Chapter 292 – Pang Tong’s Strategem (1/2)
Pang Tong’s Strategem
In the Liu Bei Army’s large tent, all of Liu Bei’s key figures were there. Zhang Fei, Pang Tong, Chen Dao, Liu Bei and Zhang Xiu were there. This was because Liu Bei had an important information in his hands.
“Is everyone here?” Liu Bei asked.
Pang Tong looked around. He nodded and said, “Milord. Everyone except General Liu Pi is here.” All the ones that should be present were there but Liu Pi could not be found.
“Liu Pi?” Liu Bei frowned. Liu Bei was grateful to Liu Pi for the Yuzhou Army. However, his grat.i.tude had its limits. All this time, Liu Bei did not treat Liu Pi unfairly. Liu Bei did not touch the Yuzhou Army and even gave Liu Pi a high position to change Liu Pi from a bandit to an official. Not even Lu Bu, Liu Biao and Sun Ce have an official position of that rank.
However, Liu Bei eventually found Liu Pi becoming even more offensive. One of the reasons was that Liu Pi was a tyrant. Even if he became an official, his nature would not change so easily. Liu Pi oversteps his authority by personally dealing with the crimes of the citizens of Runan and the Yuzhou Army. Liu Bei did not bring this up as Liu Pi had a lot of provisions and half of Yuzhou. What Liu Bei could not stand was that the twenty thousand elites of the Yuzhou Army was not able to capture a small Guangzhou and even had thousands of casualties. When compared with Zhang Fei’s achievement, Liu Pi was stupid like a pig.
Actually, Liu Pi could not be blamed. He was actually quite skilled. Otherwise, he would not become of the three big leaders amongst the Yellow Turbans. However, his luck was bad to be compared to Chen Dao and Zhang Fei.
Zhang Fei aside, Chen Dao should not be underestimated. In fact, he was even better than Zhang Fei. He did not appear in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms because many of his scenes were given to Zhao Yun. Chen Dao himself was as skilled as Zhao Yun and they were both handsome men. Both were also white armored soldiers. While Zhao Yun was commander of the heavy cavalry, Chen Dao was the commander of the heavy infantry.
If Chen Dao was incompetent, Liu Bei would not have given him command of the elite White Eared soldiers. Even in the original timeline, Liu Bei did not have Zhao Yun replace Chen Dao and had Zhao Yun stay as his bodyguard for many years. One can see Chen Dao’s strength from here. Besides that, Chen Dao was also a scholarly general that could use strategy. Zhang Fei relied on brute force to win Gus.h.i.+ but Chen Dao used persuasion to capture Anfeng.
Liu Pi should not have been compared to those two generals. Besides that, Liu Pi also had bad luck to face Hao Shao as his opponent. Hao Shao was not famous at this moment as he was part of the Wolf Cavalry. Zhang Liao and Lu Bu’s reputation were so high that Hao Shao’s name was concealed. Besides that, Hao Shao was more suitable at defense and yet he could still keep up with the Wolf Cavalry. This showed his strength. In the official history, his defenses caused Zhuge Liang no small amount of headache. His used an army with tens of thousands of soldiers to repel Zhuge Liang who had hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Zhuge Liang could only continue the Northern Expedition after Hao Shao’s death.
It would be even stranger if Liu Pi won. As a result, Liu Pi could only be labelled as incompetent by Liu Bei. He planned to have Liu Pi hold a civilian post after he captures Yangzhou and occupies the Central Plains. Liu Bei was already planning to take over military leaders.h.i.+p from Liu Pi but he still planned to let Liu Pi live a glorious life.
Liu Bei was now frowning. He believed that Liu Pi was not satisfied to be moved to the frontlines. However, Liu Bei could not be blamed. If Liu Pi could not capture a small city with two thousand men, how was he going to protect his Lord?
“Where is Liu Pi? Did the messenger not give the message?” Liu Bei asked Pang Tong. Liu Pi was stationed at the front of the army and his camp was ten miles away. Liu Bei had Pang Tong send a message to Liu Pi to invite him.
“Milord. The messenger had returned saying that Liu Pi would arrive soon.”
“Let us wait for one stick of incense.” Liu Bei waved and then said, “General Yang Wu. I beg for your forgiveness.” Liu Bei’s ally Zhang Xiu was also present and so he had to be polite.
“Don’t mind it. Xuande is overanxious. Perhaps Liu Pi is occupied with something.” Zhang Xiu was also polite with Liu Bei. Liu Bei was now like the big leader of Zhang Xiu’s Army. Zhang Xiu only needed to open his mouth to be fed. He would not push away this foolish spender.
If Zhang Xiu knew what Liu Bei was really planning, he would not think so. Liu Bei had planned to swallow up Zhang Xiu’s Army and become like its adoptive father. Since it was his own son, he did not hesitate to spend.
Time pa.s.sed and there was still no sign of Liu Pi. Liu Bei then thought to himself. What does Liu Pi want? Does he want me to go and fetch him in person?
“Dispatch another person to ask!” Liu Bei waved his hand to Pang Tong. However, Pang Tong simply went to Liu Bei and said, “Milord, I had already sent messengers earlier. Liu Pi’s bodyguards said that Liu Pi had left camp and haven’t return.”
“What is this? A bandit is always a bandit. My brother invited him over and he dares to be late! Watch me go and pick him up!” Zhang Fei was hot tempered and already wanted to go and find trouble with Liu Pi.
“Third Brother. Come back!” Although Liu Bei had his own opinions on Liu Pi, he was still unable to allow Zhang Fei to go and directly find Liu Pi. Zhang Fei’s actions were not important. However, it would be troublesome if Liu Pi was beaten to death or became a cripple.
Chen Dao saw that Zhang Fei was not listening to Liu Bei and stopped him. “Third General. The Lord is calling you.”
“Shuzhi. Do not stop me.” Zhang Fei wanted to push Chen Dao away but Chen Dao was not weaker than Zhang Fei. Zhang Fei would not be able to leave unless he turned hostile.