Liu Bei POV

“Here~”

“Lord Liao Hua went to the city tower early this morning already.”

“Lord Sun Qian and the other 2 are already waiting in the main hall.”

Everyone responded promptly to Yuan Zhi’s question at which she merely nodded.

“Un, let’s go then.” Yuan Zhi said as she began walking towards the main hall with light steps that did not leave much of a print in the mud. Everyone else followed along as well. Some waited to see if I was going as well before moving. Clearly, they still did not have complete trust in Yuan Zhi like yesterday.

Ah… Why is this hat so stuffy? I am beginning to sweat after just a short while now. And my face is itching from the leaves which keep sticking to my face.

As I took off the hat, or should I say helmet, or perhaps plant circlet, I looked at it closely and felt that though it did not have much practical use, it did serve the purpose of hiding my ident.i.ty well enough.

“Oi, oi! My lord, what do you think of it?”

“Ah?” I looked to side and saw a beaming and confident Zhou Cang, “Un, it’s not bad. Rather… Unique.” I nodded as I did my best to praise the hat she gave me.

“I see, I see~” Good thing Zhou Cang was satisfied with this, “By the way, since my lord needs to hide his ident.i.ty, shouldn’t you change your name as well?”

Where did this come from?

“My name huh… I don’t think there’s a need for that.”

Liu Bei is not my own name to begin with so if you ask me to change it, I really do not know what I ought to change it to. Honestly, now would be a good time to use my actual name but I have forgotten it so that does not work.

“I believe there is a need for that. When we need to call big brother on the battlefield, the truth will be exposed right away if we don’t use another name.” Yun Chang said as she walked beside me. She then stared at Yi De and looked about. When she saw that no one was paying attention to us, she whispered into my ear, “Did big brother speak to Yi De yesterday?”

When she asked me this, I frowned as I thought back to what happened yesterday night and shook my head, “I did but she didn’t respond well.”

“I see…” Yun Chang responded with a grim expression.

“Shamoke!”

“Un?” I was surprised at Zhou Cang suddenly yelling something unintelligible. Could it be the local dialect of Zhou Cang’s hometown?

“Shamoke! Shamoke!”

“No, even if you keep yelling it at me, I don’t know what that is…”

“Eh? My lord doesn’t know? Shamoke is the current leader of the Wuling Man.” Zhou Cang responded with a very surprised expression. To be honest, the look she’s giving me right now like she’s teaching me something really hurts.

“I don’t know.” I honestly answered and shook my head.

“It’s fine, you know now.” Zhou Cang said as she placed her hands on her hip and looked proud of herself, “During this period, you can just call yourself Shamoke.”

“Eh?! Really?”

That fellow sounds very formidable. Would it not be very troublesome if he hears of someone impersonating him?

“It’ll be fine. No one will know.” Zhou Cang said relaxedly as she placed her hands behind her head and continued walking ahead with wide steps.

Now that she’s not wearing any bandages around her legs, they are getting covered in sand

from her careless steps. Ah… It’s going to be troublesome to wash them off later…

Wu! What am I thinking about! No, no, now is most definitely not the time for thinking about such things.

*Putong*

“Ah…”

“Un? My lord, why were you so careless that you stepped into the water?”

Yes, while I was in a daze, I accidentally stepped into a muddy puddle with my left leg that drenched my foot up to my ankle.

“Yes, so I was.” As I answered her, I hurriedly took my foot out of the water and feigned nonchalance as I continued to follow the rest into the main hall where we had our banquet last night.

I was one of the last to enter and when I finally made it in, I saw that everyone else who had not turned up when I stepped out of my room were all seated in the main hall already. In particular, Yi De’s countenance seemed the same as last night and Chen Gong seemed to be in a combative mood.

“Ah, good morning.” However, Chen Gong still greeted me, unlike Yi De who merely turned away when she saw me. I do not know what is going on but being subject to this att.i.tude is far worse than having my ankle drenched in cold, muddy waters.

Un? Just then, I realised that the main star for today, Yu Zhi, was seated at the end of the column like yesterday night.

“Yuan Zhi, won’t you come and sit at the front?” I asked.

“Ah? Un… N, no need for that. I-I’ll just sit here…” Yuan Zhi stammered in reply. Looks like Yuan Zhi will still feel nervous in a formal venue like this and so she is acting completely differently from how she seemed earlier this morning. I also wonder if this is her nervousness leaking out from being suppressed before?

“Alright.” I decided not to force her and gestured for her to go ahead as I made my way to the very front of the room and sat down. I looked at the 2 columns and found that apart from Liao Hua who was occupied with her duties at the city towrr, everyone else was here.

“Well then, let’s begin, shall we?” I began the conference and turned to Yun Chang, “Yun Chang, if there’s anything involving Liao Hua, please notify her later on.”

“Alright.”

“Un, Yuan Zhi, please begin.”

When I finished, Yuan Zhi got up with her bandana almost fully obscuring her vision. Unlike yesterday night, she did not cover her eyes completely as she probably needs to identify who is to be deployed for the upcoming operation.

“Our first battle is winnable. Though we have a numerical disadvantage, they do not have sufficient information on our manpower, morale and how our troops are deployed. And because of what happened to Xuan De, they have certain a.s.sumptions about these unknowns.” Yuan Zhi took a deep breath as she said so to allay her nervousness, “So I believe that the enemy will send out a small force to launch a probing attack and also invite people over to their side.”

“Oh~” Chen Dao gasped in amazement. Zi Long, Yun Chang and the rest calmly nodded in response.

“Un, un, so how shall we respond then?” I continued to support Yuan Zhi and invite her to continue.

Yuan Zhi looked at me and nodded before taking a deep breath again, “Yes, what we need to do is to completely eradicate our enemy while sustaining as few casualties as possible. This is to reduce the parity in numbers to a more ideal state.”

Yuan Zhi was very smooth in her delivery and did not stammer at all. It feels like she wrote, and rewrote many times over, a script which she later memorised and recited from.

“Well then, I’ll go into the deployments now.” Yuan Zhi took 2 steps towards the center of the room and slowly said, “We don’t need too many generals for this mission. The rest should bring the spare troops into the city and wait. There will be many more battles in future so rest while you can.”

Ahem, Yuan Zhi cleared her throat, which signalled that she was about to read out the names of those who would take part in the upcoming operation. I looked at both sides as saw that everyone was nervous– Apart from the administrative folk and myself– Probably because they were eager to join the battlefield and not because they were afraid.

“Well then– Lord Zhao Yun.”

“Alright!!” Zi Long smiled and cheered when she heard her name being called.

“Next is Lord Guan Yu.” Yuan Zhi said as she looked at Yun Chang.

“Yes.” Unlike Zi Long, Yun Chang respectfully got up and saluted Yuan Zhi before sitting down again.

“You got it good huh~”

“Apologies there, Wen Yuan.” Yun Chang responded tp Wen Yuan’s stiff smile with a stiff smile pf her own.

“How are you feeling? Nervous to be back on the battlefield again?” I whispered when Yun Chang sat down again.

“What a joke, a real warrior never gets nervous on the battlefield. Never.” Yun Chang said as she closed her eyes and concentrated. Looks like she has begun her mental preparations.

“There is 1 last commanding officer.” Yuan Zhi said. Looks like there will be 3 regiments this time huh. Well then, it’s obvious that the 3rd general will be Feng Xian.

It seemed like everyone else was thinking the same as they were all looking at Feng Xian, who was concentrated on Red Hare and seemed even more of an airhead than Yuan Zhi. Unlike Yuan Zhi however, Feng Xian seemed more like a tiger who was just about to pounce.

“Lord Zhang Fei.”

“Eh?”

Eh?!

But when Yuan Zhi called out the last name, Yi De let out a surprised gasp. At the same time, so did I.