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

     When Cao Cao finally had the resources to move against the rogue warlord Lü Bu - who had just seized Xu Province from Liu Bei and formed an alliance with the pretender Yuan Shu - Zang Ba was forced to decide whether he would fight for Cao Cao - who was hated in Qing and Xu Provinces, and allied to known Legalist Liu Bei, who favoured destroying bandits - or Lü Bu, whose regime had been forced to tolerate and accept nominal allegiance from the Mount Tai Bandits. Zang and his allies chose to support Lü Bu, and that meant that they became a target for Cao Cao’s wrath when Bu was finally destroyed at the end of the Battle of Xiapi. Zang and his fellow leaders were persecuted and forced to submit, at which point Cao Cao allowed them to operate as independent forces and aid his campaign against Yuan Shao; Zang was unsurprised by the correspondence from the desperate Yuan Shao, but the response had to be pondered carefully.

“Hey, if it isn’t ‘prim and proper’ Yu Wenze!”
Cao Cao’s trusted general Yu Jin - whose courtesy name was ‘Wenze’ - clasped hands with the former bandit leader Chang Xi as the two met at the gates of Zang Ba’s latest military camp; Yu laughed and replied, “Good to see you again, you scruffy rascal!”
“You come to see Zang, Wenze?” Chang Xi asked.
“I have,” Yu Jin replied. “But first, how are you?”
“Fine, fine,” Chang Xi said. “I took your advice about rations and discipline, and now the men are much happier. S’pose I just have trouble being a regular official. When you wanted discipline in the hills, you just gave a bloke a good smack in the mouth and he learned to be quiet.”
Yu Jin smiled and said, “But as I said before, some people only understand that, while other people really don’t take to it well. How’s the wife and children?”

“…Adjusting to life in a house,” Chang Xi admitted. “Missus keeps her belongings all bunched together so we can run at a moment’s notice, just as she always has.”
Yu Jin laughed at the notion.
“We’ll learn,” Chang Xi continued. “After all, who’d’ve thought you and me’d be standing here talking…?”
“And speaking of that, I forgot that I’m supposed to talk to Zang Ba as soon as possible,” Yu Jin realised. “We’ll have a drink later.”
“Right!” Chang Xi said as he stood aside to allow Yu Jin’s small entourage to pass him and enter the camp.
     “Ah… Yu Jin,” the brawny Zang Ba said as Yu Jin entered his command tent. “Let me guess… His Excellency Cao sent you to ask about this…?”
Zang Ba waved Chen Lin’s letter back and forth; the other bandits smirked and turned to look at Yu Jin.
“Naturally,” Yu Jin replied.
“Well, you can tell him not to worry,” Zang Ba insisted. “I wasn’t born yesterday. Yuan Shao’s got next to no authority in Qing anymore, and Yòu and Bing Provinces are reverting to the messes they always were; why would I throw away being a Han officer to join that fool and end up in a coffin?”
Yu Jin turned to a seasoned man that was sat to the right of Zang Ba and asked, “Is that sentiment shared, Sun Guan…?”
“Course it is,” Sun Guan replied. “Me and Zang Xuangao are both thinking pretty much the same way. We all are, aren’t we, lads…?”

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