Crouching Dragon: The Journey of Zhuge Liang sample (Act I) -- T. P. M. Thorne
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“By who…?” Jin challenged. “By pedantic scholars and elder statesmen of Jing Province, whose allegiances are to Liu Biao…? …Their opinions are biased, Younger Brother. Remember that I, too, hail from this region, but I have had my eyes opened… everyone knows that the Sun family have always treated their vassals well, earning their loyalty for generations: look at the men around Lord Sun, and you can see that their loyalty to him is as strong as his sincere faith and gratitude for their service… your friend, Pang Tong, is now seeking a future in Jiangdong… Kongming, it is you that should not forsake the true for the false. Sun Quan is of noble heritage…”
“…An unsubstantiated claim that he is descended from Sun Tzu,” Kongming countered. “What is certainly true is what is certainly known: in recent times, the Sun family have been lapdogs for the other warlords… tell me, Jin, what nobility there was in his father serving Yuan Shu…?”
“…You know nothing,” Jin retorted angrily. “Sun Quan’s brother was…”
“…Likened to a barbarian king, hailed as ‘The Little Conqueror’,” Kongming interrupted sternly. “Like his father before him, he was assassinated after instigating a petty feud that had nothing to do with the true matters of the day. One wonders what pathetic end Sun Quan will suffer, since his line is obviously doomed to it.”
“You…!” Jin exclaimed again.
“You bring this on yourself,” Kongming suggested. “You enter our home unannounced, and begin courting me for a role in some clerk’s office in Jiangdong.”
“I had no such intention!” Jin insisted. “I was just visiting my home!”
“Nonsense,” Kongming scoffed. “You have not visited home until now… content with letters and gifts to placate us… no, Elder Brother, you came here to ‘pluck me from obscurity’.”
“…Kongming,” Jin protested, “I confess, since you press the matter, that I intended to broach the matter of your joining me in Jiangdong… and I fail to understand your attitude. I hear that Liu Bei is sounding you out, and I despair! Why would you want to even consider entering the service of such a man…?”
“…What is his crime, that you call him ‘such a man’…?” Kongming challenged.
“He has no promise,” Jin suggested. “My lord wants to know about all of those who would be his enemies and rivals… he knows of Liu Bei. Since his founding days as a weaver of sandals, Bei has been aware of his tenuous connection to the imperial house, and has expressed a desire to be emperor, to the amusement of his peers.”
“A child’s whimsies,” Kongming countered. “You wanted to rule Jing Province.”
“…That aside,” Jin - though flustered - continued, “he finally embarked on a mission to face a small contingent of Yellow Turbans, financed by horse merchants and butchers… his success won him a prefecture, which he then lost due to administrative incompetence.”
“Conjecture,” Kongming suggested, “but carry on.”
“…He’s wavered and meandered, this way and that, serving pretty much every lord in the region… and turning on them, one by one,” Jin heckled. “He’s ended up here, broken and disgraced, hiding in Liu Biao’s shadow. Who in their right mind would want to serve such an incompetent, treacherous nomad, a man without a home…?”
“Sun Jian was a willing hired vassal of a would-be emperor, who himself had designs on the throne,” Kongming retorted. “He met his end under rocks and arrows, a mere underling… his son’s territory was acquired by force, not benevolence, using troops borrowed or stolen from his father’s master. Who in their right mind would want to serve such an unscrupulous, devious autocrat, a man whose home was stolen…?”