Liu Bei POV

“M, my lord, Gao Gan’s supplies h, have been stolen by the remnants of the Yellow Turbans, Zhang Pi and Gong Du.” Feng Ji stammered as her forehead glistened with sweat.

“Hmph! This must be the doings of Cao Cao.”

Ben Chu slammed the table, but did not raise her lowered head.

“Cao Cao must have sent her subordinates to convince these Yellow Turban remnants. The western parts of Ji state have begun to show signs of rebellion as well.”

“Un… Let Gan Lan quell them.”

“No, my lord, we cannot suppress any rebellion at this time with force.” Just then, Tian Feng stood up. Ju Shou, who sat beside her, was frantically pulling on Tian Feng’s sleeves but Tian Feng flung away Ju Shou’s hands and continued, “My lord, only by following the way of the kings can one hope to rule the world. Now that we are locked in mortal combat with an enemy, and are faced with a potential rebellion back home, we must act as benevolent rulers and appease the people where possible.”

“Shut it, who are you to alter our lord’s orders?” Shen Pei who had been hiding behind Feng Ji perked up, “Now that our enemy is at our doorstep, how are we supposed to convince the rebels who will see this as a prime opportunity?”

She spoke loudly, but she still hid behind Feng Ji.

“Speaking of which, the routes by which the supply caravans were to take were all decided by you, Tian Feng. You yourself said that it would be perfect and no caravans would be lost. How come they were so easily stolen away now huh?”

“The route from Bing state to here is long. I had instructed the caravans to slow down, disguise themselves and take off-road routes to avoid Cao Cao. This should have slowed them down such that the journey should take twice as long.” Tian Feng stared at Feng Ji as she said so, making Feng Ji jump, “If they did as I said, General Gao Gan should have only reached 10 days later, yet he is already here. Has Feng Ji Feng Yuan Tu done something?”

“N, nonsense!”

“Yuan Hao, that’s enough.” Ju Shou said as she pulled Tian Feng aside, “What’s important now is how we deal with Cao Cao. There’s no point for you to argue with Feng Ji here.”

“Stop pulling me, Ju Shou!”

“This…”

Tian Feng flung Ju Shou’s hands away again and saluted Yuan Shao before leaving.

Just then, I looked at Yuan Shao and saw that while she looked calm, she held her head with one hand and her eyes were half-closed.

From just now till now, Ben Chu had no said anything.

And now, she sighed once more before she spoke up, “Ju Shou, what do you think is the appropriate response to Ji state’s rebellion?”

“Eh?” Ju Shou was at a loss at the sudden question that came her way, “Ah, your retainer feels that using negotiations first would be for the best.”

She was very careful with her words. Even though Ju Shou and Tian Feng were the same type of person, Ju Shou was clearly a lot more tactful.

“Un…” Ben Chu sank into thought, “Ju Shou, go with Gao Lan and try to persuade them first. Let them give their conditions, and if they can’t be appeased, have Gao Lan mobilise troops from the neighbouring cities and quell them.”

Ben Chu finished and got up and retreated to the back of the tent without waiting for a reply.

…

Silence filled the tent.

“… Feng Ji, did you tell Gao Gan to hasten the delivery?”

And now that Ben Chu was gone, Ju Shou carefully raised the topic that led to Tian Feng’s departure.

At this, regret filled Feng Ji’s face. It was obvious what the answer was. “I won’t hide it, I found that our supplies were very low 2 days ago when I did a stock check so I wanted to have more supplies so that the troops could be more at ease.”

“Un… How much do we still have?”

“Less than 2 weeks’ worth.” Shen Pei said as she poked her head out.

“What about Wu Chao?”

“We can’t casually use the supplies in Wu Chao. The supplies there aren’t for the purpose of outlasting a battle of attrition.” Feng Ji said as she shook her head, “The supplies there were prepared for our advance on Xuchang after we win at Guandu. Unless things get truly dire, I won’t permit use of the supplies at Wu Chao.”

“…”

n.o.body said anything in response. As for me, I didn’t have any right to speak, and could only watch on as I felt worried for them. I’d thought they would have more to say but everyone soon dispersed. Each one of them had different expressions, but none were hopeful.

“My lord, is the meeting over?”

“Un, though I just stood there and listened.” I said as I smiled bitterly at Zi Long. She understood what I meant and didn’t ask any further.

“… It doesn’t seem too optimistic for Yuan Shao.” Gong You said tiredly as she squinted, “There are problems between the key decision-makers, supplies are not being delivered, and management is generally messy. One wrong decision or mistake can decide the outcome of this war.”

It’s like that as expected huh…

How should I put it? At times like this, I feel the weight of history. No matter how many things I change, or not at all, I just can’t change the course of history. And the outcome of the Battle of Guandu appears to be a critical component of history and I feel like whether I interfere or not, the outcome has already been decided and Ben Chu will lose and die of illness while Meng De will unify the north.

But what kind of prank by history is this? To have 2 good friends fight each other to the death?

“Meng De, Ben Chu… Have they both changed…”

Eh?

“Zi Long, was it you who was speaking just now?”

“Un, no, what’s wrong?”

“Eh? Then was it Gong You?”

“… I believe I speak very little.”

Un, I know. Then…

“Ah~”

Just then, a coquettish voice could be heard from in front of me, and I felt like I knocked into something at my stomach. The feeling was slight, but I was sure that I had knocked into something.

I lowered my head and after concentrating for a while, I finally saw a figure.

“Eh!”

There was someone here?! I clearly didn’t see anyone coming at me before!

As I thought so, I hurriedly took a few steps back. And only now did the 2 people by my side see the person in front of me.

“Ah! I, I’m sorry! I was thinking about something…”

A girl?

The short girl who was wearing white robes in front of me was frantically bowing and apologising. Her black hair was messy and several strands had blocked her vision.

“Ah, ah, it’s alright.” I shook my head, “Umm, may I ask who you are…”

I’d been in the camp for a while now but I never met this person before.

“Ah, I haven’t introduced myself!” She seemed to have remembered that and slapped her head as she bowed, “I’m Xu You Xu Zi Yuan.”