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

“…Aiee… why do they not just announce that they reunite to seize the province???” Wei Kang whispered to Yang Fu, who hummed quietly in response.
“And now,” Cao Cao said, “you will honour your part of the bargain, Ma Teng.”
Ma Chao frowned and asked, “What ‘bargain’…?”
“We… have agreed to provide troops to the Han when they are required,” Ma Teng revealed. “We-”
“That’s ridiculous…!” Ma Chao exclaimed. “We oppose the rule of the Han in our region! Now you say that we will show weakness and provide our own bodies to protect them??? Does Han Sui lend them men…?”
“Don’t make trouble,” Han Sui growled. “A deal’s a deal, and yes, I will be lending men when I’m asked to… we all will. The land’s divided between us fairly: evenly, in fact, which is very fair.”
“And I am not ‘weak’, son!” Ma Teng barked. “We aim to benefit from this in the future!”
“We won’t,” Ma Chao retorted. “You’ve handed yourself to them and us as well, given them control of us! When the Yuans are gone, what else will we have to give to Cao and his emperor???”
Wei Kang and Cao Cao started to argue their point with Ma Chao; Han Sui turned to his adviser Chenggong Ying and whispered, “This could go one of two ways, I think.”
Chenggong Ying nodded and said, “Hopefully ours.”

Cao Cao left the meeting and returned to his tent as a man torn by success and ill omens; he knew, as many did, that a reconciled Qiang confederacy with ambition was, perhaps, more dangerous than a divided one was harmful in terms of collateral damage from their feuding.

“I came here to begin to avenge Fu Xie and finish what Huangfu Song started,” Cao Cao said as he sat at his temporary desk and clutched his aching head. “Instead I am probably going to be remembered as another bumbling Song Nie that tried to smother them with kindness and doomed the region in the process.”
The advisers were silent.
“…I need some good news, gentlemen… proper good news,” Cao Cao muttered.
“Yuan Shao is probably going to be dead within weeks… maybe days,” Cheng Yu replied gruffly. “Will that do…?”
Cao Cao looked up, smiled strangely and said, “That… that should be good, shouldn’t it…”
“Of course it’s good!” Xu Yòu snapped. “Once he’s dead, all our problems are over and done with! Perhaps I might get my poor wife back now, if you’d care to march on Yè as soon as it’s confirmed: she’s been locked up for ‘embezzlement’ and a host of other nonsense for too long as it is!”
Cao Cao was not listening to his rambling friend; he was lost in thought. Yuan Shao had been his wealthier, more influential friend since childhood, and now he was dying as a man broken by Cao himself. Cao Cao did not know what to think: like the outcome of the talks between the Qiang, there was no telling what the death of such a powerful figure might lead to in the future.

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