Vol 9 Chapter 76 (1/2)

VOLUME 9 CHAPTER 76: DON’T TELL ME THIS IS THE AFTERMATH OF THE BATTLE (3)

Liu Bei POV

“Yuan Zhi, we won today.” I said with a smile as I went over to where she was. What happened today was indeed something worth being happy about after all.

“It’s thanks to you that we won. If it were not for your strategy, we might still be fighting right now.” When I finished, Yuan Zhi shook her head with a dazed look. To be honest, she always looks dazed out as long as she does not speak.

“No, this was just the first battle. There will be many more to come.” Yuan Zhi replied. Though she said as much, she seemed a little happy when she heard me say that we won.

She then s.h.i.+fted her gaze from me to somewhere behind. Naturally, I knew that she was looking at Yi De’s room.

“Lord Zhang Fei can’t have collapsed due to exhaustion alone.”

Looks like my lie was seen through immediately.

“That is… But it’s not like it’s anything serious anyway.” I said as I smiled stiffly. But when I saw Yuan Zhi looking right at me, I realised that I could not avoid the issue and decided to fess up, “Because of her amnesia, Yi De was not able to properly fend off an enemy general. Well, she was also exhausted after that so…”

The more I said, the more I realised that I did not know what to say. We did not know why Yi De fainted after all. All we knew was that it was related to her fight during the battle.

“I see…” Yuan Zhi reacted blandly and sank into thought once more. I do not know what she is thinking about now but it’s probably related to the battle. Or perhaps she’s modifying her upcoming deployment plans.

— Yuan Zhi, why did you choose to deploy Yi De?

Though I promised Yun Chang that I would ask Yuan Zhi this question, the words got stuck in my mouth. The myriad emotions relating to this question swirled about inside me and in the end, I could not force the question out.

“Ah…”

Un? Just then, Yuan Zhi’s jaw widened.

“Yuan Zhi–”

“Xuan De.” I was about to ask her what was going on when she called out to me.

“Yes!”

“You said that Yi De was unable to fend off her opponent, who was it?”

“Ah… She later broke through the surround with Li Dian and escaped with some survivors.” I said and thought back to the name which Li Dian had yelled out, “Her name seems to be… Lu Xiang?”

“What?!” Yuan Zhi immediately cried out in surprise.

“You said Lu Xiang escaped? And there was someone else called Li Dian?” Yuan Zhi said as she gasped. Is she unhappy with us for letting them escape?

“Xuan De, let me start from the beginning. How many generals were there?”

“3.”

“Who else was there besides Li Dian and Lu Xiang?”

“Someone called Lu Kuang who was killed by a fatal wound to the neck by Zi Long’s spear.”

Yuan Zhi nodded, “How many troops did the enemy have?”

“Ah! … About 8-9,000.”

“What!”

(… Wasn’t it supposed to be 5,000?) Yuan Zhi muttered under her breath but I could not hear what she said very clearly.

“The enemy was able to tear a hole in the surround.” I continued to explain what happened, “Yun Chang’s troops engaged the enemy’s rearguard first. In total, we had about 12,000 or so. The surround worked very well in the beginning but some cavalry troops charged in later and messed up the formation, giving them a chance to break through.&rdquo

As I explained, Yuan Zhi continued to stare at the ground with a dazed look in her eyes and seemed to lose her balance as she leaned against the wall.

“How many escaped?”

“I don’t know the specifics,” I said as I shook my head, “That will have to wait till Zi Long and Chen Dao return with the numbers.”

“Un un un.” Yuan Zhi nodded, looking very dazed. When I took a closer look at her, I found that there was no trace of any other emotion. It seemed like she had turned to stone.

“Yuan Zhi?”

“… Ah,” She took a long while before responding and looked at me before quickly pulling down her bandana, “I understand what happened now. We’ll discuss the specifics tonight then.”

Ah… Before I could say anything, Yuan Zhi went around me and left. I turned back and saw that Yuan Zhi was walking very quickly without paying attention to the mud and water under her feet. This was completely different from how graceful and light her steps were earlier today. She’s also a clean freak too…

It was clear that Yuan Zhi was panicking. I do not know why though as Yuan Zhi seemed to be unwilling to tell me anything for now. Honestly, I am rather worried by this. But at the very least, we won the battle, and thoroughly at that.