Lu Bu Appears

Two months passed since Yun arrived at Xuchang. Cao Cao left two weeks after Yun arrived to fight Tao Qian. Yun was wary still thinking about where Lu Bu was going to strike.

"So General Zhao, we are the only ones left," says Li Qian as they were playing Wei Qi.

Yun wasn't really in the game since his mind was wandering because of Lu Bu. He was winning but still, it wasn't his best that he was showing.

Behind Li Qian were his son and nephew looking at the board to see who was winning when Yun makes a move that confused all three as it looked like Yun was sacrificing some of his pieces.

Li Qian became wary when Yun says, "I really hope that the war can be settled fast. I have a bad feeling lately."

"I think that you just can't relax. I have seen you train on the training field and it seems that you are the most hardworking person there," says Li Qian as he didn't take Yun's units thinking that they were a trap set up for him.

"I see the world as I see this board," says Yun as he places another piece on the board.

"And what do you see in this board?" asks Li Qian curiously as he places a piece to counter the piece Yun played while keeping his eyes on the units he thinks are a trap he won't fall for.

"Our Lord is only seeing threats that appear on the board. You could have taken my White Pieces a long time ago. But you didn't, thinking I was setting up a trap for you. What you didn't know was that you had me surrounded and could have taken them easily," says Yun before he places his next piece on the board.

This piece revealed that the real trap was not taking the pieces earlier showing that Li Qian was surrounded by a front that appeared from behind his units.

"You weren't seeing the real threat because it was invisible until I showed it to you," says Yun as he took almost half of the black pieces from the board.

"You saw the invisible enemy too late thinking too much on if they are a trap or not. The moment reinforces arrived you were too late to take them but you didn't see that I was surrounding you little by little," says Yun as he looked at Li Qian with a smile.

"Who do you think will attack us from the rear?" asks Li Qian curious about it now.

"Someone that is not pledged to any Warlord or a Warlord without some territory," says Yun waiting for Li Qian to make his move when Pang Tong enters the room.

He walks towards Yun who looks at him. Pang Tong looked too serious as Yun got a bad feeling when he stood up as the coin has fallen and he remembered where Lu Bu would attack.

His face turned pale in fear for his family before it turned red from anger for himself of putting them in danger and Pang Tong could see that his Lord already knew what he came to tell him.

"I will retreat for today," says Yun as if nothing serious was going on to not spread panic before he leaves with Pang Tong.

"Give me the most important details," says Yun once they were out of the room.

"Lu Bu has appeared near Puyang. Huang Zhong could catch the people that wanted to help him and has them imprisoned for now. Shadow flew all the way here without rest to give us this message," says Pang Tong seriously as Yun stops and closes his eyes while taking a deep breath.

He opens his eyes which were filled with determination as he says, "Puyang is not Zhending. We haven't reinforced it and it is weak against sieges right now."

"We should march back to Puyang at our fastest. We should arrive in a week," says Pang Tong seriously giving Yun suggestions as Yun looks at his strategist.

"Prepare everyone to leave. I will take Thunder and ride before everyone else. I should arrive at Puyang in three days if Thunder goes all out without rest," says Yun as Pang Tong was now a bit worried about Yun.

"My Lord, you can't just ride for three whole days without rest. The enemy will capture you when you appear all exhausted there," says Pang Tong trying to reason with Yun to move with the army instead of him going ahead of them.

"We don't know how many men Lu Bu has and we don't know if Huang Zhong caught all of the traitors that live inside Puyang. Should I just watch as my family falls into Lu Bu's hands? He might be a friend but we are enemies at the moment," says Yun seriously as he wanted to avoid fighting Lu Bu.

"Huang Zhong and your father can deal perfectly with Lu Bu without our help and they have strategists by their side," says Pang Tong as Yun closes his eyes and sighs.

"You are right, I can't be everywhere and they aren't the only ones there," says Yun as he decided to march with his men instead of riding with Thunder ahead of them.

"Huang Zhong should be able to fight against Lu Bu and get him to a draw," says Yun knowing about Huang Zhong's strength.

He wouldn't let Huang Zhong teach Fang and Mulan if Huang Zhong wasn't as strong enough of making a duel between both of them interesting.

In the meantime in Puyang, Huang Zhong was standing on top of the wall with Zhao Xian as they looked at the enemy who was camping outside the city.

"I hope that Lu Bu can see the banners that are hissing on the walls of Puyang," says Zhao Xian worried since Yun and Hua weren't around at the moment.

"Don't worry, Master Xian. Lord Yun should return with the men once he heard the news until then we will hold them outside the city," says Huang Zhong not afraid of Lu Bu or his men.

He took a closer look with at the enemy with his sharp eyes as he could roughly see fifteen thousand men camping outside Puyang while they have over twenty thousand men sitting in Puyang ready to defend Puyang.

"We have many disadvantages but we have one advantage against Lu Bu," says Huang Zhong with confidence as he turned towards the stairs and Zhuge Liang, Xu Shu, and a woman named Guang Jia came from the stairs.

"We have strategists that can help us create a defensive strategy against this siege," says Huang Zhong as he presented the three to Xian who wasn't completely convinced yet.

"Now, we know that Puyang isn't a fortress as Zhending was before we left. But it isn't undefendable as many might think," says Zhuge Liang as two soldiers brought a table forwards.

On it was a map of the area, that Yun asked to be made by the scouts, which was detailed enough to see the favorable terrain which Lu Bu didn't know of yet.

"We just need to use the terrain around Puyang better than our enemy and we should be able to hold the city until the Lord returns with the remaining men," says Xu Shu pointing at a little hill.

"If we position a small cavalry here to attack the enemy's flank while fighting the infantry we could win the first battle of this siege," says Xu Shu who seemed the best when it comes to straightforward tactics.

"We could reduce the troops of the enemy using the terrain over here but it is a high-risk high-reward tactic using guerrilla tactics making it small skirmishes using the trees as our cover," says Guang Jia showing that her beautiful face wasn't the thing that her head carried around.

"Everything is well-and-good, but we need to be able to hold Lu Bu back so he can't get involved in the battle. We have nobody who could defeat him so I suggest we try to lure Lu Bu away from the battle," says Zhuge Liang as he was trying to make a plan to divert Lu Bu's attention when Huang Zhong interrupts him.

"I will be fighting Lu Bu. I might be an old man, but I am the only one, except for Zhao Hua and Dian Wei, that can make the Lord sweat while training with him. Lu Bu will be a problem which I will take care of, while the troops fight," says Huang Zhong determined as he wasn't thinking of sparing Lu Bu.

Huang Zhong was thinking about killing him if it comes to the worst. Zhuge Liang wasn't that confident in Huang Zhong, but he couldn't say that since Huang Zhong was standing over him as one of the two people in charge of the army.

"Also, we only need to hold Puyang for at least two weeks since that should be the time the army will need to return from Xuchang," says Huang Zhong estimating the time the troops would need to get to Puyang.

"Then we already have our objective. We need to hold Puyang for two weeks until Yun returns with the others. Until then we only need to hold on and I don't think that Lu Bu will attack while his wife and daughter are inside Puyang. It would be too reckless even for him," says Zhao Xian hinting at Wei Mei and Lu Huixiu which are guests of Yun at the moment.

They could be killed accidentally by a flying arrow which was shot to kill people on the wall. Lu Bu wouldn't be that crazy in their minds as Zhuge Liang and the other two already began to plan the strategy for the upcoming battle.

"What about Gan Ning and Huang Yueying?" asks Zhao Xian as Yun sent them away with two thousand men before he left for Xuchang.

"They should be safe since they should be further east from us instead of the west where the enemy is camping at the moment," says Huang Zhong pointing at a small dot that Yun painted on the map before.

"They are right here making ships and training the men which will become our Naval Unit in the future," says Huang Zhong as they couldn't go against Yun's decision of making the naval base further east from Puyang instead of beside the city.

"And it won't change the outcome of the battle of brawn and wits. Our objective is to hold Puyang for two weeks and we should be able to do that since our trenches were finished two weeks ago," says Huang Zhong pointing out that they could use the trenches against Lu Bu as they did before in Yangren.

"We could even hole ourselves inside of Puyang but we would lose all the yield of the fields to Lu Bu if we did so," says Huang Zhong giving an argument of why they couldn't hole themselves up because if their rations could run out in the long run.

"Then we must fight around here so we don't destroy the fields which means we will have to resort to Xu Shu's tactics while Huang Zhong deals with Lu Bu," says Zhao Xian as he didn't see another way since they needed to keep the rice fields safe.

The strategists began to make the strategy around those parameters while Huang Zhong kept his eyes on the enemy.