Wait, please don't call me Emperor Zhaolie

Chapter 207 Xuzhou Tyrants: We Rebelled

In the middle of May in the first year of Jian'an, the weather became rapidly hot.

Liu Biao, who was thousands of miles away, was still frightened when facing Liu Xuande, let alone Yuan Gonglu, who was so close, he was even more trembling with fear.

Yuan Shu desperately mobilized soldiers and civilians from Jiujiang, Lujiang and Runan counties to guard the area from Yicheng to Xiacai. Ji Ling, who had just captured Wan County, was also mobilized back to garrison Yicheng County in order to block the river and prevent Liu Bei's food, fodder and military equipment from being smoothly transported to Huainan.

Sun Ben and Sun Xiang went to Shouchun to plead guilty, but they were almost beheaded. Yuan Shu slammed the table and threw the wine bottle to the ground, shouting angrily: "Sun Ce, you bastard, have ruined my Yuan family's cause!"

"Leave them here, take them out and behead them. Let's see if anyone dares to rebel against the Yuan family in the future."

The chief clerk Yan Xiang and the official Li Ye hurriedly advised: "You can't do that, Lord Yuan! The one who rebelled against Lord Yuan is Sun Ce alone, not the Sun family. You can't kill loyal officials indiscriminately and lose the support of the people."

Hua Xin, who was wearing a Confucian hat and had a three-pronged beard and a thin body, also stepped forward and advised: "Mr. Yuan, Huainan is in danger of being overthrown. We should win the hearts of the people and show them kindness, so that we can get them to fight to the death against the powerful enemy.

"Huainan has been at war for years, and the people have long been exhausted. If we exempt taxes for a year, the soldiers and civilians will surely cheer and cheer. It will also win the support of the people of the world. Liu Xuande will surely blunt the enemy's troops and weaken their spirit in Huainan."

Chief Clerk Yang Hong also bowed and said, "Mr. Yuan, at this moment, it is most important to win over the people's hearts and minds, and not to act rashly."

The rest of the clerks and officials bowed and offered their suggestions.

For a while, the voices of persuasion and remonstration were heard everywhere in the hall.

Yuan Shu laughed in anger, pointed at the people in front of the hall and said, "You are probably planning for the future, wanting to leave a way out for yourselves?!"

As soon as the words fell, the scene fell silent.

The clerks who were still anxious to offer suggestions suddenly fell silent. Who could bear such a crime?

If Lord Yuan wants to kill them, then let him kill them. Anyway, it is the Sun family that is being killed, not us. But if any clan members want to surrender to Liu Xuande later, then they will have to surrender with the entire clan.

If only one person surrenders to Liu, the rest of the clan will be held accountable, so it would be better for the entire clan to surrender.

Everyone had complicated thoughts in their hearts.

Who can guarantee that there are no cowards in the family who would surrender to the enemy? Since we are going to be implicated and held accountable, we have no choice.

"Mr. Yuan, once you say this, it will bring great harm to the world. In ancient times, the only rulers who insulted their subjects were the kings of Jie and Zhou. If you cannot have a loving heart and use your power to humiliate your subjects, the disaster will not stop. How can you expect this to last long?"

Hua Xin spoke straightforwardly and without any reservations, he bowed and stepped forward.

In his early years, he worshipped the Grand Marshal Chen Qiu as his teacher, and was a fellow student of Lu Zhi, Zheng Xuan, and Guan Ning. At this time, he was already a famous scholar known throughout the world. He was not afraid of what Yuan Shu could do to him, and he spoke his mind boldly.

"you……"

Yuan Shu knew he was in the wrong and was speechless.

"I hope Lord Yuan will not implicate the Sun family because of Sun Ce's crime."

Yan Xiang, Yang Hong and Li Ye also hurriedly bowed.

Yuan Shu was unable to change the officials' opinions, so he waved his hands and said, "Forget it, forget it. I believe in rewards and punishments, so I will whip Sun Ben and Sun Xiang dozens of times and then remove them from their posts."

"Mr. Yuan is wise."

Yang Hong bowed and praised.

When many officials in Huainan heard that Liu Xuande's army was approaching Jiujiang, they were all trembling with fear, sweating profusely and afraid to breathe.

……

On the other hand, Liu Bei received news from Zhou of Lujiang, and knew that Yuan Gonglu was still fighting hard, so he only went a few dozen miles south to recover Xiang County and let Taishi Ci capture Zhongli County before stopping. It was not that Liu Bei did not want to continue to march into Huainan, but after he left Xuzhou, the nobles who were dissatisfied with the land measurement and the dismissal of state and county officials all raised their troops and attacked the county town with their troops.

From the end of April to the beginning of May, many powerful people intended to sweep across the entire Xuzhou under the pretext of following the emperor's edict to fight against the unjust and punish the treacherous clan members.

Among them, Langya County and Guangling County caused the greatest disturbance, involving five or six counties. Two or three counties in Xia Pi and Donghai were also affected. Only Pengcheng County did not have any powerful families causing trouble.

Amid the cries of killing in various places, the Liu clan members remained law-abiding, and even each clan was willing to provide food and money to help the Qingzhou army suppress the rebellion.

Liu Bei appreciated the wise move of the royal family and accepted all the money they sent, but he did not let Man Chong directly lift the control of the palace soldiers over various places in Pengcheng.

At the same time, he ordered Xia Pi Gong Cao Chen Deng and Taishi Ci to quickly suppress the rebels. After they had subdued the rebellious local tyrants, he ordered Chen Deng to replace Guangling Prefect Zhao Yu and lead Li Dian and Gao Shun to lead the army to quell the growing chaos in Guangling County as soon as possible.

Taishi Ci was promoted to the position of Xia Pi Xiang due to his merits, and continued to suppress sporadic rebellions by powerful local tyrants.

As Donghai County was the seat of the state, any powerful army that rose up was quickly suppressed.

Only the local tyrants and bandits in Langya Commandery colluded with each other and actually captured several counties, gathered a crowd of 50,000 soldiers, and even provoked the tyrants in the neighboring Taishan Commandery of Yanzhou to rebel.

Almost all the bandits who had been suppressed in Taishan and Langya counties were involved in the incident, burning, killing and looting everywhere.

The grain transport route was cut off and the roads were blocked. Mao Jie and Yu Jin were forced to temporarily retreat to Kaiyang due to their small number of soldiers.

Fortunately, when surveying the fields earlier, Mao Jie had informed Beihai Prime Minister Kong Rong that he must guard against the possibility that Langya warlords and bandits would lead their troops to attack Beihai, and had told him to take precautions early, thus avoiding being plundered by the rebels who entered Beihai.

While Liu Bei was in Pei State, he was pacifying Sun Ce and making proper arrangements for the surrendered Yuan troops in Huainan, while paying attention to the military uprisings of the nobles in various parts of Xuzhou.

At this moment, there are no less than eighty powerful families, big and small, involved in the prefectures, counties and districts.

"Sir, it would be better for the army to return to Xuzhou as soon as possible."

Seeing that Liu Bei remained calm and composed in writing documents and sending them to various places in Xuzhou when faced with a crisis, Zhou Yu couldn't help but feel anxious.

Lord Xuande is too calm.

With so many powerful families raising their armies, if we don't quickly put down this rebellious trend, I'm afraid it will only get worse.

If time goes on for a long time, once Cao Mengde has pacified Yuzhang County, he will most likely take advantage of the opportunity to cause trouble and lead his troops across the river.

Liu Bei looked up and followed the voice. Seeing Zhou Yu anxiously offering advice, he smiled and said, "Don't worry, Gongjin. This is just scraping the bone to cure the poison. For many years, there have been illegal tyrants in Xuzhou who have seized farmland and forced the people to sell themselves into slavery. They seem to be extremely wealthy, but in fact, they are all taking advantage of the people's blood and sweat."

"I treat Xuzhou like a doctor treats a patient. The arrowhead is poisonous and the poison has entered the bone. I should open the shoulder to make a wound, scrape the bone to remove the poison, and then I can cure the stubborn disease. The tyrants have been arrogant and domineering for a long time, just like a patient with a bone marrow disease. The pain of scraping the bone must be endured."

Liu Bei explained seriously.

It's not that he wanted to take action against the powerful, but that the powerful were too outrageous. In a place as big as Xuzhou, he didn't know how much of the various farmland and population taxes had been concealed over the years. When he visited the villages and asked, he found that almost all the fertile farmland was owned by the powerful.

The common people cultivated extremely poor fields, and the harvests were so poor that they could only barely survive. Moreover, they had to pay more taxes than the wealthy families with fertile land. In years of disaster, they had to sell their wives and daughters.

Liu Bei checked all the documents and records in the state and discovered that after Emperor Guangwu measured the land, there were still nearly 700,000 hectares of cultivated land in Xuzhou. Now there were only 325,384 hectares of arable land left, which was recorded in the books and paid land taxes every year.

I have only heard of mountains and valleys changing and the sea turning into mulberry fields, but I have never heard of fields returning to the sea.

The powerful have been occupying farmland for a long time and think it is justified. The previous governor of Xuzhou, Tao Gongzu, did not care about it. Why did he welcome Liu Xuande and investigate and measure the land, confiscate his followers and servants, causing their interests to be damaged?

At this time, let alone Liu Bei, even if the emperor dared to issue an edict to seize their land, pay the taxes and collect the troops, they would still rebel.

(End of this chapter)