My father Liu Xuande

Chapter 562 Envoy from Ba County
Pingyi County not only guarded the intersection of the western route of the Five-Foot Road and the Yelang Road, serving as the northern gateway to Zangke Prefecture, but it was also a transit center for land transport along the Five-Foot Road in southern China, and a well-known horse trading market in the southwest.

The population here is over 6,000, of which Han Chinese make up three-fifths, about 4,000 to less than 5,000. The vast majority of the Han Chinese are soldiers and their families, including 800 post station soldiers with over 3,000 family members. The rest are merchants stationed in Pingyi to maintain trade routes and receive their own caravans.

The other two thousand or so were descendants of the Yelang people and Han-influenced Baiyue tribesmen.

When Lü Meng arrived in Pingyi, the city was already on high alert.

Unlike the previous three routes, Pingyi was not only nominally subordinate to Liu Zhang, the governor of Yizhou, but also in fact close to Liu Zhang, serving as an important gateway for Liu Zhang to exert influence over Zangke Commandery.

Most of the garrison soldiers in Pingyi County were dispatched by Liu Zhang. From here, they could travel north along the Five-Foot Road to reach the Bo Road. Therefore, Pingyi County was both the northern gateway to Zangke Commandery and the southern gateway to Jianwei Commandery.

The total strength of Pingyi City was about a thousand, with the main force being the eight hundred garrison soldiers sent by Liu Zhang, along with three or four hundred young men from the Baiyue tribes, as well as guards, assistants, and so on for traveling merchants.

These people, in terms of training, quality, and experience, are far inferior to Liu Fengjun.

In terms of time, Lü Meng had plenty of time. It would take four or five days to travel from Pingyi to Bodao to deliver the message, and another four or five days to travel from Bodao to Chengdu. This round trip would take more than half a month.

Then the army in Bidao needed to be mobilized and replenished with supplies, and it would take another half a month to reach Bijie after they set off.

Even under the most extreme circumstances, Lü Meng would have at least a month to conquer Pingyi.

Lu Meng had 2,000 elite soldiers and another 2,000 civilian laborers who could be deployed if necessary, though their fighting strength would be much weaker.

Realizing that he had plenty of time, Lü Meng did not rush into an attack. Instead, he worked on building siege equipment while using the Left General's edict to persuade the enemy to surrender.

Unfortunately, although the Pingyi troops were not strong in battle, they were quite loyal to Liu Zhang and refused Lü Meng's offer to surrender.

Left with no other choice, Lü Meng ultimately had to launch a direct attack.

Fortunately, the disparity in strength between the two sides was too great, and Pingyi had been peaceful for a long time, with its city defenses neglected for years. The siege lasted only two days before Pingyi County fell. If we consider that Lü Meng's first day was merely a probing attack to find the defenders' weaknesses, the siege actually only took one day.

It took a full twelve days to build the siege equipment. During the siege, Lü Meng was worried about reinforcements from Jianwei County in the north, so he sent out all the few dozen cavalrymen he had.

Unexpectedly, after the conquest of Pingyi, there was not a single movement from the north.

Lu Meng initially thought that the Pingyi County garrison had forgotten to warn Jianwei and Chengdu, but after carefully questioning the prisoners of war, he learned that they had immediately sent people to Bidao and Chengdu to ask for help.

Lu Meng became increasingly puzzled. After much deliberation, he decided to temporarily garrison in Pingyi and send a large number of people to the north to investigate the situation. He also actively contacted local powerful families and Baiyue chieftains in hopes of finding out the specific reasons as soon as possible.

Wen Ping encountered the same situation as Lü Meng. After entering the Jianwei State along the Sancha River, Wen Ping captured Hanyang County as his base.

What happened here was very similar to what happened to Lü Meng. Not to mention Chengdu, Bodao, Wuyang and other places, even Zhuti, the capital of Jianwei State, was completely silent and unresponsive.

Wen Ping's reaction was exactly the same as Lü Meng's; he was also frightened by this strange situation. He immediately halted his troops in Hanyang, gathered provisions, rested his soldiers, and gathered intelligence.

Lu Meng and Wen Ping were unaware that the situation in both places had indeed reached Shu, albeit with great difficulty, but it had eventually reached Liu Zhang's desk.

However, Liu Zhang was preoccupied with more important matters at the time and had little time to deal with these issues.

Rewind to a month earlier, in Yangzhou, just after the New Year, when they were planning the overall development outline for the seventh year of Jian'an, which is 203 AD (because Liu Feng changed the timeline, the Jian'an year is pushed back by one year compared to the original history), a guest from Shu arrived uninvited.

The person who came was Gong Yang, a trusted confidant of Zhao Wei, the General Who Conquers the East and the Prefect of Yizhou.

Gong Yang was the Prefect of Bazhou and one of Zhao Wei's two trusted advisors. The other was Cheng Ji, the State Secretary.

Both men were Zhao Wei's trusted advisors, but their fates were vastly different. Gong Yang followed Zhao Wei to the death, dying alongside his lord in the Battle of Dianjiang. Cheng Ji, on the other hand, left Zhao Wei after his advice was rejected, and instead joined Liu Zhang.

However, this world has changed considerably due to Liu Feng's appearance. Because Jingzhou changed hands and Liu Feng became powerful, he put Zhao Wei under tremendous pressure.

Zhao Wei was originally placed in Ba Commandery by Liu Zhang in order to resist Liu Biao's infiltration and invasion from the Yangtze River.

Now that Liu Biao is indeed gone, what he has gained in return are Liu Feng and his son Liu Bei, who control five provinces. For Zhao Wei, this pressure has increased by more than one or two times.
Moreover, Liu Feng is now famous throughout the land. Everyone knows that although he is only twenty years old, he is already a famous general in the world. He is invincible, undefeated, and has countless fierce generals, strategists, and elite troops under his command.

Zhao Wei was deeply afraid that if he raised an army in rebellion, before he could defeat Liu Zhang, Liu Feng would take advantage of the situation and seize power.

Therefore, after careful consideration, Zhao Wei accepted Cheng Ji's suggestion to postpone the uprising and instead focus on cultivating the land in Ba County, stockpiling grain, and preparing military equipment.

Zhao Wei became obedient, but Liu Zhang did not. Moreover, Liu Zhang even misjudged Zhao Wei's fear of Liu Feng as fear of himself.

Therefore, over the past two years, Liu Zhang has been making various underhanded moves in an attempt to weaken Zhao Wei's power.

Liu Zhang first promoted Wang Shang, Zhao Wei's top confidant, in the name of the central government, appointing him as the Chief Administrator, in charge of confidential documents of the prefecture, and transferred him away from Zhao Wei's side to Chengdu.

Subsequently, Liu Zhang appointed Pang Xi, a friend and political ally of Zhao Wei, as the Prefect of Bazhou and a Consultant, in charge of the troops in Dongzhou, in order to divide Zhao Wei's military power.

Pang Xi and Zhao Wei originally had a very good relationship. They were not only good friends, but also shared similar political views. Moreover, they were the important ministers entrusted to Liu Zhang by Liu Yan when he died.

After Pang Xi took office as the governor of Ba Commandery, he began to have conflicts with Zhao Wei of Ba Commandery, and the two had some unpleasant dealings. At this time, Liu Zhang secretly made a move - he arranged for his son to marry Pang Xi's daughter, thus forming a marriage alliance with Pang Xi.

At the same time, he took away the salt tax in Bazhong, which originally belonged to Zhao Wei, and handed it over to Pang Xi. This move was undoubtedly a blatant attempt to sow discord between the two.

Although Zhao Wei was quite unhappy, he still did not fall out with Pang Xi. In fact, when Pang Xi expanded the Zong army without authorization the year before last, arousing Liu Zhang's suspicion and apprehension, Zhao Wei wrote several letters in succession, earnestly explaining the advantages and disadvantages, saying that he and Pang Xi would never betray Liu Zhang in order to repay Liu Yan's great kindness, and thus defended Pang Xi's behavior.

But in the end, it was not Pang Xi who rebelled, but Zhao Wei himself.

From a later perspective, while Liu Zhang's underhanded tactics were disgusting, he genuinely had no intention of harming Zhao Wei at that time. Liu Zhang's goal was to weaken and restrict Zhao Wei, not to eliminate him.

Liu Zhang still tried to use Zhao Wei to protect him in Ba Commandery; only a madman would want to kill Zhao Wei.

However, Liu Zhang's actions undoubtedly provoked Zhao Wei's genuine resentment and posed a significant threat to him. From top to bottom, Zhao Wei's faction felt that Liu Zhang would eventually target Zhao Wei, and with deadly force. This unease and fear ultimately left Zhao Wei's faction with no other option but to rebel.

Since the end of last year, when Liu Zhang ordered that starting this year, the salt tax in Ba Commandery would be collected by Pang Xi, Zhao Wei had made up his mind to rebel.

Zhao Wei first contacted Pu Hu, the king of the Bantun barbarians in Bazhong. The Bantun barbarians had always had a deep cooperative relationship with Zhao Wei, and Zhao Wei himself was from Anhan in Bajun, a prominent and powerful family in Bajun, and had intricate connections with the Bantun barbarians living in the area.

Upon hearing this, Park Hu immediately decided to support Zhao Wei's uprising, offering to send 10,000 barbarian soldiers to assist him and providing some of the military rations.

After gaining Park Hu's support, Zhao Wei was overjoyed and quickly contacted the major clans and powerful families in Ba County. The result was beyond his expectations.

Because Liu Zhang's policies consistently favored the Dongzhou faction and suppressed local powerful clans in Yizhou, especially since most of the military force in Shu was controlled by people from Dongzhou.

The relationship between the local scholars of Yizhou and the military generals of Dongzhou was very bad. For example, civil officials such as Wang Shang, Huang Quan, and Zhang Song were at odds with the brothers Wu Yi and Wu Ban, as well as Pang Xi.

Zhao Wei himself was wary of by both sides precisely because of this.

Zhao Wei was a local scholar in Shu, but he was on good terms with Pang Xi, Wu Yi and others from the Dongzhou faction. He also had local scholars like Wang Shang among his confidants. If he handled things well, he could gain the support of both sides. But if he handled things poorly, he would be disliked by both sides.

Unfortunately, Zhao Wei was the latter.

After entering Chengdu, Wang Shang quickly abandoned Zhao Wei and began serving Liu Zhang. Pang Xi also switched sides after Zhao Wei raised his army, siding with Liu Zhang and opposing Zhao Wei's military actions.

This is also one of the fundamental reasons why Zhao Wei's rebellion failed.

With the support of local powerful clans and the Bantun barbarians in Ba Commandery, Zhao Wei became arrogant and complacent.

This is not to blame Zhao Wei for being frivolous, but rather because the situation was truly excellent.

Zhao Wei himself came from a prominent family in Bazhong and was extremely powerful. According to historical records, Zhao Wei's family alone had 10,000 private soldiers, and the Banshun barbarians had another 10,000 soldiers to assist him. In addition, almost all the powerful clans in Ba Commandery stood on Zhao Wei's side, and they could provide at least 10,000 troops.

These alone already numbered over 30,000 men. Moreover, Zhao Wei himself had commanded the Dongzhou troops for many years. Not only did he support Liu Zhang's succession when Liu Yan died, but he also led the Dongzhou troops to suppress the rebellions of Liu He, Gan Ning, and others, and was stationed in Ba Commandery to resist Liu Biao.

In Zhao Wei's mind, the Dongzhou soldiers must be closer to him, their old superior. Moreover, the one who took over the Dongzhou soldiers two years ago was his old friend Pang Xi. Although their relationship had become somewhat distant in the past two years, he had done a lot of work to defend and vouch for Pang Xi when Liu Zhang suspected him of violating regulations by expanding the Zong army two years ago.

Pang Xi should reciprocate by supporting himself, shouldn't he?
Zhao Wei forgot a very important point: nowadays, his personal troops, the Banshun barbarians, and the troops of the powerful clans of Ba County all share the same identity—local military force from Shu.

These are the mortal enemies of the Dongzhou soldiers.

The Dongzhou soldiers were too scared to even think about defecting.

Not to mention the soldiers from Dongzhou, even Pang Xi, a renowned scholar from Nanyang, was frightened and hurriedly distanced himself from Zhao Wei.

Otherwise, the first person the Dongzhou soldiers would have killed was this general.

Zhao Wei was unaware of these things. Under the advice of Cheng Ji and Gong Yang, he set his sights on Liu Feng and secretly sent Gong Yang down the river to Yangzhou to ask Liu Feng to provide assistance as an outsider.

When Gong Yang finished explaining his purpose, Liu Feng was shocked and could hardly believe his ears.

And such good things?

If I had known this would happen, I wouldn't have bothered with the whole Jiaozhou-Shu trip. I could have just waited for Zhao Wei to invite me.

If it were Liu Feng, who had just transmigrated, he probably would have agreed immediately.

Now that Liu Feng has been through more than a decade of experience, he has naturally become more cunning.

Regardless of what he was thinking, his face quickly turned from shock to worry.

Seeing the worried look on Liu Feng's face, Gong Yang's heart skipped a beat, and he tentatively asked, "What does General Zuo think?"

Liu Feng picked up the gift list again and began to look through it.

It has to be said that Zhao Wei went to great lengths.

The gift list alone contains 500 catties of gold and silver, which are extremely valuable. There are also 100 bolts of Shu brocade, which are equivalent to gold, half of which are jacquard Shu brocade.

In addition, the gift list also includes one hundred Qiong bamboo canes, twenty jars of fermented soybean paste, twenty jars of cinnabar, twenty shi of high-quality well salt, twenty pieces of Zhuti bronzeware known as "the most exquisite in the world", twenty shi of Baihe rice, a specialty of Sichuan, five shi of Wuyang tea, twenty jars of konjac sauce, which Sima Xiangru called "the ancestor of Sichuan flavors", twenty fine-bred Zuo horses, twenty pairs of rhinoceros horn and ivory, five pairs of colorful parrots, five shi each of Coptis chinensis, cinnabar, and Sichuan pepper, and fifty pieces of Guanghan lacquerware.

In addition, there are countless rare and precious treasures, food and toys, which can be described as an extravagant gift.

This gift list clearly demonstrates how determined Zhao Wei was to seek help and how fervent his desire to rely on him was.

But Liu Feng still wanted to give the other party the cold shoulder.

The purpose was not to play the fool, but to make Zhao Wei willingly and without doubt welcome him into Shu.

"Ziju is unaware of something."

Liu Feng sighed and said, "Although my army has hundreds of thousands of strong men, they are now exhausted. We can muster three to five thousand men, but it is really difficult to gather tens of thousands."

Gong Yang, courtesy name Ziju.

Upon hearing this, Gong Yang immediately became anxious and somewhat rudely asked, "I wonder what General Zuo means by this? General Zuo's Southeast Tiger Warriors are invincible in the world. I have heard of them even in Shu. Now that the Central Plains are at peace, how come there are no troops to mobilize?"

(End of this chapter)