[Lightscreen]
[As for the incident of Zhao Yun intercepting the river to rescue A-Dou, it actually occurred earlier than Lu Meng's move.
The exact timing cannot be verified, only that it took place between 211 and 212.
The rough sequence goes like this. Liu Bei secretly took Yizhou, Sun Quan flew into a rage and sent ships to bring Lady Sun back.
Lady Sun intended to take A-Dou with her back to Wu, but Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun mobilized troops to intercept them and snatched A-Dou back.
Looking at the timing, this feels less like strategy and more like Sun Quan deliberately trying to disgust Liu Bei.
And because the records are so vague, even Lady Sun's birth and death years are unclear, giving rise to countless conspiracy theories.
For example, theories that Lady Sun was a spy, or that she truly shared deep motherly affection with A-Dou, and so on.
But regardless of which theory you believe, the conflict between Sun Quan and Liu Bei is an objective fact, and the age gap between Lady Sun and Liu Bei is also obvious.
So in this matter, Lady Sun was essentially a pure victim.
As for the claim that Liu Bei was a scumbag, that also does not quite hold up.
During the Yiling campaign, he still remembered to reinter Lady Gan in Shu.
By then, Lady Gan had been dead for at least eight or nine years, yet he still kept her in mind.
You might not call it deep devotion, but at the very least, it has nothing to do with being a scumbag.]
Liu Bei felt as if he had been struck by five thunderbolts.
After Changban, Lady Gan's health had indeed been worsening, but Lady Mi had only just passed away. He had never wanted to think in that direction.
But eight or nine years...
He calculated briefly in his mind.
Would that not be within the next few years?
Liu Bei shot to his feet.
Zhang Fei also sprang up and immediately locked both hands onto Liu Bei's shoulders.
"Big brother, do not panic! Have you forgotten Zhang Zhongjing, that old immortal?!"
The words were simple, but the meaning was crystal clear. In the original timeline, you never recruited him!
Liu Bei finally steadied his emotions, though his thoughts remained in turmoil.
To stop Liu Bei from dwelling on this for the moment, Kongming asked a question.
"Lady Sun herself may be innocent, but the female soldiers and escort cavalry she brought are mostly arrogant and unruly. Among them, there may very well be spies from Sun Wu. My lord, should we impose stricter control over Chanling?"
Forcing himself to focus on Zhuge Liang's proposal, Liu Bei turned his head and spoke.
"Chanling has Yide stationed there, and Yunchang guards the southern bank of the river. Yide, I order you to station your troops outside the city of Chanling. With my written order, you are permitted to requisition Lady Sun's escort cavalry. Any who disrupt military discipline or refuse orders are to be detained first."
He paused, frowning slightly.
"As for the female soldiers..."
That was quite troublesome. He had seen those women draw their blades at the slightest provocation many times, and it gave him a massive headache.
Huang Yueying spoke gently.
"Since they are Lady Sun's troops, they are also troops under you, my lord. Currently, the Ministry of Works needs more female papermakers. Why not transfer a batch of strong and sturdy women to do the heavy labor of boiling plant pulp?"
"As for those who do not meet the physical requirements, we can remove their armor and weapons and have them attend to Lady Sun's daily needs."
Liu Bei blinked his eyes.
"Madam Huang is truly Kongming's Fengchu!"
[Lightscreen]
[As for the conflict between Sun and Liu, the Lady Sun incident was merely a side note.
In 215, the real focus lies with Lu Meng and Lu Su.
Lu Meng seized the three commanderies, but under Sun Quan's written orders, he exercised restraint and did not escalate into full-scale warfare.
Lu Su, on the other hand, showed remarkable vision. Faced with a situation that looked ready to explode at any moment, Lu Su made a decision.
'Guan Yunchang, I have come to negotiate terms.'
Lu Su believed that in such circumstances, they should speak openly, and that Guan Yu neither could nor would dare to kill him.
The two agreed to meet. Their troops remained a hundred paces away, each side bringing only key officers, and everyone carried nothing but a single blade.
Everyone is familiar with this scene, the famous Single Blade Meeting from the novel.
But in actual history, everyone carried single blades, and the meeting took place in neutral territory, not within either camp.]
"Lu Zijing is truly a man of great talent!" Zhuge Liang praised, and this was indeed exactly the kind of thing Lu Su would do.
This chief strategist of Sun Quan in Jiangdong possessed a confident and stubborn spirit, always having absolute confidence in his own judgment.
Guan Yu also showed an expression of approval.
Even Zhang Fei could not help but admire him. "He has real guts. I, Old Zhang, respect that!"
[Lightscreen]
[The Single Blade Meeting appears fair, but everyone knows that if fighting broke out, Lu Su would likely be the first to die.
Yet in truth, it was not fair to Guan Yu either.
During the entire meeting, Guan Yu only said one line. I have slain Cao's forces and rendered merit, I bled at Red Cliffs. Working this hard, I should at least have a piece of territory to my name, right?
Lu Su, however, had a hundred different tricks. He started by scolding him for not returning the three commanderies. After Guan Yu talked back, Lu Su went off like a string of firecrackers.
First, he talked about how desperate and cornered Liu Bei was at Changban Slope, and then belittled the contributions of Liu Bei's followers.
Then he sighed about how they were chased all over the world by Cao Cao, asking what they had to be so arrogant about.
Then his tone shifted to praise Sun Quan's benevolence in lending them a place to hide.
Finally, he scolded Liu Bei for his lack of personal virtue, saying that having taken Yizhou, he still wanted Jingzhou, which was something no human could tolerate!
In short, the scolding was quite brilliant. If we put him in our modern era, he would easily be a top-tier internet influencer.
The record for Guan Yu states that he had no reply, meaning he was probably scolded into a daze.
So this Single Blade Meeting was not fair to Guan Yu either. Lu Su could grab Guan Yu by the collar and scold him however he wanted, but Guan Yu could not actually turn around and chop Lu Su down.
Since it had come to this, everyone was representing their own interests and no one would loosen their grip, so naturally no results were reached.
Fortunately, both sides still had a bit of tacit understanding and did not escalate the dispute.
If you ask me, it is a pity Prime Minister Zhuge Liang was not there at the time. Otherwise, the two of them trash-talking each other at the Single Blade Meeting would have been a legendary historical scene.]
Zhuge Liang, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei could not help but blush a little.
They had just praised this man for his courage and spirit, so how could he act like this in the blink of an eye?
Guan Yu's grip on his cup tightened by three points.
Staring at Lu Su's original words displayed on the light screen, Guan Yu thought about it for a long time before sighing in defeat.
Leading troops to shock the four directions was his specialty, but moving his lips to muddy the waters was something he was truly bad at!
After blushing, Kongming actually found it a bit funny.
"Lu Zijing actually possesses such eloquence? I really did not see it when we met before. I thought he was not good with words."
"These words that distort right and wrong and force far-fetched interpretations are truly brilliant."
Huang Zhong was puzzled. "Is Kongming very good at scolding people?"
During the Battle of Red Cliffs, the area he was in was occupied by Cao Cao, and he only came to join Liu Bei after Cao Cao retreated. As a military general, he was not very clear on the anecdotes from before Red Cliffs.
"Hahahahaha!" Zhang Fei was amused and wanted to go up and hook his arm around Huang Zhong's neck to explain in detail. But looking at the old general's graying hair, he changed it to patting his shoulder instead.
"Old Huang, you do not know! When the Cao thief marched over, Sun Quan's own subordinates were about to tie Sun Quan up and hand him over to Cao Cao!"
"At that time, Kongming stepped up and single-handedly scolded their hundreds of people until they could not open their mouths!"
"I heard that guy surnamed Zhang from the surrender faction went home and was sick for three days! Do not even mention how majestic it was!"
"If Kongming had not refuted that group of cowards until they were speechless, where would the victory at Red Cliffs have come from?!"
"Sun Quan actually does not remember this massive favor and later turned around to act like such a petty man, bah!"
Kongming did not know whether to laugh or cry. "Yide, it was just a debate between the war and surrender factions at the time. I just helped the war faction say a few words, how did it become me scolding hundreds of people alone?"
Zhang Fei thought about it and shook his head. "It still counts as a favor to Sun Quan! Otherwise, with the combat strength of that bunch of trash under Sun Quan, if Jiangdong really wanted to tie Sun Quan up and surrender, Sun Quan probably would not have had any way to stop them!"
Speaking of this, Zhang Fei's eyes lit up.
"Kongming, calculating it this way, does that mean Sun Quan's imperial throne was also stabilized by you?!"