Chapter 231 Yizhou Situation
When Liu Bian first heard that Marquis Leping had sent a New Year gift, he actually still had some psychological trauma.
This gift, which was delivered to Yecheng in mid-January, had the title of Grand Marshal and General of the Cavalry written on the giver's name, declaring her position with these seven words of official title.
When he first ascended the throne in Yecheng, he actually offered her the title of General of Cavalry. Unfortunately, Qiao Yan obviously did not intend to stand on his side and refused to accept the appointment.
Now the title of General of Cavalry can finally be put into practice.
But what left him with psychological trauma was not Qiao Yan's refusal of the official position she offered him, but the New Year gift she gave him.
For Liu Bian, the New Year gift she sent in January of the first year of Zhaoning was her own handwritten annotations on classics, intended to encourage learning, which was barely normal.
But the annual gift in the first month of the third year of Zhaoning was a handful of yellow earth on the tomb of Emperor Ling of Han on Mount Mang!
Liu Bian could never forget this scene even in his dreams.
When Qiao Yan's envoy held up a box of yellow soil in the court, saying that it was a gift from King Hongnong to offer sacrifice to the late emperor and relieve his homesickness, Liu Bian's face turned pale, then green, and then pale again. It was hard to understand how the envoy could remain calm and think that this was a serious gift.
This year, fortunately, after careful consideration, he felt that Qiao Yan would not be so willing to dig up the grave of the previous emperor just because the current monarch was Liu Yu, so he finally chose to meet her envoy.
However, when he saw that this New Year gift was lucky money given by the elders to the younger generations, the emperor, who actually did not have much power in the court of Yecheng, fell into deep silence.
If he remembered correctly, he seemed to be one year older than Qiao Yan, right?
How is this generation gap created?
But in Liu Bian's impression, apart from the unforgettable New Year's gift, he would also not forget the tone of Qiao Yan's voice when he rebuked Yuan Shu for supporting him as emperor in court.
When I think about it this way, this sense of déjà vu of generation difference is not wrong.
Liu Bian put the lucky coin aside and moved his eyes to the neatly folded Leping Monthly Report in the box. He heard the messenger say below: "What our lord means is that the King of Hongnong is already old and cannot just focus on Yecheng, Weijun, or a small Jizhou. The thirteen states of the Han Dynasty each have their own characteristics. If they are blinded to the truth, they will sooner or later become frogs at the bottom of a well, and how can they be worthy of the title of the late emperor's descendant."
Yuan Shao clenched his hands aside.
He felt that he had probably heard correctly, and there was clearly a sense of flattery in this sentence.
But this accusation is a bit too ridiculous.
It is normal for Liu Bian to live in Yecheng as an emperor. Is it necessary to let him run around everywhere to collect folk songs?
Although there were not many ministers with real power among Liu Bian's ministers, Yuan Shao had not turned the Yecheng court into his own one-man show. In this sense, he did not need to make any special response to this provocative remark.
After realizing this, Yuan Shao calmly watched Liu Bian take out a copy of the Leping Monthly Report in front of him and spread it out.
However, after seeing the contents of the monthly report, Liu Bian's eyes widened.
Yuan Shao was still thinking about how to tell Liu Bian that if there was such a situation next year, he could just stop Qiao Yan's envoy from coming outside to avoid trouble for himself. Suddenly, Liu Bian turned his head and looked at him and asked, "Yuan Qingzhou, why does the Leping Monthly Report written by Bingzhou say that the pig used in the Tailao ceremony to celebrate Liu Youzhou's accession to the throne this year can weigh up to 500 kilograms?"
According to the request that Qiao Yan made to Zhao Ji, the January issue of Leping Monthly needs to be aimed at "readers" in Bingzhou, Liangzhou and Guanzhong at the same time.
Especially for the increase in Guanzhong, it was necessary to make these scholars who served under Liu Yu accustomed to this monthly report starting from January of the first year of Jian'an.
This means that simply informing Bingzhou about the coronation ceremony in Guanzhong is not all there is to this monthly report.
Cai Zhaoji thought about it and felt that it was necessary to give the people of Guanzhong and the newcomers in the court a little shock.
But it is winter now, and we cannot suddenly report last year's per-acre yield again at the beginning of the new year, as that would be too deliberate.
Then we can only use recent events.
Having developed Leping Monthly up to now, Cai Zhaoji has become very sensitive to "news" materials.
She immediately found one item from the available materials, which was the Tailao ritual for offering sacrifices to heaven.
Only those who went to Mingtang and Biyong to attend the ceremony that day discovered that the size of this thing was much heavier than that of an ordinary pig.
But it will be easy as long as there is a "witness".
This is not just an exception, but a common result of the development of Bingzhou's animal husbandry and pig farming industry.
Qiao Yan had only been leading his troops into Chang'an for a short time, and had not had time to move a series of farming and animal husbandry frameworks to Guanzhong. Now was a good opportunity for him to use the ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven to carry out some external publicity.
This news sounded unbelievable to Guanzhong, who had witnesses, let alone Yuan Shao, who did not see the scene with his own eyes.
He immediately replied: "Your Majesty, you cannot believe everything written on the paper. This is nonsense."
As soon as he said this, the messenger looked at him as if he was an idiot.
This reaction made it difficult for him not to speculate that the news might be true, otherwise he could use this false news sent by Qiao Yan to fight back in the future.
But he obviously couldn't take back what he had said at this moment, so he could only grit his teeth and keep a calm expression.
At this time, he heard Liu Bian say, "It is also said that droughts in most parts of the world have cycles. In order to prevent drought and locust disasters from happening again in recent years, Bingzhou and Liangzhou have completed the construction of canals one after another, and now they will develop to Guanzhong."
Liu Bian still has the impression of the locust plague in Sanfu that year in his memory.
The drought and locust plague at that time caused refugees from the three prefectures to flock to the capital. People’s restless words could be heard in the palace, and the swarms of locusts in the sky obviously would not avoid the palace because there was nowhere they could not go.
It just so happened that Fu Shou, who wrote this record and introduced the water conservancy projects in Liangzhou and Bingzhou, had a similar impression as Liu Bian.
When she wrote these words to inspire confidence among the people of Guanzhong, the various statements in them made the people of Sili feel extremely involved.
This made Liu Bian subconsciously worry about the situation in Yecheng.
He didn't know if it was his illusion, but he felt that Yuan Qingzhou always seemed to be walking behind Qiao Bingzhou.
Although according to the current situation, it is not possible for Qiao Yan and Liu Yu to stabilize Guanzhong in a short period of time, but how long can this situation of confrontation last?
With Liu Bian's experience, he was unable to give a clear answer.
After hearing Yuan Shao's reply that there was no need to worry about the good weather in recent years, Liu Bian remained skeptical. He skipped over the parts related to Liu Yu's ascension to the throne in the monthly report in his hand, then flipped to the ones at the bottom and pulled out one of them at random.
But the page he picked up was probably the one that Yuan Shao least wanted to see.
When Yuan Shao heard Liu Bian exclaimed the three words "Yuan Qingzhou", Yuan Shao's heart tightened and he suddenly had a bad premonition.
Fortunately, Liu Bian remembered to send the envoy out first, and then asked: "Yuan Qingzhou, do you really owe so much grain?"
Upon hearing this, Yuan Shao's eyes went dark.
Even Yuan Shu knew about this before and expressed his ridicule towards him remotely, but he had originally kept this matter a secret from Liu Bian.
Anyway, for Yuan Shao, owing Qiao Yan this amount of grain was no different from owing only tens of thousands of stones.
Now that the two sides have already fallen out, this is something that there is no need to repay.
But Qiao Yeshu...Qiao Yan, that bastard! How dare she use this kind of thing as reading material for the people of Bingzhou?
Don’t think that Yuan Shao didn’t hear the envoy’s explanation of the nature of these monthly reports at the beginning!
After finally explaining to Liu Bian that the matter was of no consequence, Yuan Shao returned home and overturned the table.
From the other party's unbridled show-off and heart-wrenching performance, Yuan Shao felt that his mood, which had just improved a lot because of the alliance between Gongsun Zan and him, had suffered devastating damage again at this moment.
After he regained some of his senses from the rage that was surging over his head, Yuan Shao couldn't help but think of another question.
If the Leping Monthly Report was really as easy to obtain as the messenger who delivered the New Year gifts said, then the time since Tian Feng set out for Bingzhou was not too short, and he should have seen it a long time ago.
This kind of thing contains a lot of big news. Even if Tian Feng wanted to confirm its authenticity first, the news should have been reported back by now, instead of disappearing from the world as it is now.
Yuan Shao did not consider the possibility that Tian Feng would change his allegiance.
Even if he really made this choice, he would become Qiao Yan's subordinate in a legitimate way, and then let Qiao Yan come to talk to him about bringing his family over, instead of just disappearing like now.
He might have to be prepared for the possibility that Tian Feng had encountered an unexpected event.
Just at this time, one of his subordinates asked whether he should send someone to Chang'an to find out the Hongwenguan, which was recruiting talents, and see to what extent the recruitment sign had developed.
Fearing that he would once again send people out and never return, Yuan Shao rejected the suggestion immediately.
How could he know that Tian Feng was forced to stay in the Hongwenguan because of his excellent handwriting, and was responsible for helping to record the words and deeds of the scholars who came and went, and was now looking forward to his rescue.
The more Tian Feng thought about it, the more he felt that something was not right. Being good at handwriting did not mean that he could write all the characters. These were two completely different things.
He should have said that he couldn't record everything.
But after experiencing all the bad luck before, Tian Feng couldn't guarantee that he would not be stuffed into another strange place because of what he said.
He is currently living in the Hongwenguan, and although he has to worry about whether Xun Yu and Cui Jun will suddenly remember his identity one day, at least he can see the performance of these scholars, which will let him know who has joined in the construction of Chang'an.
Furthermore, if his Lord Ming, who was far away in Yecheng, had a little more political acumen and thought of sending people here to gather information, perhaps he could send back all the collected intelligence.
By then, even he himself would have a chance to escape.
After all, this Hongwenguan is a place with many people coming and going!
Tian Feng started a new day's work with great hope.
In Yizhou, Li Ru also started today's work.
But his working method is different from Tian Feng's. He takes Qiao Ting around for fun.
According to what he and Qi Zhou said, the decree had to wait for the arrival of the governors of each county, so Liu Yan could demonstrate his friendly neighborly relationship with Chang'an. He had nothing to do anyway, after all, it was his first time in Yizhou, so he had to see enough.
The prince sent him to accompany him because he did not want to deprive Qi Zhou of the glory of being the emperor's envoy. He couldn't fail to understand such a simple truth.
Qi Zhou felt that what "Li Meng" said made some sense, but he also felt that the other party seemed to be fooling him.
But there is really nothing important these days, so it’s okay to let him go out for a walk.
After getting permission from Qi and Zhou, Li Ru became a complete idler.
What should you do when traveling to a foreign place? There is probably one thing that is the same in modern times and in ancient times, which is to buy local specialties.
Li Ru did the same thing.
The most famous thing in Shu is Shu brocade. Although it is not the season for raising silkworms, there are still a lot of new outputs.
Li Ru led Qiao Ting to select two shops with relatively low prices and purchased several pieces of brocade.
When moving the things back to the inn, Qi Zhou looked at Li Ru several times and felt that the quantity and quality of the things he purchased were worthy of his financial situation.
Li Ru even suggested to him: "If you want to buy something with a better value for money, choose the ones I went to."
He said mysteriously: "Do you know? Liu Yizhou is also a ruthless man. In the third year after he entered Yizhou, he killed the Wang family, Li family and other big families in Ba County who had disloyalty to him. The Shu brocade industry of the Wang and Li families naturally fell into the hands of Liu Yizhou, who gave it to his second son."
"I finally got this information. Think about it, this is a no-cost deal, so the price is naturally lower than other places. This kind of grudge has nothing to do with us who come to announce the decree. Anyway, the things are just right for people like us who don't have much money on hand, so it's good to give an explanation to our family, right?"
Li Ru doesn't have any family to take care of. He is a person who can feed the whole family without worries.
But Qi and Zhou have it.
After hearing what Li Ru said, he immediately replied "thank you", thinking that in a sense, his idle companion was still somewhat useful.
But when he heard that he was going to purchase fine wine from Shu again the next day, Qi Zhou almost couldn't breathe.
As soon as Li Ru came back, he grabbed him and asked, "Have you forgotten how we got to Chengdu? We passed through Xiegu Road, Hanzhong County, Ba County, Guanghan County, and finally arrived in Chengdu, Shu County. The road was bumpy, so it was okay to bring back some Shu brocade, but it was impossible to bring back wine as well!"
Can you please not add more workload to him?
Li Ru smiled and said, "Who told you that I was going to take the wine back? Don't you think that after I buy the Shujin, I have to buy something for myself. It would be a pity if it was spilled on the road. It's better to drink it here."
"This Shu land is located in the south. In addition to millet and wheat, most of the crops grown here are rice. Therefore, some of the wine here is made from rice. The biggest feature of this wine is that it is spicy, and it has a different taste from the strong wine in the north."
"But there's no bargain to be had this time. I went to the wine shops owned by Yizhou locals and those owned by Dongzhou people, and the prices were almost the same. After all, the land in Shu is fertile, and the land is rich and varied."
Li Ru slapped Qi Zhou's hand away and said, "I won't say any more to you. I'm going to drink and get drunk."
Seeing his lazy look, Qi Zhou didn't know if this impression had been repeatedly reinforced, but he even felt that this was not a big problem.
Even when he heard on the first day that he didn't buy anything but went out to visit with the girl next to him, Qi Zhou didn't think there was anything strange.
I heard from the other party that he didn't plan to buy actual specialties today, but to experience the culture and scenery of Shu.
For example, the ghost customs and divination practices in Shu.
But after going out for two days in a row, Qi Zhou heard that the other party had returned empty-handed.
According to him, of the two people who were said to be the best at divination, one was dead, and the other disappeared after asserting that the sister of Wu Yi, who entered Shuzhong with Liu Yan, had an indescribable face. As for the others, based on his experience of dealing with swindlers over the years, they were probably all fake.
"When in Rome, do as the Romans do," Li Ru shrugged his shoulders, looking helpless. "Although I knew they were liars, I didn't intend to expose them in person. I was giving face to the Yizhou people, wasn't I? Fortunately, I had already used all my money to buy Shu brocade and wine a few days ago. I only spoke to them a few more words to bargain."
"..." Qi Zhou was silent for a long time, and was even more grateful that the other party was not the mastermind behind this visit to Shu.
He thought about it and reminded her again: "There are still two days until the time Liu Yizhou agreed with us, so you'd better not go out next time."
Li Ru waved his hand and replied, "That's natural. My legs and feet have never been in good condition. I just wanted to have some fresh air these days. Now I have to lie down."
When Qi Zhou saw him walking back and adding, "I haven't finished my wine yet," he almost vomited blood.
But he thought that Li Ru's last two days of sightseeing were fruitless, but in fact Li Ru gained a lot.
The next day, he and Qiao Ting worked together to integrate the information they had in their homes without going out.
While he was completing his own task, he was also actually guiding Qiao Ting.
He said: "The information we have obtained in the past few days is very mixed, but it can be grouped together according to Liu Yan's interpersonal relationships."
"One is Liu Yan's relatives and descendants, and the other is Liu Yan's subordinates."
"Liu Yan had four sons: the eldest son Liu Fan, the second son Liu Dan, the third son Liu Mao, and the fourth son Liu Zhang."
"We also divide Liu Yan's subordinates into two categories in the most straightforward way. One category is the local people of Yizhou, such as Dong Fu who supported him to enter Bashu, such as Zhang Lu who was assigned to Wudu County by him, and Zhao Wei who remained under Liu Yan's command. The other category is people from outside Yizhou, also known as Dongzhou scholars, such as Wu Yi and Pang Xi who followed him into Bashu."
As Li Ru spoke, he wrote Liu Yan's name in the center of the paper in front of him.
Then he wrote the names of his four sons at the top and the two factions of "Yizhou Scholars" and "Dongzhou Scholars" at the bottom.
"Now we begin to summarize the news we have heard in the past few days."
"From the situation of Shujin, we can see that Liu Yan favored the scholars from Dongzhou over those from Yizhou. In fact, Wang and Li from Ba County were not executed by Liu Yan in suppressing the rebellion, but he killed them in order to establish his authority in Yizhou."
"Then, as Liu Yan told us, he put down the rebellion started by Ren Qi from Yizhou the year before last."
"Liu Yan even personally supervised the battle and was hit by a stray arrow in the back. This is something that is occasionally talked about in the taverns run by people from Yizhou."
"Afterwards, he gave part of the confiscated Shu brocade business to his second son Liu Dan, implying that he would have a capital to settle down and not have to worry about the rest. This second son really didn't have any big ambitions and became a rich and idle person very early on."
When Li Ru said this, he crossed out Liu Dan's name from the paper.
He made this judgment not only because of the Shu brocade business, but also because of what he saw here as an envoy.
So now, on the paper in front of him were four names of the Liu surname, as well as the Dongzhou scholar and the Yizhou scholar. The former was outlined in a darker line, meaning that he was more valued by Liu Yan.
"Now let's look at the forces each of these people supports."
Li Ru wrote on the paper and said, "There is no doubt that these people belong to Liu Yan, but because Liu Yan values Dongzhou scholars more and intends to use them to balance the local forces of Yizhou, the people of Yizhou must also seek a way out for themselves."
"Specifically, Zhang Lu and his mother chose to constantly seek power from Liu Yan and move towards Hanzhong and even Wudu."
"Zhao Wei favored Liu Yan's youngest son among the remaining sons of Liu Yan. He thought that Liu Yan was weak and could be easily manipulated by him, and could turn the situation around for the people of Yizhou."
"And the Dongzhou scholars under Liu Yan's command tried to marry Liu Yan after they had made meritorious contributions by following him into Shu, and then seek further power."
"Wu Yi's sister was said to have the appearance of a noble woman, but unfortunately Liu Yan's first two sons were already married, so Wu was married to Liu Yan's third son Liu Mao. Even more unfortunately, Liu Mao was born with a mad disease and had no chance of inheriting the throne, so Wu Yi is still a die-hard follower of Liu Yan."
"It's hard to say whether Liu Yan is trying to prevent Wu Yi from joining his team of successors for the time being."
"But in this case, we can also cross out Liu Yan's third son."
Finally, only three names and the forces they support are left:
Liu Yan himself: Yizhou people represented by Zhang Lu, Dongzhou scholars represented by Wu Yi
Liu Fan, the eldest son of Liu Yan: the first heir in terms of theory and law.
Liu Zhang, the youngest son of Liu Yan: a man from Yizhou who was dissatisfied with Liu Yan's decision, including Zhao Wei.
Li Ru said, "Yizhou is isolated from the outside world, and the changes in the situation have already been covered up by some rhetoric before they reached Chang'an. No wonder the Lord wants us to analyze the situation here first before making a decision."
"But it is precisely because of this geographical separation that some people have become more reckless in their actions, making it easier for us to obtain the corresponding information. It is just right to use it as your first lesson."
"The situation has been determined, and it is clear who can be of most use to us."
Li Ru handed the pen to Qiao Ting.
Qiao Ting did not hesitate and drew a circle on the list in front of him.
The name circled is Zhao Wei from Yizhou.
"Who are you talking about?"
Qiao Yan paused with his pen, and suddenly looked up at the person who brought the news.
The person who brought the news never thought that the news he came to report would cause such a big reaction from Qiao Yan.
What he just said was relatively simple.
Recently, with the increasing number of scholars visiting the Hongwenguan, some scholars, in order to have more opportunities to communicate with their peers, simply stopped rushing to gain recognition from the four directors of the Hongwenguan, and instead used the Hongwenguan as a stage for debate.
This is why Qiao Yan sent Zhuge Liang to sit in on the class.
Although he was not yet fully educated at his age, with the guidance of Xun Yu and the training at Leping Academy, he had already developed his own logic for judging most remarks. Therefore, Qiao Yan was not too worried that he would be led astray.
This kind of auditing is more like broadening your horizons and listening to other voices of the same period.
But things are a little different today.
According to the person who brought the news, there was an additional young man of similar age to Zhuge Liang among the audience today.
The young man was silent and quiet. He listened attentively to the conversation of those people and occasionally exchanged a few words with Zhuge Liang.
Anyone who sees this would feel that it seems as if a scholar who visited this place brought his own children and nephews along.
However, no one knew what topic the two teenagers were talking about, but they suddenly started arguing in low voices.
In the end, when the others paused, the strange young man suddenly asked to have a debate with Zhuge Liang to find a conclusion to the topic that they had just failed to convince the other party about.
Thinking of Qiao Yan's regard for Zhuge Liang, and the fact that the young man who had argued with him seemed to be no ordinary person, Cui Jun, who was standing nearby, quickly sent someone to inform Qiao Yan.
When the messenger heard Qiao Yan ask this question, he thought that he was in a hurry and his accent was a little heavy.
He repeated again: "The young man said his name was Pang Tong."
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