Chapter 404 (1/2)

Sun Ce returned to Jianye, the very center of Jiangdong while the war continued to rage on at Jiangxia. His army continued to suffer heavy casualties from the war. Normally, he should have been at the front lines but this time, he had no choice but to return.

This is because his mother Lady Wu had requested his return. The moment he returned the received a tongue-las.h.i.+ng. The cause for this is that his sister had gone missing. This woman has been a source of headache for Sun Ce. A woman, especially those from a prominent should learn feminine arts such as needlework or better yet, learn nothing, as it is a woman’s virtue to have no talent. Instead, she learned the art of war. Part of this was Sun Ce’s fault. His father left them early, and the mother needed to raise three children on her own. In the end, he, the elder brother ended up replacing the father.

However, when Sun Ce worked for Yuan Shu, he was continuously on edge as he had to think of a way to separate himself from Yuan Shu. All of that ended up making him neglecting to educate his younger sister properly. Meanwhile, his mother paid more attention to Sun Quan. As Sun Ce needed to also take care of her, he did not bother to keep her away from the discussions between himself and the other old generals. In the end, his sister ended up being influenced and interested in such things.

By the time Sun Ce wanted to educate her properly, it was already too late. The girl had already gone mad. The moment she looks at war books, she would immediately turn silent. She also learned how to fight from somebody and ended up as strong as a second grade warrior. Sun Ce wanted to marry her off but n.o.body dared to be wed to such a powerful woman.

Sun Ce was helpless and had to continue raising his treasured sister. If he could make a magnificent Jiangdong, he could definitely support his sister. That was why he was very generous when giving his sister money for her expenses. However, his sister did not buy clothes or cosmetic. She bought weapons and even taught her servants how to fight, turning them into a female squad. Sun Ce did not know whether to laugh or cry.

Sun Ce managed to endure all that has happened so far. However this time, he could not accept it. It was not the first time his sister had ran away from home. The last time she did that, she went to Liu Bei to see what war was like. Fortunately, she had disguised herself and went together with the envoy. That was why Liu Bei found out about her ident.i.ty and dispatched people to escort her back to Jiangdong.

This time, she once again went to Yangzhou, wanting to join the army. However, the army in question was Liu Mang’s Army. Liu Mang and Sun Ce were mortal enemies and yet Sun Ce’s sister wants to join Liu Mang’s Army. What is going on? Most importantly, how was a woman supposed to join the army?

Now Sun Ce’s mother was raging. She demanded that Sun Ce bring back his sister within several months or she would no longer think of him as her son.

“Milord! Shouchun really does have a female barracks!” Zhang Zhao softly told Sun Ce.

“Do you think I need you to tell me that?” Sun Ce roared back in anger. Sun Ce was already annoyed so Zhang Zhao was simply asking for trouble by saying that. After all, Zhang Zhao was the one tricked by Yang Hong and caused them to lose Sanjiangkou. Sun Ce was already very dissatisfied with Zhang Zhao, only forgiving Zhang Zhao for that mistake because Zhang Zhao was good at internal politics. This time, Sun Ce was already annoyed and Zhang Zhao only reminded Sun Ce about his own failure.

Fortunately, Sun Ce was still able to restrain himself. To him, the female barracks at Shouchun was just a joke to be mocked at. Matters regarding war and the army should just be left to men. Women can just go raise children!

Sun Ce initially thought that Liu Mang’s two thousand female troops were prost.i.tutes. He never expected them to actually be real female troops. The dispatched spies had found out that these troops also trained as hard as men and the male soldiers are not allowed to approach the female barracks. Those that violate this rule would be beheaded. As two thousand soldiers was also quite a huge sum, Sun Ce’s sister decided to leave behind a letter and disappear.

Sun Ce felt his head ache. He is not able to talk back to his mother so he would have no choice but to bring his sister back. Unfortunately, he would need to go to the barracks in Liu Mang’s territory. The only thing he felt fortunate about was that he knew where his sister was. It would be even worse if he did not even know where to begin looking for her.

“Lu Meng! Dispatch the Roaring Tigers1 to Shouchun and bring my sister back!” Sun Ce instructed. These Roaring Tigers were the ones led by Zhou Tai.

“Understood!” Lu Meng replied and turned to leave. He then thought of something and turned back to ask. “Milord. What if refuses to return?”