Burning Battlefield (2)
The young emperor and the old court ministers believed that Crown Prince Liu Seong-hwi and the Guandong Coalition Army were the only hope left to save the Han Imperial House and the Imperial Court from the arch-traitors of all ages.
The complete victory at the Battle of Yangren.
The fall of Sishui Pass.
The local officials from Guandong had defeated Dong Zhuo's forces one after another.
The worsening turmoil and confusion within Dong Zhuo's army confirmed that the news of victory was true.
As the war situation turned unfavorable, Dong Zhuo's army sealed off the palace and kept its gates under strict surveillance. They spread a menacing atmosphere, as if bracing for subversive elements who might be colluding with the Guandong Coalition Army.
"Your Majesty, you may rest easy now!"
"The loyal and righteous men of the Han have finally broken through Sishui Pass! The battle to retake Luoyang will soon begin!"
The Coalition Army was winning one victory after another.
Soon they would drive out Dong Zhuo's forces and recover Luoyang.
The Minister of the Imperial Stables Lu Xu and the Grand Herald Zhou Huan spoke with faces lit by broad smiles. They added that Dong Zhuo's forces, which had oppressed and humiliated the Han Imperial House and Imperial Court, were now about to receive heaven's punishment.
"Huu...! The outrages and tyranny of those traitors have gone on far too long!"
"The officers and men from Liang Province and Yong Province who served Dong Zhuo's army must be thoroughly suppressed!"
Desperation has a way of numbing reason.
And urgency gives birth to the complacent hope that everything will somehow be resolved.
The central government's control had evaporated, and the age of the warlords had begun.
The Pure Stream Faction ministers who sat around the palace spouting armchair theories and stood idle while the realm fell into chaos were nothing more than sheltered scholars utterly ignorant of how the world actually worked.
With the exception of a few local officials, the Guandong Coalition Army was merely a group of interests that had mobilized its troops solely to usurp power at the palace. If the expulsion of Dong Zhuo's forces and the recapture of Luoyang succeeded without incident, the Coalition Army's very first act would be to drive out all the high-ranking ministers and seize their positions.
"You ministers, why do you think only of comfort? Could it not be that Liu Seong-hwi, whom the provincial officials have acclaimed as Alliance Leader, is plotting a usurpation?"
"M-Minister of the Masses...!"
A stiff voice threw cold water onto the amiable mood.
Minister of the Masses Wang Yun
He was the head of the Imperial Court, a man who placed principle and uprightness above all else.
By raising the extreme peril of "usurpation," Wang Yun sparked fear and tension. The faces of the court ministers, who had been persisting in nothing but complacent wishful thinking, turned the color of dark, muddy earth.
"Master Minister of the Masses, you are far too pessimistic! Is the Southern Heir not a descendant of Emperor Guangwu just as His Majesty is, and does he not also enjoy the fervent support of the people of Yang Province?"
"There is no way such a man could be scheming to commit a usurpation abhorred by both heaven and man...! Surely he has come riding with a vast army to deliver the Imperial House and the Imperial Court!"
No one doubted that Liu Seong-hwi's raising an army was sincere.
No,
to be precise, none of them wanted to imagine the worst.
Usurpation,
or Defying Heaven
it meant dragging the current emperor from the throne and founding a new dynasty.
There was no evidence anywhere that Liu Seong-hwi was scheming a usurpation. And yet, the spotless character that commanded absolute support from the realm's renowned figures and common people only kept amplifying their suspicion and anxiety.
"Escort His Imperial Majesty and the court ministers!"
Kwaang-.
A violent crash resounded.
At the same time, officers and soldiers armed with sharp spears and blades stormed in.
The soldiers' rough footsteps violated the sanctity of the great hall. They even advanced to threaten the imperial presence without prior notice, as if to demonstrate that not a shred of dignity remained in the Imperial House or the Imperial Court.
"Do these brutish warriors of Xiliang not know the laws of the palace!?"
"This is the presence of His Majesty the Emperor! How dare armed soldiers menace the imperial presence!!"
The court ministers cried out in fury.
But to Dong Zhuo's forces, the rage of the court ministers was nothing more than the bellowing of livestock.
They were only weak and powerless pedants.
The ministers' protests were nothing but foolish impotence.
As if to prove it, the ministers were grabbed by both arms like sacks of rice and dragged away. As heavy blows from bludgeons and fists rained down, voices pointing out the affront softened in an instant.
"Your Majesty."
A man clad in gleaming armor strode into the scene of lawlessness and rampant violence.
Colonel of the Central Army Dong Huang.
He was Dong Zhuo's nephew and the Captain of the Guard charged with watching over the emperor and court ministers.
Dong Huang boasted a bloated body, much like his blindly avaricious nature. His features so closely resembled the heavy-set Dong Zhuo that he might have been taken for a son.
"I understand... I will comply."
The girl seated on the throne opened the eyes she had briefly closed.
Golden irises.
They emitted a strange gleam, as dazzling and translucent as amber.
The eyes of the young emperor were like crystals that symbolized a chaste nobility.
No emotion could be read upon her slender face.
Not a trace of sorrow,
not a trace of fear,
only resignation and despair were present.
She knew her own limits and powerlessness, leaving her no choice but to accept the brutal reality. The girl, barely seven years old, understood better than anyone the cruelty of a reality where life and death are decided by the law of the strong preying upon the weak.
"..."
Liu Xie.
This frail girl, who looked as if she might crumble at any moment, was the fourteenth emperor of the Later Han.
She had lost the mother who gave birth to her,
lost the grandmother who raised her,
and had even lost her only older half-brother, the one person she had relied upon.
It was only natural that the girl, as helpless as a doll, submitted to the cruelty of reality. She had already experienced many times over that no matter how she wept and wailed, reality simply turned away.
* * *
Dong Zhuo's atrocity of setting Luoyang ablaze in an attempt to thwart the Guandong Coalition Army had delivered an immense shock to those who had read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
He burned the palaces and demolished the halls.
He also forcibly relocated millions of common people.
He desecrated the royal tombs of successive emperors and feudal lords, and he committed the worst of crimes: slaughtering all the Scholar-Officials and Local Gentry of Sili Province and plundering their wealth.
The Great Fire of Luoyang.
The Luoyang Massacre.
These atrocities became widely known to later generations, on a scale almost comparable to the Xu Province Massacre inflicted by Cao Cao's army, which slaughtered hundreds of thousands of civilians during the invasion of Xu Province.
"Unbelievable!"
"Lu-Luoyang...! Luoyang is burning!!"
Whoosh—
A fierce, scorching heat surged on the wind.
My face felt hot.
It seemed as if the blast of heat might sweep me away at any moment.
The capital that symbolized the two-hundred-year dynasty was being swallowed by a sea of flame.
Flames surged like colossal waves, devouring the capital of wealth and glory—once famed for its splendid nightlife—in a matter of moments as they rampaged with violence and brutality. Starting with the palaces of Luoyang, a heavy crash echoed each time another great hall was consumed by fire.
"Dong Zhuo! You are indeed a greater traitor than Wang Mang! In the end, you scoundrel, you will receive heaven's punishment!!"
"Elder brother...!"
The Governor of Chenliu, Zhang Miao, shouted in a voice seething with fury.
A few of the local officials loyal to the Han Imperial House and Imperial Court joined Zhang Miao in displaying genuine rage at the brutal acts of Dong Zhuo's forces.
On the other hand—
The vast majority of the local officials erupted in indignation for a different reason.
"The palaces...! Are the magnificent palaces and halls not all burning down before our eyes!?"
"There was a staggering quantity of gold, silver, and treasure hoarded by the late emperors and the eunuchs. In the end, those Dong Zhuo bastards must have looted it all when they abandoned Luoyang!"
Wealth.
And power.
They had raised their armies for glory and riches.
To the Guandong local officials, who were fixated solely on high-ranking offices and the gold, silver, and treasure they could claim as spoils of war, the Scorched Earth Tactics of Dong Zhuo's forces were a catastrophe of the worst kind. The splendor and riches that they felt should rightfully be theirs were now all turning to ash.
"We must rescue His Majesty the Emperor and the court ministers at once!"
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to sweep the bastards away! They've been transporting Luoyang's enormous hoard of treasure, so their formations must be in total chaos!"
We must rescue the emperor and the high ministers.
We must launch a surprise attack on Dong Zhuo's forces as they flee to Chang'an City and seize that enormous hoard of treasure.
Resolute loyalty and filthy greed rained down in torrents.
The local officials glared at each other like mortal enemies and clashed sharply.
"Are all the wagons prepared?"
"The situation was too urgent to requisition every one, but... we have deployed several hundred wagons at the vanguard."
Wagons.
Liu Seong-hwi had mobilized every wagon in the army.
He positioned the several hundred wagons gathered through large-scale requisition at the head and on the flanks. The plan was to execute "War-Wagon Tactics" against the iron cavalry and elite horsemen, who boasted the most powerful breakthrough force on the field.
"All feudal lords of Guandong, hear me!"
He raised the Black Horn Bow.
And let out a thunderous lion's roar.
"From this moment, we will crush Lü Bu's army and rescue the people being forcibly marched toward Chang'an City! Fix this in your minds: the fate of the Imperial House and the Imperial Court now rests on you! There is no retreat, and we will not withdraw from Luoyang until the great cause for which we raised our arms is accomplished!!"
I will hear no objections.
Anyone who falls back dies by my hand.
All feudal lords are to commit to battle.
The final battle has begun.
With a raging inferno flanking us, we will stake everything on a single decisive contest.
A deep, weighty rumble resounded as the hundreds of wagons began to move in perfect unison. Liu Seong-hwi ordered a general offensive from all the feudal lords of the Coalition Army and spurred the army on toward the decisive clash with Lü Bu's forces.