“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.
Liu Bei returned to his main camp, where Mi Zhu and Mister Sun were
engaged in a heated war of words.
“Alright, gentlemen, enough!”
Liu Bei ordered.
“You must consider our military strength!” Mister Sun pleaded.
“I do,” Liu Bei replied. “I’m not ‘responding obediently to this’, but I
must not abandon the people of Runan.”
Jian Yong laughed and said, “Pardon...?”
“Yuan Shao cursed us with heretics for company and damaged our
reputation: if I liaise too closely again he’ll cause our deaths, I know that,”
Liu Bei explained. “But when I look at the hated Yellow Turbans that we were
just forced to kill, I see that our cause in Yu Province is not lost... we have won
hearts and minds in Runan, and we might still do our part in purging the
heretics and saving His Majesty if we cultivate support here rather than hiding
behind Liu Biao’s hall curtains. Yuan Shao’s future is his own to preserve or
destroy, but we must do what we can for Runan before we simply melt away. We’ll
resume our march as soon as it is feasible, but it is to about-face and
confront Cao Ren, and to hold onto what we have here.”
“Finally, a proper fight!” Zhang Fei chuckled.
“...Perhaps,” Zhao Yun replied uneasily.
“Cao Cao wants us dead, so why shouldn’t we want him dead too?” Zhang
Fei asked. “He’s taken everything from us, so-!”
“So we should take from him,” Jian Yong snickered. “Still trying to
justify your scouts capturing Lady Xiahou, then...?”
“Aiee... impossible though it
might seem, I’d actually forgotten about that,” Liu Bei said. “Have you not
released her, Yide...?”
“No: I’m marrying her,” Zhang Fei retorted.
“She’s Xiahou Yuan’s daughter!”
Mister Sun said.
“Yeah... young and pretty, too... lucky me, uh...?” Zhang Fei chuckled. “I
hope he gets to know about it, the scruffy bastard.”
“You really shouldn’t, Yide,” Liu Bei said. “I could make you give her up, but-”
“But you won’t, so leave it,” Zhang Fei replied. “My only regret’s that
she weren’t the only one, else I’d have got one for Yunchang too, to make up
for Cao Cao stealing Lady Du off him.”
Guan Yu shook his head.
“And it’s Xiahou’s own fault, anyway, sending a pretty girl out alone to
chop firewood,” Zhang Fei continued. “Doesn’t his ‘cousin’ Cao Cao pay him well
enough...? Are his sons all lame...?”
Jian Yong and Mister Sun groaned miserably.
“...If we might get back to our plans...?” Liu Bei asked.
Mi Zhu bowed slightly and said, “A risky decision, Lord Liu: yes, we
could do more here than in the untrusting court of Liu Biao, so long as we
remember always that we really cannot afford to make any more deadly mistakes
or join men that make them for us.”
“And we will remember,” Liu
Bei promised. “From now on, we work toward the restoration of the Han in our
own way, so that we can be sure that we are truly righteous and certain to
win.”
Liu Bei’s small militia prepared to continue their journey: a few of those that had pledged new allegiance to Liu Bei remained to bury the bodies of their former comrades, after which they kept their promise or went in some new direction.
*************