Before the Drink Cools...
Before the Drink Cools...
Before the Drink Cools...
The news of the coalition army's march, led by Yuan Shu.
At this, Ding Yuan and the rest of the high command convened an emergency council.
"Our scouts report that the enemy's momentum is far from ordinary."
"Is this not a colossal host of two hundred fifty thousand troops? And their supreme commander is Yuan Shu, hailed as an undefeated master of war."
"And what of the generals under his command? The renowned warrior Ji Ling, General of the Left Dong Zhuo, and even Cao Cao and Yuan Shao. Not one of them can be taken lightly."
The Three Regular Attendants and the ministers of the Turbid Stream Faction voiced their misgivings.
The cause they had borrowed through the deposed emperor could not be ignored. And the scale of the enemy forces and the weight of their command roster were genuinely terrifying. A primal fear was unavoidable for them.
Then.
"Everyone, calm yourselves. There is no need to fear curs like those."
Ding Yuan spoke in a heavy voice.
With Lü Bu and Gongsun Zan flanking him, his presence silenced the anxious chatter for a moment.
Having seized the atmosphere of the council room, Ding Yuan resumed speaking with deliberate gravity.
"Though they outnumber us, they are still nothing more than a disorganized rabble, a mob of disparate armies gathered together. Suffer one or two defeats and they will quickly lose heart and scatter. What is more..."
As he spoke, Ding Yuan's gaze slid to one side.
There stood a woman with a cold expression, holding a Fangtian Halberd.
Lü Bu was there.
"We have Lü Bu, the Unmatched Under Heaven, and the finest elite troops of Bing Province. And we have General Gongsun, tempered by the northern frontiers. There is nothing to fear."
"Hmm..."
"Indeed, is this not the invincible Lü Bu? She will subdue that army of rebels in an instant."
They nodded, their faces relaxing with some relief.
Though men like Zhang Rang were celebrated as foxes of the political arena, their utter incompetence in military affairs was a limitation they could not escape.
While Jian Shuo was still alive they had managed some grasp of military matters, but with Jian Shuo gone, they had no choice but to lean entirely on Ding Yuan.
In that sense,
the names of the 'invincible' Lü Bu and the White Horse General Gongsun Zan—names even their militarily ignorant ears understood—gave them an even deeper sense of security.
At that moment...
"General, please wait."
"Hm?"
Zhang Liao, a female general, stepped forward abruptly.
The second strongest warrior in Ding Yuan's Bing Province army and,
by age, akin to an older sister, she offered a formal salute—unusual for her usual manner—and advanced.
"General, why use a butcher's ox-cleaver to kill a chicken? There is no need for Lü Bu to go. My strength alone is sufficient."
"..."
"Ho-oh..."
Judging by appearance alone, Zhang Liao stood a full head taller than Lü Bu,
her overwhelming presence exactly evoking a heroic warrior-woman.
At her reliable bearing, the men in the room slowly nodded, Ding Yuan among them.
"A fair point. Though your name is not yet widely known, I know well that your skill does not lag far behind Lü Bu's."
"Thank you, General."
"I will grant you forty thousand elite troops in particular. Go and seize this chance to earn merit."
"Yes, General! This Zhang Liao shall live up to your expectations without fail!"
Responding to Ding Yuan's words, Zhang Liao gave a crisp salute.
Even so, her bowed lips twitched, unable to suppress her delight.
She was seizing a golden opportunity to wash away the lingering frustration of having always been eclipsed by Lü Bu's shadow.
Meanwhile,
watching this from the side, Lü Bu let out a small, quiet sigh of relief.
'Good... now I don't have to march out right away...'
*
"Rat-like rebel scum! Crawl out here at once and receive me properly!"
A woman had drawn up before Sishui Pass with a host of tens of thousands.
Alone in front of the allied formation, she raised her great twin halberds, her voice ringing with swagger.
I had seen her once before, back in Luoyang. She was mounted on a black horse, raising her voice toward our battle lines.
Zhang Liao.
In a lighter version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he is merely a minor bit player, one of Cao Cao's generals and a friend of Guan Yu. But anyone who has read the Three Kingdoms with even a little depth will know that Zhang Liao is a commander comparable to most S-rank warriors.
While she was merely an adequate officer during her time under Lü Bu and had no great prominence in the early-middle portion of the story...
her true worth emerges after the Battle of Red Cliffs.
Around the time Liu Bei was eyeing Yi Province and Sun Quan was launching a full-scale assault on Cao Cao.
Cao Cao's main force had pulled away west to Hanzhong, and Sun Quan in the southern Jiangdong region moved north with a hundred thousand troops to attack Hefei.
It was practically a raid on an empty house, and
Zhang Liao held Hefei with only a few thousand soldiers under her command.
Even with a fortress to rely on, it was, by any estimate, an overwhelming disadvantage.
But Sun Quan, who had naturally counted on victory...
experienced hell in this battle.
Sun Quan's vast army of a hundred thousand.
Zhang Liao threw open the gates and launched a surprise attack against them—leading a mere few hundred riders.
And she literally crushed Sun Quan's army.
She tore through the enemy lines like a sea parted, cutting down every named general who challenged her along the way.
She even came close to killing Sun Quan, only to fail at the last second because she did not know what Sun Quan looked like and let her slip past right before her eyes.
As a result, the morale of Sun Quan's forces crashed to the ground, and with an epidemic striking as well, Sun Quan was forced into a miserable retreat from a campaign she had been certain she would win.
Thus Zhang Liao left his name in history as the legend of Hefei.
Afterward, in Jiangdong, they said that merely hearing 'Liao Is Coming! Liao Is Coming!' would stop crying children, so thoroughly had Zhang Liao's name become an object of terror. Her stature can be gauged from that.
Even more so, this account is not from the novel but recorded in the Records of the Three Kingdoms.
And now.
That same legendary fierce general Zhang Liao stood before our eyes, exuding the presence of a wild beast and hurling challenges.
"Insufferable noise! A stand-in for Lü Bu, obviously, yet crowing without a trace of fear! A truly Dong Zhuo-caliber scumbag!"
Hua Xiong—the original "chicken-killing blade"—grumbled with a frown.
I was practically choking back the words, "In the original timeline, you were the one standing out there," when—
"Clearly a substitute for Lü Bu, and yet she dares... My lord, wait a moment. I'll go and fetch her head."
"Hold on. She isn't someone to send out recklessly."
"Hm?"
I stopped Ji Ling, who was already rolling up her sleeves to go, and surveyed the situation with cold eyes.
It struck me every time—this damn life really did seem to be escalating in difficulty.
Had Hua Xiong been an enemy out there, I could have read the room, dispatched Ji Ling, or—as happened in the novel—sent Guan Yu out for a one-minute decapitation. But with Zhang Liao as the opponent... frankly, even sending Guan Yu didn't seem likely to resolve things swiftly.
That famous "fetch the head before the drink cools" probably wasn't possible here.
In a worst-case scenario, I might even have to consider defeat.
I was racking my brain over how to handle her, when—
"General Yuan, since the enemy commander is demanding a duel and hurling insults, should we not properly answer?"
"We should, but if someone marches out rashly and loses, it risks further crumbling our army's morale. It might be better to let the bastards shout themselves hoarse and then attack."
"Don't be like that. Give the commanders a chance to earn merit this time. My younger brother Bao Zhong has considerable martial skill and has long pleaded with me to deploy him should an opportunity like this arise."
"Hmm..."
A name thick with the rising smoke of a death flag I'd heard far too many times before.
But once the conversation reached this point, regrettably, even I could not keep blocking it.
Though I held the position of coalition leader, I was not yet in a state where I had the feudal lords completely under my thumb.
They each had their own opinions and stubborn streaks; at this stage, it was clear they would eventually act on their own obstinacy even if I dissuaded them.
In this situation, to fully seize the initiative and control the atmosphere, letting them have their way and learn the harshness of reality was also one method.
It was a bit like handling children, but truly, the essence of a person doesn't easily change, grown adult or not.
Having made my decision, I spoke in a calm voice.
"If you are so resolved, then go ahead. If you can bring me that woman's head, I will bestow a thousand liang of gold."
"Ha-ha! As expected of the Yuan Clan heir, truly generous! Thank you! Now, Bao Zhong, did you hear that!"
"Yes, brother. My deepest thanks for granting me this chance."
Bao Zhong spoke in a tone brimming with confidence.
I quietly offered a prayer for his soul, then, by way of a send-off, personally poured him a cup of warm wine.
"Here, drain a cup in prayer for victory before you go."
"No. I will drink that wine after I have taken the head of this Zhang Liao, or whatever she is called."
Wait—what is he, Guan Yu? In this situation, something even Guan Yu couldn't do, and he has the nerve?
I swallowed those words,
and answered this preposterous bravado with a light laugh.
"... Hoho. Is that so? That spirit is rather admirable. I shall look forward to it."
"Yes, General. I will return before the drink cools."
"..."
With those words, Bao Zhong spurred his horse and charged out.
Several of the lords voiced a touch of admiration for his dashing appearance,
and the commanders under me also watched with interest.
"Amusing. How do you think this will unfold? Neither of them are commanders of great fame."
Dong Zhuo asked in a voice laced with curiosity.
From her standpoint... no, not just Dong Zhuo. To anyone's eyes, the two could easily seem roughly equal.
At this point in time, Zhang Liao was, in truth, a nobody.
However.
-Pak!
"Gkuh-heurk!!"
"!"
"Wh-what?"
"Th-this can't be... my little brother... so easily?"
Unable to endure even a single exchange, Bao Zhong's head flew off.
Seeing him brutally killed before the drink could cool, I felt nothing but bitterness.
And then.
"Governor Yuan Yi's subordinate, Yu She. I shall certainly bring Zhang Liao's head."
—"Abeshiiiiii!!!"
"Kong Rong's subordinate, Pan Feng. Please grant me a chance!"
—"Hidebuuuuuh!!!"
The affiliations differed slightly from the original timeline, but regardless, the generals who charged out without realizing what a terror Zhang Liao was were instantly annihilated, as expected.
After three or so of them were swept aside without putting up a real fight, the talk of sending out more commanders vanished entirely among the lords.
"Haah... didn't I say as much? Not to move recklessly."
"Hmm..."
"M-my apologies, General."
"We should have listened to General Yuan..."
"Apologies can come later. Dousing the urgent fire comes first."
Unlike a moment ago, the lords could not lift their heads.
Their newfound docility was welcome, but the real problem began now.
With our army's morale shattered in an instant, a reckless attack under these conditions was impossible.
With bad luck, Zhang Liao might turn our camp into a bisected slaughterhouse, just like the Hefei battle in the original timeline.
In this situation, we somehow had to continue the duels and either defeat or capture the enemy general.
Yet, if I sent some half-baked volunteer against Zhang Liao, we would only repeat what just happened.
I was debating whether I should accept the risk and send out Guan Yu as the original timeline suggested, when—
"General Yuan, may I go out and try?"
A voice finally reached my ears.
I turned my head toward it.
"Ho-oh... Liu Xuande, you... Hm?"
But.
"... I ask just in case, but do you mean to go out yourself? Not one of the sisters behind you?"
"As the eldest, I cannot leave the work to my younger siblings. I, Liu Bei, shall personally defeat this Zhang Liao with my own hands."
'... Huh?'