Battle Royale of the Sinners

May 17th, 185 A.D.

Liu Bei and his brother returned to Ji City, only to find a surprise change.

The city had been rejuvenated, and the soldiers had been re-outfitted. They armed with Tong's repeating crossbows and equipped with Julu's second handed iron armors.

From the first glance, they thought that this city had fallen to Tong, but the banners of Gongsun were still on top of the walls.

"What happened after we left the city!?"

Liu Bei was astonished by the change. This city used to be on the poverty side as merchants avoided this city and picked Nanpi as their primary trade hub.

At present, many merchant caravans came and went. Stalls and new shops opened around the main streets.

Everything in the city buzzed, and people were walking around, shopping or working.

While Liu Bei's mouth was agape, Guan Yu reminded him, "Xuande, your mother's condition?"

Liu Bei snapped back to his sense, "Right! I forgot!"

Liu Bei and everyone rushed to old Liu Bei's home.

.

On the location of Liu Bei's home, there was nothing but empty land. The shack where his mother and Liu Bei lived in was nowhere to be seen.

Liu Bei stood there, silence.

Jiang Man, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei stood behind their elder brother in solemn, waiting for Liu Bei to regain his calm.

They stood there for an entire hour, yet no one paid attention to them or came to talk to them. The people treated them as strangers.

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei began to frown. They looked around, trying to find their acquaintances in this city. Unfortunately, even another hour passed, they found no one.

"It is as if all civilians in this town have moved away."

Liu Bei heard Guan Yu's remark. He looked around as well.

As a former local resident of this city, Liu Bei was confident that he could find one or two of his friends.

Betraying his expectation, Liu Bei could not find anyone.

"It is confirmed. All my acquaintances aren't here anymore. Excuse me, mister. Can you tell me what has happened here in recent years?"

Liu Bei waved his hands and asked around.

"You didn't know? This city had been raided by the Xiongnu many months ago! Most of the population was either killed or moved away."

The other merchants inserted into the conversation, "That's not entirely correct. The Xiongnu killed elders tried to enslave all of the population here. Fortunately, Lord Zhang Jiao sent reinforcements and drove the Xiongnu away, but most of the rescued people moved south to other cities since they don't want to get dragged into a war. Well, damaged houses are still around though 'cause the owners of those houses must have died during the incident."

Liu Bei's face paled, "Do you know what has happened to the old lady of that house?"

The merchants shook their head, "No, sorry young lad. If that person is still alive, the guards here should have rebuilt the house."

"Hey, dude. If you want to check if your friends or your relatives are still alive or not, go check with the city hall. They have recorded every name of the townspeople there, including the dead."

Liu Bei widened his eyes and bowed. He left the merchants and rushed to the city hall, following by his entourage.

Upon reaching the city hall, Liu Bei requested to check his mother's name right away.

Three hours later, the workers found the name of Liu Bei's mother. She had passed away during the incident of the Xiongnu raid.

Liu Bei knelt and wailed in front of many people as he hugged the wooden token of his mother.

"I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SO SORRY MOTHER!! I SHOULD NOT HAVE LEFT YOU!"

Every onlooker gazed at Liu Bei with sympathy. There were many relatives of the death coming here to find the bad news and collapse like him.

This kind of commotion was common during the early days when they were trying to restore the order. Seeing it again also pained their heart.

It took Liu Bei 30 minutes to stop crying. Guan Yu dragged the sorry state of his brother out of the way and took him to the nearest tavern.

Along the way, a group of guards approached them, "Sir, are you perhaps Sir Liu Bei?"

Jiang Man stepped forward to deal with this for Liu Bei, "Is there something wrong?"

"You have done nothing wrong, sir. Our governor has invited you to his courtyard. He asked me to tell you that he is your mentor, and he wants to see you once you return home."

Liu Bei looked up, "Mentor? Master Lu Zhi!?"

He wiped the traces of tears with his sleeves and patted the dirt on his knee, "Let's go! Let's go!"

Everyone looked at Liu Bei as if they were seeing a freak. How could he change his mood so sudden?

…

Upon reaching the courtyard of Liu Bei's master, Lu Zhi was already waiting for them there, sitting and teaching his two disciples, Zhao Yun and Tian Yu.

Liu Bei did not hesitate. He kowtowed and slammed his forehead on the dirt ground.

"Liu Bei greets master Lu!"

Guan Yu, Jiang Man, and Zhang Fei bowed normally. They could not copy Liu Bei's action as they still had shame and conscience.

"It's been a while, you stupid disciple! You've neglected all of my letters. Look at you, getting fooled by Yuan Shao, losing your own city to your stupidity, and coming back home to find your dead mother. If it weren't for me and Tong's troops, this city would have been a ghost town!"

Hearing the name of Tong, Liu Bei's face twitched.

"But master, I don't think serving Zhang Tong will do help this disciple. I-I never want to work for a rebel!"

Lu Zhi tossed a bamboo scroll at Liu Bei's face, "Then, I'm a rebel, too. Is that what you are saying!? Didn't you know that I'm also working for Tong!?"

Liu Bei's face paled. He slammed his head on the ground again, "This disciple is stupid! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shame Master!"

"Shame? Do you think I'm ashamed of working for my own disciple!? Raise your head up and look at the people in this city! This town turns into a merchant hub not because of me, but your junior disciple and his subordinates that comes up with this management system! There is also a new philosophy that Tong came up and had been taught to all minor officials!"

Lu Zhi pointed at the bamboo scroll that he tossed at Liu Bei.

"Read that and explain to me what you understand."

Liu Bei bit his lower lips. He did not want to hear a word about Tong again, but he could not defy his master, who was like a father to him.

Liu Bei picked up the scroll to read. It was about the pyramid of human's need.

The lowest part, the foundation, were food, water, clothing, medicines, and shelter, which every commoner in this era required to live. It was the most basic that Liu Bei knew, but he never arranged them into words.

The second level of human's need was security, the psychological need of safety, which indicated that they required a peaceful place or a safe place to live in.

Liu Bei frowned for a second, but he widened his eyes after that. The security in the text could mean the city patrol guards, order of the city, and troops that protected the city from all invaders. With all of these combined, humans would be satisfied with this need.

There were also higher levels,

Friendship, Relationship, Family.

Acknowledgment, Accomplishment.

Dream Fulfillment.

These were the things that Liu Bei did not understand.

Lu Zhi smirked at Liu Bei, "Do you understand anything?"

"Master, this … this disciple is stupid. I don't understand the higher level parts."

"Of course, you are stupid! Without the understanding of the basic needs of your people, how can you take the role of a governor, let alone squaring with those aristocrats and power-hungry bastards!?"

Liu Bei shrank again.

Lu Zhi gazed at Liu Bei's followers. His grim face turned into a smile.

"Please forgive my crude actions. I'm Lu Zhi, this stupid brat's mentor and the governor of this city."

Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Jiang Man cupped fists and bowed back. They could not offend this figure.

Jiang Man was also disturbed the most during the exchange between Liu Bei and Lu Zhi. He learned about Lu Zhi's deeds from history books, and he thought that Lu Zhi was just an ordinary scholar. However, his evaluation of Lu Zhi was wrong.

On the other hand, Liu Bei jumped up again as he was reminded of something.

"Master! You said you are the governor, right? The banners of this city are still the Gongsun flags. Does that mean you are serving Gongsun Zan now?"

"Humph! That's obvious. I'm helping the people. Does it matter who I serve? My question right back at you, why do you want to be a governor so badly? Saving the people?"

Liu Bei swallowed his saliva as he could not retort. If he said yes, Lu Zhi would have asked again [What's the point of raising your own banner when you can save people by serving any lord?].

"For now, I want you and your followers to join your junior disciples when I teach them. I'll be re-educating you over and over again until you get at least one word from that scroll into your head!"

At this moment, Liu Bei finally gazed at his junior disciples.

Zhao Yun smiled wryly at Liu Bei while Tian Yu snickered as he found the scolding hilarious.

"Zhao Zilong?"

"Nice to meet you again, senior brother Liu."