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Liu Bei was no match for Cao Cao militarily, leaving victory to come from the most unlikely of sources: Cao’s own chief adviser, Chen Gong, and Cao’s most trusted friend, Zhang Miao, had asked the late Dong Zhuo’s violent, inconstant foster son Lü Bu - who was, at the time, a fugitive from the regency government for betraying and personally murdering Dong Zhuo - to invade Yan Province and help them take it from Cao, an act that forced Cao to withdraw from Xu Province and grant unexpected relief that came too late for Tao Qian’s well-being. Opinions and accounts varied greatly, but the outcome - brought about mainly through lobbying by local magnate Mi Zhu - was that Liu Bei inherited the province from Tao Qian and quickly capitulated to Yuan Shao in exchange for Shao demanding that Cao Cao cease his raids; Cao reluctantly obeyed his friend-turned-lord, but the entire affair created enmity between Cao and Liu and irreversibly harmed the friendship of Yuan and Cao.
“His Excellency’s actions in Xu Province - which, before you start going
on about that again, is a well-worn subject after seven years - gave Liu Bei
and Mi Zhu the opportunity to seize power from Tao Qian as he lay dying,” Wang
Lang said. “Bei mediated with the Yuan brothers, first looking at Tao’s
genuinely circumstance-driven alliance with the treasonous Yuan Shu and then to
Cao’s then-master Yuan Shao, who was still, at that point, a loyal Han vassal
and not the wretched, covetous seditionist that he has become. But within no
time at all, Bei was ‘reciprocating goodwill’ and giving refuge to Lü Bu, that
most wicked of stepsons and vilest of minions, a man that personally slayed his
first foster father Ding Yuan, facilitated Dong Zhuo’s takeover, and-”
“Didn’t Jia Xu have more to do
with Dong Zhuo’s rise to power...?” Kong Rong asked with sudden confidence. “And
isn’t that same Jia Xu now a close confidante and adviser to Cao Cao...?”
Wang Lang smiled coldly and replied, “It is indeed true that Mister Jia
was one of two advisers that guided Dong Zhuo; which of them guided Dong’s
worst actions is debatable, methinks, since Mister Jia removed himself from
Luoyang before it was sacked and destroyed, and it was his peer Li Ru that was,
by all accounts, the focus of His Majesty’s wrath. What protest has there been
by His Majesty at Jia Xu’s return? Isn’t it the case that His Majesty was saved
on many occasions by Mister Jia, who calmed Dong Zhuo during some of his worst
rages, and who kept the self-appointed regents, Li Jue and Guo Si, from
committing regicide and seizing power outright...?”
“...As you say, it is debatable,” Kong Rong retorted. “But Cao-”
Wang Lang laughed and said, “You truly hate Cao Cao, don’t you? But look
at the men that you condemn when you berate him - men like Xun Wenruo, Xun
Gongda, Zhong Yao, and Chen Qun - and worse still, look at the men that you
aggrandise when you speak so ill of Cao and so well of Bei! Were Yuan Shu, Lü
Bu, Gongsun Zan, Chen Gong-”
“Alright, alright!” Kong Rong pleaded.
“No, it is not alright,” Wang Lang insisted.