The Ten Attendants' Rebellion (2)
General-in-Chief He Jin, having entered the palace alone, was murdered by the Ten Attendants.
As Yuan Shao's army clashed with Jian Shi's forces and the imperial palace dissolved into a hellish pandemonium, the Ten Attendants slipped out of Luoyang with the Emperor and the Prince of Chenliu in tow.
"Those bastards abandoned me and ran!"
The moment Jian Shi learned that his fellow Attendants had fled without him, his face drained of all color.
Jian Shi's imperial guard, hopelessly outnumbered, was routed in the end, and he was dragged before Yuan Shao bound tight in rope.
In a voice thick with despair, Jian Shi groveled for his life.
"Spare me, General! For the sake of this Han dynasty, I had no choice but to do away with the General-in-Chief!"
"For the sake of the country, you say? To think I would live to hear such words fall from the lips of a Ten Attendant."
Yuan Shao let out an amused snort, as if she had just heard a fine joke, and Jian Shi opened his mouth again.
"Are you not a member of the Eight Colonels of the Western Garden, just as I am! For the sake of that old bond, I beg you—!"
"My name may have been on that roster, but the real power rested entirely in your hands."
Yuan Shao shook her head.
"Cut him down."
"General! Spare me! SPARE MEEE—!!"
Having slaughtered every last eunuch within the imperial palace, Yuan Shao put her army in motion at once to hunt for the Emperor.
The Emperor's palace ran red with blood.
Not far from Luoyang.
A man in black armor, leading an army of overwhelming scale, drew a letter from his breast and unfolded it.
"Lead your army into Luoyang, drive out the Ten Attendants, and stage a show of force... Haha!"
Dong Zhuo burst out laughing as he stared down at the letter in his hand.
A man beside him asked with due deference.
"Does it please you so much?"
"Of course it does! They've handed me a perfect pretext to march my army straight into the capital—how could I not be pleased!"
Dong Zhuo carelessly folded the letter sent by the already-dead He Jin and stuffed it back into his robe.
A man who had coveted supreme power with every waking thought, Dong Zhuo had deliberately dawdled, moving his army at a crawl.
It was on Li Ru's advice: the General-in-Chief and the Ten Attendants were bound to collide sooner or later, so he should watch for that moment and strike.
And now, the instant word had arrived from his agents in the capital that He Jin was dead and battle had broken out inside the palace, he was racing toward Luoyang with all speed.
"Just as you said, Li Ru, everything unfolds to plan. You truly are my bag of tricks!"
"You honor me, my lord."
Stroking his lush, overgrown beard, Dong Zhuo posed a question to Li Ru.
"Tell me—is there truly anyone in the capital who could stand against our army?"
"Who in their right mind would think to match blades with the elite troops you command, my lord?"
Hardened veterans, these—elite Qiang troops tempered in the suppression of the Liang Province rebellion that Han Sui and Bian Zhang had raised.
And even the Qiang, savage in temperament as they were, trembled and fled pell-mell at the mere word that Dong Zhuo's Xiliang cavalry was coming.
"Still, it gnaws at me that we couldn't properly exterminate those rebel bastards."
Before setting out for Luoyang, he had inflicted a crushing defeat upon Han Sui's rebellious army, yet a slender remnant of the rebels still clung to life.
"There is no cause for concern, my lord. Did you not leave Generals Li Jue and Guo Si behind in Liang Province?"
To his lord's worries, Li Ru dispensed advice without stinting.
"Those two are more than equal to the task of holding your cities against the rebels."
"Hm, true enough... They're a little short between the ears, but for sheer ferocity there's none better. They'll manage."
Dong Zhuo nodded along to Li Ru's words.
"Then there's nothing left to fret over. Shall we make haste to receive Her Majesty, then? Not a moment to lose."
Fixing his gaze straight ahead, Dong Zhuo urged his army onward, gathering speed.
"We pick up the pace! It will be we who wrest the Emperor from the Ten Attendants' hands!!"
A single letter had come flying in from my mother while I was still tying up loose ends after crushing the Black Mountain bandits.
And so here I was yet again, marching on Luoyang with an army at my back.
We had just crossed from Bing Province into Sili when Lü Bu, riding at my side, vented her frustration.
"Why can this damn country never stay quiet for once?"
"You're telling me."
The cleanup had been all but finished. I'd been planning to kick back and enjoy myself for a good long while...
Could everyone please just leave me alone for a little while?
Mother, for her part, had announced that she would remain in Bing Province against any unforeseen turn of events.
Every last ounce of decision-making authority had been delegated to me, along with the instruction to do whatever my heart desired.
A mother's love weighs heavy indeed.
Lü Bu, having evidently worked up some curiosity, opened her mouth and lobbed a question my way.
"By the way, what's this 'show of force' business in the letter supposed to mean?"
"It means we march the soldiers over and scare them."
"Scare the eunuch bastards?"
"Yep."
Lü Bu's face twisted with displeasure.
"So in the end, they're just using us as pawns in their political games."
"When the big shots say jump, you jump. That's all there is to it."
If it bothered her so much, she was welcome to go sit in some high office herself.
Of course, even that would be impossible without first sending bribes to the Ten Attendants.
"...Shall we go and cut them all down instead?"
Seo Yeo, standing guard at my side, suddenly spat out those bloodcurdling words.
...
Seo Yeo was quiet by nature, but where anything concerning me was involved, she had a habit of flooring the accelerator without warning.
What made it truly terrifying was that she possessed the very real ability to carry out whatever she said.
"Uh... I'm fine, really, so don't."
Left unchecked, she looked ready to actually carve every last one of them down, so I had no choice but to rein her in.
We had entered Sili, the capital region—Luoyang was now truly within arm's reach.
And I had a feeling that once we arrived, I'd be crossing blades with Dong Zhuo before all was said and done.
Barely a month had passed since Emperor Ling's death, yet the situation at the heart of the empire was shifting faster than it ever had.
Once I led my army into Luoyang, I went in alone to hear the full account from Zhang Liao, who had traveled ahead and was waiting for me in the city.
The Ten Attendants had murdered General-in-Chief He Jin.
Yuan Shao's army had thereupon fought the Ten Attendants and emerged victorious.
And amid the chaos, several of the Attendants had fled who-knew-where with the Emperor and the Prince of Chenliu.
I could only gape at how much faster events were unfolding than in the history I knew.
By my understanding, the Ten Attendants' Rebellion was supposed to erupt a good while after Emperor Ling's death—yet something had spooked the eunuchs into causing a catastrophe ahead of schedule. What exactly was the hurry?
"What would you have us do?"
At Zhang Liao's question, I sorted through my thoughts.
What if I hurried ahead and secured the Emperor first?
I had conserved our strength and advanced at an easy pace; if all went well, I might be able to place the Emperor's person under my own protection.
But the idea didn't especially appeal to me. Whoever ended up securing the Emperor, a showdown with Dong Zhuo in Luoyang was coming all the same.
After a long stretch of deliberation, I spoke.
"We'll simply protect the citizens running around in a panic."
"Understood."
Dong Zhuo could see to the Emperor himself, for all I cared. As for me, I would deal with untangling this chaos.
With every faction's eyes bloodshot over grabbing the Emperor, this was the most dangerous hour the city's people would face.
Sure as sunrise, there would be vermin looking to exploit the pandemonium for pillage and murder.
Which meant the time had come to turn such criminals into honest men.
No matter who that vermin happened to be.
"Please, good sir! I'll give you anything you want—only leave my wife and daughter alone, I beg you!"
"The money goes without saying, you punk! Heh heh. Good things are meant to be shared, am I right?"
"Aaahh! Somebody! Anybody, please help us!"
And no sooner had I said it than—why, look at that. There they were.
A gang of roughs had surrounded some poor family and was in the middle of setting about their crime.
I called over Lü Bu, who stood nearby.
"Lü Bu."
"Hm?"
"Make sure those bastards never get to use their lower halves again for the rest of their lives."
"Got it. I just smash them to paste, right?"
Lü Bu borrowed a spear from a soldier standing close by and flattened every last one of them with the shaft.
I will decline to describe precisely what got flattened.
"Thank you! Thank you so much!"
"No need to thank me. ...Ugh. Gross. Here's your weapon back."
Waving off the family's gratitude, Lü Bu grimaced and handed the borrowed spear back to its owner.
...
Beholding the unidentifiable clumps of gore clinging to his spear, the soldier's face crumpled to the verge of tears.
The Ten Attendants who had bolted with the Emperor and the Prince of Chenliu, with the net closing in around them by the hour, at last hurled themselves into the river and ended their own lives.
Having secured the Emperor and the Prince of Chenliu precisely as the original history decreed, Dong Zhuo strutted into Luoyang flush with triumph.
Powerful elite troops from Xiliang trailed at his heels in an unbroken river of steel, and every soul in Luoyang held their breath, warily reading Dong Zhuo's mood.
"KWAHAHAHA! Do you see it, Li Ru?! Not one among them can meet my eyes!"
"Indeed, my lord. Every head is bowed low before your overwhelming authority. Does this not signal that the age of my lord has arrived?"
Li Ru's flattery buoyed Dong Zhuo's spirits even higher, and he laid out the plans he had been nursing.
"Heh heh. If I were to swap the Emperor out for one more to my liking, there'd be no aftermath to fear, would there?"
"None whatsoever. No one in this Luoyang can stand against you, my lord."
Li Ru bowed respectfully at the waist and continued at an unhurried pace.
"The General-in-Chief's troops, having lost the man who commanded them, are being absorbed into your forces little by little."
Officials who had at last discerned which way the tide was running were flocking to Dong Zhuo one after another.
The woman Yuan Shao appeared to be straining every nerve to stem the flow, but an atmosphere that had caught the current knew no stopping.
Before long, the greater part of the army the General-in-Chief had commanded would belong to Dong Zhuo.
"As for the eunuchs, the Ten Attendants included, Yuan Shao has slaughtered them to a man—there is not even any need to trouble yourself over them."
Li Ru harbored a faint flicker of gratitude toward Yuan Shao, who had so obligingly shrunk his workload for him.
Though Yuan Shao herself would sooner gnash her teeth to powder.
"Judging by all this, I would say that among the powers long resident in Luoyang, not one poses a threat to you, my lord."
"Hahahaha! That is welcome news indeed!"
Li Ru's reading cut straight to the heart of the situation, and the laughter would not leave Dong Zhuo's face.
"There is, however, one matter that gives me pause..."
"Hm?"
Dong Zhuo's brow creased at his advisor's words.
Some force here in Luoyang still capable of threatening him?
Li Ru spoke.
"The powers who, like yourself, my lord, marched into the capital from the outside at the head of their own armies."
...
"The late General-in-Chief dispatched letters identical to the one you received to several other powers as well."
At Li Ru's words, Dong Zhuo grasped the problem at once.
Of course. Had he not himself owed his pretext for entering Luoyang at the head of an army to that very letter?
Other powers would be no different.
"Nearly all of them refused the summons, each offering their own excuse... but one power alone has entered Luoyang, just as you have, my lord."
"...And who would that be?"
Whoever they were, they must have smelled the same opportunity and come marching in on Luoyang, exactly as he had.
At Li Ru's words, gravity settled over Dong Zhuo's face of its own accord.