Land of Sinners

I'm surrounded by idiots.

Or maybe they're just cowards.

Sure, it's horrible that the world is falling apart. Villages are burning, people are dying, and everyone's too busy running to actually help people like me make money. Of course it's a horrible time.

So, instead of crying to the heavens and asking why, or running for your dear life to whoever will take you in, or raising your spear and choosing to fight off every measly bandit that tries to attack some stupid peasant, there are far better things to do.

First off, you have the opportunity to make something out of your life.

A lot of people with talent do rise, but they keep themselves from reaching their full potential. People like Zhang Liao or even Lu Su, no doubt brilliant minds, work until their bodies fall apart, fighting for pointless lost causes. Sure, it's "noble" to fight to restore a fallen kingdom, but don't you realize that the kingdom failed in the first place because it was either too weak to fight or too cruel to the citizenry?

And so we're in a land of sinners. Sinners who either do things so heinous that they are despised by all, or sinners who are totally idiotic enough to waste their lives on hopeless dreams. It's in times like these where, instead of being a complete idiot and dying in the name of your precious Emperor, you should make something of yourself. By that I mean profit. After all, if people are frantically running about, set up a neutral area independent of political standing and offer real estate. Only the wealthy are rich enough to afford to run far, anywho.

Now I'm not saying you should pull a Lu Bu and start killing everything that moves, or a Dong Zhuo and rape enough women and burn enough villages to cause the entire world to want to cut off your head, no of course not. That's stupid. Having people hate you will only get you killed faster in a horrible world like this. What you're supposed to do is profit, to make your life better even though everyone else is dying. Making others suffer more makes them willing to kill you faster, and not profiting and working to save others will only exhaust you to death. Look at Li Jue, look at Zhou Yu, and then tell me whether I'm wrong or not that both of them chose incorrect paths.

I feel that men like Chen Deng or Wang Ping did it best. They saw an opportunity to stay alive and live to a ripe old age, and they took it. Granted, Wang Ping chose the wrong nation to hide in, but I think we have seen how Chen Deng was able to make money as a governor without getting himself killed on the frontlines.

I regret fighting at Chi Bi. I could have gotten killed and ended up no better than Guo Si, the kind of person despised by many for 'standing against the just or the Han.' Tch, methinks a life of peace and profit far outweighs one of arrogant bravado or of suicidal tyranny.

So, honestly, stop waving that spear around and fighting with blind heroics, or slashing your sword in all the wrong places. Sit down for a second and think. Trust me, practicality will do you good.

Note: Certain reviews imply that this fic implies that the author agrees with the point of view expressed here. If I did agree with Jia Xu I'd probably deserve to get shot. Thus, let me clear things up:

As a character I believe that Jia Xu is a profit seeker. This can be seen through his successful manipulation of Zhang Xiu, using Zhang Xiu's initial force to ignore Yuan Shao and beat of Cao Cao, later convincing Zhang Xiu to surrender to Cao Cao. This can also be seen through how he played Li Jue and Guo Si in order to get close to the Emperor (ie get the Emperor's protection), then running off to Zhang Xiu once things got rough. Yes, the jealous (and stupid, as we can see) Duan Wei would have killed Jia Xu had he stayed, but the man had been playing Li Jue and Guo Si for so long that surely he could have gotten some bodyguards and loyal pawns out of the deal? Still, running to Zhang Xiu was a good choice, I have to admit.

Obviously, Jia Xu never betrayed the Cao family, though he did support Cao Pi a bit more heavily, but then again it would be stupid to run to Cao Zhang or Cao Zhi when neither of them had any political standing of any sort. Sure they could rally some followers but in the end Cao Pi was the clear successor by that point. It's also a good thing that Zhang and Zhi weren't dumb enough to cause a ruckus, but maybe that's how Pi was able to poison Zhang (if the folklore is to be believed.)

On a personally selfish note I'm happy that Jia Xu had the foresight to try to tell the Wei army not to attack Wu, as he saw how great our defensive capabilities are, and I know that Jia Xu was always a Wei advisor till the end. Whether he was genuinely loyal or not, well, he was never a turncoat. I'm sure Jia Xu, like Chen Deng before him, saw how profitable it would be to stay on the Cao clan's good side.

In the end, I don't think of him as an evil man, more a conniving one who found a great place to stay and wisely chose to stay there, after living a life of sneaking among various lords to find the one that would prove most profitable for him.

But yeah, as you can hopefully tell by now, I don't agree with the guy. His character, at least by the way I see him, is someone you really don't want to mess with.