Li Dian POV

After seeing off Guan Yu, I returned to the encampment and saw Cao Ren and Shen Pei looking in different directions silently. Naturally, I knew why they were in conflict.

“Quit standing here, you both.” I said to the 2 of them as I went over and pointed around when neither of them reacted, “Look, there is no tent around here. Do you both plan on enduring the cold, bitter winds?”

The tent had been completely torn apart by Shen Pei’s troops. I looked about and saw that they had not withdrawn yet and were waiting for further orders from Shen Pei. I then looked at CO Ren and saw that she had a stormy expression on her face. Well, i cannot blame her as I too am rather angry at what just transpired.

Cao Ren is definitely angry at just 1 thing, that is how Shen Pei did not tell us anything beforehand about her ambush. To use the sound of a falling cup as a signal… Looks like she had really thought things through huh?

“Lord Shen Pei,” I spoke up on behalf of Cao Ren as I could not hold back any longer, “Why didn’t you notify us of the ambush beforehand? We are very troubled by your unilateral actions.”

“Because I was afraid that you both would be too soft-hearted.” Shen Pei said as she looked at me and covered her mouth, “So I decided to prepare all of this and on my own. When the time came, I didn’t want to scramble and look for back-up.”

Shen Pei seemed to not find any fault in what she did and frowned as she continued with her back towards us, “Lord Li Dian… And commanding officer… Why did you have to stop me just now? Didn’t we agree beforehand? That if we felt that their defection was insincere or fake, we would kill them?”

“No, we still don’t know if they are our enemies right?”

“T-they’re already acting like this… How can it not be fake?” Shen Pei turned around and weakly protested.

“Look at how you backed them into a corner. How could they not be tense and nervous?” Cao Ren said as she squeezed out a stiff smile and suppressed her anger as she continued in a level tone, “And besides, you said it yourself. The enemy let Lu Xiang go.”

“That’s…”

That was indeed the truth, despite all of our suspicions, and she could not refute it. That was also one of the major reasons why Cao Ren and I did not support Shen Pei.

Shen Pei did not continue to argue with us and merely waved and dismissed her troops. There are only about a thousand or so of Yuan Shao’s troops in this encampment but they have shown remarkable unity and obedience to their own general.

“Now then, Lord Li Dian, do you have an opinion yet?”

“Me?” I asked as I looked to the side and saw Cao Ren and Shen Pei looking at me.

I shook my head right away as I have not yet been able to come to a conclusion, “I haven’t come to a conclusion yet but overall, I am inclined to believe them. All of their reasons for defecting are legitimate and the troops they can bring over will be very helpful. Yet they do not seem particularly excited. It just… Feels off somehow.”

“You said everything there is to say about them.” Cao Ren said and looked at Shen Pei, “Lord Shen Pei, let’s leave everything aside for now. Just tell me one thing, are you ready to move out for Xinye city in 3 days?”

“Wu…” Shen Pei sank into deep thought. Even though she was so forceful a while ago, it seems like she cannot be that decisive once her calm state has been dispelled.

“Umm&h

ellip; Lord Li Dian…” Shen Pei called out to me just as I was waiting for her to give her answer and looked at me, “What do you think about this?”

“Me?” I asked, surprised that she would toss it to me. My mind then began to whir at top speed as I searched about for an answer. The problem was that I could not disentangle my personal desires and so I could not view this whole problem objectively.

“I…” I really have no idea how I ought to answer this.

Under this sticky situation, if I were to choose to stand with my faction’s viewpoint, it would not be difficult to persuade Shen Pei to our faction’s viewpoint. But if I were to choose to not believe in Guan Yu’s words, then it’s not like we lose too much either. At the most, we would only lose a chance to take the city more quickly, and also 3 generals.

Yet, will things really go in our favour? I began to think of the last conversation I had with Guan Yu before she left.

“I–”

Finally, under pressure from multiple sides, I managed to spit out my answer. After that, another 20 minutes or so went by as we engaged in an intense discussion. When it finally concluded, Shen Pei finally got up to leave for Fan city. She seemed rather exhausted, perhaps because of the intense discussion where we both attacked her over and over. It cannot be helped. She is an administrative official after all.

“Umm, Lord Shen Pei.” Cao Ren immediately got up and saluted Shen Pei when she saw that Shen Pei was about to leave, “I hope that you can transfer all the troops from the city before tomorrow evening.”

“… I know.” Shen Pei replied lackl.u.s.terly as she stopped before looking weakly at Cao Ren and I with a frown, “You better think this through. I will not accept any responsibility for this.”

“Alright, I’ll take responsibility for this.” Cao Ren said as she smiled and nodded at us, “If that will help make you feel better.”

Wu…

I have begun to notice that Cao Ren is not the kindly girl I initially thought she was. She would always say things that really hit the other party where it hurt at times like these. Even though Cao Ren had said that she would take responsibility, the soldiers’ lives were in Shen Pei’s hands and if any mishap were to occur, Shen Pei would still feel the weight of responsibility nonetheless.

“Lord Shen Pei, hope for good things to come out of this.” I smiled and patted Shen Pei’s shoulders, “If we win, it will be good for all of us.”

“Un…” Shen Pei merely grunted in response.

Yes, 20 minutes ago, at the very end, I chose to believe in Guan Yu. Normally, I would not have chosen to do so and would have chosen the more conservative option of rejecting their defection. But it is impossible to resist the allure of an opportunity to overturn the status quo of a stalemate. I cannot deny that I am falling prey to my desires.

Of course, there are also other considerations involved. As a fellow warrior, I am actually rather sympathetic towards Guan Yu who lost her elder brother and lord. Yet at the very end, I detected an abnormal strength in her eyes.

Where did this strength come from? Could it be from her resolve she made when she chose to defect?

… And of course, we have to be careful and take precautionary measures where possible.

“Lord Cao Ren, we better not send our troops to the front on that day.”

“Ah, I understand.” Cao Ren said as she rubbed her thigh.

“We will deploy our troops to just outside the city whereupon they will proceed with creating havoc inside the city. After that, we will see how it goes before entering the city.” I continued softly, “If there are no enemies in the tower, and there is a racket in the city, then we should charge in immediately.”

“Ah I understand~~~” Cao Ren replied as her teeth chattered. She then got up and made her way to the main seat where she opened a bamboo scroll and began writing on it.

“Un? This is?” I uttered as I went over to look and found that Cao Ren had begun to write a letter to my lor, “Are you going to tell her now?”

“Un, I want to make her happy.”

“Un… I suppose that’s fine.” I replied. Though I still felt apprehensive about this whole thing, our chances of success were pretty good. If we happened to sense that something was amiss, we could just pull back then.

“Hu…” I sighed as I held my hips and looked in the direction of Xinye city.

The final battle will be in 3 days.

Liu Bei POV

“Big brother, we’re back.” A voice came from outside the room just as I was getting exhausted with paperwork. I looked up and saw the 3 who had left about 4-6 hours ago. The one at the head was dressed from head to toe in torn and tattered clothing and her face was covered in dirt as she beamed at me.

Yun Chang is back, along with Wen Yuan and Chen Gong.

My heart has not been feeling well the entire time. It is true that the paperwork I have had to deal with has contributed in no small part to my irritation but I was also concerned with Yun Chang and the rest as well.

Compared to me, it seemed like Yuan Zhi was not particularly concerned. After the 3 of them had left, she merely sat there and drank her sugar water. She was closing her eyes as well just now. I thought that she was concentrating on something but after some time, I saw her nodding off which meant that she had just dozed off.

But all that does not matter. Yun Chang is back after all.