Eastern Wu: Realm of the Sun Clan sample (Act I) -- T. P. M. Thorne
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Lu Kang perished, and Lujiang became Yuan Shu’s: the hungry warlord then ordered Bofu to seize
the adjacent Jiujiang Prefecture, and then the prefectures in southern Yang,
and Bofu complied. The appointed governor, Liu Yao, the tribes of Wu
Prefecture, the powerful Buddhist cultist Ze Rong, the bandit king Zu Lang and
the infamous wandering mercenary Taishi Ci were all pitted against Bofu, and
one-by-one they were defeated, killed or compelled to join him.
The Sun clan’s victories contrasted greatly with the
losses that Yuan Shu was experiencing against his brother Shao and Cao Cao in
the north, but hubris and insanity were driving Shu’s actions by this point,
and when Cao Cao - who had risen, four years into the Yuan feud, from Yuan
Shao’s vassal to imperial guardian by pure circumstance - suffered a disastrous
self-inflicted loss whilst uprooting one of Dong Zhuo’s former vassals from Wan
City in Jing Province, Yuan Shu declared himself as the First Emperor of the
Zhong Dynasty, an act that made him an isolated heretic and traitor at a single
stroke. Thousands deserted Yuan Shu, and the Sun clan - who, by then, controlled
most of Jiangdong - seized the opportunity and broke ties with Yuan Shu,
removing his main military arsenal and exposing him to a coalition of warlords
that eventually forced him to burn his capital to the ground and consider
seeking refuge with, of all people, Yuan Shao. The Yuan brothers were
reconciled at a distance, but Yuan Shu died on a dirt road with nothing to show
for all of his efforts.
That should have been the end of it: Bofu was now free
to take his revenge on Liu Biao, and he wasted no time in mobilising an army
and a navy to advance to southern Jing and conquer it. But fate had been cruel:
Yuan Shu’s last surviving loyalists took his coffin to Lujiang Prefecture to
seek refuge with Yuan Shu’s chosen Administrator Liu Xun, but Liu betrayed them
and declared as an independent warlord.
The replacement of the divisive Yuan with imperial relative Liu Xun acted as an attractive and cohesive force for Yuan Shu’s men, whether they were former loyalists or former deserters; they journeyed to Lujiang in their thousands, giving Liu Xun an army but providing him with a supply problem that he remedied by invading Jiangdong, attacking the rural farming region of Haihun County and assuming control of food production that was fuelling Bofu’s campaign against Huang Zu. The threat forced Bofu to withdraw from Jing, as Liu Xun - who had a lot of new mouths to feed, and was hungry in other ways - had set his sights on the rest of Yang Province, and that meant Jiangdong.
“…I swear that I’ll kill Liu Xun for this,” Bofu growled.
“Please, Bofu, stick to the plan!” Gongjin said. “We-!”
“I meant ‘after the plan’, Gongjin,” Bofu insisted. “I know the plan… I
hate it, but I know it, understand it and intend to follow it, like it or not.”
“…I hope so,” Gongjin said. “Our success depends on it.”
“…I’m going riding… maybe I might go hunting,” Bofu decided.
“Alright,” Gongjin said. “Are you going ‘alone’…?”
“If you want to come along, you’re welcome to,” Bofu replied. “As you
say, I won’t be alone, will I…? I’ll have a load of guards to protect me.”
“I think that I shall go back to the chancellery,” Lü Fan said. “Enjoy
your hunt.”