Entering Luoyang
Entering Luoyang
At his order, Gao Shun began to move.
Just as he was about to stride away—as she watched his retreating figure—
"Wait."
Lü Bu had...
finally reached a decision.
"What is it?"
"Gather the firewood and oil... in one place."
"Pardon? What do you..."
"It's an order. Do as you're told."
"Ah... yes."
The command was laced with a cold edge.
But at the same time Gao Shun sensed it—an emotion far calmer than before.
Without another word, he carried out Lü Bu's order at once.
And so, under Lü Bu's direction, firewood and oil were piled high in the vast square before the Imperial Palace.
Facing the soldiers assembled there, Lü Bu proclaimed in a proud voice:
"Set it alight!"
"B-but, General? This firewood was..."
"Yes—gathered to burn this city, Luoyang, to ashes. Yet however many offenses, great and small, we may have committed until now, we are still soldiers sworn to protect the realm and its people. If we sully the honor of a soldier, of a warrior, any further, how can we ever again hold our heads high?"
"Umm..."
At her words, no one raised a further objection.
Some among them had come from Bing Province, but just as many were Imperial Guardsmen—born and raised here in Luoyang, pressed into service.
They had been ordered to burn this city, their own homeland.
To set fire to the people of their own native place—they could not help but harbor deep misgivings.
Facing these soldiers, Lü Bu issued her command with finality.
"All responsibility is mine. Hurry up and set the blaze!"
"Aye! General!"
At the declaration that lifted their last burden, the soldiers lit the piled firewood.
The flames that took hold sent up a pillar of black smoke as they began to burn.
They had left plenty of distance; the fire raged fiercely in place, spreading no farther.
Leaving it behind, Lü Bu mounted her horse.
"Let us go. We will make haste and fall in behind the procession of Her Majesty the Emperor that has gone on ahead."
Having defied Ding Yuan's order, she would certainly be called to account once the matter came to light.
No—perhaps before that, as she had feared, she would find herself facing Yuan Shu leading his army in, facing annihilation.
But even weighed down by such a burden—
in this moment, for the first and last time since arriving in Luoyang, Lü Bu felt an emotion called peace.
Together with the sensation that something she had been carrying in her heart was slowly dissolving away.
*
Defying expectations of an inferno, Luoyang City stood unexpectedly intact.
Wondering why, I hurried toward the heart of the city where a distinct column of black smoke was rising...
toward what appeared to be the front of the Imperial Palace.
What soon met our eyes was the square before the palace, piled with already dying flames and black ash.
At the sight of the vast heaps of firewood and the oil jars left behind, burned out, I could only stare blankly for a moment.
"This... what in the world...?"
"... It appears someone began setting the fire, then stopped. You were in great danger—with this much material, the whole of Luoyang could have been turned into a sea of flame."
As befits the original arsonist, Dong Zhuo swiftly assessed the situation.
As she said, with the kindling gathered here, Luoyang City—built mostly of timber—would have been swallowed by fire in moments, reduced to ash.
Had that happened, countless common folk living here would likewise have been engulfed in flame, with little hope of escaping death.
The Great Fire of Luoyang of the Original Timeline had so very nearly repeated itself, but fortunately the very worst had been averted.
Deep relief washed over me, and the fear that had so filled my heart until just moments ago ebbed away.
Whether the outcome had simply come about because we had rushed here in time,
or whether it was the resolution of someone with a conscience—I could not say.
"Ji Ling, first make sure the remaining flames are thoroughly extinguished. Then confirm there is no damage elsewhere."
"Ah... understood, my lord."
After issuing instructions to Ji Ling and the soldiers in case of further trouble, I turned toward the Imperial Palace standing before me.
The place was empty—not even a single guard left behind.
I had visited a few times back when I was in Luoyang before, yet now it gave off an uncanny feeling, as though I had come to some entirely different place.
It was not simply because of the heavy silence.
The reason was, rather—
"It is fortunate the flames did not spread to the palace, or consume He Jin."
"Yes... still."
Xu Rong's words were some small comfort, at least.
And yet... even though the palace had not been swept away by the demon of fire as in the Original Timeline,
the sight before my eyes was utterly wretched.
Everywhere, the unmistakable marks of plunder and destruction.
Sculptures, ornamental patterns, even the door rings that had adorned every corner of the imperial palace of this vast empire—
anything of gold that might fetch a price had been stripped away to the last piece, the remainder left lying about in pitiful disfigurement.
"How could this..."
"For the imperial palace of a four-hundred-year dynasty to be reduced to this..."
Yuan Shao and Cao Cao spoke in bitter voices.
It was not only the two of them; everyone standing here, myself included, was seized for a time by shock at the heartbreaking condition of the palace.
A palace battered beyond recognition, seeming little more than a hollow shell.
It was a wretched scene, like looking upon the Han Dynasty itself, now splitting and crumbling from within and without; it wrung a deep sigh from all our hearts.
But—
gathering myself, I issued orders to everyone present.
"This is no time to stand about. Whatever else, this place is the Imperial Palace of the Han, and will once again house Her Majesty the Emperor. We must first clear up this chaos."
"Ah... yes."
"Gonglu's—General Yuan Shu's words are correct. Let us remove what can be removed, and repair what can be repaired in haste. Where things are truly beyond salvaging, let us procure replacements for now. Hua Xiong, you will return to the main camp at once with Li Jue and Guo Si and bring back all the supplies you can. I will tour the nearby government offices and see whether anything still usable remains."
"A-ah... got it-degozaru!"
"Leavin' it to meee."
"Carrying out orders."
At Dong Zhuo's immediately following words, Hua Xiong, Li Jue, and Guo Si moved faster than anyone else present.
Feeling a certain odd irony—that the very people who in the Original Timeline had burned Luoyang were in this world the first to act for its restoration—I began issuing instructions to the rest.
"Then provision of supplies shall be entrusted to the General of the Left for now. Inspector Kong Zhou and Inspector Liu Dai, you will first set the inside of the palace in order. For the moment, focus on clearing the wreckage scattered everywhere."
"Ah... understood."
"We shall do so."
"Sun Jian, proceed directly to Chenliu City and report this news to Her Majesty the Emperor and Her Majesty the Empress Dowager. Should they still resolve to come to Luoyang... take every care to escort them, so that their will may be carried out."
"I accept the order, General."
Bowing her head, Sun Jian departed at once.
My gaze then turned toward the two elder ladies standing behind me.
"Benchu, Aman. You two, please go and summon the ministers who remain in Luoyang. Men like General Lu Zhi and General Huangfu Song... such people will surely have stayed, rather than flee."
"Very well... understood."
"Ah... we shall go see General Lu Zhi, if you will permit it. He happens to be my teacher, and I may pay my respects to him while escorting him here."
"Is that so. By all means, do so."
Yuan Shao accepted my instruction at once, and Liu Bei requested leave to take part as well.
It was just when I had readily granted her request—
"... Pardon me, Gonglu? Then what do you intend to do about the ones who are fleeing at this moment... the traitors, Zhang Rang and Ding Yuan, and the rest? If we dispatch a pursuit force now, I think we might manage to catch them..."
Cao Cao's question carried genuine doubt, and a certain fighting spirit besides.
To this, however, I slowly shook my head.
"Our soldiers are already far too exhausted for that. They drove here from Hulao Pass without rest and have been pushed to their limit; any further march is impossible. What's more, the enemy still numbers over a hundred thousand. If we are careless, we could well suffer a counterattack and find ourselves in dire straits."
"Even so..."
Cao Cao could not quite let go of her lingering hopes.
At that, drawing on past experience,
I clasped her hand firmly and looked straight into those blue eyes as I spoke.
"Please, do as I ask. Do you think I do not regret it as well? But for now, it is more urgent to properly dress the fish already in the net, rather than fret over the fish that slipped away."
"... Umm... i-if... very well... understood... I'll be a good girl, as the leader says, and just go fetch the elders."
At my request—which was, in substance, an order—Cao Cao eventually swallowed her regret, her face faintly flushed.
Watching her,
I felt a thread of relief inside.
In the Original Timeline, Cao Cao had pressed a reckless pursuit under similar circumstances.
The result had been a crushing defeat, Cao Cao caught in an enemy ambush. She herself had been placed in extreme peril.
She had managed to escape largely thanks to the efforts of her subordinate general Zhao Hong, but it stood as one of the very few catastrophic losses that nearly cost Cao Cao her life.
Some later works say that if only the other lords, Yuan Shao among them, had lent Cao Cao aid at that time, Dong Zhuo could have been finished—but looked at dispassionately, the simple truth was that Cao Cao's attack then had been a reckless charge born of impatience and arrogance.
Of course, circumstances in the Original Timeline and the current one, altered in so many ways, could not be completely identical.
But in truth the soldiers were deeply exhausted, and with a disquieting parallel world even existing, I had no reason to let a close elder lady deliberately walk into danger.
'Now that I think of it... the very one who smashed Cao Cao to pieces back then is Xu Rong here, isn't she?'
With Ji Ling busy managing the fire and Sun Jian already departed for Chenliu City, where the emperor was, the only person now keeping close guard by my side as an escort general was Xu Rong.
She stood there with her ever-expressionless face,
but at some point, noticing my gaze, she stared back at me with a blank look for a moment before abruptly turning her head away.
Her cheeks faintly reddened; perhaps my conspicuously staring at her had made her somewhat uncomfortable—or perhaps not.
Feeling a little sorry for that,
and at the same time, inwardly giving a wry smile at how very strange the present situation felt to one who knew the history,
I faced the remaining lords and issued my final instructions.
"Then the rest of you will patrol the inner ward of Luoyang with me. We will root out any enemy remnants that may still remain and inform the people of the situation, settling the unsettled popular sentiment."
"Yes, General."
"We shall do so."
I had lived in Luoyang for several years after the possession, and had even served as Changshui Colonel; I knew the city's geography like the back of my hand.
I knew the usual gathering places as a matter of course,
and together with the lords and soldiers, I moved through every corner of Luoyang, checking the unsettled public order and issuing proclamations about the unfolding situation.
The proclamation told them that the traitors Zhang Rang and Ding Yuan had fled, and that our coalition army—and the true emperor, Liu Bian—would now return.
And...
"Long live! At last those wretched traitors are gone!"
"Long live the coalition army! Long live Her Majesty the Emperor!"
Honestly, I had thought it fortunate if the people merely stayed quiet; yet, putting my fears to shame, they began giving voice to genuine joy.
The fervent reaction drove home yet again just how disastrously the Zhang Rang faction had run the government, and at the same time, the scene seemed to show that all my efforts until now had not been in vain.
And so, after savoring a deep, long-absent sense of fulfillment,
I ended what had been a long but in many ways gratifying day's schedule,
and, watching the sun beginning to set, slowly turned my steps toward the Imperial Palace.
*
—Creeeak.
The firmly shut door opened, and a single figure stepped out.
A man past middle age, now entering his later years. Accompanied by soldiers, he looked at the red-haired woman bowing before him and spoke in a composed voice.
"It has been some time, Colonel Zhao. Meeting you again makes me glad I have lived this long."
"Have you been well all this time? I also am truly, deeply glad to see you again, Minister Wang."