Brother, stop curling up! You're curling up like the founder of the Han Dynasty!

Chapter 227 Yuan Shao Goes on a Killing Spree, Liu Bei Recruits and Restores His Strength (Seeking Subscriptions and Monthly Tickets)

Liu Zhang was horrified.

In the past, Liu Yan originally wanted to request to go to Jiaozhou, but Dong Fu, a native of Yizhou and a court attendant, privately told Liu Yan: "The capital is about to be in chaos, and there is an aura of an emperor in the territory of Yizhou."

Liu Yan believed Dong Fu's words and asked to be appointed as the governor of Yizhou. Dong Fu was also appointed as the commander of the Shu Commandery. He and Zhao Wei, the magistrate of the Taicang, followed Liu Yan into Shu.

However, this matter was kept extremely secret and few people knew about it. Even Liu Fan and Liu Dan were unaware of it, and Liu Zhang only learned about it by chance because he was favored at a young age.

Upon hearing Liu Bei's words reveal the secret, Liu Zhang felt a chill rise from the soles of his feet and rush to his head.

He wanted to deny it, but fearing to anger Liu Bei, he could only suppress his inner shock and agree to Liu Bei's request, saying, "Your subject will certainly not fail Your Majesty's trust."

After Liu Zhang left, Liu Bei summoned his disciple Fa Zheng.

"Now that the Central Plains have been pacified, it is not advisable to launch another military campaign against Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu."

"Hanzhong is the gateway to Yizhou. If we can obtain Hanzhong, we will have no worries about Shu."

"I am determined to take Hanzhong first. Xiaozhi can take the imperial insignia and enter Chang'an to supervise Jian Yong, the governor of Yongzhou, and Huangfu Song, the general of the left, to lead the troops of Yongzhou through Sanguan Pass into Wudu and Hechi to seize Hanzhong."

Wudu originally belonged to Liangzhou, but was later incorporated into Yongzhou. It is located northwest of Hanzhong.

From Wudu, one only needs to break through Yangping Pass to enter Nanzheng.

Although Zhang Lu held Hanzhong, his foundation was still shallow and his prestige was insufficient.

Taking advantage of the fact that Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu were temporarily unable to contend with the Central Plains, Liu Bei also wanted to eliminate Zhang Lu in his infancy.

After acquiring Hanzhong, even if Liu Yan wanted to become a local tyrant in Yizhou, Liu Bei could send troops to conquer him at any time.

However, Liu Bei did not intend to personally lead the campaign against Hanzhong. Zhang Lu, who had not yet matured, was not qualified for Liu Bei's personal command.

With Jian Yong, Huangfu Song, and the soldiers of Yongzhou, that would be enough.

When Liu Bei entered Luoyang from the east, he only brought five of the eight camps from Yongzhou.

Later, when Zhang Fei entered Hedong, he brought another battalion with him.

The remaining two battalions remained in Yongzhou, commanded by Zhang Yang and Huangfu Jianshou.

The Eight Camps of Yongzhou were originally composed of the Western Garden Army as the backbone, and selected from Huangfu Song's bandit-suppressing troops. Liu Bei's Lingyan Army was also expanded based on the Eight Camps of Yongzhou.

The two battalions that remained in Yongzhou were also Liu Bei's core loyalists.

With Huangfu Song, who is skilled in military affairs, in command of the troops, he is more than capable of handling the task.

Moreover, Yongzhou was the first to distribute land and houses to powerful families, and there had been no further wars since Yuan Shu entered Guanzhong. It also had sufficient funds and provisions, making it the perfect time to wage war in Hanzhong.

Fazheng is now sixteen.

As Liu Bei's first disciple, Liu Bei also intended to give Fa Zheng more practical experience.

The purpose of sending Fa Zheng to Chang'an with imperial credentials was nominally to supervise Jian Yong, the governor of Yongzhou, and Huangfu Song, the Left General. In reality, it was to allow Fa Zheng to learn more from Jian Yong and Huangfu Song.

No matter how much you learn in theory, you still need to combine it with practice.

Liu Bei then carefully instructed him: "After you enter Chang'an, Xiaozhi, do not be arrogant because of your status as my disciple and military governor. Think thrice before you act, and do not underestimate anyone. This is also the first time you have taken on such an important responsibility as military governor, so do not disappoint me!"

In the past, Fa Zheng's actions were basically always following Liu Bei and accepting Liu Bei's orders at any time; he never truly took on any important responsibility on his own.

This time, when Fa Zheng went to Chang'an to oversee the army, Liu Bei, apart from giving him some basic instructions beforehand, would no longer teach Fa Zheng how to act at any time.

This is both a test for Fa Zheng and a test of Liu Bei's teaching results.

If a fledgling eagle wants to spread its wings and fly high, it must eventually leave the wings of an adult eagle and undergo trials on its own.

Liu Bei didn't want hothouse flowers, but rather talented individuals capable of handling important state affairs.

Fa Zheng understood Liu Bei's high expectations and was also excited.

Having studied under Liu Bei for a long time and also practiced as a minor official in the Imperial Secretariat, Fa Zheng was not completely ignorant of practical matters.

Now that Liu Bei has entrusted him with an important task, Fa Zheng also wants to prove to Liu Bei the results of his studies.

"I will certainly live up to my teacher's expectations!"

Fa Zheng's tone was firm and resolute.

Seeing the confidence and fighting spirit in Fazheng's bright eyes, Liu Bei laughed with satisfaction: "I am in Luoyang, waiting for good news from Xiaozhi."

Although he became emperor, Liu Bei did not slack off in his duties.

The higher one's position, the more strictly one must demand of oneself.

As the saying goes, do not do to others what you would not have them do to you.

If even Liu Bei cannot take the lead and set an example, then demanding it of others would be akin to asking someone to "not eat meat porridge" (a Chinese idiom meaning to refuse to eat meat).

Liu Bei's regular schedule and persistent study of literature and martial arts gave him extraordinary energy. He was not only able to handle daily political affairs properly, but he also had enough energy to discuss life and the origin of life with Cai Wenji and others.

Hard work has paid off.

March fifteenth.

After carefully examining Cai Yan and Gan Mei, Hua Tuo's eldest son, Fan A, congratulated Liu Bei.

Although it is unknown whether it is a boy or a girl, Cai Yan and Gan Mei became pregnant one after another, which increased the probability of having a son.

As an emperor, one must have offspring.

The series of power struggles between imperial relatives and eunuchs, and between imperial power and ministerial power during the Eastern Han Dynasty, were largely due to the fact that the previous emperors either had no sons or their sons were too young, and there was no qualified crown prince to deter dissent from the court and the public.

The newly enthroned emperor had to rely on eunuchs to compete with the maternal relatives, which meant that the emperor's energy was spent fighting with his ministers, leaving him with no energy to think about the national affairs and people's livelihood.

March 20th.

Cao Cao, the governor of Yanzhou, sent news of victory.

The remnants of Tian Feng's forces entrenched in Dong'e have been defeated. Tian Feng fled back to Ye City via Cangtingjin, and his former subordinates, including Yu Jin, surrendered.

Cao Cao officially took control of the entire territory of Yan Province, as well as Beihai Kingdom and Donglai Commandery in Qing Province.

Jiao He, the governor of Qingzhou appointed by Liu Yu, Kong Rong, the chancellor of Beihai, and Qiao Mao, who fled from Yanzhou to Qingzhou, were entrenched in the areas of Qi and Jinan.

April 1st.

News came from Hebei that the Yellow Turbans of Heishan had assassinated Liu Yu, and Liu Yu's son Liu He had succeeded him. Yuan Shao was furious and launched a campaign against the Yellow Turbans of Heishan.

"The Yellow Turban rebels of Black Mountain were actually able to assassinate Liu Yu?"

"Yuan Shao has no shame at all."

Upon hearing this news, Liu Bei immediately guessed the reason.

It must be that Yuan Shao, upon hearing that he had declared himself emperor, was unwilling to let Liu Yu continue to sit on the throne, so he sent someone to assassinate Liu Yu and frame the Black Mountain Yellow Turbans.

Liu Yu was highly respected, and even Yuan Shao found it difficult to completely control the court in Ye City.

Liu He was young and lacked prestige. In the future, Yuan Shao, the court official in Ye City, would say that Liu He could not go east or west.

Given time, Yuan Shao will be able to completely sideline Liu He, and then force Liu He to abdicate so that he can be on equal footing with Liu Bei and Yuan Shu.

If it were at a different time, Liu Bei would definitely have sent troops to Hebei to interfere with Yuan Shao's campaign against the Yellow Turban Rebellion in Heishan.

However, Yuan Shao timed his attack perfectly this time, choosing the spring planting season as the time to launch his campaign.

Interfering with Yuan Shao's campaign against the Yellow Turban Rebellion and disrupting spring planting is not in Liu Bei's interest. However, taking no action is also not in Liu Bei's character.

After discussing with Jia Xu and others, Liu Bei sent Xu You, the Minister of the Imperial Secretariat, to Henan to recruit the Yellow Turban rebels from the Black Mountain region to settle and cultivate land there.

Although Xu You was the Minister of the Imperial Secretariat, he did not actually handle any specific government affairs in the Imperial Secretariat.

The Shangshutai (Imperial Secretariat) operates the same way it did before, and it still operates the same way now.

Xu You's position as Minister of the Imperial Secretariat was more about his high status, letting outsiders know that he was someone Liu Bei valued.

Most of the time, Xu You remained the same as before, always ready to be summoned by Liu Bei.

To facilitate summons, Xu You also lived in the Lang Palace, which was the former residence of eunuchs such as the Ten Attendants.

After Liu Bei eliminated the eunuchs, there were basically no eunuchs left in Luoyang, and the Lang Palace was replaced by the residence of the three officials.

Even after becoming emperor, Liu Bei did not add any more eunuchs. Instead, he changed the eunuch palace to the palace of officials. In addition to the three officials in charge of official duties, he also allowed his confidants and their families to live in the palace of officials.

Besides Xu You, Liu Bei's seven disciples, as well as the wives and children of Zang Ba and Sun Guan, the wife and children of Gongsun Zan, the White Feather Soldiers and their families, all lived in the Lang Palace.

Although some ministers submitted memorials stating that it was not in accordance with etiquette, Liu Bei rejected them all.

Essentially, the imperial palace was just a small fortified village, a place where the emperor slept. His confidants and their families did not live in the palace, so Liu Bei could not sleep soundly either.

Because Liu Bei helped the Yellow Turban rebels of Heishan to seize grain last year, he gained considerable prestige among them. Zhang Fei, the governor of Hanoi, still carries the title of "reincarnation of the Great Teacher of Virtue".

Therefore, as soon as the news of the recruitment of the Black Mountain Yellow Turbans to settle and cultivate land spread, some Black Mountain Yellow Turbans, carrying the old and the young, headed towards Hanoi.

Most of the powerful clans in Hanoi were wiped out last year, and the prefecture has a large amount of land in its hands, so it is not difficult to settle the Black Mountain Yellow Turbans.

Furthermore, Yuan Shao's fierce attacks on the Black Mountain Yellow Turbans increased their resentment towards him.

The more fiercely Yuan Shao fought, the more Yellow Turban rebels there were who were loyal to Liu Bei.

Seeing the Yellow Turban rebels from the Black Mountain continuously migrating to Hanoi, Yuan Shao was furious but helpless.

The Yellow Turban Rebellion of Heishan must be defeated; otherwise, Yuan Shao would not be able to sleep soundly.

Furthermore, since Liu Yu had already been assassinated by his own men and the blame had been shifted to the Black Mountain Yellow Turbans, Yuan Shao had to cripple the Black Mountain Yellow Turbans.

Compared to previous campaigns, Yuan Shao, having assembled an elite force of armored soldiers, made rapid progress against the Yellow Turban rebels of Black Mountain.

First, they sent troops into the entrance of Cangyan Valley in Luchang Mountain to attack Yu Du. They defeated Yu Du in five days, killing Yu Du and more than 10,000 of his followers, greatly boosting their prestige.

Immediately afterwards, Yuan Shao attacked the bandits led by Zuo Zizhangba along the Luchang Mountain to the north, and won again.

They then attacked Liu Shi, Qing Niujiao, Huang Long, Zuo Xiao, Guo Daxian, Li Damu, Yu Digen, and others, killing tens of thousands and destroying all their camps.

After that, they fought a major battle with Zhang Yan, the Four Battalions of Tu Ge, and the Yanmen Wuhuan in Changshan. The battle lasted for more than ten days, and Zhang Yan and his men were so badly killed that they dared not even leave their mountain gates.

It must be said that after eliminating the Shen clan of Wei Commandery and the opposing powerful clans, Yuan Shao's army's combat strength was qualitatively improved.

With the increased armor coverage, armored soldiers could easily overwhelm unarmored bandits like the Black Mountain Yellow Turbans.

By June.

Zhang Yan, whose morale had been shattered by Yuan Shao, fled into Hanoi with the remnants of the Black Mountain Army.

Of the million soldiers and civilians in Heishan, some died, some fled, some were taken hostage by the Tu Ge and Wuhuan and taken to Bingzhou, some fled to Henan, and some were forcibly captured by Yuan Shao and made into agricultural colonies.

The remaining 100,000-plus soldiers and civilians in Heishan dared only hide deep in Heishan and dared not show themselves easily again.

After defeating Yuan Shao, who had been crushed by Liu Bei, Liu Bei's reputation also rebounded.

And in July.

Zhang Rao, the Yellow Turban leader in the Qingzhou, Jinan and Qi regions, led more than 200,000 people toward the Bohai Sea in search of food, but was once again defeated by Yuan Shao.

Yuan Shao selected another 40,000 able-bodied men from the Black Mountain Yellow Turbans and the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans to join his army.

For a time, its prestige was overwhelming.

Yuan Shao regained the pride and confidence he had when he first defeated Gongsun Zan and installed Liu Yu as emperor.

What displeased Yuan Shao the most was that Zhang Jin's attempt to persuade Yuan Shu to form an alliance had failed again, and he also failed to persuade Yuan Shu to attack Yu and Xu.

Yuan Shu's reply infuriated Yuan Shao.

The direct statement is: My struggle with Liu Bei is a struggle for the rule of the nation. I will give Liu Bei time to defeat Yuan Shao, and then I will contend with Liu Bei for supremacy. How foolish it is for a concubine's son to want me to fight Liu Bei! I will not attack Yu and Xu, but will first take Yi Province.

If it weren't for Liu Bei standing in the middle, Yuan Shao would have wanted to march south before Yuan Shu even existed.

Is this struggle over national unification really making them think they're emperors?

Unable to instigate Yuan Shu, Yuan Shao was in a dilemma.

Although he had quelled the Black Mountain Yellow Turbans and the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans who had raided Ji Province, Yuan Shao was not confident that he could now confront Liu Bei alone.

Unable to provoke Yuan Shu, Yuan Shao then focused his efforts on Bingzhou and Qingzhou.

On one hand, he appointed his nephew Gao Gan as the governor of Bingzhou and led troops into Bingzhou to continue attacking the Four Camps of Tu Ge and the Yanmen Wuhuan, taking advantage of the situation to seize the strategic locations of Bingzhou; on the other hand, he appointed his eldest son Yuan Tan as the governor of Qingzhou and led troops into Qingzhou, merging with Jiao He, Qiao Mao, Kong Rong and others to reclaim Beihai Kingdom and Donglai Commandery.

Yuan Shao wanted to take advantage of Liu Bei's year of recuperation to seize Qingzhou and Bingzhou in one fell swoop.

As Yuan Shao's eldest son, Yuan Tan also received an elite education from a prominent family from a young age.

The fourth day of the eighth lunar month.

After entering Qingzhou, Yuan Tan used force to kill Jiao He, the governor of Qingzhou who refused to relinquish power, and annexed his forces. He then joined forces with Qiao Mao and Kong Rong to attack the Beihai Kingdom.

Xiahou Dun, the Chancellor of Beihai, relied on his martial prowess and ignored the advice of his clerk Wang Xiu to send troops. As a result, Yuan Tan lured him into a narrow passage where Yuan Tan ambushed him and routed his army, forcing Xiahou Dun to flee back to the city in disarray.

Seeing the increasing number of bandits outside the city, Xiahou Dun was both anxious and angry.

After Liu Bei's great victory over the rebels of three provinces at the Battle of Xiaopei, Xiahou Dun followed Cao Cao and won a series of victories. However, he was defeated by Yuan Tan, which was hard for Xiahou Dun to accept.

"I regret not heeding the advice of the clerk. Now the city is besieged. If we lose Beihai, my crime will be immense!"

Xiahou Dun angrily slammed his fist on the city wall, wanting to retaliate but powerless to do so.

Wang Xiu also had a bitter smile on his lips.

After Xiahou Dun was ambushed, the remaining troops struggled to defend the city, let alone repel the enemy.

Wang Xiu could only offer words of comfort: "Although the city is besieged, Cao Yanzhou will surely send troops to its aid. Prime Minister, you should defend the city and await reinforcements."

Just when I was feeling troubled.

Suddenly, a rider appeared outside the city, charging in through a weak point in the enemy's defenses, heading straight for the city walls, shouting for the gates to be opened.

Although he didn't recognize who was below the city, Xiahou Dun could tell from the man's fierce killing of the bandits that he was a friend rather than an enemy, so he quickly opened the city gate and let him in.

Upon seeing the imposing appearance of the newcomer, Xiahou Dun was also moved and asked, "May I ask who you are, brave warrior, and why you have come here?"

The visitor replied, "I am Taishi Ci from Donglai. A few years ago, I offended the local official and fled to Liaodong. I have only recently returned."

“My mother told me that since I left, His Majesty has repeatedly sent letters to summon me and has also sent people to protect me. His care and concern for me are even greater than those of old friends and relatives.”

"I was thinking of going to Luoyang to find His Majesty. When I passed through this place, I saw the bandits besieging the city, so I broke into the city. Prime Minister, you can write to me and tell me about the war. I will go to Yanzhou immediately."

Xiahou Dun was overjoyed: "When I was the Chancellor of Beihai, His Majesty also sent me a letter to take care of your mother. Now that I have seen this brave man, he is indeed extraordinary. I will write you a letter immediately. You can go to Fenggao City in Taishan County to find Xiahou Yuan, the Prefect of Taishan. Even without Cao Yanzhou's military order, he will surely send troops to rescue me."

(End of this chapter)