Chapter 388 Beacon Smoke in the South
Yang Biaoxian glanced at his son, and there was no surprise on his face at his son's straightforward objection.
It turns out that Yang Xiu was opposed to Yang Biao's attack on Liu Feng from beginning to end.
There is no other reason. Yang Xiu sees the current situation more clearly than Yang Biao and others.
Yang Xiu once tried hard to persuade Yang Biao to win over Liu Feng, and Yang Biao actually did so.
But who told Liu Feng not to accept this trick, or to say that he was not aware of Yang Biao's solicitation at all?
According to Yang Xiu's opinion, even if he fails to win over, there is no need to fall out, let alone attack Liu Feng.
After all, Liu Bei and his son were also clan members of the Han Dynasty. Moreover, among the foreign vassals, they were also princes who were more submissive to the emperor and the imperial court. Instead of seeking help, they opposed him. This was not stupid.
But Yang Biao refused to listen to advice. This was not because Yang Biao was hopelessly stupid, but because his perspective was different.
In Yang Biao's view, Liu Bei took advantage of Tao Qian's death to take control of Xuzhou three years ago.
Although Liu Bei seemed to be spanning three states at the moment, Yang Biao determined that Liu Bei's foundation must be unstable.
In Yang Biao's view, Xuzhou originally belonged to Tao Qian. Although Liu Bei was entrusted by Tao Qian and succeeded in taking over, he was a veritable outsider with no foundation in Xuzhou.
In the past three years, instead of working hard in Xuzhou, Liu Bei went on a military rampage. He actually sent troops to Henan and Yanzhou, clearly occupying the Rencheng Kingdom in Yanzhou, and also occupied large areas of land in Yuzhou.
Now he can't wait to go south to Yangzhou. From the perspective of most scholars, Liu Bei is indeed a vain fat man.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, only by in-depth cooperation with powerful nobles could the power within the territory be effectively mobilized. Otherwise, take Cao Cao as an example. He was a dignified Yangzhou shepherd with hundreds of thousands of troops under his command. He was almost completely driven out of Yanzhou overnight.
In Yang Biao's view, even though Liu Bei was better than Cao Cao before the Yanzhou Incident, he was not much better.
The Kuaiji Rebellion that was reported not long ago undoubtedly became ironclad evidence that confirmed their speculations, and also allowed them to conclude that Liu Feng was not popular with the powerful gentry in Yangzhou.
This is also the main reason why Yang Biao and his party successfully persuaded the emperor Liu Xie to attack Liu Feng.
Similarly, this is also the root cause of Yang Biao's deliberate attack on Liu Feng.
In Yang Biao's view, Liu Bei and his son, who did not have a powerful gentry foundation, were the most suitable partners for him to cooperate with.
My family is famous, has an official position, is favored by the emperor, is looked up to by the nobles, and has the ability to manage the country and benefit the world. However, what I lack is the force to calm the world. But Liu Bei happens to have military force, and his foundation is very shallow.
Not only did the two sides form a very complementary situation in terms of resources, but Yang Biao also felt that Liu Bei was easier to control and his ambitions were far less than those of Yuan Shao and Cao Cao.
In Yang Biao's view, Liu Bei would be satisfied if he was given the rank of lieutenant or even a general in the future.
But Yang Xiu and Yang Biao had completely different views.
Yang Xiu obviously looked at the problem much more deeply than Yang Biao. He was keenly aware that although Liu Bei had been to the three states for three years, his mobilization ability and dominance under his rule did not look like a newcomer at all.
Not to mention anything else, when Liu Bei first entered Xuzhou, he actually started farming.
Although only 5,000 households and 300,000 to 400,000 acres of farmland were cultivated in the first year, the matter itself was quite sensitive. At least from the side, it can be seen that the powerful gentry in Xuzhou not only did not hinder Liu Bei, but also gave him a lot of help. Otherwise, with Liu Bei's family background at the time, he would not have been able to build a farm of this scale anyway.
Looking at the Jianghuai project last year, Liu Bei used hundreds of thousands of people to work on it for more than half a year.
Yang Xiuzhen didn't know how his father could turn a blind eye to this. Not to mention his current mobilization power, even during the reign of Emperor Xiaohuan, he was powerless.
It can be seen from this that the father's blind optimism that Liu Bei and his son lacked the foundation and the support of the powerful local nobles was so shallow and ridiculous.
Yang Biao turned his head and looked at his son, his stiff face softened a bit: "You don't understand."
Yang Biao is actually quite satisfied with his extremely smart son.
But Yang Biao felt deep remorse and regret deep in his heart. His Hongnong Yang family also had the surname Ji in the world, so why was he so far behind the Yuan family?
During the Ling Emperor's reign, although the Yang family was not as good as the Yuan family, they were also the opponents that the Yuan family was most wary of.
But what about now?
Not to mention the brothers Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, how many of the small warlords in Guanzhong still take the Hongnong Yang family seriously?
Perhaps Liu Bei and his son are the last chance for the Yang family to turn around. Yang Biao can only gamble once, and he must gamble once, otherwise he will go under the Nine Springs, and
Yang Xiu was a little angry: "Father, if the child doesn't understand, why don't you teach the child?"
Yang Biao fell silent again.
A trace of distress flashed in Yang Xiu's eyes, and he continued: "Father, Liu Xuande is kind-hearted, but although his son Liu Zisheng is a young dragon and a phoenix, he has already followed the wind and fire, and he is so outstanding that he is really beyond the reach of human beings. Control.”
Yang Biao looked at his son in surprise, never expecting that Yang Xiu had such a high opinion of Liu Feng.
Yang Xiu met his father's gaze and said calmly: "Father, don't forget, husband soldiers are like fire and cannot be defeated."
Yang Biao's pupils shrank sharply.
What Yang Xiu said comes from "Zuo Zhuan: The Fourth Year of Yin Gong".
Fu Bing is like fire, and there are four words after Fu Ji - he will burn himself.
After understanding what his son meant, Yang Biao fell into silence.
********
Late at night the next day, outside the general's mansion.
Cao Ang stood beside his father Cao Cao, watching the carriage of Liu Feng, the general of the Southern Campaign, slowly driving away, his eyes full of doubts.
"Father, what does Liu Zisheng mean?"
Since yesterday, Liu Feng sent Ling Tong to the mansion with a name as an assassin, asking to see Cao Cao tomorrow.
In this regard, everyone in the General's Mansion was very serious and prepared for the whole day.
But when Liu Feng came to the banquet in the evening, he only presented him with generous gifts and recounted everything about his journey south. He didn't mention anything else.
This made Cao Ang very puzzled.
It is naturally impossible for Cao Cao to be unaware of the actions of Yang Biao and his party.
In fact, Cao Cao not only knew about this, but was even secretly fueling the situation.
Cao Cao's current territory is much smaller than in the original time and space, and his strength is also much lower. Therefore, the perception of Yuan Shao's pressure has become greater.
Originally, the number of mindless provocations against Yuan Shao in history had decreased a lot, but the disputes between the two sides were still numerous.
Cao Cao felt that his strength was insufficient, and his desire to win over Liu Bei and his son became even stronger.
As Cao Cao's eldest son and legitimate heir, Cao Ang has begun to assist Cao Cao in governing, and he also understands these situations very well.
Therefore, he had high expectations for tonight's banquet and felt that this was a great opportunity to win over Liu Feng.
Cao Cao looked back at Cao Ang and sighed in his heart.
I can't help but say that my son is an extremely good heir.
Not only did he have outstanding talents, but he also had extraordinary abilities, and he also had a decisive and insightful character. On ordinary days, Cao Cao was full of praise for him and never had any displeasure with him.
But as soon as Liu Feng came, something felt wrong. This is especially true right now.
Cao Cao sighed in his heart, his son still had to teach himself.
"Why is Zixiu so depressed?"
When Cao Ang heard his father's call, he quickly adjusted his expression and replied: "Father, what's the purpose of Liu Zisheng coming here? He can't really come to give father a gift, can he?"
"Of course not."
Cao Cao shook his head and then said: "But Liu Zisheng has achieved his goal."
Cao Ang was actually not stupid. After his father's prompting, he suddenly woke up: "Father, you mean that Liu Zisheng only needs to come to the general's house for a banquet and he has achieved his goal?"
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Cao Cao nodded slowly, his eldest son finally understood.
Cao Ang's lips moved slightly, but in the end he didn't say anything.
However, Cao Cao understood that the elder wanted to ask why he cooperated with Liu Fengyan's play.
A wry smile escaped from the corner of Cao Cao's mouth. He was not cooperating with this. He only discovered this after Liu Feng came to visit.
However, Cao Cao was happy to see the results.
Therefore, all this at least expresses Liu Feng's willingness to get closer to him instead of bowing to Yang Biao's party.
********
Liu Feng went to the general's mansion to attend a banquet the day after his face-to-face meeting, and had no other activities.
From the third day after entering Luo, Liu Feng closed his doors and turned away guests and never went out again.
Although Liu Feng was like this, news from Jiangdong, Yangzhou and even the south came to Luozhong one after another.
First, Zhou Yu, the general of Liu Feng's command, came to report. Zhu Hao, the prefect of Yuzhang, colluded with Zu Lang, the Shanyue bandit chief, to fight against the king's division. Later, he was defeated by Zhou Yu. As a result, there was internal strife between the two. Zhu Hao was killed by Zu Lang, and Nanchang Kaicheng begged for surrender. .
Immediately afterwards, news came from Kuaiji that the local gentry colluded with Shanyue to rebel again, and 20,000 rebels in Dongye County, the waiting area, occupied the city and resisted.
Then, news came from Jiaozhou. Zhu Fu, the governor of Jiaozhou, was killed by a local wealthy family in a mutiny because of excessive exploitation. The local people in Jiaozhou begged the emperor to send officials south again.
At the same time, Liu Biao of Jingzhou also sent people to Luo to advise his cousin Liu Gong to become the shepherd of Jiaozhou.
Liu Bei also wrote a letter from Shouchun in the north of the Yangtze River, reporting that Liu Biao connived at Liu Xun's rebellion and sent troops to harass and plunder the counties of Lujiang and Jiujiang.
After that, there were rebellions in Danyang Shanyue, Wujun Water Bandits, Guangling Xuezhou, and Jiujiang Zhengbao. For a while, the south seemed to be full of war smoke.
In the past half month, Liu Fengze has been staying in the palace of General Hussar and has not left the house.
For this reason, Yang Biao had no choice but to drag his sick body into the palace to discuss matters with the emperor.
This discussion took place in a side hall.
Those present were all important officials of the imperial court and the emperor's confidants, including the three princes and nine ministers, as well as Zhong Yao and others.
When Yang Biao arrived, everyone had already gathered.
Soon, the emperor walked out of the apse.
"You are exempt from courtesy."
Liu Xie waved his hand, his face full of gloom.
He didn't expect so many things to happen in the south all of a sudden.
At first, Liu Xie even thought that Liu Feng was demonstrating against him, and became furious.
But soon after the news came from Jiaozhou, Jingzhou and other places, Liu Xie was suddenly shocked.
If Jiangdong can still be influenced by Liu Feng, then Jiaozhou and Jingzhou cannot be justified.
Of these two places, one is Liu Biao's territory. Now the relationship with Liu Bei is increasingly broken, and the two sides are not harmonious. Moreover, Liu Biao is also quite aggressive in Yangzhou. Liu Biao's shadow can be seen behind Lujiang and Yuzhang.
If Liu Biao acted on Liu Feng's orders, no one present would believe it.
As for Jiaozhou, the sky is high and the emperor is far away. Beihui, which Liu Feng has just captured, is still rebelling from time to time. It is obviously beyond his reach to Jiaozhou. Moreover, the previous governor of Jiaozhou, Zhu Fu, was also appointed by the imperial court and had been in charge of Jiaozhou for several years. It was obviously not something Liu Feng could design.
Therefore, the emperor was full of dissatisfaction at this time, and even felt at a loss.
"My dear friends, what should we do now?"
After Liu Xie took his seat on the throne, he urged other close ministers to get up.
Yang Biao gave Zongzheng Liu Ai a look, and the latter coughed dryly and said: "Your Majesty, as a humble minister, it is urgent to select an officer from the general of the Hussars and let him be the governor of Jiaozhou and join Jiaozhi. Suppress the local area. Secondly, you can select capable officials from the court to serve as the governor of Yangzhou. Thirdly, send a special envoy to Xiangyang and order the Zhennan general to retreat quickly. "
Liu Ai's intention was obvious. In exchange for the governor of Jiaozhou, he would exchange Yangzhou in the hands of Liu Bei and his son, and at the same time order Liu Biao to withdraw his involvement in Jiaozhou.
If Liu Biao listens, it will assert the authority of the court. If Liu Biao does not listen, the relationship between Liu Biao and Liu Bei will continue to deteriorate until a conflict breaks out.
When the time comes, the imperial court will act as a mediator and centrally plan, and it will be able to slowly take back power in various places.
I have to say that Yang Biao's idea seemed good, and the emperor nodded slowly.
After thinking for a long time, Liu Xie asked: "Who under General Hussar is the most suitable to be the governor of Jiaozhou?"
After Liu Ai thought carefully for a moment, he replied: "Zhonglang General Zhou Yu and Zhou Gongjin, Zhonglang General Zhao Yun and Zhao Zilong, Zhonglang General Taishi Ci and Taishi Ziyi can do it. Zhou Gongjin is the nephew of Tingwei Zhou Zhong, a pillar of the Zhou family in Jiujiang, with both civil and military talents. While capturing Yuan Shu They have outstanding achievements in the war and are rising stars under the command of General Zhengnan. They have made many achievements in the south and north, and now they are in charge of controlling Jiaozhi. Question.”
The emperor nodded slightly, and then asked: "Where are these three people now?"
Liu Ai replied: "Zhou Gongjin just entered Yuzhang and was quelling the Zulang rebellion in Yuzhang. Taishi Ci was in charge of Beihui and was also clearing out the local Shanyue. Zhao Yun led an army south to wait for the official, and is now fighting the rebels outside Dongye County. .”
After the emperor thought for a moment, he asked the ministers: "What do you think, dear ministers?"
Yang Biao quietly breathed a sigh of relief. In fact, this was already the second plan.
Previously, Yang Biao had instructed Zhang Xi to submit a letter to Liu Biao as governor of Yuzhang, and Liu Feng as governor of Jiaozhou, and a famous scholar from Guanzhong would go south to serve as governor of Yangzhou.
As a result, Liu Bei and Liu Biao may soon fall out.
Liu Bei had already given up the position of governor of Lujiang to Liu Xun, who had taken refuge with Liu Biao. Now if he gives up Yuzhang, Yangzhou would lose one-third.
How can I endure this?
It was precisely because Liu Xie saw this that he rejected this plan.
In Liu Xie's view, this was too radical. Liu Bei and Liu Biao were not fools. If their plan failed and Liu Bei and Liu Biao joined forces to oppose the imperial court, there would be big trouble.
(End of chapter)