The attendant put the cup on the table, then backed away respectfully. I nodded lightly to the servant, making her bow even deeper. My father would not even acknowledge the existence of the attendant, thanking her with a slight nod would be beneath him. For him all subjects of the empire, existed solely, to serve his needs.

I could not understand that.

Wasn't the Emperor's role, to look after the subjects, in return for their service? Wasn't that the principle of harmony?

It was confusing how different father was as an Emperor, compared to what master Shi Zimiao thought me.

Father always indulged himself in foods, drinks and pleasures… everything that went against the teachings of my teacher.

It was so… abhorrent.

His shameless behaviour towards his concubines in front of his court, his mannerism while he was eating and drinking during the fests, his disregard to his court officials who were giving him good advice and real assessment of the situation... and his contempt to the peasants, the very foundation of the Han Empire.

How could one ravage his own house… no, why would one seed such chaos in his own house?

It was surprising to learn after my return to the court, just how different people my parents were, in comparison to how they were portrayed. My father, instead of being an epitome of wise Emperor, who's efforts were sabotaged by corrupt officials, was a wasteful ruler who encouraged his officials to be more corrupt, so he could gather more riches. I cringed as I remember that my first thoughts of Emperor were that he was a tyrant… at one time I approached my mother when she was alone and told her, that I heard some in the palace called the Emperor a tyrant. I was curious about her reaction. To my surprise, she laughed. I thought she would tell me that those were just baseless accusations. Instead, she told me this:

"Calling the Emperor a tyrant, is to overestimate him. He is foolish, corrupt, greedy, glutton who is easily manipulated by his close advisors. He values high only advisors who tell him what he wants to hear, dismissing all the good advice he doesn't like. He gathers riches from wherever he can, to build more palaces - places where he could indulge in wine, women and food. He is a man easily manipulated, who lives for his pleasures while promoting his version of the reputation of Han."

"His version?"

Mother then spoke mockingly, speaking just the way that father used to speak:

"My ancestor was the first Emperor, bow to me! Everybody lives on the bounty of Han, so they have to stay loyal, no matter what. Any action taken by the Emperor is for the good of the Han and you should happily follow any order of your Emperor, even you'd starve to death!"

Despite her mocking words, the way she spoke - pride, cold disregard, scorn - she captured the Emperor's character and views spot on.

I couldn't understand… and despite what my father boasted, I couldn't follow his behaviour.

So I stuck to simple drinks and food, using my free time to study. Father considered that frivolous. Being humble? Being modest? Han Emperors were not modest! They were rulers of the world and everyone were beneath them!

'But once upon a time, so too was the Qin Dynasty, and look at them now. After they disregarded the people, they were replaced by the Han… and you are making exactly the same actions as them' – I wanted to say, but I kept my mouth shut. My teacher warned me many times, not to express my opinions freely, cause it was a fast way to the grave.

The irony was not lost to me. The Qin fell mostly due to actions of the eunuch, and now, the Han were also slowly, but surely, falling due to eunuchs.

My silence was taken as meekness. That disrespect, that assumption of my weakness... it made me so angry – I wanted to rage, to scream, to hit something. But I quickly calmed down. My teacher taught me to control myself – thrashing around would not bring any constructive outcome.

Instead, I continued as I was, ignoring my father's hurtful humiliating comments.

I showed my appreciation to servants for their work, I was humble to officials loudly admiring their wise advice, I was respectful when in the presence of father's concubines… and my actions did produce results.

Some of the servants and attendants started actually sharing information with me. An attendant explained how the life of common folk looked like. To hear how their life looked like beyond the walls of the palace was soo… alien. To hear how much everything became worse year after year, how the situation became worse not only due to inaction of the Emperor but also due to his actions – it truly hurt my pride as a member of the house of Liu and descendant of the Emperor Gaozu. But when I heard that in many regions, eating bodies of fellow family members in order to survive... hearing that, I puked.

How did it come to this? How did my clan fell so much in our duties and management of the realm?

The Emperor had to rule wisely, being just and fair ruler. In return, the peasants had paid taxes and worked on fields

Without balance, there could be no harmony. Without harmony, there could be no peace. Without peace, there could be no prosperity.

But now - How could there be harmony?

After that, I managed to convince some of the officials to explain the current reforms to me as well as the state of civil service.

I was shocked to learn the current state of affairs. Majority of reforms and imperial decrees introduced through the last few years had only one purpose - to fill Emperor's trunks. Even after natural disasters, even after rebellions, the Emperor didn't lessen the burden on common people… he levied even higher taxes. The policy of paying for offices practically forced the civil officials to heavily tax the common people.

How was the empire supposed to function if the peasants weren't left enough to survive!? It was as if the Emperor was pushing them into rebelling.

It was somewhat hard to understand. How could you gather more gold and more power, if you knew that it's hurting other people? The teacher said I was still young and naive. Mother told me that it was easy to hurt someone if you didn't know their name or their looks. That hurting hundred peasants is easier than hurting the wise Long Gan, the beautiful Ru Li or the courageous Zhao Tao…

I understood her lesson.

I tried to create rapport with some of the concubines of my father but failed miserably at getting close to any of them. To my great surprise, it was one of them who approached me. She explained to me a great many things about the politics and schemes in both, Imperial harem and Imperia court. As she explained the mechanics and my mother's role as the dominant power in the harem, I slowly became suspicious of her. If what she said about all the conflicts and scheming in the harem was true, why was she telling me about it? She actually laughed and confessed that she approached me and educated me because she hopped to ally with my mother and her clique. The things she told me about harem and my mother were both, scary and inspiring.

From one point of view, my mother was a cruel woman for what she done to Lady Wang… yet from another, as the concubine explained, that very action, was done for my protection. I was at a loss for some time… but in the end, she was my mother - and despite her actions being cruel, they were taken to secure mine life. If I hadn't got to know my father, I would not understand, and I would denounce her. But… knowing the Emperor, his way of thinking and doing things… I came to understand her… to respect her.

I was a filial son, and all the actions my mother took, were for my safety - how could I not honour her?

With that realization, came an oath. I would create a world, where my mother would not have to bloody her hands for my safety.

Father's mismanagement is what brought yellow scarves to rebel. I could still remember the panic in the capital when Ma Yuanyi was discovered to be planning a rebellion. It was only after my uncle secured the capital, the Emperor and the court settled down.

Due to the actions of my uncle, the semblance peace was restored and the rebellion put down. I was not so naive, to think that we were out of danger - on the contrary. My father continued wasteful decrees brought us even closer to disaster.

Then… my father's way of life finally caught up to him, as he became ill and died soon after. And so, I became the Emperor.

Was it strange now, that after his death, instead of turning to eunuchs, who were known for their corruption and were partly to blame for a current disastrous situation, I turned to my uncle for help? The man who was quite popular with officers and army?

Mother also helped.

She has suggested hiring a number of scholars, who were judged in the Disasters of the Partisan Prohibitions - the Partisans. The men were eager to prove themselves and already suggested a number of reforms, that would make government less corrupt and lessen the burden on peasants.

She insisted on keeping the troops of the Army of Western Garden at hand at all times. She explained that since I was the new Emperor and my rule still fresh, there were people ready to kill me, for fear of losing their privileges.

My mother was a wise woman. I had no doubt about her love for me. Often, when we were alone she would dote on me.

But she was also a strict and harsh teacher. Often she would ask me how I would do something, about my opinion on someone… and then, she had me explain why. After that, she would tear down my decisions and opinions by pointing out the obvious flaws in my reasoning, the facts I have forgotten or circumstances that simply made my decision faulty.

It took me a while to understand that many times, she was testing me. When I understood it, she smiled and complimented me on figuring that out.

Then she admonished me - I was to be Emperor. I had to be better than that.

I smiled as I took another sip of my tea.

With the aid of the new officials, the Partisans, I will be able to reform the Empire, to ease the suffering of people. First, I shall lower the taxes, then reform the rest. Then I shall order the measures to be taken to secure the food and relief the areas harmed by the disasters.

With the aid of my uncle, I shall have the military bring order to the realm. Whether they have to fight barbarians… or rebels. I had no illusions, my mother did not allow me to have any. The people I wanted to help, would rebel to survive… but if I were to succeed, I needed to bring order, even if I had to put down rebelling hungry peasant.

And with the aid of my mother - pointing out the obvious flaws in my reasoning and suggesting the solutions I would not have thought about - the prospect of not only bringing such neede relief to the Empire but also bringing it to the third golden age was not something impossible. It was a target I could reach. It would take years, maybe a decade or two. But it was achievable!

I frowned as a drop of ink dropped on my paper. How clumsy of me - in my thoughts about the future, I casually spill the ink on an important document. Not good, I really should concentrate on my current task. Daydreaming about glory, before finishing my task - the teacher would scold me-

I frowned as another drop fell on the paper. But my pen was-

I touched the drop of ink and smeared it - it was red. I brought my hand to my lips then looked at it - it was red…

What?

Suddenly, my head became light as nausea took over me - unable to control myself I spit. The red covered the documents. I looked at that with wide eyes, not truly comprehending what I was seeing. The fear slowly started spreading in my mind.

I started coughing violently, the globes of blood splitting on the table-

It didn't stop flowing. Why it didn't stop?

As my head slowly became lighter, I could not stop thinking…

'There shouldn't be so much blood...'

-While the short-lived Ou Xing's rebellion, while had little impact on the political stage of the era, it had rather large military implications. During the battle, the leader of Han troops, Yuan Xi, used exactly the same tactics as Hannibal of Barcids during the battle of Cannae. And while it is unknown whether the Han general heard somewhere about the tactic or came with it on his own, he is the second confirmed person to ever use the tactic successfully...

The Military history on ancient kingdoms, 2010, London - the work received many negative reviews for it's banal approach to the subject, the author's not deep enough study of the subject as well as being an obvious propaganda work. The author was nominated to be the minister of education by the Prime Minister last week...

AN

I was listening to "Game of Thrones: Season 6 OST - Light of the Seven (EP 10 Trial scene)" when I was writing this.

And as usual, thanks to NathanHale, who decided to become my full BETA.

Reviews:

tH1s - thanks for the positive reviews. As for the title, I already changed it once (from the generic and inaccurate 'Three Kingdoms') and not going to change it again - since it would only create confusion. As for the stories similar to this... there are three stories of Oregairu/RoTK crossovers that are somewhat similar, there is also SI story/novel that goes something like 'Lu Bu is my father in law'.