“Intention”: War for the Han Frontier sample -- TPMThorne.com

“Xu Ziyuan is family,” Cao Cao said pointedly. “For his timely support at Guandu alone, he is family. Do not mind his ways so much, Yuanrang. Bei did make a ‘complete fool’ of me, because I did not heed wise men’s advice, so my old friend is quite right.”
Xu Yòu sensed the tense atmosphere and laughed awkwardly, saying, “I should not have implied that you were a ‘complete fool’, Mengde, for you are not. But Bei, yes, I was saying... some of Wen Chou’s men joined him, I think, and he has a brigade of cavalrymen from Yòu Province led by... Zhou... Zhao...? ...Something or other, that he begged Yuan to let him have, so they must be good.”
“Gongsun Zan must have assigned them to Liu Bei at some point,” Guo Jia noted. “Men from that region will be good indeed, in their own right and as mentors to others.”
“But Mi Zhu is penniless,” the advisor Chen Qun said. “That conniving hankerer exhausted his family fortune on keeping Bei alive at Haixi, and his contacts melted away after that Lü Bu nonsense that he allowed to happen. All that Bei has now is a lot of brawn and one semi-competent ambassador in old Mister Sun. And while he might be very good at crying and fawning and squirming out of the messes that he gets himself into, he couldn’t plan a trip to the toilet.”
“So his first goal will be to secure good advisers,” Guo Jia concluded. “He’ll find many a clever mind in Jing. Just look at who that mediocrity Liu Biao has had around him of late: the Pangs, the Kuais and Wang Can, who - when his strange obsession with donkeys does not impede him - is a very sharp sword. I’ve made my own enquiries in Jing, and Bei could find at least one good man willing to serve him, I fear; it won’t make him unbeatable, but it will eliminate any chance of beating him quickly, and time is not on our side.”
“It certainly isn’t on yours,” Chen Qun heckled. “You’re more often sick than well these days, Guo Jia, and it is, as always, self-inflicted through vice! This is your first appearance in days! You-!”

“Not that argument again,” Cheng Yu sighed. “For the last time, Mister Chen, don’t waste your time: Guo Jia is predisposed to reaching Heaven early, and that is that.”
Cao Cao shook his head woefully and said, “I only wish you’d listen to reason, Guo Fengxiao. A great genius such as you should not be looking to die early.”
“On the contrary, I think that I should be,” Guo Jia joked. “After all, my profession is one that is always graded on the list of failures rather than successes. I can win a thousand times, but one careless mistake can cost you an army and undo all of my hard work. And then there is the small matter of being but a mere mortal with only so many ideas in my head. It is far better to live a short but successful life and then die unbeaten, long before a rival ‘genius’ inevitably appears that outclasses me and consigns my name to a list of forgotten mediocrities.”
Cheng Yu grumbled quietly.
“...Except for you, of course, Elder Cheng, who still achieves greatness at your advanced age,” Guo Jia teased. “‘Prodigy of the moment’ that I am, I’ll have used up all of my best ideas in ten years or less, but you, you’re-”
“Liu Bei!” Xiahou Dun cried. “What about Liu Bei???”
“Pray he doesn’t find his own genius,” Cheng Yu said. “If he does, we’ll still be sitting here pondering what to do about him in twenty years’ time.”
Guo Jia smiled knowingly and lowered his gaze.

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