Giten Engi ~To Aru Sakushi No Sangokushi~ - Chapter 2

Luoyang, Inside He Jin’s office

“First of all, as Your Excellency said, I was born into a fairly prestigious family.”

I passed the first step of this special high-stress interview, which was designed to assess my tolerance for being under pressure. I’m now ready to continue on to the second level, which is to describe why I applied for this job.

“Ah, that’s right.”

It is true that the manor my family owns is surrounded by vast agricultural lands, but our house is not like the other warlords in our area, but we do have some connections to other notable families in our area.

“Even though our family is called a famous family, in reality, my family is only quite decent.”

“What do you mean by that?”

He Jin, who comes from a commoner family, appears to group all notable and famous families together, which is incorrect.

“In other words, our family is not as famous as the Yuan family, the Xun family, or even the Yang family. And we are definitely not as famous as the Dong family, which is my maternal relative.”

“Go on, continue.”

He Jin then placed his palms on his chin and appeared to be pondering about what I had said, indicating that he vaguely understood what I was attempting to express. His eyes, which had previously has the impression that he was gazing at something suspicious, are now changing, and he is now beginning to perceive things from a different perspective, as well as he is now attempting to observe me earnestly. This is good for me.

“Yes. If I continue with the way things are, I’ll end up being a subordinate of a famous family. When that happens, will they be able to judge my work correctly and without bias?”

“Evaluate you without bias, huh?”

He Jin believes that members of prominent families represent jealousy and greed. They’re trash who keep holding each other back. No matter how good a young subordinate is, they will not recognize and honor his accomplishments because for them he is young and is overconfident in himself.

They are the types of people who will steal their subordinates’ accomplishments and use them for their own advancement. To appease their subordinate, they will either give them a minor promotion or express their appreciation by stating something like, “You did a good job.”.

“Yes, that’s correct. Because if I join them, they will most certainly assess me with bias and claim my accomplishments as their own, and when I complain about this kind of treatment, they will just say “Stop being so cocky” and they’ll criticize me.”

In this era, family prestige and age are important, thus young people are rarely appraised accurately.

“Besides, they will retain an incomprehensible grudge against me since I am better than their own children. The most likely scenario is that they will interfere with my work or worse, kill me.”

This is not just a guest, but a future with an infinitely high likelihood to happen.

There are countless people who have tried to get in my way during my studies at the Academy, and if I ignore them, they will not stop harassing me. Even if I half-heartedly hurt them and tried to silence them, the next day they will make a scene using the power of their house. That’s why the only way to stop them is to kill them. Seriously, they are such a nuisance.

“Ah, those idiots.”

Even if you expect others to take advantage of you or undermine your accomplishments, what would you do if they murdered you out of jealousy? What’s worse, this is a popular thought not only among those in the “Dakuryuu School,” but also among those in the “Seiryuu School.”

This type of situation is beyond He Jin’s comprehension.

“That’s why I didn’t want to stay in a famous family’s circle. “As for the Eunuch faction…”

“Ah, it’s fine already. You’re right, even I’m like that.”

Do I have to explain the Eunuch faction? When I asked He Jin about it, he merely nodded, as if he had been completely convinced by what I had said previously. Well, I still have no ties to the eunuch side, and I intend to keep it that way.

“Thank you for your understanding.”

“For the time being, I already understand what you are trying to say. But there are people in this world who don’t belong to any of these factions, right? What do you think of them?”

I am confident He Jin is referring to the imperial faction led by Wang Yun. Unfortunately, I am not interested in an emperor who is likely to die young.

“About them… will they be able to protect me from imprisonment due to the actions of the eunuch faction?”*

“Hmmm, those guys, I’m sure they can’t.”

I used that as an excuse since I can’t say that I’m not interested in the emperor. I’m glad that succeeded and it appears like He Jin was persuaded by my argument.

He Jin is a military commander, a relative of the Empress, and a Chinese native, hence he will not be affected by the party official prohibition. However, this is not true for persons from small to medium-sized household, which is why they are the most hesitant to work in the government.

The arrests of faction members began as a result of a power struggle between the eunuchs and the Seiryuu (Shidafu) of prominent families, including their relatives who disagreed with the eunuchs’ actions. The eunuchs imprison them for a crime they did not commit, and they are punish accordingly.

If it happened to me, “Would Wang Yun and the others protect me?”, and the answer is, “Surely they will abandon me”.

So what about He Jin? If that happens, his most likely response will be, “If you are useful to me, I will help you.”

In the first place, He Jin is a palace attendant and a relative of the Emperor, so if I join his ranks, I will be able to escape the “Clan Purge” (Well, if my parents have done something to include us in the Purge, then there’s nothing I can do about it, but if they stay at our mansion in Hongnong, then they won’t have a chance to turn the eunuchs into their enemies, because those eunuchs basically don’t leave Luoyang)*.

To be honest, it is foolish to fight with the eunuchs, since in order to compete and oppose the eunuchs who posses national power, the different factions need something they don’t have, and that is military power.

Both the eunuchs and the prominent families were aware of this. That is why they do not want people from various factions to wield military power.

Furthermore, those fools claiming to be members of the Seiryuu School are insane, saying things like “Having military power is impure,” as if they were court nobility from the Heain era.

But, in this regard, this happened partly because Emperor Guangwu, who restored the later Han dynasty, popularized Confucianism in order to prevent prominent families from obtaining power, so in some ways, the Seiryuu are doing what a loyal Han subject should do.

So, anyhow.

“Yes, that’s why I didn’t choose them and I choose you, Your Excellency, to ensure both my personal safety and my success in life.”

“Hmm. You are very honest, aren’t you?”

“It’s what you wanted after all.”

“Gahahahaha! You’re right! I was the one who said that!”

He Jin’s expression changed from grumpy to joyful after hearing what I have said.

Although he used to be a butcher, a stubborn craftsman so to speak. It seems that my prediction that there’s a high possibility that he’s reasonable boss of different kinds of people was correct.

“So I understand your goal now. Then what will be the benefit to me if I keep you around?”

Does this mean that I will be hired based on my usefulness? Looking at the way things are going, I wouldn’t say that all his doubts about me have vanished completely, but they seem to have been greatly reduced. But for some reason, when he suggested he would keep me around, it didn’t feel right; why not say he’d hire me or something?

Of course, I can’t tell him that directly.

“First of all, I can negotiate with people from prominent families on your behalf, and I can prepare various documents for you.”

“Hmmm, that is indeed very useful.”

In a sense, I’m simply saying that I’m going to take on the most tough and arduous jobs, which will be extremely difficult for me, but in order to thrive in this era, I must remember that the shortcut to success is to do what others don’t do.

“As I explained my circumstances a while ago, there are many people born from prominent families who are still struggling. Because of this, there may be some animosity towards Your Excellency, if you allow me to work for you, I can alleviate this animosity by intervening.”

“Well, there are indeed people from a prominent clan among my subordinates, but they are all small fry.”

The way He Jin judged them is a bit too hasty, but it’s clear that he’s been really worried out over them thus far.

“Your Excellency. When hundreds of ants unite, they can kill something bigger than themselves, right?”

“I see, that makes sense.”

Even if it’s the Yuan Clan or someone else, it’s inevitable that combining the power of a hundred individuals will be more successful than doing it alone.

In that situation, young people will not be the only ones to held their fangs at He Jin. But what if He Jin has a young man working for and supporting him? If he thinks about it for a second, he will understand that it will be lot easier for him to carry out his plan because someone will be doing a variety of tasks for him.

“Moreover, when that child grows up under Your Excellency’s protection, that child will one day become His Excellency’s strength.

After that, his faction’s power will expand dramatically, much like a snowball effect, but it will not be as significant.

…

He Jin’s Perspective

“Looking ten years into the future, I can see that things will change.”

Will I remain an emperor’s relative for the rest of my life, or will I be able to advance to the position of retainer? When I think about it, what makes people successful in the imperial court isn’t individual power, but organizational strength.

I won’t be able to advance in the ranks if I rely solely on military power, because I’ll have to compromise at some point to avoid clashes with prominent families and eunuchs. However, if I have supporters from prominent families, I won’t have to deal with ignorant and arrogant trash.

And it appears that this young man in front of me possesses the potential to unify them. Well, everything will be fine as long as he always has my back and does not betray me.

When I think about it, it’s actually not that horrible. Our interests are exactly the same. I’m sure this young man considered this before becoming my subordinate.

“…”

He also has the appropriate mentality, because when it appeared that he had said everything, he just shut his mouth and proceeded to bow his head. So I believe he will be an effective subordinate because he appears to grasp his position.

“I understand what you said.”

“Then?”

“Yes, I will use you.”

“Thank you very much!”

I can see this young man bowing his head in genuine joy. Well, maybe that’s natural, because based on what he mentioned before, I believe it would be a better option for him to be hired by me, because if he was hired by another prominent family, he would have to work while being threatened with his life. Even if I were in his position and my achievements were taken away from me, I wouldn’t be able to bear it either.

That’s why I can understand why he’s happy, because if I reject him, he’ll have no choice but to go that way.

But don’t be overjoyed, because I don’t plan to go easy on you.

“First and foremost, put your words into action.”

After all, flowery words are meaningless without action.*

“Yes! From now on, I, Li Ru, shall do my absolute best for His Excellency!”

It’s pointless to say such things, but I don’t want to damper this young man’s enthusiasm.

“Right, show me how useful you are, prodigy of the Li family.”

“Yes! I’m looking forward to working for you!”

Hmmm, so he didn’t deny that he was a prodigy, huh? It’s not like he doesn’t deserve to be named such, but I guess it’s probably a sign that he’s confident that he is indeed a prodigy. Well, if it turns out that he is useless, I will just get rid of him straight immediately. Be at least somewhat useful, okay?

With that, He Jin decided to include the young man who is called a prodigy among his subordinates. How will this encounter affect him? Perhaps only the young man in front of him knows.

Note:

1. At first I was confused about this Dakuryuu and Seiryuu since the 1st chapter because they are lit. translated to Muddy Stream and Clear Stream, (Seiryuu also means Azure Dragon) but now I found out that those two are Chinese symbols and not Japanese. Dakuryuu figuratively means comtemptible persons, or those people in that faction are shameless and despicable while Seiryuu is a scholar faction that is characterized with high moral character and reputation.

2. I’m still lacking in vocabulary so basically the actual word is 党錮 which is Chinese and is read as Danggu, it means suppresion of faction/party activities by confinement of members. It happened twice and the second time it happened the eunuch faction killed the scholar-bureaucrats and their party which largely contributes to the start of the Yellow Turban Rebellion.

3. Shidaifu or the Scholar-Bureaucrat, it refers to people who are intellectuals and commonly they are government officials or has other positions in the government.

4. This is basically the same as number 2 but it’s more expanded as this imprisonment or ban also includes the family of the faction members.

5. Hongnong is between Chang’an and Luoyang.

6. The Japanese proverb here goes like, No matter how beautiful and good a mochi painting looks like it is still useless (because it can’t be eaten)