Chapter 43: Should Kong Rong Be Saved?

"What is my lord's opinion of Kong Beihai?" Li Yi asked Liu Bei.

Liu Bei was not particularly close with Kong Rong; they had only met for the first time when Liu Bei rescued Beihai.

"Kong Beihai is well-read, possessed of extraordinary and unrestrained talent, and is a true gentleman."

Li Yi gave a soft chuckle.

"Kong Beihai is indeed 'righteous,' but unfortunately, he is righteous to a fault, righteous to the point of pedantry."

"He prides himself on his lofty talents and grand ambitions, single-mindedly determined to pacify the troubled times and restore the Han Dynasty."

"It is a pity that his ambitions outstrip his abilities; he is no ruler for an era of chaos."

When Kong Rong had persuaded Liu Bei to take charge of Xuzhou, he had once remarked that Yuan Shu was not a ruler for an era of chaos. Now, Li Yi was declaring that Kong Rong himself was likewise no such ruler.

Kong Rong was undeniably a man of talent, skilled in composing prose—Cao Pi was one of his devoted readers.

Having spent many years in Beihai, he established schools everywhere, striving to civilize the common people through the promotion of Confucianism.

And remarkably, the results were quite good.

Because the Yellow Turban rebels were rampant in Qingzhou, many people witnessed Kong Rong's benevolent deeds and consequently abandoned the Yellow Turbans to pledge their allegiance to him.

Up to this point, Kong Rong had been doing a fairly commendable job.

Believing the time was ripe, he decided to launch a campaign against the Yellow Turbans.

Yet, owing to his utterly inept military command, he was beaten so soundly by the rebels that he lost all sense of direction.

In the end, he had no choice but to come crying ignominiously to Liu Bei for help.

"Though Bei's interactions with Kong Beihai have not been frequent, I have long heard that since taking up residence in Beihai, his heroic spirit has spanned the rainbow, and his essays are world-shaking. Is my teacher's assessment not somewhat biased?"

Perhaps mindful of the past favor Kong Rong had shown in supporting Xuzhou, Liu Bei put in a good word for him.

He meant that Kong Rong still possessed many fine qualities, and urged the teacher not to constantly harp on the man's flaws.

Yet, regrettably, the flaws of a lord in times of chaos are magnified infinitely.

For subordinates are different; they only need to perform their own duties well.

A lord, however, must oversee the entire situation. If he makes even the slightest misstep, fault-finders will seize upon it.

When Li Yi called Kong Rong excessively pedantic, it was no groundless smear.

The classic story of Kong Rong yielding the larger pears is universally known.

Yet behind that act of yielding pears, Kong Rong was not trying to emphasize modesty, but rather ritual and propriety.

His obsession with ritual and propriety persisted throughout his entire life, dooming him from the start to be unsuited for the role of a lord.

Take his employment of personnel, for instance. He employed none other than eloquent critics devoid of any genuine competence.

As for corrupt officials and local bullies who disrupted society, Kong Rong was entirely incapable of managing them.

However, when it came to executing his own subordinates, he was surprisingly decisive.

On one occasion, because a subordinate failed to collect taxes in full, Kong Rong flew into a rage and summarily beheaded all five district inspectors.

Take another instance: a subordinate named Zuo Chengzu once reminded Kong Rong to carefully choose a side between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao.

This was undoubtedly well-intentioned advice, for Cao Cao and Yuan Shao possessed the mightiest forces at the time.

With Beihai being such a small territory, choosing a side early on would ensure self-preservation.

Yet upon hearing this, Kong Rong flew into a towering rage, cursing Zuo Chengzu as a traitor because, in his eyes, both Yuan and Cao were treacherous villains disloyal to the Han Dynasty.

Consequently, he had Zuo Chengzu put to death.

Such was Kong Rong's overly extreme comprehension of "loyalty."

As for his comprehension of "filial piety," it was even more baffling.

Once, on the roadside, Kong Rong saw a man weeping and offering sacrifices by his father's grave.

Kong Rong stared for a long time, yet could detect no genuine grief.

Thus, he concluded that the man was merely shedding hypocritical tears and lacked filial piety, and so he had the man executed.

Such was Kong Rong's extreme interpretation of filial piety.

One might ask: what business was it of his whether another man mourning his father was grief-stricken or not?

Yet Kong Rong was simply too obsessed with ritual and propriety.

As the twentieth-generation descendant of Confucius, what Kong Rong emphasized above all was that "as a scion of the Confucian school, loyalty and filial piety must come first!"

Not only did he strictly demand this of himself, but he also insisted on measuring everyone else by the same standard.

"Is the teacher certain that Kong Beihai is bound to fail without a doubt?" Liu Bei asked.

"...Heh."

Li Yi curved his lips into a smile. "When it comes to extensive learning and a prodigious memory, neither my lord nor I can compare to Kong Wenju. But when it comes to recognizing and employing capable people, Kong Wenju falls far short of my lord."

Hearing this, Liu Bei fell silent. How could Liu Bei's discerning eye fail to see Kong Rong's inability to employ men properly?

As early as their very first meeting, Liu Bei had already perceived that Kong Rong harbored a severe sense of class snobbery.

Kong Rong's immediate reaction upon meeting Liu Bei was that a mere frontier warrior had actually come to his rescue.

In the eyes of Kong Rong, born of the gentry elite, Liu Bei was nothing more than a low-born fellow who had climbed to an official post through military exploits.

Therefore, the claim that Liu Bei achieved great things merely by proclaiming himself a scion of the Han imperial clan is complete and utter nonsense.

Liu Bei did not divide the empire into three parts on the strength of his imperial lineage; rather, it just so happened that among the three partitioned realms, one happened to be ruled by a scion of the Han house.

At a time when imperial clansmen were as common as dirt in the late Han, Liu Bei was utterly disregarded by the gentry circles.

And how did Kong Rong's attitude toward Liu Bei change?

It changed only when he learned that Liu Bei had been a student of Lu Zhi.

That explained why he, the esteemed Chancellor of Beihai, could be so severely lacking in military commanders under his command.

For he insisted on drawing men exclusively from the gentry circles—men who could fight, possessed profound scholarship, and came from prestigious backgrounds.

By such standards of promotion, how many such men could possibly be found?

That was why Kong Rong had been so thoroughly thrashed and subdued by the Yellow Turbans, and why even Taishi Ci looked down upon him.

Old Liu, by contrast, was a true master of recognizing and employing talent regardless of origin.

To look no further than the present, there were Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Chen Dao right by his side.

All of them hailed from humble origins, yet possessed genuine talent and learning, and all would go on to establish great achievements in the future.

Now, the Yuan family's hands were stretching toward Qingzhou, and with Kong Rong unable to save himself, he had no choice but to once more seek help from his old friend Liu Bei.

Yet, judging by Li Yi's words, Kong Rong was destined for certain defeat. Should Liu Bei rescue him or not?

"If we follow the teacher's counsel and employ the stratagem of 'borrowing a road to conquer Guo' to strip Zang Ba of his military command—"

"Then as for Kong Beihai...?"

Li Yi countered with a question: "Does my lord wish to go to his rescue?"

Liu Bei stroked his beard, pondering aloud:

"Just as the teacher says, although Kong Beihai is no flawless man, he is nonetheless a loyal minister of the Han, and these past years he has exerted his utmost in Beihai."

"Furthermore, he has old ties with me; when Bei took charge of Xuzhou, Kong Beihai contributed a great deal."

"Now that he is pressed by the Yuan family, it would not be right to stand by and watch him perish."

Pausing slightly, as though fearing Li Yi might urge him against rendering aid, Liu Bei continued:

"Beihai is adjacent to Xuzhou. According to the teacher's words, our purpose in annexing Langya is essentially to alleviate the pressure on northern Xuzhou."

"If we can secure Beihai and use it as a bulwark, Langya will be free of worry, and northern Xuzhou can also be pacified."

"What does the teacher think?"

Heh, heh, heh.

Li Yi pursed his lips into a smile and said:

"Though my lord's thoughts are well-intentioned, have you considered that if we truly dispatch troops to Beihai, we will completely break with the Yuan family?"

"In the world today, Yuan Shao is the preeminent power; Gongsun Zan will sooner or later be destroyed by him, and northern territory bearing the surname Yuan is only a matter of time."

"Our Xuzhou is not yet stable. Does my lord have the confidence to challenge the Yuan family at this very moment?"

This soul-searching question left Liu Bei stunned, his brow furrowing deeply.

The current situation in the north was essentially a decisive contest between Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao.

When Yuan Shao attacked Qingzhou, he was targeting Tian Kai, the subordinate of Gongsun Zan. Yuan Shao regarded Qingzhou as fish in a barrel.

Once he swallowed Qingzhou, he would sever Gongsun Zan's ties with the south; he would never step back.

With Liu Bei's current strength of fewer than ten thousand men, attempting to challenge the wealthy Hebei region was nothing short of wishful thinking.

Even Cao Cao had only dared to turn against his elder brother after annexing Yanzhou, Yuzhou, and Xuzhou, and cultivating his strength for several years.

Even then, the dynamic remained one of Yuan's strength against Cao's weakness.