Chapter 623

The movements of Yangzhou’s troops could not be hidden from Jingzhou. It was not hard to track Yangzhou’s movements as without any need to keep watch of Jiangdong any longer, Jingzhou could spend all of its energy on Yangzhou.

“Do you all know what is going on at the naval barracks at the Yangtze River?” Liu Pan asked while seating at the Lord’s seat. It was according to reason as Liu Pan was organizing military matters and that Liu Biao had fallen sick from all the bad news from Jiangling.

“General. Could they be thinking of attacking Xiangyang?” One officer suggested.

“Attack Xiangyang? Not possible.” Xiangyang may be their weakest city but it was not weak enough to be conquered by the ten thousand troops at the Yangtze River’s naval barracks. On top of that, Xiangyang also had thirty thousand of Cai Mao’s troops. Though Cai Mao was no longer listening to orders, his troops can still scare off the enemy.

Jingzhou would still have the upper hand unless Yangzhou could bring their warships over to Xiangyang.

“Military Advisor. Have you forgotten that Cai Mao and that fake king Liu Mang have good relationship?” One person reminded. He could have easily been punished with death for his words as he had suggested that Cai Mao could have already defected to Yangzhou. If that was the case, the thirty thousand troops would belong to Yangzhou instead of Jingzhou.

“That is also not possible.” Liu Pan shook his head. He did not know Cai Mao very well but he is certain that Cai Mao would not do this yet. He would only do this if Liu Biao forced him to as no one would want to have the reputation of betraying their Lord. If one was mistreated then that would be a good reason but the Cai Family was treated very well before Lady Cai’s incident. It can even be said that the Cai Family was the most powerful family in Jingzhou.

One was more likely to know who the Cai Family is rather than who Liu Biao is.

Although Cai Mao was under house arrest, there was still hope. Once Liu Biao passes away, his son, Liu Zong has the highest the chance to take Liu Biao’s place. This is because out of Liu Biao’s three children, Liu Qi had already lost his right after joining Yangzhou while Liu Pan was not Liu Biao’s real son.

Once Liu Zong becomes the Lord of Jingzhou, the Cai Family would have made a comeback. It was also because of this that Cai Mao would not defect until the very end.

The other reason is because Cai Mao was still at Xiangyang. If Cai Mao were to rebel now, he would simply lose his life. What is the point of rebelling if it meant destruction of the Cai Family?

“Report! We got information from Xinye!” A messenger entered while everyone was making conjectures.

“Bring it here!” Liu Pan waved his hand and someone received the letter. The letter was from the spies at Xinye and reported about what happened at Xinye.

“Hahaha! The Heaven favors me! It is true that those who are just get assistance while the unjust lose support!” Liu Pan laughed after reading the letter causing his men to be baffled. One officer could not help but ask. “What is the good news?”

“Come! You guys take a look too!” Liu Pan said as he passed the letter around. Their expression quickly changed after they read it.

According to the letter, the refugees were rebelling. There were tens of thousands of them attacking the city. Meanwhile, Xinye had less than two thousand men. What happened in Xinye could not be hidden as the news of the defeated soldiers entering the city had already spread out.

This news explained why the troops at the naval barracks had moved. Normally, these troops would not move unless it is to attack Jingzhou which is why Jingzhou’s officials were all very nervous. They could still remember being defeated badly even after teaming up with Jiangdong. They were afraid that Yangzhou would attack Jingzhou. But now they find out that Yangzhou was simply facing its own problems.

“A rebellion at Yangzhou?” One person asked doubtfully thinking that it might be a trap. Yangzhou was the place that treated the people the best. Each person is given three mu of land and do not need to pay tax for the first five years. After five years, they only need to pay thirty percent tax.

Jingzhou’s officials all knew that Jingzhou was treating their people well. However, they did not dare act like Yangzhou and lower the taxes even more. If they did this, they would start to lose money instead. None of them believed the report. It must be a lie to make Jingzhou lower its guard. Yangzhou would then take the opportunity to attack Jingzhou.

“There might be a possibility of this being a trap but the chances of that happening is low!” Liu Pan shook his head. Could a rebellion be so easily controlled? It was a different matter if they had mobilized troops from elsewhere but they instead moved the troops from the naval barracks. Wouldn’t this just put Jingzhou on alert?

“Could it really be a rebellion?”

“That isn’t certain.” Liu Pan said.

“Regardless, we need to make preparations.” One officer stood up and said to Liu Pan.

“Agreed. First, we need to prepare ourselves for any traps! Second, we need to get ready to move. If there really is a rebellion at Xinye, that would be our chance!” Liu Pan said. He was as capable as his brother Liu Qi but he was more decisive. He would immediately jump on the opportunity to attack Yangzhou's naval barracks the moment he confirms that the citizens at Xinye were rebelling.

He would threaten Xinye to protect Jingzhou. If Yangzhou chooses to guard the naval barracks instead, then no one would be able to deal with the rebellion. Even if it is not like the Huang Family’s rebellion, it would still put Yangzhou in a terrible situation.

If Yangzhou chose to put down the rebellion, Liu Pan can simply capture the barracks then rush in to save the people. If things go well, they could even get Xinye back. Otherwise, they could just help Xinye’s people burn Xinye to the ground.

“Pass down my military orders! All soldiers are not to disarm. Instead, they are to prepare for battle!” Liu Pan issued the order.

***

“Why am I attacking my own city?” Liu Mang looked at the city on top of Yeguang and laughed bitterly. Xinye was his city and he was the ruler. Normally, he should be suppressing the rebellion. Instead, he was bringing the rebellion to attack his own city.

The real culprit for all this is Jiang Wan. Guo Yi had caused thousands of soldiers to attack Liu Mang’s group. A thousand soldiers attacking Liu Mang, Zhou Cang and Guo Yi. The end result for this would be that neither sides win. Guo Yi would die. Liu Mang and the others would either be dead or seriously injured. At this moment, Jiang Wan showed his capabilities.

After finding out about Liu Mang’s identity, he went back to the refugees to use his silver tongue. Or rather, he made use of Guo Yi’s shameless intentions of killing the refugees.

The refugees were cowards. They did not dare to stand up against Guo Yi. They did not care that Liu Mang and the others were standing up for their sakes and even complained that they were being too meddlesome.

However, these people were not harmless. The common people may be tolerant but they too have a limit. Guo Yi’s intentions of slaughtering them was enough to bring them to action.

Guo Yi had at least a thousand soldiers. It was more than enough for several thousand refugees. Unfortunately, Guo Yi was captured and the army was left without a leader. Meanwhile, the refugees may not be trained but they still had the strength of farmers and could easily kill with their shovels. Not to mention that they had three ruthless fighters that is Liu Mang’s group leading the refugees.

Just like this, the number of Guo Yi’s men started to decrease while the morale of the refugees increased. In that battle, six hundred of Guo Yi’s men were killed. Two hundred were seriously injured and the remaining two hundred had scattered.

So now, Liu Mang was leading the refugees to Xinye. He needed to recompense and make arrangements for them. They ran into more refugees along the way and now they numbered about ten thousand.

“Milord. Does this count as rebelling?” Zhou Cang asked cautiously.

“Nonsense. How do you even rebel when you own the place?” Guan Hai said to Zhou Cang. Yangzhou and Xinye belonged to Liu Mang.

“I guess you could say we are rebelling.” Liu Mang laughed bitterly. Xinye’s gates were already closed and heavily guarded. It was as though they were preparing to face an enemy.

“Guan Hai. Go and call out to them.” Liu Mang helplessly ordered.

“Understood.

***

The night was frighteningly quiet. Hao Shao was going to Xinye along with five thousand men. He also dispatched scouts thirty li outside the city.

“There are no enemies outside Xinye?” Hao Shao listened to his scouts with doubt.

“Yes, General. There are no enemies outside of Xinye!” The scout nodded. The leader of the scouts was one of Hao Shao’s fellow soldiers that he took with him when they left the Wolf Cavalry. He was extremely skilled at his job and Hao Shao also trusted him. The scout would have only given this report after checking the surroundings thoroughly.

“No enemies? Could it be that the refugees have not reached Xinye?” Hao Shao thought that something was strange and shook his head. The rebels should have already reached Xinye by the time the reinforcements was requested. By the time Hao Shao dispatched his men, the rebels could have already reached Xinye even if they crawled all the way.

“Could it be that they went elsewhere?” Hao Shao asked himself and decided that this was also wrong. There are no other cities nearby. These rebels may be large in number but they did not have enough food and would starve in a few days. The only way for them to eat is to capture Xinye.

“However, we found a lot of trash.” The scouts found a lot of abandoned things like crutches, tents and torn clothes. These all belonged to the common people. Only a large number of common people could leave behind such a huge mess.

“The rebels must be nearby!” Hao Shao was certain yet the scouts could not find the rebels at all. It was impossible to hide so many people.

“Could they be inside Xinye City?” One scout asked.

“Inside Xinye City?” Hao Shao thought to himself and realized that Xinye City was the only place that could hide a hundred thousand rebels.

“Did they already break through Xinye?” Another scout asked.

“No!” Hao Shao rejected this idea. Xinye had two thousand troops, it would not fall so quickly. “Is there any traces of battle outside Xinye?” Hao Shao asked.

“There is none!” The scout replied. There were no traces of a battle. There were no corpses.

“Xinye’s defenders have surrendered!” Hao Shao finally came to this conclusion as the rebels disappeared and there were no battles at all.

“General. What should we do now?” The scout asked. Should they continue heading towards Xinye?

“What should we do? We wait!” Hao Shao replied bitterly. They could not do anything now. If Xinye had not yet fallen, then they could still send help. But now that Xinye has surrendered, Hao Shao would need to siege the city instead and he could not do that with only five thousand men. In battle, the inexperience could make big mistakes to capitalize on. However, having city walls to defend them would allow even the common people to have the capability of an elite.

On top of that, Hao Shao was not good at sieges and he did not even have anything like ballistae or catapult to help him. How could he siege the city?

“We wait?”

“Yes, we wait!”

The next day, the Wolf Cavalry arrived. There were twenty thousand of them led by Lu Bu. Ten thousand of them were from the Yangzhou Army. The others were the Yiyang Troops led by Wei Yan.

“Lord Marquis!” Hao Shao went to greet Lu Bu.

Lu Bu nodded. “Come here and speak. What is the situation at Xinye?”

“Replying to Lord Marquis, it is not good news.”

“What do you mean?”

“The rebels may have already captured Xinye!”

“What about Xinye’s defenders? They could not even hold out for three days?”

“Lord Marquis, they have probably surrendered to the rebels.”

“How daring!” Lu Bu said angrily. Everyone hated traitors. Lu Bu would not be so angry had these defenders lose Xinye after fighting to the death. However, they had surrendered. On top of that, they surrendered to rebels.

“Report! General! The barracks at the Yangtze River has sent a message!” A messenger suddenly interrupted.

“Speak.” Hao Shao did not bother hiding this from Lu Bu as Lu Bu was pretty much half the owner of Yangzhou.

“Report, there is a large enemy force gathering outside the barracks!” The messenger reported. The only enemy force that could appear in front of the Yangtze Navy was Liu Biao.

“Liu Biao already found out about this?” The news Hao Shao did not want to hear the most has arrived. As expected, Jingzhou has come to take opportunity of this event.

“There are only five thousand men at the barracks!” Hao Shao said to Lu Bu. Hao Shao was confident that he could stop a hundred thousand of Jingzhou’s men when he had ten thousand men but not when he had five thousand. With his men stretched thin, there were many places the Jingzhou Army could go ashore.

Hao Shao wanted to send his men back but there was no news at Xinye. It would be bad for the rebels to continue holding on to Xinye. Both Hao Shao and Lu Bu knew of the destructive abilities of rebels based on their experiences with the Yellow Turbans. These Yellow Turbans would destroy everything including homes and in order to survive, others would have to join the Yellow Turbans as well. This will only make the number of rebels increase.

With at least a hundred thousand common citizens and a hundred thousand refugees, the rebels posed a huge danger if the rebellion isn’t controlled soon.

Jingzhou taking advantage of this situation is also giving Yangzhou a lot of problems.

“Hao Shao. Take your people back to the naval barracks.” Lu Bu said to Hao Shao.

“Lord Marquis. If I go back, how would we siege the city?” Hao Shao asked. Lu Bu brought the Wolf Cavalry so they could not siege the city unless they got off their horses.

Lu Bu was also anxious when he received the request for reinforcements. He departed immediately and also took with him twenty thousand infantries. However, these troops were still on the way here. It may already be too late if he continued to wait for them.

They all initially expected the Xinye defenders to hold out for at least two days. Then the rebels could be wiped out by the Wolf Cavalry. Unfortunately, Xinye has surrendered. This thoroughly caught Yangzhou unprepared and posed a problem to Lu Bu and the others.

The question now is whether they should attack Xinye. If they choose to attack Xinye, they would need Hao Shao’s five thousand elites. Even if Lu Bu were to go to the frontlines, he would need troops to accompany him. They would need time to make siege ladders and also time to attack the city. If they were too slow, they would end up getting attacked in the back by Jingzhou.

On the other hand, if they choose not to attack Xinye, the rebels would destroy the city. Xinye would be in ruins in less than half a month. Besides that, the common people of Xinye would lose their homes, causing them to join the rebels and bolstering their numbers. This problem could then spread around Yangzhou.

“Hmph! Let’s go!” Lu Bu harrumphed and led the Wolf Cavalry towards Xinye without saying anything more.

“Lord Marquis?” Hao Shao was shocked. He did not know what Lu Bu wanted to do and pursued Lu Bu. He used to be part of the Wolf Cavalry so he knew that Lu Bu did not take coercion well. It would be bad if Lu Bu impulsively attacked Xinye with only the Wolf Cavalry. He needed to stop Lu Bu from making impulsive decisions.

“Lord Marquis! It is not time to attack Xinye!” Hao Shao shouted as he pursued Lu Bu. “Please quell your anger! We will cut down trees to make siege ladders tomorrow!” Unlike Gao Shun who directly contradicts Lu Bu, Hao Shao spoke according to Lu Bu’s temperament. He tried to remind Lu Bu about the weakness of the heavy cavalry and wanted Lu Bu do give up his intentions.

“Who said I was going to attack Xinye?” Lu Bu turned around and asked.

“You are not?” Hao Shao asked back. Why else would Lu Bu bring the Wolf Cavalry to Xinye then?

“I want to take a look. I want to see who is leading the rebels.” Lu Bu said coldly. Someone who could incite the rebels like this was definitely not a simple person. It was just like Zhang Jue and his brothers. If it was not because Tang Zhou had betrayed him, it may have already become the Zhang Dynasty. If Zhang Jue had a few more years, he could have killed the Emperor.

“Sigh.” Hao Shao breathed out a sigh of relief. Anything is fine as long as Lu Bu does not attack Xinye.

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