Chapter 8 - Wrongly Kill Three Thousand (1/2)
Chapter 8 - Wrongly Kill Three Thousand
Original by Bro Got a Gun, Translated by James
Cao Cao was indeed a formidable person, even when Lu Bu’s escape reached his ears, he still kept a straight face and said laughing “Everyone drink, drink. Let’s calmly wait for the good news from generals Song Xian and Wei Xu!”
When the boss was acting like this, then the subordinates could only be beaming with happiness. They thus began to indulge in the drinking and eating.
“Reporting!” Another messenger ran in. “Reporting to Prime Minister, General Xiahou Yuan is requesting for attendance!”
“Miaocai?” Cao Cao did not expect that. Wasn’t Xiahou Yuan was responsible for the cleanup of the remnants of the Lu Bu soldiers in the city? Why would he come at this time?
[TL: Miaocai is Xiahou Yuan’s courtesy name.]
Before Cao Cao could declare Xiahou Yuan’s entrance, he already rushed in.
“Mende, Mende!” A worrisome Xiahou Yuan walked in hastily. In a panic, he called out to Cao Cao using his courtesy name.
[TL: as opposed to his t.i.tle, the Prime Minister.]
“Miaocai, what happened?!” Rarely have Cao Cao seen Xiahou Yuan in such a panic. His composure was definite even when he helped Cao Cao shoulder the blame of his serious offence.
“Mende! Miaoren is gone!” Anxiety came rus.h.i.+ng out of Xiahou Yuan’s mouth.
“Miaoren?!” Cao Cao remembered. This Miaoren was the courtesy name of Xiahou Yuan’s nephew, Xiahou De.
“What happened?!” Cao Cao inquired.
“Noon after Xiapi’s East Gate got broken, my nephew Miaoren entered the city in hopes of exterminating the remnants of the Lu Bu soldiers before returning to the barracks at dusk. However, he is nowhere to be seen!”
“Eh!” Cao Cao understood. Xiahou Yuan was currently an over concerned elder. There exists neither day nor night in times of war. Once in the battlefield, one’s thought will be on how to survive and kill more enemies, how would one possibly consider about time?!
Xiapi has been broken through, all those that remain are the remnant soldiers of Lu Bu’s army - simply unable to counterattack. Xiahou De was, after all, a thousand men general and being able to enter the city meant that his contribution toward the siege wasn’t simple.
[TL: I am translating 牙将 (lit. tooth/ivory general) as thousand men general because it mentioned that Xiahou De is a thousand men general; 牙将 is a position during the ancient time that basically denotes the person to be a lesser, lower rank, general/officer.]
“Miaocai, you’re overthinking. Even Xiapi’s largest tiger Lu Bu fled, say, do you still think we’ll have a situation on our hand?! The Lu Bu army numbered seventy thousand. Situated on the four walls were no less than fifty thousand. Our months long siege have already forced these fifty thousand troops to desert the city. There are but some ten thousand remnant soldiers left in the city. With the Qing Province Soldiers that Miaoren has, nothing could possibly happen! Maybe he’s trying to attain more accomplishments to impress you, Miaocai!” Cao Cao consoled Xiahou Yuan. This Miaocai, really, to be this overly concerned, he was treating his nephew even better than his children!
During the year of the great drought, in order to help his dead younger brother’s daughter survive, he cut off his son’s rations. And even now, his two sons are already adults! Xiahou Heng and Xiahou Ba are already of age to join the military. However, this Miaocai was just unwilling to bring his two sons with him. Instead, he brought his nephew under his wings.
“But Mende..!” Xiahou Yuan still wanted to say something. He felt that something is wrong. At this moment, a messenger came.
“Reporting to Prime Minister, thousand men general Xiahou De is requesting return to camp!”
“Ha ha. Miaocai, look at you worrying. Didn’t he just arrive?!” Cao Cao patted Xiahou Yuan’s shoulder. If not for these old brothers of his, Cao Cao wouldn’t be where he is now.
“Well, I guess I was overly worried!” Hearing the notification from the messenger, Xiahou Yuan should have relaxed. However, he was still uncomfortable.
“Allow thousand men general Xiahou De to return to camp!”
“Come, Miaocai, let’s go together to see how much accomplishment our Xiahou clan’s tiger cub managed to attain!” The Xiahou clan and the Cao clan are of one family. Cao Cao’s original name was Xiahou Cao. He was adopted to the Cao clan, thus declaring himself to be of the Xiahou clan was correct too.
[TL: Cao Cao’s father was the adopted son of Cao Teng, one of the favorite eunuch of Emperor Huan. His original clan was the Xiahou clan. Xiahou Dun and Xiahou Yuan was Cao Cao’s cousins.]
“Come gentlemen, let’s go together!” He grabbed Xiahou Miaocai as he said that and walked out of the White Gate Tower down toward the barracks.
“Come come come, let’s have a look at Prime Minister’s family’s tiger club!” These Cao subordinates cannot not give Cao Cao face, they also wanted to get to know of this Xiahou clan’s little general. Even Chen Gong who did not want to go was pulled forward by the crowd.
[TL: giving face in chinese meant respecting the person]
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Underneath Xiapi, a group of soldiers waving the banners of Xiahou De was solemnly looking at this ancient city.
“Brother Liu Mang, are you certain that this is going to work?!” A soldier wearing ordinary Cao army outfit and holding a spear whispered to another soldier.
Surrounding them from all sides was Cao army. If they mess up, they likely will be annihilated.
“Don’t worry! Even if we can’t get our revenge, can’t kill the two traitors Wei Xu and Song Xian, but to break out from here is still feasible!” That’s right, these two soldiers are Liu Mang and Lu Bu who have taken off their armor. In actuality, Liu Mang’s palms were already covered in sweat.
With a height of ten meters and a thickness of seven meters, this was the city defense of Xiapi!
Back during the day it still belonged to Boss Lu, but now Boss Cao had taken over it.
If it wasn’t for Guo Jia’s tactics of redirecting the waters of Yi and Si rivers to flood Xiapi, perhaps Boss Lu really could defend against Boss Cao’s siege.
Alas, there exists no such thing as ‘if’ in this world.
Currently what they are about to do is to break out of this thousand year old ancient city.
“Revenge!” Lu Bu held his head high looking at the tall building in front of him. It was the White Gate Tower, the building that indicates Xiapi, the place that almost cost him his life.
“By the order of the Prime Minister, general Xiahou De is permitted to return to camp!” A messenger with a loud voice shouted on the city gate.
“By the order of the Prime Minister, general Xiahou De is permitted to return to camp!” One by one, the orders quickly transmitted through the banners.
“kakakakaka!” The gates of Xiapi slowly opened.
The expressions of Liu Mang and Lu Bu gradually got more cheerful.
Right at this moment, bold laughters was heard from the walls. Immediately this voice cause Liu Mang and Lu Bu to tighten their hearts.
“Miaocai oh Miaocai, didn’t I say you’re overly concerned? Look at how valiant and formidable looking our Xiahou clan’s tiger cub is!”
“Cao Cao, this is Cao Cao’s voice!” Lu Bu had dealt with Cao Cao before - in Dongzhou’s mansion back in Luoyang, in the Hulao Pa.s.s, and a couple months ago when Cao Cao asked him to surrender! Thus, Lu Bu was familiar with Cao Cao’s voice.
“Prime Minister need not praise him too much. This kid is like an ox, refusing to move unless he was to be met with a couple more whips!” Seeing his nephew’s banner and the standing army, Xiahou Yuan gradually calmed down. He even called Cao Cao by his t.i.tle.
“An unpolished jade is precisely one that requires guidance, ha ha! Come come come, let’s go look at Miaoren! Having cleaned up the Lu Bu army remnants, Miaoren certainly tried very hard!” The laughing Cao Cao brought with him Xiahou Yuan and the other scholars and generals and proceed to walk down the city gate tower and toward the camp.
“Boss Lu remain calm, calm!” Liu Mang placed his hand on Lu Bu’s. Lu Bu was currently trembling. He was trembling with rage. In particular, he was in rage because of a general behind Cao Cao! Liu Mang had already met Wei Xu and Song Xian, thus the only other person who could make Lu Bu anger like so was Hou Cheng!
Liu Mang was very scared that Boss Lu would just rush out screaming ‘Hou Cheng, prepare to die!’ and then they all end up being doomed. Fortunately, boss Lu managed to restrain himself.
Lu Bu already had his hand on his spear. Once Boss Cao walked down the city gate tower, he’ll immediately launch a surprise attack. This way, not only Cao Cao will be out of luck, many of his retainers could be killed too.
Cao Cao was soon to walk down the tower… the most ambitious man of the generation was soon to meet his end in the hands of the turtledove tiger.
[TL: turtledove is a bird that is noted for the apparent affection shown for its mate.]
Suddenly, a sound of notification was heard and a messenger ran over.
“Reporting! Reporting to Prime Minister, general Wei Xu and Song Xian rushed toward Lu Bu’s mansion to capture his family. When they arrived, Lu Bu’s mansion have already been deserted!”
“What?!” Cao Cao really got angry this time. Lu Bu escaping is one thing, but if his family was captured then there still existed a way to suppress that tiger; but now, that method too is lost. Not to mention that there was a beauty that Old Cao wanted for a long time amongst the escapees.
“What a bunch of useless imbeciles!” was something Old Cao did not say. He did want to hurt Hou Cheng and the other surrendered generals’ feelings because of this.
“Where are Wei Xu and Song Xian?!” Cao Cao said dully. His hands was stroking the hilt of his sword attached to his waist. Those familiar with Cao Cao knew that it was the signs of Cao Cao’s suspicion problem. Might Song Xian and Wei Xu be feigning their surrender? Are they giving up Xiapi in exchange for Lu Bu’s escape?! After all, because of Guo Jia’s tactics, Xiapi was already a dead city. To capture it was only a matter of time.
“Generals Wei Xu and Song Xian are currently still on the road rus.h.i.+ng here!”
Old Cao’s facial expression became increasingly volatile. He even forgot that he should be receiving Xiahou De and came to a complete stop on the tower stairs. In this moment of delay, another messenger ran over.
“Reporting! Reporting to Prime Minister, General Xiahou Dun reports intelligence from the sheltered defeated soldiers of thousand men general Xiahou De in the western part of the city that general Xiahou De is currently being held captive by the Lu Bu army. General Xiahou Dun wishes that Prime Minister would immediately send troops to rescue general Xiahou De!”
“What? Miaoren was captured?!” Xiahou Yuan was the first to rushed toward the front. He grabbed the messenger and shouted loudly. His voice so loud that even Liu Mang and Lu Bu heard it clearly.
If Xiahou De was to be captured, then who exactly are these Xiahou De soldiers down there?
“Not good!” Cao Cao was alarmed.
“Not good!” Liu Mang was also alarmed. There existed a major loophole in his strategy - the dispersed soldiers of Xiahou De. Although Xiapi was large, there still exists a chance of the soldiers running back to camp when they numbered a thousand.
Once they ran back, then Liu Mang’s plan to use the banners of Xiahou De was certainly seeking death.