"This 'reputation', this 'dignity', sometimes... truly requires a few extraordinary means to safeguard."
Song Xiang removed his hand from the "casual notes", then continued, "Cao Mengde held the emperor to command the feudal lords, yet still bore the reputation of a fierce hero—that was due to his strategic mind. Without A-man's daring, how could one hold the emperor? How could one command the feudal lords? Are these not means?"
"Yet his able generals were like clouds, his strategists like rain; he pacified the northern heartland and swept away the rival heroes. Such achievements—how could they possibly be accomplished solely by the three words 'hold the emperor'? If he lacked the ambition to swallow the empire, the ability to control all heroes, and the merit to bring peace to the state, then even if he had managed to hold the emperor, he would have been no different from Dong Zhuo, leaving behind nothing but infamy in the annals of history."
Chapter 467