Chapter 415 (1/2)

“What does this Liu Biao want to do?” At the feast, Liu Mang had caused Pang Shanmin to spit out blood. Liu Biao praised him for this and became very close to him. The discussion regarding the provisions was also going great. Most of the provisions went towards Liu Mang. Although the price was triple the market price, Liu Mang did not care because he had a lot of money. However, the situation changed again.

If it was just a price increase, Liu Mang wouldn’t mind. He would just consider it as Liu Biao being greedy. However, Liu Biao now said that Liu Mang needed to wait for two months to buy provisions. The reason for this is that Liu Biao lacked supplies and needed to prioritize the battle at Jiangxia.

Unfortunately, Liu Mang lacked time. If he waited for two months, there would be riots at Yangzhou. Liu Biao telling Liu Mang to wait was simply forcing him to die.

If this was going to happen, for what reason did Liu Mang go all the way to Jingzhou and make himself a hostage?

“This is definitely a plot by someone.” Liu Mang angrily gritted his teeth. If Liu Biao never had the intention to sell provisions, he would not have agreed so readily the previous day.

“Milord! We have finished our investigation!” Just as Liu Mang was thinking to himself, Jia Xu appeared and shouted.

“You have finished your investigation? Whose fault is this?” Liu Mang opened up a piece of paper given to him and read it. Inside were details of the various people opposing him such as Cai Mao and Zhang Yun.

The entire list was not a one man’s work. Inside was information gathered by Yang Hong, Chen Gong’s spies, and even other past information obtained by Jia Xu when he was still working for Zhang Xiu.

This Jia Xu initially intended to hide this information but his near death experience the previous day made him decide to give the old information at Nanyang to Liu Mang to increase his chances of survival. To take revenge, Liu Mang made Jia Xu in charge of his own information organization. This detailed is the result of his work on top of Chen Gong’s own work.

Of the various people in Jingzhou, Cai Mao and Zhang Yun didn’t need to wait this long if they wanted to stall Liu Mang. The Huang Family had no ability to persuade Liu Biao to do anything. Kuai Yue didn’t like Liu Mang but also had no malice with him while Kuai Liang had good opinion of Liu Mang. As for the others, Liu Mang did not bother with them. They had not appeared in the original history so why would they do so now?

“We finally found who it is!” The name in front of Liu Mang was also the one that gave him the most headache. “It is Pang Tong Pang s.h.i.+yuan!”

The paper also had information of Pang Tong making a ruckus outside Liu Biao’s residence. Pang Tong was caught and went inside in the afternoon before being released at night.

“I was careless!” Liu Mang ma.s.saged his aching head. He thought he had already won as Pang Tong would not be able to kill him here and Liu Biao had promised him provisions. As long as he remained in Jingzhou, Lu Bu would not be a threat which means Liu Biao had nothing to fear.

It was obvious that Liu Mang had been careless. Pang Tong had somehow persuaded Liu Biao to go back on his decision.

What Liu Mang didn’t know was that Pang Tong convinced Liu Biao that the growth of Yangzhou was not beneficial to Jingzhou. Liu Biao would only obtain profits from aggression.

Pang Tong also told Liu Biao that Liu Mang would not work as a hostage. Lu Bu was still around and Liu Mang would only be a talented officer at best when it comes to being a hostage. As Liu Biao was able to have a son, Liu Zong, at the age of fifty, Lu Bu could too. Liu Biao only had one wife because of the complications amongst the n.o.bles but Lu Bu had three wives. How could he not have a son?

Once Lu Bu has a son, Liu Mang’s worth as a hostage becomes worthless. By providing provisions to Yangzhou, Lu Bu’s Army would grow. When Lu Bu gets a son after that, the first to suffer would be Liu Biao.

Lu Bu also had a terrible reputation. How could you expect the Slave of Three Surnames to keep his promises? On top of that, Lu Bu had almost sold off his daughter for Xuzhou.

Liu Biao wanted to struggle but Pang Tong’s next words stopped him. Pang Tong said that it does not matter if Jingzhou doesn’t provide provisions to Liu Bei. However, he must not provide provisions to Liu Mang as well. A mutual destruction. Having two weak neighbors was better than having two strong neighbors. In the end, Liu Biao agreed to this.

“This cannot continue. I must go and see Liu Biao!” Liu Mang contemplated and decided to go and persuade Liu Biao again. He didn’t have any other choice. However, he was stopped by Jia Xu.

“Milord. There is no need for that. You would simply be inviting trouble for yourself.” There was no point in Liu Mang going to see Liu Biao since Liu Biao have already formed an opinion of Liu Mang. He would just be stopped at the gate like Pang Tong. Although Pang Tong could be shameless and curse Liu Biao, Liu Mang could not do so. This is because Liu Mang had a righteous reputation.

“What other choice do I have?’ Liu Mang knew that going to see Liu Biao would not be good but he did not know what else to do.

“There is another way.”

“There is?” Liu Mang’s eyes grew wide as he moved to roughly grab Jia Xu’s arm.

“Let go! Let go!” Jia Xu quickly struggled. Being with Liu Mang made every day dangerous. “Milord. There is another way but it is really difficult to pull off.”

“Difficult?” Liu Mang heard this and snorted. “Wenhe. Are you saying that coming to Jingzhou and surviving the attack at the river not difficult? We have already come all this way. Why should we care whether it is difficult or not?”