Luoyang and Jingzhou 4

Naturally, the General of the Guards’ Office has military maps.

For someone of the rank of General of the Guards with the right to carry an axe like Jia Huangyu, everyone in the military office would have a continental war map.

‘But mine is a special product.’

The war map (zhandu), drawn in even more detail with my future knowledge added, was three-dimensional, even implementing the terrain.

It was my own work that I created while directly managing and supervising the carpenter.

I personally did the coloring work on a few of them. Of course, I only did one or two and borrowed the hands of others for the rest.

Anyway, the war map I had put effort into making was fulfilling its original purpose after a long time.

Pieces symbolizing each army were placed here and there on the map, and among them, the area showing the highest concentration was none other than Huainan.

The war that started with Sun Quan’s ambitious Saikou Plan was showing signs of expanding into a great war, swelling its size.

Unlike other regions, as the large armies of both countries were gathered, the pieces were densely packed.

One might wonder if there’s any military office that isn’t like this, but the General of the Guards’ Office was also keenly alert to the war in Huainan.

While Wu’s envoy group was staying within Han, that was the responsibility of the administrators in charge of internal and external affairs.

The military office should focus on their role whether there are envoys or not. That’s why all the staff officers of the General of the Guards’ Office – Ma Dai, Bu Zhan, Guo Yi, Jiang Wei, and Ma Su – were gathered.

“There’s a report that Lu Xun showed superiority this time.”

It was Jiang Wei who announced the start of the discussion while reporting the newly updated war situation.

“He seemed to be pushed back by Man Chong last time, but indeed, Lu Xun is quite formidable.”

“Hmm, he’s someone who fought hard against our country that hadn’t known defeat since Chibi, isn’t this level to be expected?”

When Guo Yi, now accustomed to speaking his mind openly, expressed his thoughts directly, Ma Su subtly chided him.

No matter how great Lu Xun’s actual skills were, he was the one who had killed many of our country’s generals and soldiers. It wasn’t desirable to praise him openly.

‘There were marriage talks with me, but that fizzled out too.’

From the beginning, neither side had the will to really continue the marriage talks, so it was bound to end like this. It just ended faster than originally expected.

Back to the war situation in Huainan. Currently, neither Wei nor Wu was able to gain an overwhelming advantage.

At first, it seemed that Wu was smoothly gaining the upper hand as the ambitious Saikou Plan, which the expert schemer Sun Quan had rolled up his sleeves and come out with after a long time, was successfully working.

Wang Ling, who was newly appointed as the Governor of Yangzhou in this large-scale personnel reorganization of Wei, fell right into Sun Quan’s Saikou Plan.

It’s as if what happened in the original history, where he made a mistake despite Man Chong’s dissuasion, was reproduced here as well.

Sun Quan, who defeated Wang Ling at the forefront, advanced triumphantly.

Winning smoothly against Liu Ting, the Governor of Lujiang, Sun Quan’s army seemed to take over the Huainan region in an instant.

However, as Man Chong fully entered the frontline, the situation changed rapidly.

Surprisingly, Man Chong achieved victory against Lu Xun.

Currently, Man Chong’s evaluation was lower than in the original history. This was because the defense of Fancheng, which would have ended in strategic victory if his advice had been followed, turned into a defeat due to my intervention.

Nevertheless, his selection as one of the responsible figures for the anti-Wu front was largely due to Cao Ren and Zhang Liao actively recommending Man Chong before they died.

Man Chong, who became a wing of the anti-Wu front along with Wang Ling, the Governor of Yangzhou, and Cao Xiu, the General Who Conquers the East, had seen through this Saikou Plan as well.

While Sun Quan’s army was attacking Liu Ting to unify the Lujiang Army divided north and south, Man Chong succeeded in striking their flank, turning the tide of the war.

After that, it was a fierce battle between Lu Xun and Man Chong.

Cao Pi, cheering for Man Chong’s great activity which he hadn’t expected, made him the Commander-in-Chief of all armies in Huainan (Jie Du Du Huainan Zhu Jun Shi).

Until Cao Pi, who set out on a personal campaign leading reinforcements, arrived, the military authority of the Huainan front was fully given to Man Chong.

Cao Pi’s judgment hit the mark after a very long time.

Man Chong maintained the front line tightly, engaging in a back-and-forth with Lu Xun, and the last news was that the reinforcements led by Cao Pi had arrived in Huainan.

However, it was noteworthy that Lu Xun showed superiority despite the joining of reinforcements.

Whether he took advantage of the gap in the transfer of command from Man Chong to Cao Pi.

Or whether he caught the moment of relaxation due to the joining of reinforcements.

It showed that Lu Xun’s ability was certainly not at a level that could be dismissed as mere luck.

“Although Cao Pi has arrived, since Lu Xun has won a victory, it will be difficult for Sun Quan to give up on Huainan.”

“It would be a waste of effort to be satisfied with gaining half of the Lujiang Army.”

Still, getting even some land is something. Originally, they would have achieved an even greater victory than now but wouldn’t have been able to dream of proper territorial expansion.

But from Sun Quan’s perspective, who doesn’t know such history, he must be feeling immensely regretful thinking that he could do it if he just pushed a little more.

He might want to take at least Gujiang County, if not Guangling, to make Yangzhou complete.

‘I heard that Sun Quan is also going on a personal campaign to face Cao Pi’s personal campaign…’

Lu Xun vs Man Chong to Sun Quan vs Cao Pi.

It was a player change that made the once grand chest naturally become petty.

But from our Han’s perspective, it’s certainly a match-up to welcome enthusiastically. If Sun Quan goes on a personal campaign, we can worry much less about reinforcements when recovering Jingzhou.

Sun Quan must have set out for an all-or-nothing battle in Huainan, believing in his preparations to prevent Han’s spearhead from reaching him by deploying Zhuge Jin and using various tactics, but it will turn out to be a bad move.

‘Zhuge Jin is quite something. I was hoping Zhuge Ke would act up more, but seeing how he immediately blocked it.’

I had hoped to boost Zhuge Ke’s spirit, give him authority, and make him fall deeper into arrogance and step forward, but it became futile as Zhuge Jin blocked it.

It’s not for nothing that Sun Quan entrusted Zhuge Jin with diplomacy for Jingzhou and Han. I had expected it to some extent, but it felt a bit bitter when it turned out like this.

If Zhuge Ke had been going around running his mouth as he pleased and increasing his unpopularity, it would have been much easier to argue for recovering Jingzhou before Luoyang.

There was regret that things didn’t unfold as I had expected, but I wasn’t feeling frustrated either.

Zhuge Liang is also prioritizing the recovery of Jingzhou, and above all, Liu Bei sided with the opinion of Zhuge Liang and me.

If we just bring justification, he would gladly recover Jingzhou and ride the momentum to gain Jiaozhi and Yangzhou, achieving the division of the world into two. Isn’t Liu Bei’s will, expressed in front of us two, the most important thing?

‘As for justification, even if it’s not me, Zhuge Liang will surely create it well.’

What I did should be seen as merely an attempt to confirm Zhuge Ke’s tendencies and add my spoon to the pot.

As I was covering up my regret like that and about to discuss other aspects,

Fei Yi came to the General of the Guards’ Office. With the expected news.

“A farewell banquet for the envoys will be held three days later. As they visited as a condolence delegation, His Majesty has ordered that Minister Zhang and the General of the Guards must attend.”

“Is that so? Of course we should attend. But does the Minister of the Imperial Secretariat take on such order deliveries?”

“Haha, of course I volunteered to deliver it on my way home. How nice it is to come to the General of the Guards’ Office after a long time. Ah, my seat has become General Ma’s seat.”

Seeing Ma Su sitting in the seat that he once used, Fei Yi approached with a smile and spoke to him.

The familiarity of Fei Yi, who still felt like a staff officer of the General of the Guards’ Office despite having left, was something.

As Fei Yi joined the conversation, at some point we had ended the military discussion and started chatting.

Anyway, it was still difficult to speak out loud about setting out to recover Jingzhou, so even if we had continued the military discussion, it would have ended up just analyzing the war situation. It was fine to end here.

I had told Fei Yi, but that was to keep his mouth shut. And Fei Yi is a person who clearly distinguishes between what can and cannot be spoken out loud.

It’s not that I don’t trust others, but I doubt if they can control even non-verbal and paralinguistic expressions as well as Fei Yi.

In my life, I’ve only seen two people who do that better than Fei Yi: Liu Bei and Cao Cao.

Even Zhuge Liang sometimes shows his emotions, but that Fei Yi guy is quite dark inside, I tell you.

‘Just look at how he immediately reported when Yang Yi, whom he was close with, made statements crossing the line.’

It’s good to be thorough in separating public and private matters, sure.

When the staff officers of the General of the Guards’ Office were about to leave work, I asked Fei Yi if he knew anything about Zhuge Liang’s plan.

I thought Fei Yi, being in the high position of Minister of the Imperial Secretariat, might know about Zhuge Liang’s plan, but the answer that came back was a short “I don’t know.”

“He will probably reveal it at the banquet hall, won’t he?”

“I see, so that’s how it is. I understand. The next time we meet will be at the banquet hall then.”

“Yes, then I’ll be going now. I’ll see you at the banquet in three days.”

And, three days passed.