The Son of Heaven whispered in starlight!
The Son of Heaven whispered in starlight!
"URAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
A roar tore through the Imperial Palace.
Filled with hatred and rage, the sound made the attendants cower and tremble in fear.
—CRASH!!!
"Dong Zhuo, youuuu BITCH! You... you dare to— to ME!!!"
Zhang Rang overturned the table, teacups flying, and hurled it down, unleashing his fury unfiltered.
Struck by the perfect, mortal backstab from a trusted subordinate, for a long while he could not collect his wits, rampaging in a frenzy and upending everything in sight.
"Lord... Lord Zhang Rang, pl-please calm yourself. Surely this will not be resolved by such actions."
Duan Gui's trembling voice, belonging to the eunuch who was trying to restrain him by any means, finally broke through the chaos. Once of the Ten Regular Attendants and now one of the three who remained — the Three Regular Attendants — at his words, Zhang Rang finally ceased his rampage and stood panting.
"Huff... Huff... Huff... Dong Zhuo... DONG ZHUOOOO! That filthy woman played me all this time... After I treated her so well... she sucker-punches me like this and spirits away the Deposed Emperor? I'll... I'll never let her get away with this!"
"You may vent your fury once we've captured her later, my lord; it will not be too late. But first, must we not devise some manner of countermeasure?"
"Tch..."
At Duan Gui's reasoning, Zhang Rang snatched up a liquor bottle still lying on the floor and gulped from it harshly.
A motion to forcibly douse the searing blaze now consuming his heart.
Once the spirit took the edge off and he had reined in his feelings a little,
Zhang Rang at last sat down on a chair, even though the room was in shambles.
"Hrk... Well... For now... If this kind of edict has been scattered to the four winds, then certainly multitudes of lords will answer the call..."
"Indeed. Massed armies in the hundreds of thousands, with Yuan Shu and Dong Zhuo at their core, will certainly come surging toward Luoyang. And... war will break out before long."
"You are correct. Considering Ding Yuan's military power and the defenses here in Luoyang, it will not fall so easily, however..."
"Even so, it will by no means be an easy fight. Yuan Shu and Dong Zhuo alone are almost twice our scale. When the forces of other lords are added, even factoring in our defensive position, the odds are unfavorable."
"Damnation... Had I known it would come to this, I would never have granted such half-hearted mercy..."
Though this side also had Her Majesty Liu Xie, along with her protector Emperor Gaozu's mother Empress Dowager Dong, their standing could not help but be decidedly inferior compared to the Deposed Emperor Liu Bian on the other side.
Liu Bian was older, and as the one who had formally ascended the throne as the legitimate daughter and heir of the Imperial Family before being deposed,
in terms of authority and legitimacy, she held a commanding advantage over Liu Xie, who still could barely speak.
And having been forced into abdication by their hands, a sentimental moral argument was inevitably bound to pile onto her position too.
Even if this side scattered a counter-edict in response, it was clear that the overwhelming majority of the lords would naturally follow Yuan Shu and the Deposed Emperor.
"Now that it has come to this... there remains only one course of action open to us."
"Huh? And what... might that be?"
Duan Gui voiced his confusion.
To this, Zhang Rang replied with a grave tone.
"When legitimacy runs short, it must be supplemented, no? More than pretenses of moral duty, in the end what the lords truly desire is their own gain... If we can fill their purses, then turning the tables is not impossible."
"... Do you have some clever stratagem in mind, my lord?"
Harboring a slight anticipation, Duan Gui asked his question cautiously.
As a lifelong colleague and senior who had always been at Zhang Rang's side, he knew his abilities very well and was certain he must have had something workable that time too.
And to Duan Gui's anticipation, Zhang Rang gave his answer in a single phrase.
"The Imperial Seal."
"!... Lord Zhang Rang? But the Imperial Seal is presently..."
"Yes, after that bastard He Jin died, its whereabouts have become obscure. I had thought all along that Empress Dowager He had concealed it... but this makes it certain that is not the case."
"Ah..."
Indeed, this edict bore only the Emperor's handwritten signature and nowhere showed the mark of the Imperial Seal.
If they had possessed the seal, to more firmly seize the initiative they would naturally have stamped it.
This fact enabled Zhang Rang to reach a single conclusion.
"If those curs do not have it, then it means the Imperial Seal quite likely still lies somewhere within this Imperial Capital. And from this moment on, we must find it as quickly as possible."
"I understand... what you intend. I shall dispatch men at once."
"Good. Turn over every single location inside the Imperial Capital as if you were hunting for lice. We have little time. We must discover it by whatever means before those curs seize Luoyang."
"Yes, Lord Zhang Rang."
And so, at Zhang Rang's command, Duan Gui immediately set to action.
Zhang Rang then turned his attention back to the edict still in his hand, his eyes cold.
'Brace yourselves... Dong Zhuo... Yuan Shu... and Empress Dowager He. I will most assuredly make you pay...!'
*
"Ohhh... At long last, Her Majesty has raised the banner of righteousness! I, Wang Kuang, shall gladly carry out Her Majesty's will!"
"An imperial edict... Must we take part as well?"
"Imperial Decree, my foot. Send them back with some suitable excuse. We have no strength to waste on the squabbles of Central Plains men."
The edict of Emperor Liu Bian spread across all of Han.
It began to stir the realm once more, a realm already in profound turmoil from the aftermath of the Yellow Turban Rebellion.
"Inspector, what shall we do?"
"Ought we not, naturally, to go? To suppress traitors under the command of Her Majesty the Emperor — I, Liu Dai, Inspector of Yan Province, shall do my duty as a kinsman of the Imperial Family."
"Well said. My own conviction is no different from yours, Inspector. I, Bao Xin, shall march alongside you."
"My thanks. Then let us make preparations to depart at once. I, too, shall inspect the troops and provisions."
"Understood, Inspector."
Lords who heeded the edict to set the faltering nation aright expressed their intent to take up arms and join the campaign.
While those with a measure of chivalric spirit actively consented in this way,
certain others began to watch the situation and weigh their options.
On one side, Ding Yuan and Zhang Rang had occupied Luoyang.
On the other, the Yuan Clan and Dong Zhuo meant to shatter them.
Although for the moment openly leaning toward Luoyang was difficult, its legitimacy being relatively weaker,
there were those peering keenly for the chance to pivot swiftly depending on how the situation changed.
And among these people, there was one who, despite being an Imperial kinsman like Yan Province's Inspector Liu Dai, had chosen a different path.
"What do you mean, Lord Liu Biao? Watch from the sidelines...? Are you not the Inspector of Jing Province and a kinsman of the Imperial Family, Lord Liu Biao? Would it not be proper for you to step forward before any other and uphold the Emperor's command?"
"Of course your words carry some weight, Wen Ping. But does that only hold true when a single sun hangs in the sky? In Luoyang itself there undeniably resides Her Majesty. How then can we definitively pronounce this to be the Emperor's will?"
"Nevertheless..."
"Leave it there, Wen Ping. I, Cai Mao, also deem my brother-in-law's — no, the Inspector's — words correct. What is more, has Yuan Shao not been cultivating her power in northern Jing Province for some time now? This matter is not to be regarded so simply."
"On the surface they are gathering an army to subdue traitors, but one can never read a person's heart. Perhaps all of this is a stratagem of Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu — that Yuan sibling pair — to swallow Jing Province whole."
"You are correct, Inspector. Has the Yuan Clan not already seized Ji Province with the Yellow Turban Rebellion as their pretext? We cannot allow them to stretch their talons even into Jing Province."
"My brother-in-law holds the same view? I concur as well. Let us first ascertain their true intent and observe how the shape of things unfolds. Deciding whether or not to move the army afterward will not be too late."
"A sagacious judgment, Inspector."
"... I... understand."
Not only among ordinary lords, but even among those who shared the Liu surname as Imperial kinsmen, reactions were extraordinarily varied depending on their individual circumstances and outlooks.
Meanwhile...
One person who likewise carried the Liu surname —
with neither a great power base nor a strong army,
a woman who nonetheless possessed the black hair and red eyes that marked the imperial bloodline
was momentarily lost in thought as she gazed at a single document before her.
"An edict from Her Majesty the Emperor..."
"Sis, what's there to agonize over? We're obviously going!"
"That's right. How could we possibly miss a place where the heroes of the realm all gather?"
To her left and right, two black-haired young women spoke up with expectant expressions.
One was a short-haired girl of relatively small stature who carried a lively, energetic air about her, her eyes yellow.
And in contrast, a long-haired woman with straight locks and a bearing of composed seriousness, her eyes a shade of green.
At the words of these younger sisters who were always beside her, the red-eyed woman voiced her candid thoughts in a measured tone.
"Of course... as a kinswoman of the Han Imperial House, I should naturally go. However... there is one personal question troubling me."
"A question? What's puzzling you, Sis?"
At the smaller girl's query,
she lifted the edict in her hand and answered with a cautious attitude.
"From what I have heard, one who receives Her Majesty's edict in person must at the very least hold the office of Governor, or at minimum be a general who leads a force. Though it is somewhat awkward for me to say, I am but the lowly County Magistrate of this small Gaotang County. How it came about that Her Majesty's edict descended directly to someone like me, I do not know."
"Mmm... Now that you mention it, it is a bit odd. Ordinarily, someone at the County Magistrate level would be recommended by a Governor or Inspector before taking part in such a campaign..."
From an administrative standpoint, the woman expressed puzzlement at the fact that an edict which should never have reached them had arrived directly.
In modern terms, it was akin to the president's personally signed directive, supposed to be dispatched to provincial governors or generals, dropping out of nowhere in front of a village chief with no connections whatsoever.
Yet regardless of the inexplicable situation, this was a firm reality.
Moreover, since the edict plainly bore "To the County Magistrate of Gaotang County" along with her office and name clearly written upon it, there was absolutely no chance it had been delivered in error.
"Ah, Sis. Why do you have to think about it so hard? Probably someone remembered our service during the Yellow Turban Rebellion. And anyway, that's not what matters now. Finally, let's graduate from being a backwoods county magistrate and use this chance to snag a Governor or Inspector post for ourselves this time!"
"Haa... Youngest, you really..."
"... Haha."
Though it could be called crudely materialistic, the girl was in a sense speaking pure reality.
At that, the red-eyed woman let out a soft laugh and neatly folded the edict she was holding.
"Yes, what do minor details matter now? For the moment, doing our utmost to repay the grace of Her Majesty, who has granted us this opportunity, is the proper course."
"Then that means..."
"Ohhh... Finally."
Her younger sisters wore expressions brimming with anticipation.
Gazing at them, the woman placed two swords onto her waist sash, a deep smile crossing her lips.
"Let us go! We shall uphold Her Majesty the Emperor's command and subdue the traitors!"