Liu Bei POV

“Eh?! Yi Ji?” Though I knew who she was, I was still rather surprised.

“Why? Surprised?”

“Ah, a little.” I replied honestly.

When she heard me, she reached inside her chest and extracted a wooden plate which had words carved into it though I don’t know what they meant.

“This is my appointment token. I’m the Minister of War for this expedition.”

Un, I know that. But suddenly appearing behind me was what gave me a shock. And your encampment is on the other side so I didn’t expect this visit at all.

“Is this– A Jing state official?”

“Ah, look at me, I forgot to introduce you all.” I slapped my head when I remembered that I never formally introduced them to each other, and I hurriedly put down my food and got up.

“Everyone, this is the Minister of War for this expedition, and the Registrar of Jing state. Please do get along with each other.” I then turned to Yi Ji, “Yi Ji, this is Chen Dao, and this is Chen Gong and Zhou Cang.”

“Ah, well met.”

Everyone then bowed and saluted to each other. Zhou Cang’s bowing was a little off but I didn’t intend on saying anything about it. She was still better than me when I first transferred here after all, and saying too much will only irritate her.

“Imperial Uncle, may I ask if the standard of living is to your liking? If there are any problems or views, you can let me know directly. As the Minister, I will do my best to meet any demands you may have.”

“The food is good!” Zhou Cang expressed her satisfaction first.

“I see, we have very ample stores so you can eat as much as you wish.”

“If you’re asking for opinions, then here is mine.” Compared to Zhou Cang, Chen Gong wasn’t too good tempered and wasn’t about to let things slide.

“Chen Gong.”

“Don’t stop me, my lord. These aren’t our troops but they are all we got at this time. What will we do if they drop the ball or mutiny at a crucial moment?”

I wanted to stop her, but Chen Gong delivered me a sound scolding with a frown that left me utterly speechless.

“May I ask what is the matter?”

“Lord Yi Ji, when we were in battle today, we found that our troops weren’t happy to follow our orders and refused to advance or attack at times. I hope the Minister will look into this matter.” Chen Gong explained the issues when Yi Ji asked her.

“Yeah! They’re also constantly staring at–” Zhou Cang pipped up as well but was silenced by Chen Dao immediately. It’s a little embarra.s.sing to let outsiders know certain things after all.

“…”

I looked back at Yi Ji, and thought she might be troubled or even angry, or understanding at best. But at this time, Yi Ji had a blank expression on that seemed like she wasn’t even thinking about what Chen Gong said.

“May I ask if you can resolve this?” Chen Gong pressed, afraid that Yi Ji might be formulating some empty excuses to reply her with.

“… I understand, apologies for the trouble.” Yi Ji said as she closed her eyes and nodded, before turning to me, “Resolving this is another matter altogether. I would like to invite Imperial Uncle to come along with me. The young mistress wishes to discuss this matter with you.”

“I knew it. You definitely had a reason for coming here,”

“… You can’t say things like that Imperial Uncle. Don’t try and guess people’s motives so casually without any basis.”

Yi Ji said as she turned and walk ahead with steady and quick footsteps. She didn’t look at me as though I would definitely follow her closely. Honestly, I’ve never walked briskly at night as I can’t quite see, probably because of nightblindness.

“Alright.”

Though I said as much, I still felt vindicated. If Yi Ji comes to look for me, it’s definitely because Liu Qi has business with me. Of course, it could be that Liu Qi just wants to chat with me, but I doubt it will be devoid of pertinent matters.

Just then, a ruckus could be heard amongst the troops in the encampment. I looked over and saw a group of troops talking and laughing very happily. There were even some that were engaging in some unknown dance. When I looked about, only that area seemed to be rather noisy, which seemed weird.

“Those people are?”

“Ah, they’re surrendered barbarian troops. There was some uprising in the south some time ago, and my lord sent troops to quell them, and recruited some barbarian troops that surrendered. Their combat capabilities are very high. Not only are they very adaptable, they know shock tactics, are good at ambus.h.i.+ng, and are even better at archery. And so, they were appointed into the elite troops.”

Yi Ji spoke flowingly, which made me suspect that she was just bragging. But when I saw how unconstrained they were, I felt that they might be as what she said.

“Oh right, you said before that something big would be happening in Jiangxia. What is it?”

“Un, as per my a.n.a.lysis from before, this matter will probably come to fruition soon.” She didn’t explain herself, and only repeated what she said before.

I thought she would continue further, but she didn’t, and only continued walking forward.

Ever since I came to this era, everyone seems to like keeping me in suspense, as though the story won’t progress if they don’t do that.