Provocation (3)
In the original history, it was Dong Zhuo—his ambition by then bared in earnest—who threw a banquet to sound out whether the court's officials had any thought of standing against him.
Had history flowed as it should, Ding Yuan would have risen in outrage at Dong Zhuo's atrocities, and the two of them would have gone to war...
Here, though, it's Ding Yuan holding the banquet.
Curious whether Ding Yuan would talk of swapping out the Emperor in Dong Zhuo's stead, I decided to attend.
By the time I arrived, a considerable number of officials had already taken their seats.
The moment my officers and I entered the banquet Ding Yuan was hosting, every gaze in the hall swung toward us.
"Is that man Lord Han Yeong, the General Who Pacifies the West? Far younger than I'd pictured."
"I heard he hasn't even turned twenty yet. And already a General Who Pacifies the West... Impressive for one so young, wouldn't you say?"
"They say that while the generals and colonels of the Grand General's headquarters were purging the Ten Attendants, he led his soldiers in person to soothe the chaos-stricken populace."
"He put down the rebels of Liang Province, and even crushed that tyrant of a warlord, Dong Zhuo... A fine example for the younger generation, truly."
Several Clear Stream figures who had made our acquaintance through Yuan Shao sent friendly looks our way.
No doubt Yuan Shao had gotten to them in advance, laying the groundwork for a warm reception.
Among those friendly gazes was Cao Cao's.
She was the most striking figure in the room by far, and she gave me a small wave, a captivating smile playing at her lips.
Most of the senior officials, however—Ding Yuan's supporters above all—regarded us with narrow, unfriendly eyes.
"...Hmph, those are the ones from Liang Province, no? Raised their banners against the state once, and yet they had the gall to come strolling in here."
"You're telling me. They mean to use this opening to slip free of the frontier and snatch a post for themselves. Hah, tsk."
"A man who rebelled against the state once—how can he be trusted? General Ding Yuan is far more dependable."
"And didn't he drive out General of the Household Dong Zhuo only out of greed for the Yong Province lands?"
Just look at those bastards. Even after I had personally put down every rising since we swore allegiance to the Han—Beigong Boyu, Song Jian, and the rest of that rabble—here they were, snickering all the same. Meanwhile they themselves, so busy wrangling with the Turbid Stream faction and the Ten Attendants, had never once lifted a hand against the Yellow Turbans.
Aside from Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, I doubted a single one of them had ever fought a real battle in his life. And the great commanders who had saved the Han—Lu Zhi, Huangfu Song, and the others who had stood against the Yellow Turbans—had all been stripped of their offices by the Ten Attendants. None of them sat in this hall today.
"...Tsk."
"......"
When a tongue clicked somewhere behind them, the faces of the officials who had been shooting us those glances drained a ghostly white.
"...Ahem. Let's just have a drink."
"Y-yes, of course."
Needless to say, the gossips—spooked by the wordless pressure and the glares of Ma Chao and Pang De, who had come along as my bodyguards—clamped their rambling mouths shut and took to sipping their wine.
Then—
"Heh heh, it seems everyone has gathered."
Ding Yuan made his entrance into the banquet hall, flanked by his retinue.
At the arrival of the man hosting the banquet, the Clear Stream faction that backed him and the assembled officers alike broke into applause.
To think everyone in this hall hangs on my every word...
Ding Yuan, who had swallowed Zhang Yang's whispers whole, was drinking in the applause and savoring the taste of power.
He was intoxicated by treatment on a wholly different plane from the days when, dismissed as a mere frontier general guarding Bing Province, he had endured the scorn and pointing fingers of the court's civil officials.
Ding Yuan, who had swept in with all the arrogance of a man who believed himself the true power in the realm, wore garments so resplendent and extravagant that a man of Bing Province could never have dreamed of them.
He looked for all the world like a man preening, flaunting his status as the undisputed strongest power in the land.
And today, the final move in his bid for that seat beneath one man and above ten thousand would begin.
Having been told of Zhang Yang's plan, Ding Yuan had gathered every official of the Han court into this hall at his behest.
"The reason I have gathered you all here is one, and one alone. Why has the Han fallen to such a pass?"
......?
The guests, who had come thinking to simply enjoy a banquet now that the upheaval in Luoyang had ended, tilted their heads in puzzlement.
"It is because the altars of our state were never made firm! This was a nation that danced in the grasp of treacherous eunuchs!! That is why bandits seethe across the realm and the world has been thrown into such chaos!!"
The officials, who had come with light hearts to enjoy themselves, wore one and all the same look of incomprehension—what in the world was Ding Yuan driving at?
The eunuch faction, Ten Attendants and all, had already been purged root and branch by the Grand General's headquarters. What more was there to say? their faces seemed to ask.
"And so I intend to sweep away every last atrocity the Ten Attendants committed! And that goes for butcher-born He Jin, who climbed to Grand General on their covert backing—and for the Empress Dowager herself as well!!"
At those words, the faces of the Clear Stream faction began slowly to darken.
Something in Ding Yuan's speech struck them as deeply unwholesome.
Cao Cao and the others quick off the mark, and I who knew roughly what the future held, had a fair idea what bullshit he was about to spout.
The same course of action, the same flow of rhetoric as Dong Zhuo in the original history.
Which meant, sure enough...
...I knew it.
Just as I had expected, Ding Yuan, too, was nothing more than an ambitious man hungry for power.
"Wh-what did you say?!"
"Wh-what nonsense is this man spouting?!"
Ding Yuan's declaration left many in the hall unable to contain their shock.
Back when he had purged Zhao Zhong and Zhang Yang, the heads of the Ten Attendants, and shielded the Emperor, they had truly believed him the hero who would set the Han to rights.
Of course, there had been his fleecing of the common people and other unsavory conduct, but the Clear Stream faction had lent him their tacit support all the same—to keep in check Han Yeong, son of Han Sui, a man who had once raised banners against the state...
Instead, it had backfired spectacularly.
Especially Wang Yun. A fellow native of Bing Province and an old friend, he had trusted Ding Yuan, lent him great strength, and helped him seize command of the military—and now he wore an expression of profound betrayal.
The officials who had already resolved to stand with Ding Yuan showed no particular reaction. They were of one mind with him.
Only the tiny handful of imperial loyalists who still carried true devotion for the Han in their breasts rose from their seats, eyes blazing.
"How dare you preach open treason!!"
"Heh heh heh. 'Treason' is a bit strong, wouldn't you say? As a servant devoted to the defense of the Han house, I have merely made the decision this nation required."
Ding Yuan laughed their protests off with a lazy wave of his hand. At his signal, the soldiers behind him bared gleaming blades.
Cowed by that menacing display, the officials stumbled back a step.
"What I do is set a Han thrown into chaos back upon its feet. Should anyone oppose me, I will have them beheaded—regardless of rank."
The eyes that had seemed the very picture of benevolence now glowed red with killing intent.
Ding Yuan, unmasking his true nature as he laid bare his ambition and his grand designs.
But the frail officials, powerless before a man who had already swallowed the military whole, could do nothing but lower their eyes.
All they could do was curse themselves for lending their strength to a traitor they had failed to see for what he was.
"Now then. And what will you do?"
His spirits swollen now that he had seized power with overwhelming force, Ding Yuan turned his gaze toward where Han Yeong sat and asked.
"Apologize for the insolence you showed me the other day, and I may yet find it in myself to forgive you."
Of course, it was a lie—having just demonstrated that Luoyang's great ministers bent the knee to him, Ding Yuan meant to break Han Yeong's spirit next.
He had proven his authority by showing the court officials frozen stiff at his word.
His magnanimous offer had been refused once before, after all—so if Han Yeong surrendered now, he planned to have him quietly killed and absorb the army under his command.
"......"
I stared at Ding Yuan in silence.
With Lu Bu here, I'd hoped to avoid a fight...
At this shit excuse for a life, I let out a long, deep sigh.
"Haa..."
Ding Yuan took it as a signal that I had given up on opposing him.
Hmph, so it was a bluff after all. What could a green pup who knows nothing of the world possibly do?
"If you've had a change of heart and wish to surrender, then at least get down on your knees and—"
Whoosh!!
At that moment, something came flying.
A wine cup?
Crash!!
The cup, cleaving through the air, struck the floor a pace in front of Ding Yuan and burst apart, shards spraying in every direction, the wine it had carried soaking into the boards.
The vicious sound that slammed into the banquet hall was followed by a stunned hush, and every eye in the room converged on a single point.
Everyone present simply sat there, struck dumb.
"......"
Ding Yuan, badly startled by the sound, quickly hardened his features into something ugly as he turned toward its source.
"...What is the meaning of this."
It was Han Yeong, who had listened in silence all this while, abruptly hurling the cup in his hand down right in front of Ding Yuan.
With the man surrounded by armed generals, he had thrown it at his feet, knowing full well it would never touch him.
"...Did I not tell you before?"
Meeting Ding Yuan's furious glare, I hardened my expression and stared right back.
"I told you to quit spouting nonsense, didn't I? Colonel of Martial Fierceness."
With so many eyes upon us, I held back the curses this time and softened my wording a little.
"Why, you..."
"Install the Prince of Chenliu for the sake of the Han? Save your sophistry, Ding Yuan. Did you truly think that cowing everyone into silence with brute force and dressing your lies up in pretty words would make them the truth?"
I had already been choking down my anger at the court officials' muttering about the traitor's son who had once raised banners, and Ding Yuan's absurd performance made the fury I had been forcing down detonate all over again.
He was wrapping treason in the name of the nation—how in the world was that loyalty?
"A minister who feeds on the state's stipend seeks to swap out the very throne—know some shame."
"You insolent—!!"
Shing!!
Ding Yuan, rage cresting at the crown of his head, drew his blade with a roar, and the retainers at his back stepped forward.
Ma Chao, Pang De, and Yan Xing, standing behind me, each raised their weapons in turn to shield me.
"I have brave officers and men at my command!! How dare a mere whelp think to defy me?"
Ding Yuan invoked the vast host of soldiers under his banner, doing his best to frighten me.
"Yours are not the only brave soldiers in this hall."
With my words, Ma Chao stepped forward and swatted the weapons clean out of the retainers' hands.
Her movement was so swift the eye could scarcely follow it; the retainers could only blink.
"Shall we keep going?"
"Ghh..."
Ding Yuan shrank back, perhaps because Lu Bu was not at his side; perhaps because he had been shamed before the assembled officials, he bit down hard on his lip.
Well, he's declared his intent to swap out the Emperor. That's more than enough justification to make war on Ding Yuan now.
My purpose achieved, and with no wish to look upon that repulsive spectacle a moment longer, I turned my back and walked straight out of the hall, back to my camp.