Three Kingdoms: I am not Liu Bian

Chapter 306 Hundred Riders Raid the Camp of the Brocade Sail Bandits

On the fourth day of the second month of the second year of the Han Dynasty, west of Luoyang City.

A rapid sound of horses' hooves approached from afar, accompanied by the clear ringing of bells, breaking the tranquility of the suburbs and raising a cloud of dust.

Ten cavalrymen, weary from their journey, rode across the Jingou Canal, passed Guangyang Pavilion, and went through Pingleguan before finally arriving at Guangyang Gate, west of Luoyang.

The cavalrymen carried banners bearing the name of "General Zhenxi's Mansion." Liu Dan, the magistrate of Guangyang Gate, carefully verified the credentials and, after confirming their authenticity, waved them on.

However, as soon as they stepped into the city, the dozen or so cavalrymen were immediately stunned by the sight before them, and they all reined in their horses, their faces full of astonishment.

The prosperity of Luoyang City far exceeded their expectations. Shops lined both sides of the street, and pedestrians thronged the streets. Even ordinary people in plain clothes had a rosy glow on their faces and walked with ease.

The wealth and prosperity of Luoyang were truly dazzling, and the people of Luoyang on both sides of the street were already used to the stunned expressions of these cavalrymen.

It was not uncommon to see newcomers to Luoyang so bewildered, but the gazes of these Luoyang people toward the ten riders were undisguisedly filled with contempt and disdain.

This is not just targeting outsiders, but a natural aversion to barbarians!

Wearing bird feathers on their heads, without crowns or hats, and with disheveled hair, what is this if not the attire of barbarians?
Even wearing brocade robes embroidered with bird and beast patterns could not conceal their barbarian appearance. In fact, the combination of the brocade robes and barbarian accessories was particularly jarring, making one think of the phrase "a monkey wearing a crown."

After a brief moment of shock, the leading cavalryman snapped back to reality, his eyes narrowing as he urged his companions in a low voice. They had not come here to admire the splendor of the capital.

They've come to deliver good news from the south!
Inside the Yuntai Pavilion, upon hearing Huangfu Jianshou, who was in charge of the Nangong garrison that day, relay the news, a hint of joy appeared on Liu Bian's tired face.

Hmm... I'm exhausted... purely because Liu Bian went too far.

Liu Qing was promoted to Zhaoyi, setting her apart from the other concubines by a rank. Although she did not gain any power, she still aroused the envy of the other concubines, especially the Jieyu.

Then he, the emperor, became the target of his concubines' venting. At first, Liu Bian accepted all comers and even the more the merrier, since it was rare for these pampered daughters of their respective families to lower themselves and cooperate in developing many new tricks, and even pairing up to sleep together.

In just half a month, even the toughest man would turn into a pool of molten iron under the gentle touch of this tender embrace.

Therefore, two days ago, Liu Bian simply moved out of Lingtai Hall and directly into Yuntai Pavilion to live, so that he could finally rest in peace.

Liu Bian summoned the messengers from Nanzhong, but only one of them was summoned; the other nine were not messengers, but rather his accompanying guards.

The messenger was not an ordinary postman, but a young clerk in the household of General Jia Cong, the General Who Guards the West.

Liu Bian sat upright on his throne, his gaze fixed on the newcomer.

A clear, crisp sound of a copper bell rang out from the waist of the clerk of the General of the West's residence as he walked.

When he saw the man again, he was dressed in fine clothes, wearing bird feathers on his head, without a crown or hat, and with his hair disheveled... Liu Bian frowned slightly, feeling that this outfit seemed familiar.

Just as the clerk was about to bow in greeting, Liu Bian spoke first, asking with a hint of inquiry, "Is this the clothing of the Chu people?"

Upon hearing this, the prefectural clerk was slightly taken aback, then bowed deeply, his voice tinged with excitement, and said, "The nation is wise! It is indeed Chu clothing!"

Along the way, everyone said that this was the attire of barbarians and cast disdainful glances at them, but only the emperor recognized at a glance that it was the clothing of the Chu people!

He truly deserves to be called the Holy Emperor!

Liu Bian nodded slightly, understanding in his heart.

The people of Chu valued beauty and loved wearing brocade. They often embroidered bird and animal patterns on their brocade clothes, and wearing bird feathers on their heads was commonplace.

As for the bells at the waist, they carry a hint of the shamanistic style of the Chu region.

However, in an era when Han-style clothing and jade pendants were already mainstream and widespread, his attire was truly out of place, naturally attracting all sorts of strange looks.

Liu Bian glanced at the unconventional young official with a complicated expression, offering no comment on his attire. He simply raised his hand and said in a deep voice, "Present the battle report."

The prefectural clerk immediately presented the document.

General Jia Cong, who was in charge of conquering the south, divided his army into four routes. However, the terrain in the south was rugged and communication was inconvenient. After the battle reports from the three front-line armies were sent to Bidao, Zhao Ang, the governor of Yizhou who was stationed in Bidao with 7,000 troops from various prefectures and kingdoms, could not make any decisions. So he simply forwarded the battle reports of each army to the court.

Zhao Ang, the governor of Yizhou, was calm and composed yet resourceful. He ambushed the enemy four times using grain carts as bait, killing more than 2,700 barbarian soldiers from the south. This was a remarkable achievement for the rear army, which was responsible for ensuring logistics.

Of the three armies at the front, the first to achieve victory was the eastern army, commanded by General Yan Yan, who was in charge of suppressing bandits. This was in line with the strategic expectations of the court and Jia Cong.

The primary objective of the Eastern Route Army was to capture Qielan, the capital of Zangke Commandery.

Zangke Commandery was geographically close to the core area of ​​Bashu, and its degree of Sinicization and submission was relatively high.

When the rebellion first began to emerge, Liu Chong, the governor of Zangke Commandery (a member of the imperial clan sharing the same name as Prince Liu Chong of Chen), decisively led over three hundred personal guards, under the pretext of hunting, to flee the commandery capital of Qielan and gather local able-bodied men in Bi County. (Note 1)

When Yan Yan led the eastern army south, Liu Chong and his subordinates volunteered to act as guides, which made Yan Yan's advance exceptionally smooth.

The Eastern Route Army defeated several rebel groups and arrived at the gates of Qielan City in just over ten days.

The rebel leaders, led by the Zhu clan of Zangke, were shocked. They had assumed that the terrain of Zangke was complex and densely forested, and that the imperial army would be unfamiliar with the roads and would take at least a month to reach them. Therefore, the main force of the rebels was still attacking the counties of Pingyi and Yelang, which refused to submit to the rebels, and was unable to return in time to provide assistance.

At this time, the rebel forces in Qielan City were weak, with less than two thousand defenders.

Yan Yan acted decisively, without waiting for the supply battalion to arrive to transport siege equipment. He commanded his army to besiege the city and cut down trees to make siege ladders. The next day, he launched an offensive against Qielan.

Considering that the three thousand Cong people under Marquis Du Huo of Congdong were skilled in mountain warfare but not in siege warfare, Yan Yan only required Du Huo's troops to launch a feint attack.

Unexpectedly, Du Huo was straightforward and lacked experience in siege command, so he insisted on a brute-force attack. After three days of siege, the Cong people suffered heavy casualties, with more than 800 men killed! With more than a quarter of his troops lost, Du Huo was both heartbroken and furious. On the fourth day of the siege, he simply put on his armor and went into battle himself, holding a shield in his left hand and a sword in his mouth as he scaled the city walls.

At this time, the main force of the rebel army was drawn into a fierce battle on another city wall by the Yizhou army, which was in charge of the main attack, making Du Huo's feint attack force the breakthrough point.

As the tribal leader, Du Huo personally donned armor and wielded weapons, arousing the fighting spirit of the Cong people, who launched a fierce attack, especially after Du Huo was the first to scale the city wall!

After conquering Qielan, Yan Yan led his troops to wipe out the remaining rebel forces in Zangke County. After a month, he finally completely recovered Zangke County before the Lunar New Year.

However, after recovering Zangke County, Yan Yan resolutely rejected the prefect Liu Chong's appeasement suggestion of "attacking the city is inferior, winning hearts is superior," and instead carried out a large-scale purge of the powerful clans involved in the rebellion.

All the powerful families who participated in the rebellion, regardless of the severity of their crimes, had all adult male members of their families executed, and their female relatives were all enslaved and forced to perform menial tasks for the army.

However, Yan Yan fully demonstrated the benevolence of the imperial army towards ordinary people, taking a portion of the grain, oxen, and farm tools seized from the rebel families and distributing them to the people. He also strictly forbade his soldiers from harassing the people, decreed that those who killed would be put to death, and those who injured or stole would be punished.

Liu Chong wanted to persuade Yan Yan to reduce killing and increase appeasement, but Yan Yan was adamant, claiming that he was following the imperial decree.

And this was indeed Liu Bian's opinion.

Only when a nation's strength is insufficient should it resort to the so-called policy of appeasement.

But now, what the imperial court wants is a clean and peaceful four prefectures in the south, a treasure land where the officials sent by the court can focus on developing gold, silver, copper and iron mines and salt wells, rather than a dangerous place that still has many hidden dangers and may even rebel again!

The barbarians of Nanzhong have repeatedly failed to live up to the grace of the Celestial Empire, surrendering only to rebel again, a situation that cannot be stopped despite repeated attempts. Is this the effect of appeasement in Nanzhong?
On the western route towards Yuexi County, after Jia Cong personally led his army across the Bei River, they initially advanced with unstoppable momentum. Zhang Ren, the commander under the General of the West, shot and killed the King of Maoniu, and Ling Bao, the commander under his command, killed the King of Panmu in battle.

However, due to the Western Route Army's killing of two kings, the Yuexi barbarian kings, fearing the might of the Han army, dispersed into smaller groups and fled into the mountains and forests. They used the familiar terrain to constantly harass the Han army's supply lines and small units, which not only greatly slowed down the Han army's advance but also caused considerable casualties.

Faced with this situation, Xi Zhicai, a soldier, offered a suggestion.

First, they secretly transferred the grain, medicine, and other supplies from the supply camp. Then, they set fire to the empty warehouses filled with straw and wood to create the illusion that the grain and supplies had been destroyed and the morale of the troops was in chaos. They then "hastily" withdrew their troops.

General Jia Cong understood the plan and acted accordingly. During the retreat, he ordered his soldiers to "inadvertently" allow several groups of Yuexi barbarian prisoners to escape.

These prisoners escaped back to their tribes and spread the news that the Han army had run out of food and was withdrawing.

Upon hearing the news, the kings of Yuexi were overjoyed, seeing it as a golden opportunity. They immediately gathered their main forces and launched a full-scale attack to pursue the "retreating" Han army.

Along the way, the Han army abandoned many weapons and armor. Seeing the Han army in disarray, the Yuexi barbarian kings became even more convinced that the Han army had truly been defeated and fled. They pursued them across the Bei River and arrived at its eastern bank.

On the east bank of the Bei River, there were many oxcarts abandoned by the Han army, carrying what appeared to be the last remaining provisions and supplies of the Han army. A group of Yuexi barbarians rushed forward to seize the spoils of war.

Just as the Yuexi barbarians were scrambling for spoils, the Han army, which had been in a "hasty retreat," suddenly turned around and launched a counterattack.

On the west bank of the Bei River, Huang Zu, the Right Sima of the General of the West, led his ambush troops out suddenly. Three thousand archers fired arrows across the Bei River, blocking the Yuexi barbarian kings on the east bank of the Bei River.

In the midst of the chaos, Huang Zu's strongmen on the west bank of the Beishui River used a giant rock to kill the fleeing King Zhuoma. Meanwhile, a young clerk on the east bank of the Beishui River was even more courageous. He led a hundred riders straight into King Suqi's camp, took King Suqi by the sword, and brought him down to the ground alive.
This man, named Gan Ning, was the young clerk in front of him who was serving as a messenger.

In this battle, all the kings of the Yuexi barbarians were wiped out, and the various tribes were terrified, sending envoys to request submission to the imperial court.

But Jia Cong remained unmoved. He preferred to provoke even fiercer resistance rather than leave behind the potential for repeated rebellions, and rejected these belated surrenders.

The only one making little progress and even at a disadvantage was the central army led by General Zhao Wen, who was in charge of pacifying Shu.

He commanded 3,000 soldiers from Hanzhong Commandery, 3,000 soldiers from Yizhou, and 2,000 brave warriors from the Congxi Marquis Yuan Yue, totaling 8,000 men. He deployed his forces on the north bank of the Tu River (now the Niulan River), erected numerous flags, and established numerous camps, falsely claiming that his main force numbered 30,000. He confronted the 40,000 rebel troops led by Yong Zhou, a powerful figure in Yizhou, across the Tu River.

In the original plan, Jia Cong and others did not expect that Yong Zhou would be able to gather 40,000 troops and launch a full-scale attack. However, with the arrow already on the bowstring, they could not retreat. With the assistance of Zhang Ze, the Left Sima of the General of the West, who was known as the "Hidden Tiger," they led their troops to build a solid defensive line along the Tu River, using deep trenches and high walls to resist the enemy. They managed to withstand the fierce attack of Yong Zhou's five-fold strength.

However, the cost was extremely high, with more than 2,000 soldiers killed and no fewer than 2,000 wounded, resulting in more than half of the entire force being killed or wounded.

However, Yong Zhou's troops, who attacked the Tushui defense line, suffered nearly 10,000 casualties.

In the face of the extreme predicament of difficulty in contacting friendly forces on both the eastern and western fronts, and the loss of communication at one point, Zhao Wen held firm to the Tushui defense line, tying down 40,000 rebel troops from Yizhou County and preventing the morale of the army from collapsing. Strategically speaking, this was already a great achievement.

After reading the battle report, Liu Bian looked up at the young clerk standing below, his gaze slightly narrowed.

At this moment, he finally understood why the man's appearance seemed so familiar when they first met. Wasn't this the "Jin Fan Thief"?

Jia Cong specially sent Gan Ning to report the victory, clearly indicating his intention to cultivate and promote him.

However, at this time, Gan Ning was only eighteen years old and had not yet come of age. He was just a young man with a rudimentary understanding of literature and an arrogant temperament, far from possessing the strategic vision and perspective to "divide the world into two parts" in the future.

The current Gan Ning is more like an impulsive, unconventional "ghost fire youth".

Such a troublemaker naturally needs to be taught a lesson.

Although it is unknown why Gan Ning in history suddenly transformed himself, delving into the theories of various schools of thought, and even using his knowledge to enter officialdom, rising from a clerk to the prefect of Shu Commandery.

But if you want to intimidate a boy who admires violence, the most effective way is to completely suppress him with absolute power!
Liu Bian stroked his chin, his gaze towards Gan Ning carrying a hint of amusement. Looking down at Gan Ning, who was standing below, he said with a touch of wickedness, "Summon General Lü Fengxian, Commandant of the Central Camp Zhao Zilong, and Military Advisor of the Guerrilla Camp Zhang Wenyuan to Yuntai Pavilion."

(4034 words)
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P.S.: I'll post 4,000 words to fill my stomach first, there's more to come!
Note 1: Liu Chong was from Guanghan and served as the magistrate of Chengdu during the reign of Liu Zhang.

The *Huayang Guozhi* records: Liu Chong, courtesy name Shixin, was a native of Mianzhu. Born into humble circumstances, he was appointed magistrate of Chengdu for his understanding of the *Gongyang Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals* and his ability to report to the emperor. He was known for his clear and strict governance. At that time, many counties were difficult to govern, so Liu Chong was transferred to be magistrate of Pi, and later to Qi and Anhan, where he achieved notable success. While still in Chengdu, he was promoted to prefect of Zangke. Initially, he served as an official on a single horse, dressed simply and ate plain food, setting an example of frugality. After serving in the prefecture for nine years, he returned home on a single horse, and the officials erected an inscription in his honor. Wang Shang and Chen Shi, prominent figures of the time, were his friends.

The *Huayang Guozhi* states: "Powerful clans acted arbitrarily, and the Zhao families relied on the Duke, thus many committed crimes. The Prefect of Puyang, Zhao Zizhen, and his son were tyrannical, and their crimes were punished with favoritism, causing all to tremble in fear."

(End of this chapter)