Anti-Dong Zhuo Coalition (3)
At last, the royal house of Chen Kingdom moved.
-I shall lead forty thousand crack troops and join the Guandong uprising. Governor of Bohai Yuan Shao and Colonel of Valiant Cavalry Cao Cao, meet the southern forces at Yingchuan Prefecture.
That is a lot.
Far more soldiers than expected.
The great army marching north into the Central Plains would be a corps of seasoned elites. Unlike the warlords' rabble, this was a force forged wholly through real combat.
For Cao Cao, the Colonel of Valiant Cavalry who viewed the coalition's strength with pessimism, Liu Seong-hwi's entry was worth ten thousand reinforcements. If the Crown Prince of Chen—known both as the Greatest Archer Under Heaven and the Hero of the South—took personal command, even those bleak odds might be turned around.
"You said he's a descendant of Prince Jing of Zhongshan, yet he kept refusing us at the gate. No idea how you moved Liu Seong-hwi's heart. Don't tell me you tempted him with tits the size of watermelons? Then poor flat Mengde wouldn't stand a chance."
"Shut up, Yuanrang."
The black-haired beauty shot back with a razor glare.
Her brash cousin merely shrugged.
"Liu Seong-hwi had planned to join from the start. He delayed his answer this long so he could manipulate the coalition lords exactly as he intended."
"Really?"
"He appointed Sun Jian, the Major of a Separate Command who rendered immense service crushing the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Then he had Sun Jian train elite troops. Why do you think that is?"
"He meant to strike Dong Zhuo all along."
Dong Zhuo is a bandit who stole the state.
As a scion of the Han Imperial House, Liu Seong-hwi could hardly refrain from stepping forward.
No.
To be precise, he must have been waiting for a justification to advance into the Central Plains.
The late General-in-Chief He Jin, who met a miserable end, commanded deep sympathy and compassion from the Pure Stream Faction's civil and military officials and from renowned scholars out of office. Naturally, the whole world was enraged by Dong Zhuo's atrocity in murdering the Empress Dowager and the Emperor.
Fury and resentment make excellent just cause.
Liu Chong and Liu Seong-hwi meant to wield that just cause, so obligingly furnished by an eternal traitor, and expand their influence.
"Perhaps, to drive out the jackal of Xiliang, they summoned the dragon of the south."
"Could he be aiming to become a new emperor? Nobody acknowledges the child emperor Dong Zhuo enthroned."
The child emperor Dong Zhuo installed is nothing but a puppet. Moreover, a little girl forced into regency—no one recognizes such a figure as Emperor.
In other words,
Han was a lawless land without an emperor.
The imperial clansman who smote the eternal traitor and revived the Imperial House and the Imperial Court would be granted the glorious throne. Hadn't Emperor Guangwu, Liu Xiu, toppled Wang Mang and become the founding emperor of the Later Han?
"The finest stage for ascending the imperial throne is set, in short."
"Not pleased—feels as though we've been reduced to mere spectators."
"I won't leave it that way. We will be the protagonists who restore order to the realm."
"Good. I like you brimming with confidence as always."
Justice without strength is mere impotence.
And strength without justice is mere violence.
Witnessing Dong Zhuo's atrocities, wielding terror and violence, and the court ministers who fretted over the fate of the Imperial House and Imperial Court yet mounted no resistance, Cao Cao grasped the wretched reality. To carry justice through to the end, one must seize overwhelming force to crush violence. Realizing that the great cause and moral justification championed by Han loyalists amounted to nothing but hollow debate, Cao Cao came to thirst for the power to make the whole world submit.
* * *
The three beautiful sisters commanding the Volunteer Army brought a breath of spring to a training ground normally filled with rugged men.
A white-haired beauty wearing a gentle smile.
A cold, blunt woman with black hair, and a spirited, lively girl with violet locks.
Of course the gaze of every soldier sweating through his hardships concentrated on them. Gorgeous women, fair as immortals, had appeared in a forbidden space thick with sour stench—there was no quenching that surge of hot blood.
"Immortal maidens descended from Heaven! Even just once, to hold their hands...!"
"Goddammit! Serving beauties like that—I'm so jealous of those Zhuo Prefecture Volunteer Army bastards!"
Jealous.
Trade places with me.
I want to transfer to the Volunteer Army.
Missing pay on time would be fine.
If only I could serve those immortal beauties up close.
The soldiers who had been harshly drilled in Marine Spirit resolved that they would gladly abandon their status as regular troops and join the Volunteer Army. And they cast gazes full of envy and jealousy at the Zhuo Prefecture Volunteer Army who served those lovely sworn sisters.
"Committing a screwup by letting your mind wander while awakening Marine Spirit...! For worthless curs no better than Pathetic Screwups, hell training is the cure. Survive if you endure; die if you can't."
"Snf-hrk!"
Only a soldier perfect in mind and body is worthy to harbor Marine Spirit.
Pathetic Screwups are merely weeded out.
The process was brutal and savage, but the result was superb. Through grueling training, soldiers who awakened Marine Spirit became elite troops who could boast of their toughness.
"General Who Defeats the Barbarians, we deploy in one week. I entrust you with seven thousand men in total. Would you take the coalition's vanguard? I give you the chance to hang the eternal traitor's head."
"It is my honor."
One week.
Straight after, I march at the head of a great army of forty thousand.
I asked General Who Defeats the Barbarians Sun Jian to serve as the vanguard commander and handed over the troops. Sun Jian accepted the role with a gallant voice.
"I heard your family from Jiangdong is coming up. My apologies—you'll have to postpone the reunion you've so looked forward to."
"I am rather glad that I can boast to my wife and daughters of the feat of beheading the traitor."
"I'm grateful you see it that way."
"Dong Zhuo. I will destroy him without fail."
Sun Jian struck his chest with a fist and spoke with brazen confidence.
I nodded.
"An impertinent question, if I may... do you, my lord, have a sweetheart promised in marriage?"
"No. I've been too busy to discuss matrimony."
As we built a bond, our conversations had grown to include private matters, not only official business. True to his Jiangdong roots, which prize loyalty, Sun Jian soon showed a forward manner.
Marriage. A sweetheart.
I answered this loaded question honestly.
"Ahem! Once I return from the battlefield, I shall pay my respects along with my daughters."
"I'll look forward to it."
I genuinely wanted to meet Sun Ce and Sun Quan.
Having brought Shu's S-rank ruler, Liu Bei, the King of Hanzhong, under my command, I now felt an impulse to recruit even Wu's S-rank ruler, Sun Quan, the King of Wu.
What do they look like?
Anxiety and dread come first.
If they take after their father, they will boast bulging muscles and a gruff voice.
* * *
I organized the great army of forty thousand that would join the coalition of warlords.
Then I informed King of Chen Liu Chong that deployment preparations were complete.
"Even now, I would declare a Ruler's Personal Campaign. My mind is uneasy, sending you alone to a perilous battlefield. Does the foe not command one hundred thousand troops, the great warlord of Xiliang?"
"There can be no circumstance where Your Grace empties his territory. Leave it to me."
A Vassal King undertaking a personal campaign is an excessively dangerous gamble. Should he meet unexpected misfortune on the battlefield, the entire great enterprise built so far could collapse.
In the original history, Liu Chong met a wretched end, murdered by an assassin sent by Yuan Shu. That was why, despite being Emperor Guangwu's descendant and the heritor leading the imperial succession, he was absurdly eliminated from the competition of the chaotic age.
A faction that loses its centripetal force can only face ruin.
Knowing that miserable conclusion, I opposed Liu Chong's personal campaign to the end.
"I bestow upon you my treasured sword and my Grand Command Banner. In my name, execute the eternal traitor who has defrauded the Imperial House and the Imperial Court. And you must return safely."
"I obey."
I received the crimson Grand Command Banner sewn from the finest silk.
Symbolizing the noble authority and dignity of a Vassal King, the Grand Command Banner bore a phoenix embroidered in gold thread drawn from molten gold, and was inscribed with Liu Chong's offices and titles.
Go forth on my behalf and exact punishment.
If the warlords of the Central Plains disobey, beheading them is of no consequence.
The Ceremonial Axes symbolizing the power of summary execution.
The Command Tally proving the delegation of military command.
And the Shangfang Sword granted to the supreme commander setting forth to subdue a traitor.
'The child emperor is nothing but a puppet set up by an eternal traitor. Even if we fail to take Dong Zhuo's head, if we recapture Luoyang, the Central Plains lords will acclaim Liu Chong as the new emperor. In the original history too, Yuan Shao, who formed the Anti-Dong Zhuo Coalition Army, never once endorsed Liu Xie as Emperor.'
Acclaim my royal father, Liu Chong, as the new emperor.
That is not yet completely decided.
But if events follow the original history—if Dong Zhuo commits the heaven-offending, widely-resented high treason of burning Luoyang and fleeing to Chang'an—then we could naturally acclaim Liu Chong as Emperor.
"Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong are renowned ministers capable enough to handle the great enterprise. And Zhou Yu still seems like a scatterbrain now, but one day he will become Talent Assisting a King, comparable to Guan Zhong and Bao Shuya. Royal Father, entrust internal affairs to Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong, and guard against Tao Qian of Xu Province."
The role of spectator is over.
Now it is time to leap onto the stage myself.
The Anti-Dong Zhuo Coalition Army.
The war marking the beginning of the Era of Warlords was about to break.