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“If someone trusted you with a prefecture, you’d do even better, Mister
Sun Jian,” Zu Mao suggested. “Look at how many honest men you made out of bad
ones! Almost none o’ the men you recruited went back to their old ways when we
got back to Fuchun… near to none. They respect you, because you’re one of them,
and you’re a hero in all sorts o’ ways. ‘Administrator Sun Jian’ would turn Wu
Prefecture around… ‘Inspector Sun Jian’ could-!”
“Hush, Zu Mao,” Sun Jian pleaded. “I know you’re trying to help, but…
but inadvertently reminding me that we got next to nothing for all the work
that we did is… it’s too much.”
The travellers hurried through Lujiang, crossed into Yu and passed
through Runan: former Yellow Turbans and villagers greeted them wherever they
went, which only added to their sadness about the situation in Liang Province.
The journey into Jing Province was equally uneventful: once again, some village
leaders offered lodgings and gifts to Sun Jian to thank him for his recent
efforts, which warmed the hearts of the travellers. But once they left Jing
Province and crossed into the western region of Central Province, the mood changed.
When the travellers reached the former capital
Chang’an - which was east of Liang Province - they wondered if the current
capital Luoyang would one day be abandoned by the Han as Chang’an once was, and
if the Han would collapse once again, as it had done over a century ago. With
each day that passed and each new uprising that occurred, the answer to that
question became more and more difficult to determine.
“We’ve been asked to stop in Chang’an by Tao Qian, Inspector of Xu
Province,” Sun Jian reported to his allies. “He-”
“He’s, uh… he’s overstepping his authority a bit, isn’t he…? Zu Mao
said. “Xu is on the opposite side of the country! Which begs the question, ‘Why
is he even-’”
“You really are too much sometimes,” Sun Jian interrupted. “Let me finish!
He’s a personal friend of Zhu Jun, and he wants to ensure that we have
everything that we need for the journey ahead.”
Zu Mao scowled and said, “But-!”
“He’s in Chang’an on imperial orders, bolstering the city’s defences
against the Liang rebels,” Cheng Pu explained. “And he’s a man with a good
reputation, Zu Mao: let him be.”
“On the subject of the rebels, Mister Cheng,” Zu Mao retorted. “D’you
maybe want to explain to this poor, simple man of the south what the hell is
going on here…?”
“…Not now,” Sun Jian sighed.
“It’s… political again, Zu Mao,” Cheng Pu said. “The way that I have
heard it is that the provincial inspector is a corrupt criminal, and when the
Qiang tribes invaded as they often do in Liang, there was no military fund to
repel them. The people got frustrated, and-”
“Again…?” Zu Mao chortled.
“We’re fighting the ordinary people again???”
“…As before, this isn’t ‘ordinary people’, alright…?” Sun Jian retorted.
“The people that have joined the Qiang are not helping anyone that hasn’t…
they’re harming them instead. This is selfish people doing what works for them
at everyone else’s expense, and that makes them as bad as the eunuchs, the
Qiang and the inspector. Now I won’t hear any more about it, alright…? We’re
here to do a job…”
Zu Mao muttered angrily, but he did not contest Sun Jian.
Xu Provincial Inspector Tao Qian was a wiry, grizzled, leathery man whose face appeared to naturally contort into a scowl: neither Cheng Pu nor Zu Mao was left feeling comfortable as Tao approached the heavily-guarded gates of Chang’an, grunted tersely, clasped his hands together, bowed slightly and said, “So you’re here, Mister Sun.”