Vol 9 Chapter 173 (1/2)
Chapter 173
VOLUME 9 CHAPTER 173: DON’T TELL ME THIS IS THE SIEGE OF XINYE (22)
Li Dian POV
“Lord Cao Ren, I understand how you feel.” I frowned as I said so but forced myself to continue, “But you win some, you lose some. As long as we can bring these troops back alive, our loss is not that shameful. At the very least, we have half of our troops remaining right now and are not mired in battle.”
I am not sure if Cao Ren is listening but if we turn back and engage the enemy now, we will be condemning these 7,000 elite troops to death. Be they Yuan Shao’s or my lord’s troops, them surviving this battle means they can contribute in the next one. I believe that Cao Ren should understand this even better than I do.
“I am even clearer about this than you, Lord Li Dian.” Cao Ren continued. I looked at her and saw that she was calm and collected but tired nonetheless, “Yet there is no need for us to return to the city yet. If we do that, we would lose too much.”
That is indeed the case. The supplies we have in the encampment is not little by any means. Most importantly, there are enough provisions to supply more than 10,000 people for 3 months. If we leave them, then we would be extending the longevity of the resistance at Xinye.
“Lord Cao Ren, if you’re talking about the provisions, then I can send men to raze them to the ground right now.”
“No,” Cao Ren continued to shake her head, “As I said, it is still too soon to resort to our final measures.”
“Eh?” I really did not understand what she was getting at but she looked too confident and a.s.sured for this to be a ruse and it seemed like she actually had a magical solution at hand.
“If Lord Cao Ren has any magic bullet at hand, please do share it.” I said to Cao Ren with a small hope in my heart.
Cao Ren sighed in response and her expression lightened up, to the point where I could not tell that we just lost a battle, as she replied, “Lord Li Dian, do you know why my elder sister sent me here?”
“Eh?”
I really did not know what the answer to this question could be. But then again, I have never really seriously considered this. At first, I thought that this might be to train her but this was impossible. There was no way my lord would send her to lead an army of 30,000 strong for training purposes after all.
“I don’t.” I said as I shook my head and turned back to see that the distance between Lu Bu and her troops and us had widened.
“Some people are better at attacking, and some are better at defending. Others are better yet at turning around dire situations with strange tactics.” Cao Ren said, “I don’t know what my elder sister’s thinking is but I believe that she hopes for me to be the latter.”
“Eh?”
Now that I think about it, I realised that I do not know much about Cao Ren, nor has she shared much of her past with me. Just as Shen Pei had 2 faces, perhaps Cao Ren had another one as well apart from her usual kind and gentle self.
“Could there be a way to salvage the situation and win the battle?”
“It’s not a sure thing but there is something we can try.” Cao Ren said with more energy as she smiled, “7,000 men is just enough to use ‘that’.”
That? What is that? I looked at Cao Ren and saw a single bead of sweat stream down her face.
“Sometimes, a battle is won not by the strength of the troops but the formation used.”
“Formation huh…”
“Yes.” Cao Ren nodded and took out a flag from her sleeve, “Like you said, if we engage w
ith the enemy, we will be mired in battle like fools who have stepped into a pit of quicksand.”
“– And I, will be the creator of this quicksand.”
On the flag, there were 4 words written: ‘8 Doors Golden Lock’.
(TL: 8 Doors Golden Lock is a completely fictional strategy used by Zhuge Liang in the original novel and can be seen in the Red Cliff movie. Even if you leave aside what the formation is supposed to do, the coordination required to execute it makes it simply impossible.)
Liu Bei POV
“Haa… Haa…”
The entire city was silent and it seemed like I was the only one running around as all I could hear was my own footsteps and breathing. Right now, Xinye was unrecognisable. Half of it was our doing but seeing the billowing black smoke still made me worried.
When I looked down, the bodies of both friendly and hostile troops sent s.h.i.+vers down my spine. Now that the battle had come to a close, I began to feel terrible as I remembered what had taken place. An indescribable discomfort hit me and I began to feel nausea as I ran along.
Wu… A gory scene appeared before me as a bamboo spike racks with 2-3 bodies stuck on them could be seen. Their eyes were open and they had horrific expressions on their faces. When I looked down further, I could see their innards spilling out.
Ugh… I could not take it anymore and vomited and teared. I had not eaten anything this morning so nothing came out except some of my stomach juices.
*Da* *Da* *Da* *Da*