Chapter 312
Chapter 312 – The Gathering of Ten Warlords – Part Two
Fortunately for Tong, not all lords and retainers were blind .
Pu Jing whispered to Cao Cao"s ear, "That"s not Zhang Tong . The guy with long ears is Liu Bei that I told you about . "
Cao Cao slightly nodded, "Ah, that"s the future headache you have told me about . I knew it"s him from first glance . Then, the guy with a long beard is the future G.o.d of War after Lu Bu?"
"Indeed . He"s Guan Yu, soon to be the Loyal and Righteous G.o.d of War . "
"So, do you think we can tame that Guan Yu? From your story, he deserted my force the moment he heard Liu Bei joined Yuan Shao, right?"
"I don"t think his loyalty toward Liu Bei is that deep since they had just been brothers for a few years . Let"s try to kill Liu Bei in this war first, then we"ll try to poach Guan Yu . But my lord, be careful of Jiang Man . I believe he"s also an immortal like me . "
"Ah, I already knew about it actually . I"ll tell you later what my spies had told me after this meeting . It"s a very interesting development . "
Pu Jing raised his eyebrows for a moment, but he grinned in understanding and stepped back . Good leaders should have their own intelligence agency aside from using the agents of his subordinates . Cao Cao"s action was similar to what Pu Jing did in his previous life .
Seeing everybody taking their seat, Yuan Shao clapped his hands and changed the subject, pretending ignorant .
"Now that everybody is here . Let"s start our meeting . For someone that might not have known me, I am Yuan Shao . I shall be the leader of this coalition against Xiongnu . "
As soon as Yuan Shao finished his speech, a commotion broke out in front of the tent .
The guards stopped someone from entering the tent, and the retainers of the leading person were offended for it .
"Are you blind!? This gentleman here is Zhang Tong, and we"re his followers! Why are you stopping us from entering the ally tent after we have invited all the lords here!?"
Tong, Xun Yu, and Jia Xu glared at the guards as if they wanted to murder someone . They went through so many troubles to get this alliance together, so they could get them to fight the Xiongnu . Why did the sentry guards stop them from entering?
Tong, who had arrived here later because he was too busy compensating ally forces with his provision, arrived at the gathering late . He had also sent Hua s.h.i.+ to Wan City to deal with the provision supply and other compensation to the allies on the different battlefront, so he was short on hands .
As for Zhang Min, Tong and Hua s.h.i.+ did not bring her here . They had entrusted the little girl to Zhang Jiao in Julu .
"Sir, Lord Zhang Tong has already entered the tent . I need your identification token . "
"Huh!?"
Jia Xu and Xun Yu got infuriated to the point that they wanted to pull out their personal pistol and shoot the guard on the spot . Fortunately, Tong raised his hand to stop them .
"Are you saying that an imposter is impersonating me inside that tent?"
Tong locked his killing intent on the guards . His current mental strength and cultivation foundation right now had developed during the peaceful years, and it rivaled that of Lu Bu in his early years .
As he put the pressure on the men, he revealed the jade token, which represented the Zhang family symbol .
"Is that enough?"
Tong doubled the killing intent to punish the men . The pressure shuddered the guards, who were sweating profusely from the realization of their mistakes .
One of the guards had foams on his mouth before he pa.s.sed out . The two others wet their pants while the last one could hardly stand on his trembling legs from fear .
"A-Are you really Lord Zhang Tong? T-Then the group of people earlier …"
"A group earlier? I see . "
Their voices and the entire conversation could be heard from inside the tent .
None of them was stupid . All minor lords turned their attention toward Liu Bei, who brought in three retainers instead of two .
"So, he"s an imposter?"
"Wait, then who the h.e.l.l is this guy?"
"Someone wants to shame Zhang Tong?"
Guan Yu noticed the glare and felt that something was wrong . He leaned down and whispered to Liu Bei .
"Xuande, I think this seat is prepared for Zhang Tong . You"re sitting on his place . "
"Huh? I"m sitting on that moron"s seat!?"
The "moron" remarks did not escape the ears of all lords .
Lu Zhi and Gongsun Zan glared at Liu Bei in anger . Calling their fellow junior disciple a moron was not the right thing to do, consider that they were under the same mentor .
Cao Cao, Cheng Yu, and Pu Jing looked at the development with interest as they wanted to see how Liu Bei would get into trouble or how Tong would react to this fledgling King-to-be in the future .
Yuan Shao, Tian Feng, and Jiang Man grinned . Getting Tong to fall out with Liu Bei was a part of their plans .
Because Lu Zhi was still alive in this world, chances that Liu Bei would be forced to join Tong by Lu Zhi still existed . To get Liu Bei out of Tong"s influence, they had to make Liu Bei hate Tong more .
Causing misunderstanding and Shaming both of them at the same time was the trick!
Tong disregarded the guards and strode into the tent .
As soon as he entered the tent, he noticed the weird stares from all lords right away . Looking around a bit more, Tong understood the problem .
Tong recognized the red face man with a long beard, the long ear man whose arms were absurdly long, and a burly man with a messy beard . They were the three legendary brothers .
"So the other one is Jiang Man . Another threat … Wait a minute . I remember this guy! That son of a b.i.t.c.h almost killed me in the Battle of Ji!"
A sinister smile appeared on Tong"s face for a split second before it disappeared .
"Good . Now that you"re presenting your heads altogether . I can easily kill all of you . Still, using 50 seconds [Time Stop] to kill every lord here can be counterproductive . How am I going to explain to their subordinates that they"re all dead and all of them have to listen to my command? No, no . That"s a bad idea . I don"t want any no-name local to show up and ruin the historical flow that I set up for them . Having strong but predictable opponents that can develop their cities is better than having unpredictable suicidal idiots that do nothing to help the people . I still have a country to run after the unification!"
Tong swallowed his temptation of killing all rivals right now for his long term goal . He wore his façade mask and cupped his fist toward Liu Bei, who insisted on sitting .
"We can finally meet face to face, senior brother Liu . "
Liu Bei flinched . However, upon seeing the chance for the recovery, Liu Bei stood and returned the greeting, "Well met, junior brother . Ha-ha, I"m sorry that I mistakenly took your seat . Here you can have it back, we"ll be standing behind you . "
Jiang Man, Yuan Shao, and Tian Feng frowned as they thought, "They are not fighting?"
Tong laughed and waved his hands, "No, you can take the seat . Actually, it"s not your fault for sitting on any seat . Looking at the prepared reception, we can all see that we"re short by one table . I"ll just start the meeting as I"m standing . It"s better this way since I"ll be the one speaking the most . Well, it"s better than stealing a place to sit from someone else to satisfy my ego . I"m not low enough to pick a fight with sore losers or r.e.t.a.r.d dogs . When a stupid dog take a p.i.s.s at a tree to mark their territories, as a human, will you pee on the same tree to show it who the boss is, senior brother Liu?"
Yuan Shao and Tian Feng glared at Tong in anger .
Gongsun Zan, Lu Zhi, Cao Cao, and Cheng Yu withheld their laughter .
Tao Qian shook his head as sighed while he muttered to himself, "Karma exists . "
Kong Rong and all minor lords glanced back and forth between Yuan Shao and Tong in nervousness .
Liu Bei, who was gullible and ignorant in politics and sarcastic comments, did not understand the hidden meaning .
"Of course not . I"d rather beat the dog or chase it away . Why should I p.i.s.s at a tree?"
Jiang Man"s face twitched . Tong had indirectly called Liu Bei a stray dog as well, yet his idiot sworn brother did not even realize it .
Jia Xu and Xun Yu glanced at Liu Bei, pitied him .
"Foolish trash . "
"Is he really senior Lu"s disciple? How can he be this stupid?"
Yuan Shao slammed his fist on the table before him, "Lord Zhang Tong, this still doesn"t change the fact that you aren"t the boss of everybody here . If you consider the n.o.ble tier, you are at the lowest among us . I"ll lead the coalition and fight back the Xiongnu . You can go back to the supply base and give us the food like your mother belongs, in the kitchen!"
Tong raised his eyebrows in surprise, wondering what this egotistic n.o.ble was planning .
"Do you want to be the leader of the coalition, Lord Yuan?"
"I AM their leader! I"m the successor of an aristocrat family, and the Emperor bestowed me the t.i.tle of the Grand Chancellor . I have the highest tier of all n.o.bles here!"
Tong shrugged, "A t.i.tle from your son . Does that count as a legal t.i.tle?"
Several lords sweated as they sensed the smoke of the internal fighting before the war . All of them knew about how Yuan Shao enthroned his son as the new Emperor using He Jin as a sole supporter, plus n.o.body wanted to follow this bogus family .
Tong ignored Yuan Shao"s reaction and glanced at Cao Cao, whom Tong also recognized through the facial expression and manner .
"So he said, Lord Cao Cao? Didn"t your empress give you a similar promotion, too?"
The face of Cao Cao twitched this time . He also forced the false empress, Diaochan, to give him the Prime Minister t.i.tle, which equaled to the Grand Chancellor t.i.tle of Yuan Shao .
This meant the n.o.ble tier of Yuan Shao and Cao Cao were the same . As a result, Yuan Shao"s claim was invalid since Cao Cao was also a candidate for the leader of the coalition .
Furthermore, it revealed the dark sides of Yuan Shao and Cao Cao"s political moves, discrediting both lords at the same time .
At air in the tent grew more menacing as Tong provoked the powerhouse left and right .
These three people were considered the dominant forces of the country at the moment . Yet, instead of uniting their forces and fight the Xiongnu together, Tong was doing the opposite .
Tong"s supporters, Gongsun Zan and Kong Rong, were looking at this young immortal with concerns .
"What are you doing, Zhang Tong?"