Chapter 43 - To Or Not To Runan? (1/2)
Chapter 43 - To Or Not To Runan?
Original by Bro Got a Gun, Translated by James
This chapter is sponsored by Suood K. of UAE
“What do you mean?!” Lu Bu frowned. To go to Shouchun and conquer Runan was the stratagem that Lu Bu and Chen Deng had came up with. The two were even zestfully discussing about how to develop the county into one that could threaten Old Cao’s XuDu after conquering it. Who would have imagined that they would be immediately shut down by someone before they could even implement their plans.
[TL: Runan is a county in Yu Province (presently, it is located in Zhumadian, Henan Province)]
[TL: Shouchun is a county in Yu Province, (presently it is known as Shou County and located in Anhui Province.)]
[TL: Parts of both the Anhui Province and Henan Provinces belonged to the ancient Yu Province.]
[TL: XuDu is Cao Cao’s capital.]
“That’s right, Prince! Traitor Cao was soon to be engaged with Yuan Shao in a great battle in Guandu. If we were to not take Runan now and threaten Cao Cao’s XuDu, then we will no longer have an opportunity to do so! When two tigers fight, one will certainly get injured. When that time comes, it shall be the time for our lord to take raise his flag again!” Chen Deng’s idea was indeed very alluring. Had Liu Mang not knew of that moron called Liu Pi or something then he would certainly joined Chen Deng’s boat toward Shouchun, conquer Runan and finally set out for XuDu to threaten Old Cao’s rear.
[TL: rear in this aspect refers to the supply line. Nope, not the b.u.t.t.]
[TL: Battle of Guandu. parable. Should you directly question his way of thinking, then it’s to not respect him. In that case, even if his thinking was proven wrong, he might still be stubborn about it and refuse to accept being wrong.
“My lord, do you know why Cao Mende attacked our Xu Province?!” Chen Gong instead asked a question back at Lu Bu.
“Why Cao Mende attacked our Xu Province?!” Lu Bu thought for a moment and then looked at Chen Deng causing Chen Deng to be very embarra.s.sed. One of the major reason why Old Cao wanted to conquer Xu Province was because of the offer the Chen family gave him. However, Lu Bu didn’t say it clearly. Instead, he said. “Xu Province had a lot of foodstuffs!”
“Haha!” Chen Gong laughed.
Chen Deng took over Chen Gong’s question. “It’s better for Deng to continue. It was because Deng’s old father sent Traitor Cao a secret letter. In the letter, it laid down my lord and Liu Bei’s personal complaints and also the map of the defense layout of Xu Province!” Chen Deng decided to laid everything out in the open. Even though Lu Bu was trying to save him face, the generals under Lu Bu would still have lingering fears as he had once rebelled against Lu Bu. In that case, he figured he might as well just expose everything and admit his mistake.
After hearing Chen Deng’s speech, Liu Mang learned why Lu Bu would lose Xu Province so quickly. He had an army of seventy thousand, even if he was to be a pig, he would still be able to last half a year against Cao Cao. Who would’ve expected that each and every move of his were monitored by Old Cao - where he plans to transfer his soldiers, where he goes, the amount of provisions he had, all of them were known to Old Cao.
Chen Deng’s selling out of his master was very skillfully done.
Even though Lu Bu had already forgotten this thing, he still gave Chen Deng a couple more glances when Chen Deng exposed everything.
“Haha. Yuanlong, that is not true at all!” Chen Gong deliberately paused mid speech so that Chen Deng would speak the words in his heart. Some words are better spoken than kept within.
If Chen Deng didn’t speak the cause, then perhaps Lu Bu might be afraid of putting him in important positions. After all, he had betrayed Lu Bu once. Who knows if he would betray Lu Bu a second time. Likewise, Chen Deng would also be uneasy. He would begin to guess what Lu Bu would be thinking, whether Lu Bu would try to settle the score with him. If the ruler and his minister were to be at odds, it would make the situation to be very bad.
“Teacher Gongtai, is there anything you can teach this Deng?!” Chen Deng wasn’t a fool. How could he not know what Chen Gong wanted to do after hearing Chen Gong’s speech? After letting the words that he kept within his heart out through his mouth, he does indeed felt a lot more comfortable. He had shown his lord Lu Bu that he, Chen Deng, had betrayed him but had also turned over a new leaf and was willing to accept any punishment.
“For me to teach you is out of the question, it’s just a single opinion of mine! Even if there wasn’t the Chen family working from within, there would still be another Li family or Wu family. Even if there wasn’t any of these influential families, Cao Mende would still not abandon his conquest of Xu Province!” Said Chen Gong while shaking his head. “My lord had said that Xu Province’s earth is great for growing crops, however my lord, you ought to remember that Xu Province was the location of four battles! Other bordering Cao Mende’s Yan Province, it also borders the Qing, Yang and Yu Provinces. The Yuan Tan of Qing Province, the Yuan Shu of Yang Province, do you perhaps think they didn’t have interest in the Xu Province? Cao Mende obtaining Xu Province will only cause him a greater distraction!” a.n.a.lyzed Chen Gong.
“Distraction? Since it was the location of four battles, why did Cao Mende still insist on taking over Xu Province?!” Liu Mang was completely ignorant of the military affairs.
“This was precisely because it was the location of four battles that Cao Mende had to take it!” Chen Gong directly got to the point. “Guandu! Yuan Shao of Hebei and Cao Cao of the Central Planes, the battle between these two are bound to determine a winner. The winner of the two shall conspire to conquer all eight provinces and obtain the whole world. As for the loser, his family will be destroyed and killed. Neither Yuan Shao nor Cao Cao could afford to lose.
“Cao Cao had obtained the emperor. Yuan Shao, on the other hand, had pacified the rear. A steady rear allows for a steady flow of supply of provisions to the Yuan Shao army soldiers. However, Cao Cao did not have such a rear. To the north was Zhili with Guo Si. To the south was Yuan Shu. My lord, although Guo Si occupied Changan, he is but an autumn gra.s.shopper soon to overlive his life. As for Yuan Shu, he had declared himself the emperor and thus lost all his allies and was uttered isolated. Thus, the only place left was my lord’s Xu Province.”
“My lord, you are a fierce tiger!” Said Chen Gong as if sighing. “Cao Mende had already suffered the deficit in not having a rear to provide provisions for his troops! He would not allow for a second time!”