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Adventures of a Young Warrior

Chapter 8: Imperial Seal

With the Sun a bright glowing ball far above them, the men of the Alliance against Dong Zhou walked though the ruined city of Luo Yang, it was only a few days before that the town was burned down by Doug Zhou, has he moved his way back to Chang An to relocated the capital to better defensive spot. Well things up to this point have been going really slow motion for everyone around. Cao Cao and his forces went after Doug Zhou's forces only to get ambushed and defeated by forces lead by Lu Bu.

Lu Tan smiled glad the day was not nearly has cold as the previous days had been for him. It had been snowing everyday on the march to Luo Yang, and this made the marching harder then normal. Everyday, many of the wounded soldiers would from their wounds; the number of dead on the trip to Luo Yang was much higher then the number who died in the battles against Doug Zhou's forces so far. He so how felt bad for smiling when he looked around, everything was destroyed, the town went up in flames and without anyone to put out the fires they burned the whole town until, the snow stopped the fires. For Lu Tan his job was to help the clean up on a section of the city. Actually Sun Jian wanted everyone of his unit to help clean up the town, but some men like the Fu brothers who were still getting credit for the unit ability to hold Zhou's forces until the rest of the imperial forces caught up and push the forces passed Si Shui Gate. Tan just shock his head as he looked at another burned out home.

He was almost done with the street, and kind of glad for it, because, the burned remains were almost even too much for him, and he had been in the thick of battle, and survived it. This was different in so many ways, because of the fact of how tragic the deaths were, and the fact that a lot of them were women and kids.

"Did you hear, that Lu Bu was defeat by 3 commoners, I hear that when they battled it was like the heavens themselves were causing the action," Tan heard a voice of a solider from inside the burned out house.

"Wow, if commoners can do that, then maybe even we can become that powerful, who were they serving under," another voice replied.

"Well, I heard that they were under Gongsun Zan's forces."

"No way, I bet they are just making all this up and it was really Lords, Cao Cao, Gongsun Zan, and Yuan Shao who pushed back Lu Bu."

Tan walked into the burned out house to see two young warriors sitting nearby some of the debris from the room. Neither of them seemed to notice him, and he smiled to himself as he walked up behind them. "Gentlemen, what do you think your doing, right now, I think we have jobs to do?"

Tan almost broke up laughing when the two young soldiers jumped to their feet. "Well what were we talking about, that is so important, that you neglect you jobs."

The two young soldiers looked pretty worried, and for a second Tan wondered if either of them was going to say anything at all.

"Well we were talking about what happened at during the battle with Lu Bu, I heard that 3 common men were able to keep him in check, and sir if that is true, then it has to be the most amazing thing I have ever heard," the taller of the two soldier admitted in a somewhat weak tone.

"Oh that, you know I was their, I had a heck of a view of what happened," Tan said with a smirk on his face.

"Well, you have to tell us, were the ones who stopped Lu Bu commoners," the shorter soldier said in a fit of energy.

"Well let me tell you, and you can decide if they are common, or not," Tan said before pausing, "you see we had just gotten past the remains of Hua Xiong, forces who were running in all directions after one of those common men, named Guan Yu had taken him down in one on one combat. On the way past that gate, we meet no resistance, and things were running smoothly. I have to admit I though that were would take down Zhou by the end of the day. Then he showed up, and everything stopped."

"He was a large tall man with a fancy armor covered by animal skins, who rode the most amazing reddish brown coated horse I have ever seen. He also carried a long halberd with numerous blades on it. It was one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. The man himself commanded the field and forced our advance to a stop by his very presence. Then a brave man rode forward to challenge the man, carrying a long spear, as the two approached each other, they gave each other respect and charged. Lu Bu killed the man on the first past so fast it did seem that the fight had taken place. Then another rode forward, this time a man who had a nice mace. The two rode at each other, and this time the man was able to block the first attack, but the second one was misread by the man. He rode away with one less hand then when he arrived in the fight. It was at this point Gongsun Zan entered the fight, he was able to make a couple of passes with Lu Bu before even he was forced to run away."

"So it was not Zan, interesting," one of the soldiers spoke up.

"Yeah, true, now just keep listening; as Zan was running away, he got a good way away from Lu Bu when Bu, start riding at him, and it only took a second for that horse to get close to Zan. Then suddenly a man charged out challenging Lu Bu, the man had the face of a panther, and the beard that looked like the whiskers of a Lion. He rode out carrying a spear whose blade looked like a long snake. Lu Bu changed his direction to the new warrior, who closed in on him, and the sounds of the clashing of metal were unreal. Then the two made pass after pass, the sound metal coming in quick order. It was about even, and then suddenly the warrior who took down Xiong, a man with a green robe, and a long beard, rode onto the field, and exchanged blows with Lu Bu, who was now even forced to go on the defensive against the two warriors. Then a bit later a third warrior who carried two matching swords rode into the field as well, the three moved in perfect step around the great Lu Bu, and only by a great fake was Lu Bu able to escape to run away."

The two soldiers looked a bit stunned do to the news, "Wow that must have been so cool."

"Tan, I need to show you something I found," Tan heard someone yell from outside.

"Well gentlemen, now that you know, I think you should go back to work."

Tan made his way out of the room and down the street to a small well. He noticed one of his men looking at a body. He made his way up, and saw that the body was that of a young woman who was still wearing the dress of a person who worked in the imperial castle. "Well, what did you find on her, we have seen women like this in other places in town," Tan said still looking at the woman's body.

"Well it what was on her," the officer said handing him a small necklace with had a box attached to it. Tan opened the box to find that inside the box was a little jade dragon. Tan almost fell to his knees when he saw the dragon, he knew for that second he was holding the imperial seal. It took him a second to think about what to do, he turned to the solider who told him about the body, "that the box, and explain what you have seen to Lord Jian, and quickly."

After finding the imperial seal, he felt such pride for finding it; the seal would mean that when they got to the capital, they could kick Zhou out, and with the people knowing the Han had the imperial seal, that the reign of the Han would be able to go on, with more support from the people then ever. He smiled as he passed one of Yuan Shao officers who he had meet during the adventure in the battle with Zhou's forces. He was one of the first officers to help in the reinforcements. A tall warrior, though pretty skinny, with messy brown hair that did not fit a officer of a unit under the command of Yuan Shao, but his skills made up for his lack of appearance, and he walked with a self confidence and carried a long sword with him when he was in battle.

"Hey Zang, I think we can in this chaos, guess what I found," Tan said with a happy smile.

"You found the imperial seal, and rumor has it, you have the sent it off to Jian, bad move if you ask me," Zang said in a dead serious tone.

"Um how did you know that, and why is it not a good move?" Tan said a bit confused, but he was starting to realize what could be his mistake.

"Simple, people talk, someone saw you get the seal, and they told someone else, and so forth, and it turns out that most of the leaders really don't trust each other, but I am sure you know that, so along the line I found out. Now about Jian, I am sure he is a nice guy to work with, but can you be sure that he won't just take it back with him to Chang Sha, and work to making himself the leader of a new empire, one that would replace the Han. Well what ever it is, I am sure it is nothing to worry about," Zang said with a smile before moving on, "Till later my friend, till later, and the heavens watch out for you."

Tan just stood their for a second thinking about , he just stood their for a second unsure what to do, he went back to work cleaning until at later time he saw Zang, again this time with a worried look on his face. "Tan, I need you to come with me, this is a serious matter."

"Yeah, Zang, whatever," Tan said follow Zang.

The two went to an area that was not as messy, where a tent was up, and inside the tent to see that Yuan Shao, and Sun Jian were standing across from each other, and a number of other leaders were their as well.

"Officer Lu Tan, please tell us what you told, Ta Zang, earlier today, please this is very important, for the future of the Han," Shao said with a highly serious tone in his voice that even gave Tan the chills.

"Sir, I found a woman who had on the necklace which had the imperial seal inside of it," Tan replied in a slightly worried tone of voice. "I found, and then I told a soldier to give it to Lord Sun…"

Before he could finish the statement he saw that a sword was at him in aggression, it was the sword of Sun Jian.

"So you see, Sun Jian, own officer admits he took the Seal, and now Jian, you are trying to get away with it back home, are you not."

"I did not, and I am not going to stay here, and listen to this incompetent soldier tell you the lies that Yuan Shao, not doubly told him to tell you," Jian said before exiting.

"Sir, should we not go after Jian right now, and attack him, and force him to give back the seal," Zang said looking at Shao.

"Not it won't work, it will only cause violence, plus I am sure that if Jian was going to come out his men ready to go, and we won't have a chance to catch up with him again," Shao said with a sigh, "I think we need to get ready to go after him, we have to get that thief back."

"Shao, we can't do that, we have to keep working to go after Zhou," Zang replied looking Shao in the eye.

"No, we don't have the forces with those of Jian to take Zhou down. It looks like this is one time we are not going to win."

Slowly the Lord made their way out of the camp to head to their bases to pack up and get ready to return to their homelands. Tan was just crushed, he not only found out he played a role in the event that prevent the fall of Dong Zhou, but he also had no home to return to now. He could tell from what he saw from Shao, that he was not the person to work for, even if he was friends with Zang.

He was about to leave, to go find a place to think when he saw that Zang walk up. "I am sorry about Jian, I don't think you are going to go back their for a while, if you want to, I could recommend you to Lord Shao, though I with you common status, you couldn't make it up all that far, but I could also recommend you to Lord Gongsun Zan, I think their you could have a chance to advance, and I think use your talents better.

"Really, I not sure I can thank you for that, I have to accept that, I owe you big time pal," Tan said with a smile on his face.