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WARNING: THE WEBMASTER IS GETTING REALLY TIRED OF COMING UP WITH NEW WAYS TO SAY THAT THE FOLLOWING COMMENTARY MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!
Okay. I've been sitting here at this computer uploading audiobook episodes and writing commentaries for each chapter for three days now. Today is a workday, and I'm tired and more than a little grumpy. So I'll go ahead and make this one relatively brief.
When last we left off, Yuan Shu, having taken the overly rash step of declaring himself Emperor, establishing the short-lived Zhong Dynasty, had sent an ambassador to Lu Bu to arrange a marriage between Lu Bu's daughter and Yuan Shu's son, Yao. Persuaded by Chen Gui to refuse an alliance with such an usurper as Yuan Shu, Lu Bu sends the unfortunate ambassador, Han Yin, to the capitol, where he is put to death publicly by Cao Cao.
Yuan Shu, infuriated at this move by Lu Bu, musters a huge army and invades Xu Province. Now here's where it gets interesting. As an illustration of just how powerful and influential Cao Cao, as Prime Minister, has become, Cao Cao manages to put together an all-star team to deal with the matter of Yuan Shu. Remember all those lords that were scheming against each other for the past several chapters? Well, sit back, and enjoy THIS twist of fate. They're all on the same side this time, against Yuan Shu. That's right. Cao Cao, Liu Bei and his brothers, Lu Bu, and even Sun Ce have all joined forces to crush Yuan Shu and his illegitimate Zhong Dynasty! Talk about an ultimate alliance!
Yuan Shu at this point has no doubt proved himself to be a great embarrassment to the Yuan family, and at any rate, Yuan Shu and his brother Yuan Shao did not enjoy very amicable relations with each other in the years following the Anti Dong Zhuo Coalition. Yuan Shu finds himself surrounded by enemies, with no one prepared to come and help him.
It is at this point that the Machiavellian nature of Cao Cao again is shown, in the unfortunate matter of Wang Hou, the controller of the granaries for Cao Cao's army. Wang Hou, lamentably, is cold-bloodily used as a scapegoat, and is quite literally executed for no real reason except to improve the morale of Cao Cao's army. If you've ever been kinda curious why it is that I'm sort of biased against Cao Cao, it's exactly because of events like the Wang Hou affair. Cao Cao may have been cunning, and he may have cleverly solved the problem of how to feed his army short rations and yet stop their complaints cold. But the way he chose to go about it shows very little in the way of conscience or honor. Granted, I'm looking at all this from a 21'st century perspective, but how else CAN I see it?
At any rate, with such mighty leaders as Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Lu Bu, and Sun Ce on the case, Yuan Shu is not much longer for the world. But once again, as Cao Cao is about to finish the job, he's called back to the west to put out yet another brush fire. That's right, it's our old friends Zhang Xiu and Jia Xu again, rising up to challenge the power of Cao Cao, whom you might remember that Zhang Xiu looks upon with very little love.
Cao Cao now has to contend with Liu Biao, Governor of the Jing Province, and there's a rivalry that will simmer off and on for many, many chapters to come...
Before I end this commentary, I just want to give some special thanks to Tommy the Silent, a very good longtime friend of mine, who supplied a couple of the voices in this episode, including the unfortunate Wang Hou.
All right. It's naptime. Enjoy this, the seventeenth chapter in the ongoing Sanguo Yanyi audiobook. And...uh...may the Force be with you....or something.