“Turmoil”: Battle for the Han Empire sample -- TPMThorne.com

“Who routinely desert, assault and rob other soldiers, and switch sides in the middle of battles,” Cheng Yu heckled. “You cannot make fine cuisine out of millet!”
“Then what do you suggest that I do with a hundred thousand men with nothing else to do…?” Cao Cao retorted. “…Never mind, I know that you’re just being crotchety, and you were one of the advocates for organising them in the first place. We must focus on Yufuluo for now, and only worry about the Yellow Turbans if they bleed out of Runan. Wenruo, Gongda, and wise old Mister Cheng, I would appreciate your views… among others.”
“Yufuluo is doing what he always does: sending men this way and that to harass this village and that village, with no real concentrated force to repel,” Cheng Yu explained. “His Xiongnu followers are bolstered by bandits, most likely enterprising Black Mountain Bandits. The only way to defeat such things is the same old way; the ‘normal, innocent people’ are going to have to do their part in defending their own worthless hides instead of waiting for someone else to do it.”
“And I can think of nobody better to rally them than you, Mister Cheng,” Xun Gongda said dryly. “What a shame it is that you will be too busy and the responsibility will have to fall to others.”
“My advice to those ‘lucky’ enough to have that burden would do well to learn from me,” Cheng Yu retorted. “If needs be, feign an attack or two to ‘inspire’ them. Like all animals, they sometimes need a good kick to get going.”
“Aiee… what a man you are, Mister Cheng Yu,” Xun Wenruo said. “But you are right, at least in part: we’ll need local help to repel Yufuluo, just as we did against the Yellow Turbans.”
Cao Cao turned to face a young officer whose normally-fierce face was currently wearing a broad smile: he laughed and said, “You are enjoying the proceedings, Cousin Yuanrang.”
“Old Cheng is always amusing, Cousin Mengde,” the irrepressible Xiahou Dun replied. “Am I going on this campaign…?”

“Ayah! Why take such a careless man?” Cheng Yu protested. “He’ll probably get himself caught by Yufuluo, just as he let himself be caught by Lü Bu!”
“I’ve learned my lesson, Old Cheng,” Xiahou Dun retorted. “Anyhow, it’ll be nice to get out of this area and go see Miaocai. Let me go along, Mengde!”
“I intended to take you, Yuanrang, though our chances of spending much time with Cousin Miaocai are slim,” Cao Cao said. “My main concern is about who should go, and who should stay in case Yuan Shu attacks our southern border or Lü Bu does an about-turn…”
“Bu is good as gone to be Liu Bei’s problem now,” Cheng Yu insisted. “His army is broken; if he came back, he’d be food for the dogs and-”
“Or our troops!” Xiahou Dun joked.
Cheng Yu harrumphed irritably.
“Please, Yuanrang,” Cao Cao sighed.
“… It would only be funny if it weren’t likely true,” Xun Gongda muttered.
“As I was saying before I was interrupted… he’d be finished, and his remaining forces would probably defect to us to survive, handing the likes of Chen Gong and Xu Si over to us in the process, and the traitors know that,” Cheng Yu continued. “They’ll want to stay in Xu Province or go to Yuan Shu in northern Yang. Yuan Shu would kill him, as Yuan Shao would or we would. Liu Bei, unless his wits were woven into one of his peasant mother’s straw mats at some point, will know that the only solution to the ‘Lü Bu problem’ is to do what anyone else would do.”

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