Rally (1)
Eighteen feudal lords gathered to bring down the arch-traitor of the age.
The rumor spread, but the reality was far different.
Excess information always spawns hearsay.
Rumors, warped sentence by sentence as they passed from mouth to mouth, inevitably shed all reliability.
The participants who joined the coalition army were simply regional officials appointed by the imperial court and the central government—not lords granted fiefs and noble titles. And the number of regional officials who answered the call of Yuan Shao, Governor of Bohai, far exceeded eighteen.
"The Crown Prince of Chen Kingdom has just crossed Runan Prefecture, I tell you!"
"Intelligence reports confirm a force of forty thousand! The hour of our great enterprise has finally come!"
The moment news arrived that a great southern army had passed through Runan Prefecture, the coalition's regional officials showed unconcealed relief and delight.
- Our forces aren't even half of Dong Zhuo's army! How could we possibly win!
- Hah...! Is this not the very image of a mantis trying to block a chariot? I've heard Dong Zhuo's command teems with fierce champions!
Only days ago,
while Liu Seong-hwi delayed giving a firm answer,
the local officials had shown signs of fracturing as they pointed out their inferiority in raw strength. Compared to Dong Zhuo's army, flush with savage champions and hard-bitten elite troops, their own forces were nothing but a contemptible rabble.
Was there really any chance of victory?
They could only hole up inside their encampment and tremble.
Now those same cowards beamed with restored color in their cheeks and openly displayed confidence. The intervention of the crack army corps that had defended the south struck them like a host of reinforcements from heaven, raising morale enormously—not only for the regional officials but for the entire anti-Dong Zhuo coalition.
"A washed-up imperial clansman from the backwater south, swaggering in... Dragging his feet when this critical uprising is at stake!"
There was,
someone whose features twisted with unconcealed displeasure.
Lustrous golden hair.
A face as pale as white jade with polished, well-cut features.
Dazzling armor and a treasured sword that proclaimed noble blood.
Rear General Yuan Shu.
The legitimate heir of the Runan Yuan Clan, a house renowned as one that produced three ducal ministers in four generations, and the man who functioned as spokesman for the many local officials who had joined the coalition.
"Restrain yourself now, Gonglu. Do you intend to ignite a factional brawl before we've even fought a preliminary skirmish?"
"Don't you dare lecture me, you serving-girl by-blow!"
A woman with lustrous flowing golden hair frowned and gave her counsel.
Yuan Shao.
A daughter of the Runan Yuan Clan, formerly the leading house of the Turbid Stream Faction, yet a complex figure who commanded the absolute support of the Pure Stream Faction's finest talents.
She was also the half-sibling of Yuan Shu, the legitimate grandson of a noble house. They shared a father, but she had been born an illegitimate daughter to a household servant. Because of this, Yuan Shu loathed and despised his half-sister Yuan Shao, reviling her as a baseborn maidservant.
"It seems you've forgotten the greater cause of the coalition."
"Shut your mouth! How could I forget the death-screams of uncle and elder brother, struck down by Dong Zhuo's spears and blades, or the wails of the Runan Yuan Clan wiped out to the last kinsman! I will seize Luoyang and tear Dong Zhuo's curs limb from limb!!"
The moment Dong Zhuo heard that Yuan Shao, Governor of Bohai, had raised an army, he flew into a towering rage and personally exterminated the Runan Yuan Clan in Luoyang.
Grand Tutor Yuan Wei. Minister of the Imperial Stables Yuan Ji.
Scores of figures who had held high ministerial office at court were butchered.
Moreover, every member of the clan—some two hundred people—was swept away in the purge, until the entire house was annihilated.
That Yuan Shu ground his teeth in fury was only natural.
If anything, it was Yuan Shao's icy composure that was abnormal.
A woman you could jab with a needle and she wouldn't bleed a single drop.
Yuan Shu cursed his half-sister, who always wore that shamelessly brazen iron mask.
"Ever the slaughterhouse in that Runan Yuan Clan."
"Benchu and Gonglu alike. Neither has any intention of bowing their head to the other."
A youth of bold, openhanded bearing commented with a click of his tongue.
Beside him, a woman with beautiful flowing black hair let out a long sigh.
Zhang Miao, Governor of Chenliu.
Cao Cao, Colonel of Valiant Cavalry.
Zhang Miao and Cao Cao had combined their forces with the troops of Liu Dai, Inspector of Yan Province, and joined the coalition. Appointed as staff officers charged with the dignity of army discipline, they could only shake their heads as they watched the half-siblings of the Runan Yuan Clan continue their internecine strife.
"Are the troops under your command sufficient? I imagine recruiting was no easy feat back in Pei."
"It's settled, thanks to help from my cousins. I'm well supplied to lead an army of my own."
She had mustered ten thousand soldiers from her home in Pei Kingdom.
Her cousins of the Pei Cao Clan had given her their full and unreserved cooperation.
It would have been impossible had she attempted it alone.
Cao Cao thanked her cousins—Xiahou Dun, Cao Hong, and the others—and praised their contributions at the same time.
"It's reassuring indeed that a forty-thousand-strong army from the south has joined us. That's greater than all the forces combined that the local officials of Yan and Yu Provinces brought with them."
"Didn't hundreds of thousands of Central Plains commoners flee south to escape the chaos? What's more, the local officials and gentry of Jiujiang and Lujiang Prefectures, who follow the King of Chen, will have dispatched troops of their own."
Forty thousand.
It was a staggering scale, yet hardly the entirety of Chen Kingdom's military.
They had culled only the most seasoned crack troops and committed them to the field.
One could scarcely take such a claim at face value, but compared to the regional officials' contemptible rabbles, the great army under Crown Prince Liu Seong-hwi was indisputably a force of elites each worth a hundred common soldiers.
"Elder Sister!"
As they were briefly chatting,
a female warrior with black hair bound tightly to the side strode toward them at an urgent pace.
Cao Hong.
She was Colonel of Valiant Cavalry Cao Cao's cousin and subordinate commander.
"A scout report! The Crown Prince's army under Liu Seong-hwi has just reached Yingchuan Prefecture!"
"Far swifter than we anticipated... Understood."
After a series of forced marches from Runan Prefecture, the army of Crown Prince Liu Seong-hwi had reached Yingchuan Prefecture—the encampment site of the anti-Dong Zhuo coalition and the forward staging point for the advance on Luoyang.
At the news, the local officials of the Central Plains stirred with excitement.
And Yuan Shao summoned Cao Cao in order to prepare for receiving the crown prince with full honors.
* * *
The thunder of hooves pounded the earth.
A thick cloud of dust swirled violently skyward.
From Chen Kingdom came
the southern warriors clad in dazzling renown, swelling with confidence.
The army sweeping across the wide plains of Yingchuan belonged to Sun Jian, General Who Defeats the Barbarians. Sun Jian's troops, making their entrance with countless weapons and regimental banners hoisted high, cut a magnificent and imposing sight that utterly captivated the Central Plains officials who yearned to give battle.
"Sun Jian...! It's Sun Jian, the Major of a Separate Command they call the Tiger of Jiangdong!"
"The ranks of their crack troops blanket the earth clear past the horizon! An absolutely colossal army!"
Expectation, admiration,
and fear mixed with wariness.
At the first sight of this forty-thousand-strong army, a flood of conflicting reactions poured forth.
The purpose behind forming a coalition was to strike down a common great evil. It was about protecting their own forces and territories from Dong Zhuo's encroaching armies—not one of them had the faintest intention of shouldering sacrifice for the sake of reviving the imperial house and its court.
'I heard Chen's crown prince only passed his coming-of-age capping last year!'
'Flatter him just enough and stoke his sense of chivalrous duty and thirst for martial glory, and he'll gladly take on every tiresome role!'
Many local officials feared they might be stripped of troops and authority, reduced to mere attendants by Crown Prince Liu Seong-hwi. It was patently obvious that a supreme commander to wield overall authority should be elevated, but with each man carrying his own schemes, the officials balked from the very beginning.
Regional officials they might be, but they were also warlords.
Having built up independent power bases, they proudly embraced a cutthroat selfishness.
They pursued only practical gain and their own security.
The lives of the young emperor held captive by Dong Zhuo's forces and the great ministers of the court were of no concern to them whatsoever.
"The Crown Prince will arrive shortly with the main army. Every lord here is to comport himself with proper ceremony."
A man whose aura radiated the fierce, savage authority of a predator dismounted and issued the command.
Sun Jian.
He was the Tiger of Jiangdong, the man King of Chen Liu Chong had chosen and elevated.
Did some jumped-up commander of mere newly risen gentry stock dare to give orders with such towering insolence? The local officials, who placed great stock in bloodline and social station, showed signs of displeasure—but they had no choice except to appear obedient.
Yuan Shu was no exception.
The instant he found himself face-to-face with Sun Jian's ferocious glare, he hurriedly rendered his courtesies.
"I am Liu Seong-hwi, Crown Prince. I have answered the righteous call and come with my officers and men to join this campaign. Where is the Governor of Bohai, and where is the Colonel of Valiant Cavalry, who dispatched the letters?"
The Crown Prince—
Liu Seong-hwi.
He was the legitimate eldest son of the King of Chen, his succession to the throne already assured.
The Hero of the South who had crushed countless rebel bands and barbarian raiders.
A youth with a great bow slung over his shoulder as if to proclaim his powerful, imposing martial bearing looked down from horseback and put the question. At once, every local official who had been offering his respects turned pale and bowed his head even deeper.
"Yuan Shao, Governor of Bohai, has the honor of an audience with the Crown Prince."
"Cao Cao, Colonel of Valiant Cavalry, comes before the Crown Prince of Chen Kingdom."
Yuan Shao. Cao Cao.
The two female warriors who represented the anti-Dong Zhuo coalition came forward to greet Liu Seong-hwi.
When Liu Seong-hwi dismounted, Liu Bei and her sworn sisters, charged with the crown prince's personal guard, fell in behind him. The repeated forced marches had left everyone caked in road dust, but paying it no heed, they strode forward toward the encampment.
'He can barely have passed twenty years of age...!'
'He looks like a general who's weathered every hardship of war. Simply meeting his eye is enough to numb my very legs.'
He bore himself with a noble yet fierce dignity—a presence that effortlessly commanded the crowd.
And a strong-willed intensity bordering on outright arrogance overflowed from him.
He stood more than eight and a half cheok tall—easily over 195 centimeters.
Years of practicing the bow had forged a powerfully built frame, all dense bone and hard muscle.
And his piercing eyes, sharp like those of a raptor that had hunted countless quarry, had the sheer weight to overwhelm the throng.