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

“He got the job,” Wang Fu replied calmly, “because the rumours are completely unsubstantiated, and Cao Cao is a rare talent of the age that excelled in scholarly pursuits and the martial arts… hardly possible if he were a drinking, gambling womaniser. I considered framing him for daubing those words on the gates, at first, but apart from the fact that we would then exonerate the true culprit, we would be going up against a man with good connections and, as I said, prestige.”
“What then…?” Jian Shuo protested. “He cannot remain in the capital! You cannot expect my uncle to be laughed at by the guards, and me to have to…!”
After a short silence, Wang Fu coughed slightly and said, “I suggest a promotion.”

“Magistrate of where…?”
“Dunqiu County,” Cao Cao chuckled miserably. “A promotion at face value, but in truth… in truth, I’ve been exiled, Benchu.”
Yuan Shao scowled and said, “You idiot! Why, Mengde? In the name of all under Heaven, why???”
“Sometimes, a man can only take so much before he breaks,” Cao Cao replied wistfully. “That man sneered and smirked, acting as though he had nothing to fear… that he could flout the law because he had connections.”
“But for pity’s sake, Mengde, you and I always flouted the law because we knew that we could!” Yuan Shao whined.
“Ah, but you and I were young, reckless, and meant no real harm,” Cao Cao countered. “This man in his late years, white-haired and full of knowledge, he knew what the law was and broke it not for mischief, but because he believed that he should be above all others… is that what we thought…?”
Yuan Shao’s shoulders slumped, and after exhaling noisily, he said, “You’ll be okay?”

“I’ve been promoted,” Cao Cao replied with mock cheer. “I can make the chickens line up in an orderly fashion and drill them every morning. I can ensure that the manure is always kept in neat piles. I can deliberate in critical matters, such as stolen grain and fights between farmers over who owns a rake. I’ll have plenty of time to read while the pigs are gathered in the pens… I won’t get bored, I’m sure.”
“… … …You idiot!” Yuan Shao whined. “Why did you do such a thing? With all that was at stake, how could you do what you did? Did the fate of the ‘partisans’ not occur to you? Did you not fear joining them, or perhaps ruining others’ attempts to shield them by leading the eunuchs to us?”
“A man can be given surprising immunity from suspicion by committing an act of idiocy,” Cao Cao replied. “That’s not why I did it… in fact, I don’t know if I’ll ever truly know why I did it… but it is a consequence. They think I am arrogant, that’s all: a man who wants to destroy himself. But if they could destroy me, they would have, and they haven’t, so they can’t. Jian Shuo has had to content himself with this ‘punishment’, petty thing that it is… in exchange for the skin on his uncle’s back, I get to be the magistrate of a place outside the capital, and joking aside, Dunqiu is not the capital, but it isn’t so far away, and it’s quite near my home in Pei County, and your family power base, Ru County, is not far away either. I am a man that makes opportunities out of chaos, Benchu, for it is so foretold: it’ll be the best-run place in the world, and I’ll make myself noticeable, and before you know it, I’ll be back, Benchu… you see if I don’t beat them.”

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