Chapter 386 (1/2)

n.o.body expected Liu Mang to send troops immediately without dispatching another envoy. Doing that means war. Right now, most of their troops were at Jiangxia. Even though they had a lot of troops, their elites were all navy. If they were to fight the Liu Mang’s Army on land, they would simply be looking for trouble.

“At this moment, do the rest of you still not have any solutions?” Liu Biao asked coldly.

They have not yet prepared for war. If they were to fight now, they would be torn to shreds. Although Jingzhou itself was opposite the Yangtze River, there are also places such as Xinye and Jiangxia that bordered Liu Mang’s lands.

“Degui (Cai Mao)! What should we do? Should we send our troops to battle or surrender Xinye?” Liu Biao’s anger could be seen in his eyes. Although Xinye was small, it was still his region. Losing it would make him feel heartbroken.

Although the Pang Family had a lot of influence in Jingzhou, it is not yet at the level where they could hide the truth from others. It would not have been possible for Pang Tong to kill Liu Mang’s envoy if that action had not been approved by Cai Mao. In other words, Cai Mao also had to face the responsibility for forcing Liu Biao and Liu Mang to fight against each other.

“This is…” Cai Mao also did not know what to do. Although Liu Biao wanted to keep the Yangzhou Army in check, he did not want to offend Liu Mang and Lu Bu. If this was not the case, he would not compensate the envoy’s death with provisions. If Liu Mang were to be given provisions, he would definitely accept it as he was lacking provisions. He wanted Liu Mang to come to Jingzhou as a hostage and then sell the man provisions to allow Yangzhou to overcome this crisis. Whatever problems Liu Bei and Liu Mang have with each other can be settled amongst themselves.

However, had already Liu Mang rashly dispatched his troops, stunning Liu Biao. He wanted to restrict Liu Mang’s Army, not start a war with them. Even if they had good foundation, they cannot fight two wars at the same time. This was making Lu Bu ally with Jiangdong. Cai Mao now regretted taking that thousand gold that night as bribe money. This would not have happened if Liu Mang’s envoy was still alive.

Although Cai Wei was the Military Advisor of Jingzhou, he rarely sent out troops to fight. The one that went out to fight during Huang Zu’s time had been Wen Pin but Wen Pin was not present. Although there were a lot of talented individuals at Jingzhou, there are not many loyal to Liu Biao. Even if there are those loyal to Liu Biao, he would not know who was loyal. A few examples of such talented people were Huang Zhong, Gan Ning and w.a.n.g Wei who now served Liu Mang.

If Liu Mang were to attack Xinye, they would not have anybody that could stop Liu Mang. Although Cai Mao had Zhang Yun as a general under him, Zhang Yun was a navy general. Liu Mang would not engage them on the river.

“Huang She! What about you? What do you think?” Liu Biao looked at the other person. This was an old acquaintance of Lu Bu. He was son of the previous Jiang Xia’s governor, Huang Zu. Huang She was someone who always hated Lu Bu to the extent that he gave his own father a bad reputation. He was someone who has commonly killed envoys and have once killed Lu Bu’s enovy before. This caused Lu Bu to attack Jiangxia. Originally, Lu Bu could have been stopped by Huang Zhong but in the end, Huang She caused Huang Zhong to switch sides. Huang She was also one of those who firmly decided to vilify Liu Mang and was on a united front with Cai Mao and Pang Tong.

“Why should Milord panic? Milord just need to allow me to take ten thousand men and I will show that little boy Liu Mang my skills!” Huang She was still the same as before and continued to have an unhealthy desire for military power. It was his dishonest conduct that made his own father vigilant towards him in military affairs. That was why he left his son at Xiangyang as Liu Biao’s civil officer while he went to Changsha.

“Ten thousand men?” Liu Biao laughed in irritation. Did Huang She fancy himself as Sun Tzu or Bai Qi? Even Sun Tzu would not take ten thousand men to fight against an opponent’s elite cavalry. On top of that, Liu Biao would definitely not dispatch him with his terrible track record. Huang She was too disappointing even though his father was an extremely heroic and valiant warrior. The only reason Huang Zu continued to be suppressed in the past few days is because of his age. On the other hand, his son is trash.

It would not be so bad if this idiot had some form of self-awareness. Unfortunately, the man believes himself to be a genius. He believes that he lost to Lu Bu because of the disloyal Huang Zhong’s stratagem.

“Go back!” Liu Biao could not stand it anymore. If he were to continue to see Huang She, he believe that he would eventually cut the man down.

“Hahaha!” While everyone was worried, only one person laughed happily. This was Liu Bei’s envoy, Pang Tong.

Of course Pang Tong was happy. He came to Jingzhou seeking provisions and saw Liu Mang’s envoy. He then killed the envoy hoping for Liu Biao and Liu Mang to go to war. He never expected Liu Biao to be such an overly cautious person. As the envoy was not killed by Liu Biao, he could just ignore Liu Mang. Not wanting to offend Liu Mang too much, he turned to Kuai Yue who requested Liu Mang to come to Jingzhou personally. Pang Tong was not happy with this but it did not matter much for him as he had ways to deal with Liu Mang the moment Liu Mang enters Jingzhou.