Chapter 43 - To Or Not To Runan? (1/2)
Chapter 43 - To Or Not To Runan?
Original by Bro Got a Gun, Translated by James
This chapter is sponsored by Suood K. of UAE
“What do you mean?!” Lu Bu frowned. To go to Shouchun and conquer Runan was the stratagem that Lu Bu and Chen Deng had came up with. The two were even zestfully discussing about how to develop the county into one that could threaten Old Cao’s XuDu after conquering it. Who would have imagined that they would be immediately shut down by someone before they could even implement their plans.
[TL: Runan is a county in Yu Province (presently, it is located in Zhumadian, Henan Province)]
[TL: Shouchun is a county in Yu Province, (presently it is known as Shou County and located in Anhui Province.)]
[TL: Parts of both the Anhui Province and Henan Provinces belonged to the ancient Yu Province.]
[TL: XuDu is Cao Cao’s capital.]
“That’s right, Prince! Traitor Cao was soon to be engaged with Yuan Shao in a great battle in Guandu. If we were to not take Runan now and threaten Cao Cao’s XuDu, then we will no longer have an opportunity to do so! When two tigers fight, one will certainly get injured. When that time comes, it shall be the time for our lord to take raise his flag again!” Chen Deng’s idea was indeed very alluring. Had Liu Mang not knew of that moron called Liu Pi or something then he would certainly joined Chen Deng’s boat toward Shouchun, conquer Runan and finally set out for XuDu to threaten Old Cao’s rear.
[TL: rear in this aspect refers to the supply line. Nope, not the butt.]
[TL: Battle of Guandu.
If they were lucky, they might even be able to capture XuDu and obtain the emperor. At that time, with the emperor in hand, they
But they can’t. That Liu Pi was located at Runan. Did you say Liu Pi wasn’t Lu Bu and doesn’t possess the bravery and fierceness that Lu Bu have and that’s why he was defeated in Runan? Oh please! He was defeated even though Yuan Shao sent the three peach brothers to help him. Although the three peach brothers can’t rival Lu Bu, they were still able to fight against him.
At last, the three peach brothers ended up fleeing to Jing Province and Liu Pi ended up dying in Runan.
Seeing Lu Bu’s expression, Liu Mang knew that he must find a way to persuade Lu Bu otherwise this Boss Lu of his would not change his decision. He knew that he can’t just go and tell Lu Bu that there’s an idiot who thought of the same thing that he’s planning to do - to attack Cao Cao’s XuDu from Runan - and ended up getting killed by Old Cao!
Right when Liu Mang didn’t know what to do, he saw that there was a man standing behind Lu Bu smiling. It was Chen Gong. Immediately he found his way out. “Old Man Chen Gong knows!” As Liu Mang was well acquainted with Chen Gong, he called Chen Gong as Old Man.
“Watch your manner of speech.” Lu Bu criticized Liu Mang and then turned around to ask Chen Gong. “Gongtai?!”
Right when Chen Gong wanted to decline speaking, Liu Mang spoke before him. “Military Advisor Chen, if you didn’t have a plan in mind, how could you possibly smile this happily?!” With those words, Liu Mang had blocked Chen Gong’s way out.
“Eh!” As Chen Gong was smiling the whole time, Liu Mang knew there was something in his mind. After all, if everyone was to be pondering and thinking over the way to solve a problem and you’re the only person standing there smiling, then there’s only two possibilities. One, you’re a fool. And two, you already have a stratagem planned out. It was obvious that Chen Gong wasn’t a fool, leaving with only the single possibility - Chen Gong had already thought of a stratagem.
“Gongtai, if you have words, please speak!” Lu Bu had also understood. Chen Gong certainly have something in mind. Otherwise, he would not be standing there smiling at Liu Mang the whole time. Having worked with Chen Gong all these years, Lu Bu knew of Chen Gong’s personality well.
“My Lord!” Chen Gong gave a wry smile while shaking his head. He originally wanted to see how Liu Mang, Liu Hanyang, would convince his lord. However now, Liu Mang had passed the ball to him instead.
Chen Gong wasn’t as direct as Liu Mang. He knew that regardless of what happened, Lu Bu is still a warlord. Although he have only remnant soldiers and scattered generals as his army now, his dignity was still incomparable. Should you directly question his way of thinking, then it’s to not respect him. In that case, even if his thinking was proven wrong, he might still be stubborn about it and refuse to accept being wrong.
“My lord, do you know why Cao Mende attacked our Xu Province?!” Chen Gong instead asked a question back at Lu Bu.
“Why Cao Mende attacked our Xu Province?!” Lu Bu thought for a moment and then looked at Chen Deng causing Chen Deng to be very embarrassed. One of the major reason why Old Cao wanted to conquer Xu Province was because of the offer the Chen family gave him. However, Lu Bu didn’t say it clearly. Instead, he said. “Xu Province had a lot of foodstuffs!”
“Haha!” Chen Gong laughed.
Chen Deng took over Chen Gong’s question. “It’s better for Deng to continue. It was because Deng’s old father sent Traitor Cao a secret letter. In the letter, it laid down my lord and Liu Bei’s personal complaints and also the map of the defense layout of Xu Province!” Chen Deng decided to laid everything out in the open. Even though Lu Bu was trying to save him face, the generals under Lu Bu would still have lingering fears as he had once rebelled against Lu Bu. In that case, he figured he might as well just expose everything and admit his mistake.
After hearing Chen Deng’s speech, Liu Mang learned why Lu Bu would lose Xu Province so quickly. He had an army of seventy thousand, even if he was to be a pig, he would still be able to last half a year against Cao Cao. Who would’ve expected that each and every move of his were monitored by Old Cao - where he plans to transfer his soldiers, where he goes, the amount of provisions he had, all of them were known to Old Cao.
Chen Deng’s selling out of his master was very skillfully done.
Even though Lu Bu had already forgotten this thing, he still gave Chen Deng a couple more glances when Chen Deng exposed everything.
“Haha. Yuanlong, that is not true at all!” Chen Gong deliberately paused mid speech so that Chen Deng would speak the words in his heart. Some words are better spoken than kept within.
If Chen Deng didn’t speak the cause, then perhaps Lu Bu might be afraid of putting him in important positions. After all, he had betrayed Lu Bu once. Who knows if he would betray Lu Bu a second time. Likewise, Chen Deng would also be uneasy. He would begin to guess what Lu Bu would be thinking, whether Lu Bu would try to settle the score with him. If the ruler and his minister were to be at odds, it would make the situation to be very bad.