“Intention”: War for the Han Frontier sample (Act I) -- T. P. M. Thorne
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PROLOGUE: A GRAND ELABORATION
Yet another period of chaos had begun in China: once again, the soldiers donned their armour and fought for to prolong or resist the unrest. The common folk tried to live their lives as they always did while the battles raged around them: one escape was, as it had always been, the storytellers, and the era known as ‘Three Kingdoms’ - and, unavoidably, the decades-long decline of the Han Dynasty that preceded it - was as popular and timely a source of stories as it had ever been.
“...Right, then, so I
last told the story of how Yuan Shao was defeated at Guandu,” an old man said
to his audience of young and old. “Of course, the next thing that happened was
the Battle of Red Cliffs, where-”
“Yay! Red Cliffs! Liu Bei an’ Zhuge Liang beat up Cao Cao and summoned the wind
and burned up all his boats!” one boy cried.
“You spoiled it!” a girl complained.
“No I never spoiled nothing!” the boy retorted. “Ever’one knows
that Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang-!”
“No they never!” another boy said. “It was Zhou Yu and-!”
“Quiet, both of you!” a woman ordered.
The old storyteller laughed and said, “It’s quite alright. Shall I begin, then...?”
“I, uh... I already know about Red Cliffs, and there’s one thing that I don’t understand,
elder,” a young farmer said. “Yuan Shao was defeated at Guandu: he didn’t die at
Guandu, then...?”