My name is Liu Xie, and I'm going to starve to death

Can I make it to the other shore?

Author: Loves Spicy Pig's Trotters

Synopsis:

There was never any shortage of impostors in this world.

Some posed as wealthy merchants, some as gifted scholars, and some as beggars.

Yet few ever posed as the emperor.

Xuchang had an Emperor Xian of Han whom Cao Cao had brought back, while Ji Province had a Liu Xie who looked exactly like Emperor Xian of Han.

Yuan Shao proclaimed to the world that the emperor in his Ji Province was genuine, and the emperor in Xuchang was an impostor Cao Cao had found.

At first, Liu Xie agreed to impersonate the emperor who shared his name and appearance only to scrape together something to eat in this chaotic age.

Later, after gradually hollowing out Yuan Shao's home base, he felt that he should not have transmigrated into this world merely for a mouthful of food.

On the eve of the Battle of Guandu, Liu Xie sat upright on the imperial throne in Ji Province, looking down at Yuan Shao, who was bound with hemp rope.

"All my life, I have walked as though treading on thin ice. Benchu, do you think I can make it to the other shore?"

Yuan Shao: "You treacherous scoundrel! You've taken the magpie's nest like a cuckoo and stolen everything I built. You'll die a violent death!"

Liu Xie: "Benchu, you won't even call me Your Majesty."

Yuan Shao: "I should never have listened to Ju Shou and let you impersonate the emperor. Now you've stolen everything I built."

Liu Xie's expression turned cold and stern, and he waved a hand to give the order.

"Pass on my decree. The army marches! In this battle, we will destroy that villain Cao and capture the false emperor!"

Author's custom tag: Transmigration

Chapter 1: My name is Liu Xie, and I'm going to starve to death

Autumn, the tenth month of the first year of Jian'an.

Outside Ye City, Ji Province.

A young man in ragged clothes, his face sallow and his body gaunt, stood barefoot in the river with a sharpened bamboo pole in his hands. He stared fixedly at a plump crucian carp in the water, his eyes practically shining.

He carefully adjusted his stance and aimed the bamboo pole's sharpened tip at the carp, preparing to kill it with a single strike.

Just then, however, a stone suddenly came flying over.

Splash!

As the stone hit the water, the startled carp darted away, vanishing in a flash.

"My fish! My fish!"

Seeing the prey that had been practically in his grasp escape, the young man nearly stamped his feet in panic. He hurriedly reached out to grab it, only to lose his balance and fall straight into the water.

By the time he finally struggled ashore, he looked up to see several children, five or six years old, clutching their stomachs with laughter.

They had obviously thrown the stone.

"Run!"

Feeling the young man's murderous glare, the little brats immediately scattered and ran off in different directions.

They left only the young man on the bank, looking like a drenched chicken.

"Damn little brats!"

Watching them flee, the young man gritted his teeth in fury, but there was nothing he could do. With a long sigh, he flopped onto his back in the grass.

It was not that he did not want to chase them. He simply had no strength left.

By now, he had gone five whole days without a meal.

The dinner he had hoped to eat had gone down the drain too, thanks to those brats' interference.

"Am I, Liu Xie, really going to starve to death in this Three Kingdoms era?"

"Heavens, you've really fucking screwed me over!"

Feeling the waves of hunger rolling through his stomach, Liu Xie wanted to cry, but had no tears left.

Yes, his name was Liu Xie.

But he had absolutely nothing to do with the historical Emperor Xian of Han.

He had originally been a top history student at a Project 985 university. After waking from a night's sleep, he found himself transported into the chaotic Three Kingdoms era.

At first, he had been thrilled. He loved history, especially the history of the Three Kingdoms. To experience this age firsthand and cross paths with those brilliant stars among China's scholars and generals was his ultimate dream!

Besides, as someone who had transmigrated, he had the knowledge of a modern twenty-first-century man and an understanding of how history would unfold. Surely making a name for himself would be ridiculously easy.

He could even recruit all sorts of talented people, build his own faction, and establish a mighty dominion, just like in webnovels.

But he soon realized he was wrong.

Utterly, disastrously wrong.

Although he had transmigrated, he had received neither some outrageously powerful, heaven-defying cheat nor an overpowered system, let alone an impressive background.

He was merely a refugee, as commonplace as any other in this age of turmoil.

Grand ambitions, changing history, royal power and conquest-it was all fucking bullshit!

He could not even get a single full meal!

To turn his fortunes around and demonstrate his learning and talent, he would at least have to meet those famous historical figures, wouldn't he?

But in an ancient society that placed such importance on birth, a refugee like him was not even entitled to approach those important men, much less show off his learning and talent.

Most crucially of all, the ancient world had no subways, cars, or planes. In these war-torn times, if he dared wander around, only two outcomes awaited him.

Either he would be dragged into an army as a conscript and used as cannon fodder;

Or he would die beneath the blades of roaming bandits or marauding soldiers.

So, despite having been here for five whole days, he had not dared leave the vicinity of Ye City. At least this area was safe.

Of course, he could not enter the city either.

Because he was a refugee.

"I'm afraid I really will become the first transmigrator in history to starve to death."

Liu Xie stared blankly at the sky and muttered to himself.

The sky was gray and overcast, as bleak as his life.

But... how could he resign himself to dying such a wretched death?

"Whew..."

Liu Xie took a deep breath and forced himself upright. Picking up the bamboo spear beside him, he walked toward the stream on unsteady legs, determination returning to his eyes.

He had never been someone who gave up easily. Even if there was only a thread of hope for survival, he would fight to seize it!

Liu Xie stepped back into the river and thrust his bamboo spear desperately at the fish.

Meanwhile, a short distance downstream.

A middle-aged scholar dressed in blue sat fishing on a gray stone by the bank.

His mind, however, was not on fishing.

It was on the secret report in his hand.

"Luoyang has fallen after all."

After carefully reading the report, the middle-aged scholar sighed, crumpled it into a ball, and tossed it into the river.

It was a secret report that had only arrived that morning.

Cao Mengde had taken Luoyang and escorted the emperor to Xuchang to relocate the capital.

During the journey, Han Xian had tried to seize the opportunity to recapture the emperor's carriage, but Cao Cao had defeated him, and he had now fled east.

The middle-aged scholar did not care in the slightest where Han Xian went. He was merely a fool; whether he lived or died would have no bearing on the broader situation.

The one he truly cared about was the emperor.

"Cao Mengde has taken Luoyang, and the emperor has fallen into his hands. From this day forward, no one will be able to restrain him on the grounds of rightful authority."

"If he uses the emperor's name to command the feudal lords, what position will that leave them in?"

"My lord, you truly made a foolish decision this time."

The middle-aged scholar's face was filled with regret and helplessness.

His name was Ju Shou, and he served as an adviser to Yuan Shao, the current lord of Ji Province.

Even before Cao Cao took Luoyang, he had urged Yuan Shao to bring the emperor to Ji Province. Ji Province was very close to Luoyang; had Yuan Shao been willing to act, Cao Cao would never have had the chance to take the emperor away.

But Yuan Shao had listened to the general Chunyu Qiong instead. Believing that bringing the emperor to Ji Province would undermine his own power, he had kept his troops where they were.

That had given Cao Cao an opening.

Luoyang had soon fallen, and the emperor had fallen into Cao Cao's hands and been escorted to Xuchang.

He could already foresee how things would unfold.

Like Dong Zhuo before him, Cao Cao would hold the emperor hostage to command the feudal lords.

"So be it, so be it. Such are the times, and such is fate."

Ju Shou shook his head. He had seen it coming, but his lord had refused to take his advice, and there was nothing he could do. He could only say that everything was predestined.

Putting away his fishing rod, Ju Shou picked up his fish basket and prepared to leave.

Just then, however, he heard splashing nearby.

Ju Shou looked up. Not far away, a ragged young man was desperately spearing fish in the water.

But the young man's technique was truly clumsy. After all that effort, not only had he failed to spear a single fish, he had fallen into the water several times himself.