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“Someone has to make you
see sense, Mister Kong. When Yuan Shao had poor, misguided Chen Lin pen that
atrocious condemnation of His Excellency Cao, he committed a multitude of
crimes at once. His brother, Yuan Shu, was recently deceased, dead on a
roadside like an animal, not a coin to his name nor a building to take shelter
within, and why...? ...Because he had dared to declare himself as the first of a
new dynasty! Yuan Shu dared to consider the sovereign’s mandate exhausted,
Mister Kong, and he did so baselessly, purely to further his own career, and
only the most wretched of men would do that.”
Kong Rong nodded agreeably.
“Heaven punished Yuan Shu; Yuan Shao should then have been affirming his
own loyalty to His Majesty by burying his ambitions, but no!” Wang Lang said.
“Instead, he pushed for higher rank on the basis that he was descended from
great men... which is the same argument used by Liu Bei. You’re descended from
the great philosopher, and yet you expect nothing that wasn’t earned... in fact
you constantly berate yourself and bemoan your unworthiness despite being one
of the most gifted poets of our day and, when the subject is not too personal,
one of our greatest philosophers as well! Why, then, do you then champion men
that so openly oppose your ideals...?”
“That... is true,” Kong Rong conceded. “But-!”
“Aiee... again, you resort to
‘But!’” Wang Lang despaired. “Yuan Shao had done nothing to warrant higher
rank. He did nothing save for grieving and fawning on Hè Jin during the Yellow
Turban Rebellion. He did and does nothing to help the sovereign. He was
nominated as the leader of the Eastern Pass Coalition against Dong Zhuo purely
because his ancestor was a great man, and he just sat there, watching Dong Zhuo
bankrupt the country and loot the capital, and leaving everything to
independent actions by Cao Cao and Sun Jian that were militarily and
spiritually unsupported... even condemned.
The only things that Yuan Shao did do were to seize Ji Province from Han Fu -
achieved, we now discover, with the aid of Gongsun Zan, whom he later betrayed
to cover his tracks - and try to appoint the hapless Yòu Province Governor Liu
Yu as an alternative sovereign that he could manipulate! ...And on the latter
point, Mister Kong, it may be noted that Yuan’s secret ally, Gongsun Zan,
killed Liu Yu and seized Yòu Province later on, after Liu Yu publicly rebuked
Yuan for embroiling him in selfish politics. Were the two events connected...?
Perhaps, but we’ll never know. Yuan Shao now rules Yòu Province with the aid of
his Wuhuan barbarian allies, having killed Gongsun and taken it from him before
his last play for the custody of the sovereign, custody that he had earlier
refused because it conflicted economically with his own ambitions.
“It was only when Yuan Shao controlled Ji Province -
which he took from Han Fu - Yòu Province - which he took from Gongsun, who had
taken it from Liu Yu - Bing Province - which he quietly seized via family
connections and exploitation of unrest - and Qing Province - which, most
notably, his eldest son Tan took from you
- that he suddenly decided that his former vassal Cao was unfit to care for His
Majesty, after years of doing so very well here in Xuchang and at great
personal expense.”
“All known to me, and all too painfully!” Kong Rong said. “But-!”