Liu Bei POV

“Got it.” Good thing I managed to find that small object. I waved at Zhou Cang, “Come over here and give me your hand, Zhou Cang.”

“Un? What is it?” Zhou Cang didn’t understand what was going on but she still obediently came over and extended her hand to me.

“Good, here.” I took out that small object from my sleeve and placed it on Zhou Cang’s hand.

“Un? This is…”

“A hair band,” I smiled as I said, “Back when I saw you on the battlefield a while ago, I saw that you cut your own hair with your blade so I’m giving you a hair band so you can tie it up.”

I may seemed very casual and decisive when I said this but this was because I left out the lengths I had to go before deciding on this. I’d spend a very long time thinking and browsing to find a headband that matched Zhou Cang and finally settled on one with a peach flower decoration on it. Honestly, I’m rather confident about this choice of mine.

“Un…” Zhou Cang stared fixedly at the headband in her hands wordlessly for a long while which made the atmosphere a little awkward and dented my confidence.

“Umm…”

“Ah, un. Thanks my lord.” Just as I was about to say something to dispel the awkwardness, Zhou Cang suddenly spoke up and addressed me as lord. She then very swiftly swung her hair back and tied it into a ponytail.

Though her hair was a little dirty, it still didn’t hold back Zhou Cang’s beauty with her new ponytail.

“Un, looks good.” I hurriedly swallowed back the words I was about to say and changed it to a word of praise.

“Un.” Zhou Cang was still stiff and her eyes were glazed over. She didn’t blush nor did she fidget about and all she did was nod. This made me a little disappointed but it was better than having her throw it away.

“Ah right. I got 1 for Chen Gong and Chen Dao as well.” I said as I took out another 2 hair bands from my sleeve, 1 was a willow leaf and 1 was a plum flower, “But Chen Gong often wears hats so you probably won’t use it much.”

“Ah!! Thanks my lord! I’ll definitely keep it safely!”” Chen Dao grabbed the plum flower one and very exaggeratingly raised it above her head as she bowed and thanked me.

That’s a little too much…

“Yeah, I do indeed have few opportunities to wear it.” She said as she shrugged. I thought that she would turn it down, but she took the willow leaf hair band, “But aince you’re giving it to me, I can only accept it.”

From the way you said it, it’s as if I ought to thank you for accepting it.

But…

“We’ll be going into the decisive battle soon and this could be the last opportunity for the 3 of us to speak with each other.” I said slowly, hoping they could understand how I was feeling, “I’m really grateful and thankful to the 3 of you for your help this expedition. If it weren’t for the 3 of you, I wouldn’t have…”

“You don’t need to continue any further, Imperial Uncle.”

Eh?

Just then, Chen Gong interrupted me. I looked up and saw Chen Gong with her head turned away from me with no intention of listening or looking at me at all.

“It’s a little too early to be saying that. If you really want to thank us, do it when we get back safely to Xiangyang city.”

“That’s right, that’s right! Saying them now makes it sound like a will.”

“It is indeed a little too early for that. We don’t even have food and wine.”

What does that have to do with this…

Hahaha, I couldn’t help but to laugh as I looked at them. It is indeed a little too early for saying such things. There are a lot of things to do after this expedition.

“Alright, I’ll do as you all say.” I said softly and tidied my clothing as I got up before continuing in a loud and clear voice, “Let’s go! To the battlefield!”

The battle came just as expected.

Gentle waves ran across the surface of the waters but there were no big waves or strong winds. And the enemy was not too far away.

The s.h.i.+p we were on was on the left side while Huang Zu’s s.h.i.+p was on the right, with the rest of the s.h.i.+ps between us, spread out in a crane wine formation.

Back when I first saw the s.h.i.+ps, I didn’t realise it, but now that I had come onboard, I found that the s.h.i.+ps were not small at all when compared to the ones I came on. Some were even taller by a whole storey than the 3-storey flags.h.i.+p we first took.

Looks like Jing state’s s.h.i.+pbuilding industry is just as advanced as Jiangdong’s.

“Imperial Uncle, they’re here.” Zhou Cang first spoke up with a serious look on her face.

I looked out into the distance and concentrated to control my nausea as I stood at the bow.

In the distance, black dots headed towards us. On those black dots, several points were waving about.

Those were the enemy boats.

Just as Huang Zu, Su Fei and the rest had predicted, the enemy used small s.h.i.+ps and boats because of the narrow and reef-filled channel.

I was getting rather agitated and turned to look at Huang Zu to the right. About 100 paces away, Huang Zu sat motionlessly on the s.h.i.+p.

By right, she ought to be drinking at this yime since it was before a battle but she didn’t. Not just that, she didn’t even have her gourd with her. Looks like she is rather stirred up even though her external countenance is that of calm.

“Uncle, I just received news from Yi Ji and the rest.” Just then, Liu Qi came over and whispered into my ear.

“The numerical disadvantage is too great. Even if we prevail in this battle, we won’t be able to hold Jiangxia. Apart from the edict for our retreat, Han Song is also making his way here.”

“Han Song?” Another unfamiliar name which I seem to have heard before.

“My father’s Grand Herald.” Liu Qi added, and continued, “He is here to strike a peace deal with Sun Quan of Jiangdong.”

“Strike a peace deal… Huh?” I was rather surprised but not all that much as I’d thought that something like this would happen.

But to be honest, I feel profoundly empty everytime I hear that my side can’t win. Apart from that, I feel dissatisfied and that I’ve let people down. And now, I feel like I’ve let down Huang Zu for some reason.

I looked at Huang Zu to the side once more, and wondered if Huang Zu knew of this.

“Is that really okay? To just throw away Jiangxia like that?”

“I don’t know about the specifics, but that seems to be the case for now.”

If father had given me full control and made me his heir, this wouldn’t have happened.

She softly muttered before she separated from my ear, and so I was able to hear these rebellious words.

But what she says is right. If Liu Biao had deployed more troops to reinforce Jiangxia, things wouldn’t be this dire now. Perhaps he never thought that Sun Quan and the rest would be this determined

*Du*—-

A loud and dull horn resounded from the enemy which shook my heart. I looked out and saw an innumerable number of boats which formed a black ma.s.s coming for us.

“My lord, Huang Zu has begun to move.”

Liu Qi and I looked over at Huang Zu on the s.h.i.+p to the right when we heard Chen Dao’s words. Because the command tallies were with her, we still had to follow her commands.

As we looked over, Huang Zu got up from her stool and raised her long spear to the sky.

Immediately following that, *Peng* *Peng* *Peng* *Peng* rang out, as though it were a reply to the horn from the other side.

All troops on her s.h.i.+p began their battle preparations at once while we watched closely and waited for our orders.

After she spoke a few words with the flag bearer, he began to give flag signals to the other flag bearers, who then began to wave their flags about and pa.s.s on as well as issue instructions to the troops on all other s.h.i.+ps.

“What are they saying?” Liu Qi asked Wen Ping before the flag bearer on our s.h.i.+p translated the instructions into speech, who raised her flying saucer hat and parted the veil as she looked at the signals.

“… Prepare… To fire the cannons… Together.”

“Alright! Let the troops make the preparations and get ready to fire the big cannons at my mark.” Liu Qi yelled out, at which the troops began to moving immediately.

“Let us do the same as well.” I said as well, somewhat slower than Liu Qi, and Zhou Cang went towards the soldiers to the back. I turned back and looked at her, and saw that she really looks good in a ponytail.

“Please concentrate, Imperial Uncle.” I hurriedly turned back and looked in front when Chen Gong detected my gaze and berated me.

This era’s big cannons do not use gunpowder, only solid rocks. Even though they were called cannons, they were closer to a catapult than an actual modern cannon. These cannons could fire surprisingly far away however.

“The first wave of cannonfire must take out all the boats in the front row at least, or it’ll be difficult to face off against the rest.” Chen Gong said with a frown as she looked at the nearing armada.

“The other side is densely packed together and there is little room for them to maneuver and dodge out attacks so there shouldn’t be a problem as long as our cannons work fine right?” Yi Ji said inreply to Chen Gong who was still frowning and looking uneasy.

“They’ve come into our maximum firing range. Just wait a little more until they enter the firing range of our fire arrows!” Wen Ping yelled out loud to invigorate everyone as we waited for the orders to fire.

In the next moment, the horns and drums all stopped and the water was very calm and quiet, with only the sound of the gentle waves. .h.i.tting the s.h.i.+p.

— Fire!