Jinting Han people

To be fair, Liu Xian was not someone who relied on popular opinion.

After all, since the age of eighteen, he had experienced more than thirty battles, large and small. From his firsthand experience with swords and fire, from the teachings of his predecessors such as Zhang Gui and Meng Guan, and from witnessing the fates of his opponents such as Hao San, Qi Wannian, and Sima Jiong, he understood a principle very early on: the key to victory does not lie in the level of strategy, but in the courage to make a decision.

The Six Secret Teachings states, "The greatest harm in warfare is hesitation; the greatest calamity for an army is doubt." This means that no matter how brilliant a strategy is, if it cannot be implemented immediately, it is probably worse than a mediocre plan that is easy to implement. Therefore, as a general, although one can use group discussions to listen to opinions or to inspire morale, ultimately one must dare to take personal responsibility and make the final decision.

But Liu Xian is no longer just a general. He spent over a decade transforming himself from a combative warrior who always fought for the lead into a commander who plans carefully before acting. Now, however, he is responsible not only for the army and soldiers, but also for hundreds of thousands of subjects and common people who follow him. He is now a leader and a monarch.

Although Liu Xian's experience in this area was still relatively inexperienced, he understood early on that subjects and common people could not be governed using military methods. Especially on matters concerning people's livelihoods, he had to listen to the voices of the people and confirm their wishes before implementing any measures. Otherwise, forcibly acting against the will of the people was not necessarily doomed to failure, but it would at least come at a considerable cost.

Therefore, Liu Xian was extremely tempted upon hearing Lu Zhi's proposal, but he dared not make a hasty decision. He understood that this proposal would significantly affect everyone who followed him, and it would be best to obtain the consent of the majority before implementing it.

On the first day, Liu Xian discussed the matter with his staff and attendants in Anyi, as he first wanted to know their attitudes.

During this period, due to Liu Xian's order to expand the army, most of the staff were busy taking stock of the household registers in preparation for the expansion. When they learned of Lu Zhi's proposal, although they were somewhat surprised, they did not have much attachment to their homeland of Hedong, so they focused more on the feasibility of the policy.

Li Sheng analyzed, "My lord, this is not a simple matter. If we want to start relocating the people, we must first persuade them, which will take a lot of time. And when it comes to the formal relocation, how to move them, which route to take, how long it will take, and where they will finally settle down all require careful consideration."

Lu Yun, with his extensive experience in governing the people, proposed a feasible strategy after careful consideration: since Xiayang and Longmen Ferry are now in the hands of the Hedong Army, they can cross the river from there, then go through Huanglong Mountain, where Qi Wannian hid, detour to Beidi County, where Liu Shen, the governor of Yongzhou, is located, follow the foot of Longshan Mountain all the way to Chencang, and then enter Hanzhong through Chencang Road.

“As long as we do three things, we can guarantee the smooth progress of the relocation.” Lu Yun held up three fingers and said one by one: “First, recruit Liu Shen, the governor of Yongzhou; second, seize Chencang City; third, win over Yang Maosou of Qiuchi.”

With Liu Shen's support, they could not only move freely in the north, but also resist the Western Army in Longxi; with Chencang City, they would control the key to entering Shu from Guanzhong; and with Yang Maosou's assistance, they would have a foothold in Hanzhong. After thinking about these three points, Li Ju said to Liu Xian, "Brother, the main force of the Western Army is currently in Hongnong. As long as we plan properly, these three points are not difficult to solve."

Liu Xian nodded slightly. He was now only concerned with the most crucial question: "If we go this way, how long would it take, conservatively speaking?"

Fu Chang, familiar with geography, quickly arrived at a rough answer: "If we don't count the time spent persuading people, and only consider the formal relocation, it's about 800 li from Xiayang to Chencang, and another 800 li from Chencang to Hanzhong. Ordinary people, with their families, would walk about 30 li a day, and even less on mountain roads. If there are no unexpected weather conditions, it would take about two months."

"Two months..." Liu Xian lowered his head and pondered for a moment before saying, "Then let's make the calculation even more generous, three months! Three months should be more than enough time, right?"

Three months, not counting preparation time, just considering the time needed to tie down the Western Army, would be at least three months. This is no easy task, but it's not impossible. It should be noted that Qi Wannian, who once dominated Guanzhong, managed to keep the Western Army bewildered for half a year. However, Qi Wannian's opponent then was Sun Xiu, while his opponent now is far stronger.

Regardless, after this analysis, the advisors reached a consensus: if there were indeed two million bushels of grain as a foundation, and military containment was achieved, this was indeed a possibility. However, the most specific difficulty lay in whether the people were willing to leave.

Migration is an extremely arduous undertaking. As the saying goes in the pre-Han period, "The people's fear of migration is greater than their fear of being executed." After all, being executed is merely the death of one person in the family. But once they embark on the journey of migration, they will encounter all sorts of problems: loss of property along the way, no land after moving far away, unfamiliarity with local customs, and inconvenience to the local environment. Many people perish during the migration.

Even though Liu Xian had arranged everything for the journey, there's an old saying: "It's hard to leave one's homeland." One's homeland is where one was born and raised; people have an inseparable attachment to it, making it extremely difficult to sever ties. Not to mention the arduous journey of 1,600 li ahead, a road many have never traveled.

For the next three days, Liu Xian sent messengers to inform the former subordinates and people in Hedong and even Xiayang about this matter, in order to find out their opinions.

This immediately stirred up a hurricane among the remnants of the Shu Han dynasty. In fact, Shu Han had been destroyed for forty years, and very few of those currently in power still remembered it. They were willing to believe in Liu Xian, partly due to the influence of the elders' teachings, but more importantly, because they had personally witnessed Liu Xian's actions over the years and had a certain degree of recognition of his abilities and his ability to achieve victory.

However, this did not mean they were willing to leave Hedong. As Liu Xian had worried, forty years was enough for two generations to change, and most people had developed feelings for Hedong but had no memory of Shu, even Liu Xian himself. Therefore, many people were unwilling to leave so easily.

Even the Xue family of Hedong, who had always supported Liu Xian, had some arguments at home. For example, Xue Xing's second brother, Xue Diao, opposed the journey. He argued with his seriously ill father, Xue Yi, saying, "Your body is so weak, how can you withstand the turbulence? Our family property is right here. Are we going to abandon it all?"

This illustrates a rather awkward situation: the few remaining elderly people who yearn to return to their hometowns, even if they have the desire, are too physically able to withstand the hardships of the journey. Meanwhile, the young people who are able to return are mostly reluctant to part with their accumulated wealth and have little emotional connection to Sichuan and Chongqing.

Xue Yi was naturally unwilling. He had been lying on the bed, but now he sat up, clutching his back. Like many old friends, he tried to persuade his sons: "The chaotic times have arrived. It is already difficult enough to save your life. How can you expect to save your family business? Money can be saved again, houses can be earned again, but if you lose your life, you lose everything."

“But isn’t this journey fraught with risk? Won’t anyone lose their life?” Faced with the same question, Ru Shekang retorted to his father, She Chun, a descendant of She Yuan, the Military Advisor of Shu Han. “Of course there will be risks, but everything in this world has its risks. We chose our lord because we believe he can lead us out of this storm,” said Xu Guang, the great-grandson of Xu Jing, the former Grand Tutor of Shu Han.

The remnants of the Hedong regime could not persuade each other, and in the end, they could only send letters to Liu Xian, expressing their thoughts and attitudes. The number of opponents was greater than Liu Xian had estimated, which made him, for the first time, hesitate to implement the plan.

But after reading all the letters, three of them strengthened Liu Xian's resolve and resolved his worries.

The first letter was from Xia Yang. Xia Yang's magistrate, Xi An, told Liu Xian that the people of Xia Yang were grateful for Liu Xian's kindness and would follow him to the death, no matter where he intended to go. After writing the letter, he attached a piece of yellow paper covered with densely packed bloody fingerprints.

This is not hard to understand. Before Liu Xian's arrival, Xiayang was merely a county on the verge of extinction. But after Liu Xian arrived, he worked diligently to govern the county, absorbing tens of thousands of homeless refugees, providing them with livelihoods, allocating land, and encouraging agriculture and commerce, ultimately transforming Xiayang into one of the largest counties in Guanzhong. In the eyes of the people of Xiayang, Liu Xian was almost a benefactor who gave them a second life. Therefore, they were willing to live and die together, no matter where they were.

The second letter was an additional one from Lu Zhi. After sending Lu Chen, he reflected on the matter and realized that grain alone might not be enough to persuade Liu Xian. Therefore, he sent an additional letter expressing his willingness to provide Liu Xian with two thousand powerful crossbows, five thousand warhorses, eight thousand sets of armor, three hundred thousand arrows, and three hundred sets of cavalry armor. In exchange, Liu Xian only needed to write a letter of vassalage to the King of Chengdu.

This solved Liu Xian's immediate problem. Since the Battle of Xilei, what Liu Xian lacked most was not troops, but sufficient armor and weapons. In particular, the cavalry of the Songzi Camp, although experienced, lacked the most important element: horse armor, which prevented them from exerting their full power. If this batch of armor and weapons could be delivered, Liu Xian's chances of carrying out his plan would immediately increase by 20%.

The last letter is the most important. It comes from Zhuge Xian, who tells Liu Xian that Zhuge Jing, the head of the Zhuge clan, has returned to Hedong and agrees to Liu Xian's proposal to persuade the Hedong gentry to go to Shu with him.

Zhuge Jing was indeed the son of Zhuge Zhan and the grandson of Zhuge Liang. After the fall of the Han dynasty, Sima Yan valued Zhuge Jing's status as a direct descendant of the Zhuge family and promoted him exceptionally, first appointing him as the magistrate of Mei County, then as the prefect of Yuzhang and Tianmen, among other positions, giving him considerable experience. When Liu Xian was in Luoyang, he often heard people discussing his name. Over the years, although Liu Xian had longed to meet him, he never had the opportunity, and later, with the chaos in Jiangnan, he knew even less about the details.

In fact, Zhuge Jing had already resigned from his official post and returned to Hedong Commandery last September. He had simply kept a low profile, and most people were unaware of this. Even when Liu Xian arrived, he did not appear. Only now did he surprisingly address his descendants:

"My family was originally from Xuzhou. We moved to Jingzhou and Yizhou after the war, and then to Hedong."

"Four generations, four different places, we are all rootless! If we cannot change things and find our roots, I'm afraid we will continue to drift like this, generation after generation, without a true home."

Zhuge Jing was also nearly sixty years old. Even though he was old and his talent and reputation were far inferior to his grandfather's, everyone had to take his statement seriously. After all, he was Zhuge Liang's grandson, and his grandfather's high expectations made him a natural spiritual leader. His support was undoubtedly the spiritual pillar for these people who had survived the fall of Hedong.

Liu Xian was deeply moved by this and said to his wife, "I believe that Prime Minister Zhuge's legacy still remains in our hearts, and no one dares to dishonor it."

At this point, he replied to Lu Chen: "I agree with Chief Secretary Lu's proposal. Please tell Chief Secretary Lu that I admire him greatly. Whenever he wants to come, there will always be a place for him here."

Lu Chen simply smiled and didn't take those words seriously. Having achieved his initial goal, he left in the same hurry as when he arrived.

But Liu Xian understood that after making this decision, the work he was about to do was something incredibly difficult. It wasn't that the task was inherently difficult to accomplish, but rather that he thought of history and was subsequently overcome by a sense of mission.

This prompted Liu Xian to once again gather the remaining people from Hedong, and before their anxious, excited, and bewildered faces, he slowly explained:
"Gentlemen, I believe you all already know that I intend to lead you all, abandoning everything in Hedong, to Bashu. I know you are all dissatisfied, but this is a chaotic world, and to survive in a chaotic world, one must pay a price. I do not want to pay that price. Who doesn't want to live in a peaceful world? Me too. But the future is not something we can wait for. To achieve victory, we must be willing to give up and forge ahead."

“I know that the hardship of moving is unbearable, but this is not something we have just encountered today. About a hundred years ago, the world was in turmoil, people filled ditches, and corpses were left without a place to rest. How similar the situation was to today! But even though the situation was so bleak, the people of Jingbei did not abandon their former lord. Instead, they shared the same boat with their former lord, braving the wind and rain, and then came from Jingzhou to Yizhou.”

"Liu Xian is unworthy. Although I am a descendant of the late emperor, I dare not compare myself to him. However, I know that many of you here have ancestral roots in Jingzhou, which is why we are here together. It can be said that without our ancestors' migration, there would have been no Three Revivals of the Han Dynasty, nor would we be who we are today. Although people often say that the Han Dynasty is declining, when I see you all, I cannot help but think of the Han Dynasty and that migration."

Some people say, "Isn't what we're about to do so difficult that it's impossible?"

"I don't believe it, gentlemen. The fact that we are still standing here is the best proof."

At this point, Liu Xian gripped the long sword at his waist, his expression becoming unusually solemn. He spoke slowly and deliberately, "Ninety-six years ago, our ancestors crossed the great river. Now, I will lead you all across the Qinling Mountains." (End of Chapter)