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

Chapter 166 Using a name to manipulate others is also acceptable.

Cui Zhouping stared at Liu Bei for a while, then suddenly smiled.

He then said in a low voice, "Since Lord Xuande is so determined, why not take me hostage?"

He spoke in a very low voice, and his eyes held a hint of arrogance.

Liu Bei glanced at the scholars at the city gate behind Cui Zhouping, shook his head and muttered, "Forced you? Brother Cui, do you really think I'm a thief?"

Having said that, he took Cui Zhouping's arm and walked towards the city gate, laughing loudly as they went: "Hahaha... Cui Zhouping is indeed kind and righteous. Since Brother Cui is willing to let me, Liu, station troops in Zaoqiang City and donate rice and grain for the imperial army's needs, then I, Liu, should also return the favor... There are thousands of acres of fertile land on the north bank of the Qinghe River in Ganling that no one has claimed, so I will take the liberty of giving them to Brother Cui!"

The land on the north bank of the Qinghe River refers to the land left behind by the powerful families of Ganling who fled northwest of the Qinghe River, and it is more than a thousand hectares.

That place is closer to Julu, Guangzong County, and Anping, and is separated from Ganling by the Qinghe River. At this moment, it is a no-man's land.

At this moment, most of the powerful clans of Ganling were not with Cui Zhouping, but gathered in Dongwu City, the stronghold of the Cui clan of Ganling.

However, the Cui family of Anping also gathered many people from Nangong County, and many of them owned land on the north bank of the Qinghe River.

"Ah I……"

Cui Zhouping was clearly taken aback by Liu Bei's actions and was momentarily stunned.

He did manage to coerce Liu Bei, but he did it in a different way.

Cui Zhouping had never seen anyone forcibly give away land to someone else...

"Hey, Brother Cui, don't refuse! It's all unclaimed land anyway, it should be given to a kind family!"

Before Cui Zhouping could even defend himself, Liu Bei spoke first, pinching the nerve in his forearm to stop Cui Zhouping from uttering his words.

When the tendon was pinched, Cui Zhouping froze, unable to utter a word.

To outsiders, it looked as if they had made a deal with Liu Bei in hushed tones, but were unwilling to let Liu Bei announce it publicly.

Then Liu Bei put his arm around Cui Zhouping and walked into the city, not giving him a chance to speak again: "Brother Cui, don't be modest anymore. This matter is settled. Although I am of low rank and position, I can still make decisions in Ganling..."

Guan Yu and Zhang He were standing beside Liu Bei. Guan Yu did not react in any other way and continued to protect Liu Bei behind him.

Zhang He, however, was a shrewd man. Upon hearing Liu Bei's words and seeing Liu Bei leading Cui Zhouping forward, he immediately led his soldiers ahead, displaying all the ceremonial guards to clear a path for Liu Bei to enter the city.

As the highest-ranking military officer in the prefecture, the Commandant had a large number of flags and ceremonial guards. Once they were all displayed, no one could approach within dozens of steps.

Zhang He had been framed by officials twice, and it seems he had learned his lesson.

After the ceremonial flags were raised, all the scholars at the entrance of Zaoqiang County were kept on the periphery, unable to see Liu Bei and Cui Zhouping clearly, and could only hear Liu Bei's voice.

This can be considered as Cui Zhouping welcoming Liu Bei into the city. It's just that Liu Bei didn't take a carriage when he arrived; otherwise, he would definitely have pulled Cui Zhouping into the carriage to ride with him...

However, at this point, the sight of them "arm in arm and chatting happily" is enough.

"I... I, Cui, had no such intention! Commandant Liu..."

Cui Zhouping finally recovered and was about to argue when Liu Bei interrupted him, saying, "Brother Cui, you deserve to be rewarded for sacrificing your career for the country! This matter is of merit to the country and beneficial to the clan. Your reputation for generosity and righteousness will soon spread throughout the world. There is no need for such modesty!"

Cui Zhouping's face turned ugly. He tried to break free from Liu Bei's hand, but Liu Bei put his arm around his shoulder again.

Liu Bei put his arm around him and whispered in his ear, "Brother Cui, didn't you ask me to coerce you? I can give up this city, and I can give up your grain, but those thousand acres of land will definitely be registered in your name."

"If you are willing to cooperate and persuade everyone on your side to donate grain as military supplies, I will distribute the land to each family... Those who are unwilling to contribute grain are Yellow Turban rebels, and I will directly attack them."

"Even if all the gentlemen of Anping serve the court, you will gain a reputation for generosity and righteousness."

“If you don’t cooperate, I can go to Dongwu City and sell all the land of your friends’ families to the Cui family of Ganling… Anyway, those who don’t pay taxes are considered to have abandoned their land and become thieves. I won’t touch your Cui family, but I won’t be lenient with others.”

The friends of Cui Zhouping mentioned here are naturally the gentry members currently at the city gate.

These people also own land within the territory of Ganling, some on the north bank of the Qinghe River, and some near Dongwu City.

"How can you be so forceful..."

Cui Zhouping was taken aback and was about to refute, but then he realized what was going on.

No matter how much he objected, or whether he wanted to do this deal with Liu Bei or not, Liu Bei could still fabricate the fact that the Cui family had forcibly seized the land of the powerful clans of Ganling.

It is permissible to seize the property of the gentry, but it is forbidden to speak of it.

But Liu Bei is now able to directly allow the Cui family to "openly seize land," and Cui Zhouping can't even defend himself.

At this time, the world was in chaos, and no one was home to any of the local people. Who knew if they were dead, had fled, or had joined the Yellow Turbans?

Liu Bei, acting on Dong Zhuo's military orders, collected military provisions. When he saw uninhabited wasteland, it could indeed be considered ownerless land. Selling land to raise military supplies was a long-standing practice.

If they simply resisted and refused to cooperate, Liu Bei could indeed "sell" all the land in Ganling to Dongwu City.

If Cui Zhouping's friends suffer losses, it will be really difficult to handle.

If they cooperate with Liu Bei and get these gentry families to donate grain, Liu Bei will give all the grain donors land, or even not give the Cui family an inch of land at all.

This can be considered a trade. If the Yellow Turban Rebellion is quickly quelled, the gentry in Cuizhou will make a fortune, while only the powerful clans in Ganling will lose their land.

Even if the powerful clans of Ganling harbored resentment, they would only resent those aristocratic families who received land, since the Cui family did not receive any land.

However, if they do not cooperate, Liu Bei will sell the land of these aristocratic families to the Cui family of Ganling, and the aristocratic families at the city gate will suffer losses, or even be killed.

These families will certainly hold a grudge—not only against Liu Bei, but also against the Cui family of Ganling who seized the land, and against Cui Zhouping who failed to protect their clan members.

Because Cui Zhouping will not be killed, and the Cui family will not suffer any losses.

These aristocratic families died on Cui's territory, yet the Cui family suffered no losses. Furthermore, Cui Zhouping had publicly "conspired" with Liu Bei. So, this matter...

Liu Bei couldn't really do anything to the Cui family, but he could easily bully other aristocratic families, and he didn't care about the reputation of the literati.

What will happen to the Cui family's reputation?
What will happen to Cui Zhouping's reputation?
Cui Zhouping hesitated.

Unless they openly rebel, regard Liu Bei as an enemy, and directly mobilize their clansmen to drive him away.

The Cui family had thousands of clan soldiers, and other families also had servants and retainers. It would not be difficult for them to gather an army of tens of thousands, and they could very well defeat Liu Bei.

But the problem is, in this situation, if things really come to a head, can I still survive?

If they don't break off relations, Shihlin's reputation will be ruined.

Liu Bei is using his own reputation as leverage...

Should we cooperate with Liu Bei?

No, it should be... how to cooperate with Liu Bei?

"Haha... It seems Brother Cui understands. I, Liu Xuande, am only doing fair trade. I am here to collect military supplies. Whoever pays the grain can take away the unclaimed land in Ganling... Whoever serves the Han Dynasty should get the land of the Han Dynasty. Is there anything fairer than this?" Seeing that Cui Zhou had calmed down, Liu Bei stopped pretending and pulled Cui Zhouping into the city together.

The officials at the city gate had already made way, and they could only hear Liu Bei and Cui Zhouping talking loudly, and see Liu Bei and Cui Zhouping arm in arm, seemingly exchanging grain for land within the territory of Ganling.

This was not a special case. Scholars had long been accustomed to seizing land in various ways, and they did not know the specifics of what Cui Zhouping and Liu Bei were discussing.

After entering the city, Liu Bei and Cui Zhouping went to a guesthouse. Instead of having a banquet, they had a long talk in private.

"Commander Liu, you have a good method. I will provide the grain. But I don't know how to persuade the others. Please teach me, Commander Liu."

Cui Zhouping was a man who could take things in stride. He was not a miser; he would give up what he needed to give up without hesitation, though he was somewhat resentful.

"Brother Cui, reputation among scholars is indeed useful, but nothing is without its advantages... I advise you frankly, reputation should be an added bonus, not the path to success. I can use my reputation to coerce you into cooperation, and you can certainly use the same method to get everyone to contribute resources..."

Seeing Cui Zhouping's cooperation, Liu Bei naturally stopped pretending: "If Brother Cui really wants to minimize the losses of your friends, or doesn't want to incur resentment, then I can sell the land to you first, and you can resell it back to those powerful families in Ganling who abandoned their land, and let them provide the grain. Anyway, I only want the grain, no matter who provides it..."

"Then, may I, Cui, borrow Commandant Liu's military might to persuade the various families?"

Cui Zhouping glanced at Liu Bei, and seemed to admire him somewhat.

“Alright, Brother Cui, whether you want to avoid being hated or want to be hated, I will accept it all.”

Liu Bei smiled slightly, shook his head, and looked at Cui Zhouping: "As long as the 40,000 people of Ganling have food to eat, I don't care about the jealousy of others, nor do I care about having a bad reputation... Brother Cui, those who are not envied are mediocre, but those who have no bad reputation are truly wicked..."

……

Soon after, nearly 100,000 bushels of grain were transported to Ganling County.

Dozens of land documents were also issued by Liu Bei.

Liu Bei sold all the land west of Qinghe in the northwest of Ganling, and Cui Zhouping then sold it back to various powerful families in Ganling, essentially just changing hands once.

In addition, the Cui family also contributed a lot of grain, because Cui Zhouping knew that if Liu Bei ran out of food, he would most likely pull this stunt again.

This was a very strange deal—wealthy families would normally be most eager to seize land, but the Cui family had to give up their land to others, even at the cost of spending more grain…

Liu Bei would certainly have some bad reputations spread by various powerful clans, but they were nothing more than things like 'barbaric' and 'frontier,' much like Dong Zhuo—after all, Liu Bei collected grain using Dong Zhuo's military orders, so naturally he would also have some bad reputations.

After obtaining the grain, Ganling gradually began to come alive, and houses were gradually built on the east bank of the river, but for the time being, no one was clearing land for farming.

Because it is July now, the weather is hot and not suitable for farming.

Because of the large number of people, Liu Bei did not give alms directly, but instead provided relief through work.

Burying corpses from various places, burning lime to eradicate epidemics, building roads, repairing the county town, and manufacturing various vehicles and tools...

And they began to stabilize prices in Ganling by rationing grain.

However, Liu Bei did not use five-zhu coins, but instead used vouchers he signed himself—which were actually grain coupons.

You can earn food stamps for working, and those food stamps can be used to buy other things or trade with each other.

The grain coupons stated that one liter meant one liter of grain, and there were no price fluctuations in the grain market.

Currently, food is the most valuable commodity. With no price fluctuations in food, the value of food coupons has become fixed. This has also led to stable prices for other commodities, and the prices of other commodities will gradually decrease as everyone can afford to eat.

Actually, these grain coupons were small pieces of yellow cloth—yes, they were made from yellow turbans, just cut to different sizes. They had words like "sheng" and "dou" written on them and were stamped with Liu Bei's seal.

To get the seal, Liu Bei's guards all took turns acting as stamping machines, working for several days and using up all the cinnabar in the county.

The Yellow Turban women and children who migrated to Ganling also contributed all of their Yellow Turban resources.

After arranging affairs in Ganling, Liu Bei led his troops to escort Dong Zhuo to Xiaquyang, where he delivered 10,000 hu of grain, thus completing his mission.

Dong Zhuo was pleasantly surprised that Liu Bei had sent him military supplies so quickly.

But the joy lasted only a moment before Dong Zhuo became worried again.

Dong Zhuo has now surrounded Xiaquyang, but he cannot break through it in the short term.

The number of Yellow Turban rebels in Xiaquyang was no less than that in Guangzong City, and Zhang Bao was even more difficult to deal with than Zhang Liang.

Dong Zhuo tried various methods, such as cutting off water and food supplies, breaching walls and setting fires, and launching night raids on the city walls...

But it was no use; Zhang Bao held firm.

The reason why the Yellow Turbans gathered in Guangzong and Xiaquyang was because both cities were located near rivers, had abundant groundwater, and were connected to waterways by canals, ensuring a continuous water supply.

Both cities were transit points for grain transport, and they had granaries within them, so they already stored a considerable amount of grain.

Furthermore, with the women and children of Guangzong all moved away, the consumption was reduced by half, which also meant that Xiaquyang no longer needed to worry about Guangzong's supplies. Neither side was afraid of being besieged for the time being.

"Commander Liu, you persuaded me to come here, and I agreed. But I fear I will find it difficult to achieve anything here, as Zhang Bao is guarding the area very well. Commander Liu, do you have any methods to break through the enemy's defenses?"

Those military rations were still respectable; Dong Zhuo treated Liu Bei very politely and didn't arbitrarily take his anger out on others.

"What, General? Did you receive an imperial edict urging you to come?"

Liu Bei knew Dong Zhuo's anxiety; Dong Zhuo was indeed in a very difficult situation.

"Not only did I receive the Emperor's urgent decree, but I also received a document from the Minister of Works urging me to surrender... but this city is difficult to breach..."

Dong Zhuo glanced at the distant city, his brows furrowed.

"Previously, the general relied on various rebel armies to supply him with provisions, but now General Dong has provisions in his own hands, and the rebel armies are now relying on the general for their food..."

Liu Bei pointed to the rebel army assembled by powerful clans: "They previously allied themselves with General Lu, hoping to gain some merit through him, but when General Lu lost power, they abandoned him. Now they have allied themselves with General Dong... But has General Dong ever seen them fight to the death to besiege a city?"

"Dong can only issue orders to the commanders of various families, but he cannot mobilize their troops. Naturally, they will not fight to the death because of my orders."

Dong Zhuo nodded, roughly understanding Liu Bei's meaning: "But if I threaten them with grain, and they scatter..."

"If they disperse because of this, they will either be regarded as deserters or as colluding with the Yellow Turbans... It depends on what General Dong wants to say."

Liu Bei said in a low voice, "They are unwilling to suffer casualties, yet they want to take credit for General Dong's work. How can it be so easy? What do you say, General Dong?"

Dong Zhuo glanced at Liu Bei, then turned to look at the camp of the powerful clans of Ji Province, pondering without speaking.

After a long while, he turned to Liu Bei and asked in a low voice, "Using grain as leverage is too likely to provoke public anger. Does Xuande have a way to satisfy both sides?"

"Then let the general take a wound first... and then find someone to point out a family suspected of assassination. To clear his name, let him lead his troops to attack the city to prove his innocence... If he succeeds, the general will gain merit; if he fails... the general can be excused and withdraw his troops due to his injury."

Liu Bei nodded, offering Dong Zhuo a terrible idea.

(End of this chapter)