06. Bloodshed in Luoyang (1)
06. Bloodshed in Luoyang (1)
You can't trust the people of Luoyang.
That was the first lesson she learned after arriving in Luoyang as a low-ranking officer from Wuyuan Commandery in Bing Province.
General-in-Chief He Jin, who casually employs a horrific scheme to mobilize the Black Mountain Bandits to attack Luoyang and pressure the Ten Eunuchs; the incompetent imperial officials who can't even stop the country from rotting away. And that's not even mentioning the Ten Eunuchs.
The cause of the country being twisted into a deformity.
It could be seen that the root cause of this disaster was the incompetence of the Luoyang crowd, who couldn't control the provinces, allowing local bandits and barbarians to run wild.
"The era of the General-in-Chief is coming! The day this Ding Jianyang enters Luoyang, I will make my name and fame resound across the land as a subordinate of the General-in-Chief!"
He Jin isn't the only one drenched in vanity.
Inspector of Bing Province, Ding Yuan.
He is a warlord who holds a vast number of armed troops while defending the northern border.
He was also a man so obsessed with wealth and glory that he would casually slaughter the people of Luoyang by deploying troops disguised as Black Mountain Bandits just to gain wealth and power.
Is this something a human being should do?
The officers belonging to the Bing Province Army were filled with complaints, saying that Inspector of Bing Province Ding Yuan was not fit to be served as their lord.
"Uwaaack!"
A young soldier began to retch.
Attacking perfectly fine counties and slaughtering innocent people.
This was like a nightmare that no normal person could ever endure.
Until now, they had been killing barbarians for the sake of the Han Dynasty.
To those northern soldiers, the fact that they had attacked the counties of Luoyang planted a horrific wound, making them feel no different from the barbarians themselves.
What, after all,
have we been fighting for?
If it's just to plunder and slaughter the people for wealth and power, how are we any different from those barbarians we've spent half our lives fighting!
"This is so filthy I can't stand it."
"In the end, didn't we just do all the dirty work to benefit that old man, Ding Yuan?"
Ding Yuan is the only one who was promised a government post by the General-in-Chief He Jin.
The subordinate officers were nothing more than props.
Destined to be used to the fullest for that old man Ding Yuan's success and then eventually discarded. It was no different from a hunting dog being thrown into a cauldron after the hunt is over.
"Are we in any position to complain?"
A woman spoke up.
The officers who had been grumbling shut their mouths tight.
"Orders or not, we who killed the people are just as guilty as that old man. In the end, no matter how much we whine, it makes no difference. Once we've stained our hands with the blood of the people, living like decent human beings is out of the question."
We are nothing but trash.
Ignorant soldiers born in the frontier where barbarians frequently appear, knowing nothing but how to fight.
She thought pessimistically about her own situation.
She had known since she became an officer that she was just an ignorant country wench, destined to be used by the higher-ups and then discarded.
"I don't want to keep playing lackey to Ding Yuan like this!"
"We're human too, shouldn't we try living like human beings for once?! It's not about us living well! Please think of the Bing Province soldiers who follow us!"
I don't want to die after spending my whole life wiping someone else's ass.
The officers from the frontier were terribly afraid that they would be used like supplies and then unilaterally discarded.
They would die without receiving even a shred of sympathy.
The officers of Bing Province intuited that, just like the barbarians they had slaughtered until now, they too were destined to die miserably someday.
"Wait."
The Flying General of the Bing Province Army.
As the adopted daughter of Inspector of Bing Province Ding Yuan, and simultaneously holding the positions of Chief Clerk and Buguo Sima, it was no exaggeration to say she was the second-in-command of the Bing Province Army.
Lu Bu, courtesy name Bong-seon.
The beauty with fierce, waist-length blonde hair waited for her moment, her eyes shining like a beast's.
Someday, an opportunity will come.
Once she goes to Luoyang, where the incompetent run wild, an opportunity will surely roll into her lap.
And when she grabs that opportunity,
she vowed to herself that she would become a monster whose fame would shake the world.
September, 189 AD.
As cold winds began to blow from the north, it started to get properly cold.
Luoyang was engulfed in the cold.
The soldiers were busy struggling with winter preparations, worrying about the immediate cold, but General-in-Chief He Jin was obsessed only with wealth and glory.
'Even if we mobilize the private armies of the imperial officials, it is practically impossible to stop General-in-Chief He Jin.'
The Imperial Army under He Jin is a powerful force renowned as the Han Dynasty's elite.
Even if we mobilize a ragtag group of private soldiers,
it was certain that they would be swept away like fallen leaves in the autumn wind before the Imperial Army under the General-in-Chief.
I had tried for two years,
but in the end, it was nothing more than a futile struggle against the tide of the era.
"So, you're saying you want to join hands with me?"
Colonel of the Vanguard Cao Cao.
I proposed an alliance—or something like an alliance—with her.
On the condition of public opinion support from the imperial officials, I reached out to her, as she held a significant military force under He Jin.
She is a loyal subject of the Han Dynasty.
Unlike Yuan Shao, who is quick-witted and cunning, Cao Cao was still a loyalist willing to risk her life for the Han Dynasty's altars of state.
"If it's you, who is favored by the Minister of Education, one of the Three Excellencies of the Han, you must feel quite reassured."
By the way, your chest is incredibly small.
That's what I wanted to joke about in response to Cao Cao's words, but I kept my mouth shut because I felt like the alliance and everything else would fall apart if I did.
Cao Cao appeared to be in deep thought for a moment,
then soon nodded and asked me about the detailed plan.
"I hear that even the Colonel of the Vanguard is not considered part of the core of the General-in-Chief's Office."
"Yes, that's right."
He Jin does not think very highly of Cao Cao.
This is because she comes from a family of eunuchs.
Her grandfather, Cao Teng, was a eunuch from before the Ten Eunuchs appeared, and he was a figure of such high reputation that even the Ten Eunuchs looked up to him.
Perhaps because of that fame.
The Cao family ended up being branded with the image of eunuchs.
"It is by no means a dangerous task. It is just a matter of stopping the army under He Jin from running wild in the Imperial Palace."
A massive slaughter will soon take place.
I am a petty man who values my own safety above all else, but I'm not a bad enough person to run away when I know a slaughter is coming.
I must stop it.
I felt such a firm sense of purpose.
"It's difficult."
Xiahou Dun, who was watching from behind, said.
He, Cao Cao's cousin and a native of Yan Province, was currently listed in the General-in-Chief's Office with the status of Cao Cao's villa officer.
That is why he knew.
That fighting against the Imperial Army deployed in the General-in-Chief's Office was nothing more than throwing one's life away.
"There are many brave generals under He Jin. Moreover, there are elite soldiers scraped together from all over the Han Dynasty under him. There will be no chance of winning against them."
There is no hope in an all-out war.
If you want to stop He Jin's troops, you have to seize control of them from within. Cao Cao told me that.
After saying that,
she cleanly rejected my proposal.
"I will decline your proposal. But don't worry, I won't leak it anywhere else."
Stopping He Jin is impossible.
Having judged so, Cao Cao showed a stance of stepping back, saying she could not drive her own soldiers into a dangerous death trap.
"The person who acts as the assault captain in the General-in-Chief's Office is the Buguo Zhang Wu Kuang. And the General of the Household Yuan Shu, who leads the Imperial Guard—if you only stop these two, there will be a chance of winning. The younger brother of the Governor of Bing Province, Dong Zhuo, whom you are wary of, is the Commandant of the Imperial Carriages in the General-in-Chief's Office."
Buguo Zhang Wu Kuang, General of the Household Yuan Shu.
And Commandant of the Imperial Carriages Dong Min.
She advised that if the He Jin army were to raise an army, these people would act as the leaders.
In particular, she even said that Commandant of the Imperial Carriages Dong Min should be removed in advance, as he would use the chaos in Luoyang to incite the army of his brother, Dong Zhuo.
"It's as if you are predicting what will happen in the future in advance. I suppose this is what they call a discerning eye. The death of He Jin and the Rebellion of the Ten Eunuchs... and the incitement of Dong Zhuo. It is a sufficiently possible scenario."
Since Cao Cao serves He Jin, she knows his personality well.
A man who will hasten his own death by falling into the swamp of arrogance.
Cao Cao said that there was sufficient possibility in my words that He Jin would not live long.
Even while saying that,
she looked puzzled at me for speaking as if I knew He Jin well.
"The tea was good."
Cao Cao stood up from her seat.
And Xiahou Dun, who was behind her, gave me a grin.
"I'm in favor of you joining the family."
Xiahou Dun said.
Then Cao Cao spoke in a sharp voice.
"Yuanyang."
"Alright, alright."
As she left, she called me a 'person with no tact'.
Was my approach that clumsy?
I glanced at the spot where Cao Cao had left for a moment and organized my thoughts. And I thought about the hints she had thrown at me as if to show goodwill.
Xiahou Dun asked.
"Why are you being so nice to him?"
"What?"
To that question, Cao Cao answered nonchalantly.
She maintained her usual expressionless face as if it had nothing to do with her.
"If it were you normally, you would have, how should I put it... made a frowning face and just treated him coldly, so what wind blew that made you explain everything in such detail?"
Xiahou Dun said, raising his eyebrows with his fingers.
His menacing face became even more menacing.
It was a menacing face that would shock even an adult man, but Cao Cao, looking at him, was completely indifferent. It seemed to be because it was a face she had seen since she was young.
"I just taught a person with no tact some tact."
"Tact?"
"When fighting a giant beast, you have to use a trap. If you try to fight with your whole body ignorantly, you'll just become food. Hunters who are excellent enough to hunt tigers and wild boars are usually skilled at using traps."
"That may be so, but."
He had often been hunting with Cao Cao.
Therefore, Xiahou Dun nodded at her words, which explained things by comparing them to hunting.
"Wu Kuang, Yuan Shu. Both of them must be formidable opponents. I'm worried if it's okay to leave such opponents to him."
"Worry? Why you?"
"Well, because we might become one family. This is really worrying. Even though I look like this, this Xiahou Yuanyang has an endlessly soft personality, at least to family."
Even Yuan Shao, who acts as the second-in-command, could not completely win over the General-in-Chief's Office.
The head of the General-in-Chief's Office is He Jin.
If He Jin is slaughtered by the Ten Eunuchs as Gate Guard Colonel Lee Seong-hwi said, the General-in-Chief's Office, which has gathered from various places, will inevitably fall apart and scatter.
Buguo Zhang Wu Kuang, and General of the Household Yuan Shu.
They are radicals who act without thinking about the consequences.
If only those two can be weeded out, Yuan Shao will take command, and if that happens, the He Jin army will never go as far as taking radical actions like attacking the Imperial Palace.
"And if Benchu takes command of the military, it's a gain for me too. Because Benchu will be more reasonable than He Jin."
"Haha. That's Mengde for you. To think you'd be able to use your head in that short amount of time."
"Well... that's not the only reason."
Cao Cao muttered, turning her head back.