The Jing Province Army had set off for Yi Province. In Yi Province, Liu Zhang and Liu Jiyu were on the verge of tears. He hadn't even paid off his previous debt, and now there was another big debtor.
How depressed was Liu Zhang? Previously, his subordinate, Zhang Lu of Hanzhong, was disobedient and wanted to provoke Liu Zhang, the new lord. It should be known that although the matters between Liu Zhang's father and Zhang Lu's mother weren't public knowledge, they were pretty much known. A widow often lived in Liu Yan's mansion.
Liu Yan had taken such good care of Zhang Lu, even giving him the rich Hanzhong Commandery. Anyone with a discerning eye would be able to tell that something was not right with just a glance.
At the same time, our classmate Liu Zhang had also seen it. Zhang Lu was Liu Yan's younger brother from a different mother.
Liu Zhang was dead, but Zhang Lu's mother was still living in the Yi Province Governor's mansion. When Liu Yan was still alive, Liu Zhang was still a little cowardly. But when he saw Zhang Lu's mother, who was his father's best friend in bed, he naturally lowered his head and addressed her as an elder.
But now that Liu Yan was dead, he, Liu Zhang, had taken over. As Zhang Lu's mother and his father's best friend in bed, she should naturally be tactful and give him some face. But Zhang Lu's mother didn't do that. Instead, she became even more arrogant after Liu Yan's death. She kept referring to herself as Liu Yan's mother. She simply didn't put Liu Yan in her eyes.
Liu Yan didn't get angry, but those subordinates of Liu Yan's exploded. You're the old lord's bedmate, yet you're pointing fingers at the new head of the family. Is it appropriate for you to criticize the new head of the family?
Liu Yan had been instigated by someone, and in a fit of anger, she didn't even think about the consequences. Kacha! She dragged Zhang Lu's mother out and beheaded her.
Although Zhang Lu despised his mother's actions, she was still his mother. It was reasonable for Zhang Lu to express his gratitude. However, Zhang Lu wasn't a person who liked to use violence. He wanted to settle the matter peacefully. At most, he would extort Liu Yan and give him some face. It would be best if he could get some provisions and gold as well.
That would maximize the benefits.
But for some reason, our classmate Liu Yan didn't understand and decided to strike first to gain the initiative. She wanted to kill Zhang Lu first.
This was indeed a good plan. While Zhang Lu was still suffering from the pain of losing his mother, it was naturally excellent to catch him off guard.
But reality and ideals were contrary to one's wishes.....
Liu Yan had just sent his troops and the commotion on the other side............. I haven't even schemed against you. My mother was beheaded by you, but you're the one who took the initiative.
Zhang Lu calculated and beat Liu Yan at his own game. He originally planned to make Liu Yan feel some heartache. After all, Zhang Lu knew that although Hanzhong County was rich, it couldn't compare to the entire Yi Province.
But I didn't expect that our Zhang Lu's small probing would produce such an unexpected result in such a short time.
The tens of thousands of troops that Liu Yan sent out at Tong Pass were caught off guard by Zhang Lu's several thousand troops in Ziwu Valley. After not leaving Sichuan for several years, Liu Zhang's troops were simply third-rate among third-rate troops.
Of the tens of thousands of soldiers, only a few thousand were actually killed. Most of them had scattered when they were ambushed. The mountain road was not easy to walk on and was extremely steep. When they scattered, the result could be imagined. Countless people were trampled to death, and even more people fell directly into the cliff. Even the complete corpses of the soldiers could not be found.
Originally, Zhang Lu only wanted to threaten his boss. He didn't expect his boss to be a paper tiger. This time, Zhang Lu's mind became nimble.
Yizhou is everyone's Yizhou. What right do you have to let the Liu family be the only scorpion to shit? I want it too. In the past, it was because I couldn't beat you. I didn't know how strong you were. I admitted defeat and treated you as a younger brother. Suddenly, I realized that you're just so-so as a big brother.
Since you can't do it, why don't you abdicate and let me have the seat?
As the saying goes, the emperor takes turns. Today, it's my turn.
Zhang Lu was ambitious, but he wasn't a fool. He wasn't like Huang She who was bewitched and became arrogant all of a sudden. He knew that Zhang Lu alone wouldn't be able to swallow Yizhou. Therefore, he looked for someone and joined forces with an old man named Zhao Wei, who was left behind by Liu Yan.
This person was here because the previous governor of Jingzhou, Liu Biao, had reported that Liu Biao had overstepped his position and was comparable to the Emperor in terms of carriage, equipment, and clothes. So Zhao Gui stationed troops in Jingzhou to guard against Liu Biao. At that time, tens of thousands of people from Nanyang and Sanfu fled to Yi Province. Liu Yan took them all in as troops and called them the "Eastern Province Army". Liu Zhang was gentle and tolerant. He lacked prestige and strategy. Shu Province invaded Ling Heng and became a disaster for the people. Liu Zhang didn't have the ability to stop it. The old scholars complained and betrayed him. Zhao Gui was in Bazhong and was liked by the people and soldiers. Liu Zhang gave him power. Zhao Gui saw that the people weren't on good terms and secretly colluded with the aristocratic families in Yi Province.
Zhang Lu was well aware of this, so he immediately sent someone to contact our classmate, Zhao Wei.
The two of them took a liking to Green Bean and hit it off.
Zhang Lu sent troops to Hanzhong to restrain Liu Zhang. Zhao Wei rebelled behind the scenes and caused chaos in Yi Province.
The two of them had a good plan. Two against one, they wouldn't be at a disadvantage.
Liu Zhang already had a headache. Fortunately, he had the scholars Zhang Song, Fa Zheng, and Old Jiang, Yan Yan, and Zhang Ren by his side. Otherwise, Zhang Lu and Zhao Wei would have broken through long ago.
Now, things were good. Zhao Wei and Zhang Lu's matter hadn't been settled yet. Jingzhou's Huang She joined in the fun and came to Yi Province to play.
"Everyone, do you have a plan?" Liu Zhang looked at the group of Yi Province's civil and military officials and asked.
He couldn't wait for someone to stand up and say to Liu Zhang, "My Lord, I have a plan to defeat Zhang Lu, Zhao Wei, and Huang She."
However, Liu Zhang was destined to be a fantasy. Apart from Liu Zhang's inaction, Yi Province was basically one of the few idiots guarding the city. Another reason was that there weren't many talents in Yi Province. Or rather, there weren't many talents who could take charge of a province.
Zhang Song and Fa Zheng were both scholars. However, Zhang Song was a scheming person but he was narrow-minded. He didn't read much. It was destined that his achievements would be limited. His foresight wouldn't be too far. It could be said that he was able to govern a county with ease. However, he couldn't say anything good about the overall situation at the moment.
Fa Zheng was good at scheming. It could be said that if you played tricks with him, even Zhuge Liang and the others might only be on par with him.
However, this person didn't see the big picture. If you let him break one side, Fa Zheng could easily deal with one side. However, he really couldn't do anything about the other two sides. In addition, the Jing Province's army came in a hurry. Even Fa Zheng was caught unprepared.
This was because in the eyes of Yi Province's civil and military officials, Jingzhou couldn't even take care of itself. Huang She had just killed their Lord and usurped the throne. Cai Mao and the Feng family naturally refused to accept him. Liu Pan's remaining members, Xiu Cheng, were also rebelling. Outside, the Yangzhou Navy was eyeing them covetously. Jingzhou couldn't even take care of itself. How could they have the time to plot against Yi Province?
However, they didn't expect that Huang She really came.
"Reporting, General Zhang Ren at the front sent an urgent military report. Prefecture Overseer, please take a look!" As he spoke, a messenger passed a letter to Liu Zhang. The ink on the letter was still wet.
When Liu Zhang opened the letter, he was shocked silly. "100,000 troops! 100,000 troops!"
Zhang Ren's letter said that the Jing Province's Huang She actually sent 100,000 troops to attack Yi Province.
Even Liu Zhang, the Yi Province's Prefecture Overseer, didn't have 100,000 troops.
"Reporting to Prefecture Overseer, it's not just Huang She's army. There are also two banners, Cai and Feng! "
"What? The Cai Family and the Feng Family?" The Yi Province's civil and military officials started to discuss. The civil and military officials of Yi Province were very familiar with these two families.
Why is that? That is because Liu Biao's Chief Military Advisor was Cai Mao. His Chief Military Advisor was also Kuai Yue. They had fought many battles with Yi Province. Liu Pan had even fought with the Yi Province Army at the place where he trained.
"Impossible!" Fa Zheng stood up and said to Liu Zhang, "My Lord, the current heads of the Cai Family and Feng Family are Cai Mao and Kuai Yue. Both of them are Huang She's uncles. Huang She killed the old master and has the new master under house arrest. The new master is Cai Mao's nephew. Logically speaking, Cai Mao and Kuai Yue wouldn't lower their heads to Huang She!"
Fa Zheng naturally had his own reasons for saying this. Cai Mao and Kuai Yue were very particular people. They were very particular about status and face. If they were to listen to the advice of their former nephews, they would lose all their face. Moreover, the puppet that Huang She was holding was Cai Mao's nephew.
Would Cai Mao, the uncle, be willing to accept this? He was already restraining himself by not fighting with Huang She.
"It's absolutely true. The banners are indeed the Cai Family and Kuai Family's banners!" The messenger felt wronged. Passing on military intelligence was a crime punishable by death. He could only say what he saw with his own eyes.
Liu Zhang believed him because the letter sent by Zhang Ren did indeed state that the Cai Family and Kuai Family were here. Otherwise, how could there be an army of a hundred thousand?
Could it be that the heavens want me to die? Liu Zhang was simply panicking. Being attacked from three sides all of a sudden, this was really not a good thing to be happy about.
After discussing for a while, no one came up with a solution. Even Fa Zheng didn't know where to start.
This was because no matter where they sent the troops, they wouldn't be able to avoid Huang She's arrival. That was an army of a hundred thousand. Even if Liu Zhang brought out all of his troops to fight with Huang She, there was no guarantee that they would win.
Yi Province was indeed rich. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that it was a Heavenly Province. There was abundant food and fodder, enough for the people to use.
However, there was one thing that shouldn't be forgotten. The reason why the Heavenly Province had enough food was because there weren't many people. A small county had at most a thousand households and two to three thousand people. The smaller ones only had a few hundred households. A county definitely didn't have more than ten thousand households.
Other than Chengdu. The only place that could be compared to Chengdu was Hanzhong County. Now, Liu Zhang and Zhang Lu had a falling out.
Jingzhou, on the other hand, was different. Jingzhou was originally a region of plains and hills. In addition, it was rich in water and soil. When the war in the Central Plains began, all the aristocratic families from the Central Plains rushed to Jingzhou. Conservatively speaking, there were at least two million people in Jingzhou, and these were all registered. As for those unregistered households that were not on the register, it was even less of a problem. Because these unregistered households did not need to pay taxes, they could be used casually. Even if they were killed, no one would know.
Therefore, it was much easier to recruit soldiers in Jingzhou than in Yi Province. As a result, the dead soldiers of Jingzhou were investigated again and again. They were simply like chives that couldn't be cut.
However, Yi Province was different. Their roads weren't easy to travel and it was difficult to travel to and from other places.
When the people came to seek refuge, they would usually go to Jingzhou. Who would go to Yi Province? If the roads were developed, it would have become the land of the military.
This also led to the small population of Yi Province.
In the original trajectory, there was a very important reason why Zhuge Liang couldn't win against Sima Yi until the end. That was because he didn't have enough people.
It would be a profit for him to give you one out of ten people. If you were defeated, it would be over. He still had soldiers and horses. How could he play?
Liu Zhang's original seventy to eighty thousand soldiers and horses were left behind by his father. After being beaten up by Pang Yi in Ziwu Valley, he lost tens of thousands of soldiers and horses. Now, at most, he could take out fifty thousand soldiers and horses.
That wasn't all. He still had to defend three sides. In the north, Tong Pass was guarding against Hanzhong and Zhang Lu. He couldn't let Zhang Lu enter Yi Province through Tong Pass and enter Xintong. After Xintong, he would enter Chengdu.
In the south, there was our student Zhao Wei. He was originally an important minister under Liu Zhang. When he chose Liu Zhang to inherit Liu Yan's throne, he fancied Liu Zhang's honesty and foolishness. However, who would have thought that Liu Zhang had Fa Zheng and Zhang Song by his side?
The two of them knew that they were now tied together with Liu Zhang. Therefore, they worked together and took back a lot of power from Zhao Wei. Even so, Yunnan and Jianling were still in Zhao Wei's hands.
Yi Province was already attacked from two sides. Now, there was another Huang She. Huang She directly came from the east and sent troops from Xiangyang to attack Yong 'an and Jiangzhou. If they successfully broke through the defense line, then Yi Province would really be finished.
After thinking about it, Liu Zhang changed the deployment of the troops. Ten thousand soldiers and horses were in Tong Pass to guard against Hanzhong and Zhang Lu. There, one man could hold back ten thousand men.
Fifteen thousand soldiers and horses were in the back to guard against Zhao Wei of Jianling and Yunnan.
The remaining soldiers and horses were all thrown to Zhang Ren by Liu Zhang. The attack of Huang She's army really scared Liu Zhang. It was an army of one hundred thousand, and this was a conservative estimate. If it wasn't for the mountains and rivers, Liu Zhang was ready to surrender.
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