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

Chapter 342 Liangshan Marsh
Shanyang Commandery, Juye County.

This is the northernmost county in Shanyang.

Nominally, Juye is still a county, but the county town is like an isolated island, with no villages or hamlets in sight, only endless reed marshes and shallow swamps.

The city wall is mottled and dilapidated due to long-term water immersion, and the wall surface is clearly divided into three sections.

The upper section is the original gray-white color of the bricks and stones, the middle section is the yellowish-brown color of the floodwaters that stained it during periods of high water levels, and the bottom section, the base of the wall, is stained bluish-black by moss and accumulated silt because it has been submerged in water for most of the time.

Houses in the county have all been rebuilt on slopes, and people rely almost entirely on boats for transportation—even within the city.

It is autumn now, not the flood season, but the low-lying streets are still flooded, and mosquitoes and flies swarm around the city like black fog.

There were many floating objects in the water, among which occasionally a pale, floating corpse could be seen.

Bao Xin was on a hillside in the southern part of Juye County, looking down at the city that was submerged in water.

This hillside is part of the Liangshan mountain range and is the highest point in Juye County, but now it looks like a small island.

On the north side of the mountain, Zhang Fei's troops were retreating, and their flags could be seen gradually disappearing into the distance.

In fact, Bao Xin did not engage in many direct battles with Zhang Fei. It was his subordinate Yu Jin who used the geographical environment of Juye County to force Zhang Fei to retreat.

In this era, Juyeze was incredibly vast, and could be considered an inland sea.

This is also due to the frequent breaches of the Yellow River's dikes, which caused floods to continuously flow into Juye Marsh, causing the water level to rise continuously and forming a water area covering thousands of miles.

Currently, Juyeze connects to Liangshan in the north, Heze in the east, and Peize in the west, forming an extremely vast marshland area interspersed with lakes and wetlands.

The core area of ​​this swampy region is Juye County.

In fact, Li Qian's hometown was originally in Juye County. Twenty years ago, Juye was an important grain-producing area in Jiyin County, but agricultural areas are usually low-lying, and now all the fields have been submerged.

As Juye Marsh continued to expand, the county town and surrounding areas were surrounded by lakes and swamps for a long time, resulting in extremely poor living conditions and frequent risks of flooding.

The original Juye Li family moved to Chengshi and Lihu.

Juye County was transformed from a grain-producing area into a natural military defense zone, with swamps blocking all roads leading from the north into Shanyang and Jiyin.

This place is the Liangshan Marsh of later generations, but it is a hundred times larger than the Liangshan Marsh of later generations, and can be considered an enhanced version of Liangshan Marsh.

Right now, Bao Xin has become the mountain king of this grand Liangshan Marsh.

Bao Xin was from Pingyang, Taishan. His family was also a prominent family in Pingyang. The Bao family of Pingyang were founding ministers of Emperor Guangwu. His ancestors had served as the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers for four generations, and the family held official positions of more than 2,000 shi for generations.

A few years ago, He Jin, who was trying to seduce wealthy families everywhere, appointed Bao Xin as a cavalry captain and ordered him to recruit soldiers and horses in Mount Tai.

By the time Bao Xin had recruited his men, the Luoyang Rebellion broke out, and He Jin was gone.

After being invited by Zhang Miao to join the Guandong Coalition, Bao Tao was killed first, and then the Guandong Coalition was defeated by Xu Rong when it came to the rescue of Cao Cao. The seemingly powerful Guandong Coalition collapsed quickly like a joke. Yuan Shao ran away and disappeared, and Bao Xin also became a traitor.

So Bao Xin returned to his hometown of Mount Tai and provided funds for Chang Xi, secretly encouraging Chang Xi to take Xuzhou.

Liu Bei's encirclement network was originally organized by the Guandong Allied Forces, and Bao Xin was naturally involved in it as well.

However, not long after, Liu Bei issued a tender order, leading dozens of gangsters to besiege the bandits of Mount Tai.

Seeing the opportunity, Bao Xin quickly took his property and fled Mount Tai, leading his clansmen and followers to Shanyang to avoid disaster.

These days, it is considered extremely unfilial for a family to leave their ancestral home and abandon their ancestral graves.

After eliminating Chang Xi, Liu Bei immediately ordered Cao Cao to destroy the Kong family. This was a warning to other prominent families and also a way to eliminate the stubborn problem in the Taishan area.

But in the eyes of the Bao family, if even a prestigious family like the Kong family was killed by Liu Bei, then the Bao family was even less likely to be killed. After all, Bao Xin was just as rebellious as Kong Rong and Kong Zhou, and had also secretly supported Chang Xi.

So Bao Xin went down a dead-end path.

During this period, the Bao family occupied Juye Marsh and recruited the mountain bandits who originally occupied the area.

People often unleash their potential when they are in adversity, and the Bao family already had considerable resources and wealth.

After becoming the bandit king, Bao Xin adopted the method of forcing people to become bandits in the Taishan Mountains.

After all, the remaining troops in his army were originally bandits from Mount Tai.

First, he spent all his wealth to recruit poor people, then he revealed his identity and threatened them with the crime of collective punishment, which led to the return of many displaced people to Longxi.

Then they forced people to kill officials, incited the looting of grain or joint tax resistance, and committed crimes all over the Juye area. Most of the farmland in Juye was flooded, and life was difficult, but the more difficult the place, the easier it was to do these things.

Taking advantage of Liu Bei's repeated bidding orders, a large number of gangsters were active everywhere, and Bao Xin's Liangshan army did not attract much attention.

In less than a year, Bao Xin had eliminated all the officials and local tyrants in Juye and gathered nearly 20,000 peasant soldiers.

Having become a mountain bandit, Bao Xin no longer clung to his identities as prime minister, a member of a powerful family, or a renowned scholar—sometimes, removing all the identities that blind you and cloud your judgment can make the world seem much wider.

Bao Xin learned to look down and see those who were always around him but whom he had never noticed before.

For example, Yu Jin.

Yu Jin was once a member of the underworld in Taishan Juping and was also a friend of Chang Xi. He was recruited when Bao Xin served as the Chancellor of Jibei and was one of Bao Xin's old subordinates.

Because he had no background and Yu Jin wasn't particularly skilled in martial arts, he was not very noticeable.

After Chang Xi was defeated by Liu Bei, some bandits who had escaped from Mount Tai came to join Yu Jin. Although there were not many, these Mount Tai bandits were shrewd and brave. In the situation of being surrounded by dozens of forces at that time, those who could escape were all smart people.

Yu Jin then had a force of about two hundred men under his command, all of whom were elite.

Bao Xin discovered that although Yu Jin's troops were few in number, they were elite and well-disciplined, so he appointed Yu Jin as the military supervisor to enforce the law.

Previously, Bao Xin did not have many middle-level cadres available, so he could only let his clansmen lead the army.

The Bao family members were not good at military management, resulting in extremely poor discipline within the troops, constant internal bullying, and frequent raids in surrounding counties. The entire unit was extremely disorganized.

Moreover, while mobilizing troops at maximum capacity can quickly gain strength, it cannot sustain military supplies. Bao Xin had soldiers but no civilians, and Juye, this Liangshan Marsh, was not suitable for farming.

This also put Bao Xin, the mountain bandit king, in a bad position. The surrounding counties were already hostile to the Liangshan bandits, but not many people knew that the Liangshan bandits in Juye Marsh had changed.

After Yu Jin became military governor, he drafted military regulations, which were strictly enforced, with violators facing execution.

Bao Xin himself could not kill his own uncles and brothers... but Yu Jin dared to.

After killing several members of the Bao family, Yu Jin established the prestige of a military judge, and various departments developed a fear of military law. This also caused Bao Xin's makeshift team to begin to resemble a real army.

Of course, this also made many members of the Bao family extremely hate the ban.

After his subordinates were able to obey the law and follow orders, Bao Xin began to learn from Zhang Yan of Heishan and started to provide protection for the people in the surrounding counties, collecting grain and fodder as protection fees.

The newly formed "Liangshan Army" now truly had a foundation to occupy a region.

However, having too many soldiers is not necessarily a good thing. It will inevitably attract the attention of surrounding counties. If this trend continues, it will surely invite a large army to encircle and suppress them, and it will be very likely that they will be summoned to bid for a position.

At this time, Liu Chong, the Prince of Chen, raised the banner of General Who Assists the Han Dynasty, indicating that he would oppose Liu Bei and welcome back the emperor.

Bao Xin responded immediately and led his troops to capture Changyi County, the seat of Shanyang Commandery.

Changyi had a considerable amount of military equipment, and with the autumn harvest, it could be considered that Bao Xin's "Liangshan Army" was armed into a full-fledged army.

However, Bao Xin did not declare his official position, nor did he intend to actually join forces with Liu Chong. He responded to Liu Chong only because Liu Chong could draw fire, since the Liangshan army could no longer hide.

……

As Zhang Fei retreated, Liu Dai arrived at Bao Xin's army.

"Brother Bao, this place is quite secluded; it's been hard for me to find it... Why aren't you in Changyi, Brother Bao?"

Liu Dai looked somewhat disheveled, but still managed to put on the airs of a great man.

Bao Xin looked in the direction Zhang Fei had retreated, closed his eyes, and turned to Liu Dai: "Why did you come to my place, my lord? Didn't we agree to each gain influence within our respective prefectures?"

“Our troops were defeated by Zhang Liao due to Qiao Mao’s influence, and we lost most of them. Now Dongjun has been lost… Brother Bao, your troops are strong and well-equipped. I wonder if you would be willing to lend us some troops so that we can launch a counterattack on Dongjun.”

Liu Dai glanced at the elite troops led by Yu Jin, a hint of envy in his eyes.

"A counterattack on Dongjun?"

Bao Xin smiled and turned to Yu Jin: "Wenze, now that Zhang Fei has retreated... Shall we advance and pursue him?"

"We cannot pursue them... Zhang Fei's troops are skilled warriors, and they will have difficulty adapting to wetlands and marshes. However, once they leave the water, we will certainly be no match for them."

Yu Jin shook his head. He knew exactly what was going on; Bao Xin had instructed him to say it to Liu Dai on purpose.

(End of this chapter)