Vol 5 Chapter 6 (1/2)

WRITTEN BY XAPHHJULY 4, 2016

VOLUME 5 CHAPTER 6: DON’T TELL ME THIS IS THE BATTLE OF GUANDU (1)

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 韩福 while the one that died is 韩馥.)

“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?”