"A-Dou was useless too."
The side hall felt so thick with tension you could almost touch it.
Zhang Fei had zero filter when he spoke, but Liu Bei chose to let it slide. Just this once.
A brazier glowed in the corner to chase away the winter chill. Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, and Zhuge Liang all knelt around a low table, picking at sour plums, dried persimmons, and flatbreads while sipping warm tea broth.
Zhuge Liang had copied down the Lightscreen's broadcast into three full sets so everyone could hold a copy of their own.
Liu Bei let out a heavy sigh. The screen had not actually revealed all that much in the grand scheme of things, but those few words " Liu Shan surrendered to the Cao Wei army and the state fell" sat lodged deep in his chest like a splinter he could not pull out.
It itched and nagged at him in the worst possible way.
"My lord, there is no need to be so troubled," Zhuge Liang offered. "Perhaps A-Dou was a kind and merciful ruler. He may have surrendered to spare his people from the horrors of war."
"That... would make sense, I suppose. But..."
Zhuge Liang picked up on the shift right away. His lord had just run into another thorny problem.
This one went by the name of "declaring himself emperor."
Liu Bei had always seen restoring the Han dynasty as his holy mission. He had spent his whole life striving to be like the virtuous Duke of Zhou. But now he learned that in just a few short years he would actually take the throne for himself. He had always wanted to remain a loyal servant of the Han. But history seemed determined to push him down the same road Wang Mang had taken, the road of the usurper.
That was a truly bitter truth to face.
"My lord, have you considered how the light screen refers to Cao Cao's faction?" Zhuge Liang said with a smile.
Liu Bei thought back. "Shu Han was destroyed by Cao Wei. So that 'Wei' seems to be a state name, just like 'Han' in Shu Han."
"Exactly!" Zhuge Liang tapped the table. "The screen said all three main players of the Three Kingdoms era ended up as losers. Setting aside this Jin dynasty for now, if future generations call our era the Three Kingdoms, then that likely means Cao Cao's side and the Sun clan in Jiangdong also declared themselves emperors."
"The prestige of the Han house has truly fallen that far..." Liu Bei let out a long breath.
If he had heard about Sun and Cao crowning themselves for the first time, he would have flown into a rage. But after seeing that all three kingdoms eventually fell to Jin anyway, he could look at the whole thing from a calmer angle.
"Restoring the Han still falls on big brother's shoulders," Zhang Fei said between bites of a persimmon cake.
Liu Bei felt a small warmth in his chest. His sworn brother always came through.
"Shame A-Dou was useless though," Zhang Fei added.
Liu Bei's face darkened again. 'Damn, could they please skip that part?'
"My best guess is this," Zhuge Liang said, half reasoning and half speculating. "Cao Cao, being the ambitious wolf he is, pulled a Wang Mang maneuver and named his state Wei. You, my lord, as a descendant of Prince Jing of Zhongshan, raised the banner of Han once more. And Jiangdong, wanting to stand as an equal, put on the emperor's hat too. Three legs to the tripod."
"And then all three of us, including our dear nephew A-Dou, went down together. Everything handed to that Jin dynasty on a silver platter," Zhang Fei summarized, taking another big bite of persimmon.
Liu Bei suddenly lost his appetite for the whole conversation.
'Maybe I should have just let Yide go get drunk by himself today. Would have been better for everyone.'
"Can we stop with the doom and gloom? Kongming said we are here to figure out how to save second brother!"
Zhang Fei jumped straight to his feet and roared, "Let's talk about Lu Meng and Lu Xun!"
"Exactly what we should do," Zhuge Liang nodded in agreement. "Yunchang, since you and Yide crossed paths with Lu Meng during the campaign at Nanjun, what is your take on the man?"
Guan Yu's phoenix eyes opened a fraction wider. "A brave warrior."
Zhuge Liang nodded. Guan Yu was proud by nature and did not enjoy speaking about others behind their backs. But after years together, Zhuge Liang had learned to read between the man's sparse words.
"Brave warrior" meant not a strategic mind. A man who relied on raw courage alone was nothing to fear.
Zhang Fei understood the implication too and spoke up.
"So the mastermind is that Lu Xun fellow? The one who set a fire and scared big brother to death?"
Liu Bei: "..."
Guan Yu paused mid-stroke on his beard, smacked Zhang Fei on the back of the head, and said three words: "Yide. Shut up."
"This Lu Xun is apparently brilliant, yet none of us have ever heard of him," Zhuge Liang said, smoothing things over.
"You never encountered him during your mission to Jiangdong?" Liu Bei asked, curious.
Zhuge Liang paused, refilled his own tea, and spoke slowly.
"The screen said Lu Xun was the representative of the Jiangdong gentry. That leaves only one possibility: he is from the Lu clan of Wu Commandery."
"When I was in Jiangdong last year, I met several members of the Lu family. Lu Ji was a man of great learning. Lu Mao had a fine reputation in the countryside. And there was one named Lu Yi who attended the Marquis of Wu personally. But not a single one called Lu Xun."
The little side hall fell into an awkward pause.
Lu Meng was currently just a brainless brute. And Lu Xun, the man who would cause both Guan Yu's and Liu Bei's deaths, did not even seem to exist yet.
It was like throwing a punch at thin air.
Liu Bei rubbed his face. "At least we got one piece of good news. The next ten years are what did the screen call it?"
"A period of rapid expansion," Zhao Yun supplied. "Over those ten years, my lord, you control both Jingzhou and Yizhou. Ma Chao and Huang Zhong come to serve you. Later, we go to war against Cao Cao again. General Huang slays Xiahou Yuan on the battlefield, and Yunchang floods the Seven Armies."
Zhang Fei blinked.
'I am a mighty general of Shu Han! A terrifying force of nature! And that damn light screen could not even be bothered to mention me once? Blatant favoritism! I want to file a complaint!'
Unfortunately, Guan Yu sensed his third brother gearing up to speak and shot him a single, lethal side-eye with those eyes. Zhang Fei deflated and held his tongue.
Liu Bei, on the other hand, was thrilled. 'This good news could not have come at a better time!'
Flooding the Seven Armies! His second brother truly was invincible under heaven, shaking the entire land!
Slaying Xiahou Yuan in single combat! General Huang was truly fierce beyond measure... wait.
"Kongming, we met Huang Zhong at Liu Biao's estate before. I remember him being an old man, correct?" Liu Bei double-checked.
"That is right." Zhuge Liang had a memory like a steel trap. "General Huang was already sixty years old at the time."
"To think such a fearsome warrior is that old!" Liu Bei marveled. He himself was forty-eight.
A warrior who refused to bow to age like that. Why wait for him to come knocking? Why not go out and bring him in personally? The thought sparked in Liu Bei's mind and refused to be put out.
With the light screen naming names, he could simply go down the list and recruit every single talent it mentioned. Every invitation would land perfectly.
Take Lu Xun, for example. The man who would burn him to death with frustration. Instead of wasting away in Jiangdong's internal squabbles, why not secretly invite him to join the grand cause of restoring the Han?
Liu Bei's heart was on fire again. But he would need to table that idea for now and consult with his strategist first.
Meanwhile, the bored Zhang Fei had been reading ahead in the transcript Zhao Yun was holding.
The line "you worry when your friend is struggling, but you REALLY start sweating with envy when your friend pulls up in a brand new carriage" made him scratch his head.
'What in the world is a brand new carriage? And why do you pull up in one?'
But the very next sentence hit him like a lightning bolt, and he yelped out loud.
"Big brother! How did Sun Quan become your brother-in-law?!"
Zhuge Liang took this in stride. Intermarriage between noble families was completely normal. And after Red Cliffs, the Sun-Liu alliance had grown tighter than ever.
"Does Yide feel the Marquis of Wu's sister is not worthy of our lord?"
Zhang Fei shook his head vigorously and answered honestly.
"My big brother is a hero for the ages! That two-faced, green-eyed thief has no business being my brother's brother-in-law!"
"And if that disloyal, green-eyed scoundrel shows up, am I supposed to bow and scrape to him? Just thinking about it makes my blood boil!"
"Also, big brother, so while we were busy fighting for our lives at Red Cliffs, you were out there finding me a sister-in-law?"