Liu Bei POV

Though I miss them, life in Jiangxia must go on.

“Did Liu Qi come here to put stuff as well?”

“No, I’m just strolling about.”

That’s quite honest of her.

“I see.” I softly replied, and decided to size her up since I had nothing to continue the conversation with.

Her clothing was still the same style as ever but she had a herbal sachet hanging by her waist, probably to mask the smells from the camp.

“Uncle, did you hear anything?”

“Ah, ah? About what?”

She moved, and my eyes continued to follow the herbal sachet hanging by her waist. I suddenly realised that this was a little uncouth and s.h.i.+fted my gaze to her face.

“I’m talking about the enemy troops outside the city of course. It’s been a week but they haven’t done anything at all since then.”

“Well, they can’t possibly launch a siege on a city guarded by 6,000 men with just 4,000 after all. If things go bad for them, they might get wiped out.”

“Un…” Liu Qi sank into silence after I finished, and a frown appeared on her face as she continued, “I told Yi Ji that 2 days ago as well when we were talking about this but Yi Ji is pretty concerned about the enemy movements. She thinks that the reinforcements have arrived and i now feel that this is possible.”

“They have?”

Why did she think so?

“Jiangxia is surrounded by the river in the north and covered by forests in the south. If the enemy entered the forests in the night, then things could be troublesome.”

Un… Indeed, but if that’s the case, then our scouts should have detected some sign of that. Chen Gong could not have missed out this danger as well.

“Perhaps you’re just over thinking things.”

And even if they were hiding, it’s not like we can move out and attack them so they can’t possibly ambush us.

“By the way, it’s really been hard on uncle for this period. We’ve been marching non-stop before and now we’re met with such a dire situation.” Liu Qi said as she looked at me with guilty eyes.

I smiled when I heard this.

“No way. I’m used to such situations anyway.” I opened my hands and began to count them, “Back when I occupied Xu state, I was heavily surrounded by Meng De and very nearly died. Looking at how things are like now, I’m still better off than back then.”

At the very least, it’s not snowing here, I thought as I smiled bitterly.

“It’s Liu Qi’s first expedition right?”

“… Yes.” Liu Qi said as she nodded.

“Father has always hoped that I can command troops so I’ve been brought up as a boy.”

Oh~ No wonder she feels so boyish in the way she carries herself, and how she speaks and acts is so rigid and modest.

“A boy huh… Speaking of which, the way you and your little sister carry yourselves are like 2 extremes.”

When I think back to when I just disembarked from the s.h.i.+p and set foot on Jing state, I remember another girl standing beside Liu Qi, who should be Liu Cong. I didn’t specially take note of her, but I remember a flower on Liu Cong’s hair and how she seemed very much like a girl.

“Well of course, she’s the 2nd daughter after all. Hmph.” Liu Qi folded her arms as she said so, and huffed disdainfully.

“Father hoped to have a boy to carry on the family line and pa.s.s down the blood of the ancestors. After having me, father didn’t give up and only after that he had that la.s.s did he give up from the bottom of his heart and began to accept that carry on the family line wasn’t bad after all. Of course, I don’t blame father since patriarchical thinking was more prevalent back then.”

“Haha, I see…”

When I heard her last sentence, I laughed stiffly. Even in the 21st century, this sort of thinking is still prevalent in many places. If as Yun Chang said, gender equality has been in place since the Shang dynasty, what caused things to revert?

“Ah… Right, how many of your personal troops are left?”

I felt that this topic would get more and more serious if we continued and with the circ.u.mstances we were in where there was so much pressure I found it difficult to breathe, I decided to change the topic.

“We have about 100 or so in each of our contingents. So the ratio hasn’t really changed, and we are still at 1:10 against our favour.”

“I see.” That’s all I could say. I couldn’t possibly say that I felt relieved as this wasn’t the truth and I couldn’t even lie about it.

“My lord! Why are you slacking off here!” Out of nowhere, an urgent voice interposed with pants and coughs came from a nearby alley.

I looked over and saw Chen Dao running towards me with great strides, “Chen Dao, why are you so panicked?”

“Ah, Lord Liu Qi is here too.” When she came up to me, she didn’t forget to bow to Liu Qi before continuing.

And when she finished what she said, I began to panic as well.

— Zhu Zhi and Zhu Ran have brought their troops before the city and have begun challenging us.

I put on my uniform, plate armour and equipment, rushed out of the encampment and mounted my warhorse and looked at the 1,300 or so troops before me. Looks like they’ve been ready for a while now.

Liu Qi left with her troops a few minutes ago already and we were the last to get to the frontlines.

“Where did Imperial Uncle go instead of waiting for orders in the camp?”

“I thought my lord ran away.”

As expected, these 2 complained about my tardiness.

“How can you say that, Zhou Cang! How could our lord have ran away!”

“I won’t run away, yes, but Chen Dao’s explanation isn’t very convincing.” I said as I patted Chen Dao’s shoulders and brought my horse to the head of the troops as I pa.s.sed through Zhou Cang and Chen Gong.

Though they berated me, they still made a path for me to pa.s.s through immediately.

“Let’s get moving then! To the south gate.” I swung my reins and rode off when I finsihed,

When I moved off, the entire contingent moved as well, making a thunderous pandemonium from foot falls from both humans and horses. This sort of noise was easy to take a liking to once you got used to it.

“Chen Gong, give me a brief report of the situation.”

“About 15 minutes ago, the 2 enemy generals brought their troops to the south gate and began yelling challenges. Huang Zu has brought some troops to the south hate already.”

“How many did Zhu Ran bring?”

“About 3,000.”

So they brought the bulk of the vanguard huh.

“They couldn’t be planning to lay siege on the city with just that amount of troops right? They should know that we have 5-6,000 troops on our side after all.” Chen Dao said beside me.

“A siege is impossible so they should be here only to provoke us.” Chen Gong said.

“If they are just here to provoke us, then there is no need for all of us to move out right?” Zhou Cang said.

But when Zhou Cang finished, I saw a stormy expression on Chen Gong, “What’s the matter, Chen Gong?”

“… I have an ominous premonition.” Chen Gong supported her chin with a finger as she said so, “If they came solely to provoke us, then there’s something I don’t get. Why did they choose today to do so specifically, and not the past few days?”

“Couldn’t they be resting and recuperating over the past few days? They did lose quite a lot of troops after all.”

“Un…” Chen Gong sank into thought once more.

But there wasn’t time for her, or us, to think any further. In the short timespan this conversation took place in, we’d reached the south gate already.

Speaking of which, why are there so many troops crowding about the gates? Shouldn’t they be up on the walls and the towers?

“My lord, look up ahead! It seems like some troops are leaving the city!”

Eh? They were getting ready to leave the city?!

“What!” Chen Gong yelled out and reacted before I could, and was practically standing atop of her horse as she looked out, and yelled out again, “Idiots!”

I was beginning to panic as well, and dismounted my horse. I ordered Chen Dao and Zhou Cang to bring the troops up the towers to prepare for battle and began to climb the towers as well with brisk steps.

Following me was Chen Gong.

I climbed the tower skipping 2-3 steps at a time, but Chen Gong could only climb up at a slow pace no matter how fast she tried to climb the steps because of her thick platform shoes.

“Wu…” Chen Gong moaned but didn’t slow down her pace and began to climb up more hastily.

“Here, Chen Gong.” I couldn’t watch this any further and leapt down to where Chen Gong was and bent down so that she could climb onto me.

“Imperial Uncle, what is this–”

“Come on up.” I didn’t let her continue and just bade her to climb onto my back.

Chen Gong wasn’t too heavy, and it seemed like a considerable amount of weight came from her shoes, so it wasn’t too difficult to climb the tower while I carried her. That said, I was still heaving when I got to the top.

Chen Gong was still complaining at the start but she slowly stopped speaking, and later hugged my shoulders tightly, making it easier for me to carry her up.

After about 5 minutes, we made it to the top. When we emerged from the steps, the first thing that greeted me was a fluttering white scarf.

“Gan Ning!” I hurriedly yelled out.

Gan Ning turned around, and hurriedly leapt over to me when she saw that it was me. Her expression didn’t seem very anxious but I could see some beads of sweat on her forehead.

“Imperial Uncle.” She bowed and saluted me when she came before me.

“Gan Ning, who was it who left the city to meet the other side in battle?” Before I could reply her, Chen Gong spoke up on my back.

I hurriedly let her down when I remembered that she was on my back.

The Administrator led the troops out of the city.”

Chen Ging sank into thought for a moment, and walked over to the walls wordlessly.

“Chen Gong, be careful of stray arrows.” I warned her as I followed behind her.

I looked down as I stood on the city walls, and saw Zhu Ran facing off against Huang Zu. Looks like they haven’t begun fighting.

“How many men did the Administrator bring?”

“1,000.”

She brought out only 1,000 again.

“Why did she leave to fight a battle outside the city instead of turtling?!” Chen Gong asked again.

Huang Zu leaving the city to do battle outside from before had a possibly logical reason behind it. But there aren’t any reinforcements for our side anymore and they know how strong our side is, so why did she choose to leave the city this time?

“…” Gan Ning remained silent for a moment, probably because the answer was difficult to say, but after a moment, she still spoke up, “Because the one called Zhu Ran insulted our lord Liu Biao.”

“What kind of s.h.i.+tty reason is that! Just because of something like that–”

“Chen Gong.” I called and stopped Chen Gong who was enraged and had a heap of complaints to deliver. She turned and looked at me angrily, but I only shook my head at her, hoping that she could restrain herself.

Huang Zu owes Liu Biao deeply so it’s understandable that this sort of situation has happened.