JavaScript is off/unavailable on your browser. You will not be able to experience this website as it was intended without JavaScript enabled.
The adviser Kuai Liang coughed uncomfortably and replied, “You have too
many problems to focus on Jiangxia alone: that’s why you’ve given such autonomy
to Huang Zu.”
“That’s not a helpful response,” Liu Biao said when he realised that
Kuai Liang had nothing more to say. “Do the Pang brothers, or your brother Yue,
or maybe Wang Can, Fu Xun, Han Song… has anyone
got a useful word for me…?”
The politician Han Song smiled and said, “Perhaps we might ask the Han
court to do something about Sun Ce…?”
“Mister Han Song, that is absurd:
the Han court - Cao Cao, in truth - has branded us as rebels for ‘sheltering’
Zhang Xiu,” the young adviser Wang Can said.
“How dare you call my suggestion ‘absurd’, Wang Can!” Han Song retorted.
“How dare you call anything absurd,
when-!”
“When I find the sounds and faces of donkeys to be a comfort,” Wang Can
sighed. “I can little hope to reach the heights of fame for anything else, can
I…? I can little hope to have my very sound advice taken seriously when men
like you can simply throw that irrelevant fact at me! I had only expected my
young age to be an obstacle, but now I am twenty-two, and I am still heckled
when I try to make a valid point. I am trying to keep the discussion within a
sensible boundary: your suggestion was
absurd, Mister Han Song, because Cao Cao feels that we did nothing to expel
Zhang Xiu - a man that he deeply hates for the personal losses that Zhang
inflicted upon him - and no amount of cheap jokes at my expense will change
that fact into a fiction.”
The politician Fu Xun smiled and said, “My last heckles happened
yesterday, and risk of shame will keep them there.”
Han Song laughed and said, “I am rightly humbled, Mister Wang. Like the
lord, I am reaching for hopes. Cao Cao would never help us… and no, I won’t
suggest Liu Zhang. What about calling upon men from the ‘four semi-autonomous prefectures’…?”
The politician Huan Jie nodded and said, “That might be an idea: if we
were to ‘suggest’ to them - and let’s be realistic, gentlemen, and say that it
would be less a lie and more a prophecy - that Sun Ce will turn his attentions
to Lingling, Changsha, Guiyang and maybe even Wuling when he is finished with
Jiangxia… then we might solicit offers of military aid.”
“Unfortunately, Mister Huan, those regions lack real generals or
militias,” the adviser Kuai Yue said.
“…Sadly correct,” Liu Biao agreed. “And besides, I get enough regular
reports from those regions to know that they’re under constant pressure from tribal
activity.”
There was a short silence, after which Kuai Yue said, “I think that we
are wasting time by looking for allies. Yuan Shao is the only man that has the
resources to aid our fight with Sun Ce, and everybody knows that he is planning
to attack Xuchang and secure His Majesty.”
“…Lord and brother-in-law, we should just remain as we are, and hope
that Huang Zu recovers some of the spirit that made him a valuable ally in
years past,” Cai Mao suggested. “It has to be said that he excels at defence, so
we will not lose Jiangxia.”
Liu Biao smiled and said, “That’s the first useful words! I should be
telling Huang Zu to get every last man that he has harassing Yuzhang to
withdraw to Jiangxia and aid the fortification of the place. I’ll write at
once…”