The commandery-level Household Bureau oversaw matters such as household registration, ancestral rites, marriages, farming and sericulture, corvée labor, and roads. It was a department with considerable responsibilities.
The bureau was headed by a clerk, with a secretary as his deputy and more than a dozen subordinate officials beneath them. Although Lan Tian worked for the Household Bureau, he had started out as one of those subordinates.
As a civil servant in a city-level department during the Three Kingdoms era, Lan Tian had initially been brimming with enthusiasm, ready to make his mark. But he soon discovered that things were nothing like he had imagined.
His colleagues at the Household Bureau, including its chief clerk, treated him like a bodhisattva, placing him on a pedestal and barely assigning him any work.
Before Lan Tian had even taken up his post, outsiders had already learned all about his background.
He was General Liu's brother-in-law, born into a humble farming family, and had landed this comfortable, prosperous position through his wife's connections.
Though Lan Tian was new to the workplace, a little chatting and bragging had helped him get a thorough grasp of the relationships between his colleagues.
Most of them had ties, one way or another, to the Chen Family of Xiapi or the Mi Family of Donghai. It was almost impossible to find a low-ranking official from humble origins. Lan Tian had seen for himself how firmly local magnates and great clans held power.
The Chen Family of Xiapi had helped when Che Zhou was lured into a trap and killed, while Mi Zhu had poured his entire fortune into helping Liu Bei build his realm. Naturally, they were now among those reaping the rewards.
Lan Tian finally understood why Liu Bei had not gone to Jing Province. A move like that would set everything in motion; it was not something Liu Bei could do just because he wanted to.
Once he had figured all this out, Lan Tian stopped fretting. Every day, he went in, checked in for work, and read or practiced calligraphy when he had nothing to do.
The chief clerk saw that the fellow knew how to behave, so he had nothing but kind words for him when speaking to Guan Yu, too.
Lan Tian still devoted most of his energy to cultivating new varieties. Besides turning over the soil and planting in the back courtyard, he often experimented with new dishes to share with Gan Qian. Mi Zhen could only look on, green with envy at the bond between the siblings.
Before long, Mi Zhu persuaded Chang Ba of Donghai to rebel against Cao Cao, and the nearby commanderies and counties followed suit, submitting to Liu Bei.
Liu Bei's power grew, his forces swelling to tens of thousands, and his confidence grew with them.
Cao Cao was shocked when he learned that Liu Bei had seized Xu Province. But by then, the main body of the Cao Army had marched north toward Liyang. Apart from his great general Xiahou Dun, who was guarding Xudu, he had no suitable commander to send against Xu Province. In his haste, Cao Cao ordered Liu Dai, Chief Clerk of the Secretariat, and General of the Household Wang Zhong to lead troops against Liu Bei.
Cao Cao was serving as Chancellor at the time. Liu Dai was one of his trusted men, but had never commanded an army on his own, so he was extremely excited at the prospect of campaigning against Liu Bei.
Wang Zhong, a native of Fufeng, had lived through the rebellion of Li Jue and Guo Si in Chang'an. Famine had struck year after year, and people had resorted to eating their own children. Wang Zhong, too, had once eaten human flesh out of hunger. Now, as deputy commander, he was eager to prove himself.
Neither man took Liu Bei, the General of the Left, seriously. They believed Liu Bei had only gotten lucky by following Cao Cao in the campaign to wipe out Lu Bu, and were confident they could take back Xu Province.
Both men vied to lead the vanguard and claim the first victory. Since neither would give way, they finally settled the matter by drawing lots.
But fate had a strange joke in store: when they tossed the coin, it somehow lodged in a dead branch by the roadside.
Wang Zhong was about to toss it again, but Liu Dai said, "Heaven's will is that we advance together. Why don't we split into two forces and encircle Xiaopei?"
So the two divided their troops, with their forces thirty li apart, and advanced on Xiaopei at the same time. The road was utterly deserted.
At long last, they came across a living person—but he was blind. The man said, "General Liu sent word that the Cao Army had come to slaughter the people of Xu Province again, and that there was even a general in the army who ate people. Everyone was terrified and fled."
Wang Zhong bristled with rage. Ashamed of that chapter of his past, he cut the blind man down with a single stroke of his sword and continued on.
By then, dusk had fallen, and the soldiers were exhausted after a full day's march. Wang Zhong had no choice but to set up camp and have the men cook.
Before fleeing, the villagers had filled in the wells. Wang Zhong could only order his men to dig new ones for water and cooking. There was no chance of taking Xiaopei under cover of night, so he sent scouts to relay information to Liu Dai. The other force's situation was much the same.
When camping in the open, an army always had to guard against a night raid, but the night passed without incident.
At dawn, Wang Zhong received an arrow letter from Liu Dai asking for aid. Liu Dai said that Liu Bei had launched a night raid on his camp and urged Wang Zhong to attack the enemy from behind. Their chance to claim the first victory had come at last.
Wang Zhong was overjoyed. He left the infantry behind to guard the baggage train and led the cavalry at a gallop to Liu Dai's aid.
Halfway there, the cavalry ran into another force. The two sides were about to clash when they realized the enemy troops were Liu Dai's cavalry. They produced their arrow letters and saw that they had been tricked, then joined forces and hurried to Liu Dai's camp.
When the two cavalry forces arrived, the camp and baggage train had already been destroyed. Before long, the remnants of Wang Zhong's own camp arrived with another report: Liu Bei's troops had suddenly raided them, setting fire to their supplies and baggage while the troops guarding the camp scattered in all directions.
Without their supplies and baggage, how could Liu Dai and Wang Zhong keep fighting? They could only lead their armies back toward Xudu. On the way, they ran into Liu Bei's ambush and nearly got captured.
Liu Bei laughed aloud behind them. "Rats like you would meet this fate even if you came with a hundred men. As for Cao the Rebel himself, who knows what would happen?"
Liu Dai and Wang Zhong hardly dared reply. They whipped their horses and fled with their heads down, with barely a hundred cavalrymen left in their forces.
After his victory, Liu Bei grew cocky. He even had Guan Yu tell Lan Tian about the battle, then announced that the great showdown between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao was about to begin and that he planned to march west into Yu Province to support Yuan Shao.
After hearing this, Lan Tian urged Guan Yu, "Cao Cao is cunning and full of schemes. He'll surely use feints to hold Yuan Shao in check, then deal with him only after clearing away threats to his rear. Brother-in-law, you must not let your guard down."
"Ziyu, you make a good point. I'll write a letter to my elder brother at once," Guan Yu said.
After receiving Guan Yu's letter, Liu Bei said to Mi Zhu, "Lan Ziyu is far too cautious. Aside from the threat from our forces in Xu Province, Zhang Xiu is still causing trouble south of Xudu. Once Yuan Benchu engages him, we can send our armies in from several directions and storm Xudu together. Then we'll surely be able to save the Son of Heaven from danger."
Mi Zhu nodded. "Lan Ziyu means well. My lord should still recruit soldiers and horses and prepare actively for war."
"I know. Are you acquainted with Zang Xuangao? Could you persuade him to come over to our side?" Liu Bei asked.
Mi Zhu shook his head. "He served as Commandant of Cavalry under Governor Tao, but he commands a large force and has always acted independently. It won't be easy to persuade him to surrender."
While the two were discussing Zang Ba, he had already invaded Qing Province under Cao Cao's orders to prevent Yuan Shao's army from attacking from the east.
In the ninth month, Cao Cao left his great general Yu Jin to station troops on the south bank of the Yellow River and keep watch on the north. He also split off troops to guard Guandu, north of Xudu, then returned to Xudu to prepare for Yuan Shao's attack.
By then, Liu Dai and Wang Zhong had returned to Xudu in defeat. They knelt in the Chancellor's Office, awaiting Cao Cao's punishment.
Cao Cao had been at Liyang and had not planned his troop deployments carefully. Believing the blame lay with his poor choice of commanders, he merely stripped the two men of their titles, salaries, and official posts, allowing them to atone for their crimes through service.
When Cao Cao heard of Liu Bei's brazen words, he flew into a rage and wanted to lead an army east himself to attack Xu Province.
All the generals tried to dissuade him. "The one contesting the realm with our lord is Yuan Shao. His great army is pressing in from Hebei, yet our lord would turn east to attack Liu Bei. What if Yuan Shao takes advantage of the moment to attack us? What then?"
With all the generals urging him against it, Cao Cao had no choice but to abandon the plan.
In the first month of the fifth year of Jian'an, the Girdle Edict plot was exposed. Cao Cao executed Dong Cheng, Wang Zifu, Zhong Ji, and the others, exterminating their three clans.
Liu Bei's involvement in the Girdle Edict plot came to light, and the eastern campaign against Xu Province was once again put on the agenda.
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