Vol 9 Chapter 133 (2/2)

Yuan Zhi joined me of her own volition. There is no need to suspect her motivations anymore after this. Of course, I must say that is also a decent boost to my self-esteem.

“Wait for me. I came here to look for you but you left without even waiting for me.” I yelled as I hurried up to her.

The city was really bustling earlier, and even after we chatted for quite a while, the crowds showed no signs that they had dwindled in the least. In fact, because it was approaching noon, it seemed like there was even more people around. This made the streets really squeezy and it seemed as though every commoner in the city came to the market.

“By the way, what if someone had overheard what we just said before?” I asked as I caught up to her side.

“Not possible. There are too many people around and it’s too noisy for anyone to hear what was said clearly enough.” She replied while she held her chin and sank into thought after she finished,

“Yuan Zhi, you might not know some things because you were in the meeting.” I said softly beside her, “If there is any question you might have, just ask me now and I’ll do my best to answer them.”

“Un…” Yuan Zhi nodded and turned to look at me, “I’ll just ask 2 questions for now then. First, how many troops do both sides have left?”

“Rounding both sides gets a 3:2 ratio in favour of the enemy.”

“So we have… 10,000?”

“More or less.” I nodded, “Apart from the forces needed to man the city defences, Zi Long, Feng Xian, Yun Chang and Wen Yuan each lead 2,000 strong battalions.”

“Un…” Yuan Zhi nodded when I finished. Compared to the 2 battles before, it seems like Yuan Zhi is thinking a lot more, probably because she is actually relying on her own a.n.a.lysis this time.

“Alright, I got it.” Yuan Zhi seemed to have memorised what I just told her and continued asking further, “The second question now then, is about the raid on Fan city. How did the enemy see through our strategy and ambushed us?”

“About that huh… I don’t think Yun Chang made a grave mistake…” I said and thought for a moment before I remembered what Zi Long said to me, “Ah yes, you know of a general called Shen Pei?”

“Shen Pei?” She repeated and shook her head.

“She is Ben Chu’s, that is Yuan Shao’s, strategist who is also partic.i.p.ating in this battle.”

“Un? Shen Pei…” She frowned and sank into thought, “From what I know, there should not be a Shen Pei…”

“Is that so?”

“I see, so the enemy has an intellectual leader as well huh?” Yuan Zhi said as she felt her bandana and sighed, “In that case, ordinary strategies will not be of use. And so is more than half of the content of books I’ve read thus far.”

“This makes sense. There is no wonder why the entirety of the second battle has proceeded very differently from what I know. After what happened in the first battle, it’s normal that this would happen.” She explained to herself as she rubbed her eyebrows, “Compared to them, we just followed our script to the letter and it seems like there is nothing we can use…”

“What do you mean by that?” I did not understand what she meant by that and asked. Because the hat I wore obscured my vision, it was difficult for me to walk through the crowds as I had to be careful that it did not fall off when someone b.u.mped into me.

“I mean what I said. The strategies that I used were only usable if the enemy only consisted of Cao Ren, Lu Kuang, Lu Xiang and maybe Li Dian. But now that there is Shen Pei, it will be difficult to deal with the enemy.”

“Then how about doing something that’s not in the script?”

“Un… Do something based entirely on my own a.n.a.lysis huh?” Yuan Zhi said as she walked ahead and turned back to look at me, “But I really have nothing…”

Just then, Yuan Zhi’s expressions changed as she looked at me and her eyes bulged.

“Umm… What’s the matter?” I asked but Yuan Zhi stayed where she was and continued to stare at me so I had no choice but to stop walking as well. Having the both of us stop in the middle of the market resulted in great inconvenience for everyone else as they had to go around us. The eyes on us were especially painful thanks to my gra.s.s circlet and I was feeling very uncomfortable.

Could it be that Yuan Zhi wants to give her opinion on my gra.s.s circlet as well?

“…”

“Eh? Yuan Zhi?”

All of a sudden, Yuan Zhi began walking towards me with big strides, leaving her horse where it stood and ignoring the crowds, as she came straight for me. It was just a few steps by a single person but it seemed like the entire flow of people stopped and from where I stood, I could see the commoners all around looking ith irritationat Yuan Zhi which made me feel nervous.

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