Eastern Wu

M Thorne T. P.

Description

The 3rd Century has started badly for Han Dynasty China: the chaos of nationwide rebellion has been replaced by a series of power struggles between a small group of 'super-warlords', and an epic battle between two such men - the wealthy nobleman Yuan Shao and Emperor Xian's self-appointed guardian, Cao Cao - is about to begin at Guandu.In the south of the empire, a different battle is being fought: Sun Ce, chieftain of the Sun clan of Fuchun, has been freed from indenture by the death of Yuan Shao's cruel and ambitious brother, Yuan Shu, and has set his sights on making his home region, Yang Province, into a thriving independent state and finally avenging his famous father Sun Jian's death by destroying Liu Biao, the ruler of neighbouring Jing.But when fate strikes and Sun Ce is struck down, his divisive brother Sun Quan inherits Ce's legacy: a period of unrest begins, and it is left to Ce's friends, Zhou Yu and LaA Fan, to restore order. There is some hope until the fearful Han government demands humility from the new state: it is left to Zhou Yu to lead the men of the south into the Battle of Red Cliffs that laid the foundations of the famous Three Kingdoms era.

Sujets

• Historical fiction

Informations

• Publié par: PaMat Publishing
• Date de parution: 02 février 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780995658233
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

EASTERN WU
~ REALM OF THE SUN CLAN ~
BY T. P. M. THORNE
COVER ART BY T. P. M. THORNE



Published by PaMat Publishing

Copyright 2018 T. P. M. Thorne

All rightsreserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study,research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs andPatents Act 1988, no part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrievalsystem, or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, electrical, chemical,mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise - without the expresswritten permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be directed to theauthor of this work.

The author, T. P. M. Thorne, has asserted the right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

http://tpmthorne.com/

For any enquiries, email the author at [e-mail]

This version of the work is for online publication only.

Cover art: an artistic representation of China during the Han Dynasty. The region that isconsistently controlled by the Sun clan is shaded in light green (it is anapproximate representation); the region is known interchangeably as southernYang Province or as Jiangdong ( River East , or East of the River ) for itslocation relative to the Yangtze River. The grey area represents Jing Provinceand, to the far south, Jiaozhi Province and other remote areas; the Jingportion is fought over throughout this work (the Suns fight Jing s Governor,Liu Biao, initially and the Han Chancellor Cao Cao later on). The remaining area is either controlled bythe Han government or is nominally loyal to it .



Table of Contents FOREWORD PROLOGUE: A WORD BEFORE PARTING ACT I: THE LITTLE CONQUEROR CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 6 CHAPTER 7 CHAPTER 8 CHAPTER 9 CHAPTER 10 CHAPTER 11 CHAPTER 12 CHAPTER 13 ACT II: AN UNSEEN THREAT CHAPTER 14 CHAPTER 15 CHAPTER 16 CHAPTER 17 CHAPTER 18 CHAPTER 19 CHAPTER 20 ACT III: A TIME OF UNCERTAINTY CHAPTER 21 CHAPTER 22 CHAPTER 23 CHAPTER 24 CHAPTER 25 CHAPTER 26 CHAPTER 27 CHAPTER 28 CHAPTER 29 CHAPTER 30 CHAPTER 31 CHAPTER 32 CHAPTER 33 CHAPTER 34 CHAPTER 35 ACT IV: A STRUGGLE FOR ORDER CHAPTER 36 CHAPTER 37 CHAPTER 38 CHAPTER 39 CHAPTER 40 CHAPTER 41 CHAPTER 42 CHAPTER 43 CHAPTER 44 CHAPTER 45 CHAPTER 46 CHAPTER 47 CHAPTER 48 CHAPTER 49 CHAPTER 50 CHAPTER 51 CHAPTER 52 CHAPTER 53 ACT V: THE JIANGXIA CAMPAIGN CHAPTER 54 CHAPTER 55 CHAPTER 56 CHAPTER 57 CHAPTER 58 CHAPTER 59 CHAPTER 60 CHAPTER 61 CHAPTER 62 CHAPTER 63 CHAPTER 64 CHAPTER 65 CHAPTER 66 ACT VI: TO YIELD OR FIGHT CHAPTER 67 CHAPTER 68 CHAPTER 69 CHAPTER 70 CHAPTER 71 CHAPTER 72 CHAPTER 73 CHAPTER 74 CHAPTER 75 CHAPTER 76 CHAPTER 77 CHAPTER 78 CHAPTER 79 CHAPTER 80 ACT VII: THE BATTLE OF RED CLIFFS CHAPTER 81 CHAPTER 82 CHAPTER 83 CHAPTER 84 CHAPTER 85 CHAPTER 86 CHAPTER 87 CHAPTER 88 CHAPTER 89 CHAPTER 90 CHAPTER 91 CHAPTER 92 CHAPTER 93 ACT VIII: A WAR ON TWO FRONTS CHAPTER 94 CHAPTER 95 CHAPTER 96 CHAPTER 97 CHAPTER 98 CHAPTER 99 CHAPTER 100 CHAPTER 101 CHAPTER 102 CHAPTER 103 CHAPTER 104 CHAPTER 105 CHAPTER 106 CHAPTER 107 CHAPTER 108 CHAPTER 109 CHAPTER 110 ACT IX: PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE CHAPTER 111 CHAPTER 112 CHAPTER 113 CHAPTER 114 CHAPTER 115 CHAPTER 116 CHAPTER 117 CHAPTER 118 CHAPTER 119 CHAPTER 120 EPILOGUE: A NEW DIRECTION CHARACTER PROFILES AND NAME PRONUNCIATION GUIDE PEOPLE PLACES MISCELLANEOUS


FOREWORD

This is my sixth historical novel taking place in the era that is knownpopularly as the time of the Three Kingdoms : it follows on directly from East of the River: Home of the Sun Clan (though there is no obligation toread that prior work - this has been designed, like all of my work, to work inisolation) and aims to tell the story of that same family as they live throughthe rise of the warlord Cao Cao and the continuing decline of the Han Dynastythat has ruled China for hundreds of years. This novel is, in fact, set duringthe period prior to the actual Three Kingdoms (3K) era, better termed the lastyears of the Eastern Han (the novel ends a whole decade before the last Hanemperor abdicated), although that was when most of the more famous figures -Cao Cao, Guan Yu, L Bu, Yuan Shao, Zhou Yu, and, of course, Sun Jian and Sun Ce- were active: all of the aforementioned were actually dead by the time thatthe 3K era started, and many more - Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang and Cao Pi to namejust three - did not live for long thereafter. Sun Quan was one of the few menthat lived for decades after the fall of the Han - he outlived the Han by 32years - and this novel is, in one sense, a telling of the story of how he rosefrom the position of brother and son of famous heroes to becoming a powerfulwarlord in his own right.

To tell the story of Sun Quan is to also tell the story of Bofu (touse Sun Ce s style/courtesy name) during his last eventful years: it took meclose to a fifth of the book to cover Bofu s last battles with the remnants ofhis former lord Yuan Shu s following and the subsequent clashes - political andmilitary - with the Han emperor s ambitious guardian , Cao Cao. The remainingtime is, by circumstance, the story of the last years of Bofu s close friend, sworn brother and strategist, Gongjin (as Zhou Yu is known throughout themain text, for it is his style name): it is impossible to tell the story of SunQuan s rise without emphasising the integral part that Gongjin played, notleast for his most famous exploit, namely the destruction of the Han navy atthe Battle of Red Cliffs .

But revisiting the years after the strategist Zhuge Liang first beganhis career has not been without its problems for this author: a fair few scenesin my first work, Crouching Dragon: The Journey of Zhuge Liang were seen fromthe point of view of Sun Quan s court (despite the novel s protagonist beinga vassal of Sun Quan s rival Liu Bei), and yet those scenes (and theperspective that they were shown from) are also important to the story that Ihave to tell in this work. I therefore made a compromise: there are a smallnumber of scenes in the last three acts (Zhuge Liang meeting Sun Quan s courtfor the first time, Sun Quan s slicing of the table to demonstrate hisauthority and some of the war room scenes during the Battle of Red Cliffsare the most obvious examples) that draw upon existing scenarios and reuse dialogue from Crouching Dragon - all narrative is rewritten - though,where possible, those shared scenes are extended or shortened to better focuson the Sun clan. The overwhelming majority of the content of those last threeacts is, like the entirety of the preceding acts, newly-presented work by itsvery nature: different focal points include Sun Quan s cousin Ben s loyaltydilemma, the loss of loved ones after various political and tactical misstepsand the resulting internal strife that Quan was desperate to conceal fromallies, rivals and enemies alike.

The relatively plentiful historical documents that survive are my mainsource of inspiration, although there are moments when information gaps ,inconsistencies between sources or the need for strong characterisation - mymain focus - mean that I must be inventive: I shall let my audience be thejudge of what resulted (as usual) and hope that you enjoy it.


T. P. M. Thorne, the author


PROLOGUE: A WORD BEFORE PARTING


Two men in plain robes and simple black caps left the grand audiencehall of their lord and moved to the treasury offices nearby; their short walkthrough the streets of the southern city of Chaisang was deliberately slowdespite the general mood being one of great urgency. One of the men turned tothe other upon reaching the building and said, After you. No, after you, the other man replied mechanically. Not much interested in etiquette today, Gongjin ? the first man asked dryly. The second man - Zhou Yu of Lujiang, whose courtesy name was Gongjin -smiled slightly and said, Have we not both had enough of etiquette today, Ziheng ? The first man - L Fan of Xi, whose courtesy name was Ziheng - sighedand replied, I won t disagree. But please, go ahead anyway, and I will havetea brought for us. Zhou Yu nodded silently and passed his friend and colleague, who thenturned to a junior official and said, Have a servant bring us tea, please. Zhou Yu and L Fan weresat together in the meeting room of the treasury office within minutes, with L as host and Zhou as guest. L Fan sipped his tea from a dish and stared at ZhouYu, who had opted to sit with an empty dish and stare at it blankly: the twowere uncharacteristically silent for several minutes before L said, You re absolutelycommitted to this plan of yours, then. What other choice have