When the Wolves Raise Their Heads (5)
After summoning the forces of the Bingzhou Governor Dong Zhuo and Martial Ferocity Commandant Zheng Yuan to Luoyang, all armies must march north in unison to eradicate the Black Mountain Bandits entrenched in the Bingzhou highlands. He Jin had strongly urged the emperor to authorize the campaign.
His words carried authority and prestige rivaling "pointing at a deer and calling it a horse," leaving the court ministers as mute as honey-smeared fools, glancing nervously at one another. As silence blanketed the hall, a woman's sharp voice rang out piercingly.
"In these chaotic times, mere months after the late emperor's passing and the new emperor's ascension, does the Grand General intend to mobilize the troops?!"
He Hou, who had declared herself regent in place of the young emperor, stood to block He Jin. Rising abruptly from her seat, she glared at him with blazing eyes. He Jin squirmed under his half-sister's merciless opposition to the campaign, much like Liu Bian had moments before. He hadn't expected her of all people—his own half-sister—to openly defy him.
"This humble subject merely seeks to eliminate the northern threat that could spell future calamity for the Han dynasty's century-long plan. Please consider it wisely."
"With the late emperor gone and chaos gripping all thirteen provinces, the Grand General's motives in stirring a massive army for war are deeply suspect."
"Not at all! I beseech Your Majesty the Empress Dowager to recognize this subject's loyal heart!"
He Jin's momentum, which had swept the court's opinion as he ascended unchallenged, faltered. The one blocking him was his half-sister—the very woman who had offered unwavering support to elevate him to this position—now standing against her half-brother's dominance.
It's unfolding just as Lee Seong-hwi predicted. No sooner had we achieved our shared goal of enthroning the crown prince than the Empress Dowager and Grand General began clashing...
Cao Cao watched the siblings' sharp confrontation, then turned to Lee Seong-hwi standing beside her. He Hou and He Jin—architects of the He clan's dominion through enthroning the crown prince—were now bitterly divided before all the ministers: the Empress Dowager, the imperial family's elder and regent, against the Grand General, master of the Han's thirteen provinces' military might.
"Lady Mengde."
Lee Seong-hwi called to her softly. Her gaze shifted to him.
"When the mountain lords clash, the foxes raise their heads."
"...Foxes."
Cao Cao murmured. She subtly scanned the officials watching the He clan's feud. Among the eunuchs who had followed the emperor and empress into the hall, some lifted sly eyes, observing intently. These were not the Constant Attendants who had served the late emperor. Cao Cao discerned that these watchful eunuchs were surely underlings of the Ten Attendants.
Eyes tamed by lust for power. Only the Ten Attendants' ilk have that gaze.
She recalled Lee Seong-hwi's words: the Ten Attendants, stripped of power and fallen by the Grand General's hand, had hidden in He Hou's shadow. But they clung to life under her skirts only to sharpen their blades anew, never abandoning their ambition to reclaim the wealth and authority the He clan had seized.
In the end, the foxes will rise.
Cao Cao foresaw their pride and treachery leading to ruin. And I will hunt those foxes. Her path was clear: what she must do to make her name resound across the realm.
Upon hearing that Lee Seong-hwi had entered the hall for court for the first time today, Liu Xie rejoiced as if it were her own triumph. Covering her mouth with both hands, she beamed a fresh, unripe-peach smile. Her slender cheeks flushed, her crescent-moon grin brimming with affection for the benefactor who had saved her and the Rakshasa Palace maids.
"Are you so delighted, Your Highness?"
A palace maid chuckled at the girl's exuberance, as if speaking to her own young daughter.
"Of course."
He had guarded her life with his own, protected her precious people. To Liu Xie, mistreated and scorned in the palace, the Rakshasa Palace maids were family. A repository of her few cherished memories. Thus, she saw Lee Seong-hwi—who had defended that place—as her savior.
Someday... if... I gain my freedom, I want to repay his grace somehow.
Liu Xie pondered the hypothetical, yearning one day to thank him properly—not just for saving her life, but for his genuine concern and counsel.
You told me to rely on my crown prince brother... now the emperor...
Though only eight, Liu Xie was precocious, hardened by tempests before she could even mature. She knew: powerless as she was, survival in this cutthroat court demanded reliance on someone.
The He clan can't be trusted...
The horrific wretches who murdered her mother. They had slain her birth mother and even strangled the grandmother who raised her. It was natural for Liu Xie to hate and fear the He clan—they had repeatedly stripped her of what she held dear. Not content with her mother and grandmother's lives, they had sought mercilessly to take hers and the maids' as well.
But my brother...
Her half-brother, who had come to Rakshasa Palace himself, voice choked with tears, to deliver their father's death news. She still could scarcely believe it. Yet perhaps he could be trusted. She knew his kindness masked the son of her enemy, ensnared by the vile He clan's schemes, liable to kill her anytime. But to survive now, she needed to exploit the new emperor's pity and mercy.
Surely... that's what you meant..., when you told me that.
With no power to her name, her sole path in the deadly palace was to lean on her half-brother, now emperor. Recalling Lee Seong-hwi's words, Liu Xie steeled her resolve and spoke to the maid.
"Prepare me... to see His Imperial Majesty the Emperor."
"Pardon?"
"I'll go pay my respects."
"Y-Your Highness...?"
The princess, who had always shunned any connection to the He clan—like one afflicted with malaria, trembling at their mere mention—now showed unyielding determination.
"Are you sure, Your Highness?"
The maid asked cautiously. She could leave the palace gates anytime; Liu Bian had issued an edict pressuring the Grand General's office upon ascending. Yet the maid eyed Liu Xie with worry at her sudden resolve.
"To... survive."
Liu Xie bowed her head, murmuring a cold ruthlessness unbelievable from an eight-year-old. Hearing the princess's resigned whisper, the maid shed tears and lowered her gaze.
He Jin's push in court to eradicate the Black Mountain Bandits en masse was aimed at checking the Ten Attendants, who had cozied up to the late emperor. By swaying opinion against the bandits, he sought to strip them of their last political foothold. It was also a ploy to bring provincial armies under his thumb via the campaign, and to trumpet his fame as a war hero, proclaiming himself the loyal guardian of court and throne across the thirteen provinces.
"To think the Empress Dowager would... humiliate me before all the civil and martial officials...!!"
He Jin gnashed his teeth in fury. How dare his half-sister betray him so ungratefully—who had enabled her rise? It was all his doing: bowing subserviently to the Ten Attendants, he had devoted himself to making her the emperor's consort, then empress, then dowager.
How can she shame me? All my deeds were for the He clan's dominion—for her and the nephews! How can she not see my brother's resolve?
Outrage and betrayal burned; not from scheming step-sister He Miao, but from the half-sister he had trusted and relied on. His heartbreak and rage were beyond measure.
"If the Empress Dowager—who is the imperial elder and regent—opposes, doesn't that make the plan crumble? We'll have to scrap it..."
"Grand General."
As he vented to his generals with a deep sigh, a golden-haired woman lifted her head.
"The Empress Dowager will surely block your proposal to shield the Ten Attendants."
"Lady Benchu, why would she personally defend those scum?"
"To check you, Grand General."
"Me?"
He Jin's eyes flashed at Yuan Shao's words, questioning why his half-sister would target him. She replied.
"Power cannot be shared, even between siblings of the same parents. The Empress Dowager fears you, who commands all thirteen provinces' military might."
"Nonsense! Though not from the same mother, I raised her on my back. How tenderly I cherished her..."
He reacted as if hearing absurdity, yet startled like one pierced to the core, his hidden ambitions laid bare before his generals.
"I'll petition the Empress Dowager myself to purge the eunuchs. Surely she won't side with those filthy wretches! After all we've endured—their scorn and humiliations..."
He Jin rejected Yuan Shao's words outright, unwilling to admit his rift with his half-sister. As he wavered, the Ten Attendants—learning of the fracture in the once-solid He siblings' bond—began plotting in the shadows.