I did it all for the Han Dynasty!

Chapter 512 You're Not a Hero
"His Majesty!"

When Liu Miao arrived at Wuchao, it was already evening.

The setting sun cast its already lukewarm rays upon Wuchao Marsh, making the water shimmer and creating a beautiful scene.

"What are you all waiting here for? Are you all here to be invited in by Yuan Shao?"

Liu Miao jumped off the fast ship, frowned, glanced at the imperial tent that smelled of herbs, and then asked with a hint of doubt, "Where is Yuan Shao?"

"Just now, Yuan Shao traveled alone by boat to the depths of Wuchao Marsh."

Liu Miao asked again: "Alone?"

At this moment, Sima Yi, who had rushed forward the fastest, also came closer: "It is indeed one person."

"Yo ho!"

Liu Miao rolled up his sleeves: "Is Yuan Shao trying to play hide-and-seek with me?"

"Alright! Grab your weapons! Let's go find him!"

"His Majesty."

Sima Yi persuaded Liu Miao to stay.

“Wuchao Marsh is not large, and we have already dispatched soldiers to surround it. Yuan Shao has no way to escape. Moreover, the mud at the bottom of Wuchao Marsh is extremely deep, and it will soon be night. It would be better to search again tomorrow.”

Sima Yi also reminded Liu Miao—

"The most pressing issue right now is the 200,000 Yuan soldiers who have scattered and fled."

The winter sun arrives so suddenly.

Just moments ago, the earth was adorned in crimson, but in the blink of an eye, dusk settled, and everything near and far was shrouded in a gray haze.

Liu Miao looked around and saw that although the expressions on their faces were joyful, what was hidden beneath the joy was the exhaustion of a day's hard work, so he approved the matter.

"There's really no need. Let's just wait for Yuan Shao for one night."

The Han army completely surrounded Wuchao Marsh, and belated smoke rose from the chimneys, with waves of heat and fragrance constantly gathering towards the center of Wuchao Marsh.

The lights replaced the sunlight, illuminating the entire Wuchao Marsh even brighter than during the day, making even the slightest ripple on the water's surface clearly visible.

Liu Miao stared longingly at a small fish placed on a charcoal fire, quietly observing when its skin and flesh would be grilled to a slightly charred and tender state, when suddenly the Han army in one direction erupted in chaos!

"Someone!"

"who!"

"come out!"

The ripples on the water's surface revealed the presence of someone deep within, and the Han soldiers all ventured into the depths of the marsh. Liu Miao initially didn't want to go; after all, even if a dragon emerged from the water, it wouldn't be as fragrant as the fish that was about to be roasted. However, with so many people going, Liu Miao could only reluctantly stand on the riverbank with his bow and arrows.

"Your Majesty, there are people here!"

"Nonsense! I'm not blind!"

In the direction where the light and shadow meet, the outline of a small boat clearly appears.

The Han soldiers, including Liu Miao, all focused their attention on the small boat, which was surrounded by layers of soldiers on the shore.

Liu Miao nocked an arrow and asked loudly, "Uncle Yue, is that you?"

"..."

"Yes."

"Bang!!!"

A deafening explosion! It sent countless water droplets flying!

Liu Miao sighed with some regret, then took a second arrow and nocked it.

"Uncle Yue! Don't worry! It's alright! Just now, one of my simpletons, Zhou Tai, accidentally threw the arrow over! I'll talk to him about it when we get back! Come on! Let's talk again! Where are you?"

"..."

Yuan Shao lay on the boat, helplessly watching Liu Miao standing in the light, holding a bow and arrow and shouting at him. He let out a heavy sigh.

Seeing that Liu Miao was about to try another arrow, Yuan Shao finally couldn't help but say, "Liu Miao, I can tell I won't live past tonight. Can't you save your energy?"

Liu Miao, standing on the shore, chuckled and dropped his bow and arrows, shouting into the darkness, "Uncle Yue, what are you saying? I've always wanted you to live to be a hundred!"

"..."

Yuan Shao finally lost his temper: "Liu Miao, I'm about to die, can't you even speak a few words of truth?"

"Or are you saying that someone like you has never told the truth since birth?"

Liu Miao crossed his arms and stroked his beard with his other hand: "I have never lied to anyone since I was born."

"And what about Yuan Shu?"

"Um……"

Liu Miao thought about it carefully and gave his reply—

"If General Hou had been a little smarter back then and hadn't been so pushy, I might have genuinely assisted him and gotten something like the Grand General of the Central Army."

"..."

Yuan Shao was completely unable to tell whether what Liu Miao was saying to him was the truth or a lie.

But that's no longer important.

Yuan Shao just wants to talk to someone.

"I never imagined that in the end, this world would still belong to your Liu family."

"Uh-huh."

"Could it be that destiny truly cannot fall upon anyone else?"

"Yep."

"..."

Hearing Liu Miao's perfunctory reply, Yuan Shao looked at Liu Miao with suspicion, only to see Liu Miao frequently turning his head, looking at something in the crowd.

"What are you doing?"

"Look at my fish! I've been starving all day! I'm counting on that grilled fish to fill my stomach!"

"..."

Yuan Shao suddenly realized that choosing to be with Liu Miao in the final stage of his life was the biggest mistake he had ever made!

How could Liu Miao, the powerful ruler of Hebei and the emperor of the Great Zhao, be less appealing than a grilled fish?
"Liu Miao, have you always been this arrogant?"

"Even compared to Xiang Yu, the Hegemon-King of Western Chu, I am far superior to him! Although you have won a battle, you have not yet gained the world. How can you treat me like this?" Even Liu Bang still maintained the respect due to Xiang Yu, constantly collecting his body, which had been chopped into five pieces, and burying it together. Liu Bang even buried Xiang Yu in Gucheng with the honors due to the Duke of Lu... Compared to Liu Bang, Liu Miao, who is now too lazy to even speak to him, is really too petty.

"Xiang Yu? You think you're worthy?"

Liu Miao was already somewhat angry because he couldn't find his grilled fish in the dense crowd. Hearing Yuan Shao mention Xiang Yu only added fuel to the fire.

"That Xiang Yu, the Hegemon-King of Western Chu, was truly the main force that overthrew the tyrannical Qin Dynasty. He essentially did everything Zhang Jiao could have done! How can you, a mere reaper, compare to him?"

"Although Xiang Yu later became complacent and only wanted to be a hegemon, at least he knew to commit suicide at Wujiang River so as not to bring disaster to the people of Jiangdong! But you led wave after wave of your fellow Hebei natives to their deaths. How dare you compare yourself to Xiang Yu?"

"And another thing! When Xiang Yu died, at least he had Yu Ji by his side! Look at you, now you're all alone, you didn't even leave behind a beauty... Sigh!"

"..."

Perhaps it was Liu Miao's anxious concern about the fish burning that finally made Yuan Shao realize some of his true feelings.

"So that's what you were thinking."

Yuan Shao was somewhat lost in thought: "I believe that your so-called 'people's well-being' when you ascended the throne was nothing but empty talk."

Liu Miao calculated the time in his mind, and thinking that his grilled fish was probably already charred, he became even more irritated.

Yuan Shao naturally became the easy target.

"I wrote to you before, saying that bestowing a title upon you was destined to fail, and that I would instead bestow upon you the title of King of Wu of the Great Han... Well! You didn't believe me! Now so many people have died in vain, and you still lost, didn't you?"

Liu Miao straightened his back with a touch of arrogance: "Even if you beg me now, I will not bestow upon you the title of King of Wu of the Great Han! Do you really think that being the King of Wu of the Great Han is so easy? Too late! Humph!"

Yuan Shao was even more exhausted.

He even felt that communicating with Liu Miao was more tiring than fighting another battle with him.

"Who wants to be your King of Wu of the Han Dynasty..."

"besides!"

Liu Miao was clearly not done cursing yet.

"Don't even mention Xiang Yu, you're not even as good as Wang Mang."

"Although Wang Mang usurped the Han throne, he genuinely tried every means to save the country after ascending the throne! Although his ideas were mostly nonsense, at least he tried! And what about you?"

"In the end, it's still the same old system from the Later Han Dynasty!"

"During the persecution of the Party, powerful families were closely allied, and the common people were at the mercy of others."

"Zhang Jiao shouted 'The Blue Heaven is dead, the Yellow Heaven shall rise!' so loudly that it shook the entire land. How come you, Yuan Shao, didn't hear it at all?"

"..."

Yuan Shao's expression was strange at this moment.

"Liu Miao, you don't actually admire Zhang Jiao, do you?"

"Aren't you afraid that another Zhang Jiao will emerge in the future and turn your Han Dynasty upside down?"

Liu Miao put his hand to his forehead.

"After being emperor for so long, haven't you realized that the idea that 'I am the state' is just a scapegoat?"

"What do you mean by 'my Han'? When did the Han Dynasty belong to me? I want all the beautiful women within a hundred miles to come to my bed right now. Do you see anyone paying any attention to me?"

Liu Miao shook his head repeatedly: "The Han Dynasty has never belonged to me, it belongs to the Han people."

"As for the emergence of another Zhang Jiao... Yuan Shao, I sincerely recommend to you the Taoism that Zhang Lu, also a Taoist, is currently preaching! Everything, in the end, must be traced back to its source, to know not only what happened but also why it happened. You only know that Zhang Jiao appeared, but you don't know why Zhang Jiao appeared. Is that appropriate?"

Liu Miao completely gave up on the idea of ​​eating fish and simply sat on the ground to talk to Yuan Shao in the darkness.

"The Duke of Zhou created the Confucian system, and Confucius promoted the Confucian system. Their original intentions may have been good, that is, to bring order to the world. The Duke of Zhou did not want the Three Guards to be in turmoil, and wanted the people to stop fighting and cease hostilities; Confucius did not want the feudal lords to fight for hegemony, and wanted the people to recuperate and thrive."

"But I don't know what happened. The idea was good, but it ended up like this."

"Perhaps it's because we're used to order that we reject anything that seems out of place, closing our eyes and covering our ears as if it never happened."

Liu Miao, stroking his chin, said dejectedly, "The most important thing when you discover a problem is to solve it, not to punish the person who discovered it."

"When a Zhang Jiao appears, we should figure out why Zhang Jiao appeared, rather than killing Zhang Jiao."

"Otherwise, the more you fear something, the more likely something will appear to kill you in the future."

Breathing grew heavier in the darkness.

A moment later, intermittent sounds could be heard.

“Liu Miao…”

"If I had met you in my youth, I would have been so fortunate."

Liu Miao also thought about it for a while.

If I had met Yuan Shao when he was young... wouldn't I have hit the jackpot? With the backing of the richest second-generation heir in the Han Dynasty, wouldn't I be able to bully any Cao family member I wanted? And sleep with any Bian family member I wanted?

Liu Miao loved to borrow the tiger's power!

At least, it's much more enjoyable than fighting alone on stage!

"Indeed, I wish I had met you sooner."

Although Liu Miao and Yuan Shao did not mean the same thing, they did reach some consensus.

Finally, Liu Miao seemed to remember something and suddenly asked Yuan Shao, "Do you know what the General of the Rear said to me before he died?"

"..."

"He said, if it weren't for this chaotic world, what good brothers you and he would be! You would be together, acting as chivalrous knights, upholding justice, and even spying on widows bathing..."

Liu Miao kept talking until he stopped, and a long time later, a somewhat hoarse voice came from the darkness—

"Stop lying."

A moment later, a loud "plop" echoed, sending waves crashing across the water's surface, spreading far and wide. Even Liu Miao could see the ripples spreading outwards...

When Liu Miao saw that there was no movement in front of him, he shook his head slightly, then pushed through the crowd and walked towards his own tent.

"Ugh?"

Liu Miao suddenly looked at the entrance of his tent with a look of surprise!

At this moment, Chen Yu was sitting there, holding a string of small fish that were glistening with oil in his hand.

The little fish that Liu Miao longed for was actually not very big, only half the length of a hand.

But upon seeing that it was intact and hadn't turned into a charred mess, Liu Miao immediately ran over excitedly, spreading his arms wide and shouting—

"Long live!!!"

　There's another chapter tonight. This chapter was originally written yesterday, but I didn't finish it until almost 2 AM. I wasn't satisfied with it after I woke up this afternoon, so I rewrote it.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)