Romance of the Three Kingdoms
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- The line of Ching did not end their story there. After this event, Ken/Kentaro Manase remained with Takeru Mizutani until his adulthood, but he would not accept him as his master. Instead, he hoped to become a warlord himself. So he traded his father’s imperial seal for 3,000 soldiers from the man, and set out to unify the land. He found many useful friends such as the general Naoto Takenouchi, the linguist Zhang Chiu (elder brother of the famous Shuto Chiba), and the benevolent Shintaro Kanegawa.
- Hian-te Ruchang, Sun Ching’s wise son-in-law and advisor, went to talk with his father-in-law: “Master, we can’t win this war with Kei Tanaka by Keisuke Fujioka’s side. Our of our generals, Yang Chin-chi, is a friend of his son. Tell him to convince the man to our side and shower him with gifts.” “Will he betray his own father for us?” the general asked. His advisor said: “He is a great warrior, but he is not cunning.” So the general followed his advisor’s advice. He ordered his men to take great treasures to the son of his enemy.
- With Ta-lang Ching by his side, Pien-te Qian was invincible. When a noble spoke up against the general at a party, his son dragged him out and chopped his head off instantly before returning for drinks. His arrogance now unsurpassed, the general ordered Empress Meng and her son Crown Prince Wang thrown to their death from the balcony of the palace and installed Prince Sun as Emperor of China. As the new Minister of War, the general was the most powerful man in China.
- When a rival concubine found favor with the Emperor, Tung Yu had her murdered, much to the chagrin of the Emperor and his mother the Empress Dowager. But he was ruthless. Next, he murdered the Empress Dowager, because she dared to insult his sister the Empress. With the army behind him, he felt himself untouchable. The Emperor was very angry, but could do nothing.
- While Teng Biao and his brothers were fleeing, the Tang court was in turmoil too. During that time, the Ten Eunuchs were the most powerful men in China, but soon, the Emperor Lien-te found a beautiful woman and married her. Her name was Empress Meng. Through her influence, her uneducated brother Zhu Ching became Grand General of China. He was only a butcher, but now he had even more power than the Ten Eunuchs.