Chapter 6 The Emperor Leaves the Palace (1), Section 19

  Cao Cao was in high spirits, and although Yang Biao had not openly taken a stand, his parting words were tantamount to acquiescing in all that Cao would do later on. There would be no close cooperation, but neither would he thwart Cao's plans. It seemed that Yang Biao saw through the situation clearly - a wise bird chooses its tree wisely; rather than serve an incompetent ruler, why not start a new era? Cao was overjoyed and even his footsteps felt lighter. Normally it took some time to get from outside the palace to the emperor's chambers, but today he arrived in less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

  Cao Cao walked hastily, and upon passing through the corridor in front of him was Emperor Xian's bedroom. Unexpectedly, from the end of the corridor came several voices arguing, Cao Cao hastened his pace by two steps, only to discover that the argumentative voices were coming from the bedroom of the Han Emperor himself. He slowed down his footsteps and listened carefully with his ear tilted to one side.

  "Your Majesty, this is absolutely impermissible! Absolutely impermissible!" A shrill voice was actually tinged with a crying shout. Cao Cao recognized the voice as belonging to Song Jiu, his mole planted beside Emperor Xian of Han, who was in charge of the emperor's daily life and meals.

  "A tiny eunuch, dare to defy my will? Good! Good!" Cao Cao's eyebrows slightly furrowed, this was naturally Liu Xie's voice. Then Liu Xie continued: "Go, go and summon the Grand General for me, I want to ask him thoroughly, such great disobedience, what crime should he be guilty of?"

  Cao Cao was wondering what had happened, when he saw a eunuch hurrying out, not even lifting his head, and running with all his might. He almost collided with Cao Cao, who was approaching from the opposite direction. Cao Cao's expression turned slightly angry: "What is going on here?"

  The eunuch didn't notice who it was at first, but suddenly looked up to see Cao Cao standing tall with an angry face. He was so frightened that he trembled and hastily knelt down, saying: "Your humble servant greets the great general! Just now the emperor got angry and was about to deal with Lao Da, your humble servant was scared out of his wits and almost rushed into the great general, please forgive your humble servant!"

  Cao Cao glanced sideways and saw that the eunuch was quite young, about seventeen or eighteen years old. He had a clear and handsome appearance, although he looked flustered, but between his nervousness, there was a hint of cunning, yet he didn't lose his composure. Cao Cao recognized this person, whose name was Li Chen, also one of Cao Cao's informants planted beside Emperor Xian of Han, who had been following Song Jiu and doing things for him, so he always called Song Jiu "boss". Seeing that it was his own man, Cao Cao hastily helped Li Chen up from the ground and asked: "What happened?"

  Li Chen hastily bowed and said: "Early this morning, the Emperor suddenly had a strange idea, saying he wanted to take the Empress out of the palace for a stroll. Eldest brother strongly opposed it, but unexpectedly the Emperor got angry!"