Vol 10 Chapter 13 (1/2)

Chapter 13

VOLUME 10 CHAPTER 13: DON’T TELL ME THIS IS THIS IS THE CALM AFTER THE BATTLE OF FAN CITY (13)

Meng De POV

“Un, yes.” Cheng Yu nodded with her eyes half-closed, “That Xu Shu’s original name was Xu Fu and is a renowned hermit scholar in Jing state. She originally lived in the north but killed someone and was forced to flee to the south.”

“A hermit huh?” I nodded and asked, “Based on what you know, how good is she with strategies?”

“She is very good. Based on what she did in this battle, it is clear that she is at least better than I am.”

Un… That’s a very good view of her.

“Does my lord intend to recruit her?”

“Un? Ah, I do.” I nodded and felt like her question seemed a bit off and asked, “What about it? Do you have any way to do so?”

“I heard that Xu Shu’s aged mother is in a labour camp in the border. If we can, we can bring her back here–”

“No.” I did not want to listen to what Cheng Yu had to say, “If you were to know someone who could persuade Xu Shu then by all means. I will not employ such tactics as they are far too tasteless.”

“My lord~” Cheng Yu called out to me with a louder tone, “Leaving aside whether Liu Bei is still alive or not, his faction in Xinye is a great roadblock for our southern campaign. Amongst his faction right now, Xu Shu is the greatest threat. If you want to control the situation and take the south to unite the world as soon as possible, you cannot show feminine compa.s.sion.”

“What era are we in now? What kind of nonsense are you spouting? It’s just compa.s.sion and not feminine compa.s.sion.” I said irritably and tapped my finger on the table to soothe my anger.

But after I finished, Cheng Yu remained silent. I have to admit that as a feudla lord, doing what Cheng Yu suggests is the best course of action. If this were before, I would have not wavered about this but my beliefs and ideals have changed after what happened to Xuan De and I am seriously considering what Cheng Yu suggested.

“… Let me think about it.”

“… Yes, but I hope my lord can give me an answer as soon as possible.” Cheng Yu calmly said without urging me further and bowed.

“Hu,” I heaved a sigh of relief, “Alright, let’s put that aside for now. Cheng Yu, what were you going to say to me earlier?”

“It’s nothing important.”

“Just say it.”

“… May I ask why my lord denied Li Dian’s words so vehemently?”

“Why is that?”

I was actually caught off guard by Cheng Yu’s question and did not know how to respond. I felt even worse than before during the discussion with Li Dian and Cao Ren as I felt like my resolve was being broken down.

“… Alright.” Cheng Yu said as she closed her eyes and nodded just as I was about to cave in, “I won’t ask any further about this. My lord has her own considerations after all.”

“Un…”

Naturally, I am beyond relief to hear this from her. To be honest, I never though that I would be haunted by this for so long. Even though… I was going to forget all about him.

To be honest, I was beside myself with joy when I read that Xuan De might be alive. I was truly happy from the bottom of my heart that Xuan De could and likely is alive and well. But at the same time, as a feudal lord sitting on the opposite side of where Xuan De is, this is quite possibly the worst news I can get at this time.

Everything was going smoothly and Xuan De’s death was the

catalyst for me to go all in and execute the southern campaign. If it were not for his death, I would never have gone ahead with it.

And now that it has been decided, all the preparations are in place and all of our subordinates are getting into position. Under these circ.u.mstances, what can I possibly do for Xuan De? Give him a way out? And disregard the lives of tens, even hundreds, of thousands of troops?