Chapter 82: Gu Chen Governs the Realm; Liu Bei Meets Zhuge Once More

Yinling.

Liu Bei stared fixedly at Zhang Fei before him. After a brief moment of stunned confusion, he seemed to finally realize something and sprang up abruptly, asking:

"Where is the Young Master?"

"Why has the Young Master not returned?"

Ever since hearing Zhuge Liang's advice, Liu Bei had already developed some guard against Cao Cao on this occasion.

Not only had he left Zhang Fei behind, but Gu Tao as well.

His idea was that the two men would complement each other.

After all, Zhang Fei's attitude toward Gu Tao was also quite good.

"Big Brother."

Zhang Fei knelt on the ground, the grief on his face growing heavier: "It is I who failed the Young Master, it is I who would not heed the Young Master's counsel, drinking day after day."

"The Young Master—he—he perished in battle at Qingzhou."

Drops of tears kept falling from Zhang Fei's eyes.

Hearing these words, even Guan Yu's face showed a flash of anger: "Third Brother, Big Brother entrusted such a heavy burden to your hands."

"How could you act in such a manner?"

The look of remorse on Zhang Fei's face grew even deeper. He silently lowered his head, too ashamed to face the two of them.

"The two elder brothers need say no more."

"The Young Master's grace—I have no way to repay it."

"If it were not for escorting Sister-in-law, I would surely have followed the Young Master in death upon the battlefield."

"Now that Sister-in-law has already been delivered—"

He murmured.

The next moment, he abruptly rose and drew the long sword at his waist, without the slightest hesitation slashing it straight toward his own neck.

But in that very instant, Liu Bei rushed over, stopped him, and without another word slapped Zhang Fei across the face!

*Slap*!

That slap from Liu Bei was extremely heavy—one could say it thoroughly jolted Zhang Fei awake.

Liu Bei stared hard at Zhang Fei and said in a low voice: "The three of us brothers swore brotherhood in the Peach Garden—not seeking to live together, but seeking to die together."

"If Third Brother takes his own life here today,"

"how could Yunchang and I live on alone?"

His tone was solemn beyond measure.

Hearing this, Zhang Fei was utterly stunned, and knelt once more.

"Third Brother has failed the Young Master today, and should all the more inherit the Young Master's will, helping the Young Master accomplish the great enterprise in his heart."

"If not—"

"what face will Third Brother have to meet the Young Master in the Nine Springs below?"

Liu Bei's words truly struck Zhang Fei to the heart. He immediately sprang up to leave the camp: "I will go attack the Cao thief!"

"Third Brother!"

Liu Bei was furious. He stopped him once more and slapped him across the face again.

"When will you ever learn to be steady and resolute?"

Zhang Fei was completely dumbfounded.

Liu Bei's expression at this moment was exceedingly grave. He glanced at the assembled ministers in the tent and said helplessly: "At present, Qingzhou is already lost."

"We have no road back."

"If we cannot seize Yangzhou at this moment, our great army will scatter within days."

Liu Bei's thoughts at this moment were extremely clear. He understood perfectly his current predicament—he absolutely could not afford to make another mistake.

Cao Cao's strength was too great.

Now he held Jizhou, Youzhou, Qingzhou, and Yanzhou—his foundations had even surpassed those of Liu Xiu in his day.

If he made another mistake—

he feared there truly would be no chance left at all.

But since Cao Cao had already decided to act, how could he possibly leave any opening for Liu Bei?

The very next day, Liu Bei went to see Zang Ba, a great general under Tao Qian, to lay out the state of the realm and seek a formal alliance with Tao Qian.

But this matter was destined to be hard to bring to fruition.

To say nothing of the fact that Tao Qian was currently not even in Yanzhou.

Even if he were, given Tao Qian's temperament, he would not dare offend the present-day Cao Cao.

Cao Cao's judgment was correct.

Among the lords of the realm today, apart from Gu Chen and Liu Bei, there was simply no one he regarded.

After receiving Tao Qian's instructions, the Liu-Tao allied army—which had clearly still been a coalition—instantly became somewhat divided in spirit.

Liu Bei wished to swiftly seize the cities of Yangzhou.

But Zang Ba was obstructing him.

Meanwhile, Cao Ren also swiftly descended upon Yangzhou, forcibly pressing Liu Bei to withdraw from Yangzhou.

Liu Bei very much wished to ally with Tao Qian.

The current strength of Xuzhou was by no means weak, and added to the troops under his own command, even if they could not defeat Cao Cao, holding a single territory for a short while would not be a problem.

But compared with the present Liu Bei, Tao Qian clearly attached more importance to Cao Cao.

Reluctantly—

Liu Bei could only head toward Jingzhou once again.

The tide of the world shifted constantly.

In the second year of Jian'an, sixth month;

Gu Chen formally stormed Chang'an, his might shaking the realm; the Left Fufeng surrendered at the mere rumor of his advance, completely breaching the entire Sizhou.

He stabilized the entire western Han.

News from Qingzhou naturally reached him; he learned that Gu Tao had died beneath Cao Cao's Tiger and Leopard Cavalry.

But Gu Chen merely fell silent for a moment, not grieved to the point of despair.

Each of them had been deeply shaped by Gu Xi.

They held no fear of death.

One could say that every Gu clan youth still fighting abroad had prepared themselves to die.

For him, only by walking resolutely forward and restoring the entire family to its peak could he honor these brothers.

Gu Chen did not rush into his next move.

Reality was never a novel; no matter how high the Gu clan's prestige, if the people went too long without improvement, they would eventually grow disillusioned with the Gu.

Gu Chen had to pause and stabilize the four quarters.

Under these circumstances, Gu Wei and Xun Yu's value became evident.

Both were absolute masters of civil administration; even Gu Wei himself held unique insights into governance.

—— The clever use of purging the Shandong aristocrats and powerful clans now revealed its merit.

In truth, in the current age,

Most land and crops were controlled by these aristocratic clans.

To truly secure a region, one must balance the interests between the aristocrats and the commoners and displaced masses.

Everyone must feel there is a path to survival.

Only then could hearts be truly stabilized.

Gu Chen successively summoned Gu Wei and Xun Yu to Luoyang; after several days of discussion, he finalized his civil policies.

He implemented multiple measures.

—— First and foremost, he enacted the tuntian system.

In Sizhou, he instituted civilian tuntian, distributing the lands abandoned by the fleeing great clans to the commoners and displaced masses: tax-exempt in the first year, then a policy of six parts official, four parts civilian in the second year.

In border regions like Liangzhou, he implemented military tuntian.

He mixed soldiers with displaced masses to cultivate tuntian lands.

He imposed a tax rate of seven parts official, three parts civilian, and promised these lands would forever belong to the cultivators, issuing "Red Deed Certificates," permitting inheritance and forbidding powerful clans from annexing them.

For displaced masses, he instituted a three-color token system.

"Green tokens" represented local farmers;

"Yellow tokens" represented newly arrived displaced masses;

"Red tokens" represented those awaiting resettlement;

He also established "relay stations" along the routes, allowing newcomers to claim different rations according to their token;

And he categorized displaced masses by trade—blacksmiths, carpenters, healers, and so on—into official registers.

He granted salaries based on their respective skills.

Especially blacksmiths.

Whoever possessed exceptional craftsmanship not only received a salary but also had the chance to acquire land.

He also built granaries in Chang'an, Jinyang, and other places.

These grain stores were funded by the defeated Shandong aristocratic clans.

In the past, this entire set of policies would have provoked fierce resentment from the great clans, even driving them to defect to Cao Cao.

But now, it was entirely different.

Gu Chen had eliminated only those aristocrats who had sought alliances with Cao Cao.

There was a fundamental difference here.

Most crucially, he reformed the local administration.

This was the Gu clan's greatest strength.

Gu Chen established a dedicated department to closely monitor this matter.

As for the barbarians of Liangzhou,

Gu Chen had a specific system.

He leveraged the Gu clan's prestige among the barbarians to break the stalemate, opening trade and collecting commercial taxes.

Gu Yi watched all these measures with wide-eyed astonishment.

There was no help for it—Gu Chen's performance was simply too extraordinary.

Unfortunately, Gu Chen's attributes remained question marks.

His exact values could not be determined.

But based solely on Gu Chen's initial performance, Gu Yi could confirm that Gu Chen's current total attributes were certainly no less than ninety points.

This was an astonishing figure.

It was as if all the strengths of every Gu clan youth, from Gu Kang's generation to Gu Xi, had been fused together.

Gu Yi longed to gamble everything on a draw, pulling as many "Wall-Breaking Cards" as possible.

If every Gu clan youth possessed such ability,

What would he have to worry about?

But after thinking it over, Gu Yi calmed down again.

Gu Chen's emergence was the result of the right timing, the right place, and the right people.

It was not only Gu Xi's education of the family's juniors, but also the shift in the times, and Gu Chen's own temperament.

Even if he drew another Wall-Breaking Card, it would likely be hard to produce another existence like Gu Chen.

The environment could perhaps be artificially crafted.

But Gu Chen's unyielding, fate-defying temperament was absolutely not something human effort could interfere with.

While Gu Chen kept developing, Cao Cao on his side naturally wouldn't be idle either.

Tao Qian really was too cowardly.

Though he had clearly taken part in this battle, he still handed over the entirety of Yuzhou and Yangzhou to Cao Cao.

In the eyes of any man of ambition, this was absolutely an utterly foolish move.

After all, if Cao Cao occupied Yuzhou and Yangzhou, he would essentially have Xuzhou completely encircled.

But Tao Qian did not see it that way — he only wanted to secure some peace and stability.

He did not wish to give Cao Cao a pretext to attack him.

And things did not go beyond his expectations — Cao Cao indeed did not attack him.

Not that he couldn't.

It was simply that there was no need at all.

Tao Qian's attitude caused the entire Xuzhou gentry to begin leaning toward Cao Cao as well.

Those who still held loyalty to the Han court had long since left Xuzhou one after another.

Though Xuzhou nominally remained in Tao Qian's hands, in reality it had already been completely hollowed out by Cao Cao.

As long as Cao Cao was willing.

Xuzhou would change hands in an instant.

Under such circumstances, why bother sending out troops?

Now, surveying the whole realm, the only person Cao Cao truly cared about was Gu Chen alone.

For this reason, he even accepted Lu Bu's surrender.

No — it shouldn't be called accepting.

It was exploitation.

He settled Lu Bu in Wei Jun, gave him no real authority, only provided him with limited grain — making it plain that he intended to use Lu Bu to deal with Gu Chen.

Cao Cao did not yet wish to wage war against Gu Chen.

He too needed to pacify the four directions.

Whether it was Qingzhou, or Yuzhou and Yangzhou.

He needed to thoroughly settle the hearts of the people in all four directions.

Yet Cao Cao still made his stance clear.

It was in the second month of the fourth year of Jian'an;

Cao Cao finally assumed the position of "Grand Tutor," formally stepping onto the nominal peak of power.

The two most powerful warlords of the realm had not gone to war, but instead each governed his own territory.

This indeed had some influence on the prevailing winds of the entire realm.

A realm that had been in chaos for years had, in this brief span, taken on a faint flavor of settling down.

But how could the wars in all directions ever truly cease?

—Sun Ce had risen!

This caught everyone off guard; relying on just a few hundred men, he successively attacked and seized territory throughout Jiangdong, and in a very short time had taken all of Jiangdong.

He was called the "Little Overlord of Jiangdong."

This matter even drew Gu Chen's attention.

Because between Sun Ce and him, they could be called absolute mortal enemies.

After all, Sun Jian had died at his hands.

Still, Gu Chen did not pay it too much heed — by now he had long since developed the heart to stand invincible under heaven, and a mere Sun Ce was not enough to make him pay too much attention.

Jingzhou, Xinye.

Unlike Tao Qian, Liu Biao did accept Liu Bei.

In truth, Liu Bei's current strength was really not weak.

The twenty thousand troops under his command were all veteran soldiers hardened by a hundred battles, and he had fierce generals like Guan, Zhang, Zhao, and others.

What Liu Bei lacked was a foundation — he had no territory of his own, and could only keep his army stable by relying on grain supplied by others.

Though he had now gained Liu Biao's support under Liu Biao's banner.

Liu Bei still sighed in worry day after day.

The Jingzhou gentry far exceeded his expectations; he could sense that Liu Biao's grip over Jingzhou was insufficient.

And most critically—

Given the state of the realm today, he could not think of any way to break the deadlock.

It was not that he had never considered joining hands with Gu Chen.

But Liu Bei's feelings toward Gu Chen were actually quite complicated.

He could not figure out what Gu Chen truly intended to do.

He also harbored some resentment over Gu Chen's killing of Empress Dowager He.

This was an entirely unavoidable issue.

Although Liu Bei disliked Emperors Huan and Ling, he still had to acknowledge their status as emperors.

The same went for Empress Dowager He.

For him, no matter how wrong Empress Dowager He was, she was still the Empress Dowager of the great Han, and should not have died at Gu Chen's hands.

This was the limitation of this era.

No matter how extraordinary Liu Bei was, the notion of "loyalty to the sovereign and service to the country" in his heart always remained, shackling him.

A man of iron will like Gu Chen, who could act on gratitude and revenge as he pleased, was ultimately the only variable of this era.

This was also the reason Liu Bei had never gone to see Gu Chen.

At this moment, he was standing on the city wall.

Feeling the gusts of breeze, his gaze fixed tightly on the direction of Luoyang, his expression especially complex.

"Big brother."

At this moment, Zhang Fei's roar suddenly rang out.

Liu Bei turned his head to look, and saw Zhang Fei rushing up onto the city wall, saying: "Mr. Kongming has returned."

"Kongming has returned?"

Hearing this, Liu Bei immediately became spirited, and said anxiously: "Quick! Quickly prepare a horse and come with me to pay a visit to Mr. Kongming."

He had always kept Zhuge Liang in mind.

The words Zhuge Liang had spoken back then at Julu had now all come true.

This made Liu Bei feel even more that Zhuge Liang was extraordinary.

Since arriving in Jingzhou, he had gone to look for Zhuge Liang, but had not seen him.

Now hearing of Zhuge Liang's return, how could he not be excited?

"It's been prepared long ago." Zhang Fei laughed heartily.

Since the events back then in Qingzhou, Zhang Fei seemed to have become a different person.

He rarely drank, and had always been looking forward to charging into Xu Chang, personally slaughtering Cao Cao and Cao Chun to sacrifice to Gu Tao.

Liu Bei attached great importance to paying a visit to Zhuge Liang.

Trusted followers like Guan, Zhang, and Zhao were all brought along by his side, after which he spurred his horse and left Xinye, heading straight for Nanyang..

PS: Begging for monthly tickets!

(End of this chapter)