Back in the pioneering era, life in the group had been its hardest. Nobody trusted anybody. Beyond the idle chatter and the occasional bit of paddling, everyone had mostly spent their time quietly sizing each other up. Frankly, it had gotten boring. These days, when a newcomer showed up, as long as they didn't have some rotten temper, everyone pitched in to help without a second thought. Some would even go so far as to pray for a goddess to descend and lend a hand in person.
Troubled Times: "Heh... the old man's already dug in solid over in Soochow lately. Getting ready to march on the Kingdom of Shu next."
Emperor Qin Shi: "Didn't you just say you were dealing with a prairie invasion last time? How'd that turn around so fast?"
Troubled Times: "Those grassland people are nothing but a few jumping fleas. All I did was put out an order letting the people of Wei settle on the grasslands. That broke them completely. The steppe's desolate, sure, but it's a big country and thin on people — plenty of room for my own folk to move in. And everyone knows joining the faith buys you a long life besides. How else is the Central Plains supposed to keep growing?"
Courageously: "Just like Cao Cao to play a hand this dirty. I'd bet those prairie folk are having a rough time of it right about now, huh?"
Troubled Times: "Rough doesn't begin to cover it — they're flat-out broken. Before those people changed careers, we genuinely couldn't handle them. Now it's a whole different story. An eight-year-old kid can take down a grown prairie warrior these days. Practically a massacre, wouldn't you say?"
Li Er: "So you've got the entire Kingdom of Shu surrounded now, is that it? Built up a navy, brought Soochow and the grasslands into the fold — Liu Bei must be tearing his hair out."
Troubled Times: "Heh, the Kingdom of Shu's already falling apart on its own. Even if I never lifted a finger, it wouldn't hold together much longer..."
Around this time, the state of Shu had turned against the faith. Twice, they'd offered sacrifices to Heaven, and both times the goddess had wiped the sacrifice out completely. On top of that, life for the common people under Cao Cao's rule had grown remarkably good, and resentment among Shu's own population had been building unevenly for a long time. It was the perfect condition for unrest to catch fire.
Liu Bei, by now, had gone completely to pieces. His own decision to bring the grassland tribes into his territory had ruined him — inviting the wolf into the house was the kind of act that gets carved into a pillar of shame for good. A public notice had already gone up condemning him: Liu Bei of the Kingdom of Shu, dissatisfied with the will of the gods, wrote to the peoples of the grasslands and led the wolf straight into his own house. That infamy, on top of the rebellion led by Zhao Yun and others, had haunted him for months. Even without Cao Cao lifting a single finger against him, his own people kept slipping through his fingers.
Deep inside the walls of Shu's capital, Liu Bei had already resorted to forcing his people into servitude just to keep control. Anyone caught trying to flee had their entire family implicated with them. Thousands had already died by his hand for exactly that reason. Liu Bei had gone half-mad, his eyes bloodshot from the killing.
"Reporting to my lord — the grassland forces have all been beaten back!"
Getting that single scrap of hard-won information had cost the life of the captain's entire unit, and his family besides — that was simply the price of holding office these days. Meanwhile, Cao Cao was busy promoting education on his side of the border: join the faith, and you were guaranteed to be taught how to read and write. Here in Shu, it was the exact opposite.
"Damn it... those pig-headed prairie people couldn't even buy me a little more time!"
Liu Bei's oversized earlobes swayed in the wind. Months of overeating had left him bloated and pig-fat, without a trace left of the dignified general he'd once been. Just then, another soldier arrived to report.
"My lord, word from the coast — Cao Cao's warships have been sighted nearby. What are your orders?"
"What? He's ready to attack?! Damn it... what am I supposed to do now?"
Liu Bei froze mid-drink. He'd been telling himself he could simply ride this out, but now that it had actually come to this, he genuinely didn't know what to do. The forced return to slavery earlier had been Sun Qian's doing. Liu Bei despised his own strategist for it — but he also knew he couldn't do without the man. Without Sun Qian, things would only get worse.
"Quick... bring Master Sun Qian in!"
"Yes, my lord."
Before long, a man reeking of rouge and powder shuffled in from outside, his face pale, his footsteps unsteady — every inch of him screaming a man wrecked by excess. It was no wonder, given how relentlessly Liu Bei had leaned on him. Master and servant looked at each other for a long moment. Sun Qian cleared his throat and offered his plan.
In truth, he'd already worked out this very answer back when Jingzhou fell. But at the time, this scion of the royal bloodline had still clung to some measure of hope, and refused to even consider it. Now, the timing was finally right.
"Strategist — Cao Cao's got us surrounded from three directions now. What do we do?"
"That depends entirely on what you choose, my lord. If you want to keep your name intact, then die defending the city. If you'd rather not..."
"Enough of that nonsense — do I even have a name left to keep?"
Liu Bei's face had gone black with fury, his teeth grinding. His reputation was already in ruins. Liu the Butcher. The dog-shoveling swindler. The bastard who let the wolves into his own house. Call him whatever ugly name you liked — none of it was untrue anymore.
Sun Qian lowered his voice. "Since my lord no longer cares to sit here waiting to die, why not simply leave?"
"Leave?"
"Yes. We still have people, and we still have money. We could withdraw west entirely — the Kushan Empire lies that way. Once we're gone, Cao Cao won't dare give chase."
"But..."
"Unless my lord would rather die here!"
Seeing Liu Bei hesitate, Sun Qian pressed the point harder. As the old saying goes, a man who can't be ruthless with himself will never get anywhere. Liu Bei fell silent, weighing the matter over in his mind.
Abandoning his own homeland — there wasn't a ruler alive who'd relish that, least of all one who'd built a kingdom with his own hands. But if he didn't leave, Cao Cao would hound him straight into the grave. Liu Bei couldn't even bear to imagine what would happen to him on the day his own oppressed subjects finally found shelter under the Eternal Faith. Every night he drank himself numb and sang to drown out his own thoughts, hoping it might dull the fear. But the nightmares always found him regardless — visions of his own body torn apart alive by a mob of hundreds, or worse, of himself locked inside a dog cage like some captured beast. Things so terrible that some nights he didn't dare close his eyes at all, and only gave in to sleep once exhaustion finally overpowered him. The bloodshot rings around his eyes told the whole story well enough on their own.
After a long silence, Liu Bei finally raised his head. "If we're leaving — how many will actually follow us?"
"Have you forgotten, my lord? You're still holding a sword. Whoever won't follow willingly can be made to follow."
Sun Qian reminded him just in time. It wasn't only Liu Bei whose name had rotted through — Sun Qian's own reputation these days was, if anything, worse. Cao Cao's people had spread word far and wide that men like him were destined for tens of thousands of years locked in the eighteenth hell of the underworld. Just picturing that fate was enough to bring a cold sweat to Sun Qian's back. But there was no turning back now, so all that was left to do was take it one step at a time.
———
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