Vol 8 Chapter 25 (1/2)

VOLUME 8 CHAPTER 25: DON’T TELL ME THIS IS THE SIEGE BATTLE OF JIANGXIA (5)

Liu Bei POV

I’ve been through yet another battle, and I must say that Gan Ning is truly a formidable general. But…

I looked down the city wall and saw that the enemy corpses that formed small mounds here and there with no one going to deal with them. Ling Tong’s mother, Ling Cao was probably amongst them.

I didn’t want to think about it, but I felt compelled to ask her, “Lord Gan Ning, I have something that I’m not sure if I should ask.”

“I haven’t killed anyone.”

“Ah… No, what I mean is…”

“I didn’t kill anyone.” Gan Ning repeated what she said once more, which made me feel too awkward to ask any further.

Since she said as much, I have no reason to distrust her. I don’t know why, but I feel like Gan Ning isn’t the sort who will lie.

While cleaning up the battlefield, I was very relieved to learn that though Chen Dao and Wen Ping’s injuries weren’t light, they were only external injuries.

As for the east gate, nothing much of note happened. Zhou Cang and Zhu Ran dueled for a while but there was no result.

Later on, Chen Gong gave me her a.s.sessment of this battle– Though it all worked out because of the reinforcements, this battle didn’t go well at all.

It was now in the evening and we were gathered in Huang Zu’s large tent. We weren’t celebrating, rather, we were having a meeting.

Chen Dao’s injuries were still rather heavy so she is currently resting. Thus, only Zhou Cang and Chen Gong joined me at this meeting.

“Eh! I nearly killed that b.i.t.c.h!” Along the way, Zhou Cang’s complaints were incessant and peppered with expletives which was difficult to listen to. I just hope that I can eventually cultivate a skill that will allow me to see the face and not hear the voice, to be used specifically on Zhou Cang.

“…” Unlike Zhou Cang, or rather the complete opposite, Chen Gong was silent as she sat on her horse.

As for the reason why she is angry, it’s easy for me to guess from how she was like at the city tower earlier.

“Chen Gong, don’t do anything untoward later.”

“What do you mean by this, Imperial Uncle? Is Huang Zu leaving the city to do battle because of her personal feelings reason enough?”

I tried to warn her but got soundly rebuked by Chen Gong.

“Perhaps she knew that the navy would arrive soon and so she lured the enemy in.”

“Perhaps.” Chen Gong shook her head, and extended a hand which she gestured with in the air, “In this battle, our Xiangyang reinforcements suffered 700 odd casualties. Taking out the ones who are no longer able to fight, we have 1,500 odd collectively. The city garrison suffered 1,000 odd casualties, and their remaining fighting strength is less than 3,000. Totalling up, after this battle, our side only has a fighting strength of 4,000.”

For a limited city garrison, our losses in this battle were significant indeed.

“But it’s a good thing that our navy has arrived, and we have another 3-4,000 troops.”

“And so what? My lord couldn’t be thinking of having the naval troops help to defend the city right?” Chen Gong shook her head as she continued, “And has Imperial Uncle heard of it yet? Jiangdong’s navy is approaching the port.”

Eh!? There was this?

“No way, the couriers never reported this.” I was starting to panic after hearing this piece of bad news.

“This sort of news can’t be casually spread.” Chen Gong lightly laughed, and bent down low before she continued in a soft voice, “But looking at how things are like now, this is very possible. Back when we went to Jiangdong, I saw that Jiangdong’s navy was already ready to mobilise. Now that they are launching an offensive on Jiangxia, I’m afraid that the navy will be the true main force.”

If it was as Chen Gong said, then if it weren’t for the delay in Jiangdong’s navy’s arrival, we would have been unable to hold off the siege.

Just thinking about it made me scared. But is this true?

This upcoming meeting should be to decide the future strategies. If that’s the case, given that we will not be able to defend the city, a decisive battle outside the city, or perhaps on the waters, may be the only way to reverse the situation.

I didn’t have any plan for this, nor did I know what Huang Zu could possibly be thinking. Just as I was thinking of this, Huang Zu’s tent appeared before us.

As we entered Huang Zu’s encampment and her tent, I saw that Huang Zu was already sitting at the main seat. Her eyes were tightly shut, and she was sitting quietly. From time to time, she would breathe out and blow her fringe up. In her hands was that pot of water, with half of it already drained.

At the 2nd seat to the fight, Liu Qi was already seated. As for the other generals, they were all seated opposite Huang Zu in positions after the 2nd seat.

I looked to the side and saw Gan Ning, as well as Wen Ping and Yi Ji. Besides them, there were several new faces who were probably Su Fei and her other generals.

“Imperial Uncle.”

“Lord Liu Bei.”

When everyone saw me coming in, they all got up and bowed and saluted to me. I instinctively raised my hand to gesture to them that there was no need to do so.