Chapter 42 - Prince of Shu
Translator: Scar, Tchu
TL: this is due to past titles. Wang is usually used for prince not king, only since Ming Dynasty, Wang is king.
Liu Mang swore that he would never bring so many things to transmit at the same time ever again. 5000 warhorses, 5000 armors including spears and great shields were too much for the teleportation CD. Now the CD started ringing alarm. The cooling time for the machine was lengthened from one day to one month. Near the Teleportation CD, a limit bar was created. It told Liu Mang that if he exceeded the limit one more time, he would be regarded as disturbance towards the space and time continuum. It would mean that he would not be able to return ever again. It also refused the transmission of fire weapons. Once a fire weapon was detected by the machine, he would lose his life.
This time, being in coma was the penalty he had to pay.
Feeling blurry and dizzy, Liu Mang finally opened his eyes.
“You woke up!” There was a sweet and pleasant surprised sounding voice as he opened his eyes. That voice belonged to a person with beautiful eyebrows and a delicate face. This must be a goddess from heaven.
“What a goddess!”Liu Mang muttered to himself slowly, but suddenly he realized something. Something was not right, this girl was.. “My fierce wife?!” Liu Mang called out Miss Lu’s nickname.
“Fierce wife?!” Lu Lingqi instantly got angry. “What the hell did you just say?!”
“No, nothing!”Liu Mang was not a fool. While looking at Lu Lingqi’s exhausted face, he knew that he was cared by her. Hence, it was not appropriate to talk ill of her.
“Humph, tactful of you!” Lu Lingqi must have heard Liu Mang mentioning “Fierce wife”, but she was not bothered by it. Sooner or later she would marry him, therefore Lu Lingqi let Liu Mang off the hook this time.
“Am I really that fierce?” Miss Lu thought about it while walking to inform Lu Bu about Liu Mang’s awakening.
Liu Mang did not fully understand a girl’s thoughts, but one thing he knew. He could no longer continue to upset Miss Lu. After all, she had taken care of him for such a long time.
While Liu Mang was thinking about it, the tent curtain was opened by a large general in shining armor. It was general Lu Bu wearing gold cloth followed by several people behind him.
Lu Bu entered the tent but did not speak and looked Liu Mang straight in the eyes.
Was something wrong with me? Was there something on my body? Liu Mang looked at him and did not understand why he did not talk. When Liu Mang saw Chen Gong gestures, he finally understood that Lu Bu wanted Liu Mang to call him.
“General Lu? Boss Lu? Marquis of Wen?!” All these calls failed to impress Lu Bu.
Liu Mang finally bit the bullet and shouted “Father-in-law!”
Behind Lu Bu, a bunch of the scholars and generals wanted to burst out laughing, but suppressed it so hard that their face became red.
Ha, ha, just laugh at me. Liu Mang stopped caring.
”Hanyang, did you recovered?!” Lu Bu finally opened his mouth after hearing Liu Mang addressing him.
“Much better now!” Besides feeling a bit hungry, Liu Mang did not have other complaints.
“Why were you so frail?!” Lu Bu asked puzzled. On that day in Kaiyang, after that golden light appeared with 5000 warhorses and equipments, Liu Mang fainted on the ground. Were not for the soldiers who found Liu Mang in time, he would have been trampled to death by the warhorses.
“Why was I so frail?!” Liu Mang wanted to say that it was entirely his fault. However, he remembered that Boss Lu gave him all these gold bars which in the modern world were worth millions. So Liu Mang quietly explained. “The heaven has its own rules. If you want to descend you must pay the price. This time, I brought too many things that can cause turmoil in the world of mortals, therefore I was punished by heaven!” Liu Mang tried to explain the system as simple as possible to Lu Bu so that he could understand.
“Punished by heaven?!” Lu Bu seemed finally to understand something. “In the future let this general protects you!”
“Eh!” Protect me? I need your protection? If I didn’t fear for Boss Lu’s life, would I be like this? Return to the modern world would be much better for me. There was peace and development, in this era there was only war, hunger and death.
“Many thanks father-in-law!”Liu Mang could only helplessly thank him.
“Ah!” Lu Bu accepted with pleasure. “Come and look who this is!” Lu Bu said while opened up for a young man from behind.
So young? So familiar? That voice.
“Fuck, it is Chen Deng!”Liu Mang immediately got up and searched for something.
“What are you searching?!”Lu Bu asked seriously. Normally someone would not forget oneself just by seeing someone.
“I am looking for a sword!” answered Liu Mang without turning back his head. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Mang held only a personal grudge against one and a half person! Old Cao was accounted as the half, since Old Cao attacked him only because he was beside Lu Bu at that time and it could be said that was an unexpected misfortune.
And Chen Deng was the other person he hated.
Chen Deng wanted to take his life while traveling on the way to Langye. “It was only because I was wearing the Aries gold cloth. You even assembled your big army to take my life.” Liu Mang thought.
Liu Mang must kill this bastard.
“That’s enough!”Lu Bu shouted in anger. The shout immediately stopped Liu Mang from going mad.For Liu Mang, Lu Bu was like a strict father. He could control Liu Mang just with a few words.
“Haha!”Chen Deng gave off a wry smile. Lu Bu did not have any sons but only a daughter. Currently Liu Mang was Lu Bu’s future successor who was gonna lead Lu Bu’s army. But now this successor hated him to the guts.
“Deng, is paying his respects to the Prince!” Chen Deng bowed down to Liu Mang.
As the situation indicated, Chen Deng probably had already surrendered to Lu Bu and could now be considered as Boss Lu’s subordinate. Chen Deng’s father got killed by Cao Cao, therefore the Chen family and Old Cao were now sworn enemies. Right now there was no one except Yuan Shao of Hebei who could rival Old Cao under the heaven. Chen Deng cannot come up with any warlord who dared to offend Cao Cao.
Yi Province and Jing Province both were only interested in defending themselves and had no ambitions to broaden their territory. In Xiliang, Ma Teng, Han Sui and those other feudal warlords in Zhili Provinces acted like dead people. They would be sooner or later conquered by Cao Cao. As for Yuan Shao, he got power and money to rival Old Cao. However, if Chen Deng went there, he probably would not receive a good position as Yuan Shao had too many advisers. Yuan Shao himself did not even how many advisers he had right now.
The only remaining force was Lu Bu. Although the Lu Bu army’s force was small, as long as their fierce tiger Commander Lu Bu was alive, they could still make a comeback.
Cao Cao had stolen Xu Province from Lu Bu and according to Lu Bu’s personality how could he not fight back. Therefore Chen Deng came to Lu Bu without any hesitations.
“Ah, hello!” They were already brother-in-arms, that’s why Liu Mang could not go too far, right? Wait a moment. Why did they call me Prince? Liu Mang thought. Normally, people inside the Lu Bu army called him Sir or Lord, but never called him Prince. Usually someone who could be called Prince had to have such a titlel bestowed onto him.
“Cao Mengde had bestowed you the seal and title of Prince of Shu! The General of the southern expedition!” responded Lu Bu while seen Liu Mang’s confusion.
“Prince of Shu?! General of the southern expedition?”Liu Mang could not comprehend Old Cao’s thinking. Why would someone bestow the title of prince to his enemy?
Liu Mang was trying hard to understand Old Cao’s intention. Chen Gong saw the idiotic expression of helplessness on Liu Mang’s face and started laughing. “Hanyang, Cao Cao recognized you as the emperor’s younger brother and gave you the title of Prince of Shu. He was not intended to flatter you, but he wanted to kill you using borrowed knife.”
“Murders with a borrowed knife?!”Liu Mang was not a fool and he started to understand what Chen Gong just said. Liu Mang got scared and cold sweat started to roll down his back. “Prince of Shu?” This was royal title. Lu Bu’s title was only Marquis of Wen. The General of the southern expedition was supposed to govern both Yi and Jing Provinces. Such a title waS even above Lu Bu’s title General Who Pacifies East. This could have Liu Mang killed easily. Fortunately, his boss was Lu Bu. If it were someone else who was suspicious, they would think it as a threat to have a subordinate whose title was even higher than thos eof themselves. He would then certainly be killed or imprisoned.
“Rest at ease, I am not Cao Mengde!”Lu Bu looked at Liu Mang who was sweating bullets and gave a laugh. Everyone knew that Mengde was overly suspicious to everything. “
“Cao Cao’ scheme was a good one, but unfortunately he had to throw out a lot of money after his fallen soldiers right now!” Gong also laughed. It was not true that Lu Bu would not suspect anyone, but at least he treated his family well. Actually the reason why Lu Bu could be caught by Song Xian was that he had too much faith in them.
Now Liu Mang was Lu Bu’s son-in-law and everything that Lu Bu owned would be inherited by Liu Mang. There was no point in being suspicious.
Having a Prince title could be a big advantage for the Lu Bu army. A righteous cause must always be grasped in one’s hand.
“What is our next destination?!”Liu Mang asked Lu Bu and other people.
”Go to Shouchun!” Lu Bu replied “Conquer Runa and threaten Xu Chang!” According to the news Lu Bu obtained, Yuan Shao had already moved his troops to Guandu. Hebei probably had mostly been pacified and Cao Cao had also conquered Xu Province. It could be said that Cao Cao secured his rear. This two tigers would fight to the death soon, that was why Lu Bu was determined to occupy Runan and eventually control Yu Province.
”Occupy Runan?!”Liu Mang did not know the location of Runan, but he knew that historically there was someone stupid enough to threaten Cao Cao in Runan. At the end he was killed by Old Cao. What was that stupid person’s name? Liu Mang thought about it. Right, that stupid person was called Liu Pi.
“You all had the same thoughts?!” inquired Liu Mang looking at both advisers.
”Ah!”Chen Deng was eager to get his revenge and therefore conquering Runan to threaten Xu Du was exactly what he wanted.
Chen Gong just smiled and did not say anything.
“No matter what, we cannot go to Runan!” Liu Mang finally calmed down and gave his response.