Chapter 8: Twist of Fate

Zhu Ran was quite proud of himself. He had bribed a merchant to go into Zhao Yun's camp and give them large quantities of tasty food, for free. Having eaten to their hearts content, the Shu general and his soldiers were much too lazy to fight, or move, for that matter. The moment the merchant left the camp, the Wu commander raided Zilong's base. This immediately led to a Wu victory, and Zhu Ran continued his assault by moving into Shu territory and striking Baidicheng. Ma Chao, shocked that Zhao Yun was defeated, found himself caught off guard when Zhu Ran ordered an artiliery strike. Zhu Ran, using Zhou Yu's psychological strategy of scaring one's opponent into fleeing, succeeded in convincing Ma Chao to run for his life. The city fell, and the Wu General still was not pleased.

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Back in Shu, Pang Tong was sent to counter Sima Yi's strike, and though Sima Yi's troops outnumbered Pang Tong's, the Young Phoenix used the narrow mountain passes and Shu's terrain to his advantage. Forcing the Wei troops to pursue the Shu troops in bottlenecks (as they had to move in a straight line through the passes), Pang Tong used boulders to crush his opponents and archers to shoot down any Wei soldier who got to the pass's opening.

Shu succeeded in halting the Wei advance for the time being, so Zhuge Liang decided to be at the head of the army that would repel Zhu Ran from their territory.

Zhu Ran continued to take Shu cities as he charged towards Chengdu. With each victory, Zhu Ran started to think that he could easily take Zhou Yu's rank. After all, only a strategical genius could possibly do so well.

But he was quickly proven wrong.

Jiang Zhou is one of Shu's largest cities. Considering that most of east Shu is quite lacking in critical cities, it would be quite an important point to defend. Kongming had arrived there, and was waiting for Zhu Ran to make his move.

By now Zhou Yu, realizing that Zhu Ran might cause more problems than help, had himself go to occupied Shu territory. He had already arrived at Lin Jiang, and was heading for Jiang Zhou as fast as he could.

In the battle that followed, Wu Yi and Zhao Yun were sent against Ling Tong and Jiang Qin. As can be expected, Zhao Yun made short work out of Jiang Qin, knocking him off his mount and beating him with his spear. Ling Tong and Wu Yi were fighting to a draw, when Zhao Yun decided to intervene and smack Ling Tong with his spear. With both Wu subordinates defeated, Zhu Ran grabbed his spear, bow, and sword and headed into battle. He was defeated soon afterwards.

But before he could be captured, Sun Shangxiang appeared on the battlefield. Her escorts were ordered to protect Zhu Ran, while she alone would engage both Wu Yi and Zhao Yun. Wu Yi knew that Shangxiang was no pushover, so after fighting twelve bouts with her, he found that he was at his limit and retreated before he could be taken down. Zhao Yun, eager for a rematch, continued fighting with her, only to have her kick him in the groin and take him out.

But as Shangxiang rushed forward, she began to feel funny, and suddenly puked on the battlefield... Shangxiang's eyes widened: "It couldn't be... I'm pregnant?"

She was a warrior, a warrior in love, and it seemed that those two really could not match. She was pregnant with her husband's child, and, obviously, she did not want to take injuries or the baby's life would be jepordized. Kongming, realizing that she was acting funny, was able to deduce the truth. "Madame Zhou Yu." He shouted at her.

She turned, both tired from the battle, worried for her child's safety, and fearful of what he would say.

"If you insist on fighting now, I cannot predict what will happen to it, however, if you surrender, and agree to become my lord's concubine, I will personally make sure that it makes it safely to Zhou Yu's hands." Kongming yelled.

"Bastard, you can't...!" She snarled, but, as if on cue, Jiang Wei fired an arrow, hitting her in the shoulder. She screamed and went down... The last thing the retreating Zhu Ran saw was the Shu army surrounding and capturing the wife of the Supreme Commander...

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Author's note:

I'm starting to feel sad. I'm getting less and less hits for this fic. Does that mean my writing is getting worse? I kinda felt saddened by this fact, so it took me much longer to update than usual... I hope that people enjoy this fic, because my main goal is to entertain people with my stories. If a novelist fails to do so, then that novelist won't be quite successful, right? Ah, well, I hope that this starts to get on its feet again...

Please read and review.