Second-hand time travel: Liu Bei, the big-eared bandit

Chapter 308 The Villain Zuo Lang (Two Chapters Combined)

The second day of February.

Jingzhe.

The Azure Dragon constellation Horn rises into the sky (the origin of the dragon raising its head), the day the sun rises, a time for all things to grow and for farming.

This was also the fifth day after Liu Bei left Linzi.

After Zhang Fei's troops were transferred back to Linzi, Liu Bei led his army to Xuzhou, where they had already reached Langya.

Jia Xu also led his underworld soldiers to the plains to coordinate the northern route troops.

Every year during the Jingzhe (Awakening of Insects) solar term, there is a ceremony to encourage farming. Officials from various places would lead the people to worship heaven and earth and offer gifts to Shennong (the God of Agriculture) to start the new year's agricultural work.

Liu Xie presided over the agricultural promotion ceremony in Qingzhou, and together with the sons of high-ranking officials who accompanied him, he went to the fields and personally tried his hand at plowing in the northern suburbs of Linzi.

This is an important task that the emperor must perform every year.

Of course, the one who actually presided over the agricultural promotion ceremony was Jian Yong. He managed a large area in the northern suburbs of Linzi and built a very large manor there.

This manor is actually the 'Agricultural and Irrigation College', and it is also the largest college in terms of area, because it has many experimental fields, and Zishui Lake (Judian) is also located here.

Guo Yuan was in charge of agricultural affairs, Zhuge Xuan was in charge of water conservancy, but Jian Yong was the headmaster of the academy—a true core institution of learning like the Academy of Agricultural Sciences should naturally be entrusted to Jian Yong for the sake of trust.

The one who coordinated and directed the overall situation was Zuo Yuan.

Taking advantage of the agricultural promotion ceremony, Zuo Yuan loudly proclaimed that Liu Bei was preparing to marry Cai Yan, and claimed that he would continue to expand the city east of Linzi, extending it three miles along the East Pavilion to build the "East City Academy".

Incidentally, he also spread a lot of news—for example, that Cai Yong gave all 13,000 volumes of his family's books as Cai Yan's "dowry" in order to support the establishment of the Jixia Academy.

For example, Liu Bei is printing a large number of books, preparing to distribute them to students all over the country. Students of all academies in Qingzhou can receive the relevant books of the academy for free. After enrollment, they can also register their household registration and receive a reduction or exemption of land rent during their studies.

This means that as long as you go to Qingzhou to study, you don't have to worry about anything. All you need to do is have basic labor skills and be willing to study and farm diligently.

Giving away books for free is a huge gesture. These days, books are more valuable than houses. Moreover, this is much more impressive than Liu Hong's carving of the Xiping Stone Classics, leaving no room for anyone to tamper with the meaning of the classics.

Of course, for Liu Bei, this was just a matter of ink and paper, and Qingzhou certainly had no shortage of these two things.

After all, books these days have fewer words, so printing them doesn't cost much.

These messages are all true, but there are currently external enemies and books have not yet been printed in large quantities, so no official decree has been issued.

Zuo Yuan's approach gave Liu Bei's marriage to Cai Yan a completely different justification.

People would assume that Liu Bei was leveraging Cai Yong's reputation to promote academic development, and would naturally associate this with the matter of selecting officials through examinations.

This would make Liu Bei's taking Cai Yan as his concubine a celebrated story.

Cai Yong's influence was indeed great. After all, he was a disciple of Hu Guang, the Grand Tutor during the reign of Emperor Huan, the person in charge of compiling books at the Eastern Pavilion, and the initiator and editor of the Xiping Stone Classics.

The scriptures officially recognized by the Han Dynasty, engraved on steles and listed as the Six Classics in the Imperial Academy, were compiled and edited under the supervision of Cai Yong.

Therefore, he was known as the literary master of the world.

However, Cai Yong was persecuted before he could see the inscription completed.

This persecution was not because Cai Yong chose the wrong side, but because Cai Yong did not take sides at all.

Cai Yong differed from other famous scholars in one aspect—he was a scholar of all schools of thought, not the kind of "famous Confucian scholar" who manipulated the classics and gathered many disciples to gain the right to interpret the Six Classics. He rarely associated with the "wise men" of his time.

Moreover, Cai Yong absorbed the scholarship of various schools of thought and restored the original meanings of the Six Classics, which of course seriously affected the interests of those scholars who deliberately interpreted the meanings of the classics in a different way.

The debate between the classical and modern Chinese texts is essentially a struggle for the right to interpret the classics—in reality, a struggle for the right to interpret textbooks, and a struggle to control knowledge through alteration.

They either intend to make the scriptures ambiguous and incomprehensible so that they can interpret them 'flexibly', or they directly distort the meaning of the scriptures, that is, to take them out of context or to re-punctuate them.

For example, the phrase "民可使由之不可使知之" can be interpreted in several completely different ways simply by punctuating it differently.

To control the power of interpretation is essentially to control knowledge and official positions.

This is why Liu Hong asked Cai Yong to oversee the revision of the book in order to ensure fairness.

Cai Yong's official compilation of the classics incorporated elements of various schools of thought, preserving the original texts in a relatively objective manner.

An official who neither forms cliques nor packages himself into a group with numbers, nor engages in factionalism, and maintains a neutral stance in compiling and interpreting scriptures—such an official who does not take sides will naturally be ostracized.

Not altering textbooks would actually lead to punishment...

After the Six Classics were re-compiled by Cai Yong and Lu Zhi, the Xiping Stone Classics were half-carved when many famous scholars and some eunuchs found a pretext to launch a major attack on Cai Yong. Cai Yong was exiled to Wuyuan in Bingzhou by Liu He, the Minister of Works at the time, and Yang Qiu, the Commandant of the Capital Region.

At that time, it was during the handling of the Wang Fu case. Yang Qiu's ability to frame others was unparalleled. Fortunately, Cai Yong was only a scholar and it was indeed difficult for him to be associated with Wang Fu. Otherwise, he might have faced more than just exile.

—To be honest, although Yang Qiu was a cruel official, he was also a person with a sense of public duty, not the kind of villain who abused his power purely for personal gain.

But everyone has their own beliefs, and everything is determined by one's stance.

Although Liu Hong killed Liu He and Yang Qiu the following year and pardoned Cai Yong, the struggle between the Qingliu Party and the eunuchs was fierce at the time, and neither side liked Cai Yong. Cai Yong could only travel to various places to avoid trouble, and this period of avoidance lasted for ten years.

Cai Yan's marriage to the Wei family of Hedong was arranged when Cai Yong was seeking refuge. However, Wei Zhongdao died shortly after the marriage, making it seem as if Cai Yan was bringing him bad luck...

Fortunately, Cai Yong's good friend Yang Xu became the governor of Nanyang, and the Cai family finally received real assistance.

Scholars like Cai Yong, who were well-versed in various schools of thought and did not form factions, were naturally the most suitable for the Jixia Academy at that time.

Jian Yong, who was temporarily in charge of the government, even publicly petitioned Emperor Liu Xie to issue an edict to transfer Cai Yong from Luoyang to Qingzhou to serve as the Imperial Academy Chancellor.

This means that the Jixia Academy was directly regarded as the new Imperial Academy.

This was also arranged by Zuo Yuan.

—In that era, Liu Bei's recruitment of Cai Yan was seen as an act of "recruiting a worthy person" in order to establish a great academy.

It was not only a beautiful story, but also a major event that caused a sensation throughout the world.

Because Cai Yan's dowry consisted of 13,000 scrolls of books.

Liu Bei's offer of betrothal gifts was to print millions of copies of these books and distribute them to students throughout the land.

After Zuo Yuan spread the news through the agricultural promotion ceremony, he immediately issued a wide notice and recruited a large number of people.

We need to recruit a large number of printing workers, as well as a large number of workers to expand the city.

The expansion was indeed true; Liu Bei did intend to continue expanding Linzi, and not in the traditional '回' shape on the outer layer, but in a '田' shape extending outwards into a new city.

This would both prevent the original Linzi city from being disrupted by the expansion and allow the entire Linzi city to become a large-scale city.

This was not actually for the sake of city defense. Although it was true that the larger the city was, the more difficult it was to conquer in the era of cold weapons, Liu Bei did not intend to focus his efforts on the city walls. Instead, he wanted to carry out urbanization in Linzi.

Linzi is now a core academic city, with most of the Jixia Academy's colleges located there. For an academic center, large-scale urbanization is more conducive to attracting talent and to enabling more people to pursue their studies.

However, in the Jinan and Pingyuan areas, urbanization should be reduced and more agricultural villages should be developed. Since the area between the Yellow River and the Ji River is currently a core agricultural production area, farmers should be dispersed to improve land utilization.

Policies should be implemented based on specific circumstances. Urbanization and rural development should proceed in tandem, rather than being treated as a one-size-fits-all approach.

But, but.

The expansion and construction of Linzi should not have started during the busy farming season—everyone is busy farming, and it is difficult to recruit manpower at this time.

Moreover, Zuo Yuan offered extremely low wages—five coins a day, with no meals provided.

When Liu Bei built the East Pavilion, it was during the off-season for farming, from October to January. At that time, the daily wage was twenty coins plus two meals, so naturally many people were eager to work there.

However, Zuo Yuan was hiring civil engineers in early February, and the wages were as low as those offered by modern employers hiring cattle...

It should be noted that the price Liu Bei offered last month was known to everyone around Linzi.

Although prices in Qingzhou have stabilized now, five coins a day is simply not enough to feed people, not even enough to drink bran porridge. If someone can still abandon their farm work to work elsewhere, then there's probably something wrong with them.

However, upon seeing Zuo Yuan's recruitment, over a thousand people applied within just one day.

Perhaps some people are used to the conscription of laborers and corvée laborers, to the laborers paying out of their own pockets to do hard labor, and to the arbitrary use of able-bodied men for construction work—in those days, no one paid laborers or corvée laborers when they were conscripted.

This difference in perspective meant that these people were completely unaware that, in fact, there was no such thing as paid labor on Liu Bei's side...

When Jia Xu conscripted 100,000 laborers to control the floods, they were all given land. Zuo Yuan personally took charge of arranging for the recruited laborers, first having them go to the east of the city to cut down trees, or dig soil and carry mud to level the land there.

When a woman is in charge, her salary is low, she isn't provided with meals, and she has to do hard labor, it's only natural that there will be people who cause trouble.

Several days passed, and most people didn't cause any trouble; only a few left.

Moreover, people have been coming to apply for the position for the past few days, and the number of applicants has actually increased.

Then Zuo Yuan gave them a good opportunity, letting these 'laborers' start digging the foundation along the outer wall of the East Pavilion.

On the second night after the foundation excavation began, several strong men who had sneaked in through the tunnels were captured from several kitchens and woodsheds inside the East Pavilion. Zhang Fei had been leading troops to guard the East Pavilion, and he had already taken over the mess hall again.

The Wufeng Battalion was originally selected elite troops. Since Liu Bei's army had a tradition of rewarding elite soldiers for cooking, they were all skilled in catering.

Zhang Fei immediately staged a scene of "stewing the spy in an iron cauldron".

Some people might be able to withstand the five poisons, but very few could withstand being boiled alive in an iron cauldron. Soon, someone revealed their origins.

Some of these people were locals from Qingzhou, while others had moved there a few years ago when refugees were being resettled. Their purpose, of course, was to kidnap Liu Xie or create a large-scale disturbance.

Those who volunteered were all former bandits who were not willing to live a peaceful life. After the emperor came to Qingzhou, they were recruited to do something big.

The person behind them is not surprising.

The cook who tried to poison the palace maid has never confessed, but she was probably bribed by Dong Cheng.

The one who instigated these "laborers" to rebel was Wang Fu, an official who had accompanied the emperor to Qingzhou—he recruited these people under the pretext of "eliminating the treacherous minister Liu Bei."

Zhang Fei sent men to capture Wang Fu, but Wang Fu had already disappeared without a trace.

……

After finding out who was behind it, Zhang Fei asked Zuo Yuan, "Sister, what should we do?"

"Let's play along. If they want to set fires, let's help them set them... just don't burn the whole city down."

Zuo Yuan gave Zhang Fei the task of setting fires again.

The enemy dug a tunnel to infiltrate the woodshed, intending to set it on fire, and Zuo Yuan naturally obliged.

Zhang Fei was incredibly skilled at arson; ever since he joined Liu Bei, he'd done it in almost every battle...

Zhang Fei then controlled the fire, causing the woodshed and part of the house to quickly catch fire.

Upon seeing the fire in the East Pavilion, many laborers indeed flocked to the scene.

People began to gather inside Linzi City. Some stormed the East Pavilion Gate, while others rushed towards the city gate of Linzi.

Zuo Yuan's intention was to lure the enemy into revealing themselves, so he was naturally well-prepared.

First, they ordered the city gates to be opened directly, letting the enemy into the city—which looked as if the enemy had opened the city from the inside.

Thousands of enemies poured into the city.

Subsequently, Tian Yu led his troops from the western camp and blocked the city gates again from the outside.

Zuo Yuan deliberately made the main gate of the East Pavilion "undefendable," causing the enemy troops to flock to the inner courtyard of the East Pavilion.

This was certainly a risky move, but Zuo Yuan was determined to wipe them all out in one fell swoop.

Zuo Yuan personally led troops to defend the East Pavilion. Five hundred guards used crossbows to hold out for most of the day, barely managing to keep the enemy outside the inner courtyard.

Zuo Yuan stood behind the courtyard gate the whole time. She herself did not go forward to fight the enemy, but this was no different from leading from the front.

Even Lady Zuo personally took up her sword to supervise the battle; for the enemy, this was clearly the last line of defense.

—It seems that as long as the enemy makes a little more effort and breaks through this last line of defense, Liu Bei's family, Liu Xie, officials, nephews and so on, all live in the inner courtyard, and Liu Bei's treasury is also inside.

In this situation, the enemy will not give up...

Zhang Fei spent most of the day fighting his way out of the east gate, clearing out the few remaining enemies outside the city, and then returning to the east pavilion through the tunnels dug by the laborers.

After Zhang Fei returned to his army, they then jointly dispatched troops to suppress the city.

The city suffered considerable damage, and Zuo Yuan's guards also suffered significant casualties. The enemy charged relentlessly throughout the day.

But Zuo Yuan didn't care; Zuo Yuan wasn't Liu Bei.

What Duan Jiong taught Zuo Yuan was that you have to give up something to gain something... What Duan Jiong taught Zhang Fei and Zuo Yuan were things that Liu Bei himself couldn't do.

Even if the entire Linzi were destroyed, Zuo Yuan wouldn't care.

Anyway, the children aren't here... After the children and Liu Xie went to the Agricultural and Water Conservancy College, they haven't come back and have been 'farming' with Jian Yong.

After Zhang Fei returned, Zuo Yuan gave him the following order: "Yide, do not try to persuade them to surrender, but kill them all... leave no one alive. Only by killing them until they are all terrified can we achieve long-term peace and stability."

With the civilian laborers who entered the city, plus the enemies who had already infiltrated Linzi, there were more than three thousand enemy soldiers in the city.

If these people were to infiltrate unprepared, sneak into the East Pavilion, set fire to it, and seize Liu Bei's treasury and equipment, it would indeed be enough to overthrow the entire Qingzhou.

But now, these enemies are basically not wearing armor.

Zhang Fei always listened to Zuo Yuan, and led his elite soldiers from east to west, fighting his way through the city streets.

They didn't offer surrender or make any pronouncements; they just slaughtered people in droves.

Knowing full well that the emperor was in Linzi, yet still choosing to cause trouble, they deserve to die.

Even if we are short-staffed, these people are not to be spared.

That night, the city of Linzi was turned into a sea of ​​blood by the slaughter.

After the city quieted down and most of the enemies were eliminated, it was already the next morning.

Since the unrest occurred at night, the city of Linzi had already closed its gates and doors, so there were not too many accidental killings.

However, the enemies were all dressed as commoners, and some even tried to take merchants in the city hostage.

Only about a hundred enemies remained holding hostages—these were the last surviving enemy forces, and they stormed into civilian homes and took several families hostage.

Zhang Fei had already surrounded them with his troops, but he hesitated because innocent civilians had been taken hostage.

But when Zuo Yuan arrived with Tian Yu, he directly addressed the hostages: "Gentlemen, I am not coerced... The traitors plotted to assassinate the emperor, and their crimes are unforgivable. If we give them a way out, it would be an injustice to our fallen comrades."

"Those who kidnap others, I will exterminate their entire clan... All the wealth, money, and provisions of the thief's relatives will also be given to your relatives... I apologize to you all! I urge you to fight against the enemy!"

After shouting, he raised his sword and gave the order: "Kill the traitors!"

Upon hearing this, all the hostages fought desperately against the enemy. Zhang Fei and Tian Yu also did not hesitate and led their men to rush in.

There were no enemy survivors.

On the contrary, several of the hostages survived.

After Linzi was pacified, Zuo Yuan did not immediately go to bring Liu Xie back, but continued the search for three days.

Officials and palace servants who accompanied the emperor to Qingzhou were all confined to their quarters.

Under intense investigation, several officials connected with the king's robes were identified, and the king's whereabouts were finally traced.

Wang Fu hid in Yingling County, Beihai, Qingzhou—this was the ancestral home of the Wang clan in Qingzhou. Wang Fu's family was a distant relative of a branch of the Wang clan in Qingzhou.

Zuo Yuan did not hesitate to send Zhang Fei with his troops to capture and behead Wang Fu, and then hang his head on the city gate.

The person in charge of the Wang family in Qingzhou was Wang Xiu, the former chief clerk of Donglai. Wang Xiu had a good reputation, and the Wang family had never opposed Liu Bei's rule.

Moreover, Wang Xiu did not resist Zhang Fei's capture and voluntarily handed over his royal robes.

However, Zuo Yuan still ordered Zhang Fei to temporarily detain Wang Xiu and commanded the entire Wang family to relocate to the south bank of the Ji River for supervision.

Zuo Yuan didn't care if she arrested the wrong person; she'd rather kill the wrong person than let one go. She had no intention of being a good person; she'd wait for Liu Bei to come back.

(End of this chapter)