Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 382: The Three-Family Alliance, Shu Mang's Actions

Guangxin, the provincial capital.

"Uncle, something terrible has happened!"

The scholar lifted his skirt and ran quickly, waving to Liu Bei in the yard.

"Mr. Deshu!"

Liu Bei waved his hand to let his attendants retreat, then stepped forward and asked, "Sir, you look hurried, what's the matter?"

When he saw Liu Bei's face, Cheng Bing couldn't help but sigh.

Zhang Fei was impatient. Seeing Cheng Bing hesitated to speak, he urged him, "Sir, if you have anything urgent to say, please tell me. Don't keep me in suspense."

"Yide, don't be rude!" Liu Bei scolded him and asked, "Is it not easy to talk about this matter?"

"Hey!"

Cheng Bing sighed and said in a low voice, "Yuan Shu proclaimed himself emperor on April 24th, usurping the Han dynasty and establishing himself as emperor. He named his country Chen and changed the reign title to Jianzhong. After your majesty abdicated, there has been no news from you. I wonder if you have been killed by Yuan Shu or have been detained somewhere else."

"Yuan Shu usurped the Han Dynasty and established himself as emperor?"

"Boom!"

Liu Bei had expected this, but when he suddenly found out that Yuan Shu had usurped the throne, he could not help but feel sad. In anger, Liu Bei hit the wooden pillar with his hands, and his finger joints started bleeding.

"Beijing failed to serve the Han Dynasty and allowed Yuan Shu to usurp the throne. This is a grave sin!"

Liu Bei leaned against the pillar, weeping, and said, "In the past, Your Majesty did not regard me as a mean person, but called me the Emperor's uncle, and entrusted the country to me. But now the villain is arrogant, first killing the loyal ministers and concubines, and then forcing the palace to usurp the throne. I have failed to repay the country, and failed to fight Yuan Shu, and I have committed a crime against the Han Dynasty."

Seeing Liu Bei so sad, Cheng Bing hurried to comfort him, saying: "Don't be sad, General Liu. Yuan Shu claims to be a descendant of the Yuan family. Now that he has usurped the throne, he will not dare to murder Your Majesty. Perhaps Your Majesty has been placed by Yuan Shu in Nanyang."

As he spoke, Cheng Bing relayed another story, saying, "Not only did you send me to fight against the enemy, but according to my letters, Sun Jian issued a manifesto to denounce Yuan Shu for usurping the Han Dynasty, and then occupied Bashu to fight against Yuan. Cao Cao and Liu Yao also fought against Yuan, and used the troops in Jianghuai to repeatedly repel Yuan Shu."

"There are many people in the world who are loyal to the Han Dynasty. Previously, there were you, Cao Cao, and now Sun Jian is rebelling against Yuan. So you should not be sad and hurt yourself. Now we must be motivated to fight against Yuan and revive the Han Dynasty."

Liu Bei suppressed his emotion, wiped his face with his sleeve, and said, "Sir, I am sorry to have embarrassed you!"

"I admire your pure heart very much," said Cheng Bing.

Cheng Bing, courtesy name Deshu, was from Nandun, Runan. He was originally a disciple of Zheng Xuan. When the Qingzhou army was in chaos, Cheng Bing took a boat south to Jiaozhou to seek refuge and studied Confucian classics with Liu Xi. After Liu Bei was appointed as the governor of Jiaozhou, he learned of Cheng Bing's name and hired him as the chief secretary to assist him.

Historically, Liu Bei rescued Beihai County and appointed Zheng Xuan's disciple Sun Qian as his right-hand man. But now Liu Bei did not rescue Beihai, but followed Zhang Yu to defeat Li Jue and welcome the emperor to Luoyang, so he did not come into contact with Zheng Xuan. Now Liu Bei went to Jiaozhou and recruited the more outstanding Cheng Bing.

Liu Bei invited Cheng Bing to sit in the hall and asked, "I know that Cao Cao and Yuan Shu are enemies. But Sun Jian is a general under Yuan Shu and is highly respected. Why is he rebelling against Yuan Shu now?"

Cheng Bing shook his head and said, "I don't know the secrets. But it is true that Sun Jian rebelled against Yuan Shu. Every county in southern Jing has Sun Jian's edict. Maybe because Sun Jian has a high reputation and is an important official of Yuan Shu, all the officials and officials are talking about this matter."

"No matter why Sun Jian rebelled against Yuan, it is of great benefit to our army now," said Liu Bei.

"Now Sun Jian has rebelled and occupied Shu, Cao Cao is controlling the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers. If there are two people to contain Yuan Shu, the four counties in southern Jing may be left empty. If you can unite with the two and lead the troops out of Lingqu, you will be able to go straight down to Guiyang." Cheng Bing said.

Liu Bei slapped his knees and sighed, saying with regret: "It is the time to use troops, but I have no soldiers or food."

Liu Bei could only control Cangwu County, which had a small population, with only about 20,000 registered Han households, and a large number of people were barbarians. Liu Bei had 5,000 to 6,000 soldiers, half of whom were barbarians. If they were to line up and fight, they would be useless.

As for food and grass, Cangwu County is underdeveloped, and the small population means low output. Therefore, although Liu Bei is now the governor of Jiaozhou, he is actually not much different from the past when he was in Pingyuan State. He has no soldiers and no food. The last time he was able to defeat Xiang Xi, it was because Xiang Xi underestimated Liu Bei. Liu Bei used the terrain to lure the enemy deep into his territory and defeated him with a fire attack.

The difficulty of attacking and defending is very different. To march north from Jiaozhou to Jingzhou, the food and grass alone have to be transported for thousands of miles. Although there is water transportation, it is still inconvenient.

Zhang Fei folded his arms in dissatisfaction and said, "The sons of the Shi family are all over Jiaozhou. If you take me as the vanguard, I will lead the army to conquer Nanhai County. Nanhai is richer than Cangwu, and we will definitely get a lot of food and soldiers from it."

"Don't act rashly!" Liu Bei said, "Shi is a famous family in Jiaozhou, and my brothers are both governors of Jiaoling County. If we conquer Nanhai and turn against Shi, then you and I will have no place to stay in Jiaozhou."

Cheng Bing stroked his beard and chanted, saying: "Jiaoling is a place of barbarians. If you want to achieve success, you must go north to Jingzhou. The four counties in southern Jingzhou are rich in population, especially Changsha. If you can take Guiyang first and then Changsha, you will be able to fight against the enemy for the country!"

The Eastern Han Dynasty used population as an assessment indicator, and the amount of tax paid by the Eastern Han Dynasty to the barbarians was quite lenient, so the population of the southern states was not small. Therefore, although Jiaozhou had a population of millions, in fact, the actual registered Han people were only 300,000 or 400,000 at most.

But Jingzhou is different. Thanks to hundreds of years of development by the Chu State and the Han Dynasty, northern Jingzhou is almost the same as the Central Plains, and the four southern counties of Jingzhou are home to a large number of Han people.

For example, the most prosperous Changsha County had no less than 80,000 households, and the population of the county alone was greater than that of Jiaozhou. The total number of households in Lingling, Guiyang, and Wuling counties should be more than 100,000. Therefore, the population of the four counties in southern Jing would be one million, far more worthy of attention than Jiaoling.

Historically, Liu Bei was able to lead tens of thousands of troops to the west to conquer Bashu, and Guan Yu was able to lead 30,000 troops to the north to conquer Xiangyang, all thanks to the solid foundation of Jingnan. Now, Jingnan, which has not been ruined, may be even more prosperous.

When Liu Bei occupied Bashu + Jingnan, its peak population should have been more than two million, and its power was not weaker than that of the Eastern Wu at its peak. Therefore, Sun Quan repeatedly coveted Jingzhou, not only because the Northern Expedition to Jianghuai was unfavorable, but also because the population of Jingnan was rich and prosperous.

"The four counties of southern Jing are far away, and my brother has no soldiers or food to conquer them. So, although what you said is beautiful, it can't quench my brother's thirst!" Zhang Fei muttered.

Cheng Bing thought hard for a long time and said, "Sir, Shi Xie appointed you as the governor simply because he wanted you to guard Jiaozhou. Now that Yuan Shu has usurped the Han Dynasty, if you ask him to borrow troops and food to go north, Shi Xie will agree."

"Why do you say that?" Liu Bei asked, asking for advice.

Cheng Bing said: "Shi Xie has no intention of becoming king, but he has the intention of separatism. Therefore, Shi Xie is afraid of you, and he also needs you to guard Cangwu. Now you are leading troops to attack Jingzhou in the north. Shi Xie sees that you have no intention of fighting in the mountains, so he should be happy to send troops and provide food."

As he spoke, Cheng Bing cupped his hands and said, "I have a correspondence with Shi Xie. I would like to ask Shi Xie for food and soldiers on your behalf."

"Thank you, Mr. Deshu!" Liu Bei shook Cheng Bing's hand and said gratefully.

As Cheng Bing said, Shi Xie was afraid that Liu Bei would take Jiaoling from him, but he also needed Liu Bei to guard Cangwu for him, so his attitude towards Liu Bei was quite complicated.

When Cheng Bingnan went to pay a visit to Shi Xie, he prescribed the right medicine based on Shi Xie's complicated attitude.

First, he told Shi Xie that Liu Bei was not from Jiaozhou and had no intention of cultivating Jiaoling. Instead, he wanted to temporarily use Cangwu as a base and lead his troops north to attack Yuan. Now that Yuan Shu had proclaimed himself emperor, all those who cherished the Han Dynasty were filled with righteous indignation when they learned of Yuan Shu's usurpation of the throne, just like General Sun Jian who took Bashu and rebelled against Yuan.

Therefore, Liu Bei wanted to join forces with Sun Jian of Bashu and Cao Cao of Jianghuai to fight against Yuan Shu, the thief who usurped the Han Dynasty. However, Cangwu was poor and sparsely populated, so it was difficult to go thousands of miles north to fight against the thief. Therefore, he hoped that Shi Xie could do his best for the Han Dynasty and provide military supplies to support the army. He also implicitly stated that Liu Bei was aiming at Jingnan and had no intention of coveting the Jiaoling counties.

After much consideration, Shi Xie finally agreed to fund Liu Bei's Northern Expedition, sending 3,000 Han and barbarian soldiers to Liu Bei and supplying 60,000 shi of grain.

At the same time, Liu Bei received letters from Cao Cao and Sun Jian about their alliance, so he agreed to their alliance and issued a manifesto to fight against Yuan Shikai. Sun Jian and Cao Cao exchanged letters and also agreed to their alliance to fight against Yuan Shikai.

As Yuan Shu usurped the Han Dynasty and established himself as emperor, the heroes in the south, some wanting to restore the Han Dynasty, some wanting to establish their own states and counties, and some wanting to expand their territory, contacted each other through envoys. Finally, the Liu, Sun, and Cao families killed Yuan Shu's envoy as a sacrifice and formed an alliance to fight against Yuan Shu.

At that time, Sun Jian called himself the General of Chariots and Cavalry and was appointed as the Governor of Yizhou; Cao Cao called himself the General of the Front and was appointed as the Commander-in-Chief of the military affairs of all the counties in Yangzhou; Liu Bei called himself the General of the Left and was appointed as the Governor of Jiaozhou and was appointed as the Commander-in-Chief of the military affairs of all the counties in Jingzhou.

It is not difficult to predict that while Zhang Yu and Yuan Shao are deciding the outcome, Yuan Shu will face the backlash of usurping the throne and will be besieged by the three southern heroes.

In other regions, Yuan Shu's attempts to recruit and unite the princes through enfeoffment suffered repeated setbacks.

For example, when Lü Bu received the imperial edict from Yuan Shu conferring him the title of Duke of Lu, he was overjoyed. After Chen Gong's persuasion, Lü Bu intended to accept the title of Duke of Lu and planned to marry his daughter to Yuan Shu's son as the Crown Princess, thus forming a family of in-laws with Yuan Shu.

Chen Gui was afraid that Lü Bu would turn to Yuan Shu and the Central Plains would be completely controlled by Yuan Shu, so he went to lobby Lü Bu and said, "Yuan Shu betrayed the Han Dynasty and established himself as the emperor. He is unpopular. If you marry Yuan Shu, you will be guilty of injustice together. Your previous achievements in killing Dong and defeating Li will be wasted, and you will also be criticized by the world. You are in danger of being on the verge of collapse."

Chen Qun, who was temporarily staying under Lu Bu's command, advised Lu Bu not to accept the edict because of Lu Bu's kindness to him. He said, "Although Yuan Shu is powerful, the Han Dynasty still has the support of the people. Now that Yuan Shu has usurped the throne, he will lose everyone's hope. You may gain temporary glory, but you will bear a bad reputation."

After much consideration by Chen Gui and Chen Qun, Lü Bu reluctantly rejected Yuan Shu's edict and wrote a letter to persuade Yuan Shu to revoke his title and welcome the emperor back to the throne. Compared with Lü Bu's gentle attitude, Tao Shang of Xuzhou was more concise, beheaded the messenger, and issued a letter to attack Yuan Shu.

Not only Lu Bu and Tao Shang refused to accept the imperial edict, but Zhang Lu, who ruled Hanzhong County, followed Yan Pu's advice and escorted Yuan Shu's envoy to Hedong after receiving Yuan Shu's edict to await Zhang Yu's decision.

At this point, no one accepted Yuan Shu's edict to confer titles on the princes. Some refused to accept it, while others killed the envoys to make their intentions clear. This even led to an alliance between Cao, Sun, and Liu to attack him.

(End of this chapter)