Liu Zheng certainly had the right to express his anger.
After all, Liu Cheng's borrowing his name to feign surrender the moment he arrived had not merely been intended to lure Murong Chui into sending some troops across, then try to cut them off and devour them. A substantial part of it had surely been to guard against the possibility that this Three-Service Garrison Commander really might negotiate a surrender.
If the man was a loyal minister and filial son, this amounted to subjecting a loyal minister and filial son to unwarranted suspicion and testing. Of course he would be angry.
As for whether he might not be a loyal minister and filial son, that hypothetical possibility had to figure in the assessment of military risk, or none of this would have happened... but it was also destined never to be mentioned openly.
Besides, they had now successfully borrowed his name to feign surrender, and with a battle coming, they needed all the more to keep him on their side.
So let him be angry.
Especially since his subsequent report that Chen County had fallen to a surprise attack and Zhu Teng had died for his country, besides continuing to express his grievance through the dangers of war, also carried the further implication of accepting what had happened and offering cooperation.
Overall, he was a man with some political skill, befitting his three-service standing.
Then there was even less to say.
Oh, what did sixteen-year-old Zhu Chuo think when he heard his father was dead?
Sorry, but this was war.
Fifty thousand against twenty-four thousand was an idealized expression. In reality, Murong Chui had divided his forces, which meant the garrisons of Chen County, Qiao Commandery, Pengcheng, and even Suiyang all had to be counted. If both sides' accompanying civilian