“Intention”: War for the Han Frontier sample (Act I) -- T. P. M. Thorne
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More months passed: Yuan Shao held on for more than the weeks that Cheng
Yu had predicted, but when he reached the first anniversary of his defeat at
Cangting, his condition deteriorated rapidly. Shao’s eyesight started to fail,
and his awareness of his surroundings varied from day to day: his physicians
guessed the worst, but Lady Liu had seized control of her husband’s affairs and
ensured that potential opponents to her plans would not be present at the end.
“Where… where are my sons…?” the bedridden Yuan Shao asked as he had
done for days on end: he was only in his mid-forties, but his grey-haired,
wrinkled face could have fooled many into thinking that he was much older.
“Your heir is in Qing Province, in his capital, Linzi City,” Lady Liu
replied icily.
“S’not… his… it’s mine!” Yuan
Shao mumbled. “He… s’in Qing…?”
“Yes, and why…?” Yuan Shao’s
uncle Yuan Cheng asked angrily. “Shouldn’t he be here, now…? Why is he not here???”
“You ask me, as though I am somehow responsible,” Lady Liu giggled. “Do
I tell Yuan Tan what to do…? He is not my son, and he has always made that
clear.”
“My s-son…!” Yuan Shao said as he groped at the empty air in front of
his mortified third son, Yuan Shang. “S-Shang… T-Tan… Xi… M-Mai…!”
Lady Liu shivered at the sound of the fourth name, that of Yuan Mai, who
was not present and never would be.
“I… I am here, Father,” Yuan Shang said as he knelt by his father.
“So… so handsome, an’ strong, Shang…!” Yuan Shao said. “Every… every
b-bit… my son.”
Yuan Cheng looked at the advisers Pang Ji and Shen Pei and asked,
“Usually, it’s you two and Guo Tu.”
“Mister Guo Tu is in Qing, visiting Yuan Tan and helping him to manage
civil affairs at Mister Xin Ping’s request, since Tan lacks the ability to do
it himself,” Lady Liu said before either of Yuan Shao’s advisers could reply.
“…I sense some inappropriate motivations,” Yuan Cheng replied. “Woman,
you are plotting in the presence of your sick husband!”
“What ‘plot’?” Lady Liu scoffed. “Look at my lord and husband: see what
a fatherly smile he has - has always had - for my Shang…!”
Yuan Cheng looked at his dying nephew, who was fawning on Yuan Shang as
Lady Liu suggested; he turned to face Lady Liu again and said, “Favourites are
one thing, but this is to decide the heir to the clan! I’ve lived through the
horrors of the fighting between Shao and Shu already, and do not desire to see
my nephew’s boys torn apart by the same! Tan is the eldest, and the eldest is
the heir!”
“It… doesn’t necessarily have to be,” Pang Ji suggested.
“Ayah… here he is, the second-rate
Jian Shuo!” Yuan Cheng heckled. “You-!”
“Don’t compare me to that wretched eunuch!” Pang Ji retorted. “And this
isn’t at all like the Han succession issue anyway! Lord Yuan was the illegitimate - forgive for saying so,
but he was - eldest son of a younger
brother of the then-chief, and he only ascended to the chieftainship because
your eldest brother adopted him, else Yuan Shu - who was legitimate, born to a wife and not a maid - might have
inherited the mantle, Heaven help us! Lord Yuan wrestled with the enormity of
it for his entire life, and it impacts on his-!”