Volume 4 is in the ascendant Chapter 483: Offering the City
The county magistrate Zhang Ping was locked up outside the city. One side of the city wall and the city tower were completely destroyed by the Chu army. The remaining defenders did not dare to resist at all. The fall of Yufu City was a matter of course.
After being tied up, Zhang Ping was still shouting: "I have seen through your deception! But the soldiers have no fighting spirit, time is not on my side, time is not on my side!"
Although he did not surrender, Zhang Ping understood clearly - didn't the Chu army claim not to kill prisoners?
He is just a county magistrate. He didn't do anything wrong in Yufu County. No crime can be found out after interrogation. He will definitely not be counted as one of the criminals. He will most likely be detained in Ba County until the situation is stable.
As long as I can keep my image stable, I will have the opportunity to serve in the government again, whether it is the Chu State occupying Ba County or the Yizhou Prefecture driving out the strong enemy. I will just throw the blame away first...
Wei Yan had no intention of persuading the enemy to surrender, so he just locked him up first - not abusing prisoners was also one of the highest military rules of the Chu army.
After Wei Yan took control of Yufu City, although there were still a few small cities in Yufu County, they all had low walls and thin fortifications, and were quickly occupied by the Chu army!
While the Xinye 1st Division was gaining a foothold in Yufu, the Wancheng 1st Division led by Zhao Yun, as if taking over, continued to move southwest along the Yangtze River towards Qunin County.
Ba County is located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, with its capital in Jiangzhou, where the Jialing River and the Yangtze River meet.
As an important water transport system in Bashu, the confluence of Jialing River and Yangtze River is naturally a place with convenient transportation, and Jiangzhou is also prosperous because of this...
Generally speaking, Jiangzhou is in the southwest corner of Ba County, and Yufu is in the northeast corner. Going upstream along the Yangtze River and heading southwest, you will reach Jiangzhou.
In his early years, Liu Zhang also had the idea of dividing Ba County. Before the Jian'an period, Liu Yan had just passed away. Soon after Liu Zhang inherited Yizhou Prefecture, he divided Ba County into three parts.
The two counties of Quren and Yufu were taken to form Guling Prefecture, Jiangzhou, Linjiang, and the southern areas of Zhixian, Fuling, Pingdu, etc. were taken to form Yongning Prefecture, and the other northern counties were still called Ba Prefecture...
It can be seen that Liu Zhang was already very conservative when he first came to power - Guling and Yongning, the names alone suggest that one should be law-abiding.
However, Liu Zhang at that time still had some ambitions. At least he knew how to use his actions to create a peaceful environment for himself. However... he soon found that he was overthinking.
The division of Ba County did not gain the cooperation of the local gentry. The establishment of government offices in the three counties was slow, the flow of personnel continued as usual, and taking advantage of the chaos in the official system, a large-scale rebellion broke out in Ba County.
After all, Liu Zhang didn't have many people he could trust among the middle and grassroots officials - except for the senior officials who could enter and leave Yizhou Prefecture, he couldn't even call out their names.
Therefore, the division plan came to nothing, Yongning County was merged back into Ba County, and Guling County, which had only two counties, was also "entrusted" to Ba County.
As the second county of Guling County in theory besides Yufu, Quren County also undertakes the task of logistical supply for Yufu County.
It can be said that the resources of other counties in Ba County supported the main force of Ba County stationed in Jiangzhou, while Qu Ren and Yu Fu supported the garrison of Kuimen - although including the county seat, there were only five or six thousand people in total, but considering that there were only two counties after all, it was not a small number.
Especially after the trade with Jingzhou was cut off, the income of these two counties decreased a lot, and the army was reduced in number, becoming a patrol team to guard against smuggling caravans...
Quren also only has daily garrison troops, but because it is the rear base of "Guling County", the treasury should be full.
Therefore, Zhao Yun also came with great expectations, and judging from the current speed, the troops from Jiangzhou would not be able to be transferred here in time before Qu Ren was captured!
By then, with the storage in Quren County, at least the logistics of the Chu army can take a breather...
If the army of Jiangzhou fails to provide support in time, the only thing Zhao Yun is worried about is whether the defenders of Quren will be too determined. If they fortify the city, harvest or destroy the unripe crops, or even burn the treasury when they capture the city, it will definitely not be good news for the Chu army.
Of course, judging from the situation in Yufu County, the probability of the existence of such a strong defender is not very high.
However, Zhao Yun still made sufficient preparations, and did not push too hard. He spread the word that the Chu army was a righteous army along the way, and tried to send people to the county town to persuade them to surrender in advance...
Afterwards... Zhao Yun himself didn't expect it - it was so easy to surrender?
Li Yi, the magistrate of Qunin County, was also from a noble family in Ba County. He was not the Wu general who later participated in the Battle of Yiling, but just had the same name.
When Liu Yan passed away, a rebellion broke out among the nobles in Ba County. Historically, after Gan Ning had been a pirate for a long time, he returned to Yizhou to serve as an official. He also participated in the rebellion and was even one of the main initiators.
However, the rebellion was quickly put down by Zhao Wei, and the remaining troops fled to Jingzhou and were taken in by Liu Biao.
Liu Zhang had just ascended the throne at that time, and he really thought that he could rule Yizhou by sitting on the throne of Yizhou Prefecture. He appointed Zhao Wei as the "General of the Eastern Expedition" on the spot, and even intended to attack Liu Biao in the name of suppressing rebellion...
Afterwards, Zhao Wei, an old minister who entered Shu with Liu Yan, slapped Liu Zhang hard in the face - Zhao Wei even rebelled in Ba County.
Although he was eventually suppressed by Yizhou Prefecture, and the Ba County gentry also abandoned Zhao Wei and beheaded him and presented him to Liu Zhang, but after being poured cold water on, Liu Zhang did not start to work hard to govern the country, but instead became completely "Buddhist".
In the Cheng Ji world, Gan Ning never returned to Ba County. Just when he was tired of being a pirate, he was kidnapped by Bai Tu using "Brocade". Naturally, he did not catch up with the rebellion in Ba County, but the chaos in Ba County still happened in the few years when Bai Tu just traveled through.
The first time Liu Zhang watched the "live broadcast" mocking Bai Tu, Zhao Wei's head had just been delivered.
This is actually the reason why, in history when there was no white rabbit effect, Zhang Fei was allowed to enter Shu County with a green light after capturing Yan Yan - the gentry of Ba County had always been close to and distant from Yizhou Prefecture!
Yan Yan was also from Ba County, but he was not a great noble family. As a veteran promoted by Liu Yan, he was loyal to Yizhou Prefecture, but not absolutely loyal. That was why he did not resolutely increase troops to Qutang Pass when he received the news of the Chu army's movement because he considered the opinions of the Ba County nobles...
Liu Zhang's performance, especially his performance when welcoming Liu Bei to Shu in history, was indeed enough to drive away most of the "loyal ministers".
As for Li Yi of Quren County, he was one of the two people who "backstabbed" Zhao Wei. He was a thoroughbred gentry member - he rebelled with Zhao Wei in order to fight for the interests of the Ba County gentry, and he backstabbed Zhao Wei in order to fight for the interests of the Ba County gentry.
Facts have proved that Liu Zhang really fell for it...
What the Ba County gentry did at that time was actually of the same nature and the same operation as what the Yanzhou gentry did shortly afterwards when they welcomed Lu Bu's attack on Cao Cao's back door.
It’s just that Cao Cao and Liu Zhang’s subsequent reactions were completely different!
Cao Cao learned his lesson first, restrained his edge, and then slowly educated these nobles, while Liu Zhang... entered the sage mode in one step, and has not recovered since then.
…
Now Li Yi was in Quren, and he directly accepted Zhao Yun's surrender, but... he did not surrender personally, and he went to the city wall and cried first.
In short, he expressed that he wanted to defend the city, but there was nothing he could do. As a county magistrate, he had to take care of the people. After careful consideration, he made a difficult decision...
surrender!
At the same time, Li Yi also beat his chest and stamped his feet, saying that he surrendered the city for the sake of the people and that he was forced to do so and had no other choice.
He also stressed that he would "give up the city but not his life" and would never serve the enemy...
Given the atmosphere at that time, people who didn’t know Li Yi would definitely think that he was going to jump off the city wall!
But in reality, after Li Yi finished speaking, he turned around and went home—back to his hometown in Nanchong County, on horseback…
The general who delivered the message for Zhao Yun did not stop it - after all, the other party had already arranged to surrender the city, it was just that he did not want to serve as an official, so they couldn't stop it, right?
But after Zhao Yun really entered the city, he was not very happy.
The reason is simple - the city’s treasury is almost completely empty!
"Isn't there enough food and fodder on the books to sustain 20,000 troops for half a year? Not even one tenth of it?" Deputy Division Commander Wen Pin angrily questioned the county magistrate.
Wen Pin had previously reminded Zhao Yun, as he was familiar with the tactics of officials in Jingzhou, that the accounts might not be credible and that it would be considered good if half of them were correct. However... he never expected that the people in Yizhou Prefecture were even more ruthless!
"This... there was a flood last year, and County Magistrate Li 'privately took' all the grain in the government treasury to provide disaster relief." County Magistrate Yao Rong said aggrievedly.
The emphasis is clearly on the four words "taken away without permission".
"Well, since he was left behind to clean up the mess, I guess he wasn't Li Yi's confidant before, and the treasury can't be moved away in a day... It's not convenient to pursue the matter." Zhao Yun persuaded Wen Pin.
Upon hearing this, Wen Pin also sighed, and then said "I'm sorry" to the county magistrate. Seeing this, Yao Rong hurriedly returned the greeting.
Originally, Yao Jun was still hesitating whether he should withdraw after the handover. Even if he wanted to serve in Chu, he could just wait until the storm was over. There was no need to stay as a county official in Yizhou, which would only increase suspicion.
However, seeing that the Chu army had such strict military discipline and that the senior generals did not seem to be unreasonable, he felt more confident - both in himself and in the Chu State.
Wen Pin was also very angry just now. He originally thought that the people in Jingzhou Prefecture were unreliable enough, but he didn't expect that there is always someone better than you...
In fact, if you think about it, you can understand that Liu Biao built his foundation on his own. Although he also relied on the power of local gentry, at least before he became seriously ill, he had not given up power and was actively sorting out the internal power division. As for Liu Zhang... he had already entered the sage mode eight years ago.
Zhao Yun could not say anything facing the empty treasury - even though the actual situation was very clear, the other party had at least voluntarily surrendered the city. Could he still turn around and hold them accountable for past corruption?
Who would dare to surrender after that!
Even according to the rules of the Chu State, as long as the important officials surrendered and did not harm the people or commit the eight major crimes, they could be pardoned...
