“Turmoil”: Battle for the Han Empire sample (Act I) -- T. P. M. Thorne
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“I don’t know what to do,” Fixed Gaze replied.
“What about Henei…?” Big Eyes suggested. “Zhang Yang’s not got
a big army to counter us, and he usually just let us run wild when he was in Bing, didn’t
he…? He doesn’t seem to have so much of a problem with us now that he doesn’t
have Ding Yuan, Lü Bu and Zhang Liao to work with.”
“Yufuluo broke his spirit when he locked him up, that much is obvious,” Fixed Gaze
chuckled. “…I know the feeling.”
“So are we stopping in Henei when we get there, then…?” Big Eyes prompted.
“…Yeah,” Fixed Gaze replied. “I might, yeah… for a while.”
“…It’s been five years since he killed Ding
Yuan.”
Henei Prefecture’s Administrator Zhang Yang turned to his gaunt adviser Dong Zhao - whose
courtesy name was ‘Gongren’ - as he added, “And he still doesn’t know the
right thing to do. Now Zhang Miao is dead, and there’s even more chaos! His entire journey
there was for nothing, and more good men are gone! Oh, and if he’s lost Yan Province, then
don’t I have to worry about the man coming back here again if his plans don’t work out?”
“Lü Bu is your friend, not mine, so you are the best judge,” Dong Gongren replied.
“…He writes that he goes east… to Xu,” Zhang Yang mused. “I wonder
what he plans to do there.”
Dong Gongren coughed deliberately and said, “Forgive my frankness, my lord, but… as long
as his actions do not drag us into a pit, I do not care.”
“…You’re quite right, of course,” Zhang Yang said. “Our worries are many:
the regents to the west, Yuan Shao to the east, The Black Mountain Bandits and Yufuluo’s men just
about everywhere, Cao Cao to the south; there is no end to the chaos…”
Dong Gongren nodded silently.
“The Xiongnu in Bing Province are growing bolder,” Zhang Yang continued. “I think that
they intend to exploit the chaos and take Bing over altogether… and I do not like the idea of an
independent Xiongnu state on my northwest border, not after being imprisoned by Yufuluo for all that time.”
“Yuan Shao will not tolerate it,” Dong Gongren said with increasing impatience.
“…You still feel resentful that you were slandered and forced to flee Ji Province, and you
care little for my problems,” Zhang Yang supposed.
“I care for all of the world’s legitimate problems,” Dong Gongren retorted. “I
just find it difficult to worry about men like Lü Bu; I still find the fact that you risked an
imperial arrest warrant to shelter that man - twice - quite preposterous.”
“…I think that I am damaged by what I have seen, heard and felt,” Zhang Yang said.
“Our lord, Ding Yuan, was a true hero. I-”
“And Bu killed him,” Dong Gongren noted. “He then went on to serve Dong Zhuo.”
“He is misunderstood!” Zhang Yang protested. “He-!”
“I know, I know,” Dong Gongren said. “Bu was ‘fooled’ by Dong Zhuo’s
seemingly rational arguments, and failed to notice, somehow, that he was an evil, violent madman that
tortured and killed innocent men, women and children, razed entire villages for personal amusement
and murdered the Son of Heaven.”
“Fengxian killed Dong Zhuo personally!” Zhang Yang retorted.