“Yellow Sky”: Crisis for the Han Dynasty sample (Act I) -- T. P. M. Thorne

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Cao Cao shook his head and said, “But I heard somebody say that the eunuchs are what’s wrong with the world… Father, if-”
“Intelligent men do not make generalisations,” Cao Song interrupted. “The father that I owe our family name and fortunes to was a eunuch… a favourite of His Majesty.”
Cao Cao frowned and said, “Is that why you haven’t been arrested?”
“No!” Cao Song chortled. “I was not arrested because I have not questioned things and made unfounded accusations as the people that were arrested did.”
Cao Cao scratched his right cheek and said, “So you won’t be arrested…?”
“No, I won’t be arrested,” Cao Song promised. “But we should say no more.”
But Cao Cao was a precocious child, and Cao Song knew in his heart that the matter would not be closed.
“Father, people not more than three years older than me are being taken away… people I liked, people that I thought were good people,” Cao Cao said disappointedly. “I can’t just forget about it; I think old H-uh, I mean, Mister Fan might have been arrested too, and I don’t know what I’m supposed to think.”
Cao Song gestured for his son to come closer, and said, “When His Majesty came to power, he was a child, maybe a year older than you at most, and he was under the guiding wing of his stepmother, the Empress Dowager Liang, and her brother, Mister Liang Ji. Father - my adoptive father - was a supporter of the decision to have His Majesty enthroned, and he was rewarded for that loyalty.”
Cao Cao nodded slowly.
“But while Father was working for the interests of the land, the Liangs had… ideas,” Cao Song continued. “They married His Majesty to their younger sister, ensuring that His Majesty was surrounded at all sides by agents of the Liangs, and together, they ensured that their word was law. Eunuchs like Father were becoming worried about them, about what they truly intended… and so was His Majesty, but His Majesty was too young to confront them, and the people that they had filled the court with were loyal to them more than to His Majesty.”

“I’ve heard lots about the Liangs, some of it really nasty,” Cao Cao said with disgust. “I heard that-”
“The Liang family were rumoured to be corrupt… that is all that need be said,” Cao Song suggested. “But I must be fair… some of their reforms earned them the begrudging respect of the intellectual classes, people like your classics teacher, because it meant that men of talent - like you, but without the connections to make it simple - could ascend more easily. But the other things that they were accused of, they earned them contempt… and it was felt that they were being very obvious in their control of things, which embarrassed His Majesty.”
“…So what happened…?” Cao Cao prompted.
Cao Song coughed awkwardly and said, “Their influence was not to the satisfaction of His Majesty, who desired freedom from the Liangs as he aged into a young man. When Empress Liang died, Liang Ji adopted a relative of his wife and had her presented to His Majesty. She was very beautiful, and quickly became His Majesty’s favourite- …uh… well, ‘favourite’, and His Majesty was very nice to her… then the Liangs asked her to help them keep the power they had, and when she refused to help them, her family was punished.”
“…And then…?” Cao Cao prompted.
“When His Majesty heard what the Liangs had intended for the family of Consort Deng, he decided that they had to be got rid of, and turned to the only people that he trusted: his eunuchs… one of whom had saved Consort Deng’s mother from assassination by the Liangs, so His Majesty was right to see them as honest vassals.”
“Like Grandfather Teng…?” Cao Cao supposed.

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