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

Zhang Yan had also investigated the surrounding counties during this period and had a fairly good understanding of the situation in each county, but she did not know who killed Zhuge Xuan.

Tao Sheng is currently still in Ye County, and Yin Kai is entrenched in Wu'an. These two are clearly raising the banner of rebellion.

Ju Shou and his son were in Handan, and Shen Pei was in Yin'an; both claimed to have raised an army to punish the rebels.

Ju Shou and his son defeated Yin Kai and blockaded Wu'an, forcing Yin Kai to retreat into the city.

Shen Pei had previously joined Zhang Yan in attacking Ye City to punish Tao Sheng.

Judging from the current situation, Shen Pei and his son Ju Shou do indeed appear to be loyal ministers who have raised troops to quell the rebellion.

However, neither Liu Bei nor Zhang Yan believed it.

"When my troops besieged Ye County, Shen Pei claimed that Commandant Zhuge was tyrannical and cruel to the people, which led to a riot in Ye County..."

Zhang Yan recounted the situation she had encountered: "But I know that Commandant Zhuge is by no means a person who harms the people. Some villagers also said that Commandant Zhuge wanted to seal off the city to control the epidemic, so he was assassinated by the officials of Ye County."

"In that case, there's no need to distinguish who caused the trouble... just consider everyone as a thief."

Liu Bei had another idea: "Are there major epidemics in all the surrounding counties right now?"

"The plague has spread to all counties in Wei Commandery, and almost every family has suffered a loss. The counties of Handan and Wu'an are also littered with corpses. The counties in Henan are in a slightly better situation. Sima Fang's son, Sima Lang, and Zhao Zi are also fighting the plague. Sima Lang has also spent a lot of his family's wealth to donate medicine and even sent people to deliver medicine to my mountains."

Zhang Yan nodded and said, "The situation is alright in the mountains. Traveling in the mountains is inconvenient, so even if there are sick people, they have not spread out. All the sick soldiers in our army have been burned and buried."

There were many infected people in the Black Mountain army before, but Zhang Yan dealt with it very quickly. At that time, Zhang Yan had just been attacked by a traitor and was already investigating the moles in each unit, so he took the opportunity to eliminate the source of infection.

Traveling within Montenegro is indeed inconvenient. The mountain roads are treacherous, and the people on each mountain often come from different places with different lifestyles and accents. Especially in the cold winter, people rarely move around.

Inconvenient transportation and a large internal population, which have been major reasons why Montenegro has been unable to improve its economy, have also prevented the widespread spread of the disease at this time.

Zhang Yan mentioned that Sima Lang and Zhao Zi were actively fighting the epidemic, which surprised Liu Bei.

Liu Bei actually didn't have a good impression of the surname Sima...

But people are complex, and we cannot completely negate an entire surname because of the actions of one person.

The Sima family originally lived in Wen County, Henan Province. When the Southern Xiongnu invaded, they moved to the Liyang area. After Liu Bei and Cao Cao made peace, Liyang returned to Guan Yu's hands, and the Sima family and Zhao Zi family went to Chaoge.

Zhao Zi was also appointed by Cao Cao as the military law supervisor, which meant he was the chief military commander of the various divisions under Cao Cao.

Zhao Zi was originally unwilling to obey Liu Bei's court's order to close the passes, but it was Sima Lang who persuaded him to block the roads and set up obstacles.

The Chaoge Pass is currently being sealed off by Sima Lang himself, who is also inspecting the passes in Hanoi and pacifying the troops in various prefectures.

Sima Lang did indeed send medicine and a prescription to Heishan, and Zhang Yan even showed Liu Bei the prescription that Sima Lang had given him.

However, Zhang Yan also said that Sima Lang's medicine could not cure patients, it only had a slight cough-suppressing effect, and the prescription contained expensive medicinal materials such as ginseng, making it difficult to popularize on a large scale.

It's no wonder that Sima Lang was willing to spend so much of his family's wealth. His prescription is a Shaoyang formula for typhoid fever, which mainly focuses on strengthening the spleen and replenishing qi, and the medicinal materials are all quite expensive.

Liu Bei may not have medical knowledge, but he did have common sense. It was normal that he couldn't cure the epidemic, but as long as he could stop the cough, he could effectively suppress the spread of the epidemic.

Cough medicine doesn't actually need to be so expensive.

"It's rare for Sima Lang to have such a benevolent heart. He deserves some good fortune for his good deeds. Sima Lang's sealing of the Chaoge pass to control the epidemic has also saved the Sima family in Hanoi..."

Liu Bei wrote another prescription: "Feiyan will use this prescription to find the medicine and brew it. She will also have someone give this prescription to Sima Lang and tell him that coughing, phlegm, blood, and sweat are the ways to spread the epidemic. As long as people can stop coughing and phlegm and stop getting blood and sweat, the epidemic can be controlled."

The prescription written by Liu Bei was very simple: half a catty of Bupleurum, three liang of Scutellaria baicalensis, half a sheng of Pinellia ternata, three liang of prepared licorice root, two liang of Schisandra chinensis, and three liang of dried ginger.

All of them are common medicines, easy to find and inexpensive, specifically for warming the lungs and relieving coughs.

This is also the only prescription Liu Bei remembers; it is a modified version of Xiao Chai Hu Tang, which he often used to stop coughs and clear phlegm when he was a child.

Actually, Xiu Niang's clinic also had this prescription. Back in Youzhou, Liu Bei also used this prescription to administer medicine. Contributing prescriptions to medical schools could earn military merit, but no one recorded it for Liu Bei...

Zhang Yan accepted the prescription with clasped hands, saying, "Brother Big Ears is truly a benevolent and virtuous gentleman."

“I am not a benevolent gentleman... I am about to do evil.”

Liu Bei shook his head and said, "Feiyan, send orders to all your tribes in the mountains, saying that there is a huge food shortage this year, and that all the mountain strongholds should hand over their grain for unified distribution. Anyone who finds medicinal herbs for the mountains according to prescriptions will be given priority for grain. You open up Dongshankou and Jingxing, and have your troops stand by at any time. Once this order is issued, quite a few people may desert the mountains..."

Zhang Yan nodded, then asked, "Brother Big Ears, what kind of evil deeds are you referring to?"

"I will use the name of those traitors who have defected from the mountains to burn down the counties of Ye, Wu'an, Handan, Neihuang, and Yin'an, which are the hardest hit by the epidemic."

Liu Bei made no attempt to hide anything: "Wherever they go, we'll go and set fire to the city... so you can clean house and gather provisions for famine."

……

April of the first year of Jian'an.

This was the worst time of the drought, and also the time of greatest food shortage.

Zhang Yan issued an order to all the mountain strongholds in Heishan, instructing them to hand over all their grain to Shujiaoyi for limited distribution. Only those who found and handed over medicinal herbs would be given priority in receiving grain.

Zhang Yan's headquarters was stationed in Shujiaoyi, which was also the warehouse of Heishan. It was located on the banks of the Zhang River, and one could travel downstream along the Zhang River directly to Ye County.

The valley where the Zhang River flows through Ye County is called Dongshankou, which is the pass that Liu Bei specifically ordered Zhang Yan to open.

This is a common mountain pass used by the people of Heishan to travel to and from Jizhou. It is closer than Fukouxing, but it is a narrow mountain path that cannot be used by carriages or horses.

When food is scarce, it is normal to collect it and distribute it in a unified manner.

But at this time, only half of the leaders are willing to hand over their grain.

Sun Qing, Wang Dang, Du Chang, Zhang Ba and other troops all obeyed the order.

Meanwhile, the bandit leaders Lei Gong, Luo Shi, and Wu Lu did not react at all.

This is precisely to filter out those who are truly willing to listen; those who don't respond will likely run away soon.

It was at this time that Liu Bei met with Zhang Ba again.

Zhang Ba had been hiding in the mountains until he came to Shujiao to deliver grain, when he finally met Liu Bei.

Moreover, upon seeing Liu Bei, Zhang Ba turned and ran away...

Liu Bei asked from behind, "Zhangba, don't you recognize me?"

Zhang Ba turned around, lowered his head, and said meekly, "My cousin rebelled, so I should be implicated... Won't you kill me, sir?"

“Your elder brother is nine feet tall, not just has a left beard… Nine feet tall is a righteous and heroic figure, whom my family has worshipped for generations. You are the brother of a meritorious official, not a relative of a traitor. Why should you be implicated?”

Liu Bei shook his head and said, "The one who killed Zuo Zi was Fei Yan, but Fei Yan did not make things difficult for you and still appointed you to patrol the mountains and guard the roads. You should know that I will not make things difficult for you either. Since you still call me 'Young Master,' why don't you join the ranks and rejoin the team? I, your Young Master, need someone to protect me right now."

Zhangba was certainly Zuo Zi's cousin, but when he first joined Liu Bei's army, he was Jiu Chi's comrade-in-arms and called Jiu Chi his elder brother.

After Zuo Zi was defeated by Zhang Yan, he was escorted to the court to be punished and executed. Liu Bei knew that Zhang Ba was honest, so of course he would not regard Zhang Ba as an enemy.

Zhang Ba paused for a moment upon hearing this, then returned to Liu Bei's side: "I heard that you, sir, have become the prime minister... such a high-ranking official, do you still need someone like me to protect you?"

"You are my retainer..."

Liu Bei punched Zhang Ba in the chest: "My retainers are family, what does it have to do with whether they hold official positions or not?" "Mmm..."

Zhang Ba nodded, then shouldered his big stick and stood behind Liu Bei as he had at the beginning.

"Zhangba, you should be familiar with the mountain chief, right?"

Liu Bei turned his head and asked, "Who do you hate the most?"

Zhang Ba nodded: "I know all the leaders in the mountains... I don't like Luo Shi, he stole my horse."

With Zhangba's honest and simple nature, no one usually messes with him, but there are always people who bully honest people.

Liu Bei asked curiously, "With your size, what kind of horse could carry you?"

A man as tall as Zhang Ba is nine and a half feet (2.2 meters). If this were in later times, he would most likely be trained for the NBA, as someone that tall would be practically unable to ride a horse.

"That's what Mayor Luo said too, saying that it was useless for me to bring the horse, so he took it away..."

Zhang Ba sighed.

"I'll find you a big horse later, so you can ride it..."

Liu Bei patted Zhang Ba's arm: "Since you don't like Luo Shi, then go find Luo Shi and tell him that you are not getting enough to eat in the mountains and want to join forces with him to go to Wu'an and Handan to find food and defend yourself."

Zhangba, as always, obeyed orders without asking any questions, only muttering, "There really isn't enough to eat in the mountains..."

……

Honest people are generally trustworthy.

Luo Shi knew that Zhang Ba would never lie, so he naturally did not want to hand over the grain and went to Wu'an County with Zhang Ba.

Zhangba didn't have many men, and he wasn't the kind of leader who could win people's hearts, but more than a thousand bandits from the northern Taihang Mountains were willing to follow him. His honesty and straightforwardness were also a kind of personal charm.

Liu Bei and Zhao Yun also took the opportunity to blend in with the Zhangba Army and act together.

Just as Liu Bei sent Zhang Ba to find Luo Shi, Zhang Yan also arranged for Sun Qing, Wang Dang, and others to go find Lei Gong and Wu Lu respectively.

It was Liu Bei's idea to have trustworthy people incite those who were not so reliable to come out of seclusion.

Not long after, Lei Gong went from Jingxing to Shangdang. He was originally a bandit in Shangdang, and Sun Qingzheng was "partnering" with him to rob wealthy people in Bingzhou.

Wu Lu left the East Pass and went directly to Ye County to join Tao Sheng, where he was "partnered" with Wang Dang.

Luo Shi and Zhang Ba took the Fukou Pass, which is in the direction of Wu'an and Handan.

When someone defected from Black Mountain, Zhang Yan naturally had to clean house, and Tao Sheng also had to be eliminated. Zhang Yan personally led his troops to chase after Wu Lu to Ye County.

Because Handan was closed and roads were blocked, it was temporarily impossible to send messages to Zhang Liao in the north. However, Guan Yu had already received Liu Bei's message and had begun to send troops north.

……

Two days later, Luo Shi and Zhang Ba arrived at the pass west of Wu'an County.

This is the middle section of Fukou Pass, a narrow pass that serves as a natural barrier, and it is still more than 20 li away from Wu'an County.

Yin Kai's troops have already deployed here.

The defenses of Wu'an County itself were relatively weak, but there were valley entrances on both the east and west sides of Wu'an, making it difficult to attack.

This is precisely why Ju Shou and his son failed to conquer Wu'an after defeating Yin Kai.

Luo Shi asked Zhang Ba, "If we force our way through this road, Zhang Yan might pursue us at any moment. We can't afford to waste time here. How can we quickly break through this mountain pass?"

"Now that Yin Kai is also an enemy of Heishan, and we have fled to Heishan, he should be willing to join forces with us."

Zhang Ba remained silent, but Zhao Yun spoke up beside him: "The Yin family has long resided in Wu'an, and their clan is extremely wealthy, possessing vast amounts of money and provisions. We should join forces with them. Why don't you, General, discuss with Yin Kai the possibility of joining forces to defend against the Black Mountain in the west and take Handan in the east..."

"If Yin Kai is willing to join forces with us, then we should take Handan first. If he is not willing, at least we can make him open the road to meet us. At that time, whether the general chooses to take the opportunity to kill Yin Kai or borrow the road to leave, both are feasible strategies... What does the general think?"

This terrible idea was, of course, Liu Bei's.

However, Luo Shi had met Liu Bei before, so Liu Bei could not appear in person.

"Who are you?"

Luo Shi glanced at Zhao Yun and said, "I don't think I've ever seen you before... Zhang Ba doesn't have this strategy, so you're the commander of Zhang Ba's army now?"

"Zhao Er of Changshan is an old friend of Zhang Yao..."

Zhao Yun recalled Zhang Yao's appearance when he was a bandit: "If the general is worried, then I will go to Wu'an to talk to Yin Kai... Will the general go by himself or let me go?"

Zhang Yao initially worked as a thief in the Changshan area, and he had a reputation, although it wasn't as well-known as it was in Qingzhou. However, the people of the Taihang Mountains still knew him.

This plan doesn't seem to have any major flaws, since the choice is in Luo Shi's hands.

Luo City then chose to send Zhao Yun to talk to Yin Kai.

……

It was Liu Bei who went to negotiate with Yin Kai.

The guards at the pass brought Liu Bei into Wu'an City. Yin Kai had never met Liu Bei before, but the negotiations did not take much effort.

Yin Kai is indeed in dire need of help right now. He has just suffered a defeat, and the eastern pass is blocked by Ju Hu. To the west lies Heishan, and he is trapped in Wu'an with nowhere to go.

Although the Yin family was indeed not short of money and food, they were trapped in Wu'an County and could only watch helplessly as the plague gradually spread.

Many people in Yin Kai's family have also fallen ill.

If the passage to Handan is not opened soon, we will be trapped in the county.

The next day, Yin Kai personally came to the pass to welcome Luo Shi and Zhang Ba into Wu'an County.

But on the very night after entering the city, while Luo Shi and Yin Kai were discussing a joint attack on Handan, a great fire broke out in the city.

Liu Bei's skill in setting fires hadn't diminished at all. He and Zhang Fei alone were able to burn down a city before, and now with so many more brothers, it was naturally even easier for him.

It was still dinnertime, and the fire started first in the inn's woodshed. After the fire started, they continued to set fires all over the city, and they shouted everywhere to deliberately cause unrest in the city.

It is currently the season of severe drought. Although Wu'an County is located in the Mingshui River Valley, the river is as shallow as a stream, making it really difficult to put out the fire.

Moreover, Yin Kai didn't even have a chance to put out the fire.

When Yin Kai saw the fire outside, he naturally assumed that Mayor Luo had come to harm him.

Luo Shi also thought that Yin Kai was going to take over his troops...

This is a normal human reaction.

The two immediately engaged in a fierce fight, while Liu Bei, Zhao Yun, and others created chaos inside the city. After confirming that the fire could not be extinguished, they led their men out of Wu'an and guarded the city gates from the opposite direction.

The people inside the city will definitely try to salvage the grain, and they will inevitably try to get it out of the city. Just wait and see. (End of Chapter)