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

“Oh, thank the Heavens, Lord Liu is here,” Zhao Yun declared as Liu Bei approached the gathering with Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Jian Yong and his imposing bodyguard force that was led by the silent, towering giant Chen Dao.
“Yellow Sky! Yellow Sky! Prosperous all!” the leader of the Yellow Turbans cackled; his closest followers joined him, but some were visibly wavering.
“You’re hated here in Yu, you mad idiots!” one of the bandit Gong Du’s former followers shouted angrily. “All you did was cause more death! Nobody wants you anymore! Take your made-up religion and crawl down a hole!”
“No, kill them!” one of Liu Bei’s soldiers demanded. “Kill-!”
“That really shouldn’t be necessary!” Liu Bei insisted. “I don’t know what your names are, young people, and perhaps you can tell me later, after this debate is ended.”
“‘Debate’...?” the Yellow Turban leader scoffed as he gestured for silence. “‘Yellow Sky’, Liu Bei! ‘Yellow Sky’! I, Bo Ju, say that your emperor is doomed! Debate that!”
The acolytes stopped chanting and awaited Liu Bei’s response.
“...You’re with us because you retreated from the battles with Cao Ren as part of an alliance, an alliance between you, me and Gong Du against the tyrant Cao Cao,” Liu Bei suggested. “Cao Cao runs the court: Cao Cao is the one that denies the poor the aid that they need and builds grand homes for himself and his followers while the world outside Xuchang slowly withers. Before him, there were the regents, Li Jue and Guo Si, and before them, there was Dong Zhuo; before him, the ‘Ten Attendants’. His Majesty, whom I have met, was but a boy when all of the recent ills occurred, a child that was pushed and pulled this way and that by the ambitious men that surrounded the throne. So it hardly seems fair to condemn him for the actions of the bad men that acted for themselves on his behalf.”
“And the one before him...?” one Yellow Turban soldier asked.
“...Lingdi was born surrounded by the ‘Ten’, and they blinded him to the truth,” Liu Bei replied. “Surely you’ve heard the tales of-?”

“‘Tales’! Yes! ‘Tales’! More lies!” Bo Ju taunted. “The ‘Son of Heaven’ is the source of our misery! But the Han’s time is over! Their mandate has passed if eunuchs and fools can control them! Even his relatives, like you, and the Yuans of Ru County were attacking the capital to try and seize him! And we got to the capital! We drew blood! It’s over! Sooner or later, it’s over! ‘Yellow Sky’!”
The Yellow Turbans began their angry chanting once again.
“STOP IT!” Zhang Fei bellowed. “STOP IT NOW, OR...!”
Many of the Yellow Turbans continued their chanting, but some did obey Zhang Fei, if only because they had been startled by Zhang’s cavernous voice; Guan Yu nodded purposefully, and Liu Bei’s soldiers raised their weapons.
“Don’t make me order your punishment!” Liu Bei pleaded. “Your false prophet is dead, your cause crushed, and despite all of your efforts, the Han persists! There is no ‘Yellow Sky’, and there never will be!”
The Yellow Turbans that had not already stopped were never going to: those that had chosen to capitulate backed away from their former peers, and Liu Bei’s men quickly encircled the defiant.
“Prosperous all!” Bo Ju urged as he realised that death was imminent. “Yellow Sky, prosperous-!”
“SHUT UP!” Zhang Fei screamed as he thrust his heavy snake-tongued pike toward Bo Ju and ran him through; a short but violent exchange followed, and at the end of it, none of the defiant Yellow Turbans was left alive.

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