Li Dian POV
“Lord Cao Ren, I understand how you feel.” I frowned as I said so but forced myself to continue, “But you win some, you lose some. As long as we can bring these troops back alive, our loss is not that shameful. At the very least, we have half of our troops remaining right now and are not mired in battle.”
I am not sure if Cao Ren is listening but if we turn back and engage the enemy now, we will be condemning these 7,000 elite troops to death. Be they Yuan Shao’s or my lord’s troops, them surviving this battle means they can contribute in the next one. I believe that Cao Ren should understand this even better than I do.
“I am even clearer about this than you, Lord Li Dian.” Cao Ren continued. I looked at her and saw that she was calm and collected but tired nonetheless, “Yet there is no need for us to return to the city yet. If we do that, we would lose too much.”
That is indeed the case. The supplies we have in the encampment is not little by any means. Most importantly, there are enough provisions to supply more than 10,000 people for 3 months. If we leave them, then we would be extending the longevity of the resistance at Xinye.
“Lord Cao Ren, if you’re talking about the provisions, then I can send men to raze them to the ground right now.”
“No,” Cao Ren continued to shake her head, “As I said, it is still too soon to resort to our final measures.”
“Eh?” I really did not understand what she was getting at but she looked too confident and assured for this to be a ruse and it seemed like she actually had a magical solution at hand.
“If Lord Cao Ren has any magic bullet at hand, please do share it.” I said to Cao Ren with a small hope in my heart.
Cao Ren sighed in response and her expression lightened up, to the point where I could not tell that we just lost a battle, as she replied, “Lord Li Dian, do you know why my elder sister sent me here?”
“Eh?”
I really did not know what the answer to this question could be. But then again, I have never really seriously considered this. At first, I thought that this might be to train her but this was impossible. There was no way my lord would send her to lead an army of 30,000 strong for training purposes after all.
“I don’t.” I said as I shook my head and turned back to see that the distance between Lu Bu and her troops and us had widened.
“Some people are better at attacking, and some are better at defending. Others are better yet at turning around dire situations with strange tactics.” Cao Ren said, “I don’t know what my elder sister’s thinking is but I believe that she hopes for me to be the latter.”
“Eh?”
Now that I think about it, I realised that I do not know much about Cao Ren, nor has she shared much of her past with me. Just as Shen Pei had 2 faces, perhaps Cao Ren had another one as well apart from her usual kind and gentle self.
“Could there be a way to salvage the situation and win the battle?”
“It’s not a sure thing but there is something we can try.” Cao Ren said with more energy as she smiled, “7,000 men is just enough to use ‘that’.”
That? What is that? I looked at Cao Ren and saw a single bead of sweat stream down her face.
“Sometimes, a battle is won not by the strength of the troops but the formation used.”
“Formation huh…”
“Yes.” Cao Ren nodded and took out a flag from her sleeve, “Like you said, if we engage with the enemy, we will be mired in battle like fools who have stepped into a pit of quicksand.”
“– And I, will be the creator of this quicksand.”
On the flag, there were 4 words written: ‘8 Doors Golden Lock’.
(TL: 8 Doors Golden Lock is a completely fictional strategy used by Zhuge Liang in the original novel and can be seen in the Red Cliff movie. Even if you leave aside what the formation is supposed to do, the coordination required to execute it makes it simply impossible.)
Liu Bei POV
“Haa… Haa…”
The entire city was silent and it seemed like I was the only one running around as all I could hear was my own footsteps and breathing. Right now, Xinye was unrecognisable. Half of it was our doing but seeing the billowing black smoke still made me worried.
When I looked down, the bodies of both friendly and hostile troops sent shivers down my spine. Now that the battle had come to a close, I began to feel terrible as I remembered what had taken place. An indescribable discomfort hit me and I began to feel nausea as I ran along.
Wu… A gory scene appeared before me as a bamboo spike racks with 2-3 bodies stuck on them could be seen. Their eyes were open and they had horrific expressions on their faces. When I looked down further, I could see their innards spilling out.
Ugh… I could not take it anymore and vomited and teared. I had not eaten anything this morning so nothing came out except some of my stomach juices.
*Da* *Da* *Da* *Da*
My stomach juices splattered about as my mouth tasted sour and my eyes began tearing. This is way too unbecoming of me. I thought I had gotten used to this but here I am. And… And I still have something very important to do too…
I crawled up from the ground and swallowed my saliva as I spat out the last of the juices in my mouth. At the very least, I have not vomited on the corpses so that’s something I guess.
As I got up, I pulled up my hat slightly and wiped the tears from my eyes as I looked about and continued searching for the person I have been searching for a while now.
“Yi De, where are you…”
I saw her run in this direction earlier. If it were not for the ongoing battle, I would have caught up to her by now.
I swallowed my saliva again as I headed into the alleys. Not too long ago, just as I landed in a dire predicament, Yi De suddenly roared and landed in front of me. She then unexpectedly did a powerful horizontal slash that cut down Lu Xiang. If this were Yi De before she lost her memories, then I would not be surprised. But there is no way that the Yi De now has that sort of power and technique.
And there is the way she addressed me as well.
– Don’t you dare bully my big brother!
I clearly heard her address me as ‘big brother’ and hope that her memories might have returned sparked in me. I did not expect that she would run off all of a sudden with no warning though and have been chasing after her ever since.
“Yi De~” I yelled out but all I could hear were the echoes of my own voice.
Yi De… Where did she go?
I was getting rather anxious and did not know where to go after this and paced about anxiously. Though she did not seem to have sustained any injuries from the battle before, she seemed shocked when she saw Lu Xiang lying on the ground and I was rather worried.
“Lord Liu Bei, what are you doing here?”
Eh? A voice came from behind all of a sudden but when I turned back, I did not see anybody around.
“Ah… Over here.”
Ah… I reflexively looked down when I heard the voice coming from my chest and saw Hua Tuo who was squinting at me.
“Ah, Hua Tuo, what are you doing here?”
“Cleaning up of course. I’m also checking to see if there is anyone who needs treatment.” Hua Tuo said with a tinge of sadness at the loss of life and looked at me, “I just knew it was Lord Liu Bei. I was thinking your figure looked fammmmm~~~”
Before Hua Tuo could finish, I grabbed her by her shoulders and shook her frantically as I asked, “Hua Tuo, did you see Yi De nearby? Did Yi De pass through here?!”
“Eh? Yi De?” Hua Tuo frowned and seemed puzzled, “Wasn’t she with my lord?”
Ah… She does not know huh? Though I would like to explain the situation with her, I really do not have the leisure to do so right now.
“Wu…”
Un?
“Lord Liu Bei, what happened– Wu!”
“Sorry Hua Tuo but please keep quiet for a bit.” I said as I covered her mouth and looked around as I listened closely.
“Eh? Is there someone alive around?”
No… There was someone moaning and it was the very someone I was looking for.
“Yi De!” I yelled as I sprinted for a building that was about to collapse.
*Ka*!
I kicked open the door and charged in and saw Yi De lying down at a corner of the building.
“Yi De!!” I yelled out again as I ran over, “Yi De, Yi De?”
When I grabbed her and carried her up, her head fell back lifelessly as though she were dead and I frantically checked her body for injuries. Only when I found that there were no injuries did I heave a sigh of relief.
“Lord Liu Bei, let me take a look.” Hua Tuo said as she squatted down beside me and felt Yi De’s pulse.
Li Dian POV
“Lord Cao Ren, I understand how you feel.” I frowned as I said so but forced myself to continue, “But you win some, you lose some. As long as we can bring these troops back alive, our loss is not that shameful. At the very least, we have half of our troops remaining right now and are not mired in battle.”
I am not sure if Cao Ren is listening but if we turn back and engage the enemy now, we will be condemning these 7,000 elite troops to death. Be they Yuan Shao’s or my lord’s troops, them surviving this battle means they can contribute in the next one. I believe that Cao Ren should understand this even better than I do.
“I am even clearer about this than you, Lord Li Dian.” Cao Ren continued. I looked at her and saw that she was calm and collected but tired nonetheless, “Yet there is no need for us to return to the city yet. If we do that, we would lose too much.”
That is indeed the case. The supplies we have in the encampment is not little by any means. Most importantly, there are enough provisions to supply more than 10,000 people for 3 months. If we leave them, then we would be extending the longevity of the resistance at Xinye.
“Lord Cao Ren, if you’re talking about the provisions, then I can send men to raze them to the ground right now.”
“No,” Cao Ren continued to shake her head, “As I said, it is still too soon to resort to our final measures.”
“Eh?” I really did not understand what she was getting at but she looked too confident and assured for this to be a ruse and it seemed like she actually had a magical solution at hand.
“If Lord Cao Ren has any magic bullet at hand, please do share it.” I said to Cao Ren with a small hope in my heart.
Cao Ren sighed in response and her expression lightened up, to the point where I could not tell that we just lost a battle, as she replied, “Lord Li Dian, do you know why my elder sister sent me here?”
“Eh?”
I really did not know what the answer to this question could be. But then again, I have never really seriously considered this. At first, I thought that this might be to train her but this was impossible. There was no way my lord would send her to lead an army of 30,000 strong for training purposes after all.
“I don’t.” I said as I shook my head and turned back to see that the distance between Lu Bu and her troops and us had widened.
“Some people are better at attacking, and some are better at defending. Others are better yet at turning around dire situations with strange tactics.” Cao Ren said, “I don’t know what my elder sister’s thinking is but I believe that she hopes for me to be the latter.”
“Eh?”
Now that I think about it, I realised that I do not know much about Cao Ren, nor has she shared much of her past with me. Just as Shen Pei had 2 faces, perhaps Cao Ren had another one as well apart from her usual kind and gentle self.
“Could there be a way to salvage the situation and win the battle?”
“It’s not a sure thing but there is something we can try.” Cao Ren said with more energy as she smiled, “7,000 men is just enough to use ‘that’.”
That? What is that? I looked at Cao Ren and saw a single bead of sweat stream down her face.
“Sometimes, a battle is won not by the strength of the troops but the formation used.”
“Formation huh…”
“Yes.” Cao Ren nodded and took out a flag from her sleeve, “Like you said, if we engage with the enemy, we will be mired in battle like fools who have stepped into a pit of quicksand.”
“– And I, will be the creator of this quicksand.”
On the flag, there were 4 words written: ‘8 Doors Golden Lock’.
(TL: 8 Doors Golden Lock is a completely fictional strategy used by Zhuge Liang in the original novel and can be seen in the Red Cliff movie. Even if you leave aside what the formation is supposed to do, the coordination required to execute it makes it simply impossible.)
Liu Bei POV
“Haa… Haa…”
The entire city was silent and it seemed like I was the only one running around as all I could hear was my own footsteps and breathing. Right now, Xinye was unrecognisable. Half of it was our doing but seeing the billowing black smoke still made me worried.
When I looked down, the bodies of both friendly and hostile troops sent shivers down my spine. Now that the battle had come to a close, I began to feel terrible as I remembered what had taken place. An indescribable discomfort hit me and I began to feel nausea as I ran along.
Wu… A gory scene appeared before me as a bamboo spike racks with 2-3 bodies stuck on them could be seen. Their eyes were open and they had horrific expressions on their faces. When I looked down further, I could see their innards spilling out.
Ugh… I could not take it anymore and vomited and teared. I had not eaten anything this morning so nothing came out except some of my stomach juices.
*Da* *Da* *Da* *Da*
My stomach juices splattered about as my mouth tasted sour and my eyes began tearing. This is way too unbecoming of me. I thought I had gotten used to this but here I am. And… And I still have something very important to do too…
I crawled up from the ground and swallowed my saliva as I spat out the last of the juices in my mouth. At the very least, I have not vomited on the corpses so that’s something I guess.
As I got up, I pulled up my hat slightly and wiped the tears from my eyes as I looked about and continued searching for the person I have been searching for a while now.
“Yi De, where are you…”
I saw her run in this direction earlier. If it were not for the ongoing battle, I would have caught up to her by now.
I swallowed my saliva again as I headed into the alleys. Not too long ago, just as I landed in a dire predicament, Yi De suddenly roared and landed in front of me. She then unexpectedly did a powerful horizontal slash that cut down Lu Xiang. If this were Yi De before she lost her memories, then I would not be surprised. But there is no way that the Yi De now has that sort of power and technique.
And there is the way she addressed me as well.
– Don’t you dare bully my big brother!
I clearly heard her address me as ‘big brother’ and hope that her memories might have returned sparked in me. I did not expect that she would run off all of a sudden with no warning though and have been chasing after her ever since.
“Yi De~” I yelled out but all I could hear were the echoes of my own voice.
Yi De… Where did she go?
I was getting rather anxious and did not know where to go after this and paced about anxiously. Though she did not seem to have sustained any injuries from the battle before, she seemed shocked when she saw Lu Xiang lying on the ground and I was rather worried.
“Lord Liu Bei, what are you doing here?”
Eh? A voice came from behind all of a sudden but when I turned back, I did not see anybody around.
“Ah… Over here.”
Ah… I reflexively looked down when I heard the voice coming from my chest and saw Hua Tuo who was squinting at me.
“Ah, Hua Tuo, what are you doing here?”
“Cleaning up of course. I’m also checking to see if there is anyone who needs treatment.” Hua Tuo said with a tinge of sadness at the loss of life and looked at me, “I just knew it was Lord Liu Bei. I was thinking your figure looked fammmmm~~~”
Before Hua Tuo could finish, I grabbed her by her shoulders and shook her frantically as I asked, “Hua Tuo, did you see Yi De nearby? Did Yi De pass through here?!”
“Eh? Yi De?” Hua Tuo frowned and seemed puzzled, “Wasn’t she with my lord?”
Ah… She does not know huh? Though I would like to explain the situation with her, I really do not have the leisure to do so right now.
“Wu…”
Un?
“Lord Liu Bei, what happened– Wu!”
“Sorry Hua Tuo but please keep quiet for a bit.” I said as I covered her mouth and looked around as I listened closely.
“Eh? Is there someone alive around?”
No… There was someone moaning and it was the very someone I was looking for.
“Yi De!” I yelled as I sprinted for a building that was about to collapse.
*Ka*!
I kicked open the door and charged in and saw Yi De lying down at a corner of the building.
“Yi De!!” I yelled out again as I ran over, “Yi De, Yi De?”
When I grabbed her and carried her up, her head fell back lifelessly as though she were dead and I frantically checked her body for injuries. Only when I found that there were no injuries did I heave a sigh of relief.
“Lord Liu Bei, let me take a look.” Hua Tuo said as she squatted down beside me and felt Yi De’s pulse.
