Emperor Zhaolie of the late Han Dynasty: Rising to power in Liaoxi

The next day, before dawn, Liu Bei got up.

Hou Yuan got up even earlier than him.

A tiny ray of light from the lampstand illuminated her profile as she bent down to tidy his luggage.

Liu Bei sat on the edge of the bed watching, and suddenly reached out and grasped her wrist.

"Ah Yuan".

Hou Yuan paused for a moment, without looking up.

"You really won't come with me?" he asked.

I asked this question three times last night.

Hou Yuan's answer was always the same, and this time was no exception.

"Wherever my mother-in-law is, that's where I'll be."

Her voice was soft, yet steady.

She put away the last piece of clothing, closed the trunk, and then looked up.

Before the morning light shone through the window, the lamplight illuminated her face, revealing the tenderness of a new bride, as well as a deeper sense of certainty.

Liu Bei looked at her, his Adam's apple bobbing.

Last night he went to his mother's room and told her that he would take her and his mother with him to his new post.

Liu's mother sat on the edge of the couch, remained silent for a while, and then shook her head.

"I'm not leaving."

Liu Bei knelt before his mother, wanting to say something, but his mother reached out and pressed down on his shoulder.

That hand was withered and thin, the knuckles slightly deformed from years of labor, but the pressure on his shoulder was as steady as ever.

"When your father left, I stayed here; when you left, I stayed here too."

Liu's mother's voice was not loud, and even a little hoarse, but every word was like a nail: "It's not that I don't want to go with you, it's that if I go, you'll have more to worry about."

"What you've done doesn't allow for too many worries."

She paused, and her voice finally softened a little.

"Besides, this is the house your father left behind. If I leave, there will be no one to guard it."

Liu Bei remained silent for a long time.

Liu's mother placed her hand on the top of his head and gently stroked it.

"Go ahead, A-Yuan is at home!"

At this moment, looking at Hou Yuan in front of him, he finally understood what his mother meant by "there is Hou Yuan in the family".

"Then I will leave thirty guards to protect you!" he said.

Hou Yuan shook her head: "Keeping ten is enough."

"Just thirty!"

Liu Bei's tone left no room for argument: "I'm worried about you all with fewer men!"

"I've already spoken to my uncle; he'll take care of things if anything comes up."

Hou Yuan did not argue further.

She reached out and straightened his collar.

The collar was already intact; she was just using this gesture to let her fingers linger on his shoulder for a moment longer.

"Let's go!" she said, her voice finally trembling slightly.

Liu Bei grasped her hand, squeezed it tightly for a moment, then released it and strode out of the room.

In the courtyard, Han Dang, Hou Cheng, Jian Yong, Cheng Yu, and Liu Deran were already waiting.

The morning light was bluish-gray, casting long shadows of several people.

Liu Bei glanced back one last time—the bedroom window was open, and Hou Yuan stood in front of it, with an unextinguished lamp behind her.

She didn't wave or shed tears; she simply stood there, watching him leave.

Liu Bei turned his head and strode towards the courtyard gate.

Outside the city, six hundred people were already waiting, but only his hundred personal guards and Hou's hundred-man squad were on horseback.

The other wandering knights who joined the cause were mostly from dissolute backgrounds, had plenty of weapons, but few had horses.

The journey from Zhuojun to western Liaoning is neither far nor short.

It will still take a long time to walk.

Han Dang led the scouts ahead to explore the area, Hou Cheng escorted the supplies behind, and Jian Yong and Cheng Yu accompanied them on either side.

Liu Deran walked with the soldiers, intentionally trying to become familiar with them.

On the seventh day, after passing Wuzhong, they entered the territory of Liaoxi Commandery.

Just then, a fast horse came galloping from the south.

The rider, covered in dust from the journey, galloped to the front of the procession, dismounted, and held a silk scroll high above his head.

"My lord—a secret letter from Mr. Xu!"

Liu Bei took the silk scroll, unfolded it, and saw that the handwriting was messy and belonged to Xu You. Between the strokes, there was an uncontrollable anxiety.

Liu Bei read it from beginning to end, his expression gradually darkening.

The calamity of the Party Prohibitions has resurfaced.

This time, the implications were far wider. Hou Chong, the prefect of Liaoxi Commandery, was implicated because he had been classmates with a member of the partisan faction in his early years. Now that the partisan had fallen from power, Hou Chong was sentenced to exile.

In his letter, Xu You said that when he learned of the news, the imperial court had already issued an edict to prepare for the arrest of Hou Chong.

He traveled through the night and finally found Zhang Rang, whom Liu Bei had mentioned.

It took a lot of money and several attempts to smooth things over before the exile was changed to dismissal from office!

Jian Yong stood beside Liu Bei and saw that Liu Bei's fingers, which were holding the silk book, were turning white at the knuckles.

He leaned closer to glance at the contents of the letter, his pupils contracting slightly.

Liu Bei folded the silk scroll slowly, as if using the action to calm something down.

"Change the exile to dismissal from office!"

Jian Yong was silent for a moment, then said, "This money was well spent!"

Liu Bei did not respond.

He certainly knew the money was well spent; being dismissed from office and being exiled were worlds apart.

At Hou Chong's age, if he were truly sent on the road to exile, he probably wouldn't even make it halfway.

He began to feel fortunate that he had recruited Xu You in time and sent him to Luoyang in time.

Otherwise, Hou Chong's fate would have been unpredictable!

The historical records in the dream did not record the fate of this Prefect Hou, so he was unaware of it beforehand.

Such a court...

He stopped thinking and put the silk scroll into his pocket.

"Let's keep going!" he said.

Cheng Yu rode his horse to Jian Yong's side, and the two rode side by side.

Cheng Yu glanced at Liu Bei's retreating figure and whispered, "What happened?"

"During the persecution of the partisans, the governor of Liaoxi was implicated!" Jian Yong replied briefly.

Cheng Yu didn't ask any more questions. He looked at Liu Bei's back, the seventeen-year-old captain riding on his horse with his back straight.

But Cheng Yu noticed that his hand, which was gripping the reins, had not loosened its grip since the beginning.

After a long silence, Cheng Yu suddenly spoke up: "Xianhe, this court, this situation, is far too passive!"

Jian Yong did not look at him, his gaze fixed on the official road ahead.

"Develop discreetly and bide our time!"

Jian Yong said, word by word, "I have already told the lord that from today onwards, he will understand the weight of these words even more."

Cheng Yu remained silent for a moment, then nodded.

To accomplish anything, one must first survive; only by surviving can one wait for the day when the world descends into chaos.

The group continued north for several more days. In western Liaoning, the summer days are long.

The procession of over six hundred people stretched out in a long line, moving slowly along the loess road.

Liu Bei always rode at the very front, and after receiving that secret letter, he became much quieter.

It wasn't gloomy, it was silent, a silence like a deep well, the surface calm, but something surging beneath.

Jian Yong knew what it was. It wasn't anger, but the kind of clarity that comes after being hit hard by something and suddenly realizing where you are.

Liu Bei, on the other hand, was the kind of person who, after being beaten, would wipe the blood from his mouth and figure out how to avoid being beaten again.

Jian Yong turned his head to look ahead at the official road, where the outline of Yangle City was already faintly visible.

It was early autumn when we returned to Yangle City.

Autumn comes early in Liaodong.

At the end of July, while it was still midsummer in the Central Plains, the wind in western Liaoning was already cool.

The grass and trees along the official road began to turn yellow, and the distant mountains lost their lush green of summer, revealing a light ochre color.

Outside Yangle City, led by four men, hundreds of people stood waiting by the official road.