The revival of the Han Dynasty must start with Dong Zhuo

Chapter 226 Volume Attack Ba County?

Yizhou, Chengdu.

After what happened to Liu Mao, Liu Bei no longer had a good attitude towards the local nobles in Yizhou.

Wu Yi himself was from Yanzhou and an outsider, so naturally he unconditionally helped Liu Bei suppress the powerful people in Shu.

In particular, Liu Bei had followed the emperor's will and married Wu Yi's sister, and their relationship became closer.

In addition, Liu Bei also promoted a large number of scholars from humble backgrounds to maintain the operation of the Shu bureaucracy.

Huang Quan, Ma Zhong, Yan Yan...

"Shu is a land of abundant people and rich goods!"

Not to mention the Four Generals of Sichuan.

Especially Zhang Ren, who had excellent talents and virtues. Liu Bei almost slept and ate with him and treated him as his own brother.

What surprised Liu Bei the most was Fa Zheng, who was sent by the emperor to help him.

This young man's temperament and talents were quite suitable for Liu Bei's taste, and he was soon treated as a guest of honor by Liu Bei. Almost all the political affairs of Yizhou, big or small, had to go through Fa Zheng's hands before they could be issued. It can be said that Liu Bei trusted him to the utmost.

After a period of reorganization, the fields in Shu County have been sorted out, and two-thirds of Shu land has been completely absorbed.

As the saying goes, one gets what he wants.

After absorbing two-thirds of Shu, Fa Zheng set his sights on the remaining one-third of Shu, namely Ba County.

Fa Zheng advised Liu Bei: "Shen Mi, Lou Fa, and Gan Ning are all traitors to the court. Now they have occupied Ba County and are plotting evil. How can the emperor's uncle allow them to sleep soundly on the bed beside him?"

"How about we immediately order Generals Guan and Zhang to lead the troops to launch an offensive, occupy the entire Shu territory, occupy the Yangtze River waterway, and open up the connection with Jingzhou?"

Since coming to Shu, Fa Zheng has been very enthusiastic and wanted to achieve great things.

But now Ba County is small and powerless, but Liu Bei has powerful generals like Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun under his command. With just a slight poke, he can swallow the peach of Ba County in one gulp!
Liu Bei was shocked.

But Liu Bei still had some rationality after all, and knew that the court's main national policy was still to recuperate.

Even the money and grain from Shu had been transported to Guanzhong on a large scale to make full preparations for the future eastward expansion.

No matter how important Shu is, the real battlefield of the imperial court in the future will ultimately be in Hebei and the Central Plains.

If the imperial court's plan was ruined because of any rash action in Shu, Liu Bei would be willing to die.

Fa Zheng sighed and said, "Uncle, Yizhou has been known as the land of Bashu since ancient times."

"Bashu Bashu, if there is only Shu but no Ba, how can it be called a complete Yizhou?"

"Without Badi in our hands, Chengdu will have no support in the east. If there is another incident in the future, Chengdu will face an enemy at the gates again... Does the emperor's uncle want to recreate the scene of that day?"

Liu Bei felt a little scared when he thought of the previous Battle of Chengdu.

Although Shu now has its troops in good order, Liu Bei knows that these troops, like the money and food before, will be continuously transported to Guanzhong to fight against Yuan Shao and Cao Cao in the north.

If Shu was taken advantage of by those rebel generals in Ba County when the area was empty, it would be too late for regret.

Liu Bei was hesitant, but finally wrote a letter to the emperor, asking him to make a decision.

Chang'an, Weiyang Palace.

Liu Xie also had a headache after receiving Liu Bei's letter.

The headache was not because of how difficult it was to deal with the rebel generals of Ba County such as Shen Mi, Lou Fa and Gan Ning.

Jingzhou is still implicated.

Ever since Sima Yi mentioned this to Liu Xie before, although Liu Xie was still willing to believe Liu Biao, there was always a thorn in his heart.

Liu Biao's will has never been the will of Jingzhou.

As for Liu Biao himself, Liu Xie believed that he was still loyal to the imperial court and the Han Dynasty.

But as for the Jingzhou families behind Liu Biao, there is no way they would stand with the imperial court.

The conflict of interests meant that even if they voted with their feet, they would choose the Hebei Pseudo-Dynasty, which better protected the interests of the aristocratic families, namely Yuan Shao and Cao Cao.

If one day in the future, when the imperial court and Yuan Shao and Cao Cao are fighting fiercely in the north, Jingzhou is suddenly stabbed in the back, it will definitely cause immeasurable losses.

Therefore, Liu Xie's attitude towards Jingzhou is actually extremely complicated.

Everyone knows that the supporters behind Shen Mi, Lou Fa, Gan Ning and others are the forces in Jingzhou.

If troops were sent to attack, the rift between Jingzhou and the imperial court would undoubtedly become even wider.

If we turn a blind eye... just as Liu Bei guessed, the soldiers in Shu will sooner or later be slowly transported to the north and deployed in the most critical northern battlefield, and it will be impossible to leave too many troops to defend Chengdu.

If the rear was left empty and the Bajun forces reoccupied Shu, it would obviously be unacceptable to the imperial court.

Liu Xie now thought of Sima Yi's previous words -

"Your Majesty, are you going to put the safety of the court and the lives of the people in the hands of a man like Liu Jingzhou who can do nothing about it?"

Liu Xie tapped the table with his fingers, and the rhythmic tapping sounds echoed in the empty palace.

"Summon the Minister of the Chancellery Jia Xu, the Minister of the Chancellery Xun Yu, and the Minister of the Court Sima Yi to come to see you."

When Liu Xie saw them, he told the three of them his thoughts without any hesitation.

"Ba County is the gateway to the east of Yizhou. Your uncle's worries are unreasonable."

"But those Bajun generals are backed by Jingzhou after all. If we attack rashly, I'm afraid it will cause some friction with Jingzhou."

"I hope you can discuss this together and come up with a solution that will satisfy both parties."

Sima Yi, who had been granted the position of Minister, had his eyes light up, and he continued to express his views -

beat!
Then, taking this opportunity, he directly abandoned the alliance with Jingzhou, turned to making friends with distant countries and attacking nearby ones, and contacted Yuan Shu!

But Xun Yu obviously disagreed with Sima Yi's opinion.

"Your Majesty, it is better to have less trouble than more." "Ba County is of course important to Yizhou, but Jingzhou is more important to the court!"

"If Jingzhou can be kept stable, then a mere Ba County would not be worth mentioning."

"Besides, Liu Jingzhou had worked together with the imperial court before. He not only drove away and contained Yuan Shu, but also provided a large amount of food to the imperial court... If he suddenly launched an uprising, I'm afraid everyone in the world would think that the imperial court was treacherous!"

Sima Yi was more utilitarian, while Xun Yu considered the reputation of the court.

In fact, the real problem in Jingzhou is Liu Biao.

If Liu Biao was Liu Bei, Liu Xie would never have any suspicion towards Jingzhou. Instead, he would be eager to send a large amount of military equipment and food to Jingzhou, asking Jingzhou to help contain Yuan Shao and Cao Cao.

But now the owner of Jingzhou is Liu Biao.

He was still Liu Biao who could not fully control Jingzhou.

This person was so unpredictable that Liu Xie didn't know what to do.

Liu Xie's eyes moved between Xun Yu and Sima Yi, and finally fell on Jia Xu in the middle.

"Wenhe, what do you think I should do?"

Xun Yu and Sima Yi also turned their heads and looked at the Shangshu Ling who had been silent and low-key.

"Your Majesty, I thought..."

Jia Xu paused.

"I think the key to this matter does not lie with Liu Jingzhou, but with Your Majesty."

"If Your Majesty believes that Liu Jingzhou will not be able to control the situation in the future, then naturally you should send troops to Ba County and strike first."

"But if Your Majesty thinks that Liu Jingzhou will always be on the side of the court, then you can just not react at all and let Liu Jingzhou deal with Yuan Shu safely."

……

On the surface, what Jia Xu said seemed to be the same as not saying anything, but Liu Xie, who knew Jia Xu's temper well, understood what Jia Xu meant.

At present, Jingzhou has not actually done anything extraordinary.

How to treat Jingzhou ultimately depends on Liu Xie's intentions.

If you believe in Liu Biao, just maintain the status quo.

If you don't trust Liu Biao, you should strike first.

No matter what the outcome, Liu Xie would have to bear it himself.

If he trusted Liu Biao, and Liu Biao betrayed the court, all the consequences would be borne by the emperor Liu Xie himself.

If he did not trust Liu Biao and pushed Jingzhou completely to Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, the consequences would also be borne by Liu Xie, the emperor himself.

Liu Xie just said that he wanted to find a win-win solution, but he was just trying to evade the issue. Doing so is definitely not something a qualified emperor should do.

"I understand."

Jia Xu's words awakened Liu Xie, and Liu Xie waved his hand and asked the three to leave.

After the three people left, Liu Xie was still in a bad mood, so he left the palace and wandered around the Weiyang Palace at will.

Although many buildings in the Weiyang Palace have been renovated over the years, there are still many potholes.

As Liu Xie walked, he felt a strange touch under his feet.

When he lifted his foot, he found it was a stone with intact edges and corners.

Not far from the stone, there was a brick with a corner missing.

Liu Xie kicked the stone over with his foot.

Slightly off by a few inches.

It doesn’t matter. With Liu Xie’s light hook with his toes, the stone fell into the gap.

Unfortunately, it didn't match.

He then used his toes to gently adjust the stone until he saw that it fit perfectly with the bricks and stones. Only then did Liu Xie nod with satisfaction.

After fixing the stones on the ground, Liu Xie looked up and found that he had accidentally walked into the palace where Dong Zhuo once lived.

Unfortunately, Dong Zhuo was now busy taking care of Liu Wansheng, so he had already moved out and returned to live in the Grand Tutor's Mansion.

Even in the daily court meetings, Dong Zhuo rarely showed up. After careful calculation, Liu Xie found that he had not seen Dong Zhuo for more than ten days.

Liu Xie was feeling depressed and had some questions, so he ordered the palace servants to "set up the carriage and go to the Grand Tutor's Mansion."

The palace maid was very sensible: "Your Majesty, do you want to notify the Queen and let her go with you?"

Liu Xie thought about it and rejected the suggestion.

"The Queen is too noisy. I want to go and reminisce with the Grand Tutor. It would be bad if she went with me."

The palace maid agreed, prepared the jade carriage, and rushed to the Grand Tutor's residence in the Beiquejiadi.

As expected, Dong Zhuo was teasing Liu Wansheng at the moment. He was not annoyed at all even when Liu Wansheng pulled his beard while swinging on the swing. Instead, he praised the child for being energetic.

When he heard that the emperor was coming, Dong Zhuo went straight to greet him with Liu Wansheng in his arms.

But after seeing Liu Xie's expression, Dong Zhuo was slightly stunned: "Your Majesty, what confusion have you encountered?"

"Ah."

Liu Xie nodded.

"The one who knows me best is the Grand Master."

(End of this chapter)