Liu Ye's expression turned a bit gloomy. Although as a member of the Liu royal family, he had little attachment to the imperial household and even less to the emperor, if his suspicions were correct, things could get very interesting.
Liu Ye instinctively pressed his fingers against his brow. Despite being reluctant to fully believe it, he was now seventy percent certain that Li You was indeed Li Ru.
Liu Ye began to mentally defend Li You, trying to justify the situation.
A glint of ruthlessness flashed in Liu Ye's eyes.
Liu Ye quickly reviewed all the details and decisively chose to ignore the fact that Li You might be Li Ru. Liu Ye never considered himself a good person. If it weren't for the emergence of Liu Xuande (Liu Bei), giving him hope for restoring the Han dynasty, he would have gone directly to serve Cao Cao. What did it matter if a few emperors died?
To be frank, Liu Ye was a pragmatist. If the Han dynasty could be revived, he would lend a hand. If not, he would quickly withdraw and seek a brighter future under another lord. And Li You's importance to Liu Bei and the revival of the Han dynasty far outweighed the death of the young emperor. So Liu Ye decisively gave up on causing trouble for Li You—it simply wasn't worth it.
Liu Ye thought with some frustration that, considering Dong Zhuo's power at the time, what Li Ru did wasn't entirely wrong in scaring the court officials and consolidating his power. But in the long run, if he failed, who would be more vilified than him?
Liu Ye felt that Li Ru must have been insane back then. He had so many better strategies, but he chose the worst possible one. Yes, in the short term, it prevented internal chaos, but it also handed a moral high ground to the likes of Yuan Shao.
Reconstructing Li Ru's thought process, Liu Ye was left with one overwhelming impression: Li Ru was gambling, betting everything on being able to destroy the central plains warlords in one stroke. But in the end, he lost the gamble.
Liu Ye felt his thoughts twisting as he tried to understand Li Ru's logic. It was as if Li Ru's ideas didn't belong to a sane person.
From shock to indifference, and then to a bold, wicked resolve, Liu Ye's emotions cycled quickly. As a member of the royal family who lacked any real principles and was abnormally intelligent, his hostility toward the emperor was much stronger than that of regular ministers.
For people like Liu Ye, who followed their own rules and disregarded whether they would end up harming the emperor, loyalty was just an illusion.
Meanwhile, Hua Xiong, oblivious to the vast mental journey Liu Ye had just undertaken, was focused on how to increase the impact and attack power of his forces using cloud energy. Earlier, he had been lost, confused after his defeat. But now that he had a direction, Hua Xiong was working desperately to improve. Losing to Ju Yi wasn't shameful, but not striving to defeat him after the loss—that would be disgraceful to Hua Xiong.
Just as Hua Xiong couldn't imagine Liu Ye deriving so much from a single sentence, Liu Ye couldn't fathom that Hua Xiong would turn his words into reality. If you couldn't beat the enemy, it meant your attack power wasn't strong enough. If you couldn't break through them, it meant your charge wasn't powerful enough. If those were lacking, then strengthen them!
Hua Xiong didn't grasp how difficult it was to push a unit to near perfection with each small improvement. All he knew was that Liu Ye's words made sense. After losing to Xian Deng, the Xiliang Iron Cavalry's desire for revenge far exceeded Liu Ye's expectations. Their intense training and thirst for vengeance were driving Hua Xiong closer and closer to his goal.
After Liu Ye's group left, the camp was left under the command of Zhang Fei, Chen Chi, and, shortly after, Xu Chu, who arrived with a small contingent of Tiger Guards. Zhang Fei and Xu Chu spent their days staring each other down across the river.
"Zhongkang, let's have a duel today. Winner gets to drink, loser patrols the camp!" Zhang Fei slammed the table and shouted at Xu Chu. For Zhang Fei, Liu Ye's orders were secondary. His brother (Guan Yu) had already instructed him to stay put. In less than ten days, Guan Yu would arrive from Licheng.
Xu Chu eyed Zhang Fei. They were evenly matched; neither could get the upper hand. After some thought, Xu Chu grinned and slammed the table as well. "If we draw, we split the wine, and you do the patrol!"
"Deal!" Zhang Fei roared, his voice so loud it made Xu Chu's ears ring.
Wiping his mouth, Xu Chu stood up, grabbed his elephant-nosed broadsword from the weapon rack, and swung it a few times, producing a fierce slicing sound. He stretched his muscles, did a few warm-up exercises, and then ran out with the blade in hand.
Similarly, Zhang Fei grabbed his serpent spear and ran out as well. Meanwhile, Chen Chi ordered scouts to expand their patrol range; he had no intention of being ambushed. To avoid being caught off guard, Chen Chi had already started constructing a permanent encampment and even begun digging a moat around the camp.
Zhang Fei didn't know what to make of Chen Chi's overly cautious approach. With such fortifications, any attacker might lose the will to fight just at the sight of the camp. But for Chen Chi, if his soldiers were idle, they might as well be used to strengthen the defenses. After all, he was known for his turtle-shell strategies.