My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 229 Not only did it fail to seal, but it was also wasted

A few hours ago, when Liu Bei heard that Liu Biao had closed the river and prohibited the movement of business and travel, he still felt a little regretful.

Of course, he knew Liu Biao's hidden meaning, which was to keep a distance from him to prevent himself from being drained of his talent.

However, after recalling Zhuge Liang and listening to his brief explanation, Liu Bei immediately felt relieved.

Although he has not asked about the specific analysis in detail, Liu Bei has already firmly believed that as long as it is the judgment made by the Zhuge brothers, he will just believe in the conclusion!
Of course, after accepting the advice, it’s also a good idea to listen to the detailed analysis. Since you’re not in a hurry, you can just think of it as exercising your brain.

After Liu Bei calmed down, he humbly asked for advice: "Sir, why do you think Liu Biao's move is not only ineffective, but will also damage his reputation as a man who loves virtuous people?"

Zhuge Liang didn't even have to think about this question, and he listed them one by one:
"Liu Biao indiscriminately closed the river, hurting too many people. The exiled northern scholars who wanted to come to Wuchang to seek a future were only a small part of them. How should the wealthy merchants who relied on goods to circulate in the three states of Jing, Yang and Yi deal with it?

If the merchant fleets of the Kuai family and the Cai family can pass privately, but those of other families cannot, then other families and forces will inevitably complain, as this will cut off their financial resources.

Although Liu Biao found the excuse of "blocking Cao Cao's spies and envoys from passing through the border to avoid the recurrence of Zhang Xiu's incident", any discerning person could easily see that Liu Biao was guilty.

Most people may not have noticed that we were eager to recruit talents and set up schools in Jiangxia, but Liu Biao's actions accelerated their attention. Therefore, I think Liu Biao's move was extremely foolish.

Perhaps he thought that the ban would be lifted in a few months and everything was still under control, so he made the decision. But since we have caught him, even if he only bans him for two months, we must make full use of this opportunity to maximize the blow to Liu Biao's reputation and appeal. All we need to do is to use his own trick against him..."

Zhuge Liang whispered one or two insignificant little tricks into Liu Bei's ear, and a trace of pity flashed in Liu Bei's eyes when he heard them.

But after calming down and thinking about it, I felt that there was nothing to be reluctant about: Liu Biao was the first to be wary of me, and it was all Liu Biao's own fault. I just let Liu Biao get what he wanted.

……

Over the next ten days, in Wuchang, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang continued to farm, recruit talents, and set up schools. Sima Hui, Xu Shu, Shi Tao, and Yin Mo also adapted to their new identities and gradually got back on track.

The talent dispute between the two Lius seemed to have passed. On the surface, Liu Bei did not make any counterattack against Liu Biao's blockade, and seemed very magnanimous.

Back in Yangzhou, after separating from Liu Bei and his second brother, Zhuge Jin peacefully farmed for three whole months, improving his own technology and using the slack season in winter to build some necessary new infrastructure. He also sent Taishi Ci to open up a cross-sea trade route to Liaodong during the winter and bought back the first batch of Northeastern war horses. Everything was going as planned.

Half a month passed in a flash, and time soon came to the first month of the fifth year of Jian'an (200).

The New Year atmosphere finally made the Han people, who were filled with fear of war, relax a little. At least in the three southern states far away from the war, this seemed to be the case.

As for the people in the territories of Yuan and Cao in the north, peace has nothing to do with them for the time being.

Both sides have already stretched their pre-war mobilization strings to the maximum, and various attempts to form alliances and win allies have been deployed to the extreme. Any spark could cause an explosion.

Also because it was the New Year, Cai Mao and Zhang Yun, who had instigated Liu Biao to seal off the Yangtze River, relaxed their vigilance after the initial half-month of tension. They saw that there was no extreme reaction from Liu Bei and no one in Jingzhou was making a fuss or trying to escape.

On the one hand, if there is room for cutting corners in the size, composition, and frequency of the navy sent out to patrol the river every day, there will definitely be layers of cutting corners.

When Cai Mao was talking nonsense, he demanded that everything be done to the fullest, but when he was supervising himself, he could only supervise to the fullest extent of eight.

If Zhang Yun could carry out the order, he would be lucky if he could get 70% of it. As for those at the Duwei level, they might only get 50% or 60%. As for Qu Junhou and the front-line patrol warships... they didn't even have half the execution capacity left.

The Jingzhou army had not fought a tough battle for eight and a half years, nearly nine years, since Liu Biao took control and defeated Sun Jian.

In the past nine years, most of the time, even when dealing with small-scale conflicts and bearing pressure from Jiangdong, it was Huang Zu who was responsible.

After Huang Zu's death, most of his troops were forced to surrender by Zhuge Jin and Guan Yu. Only Su Fei led two thousand loyal men to escape to Liu Biao despite the dangers. However, Liu Biao deprived him of his military power and handed his troops over to Zhang Yun.

For an army that has basically not fought a war for nine years, the degree of military disrepair is extremely exaggerated.

Therefore, when Cao's army moved southward, they were easily defeated. The Jingzhou army that surrendered to Cao's army soon became synonymous with bad teammates. They betrayed Cao Cao in the Battle of Red Cliffs and were beaten by Zhou Yu (Zhou Yu actually did not annihilate many of Cao Cao's northern troops in the Battle of Red Cliffs. He mainly defeated the navy of the Jingzhou surrendered army. The novel exaggerated Cao Cao's losses).
To put it bluntly, the troops controlled by Cai Mao and Zhang Yun cannot be said to be "Italy in the third century AD", but they are not much inferior.

The most direct consequence of the neglect of military preparations and the compromise in execution was the so-called closure of the river, which soon became a feast for personal gain.

Because of the cessation of trade, the prices of some scarce materials that were not produced locally in Jingzhou rose. At this time, Cai Mao and Zhang Yun's own caravans immediately smelled the benefits, and then filled this gap, using the exclusive monopoly during the war preparation period to make a fortune.

After the caravan of the Kuai Liang and Kuai Yue families discovered the situation, they naturally wanted to take a piece of the pie. Kuai Yue also hinted to Cai Mao: If you don't give in, then go to the envoy and make all kinds of hints to make him realize what you are doing!
Cai Mao certainly didn't want to break up with them, as this wasn't a big deal. So when he heard the hint, he immediately agreed and dragged the Kuai family into the water, so that everyone could make Yuanzai Tang bigger together.

As a result, other families without power began to complain more and more. Especially after Liu Biao sealed off the Yangtze River, the channels for the families in the four counties of southern Jing to go to Wuchang for business were also cut off, and all were monopolized by Zhang Yun.

The trade monopoly, which lasted only a few months, would not generate excessively huge profits, and the backlash and resentment among the people should not accumulate too deeply.

Anyway, Liu Biao would definitely guarantee the supply of Huai salt in Jingzhou, so that there would not be a shortage of essential goods. If it was really insufficient, merchants from the four counties in southern Jingzhou could also exchange Sichuan salt for Chu, using Sichuan salt to replace Huai salt.

However, the situation this month cannot be estimated based on normal conditions.

Because the area controlled by Liu Bei on the opposite side happened to have several products that were in the explosive period.

With the opening of the Daye Iron Mine in E County and the popularization of the new steel pouring technology, Zhuge Liang deliberately dumped a large number of cheap steel civilian tools on the market to provoke the nerves of the major tyrants and merchants in Jingzhou. The Er Ya and part of the Mao Shi printed in batches by the Wuchang Printing Bureau were also temporarily transferred and sold to Jingzhou at a low price - even when the library reserves of the Wuchang Academy itself were not enough, the dumping demand of the Jingzhou market was given priority.

There is no doubt that this was part of Zhuge Liang's strategy to undermine Liu Biao's reputation.

Liu Biao sealed off the Yangtze River not for the purpose of allowing Cai Mao, Zhang Yun and the Kuai family to make profits, but to prevent the flow of talent.

However, Zhuge Liang dumped the scarce commodities after Liu Biao ordered the closure of the Yangtze River, deliberately allowing the enemy to earn the monopoly price difference and deliberately giving Cai Mao and Zhang Yun a temporary advantage. As a result, he also brought great hatred to Cai Mao and Zhang Yun.

Cai Mao and Zhang Yun did not react for a while and just felt that they were lucky: they had just instigated the envoy to seal off the river and control the trade at the same time, but immediately there were so many popular and good goods being sold from the other side, and the three families of Cai, Zhang and Kuai became the monopoly middlemen and made a fortune!
The "book trade" industry did not exist in the Han Dynasty, because books in this era had to be copied by hand and it would not form an industry at all.

Really rich people don't want to copy books themselves. At most, they will hire someone to copy them, or keep retainers for a long time and let the retainers help copy books when they are free. In short, there is no such thing as buying books with money. This is truly priceless and out of stock.

The Er Ya and Mao Shi, which were sold in bulk at the Wuchang Printing House, immediately attracted a group of people in Jingzhou who were ambitious but had no way to find books and had some spare money. They were mainly small landlords with no education and small tyrants who had just been cleansed from banditry and became legitimate.

This is an opportunity to break the aristocratic families’ monopoly on knowledge!
As the printed book spread, rumors about Liu Biao's unfavorable intentions in enfeoffment of Jiang began to spread wildly. People's resentment towards the "Cai Zhang Kuai" triangle grew day by day.

It just so happened that all this happened around the New Year, and Liu Biao was idle and not taking care of government affairs, so he was not well-informed about the news and was slow to react.

Finally, it was around the Lantern Festival that Yi Ji discovered that something was wrong with the public opinion. He immediately asked to see Liu Biao, told him the situation, and asked Liu Biao to change his ways.

Liu Biao then came to his senses and asked Wang Wei, who was in charge of the guards, whether there was any fraud in the army's implementation of the order to close the river.

Wang Wei also stated the truth, and Liu Biao was shaken. He decided to find an opportunity to quietly end the order to close the river without losing face, but it was already too late.

……

While Liu Biao was confused and slow, a not-so-small incident occurred in Huangjiazhuang, Deng County in the first month of the fifth year of Jian'an.

This day had been more than 20 days since Xiang Lang refused Liu Biao's request for exile and had been living in Huangjiazhuang. Xiang Lang's family also spent the New Year in Huangjiazhuang, just to make it easier for them to escape as soon as possible if they had the chance.

It can be said that Xiang Lang was determined to leave. Liu Biao was deceived by Cai Mao and Zhang Yun, which made Xiang Lang completely disappointed in him.

The generals of chariots and cavalry have begun to give priority to selling books to the people of Jingzhou! Cai Mao and Zhang Yun are still taking advantage of this monopoly to make money! The superiority and inferiority are clear at a glance!
How can there be any future working with greedy people like Cai Mao and Zhang Yun?
However, Wuchang was slow to send a ship to pick him up, so Xiang Lang had no choice but to ask the Huang family to help raise a ship. But Huang Chengyan repeatedly said not to provoke Liu Biao so quickly and to wait and see how the situation develops.

Xiang Lang occasionally used his own family to raise a few small boats to explore the way, but they were always stopped by the navy led by Zhang Yun, Su Fei's former subordinates. He had to continue to endure it.

A few days later, it was the seventeenth day of the first lunar month, two days after the Lantern Festival.

Suddenly, two fast ships of the Jingzhou navy arrived at the Deng County Wharf near Huangjiazhuang. After the ships docked, two officers came down, accompanied by only a few attendants and bodyguards, and came all the way to Huangjiazhuang.

Huang Chengyan thought they were here to cause trouble, and could not help but feel a little angry: "Cai Mao and Zhang Yun are getting worse and worse. I have been cooperating with them and not embarrassing Brother Jingsheng, but they still dare to come to us?"

Xiang Lang persuaded him: "Mr. Huang, don't be angry. Maybe it's a misunderstanding, or maybe he came for other reasons. Let me deal with it first. If it's really Cai Mao and Zhang Yun who are doing this, it won't be too late to ask Mr. Huang to come forward."

Huang Chengyan then nodded and asked Xiang Lang to handle it for him.

So Xiang Lang brought the farmhands with swords to the gate of the manor and asked them to open the door with a cautious look on their faces.

At the door were two village chiefs, who looked neatly dressed in armor and equipped with weapons, but they did not look vicious, nor did they look like they were here to cause trouble.

Xiang Lang asked tentatively: "This is Mr. Huang's manor, I wonder what you two want to do?"

One of the captains bowed his hands stiffly, pointed at his companion, and introduced himself: "My surname is Wei Yan, and I was originally sent by the envoy to Nanyang to assist Zhang Xiu's troops. After Zhang Xiu surrendered to Cao, my troops were fortunately not coerced. After untold hardships, I returned and was assigned to Zhang Yun's camp and promoted to captain.

This Ma Tunzhang is named Kang, a branch of the Yicheng Ma family. He was sent by the Ma family to join the army. He once followed Huang Zu and Su Fei, and later followed Su Fei to return. He was also assigned to Zhang Yun. Mr. Xiang should have seen us, right? You once tried to sneak across the Han River to Wuchang, but we stopped you. "

Xiang Lang's face darkened slightly when he heard this, but he didn't know what the other party was trying to do, so he didn't dare to get angry.

If the other party wanted to emphasize that he had once blocked him, there was no need for him to go to Huangjiazhuang to mock him, right?
Xiang Lang suppressed his emotions and asked patiently, "So, why did you come here today..."

Wei Yan then pulled out a volume of Er Ya from his chest, pointed at it and said, "I have little education and cannot recognize all the characters. I originally planned to be a warrior for the rest of my life. Recently, I learned that Mr. Shui Jing is in Wuchang, helping his disciple Zhuge Liang to use magic to print scriptures and sell them to Jingzhou at a low price, so that people in Jingzhou can also learn to read. His virtue is not shallow!

Zhang Yun, a man of little means, not only blocked the river to block the way for talented people, but also manipulated his power to make profits. He dared to sell Er Ya, which cost 500 coins a volume, for several thousand coins! He also suppressed other colleagues. Only Cai Mao Zhang Yun could do such a thing!
Brother Ma also told me that they originally followed General Su, who was loyal and resolute. Although he was surrounded and disarmed by Guan Yu, he still wanted to surrender to his former master regardless of the dangers. However, he was framed by Cai Mao and Zhang Yun, who took away his military power and made Brother Ma and his men work for Zhang Yun!

We have now completely seen through Zhang Yun's deceitful and deceitful ways, and we really don't want to work for him! If Mr. Huang and Mr. Xiang want to return to Wuchang, we can take advantage of the opportunity of patrolling the river tomorrow, take the soldiers from the two garrisons under our command, board these two warships, go downstream at night, break through the blockade, and one night is enough to get away from the blockade!

I only hope that when Mr. Xiang arrives in Wuchang and sees your teacher and all of you classmates, he can introduce us to a way to join the Cavalry General!"

Xiang Lang was stunned. He was out of touch with the news and had no idea how Liu Biao had been instigated by Cai Mao and Zhang Yun to do such unpopular things in just a few months, to the point that the Jingzhou soldiers who had returned from Su Fei and Zhang Xiu no longer wanted to work for Liu Biao!

Even though this is just an isolated case, it is a glimpse of the problem.

(End of this chapter)