Chapter 10: Fatal Hospitality
With Wang Yun dead, the emperor asks Dong Zhuo's generals, "Hey, so uh, why don't you leave now?"
And they reply, "Oh. Well we kind of expected promotions." So they get promotions.
They also try to have a proper funeral for what's left of their boss, but a storm rises up every time they try to do so, and eventually all the remains get washed away because the heavens themselves are pissed off at Dong Zhuo. Although why the heavens waited until now to do anything about it is beyond me.
Also Ma Teng and Han Sui, two governors from northwest China, show up briefly to oust the rebels, but they get stymied at the mountain passes right away and sit around for a couple months before turning around and going home again. I don't know why they even bothered including that bit. But we'll catch up with those two again later.
It's been a while since we've had to deal with some Yellow Turbans, so more of them begin to spring up around this time. The new and "improved" imperial court asks Cao Cao to deal with it. This isn't an outlandish request; he's actually really good at dispersing Turbans and integrating the best of them into his own army, so his forces are getting pretty sizeable.
Eventually Cao Cao decides he's getting pretty rich, and wants to move his father out to live at the in-law quarters behind his place. On his way, his father has to pass through territory governed by Tao Qian, who has a very high opinion of Cao Cao and wants to get on his good side. So he personally escorts Daddy Cao through his territory, feasts him, and treats him with the highest honors. Afterward, he picks out some troops to escort Daddy Cao the rest of the way home. Very hospitable guy.
...Except if he'd run background checks, he would have learned that the troops he picked used to be Yellow Turbans, and they're not particularly disciplined. So they kill Cao Cao's family and make off with their valuables. Cao Cao is understandably furious at this, and decides the person to blame is Tao Qian, who was just trying his best. Poor Tao Qian.
Anyway Cao Cao is going to lead his huge-ass army to Xuzhou so he can kill Tao Qian, along with everybody else in the city for good measure.
You know the saying. A million eyes for an eye.