If there were an old almanac at hand, today's page would surely read: Avoid travel.
"Among men, Lu Bu; among horses, Chitu." The mightiest warrior of the Three Kingdoms, renowned far and wide—Xun Ye had actually been looking forward to meeting Lu Bu.
Brother Liao was so approachable, and since he got along with Liao, Brother Bu probably wouldn't be hard to get along with either, aside from a bit of a temper.
Barring any surprises, his future path would be one of martial prowess to pacify the realm. Outstanding generals naturally gravitate toward one another. If he and Lu Bu hit it off and became sworn brothers, convincing the elder brother to return to Bingzhou and carve out his own territory would be as easy as turning his hand.
He never imagined that before he even laid eyes on the man, things would twist into something he couldn't recognize at all.
Zhubu? Handling documents? Are you serious?
Xun Ye's mind wandered. He felt like the fruit of confusion hanging from the tree of bewilderment—having accomplished nothing all day except being utterly baffled.
Zhang Liao, face twisted with worry, continued apologizing. "It's my fault. If only I hadn't gone to show off to him."
He knew Lu Fengxian's foul temper well enough—why had he been so stupid as to deliberately provoke him? Was that someone he could afford to poke?
Now look what had happened. Not only had he shot himself in the foot, but he'd dragged his good brother down with him.
Damn that Lu Fengxian. If the bastard weren't so overbearing, none of this would have happened.
Cursing aside, he still had to make amends to his brother.
There was no helping it—they'd been assigned to serve under Lu Bu this time. When the direct superior's orders came down, he had no standing to object.
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Zhang Liao poked his good brother, who seemed to have drifted off to another plane, and ventured timidly, "How about I take you to see him in a few days?"
Xun Ye took a deep breath, clenched his fists, and stood up like a rusty robot rebooting—slow movements, but radiating killing intent.
Zhang Liao watched him reach for the Changji and, abandoning all guilt, immediately turned and bolted for the door. "Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! I really know I was wrong!!"
The camp erupted into chaos. Soldiers poked their heads out to watch the commotion, and when the two generals clashed weapons, they all ran out fearlessly to cheer, proving with their actions that fish rot from the head down.
After the two had vented their excess energy, washed up, and returned to their tent, they still felt somewhat frantic thinking about what lay ahead.
What did they mean by "misfortunes never come alone"? Could luck get any worse than this?
Xun Ye collapsed limply onto the long mat. "Brother Wenyuan, you really didn't do it on purpose?"
"Really, I didn't." Zhang Liao raised his hand in oath, more sincere than sincere could be. "I admit that mentioning you in front of General Lü wasn't purely to show off—I'd hoped it might earn you a promotion. I never imagined it would turn out like this."
The military factions in Jingcheng were tangled and complex, and his own record wasn't exactly spotless. Without any surprises, even returning to the capital would just mean sitting on a cold bench somewhere else.
Lu Fengxian's words were blunt and unpleasant, but they spoke the plain truth—following him truly offered little future.
Xun Ye glanced at him and couldn't help interjecting, "Is it possible that General Lü's record is even less spotless?"
You, Zhang Liao, merely had two former masters who both lost their political struggles. But Lü Bu personally killed his own former master to trade for advancement. If you really wanted to compare, General Lü clearly came out worse.
"You can't compare it that way." Zhang Liao rubbed his nose. "General Lü managed to earn Xiangguo Dong's regard. What about me?"
When you go out to make your way in the world, temper doesn't matter—what matters is ability. As long as you have real skill, even if your eyes are on top of your head, people will still rush to recruit you.
It wasn't that he thought himself lacking in ability, but that there were too few people in the world with discerning eyes like Brother Ming Guang. Jingcheng wasn't Bingzhou—here, everyone thought he was too young to be trusted with anything important. He'd probably need to win a few impressive battles before the nobles would even glance his way.
You need to be deployed to win battles. You need to win battles to show your skill. You need to show your skill to be sent into battle.
Unfortunately, without Ding Zhi—the one who'd seen his ability and brought him from Bingzhou to the capital—his path was completely blocked.
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"Brother Wenyuan, don't be impatient. Good things take time. Sooner or later, we'll find our place."
"I'm not impatient. I'm young, after all—I have plenty of time to outlast them." Zhang Liao shrugged, as if the gritted teeth from moments ago had been an illusion. "But you, Ming Guang—you're even younger than me. Still, if an opportunity to rise comes along, you shouldn't let it slip by."
He thought the kid could skip twenty years of detours by going straight to the Sikong's residence to seek out his elder. But he could also understand that a young man who'd never faced setbacks, full of ambition, would want to build his own achievements through his own ability.
Everyone had been naive once.
Following him would most likely mean being stuck training new recruits in the camp, maybe not even getting assigned the thankless task of conscription. Following Lu Fengxian was different—still no chance to fight in battle, but at least he could show his face in front of Xiangguo Dong.
Dong Zhuo had a bad reputation?
Please—they were men who lived with their lives strapped to their belts. His foolish young brother wasn't planning to rely on family connections anyway. Whoever you followed, you followed. Reputation, good or bad, had zero effect on them.
For the sake of his good brother's future, he'd decisively sung the boy's praises to the heavens in front of Lu Fengxian.
Their young master Ming Guang was accomplished in both civil and military affairs, wise and brave. Even in the military camp, he never set down his books, spending at least half an hour reading every night. His martial skills were even more impressive—before he even reached the age of fifteen, he could already trade blows evenly with a seasoned warrior like himself who had fought the Hu since childhood.
General Lü, take a look! You won't regret it! Really, you won't!
He racked his brains to sing praises until his lips were nearly worn thin, but that fellow Lü Fengxian had been in a foul mood lately and only wanted to drown his sorrows in drink. Of all the words spoken, he only remembered the "wise" in "wise and brave"—everything else went in one ear and out the other.
Xun Ye's mouth twitched slightly. "Much obliged."
Zhang Liao's gaze drifted. "It's… it's not that impressive."
How to put it—he felt it was only natural that Lü Bu wouldn't believe that a scion of the Xun clan didn't like using his head. Never mind Lü Bu not believing it; he didn't believe it himself.
His good brother claimed he wanted to walk the path of a pure military commander, but in all his years mixing in military camps, he'd never seen a general who unfailingly read books and wrote notes every single day.
A noble scion was a noble scion—completely different from roughnecks like them.
Xun Ye rubbed his face and sat up. "Since things have come to this, we can only take it one step at a time."
Zhang Liao sat down beside him and lowered his voice to explain. "Actually, becoming Zhubu isn't a bad thing. General Lü has no capable men around him right now. If you go, you'll be in charge of all military affairs—far better than staying in camp drilling troops."
Only because the two of them were close would he dare speak so boldly. Anyone else, and he wouldn't have dared say such things.
Lü Fengxian being kept at Chancellor Dong's side might look glorious on the surface, but in reality he'd lost all face and substance.
Back when he served under Ding Zhijinwu, he at least had proper duties. Now, though they called it a promotion with rank and reward, he was actually worse off than before.
Among all the trusted generals under Chancellor Dong, everyone else was off suppressing bandits and quelling rebellions—only he had no proper assignment at all. The famed Flying General had been reduced to a bodyguard and errand boy.
If it were only that, it might be tolerable. Chancellor Dong taking him everywhere could barely pass as a sign of favor, but the arrangements that followed made it impossible for them to deceive themselves any longer.
Xun Ye sensed there was more to his words and immediately gestured for him to elaborate.
Zhang Liao's gaze was heavy. "This all starts with Chancellor Dong luring General Lü into becoming his adopted son."
Chancellor Dong held absolute power and had no time to attend to everything personally. With Ding Zhijinwu dead, the Bingzhoujun naturally looked to General Lü as their leader.
Up to that point, everything was normal. But then things took a turn.
After the Liangzhoujun entered the capital and garrisoned key positions, the various units of their Bingzhoujun were split apart and absorbed into the Liangzhoujun. The generals from Liangzhou looked down on them, shortchanging their pay and rations as a matter of course, and even deliberately sent them to die in battle.
The fighting strength of the Bingzhoubing was on par with the Liangzhoubing. If not for the deliberate sabotage by the higher-ranking generals, they wouldn't have been reduced from sixty thousand troops upon entering the capital to the mere twenty thousand they had now.
Zhang Liao was furious. He hadn't even spent a few days in the capital before being sent out to recruit soldiers, and when he returned from recruiting, he was dispatched to Mi County to set up camp. He was busy running around in a frenzy without even knowing what he was doing, with no time to check on the situation of the Bingzhoujun.
If he hadn't heard the truth at Lü Fengxian's place today, he would still have thought the Bingzhoubing and Liangzhoubing were getting along harmoniously like one family. He wouldn't have gone to Lü Fengxian's door to complain about his lack of regard for old ties, only to be cursed out by him in return.
The Bingzhoujun's situation was so dire that even if he wanted to save them, he had no way to start. How could he spare any energy for former comrades who had been sent outside the capital?
"Sixty thousand elite troops—a full sixty thousand when we entered the capital, all battle-hardened soldiers. Chancellor Dong came from a military background himself. How could he bear to let his trusted men do this?"
Their Bingzhou had fought the Qianghu for years, and the entire province's population couldn't match a single commandery in Zhongyuan. Heaven knows what those sixty thousand elites meant to Bingzhou.
If they'd known they would die so senselessly in the capital, they would have—well, fine, whether they came or not wasn't their decision anyway.
But no matter how much he thought about it, he still couldn't stand it!
Even if they'd been sent back to Bingzhou to keep fighting the Hu, that would have been better!
Xun Ye nodded. "Factional struggles have always been cruel. It's just a pity about those soldiers."
Outstanding generals would appreciate each other, but there was also the saying: in letters, there's no first; in arms, there's no second.
Both the Bingzhoujun and the Liangzhoujun were renowned for their valor. Dong Zhuo, the head of the Liangzhoujun, had eliminated Ding Yuan, the head of the Bingzhoujun, in political struggle and then absorbed the Bingzhoujun. Naturally, the Liangzhoujun would consider themselves superior to the Bingzhoujun.
If Dong Zhuo could have managed the conflict between the two sides and won the complete loyalty of the Bingzhoujun, the combined forces would have been far greater than the sum of their parts. But judging by the current situation, Chancellor Dong had never even considered resolving the conflict—if anything, he seemed intent on using the Bingzhou soldiers as playthings for his trusted Liangzhoujun to vent their frustrations on.
When those at the top making decisions aren't clear-headed, how could those below coexist peacefully?
If he guessed correctly, there was no shortage of reckless bravado and infighting within the Liangzhoujun either.
Zhang Liao clenched his fist. "If the Bingzhoujun truly had no leader, that would be one thing. But General Lü is right there beside Dong Zhuo, and they still act so brazenly—who are they looking down on?"
He didn't even bother calling him Chancellor anymore—that showed just how deep his resentment ran.
Indeed, the capital was not like Liangzhou. Without Dong Zhuo's tacit approval, those Liangzhou generals wouldn't dare to act recklessly.
Xun Ye rubbed his chin thoughtfully. For some reason, he felt that if the two of them continued talking, it would turn into another "Eighteen Kills of Dong Zhuo."
—If you're a brother, you cut down Dong Zhuo!
Tsk, with such poor popularity, dying wouldn't be a loss.
A few days later, the two settled their troops and tidied themselves up before entering the city again.
Only three to five days had passed, yet seeing the silent and desolate Luoyangcheng stirred a vastly different mood within them.
The emperor resided in the North Palace, and all the high officials and nobles lived nearby.
Lu Bu placed great importance on the Xun Shi scion he was about to meet. Estimating that the time was about right, he dispatched his capable general Gao Shun to greet them at the gate.
That old thing Dong Zhuo was vicious and tyrannical. Not only did he fail to get along with the court officials who disliked him, even the advisors and retainers in his own household lived in constant fear, terrified that one wrong word would get them dragged out and steamed or boiled.
Literally steamed or boiled.
He had been by the old villain Dong Zhuo's side for nearly half a year. There were few people who could make the old thing speak calmly, and Sikong Xun was one of them. Even fewer could stop the enraged old thing from killing, and Sikong Xun was also among them.
That lad Zhang Wenyuan was lucky to have caught the eye of the Xun Shi of Yingchuan. He wondered how much of Sikong Xun's true skill the Xun Shi scion who came to the capital with him had inherited.