[Three Kingdoms] My Lord Has Died a Little Too Much

Also known as The Lord Must Not Cross the River and The Sickly Girl Is Actually a Master in Disguise

[Late Eastern Han setting, no transmigration. The heroine has served as both strategist and ruler. She's frail and easily injured, but a well-rounded fighter.]

[Her power grows like a greedy snake; her lord-and-retainer bond is built on breaking into people's homes and robbing them.]

[She's a smiling fox: not domineering in temperament, but formidable in ability. No matter how badly she's hurt, she never gets completely pinned down.]

[Guo Jia pairing. The romance is limited, but not angsty.]

A not-so-serious introduction:

Word has it that Liu Xuande has a sickly strategist in his camp.

A breeze is enough to make her cough, and she needs a heavy cloak to go outside.

Everyone who's seen her says the slightest wind could knock her down, that she's frail and won't live much longer.

Faced with their lost cities and scattered armies, the various warlords slowly type out a question mark: "...So the rumors really did fool us."

The silver-armored young commander, who is skewering enemies on her long blade like beads on a string, wipes the blood from her face and smiles. "Sorry, I didn't explain it clearly. When I say a breeze can knock me down, I mean..."

"My blade's wind blows,"

"and you fall."

Pei Du, courtesy name Jichuan, is an orphan of the Yellow Turban Rebellion and the adopted daughter of Lu Zhi, the late Han dynasty's foremost "perfect man."

As a sickly girl, her original goal was simple: find a wise ruler, serve as a strategist, protect her loved ones, and do her part to save the world.

Her lord doesn't have enough troops or cities?

No problem. I'll use my silver tongue to persuade others to hand them over.

They refuse to give them up?

No problem. I happen to know a few martial arts moves, too.

A hidden genius spends all day napping?

No problem. I'll climb over his wall and see if he's really sleeping that soundly.

The enemy camp wants to poach me?

No pro... Actually, that one is a problem. But it's fine. I'll poach one of their people right back.

Guo Jia, who tried to recruit her with a clever scheme and wound up getting recruited instead: "...You're something else. So noble and high-minded."

Pei Du glances at him while clutching her wound.

Guo Jia quickly catches her. "Fine. She's a formidable woman, after all. Following her isn't so bad."

Until she absorbs Liu Bei's forces, contends for supremacy, promotes farming and settlement, and curbs the powerful clans, until all the lands under heaven lie beneath her horses' hooves.

The heroes and outstanding figures she'd once tricked cry out excitedly, "What did we say back then? She looks kind, but she's ruthless, as cunning as they come, and no good at all!"

The enemies standing opposite Pei Du ask, "We understand the argument, but why are you pointing your arrows at us?!"

A serious introduction:

When Pei Du was ten, Lu Zhi joked, "If you were a boy, you would be the equal of Fu Yue and Yi Yin."

Ten-year-old Pei Du looked up. "My mother isn't a man, but none of the men on the boat can hold a candle to her."

Lu Zhi laughed at her reply and asked what she aspired to. Pei Du said, "Who are these Fu Yue and Yi Yin you mentioned, Father? I want to surpass them."

At the time, Pei Du had no idea why her adoptive father looked so regretful.

It wasn't until she was eighteen that someone told her, "Fu Yue and Yi Yin were chosen by Heaven's Mandate. You're only a woman."

Heaven's Mandate.

Eighteen-year-old Pei Jichuan smiled.

Many people believed in Heaven's Mandate, but she had watched decent, honest people become bandits, then swiftly turn into helpless victims.

So she said, "Then this Heaven's Mandate isn't worth believing in."

From an orphan of the Yellow Turban Rebellion to the adopted daughter of a high official, she had fought for every step of her path. Later, she had once yielded, only to be left covered in scars and burdened with a chronic illness. Those she loved and respected died unjustly in a foreign land, leaving no bones behind.

But at least she still had her wits. At least she could still lift a blade.

In the game of the world, the people were the pieces. She would rather be the one moving them.

She had never dreamed of reaching the heights of power. At one point, she thought that being a strategist or a general would be enough to bring peace to the world.

But later, when enemy forces surged toward her like a flood, she suddenly remembered something a certain woman had once told her: "If only you were the one sitting up there."

"When the Yellow River runs clear, a sage will appear, and the world will be at peace."

Many years later, the heroes were gone, and her old friends had passed away. Pei Du, now Prince of Jin and Yan, stood by the Yellow River and said those words to Princess Wanshou, Liu Shu.

"We all regard you as a sage," Liu Shu replied carefully.

Pei Du smiled at that.

In this life, she had waged war time and again, betrayed her lord and forsaken her obligations, and usurped a man's place at the helm.

Right or wrong?

She was no sage.

So she smiled and shook her head.

On the other side of the river, embankments had turned wild grassland into great swathes of bright green rice seedlings.

A few farmers were planting rice in the fields.

Pei Du pointed to them. "The ones who can make the Yellow River run clear are these people."

Please note before reading:

1. The setting is a parallel timeline at the end of the Eastern Han dynasty. The heroine is a disruptive star who has entered the game, not someone who transmigrated. The historical course may change, and some characters may differ from their historical counterparts.

2. Guo Jia is the love interest. They start on opposing sides, but there's no tragic, all-consuming romance, just the thrill of meeting a worthy opponent. They probably enjoy messing with each other more and more.

3. A Three Kingdoms historical drama-inspired story, not a transmigration story. See the author's note in Chapter 1 for content warnings. Please read it before starting!

Recommending a friend's novel: From Attendant to Emperor, One Guo Jia Away by Lu Jiutang, a female emperor story featuring a marriage before love, business management, and a struggle for supremacy.

Theme: Never lose the courage to strive for something greater.