Reborn In The Three Kingdoms

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Meanwhile, in the lush, humid south, the combined forces of the Sun Clan and Ma Chao’s army made camp near Hepu. The air buzzed with cicadas and the occasional distant roar of tigers, a far cry from the disciplined silence of northern garrisons. At the command tent, Sun Ce unrolled a bamboo map, his finger tracing the route toward Funan. ”Shi Xie’s forces will meet us here in. After that—”

”After that,” Ma Chao interrupted, ”we’ll be marching blind. After all, the lands further south are uncharted for our armies.”

Zhou Yu, ever the strategist, tapped the map. *”Which is why we move carefully, after all, I’m sure Funan would have a map and knowledge of the surrounding area. The barbarians know the jungles better than we ever will. Ambushes are guaranteed.”

A sudden commotion outside made them all turn.

”You can’t just — hey! That’s the command tent!” a guard outside protested.

The flap flew open, revealing Sun Shangxiang, her hair tied back in a practical braid, her armor suspiciously similar to that of a common infantryman of the Sun Clan.

Sun Ce’s eye twitched. ”A-Xiang. Why are you here?”

”Reporting for duty, General,” she said, saluting with exaggerated precision.

Sun Quan’s face turned pale when he saw his sister had sneaked in. Ma Chao pinched the bridge of his nose, while his two younger brothers and Ma Dai held their chuckles.

As for the old generals of the Sun Clan, Han Dang, Cheng Pu, and Huang Gai looked heavenward as if begging for patience. Zhou Tai and Lu Meng just put on a stoic face, but their mouth twitched.

Zhou Yu, ever the diplomat, coughed into his sleeve. ”Sister Shangxiang, perhaps you’d be more comfortable with the supply trans—”

”Oh, I’m plenty comfortable,” she said, plopping onto a stool beside Ma Chao. ”So! What’s the plan? Are we charging in? Setting traps? I’ve been practicing with my arrows, especially fire arrows—”

”A-Xiang,” Sun Quan said, his voice strained. ”Father will have my and elder brother head if anything happens to you.”

”Then don’t let anything happen to me,” she replied sweetly.

Ma Chao, against his better judgment, let out a low snort.

Sun Ce shot him a glare. ”You think this is funny?”

”No,” Ma Chao said, though his lips quirked. ”But I’m starting to understand why His Majesty ordered me to protect you Lady Sun, escorting you back to Lujiang as he knew how restless you could be.”

Sun Shangxiang blinked. ”Wait, what? Yo take that back General Ma.”

Meanwhile, as Sun Shangxiang’s appearance caused a bit of shock inside the command tent, unseen in the camp’s periphery, two figures listened to the exchange from the shadows.

”Well,” murmured the first Oriole Agent, ”at least we won’t be bored.”

The second agent sighed. ”Just once, I’d like an assignment where the target doesn’t actively seek danger.”

”You signed up for the wrong mission, then.”

As Sun Shangxiang launched into a passionate argument with Ma Chao saying Fri hi to take back his word, the agents melted back into the darkness.

Their orders were clear from their Emperor, which was to protect her at all costs. Even if it meant following her straight into the jaws of battle.

After that, a day passed and Sun Ce and Sun Quan couldn’t convince Sun Shangxiang to return back to Lujiang even though they used any means necessary. They tried persuasion, bribes, even tearful pleas, but nothing worked. She stubbornly dug in, folding her arms and setting her jaw like iron each time they approached the topic.

They couldn’t send her back by force either, not only because they doted on her too much, but also because they knew she would raise a storm of defiance.

She had threatened to rally sympathetic soldiers and cause a ruckus in the camp, which, to their horror, she probably could. In the end, they relented, allowing her to stay on one condition, that is Zhou Tai would be her official bodyguard and keep an eye on her.

Zhou Tai, stoic as ever, simply nodded and accepted the responsibility.

Sun Shangxiang of course protested the decision fiercely, saying she didn’t need protection and could fend for herself just fine. But her protests were swiftly overruled. This time, Sun Ce and Sun Quan were done being soft.

”If you don’t accept this, we’ll drag you back to Lujiang ourselves,” Sun Ce warned, arms folded over his chest.

Sun Quan backed him up. ”Make a fuss if you want, but we’ve already decided.”

Seeing her brothers standing united like immovable mountains, and Zhou Tai looming silently at her side like a shadow carved from granite, Sun Shangxiang finally relented with a huff. ”Fine,” she muttered. ”But don’t expect me to make it easy for him.”

After that, Sun Shangxiang tried to lose him multiple times throughout the day, darting between tents or riding off suddenly during drills, but he was always right behind her, implacable and unmoved by her antics. Eventually, she gave up trying to shake him off and settled into a moody silence.

With the matter of his sister settled, Sun Ce turned his attention back to the real purpose of their campaign. After another consultation with Ma Chao and Zhou Yu, who were handling the communications with Shi Xie, Sun Ce issued the official march order.

He led the 150,000 strong Sun Clan Army, while Ma Chao commanded the additional 50,000 elite cavalry and infantry under his banner. Together, they began their push southward, officially launching the long anticipated Southern Campaign.

From Hepu, the combined army surged forward like a flood, cutting through the dense jungle paths and humid, mist covered trails. Their banners flew high above the canopy, golden dragons and red suns waving in the thick, salty breeze of the coastal south.

Farther inland to their west, in Jiaozhi, Shi Xie received Zhou Yu’s letter, bearing the Sun Clan seal and the Emperor’s golden command thread. He read it carefully before calling his generals and officers.

Wasting no time, the seasoned former ruler of the southern frontier ordered his troops to mobilize. The Shi Clan’s 150,000 troops, a mix of veterans familiar with the southern jungles and well drilled conscripts, began their march southward as well. It was the largest coordinated military movement the South had seen in decades.

With 350,000 men now marching under the combined banners of the Sun Clan, Ma Chao, and the Shi Clan, this would mark the beginning of the Southern Campaign.

This was later recorded in the history books of the Hengyuan Dynasty as one of the most grueling, arduous, complex, and significant expansion campaigns under Emperor Hongyi’s (Lie Fan) reign, in an effort to expand his domain.

Unlike the flatter, open fields of the Central Plains or the fortified strongholds of the north, the southern front was dominated by unforgiving jungles, disease ridden marshes, tangled river systems, and nearly impenetrable mountain passes.

The terrain was wild, treacherous, and unfamiliar. Their maps were vague at best. The landscape whispered with danger, filled with venomous beasts, swamp fever, and elusive native tribes who knew every root, hill, and bend of the rivers.

At this point in time, Jia Xu’s letter, dispatched days ago, finally reached Shi Xie and Sun Ce respectively. His letter, written in tightly wound script and sealed with the Imperial mark, cautioned against expanding southwest of Jiaozhi.

The order was relayed swiftly through the military chains of command. It was one more thread of coordination that would, perhaps, save countless lives.

But the southern tribes were far from passive.

The moment the vanguard of the combined army reached the outer reaches of the forests beyond Jiaozhi and Hepu, signs of resistance were immediate.

Traps were laid along paths that scouts had marked safe just hours before, pitfalls filled with sharpened stakes, poisoned darts triggered by pressure plates, and even collapsing trees designed to wipe out supply carts. Several scouting parties were ambushed and never returned, their remains were found later with signs of ritualistic mutilation.

Ma Chao, riding at the head of one of the forward columns, reined in his steed as smoke rose in the distance. Villages had been abandoned and torched. A signal, Zhou Yu believed, that the enemy was drawing them in. He ordered a halt.

That night, the army made camp on a narrow plateau above the forest basin. Fires were lit sparingly. Sentries patrolled in pairs. The jungle hissed and whispered around them, alive with things unseen.

It was there, under a humid moonlit sky, that the first full engagement began.

A barrage of fire tipped arrows rained from the trees without warning. Horns blared. The southern tribes, painted in mud and bark, descended from the jungle canopy with chilling war cries. They came in waves, flanking from impossible angles, using knowledge of the terrain to vanish as quickly as they struck.

Sun Ce and Ma Chao, however, were not men to panic.

”Form up! Spears front! Archers behind! Let them burn!” Sun Ce roared, his voice cutting through the chaos.

Ma Chao drew his spear and charged into the thick of it, piercing through a swath of warriors twice his size. Zhou Tai shielded Sun Shangxiang with near inhuman reflexes, blocking arrow after arrow as she shot from behind him with unerring aim.

Zhou Yu, coordinating from a signal tower above the camp, directed troop movement using light signals and drummers. The southern warriors were brave, cunning, but undisciplined. When the line held firm and countercharges began, their resolve wavered.

By dawn, the battlefield was a scorched and bloodied ruin. The southern attackers melted back into the trees, dragging their wounded with them. Sun Ce ordered a full sweep of the area.

Dozens of traps were disarmed, and captured scouts were interrogated. The enemy tribes were better organized than they had anticipated, perhaps even united under a single leader.

But it was only the beginning.

Meanwhile, far to the west at Jianmen Pass, the tide of battle was shifting.

Zhang Ren and Yan Yan, in their eagerness to adapt the newest defense tactics proposed by Fa Zheng, Zhang Song, and Meng Da, overextended their forward defenses.

The plan was elegant, using false retreats and layered traps to funnel Wei troops into kill zones. However, a miscommunication between Zhang Ren’s right wing and Yan Yan’s left exposed a critical gap in the pass’s mid .section.

Wei scouts spotted the error.

Guo Jia and Xi Zhicai seized the opportunity like wolves. Guo Jia penned a series of lightning fast tactical directives. Xi Zhicai calculated the topographical advantage. They orchestrated a feint attack on the flanks while pushing a wedge formation right into the exposed middle.

Cao Cao, overseeing the campaign from a command pavilion, smiled for the first time in days.

”This is it,” he murmured, and turned to his two sons.

”Cao Ang, take the right flank. Cao Pi, the left. Lead them with honor.”

Both young men, armored and mounted, saluted at him. ”We will not fail you, Father.” With banners flying and war drums beating, the Wei army surged forward. Jianmen Pass, once an impenetrable fortress, trembled under the renewed assault.

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Name: Lie Fan

Title: Founding Emperor Of Hengyuan Dynasty

Age: 34 (201 AD)

Level: 16

Next Level: 462,000

Renown: 2325

Cultivation: Yin Yang Separation (level 9)

SP: 1,121,700

ATTRIBUTE POINTS

STR: 966 (+20)

VIT: 623 (+20)

AGI: 623 (+10)

INT: 667

CHR: 98

WIS: 549

WILL: 432

ATR Points: 0