Vol 9 Chapter 125 (2/2)

“We really couldn’t sleep.” Feng Xian closed her eyes and nodded when she finished.

That’s understandable. No matter what, all of them should have a lot on their minds after the last battle. I could guess as much from my last conversation with Feng Xian and Yun Chang. If they have chosen to come early, then that means that they should have come to terms with the issues that were troubling them which is a good thing,

“Thanks to Zi Long and Chen Dao for your hard work yesterday as well.” I said as I looked at the 2 sitting some distance away, “Though you were both supposed to be resting, you both ended helping everyone out here and there.”

“There’s no need to say such things as we are a team after all.”

“That’s right, that’s right!” Chen Dao nodded and agreed with Zi Long.

“But Xuan De, where is Lord Xu Shu?” Zi Long asked when Chen Dao finished and looked at Yuan Zhi’s seat. When Zi Long finished, the others looked at Yuan Zhi’s seat as well. Even Zhou Cang looked over while shovelling food into her mouth.

Wu… This made it very difficult for me to answer as I did not know where she was right now.

“Yuan Zhi is… She could have left the mansion in the morning.” But at this time, I could not admit this and gave a vague reply before changing the topic, “But now that everyone is here, let’s get to business. Yun Chang, Feng Xian, what’s the final number after yesterday’s count?”

Apart from the 2-3,000 troops left in charge of defending the city, there were about 20,000 or so troops deployed this time.

“After doing a final count and reorganising our troops, we have about 10,000 or so.” Feng Xian replied immediately.

“After the ambush and subsequent battles, my troops number more than 3,000. Lord Lu Bu has more than 6,000. If we exclude the ones who are too sick and injured to fight, we have slightly less than 10,000.” Yun Chang added.

When they finished, I could feel that the atmosphere became much heavier. Compared to the festive atmosphere in the 2 banquets before, it was like heaven and h.e.l.l. I had thought that it might have been difficult for them to speak about this but they did so without any hesitation. Looks like they really have resolved the issues that had been plaguing them before.

“Un… But that means we only have about 10,000 that we can use huh?”

“No, you can’t say that.” Wen Yuan interrupted me with a helpless look.

“Yes, we still need more troops for city defence construction works.” Huang Zu spoke up, “Now that the situation has worsened, we need to hasten work on the fortifications as much as e can.”

“Wu…” Wen Yuan grimaced. Looks like Huang Zu has the upper hand when it comes to borrowing troops and has been doing so rather liberally.

“So how many troops can we use?”

“8,000 at the maximum.” Yun Chang explained, “Lord Lu Bu and I have divided our troops amongst us and we have done away with the idea of 2 main divisions. For now, there are 4 smaller battalions with 2,000 men each to be led by Lord Lu Bu, me, Wen Yuan and Lord Zhao Yun. This will allow us to move quickly.”

“But I’ll still be acting alongside my lord (Lu Bu).” Wen Yuan added and leaned over to Feng Xian, “My lord (Liu Bei) should just think of us as a larger 4,000 man battalion.”

“Oi… Don’t come so close…” Feng Xian muttered, seeming rather embarra.s.sed by Wen Yuan’s attack from up-close as she blushed. She tried to push Wen Yuan away but could not find it in herself to apply strength into her push. Feng Xian is really shy at these times huh? Though I must say that even I feel a little embarra.s.sed watching 2 beautiful girls cling to each other.

But even 4,000 is considered large now huh? Of the troops we had gathered from Xu state to Jiangdong to Jing state, less than half remain now. It feels like the efforts by Zi Long and the xu state 3 in recruitment have all evaporated in an instant. When I thought of this, I felt rather disheartened.

“Then how many troops does the enemy still have?” I asked.

“In the frontal battle, they lost about 3,000 or so, so the enemy forces deployed to the frontal battle are about 1,000 more than our equivalent.”

7,000 huh?

“As for the troops that ambushed us, they should have lost a few thousand as well. Lord Guan Yu and I encountered forces numbering several thousands each so they should total 10,000.” Zhou Cang added while she continued to eat.

“That’s how it was,” Yun Chang nodded, “We did not manage to eliminate too many of their troops and they lost in total only about 2,000 or so, 3,000 at best.”

3,000. That means that the ambush still has 7,000 troops left. The situation truly is dire huh?

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