Chapter 2924: Tianjin Wei (3)

Before the words had died away, a middle-aged man came walking along the inner side of the wall. He was spare and lean, not tall, but his stride was steady, each footfall ringing on the ground. His blue official robe had been smoked nearly past recognizing its original color by the coal fumes, and the quail rank badge on his chest was as gray as if it had been dug out of an ash heap. His face, too, carried the tint of furnace smoke, the cheekbones standing high, the cheeks fallen in — but his eyes were black and white in sharp relief, blazing bright, and in that gray-washed sweep of heaven and earth they shone like a pair of lamps.

Two brawny men flanked him left and right, Japanese sabers at their waists — the scabbards lacquered black and mounted with copper, the cord-wrapped grips worn shiny, plainly things in daily service at his side. Stranger still, each of the two carried in his hand a short gun, the barrel a matte blue-black, the wooden stock oiled to a luster; the muzzles pointed at the ground, but their fingers rested on the trigger guards, ready to raise and fire at an instant's notice. Li Luoyou had seen the Australians' short guns in the capital, but where the retainers of this cannon bureau had gotten their firearms he could not guess.

"The venerable sir has been disturbed." The middle-aged official came near and made a bow with every courtesy. Li Luoyou hastened to return it — and as his eyes fell on the man's hands he could not keep from a small start. Those hands were black and chapped, the knuckles knotted thick, covered in calluses and cracked seams, the nail-beds packed with rust and coal dust that no washing would get out. They were not a scholar's hands at all. They were the hands of an old master who had swung the great hammer in a smithy half his life.

At the sight of this official, the soldiers' bluster collapsed on the spot. The squad leader hastened to loose Li Luoyou's sleeve and backed away two steps, the slabs of his face squeezing out an unaccustomed heap of smiles. Several of the men put their weapons away outright and stood meekly to one side, not daring so much as to breathe loud.

"It was these small ones who were blind — Erudite Chen, forgive the offense, do..." The squad leader rubbed his hands together, bent nearly double, his voice oiled with conciliation. "We were only acting under orders; we had no notion the gentleman was Erudite Chen's honored guest. Much offense given, much offense given..."

Chen Yujie made no answer to him, only nodded slightly. The soldiers took it for a general amnesty and scattered like birds and beasts, vanishing around the corner of the wall in the space of an eyeblink — along with that lion badge worn so far above its wearer's station.

Li Luoyou bowed in return, and all the while rummaged his memory for some fragment of this unfamiliar official. His acquaintance in the capital ran wide; the leading figures of officialdom, high and low, he had at least some impression of — but this ninth-rank officer before him he could not for the life of him place.

"The venerable sir owes me no ceremony." Seeing the thought working on Li Luoyou's face, the official introduced himself unprompted. "I am Chen Yujie, formerly an Erudite of the Directorate of Astronomy. In early years I attended at my maternal uncle's elbow, and so had the fortune of meeting the venerable sir several times. But in those days the venerable sir was an honored guest in the Grand Secretariat, and I was only a junior pouring the tea and holding the inkstone. That you do not remember me is only as it should be."

At the mention of the Directorate of Astronomy and a maternal uncle, a light broke over Li Luoyou's mind — Chen Yujie: was that not Xu Guangqi's nephew? He studied the face closely, and sure enough, through features all but unrecognizable under the smoke-stains, he could faintly make out the shadow of the raw young lad who had once stood with folded hands behind Grand Secretary Xu.

"Why — Erudite Chen! Forgive me, forgive me." Li Luoyou's tone warmed by several degrees. "In the old days at Grand Secretary Xu's residence I did indeed meet the Erudite several times. But the years have flown, and the Erudite has... ah... taken on an aspect considerably different from of old. For the moment I quite failed to know you."

The words were tactfully put. Chen Yujie took no offense, only smiled, and the smile opened across his smoke-tinted face, showing a set of passably even white teeth.

After a few exchanges of courtesy, Chen Yujie led Li Luoyou a few paces off along the base of the wall, away from the gate. The two retainers with the short guns followed at a distance neither near nor far, their eyes warily sweeping the surroundings, their fingers never leaving the trigger guards.

Chen Yujie spoke of his years since. He had been an Erudite of the Directorate of Astronomy, in charge of astronomical and calendrical computation — a leisurely post, by rights. But from boyhood he had had a real bent for firearms, fortification, and matters military; when Xu Guangqi had supervised the training of troops, Chen Yujie had often assisted at his side, and had won his uncle's deep regard. Now, with the Grand Secretary posted out to govern Tianjin, he had not brought his own only son; instead he had specially seconded his nephew out of the Directorate of Astronomy, and from rebuilding Tianjin's defenses to taking charge of the Xigu Cannon Bureau, the weight of the trust was plain to see.

"This place is of very great consequence. Without a written pass from the Grand Secretary or the Intendant, no outsider may enter on any account." Chen Yujie sighed, gestured at the tightly shut gate, then glanced in the direction the soldiers had gone. "What guards this place is the standard camp commanded by Intendant Jiang Can of the Tianjin Military Defense Circuit. The Tianjin circuit has always been burdened with a tangle of business — walls and ramparts, canal transport, grain administration, the salt administration — all of it piled onto Intendant Jiang's one pair of shoulders. Busy with that, he lets the management of his soldiers slip the least degree, and sure enough the men drift loose, brawl and bawl, and seize the chance to shake down passersby. The venerable sir has had a fright. Yujie offers his apologies on their account."

He began another bow as he said it; Li Luoyou hastily barred him from it.

"The Erudite speaks too gravely. Those soldiers were only acting under orders — and besides, the Erudite arrived in good time, and spared an old man a world of trouble."

What he had seen filled Li Luoyou with sighs of regret. He had still been pinning hopes on Grand Secretary Xu's posting to Tianjin — training troops, making weapons, answering Sun Yuanhua at Dengzhou on the other flank — to wash away the court's decline of recent years. Xu Guangqi was a master of Western firearms lore; Sun Yuanhua had built up Deng-Lai through many years; both had real achievements to their name, and they were kin by marriage into the bargain. If the two of them pulled together — casting cannon, training a new army — there was no saying they could not give the Shorn-hair Thieves a contest.

But what he had seen today — even the soldiers of the Defense Circuit's standard camp swaggered and bullied like this. True, the Tianjin circuit and the provincial governor each kept their own camps and minded their own spheres, but these were the court's soldiers all the same, fed on the emperor's grain. If even a standard camp was like this, the other camps — the Coastal Defense, the Zhenhai, the Zhenwu, and the rest — could only be worse. Soldiers like these — could they fight? Commanders like these — could they be relied upon?

He swallowed the thoughts down, unwilling to show too much disappointment before Chen Yujie. He glanced at the sky, then at the fleet of boats still jammed watertight on the river, and asked: "Erudite Chen, an old man takes the liberty of a question — how much longer will that coal boat need to finish unloading? I have pressing business in the city; if the delay runs on, I fear the gates will have closed."

Chen Yujie followed his gaze to the sand boat, then looked at the ox carts still loading in perfect order on the wharf, and pondered a moment. "By my experience, that boat is carrying three or five thousand jin of coal at the least; two hours more, merely to unload. Add in clearing the channel and letting the boats through in order, and nothing will be moving for a good four."

Li Luoyou's brow creased. Four hours — the sky would have been black a long time by then. Tianjin Wei shut its gates the moment the night watch began, and short of urgent military business no man living could call them open again. If he could not get into the city tonight, then going to find Grand Secretary Xu tomorrow would cost him another whole day in the bargain.

He was still reckoning it out when Chen Yujie spoke again: "Venerable sir, don't fret. Three days ago the Grand Secretary and Intendant Jiang went out together to the Dagu estuary to inspect the gun fort being built against the Shorn-hairs, and to review the main camp and the military farm at Gegu as well. They will not be back in the city for some hours yet. Even if the venerable sir entered the city this very night, he would not see the Grand Secretary."

At this, Li Luoyou's heart eased — and tightened again, slightly. The easing was that he need not rush a night road into the city; the tightening was that with Grand Secretary Xu away, this trip to Tianjin of his might mean some days of waiting.

"The venerable sir has urgent business, then—?"

"No rush. Since the Grand Secretary is about his public duties, I shall simply tarry in Tianjin Wei a few days," said Li Luoyou. "There are one or two matters of my own that want seeing to in any case."

Tianjin Wei might be named a "wei," a mere garrison, but it was in truth one of the empire's great crossroads, and Li Luoyou kept shops and business interests here of his own.

Chen Yujie went on: "In that case, your junior will arrange a carrying chair. The venerable sir may rest first; when the Grand Secretary returns from his inspection, an audience will follow naturally."

Li Luoyou considered briefly, and nodded his assent.

He was now given a demonstration of the former Erudite's powers of decision.

Chen Yujie called over one of the retainers on the spot and gave him a few words in a low voice. The man took the order and was gone at a flying pace, vanishing at the end of the village lane in a moment. In scarcely the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, two men came hurrying up shouldering a sedanchair improvised from a round-backed armchair. The contrivance was rough-made — two long bamboo poles lashed to either side of an ordinary armchair, an old brocade cushion spread on the seat, a felt rug to cover the legs, a length of blue cloth draped over the back — but it was clean at least. The bearers were two laborers drawn off from the cannon bureau, thick through shoulder and waist, skins burnt black by the sun, straw sandals on their feet, and they walked steady as you could wish.

Chen Yujie also sent a man ahead to tell the servants Li Luoyou was leaving aboard the passenger boat to keep good watch over the baggage and not follow along. Then he added an escort of six armed retainers and two servants to travel in attendance.

"The venerable sir carries the Grand Secretary's card, it is true — but the population here is a mixed brew, and lawless fellows are thick on the ground," Chen Yujie reminded him.

Li Luoyou smiled wryly. On that point his instruction had already been delivered, mere moments ago.

Since the cannon bureau was guarded so strictly, he could hardly ask Chen Yujie to bend the rules and let him inside. Fortunately he meant to linger in Tianjin a while; the talk could wait until he had seen Grand Secretary Xu.

The party left the cannon bureau and threaded the bustling, tumbledown village lanes toward the river. The light was going down by then. Saoye, afraid they would be late, opened his mouth to hurry the chair-bearers along. Li Luoyou said instead: "Slower. Walk steady."

Chen Yujie led his little column down to the bank of the North Canal. Boats worked the river shuttle-fast, grain boats and merchant craft and ferries packed gunwale to gunwale, the boatmen's chants, the slap of punt poles on water, and the tread of feet on decking all muddled into one sound. The shortcut across — the Xigu pontoon bridge — stood unshipped at this hour. Chen Yujie, entirely unhurried, stood on the bank, waved a hand out over the river, and called a few times. Presently a ferry boat came slipping deftly out from between the hulls, the boatman working his long pole, and laid her gently against the bank.

"The Erudite commands remarkable face," Li Luoyou said in compliment.

Chen Yujie smiled, said nothing more, and only made a gesture of invitation.

The party boarded the ferry, the boatman set his long pole against the bed of the river, and the little craft went through the packed fleet like a lithe fish, threading left and threading right, steady and swift by turns. Sitting in the canopy, Li Luoyou watched the lamplight and the figures on both banks blur slowly into dusk, and thought to himself with something like wonder — this Chen Yujie, a ninth-rank nobody, got more done on the ground here in Tianjin than many a third- or fourth-rank official could boast.

Once the ferry had crossed the North Canal, Chen Yujie came ashore too, ordered the two bearers to lead the way with the chair, and had the retainers light their lanterns; and the party set off along the road toward the walled city of Tianjin Wei.

(End of chapter)