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

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“You... are right to wonder what Dong Cheng’s true motivations were,” Kong Rong admitted.
“Who, truly, was Dong Cheng, a man that betrayed his regent masters and ‘escorted’ His Majesty to the ruins of the capital with the White Wave Bandits as his sword and shield...?” Wang Lang asked. “A man who, if I recall, hummed and hawed, wavered and conspired... did he not aid the Bandits’ repulsion of His Excellency Cao’s armies when he supposed that he would get rank in the Bandit-run court, but betrayed them to the same Cao Cao when the Bandits inevitably reneged...?”
Kong Rong sighed woefully.

Cao Cao had been the friend and later vassal of Yuan Shao, chieftain of the Yuan clan of Ru County and one of the most powerful men in China. When Dong Zhuo took power, Yuan Shao was selected as the leader of the ‘Eastern Pass Coalition’ that would oppose Dong. Yuan Shao’s younger brother Shu resented Shao’s place - especially since Shao was born of a maid and not of their father’s small harem - and took advantage of growing dissatisfaction at Shao’s leadership of the coalition by publicly challenging his legitimacy as clan chieftain in an open letter; Shao responded by shifting his military priorities away from the retreating Dong Zhuo and toward Yuan Shu, and a destructive feud began that lasted for 7 years, ending only when Yuan Shu - who later declared as an emperor and earned universal condemnation for it - died a broken, humiliated fugitive.
     But while that feud was at its peak, Cao Cao took advantage of opportunities and went from the wealthy son of Cao Song - a man that had himself been elevated when he was adopted by a favoured palace eunuch - to Governor of Yan Province, lord to a host of talented future statesmen and leader of a professional army. When the regency collapsed and Emperor Xian was in the care of Dong Cheng, Yang Feng and the White Wave Bandits, Cao Cao answered the sovereign’s calls for aid when most - including Yuan Shao - refused to bear the burden.

“Dong Cheng made influential friends and started conspiring against Cao Cao almost as soon as Cao rescued him,” Wang Lang scoffed. “Even a high military rank and seeing his beautiful daughter gain favour with His Majesty was not enough... and his wilful, cheerful subservience to Dong Zhuo proved long ago that he had no problem with regicide of a Son of Heaven.”
“That is true,” Kong Rong admitted.
“Yes, the child might have been a boy, a prince, and if Her Highness the Empress did not have living male issue at the time of His Majesty’s passing, then that prince - if, indeed, it existed - might have inherited the throne if that was His Majesty’s will,” Wang Lang conceded. “But we both know that a living sovereign take precedence over an unborn child or other... ‘possibilities’. Were we supposed to repeat one of the ‘old mistakes’ and let Dong and his daughter do as so many have done before...?”

Yuan Shao and Cao Cao’s relationship soured over the years as their power grew and their personal interests became ever more at odds with the other’s; by the time that the court was based in the city of Xuchang in Yan Province, Yuan Shao had lost control over Cao and resented the fact that Cao - who was, in his eyes, from an inferior clan - was now going to get the best roles within the recovering government.

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