Death by Indignation

Chapters 31-33

The plot takes us farther north than we’ve been before, into the desert. We meet a “khan.” And we finally get the “Desert Sandstorm” Magic card (p. 607). The desert is dangerous; Cao Cao only survives his visit through luck. When he returns from it, he rewards the people who told him not to go through the desert.

These chapters also bring the end for Yuan Shao, and introduce his wife, Lady Liu. She is a real treat. After her husband’s death, she executes his five favorite concubines, then she has “their heads shaved, their faces slashed, and their corpses mutilated, lest they try to rejoin their master in the nether-world. As a further precaution [her son] killed the concubines’ relatives.” (p. 528) Later on, Lady Liu promises her son’s beautiful wife to one of Cao Cao’s sons before her own son has even died. She seems totally devoid of virtue. I hope we see more of her.

There was one other death that captures the rules of honor in Three Kingdoms. While Cao Cao is in the north, he tries to win over one of the Yuan family's advisors. Cao Cao fails, but when the advisor returns to the Yuan family, they no longer trust him. The advisor is so upset by this lack of trust that he is “overwhelmed with indignation” and “died soon after.” (p. 602). You don't hear of too many people dying from indignation these days.