The Best Justification
The Best Justification
I knew the original timeline. I had tried to prevent the coming of the age of chaos.
In that process, the unexpected happened: Ding Yuan seized power, and Zhang Rang was reinstated.
And then, as I watched the tyranny that followed—too appalling to behold—I asked myself.
To overturn this situation, what did we lack most?
Military power?
Talented people?
Of course, both were always lacking, but in truth, one thing mattered above all else—one thing that would let me seize everything at once.
A just cause.
Because of the Ten Regular Attendants Zhang Rang and the Turbid Stream Faction that followed him, that regime was even more solidly entrenched than Dong Zhuo's in the original timeline. I needed a pretext to drive them out.
The method to obtain it was easy to conceive, using Dong Zhuo's proposal and my knowledge of the original timeline.
Exploit He Jin's assassination and the existing conflict with Empress Dowager He's family to stoke Zhang Rang's anxiety, then force the Emperor out, creating an opening.
And then.
Slip into that opening.
I.
No, we.
Finally succeeded in seizing the ultimate justification... the 'unjustly deposed Emperor' and her mother, Empress Dowager He.
Like so many others in this world's usual twist, the Emperor's gender had been switched.
Emperor Shao Liu Bian.
Far younger than in the original timeline, just a little eight-year-old kid, but she was indisputably the sovereign of this land. Toward that child, my subordinates and I bowed our heads.
To set this nation, spiraling into ruin, back on course, and to prevent the disaster of the chaotic era from approaching.
*
Yuan Shu and his men bowed before her. Among them was the very person who had fed her poison... No, as it turned out, Dong Zhuo, who had saved her and her daughter.
"I am mortified, Your Majesty. Please forgive my past rudeness."
"Rudeness? Was it not all to save us, mother and child? I do not know how to repay this grace. To rescue me and the Emperor from that fiery pit where death was uncertain... With the blessings of the late Emperor, it is truly fortunate to have loyal subjects such as you in this calamity."
"I am overwhelmed by Your Majesty's grace."
"That aside..."
With those words, Empress Dowager He subtly shifted her gaze. At the end of that gaze was the very man who had orchestrated all of this... Yuan Shu.
"You... are called Yuan Shu? The Young Dragon of the Yuan Clan... the hero who ended the Yellow Turban Rebellion."
"Yes, though it embarrasses me, I am known as such."
"I see. Indeed... your appearance alone is extraordinary."
"..."
"Hmm... I am humbled, Majesty."
For a moment, the Empress Dowager gave me a strange look. Then, with a deep smile, she spoke to Yuan Shu.
"I wish to thank you as well. The Emperor and I will never forget your merit. So, General Yuan, what do you intend to do now?"
"Majesty, our foremost objective is to retake Luoyang."
"Luoyang? ... If that can be done, nothing could be better. But is it truly possible?"
Empress Dowager He asked, her voice filled with concern.
Though the forces under Yuan Shu and Dong Zhuo were strong, attacking Luoyang was no easy task.
Luoyang itself was a natural fortress ideally suited for defense, and the garrison under General-in-Chief Ding Yuan numbered over a hundred thousand.
Furthermore, under Ding Yuan's command was Lü Bu, the warrior known as Unmatched Under Heaven, who had achieved near-mythical victories against the barbarians in Bing Province, along with renowned generals like Zhang Liao and Gao Shun.
With Emperor Liu Bian and Empress Dowager He here, we held the moral high ground in principle, yet victory could not be guaranteed by military force alone.
On the contrary, a failed counterattack risked worsening the situation, so rash attempts were forbidden.
However, to the concerned Empress Dowager He, Yuan Shu spoke in a calm voice.
"Of course, the two of us alone are insufficient. But here we have two who can move all under heaven, do we not? Your Majesty and Her Majesty the Emperor."
"Then?"
"Please issue an edict in Her Majesty's name. If we dispatch a proclamation to the lords of the provinces to punish the traitors, many will surely respond."
"I see... Indeed... That method exists."
Empress Dowager He nodded slowly. After a brief deliberation, she answered with a resolute expression.
"Very well, I shall follow your intention. I will have Her Majesty's imperial edict issued."
"I am overwhelmed by Your Majesty's grace."
Yuan Shu and his officers bowed their heads before Empress Dowager He. As she watched, her eyes, which had lost all spark of life not long ago, began to burn once more with vitality and fervor.
'They say even if the sky falls, there is a hole to rise through...'
She had given up everything and faced death itself. The unexpected hand of salvation that appeared before her eyes—Empress Dowager He, the woman named Ha Eun, could not afford to let it go.
For her daughter. And... for herself.
'Yuan Shu...'
*
With our goal of securing Emperor Liu Bian and Empress Dowager He achieved, we began moving toward Ji Province.
To suppress the Yellow Turban remnants who were running rampant again... was, of course, a fabrication I had suitably orchestrated with Cheng Pu.
In truth, it was to reorganize the main force stationed there and prepare for full-scale war.
The same went for Dong Zhuo.
A rebellion in Liang Province? There had never been one. Dong Zhuo herself had pretended to head west to Liang Province, then instead brought the Emperor and Empress Dowager, drugged into slumber, and rushed to join us.
Still, outright merging the armies would be too conspicuous, so she ordered Li Jue, Guo Si, and Li Ru to go to Liang Province as instructed, reorganize the troops, and return.
Meanwhile, Dong Zhuo herself, with Hua Xiong, was heading to Ji Province alongside us.
When I asked whether it was acceptable for the supreme commander to leave her army vacant, Dong Zhuo laughed and answered.
"Is it not more troublesome for a woman to leave her husband's side?"
"... Huh..."
"Heh heh."
Dong Zhuo, the elder sister, really said some awkward things in many ways.
Anyway, along with Dong Zhuo, we began moving as quietly as possible toward Ji Province, concealing the fact that the imperial party was with us.
'Still... this deception won't last long.'
The moment we arrived at Ji Province, Liu Bian's edict would be scattered across the realm. Then they would surely realize they had been stabbed in the back by us.
'And... war will erupt. The war I tried so hard to prevent...'
The coalition of the eighteen lords that had assembled against Dong Zhuo—the Anti-Dong Zhuo Coalition—would in this world be directed not against Dong Zhuo but against Ding Yuan and Zhang Rang... the Anti-Ding Yuan Coalition.
In the original timeline, this war signaled the collapse of the Han and began the Warlord Fragmentation, but... I was determined to stop the situation from reaching that stage by any means necessary.
Naturally, I had not the slightest intention of being cautious, keeping my head down, and ending things half-heartedly like the Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao of the original timeline.
Thoroughly. With all my might, I had to definitively finish off those bastards cowering in Luoyang.
To save tens of millions, hundreds of millions of lives. To prevent the senseless deaths of people as in the original timeline.
'I will finish it... in one stroke. Everything. With this one war...'
Thinking this, I tightened my grip on the reins and asked with a strange impatience.
"Xu Rong, where are we roughly?"
"It seems we are around Zhongmu County. We have been delayed somewhat by avoiding the main roads with too many prying eyes, but we should be able to leave Henan soon."
"Zhongmu County... Zhongmu... Hmm..."
"? What's wrong, my lord? Is something the matter? Did you hide a jar of liquor in Zhongmu or something..."
"No... nothing like that... but for some reason, it feels strangely familiar..."
A sense of something almost coming to mind left me pondering for a moment, but nothing surfaced. Besides, when I came from Ji Province before, I had taken a different route, so I had never been here.
Then, just as I was racking my brain with that question, it happened.
"Ah... now that I think of it, there's one thing I remember."
"Oh, what?"
At Ji Ling's words, I asked with a bit of curiosity.
"No, well... some time ago, I had some liquor from big sister Aman, and she said it came from this very Zhongmu County. It was definitely a sweet grain wine, and if you eat it with pork, the flavor... Hmm. Tsk... talking about liquor makes me want another drink."
"... Haha. Right... I was a fool to expect anything from you."
"In that sense, my lord, let's just have one drink here and go. It's already late, so we have to rest today anyway."
"Sigh... well, I suppose... it is about time to rest."
Since we still had a long way to Ji Province, we needed to move at a comfortable pace. Conveniently, there was a fairly large village over there, so we decided to make camp here and prepare to rest.
"Then I'll go to the village for a moment. In the meantime, I entrust Her Majesty the Emperor to you."
"Very well, go carefully."
After entrusting the camp to Dong Zhuo, I took Ji Ling and a small force and headed for the village. We would stay a day or two at most, but I needed to explain the situation to the local strongman first.
After that brief errand, before returning to camp, I looked around the market to buy the local specialty grain wine as Ji Ling had hoped.
"Ooh... good. This is it."
"You really think it's that delicious? Hmm... I don't know. It's subtly sweet but a bit rough..."
"That's the special part. I told you, it only tastes right with pork. Fill up a jar of this for me."
"Understood, customer."
Ji Ling, expounding her own personal philosophy of liquor, was about to take a jar. Then.
"Ah, Elder! Welcome! It's been too long."
While filling the jar, the owner paused and greeted a new customer. The old man, who seemed to be a regular, beamed at him.
"Haha, it has been a while. Have you been well? I have a distinguished guest today, so I came to buy a bottle of wine."
"Is that so? A distinguished guest for you, elder? Who might it be?"
"My nephew from Luoyang. Please prepare a bottle quickly before it gets late."
"Understood. Please wait a moment."
The owner set aside the earlier customers and attended to the newcomer first. From a modern perspective, I didn't like it much, but in this Later Han era, with a regular from the same village, it was the norm, so we had no choice but to wait quietly.
But then...
"Here you are, Elder Lü."
"!?"
"Haha, thank you. My nephew will like it. I'm butchering a pig at home right now, so I'll treat him to a proper drink."
"!!!"
In that instant, a thread of thought suddenly pierced through my mind.
Zhongmu County. Lü Boshe. Pig. And... the nephew from Luoyang.
As if scattered puzzle pieces were clicking into place, my face hardened in an instant.
"Fuck..."
