Vol 8 Chapter 13.1 (1/2)

VOLUME 8 CHAPTER 13 PART 1: DON’T TELL ME THIS IS A SKIRMISH AT JIANGXIA (3)

Liu Bei POV

What’s going on? How did they collapse so quickly? Could this be Cai Mao’s ploy– No, impossible. I couldn’t understand how the troops were broken up so swiftly. No matter what, these were the elite after all.

“Imperial Uncle, please look more carefully, and concentrate on Lord Liu Qi’s contingent.”

Eh?

I looked again when I heard what Chen Gong said, but I didn’t see anything of note before–

Ah! Now I see it.

Just one moment before, a wave of troops charged out from the swirling dust at Liu Qi’s troops, sweeping away yet another segment from the main body. The wave of troops that came out followed through with their charge and disappeared into the large cloud of dust soon after.

“Did my lord see that?” Chen Gong said coldly as she looked at the platoons that were engulfed to the stunned me.

At this sight before me, all I could do was nod wordlessly.

“Clearly, the other side has thoroughly practiced and prepared countermeasures against reinforcing armies. The formations of the main body of the other side are tight and strong, and their defensive lines have not broken from Liu Qi’s surprise attack. Instead, they have been able to disperse Liu Qi’s main body and rear guard thoroughly.” Chen Gong said, and s.h.i.+fted her gaze to me, “And so, if we should enter the fray, our fate would be like them. We would not be able to be an effective fighting force, nor can we join up with Huang Zu’s troops.”

Chen Gong gave a long sigh as she said so before continuing, “There will probably be a lot of roaming mobile enemy units with so much dust and sand flying about. Our troops are almost all heavy infantry so we don’t have a unit advantage at all. Our only consolation is that the enemy cavalry units will find it difficult to pierce the thick plate armour of our heavy infantry so the dispersed troops won’t be decimated immediately. That said, I doubt they can last longer than 15 minutes.”

Chen Gong said some words she probably thought were meant to be consolatory but everyone knew that neither Huang Zu nor Liu Qi were in a position to rejoin with the dispersed troops. Therefore, their fates were sealed.

“This cloud of sand is really a big quagmire.” Chen Dao said. I too felt the dame.

“Then what do we do now? We can’t attack, but we can’t just wait here and do nothing either.” Zhou Cang frowned as she waved her machete about in the air in an attempt to quell her battlel.u.s.t. This definitely isn’t the behaviour of a beautiful maiden everyone is attracted to.

Un, indeed. There’s no way for us to launch an attack.

“Chen Gong, do you have a plan?”

I didn’t have a plan to deal with this naturally, so all I could do was to seek help from someone who knew what the problem was. From my experience, I’ve found that most strategists are keen to share their ideas if you ask them nicely enough.

“No, I don’t have a plan.” But just as I was thinking about this, Chen Gong shook her head as she said no.

“Eh?”

“The numerical difference between the enemy and us are increasing. Our side doesn’t have a geographical advantage nor do we have large catapults so it will be difficult to turn the tide the way things stand. To be honest, the only thing we can do is to wait. Wait for either the enemy to drop its guard, or for the enemy’s overall commander to reveal himself and we can go for him directly.”

“No, that’s no good.” I shook my head and turned down Chen Gong’s conclusion. Whether or not this is the correct answer, I won’t be heeding it.

“I know that this might result in Imperial Uncle going against your values of honour and compa.s.sion but we must conserve our strength and our lives. This is something Imperial Uncle must do.”

“… My lord, your life is of utmost importance.” When she heard that my life would be endangered, Chen Dao came up to me and pleaded resolutely as she saluted.

“But…” I was beginning to waver. What Chen Gong said makes sense, and I do indeed feel that charging down would be suicide.

“Eh! So are we fighting or not! Can we come to a decision?” Zhou Cang’s eyebrows creased more and more tightly as our discussion went on and she sheathed her machete.

I was committing the same mistakes again. But at this moment, any move I can make is not an optimal move.

I felt despondent as I stared down at the 朱 flags which dotted the foot of the mountain. How do I save Liu Qi’s troops who were ambushed? And how do I disrupt the enemy side?

I have no idea at all…

“Don’t think about disrupting the other side, Imperial Uncle.” Chen Gong shook her head as she guessed what I was thinking about again, “I already said it. Our troops are all heavy infantry. No matter how well-trained they are, no matter how adept they are with fighting, it–”

“Wait!” When I heard Chen Gong’s last sentence, my heart trembled, and it felt like I had been neglecting something all this while so I stopped her.

“Un? What happened, my lord?!” Chen Dao thought something happened to me when she saw my expression change.

“… Did you just say heavy infantry?!” I frantically racked my brain to trace the link that surfaced for a moment before, and finally found what I was looking for.

After thinking things through for a moment, I felt like everything was clear now.

“Chen Gong, I have a plan to mess up the enemy’s formation.”

“I’m waiting with bated breath.”