Chen Deng

## History

Before Chen Deng became the head of Chen family, he was renowned for his filial piety in Xu Province. There was a year when Chen Gui was severely ill. Chen Deng traveled over half the land to find him the best doctors. He even took especially care when he brewed the medicine and looked after his father carefully day and night.

For the interests of their Chen family, he and his father sold Lu Bu out.

## Story

Chen Deng was dispatched by Guo Jia to pursue Lu Bu. His troops numbering 15,000, caught up to them. Chen Deng began by trying to get Lu Bu to surrender, but Lu Bu turned the tables and informed him of the death of his father, Chen Gui, at the hands of Cao Cao. Chen Deng wanted to ask Cao Cao about the matter, but couldn’t allow the threat Lu Bu to get away, and requested he stay. Refusing they decided to meet on the battlefield.

Chen Deng brought with him a total of five generals, they all died after rushing Lu Bu.  However, in just this little amount of delay, Chen Deng managed to run back into his army. He then ordered his whole army to attack. Chen Deng despite being a scholar was proficient in military affairs. He sent his pikemen to the front, shielded blade soldiers to protect the flanks, and two thousand archer shoot from the middle of the army.

Lu Bu had previously asked Liu Mang to wear the Aries Gold Cloth and stay with the Formation Breaker. Unbeknownst to him this was to make him bait to attract Chen Deng’s attention, thinking he was Lu Bu. Chen Deng then sent out his eight thousand pikemen, to face the 800 strong Formation Breaker. They opened formation and swallowed a total of two thousand soldiers. Chen Deng then had his right flank shielded blade troops engage the enemy. The whole Formation started moving. Like a top, the rotate around. Each rotation faster than the last and with each rotation came foul wind and bloody rain. Ever since Chen Deng’s shielded blade soldiers appeared, the Formation Breaker began to suffer casualties. With every clash there would be soldiers of Formation Breaker vomiting blood. This was caused from the impact injuring the internal organs. Whenever someone left the formation, someone else will replace him, maintaining the rotation of the formation.  With pikemen on the inside and shielded blade soldiers on the outside, the Formation Breaker was about to reach their limits. One by one, the soldiers of the Formation Breaker fall. One by one, the fallen soldiers were replaced by new soldiers only to fall again.  Soon, over two hundred men was lost within the formation. Chen Deng then ordered the left flank shielded blade soldiers to join the fray. From Chen Deng’s flanks appeared a group of troops, led by Lu Bu and Zhang Liao. Their goal was for Chen Deng to believe that victory was within his grasp, for him to continue sending out troops. First it was the right flank shielded blade soldiers. Then it was the left flank shielded blade soldiers. Now, both of his flanks were unprotected. All he had left was the archers in the middle of the army. Although they numbered two thousand, they could not stand up to Lu Bu and the Bing Province Soldiers. Everywhere Lu Bu’s army went, everyone was killed, not a single survivor. Some archers, having been scared witless, decided to desert and flee. Chen Deng’s killing of deserters not only did not made the soldiers stand up to Lu Bu, it instead evoked their rebellious hearts. After calming them down, Lu Bu arrived he was captured, and his army immediately surrendered.

Lu Bu’s two thousand strong army was left in a wretched state. All that was left was some thousand three hundred troops, the majority of them wounded. After capturing Chen Deng, the Chen army surrendered, allowing them to recuperate. There was still over five thousand pikemen, over four thousand shielded blade soldiers and a thousand or so archers. The Formation Breaker stood against fifteen thousand enemies. Casualties numbered over five hundred. However, for the opponents, their casualties numbered five thousand. Chen Gong then advised that Chen Deng be set free, Lu Bu agreed. He not only release him, but returned three thousand soldiers, including his two generals. Those three thousand soldiers were all people who have families in Guangling. Should Lu Bu forcibly take them away, they would certainly not be willing to fight for him. Thus, he decided to just throw them back to Chen Deng. Lu Be told Chen Deng to go confirm Cao Cao’s true nature, and that he could come back, swearing loyalty to him. From losing Xiapi, Lu Bu understood a truth. He understood that to fight for hegemony in this world, one requires talent. He currently only had Chen Gong, if Chen Deng joined his ranks, he would be like a tiger that had grown wings.

The Ferocious Cavalry, the most elite of the Cao army cavalries, came upon Chen Deng, and his 3,000 wounded remnants. Not wanting to appear incompetent, Chen Deng lied about Lu Bu’s original numbers and the fact he gave him seven thousand troops. When Chen Deng asked for news about his father, Cao Chun lied and said he didn’t know. Instead of going home to Guangling Chen Deng led his remaining troops to Xiapi, to confirm his father’s fate for himself. Cao Cao had him return home to recover. That was when he inquired about his father. He casually told him that Lu Bu killed him.

Chen Deng removed everything of worth from Guangling, everything else that could not be moved like houses and lands were turned into foodstuffs, golds and war supplies. He joined Lu Bu bringing with him two thousand war horses to the Lu Bu army. As for the soldiers, Chen Deng brought with him all those that are loyal to the Chen family that didn’t have their own families or were willing to abandon their families to repay the kindness of the Chen family, over twenty thousand soldiers.

Chen Deng lead his army of twenty thousand, and arrived in front of Xiapi’s gates. He broke through Xiapi to join with Lu Bu’s army.

Chen Deng surrendered, and became Lu Bu's subordinate. Chen Deng’s father got killed by Cao Cao, therefore the Chen family and Old Cao were now sworn enemies. Right now there was no one except Yuan Shao of Hebei who could rival Cao Cao under the heaven. Yi Province and Jing Province both were only interested in defending themselves and had no ambitions to broaden their territory. In Xiliang, Ma Teng, Han Sui and those other feudal warlords in Zhili Provinces acted like dead people. They would be sooner or later conquered by Cao Cao. As for Yuan Shao, he got power and money to rival Old Cao. However, if Chen Deng went there, he probably would not receive a good position as Yuan Shao had too many advisers. Yuan Shao himself did not even how many advisers he had right now. The only remaining force was Lu Bu. Although the Lu Bu army’s force was small, as long as their fierce tiger Commander Lu Bu was alive, they could still make a comeback. Cao Cao had stolen Xu Province from Lu Bu and according to Lu Bu’s personality how could he not fight back. Therefore Chen Deng came to Lu Bu without any hesitations.

During Battle of Mt. Bagong, his unit was on standby, protecting Lu Bu’s family.

Chen Deng was ordered to go to Shucheng County, which is not smaller than Wancheng city, therefore it needed a senior general to guard and govern. Chen Deng being capable in military and administration skills, was the most logical choice.

## Abilities

He is no longer that weak scholar like before, he has undergone a rigid training regime that Lu Bu has taught him. Chen Deng can be said to not only a military commander, but a Confucian scholar. Even though Chen Deng was just a scholar, his marital strength was no weaker than a second rated general, he can be considered as a scholar-general.

Chen Deng once governed Guangling commandery with his father Chen Gui, so Chen Deng knows a little about naval units. He even clashed with Jiangdong and Jing Province once.

He is a Confucian scholar, so he excels in scheming.

His weapon of choice is the spear.

## Relationships

* Cao Cao: Chen Deng’s father was killed by Cao Cao, therefore the Chen family and Old Cao became sworn enemies.

## Trivia

* Historically, Chen Deng was an important minister of Cao Wei. The imperial examination system, Nine Grades Official Selection was implemented by him.
* Liu Mang nicknamed Chen Deng Male Bitch.