“Yellow Sky”: Crisis for the Han Dynasty sample (Act I) -- T. P. M. Thorne
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Yuan Shao shook his head and said, “Luoyang won’t be the same without
you.”
“Bah… you have Zhang Miao and Wei Zi to have a laugh with, if not a
drink,” Cao Cao insisted. “And admit it… I’ve been annoying you the last year
or so.”
Yuan Shao clasped his friend’s hands, smiled, and said, “Mengde, you are
incorrigible!”
“The brothel will miss me,” Cao Cao joked. “I doubt there’s a decent
place to get that sort of thing in Dunqiu. Anyhow, I’d better be going… in case
Jian Shuo somehow gets his way and I end up being flogged to death for late
departure.”
The two friends exchanged respectful bows, and Cao Cao left Yuan Shao’s
home.
“…Idiot,” Yuan Shao whispered.
“How can you rise now…? You have deprived the world of a much-needed hero, you…
you damned fool…!”
Cao Cao left the capital that same day, to the relief of the eunuch Jian
Shuo and his traumatised uncle, and started toward Dunqiu County, a part of Dong Prefecture, Yan Province that lay
east of the Yellow River.
“An interesting District Captain he was indeed,” Kong Rong said with a
smile as he thought about Cao Cao’s reckless actions and secretly envied his
courage.
“Aiee… a loss of a much needed
hero, Yuan Benchu keeps saying,” Zhang Miao said miserably. “With Wang Lang departing the capital as well,
who will be left…?”
“Wang Jingxing will be back,” Kong Rong supposed. “His mentor Yang Si’s
death affected him, but how can he retire at such a young age…? He’ll be back.”
“And Mengde…?” Zhang Miao said. “He’s never going to get anywhere now.”
“Don’t be so sure,” Kong Rong suggested. “He’s very resourceful, and his
father is growing more powerful these days; I hear he is to become Minister Herald; that would place him at
the core of government, poised to one day become one of the Three Excellences.”
“But for Mengde to invite disaster upon himself like that; are there not
enough disasters that are unavoidable?” Zhang Miao complained.
Kong Rong sighed as he looked at a copy of a report from the northern
border, and said, “That is certainly true, Mister Zhang… but more are made than
found.”
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