He is a very picky man
General-in-Chief Yuan Shu.
His renown had already spread so far and wide that there was none under Heaven who did not know it.
A famed commander who bore an undefeated record, a man possessed of both profound loyalty to the dynasty and the virtue to care for the common people.
And now.
That such a man had extended his hand to her family—
no, to her personally—
brought a joy too enormous to measure to the girl called Zhuge Liang.
This was no mere matter of being plucked from obscurity by an exalted personage.
Had General-in-Chief Yuan Shu not come to this place, and had the one who recognized her talent and declared she would sponsor her been, say, Cao Cao...
She would have felt gratitude, certainly, but never would she have felt such deep delight—no, an exultation closer to rapture.
This was not simply because Yuan Shu's station was higher, nor because he was Cao Cao's de facto master.
That people flock to power is the way of the world.
That people wish to enter the service of a remarkable figure is only natural.
Look no further than the Cao Cao she had just seen: the moment she seized Yan Province and Qing Province, did not a mass of talent rush to her like gathering clouds?
If Cao Cao drew that degree of response,
how much more so would the general who sat above her, who commanded the notice of multitudes across the realm, who held the true power of the Han in his grasp—General-in-Chief Yuan Shu?
Brilliant minds and renowned warriors whose names rang through the empire.
Among them were countless souls who desired to serve beneath Yuan Shu.
Here in Xu Province alone, Zhuge Liang knew, capable people who had surrendered in the last war—Chen Gui, Mi Zhu—had labored by various means simply to gain a connection with Yuan Shu.
Yet.
Even now, while so many stretched out their hands and kept stretching them,
the number who had actually been chosen by Yuan Shu remained so few they could be counted on one's fingers.
Most of them, for one reason or another...
for reasons that most likely traced back to Yuan Shu's own handiwork, had been forced in the end to swallow the bitter cup without ever so much as glimpsing his face.
Yuan Shu—by all appearances, he tested and sifted people through some channel before they ever met him.
And once someone broke through that trial and became his subordinate, he was treated with a generosity almost excessive for his merit and put to weighty use, performing brilliantly both at court and on the battlefield alike.
In other words, that Yuan Shu had personally extended his hand signified, in itself, that one had already been chosen as a talent surpassing the common run.
And that poured deep gladness—and profound emotion—into the heart of the girl named Zhuge Liang, who had been waiting in this cramped backwater for a chance that might someday arrive.
'With all the talents available to him, he chose me... I shall likely never meet another who would recognize me to this degree.'
Young though she was, from a humble family, Zhuge Liang already well understood her own worth as a strategist.
And Yuan Shu, holding no prejudice against her age or lineage, had seen straight through to her ability and chosen her.
In answer to this summons from a man she had always esteemed as the figure closest to a true hero,
the girl's heart swayed as lightly as a reed brushed by the wind.
And,
one more thing.
In the moment she first beheld Yuan Shu's face just now,
something weighty stirred within her—something she could not speak to Yuan Shu or anyone else.
That, she resolved for now to bury deep within her heart.
Zhuge Liang looked at the books she had read and inwardly made a firm vow.
'I shall not disappoint you. I swear it... I shall prove worthy of your expectations. My lord... my sovereign...'
*
"Preparations are complete, Mother."
"Well done, Ce'er."
The green-haired warrior-woman wore a proud smile as she looked upon her son.
Sun Jian.
Stationed in the city of Xu Province with her son Sun Ce, now fifteen years of age, she had completed every preparation for the battle that would commence on the morrow.
'He's grown so large before I knew it... my son.'
The son she had borne when she herself was little more than a girl had matured and was now about to join his first campaign.
As a mother, she could not help feeling proud for any number of reasons.
"Nn..."
"Are you nervous?"
"Yes, a little..."
Her son Sun Ce kept drawing the sword she had given him as a gift, half-unsheathing it again and again.
Watching this, Sun Jian ran an affectionate hand through his hair.
"Heh. Don't worry too much—everyone starts like that. Now go back and get some sleep. You'll have to be up early tomorrow."
"Nn... Yes, Mother."
At Sun Jian's words, her son Sun Ce headed for his quarters.
Though she'd said the words, Sun Jian knew full well that her son would not find sleep tonight.
'I was the same myself at that age, after all.'
After casting a warm look toward the vanishing figure,
Sun Jian's gaze turned to the nighttime streets of Xu Province spread out before her.
'That aside... I never expected events to unfold like this...'
General of the Guards Sun Jian.
When she first received her mobilization orders, she had entertained some doubt.
Was it truly necessary to send her, whose office as General of the Guards charged her with protecting the Imperial Family, to the Jing Province front?
In modern terms, it felt akin to deploying the chief of the presidential security detail onto a battlefield as a general.
She was glad to be summoned, of course, but it was only natural to think that, in terms of rank, someone like Ji Ling, Xu Rong, or Dong Zhuo might be more suited.
However, Sun Jian now understood perfectly why Yuan Shu had called her out.
'Even I believed, until recently, that our objective was Jing Province... I had no notion that it was all a... ahem... stratagem.'
Yuan Shu had publicly spread word that he meant to attack Jing Province.
In truth, he had dispatched troops to Jing Province under Ji Ling and Xu Rong—the commanders he called his right and left arms—and had also shifted no small quantity of provisions in that direction.
On top of that, in Nanyang Commandery in Jing Province, Yuan Shao's generals Yan Liang and Wen Chou had been crossing the border zone and launching raids on outposts.
By this stage, it looked obvious to anyone that war would erupt in Jing Province...
Yet here and now,
stationed in Xu Province, Sun Jian had learned the true shape of the scheme and could only admire it.
'A plan that feints at Jing Province while aiming at Yang Province... With things arranged like this, Yang Province is practically a cracked egg. Indeed... there's a reason General-in-Chief Yuan Shu trusts that woman.'
Chen Gong—the first strategist ever accepted by the famously selective Yuan Shu.
The plan she had devised could well prove the decisive stroke that exploited the gaps in a fully on-guard enemy.
And as the sword meant to thrust into the opening thus created in Yang Province, it was entirely natural that Yuan Shu had chosen Sun Jian herself, and no one else.
She was the Tiger of Jiangdong—a name earned through long, rough experience in that very region.
She knew every inch of the terrain; moreover, once she stirred, folk in her homeland who would rally to her were more than one or two.
True, the Inspector of Yang Province, Liu Yao, was no easy opponent. Yet at root he remained an outsider dispatched from elsewhere, and his strategic eye was nothing remarkable.
Now that the opportunity had come, Sun Jian was ablaze with the will to pacify Yang Province with her own hands in this campaign.
'That woman Chen Gong's plan is brilliant, but brilliance alone doesn't mean she can get ahead of me. I'll use this chance to show them clearly—the power the Tiger of Jiangdong holds!'
*
The city of Lujiang, situated in the northern reaches of Yang Province.
Its Governor, Lu Kang, had been feeling lately as though his mouth were growing parched by the day.
"What is the meaning of this? Surrender my troops, you say? Is that truly the Inspector's will?"
"The Inspector! Guard your tongue! How dare you speak with such disrespect toward His Highness the Vassal King!"
"Is that the important point here?! I plainly warned of the danger posed by Cao Cao, and instead of reinforcements, you mean to conscript the troops of Lujiang and march them away? How in the world am I to hold this city!"
"Did His Highness not declare it himself? That cur Cao Cao will not come even if beaten to death! With her master Yuan Shu about to strike at Jing Province, how could Cao Cao—who hasn't even finished stabilizing the interior of Xu Province—possibly extend her hand to this place?"
"Have you already forgotten that Xu Province fell while they were this complacent? Cao Cao is not someone to be taken lightly, I tell you!"
Lujiang sat directly beside Yan Province, and where Xu Province and the Huainan region bordered one another, it was practically within sight across the divide.
Having received detailed reports from both Yan Province and Xu Province, Lu Kang understood all too well how fearsome a figure Cao Cao was.
Cao Cao, who had rapidly absorbed the local powers with her outstanding military talent and the charisma to bend others to her will, swelling her forces like a rolling snowball.
Lu Kang was convinced that the monster of a woman would not simply sit idle with her arms crossed just because the situation in her occupied territories was a touch unsettled.
In such circumstances, Liu Yao's directive to conscript the troops and carry them off to Jing Province was as disastrously reckless as stripping off one's armor before a tiger.
Yet, despite Lu Kang's response, the figure before him—Ze Rong, Liu Yao's general come to levy the soldiers—
gave a light, contemptuous laugh and spoke in a sneering tone.
"Ha! A paltry thing like Cao Cao—hold her off for a bit while buying time, and that will be an end to it. Surely the Governor of Lujiang, famed far and wide as a seasoned veteran of a hundred battles, hasn't allowed himself to be cowed by a stripling like Cao Cao?"
"You bastard..."
For an instant, fury seized Lu Kang at the open insult.
Just then.
"P-please calm yourself, Grandfather. However it may be, it is the Vassal King's command, is it not?"
"Tch..."
The voice of his granddaughter, restraining him.
At this, Lu Kang barely suppressed his surging rage,
and spoke in a voice gone cold.
"Troops... I will give you a thousand. Seek no more than that."
"Only a thousand? No, however modest your gesture, a show of sincerity would call for at least five thou... nn..."
Before Ze Rong could finish his words, a chill glint flickered in Lu Kang's eyes.
At that, Ze Rong, taking the hint for now, lowered his head.
If he prodded that foul-tempered old man's temper any further, his head might well fly off in a moment of rash fury.
'Tch... very well. We shall see about this later. I shall report every last detail of this affair to His Highness Liu Yao!'