Outbreak of War (1)
An army of one hundred twenty thousand under Liu Chong's command reached Wan City in Lujiang Prefecture. The intent was to seize favorable ground before the inevitable clash with Liu Biao's forces.
"A great host has marched from Guanxi and Guanzhong! Combined with the Bashu troops that sortied from Hanzhong Prefecture, their numbers stretch as far as the eye can see!"
Dong Zhuo's army and Liu Yan's army had joined forces at Wan City in Jing Province.
Meanwhile, Liu Biao's army was encamped at Xinye City.
An Alliance Conference.
The arch-traitor of the ages and the decrepit cadet imperial clansmen had come together.
Ambitious schemers nursing treasonous intent, same bed, different dreams, had allied for their own gain.
"What of Liu Yu?"
"Intelligence reports he has concentrated his forces at Guandu."
"Mm... so Yuan Shao's army ultimately joined Liu Yu as well."
"I will urge our agents in Hebei to uncover the detailed situation."
Having ousted Han Fu and seized control of Ji Province, Yuan Shao's army maintained an ambiguous posture. They cooperated by supplying provisions and military stores to both Liu Yu's and Gongsun Zan's armies, yet stubbornly refused to commit troops to the battlefield.
The circumstances more than justified suspicion.
The moment the intelligence concerning Yuan Shao's army arrived, my misgivings deepened.
In the original history, Yuan Shao mobilized numerous scholar-officials and local gentry to elevate Governor of You Province Liu Yu as the new emperor in Hebei. Had Liu Yu meekly accepted Yuan Shao's offer, he would have falsely claimed the imperial title even before that Honey Water Emperor Yuan Shu did.
And that same Yuan Shao was now showing only tepid support for Liu Yu?
I ordered the agents in Hebei to uncover Yuan Shao's true designs.
"Your Highness, all commanders have assembled."
"Understood."
A coldly beautiful woman with flowing gray hair approached.
It was Central Army Protector Zhao Yun, captain of my personal guard.
"Your Highness?"
"Central Army Protector, take the elite cavalry and serve under the Governor of Xu Province's command. Liu Bei's army will struggle against Dong Zhuo's forces, who boast a formidable cavalry corps. Even a handful of one-man-army commanders and elite riders should at least achieve a stalemate."
Dong Zhuo's army had lost considerable strength in the fighting against the Anti-Dong Zhuo Coalition, including Commander Hua Xiong. Yet the Xiliang cavalry corps, famed as the strongest in the Central Plains, had preserved its full fighting power.
Iron Cavalry with crushing breakthrough power.
Light cavalry boasting uncanny mobility.
Horse Archers drawn from the Qiang people, capable of a hundred shots and a hundred hits.
Had we clashed head-on with Dong Zhuo's main corps back in Luoyang, how would it have ended? The coalition would certainly have collapsed, and every last Guandong warlord would have met his end beneath the executioner's blade.
We'd been lucky.
Back then, Dong Zhuo had turned tail and fled the moment word arrived that the Imperial Guard had been annihilated.
"Commanders, hear me!"
Dong Zhuo's army.
We face them in decisive battle once more.
Compared to when I commanded the Guandong warlords, we now enjoyed many advantages. Because of that, even facing a coalition of Dong Zhuo and the cadet imperial clansmen, I felt the certainty of victory mounting.
Governor of Xu Province Liu Bei.
Governor of Yang Province Sun Ce.
The Xu Province Army and Yang Province Army, arrayed behind those gallant heroines.
I looked out over the many officers assembled on the drill ground. Clad in sturdy armor, these commanders showed not a trace of fear, as if proving themselves battle-hardened heroes who had conquered Xu and Yang Provinces.
"All troops, attention!"
General of Agile Cavalry Sun Jian's voice rang out like a thunderclap.
Every commander lifted their head.
"Who is Dong Zhuo! He is the arch-traitor whose cruel and atrocious infamy has spread throughout the realm! He mobilized troops to seize control of the Han Imperial House and the Imperial Court, murdered the late Emperor and the late Empress Dowager, installed the nine-year-old Prince of Chenliu as a Puppet Emperor, and simultaneously intimidated the court ministers to indulge in tyranny and despotism!"
The arch-fiend who brought low the authority of the Imperial House and the Court.
An arch-traitor surpassing the state thief Wang Mang.
The wellspring of the chaotic age.
A butcher who slaughtered hundreds of thousands of common folk.
As Sun Jian catalogued Dong Zhuo's crimes, he proclaimed this a war to punish brutal, inhuman evil and establish upright righteousness. The officers who had previously fought in the Anti-Dong Zhuo Coalition clenched their fists, their fighting spirit ablaze.
"We alone remain! To defeat the arch-traitor and deliver this imperiled realm—we are the only heroes capable of accepting this great mission and undertaking!"
Every cadet imperial clansman under heaven had thrown in with the arch-traitor.
We faced the unfavorable prospect of opposing a grand army of two hundred thousand.
But we could not retreat.
We alone remained.
This was the mission entrusted to us.
A mission to defeat the wicked rebels and rebuild the Central Plains.
"Brothers! The traitors who murdered the late Emperor and the late Empress Dowager threaten all under heaven! If we do not step forward, who will protect the countless people of the realm? Engrave it on your hearts: our undertaking, our ordained fate, is to punish the arch-traitor and deliver the realm and its people!"
The Just Cause is ours.
Punish the traitors.
The moment Sun Jian's concise address ended, a fierce roar erupted from the officers, pounding down like a monsoon.
* * *
Dong Zhuo concurrently held the office of Chancellor of State, which executed duties on the Emperor's behalf, and Grand Preceptor, the Emperor's tutor, thereby seizing full authority over the Imperial House and the Court. As if this supreme, unbridled power were still insufficient, the arch-traitor intimidated the young Emperor and the court ministers into granting him a new title.
Grand General Supporting the State.
Had even the highest offices of the Three Excellencies and the Inner Court not been enough?
The title of General-in-Chief had been added.
Liu Chong's army, which had falsely claimed the imperial title and unlawfully seized the South, was a rebel faction drawing the utter loathing of gods and men alike. By styling himself 'Grand General Supporting the State,' Dong Zhuo flaunted to the entire realm that he was the supreme commander charged with punishing the rebels on behalf of the Han Imperial House and Court.
"Advance!"
Left General Li Jue. Right General Guo Si.
The commanders who represented Dong Zhuo's army raised their sword tips and ordered the advance.
Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble-.
The earth's axis shuddered.
A cloud of dust taller than Mount Tai rose into the sky.
As the coalition army assembled in Nanyang Prefecture launched its advance, it sent tremors across the whole realm.
Two hundred thousand.
Combining Liu Yan's and Liu Biao's armies made a grand host of two hundred thousand.
Dong Zhuo's army proclaimed it a mighty four hundred thousand to flaunt the Grand General Supporting the State's prestige and momentum. The people of Jing Province who witnessed this poured forth their awe and dread: "Liu Chong's army is finished now." "How can anyone win against such an overwhelming force?"
"You've aged greatly, Governor of Yi Province. Worrying over your sons must leave you no peace."
"I hear you've taken to keeping company with Jing Province apes. Is it true you latched onto a nouveau-riche clan in Xiangyang Prefecture and even disgracefully took a new wife?"
Gazing at Liu Yan, upon whom the years had plainly left their mark, Governor of Jing Province Liu Biao openly remarked on his decline. For his part, Governor of Yi Province Liu Yan dragged up Jing Province's past as the territory of the State of Chu and tacked on the epithet "apes."
Rumble-rumble-rumble-.
Lavish four-horse chariots of the kind permitted only to sovereigns.
The warlords of Jing and Yi Provinces advanced under cavalry escort.
'I'd heard he had sunk into ruin, a wastrel lost in wine and women's skirts... never thought the frontier barbarian would rally and rise again. How disastrous.'
'Before we can seize and kill Liu Chong and Liu Seong-hwi, I must find a way to act first, no matter what.'
The aged cadet clansmen's gazes fixed upon the man at the vanguard, commanding the cavalry from the front. Swallowing heavy groans, Liu Biao and Liu Yan betrayed a terror-stricken wariness.
Dong Zhuo.
Hero of the Western Rong.
The omnipotent overlord who held the Han Imperial House and Court in his grasp.
As if to prove that his military and political power had reached its zenith, he brandished a Grand Command Banner in scarlet, the dynastic color of Han.
奉詔討逆
Carrying Out the Imperial Edict to Punish Traitors
The meaning: having received the Emperor's edict, he would punish the rebels.
The phrase 'Carrying Out the Imperial Edict to Punish Traitors' stood out starkly upon that scarlet banner.
Dong Zhuo was proclaiming himself the protector who safeguarded the Han Imperial House and Court. With a Grand Command Banner bearing the emblems of the sun, moon, and five stars—wrested from the young Emperor and the court ministers through intimidation—he flaunted his authority and dignity.
"On the cusp of an all-or-nothing decisive battle, my blood surges...! Hwahah! I thought you had forgotten the wilds like a toothless old tiger, yet your pitifully aged flesh still holds fire! Power courses through my whole body, as if I've returned to my youth!"
A scarlet helmet.
Golden armor engraved with dragon and phoenix.
A black Daoist robe densely inscribed with countless titles of nobility and official posts.
In one hand he gripped a sharp axe—one of the Ceremonial Axes bestowed upon him as supreme commander. Dong Zhuo had brandished those axes at the young Emperor and the court ministers and boasted he would fashion drinking cups from the skulls of Liu Chong and Liu Seong-hwi before taking the field.
"Elder!"
Just as they were nearing Xiangyang Prefecture,
A messenger who had been monitoring Liu Chong's army's movements arrived.
"The southern rebels have marched! A grand army of one hundred twenty thousand in total! Liu Seong-hwi himself leads those one hundred twenty thousand and has established his camp at Wan City!"
"One hundred twenty thousand... their troops number one hundred twenty thousand? They must have mobilized every soldier under their command!"
A hundred twenty thousand against two hundred thousand.
A scale that left nothing wanting for an all-out, total war.
Dong Zhuo raised the hand gripping a Ceremonial Axe and ordered the entire host to force-march. The instant the order fell, Dong Zhuo's army, hoisting their scarlet banners, moved with flawless coordination.