Liu Bei POV

“Liu Qi didn’t go?”

“No, just like you both.” Liu Qi said coldly as she sat down beside me. Chen Gong and I quickly s.h.i.+fted a little to give her some s.p.a.ce.

“Is uncle planning to join the battle tomorrow?” She asked after she sat down.

I could only be honest about it, “Yes, I feel that Administrator Huang Zu shouldn’t be left alone to defend Jiangxia. It won’t look good on us and will be difficult to justify as well if we were to retreat now.”

“What does Lord Liu Qi think?” Chen Gong asked just as I finished, hoping to for Liu Qi to deliver a sound scolding to me.

“Un… I happen to have something to say about this as well.” Liu Qi lowered her head and looked at me, “The official doc.u.ments for our retreat I mentioned earlier haven’t been sent over yet.”

“Eh?”

“How can that be? Didn’t you say back then that it would take only 2-3 days?”

Chen Gong and I were both very surprised but Liu Qi was still stern as ever. In her eyes, I could see a hint of anger and dissatisfaction.

“It seems like Cai Mao delayed the courier so the earliest that the doc.u.ments can reach here is tomorrow night.”

“No way! Tomorrow is when the tide is at its lowest so that’s when they will attack. Don’t even talk about tomorrow night, we’ll be decimated by noon.” Chen Gong exclaimed as she stamped her feet.

“So whether or not we wish to stay or not, we have to stay.” I said casually, as I was planning on staying in the first place.

“That’s what it means.” Liu Qi said as she looked at me and seemed to have guessed what I thought, and continued, “Not just that, we may have to defend Jiangxia to the death.”

“Must we defend to the death?” This made me surprised. Rather than defend Jiangxia to the death, I was hoping to be able to make it out of here alive along with everyone else.

“d.a.m.n it! That Cai Mao really wants to kill us all!” Chen Gong slammed her fist against the log we were sitting on as she said so.

“Unfortunately, it seems like she is about to succeed.” Liu Qi continued, “The command tallies are with Huang Zu so if we unilaterally retreat, we will be branded as deserters and will be sentenced to death anyway.”

“Hai… Why am I so unlucky?” Chen Gong complained, “I was hoping to ride on the coattails of Imperial Uncle but now I’m going to die here.”

“Sorry.” I smiled bitterly. It was my fault after all that we have ended up in such a predicament.

“Don’t apologise…”

Eh?

For some reason, she frowned and pouted as she looked away, “If dying here is my fate, then following Imperial Uncle into death isn’t too bad.”

Hahaha, is she praising me or criticising me? I’ll just take it that she’s praising me.

“In any case, we need to plan for the worst case scenario.” Liu Qi got up as she said so, “And hope that the heavens smile upon us tomorrow.”

She looked up at the sky, and I too raised my head. The night sky was deep and dark and devoid of stars, and sucked me in as though it were a black hole.

Tomorrow is the decisive battle.

No matter what, I have to do something.

—

The next day, I got up early. When I thought about how the decisive battle might take place today, I couldn’t sleep.

I wore my clothing, put on my plate and sheathed my twin swords on my back before I went to look for Chen Gong. When I went to find her, she was awake, and we went to find Liu Qi only to find that she was awake already.

It was obvious that Liu Qi didn’t have a good sleep. There were dark circles below her eyes which had tinges of red here there. She was probably too uptight and exhausted. She probably fine and if we could make it out alive, she would probably recover very quickly. Of course, this was probably the very problem that kept Liu Qi up all night.

“Are you alright?”

“… I’m still okay.”

I carefully asked Liu Qi, who was in a daze and only replied me after a while.

“Why don’t you just stay in the encampment and not go to the sh.o.r.e?”

“No.” She softly said, and then stepped out from her tent shakily. When I saw this, I hurriedly went up to help her.

“I’m the lord of those 2. How can a ruler convince the ma.s.ses if she isn’t even around when her subordinates are doing battle?”

Liu Qi said as she frowned and clenched her teeth as she stood up and stretched her back and chest. Her clothes hadn’t been washed for a few days now and the silver embroidered flowers were covered by earth and mud.

But despite all this, she still pressed on with the pride of a feudal lord.

This was her first true battle but she was so much better than I was, and even better than my showing in the next few battles as well. Why did someone so strong and capable not receive much mention in history? I don’t remember a single line of praise about Liu Qi in history at all.

It’s a little unfair.

“Imperial Uncle, should we be heading to the riverside now?”

“Yes,” I nodded, “We’re going to find Chen Dao and Zhou Cang while Liu Qi will be looking for Wen Ping and Yi Ji.”

“Un.” Liu Qi nodded as well.

Chen Dao and Zhou Cang never returned last night so they should have slept at the riverside. Or they could have been busy all night. We didn’t help at all last night so we should go and do something now if there is anything left.

Jiangxia’s port was to the north of the city, about 1km away or so. It wasn’t too far and walking there wasn’t too difficult. On the 2 sides of the port was a cliff and a forest. Because of what happened before, the forest had been thoroughly checked. We’d also received reports that the main force has embarked and is travelling by the sea route so most of the troops were arriving by sea and were likely attacking both the port and the north gate behind the port.

“Look over there, Imperial Uncle. Seems like they managed to make something out.”

Just as we left the north gate with some attendants, Chen Gong was able to spot the constructs with her sharp eyes. I too looked into the distance, and saw more than 10 large scale s.h.i.+ps docking at the port. At the sh.o.r.e, there were some cannons set up.

The waters were calm today unlike how choppy and vigorous they usually were. Perhaps the waters are setting the stage for the upcoming battle.

The preparations look decent all in all.

“With all these preparations, we should be able to last for a while.”

“Un, if it’s like this, then we should be able to last till noon.” Chen Gong, who had experience with building and setting up cannons gave her view. I don’t know much, but they should have done their best.

“My lord! My lord!” Just then, a voice called out to me from up ahead. I looked over and saw Chen Dao waving at us from a great distance away. Her eyesight must be really good if she can identify me from that far.

And beside her was Yi Ji. She did not speak, and only silently bowed.

I looked at Liu Qi beside me and saw that she was idly staring at Yi Ji. Her hands were in front of her chest as though she wanted to raise them and wave but she didn’t do so.

Seeing how she was, I felt that she was a little bad at expressing herself so I decided to lead by example and began waving, “Oi, How is it on your side, Chen Dao!”

“Very good~~” My voice wasn’t too loud but Chen Dao still heard it. Her hearing must be really good if she can hear what I’m saying from that far.

Liu Qi stole a glance at me when I waved before she raised her hand and lightly waved at Yi Ji though she still didn’t speak.

Even though interacting with your generals can help you calm down at times like these.

Thereafter we followed Chen Dao to the encampment where all thousand odd reinforcements were staying at.

“I saw the naval defence works, they’re not too shabby. Last night must have been tough.” I said as I sat down.

“It was indeed tough.” Zhou Cang sat down cross-legged with no heed to her image at all. Her hair was beginning to curl and was covered in dirt, “I didn’t know that Imperial Uncle knew about the construction of naval defences. If it weren’t for the a.s.sistance from the garrison troops, I wouldn’t know what to do at all.”

“No, that’s what I heard from Chen Gong.” I didn’t know how to judge the naval defence works but said so anyway because Chen Gong said so.

“I didn’t think that Chen Gong would know how to praise people.” Zhou Cang said in shock.

“If something is good, then it’s good. Nothing wrong with saying things for what they are. But I do want to have a good look at the parts you were in charge of since they were what you did after all.”

“What did you say!”

“Alright, alright… I can’t believe you both still can fight like that even when our enemies are so near.” I hurriedly stopped their fight, but thanks to them, I felt a lot less nervous than before.

“So we’re going to partic.i.p.ate in the battle then?” Just then, Chen Dao asked with a gloomy expression.

“Yes, unfortunately.”

“No no, there’s nothing wrong with that.” Chen Dao hurriedly shook her head, “But when we start fighting, I’m afraid that I won’t be able to protect my lord. It might be like before and I might be too preoccupied with fighting and killing.”

Chen Dao lowered her head when she finished. When she said like before, she probably meant the time when she lost herself while fighting with Ling Tong.

“Ah, ah, you don’t need to take that to heart. I’ll take care of myself. Everything’s alright as long as you’re fine.”

“But…” Chen Dao was still hesitant and I went up and held her hand.

“It’s fine. Raise your head.” She obediently raised her head slowly and I continued, “You’ve done brilliantly on this expedition. When we return, I’m sure Zi Long will praise you.”

“My lord!” When I finished, she tightly gripped my hand and looked at me with tear-filled eyes.

“If we can return back alive, I, Chen Dao, will continue to be loyal to my lord until the end.”

“You’re exaggerating a little too much…” I laughed.

“Ah, right.” Just then, I remembered something from before and rummaged about in my sleeve, hoping that I remembered to bring what I was searching for with me.