Mythical Three Kingdoms

Chen Xi was, in fact, speaking truthfully; with the current potential under Liu Bei’s rule, along with the combat power that can emanate from the existing foundation, it solidly surpassed Parthia by a head, and it was the Parthia that Vologases V had just about completely integrated.

Of course, the overall combat potential still falls short of Kushan by a degree; there’s no way around this. If Liu Bei could swallow Sunx Ce, and Chen Xi completed the integration of industries under Liu Bei and Sunx Ce’s rule, the combined might would basically be able to steadily surpass the Kushan controlled by Vasu Deva I.

Of course, part of the issue lies with Kushan’s perpetual inability to completely integrate the industries and combat power of their nation. Internal religious frictions and conflicts in their training systems inevitably lead to some internal consumption of Kushan’s strength.

This portion of internal consumption has also resulted in Kushan’s perpetual need to balance internal dynamics. Unless Vasu Deva I ruthlessly abolishes one faction entirely, Kushan will never hope to fully manifest all its combat strength in this lifetime.

As for Liu Bei completely unifying the Central Plains and Chen Xi proceeding to integrate the entire country’s industries, the overall strength of the Han Dynasty would certainly sit at the top among the Four Great Empires. Still, being the strongest doesn’t guarantee victory in battles.

Recall how Emperor Wu of Han almost made the Huns yield, yet when battling Dayuan—a mere flower—he was defeated in the first attempt. War, with its myriad of uncertainties, finds its greatest domestic value in being able to endure more losses.

It’s not about how hard you hit someone in a fight, but about how well you can endure being hit. If the opponent hits you a hundred times and you remain unfazed, then strike back once and have them at your mercy, that indeed is true victory.

Consider how the Song Dynasty’s external war victory rate was as high as seventy percent, while the Tang Dynasty’s was only forty-six percent, and Emperor Wu’s external victory rate before his death was just forty percent. After his death, it climbed to eighty-five percent, but due to the numerous wars during his reign, the average external victory rate was only a little over fifty percent.

Yet, the Han Dynasty didn’t boast about its combat power; everyone respected it, unlike the Song Dynasty, which boasted yet was publicly humbled. To put it plainly, they couldn’t afford to lose, could they?

Moreover, the boastful seventy percent victory rate of the Song Dynasty never mentions how many of those were achieved by defending against sieges at their city gates. In contrast, the Han and Tang battled at enemy front lines. The victory rates aren’t even comparable.

In the wars between Song and Liao, Liao attacked Song fourteen times, whereas Song attacked four times—thus facing a likelihood of being attacked of up to eighty percent. In the Song and Xia wars, Xia attacked Song six times, while Song attacked three times—a two-thirds probability of being attacked. In the Song and Jin wars, Jin attacked Song twenty times, whereas Song attacked Jin three times, nearing a ninety percent chance of being assaulted.

Finally, there was the Song and Mongol war: the Song attacked three times, whilst Mongolia attacked twenty-seven times, yielding a ninety percent likelihood of being attacked...

Calculating roughly, Song was attacked approximately sixty-seven times, retaliating thirteen times; over eighty percent of wars were endured under attack...

See clearly, over eighty percent of the time they were under attack. In such circumstances, not being annihilated despite a victory rate of less than seventy percent seems miraculous. Unable to strike back and only able to fend off blows—this encapsulates the Song Dynasty. A victory rate less than the likelihood of being attacked means boasting about high victory rates is sheer reckless folly.

Overall, from Chen Xi’s perspective, as long as the Han Dynasty maintains a normal external victory rate, it’s satisfactory. Even disregarding the eighty-five percent post-Emperor Wu rate, maintaining the constant rate of fifty percent would be terrifyingly high, as long as they continue to press the enemy relentlessly.

Eventually, Chen Xi managed to slip away, nor did Liu Bei linger much; Chen Xi had no shortage of matters to attend to. While Liu Bei was interested in recognizing people in the military camps, Cao Cao always dragged him around, engaging in conversations, leaving Liu Bei hesitant to leave Cao Cao behind.

The key reason is that Cao Cao has yet to master Liu Bei’s skill of recognizing people. Evidently, Cao Cao starts getting confused after memorizing three to four hundred names. Hence, to prevent Liu Bei from leveraging his capabilities further, Cao Cao personally shadowed Liu Bei.

Liu Bei didn’t pay much heed to this aspect, for over the years he had truly mastered this divine skill, not even considering that Cao Cao’s constant presence was due to this reason.

Nevertheless, looking back, Liu Bei only achieved this near-invincible skill after many years of practice. While Cao Cao’s aptitude may be superior, his focus couldn’t solely be on this; also, even if he wanted to learn, Cao Cao simply couldn’t master it overnight. This kind of ability is entirely honed through gradual practice.

To cut to the chase, recently, in order to prevent Liu Bei from unleashing his prowess and pulling away all his middle-level subordinates, Cao Cao has been swallowing his pride, visiting Liu Bei daily like clockwork, discussing life, talking philosophy, sharing aspirations—just to endure these three months.

Though such circumstances are indeed quite exasperating, through Cao Cao’s relentless coming and going, their camaraderie has deepened significantly, and they have gained profound understanding of each other’s will and capabilities.

Due to this understanding, Cao Cao perceives Liu Bei as a heroic figure; though not extraordinarily talented, he possesses a unique charm. Conversely, Liu Bei regards Cao Cao as someone who, if not confined by the Central Plains, would soar skyward, with both his acumen and capabilities among the best in the world, even surpassing Liu Bei himself by a margin.

Of course, when the two of them are chatting casually, they inevitably mention Sun Ce, after all, no matter how you look at it, the three of them are somewhat equal figures.

"Sun Ce, ah, is a cheerful and straightforward person, generous, not caring about minor details, valuing loyalty, skilled at complementing his weaknesses, and very good at employing people," Cao Cao said with a blank expression. "He is someone worthy of competing against you and me, although sometimes his brain isn’t quite online."

Liu Bei laughed heartily upon hearing this. "Indeed, there’s an interesting evaluation by Chen Xi on Sun Ce: ’Sun Ce is handsome, cheerful, straightforward, generous, doesn’t care about small details, but that’s all inconsequential. What’s important is he has an external brain, Zhou Yu, who can take over issuing commands after Sun Ce runs off, and no one minds,’ does that scare you!"

"What I meant by complementing weaknesses and being good at employing people refers to Zhou Yu, he truly is a genius," Cao Cao sighed and said, "Though I’ve heard his wife is quite beautiful."

"The way you say that..." Liu Bei held his forehead, somewhat at a loss for how to respond to this remark. Everyone knows Cao Cao has this proclivity, but you are so blatantly saying it, do you not think I could spill this to Sun Ce and Zhou Yu today? Zhou Yu might laugh it off, but Sun Ce would punch them together with Zhou Yu.

"Ahem, ahem, there’s actually another matter involved here. A long time ago, Senior Minister was a friend of mine, Duke Qiao was an honest official, having held positions of Three Dukes without savings, so he entrusted me to look after the Qiao family, while the Two Qiaos are actually Duke Qiao’s family daughters in Lujiang." Cao Cao said rather helplessly.

Liu Bei was slightly stunned, indeed unaware of this twist in the story. But it is true that Cao Cao and Qiao Xuan were good friends, after all, the agreement "After the parting, if encountering on the road, even a small drink and a chicken offering should be done responsibly, if passed in three steps, stomach pain should be blamed" was a well-known good tale.

With this sentiment, entrusting the entire family to Cao Cao before dying is indeed very reliable, and given Cao Cao’s integrity, these words are basically not spoken lightly.

Speaking of, despite Cao Cao being a eunuch descendant, why he was valued by many people, apart from his own ability, was largely due to the support from leading figures of the Pure Stream Faction like Cai Yong and Qiao Xuan, well, coincidentally these people all had a few beautiful daughters or nieces.

Thinking this way, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu marrying the Two Qiaos was practically snatching food from Cao Cao’s mouth, but then again, considering Cao Cao’s integrity, who knows if he might have used this method to pass the Two Qiaos onto Sun Ce and Zhou Yu for some advancement.

"To say, neither Sun Ce nor Zhou Yu notified me of their marriage to the Two Qiaos, truly showing no regard for me," Cao Cao shook his head with slight dissatisfaction.

This time Liu Bei remained silent because if Qiao Xuan really entrusted the entire family to Cao Cao, then for Qiao Xuan’s family daughters to marry without notifying Cao Cao truly does seem excessive, notifying him and not attending is one thing, but not notifying is somewhat overboard.

"You wouldn’t be planning to still make a fuss with Sun Ce about this matter now, would you?" Liu Bei said helplessly, although unaware of the internal reasons, given Cao Cao’s integrity, he indeed wouldn’t speak haphazardly on this aspect.

"Ha, how could I mind, it’s just that upon learning about this, I felt somewhat displeased, but thinking about it I truly haven’t fulfilled the responsibilities of an uncle, it’s normal they don’t pay it mind." Cao Cao shook his head as he said.

This matter is unclear, after all, Cao Cao really hadn’t paid attention to that branch of the Qiao family in Lujiang before, if not for Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao ranking on the List of Extraordinary Women, and there being only a few aristocratic families surnamed Qiao in the world, Cao Cao casually looked into it and discovered, these were Duke Qiao’s family daughters.

Added to this, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu are the ones marrying them, which is what stirred Cao Cao’s interest, leading to subsequent affairs, otherwise Cao Cao might never have known there was a branch of the Qiao family in Lujiang in his lifetime.

Liu Bei silently said nothing, Liu Bei can guarantee, Cao Cao definitely wrote down Sun Ce and Zhou Yu seriously, even though Cao Cao is broad-minded, men can be petty about certain things.

"Gongjin, have you felt lately there’s been some malicious energy lingering around?" Sun Ce sneezed, rubbed his nose, and said.

"That’s because sister-in-law is about to give birth, having just conceived your child, you heard the Northern Huns going south and ran off, and ran off alone." Zhou Yu, too lazy to deal with Sun Ce, said, his nose also feeling uncomfortable, and thereby slightly disdainful of Sun Ce.

"Ha, what are you doing?" Sun Ce looked at the documents on Zhou Yu’s table and asked, "There are so many names on it."

"This is the draft of promotions for general officers, Chen Zichuan, Xun Wenruo, and I each did a part, this part of mine mainly concerns general officers, alas, Bofu, if you hadn’t run around at that time, I could have arranged for you to claim a substantial achievement, despite repeated warnings you still ran off." Zhou Yu mentioned this and was filled with anger, how could he not have prepared a bonus for Sun Ce while commanding a large army?