Liu Acheng felt guilty, but he knew it was the guilty conscience of a thief. After all, this really was awkward.
In terms of good faith, releasing Yao Chang meant putting his word first and not betraying another man. By the values of this age, that deserved to be trumpeted to the skies. The trouble was that the original deal could never be made public, because he had struck it purely for the sake of the Lueyang Di people.
And because it could not be made public, an otherwise admirable deed, entirely in keeping with feudal values, became an unauthorized release.
But if they insisted on calling it unauthorized, whose authority counted?
Huan Wen's, or the court's?
Even if Huan Wen and the court agreed at present, it was still a tangled mess, because it involved their differing attitudes toward the Yao Xiang Group:
Huan Wen and the court needed a military operation to strike back at the Murong Xianbei. Coupled with Yao Xiang's earlier betrayal, their position was straightforward: retake Luoyang and crush Yao Xiang as thoroughly as possible.
From the outset, Liu Cheng had firmly and publicly stated his political position. He opposed dealing a devastating blow to the Yao Xiang Group, believing they should be allowed into Guanzhong, or even sent into northern Shaanxi and the Jin lands, to become a problem for the Murong Xianbei and help keep the Di people in check.
He maintained that position to this day.
Of course, most importantly, now that Yao Xiang had collapsed, hadn't he been the one to beat him? Didn't he have the right to speak and decide what to do with him?
Having thought it through, Liu Acheng went to see Huan Wen with an easy conscience. Thirty riders of the Attendant Secretariat Supervisor cavalry escorted