Brother Aman!
Dong Zong (Dong Zhuo).
He was the younger brother of the Empress Dowager Dong.
When Emperor Ling had just ascended the throne, the Empress Dowager had not yet earned the title, and Dong Zong had not come to Luoyang to seek the position of a powerful relative.
The position of powerful relatives was held by the family of the late Emperor Huan’s Empress Dowager and her father, Dong Mu.
Emperor Huan had died without a son.
That meant Empress Dowager Two had no son either.
Yet the couple feared losing the power of the powerful relatives more than the imperial bloodline ending.
So they looked for a suitable emperor to place in front of them.
The Empress Dowager Two and her family chose the young Liu Hong, a fifth cousin of Emperor Huan, as the suitable candidate.
Under Dong Mu’s leadership, Liu Hong entered Luoyang.
After that, Empress Dowager Two became Empress Dowager, and Dong Mu rose to the position of Grand Commandant.
They felt their family line had been extended and breathed a sigh of relief.
But they had no idea what kind of monster they had summoned.
“Suppress the eunuchs and lead the pure stream under our Dong family.”
Dong Mu did not hide his ambition.
The eunuchs trembled in fear.
Liu Hong saw through the true nature of those eunuchs the way an animal smells fear.
No matter how great the eunuchs’ power, they were ultimately parasites on the emperor’s authority.
In times of crisis, the only support the eunuchs could rely on was the emperor.
“You have no other way but to trust me?”
That was how he drew the eunuchs in.
Next, Liu Hong observed the nature of the Empress Dowager’s power.
Unlike Dong Mu, who wanted to purge the eunuchs, the Empress Dowager’s power could not function without them.
To wield power in the depths of the palace as a woman, she needed the presence of eunuchs—who were men but not men.
Removing the eunuchs would be like cutting off her limbs.
In short, Dong Mu’s plan to purge the eunuchs would appear to the Empress Dowager as her father trying to steal her power.
Liu Hong saw right through that.
He used the eunuchs to drive a wedge between the Empress Dowager and her father, Dong Mu.
Dong Mu, who needed palace collaborators for the purge, panicked when his daughter refused to cooperate.
Liu Hong did not miss that hesitation.
At the age of twelve, he cut off Dong Mu’s head.
He would never forget the scream of Empress Dowager Two when she saw her father’s head roll, blood dripping onto the ground.
Recalling that scream, Liu Hong’s lips curled.
Did she realize before she died that I killed her father out of my greed?
It was impossible to know.
Liu Hong ordered her confined, and she died four years later.
Only after Dong Mu’s death and the Empress Dowager’s confinement did Liu Hong elevate his own mother to Empress Dowager and summon Dong Zong to Luoyang.
Upon receiving the Jinwu position, Dong Zong went wild with ambition.
He even took bribes in the name of his sister, the Empress Dowager.
Brother also, just do the job of guarding the house.
His actions seemed to shout that in a world where the Two family had vanished, the Dong family would replace them as the dominant powerful relatives.
So Liu Hong repeated the same treatment on Dong Zong that he had given Dong Mu.
Since he could not confine his own mother, he placed her head on the table and warned her while eating together.
His mother fainted.
But “even so, lately there are many who talk about the subjugation of Tanshihuai.”
These self-proclaimed Qingliu.
How disgusting the self-claim.
Qingliu praised Dong Mu as an unjustly killed loyal minister.
Qingliu shed tears for the pitiful Empress Dowager Two, who had cruelly killed Emperor Huan’s concubines.
They called those who sided with the eunuchs “imperial loyalists.”
“In other words, those who side with me are imperial loyalists.”
Then the target was clear.
Qingliu called Liu Hong an imperial loyalist.
“I know too. In the contempt you glance at while prostrating, I can see it.”
They thought a mere Tinghou had become emperor by luck.
To establish imperial authority, Liu Hong thought, the emperor must show how far he could wield power.
The Partisan Prohibitions arose that way.
More cruelly than in Emperor Huan’s time, shedding blood.
But Liu Hong’s thoughts had changed slightly.
Duan Jiong thought he knew fear, but by purging scholars he did something strange. Wang Fu, because he was a eunuch, was protected, but he thought the emperor’s favor was originally his own...
Liu Hong thought he needed to adjust the balance.
He brought Cai Yong to Luoyang to appear as if he were appeasing the Qingliu, while approving Duan Jiong and Wang Fu’s plans, acting as if he had not abandoned the imperial loyalists.
This expedition can fail or succeed, either way is fine.
After warning his mother, Empress Dowager Dong again, while strolling in the courtyard, a report came that a minister wished to see him.
Upon hearing the minister’s name, Liu Hong’s face brightened.
***
“Aman-ah!”
Cao Cao smiled bitterly at the title the emperor used to call him.
When he had first met the twelve-year-old Liu Hong, Cao Cao was seventeen.
It was too young an age to use “Aman,” but the emperor had wanted to be close and had called him that.
Among the eunuchs, the great Cao Teng, and his grandson Cao Cao, could easily approach the emperor who favored eunuchs.
Their friendship had continued for nearly ten years.
Precisely, the emperor had wanted “friendship,” and Cao Cao had faithfully performed that friendship.
Liu Hong casually put his arm around Cao Cao’s shoulder.
Cao Cao could not refuse that arm, clinging to his side as they walked together.
“How was the Dunqiu County Magistrate position?”
“Thanks to Your Majesty, I could enjoy the wind and cool my head.”
“This time it is the Yi Lang position, so let’s do well. Do not kill people like you did in Beiyou.”
Liu Hong chuckled, then stopped smiling and added.
“If you had not been Cao Teng’s grandson, I would not have forgiven you for killing Jian Shuo’s uncle.”
If Cao Cao had been Qingliu, he could not have handled it as an accident within the imperial loyalist forces.
The status of Cao Teng among the eunuchs was immense.
Even ten years after his death, his disciple Zhang Yang had arranged for Cao Cao to enter the palace so he could get close to the emperor.
It was Emperor’s warning, yet Cao Cao did not tremble.
Instead, he smiled and countered.
“Then, to avoid execution, how about accepting the palace punishment. Following grandfather, become a eunuch?”
Liu Hong laughed loudly, the sound echoing through the palace halls.
“Stop talking nonsense. A man’s lust is famous even in this deep palace. The emperor does not envy having as many favorites as scattered concubines...
“Whenever you change your clothes and come out, I will teach you a move.”
Their steps were unhurried.
The emperor, of course, the eunuchs feared him, and no eunuch did not know Cao Cao, grandson of Cao Teng, so they hid quietly.
Eventually they arrived at the deepest part of the palace, where even the most powerful Zhongshangshi had to risk his life to eavesdrop.
“So, as Yi Lang Cao Cao, you have something to say?”
“I heard that Tanshihuai started the war first, Your Majesty.”
Liu Hong nodded.
“Impudently challenging the emperor... Well, being emperor is always challenged. Being challenged is the job.”
He smiled and added.
“Somewhere, the gathering order seems to have leaked.”
“Shall I investigate who?”
“Look. No need to punish. As always,
“Keeping the weakness is more effective, and use it when needed.”
Liu Hong extended his arm toward Cao Cao.
This place no palace maid could enter.
Cao Cao skillfully changed the emperor’s clothes.
“Yes, then... I have some questions.”
Liu Hong smiled wryly.
“Brother, Yi Lang receives the emperor’s questions. Not the emperor receiving Yi Lang’s questions.”
“If ‘Aman-ah’ cannot read the emperor’s schemes?”
At those words, Liu Hong’s face lit up.
“Aman-ah can hide his intentions, I am quite good. Yi Lang Cao Cao, praise me.”
“Truly deep strategies. I await your guidance.”
“Questions permitted.”
“This war, I do not see any way to win...
“Since the strategy is in Tanshihuai’s ear?”
“Yes.”
“Even if I lose, it is fine.”
People who did not laugh at all were smiling. Liu Hong was one of them.
Twenty-three this year, young Cao Cao did not lose his smile even as sweat soaked his back.
That was the secret to surviving this capricious emperor’s “friend.”
“...Even in defeat, do you find something?”
“Let us try to cultivate ‘Eunuch General’.”
“Eunuch General?”
“Those who master military strategy and martial arts, often from families that can provide the education.”
Mostly from Qingliu families.
“I tried drawing warriors into imperial loyalist forces, but it did not sit well.”
Zhang Xiu’s predecessor, Zhang Huan, Zhonglangjiang Protecting Xiongnu, had cooperated in killing Dong Mu but later refused cooperation with the eunuchs and hid.
“Duan Jiong... was too close to Wang Fu.”
“I did not say to become my faithful hound along with the eunuchs.”
“So, Eunuch General?”
“Out of loyalty, but the most attractive thing is that eunuchs cannot have children.”
To have children and inherit, it is a special privilege allowed only to great eunuchs like Cao Teng.
Eunuchs enjoyed the borrowed power while alive, but since the debt is cut, power naturally disappears with the body.
Jian Shuo’s uncle, forgetting the relationship between emperor and eunuchs, went wild and died.
Fortunately, Cao Cao was the perfect person to discipline the eunuchs’ relatives.
“If I win, I will continue raising Eunuch General. If I lose...
“If I lose, I will use that as pretext to kill the impudent Duan Jiong and Wang Fu who tried to form forces.”
Cao Cao thought in the first case, “Jian Shuo is big and strong, perfect talent.” In the second case, “Uncle Zhang Yang would like it.”
“But, I do not like that the main army was mobilized for this war. They should have been kept in reserve.”
“What is wrong with that?”
Cao Cao had to really try not to freeze.
He must not forget that the opponent calls him “brother” intimately.
Liu Hong thought the emperor’s majesty came from sky-like indifference, and he was a man who had the will to realize that thought.
“Five million people in the whole country. Plenty to draw from. Even if ten thousand die, no one will notice.”
***
Upon hearing the news of Tanshihuai’s mobilization, the Chanyu court was in uproar.
“All Xiongnu tribes, gather at Mayi!”
Currently, the Chanyu court was at Lishi County, Xihe Commandery, but now at Mayi County, Anmen Commandery.
Tanshihuai Grand Chanyu and Zhang Min, Zhonglangjiang Protecting Xiongnu, led only direct troops to arrive first at Anmen Commandery, planning to wait for reinforcements slowly.
But Tanshihuai took the lead, messing things up.
Both Grand Chanyu and Zhang Min sent envoys to various Bingzhou regions to urge gathering troops.
I, the grandson of the Grand Chanyu and the shaman he trusted most, followed to Mayi County, watching the adults running around.
Somehow, people gathered.
The great-grandfather, Left Wise King Hozheng’s troops.
Grandfather, Right Wise King Qiangqu’s troops.
Father, Right Guli King Yufuluo’s troops.
Xubu Chang’s troops.
Plus, various ethnic groups called “Lushuihu” gathered.
Among Lushuihu, there were tribes that looked completely Western like Ga people, but main members were “Xiuzhigehu.”
They were Xiongnu but distant cousins.
If they were people who came south of Xiongnu in Later Han when it split, Xiuzhigehu were people who entered Han after surrendering as Xiongnu vassal king “Xiuzhe King” during Emperor Wu of Han’s time.
For convenience, we placed Lushuihu and Xiuzhigehu under Southern Xiongnu Grand Chanyu, but they moved almost independently.
...If someday I become ruler of Xiongnu, I must fully subjugate them and unify.
After gathering seemed enough, I moved to consult with great-grandfather.
Since I could not participate in Zhonglangjiang’s strategy meeting, I had to influence Xiongnu army strategy before that.
At that moment,
“Wang Fu, the eunuch inspector, has arrived from Luoyang!”
Shouting like that, I went out beyond the palace gates.
This was the first eunuch I saw after transmigrating into the world of “Romance of the Three Kingdoms.”
And his face was... deathly pale, as if forcibly pushed to the execution ground.