Everyone present already knew how important Xiangyang and Fancheng were.
After all, the Longzhong Plan quoted by the light-screen was practically required reading. No one in this room had skipped it.
What no one expected—what truly unsettled them—was this:
That a future dynasty, centuries later, would still be clinging to life by holding this same stretch of land.
Using it as life support.
"Thirteen consecutive defeats… what does that even mean?" Mi Zhu asked, utterly at a loss.
Zhuge Liang, however, frowned in thought. "If thirteen defeats were enough to drain the Southern Song of all remaining strength… then each battle must have been catastrophic. A nation's full might. Millions under arms. Every fight soaked in blood."
He paused, then added calmly, "Compared to that, even the battle of Xuzhou would barely qualify as a skirmish."
Mi Zhu fell silent.
Red Cliffs had been terrifying—but he'd watched it from the sidelines. Xuzhou, on the other hand, he had lived through.
That battle still visited his dreams.
A war of annihilation… the destruction of a state…
Mi Zhu shook his head and silently offered his deepest sympathy to the Southern Song people of a thousand years hence.
After all, as General Huang had bluntly put it—
How could the Mongols possibly show mercy?
Zhang Fei's earlier suggestion of retreating to Jiaozhou earned no immediate response from Liu Bei.
Back when they'd negotiated ownership of Nan Commandery in Jiangdong during the New Year talks, Jiaozhou had indeed come up—as a bargaining chip.
Liu Bei only said, "Let's first hear what the light-screen has to say about Xiangyang and Fancheng."
As for that passing remark—'you still dare call yourself emperor after losing Xiangyang'—
Everyone tactfully ignored it.
After all… the Son of Heaven was still sitting in Xuchang.
What was there to say?
[To understand Xiangyang and Fancheng, we need to rewind a little.
A war of this scale never appears out of nowhere.
And the records concerning Jing–Xiang before the famous Xiangfan Campaign are… strange. Uncomfortably so.
In 210, Zhou Yu dies. Jiangling is "loaned" to Liu Bei.
Cao Cao assigns Yue Jin to garrison Xiangyang, placing him in charge of Jing Province defenses.
In 211, Liu Bei leads over twenty thousand troops west into Yi Province.
Then the record jumps straight to 214:
Cao Ren replaces Yue Jin, is promoted to General Who Subdues the South, and stations himself at Fancheng.]
"Yue Jin?" Liu Bei murmured. "A first-rate vanguard."
He remembered him clearly.
At Xiapi, during the siege of Lü Bu, Liu Bei had watched Yue Jin charge forward carrying the banner, the first man over the walls, fighting like death itself had forgotten him.
Cao Cao had bragged about that man more than once.
Guandu. The campaigns against the Yuans.
Yue Jin had been everywhere.
Zhang Fei snorted. "Big brother, no matter how fierce he was, he'd still have to keep his head down in front of us."
But from a commander's instinct, Zhang Fei had already sensed something wrong.
If Yue Jin had truly been holding Xiangyang securely—how did he get replaced after only four years?
That kind of post usually lasted a decade, if not more.
And worse—
His replacement, Cao Ren, wasn't even stationed at Xiangyang.
He fell back to Fancheng.
Just then, the light-screen continued.
[So what actually happened during those four years?
Surely Cao and Liu weren't holding hands and playing house the entire time.
Wei historians followed a familiar rule:
victories are recorded in detail; defeats are brushed aside with elegant silence.
But by piecing together scattered lines from the biographies of Yue Jin and Wen Ping, we can reconstruct the truth:
Yue Jin's performance was… not good.]
"Ha!"
Zhang Fei slapped his thigh.
"Victory gets ink, defeat gets poetry!"
"What unity, from top to bottom, in Cao Cao's camp!"
"One of the Five Elite Generals—this level?"
Jiang Wan glanced up, uneasy.
Sima Qian's blunt honesty had lasted barely three centuries. Now even historians had learned to dodge reality.
[After being replaced by Cao Ren, Yue Jin was reassigned to the Hefei front.
His authority token was issued later than Zhang Liao's, and in the Records of the Three Kingdoms, his name appears after Zhang Liao's.
From top commander of Xiangyang to second-in-command at Hefei—this alone speaks volumes.
Next:
In 210, Yue Jin holds Xiangyang.
In 214, Cao Ren holds Fancheng.
If one advances north from Jiangling, the cities line up as follows:
Jiangling → Jingyang (Maicheng) → Dangyang (Changban) → Linju → Xiangyang → Fancheng.
The Wei defensive line is clearly retreating.
At minimum, Xiangyang was no longer secure.
Which supports the rumor that Lord Guan gave Yue Jin a thorough beating.]
The three-dimensional map reappeared.
Even Mi Zhu, who knew nothing of warfare, could follow it.
The Han River flowed west to east through Xiangfan, then turned north–south, joining the Yangtze east of Jiangling.
Mountains to the west, river to the east—
Between Jiangling and Xiangfan lay a wide, flat corridor, dotted with cities like Linju.
[So let's reconstruct events after 210.
Once Liu Bei took control of Jiangling, his momentum was overwhelming. All his top generals were present.
The Biography of Yue Jin states:
"Again he attacked Liu Bei's officials Du Pu of Linju and Liang Da of Jingyang, defeating them both."
Which means:
Linju and Jingyang were first taken by Liu Bei, then retaken by Yue Jin.
But how?
There is no record of Cao Cao sending reinforcements.
There is a record of Liu Bei taking over twenty thousand troops into Yi Province in 211.
The conclusion is obvious:
Liu Bei initially pressed Yue Jin hard—then withdrew forces westward, weakening Jiangling and forcing a contraction of the front.]
"General Zhang saw right through it," Huang Zhong said admiringly. "Yue Jin really was failing."
"Heh," Zhang Fei sneered. "Not as cleanly as Wei historians wiped away our victories."
By the timeline, Zhang Fei himself had been at Jiangling.
Those erased achievements almost certainly included his own.
How could he not be angry?
Huang Yueying whispered, confused, "But… shouldn't our own historians have recorded this later?"
Everyone understood her meaning.
After all—once their lord became emperor, compiling national histories would be inevitable.
Zhuge Liang frowned. "The light-screen mentioned a Biography of Liu Feng preserved in Shu records… yet even there, this is missing?"
Something felt very wrong.
[That concludes Phase One.
Phase Two: Wen Ping arrives.
The Biography of Wen Ping records:
"He joined Yue Jin in attacking Guan Yu at Xunkou, achieving merit, and was enfeoffed Marquis of Yanshou Pavilion."
The Biography of Yue Jin says nothing at all about this battle.
For Wen Ping to be granted a marquisate, his contribution must have been decisive.
Yet Yue Jin's record is silent.
You know the saying.
Defeat gets the Spring and Autumn treatment.
After the defensive line shrank, Lord Guan attacked by water.
Yue Jin attempted to block him at Xunkou—and was crushed.
At the critical moment, Wen Ping arrived as relief, stabilizing the situation and earning his title.
But note carefully:
This was a relief action, not a counteroffensive.
Because the final record states:
"He again attacked Guan Yu's supply convoy at Han Ford, burning his ships at Jingcheng."
Han Ford and Jingcheng lie east of Dangyang, along the Han River.
Meaning—
The front line never moved.]
Huang Zhong narrowed his eyes. "So when the lord took the main army west, Yue Jin finally dared to raid Linju and Jingyang again."
"And when facing General Guan head-on," he continued slowly, "Yue Jin was likely defeated outright."
"Even with Wen Ping's support, they couldn't advance an inch."
He exhaled. "I am far inferior to Lord Guan."
Zhang Fei, however, had already seized the key detail.
"Naval forces?"