“Turmoil”: Battle for the Han Empire sample (Act I) -- T. P. M. Thorne

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“…No, you… you’re right,” Cao Cao replied as he found the strength to fight his anger. “He… he is not… he is not right, not in anything he does, but… but maybe I must be objective. I must give all men the same benefit of the doubt until I am sure of all of the facts… but my head hurts so, Gongda. It hurts, and I really cannot believe that I have to come back from a successful campaign to… to this.”
“It is unfair,” Xun Gongda agreed. “I expect that the Yuans will be similarly aggrieved. Let us hope that it unites them, and then - maybe - some good might come of this.”
“Unlikely,” Cao Cao said as he passed the report to Xun Gongda. “I truly wonder if there is anything that could reconcile those two… Benchu is too stubborn, and the other one is a delusional fanatic. I think this only ends with Yuan Shu’s death.”
Xun Gongda silently agreed.

Ji Governor Yuan Shao summoned his advisers to his court in Yè City and asked, “Why should I tolerate Liu Bei sheltering Lü Bu? These words that he sends me are surely foolish nonsense!”
The gaunt, world-weary, middle-aged adviser Tian Feng was currently in possession of Liu Bei’s letter, which he was reading for a second time while his master ranted.
“My lord, let me march against Xu Province,” the adviser-general Chunyu Qiong pleaded. “I have been unable to prove my true worth to you yet: I have been an adviser - just another voice among men like Tian Feng, Pang Ji, Xun Chen, Shen Pei, and Ju Shou - but when have I been the warrior that I am at heart? Was I not, like you and Cao Cao, a colonel of the Army of the Western Garden…? I know that I showed that I was every bit the equal of General Qu Yi in the second campaign against Gongsun Zan, but I yearn for more opportunities! Let me take to the field against the villain Lü Bu and avenge your clan on your behalf!”

“Are you mad?” the adviser Pang Ji chortled. “This is Lü Bu that we talk about! You’re no match for that man in battle. And what about his best generals, Zhang Liao and Gao Shun?”
“Pang Ji is right,” the adviser Shen Pei suggested. “Send General Chunyu with Zhang Hè, Gao Lan, Yan Liang and Wen Chou.”
“Do I need all that help for one friendless Lü Bu and his overrated, conscripted subordinates?” Chunyu Qiong scoffed. “I think that you are just trying to humiliate me, gentlemen.”
“Zhang Liao and Gao Shun are not ‘conscripted’,” Tian Feng said wearily. “They have followed Bu since the days of Ding Yuan; as for ‘friendless’, it is my understanding that Administrator Zhang Yang did not expel him willingly.”
“Yes, well, I’ll deal with him soon enough,” Yuan Shao muttered.
“Zhang Yang is appointed Administrator of Henei by the imperial court,” Tian Feng noted. “To attack him is to attack the empire.”
“I know that!” Yuan Shao retorted. “I… I know that. I will petition if nobody else does, citing his refusal to obey the edict and apprehend Lü Bu! …But enough about him! What do I do about Liu Bei??? And no, Mister Chunyu, I do not intend a march against my own province! Not if there is some other way to deal with him!”
“And after the recent attack on this very capital by the Black Mountain Bandits, our resources cannot be reallocated to Xu anyway,” Ju Shou suggested.
“Are the bandits that great a threat?” the adviser Xun Chen asked.
“Of course they are!” Ju Shou chortled. “They got to the city walls! Their commander, ‘Poison Yu’, was paces away from-!”

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