Chapter 2370 - 2094: The Human Heart_2

The open-air banquet stretched from the eastern part of the city directly to the west, with wine and meat on the tables, having accumulated enough capital over the years to lay it all out.

Some young men from aristocratic families looked at the open-air banquet, compared it to the scale of their own banquets, and felt that it was a hundred times more extravagant, with forty thousand or even more servings being indeed too over the top.

But of course, where would there be an aristocratic family hosting a banquet inviting forty thousand people? Probably not even many have attended a banquet of four thousand, only someone like Chen Xi, who treats feeding a large army as a public duty, could pull off such a grand scene.

Seeing the soldiers from humble backgrounds, with wine and meat exactly the same as theirs on the table, the aristocratic families, while puzzled, also revealed deep envy. Such rapid progress akin to taking off, wasn’t it because they followed the right person? Indeed, choices are crucial.

"Certainly, Brother Xuande governs a prosperous land," Liu Zhang said, looking at the banquet stretching far away, extending kilometers beyond, with an expression of respect.

"This is all thanks to the contributions of the people under my rule," Liu Bei said with a smile, introducing the civil and military officials under his governance to Liu Zhang and others, compared to in Chang’an when people were not complete, this time Liu Bei’s hometown had a full attendance.

Liu Bei introduced his civil and military ministers under him, such as Sunx Qian, Mi Zhu, Liu Yan, to Liu Zhang, Shixie, Yuan Shu, Sunx Ce, covering characters who were difficult to meet, this time seeing was complete.

Of course, as in Chen Xi’s silent contemplation, Liu Bei’s more deliberate act was to showcase how many capable characters he had under his command.

"Truly heroes are abundant," Liu Zhang exclaimed with genuine admiration, repeatedly praising Liu Bei’s level of grandeur, sincerely impressed by Liu Bei’s opulence, only hoping to get three to five thousand armors from Liu Bei for his own Yizhou’s elite forces.

"Grand Commandant Liu, may I ask you a question?" Zhou Yu said after a while.

Clearly, this meal didn’t quite sit well with him; Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and others could enjoy eating meat and drinking wine heartily, while Zhou Yu couldn’t taste anything flavorful even with exquisite food on a jade plate. He truly felt the vast difference; Liu Bei’s power, if turned on them, would be like using a sledgehammer to kill a fly!

Unlike Xiahou Brothers, Zhang Xiu, and those military generals, whose thoughts are simple; even if they don’t win, fighting with all might when time demands is all that’s needed, losing just means following their lord into defeat.

Their thoughts are simple, at crucial moments, Cao Cao’s choices are theirs, whereas Zhou Yu now needs to consider many things, as a civil official, he’s always responsible for an entire faction, particularly when a person like Sunx Ce is the head of the faction.

If a strategist makes a wrong choice, it could lead the entire faction down an irrevocable path, thus Zhou Yu clearly knows how significant his judgment would be.

In Zhou Yu’s view, Liu Bei possesses formidable strength: three Military Spirit Legions, around fifty thousand Dual Talent Super Elite troops, and forty thousand or so One Talent Elite Legion. Such strength for Eastern Wu is nearly indistinguishable from natural disasters.

Although Zhou Yu has confidence that his Navy is undeniably unmatched under Heaven, if Chen Xi decided to put aside dignity and charge aggressively, disregarding casualties, they could forcibly land in Eastern Wu even on small dinghies, facing forty thousand elite’s ferocious attacks.

For Chen Xi, these considerations are about death rate and losses, if resolved to the utmost, Zhou Yu now basically sees no hope for winning. This is forty thousand elite armored soldiers, not forty thousand weaponless civilians in mere cloth.

Even though Zhou Yu does have some trump cards, he knows well that Chen Xi has cards too, and quite a few at that.

Before Zhou Yu, Chen Xi’s conversation was never too strict, thus during the North Frontier’s pacification, Zhou Yu picked up quite a bit about Liu Bei’s strength.

Although Zhou Yu initially suspected Chen Xi was fooling him, but combining what Zhou Yu sees now, he knows that Chen Xi wasn’t trying to scare him, reality exceeded his imagination.

People tend to fix reality within an understandable range and negate other possibilities with this understanding, yet ultimately, some realities go beyond the outline.

After the North Frontier’s pacification, Tian Yu disappeared entirely, along with three thousand elite troops from Gongsun Zan’s era guarding the North Frontier, Li Tong and Liang Xi leaving their position from under Zhang Fei.

Disappearing after the Yuan Liu battle, Sunx Guan only emerging before the military parade, Black Mountain Yellow Turbans seen briefly during the Yuan Liu battle, Qingzhou Yellow Turbans disbanded in the second wave by Yu Jin.

All such as these, in the North Frontier, Chen Xi had once humorously mentioned to Zhou Yu, no matter the time, they must always have eighteen percent reserve troops, stockpile of wartime grain, and various strategic resource reserves.

At the time, Zhou Yu playfully asked Chen Xi why the number eighteen percent.

Chen Xi solemnly answered Zhou Yu because this ratio is enough for emergencies in the first danger scenario.

Because of this remark, Zhou Yu remembered it very well, given Zhou Yu’s understanding of Chen Xi, even if Chen Xi claimed to be going all out, he’d likely have some room to spare.

Therefore, in this military parade, even Liu Bei considers it as going all-out, according to Zhou Yu’s impression of Chen Xi, it’s assured that Chen Xi still has plenty of room.

Cherishing the habit of not going all out, the problem is that even Chen Xi’s displayed power isn’t something Zhou Yu can counter by flipping his own cards, the gap between both sides is too big.

Even if Zhou Yu could gather forty thousand troops, what about weapons, armor, logistics, how could civilians confront well-trained elites? Let’s not joke around, stop daydreaming!

Shixie was actually quite delighted at this time, Sunx Ce, who often bullied their Jiaozhou, seemingly was very passive now, Liu Bei was pulling this off to the utmost, utterly powerful beyond measure, being strong while still kind to him, it was simply too good.

Tens of thousands of mighty armored soldiers, Shixie can already foresee Liu Bei’s inevitable unification of the Central Plains, as a timid veteran intimidated by Sunx Ce for a long time, Shixie claims no pressure in finding a big leg to hug!

Therefore, upon seeing how powerful Liu Bei was, Shixie was not frightened, but felt a heartfelt impulse, this was a prime golden leg!

As for Liu Zhang, for him, whether Liu Bei, Liu Xie, Liu Bian taking the throne doesn’t mean much. In Eastern Han’s inadequate patriarchal inheritance system, among the Imperial Clan, it’s basically always rotating, this year it’s my family’s turn.

Since it makes little difference who climbs the throne, Liu Zhang believes Liu Bei, who’s competent with a good personality, ascending might better fit his interests.

Regarding taking the throne himself, Liu Zhang isn’t stupid, if Liu Bei is interested in that position, then he better step aside, forty thousand elite armored soldiers, that could truly be life-threatening!

Hence, Liu Zhang believes, if Liu Bei likes the throne or has other ambitions, it doesn’t matter. Now there are only five fingers left in the Imperial Clan, as long as Liu Zhang doesn’t act foolishly, whether Liu Bei ascends or not, he is his support.

Why bother to foolishly push his ally behind others?

This way, only Zhou Yu is left burned.