My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 276: Not human inside and out

Although Yi Ji was authorized by Liu Biao to ask for Jingnan and participate in the negotiations, he did not have the final decision-making power after all.

He thought he had done his best and negotiated the best possible conditions for Liu Biao, so he went to Xiangyang to report with Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang's reply.

Before leaving, Liu Bei of course wanted to keep him and entertain him for a few days to help him relieve his fatigue from the journey and the exhaustion from traveling back and forth, so Yi Ji did not leave until July 14th.

The return trip had to go upstream along the Han River, which took two more days on the road than the trip there. We arrived in Xiangyang on July 21st.

Yi Ji did not hesitate to go back and rest for a night, so he asked for an audience with Liu Biao that afternoon and laid out the conditions for his return:

“My lord, the General of Chariots and Cavalry said that Changsha City has not been conquered yet, and the people of Changsha County are fierce and treacherous. There have been many rebellious bandits in the past ten years, and they must be governed with thunder and lightning. So he hopes that in the future, the Xiang River will be the boundary, and he will send people to govern Changsha County to prevent bandits from appearing again and corrupting the surrounding areas.

However, the General of Chariots and Cavalry listened to Kong Ming's advice and was willing to hand over the power to appoint the prefects of Wuling and Lingling counties to his lord. There were still several vacancies in the two counties for county magistrates, who could also be appointed by his lord. However, they were not allowed to bring soldiers from other places to take up the posts and could only recruit county soldiers locally.

The reason is that the General of Chariots and Cavalry also needs to appease the hearts of those who surrendered, and cannot betray those who have fought alongside him, so that Li Yan, Dong He and others don't have to worry about being liquidated in the future. I have argued with reason, but I really can't eliminate the other party's concerns, so I can only agree to this. "

There must be many details in the negotiation terms between the two parties, and Yi Ji could not elaborate on them all at once. He just picked out the key points and gave Liu Biao an outline, and then slowly interpreted them.

After listening to this, Liu Biao saw the problem: "You only give me the power to appoint the two counties in Xiangxi? And I can only take office alone? Doesn't that mean I will be sidelined by Liu Bei as soon as I arrive? What can I do?"

Liu Biao himself was a victim of taking office alone. He knew best how difficult it was for a person with no military power to carry out work after being parachuted into the local area.

He has been the governor of Jingzhou for ten years, but he is still influenced by the Kuai family and the Cai family. All his decisions now seem to be independent, but there is an additional major premise, which is that he cannot harm the interests of the Kuai and Cai families.

Yi Ji was also in a difficult position, so he helped to explain from his own perspective: "My lord, after all, our army did not mobilize any troops in this battle. The battle was fought by the chariot and cavalry generals. They also helped to annihilate Xing Daorong's troops who attacked Jiangling, saving Nanjun from the destruction of the continuous war.

Now that the General of Chariots and Cavalry is willing to give up the title of the two counties, he is already in the right. If we continue to press on, I am afraid it will do more harm than good. Cao Cao has already been offended by our army. Even if our army does not actively attack Cao Cao in the future, it will be difficult to ease the relationship between the two sides. We cannot offend more people at this time. "

Upon hearing this, Liu Biao's face turned a little grim. He stroked his sparse gray beard and pondered in silence, obviously assessing the pros and cons.

Liu Bei had already given him face and found a way out, so the only thing left was the question of strength. Even if he was a little right, the gap in strength was too big...

Yi Ji was also afraid that his lord would not remain calm, and seeing that Liu Biao was wavering, he continued to hint at the situation:
"My lord, there are two things I should say... Actually, it is not my place to say them. If I say them, outsiders might think that I have taken advantage of Liu Bei and have betrayed him. But I have a clear conscience, and I must say them for my lord's sake:

To put it bluntly, before Zhang Xian's rebellion, the counties in southern Jing had already obeyed the orders of their lord and only submitted in name. When Zhang Xian was asked to fight Huang Zu last year, did he send troops? No.

At that time, the attack on Huang Zu was an order from the Xudu court controlled by Cao Cao, saying that Huang Zu was a traitor who killed angels, but Zhang Xian was indifferent. It can be seen that Zhang Xian only accepted the orders from the Xudu court when they were beneficial to him, and pretended not to hear or made excuses when they were not beneficial to him.

Now that the General of Chariots and Cavalry has defeated Zhang Xian, my lord can take back the right to appoint prefects of two of the counties. This is already a free benefit. If it were this time last year, we wouldn't even be able to get this.

Since he had never possessed it, why should he regard it as "lost again"? The more he could get back, the better. Besides, the four counties in southern Jing still belonged to the lord in name, and the General of Chariots and Cavalry had not taken that away.

On the other hand, among the two counties in Xiangdong, the only one that the General of Chariots and Cavalry had to appoint a new governor was Changsha County. As for the remaining Guiyang County, the former governor Zhao Fan was coerced by Zhang Xian, but now he has rebelled and is retained in his original position.

If the lord is afraid of losing face, he can issue another decree to recognize Zhao Fan's rebellion and allow him to continue to serve as the governor of Guiyang. In this way, except for Changsha County, where the rebellion was initiated, which was completely handed over to the general of chariots and cavalry, the lord will not lose any reputation in other aspects and will not be regarded as weak by the world. "

Liu Biao was a man who cared a lot about his reputation. After being comforted by Yi Ji, he finally felt much better.

If he could nominally appoint two prefects and posthumously recognize an existing prefect, then he would still control three of the four prefectures in southern Jing, which would not be a disgrace. Changsha was the first place to rebel, and Liu Bei paid a heavy price for attacking it. It was reasonable for Liu Bei to strictly control and purge it in the future.

Although everyone knows that even if Zhao Fan was retained by Liu Biao in name, he was actually obeying Liu Bei and doing Liu Bei a favor. Liu Biao only got a false reputation, but no real benefits.

"In that case... I have no choice but to agree to my dear brother Xuande's request..." Liu Biao thought about it, his eyes showing pain, and he closed his eyes reluctantly, as if he had accepted his fate.

Yi Ji also took a deep breath, and finally added a bargaining chip with sincerity: "My lord, there is another thing right now, which I think is more important than the negotiation on paper, that is to get the benefits promised by the General of Chariots and Cavalry as soon as possible, instead of haggling over the paper. You should know that there are many traitors among the princes in the world nowadays. This time, it is also thanks to the fact that my lord is negotiating with the General of Chariots and Cavalry. If the other party is Cao Cao or Sun Ce, will he still talk to us? Is it possible for them to spit out what they have eaten?
Only if the other party is a gentleman of integrity like Lord Xuande, we can rely on reason and reputation to get back some things. We are already a gentleman who deceives others with his own methods. What I am most worried about now is that Lord Xuande and Mr. Kongming pretend to be good people and let Zhang Yide pretend to be the bad guy.

The new officials we send to Wuling and Lingling will be lucky if they can actually reach their posts, even if they are alone. If they are rudely obstructed by Zhang Yide or encounter an accident on the way, that would be a more dangerous situation. I don't want this to happen. I can only ask you to arrange the appointment as soon as possible, test the waters, and increase mutual trust between the two sides."

When Liu Biao was reminded by Yi Ji, he remembered that Liu Bei was the most trustworthy among the princes in the world.

If you change a person, who would still have face? Is face as good as real territory and power?

Historically, when Sun Quan and Liu Bei were negotiating on the Xiang River as the boundary, Sun Quan initially sent officials to Changsha and Guiyang counties due to communication problems, and Guan Yu did not allow them to take office smoothly.

Although these things have not happened yet in this time and space, it is not wrong for Yi Ji to anticipate the enemy and start planning from the worst case scenario. Moreover, Zhang Fei's personality is obviously more reckless than Guan Yu.

If the trouble of "a general is not bound by the king's orders when he is away from the court" really happens again, and Zhang Fei does not carry out what Liu Bei promised, Liu Biao will be in trouble.

After being reminded of this, Liu Biao finally realized that "ten birds in the bush are not as good as one bird in the hand". He actually picked up something that hadn't even started yet... He was really careless.

Why don't you throw a stone to test the water first, send two governors over, occupy the pit first, and test whether Zhang Fei will resist Liu Bei's life!
In this way, Liu Biao further lowered his psychological expectations.

Subconsciously, I thought, "It seems that being able to ensure that two governors take office is already very good, how can I dare to expect anything else."

Then, Liu Biao began to seriously consider the candidates for the two vacant prefectural governor positions. After thinking for a while, he tentatively asked Yi Ji, "Ji Bo, who do you think can be the prefect of Wuling and Lingling?"

Yi Ji was shocked: "How dare I interfere with the selection of county governors? This must be the original intention of the lord. However, I think that the candidates for these two governors must be loyal to the lord and courageous.

If you are not loyal enough, you will not be able to lead troops when you arrive at the place. You will inevitably be unable to carry out your work and will easily compromise when you encounter obstacles. If you are not courageous enough, you may not have the courage to take up your post when facing Zhang Yide's patrol and blockade of the river. "

Liu Biao listened and nodded subconsciously. He also realized the problem.

The key to selecting the governor this time is to be courageous. Some timid people might be frightened when they hear that Zhang Fei might obstruct them.

Liu Biao was not in a hurry to give an answer immediately. He asked Yi Ji to step down first. After a few days of careful consideration, repeated investigations, and interviews, Liu Biao finally decided on two candidates based on historical inertia:
Wu Ju and Lai Gong.

In the original history, these two people were appointed as the prefect of Cangwu and the governor of Jiaozhou respectively after Liu Biao pacified Zhang Xian on his own. It could be regarded as an attempt by Liu Biao to gain power in Jiaozhou.

In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, on the eve of the Battle of Red Cliffs, Lu Su came to Liu Bei after his defeat at Changbanpo and asked him what his plans were for the future.

Zhuge Liang was afraid that Liu Bei would lose face if he directly said "I want to ally with Wu", so he used Wu Ju as an excuse, saying "My lord has an old relationship with Wu Ju, the governor of Cangwu, and I want to go and join him."
Then he seduced Lu Su into saying, "Wu has a large army, few generals and few soldiers. How can we trust them? Now, for your advice, the best way is to send a trusted envoy to join forces with Sun to fight against the enemy."

Judging from their place of origin, Wu Ju was from Changsha County and Lai Gong was from Lingling County.

After weighing the pros and cons, Liu Biao decided that people from the same county could not be officials in the local area, so he appointed Wu Ju as the governor of Wuling and Lai Gong as the governor of Lingling, and prepared them to take office that day to test whether Liu Bei would keep his promise.

After the news came out, Liu Biao and Liu Bei naturally had their own reactions.

On Liu Biao's side, Cai Mao, Zhang Yun and others were shocked and looked for opportunities to advise Liu Biao to revoke his decision.

Cai Mao found an opportunity and said to Liu Biao in private: "Brother-in-law, don't fall for Zhuge Liang's scheme and be too hasty! Zhuge Liang clearly wants the territory and wants to help Liu Bei gain a good reputation and win the hearts of the scholars in Jingzhou!
He took advantage of your concern that Zhang Fei would obstruct his taking office and let your brother-in-law test the waters first. Once Wu Ju and Lai Gong took office smoothly, the matter would be over.

If my brother-in-law feels that he has suffered a loss in the future, he can't bring up the past and ask Liu Bei for more benefits! Otherwise, it will be us who are fickle and damage our reputation and credibility.

In my opinion, it is better not to reach a final negotiation with Liu Bei for the time being, not to agree to this condition, and then bargain, maybe you can get more - by the way, Yi Biejia, who is in charge of the negotiation, would not have accepted Liu Bei's benefits and helped him to eat his own food! Otherwise, why is he so eager to persuade the lord to accept Liu Bei's conditions! "

(End of this chapter)