After a round of chaos that could only be described as a barnyard riot, the four men left in the room finally sat back down.
Zhang Fei had been cheerfully shooed off to the kitchen by Liu Bei.
He walked out with a grin on his face and a spring in his step.
'The problem with second brother was simple, wasn't it? Just find an opportunity and stick Lu Meng with a spear. Done. Too bad Kongming and big brother both said no. Maybe I could just do it first and ask forgiveness later?'
A few wonderfully simple thoughts spun around in his head as Zhang Fei decided tonight would be a drink-until-he-dropped kind of night.
Back in the now calm side hall, Liu Bei felt a splitting headache coming on. But he still had to address the elephant in the room.
"The Marquis of Wu has a sister, yes. But from what I hear, he treats her like a pearl in his palm. She is barely twenty years old. How would a marriage alliance with me even come about?"
"My lord, please do not sell yourself short!" Zhuge Liang laughed warmly. "You are the Governor of Jingzhou. In the future, you will pacify Yizhou and restore the Han dynasty. If that does not make you a hero for the ages, what does?"
"There is no need to dwell on it either. Let things take their natural course."
Zhuge Liang did not finish the thought, but everyone in the room understood what he meant.
At the Battle of Changban, Lady Gan had survived, but the shock left her with a lingering illness. Her health was a shadow of what it once was, and she needed attendants by her side day and night.
Also at Changban, Lady Mi had entrusted baby A-Dou to Zhao Yun and then thrown herself into a well. A tragedy that still made everyone's chest ache.
Right now, Liu Bei had no one to take care of him personally, and the position of primary wife was empty. If a new bride entered the picture, this group of scholars and warriors could all breathe a little easier.
Liu Bei neither confirmed nor denied anything. His gaze drifted to the last section of the light screen's transcript, which contained today's fresh revelation.
And the content was genuinely eye-popping.
"Sun Shinwan? A hundred thousand troops pushed back by eight hundred?" Liu Bei read aloud.
Zhao Yun and Guan Yu were veteran commanders. Zhuge Liang understood warfare as well. Reading this claim made all three of them question reality itself.
Liu Bei threw up his hands. "Sun Quan had a hundred thousand men! A hundred thousand! Even if those were a hundred thousand flatbreads, Zhang Liao would need half a month just to chew through them!"
Zhuge Liang raised the first objection. "Could it be that the future is so far removed from us that the records got garbled?"
Guan Yu shook his head. "Eight hundred against a hundred thousand. Even if the Marquis of Huaiyin himself came back to life, that outcome would be impossible!"
Zhao Yun tried to break it down from a practical standpoint.
"A force of a hundred thousand is probably just called that. The real number might be sixty or eighty thousand. Actual combat-ready troops would be twenty thousand at most. But twenty thousand against eight hundred..."
Guan Yu stroked his beard, thought for a moment, then spoke.
"Numbers are not the only factor that decides a battle. Zhou Yu broke Cao Cao's eight hundred thousand at Red Cliffs."
"Zhang Liao and I are old acquaintances. He knows warfare. If he led eight hundred elite riders from Bingzhou, and the opposing commander was the caliber of Cao Bao, then Zhang Liao charging at the front with everything he had... a great victory is not out of the question."
Guan Yu spoke carefully, but the group ran the numbers in their heads. 'Hey. It might actually work.'
One ferocious general leading eight hundred fearless bodyguards into a charge against tens of thousands of disorganized rabble, with the enemy commanders being a bunch of straw sacks. Winning that fight was not exactly shocking.
But then...
"The Marquis of Wu ended up like Cao Bao?" Liu Bei was stunned.
Cao Bao had left a deep impression on Liu Bei back in Xuzhou. First, the man led the elite Danyang troops and got thrashed by Xiahou Dun. Then he welcomed Lu Bu into the city and handed Xuzhou over on a silver platter.
All talk and no action. Gutless. Two-faced. The man was a walking definition of useless. But how did a walking definition of useless end up on the same level as Sun Quan?
"Big brother, do not forget what the light screen said. The internal struggle between the Jiang-Huai faction and the Jiangdong gentry grows worse over time," Guan Yu said, shaking his head. He was already piecing together the truth.
"The Jiangdong gentry mostly rely on private troops. In battle, they will protect their infantry and refuse to charge. The Jiang-Huai faction sees them hanging back and naturally will not risk their own lives pushing forward either. Before a single sword is swung, morale is already broken."
"Zhang Liao, on the other hand, is a fierce commander. He treats his soldiers like brothers. When he charges into battle, his men will follow him into death without looking back. When those two forces collide, how can the Marquis of Wu's army win?"
"Just like Zilong." Guan Yu turned to Zhao Yun and clasped his fists in respect.
"At Changban, Yide covered the flanks, but it was Zilong who charged in and out seven times, striking terror into Cao Cao's ranks. If we describe it the way the screen did, would that not make Zilong a one-man army against ten thousand?"
Zhao Yun quickly returned the gesture, humble as ever. Liu Bei grabbed both of Zhao Yun's hands.
"Changban showed me what Zilong is truly capable of. A peerless champion!"
He said it with full sincerity. But somewhere in the back of his mind, an uninvited thought crept in: 'too bad, Zilong. Out of everyone you could have saved that day, you had to save the useless one.'
Zhao Yun was moved to his core, though slightly confused. 'Why did my lord's smile look so strained all of a sudden?'
Zhang Fei was not present, so the group collectively agreed to pretend they had not seen the next two comments from the light screen.
[But wait, why is Liu Chen in the Wuhou Shrine and not Liu Shan?]
[Everyone enshrined at Wuhou is a loyal martyr of Shu Han. Does Liu Shan even qualify? Standing in there with them, does he not feel embarrassed?]
The meaning was clear enough. The Wuhou Shrine worked like a great ancestral temple. Everyone honored there would receive offerings and incense for all time. Future generations clearly saw Liu Shan as a traitor to Shu Han, someone not even worthy of setting foot inside.
Guan Yu and Zhao Yun could not help exchanging a glance. If the shrine was built to honor the loyal and brave of Shu Han, then surely they would be included too? To have their names enshrined there forever, receiving respect and remembrance through the ages... that honestly sounded like a wonderful thing.
Liu Bei's feelings were far more mixed.
On one hand, Liu Shan had found yet another way to let him down, a painful reminder of how badly he had failed to raise his son well.
On the other hand, he realized that no matter how many centuries rolled by, no matter how many dynasties rose and fell, the people of this land still remembered him. They remembered everyone who had fought and bled for the restoration of Han.
Liu Bei had once lamented at the sight of his own thighs growing soft, wondering if his days on horseback were done. He had wandered through the darkest years when the Han fell apart. The powerful clans of Jiangdong had mocked him. Officials under Liu Biao and Tao Qian had looked down on him and betrayed him. Cao Cao had hunted him down and beaten him until he ran like a rat.
But now this light screen, in its casual offhand way, told him that every single year of stubborn struggle had mattered. The people who still held the Han in their hearts had never forgotten him. The future had not forgotten him.
The small gathering came to an end without any firm decisions. Even knowing Sun Wu was an untrustworthy ally, they still had no strong reason or enough power to break the alliance right now. Cooperation would go on as before.
Guan Yu and Zhao Yun headed out together, ready to drill tactics and sharpen their skills. They both knew they would have to fight Sun Wu and Cao Wei down the line, and neither of them planned to let anyone else grab all the glory. Plus, eternal respect and a spot in a shrine? Yeah, they definitely wanted that.
Zhuge Liang stayed behind to plow through the endless paperwork. He also meant to use his free time to pick apart Sun Wu's messy internal situation based on everything the Screen had shown. He had a hunch future historians had some solid method for breaking down all those conflicts so neatly, and he found that idea really interesting.
Liu Bei practically bounced out the door, excited to draft a letter to Ma Chao. You can never start building good connections too early, right?
And Huang Zhong? The old veteran was right here in Jingzhou. Liu Bei planned to show up at his door in person, humble and sincere, to win him over properly.
By pure coincidence, the moment he stepped outside, he ran into a maid carrying two-year-old A-Dou.
The little boy's face lit up with a huge grin. "Dad! Lift me up!"
All the joy vanished from Liu Bei's face in a split second. The kid's innocent shout just reminded him of everything that useless grown-up A-Dou would one day do.
He grabbed the boy right off the maid's arms, plopped him face down across his knee, and gave his backside two sharp smacks. A-Dou let out a scream loud enough to scare the pigs in the yard.
"Dad sorry! A-Dou sorry! A-Dou no do wrong! A-Dou good boy!"
Liu Bei, face dark as a thundercloud, offered no explanation. He simply tucked A-Dou under his arm like a sack of rice and marched off to pay his respects to Huang Zhong.
He had made up his mind.
Starting today, this boy would get a proper education.
At the very least, he was not going to grow up into a man who could not even get into his own family's ancestral temple!