New Three Kingdoms Tales: Starting as the expressionless Liu Bei

Seeing that Sun Jian stubbornly refused to admit it, Cao Cao actually held him in higher regard. In his eyes, denying everything was a superior form of political maneuvering.

If Sun Jian had readily agreed, he would have looked down on this fierce tiger of Jiangdong.

Cao Cao stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the devastated city of Luoyang outside the pavilion, ravaged by fire, and sighed deeply.

"Brother Wentai, please forgive my bluntness. In my opinion, this thing is not a blessing, but a curse. Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao both have the ambition of becoming kings and are both greedy for this thing. You have only obtained a stone, but you may make enemies of the whole world because of it."

Sun Jian was slightly taken aback, then said, "What Mengde said is quite similar to what my son Sun Quan said."

Cao Cao turned his head, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes: "Oh? Sun Quan?"

Sun Jian reached out and pulled Sun Quan behind him to his side, gently nudging his back and saying softly, "Quan'er, quickly call for help."

Sun Quan raised his head and looked Cao Cao up and down with a generous air, then clasped his hands together and said in a clear voice, "Greetings, Uncle Cao."

As soon as he said it, Sun Jian was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and corrected him, "Quan'er, you should call him Uncle Cao."

Sun Quan, however, remained calm and composed. He blinked his clear eyes and said in a serious tone, "Oh? Uncle Cao, seeing how handsome and young you are, I thought you were some eighteen-year-old general. I misjudged you and called you by the wrong title, please forgive me, Uncle Cao."

Sun Jian was a little embarrassed by these words and could only smile awkwardly. He quickly changed the subject: "Quan'er also said that Qin Shi Huang wanted to use this Imperial Seal to pass down the country for thousands of generations, but who would have thought that the tyrannical Qin Dynasty would perish after only two generations."

Upon hearing this, Cao Cao chuckled, took two steps forward, reached out and pinched Sun Quan's tender face, then casually stroked his chin, the gesture as if he were teasing a well-behaved cat.

"Well said, truly well said. It makes me feel so good, so insightful." He withdrew his hand, turned to look at Sun Jian, and his tone carried a hint of genuine envy. "That's how you should raise a son."

The atmosphere, which had been so tense it was almost frozen, was quietly dissolved by Sun Quan's words.

The soldiers on and below the pavilion all breathed a sigh of relief, their hands slowly loosening their grip on their sword hilts. They looked at each other and smiled, finally able to relax.

Sun Jian nodded slightly, withdrew his gaze, looked down at Sun Quan, then looked up at Sun Ce beside him, patted them both on the shoulder, and said loudly, "Quan'er, Ce'er, let's go. Let's return to Jiangdong!"

The army slowly followed the three men. They had only gone about thirty paces when Cao Cao's voice suddenly echoed from the pavilion: "General Sun, remember, you must throw that thing away as soon as possible. Otherwise, you will die a horrible death!"

Sun Jian abruptly stopped. He stood in the dust of the official road, his brows furrowing slightly. For a moment, he seemed to want to turn back and say something, but in the end, he said nothing.

He simply raised his hand to signal the group to continue forward, and strode ahead towards the sun, which was already halfway up in the sky.

Cao Cao stood with his hands behind his back in the pavilion, watching the departing figures of Sun Jian and his son. After a long while, he sighed softly, "The Sun family of Jiangdong is full of heroes. They are admirable, lamentable, and even more worrying."

Cao Ren, the "spirit medium" behind him, had been holding back a bellyful of questions. Seeing Sun Jian walk away, he immediately stepped forward and poured out all the questions that had been weighing on his mind.

Cao Cao answered them one by one, and the two figures gradually walked away, disappearing at the end of the path outside the pavilion.

The scene shifts to Xiangyang City, Jingzhou, a thousand miles away.

The candlelight flickered in the governor's mansion, and Liu Biao sat upright at his desk, clutching a secret letter in his hand.

His gaze swept over the letter repeatedly, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper. After a long while, he finally raised his head and said to Cai Mao and Zhang Yun beside him:

"Yuan Shao sent me a secret letter, asking me to ambush and kill Sun Jian at Sanjin Ferry and seize the Imperial Seal. If I succeeded, he promised me three cities in Ji Province, plus five thousand taels of gold and three thousand warhorses."

He handed the letter to the two men, then leaned back in his chair, muttering to himself, "Why does Yuan Shao insist that I intercept and kill Sun Wentai? Doesn't this betray the benevolence and righteousness of Jingzhou Prefecture? Isn't this putting me, Liu Jingsheng, in a difficult position?"

Cai Mao carefully read the letter from beginning to end before raising his head, clasping his hands in a fist salute, a glint of shrewdness in his eyes:

"My lord, Yuan Shao's power far surpasses Sun Jian's. Since he desires the Imperial Seal, it indicates he harbors ambitions to become a ruler. If you could lend him a hand..."

He paused deliberately, leaned forward slightly, and lowered his voice, "Then Jingzhou will be safe. In the future, we can also use Yuan Shao's power to expand into Qingzhou and Jizhou. This is killing two birds with one stone, and our lord's future is limitless."

Zhang Yun followed suit, clasping his hands in a fist salute. His tone was even more impassioned than Cai Mao's, and his voice was several degrees deeper.

"Furthermore, Sun Jian has always looked down on our lord! His warships from Jiangdong frequently invade our Jingzhou borders, and we haven't settled that score with him yet!"

He took a deep breath and slammed his fist into his palm. "This humble general agrees to form an alliance with Yuan Shao to jointly attack Sun Jian! We can use Yuan Shao's blade to eliminate this major threat to Jingzhou!"

Liu Biao frowned slightly, leaned back in his chair, and sighed leisurely: "How could I not know all this? I'm just worried about Sun Jian's terrifying fighting prowess. Sun Wentai is incredibly brave; honestly, are the two of you his match?"

Cai Mao and Zhang Yun exchanged a glance and lowered their heads simultaneously, their previous impassioned spirit immediately diminishing.

Seeing the two of them like this, Liu Biao said nothing more, but simply took the letter back and placed it on the table, tapping the tabletop with his fingers.

Cai Mao stood to the side, his eyes suddenly darting around, a sinister smile appearing on his lips.

He took a half step forward and lowered his voice, saying, "My lord, although Sun Jian is brave, he is reckless. I have a plan. If you are willing to follow it, we can definitely capture Sun Wentai along with the imperial seal."

Liu Biao's cloudy eyes suddenly lit up. He slowly stood up, placed his hands on the table, leaned forward, and stared at Cai Mao with surprise: "Oh? Tell me quickly."