Don’t Tell Me This Is the True History of the Three Kingdoms! - Vol 10 Chapter 13
Chapter 13
VOLUME 10 CHAPTER 13: DON’T TELL ME THIS IS THIS IS THE CALM AFTER THE BATTLE OF FAN CITY (13)
Meng De POV
“Un, yes.” Cheng Yu nodded with her eyes half-closed, “That Xu Shu’s original name was Xu Fu and is a renowned hermit scholar in Jing state. She originally lived in the north but killed someone and was forced to flee to the south.”
“A hermit huh?” I nodded and asked, “Based on what you know, how good is she with strategies?”
“She is very good. Based on what she did in this battle, it is clear that she is at least better than I am.”
Un… That’s a very good view of her.
“Does my lord intend to recruit her?”
“Un? Ah, I do.” I nodded and felt like her question seemed a bit off and asked, “What about it? Do you have any way to do so?”
“I heard that Xu Shu’s aged mother is in a labour camp in the border. If we can, we can bring her back here–”
“No.” I did not want to listen to what Cheng Yu had to say, “If you were to know someone who could persuade Xu Shu then by all means. I will not employ such tactics as they are far too tasteless.”
“My lord~” Cheng Yu called out to me with a louder tone, “Leaving aside whether Liu Bei is still alive or not, his faction in Xinye is a great roadblock for our southern campaign. Amongst his faction right now, Xu Shu is the greatest threat. If you want to control the situation and take the south to unite the world as soon as possible, you cannot show feminine compa.s.sion.”
“What era are we in now? What kind of nonsense are you spouting? It’s just compa.s.sion and not feminine compa.s.sion.” I said irritably and tapped my finger on the table to soothe my anger.
But after I finished, Cheng Yu remained silent. I have to admit that as a feudla lord, doing what Cheng Yu suggests is the best course of action. If this were before, I would have not wavered about this but my beliefs and ideals have changed after what happened to Xuan De and I am seriously considering what Cheng Yu suggested.
“… Let me think about it.”
“… Yes, but I hope my lord can give me an answer as soon as possible.” Cheng Yu calmly said without urging me further and bowed.
“Hu,” I heaved a sigh of relief, “Alright, let’s put that aside for now. Cheng Yu, what were you going to say to me earlier?”
“It’s nothing important.”
“Just say it.”
“… May I ask why my lord denied Li Dian’s words so vehemently?”
“Why is that?”
I was actually caught off guard by Cheng Yu’s question and did not know how to respond. I felt even worse than before during the discussion with Li Dian and Cao Ren as I felt like my resolve was being broken down.
“… Alright.” Cheng Yu said as she closed her eyes and nodded just as I was about to cave in, “I won’t ask any further about this. My lord has her own considerations after all.”
“Un…”
Naturally, I am beyond relief to hear this from her. To be honest, I never though that I would be haunted by this for so long. Even though… I was going to forget all about him.
To be honest, I was beside myself with joy when I read that Xuan De might be alive. I was truly happy from the bottom of my heart that Xuan De could and likely is alive and well. But at the same time, as a feudal lord sitting on the opposite side of where Xuan De is, this is quite possibly the worst news I can get at this time.
Everything was going smoothly and Xuan De’s death was the
catalyst for me to go all in and execute the southern campaign. If it were not for his death, I would never have gone ahead with it.
And now that it has been decided, all the preparations are in place and all of our subordinates are getting into position. Under these circ.u.mstances, what can I possibly do for Xuan De? Give him a way out? And disregard the lives of tens, even hundreds, of thousands of troops?
Of course not.
If Xuan De is still alive, then all I can do is to crush him with all I have. When the time comes, we will never be able to meet or speak again as I will be the one who personally ends Xuan De. I do not want to do so, to the point where I wish that Xuan De is no longer alive, so that I can preserve the good memories between us.
Xuan De… The man called Shamoke… Is he you…
“My lord, I’ll be taking my leave then.” Cheng Yu said and bowed when she saw that I was deep in thought before getting up to leave. As I looked at Cheng Yu’s back, a sudden impulse hit me and I spoke up.
“Wait, Cheng Yu. Xu Shu’s mother, where is she now?”
Liu Bei POV
Back in the 21st century, I never liked the sound of drums as the loud beats made my head hurt. But for some reason, I have begun to like that sort of loud beat coupled with cheers after coming to this era.
“Look, my lord, Xinye’s commoners have come out to send us.”
“Yes, I saw it.” I replied Chen Dao who seemed very excited.
When we were getting ready to leave the mansion to go to Fan city, this information leaked out somehow and all of Xinye’s residents came out to send us. I thought they had come to chase us away at first but Zi Long later told me that this was a goodwill gesture.
“But they really sent us all the way huh?” I said as I turned back and saw that there were still commoners ahead even after taking 3-400 paces out from the city gates. I do not remember being this effective of a ruler to receive such treatment.
“Thank you all! Many thanks, everyone!” I yelled back happily to everyone around us.
We were not actually going to stay at Fan city and were just going there to hold a belated celebratory banquet since Feng Xian, Wen Yuan and the rest have more or less taken over the city and Yuan Zhi and Yi De were already fine.
And I am beginning to really miss those at Fan city by now and would really want to see them. At the same time, I also wanted to see the city that we finally took after all the effort we put in. It’s not actually a substantial victory but it holds a special meaning to me.
“Perhaps my lord is a lot more popular amongst the commoners than I thought.” Zi Long said as she looked about with her spear in her hands and smiled, “I don’t think that you’ve done much but you have gained the affection of practically all of the commoners in Xinye.”
“No, I really have done nothing at all. Moreover, I’m currently wearing this hat so no one should know that I’m Liu Bei.” I said as I waved to the commoners and pointed at Zi Long and Yuan Zhi in turn as I continued, “The ones they should be grateful to are you and you.”
I would like to point at more people but there are not that many in our convoy going to Fan city today. Apart from me, Zi Long and Chen Dao, only Yuan Zhi and Yi De were going. As for the rest, the Xu state 3 and Huang Zu and the rest of her city defence team remained in Xinye. It’s not like we can leave the city empty after all and they have a good deal of work to do as well.
I really wanted to go with them but there was no choice. They would have to make a separate trip to Fan city another time. As for me, this is a sort of off day for me. Otherwise, I would be back in the room buried in paperwork. Really, the ones who should be receiving the admiration and affection of the commoners are the Xu state 3 who worked tirelessly to clean up the mess we had made.
“But if their lord were not you, would those 3 have done the same things?”
(TL: Another clear example of MC’s inner monologue leaking out through his mouth.)
Un? Just as I was feeling sorry for the Xu state 3 for not being here, Yuan Zhi spoke up about them.
“They will.” I replied immediately, “They’re good people after all.”
Their faces popped up in my mind as I replied. Though they may seem like demons during our lessons, they are nice people normally.
“Be that as it may, they would still not take actions that would go against the will and intent of their lord.” Yuan Zhi said as she smiled at me.
Though Yuan Zhi was wearing a bandana now, I have seen her without a bandana enough times for me to know what kind of expression she had now and blushed.
“May I ask if there is anything wrong, Xuan De?” Yuan Zhi asked as she stared at me.
“Eh?” I realised that I was staring at Yuan Zhi and hurriedly turned away, “Ah, no, nothing.”
Naturally, I could still feel Zi Long’s piercing gaze at my back.
