385. Liu Bei Looking For Ally

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Convincing Lie Fan to help them wasn't a hard thing for him to do, and Lie Fan is a very understanding and open minded man, as long as what you said to him made sense and had value he would definitely allow you to do what you want, what caused him to have a headache is the possible fallout from their action as Zhuge Xuan and their tutors would definitely come to him as he helped them to leave from Xiapi.

It's not that he can't handle them as well but it would definitely disturb his private time, whenever he spends it with Wannian or doing some of his duties for Lie Fan, especially now that he has begun to make his mark.

Lie Fan had absolved several of his duties as a page and assigned him some tasks that had him act like some sort of personal advisor for Lie Fan, which didn't decrease his workload but increased it by several loads.

As he was thinking of this, Zhuge Liang could see that Sima Yi had some thoughts that were holding him back from agreeing to help them, and he understood what caused Sima Yi to not immediately agree.

His uncle and his tutor alongside Lu Xun tutors aren't just normal people to handle, especially his uncle who takes his duties seriously as the headmaster of the academy, as he had never seen him so happy in doing something ever since he took an official position.

Zhuge Liang: "Brother Zhongda if you are he's staying because you're afraid that my uncle and our tutors would pester you or blame you, no need to be afraid of it because we already implied this many times to them that it was our own idea."

Lu Xun: "What Brother Kongming said is right Brother Zhongda, well maybe they will come to scold you a little which is still a possibility, but it was a possibility nonetheless with a very small chance for it to happen."

Sima Yi: "Humph! It's easy for you to say that Kongming and Boyan! Even though there's a small chance for it to happen, it is still a percentage that I don't want to take because it would disturb my schedule!"

Zhuge Liang: "It's a small risk to take Brother Zhongda, the two of us wanted to broaden our horizon so that we could help you support Lord Lie Fan in the future!"

Lu Xun: "That's right! I'm sure that this would also get some big points with Lord Lie Fan your future brother in law Brother Zhongda!"

Sima Yi: "If you think things like this would increase my points that Lord Lie Fan had for me, you never truly knew him then."

Even though Sima Yi said so, his mind already thought of the possibility that this could increase his pints with Lie Fan which would help him in his wooing to Wannian, at least in terms of easier permission to do things.

Zhuge Liang could see that Sima Yi had been persuaded by Lu Xun's words, which he also at first thought would never be considered by Sima Yi, but it turns out it was the keyword to persuade him after all.

As what Zhuge Liang expected, Sika Yi finally agreed to help them on the condition that they would truly return back to Xiapi and serve Lie Fan, because if they dared to lie then he would chase them to the ends of the land and personally hanged them.

Hearing this Lu Xun was terrified and immediately nodded his head promising that he would not lie and return to Xiapi, as for Zhuge Liang he frowned for a moment because he felt that his freedom was restricted but then he nodded his head.

Zhuge Liang then told Sima Yi that he couldn't promise that he would return in 3 years, because he planned to roam the land and his target was to go to Jing Province in search of the legendary hermit Sima Hui and learn from him.

The name Sima Hui surprised both Sima Yi and Lu Xun because he is very famous among scholar circles, but not many people knew where he stayed except in Jing Province and the only one who knew where he was personally is Pang Degong.

Pang Degong was the best friend of Sima Hui and rumors are that they stayed in the same area, but no one had ever met Sima Hui when they visited Pang Degong's residence.

Sima Yi could only nod his head and tell Zhuge Liang that he would try his best to ensure that he would not be chased if it's more than 3 years, but he couldn't promise that he could hold it for too long.

Because he and the two of them knew that there was the Oriole who would definitely watch over you, and you would never know where they were or who they were until they showed themselves because it could even be your closest people around you.

Both Zhuge Liang and Lu Xun nodded their head and promised that they would adhere to the agreement that they had made with him, and Zhuge Liang added that the longest would be 4 years for him.

Receiving Zhuge Liang and Lu Xun's promise, Sima Yi nods his head telling the two of them to wait for his news, he will inform them as soon as possible when he receives Lie Fan's response.

With Sima Yi's promise, Zhuge Liang and Lu Xun could rest easy for now since at least they have the chance to leave Xiapi, with Zhuge Liang heading to Jing Province while Lu Xun heading to Lujiang.

As the Trio Genius ended their meeting, Southwest from Xiapi to Jing Province at Xiangyang, Liu Bei was having a meeting with his advisors to discuss their next move after taking over Jiangling.

Since he had managed to drive out Liu Biao from the northern part of Jing Province, now Liu Bei felt that he needed to gather some allies or an ally either to defend against Lie Fan or Cao Cao, or an ally to attack Liu Biao.

His advisors especially Kuai Liang and Kuai Yue also shared the sentiment that Liu Bei had, since their location was at the center of the land they were surrounded by many sides.

Their strength is also very weak compared to Liu Biao who held the entirety of Jing Province in the past, making him one of the strongest forces in the land after Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, and Lie Fan.

Even Liu Yan or now Liu Zhang was much weaker compared to Liu Biao in its heyday, so you need to be either very powerful or smart if you want to control the center of the land where traffic is very crowded.

Liu Bei: "Who do you think we should ally with? Yuan Shao? Liu Zhang? Zhang Lu? Or Sun Ce."

Ju Shou: "I think we should ally with both Liu Zhang and Zhang Lu, the two of them are our best chances to secure our west side, and a perfect ally to deter both Cao Cao and Lie Fan."

Kuai Liang: "It's impossible for Liu Zhang and Zhang Lu to be allied with each other, they were at war with each other and it's a blood war since Liu Zhang killed Zhang Lu's family."

Kuai Yue: "I agree with what my brother had just said, Zhang Lu had sworn blood vengeance against Liu Zhang and he would not stop the war, he even chose to attack Shangyong to replenish his resources rather than stopping his war."

Wang Xiu: "Then who should we ally with then? I think Liu Zhang is a choice that we should stay with, but we need another one."

Kuai Liang: "Yuan Shao is the perfect choice for us, as he could help us in countering Cao Cao and Liu Zhang could help us in countering Lie Fan."

Liu Bei: "I'm sure that Liu Zhang would definitely agree with our proposal of alliance, but I'm not sure that Yuam Shao would definitely accept our offer of alliance."

Kuai Liang: "He would definitely agree My Lord, Yuan Shao was alone in the north and if he ever marched south, I'm sure that Cao Cao and Lie Fan would definitely unite against him, so having an ally in the south of Cao Cao and Lie Fan is a benefit for him."

Hearing what Kuai Liang said, Liu Bei nodded his head in contemplation as to what decision he should make, as Kuai Liang had always given the best advice among his other advisors, even Kuai Yue pales in comparison.

But he still doesn't believe that Yuan Shao would accept his offer to be his ally, because he still remembers how he was treated by Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu in the past during the Anti Dong Zhuo alliance.

As Liu Bei was in a dilemma, Kuai Liang could see that in his facial expression even though Liu Bei had tried to hide it, causing Kuai Liang to feel that Liu Bei was somewhat short minded.

The reason he thinks like that is because Liu Bei never speaks his mind when it's an important conjecture, never asks for any help, and always thinks about it himself which in his mind is a bad quality for a lord to have.

He also sometimes finds that Liu Bei likes to be satisfied with short term success, which is actually not bad because that means Liu Bei also wants a greedy person, what makes it bad is that he tries to hide it which indicates that he could be a two faced man.

But even though he finds all of these bad qualities, Kuai Liang is still optimistic that Liu Bei is the best choice to be his lord, because what lord doesn't have any bad qualities, even Liu Bang the founder of the Han Dynasties also has some bad qualities.

While he is thinking of this, seeing that Liu Bei still contemplating he can only try to persuade Liu Bei to go through with choosing Liu Zhang and Yuan Shao first and have the Sun Clan as a backup plan.

He also adds by saying that they couldn't be optimistic with the Sun Clan because they already allied with Lie Fan and their alliance had brought many benefits to the Sun Clan, helping them to control almost the entire Jiangdong and do some revenge against Liu Biao.

Hearing what Kuai Liang had just said, Liu Bei could only nod his head and tell Kuai Yue to draft the letters to both Liu Zhang and Yuan Shao asking them to be his allies, what purpose Liu Bei had for the alliance, and lastly, the terms that he gave to the two of them what kind of benefits they will receive and his promise that he would give some land to the two of them, Yuan Shao from Cao Cao lands and Liu Zhang from Liu Biao lands.

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Name: Lie Fan

Title: Three Heroes Who Defeat Lu Bu

Age: 31 (198 AD)

Level: 16

Next Level: 462,000

Renown: 825

Cultivation: Yin Yang Separation (level 9)

SP: 1,121,700

ATTRIBUTE POINTS

STR: 936 (+20)

VIT: 598 (+20)

AGI: 583 (+10)

INT: 587

CHR: 96

WIS: 509

WILL: 397

ATR Points: 0