Crouching Dragon: The Journey of Zhuge Liang sample (Act I) -- T. P. M. Thorne
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1
“The Han have ruled China for four hundred years… but because of a few ambitious warlords, that will come to an end…?…That’s absurd.”
Three men sat cross-legged on small cloth mats, facing each other, surrounded by lush green. Each man was young, bright, and ambitious, but each in his own way. In the seat that overlooked the town, a grinning, confident youth in his late teens fanned himself majestically with a strategist’s fan made of white feathers. He wore white robes, and his long hair was tied and covered by a small, white silk turban. To his left, a youth with rough, unappealing features and a dark, rough complexion grinned tauntingly, exposing his disordered teeth. He wore a wide-brimmed straw hat to shield his eyes from the sun, and he wore dark green robes patterned with images of the legendary phoenix. The last, blue-robed youth - whose demeanour was less confident, but still determined - was sat forward, his gaze fixed on the youth in white robes, awaiting an answer.
“…My dear Xu Yuanzhi,” the white-robed youth chuckled as he continued to fan himself, “all the signs point to it: without able men to guide the honest ones, the ‘Fire of the Han’ will dim, and die out.”
“…Nonsense!” the blue-robed youth scoffed irritably.
“Maybe not, I think…!” the green-robed youth suggested teasingly.
“…You both…!” the blue-robed youth retorted with anger.
“One must look in order to see,” the white-robed youth declared. “And when you look, Pang Tong, Xu Shu… what do you see…? …Here, in the countryside, we see false calm. …But elsewhere… all you’ll see is war and chaos.”
“Too true, Kongming, too true,” the green-robed youth sighed sadly.
The three were sat on the outskirts of a hill forest near the city of Longzhong, in China, discussing the events of the day. It was a time of war and chaos everywhere in the world; under the rule of Septimus Severus, the Roman Empire was sweeping across Europe, Africa and the Middle East, having defeated the Parthian Empire and raided their capital only two years previous. But in China, the warlords were duelling over an Empire in a state of flux; only a decade or so earlier, the Yellow Turbans - a Taoist-cult-inspired revolution against the imperial court - had been brutally stamped out, but stability had not returned.
“The Yellow Turban Rebellion was just the beginning,” the white-robed youth continued with a knowledgeable air that exceeded his years. “If the court had returned to normal after their defeat, I’d say that things would remain as they are.”
“…Should they remain as they are…?” the green-robed youth suggested.
“You…!” the blue-robed youth scolded; “How can you say things like that??? …You… you’re both letting your reputations go to your heads!”
“…Are we, Kongming…?” the green-robed youth asked as he turned his white-robed friend, who simply smiled in response.
The man in white robes, Zhuge Liang - known respectfully by his style name, Kongming, by friends - was also known by the Taoist name ‘Crouching Dragon’, and was considered a budding talent of the age.