Vol 9 Chapter 64 (2/2)

Yes, while I was in a daze, I accidentally stepped into a muddy puddle with my left leg that drenched my foot up to my ankle.

“Yes, so I was.” As I answered her, I hurriedly took my foot out of the water and feigned nonchalance as I continued to follow the rest into the main hall where we had our banquet last night.

I was one of the last to enter and when I finally made it in, I saw that everyone else who had not turned up when I stepped out of my room were all seated in the main hall already. In particular, Yi De’s countenance seemed the same as last night and Chen Gong seemed to be in a combative mood.

“Ah, good morning.” However, Chen Gong still greeted me, unlike Yi De who merely turned away when she saw me. I do not know what is going on but being subject to this att.i.tude is far worse than having my ankle drenched in cold, muddy waters.

Un? Just then, I realised that the main star for today, Yu Zhi, was seated at the end of the column like yesterday night.

“Yuan Zhi, won’t you come and sit at the front?” I asked.

“Ah? Un… N, no need for that. I-I’ll just sit here…” Yuan Zhi stammered in reply. Looks like Yuan Zhi will still feel nervous in a formal venue like this and so she is acting completely differently from how she seemed earlier this morning. I also wonder if this is her nervousness leaking out from being suppressed before?

“Alright.” I decided not to force her and gestured for her to go ahead as I made my way to the very front of the room and sat down. I looked at the 2 columns and found that apart from Liao Hua who was occupied with her duties at the city towrr, everyone else was here.

“Well then, let’s begin, shall we?” I began the conference and turned to Yun Chang, “Yun Chang, if there’s anything involving Liao Hua, please notify her later on.”

“Alright.”

“Un, Yuan Zhi, please begin.”

When I finished, Yuan Zhi got up with her bandana almost fully obscuring her vision. Unlike yesterday night, she did not cover her eyes completely as she probably needs to identify who is to be deployed for the upcoming operation.

“Our first battle is winnable. Though we have a numerical disadvantage, they do not have sufficient information on our manpower, morale and how our troops are deployed. And because of what happened to Xuan De, they have certain a.s.sumptions about these unknowns.” Yuan Zhi took a deep breath as she said so to allay her nervousness, “So I believe that the enemy will send out a small force to launch a probing attack and also invite people over to their side.”

“Oh~” Chen Dao gasped in amazement. Zi Long, Yun Chang and the rest calmly nodded in response.

“Un, un, so how shall we respond then?” I continued to support Yuan Zhi and invite her to continue.

Yuan Zhi looked at me and nodded before taking a deep breath again, “Yes, what we need to do is to completely eradicate our enemy while sustaining as few casualties as possible. This is to reduce the parity in numbers to a more ideal state.”

Yuan Zhi was very smooth in her delivery and did not stammer at all. It feels like she wrote, and rewrote many times over, a script which she later memorised and recited from.

“Well then, I’ll go into the deployments now.” Yuan Zhi took 2 steps towards the center of the room and slowly said, “We don’t need too many generals for this mission. The rest should bring the spare troops into the city and wait. There will be many more battles in future so rest while you can.”

Ahem, Yuan Zhi cleared her throat, which signalled that she was about to read out the names of those who would take part in the upcoming operation. I looked at both sides as saw that everyone was nervous– Apart from the administrative folk and myself– Probably because they were eager to join the battlefield and not because they were afraid.

“Well then– Lord Zhao Yun.”

“Alright!!” Zi Long smiled and cheered when she heard her name being called.

“Next is Lord Guan Yu.” Yuan Zhi said as she looked at Yun Chang.

“Yes.” Unlike Zi Long, Yun Chang respectfully got up and saluted Yuan Zhi before sitting down again.

“You got it good huh~”

“Apologies there, Wen Yuan.” Yun Chang responded tp Wen Yuan’s stiff smile with a stiff smile pf her own.

“How are you feeling? Nervous to be back on the battlefield again?” I whispered when Yun Chang sat down again.

“What a joke, a real warrior never gets nervous on the battlefield. Never.” Yun Chang said as she closed her eyes and concentrated. Looks like she has begun her mental preparations.

“There is 1 last commanding officer.” Yuan Zhi said. Looks like there will be 3 regiments this time huh. Well then, it’s obvious that the 3rd general will be Feng Xian.

It seemed like everyone else was thinking the same as they were all looking at Feng Xian, who was concentrated on Red Hare and seemed even more of an airhead than Yuan Zhi. Unlike Yuan Zhi however, Feng Xian seemed more like a tiger who was just about to pounce.

“Lord Zhang Fei.”

“Eh?”

Eh?!

But when Yuan Zhi called out the last name, Yi De let out a surprised gasp. At the same time, so did I.

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