The Three Kingdoms Volume 1 by Luo Guanzhong Read Free Book Online

poisoned the girl and the baby was left in the care of Empress Dowager Dong, who was the mother of the Emperor and wife of Liu Chang, Prince of Jiedu. In the past, because Emperor Huan had no son of his own he had adopted the son of the prince, who succeeded to the throne as Emperor Ling. After his accession, he had his own mother brought into the palace to live and conferred upon her the title of Empress Dowager.
    The Empress Dowager had often tried to persuade her son to name Xie as heir apparent, and in fact the Emperor himself was in favor of the boy. When he fell seriously ill, one of the eunuchs called Jian Shuo said, “If Prince Xie is to succeed, He Jin must die.” The Emperor saw this was true, so he commanded He Jin to come to him. But at the gate of the palace, he was warned of the eunuchs’ plot to kill him, and he hurried back to his own house, where he called many of the court officials to his side to consider how to put all the eunuchs to death.
    One of them stood out and said: “The influence of the eunuchs dates back half a century and has spread like a creeping weed in all directions. How can we hope to destroy it thoroughly? If there should be any leakage of the plot, your clan will be exterminated. Please consider this carefully.”
    He Jin looked at the speaker and found that it was Cao Cao. He Jin was very angry and cried, “What do inferiors like you know of the ways of the state?”
    In the midst of their indecision, the minister who had warned him at the palace gate came and said: “The Emperor is no more. Jian Shuo has reached an agreement with The Ten not to announce the death. They have forged an edict to command you to go into the palace so as to destroy you. Furthermore, they want to make Prince Xie the new Emperor to avoid future trouble.” He had hardly finished speaking when the edict arrived, urging He Jin to go to the palace to discuss the succession.
    “The matter for the moment is to set up the rightful heir first,” said Cao Cao. “Then deal with the eunuchs.”
    “Who dares to join me?” asked He Jin.
    At once there stepped forward a man who said: “Give me 5,000 veteran soldiers and we will force our way into the palace, set up the new heir, slay all the eunuchs, and sweep clean the government so as to restore peace to the land.” The energetic speaker was Yuan Shao, son of a high-ranking minister and a senior officer in the imperial army.
    He Jin mustered 5,000 palace guards for Yuan Shao to command, while he himself went into the palace, followed by some thirty other ministers. And before the very coffin of the late Emperor, they installed Prince Bian on the throne.
    After the ceremony was over and all the officials had paid their respects to the new ruler, Yuan Shao went in to arrest Jian Shuo. The terrified man escaped into the palace garden and hid among the flowers, where he was discovered and murdered by one of his colleagues. All his guards surrendered. Yuan Shao thought this was the most opportune moment to destroy The Ten and advised He Jin to take immediate actions against them. But they had already scented the danger and they went to Empress Dowager He for help.
    They said to her: “It was Jian Shuo who plotted against your brother, the General. None of us had anything to do with it. Now the General has taken Yuan Shao’s advice and wishes to kill every one of us. Please have pity on us.”
    “Do not worry,” she said, “I will protect you.”
    Then she sent for her brother and said to him in private, “You and I are of lowly origin. We owe our good fortunes to the eunuchs. Now that the treacherous Jian Shuo is dead, why do you listen to other people’s words and want to kill them all?”
    He Jin obeyed and came out to explain to his party, “Jian Shuo was the one who plotted against me and his family should be exterminated. But it’s not necessary to kill the rest of them.”
    “If you do not destroy them, root and branch,” said Yuan Shao, “they