Chapter 515: Such Words Would Make One's Rosy Cheeks Wither

In the summer heat of the Shu region, the warm breeze carried a restless, agitated energy.

The sky had already darkened to pitch black. Outside the city, no lamps were lit within the Wu family courtyard. One could only dimly make out three figures of varying height and build — some standing, some sitting, some motionless, some shifting — locked in a tense stalemate.

After a long silence, one of the figures who had been standing rigidly finally spoke. It was none other than Wu Yi of Chenliu, whose sister was said to possess a noble destiny: "Since you have sought me out at my door, how could I be unwilling to submit to the north?"

The short-statured Zhang Ziqiao immediately let out a breath of relief.

To be honest, Zhang Song had just been thoroughly frightened by Xu Shu. When the two of them arrived at Wu Yi's residence, they had immediately aroused the latter's wariness, for Zhang Song's hatred toward the Dongzhou faction was beyond doubt. Yet since they had come as visitors, it would have been improper to rudely drive them away. And so the two sides had forced themselves through an awkward exchange of greetings and come together into the courtyard. Before they could even enter the house and take their seats, Xu Yuanzhi had suddenly gripped his sword and moved to Wu Yi's side. Then, coming straight to the point, he asked whether Wu Yi was willing to serve as an inside agent for the north.

This was what had prompted Wu Yi's words just now.

In his heart, Zhang Ziqiao was almost certain: if Wu Yi had refused just then, in the very next moment Xu Yuanzhi would have driven white steel in and drawn red steel out.

Of course, once he had recovered his wits, Zhang Song himself also realized something — Wu Yi, fully aware of Zhang Song's political stance and having noted Xu Yuanzhi's accent, had still chosen to usher the two of them into his residence at such a sensitive time. That in itself was already a sign of wavering.

And at a moment like this, Xu Shu's directness, which had seemed reckless, had in fact, through its threatening posture, saved them a great deal of talk. Zhang Song's admiration for Xu Shu grew even greater after this.

Now that the two sides had reached an accord, they did not go inside the house. Instead, they spread mats right there in the courtyard, sent away family members and servants, and began discussing the great matter directly.

"Discussing" was perhaps an overstatement — it was really just Wu Yi recounting the intelligence once more from the Dongzhou faction's perspective, and then quietly listening to Xu Shu's opinions.

"So, according to what you say, although you have been stripped of the rank of General of the Household for over half a year now, with no more authority over funds, grain, or troops, there are still four to five hundred trusted men in the city's military camp who would follow your orders without the slightest hesitation." After hearing the account, Xu Yuanzhi did not rush to a conclusion. Instead, he expressed mild surprise at one particular detail. "Why is that?"

Zhang Song and Wu Yi looked at each other. In the end, it was Zhang Song who spoke up to offer an explanation: "Because those soldiers are all old followers from the Wu family's Chenliu days, or clansmen and dependents — what you might call private retainers. They attached themselves to the Wu family and followed them to Shu. And although General Wu has now been dismissed, Liu Yan still appointed General Wu's clansman younger cousin Wu Ban as a detached commandant to continue leading the Wu family's old troops. These men — their lives and their families' fates are all bound to the Wu family, so naturally they would put General Wu first."

Xu Shu suddenly understood. "Here in Shu, even the mere four or five thousand garrison troops of Mianzhu City are organized under a great clan retainer system?"

Wu Yi and Zhang Song exchanged increasingly bewildered glances, but neither spoke.

For they both faintly sensed an indescribable, unsettling, and distinctly strange emotion. From Xu Yuanzhi's words, it was clear that — to say nothing of the Yan State — even under Cao Cao or Liu Bei before, the retainer-based military system of total personal dependency had already become vanishingly rare.

This did not merely mean that they would need to adapt once they were under the Yan State. More frighteningly, Shu had only been sealed off for eight or nine years, and yet they already felt an absurd sense of being abandoned by the times.

And just as the two — one a son of a Shu gentry clan, the other a leader of the exiled outsider magnates — were lost in a daze, Xu Shu, who had also been silent for a while, suddenly laughed. "In that case, I have a comprehensive plan, and it may not necessarily require blood being spilled within five paces. As the saying goes, if one can assassinate a state, why assassinate a man? Would that not be putting the cart before the horse?"

The other two grew even more solemn. Zhang Song, momentarily puzzled, took the initiative to ask, "Please, Xu Jun, speak plainly."

"Why must I speak plainly?" Xu Shu looked at him and smiled. "Ziqiao, since you have undertaken this matter, you have staked your life and your family's fate on it, have you not?"

"That is only natural."

"In that case, it is nothing more than a single desperate gamble. If you trust me, then simply follow my orders. Why ask further?" Xu Shu remained as composed as ever. "Just as it is said, assassinating a state is like assassinating a man — find the vital point, do nothing superfluous, and strike with all your might. What else is there to discuss?"

Zhang Song broke out in a heavy sweat. He seemed to want to speak but held back, and in the end, he simply nodded emphatically.

By comparison, perhaps because he had commanded troops before, or perhaps because he had witnessed his elders' generation take part in that upheaval in Luoyang, Wu Yi was clearly far calmer. After a moment's thought, he too spoke frankly: "As Xu Jun says, matters have come to this. It is nothing more than staking our lives and our families' fates. I, Yi, am willing to follow you."

"Beyond the three of us, there is actually one more crucial figure we need," Xu Shu continued calmly, seeing their resolve. "But he may not necessarily need to know the full story from beginning to end. To be frank with you both, in my plan, it is essential that the Liu father and son be separated. Ideally, Liu Fan should be far from Mianzhu at the critical moment. Do either of you know who might persuade Liu Fan to leave the city for a day or two?"

Beneath the warm summer night breeze, in the faint glimmer of the Milky Way, Zhang Song and Wu Yi exchanged yet another look. Then, in perfect unison, they spoke: "That is simple!"

Xu Shu was, in turn, taken aback.

It was indeed simple. Just three days later, Liu Fan received a personal summons from his father. The latter instructed his eldest son to journey north of the city the following day, and there, at the ritual site, to undergo three days of purification by fasting and bathing, in order to pray for blessings on the war efforts on both the northern and southern fronts — and also to make amends for the regret of the previous failed ritual.

Liu Fan verbally assented. However, upon leaving the Provincial Governor's residence and returning to his own Commandery Administrator's mansion, he did not immediately prepare for the journey. Instead, he waited briefly.

And sure enough, within moments, Pang Xi arrived of his own accord to report. Only then did Liu Fan learn the full story: this matter had been orchestrated by Wu Yi, the elder brother of his third brother Liu Mao's wife. Wu Yi had emptied his family coffers to bribe a host of shamans and alchemists in his father's residence, asking these mystics to speak on his behalf. Using arguments of fortune and calamity, they had pushed for this ritual. Wu Yi's original intent had been that, since Liu Yan now never left his home and was utterly unwilling to go outside the city, this would be a chance to recommend Liu Mao as his substitute, thereby freeing Liu Mao from his predicament.

But as it turned out, with Liu Mao having lost influence, these shamans were all a pack of sycophants. After exploiting Liu Yan's own lingering regret over the previous failed ritual to push for this compensatory ceremony, they did not recommend Liu Mao to take his father's place. Instead, they split into two factions: one group recommended Liu Yan's second son, Liu Dan; the other recommended Liu Fan.

In the end, since Liu Fan's power base was already so well-established, those willing to bet on Liu Dan's long-shot prospects were inevitably fewer. Thus, the outcome was what it was today.

And once he understood the full story, Liu Fan's doubts vanished. After all, in this era, for a son to perform a sacrifice in his father's stead carried immense political significance. Moreover, with the war efforts on both fronts now deadlocked, and his previous attempt to persuade his father to move to Chengdu having been doused with cold water by the old man himself, Liu Fan was also eager to accomplish something.

More importantly, Liu Yan was now old and stubborn. Since the shamans had already persuaded him, a mere ritual matter was absolutely unchangeable. If he, Liu Fan, refused to go, then Liu Dan and Liu Mao would surely seize the opportunity.

And so it was that the next morning, Liu Fan, the Administrator of Guanghan, formally departed the city heading north. He prepared to spend three full days in fasting and purification at the Pixiu shrine twenty li north of the city, after which he would offer sacrifices to the Black Emperor of the North, thus compensating for the previously interrupted ritual. At the same time, Liu Yan, the master of Yizhou, ultimately demonstrated his affection and approval for his eldest son: he specially allocated ten grand carriages of imperial regalia for his son to ride in and use.

This was truly unprecedented!

Chariots rumbled, horses neighed. This time, no carriage broke down midway, no one blocked the road to urge surrender, and there was no talk of "Yizhou dogs being unusable." In any case, under the strange gazes of certain individuals, the dignified Commandery Administrator, the undisputed heir of Shu, had so easily left the fortified city of Mianzhu — all because of the words of a pack of shamans.

He even took with him a large number of loyal retainers, subordinate officials, and the eight hundred armored soldiers of Pang Xi's own command, leaving the military camp within the city with fewer than four thousand troops — considerably weakened.

That night passed without incident. By the evening of the second day — the first night of Liu Fan's formal fasting and purification north of the city — the weather grew increasingly sultry. And it was under these conditions that Wu Yi, now somewhat down on his luck but still one of the standard-bearers of the Dongzhou faction, brought over twenty armed men and calmly entered the military camp to visit his old troops and his clansman younger cousin.

That evening, this former Colonel of Agriculture even invited various colleagues over for drinks at the section of the camp where his clansman younger cousin was stationed. In response, the majority of the camp's officers did go. After all, Wu Yi was, no matter how you looked at it, their old superior, and he was currently out of favor. If they went, Pang Xi might indeed view them with suspicion. But if they didn't go, it would inevitably give rise to gossip, with people saying that so-and-so was a man of no virtue.

And so, by the end, including those who trickled in intermittently, the main officers of the camp had mostly all shown up — and they all indeed spoke with the accents of the Central Plains.

A word of explanation is necessary here.

The so-called Dongzhou faction bore a strong resemblance to the "aristocratic migration south." It was a bizarre refugee group composed of both gentry clans and local magnates, but with the vast majority being common refugees. During their flight and their search for a place to settle, in order to maintain order and reduce internal strife, the lower-class refugees, who had long since lost all means of production, had voluntarily attached themselves to these gentry clans, magnates, and even ordinary men of virtue, spontaneously forming relationships of personal dependency.

This phenomenon was not unique to the Dongzhou faction. When people from Yingchuan and Nanyang fled to Jingzhou, similar things occurred. Even when Gongsun Xun first gathered refugees for military agricultural colonies, the essence was the same — it was just that Gongsun Xun, as the object of attachment, clearly possessed a unique status and higher authority.

In all fairness, at such a time, this kind of personal dependency should not be condemned, but rather praised on moral grounds, because such actions "kept people alive"!

But unlike elsewhere, after arriving in Shu, this refugee group was neither properly resettled to reclaim wasteland, nor broken up and integrated with the locals. Instead, starting from the very top, they attached themselves layer by layer to Liu Yan, and through collective plunder and encroachment, forcibly established a foothold in Shu. This created a persistent and deeply rooted pattern of opposition with the locals, which in turn evolved into a distinct political faction.

It must be understood that forcibly dividing a political entity internally along lines of native place and class is a rather crude method, one that generally only appears fleetingly in the early stages of a political entity's formation. Conversely, whether through bloody or civilized means, successful political entities in history have always been able to break down and absorb such opposing factions.

Take Gongsun Xun, for example. When he, as a local power broker aided by the Anli Trading Company, gathered refugees, it also produced severe native-settler conflict. But after he killed Xianyu Fu and Yan Rou, did he not promptly ride the tide of the campaign against Dong Zhuo? From then on, whatever native-settler conflicts existed in Youzhou, under Gongsun Xun's ever-expanding power, when did they ever again become a serious issue?

In fact, as Gongsun Xun conquered the Central Plains and the Huai River region, the students of the Imperial Academy from the Sanfu and Hebei factions — who had once brawled on the cuju field — were now beginning to share a sense of common cause against a mutual foe.

Yet here in Shu, under Liu Yan, these things were laid out stark and naked before one's eyes, unchanging.

Given this situation, it was no wonder that after Gongsun Xun brought his great army to bear, Liu Yan would spout such mad words. No wonder Pang Tong felt that Shu held no value worth preserving. No wonder Guo Jia thought that assassination could be used to resolve the Shu problem. And likewise, no wonder Xu Shu, upon arriving in Mianzhu, immediately judged that he could use the even more sophisticated method of "assassinating the state" to directly take over Shu and end the war.

It must be noted that if one were to search for a common trait among these men, it would be that they were either exceptionally brilliant or vastly experienced.

"The reason I've called you all here today is actually because there is a matter I wish to discuss with everyone. I intend to ask Liu Yizhou to abdicate, and have Young Master Mao take his place. This way, it would be better for Yizhou, and better for us who have been driven from our homes." After three rounds of wine, amid the low murmur of conversation, Wu Yi did not even bother to set the mood. He simply raised his voice and spoke, laying his cards bare.

It must be said, he had just learned this move from Xu Shu, who was right beside him. After all, anyone who would come to this banquet could not possibly be a diehard loyalist of Liu Fan.

The barracks within this permanent military camp were not tents, but proper buildings. Because too many people had come, the banquet had simply been set up in the open space in front of a row of these buildings. When Wu Yi suddenly spoke up, most people were momentarily stunned. Many had just downed a cup of wine and were continuing to joke with those beside them before they even began to process the meaning of his words.

Then, the murmur of conversation abruptly ceased.

And for some unknown reason, for a very long time, no one spoke. No one stood up, drew their blade, and declared, "Is my sword not sharp?" to show opposition. Nor did anyone clap and cheer, saying, "I too have endured that old scoundrel long enough!" to show agreement.

At this, Xu Shu nearly laughed aloud. He barely managed to suppress his expression and, sitting rigidly upright, merely shot Wu Yi a meaningful glance.

Wu Ziyuan (who shared the same courtesy name as Xu You) understood. He directly raised his hand and pointed to a young junior officer at his side. "Yuanxiong... what do you think?"

The one called Yuanxiong was none other than Wu Kuang's own son, Wu Yi's clansman younger cousin Wu Ban. Hearing this, he couldn't help but laugh. "Elder brother, what are you saying? We brothers have been driven from our homes to this place. We are like the fish in Zhuangzi's parable, moistening each other with our spit in the rutted mud. I don't know why you're doing this, but whatever you want to do, naturally I will do the same. Why even ask me?"

As he finished speaking, the man suddenly waved a hand to signal an order, turning toward a bewildered low-ranking officer beside him: "Captain Jiang, stop gawking. Quickly muster your unit and surround this place!"

That Captain Qu left upon hearing the order. The banquet stirred at once, clearly anxious that any rash move now might bring danger, so for a moment no one dared attempt to flee.

Shortly after, an older officer was finally pushed forward by the others' probing glances, and he took the initiative to speak from his seat: "General Wu."

"Commandant Li." Wu Yi cupped his hands frankly.

"Forgive my bluntness." This Army Commandant, named Li Yi, faced him with a stern expression. "Setting aside Liu Yizhou himself, below him his eldest son, Prefect Liu, is the natural successor — no matter what, it would never fall to Young Master Mao, would it? Your actions now have no just cause; I fear they are entirely self-serving. Why drag us along to our graves?"

"Not so." Wu Yi answered proudly, and pointed casually to Xu Shu, Xu Yuanzhi, who had remained silent beside him. "Before Governor Tian arrived here, it was this gentleman who personally decreed that Young Master Mao should act on behalf of Yizhou. How can you say there is no just cause?"

The assembled officers were instantly stunned.

At that very moment, as that Captain Jiang led two hundred armored soldiers hastily out of the building and back to the perimeter of the banquet, Xu Shu also rose abruptly, strode directly into the open space among the seats, and publicly drew the sword at his waist.

This prompted many officers present to reach for their own weapons.

"This sword was personally bestowed by Duke Yan! I, Xu, am untalented, but with this sword I once took the head of Zhou Gongjin, Viceroy of Xuzhou... and was told I'd be granted a marquisate for it!" Xu Yuanzhi paid no heed to the others' reactions. As he spoke, he stepped forward two paces and leveled the long sword a foot from that Commandant Li's chest. Under the torchlight, the blade gleamed like autumn water. Commandant Li, who had been about to reach for a weapon, abruptly froze at these words.

Not only him — Wu Yi included, every Dongzhou warrior at the banquet stood dumbstruck as if under a paralysis spell, utterly speechless.

"May I ask where you are registered?" Xu Shu stared at the man and continued his slow inquiry.

"Henan, Luoyang..." Li Yi was suddenly burning with heat, sweat pouring down like rain.

"A fellow townsman of Pang Xi, then. No wonder you stepped forward." Xu Shu sighed. "Do you know, sir, that before I came to join the campaign against Shu, Duke Yan had already ordered the restoration of the old capital at Luoyang?"

"Is... is that so?"

"At fifteen I went to war; at eighty I finally returned." Xu Shu still held his sword motionless, but suddenly began slowly reciting a famous poem. "On the road I met a man from my village — who is left in my home? I gaze toward your house — pine and cypress grow thick upon the graves... The realm will soon be unified. You have been away from home for eight or nine years — have you ever thought of returning one day to your native soil, to tend your ancestors' tombs?"

The entire banquet remained silent. Xu Yuanzhi continued holding his sword steady, staring only at Li Yi with a relaxed expression as he spoke:

"Look, sir. In the past, with Duke Yan's orders separated from you by the long Shu roads, you could pretend you had not heard, could deceive yourselves and wait to drift with the current. But now that I am here, in this situation, you must either obey this sword's command and follow me in supporting Young Master Mao and surrendering Yizhou, or you must draw your blade against this sword. But... killing a mere scholar like me is simple — only, do not think you will ever return to your homeland to rest in peace in this lifetime! Which path to take — I ask you, sir, do not hesitate, for I, to stay alive, will not hesitate either."

Xu Shu's single sword held over dozens of officers. The rest of the assembly had long since been stunned into silence, watching and listening. Li Yi's Adam's apple trembled uncontrollably, but as the sword before him was about to advance again, he suddenly spoke: "Since it is Duke Yan's decree, obedience and defiance are clear. I am willing to follow this sword's command!"

Xu Shu stepped back slightly, but did not sheathe his sword. Instead, he raised it and turned to the next man.

But at that moment, before that man could speak, the earlier Commandant Li, Li Yi, rose directly to his feet and faced his colleague beside him with his hand on his blade: "By Duke Yan's order, we raise Young Master Mao to act on behalf of Yizhou. What doubt is there, gentlemen?!"

The Wu Yi brothers dared not delay. They too rose together, hands on their blades, demanding: "What doubt is there, gentlemen?!"

The armored soldiers around them, though bewildered, saw their masters all demanding the same, and under that Captain Jiang's lead, they too drew their blades and rattled their armor in unison.

The banquet fell into chaos, but led by a few bold individuals, they forced themselves to be calm and knelt one after another among the seats, acknowledging the order.

"In that case!" Xu Yuanzhi commanded calmly. "Let all gentlemen show a small token of loyalty... Those who follow Duke Yan, bare your left shoulder! Those who follow Yizhou, bare your right!"

As he finished speaking, he himself stripped the sleeve from his left arm, baring his shoulder, and with a single stroke of his sword cut away the left sleeve entirely.

The Dongzhou officers dared not delay. Starting with Wu Yi, they all followed suit.

Once the left-baring was complete, Xu Shu did not release them to return and lead their troops. Instead, he directly ordered Wu Ban to lead soldiers at the front, while he himself, with twenty warriors, held these officers in custody. They marched along the way shouting and clamoring to rally troops. Then, taking advantage of the fact that most of the camp's officers were under duress and the darkness of night, they attacked directly toward Liu Yan's mansion, right next to the military camp! Inside the camp, they clashed with some diehard loyalists, alerting the trusted guards stationed at Liu Yan's mansion, which in turn triggered a full-scale upheaval throughout the government offices, military camps, and armories in what was essentially the inner city.

At this time, Zhang Ziqiao, who had long been restless, noticed the commotion and forcibly suppressed the excitement in his heart. He mounted his horse and led over two hundred Zhang clan retainers, armed, directly into the streets. They too shouted as they went, on one hand telling the common people to stay calm, keep their doors shut, and not come out, and on the other proclaiming the so-called Duke Yan decree, saying the great army had already reached Fushui Pass and that Shu had changed hands... He also began trying to gather and coerce officials from various places in the city, then led these bewildered people toward the inner city.

Some did not want to join this chaos, but Zhang Ziqiao directly threatened to burn their houses down, so they could only hold their noses and follow. Others actively clamored to join, clearly seeking to claim merit, but Zhang Ziqiao shouted orders, deliberately assigning them tasks like occupying empty street corners... For a time, the city instantly became lively.

However, just as Zhang Ziqiao was maneuvering freely through the outer city, so delighted he forgot himself, the so-called inner city — in truth, the area between the military camp and the provincial governor's mansion — saw the motley crew of left-bared conspirators suffer a serious setback.

It was simple. The several hundred soldiers hastily rallied, though they broke through the disoriented ordinary troops in the camp under the Wu brothers' command, were stopped at the provincial governor's mansion for lack of siege equipment!

It must be said, though Liu Yan was extravagant and superstitious, his selfishness and fear of death were also notorious. His mansion was tall and large, with excellent defenses, and his guards were well enough equipped... The hastily assembled rebel troops, without specialized equipment, simply could not break in for the moment.

And such a motley crew — whether for a coup or a decapitation strike — once their advance stalled, would surely scatter quickly.

One must understand, even breaking through to this point had relied on controlling the officers beforehand to cause chaos. At the slightest misstep, these very left-bared men might turn their coats!

"I recall that Liu Yan's mansion is set quite far from the surrounding civilian houses?" Xu Shu, one shoulder bare and long sword in hand, remained unflustered, which genuinely impressed the somewhat panicked Wu Yi beside him.

In truth, Xu Yuanzhi was not pretending... He had fought in the decisive Central Plains battles, had seen forty to fifty thousand routed soldiers — who would fear this? Moreover, he had always taken Guo Fengxiao as his benchmark, wanting to accomplish great things, and how composed had Guo Fengxiao been when he killed Chang Xi that day?

"Correct." Wu Yi nodded immediately.

"That makes it easy," Xu Yuanzhi continued to propose calmly. "Today there is only a faint breeze — why not set fire to the provincial governor's mansion?"

Wu Yi nodded upon hearing this and was about to relay the order, but turned back, suddenly realizing: "Since there is no wind, we need enough combustible material. This is a military camp — where would so much fuel come from?"

"Isn't this ready-made kindling?" Xu Yuanzhi, hearing this, seemed puzzled instead, and casually pointed toward a vast area of shanties occupying the very center of the military camp.

Wu Yi was even more stunned, yet he did not move. It was the bare-shouldered Commandant Li, Li Yi, beside him who could not help but speak: "Sir Xu, those are the thousand-plus chariots that Liu Yizhou spent many years building, nearly emptying the Shu treasuries. They are all treasures..."

"They are all rubbish." Xu Shu turned back and rebuked him calmly. "Chariots of imperial ceremony — even Duke Yan would be violating protocol to use them. In Shu, those with draft animals dare not use them; those without find them less convenient than hand-pushed single-wheel carts. As for sending them out of Shu — with that Jianmen Road, you might as well just build new ones outside! May I ask you two, now that even Liu Yan is about to step down, is there any other use for these things besides burning?"

Wu and Li looked at each other, then hesitated no more. Instead, they immediately shouted orders for soldiers to haul the chariots and start fires, preparing to storm Liu Yan's mansion.

It must be said, before the great fire blazed up from one side of the Yizhou Governor's mansion, the already decrepit Liu Junlang had been helped by his second son, Liu Dan, up to the mansion's tower to observe the situation.

At that time, hearing the foreign accents shouting "By Duke Yan's order" all around and watching the Dongzhou officers' camp descend into chaos, he was already on the verge of collapse... After all, even if he had been on guard in his heart, for him, who had built his rule on the foundation of the Dongzhou officers, how could he not be shaken by this sudden rebellion from his very core?

And when he saw with his own eyes the imperial chariots, which he had treated almost as a spiritual anchor, being used as kindling and igniting half of the mansion's outer wall, he suddenly broke down and wailed aloud right there on the tower.

"Only because I did not help him kill Zhang Jiao back then, Gongsun Xun has harbored this hatred until today!" Liu Junlang wept for a spell, then, tears streaming down his face, grasped his second son's hands and spoke with grief and indignation. "And Lu Bu — when he came under my banner, he simply didn't go to see him, and so he was determined to have the man killed... What Duke Yan? What Mandate of Heaven? Is such a narrow-minded wretch worthy of being the Son of Heaven?"

By the end, he was wailing and howling like a shrew, startling his attendant warriors into stunned silence.

In the shimmering firelight, Liu Dan, whose hands were being held, hesitated to speak. How could he not understand? His father, struck by this blow, was like a man run through the chest by a sword... Though still alive, he was utterly broken.

The firewood was ample, the blaze fierce. Before the outer wall was even burned through, it had already caused Liu Yan's mansion guards to lose control. The young Wu Ban seized the moment, one arm bare, and personally led over ten men around to the shadows behind the mansion, climbing in on ropes. They succeeded in opening the mansion gates, letting the horde of left-bared men pour inside.

At this point, if stabbing a state were compared to stabbing a man, then this so-called stabbing of Shu had indeed driven the sword in!

It could only be said that Liu Yan and his son were so utterly without popular support — Xu Shu deserved this extraordinary achievement!

However, it is worth mentioning that just as this sword thrust home, Commandant Li, Li Yi, who had performed so exceptionally tonight, also led several men in a fierce charge inside, but unfortunately died in the chaos of battle, never to return to his old home in Luoyang to tend his ancestors' graves.

Truly a pity.

————I am the unfortunate death in battle dividing line————

"When the Grand Ancestor reached Yingchuan, he met Guo Jia and Xu Shu and was delighted, giving them gold and bestowing swords to encourage them. Later, at the decisive battle of Guandu, Cao Cao died, and the Heaven-Reliant Sword he carried was lost in the wilderness, while Jia happened to achieve extraordinary merit in Xu. The Grand Ancestor sighed: 'Anciently they said the famed sword Heaven-Reliant could slay a long dragon — Fengxiao is truly my Heaven-Reliant.' In that campaign, Shu also slew Zhou Yu on the field, but his name was not yet renowned. The following year, when our dynasty attacked Shu and was stalled at Jiange, he carried his sword into Shu, driving the Wu and Zhang clans and uniting Liu Yan and his son. When the deed was done, the Grand Ancestor heard of it and at last exclaimed with great admiration: 'I never imagined that other sword could slay a dragon!' This was passed down through the ages, and Heaven-Reliant and Dragon-Slayer ultimately became the realm's most famed swords." — Miscellaneous Records of the Scholarly Grove. Yan. Recorded by an Anonymous Author

PS: Thanks to the 126th Moe, "Profound Does Not Equal Close to the Truth"... That name is profound, yet it does not hinder my love for all your generous support.

Secondly, 155k this month — barely managed to be human.

Finally, happy National Day to everyone! Happy birthday to a certain someone! Although the chapter comments are temporarily unavailable to display because of his birthday, I still love all of you!

Two more book recommendations!

Master Hai Di Lao's *Absolute First*

And the famous xianxia work *Rotten Axe Handle Chess Fate*

Hope I didn't mistype anything.

(End of chapter)