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Muchen blinked, momentarily surprised. A part of him had expected to be dragged immediately to the walls, to be shown the blood and fire firsthand. Yet another part, one he hadn't realized was holding tension in his chest, loosened at the command.
"Yes, Imperial Father," he said, bowing his head.
Zhao Yun inclined his head as well. "Your Majesty is wise."
Ma Chao grinned faintly. "A rare mercy before the storm."
Lie Fan's lips twitched. "Do not mistake it for mercy. I simply prefer my storm to strike clean."
As they moved toward the tent's exit, Sima Yi lingered, hands clasped behind his back, gaze thoughtful. "Still," he said lightly, "if Your Majesty had wished to be truly cruel… you might have concealed your arrival a while longer."
Lie Fan stopped and turned, eyebrow arching.
Sima Yi allowed himself a rare chuckle. "Let the elements of surprise inform Cao Cao, rather than banners and horns. He would have discovered your presence only when the ground began to shift beneath his feet. A quiet arrival, a sudden, unexpected escalation… it often yields greater tactical fruit."
Lie Fan's smirk widened into a full, knowing grin. It was the grin of a man staring down a decades-long chess match, savoring a move made for the soul as much as for the board. "Oh, I know, Zhongda. It is the more advantageous strategy. The cold, correct move. But such move will deny him the courtesy of knowing I have come to face him myself?"
He scoffed softly, a smirk curling across his face. "Where is the fun in that, Zhongda?"
The others, still within earshot, paused. Pang Tong snorted outright. Xu Shu smiled into his sleeve. Even Huang Zhong let out a gruff "Heh!" Zhang Liao nodded, a ghost of a smile on his lips. Taishi Ci crossed his arms, his expression one of relish.
Lie Fan continued, voice carrying now. "No. Today, let him know. Let him feel the weight of my gaze upon his walls. Let him lie awake tonight wondering, not if I will strike, but how. Let the taunt sink in. Perhaps, in his frustration or his own competitive pride, he will make a mistake. And if not…"
Lie Fan shrugged, the gesture expansive and confident. "At least we will have started our final contest with proper ceremony. No skulking in the shadows. Man to man, army to army, mind to mind."
That earned a ripple of laughter, quiet, knowing laughter, forged from years of following this man into impossible wars.
They all understood it.
The rivalry between Lie Fan and Cao Cao was not one of blind hatred. It was deeper, older, more dangerous. Two men who recognized themselves in each other. Two minds that refused to kneel to mediocrity. Each campaign, each maneuver, each narrow escape had sharpened that rivalry into something almost sacred.
A contest not merely for land, but a burning desire to answer future history's question, who was the greatest man of this age of chaos?
And by every visible measure, Lie Fan was winning.
If Hongnong fell, it would not simply be another city claimed. It would be the keystone removed from the arch holding Cao Cao's resistance together. The road to unification would lie open, bloodied but unmistakable.
"As you will, Your Majesty," Sima Yi conceded, his chuckle fading into his usual composed mask, though a spark of anticipation remained in his eyes. The psychological warfare had begun, initiated by their Emperor with a flourish.
As the group dispersed into the camp, Lie Fan rested a hand briefly on Muchen's shoulder.
"Rest tonight," he said quietly. "Tomorrow, you will see why men fear banners more than swords."
Muchen nodded, heart pounding with a mixture of awe and anticipation. "I won't disappoint you."
Lie Fan smiled, not as Emperor, but as a father. "I know."
The Hengyuan camp settled into a controlled stillness as dusk deepened. Torches were lit in disciplined rows, their flames steady despite the wind. Patrols doubled. Supply wagons were checked and rechecked. Armor was oiled, bowstrings loosened, then retightened. It was the calm breath drawn before a decisive plunge.
And above it all, unmistakable even from miles away, the banners flew.
The Lie Clan emblem, bold, unmistakable, alongside the sigil of the Hengyuan Dynasty.
Crimson and black against the darkening sky.
Within Hongnong's walls, the effect was immediate.
Messengers ran through stone corridors and across courtyards slick with the residue of past fires. Boots echoed sharply as officers were summoned, their faces grim with the urgency of the news.
At the heart of the city, in a fortified command hall lit by oil lamps and lined with maps scarred by weeks of war, Cao Cao received the report.
Xun Yu stood first, hands folded neatly within his sleeves. "It is confirmed," he said calmly. "Lie Fan has arrived at the frontline. His personal banner flies openly alongside that of the Hengyuan Dynasty."
Guo Jia leaned against a pillar nearby, pale but alert, eyes glittering with interest. "No attempt at concealment," he added. "He wants us to know."
Xi Zhicai exhaled slowly. "A provocation."
Jia Kui frowned. "Or a declaration."
Cheng Yu's lips thinned. "He is confident."
Tian Feng crossed his arms. "Dangerously so."
Xu You scoffed. "Or deservedly."
For a heartbeat, there was silence.
Then Cao Cao laughed.
It was not a small laugh. It was a low, deep chuckle escaped his lips. It grew, swelling in his chest, rising into a full, resonant laugh that filled the stone hall. It was not a laugh of madness or despair, but of pure, unadulterated recognition.
It was the laugh of a player who sees his most worthy opponent finally take the seat across the board for the final game.
The sound was so unexpected, so rich with a lifetime of conflict and respect, that it startled his council. Xun Yu's eyebrows rose slightly. Guo Jia managed a thin, fever bright smile. Xu You looked vaguely alarmed.
Cao Cao stood, the laughter subsiding into a powerful, settled energy. He placed his hands on the table, leaning forward, his eyes sweeping over his advisors. "So," he said, the word laden with a world of meaning. "He has come. He could not resist. He flies his banners not for intimidation, but for invitation. He announces, 'Cao Mengde, I am here. Let us finish this.'"
The advisors exchanged glances, some surprised, some wary, some grimly amused. Cao Cao straightened fully, laughter fading into a grin sharp as a drawn blade.
"The man finally decides to leaves his throne to meet me in the dust," he continued. "Good! Very good!"
The room was silent, charged with the raw force of Cao Cao's will. He wasn't despairing, he was invigorated. The arrival of his greatest rival had transformed the grim endurance of a siege into the climactic battle of his life.
Guo Jia chuckled weakly. "It seems His Majesty of Hengyuan is not fond of patience."
"No," Cao Cao replied. "Nor am I."
He paced slowly around the table, fingers trailing across the carved representation of Hongnong's walls. "This city has held because it must. Because we made it so. But make no mistake, this siege was never meant to last forever."
Xun Yu studied him closely. "You believe this will be the deciding engagement, Your Majesty?"
Cao Cao stopped, turning to face them all. His expression was alight, not with arrogance, but with anticipation.
"Yes," he said simply. "The final measure. The end of this long argument between us."
Xi Zhicai's brow furrowed. "Lie Fan is not reckless. His open arrival may be meant to draw us into error."
"Of course it is," Cao Cao replied. "And that is precisely why I welcome it."
He laughed again, quieter now, almost fond. "He taunts me because he knows I will answer. Because he knows I cannot resist seeing how he intends to break this stone."
Guo Jia's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "Then perhaps… we should not answer as he expects."
Cao Cao shook his head. "No. We will answer exactly as ourselves."
He leaned over the table, gaze intense. "Tell the men. Tell them the Emperor of Hengyuan has come in person. Let them know who stands outside our walls. Fear sharpens resolve as much as hope does."
Xu You smiled thinly. "And if the city falls?"
Cao Cao straightened, his presence filling the room. "Then it will fall beneath my feet or his. Either way, history will remember this day. The time has come. The ultimate contest. Let us see, once and for all, who destiny has chosen to unify this broken land."
He looked toward the unseen horizon, toward the banners snapping in the wind beyond stone and fire.
"Lie Fan," he murmured, voice carrying a note of genuine respect. "You never disappoint."
Night settled fully over both camps, a thin line of torches and stars separating two wills too vast to ignore each other any longer.
Back in the Hengyuan camp, Muchen stood outside his assigned tent, which was nestled in the secure heart of the compound, surrounded by the tents of Zhao Yun and Ma Chao's selected elite soldiers. The sound he hear in the noon that was distant, never ending sounds, the thud of the trebuchet shots, the occasional shouted order, the mournful wail of a distant horn from the city walls, have stopped tonight.
His father's words echoed in his mind. Reality is always worse than imagination. He looked at the dark silhouette of Hongnong, its walls seeming to grow larger in the twilight, a monstrous, sleeping beast.
Tomorrow, he would see it up close. Tomorrow, the final lesson would begin. And hundreds of yards away, behind those formidable walls, another emperor, his father's mirror and opposite, was also preparing, his laughter still echoing in the stone halls, ready to make his own last, defiant stand.
Muchen the goes to hener this camp, and lay on his camp cot in the secure heart of the compound, the silence was more unsettling than the distant thunder of the siege had been
Sleep came in fits and starts, haunted by vague visions of towering walls and silent, watching banners.
When dawn finally broke, it did so with a cold, clear light that felt merciless in its clarity. There was no morning fog to soften the view, no gentle sunrise. The sun revealed the two camps in stark, brutal detail, the sprawling, ordered chaos of the Hengyuan siegeworks, and the dark, defiant bulk of Hongnong's walls, scarred and stained but unbroken.
There was no immediate attack. The eerie quiet persisted, but it was now a quiet of intense activity. Instead of the roar of assault, the camp buzzed with a different energy, the sound of thousands of men preparing, of armor being fastened with extra care, of final orders being given in hushed, urgent tones.
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Name: Lie Fan
Title: Founding Emperor Of Hengyuan Dynasty
Age: 35 (202 AD)
Level: 16
Next Level: 462,000
Renown: 2325
Cultivation: Yin Yang Separation (level 9)
SP: 1,121,700
ATTRIBUTE POINTS
STR: 966 (+20)
VIT: 623 (+20)
AGI: 623 (+10)
INT: 667
CHR: 98
WIS: 549
WILL: 432
ATR Points: 0