“Yellow Sky”: Crisis for the Han Dynasty sample (Act I) -- T. P. M. Thorne
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“…But if we take Cai Yong as
an example - and I do - we must wonder what awaits you if you continue your
relentless gestures of defiance,” Yuan Shao said angrily. “I ask you out of concern, Mengde… what will you do…?”
“I’m going to ‘retire’ again,” Cao Cao sighed. “I’m no Lu Kang, never
mind a ‘Hero of Chaos’. I can see that I’m getting nowhere, so I’m retiring
from my role for a while. I’ll maybe try again in a few months, or maybe even a
year.”
“Try what…?” Yuan Shao
protested.
“…I cannot do as you do, Benchu, and sit around, waiting for the smoke
to clear,” Cao Cao admitted at last. “This… bores me. I believe now that the
only way to remove the eunuchs is through direct confrontation, and others,
like Kong Rong, Lu Kang and Cai Yong, can see it too. There are many men that
can protect the ‘partisans’, so I volunteer to risk my-”
“You and I are known associates,” Yuan Shao reminded Cao Cao sternly.
“You, me, Zhang Mengzhuo… if you continue to draw attention to yourself, you
could jeopardise everything!”
“And if we continue to sit and wait when an opportunity presents itself,
that opportunity will pass us by, and we will pay dearly for procrastinating,
even more dearly than men like Cai Yong do for acting so very much alone,” Cao
Cao countered. “Now that the favoured Lady Hè has finally been created Empress
and given His Majesty a son, her brother Hè Jin rises up the ranks, swapping
his butcher’s knife for ever more decorated swords of honour. Soon, however, I
believe that he will turn back to his butcher’s knife, seeing that it still has
purpose, and use it to slay some pigs and dogs… the days of the ‘Ten’ are
numbered.”
“It will take more than a butcher’s son and his attractive sister to
remove the eunuchs!” Yuan Shao said angrily. “I understand it all much more
now… Mengde, they are the court, the entirety of it. You cannot move without
a eunuch being there; the whining, obsequious attendants are perhaps nowhere
near as dangerous as the different Gate Guard factions, for they are versed in
martial arts, and are as good as any soldier!
Every time the attendants have
risen up, their ‘brothers’ the Gate Guards rise up with them, acting as their
swords and shields, and Hè Jin needs an imperial decree to bring armed men into
the palace that he will never get!”
“You see a lot out in the ‘middle of nowhere’,” Cao Cao said calmly.
“You learn a lot… you discover that there’s a world out there with people
living in it whose problems are entirely different to ours. They look up to
different heroes… and soon, very soon,
if we don’t do something, they’re
going to tire of suffering in silence everywhere, not just in Lujiang, and we
might all pay a price for the crimes of the eunuchs and their allies.”
“Nonsense…!” Yuan Shao
chortled. “The commoners…? What can they do?”
Cao Cao shook his head and said, “Liu Bang, the Han founder-”
“Was not a commoner at the time that he revolted; he was an official of
the state, with connections and followers, and Hanzhong for a fief!” Yuan Shao
challenged. “A gaggle of simple farmers would never dare raise an army against His Divine Majesty!”
“The Red Eyebrows that
defeated Wang Mang…?” Cao Cao retorted.