gave them to me in exchange for
a set of tortoiseshell combs, and she suggested that I try to sell them at this camp, since
she said that the army was still in need of supplies."

"Where is Dansui? Did this lady suggest that you that you try to sell the birds to anybody in
particular?" Cao Cao asked sharply.

"Dansui is a village on the south bank of the river, and the lady suggested that I try to sell
the birds to any of the Southlander soldiers I met, since she said that they would know how
to cook and appreciate them."

"Did you sell any of your birds to Admirals Cao and Zhang?" The trader hesitated.

"I believe so... are they the officers who asked me whether there would be fog tonight?" Lu
Er asked, turning to the soldier assigned to guard him. Cao Cao felt fury rise up in a swift
rush of heat, sending another dagger of pain shooting through the base of his skull.

"Commander, what are you thinking?" Cao Cao strode over angrily to Lu Er.

"Give me one of the birds," he demanded. The trader opened the cage and handed over a
pigeon; Cao Cao pivoted, and launched the bird with a quick thrust; it flapped its wings
fruitlessly for a moment, then surged forward towards the southeast... unerringly in the
direction of Sun Quan's camp.

"What-" Cao Cao ignored the excited babbling and murmured questions beside him;
Admirals Cai and Zhang were approaching, and death for them would be swift and
merciless.

******************************************************************

"Is everything in readiness?" Cao Cao asked, holding still as one of his lieutenants finished
strapping on his armor.

"Yes, Commander. Um..." The officer fidgeted. "The trader, Lu Er- he says that he wants to
see you right now. He says that you know him by another name - Sleeping Dragon?"

Cao Cao froze, the blood seeming to turn solid in his veins.

Lu Er... I was a farmer for ten years, in the Northlands... He had a couple curious trinkets,
nothing valuable...

"Let him in!" Cao Cao snapped.

In a few moments, the erstwhile trader appeared before him, the same as the first time Cao
Cao had seen him - except he held a hawk's wing fan in his right hand, the graceful arc laid
flat against his chest.

"Zhuge Liang," Cao Cao said. The man smiled.

"Yes, Prime Minister. That is another of the names I go by." Cao Cao glared at him, his mind
raising. The other man had the audacity to laugh. "You are reviewing everyone I've met and
everything I've done since arriving to this camp, to see if I have sabotaged anything, aren't
you?" Zhuge Liang gestured to the tea table set up behind them, the leaves and cups
already arranged from the last time Cao Cao had had Xiao Qiao's look-alike visit him. "Shall
we discuss it over tea, and I can tell you directly?" Zhuge Liang didn't wait to hear Cao
Cao's response, but turned and swept smoothly over to the table, seating himself silently
and preparing the tea implements.

After a moment of hesitation, Cao Cao approached and seated himself. He watched as the
man poured tea into Cao Cao's cup first, and then for himself.

"Why are you not afraid that I will execute you right now?" he asked. Zhuge Liang smiled
serenely.

"You might," the other man said. "But I don't believe you will. Killing me would be too much
of an acknowledgement that I've succeeded in wounding you. For a man to chase a fly
across an ocean just to squash it gives the fly power instead of the man - and you are too
proud to even consider that I, or Sun Quan, or Liu Bei, or any of those allied against you are
anything more than flies."

"I did not hesitate to kill Admirals Cai and Zhun," Cao Cao pointed out.

"They were traitors," Zhuge Liang said. "Treachery within your own camp cannot be
tolerated, but I have never pledged loyalty to you." Cao Cao paused; there was something
in Zhuge Liang's expression, and then understanding dawned.

"But they weren't actually traitors, were they..." Cao Cao said slowly. Zhuge Liang inclined
his head, sipping his tea. "Did you plan engineer all of this beforehand? The birds, the letter,
the arrows?" Zhuge Liang shook his head.

"None of it. I did bring the birds over with me in order to send messages from our camp,
but the rest was improvised at the time. I would wager that the letter was written by Zhou
Yu; he is very good at mimicking handwriting. I predicted that there would be fog that
particular note, and so I sent my instructions for the ruse by pigeon to Lu Su, one of Zhou
Yu's advisors."

"And what was the flute-playing? Asking after my son, the emperor?" Cao Cao asked
derisively. Zhuge Liang put his cup down, looking Cao Cao straight in the eye.

"That was my attempt to convince you to abandon this war, but there was too little time,
and I had to be straightforward, which was a mistake." He said calmly. "Perhaps if it had
happened earlier, before you launched this campaign - but it is too late, now. But your
defining characteristic is that you want what is not your yours to take, Prime Minister, and
once you've set your mind on making something - or someone - I believe that there is very
little that can swerve you from your chosen path."

"You say that as if that is a disadvantage," Cao Cao said. "And you, you would rather follow
a sniveling coward like Liu Bei? He ran away at the first sign of trouble!"

"It is true that my lord has his faults," Zhuge Liang said. "He can be overly cautious, and in
trying to preserve his immediate position, he fails to take necessary risks for long-term
gain. He is not boldly charismatic, he cannot command armies with a sweep of his arm; it
takes a quieter, closer opportunity for conversation to appreciate his true quality. He has no
head for strategy, and without sound advice goes sadly astray in the battlefield." Cao Cao
sneered.

"And this is the master you serve?"

"Yes," Zhuge Liang said. "Because he has two qualities that you lack completely. He truly
cares for the common person, and he knows how to recognize and surround himself with
good, talented men. He is, perhaps, ill-suited to be a ruler during times of war - but he
would be an utterly virtuous and upright ruler during times of peace. He does not have,
perhaps, the same strength of personality or forcefulness of character as you, Prime
Minister, but that is not what matters to the common man, in the end." Zhuge Liang picked
up his tea cup and drained it, then set it down firmly on the table. "Does not the value of a
cup lie in its emptiness, for what it can hold?" The man asked. "Does not the value of a
mirror lie in what it reflects back, rather than what it looks like in itself?" Zhuge Liang
smiled. "The common man is far enough removed from the intrigue of the capital that all he
cares about is the harvest, and that war not ravage it; that the yearly taxes are reasonable,
and that corruption not raise them; that the land remains safe to travel, and that political
strife not disturb it."

Zhuge Liang picked up the teapot again, and began pouring tea into his cup again, but he
continued to pour even when the hot liquid overflowed and began to spill on to the table.
"But your heart is overflowing with ambition, and you've carried this full heart to Red Cliff.
Someone here shall pour that heart onto the floor." Zhuge Liang set the pot down and
seized the cup before standing. Cao Cao rose also, unable to tear his gaze away from the
other man. They stood in silence for a few moments, and then Zhuge Liang smiled in a
bittersweet manner.

"After I had been a farmer for ten years, and Liu Bei came to ask me to be his military
advisor - I sometimes wonder if I should have said no. I know that if it we had been
reversed - if Liu Bei was I, and I Liu Bei - that my lord would have said no immediately. But
I - I finally said yes, and here I am." Zhuge Liang looked down at the cup of tea in his hand,
and then slowly turned it upside down, the tea splashing downwards.

"You and I are more alike than you know, Prime Minister. We both had the chance to choose
peace. But we chose war instead." Then, as Cao Cao looked on, Zhuge Liang's gaze
deliberately shifted to the candles sputtering next to the tea table; and Cao Cao saw in
horror the moment that the direction of the wind changed.

The drums began to sound; and the flood of fire began to roll in.