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WARNING: TWAS BRILLIG, AND THE SLITHY TOVES DID GYRE AND GYMBLE IN THE WABE. ALL MIMSY WERE THE SPOILERGROVES, AND THE MOME RATHS OUTGRABE.
So I bet some were wondering, "Whatever happened to that Sun Ce fella. The one that's supposedly descended from that there Art of War guy?"
Well, you may rejoice. Because Chapter 15 is almost all about that Sun Ce feller's adventures.
The chapter starts out in Xu Province, where Lu Bu has just seized the capitol, thus dispossessing Liu Bei of his territory. Add Yuan Shu into the mix. Cao Cao, the new Prime Minister, has ordered Liu Bei to attack Yuan Shu, and Yuan Shu wants Liu Bei's head on a stake. Yuan Shu at this point in the story has grown quite powerful. Liu Bei has a small army, and his city has just been taken over by a man he thought he could trust, Lu Bu, and all this came about because of the actions of someone ELSE he thought he could trust. Zhang Fei, his own sworn brother. Yup. It's probably a little bit of a sticky situation for Liu Bei to be in. Luckily, Lu Bu's perfectly willing to accept Liu Bei as a vassal.
In the South, Sun Ce, son of Sun Jian, of late an officer under Yuan Shu, sets out to protect his family's lands in Wu. Pledging the Imperial Hereditary Seal, which had been found in a deserted Luoyang by his father, Sun Ce "borrows" a few thousand soldiers from Yuan Shu, and goes to carve out his own realm, and fulfill his father's ambitions.
This chapter kicks ass, in my opinion. Why? I'll tell you why. Five words. Sun Ce versus Taishi Ci. There are a few really awesome duels in this story. Remember the Lu Bu vs. Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei? This duel's about as awesome as that one. I've always been a big fan of Taishi Ci, and when he joins Wu, it just sort of feels like something's clicking into place... Enjoy.