“Turmoil”: Battle for the Han Empire sample (Act I) -- T. P. M. Thorne
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Cao Cao turned to the door of his quarters as it opened fully: Cao’s bodyguard, Dian Wei, towered over him
and left him momentarily startled.
“I have checked: there is nothing to fear,” Dian Wei continued.
“…Thank you, Dian Wei,” Cao Cao replied as his composure returned. “I shall sleep safely, then…
if I can sleep.”
Dian Wei stepped aside so that his lord and master could enter his room: Cao Cao retreated into his quarters
and quietly hoped that he would not be haunted by the past any further.
*************
4
“A lot has certainly changed in ten years,” the northern
warlord Gongsun Zan muttered as he threw down a letter from the governor of Xu Province,
Liu Bei, and flicked the long, baggy sleeve of his elaborate robe as a popular sign of contempt.
Gongsun’s blue-robed adviser, Guan Jing, looked on silently.
“Ten years ago, that man was my friend, a man I’d grown up with and studied with under Lu Zhi,”
the swarthy Gongsun Zan said as he gestured toward the crumpled cloth letter. “Ten years ago, he and I
fought side-by-side against the Yellow Turbans as brothers! That man and I swore eternal loyalty to state and
friendship! Now look at what he does to me, Mister Guan. I risked my life for him so many times, gave him work
when he was mistreated by the state, gave him money, trusted him like kin… and…”
Liu Bei - who was of the same Liu clan as the Han emperors, but was part of a disinherited and disgraced line
- had received lesser rewards for his service against the Yellow Turbans than Gongsun had; his life prior to the
rebellion had been spent as a sandal and mat weaver and scholarship student.
“…He argues that he had no choice,” the adviser Guan Jing said.
“Didn’t he???” Gongsun Zan barked. “Of all men, why Yuan Shao??? Of all men,
why the man that murdered my nephew and reneged on countless promises???”
Guan Jing hesitated; he knew that his master had not finished.