Post by Fu Sheng on Oct 25, 2010 22:34:23 GMT
Wu Du, October 192AD
Unable to recover from a first period of chaos, the land had now fallen deeply into a state of crisis accented by Dong Zhuo's tyrannical reign. This provided Fu Sheng with an idea both insane and ingenious. He plotted an uprise within the tyrant's lands and now that the coalition against him had been forged and was making it's way in trough his lands, provided him further freedom of rallying enough peasants for his own cause. Of course this would come with great consequences as he would be opposing one of the nation's most powerful warlords.
It took Sheng two days on a horse to travel all the way from his home in the area of Cheng Du to the town of Lanzhou, located deep within the mountainous area of Wu Du and located within the borders of the tyrant. He arrived there around midday, the sun shone brightly atop the sky and the air was fresh, typical for a summer day in the mountains. He brought the most humble garments he could find within his wardrobe in order to avoid the attention of the local populace and even though he insisted on riding alone, his loyal servant accompanied him as usual. Sheng looked around carefully to observe the environment as he carried on.
Before he could do else, he needed to replenish himself after a long and exhausting journey. After inspecting the town thoroughly, he headed to the local stables to leave his and his servant's steed stabled so they could carry on with their affairs. Not too far from where they were, there was a lodge, appealing by it's appearance and by the smell of food being cooked. It was still early and most of the people were at their work places, so they were attended quickly and they were able to eat at peace, without the confusion and noise of the people. Hunger kept Sheng and his servant from talking for awhile, but with their stomachs filled, Jin faced his master and asked him with his usual concerned tone:
"Mylord, are you sure you want to go trough with this? Forgive me if I insist, but if this man is as powerful as you make it seem, surely it is not wise to arouse trouble, on his own land on top of that!"
Sheng laughed and replied with reassuring tone:
"Don't worry, I have prepared myself for this situation. If everything goes as it should, we should not be concerned, and even if it doesn't, it is very unlikely anything bad to happen to us. Rest assured my friend, I have planned both for the best and for the worst."
The food was heavenly delicious, but then after two days of eating raw vegetables and and rice, anything cooked would have a good taste to it.
Before Sheng adressed to the people, he decided to go for a walk around town to digest the early lunch and to investigate the town's guard. It was poorly guarded, most of it's garrison was positioned within the minister's palace and the scarce rest patrolled the walls. The bare presence of the guard in the town itself provided Sheng with the opportunity of directing his speech to the villagers without being bothered.
It was now lunch hour. The villagers were halting their work and flowing in the town, to seek a place to lunch. Now was the right time to seek the attention of the people. Sheng walked up a set of stairs to some sort of building, a house most likely, giving him a distinguishable height amongst the crowd. And so, he began his speech to the nearby crowd:
"People of Lanzhou!" - not a reaction from the villagers, the crowd's noise silenced Sheng's voice. He coughed and tried again in a louder tone - "Citizens!..." - again no response, not a single person paid the scholar any attention. He hesitated for a moment before unleashing a loud and deep shout: "CITIZENS OF WU DU!!" - Now that he had gotten the people's attention, he proceeded in a calm but imperative tone: "Citizens, countrymen I call for your attention to deliver a message . A message of revolt, of discontent, of disappointment towards our corrupt and unjust government. They take your gold to support their own lust, they take your sons, fathers and husbands to enlarge their army, so that they may spread their tyranny amongst to anyone who dares question their command!" - A sudden voice from the crowd suddenly interrupted the scholar's speech with words of contempt:
"And what do you know of it? You scholarship folks never had to worry about a thing! Your think all your talk is going to make me believe in your good intentions? Cack!" - the crowd cheered at the man's claim, Sheng's attention was quickly drawn at the man's boldness and attention in his speech. Indeed not every commoner was capable of unfolding a man's cover by listening to his words only, and Sheng had managed to go by discretely as a commoner until there. It revealed not only the man was indeed paying attention to his speech but also that he was more perceptive than most. This intrigued him. He reflected for a moment and then responded to the provocation:
"You are wrong! This affects us all. Nobles, commoners, land lords even, we all suffer from this government's tyranny. So when you say us folks never had to worry about a thing, you are wrong, for now, more than ever, we all should show concern!"
"Oh! So I should show concern, now that you suffer with this situation? Ha! I don't see why should I bother for a nobleman's own problems, Let him taste the same misery we've been feeling all these years I say!" - And the crowd cheered even harder, despising Sheng further. He could not help but to feel embarrassed at such humiliation, but instead of backing down he argued back in an angrier tone:
"I take no interest in your concern for my personal life and I could not care less for what you people think of me or my social status! The fact is I have as much to lose as any of you do! Open your eyes you fools! You think arguing at me is going to improve your situation?! Wrong again! The more the dog barks, the more he is beaten! Do something, be revolted for your own sake, for this nation's sake!" - at this point there was general silence, no one dared to speak against the scholar's words, until another man took up his voice:
"And what are we to do? Wave our racks at the Prefect's home? We can't do anything against Dong Zhuo, he is the governor by all means. Go back home and forget this..."
There was a slight background conversation among the crowd as they eventually started walking away. "Who was that man?", the villagers wondered, "Was he a fool or was it actually possible?". Nonetheless, Sheng was not yet finished and he raised his tone to call for the commoners' attention once more:
"What if I told you there was a way?!" - some of the villagers kept going, but some turned back and decided to give the scholar a chance to explain himself, the last one to voice his opinion among them - "You think Dong Zhuo is yet powerful? Wrong again! He is faced with a coalition lead by the nation's grandest warlords from the west as we speak! If we are to act, now is the time!"
"How do we know what you say is true?" - replied the same villager
Sheng descended from the platform where he was directing his speech and his servant Jin quickly joined him. He approached the man and inquired him in a discrete conversation:
"What is your name?"
"Qin Yang." - the man answered
"Master Yang, what I say to you is the truth. You seem like a wise man so I'll let you know my intentions. Are you listening? This is my plan..." - Sheng filled the man with every detail of his ambitious plan in taking the region. At first the man was perplex, but as Sheng explained he started realizing it was not an impossible task. Maybe crazy but possible it was.
((Sorry for taking so long to do this, I should've done this months ago, but first my lazyness kept me from posting xD and then came school which you all know to be a major obstacle, but I'm glad I'm done, hope it suits the context
))
