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The Xianbei cavalry were better equipped and more
acclimatised to the terrain and weather than the Han forces, and that was
apparent from the onset. In addition, the Han forces were being led by men that
were far from experienced in fighting the tribal forces that they faced, and so
were unprepared for the rush attacks, horseback bowman snipers and swordsmen
that shot and hacked at the lance and spear-wielding Han cavalry with
frightening speed and ease.
The clashes were violent, remorseless and astonishing
to the Han court in their absoluteness; the proud, arrogant Han forces were
decimated, almost literally. The three commanders would have been a laughing
stock, had the severity of their loss not been as it was, and it came as a
surprise to nobody that they lost their privileged roles with immediate effect
upon their return. The search for someone to blame was inevitable, and many
wondered if the commanders - men that would have had to ingratiate themselves
with the eunuchs to get those roles - were the right targets for fear-inspired
fury.
“Some people blame us,” the eunuch Wang Fu noted worriedly.
“It is not ‘some people’ that bother me, it is His Majesty,” Cao Jie
said plainly. “If there is some way to turn this to our advantage, we should do
that at the very least.”
“I have already thought about that,” Wang Fu admitted. “We may not like what
has happened, but one thing does arise from it that suits us…”
Jian Shuo harrumphed and said, “What?”
“We’ve just lost an army of thirty-thousand men to a barbarian horde
that now threatens our entire northern border,” Wang Fu continued. “They can be
bought with arranged marriages between princesses of our realm and chieftains
of theirs, as we have had to do in the past… and other things, like tributes,
trade deals and the like… so we can buy our way out of an invasion. But the
coffers are empty, the army destroyed, the food stocks in northern areas that
had to supply the armies are near to gone, and there is risk of famine…”
“I see no benefit to us,” Cao Jie admitted. “… … …Oh, wait, unless…!”
“…I think that our prediction of disaster caused by witchcraft will be a
little easier to prove now,” Wang Fu suggested. “The Xianbei may not have
intended to save us, but they have… they have rid us of Empress Song!”
“An excellent suggestion,” Jian Shuo praised. “We should perhaps have
‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ start chiding immediately…?”
Over the next few months, the eunuchs increased the intensity of their accusations against Empress Song, and the demoralised, humiliated Emperor Ling was grateful for a supernatural enemy to blame his military incompetence on, amongst other things. A terrified and helpless Lady Song was deposed from her role as empress and imprisoned pending a trial for witchcraft. She would die in prison, and following that, her father, brothers and other close members of her clan were executed for related crimes invented by the eunuchs. One such victim was the husband of a relative of Cao Cao’s, which meant that Jian Shuo inadvertently had a form of revenge, if only slight.