Regarding Huang Zu's situation, the Sichuan warlords 1,700 years later felt the same way.
On the one hand, Huang Zu sent people to report urgently to Xiangyang, saying that he was capable of resisting Jiangdong's offensive. On the other hand, Huang Zu sent people to quickly block the Jingzhou army led by Cai Mao at the border of Jiangxia County.
Then the most important thing is to seize the time, defeat Jiangdong's invading enemies in one fell swoop, and take back the two counties occupied by Jiangdong.
But Huang Zu overestimated himself after all.
Even without Liu Biao's persecution, Huang Zu was no match for the Jiangdong navy led by Zhou Yu, not to mention that Sun Quan, who had just taken power, was waiting to use Huang Zu's head to consolidate his position as the lord of Jiangdong.
Huang Zu, the unlucky one, let his cronies go into battle. Not only did they fail to stop Jiangdong's offensive, but they suffered a huge defeat and invaded two more counties.
Well now, Jiangxia has a total of fourteen counties, and now it has lost seven counties at once. Half of its territory is gone.
Now Huang Zu was paralyzed. He didn't want the Jingzhou Army to enter Jiangxia. If he didn't let the Jingzhou Army enter, he himself would be in danger.
If Jiang Dong were to catch him, Huang Zu wouldn't even dare to think about what would happen.
Liu Biao seized power, and although life was difficult, at least for the sake of the Huang family in Jingxiang, he might still be able to survive.
But if he is caught by Jiang Dong, his head will definitely be in danger.
Huang Zu had no choice but to let the Jingzhou army come to his aid quickly. On the other hand, he desperately resisted Jiangdong's attack and bought himself time.
By this time, Huang Zu had no time to think about surrendering to Cao. The most important thing was to save his own life first.
At this time, the Jingzhou Army led by Cai Mao was marching more leisurely.
He was not anxious to help Huang Zu at all, but after entering Jiangxia, he began to calm the people's hearts when he arrived in a county. The whole government did not know it and thought that Cai Mao had negotiated with the Jiangdong gang to put Huang Zu to death.
Of course Huang Zu, who was anxious, knew Xiangyang's plan, which was to make both himself and Jiangdong lose, and then the Jingzhou army would come in to pick peaches.
But even if Huang Zu knew Liu Biao's plan, he had no choice but to appeal to Xiangyang. On the other hand, he spent all his capital and finally had a stalemate with Jiangdong's army in Xiling County and Shaxian area.
And at this critical moment, when Huang Zu was so anxious that he was about to hang himself, Jiangdong withdrew his army.
Miraculously, Jiangdong retreated while occupying a good situation.
Not only did they withdraw their troops, they even gave up the occupied counties in eastern Jiangxia. They only forcibly moved the local people away, leaving only empty cities.
Seeing the situation, Huang Zu no longer cared about Jiangdong's tricks, and quickly sent people to regain the lost territory. At the same time, he hurriedly wrote a letter to Xiangyang, saying that he had repelled Jiangdong's attack and that Cai Mao no longer had to come to support.
But can Cai Mao be so honest? !
Even if Cai Mao is so honest, Liu Biao will not be so honest.
While Huang Zu was desperately trying to regain the lost territory, the Jingzhou "reinforcements" led by Cai Mao no longer marched slowly, but quickly captured Jingling, and then began to march east quickly.
After a hectic march to seize the territory, the Jingzhou army entered Jiangxia County, but Huang Zu's letter of petition for "defeat" Jiangdong also appeared on Liu Biao's case.
Liu Biao, who had a headache, blamed Cai Hao in his heart, so he couldn't march a little faster to control Huang Zu before Jiangdong retreated. Now it was better. Huang Zu still had some troops on hand and controlled several counties. If this happened, .a little uneconomical.
The same goes for Jiangdong. You said you were attacking well, but why did you suddenly retreat? Is your mother dead? !
Then when I asked about it, it seemed that he was really dead.
Sun Quan's biological mother Wu suddenly died of illness, and Sun Quan had to stop his troops and attend the funeral.
In these days, the world is governed by filial piety, and it is quite unlucky to use weapons after the death of your biological mother.
But when Jiang Dong retreated like this, Liu Biao was in trouble. He couldn't let Huang Zu stay in Jiangxia anymore. Besides, how could he spit out the meat he finally ate? !
But now that he has turned against Huang Zu, he has no righteousness. It is unrealistic to summon Huang Zu to Xiangyang at this time. He can definitely say that he wants to preside over the reconstruction work of Jiangxia. It is okay not to go to Xiangyang for a year and a half.
When Liu Biao was in a dilemma, Pang Shanmin, a member of the Pang family, suddenly visited Liu Biao's residence.
After Pang Shanmin left, Liu Biao immediately announced that he would recruit Pang Shanmin to work for Jingzhou, and then announced that he would pursue Huang Zu for the crime of losing the battle and losing his territory.
Originally, in this war-torn era, although losing a city or losing territory was a serious crime, as long as you had the power and backing, it all depended on whether the Lord was willing to pursue the matter.
When Huang Zu lost his city and territory before, Liu Biao did not pursue it. This is okay.
Now that Huang Zu has lost his city and territory, it makes sense for Liu Biao to pursue him.
The most important thing is that Huang Zu suffered heavy losses in this Jiangdong raid. Although he still controlled several counties, his power was much less than before. Liu Biao saw this clearly and dared to suddenly attack Huang Zu.
Moreover, the Jingzhou Army is now in Jiangxia. It is unrealistic for Huang Zu to go north to join Cao Cao. Before he can leave, the Jingzhou Army has already reached him.
This idea that Huang Zu considered "unfortunate and immoral" was of course the idea of Zhuge Liang. Is Pang Shanmin his brother-in-law?
Zhuge Liang actually did not expect Jiangdong to retreat. His original plan was to wait for the Jingzhou Army, Huang Zu Army, and Jiangdong Army to fight each other, creating a power vacuum in Jiangxia, so that he could make plans in the middle.
But Zhuge Liang was completely unexpected by Jiangdong's retreat.
The Jingzhou army is now quite complete, and Huang Zu is not without the strength to fight. It is completely inconsistent with Zhuge Liang's expectations.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang could only adopt a backup plan.
Huang Zu must not let him stay in Jiangxia anymore, otherwise Jiangxia will never be out of his control, and he must find a way to get him away.
This was not only Zhuge Liang's idea, but also the idea of the Huang family in Jingzhou. They did not want Huang Zu to continue to become powerful.
As for the Jingzhou Army, let's take a look at this later.
So Zhuge Liang persuaded his brother-in-law Pang Shanmin to go see Liu Biao and tell Liu Biao that if he didn't take advantage of Huang Zu's weakness now, then when he recovered in the future, Huang Zu would not give Liu Biao a chance to intervene in Jiangxia.
Liu Biao was very hesitant at first, but when he thought about his age and physical condition, and then thought about his successor, Liu Biao gritted his teeth and decided to deal with Huang Zu, a guy with a big tail, while he was still able to deal with it.
Only then did Liu Biao want to hold Huang Zu accountable.
Huang Zu was of course panicked when he heard the news.
Now that his strength has been greatly reduced, and the Jingzhou Army has entered Jiangxia and has a stronghold, he has no status and may not be able to compete head-on with the Jingzhou Army at this time.
The best way is to convince Liu Biao, as he did at the beginning of the year, to fool him with the thunder and the rain. That would be perfect.
Therefore, Huang Zu secretly returned to Xiangyang this time, ran to see Huang Chengyan, kowtowed and swore, and begged the Huang family in Jingzhou to help him survive this disaster.
Huang Chengyan happily received Huang Zu, treated him with delicious food and drinks, and then asked Huang Zu to relax and stay in Jiangxia with peace of mind. The Jingzhou Huang family would not just sit idly by and ignore this matter. After turning around and sending Huang Zu away, Huang Chengyan immediately wrote a letter to Zhuge Liang, telling him that he could take the next step.
Huang Zu returned to Jiangxia with peace of mind and waited for the Huang family in Jingzhou to help him mediate the matter. On Zhuge Liang's side, after receiving Huang Chengyan's letter, he immediately asked Liu Bei to set off for Xiangyang.
Liu Bei arrived in Xiangyang, met Liu Biao, and expressed condolences to each other.
Liu Bei congratulated Liu Biao for defeating Jiangdong's invasion, while Liu Biao grimaced and discussed the aftermath of Jiangxia with Liu Bei.
Liu Biao really could only discuss this matter with Liu Bei, so Cai and Kuai, Liu Biao really didn't want to talk to them about this matter.
Originally, the four major families in Jingzhou were relatively balanced. The Cai family and the Kuai family received a lot of benefits because they helped Liu Biao gain a foothold in Jingzhou, and they were considered to be in a relatively high position among the four major families.
Jiangxia was originally the basic base of the Huang family. Now Cai Mao of the Cai family has led the army into Jiangxia, and the Kuai family is also stepping up its layout to see if it can get a share of the pie in Jiangxia. If Liu Biao discusses with these two companies, they will definitely hope that Let them divide Jiangxia's interests.
But Liu Biao did not want Cai and Kuai to continue to be so powerful.
It's very simple. Liu Biao also knows the importance of checks and balances. If the Cai family and the Kuai family continue to be powerful, and the Huang family and the Pang family are weak, then when he waits a hundred years, whether Jingzhou's surname is Liu will be a big question mark.
Pang has always been aloof, and Liu Biao was surprised that a Pang Shanmin came to offer advice, so he couldn't ask for too much.
Liu Biao originally hoped that the Huang family would come forward to talk about Huang Zu, but the Huang family has not responded at all.
In fact, Liu Biao just wanted Huang Zu to get out so that he could openly intervene in Jiangxia's taxation, appointment and dismissal of officials, and other matters. But Liu Biao did not want to split up or monopolize the land interests in Jiangxia. He just wanted to get back the rights of Jingzhou Mu in Jiangxia. He, Liu Biao, was not so greedy about the ownership of the land on the ground in Jiangxia.
This is also the basic model of cooperation between Liu Biao and the Jingzhou family - Liu Biao obtains the official rights of Jingzhou pastoralists. As for whether the Jingzhou family engages in land annexation in Jingzhou or seeks to become an official, Liu Biao does not object.
But so far, the Huang family has not responded at all, so Liu Biao is left with two options.
One is to fall out with the Huang family, completely capture Huang Zu, and take control of Jiangxia.
But in this case, Liu Biao would have to directly confront Huang Zu, which might cause his own losses. It is still hard to say whether Jiangxia's final ownership belongs to him. After all, the Cai and Kuai families have long taken a fancy to Jiangxia's land. .
Second, he just pinched his nose and reconciled with the Huang family, and Huang Zu continued to serve as the governor of Jiangxia.
Then isn't all the hard work I've been doing these days in vain? !
Liu Biao had always been undecided, and it happened that Liu Bei, an outsider, came. He did not have many entangled interests in Jingzhou and was his brother in name. Liu Biao wanted to listen to this outsider's opinion.
Then Liu Bei asked Liu Biao strangely.
"Brother Jingsheng, as the saying goes, "Brothers fight tigers, and fathers and sons go into battle." Jiangxia is such an important place that it cannot be defended without close trust. Now that Young Master Liu Qi has grown up, why not send Young Master Liu Qi to guard Jiangxia. The matters in the southeast are handled by brother, father and son. "Be prepared to deal with matters in the northwest."
When Liu Biao heard this, his expression changed several times.
(End of chapter)
