Xu Chu pressed his left hand against his saber, his face ashen with anger as he strode with heavy, hurried steps from the inner chambers toward the front hall. He moved so quickly that his armor plates rattled in a continuous stream of noise.
The layout of the Grand General's Mansion was quite peculiar and did not conform to standard official architecture. Facing south, the mansion occupied a massive expanse of land, exuding grandeur and scale; however, the main entrance was heavily skewed to the west. The reason for this was that the estate had once undergone an expansion, swallowing up a neighborhood of civilian homes directly to the west. Now, a high wall running north-south cut right through the middle of the complex, dividing the entire residence into two halves. The eastern half formed the main architectural cluster, centered around an axis comprising the main gate, a spirit wall, a straight road behind the spirit wall, the Grand General's council hall, and the residential quarters in the rear. Flanking this central axis, between the council hall and the road leading from the main gate, lay an area of several hundred rooms of various sizes where the officials of the various directorates and bureaus of the Grand General's Mansion worked.
On the western side of the high wall lay a military camp housing a thousand soldiers—the quarters of Liu Bei's personal bodyguards. Of the two thousand cavalry and two thousand infantry under his direct command, one thousand foot soldi…
Chapter 557