“Intention”: War for the Han Frontier sample (Act I) -- T. P. M. Thorne

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“...Does... does Cao believe that Your Majesty gave Dong Cheng that edict...?” Empress Fu asked timidly.
“It... it doesn’t matter,” Emperor Xian replied. “What is done is done, and he will never outright ask or accuse me, and his ‘opinion’ on the matter will vary according to convenience. What matters, my lady, is that I have very few allies at court now, and... and now I am told that independent sources have confirmed that Liu Bei was leading that attack on Xuchang.”
Empress Fu was initially taken aback, but once she regained her composure she asked, “Might it have been a necessity...?”
“I tire of people passing off evil acts as ‘necessity’,” Emperor Xian replied. “Nothing wicked is ‘necessary’, only easier. If Liu Bei really did march against this city with an army of Yellow Turbans, then... then either he had no choice in his alliance with Yuan Shao, who would then be the one truly at fault, or he has lost his mind, or he is the worst of them and every bit as wretched as his disinherited ancestors. I... I just wish that I could talk to him, hear his explanation... my heart craves an explanation, something that returns him to the fold, so that I am not isolated and... and...”
“...What about Yuan Shao...?” Empress Fu wondered.
“A lost cause,” Emperor Xian said dismissively. “He’s no better than his brother; he forges alliance with rebels, bandits and cultists, and he has not once pledged allegiance of late, sent tribute or given written assurance that Bing, Ji, Yòu and Qing were taken in the name of the Han and not his own. Oh, I know that Cao might be withholding correspondence from the court, but there are ways... he got that letter of condemnation distributed easily enough.”
“But he fights in the name of the Girdle Edict,” Empress Fu noted.
“...So he says,” Emperor Xian replied.

“But he has long contested my place; I do not know what happened to Governor Liu Yu’s son, Liu Hè, but I was told that he travelled northward to aid Yuan’s ‘reclamation’ of Yòu Province from Gongsun Zan. If that’s true, and he lives, then Yuan might want to supplant me: remember, my lady, that Yuan’s Eastern Pass Coalition fought for the restoration of the glory of the Han, but not for my place on the Han throne. I do not believe that his stance has changed, and cannot until he makes it explicitly clear.”
“...So nothing has changed for us, then,” Empress Fu sighed.
“No... we are where we have always been,” Emperor Xian replied. “That being the case... what use is talking...?”
Empress Fu nodded agreeably, and Emperor Xian called for his servants to return; the young monarchs spent the remainder of the day in near-total silence.

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