Volume 4 is in the ascendant Chapter 477: Mobilizing the Army
After the King of Chu responded to the people's call in Jinling, the news gradually spread throughout the State of Chu.
The emotions that had been fermenting finally calmed down gradually, but the enthusiasm for recruiting soldiers was still high - on the one hand, people wanted to contribute to the State of Chu, and on the other hand, after the nutritional level of civilians improved and the Pan Zhenqi plan was launched, more and more grassroots generals emerged among the civilians.
Of course, the State of Chu was also careful to control the direction of popular propaganda.
While portraying the Marquis of Shu as powerful, tyrannical and full of malice towards the State of Chu, the author also portrayed the difficult life and oppression of the people of Yizhou. He even published information about Yizhou caravans and Yizhou immigrants in the court gazette, strongly accusing the Marquis of Shu and expressing support for the State of Chu.
It emphasizes that the interests of the people of Chu and Yizhou are the same, and their common enemy is the Yizhou oppressors who are cruel and hostile to the people's yearning for a better life, as well as the anti-Chu forces behind them...
As for the "anti-Chu forces behind the scenes", Bai Tu has no control over how the people understand it. If they insist on saying that it is a pro-Han force, Bai Tu will not specifically correct it.
This time Zhang Lu's title was rejected and the Han court showed its intention to target Hanzhong. This was not completely beyond Bai Tu's expectations, but it did make him alert.
First, take the opportunity to mobilize public sentiment, let the people of Chu realize who the enemy is, and reduce the impression and potential influence of the Han Dynasty, which is a natural thing to do.
At least from then on, it was difficult for anyone, whether in the civilian community or the literati, to criticize the policies of the Chu State based on the "Han Dynasty's orthodoxy". Otherwise... Song Zhong was a lesson for us.
At the same time, Yizhou is not out of reach. It is still possible to train troops along the Three Gorges. In addition, we need to increase our efforts in the Nanzhong area!
The Chu State's "truce" was only directed at other Han princes. Overseas expansion and the development of Jingnan and the Five Ridges have never stopped. Similarly, the pace of opening up Nanzhong from the south of Wuling to the west has never subsided.
But it does not mean to use war blindly. To be more precise...war is the worst strategy in development.
Not to mention overseas expansion, most of the civilizations encountered were Stone Age civilizations. As for the area from Wuling to Nanzhong in the south, which is the area from Guizhou and Guangxi to Yunnan in later generations, although it belonged to Jingzhou and Yizhou, there was no clear dividing line for the barbarians.
Although the Wuling Barbarians and the Nanzhong Barbarians had different origins, they had long since blended with each other, and were mixed with the blood and culture of the Central Plains ethnic groups, or the Han people in a narrow sense.
Compared to the Wuling Barbarians and the Shanyue, the Wuling Barbarians and the Nanzhong Barbarians are actually very similar in culture...
Speaking of the barbarians in Southern China, the most famous one in later generations is Meng Huo, who was captured and released seven times!
There is some controversy as to whether Meng Huo existed in history, because this name does not appear in the "Records of the Three Kingdoms", but it is recorded in "Spring and Autumn Annals of Han and Jin" and "Huayang Guozhi".
Later scholars who believe that he did not exist mainly based their opinion on the "Records of the Three Kingdoms", and the supporting evidence is the name "Meng Huo" - a barbarian king who surrendered after being captured, and was named "Huo", which seems too deliberate.
Therefore, it is speculated that Meng Huo's deeds were most likely pieced together by several Han-Yi rebel generals, who then took the name "Huo" and added the surname "Meng", a big surname in Nanzhong, as their last name.
After all, Chen Shou, the author of "Three Kingdoms", was from Shu, while the authors of "Han Jin Chunqiu" and "Huayang Guozhi" were all from the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Regardless of the location or time, Chen Shou should have known more about the Southern Barbarian rebellion.
Of course, whether Meng Huo existed or not, the "Seven Captures and Seven Releases" in Romance of the Three Kingdoms did not occur in history books.
During the Southern Barbarian rebellion that occurred when Liu Bei died, Zhuge Liang sent out troops in the spring, crossed the Lu River in May, and returned to the capital in the autumn - it can be seen that the formal fighting did not last long, and it was even more impossible for him to penetrate deep into Nanzhong.
Otherwise, with the scattered locations of the legendary Seven Captures and Seven Releases, there wouldn’t even be time to check in one by one…
In fact, Shu Han's strategy towards the Nanzhong region was completely different from the legend of "Seven Captures and Seven Releases". According to the legend, Zhuge Liang was about to break through Nanzhong and subdue countless tribes.
However, in reality, Shu Kingdom did not keep any people or soldiers in Nanzhong. Instead, it took away the elite soldiers of Nanzhong and bribed and recruited warriors from the barbarians. The rest of the ordinary soldiers were still returned to the big families in Nanzhong as their subordinates...
All they had to do was wait for the people of Nanzhong to offer gold, silver, lacquerware, cattle and horses. In other words, they would no longer have actual rule over Nanzhong. Compared with the Han Dynasty, they had left Nanzhong alone in exchange for a stable rear area.
The stabilization of the Nanzhong barbarians was not so much the result of the seven captures and seven releases, but rather the result of Shu's change in strategy toward Nanzhong.
In the historical records of the Southern Barbarian Rebellion, Meng Huo was not the protagonist. Generally speaking, the protagonists of the rebellion should be Yong Kai, the leader of the Nanzhong Han clan, and Gao Ding, the Nanzhong Yi king.
There are only some discrepancies in the records of the rebellion process. One says that Yong Kai and Gao Ding jointly rebelled and were later suppressed. Another says that Yong Kai was killed by Gao Ding, who then rebelled and was later suppressed...
The only place Meng Huo appears in history books is as "Yong Kai's subordinate". As a prestigious barbarian king among the barbarians, he was responsible for satisfying Yong Kai's needs by colluding with the various tribes in southern China.
Meng Huo was not killed like Yong Kai and Gao Ding. Instead, because he had a certain prestige among the Han barbarians in the south, he was subdued by Zhuge Liang and left a promise of "never rebelling again."
In the world of Shirohime, the situation in the Nanzhong region is consistent with the "various historical materials" in some aspects, but also completely different.
The entire southern part of Yizhou, from west to east, is Yongchang County, Yuexi County, Zhuti County, and Zangke County. Historically, after Zhuge Liang quelled the rebellion of the southern barbarians, he established Jianning County, Yunnan County, and Xinggu County, collectively known as the Seven Counties of Nanzhong!
In fact, the proportion of Nanzhong in Yizhou is much larger than that of Shanyue in Yangzhou and Wuling in Jingzhou. The population of Nanzhong is not even less than that of the four counties of Bashu, namely Bajun, Shujun, Guanghanjun and Qianweijun. Only when Hanzhong County is included, the northern part of Yizhou has an absolute advantage in population resources.
The reason why Shu was contemptuously called Shu instead of Yi was because its power core had always been in Bashu. Its request to the seven counties in Nanzhong was only to offer money and manpower at that time. This was in stark contrast to the Eastern Wu, which was "begging for mercy" and insisted on eliminating all the Shanyue tribes bit by bit.
In addition to the external reason that Shu Han "set its sights on the north", it was also because of the complexity of the internal situation !
Compared to the Shanyue in Yangzhou and Wuling Commandery in Jingzhou, Nanzhong is not only larger, but also has less conflict between Han and Yi people, and is more united internally...
The so-called big families in Nanzhong, or the powerful families in Nanzhong, although they have Han cultural heritage, it has long been unclear whether they were Yi people who learned Chinese studies, or Han people who moved to Nanzhong and intermarried with Yi people.
These "big families in South China" have characteristics of both Han noble families and southern barbarian tribes. The only difference is that the leaders of the big families in South China who call themselves "Han people" are called "barbarian kings", while the leaders of the southern barbarian tribes are called "barbarian kings".
No matter whether it is the Barbarian King or the Yi King, the standard is "Han and Yi are subject to each other". Although from south to north, there is a situation where the proportion of Yi tribes increases and the proportion of Han culture decreases as the distance to the south increases. And after all, they belong to Cheng Ji and Man Ji respectively, but there is not much difference in interests between Han and Yi in the south.
When facing the Han people in northern Yizhou, the southerners in Nanzhong actually felt that the Nanzhong barbarians were more like their own people - even more so than the nobles in southern Jing.
It is precisely because of this characteristic that the Wuling Army led by Shamoke finds it increasingly difficult to advance westwards...
Helping the southern barbarians to build mountain cities and assisting their development can only win over some marginal tribes. When it comes to the southern barbarian tribes and the big families in southern China, they are all very stubborn.
According to the previous strategic layout of the State of Chu, the development focus of the south in the next five years was to build cities and reclaim land in the southern mountainous areas of Jingyang, to establish a number of concentrated cities based on the mining industry, and to gradually erode the influence of the "tribe".
As for Nanzhong, the attitude is to let nature take its course. It is not the focus of the strategy and force will not be used lightly unless it is actively attacked.
However, starting from the third year of the Chuli period, Bai Tu specially transferred Gao Shun and Chen Gong over, with the familiar recipe and the familiar taste...
And this time we have Shamoke's wholehearted assistance!
At the same time, Yiling had also begun to gather troops, partly due to the military exploits of the Nanyang Army.
If it were someone else, other generals might have fought for it, but for Huang Zhong... look at him, he is already quite old, and he is a transcendent general, yet he is still holding the shabby title of a general. Who would dare to fight for it?
That’s right!
This is about respecting the elderly and loving the young, and it is definitely not for the future artillery company...
As for Zhao Yun...there is no way to refute it!
Since they are gathering in Yiling, the main force will naturally be the Jingzhou army. There will be no problem with the Jingnan army being led by Huang Zhong, while Jingbei will naturally be mainly composed of the Nanyang army. After all, the original elite troops of Jingzhou Prefecture in Nanjun have all been disbanded and reorganized.
Zhao Yun is also a great general, and he is also the General of the Northern Expedition, and he is also Zhang Xiu’s junior brother. He has been stationed in Nanyang for a long time...
If troops need to be mobilized from Nanyang, and the general must be able to control the north and south of Jingzhou, including the other generals including Huang Zhong, then Zhao Yun is naturally the most suitable person. Even Zhang Xiu is inferior in comparison.
Wen Pin was also appointed as the deputy commander of the Nanyang Army this time - before that, Bai Tu personally went to invite him to go south, with Zhao Yun as the commander-in-chief, and the other part, the Jingnan Army, went west, with Huang Zhong as the commander-in-chief and Wei Yan as the vanguard - anyway, the artillery had to be recruited slowly, and Huang Zhong was idle anyway, and more importantly, this opportunity was just right to give Huang Zhong a refresh, and Wen Pin finally came out to take up the post.
What is not known to outsiders is that Bai Tu's choice of Zhao Yun also has some metaphysical meaning. After all, in history, when Zhuge Liang entered Sichuan, the main generals he used were Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei...
However, at that time Liu Bei was alone at Jiameng Pass in the north, attacking Shu County all the way, and attacking from both sides with Zhuge Liang in Jingzhou. Otherwise, it would be difficult to achieve anything relying solely on this army that needed to cross the Three Gorges.
The main reason why Bai Tu sent out the troops this time was to take the opportunity to eliminate the residual influence of the Han Dynasty in the hearts of the Chu people. In addition, because the Privy Council had repeatedly reported that the troops in various places were about to become "lazy", they simply moved, but did not expect to directly enter Shu County...
