Third History Lesson

[make_history_chew_scenery]

[After that little hostage situation, Jeremy can be seen walking around and wearing slightly more than he usually does.  Along with his pants, he's also wearing... bandages.  A lot of medical bandages wrapped around his midsection.  Turns out that quite a few ribs had been cracked when he'd been squeezed roughly, with nothing but the power of HAM keeping him going.  He's not looking too happy though.]

Wearing all this excess material... it's almost as if I'm being smothered!

[So says the man who can count the number of times he's worn a shirt in the past year on one hand.  But there's more on Jeremy's mind though, and when he returns to one of his preferred reading spots, he's cracking open two books.  One: The Art of War.  Two: one volume in a multipart series covering the actual events during the conflict popularized in Romance of the Three Kingdoms.  The stuff with Gucun's making him want to start from the ground up, and hopefully find a way to help Cheng by turning to one of the past's biggest accounts on chronic backstabbing.]

Han Zhi is nothing more than a usurper and a despot, his public support be damned!  He is not the first man in history to stage an uprising such as this, and many that came before him have failed in time.

I will not give up.  I will not see the troubled tale of Gucun end in such a way as this!

Comments

[gurrenbrigbonded]

"Aff...that is to say, the ancestors of the clans–the men and women of the Star League–fought one such as Han Zhi."

He launches into a historical lecture that, to anyone else, might be a little off-putting.

"Stefan Amaris was the ruler of the Rim Worlds Republic, a minor star nation and protectorate of the mighty Star League, which was led by First Lord Richard Cameron, a young and troubled soul newly risen to the throne.

The vile heart of Amaris saw opportunity, and so, he cultivated the attention of Richard Cameron with gifts and flattery, supporting him in his rasher and more foolish political actions, and acting as Cameron's only ally whenever the Great Houses checked his influence. He started minor revolts all along the Periphery–save in his own nation, of course–so that General Kerensky and the S.L.D.F. were fighting never-ending suppression campaigns. And then he 'graciously' offered his own armies to help garrison Terra."

Matthew snarls quietly.

"Within a few months all members of the Cameron family line were butchered, and his forces drowned all opposition within the Terran Hegemony with their own blood. He 'offered' an alliance of power to Alexander Kerensky, but the Great General would not let his duty and honor be soiled by such an offer.

Though it took him 13 years of roaring civil war, he and the S.L.D.F. drowned the Rim Worlds Republic in flames, and wound their way through the core of the Hegemony to Terra itself. The would-be Emperor and his forces fought to the last, but were finally put down."

Matthew hesitated. "And yet the dream of the Star League was already lost..."

[make_history_chew_scenery]

[Certainly not off-putting to Jeremy. In fact, he's filled over two dozen notebook pages with comments and lines of inquiry for a later date.]

Astounding... regrettably more than a little unsurprising, but as my first real glimpse into Clan history it certainly has whet my appetite, Matthew!

Regrettably, I will have to ask for more information later... I cannot afford to let myself be distracted by another project when this one is so crucial!

[gurrenbrigbonded]

"What project are you currently invested in?" Matthew inquires.

[make_history_chew_scenery]

Conditioning myself! We have been played for fools constantly through this current crisis in Gucun... to have any hope of salvaging the situation, it's critical that we get on the same level as Han Zhi and plan and accurate predict his next moves.

My current readings will help with that.