“Intention”: War for the Han Frontier sample (Act I) -- T. P. M. Thorne
JavaScript is off/unavailable on your browser. You will not be able to experience this website as it was intended without JavaScript enabled.
“...Aiee... well, whatever the future holds, the important thing right now is what I must
tell that court of do-nothings,” Cao Cao complained. “For now, let us focus on internal matters.
What is the state of our supplies?”
Xun Wenruo rummaged through a pile of bamboo books and cloth paper as he
tried to find the answer to Cao Cao’s question; Jia Xu looked at his latest
master and quietly hoped, as he often did, that the ‘Crafty Villain’ would not
be the third infamous tyrant that he had lent his considerable talent to.
*************
3
A bemused Wang Lang returned to Kong Rong’s home on the eve of the next
imperial court gathering.
“So are you resolved...?” Wang Lang asked as he took a guest seat in Kong
Rong’s living quarters once again; he was glad to see that Kong had asked for
tea to be brought straight away this time.
“...Resolved...? No, Jingxing, not at all,” Kong Rong replied. “As I was
saying to Mister Zhi just yesterday, Liu Xuande’s fate is-”
Wang Lang harrumphed and said, “Liu
Bei...? You’d really dare to speak favourably of Liu Bei...? You’d guiltlessly
refer to that wretched, rotten scion of the royal clan, a man descended from disinherited traitors that
carries all of their ailments of the mind, by his courtesy name in front of me...?”
“Aiee... You really are persuasive,” Kong Rong admitted.
“No, I am not, else Sun Ce would not have bested me and chased me out of Jiangdong,” Wang
Lang replied. “It is just the case that I speak the obvious truth. I know you well enough, Wenju:
you want to believe a distorted account of the last fifteen years, one that makes villains of Cao Cao
and Tao Qian and heroes of Liu Bei, Yuan Shao, Sun Ce, Gongsun Zan and-”
“No, no!” Kong Rong insisted. “We were all disappointed by Gongsun Zan, and Sun Ce
was a pirate king! But Xuande is a victim of circumstance!”