Luoyang, Taiji Hall.
Silence filled the hall. Zhong Hui, Wang Chang, Hua Biao, and several other high ministers sat beside Cao Mao, their expressions grave.
Before them lay letters from the Wu Kingdom.
The number of these letters had suddenly surged to at least ten times the usual amount. They now covered the entire desk.
For a while, all of them remained silent.
Zhong Hui pondered for a moment before saying, "Sun Hao seized Zhang Bu's daughter, violated and tortured her, then asked her, 'How did your father die?'"
"She said he had been killed by a treacherous villain."
"Sun Hao beat her to death with a wooden club... a few days later, he missed her terribly and ordered a statue of her made and placed beside him."
"He asked others whether Zhang Bu had any other daughters. When he learned that Zhang Bu also had an eldest daughter married to the minister Feng Chun, he seized her too..."
Hua Biao could not help shaking his head. "I have never seen anyone so savage."
Hua Biao continued, "He issued an order at court forbidding anyone to look at him. Whoever encountered him had to lower their head, or their eyes would be gouged out. Countless palace officials, attendants, and others have lost their eyes for looking at him..."
"Shi Ji submitted a memorial saying that if he could not look at the Son of Heaven, he could not feel the Son of Heaven's grace and majesty... so Sun Hao allowed Shi Ji to look at him..."
Wang Chang's feelings were rather complicated. He asked, "He is only a new sovereign and has been on the throne for a very short time. Do the Wu Kingdom's ministers indulge him so completely? Are they unwilling to unite and drive him out?"
Zhong