WRITTEN BY XAPHHJULY 4, 2016

TL: This was supposed to be the last daily chapter but my start date got delayed for another week so yay for all of us. Battle of Guandu all the way now. By the way, thanks for your thoughts in the comments in the previous chapter. This series has an awful lot of set-up between stages though. After Guandu, there will be quite a lot of plot, intrigue and set-up before action happens again in Jing state.

In Luoyang…

“I heard that Guan Yu Guan Yun Chang took over Dongling Pa.s.s. They should be here in a couple of days.”

“Eh… What do we do… There’s only me and you in Luoyang city. Even if we have over 10,000 men, how do we resist them?”

“Meng Tan, aren’t you paying too much heed to those rumours?”

“Han Fu, you may not know, but my reliable source from Dongling Pa.s.s said that Guan Yu doesn’t just have a few dozen guards. She has an innumerable army of barbarians who overwhelmed Dongling Pa.s.s in less than an hour.”

(TL: Different Han Fu. This Han Fu is 韓福 while the one that died is 韓馥.)

“d.a.m.n it! What is Lord Cao Cao doing when something so drastic is happening here!”

“Lord Cao Cao is having a hard time at the frontlines… How will she possibly have time to worry about things here…”

“… Hai… Looks like we can only depend on ourselves. Issue these orders! Secure the city and stockpile supplies!”

Meng De POV

“Eh! We got stalled yet again! We finally stopped a caravan but it got away!”

“Sis, at least you found a caravan. I lay in wait with my side for an entire day and didn’t even see a caravan.”

I was engrossed with the Art of War when the Xiahou sisters came in unhappily. Yuan Rang had a look of frustration on her while Miao Cai’s smile didn’t seem natural like usual and seemed a little tired.

“What’s wrong, Yuan Rang, Miao Cai?” Though I could guess what kind of trouble they met with, I still asked anyway.

“Yuan Shao’s supply line, what else~” Miao Cai drawled.

Right, Ben Chu’s supply line.

I don’t know what happened, but Ben Chu seems have changed the way she does things quite a bit recently. Not only have the routes which her supply caravans change constantly, they even take some off-road routes. If this goes on, we won’t be able to win the battle of attrition.

Not just that, even if we do clash head-on, Yuan Shao doesn’t just move in without thinking. Her troops will probe for a bit, and then withdraw. In a conventional battle of attrition, our side which has less troops and supplies will be on the losing end.

If this goes on…

“Report! 10,000 Yuan troops are headed for us!”

“What!” Yuan Rang exclaimed at the news which the military courier delivered as he charged into the tent.

Ben Chu, is this a show of your power…

Ke~ I guess I’ll play along.

“Yuan Rang, relay the order. I’ll go out and meet Yuan Shao personally.” I said as I took my plate armour off the rack, “Miao Cao, return to Yingchuan. I don’t want to play a game of whack-a-mole with Ben Chu.”

“”Yes!”” The 2 swiftly left the tent after acknowledging the order,

Come to think of it, Yuan Rang and Miao Cai have always done a lot for me since young… I cannot let down their trust in me.

“Xun Yu, Cheng Yu, are you both there?”

“… Yes.” “… What orders does Imperial Chancellor have for us?”

They’re in the tent as expected huh.

“Have you convinced the people I told you to convince the last time?”

“We got a chance to speak with Liu Pi and Gong Du when they fought with Cao Ren, so it should work.” “Just…”

“Just… Zhang Xiu huh?”

I’d already guessed it.

It’s understandable that Zhang Xiu is still refusing to surrender.

“I’ll speak with Zhang Xiu personally when I return.” I exited the tent as I finished.

(Tl: Liu Pi is supposed to be Yuan Shao’s subordinate, and then later on Liu Bei. So is Gong Du. They never betrayed Yuan Shao. If anything, this proves that having too much knowledge of the Three Kingdoms would have made it even worse.)

Yuan Shao’s troops were numerous. I only had 40,000 troops while Yuan Shao had 100,000. And today, Yuan Shao has not deployed all of them. 2 forces were headed for us, and they totalled about 2-30,000.

Another probe again? Or does she want to fight me with the same numbers as I have?

“Imperial Chancellor, the enemy general has begun to charge at us.”

“One of them is Gao Lan! The other one was formerly Han Fu’s subordinate general!”

Zhang He huh? Those 2 aren’t to be trifled with,

“Yue Jin, Li Dian!”

“Your generals are here!”

“Go and meet those 2 on the battlefield.”

The 2 acknowledged the order and galloped off on their horses, and very quickly met with the other side in combat. Yue Jin and Li Dian were still able to fight the generals on the other side on even ground in the beginning but Yue Jin was quickly being overpowered by Gao Lan.

“Ha!!” Gao Lan gave a thunderous roar which could be heard by the entire army and slashed down viciously.

“!” Yue Jin did her best to block it but just the wind alone from the attack blew away her straw hat and revealed a very difficult expression on Yue Jin’s usually calm face. The spear which she used to block the broadsword slowly inched down toward her head,

“Ya!”

“Kuh…” Yue Jin’s precarious predicament was distracting Li Dian, who was also having a hard time.

This was bad.

“Tell those 2 to withdraw immediately and return to base. Yuan Rang, Cao Hong, you both are to lead a 5,000 force each and launch a surprise attack on the enemy on opposing sides.”

“Yes!” After they acknowledged the order, 2 groups of troops left the main body from left and right and began their attack. Yue Jin and Li Dian were able to use this distraction and escape unscathed.

*Sou* *Sou* *Sou*!

“Un?!”

“They’ve loosed arrows at us! Defensive maneuvers, now!” Yuan Rang who was ahead yelled out before I could react as a flurry of black arrows rained down on her troops. Just looking from afar, one could tell that the losses would be significant.

“I didn’t think that Yuan Shao still has so much arrows left…”

Hai! I knew I shouldn’t have attacked first.

“Imperial Chancellor, let me go.” Hu Chi seemed restless and asked me for orders, “My troops are quick and we can definitely break through.”

But…

“… Sound the drums, we are retreating.”

“Eh?” Hu Chi was baffled, “But, if we retreat just like that, our losses would have been…”

“If we keep on fighting, we will suffer even greater losses,” I waved my hands as I said so and the drummers began to sound the retreat signal, “And I didn’t plan on winning this battle to begin with.”

“Eh?” Hu Chi was still as baffled as before.

“Want to have a bet with me, Hu Chi?”

“What are we betting on?”

“When we return to our encampment, we will have a lot more supply caravans.”