Liu Bei POV

“I know that this is truly unbelievable and even I myself did not believe it in the beginning either.” Yuan Zhi said and tried to calm herself as she reached out to touch her bandana but realised that it was not there and continued, “But when I saw Xuan De, I realised that it was all true.

I found it difficult to believe what Yuan Zhi was saying but I was soon able to slowly accept it. Yuan Zhi is not the first person I know who knows how history is supposed to go after all. There was also a certain someone I met in Jiangdong.

— Don’t be too anxious about that feather fan of yours, it will have its uses eventually.

— You don’t need to ask me about the rest as well. When the time comes, you will receive the answers. Your coming here is not my work after all.

Apart from what Yu Ji said about Meng De, these 2 sentences seemed to be related with what Yuan Zhi would likely tell me next.

“So you know the entire Three King… Ah, what will happen in the next few years?”

I do not know how I ought to word it but if she does know what I am asking about then she will understand regardless. And if she does, this conversation will change dramatically as she might even know why I came to this era.

“No, I don’t.” Yuan Zhi shook her head and still seemed rather nervous as she asked, “Xuan De, can you accept what I said?”

“More or less.” I nodded and sighed. Looks like she does not know anything about me. To be honest, I am having difficulties accepting what she said and if I had not gone through something like this before, I would probably not believe her. At the same time, I am also not sure how much she knows.

“Un, that’s the best then.” Yuan Zhi nodded and continued, “I was not supposed to tell you all this to begin with but now that irregularities have occurred, I am compelled to tell you this.”

I see, so she would have kept mum about it until everything pa.s.sed if she could.

“Let’s leave that aside for now.” I leaned forward and asked carefully, “Can you tell me who told you all of this?”

Yuan Zhi shook her head and looked down, “I cannot tell you this. I promised not to.”

Hu. As expected huh? But then that means whoever put Yuan Zhi up to all this must know about me then.

“Then…” I looked up with the intent of asking further but when I saw her troubled face, I decided against it, “Alright, I got it.”

This is enough information about this side of things, I thought as I took out another 4 copper coins and put them on the table, “Here, get me another 2 bowls.”

Yuan Zhi seemed stunned but she quickly nodded and took out another bowl before pouring sugar water in it. She seemed to be distracted and her hands were shaking as she held the gourd.

“Ah, enough, enough.” I hurriedly stopped her when the water was about to overflow.

“Here, Yuan Zhi.” I said as I pushed 1 bowl towards her. She nodded and picked it up but set it down and fidgeted about.

“Xuan De, since you found me, I think I should apologise.” Yuan Zhi suddenly spoke up, “Yesterday’s battle… I knew some thing that would happen beforehand.”

As she said so, Yuan Zhi closed her eyes as though she was waiting for me to berate her.

— I knew it, I knew that their vanguard was 30,000 strong!

The words she said before came to mind again. Everything makes sense now.

“So you actually did know that they were 30,000 strong huh?”

“Yes,

” Yuan Zhi nodded, “In the content that I had to memorise, it was indeed written that there would be 30,000 men.”

But then, some things are still unclear.

“But, if you knew that, then why did you still get Yun Chang to proceed with the raid?” I frowned, “If you know that the enemy’s original number was 30,000, then isn’t it obvious that they had 20,000 strong then?”

Even if the enemy did not set an ambush, there would be 10,000 strong garrisoning at Fan city which would be more than enough to neutralise the raid. At the same time, I no longer believe Zi Long’s hypothesis that Yuan Zhi is a Cao informant/plant.

“About that…” Yuan Zhi said and paused for a long while as she held her bowl of sugar water before her and blew on it, “That’s because it was the only choice I could make…”

Just as I thought that Yuan Zhi was unwilling to discuss this further, she gave me a vague reply. At this time, she did not even have the mood to blow on her sugar water.

“What do you mean by that?” I really did not understand but it’s not like I am irritated. However, when she heard me say this, she closed her eyes and looked once again like she was waiting to be berated.

“*Ke* *Ke*,” I faked a few coughs as I tried to put on a kind and demeanor and softly added, “So what do you mean by that being the only choice? There were many other choices you could have picked after all.”

“B-because I-I-I don’t know what other methods are there.” Yuan Zhi said as she held the bowl in front of her face but her stammering revealed how she felt, “Based on what I know, that battle should have been won like that. As long as we sent out a raiding force, the battle would have been won.”

“But that is a.s.suming the enemy brought 20,000 to the frontal battle right?”

“I know that of course. But, but there is always a little hope that it might succeed right?” Yuan Zhi said with a gleam in her eyes, “And if I didn’t send a raid to Fan city, everything would be different.”

“Then think of a different plan?” I said, feeling very confused by her thought process as this was exactly what I have been doing every time something seemed different from what I knew, “You don’t need to do things like how they are supposed to go in history. And besides, things did turn out differently anyway.”

But when she heard what I said, Yuan Zhi merely smiled and shook her head, “I don’t know. I don’t know if it will change.”

— Are you ready to be responsible as the primary instigator for the changes in history?

The mystic’s words came to mind again. I do not know why but this person keeps appearing in my mind today and I am getting very irritated by this.

Change… History huh…

“And besides,” Just as I was feeling very irritated and was beginning to deeply consider this, Yuan Zhi spoke up again, “I wouldn’t be able to do anything even if I did want to do something.”

“And what do you mean by that?”

Yuan Zhi’s hands seemed tired as she lowered her bowl and her head as well, “I don’t actually know anything. I don’t have strategies, nor do I know how to see through others. If I didn’t know what to do beforehand, I wouldn’t even have won the first battle.”

As she said so, she looked up slightly as her shoulders drooped, “So this loss and anything else after that…”

She does not know what to do from here on out huh? Which is why she ran out back then. If Yuan Zhi saying this much then there is nothing more I can say.

Hai~ I sighed. But now that I think about it…

“In that case… Some things you did can be explained now, like why you did not deploy Lu Bu in the first battle.”

Yuan Zhi nodded weakly. Yes, this cannot be helped as Feng Xian was not even supposed to live up to this point in history. But then, this also raises some other questions.

“But then… Why did you deploy Feng Xian in the second battle?” I decided to ask after some hesitation.

“That huh…” Yuan Zhi sighed, “I had already detected that things were different from how they were supposed to go in the first battle. Based on what I knew, Zhang Fei was supposed to slay Lu Xiang and the enemy was supposed to be annihilated.”

“… And yet, Lu Xiang did not die.”

Not only did she not die, she even appeared in the second battle.

“It’s not just Lu Xiang. Almost everything was different from what I knew.” Yuan Zhi shook her head, “Firstly, there was Li Dian who was not supposed to be here and the troops strength increased from 5,000 to 10,000.”

Ah… Yes. The first battle was indeed very different from how it was supposed to be. There were a lot more troops so we could not annihilate them and because of Li Dian’s interference and Yi De’s amnesia, Lu Xiang lived.

“But the first battle’s result was an overall positive.” I frowned as I gave my a.n.a.lysis. “Compared to 5,000 we slew almost 10,000 instead.”

“… But it’s different from the history I know.” Yuan Zhi nodded and frowned as she replied.

(TL: The main difference in the troops is due to Yuan Shao’s surrender. In the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao was supposed to lose a lot more troops. Yes, a lot also defected but then Cao Cao would have needed to fight the remnants of the Yuan clan who also had sizeable armies after eliminating Yuan Shao.)