Chapter 1226 Comedy and Tragedy

Chapter 1226 Comedy and Tragedy

Chapter 1226 Comedy and Tragedy

On March 20th, the news of the Battle of Xuancheng spread to Guangde and Ningguo areas. Some of the remnants of the Sun family became active again, and they recruited a large number of people to join the army to expand their strength.

The Guangde Sun family is a branch of the Fuchun Sun family. They migrated here at the end of the Han Dynasty. Due to the rise of the Sun family in Jiangdong, they developed rapidly and became a local powerful family with thousands of followers at their command.

However, they had been in a very bad situation in the past twenty years, their strength was greatly weakened, and they were full of hatred towards the Jin court. They were beaten and fled in February, but they came back again in late March, which embarrassed the clan elders who had knelt down and begged for mercy and said all the good words a month ago.

Of course, this is nothing. If you can't win, just surrender. What's so shameful about that? Is it good to have your family destroyed?

In Xin'an County further south, upon receiving the news, the prefect Bian Jing immediately called his most trusted county magistrate Huang Xun, She County magistrate Zhang Meng, and county Sima Yu Zong.

The Huang family is a clan of immigrants who migrated southwards, but they were forced to migrate southwards from Jiangxia.

Huang Xun's father, Huang Ji, had served as the governor of Xin'an for several years and died in office. Huang Xun and his brothers saw that Jingzhou was the front line and not very safe, so they moved there under the pretext of guarding their father's tomb.

Because he was from a northern noble family, his father was diligent in royal affairs, had a good reputation as an official and died in office, so Huang Xun got a position as a county magistrate without having to deal with the affairs.

Zhang Meng is Huang Xun's cousin. His aunt Zhang is Huang Xun's mother, and she is from the Fengyi Zhang family.

Yu Zong's story is quite exaggerated. He moved south from Hejian County in Jizhou with his father and brothers and settled in Xin'an. He was a relatively rare Hebei native among the group of people who moved south. Moreover, he came very early, at the beginning of the Yongjia period. If he had come a few years later, he might have been stopped in the north of the Yangtze River.

He used to be a minor officer in Xuancheng County. After his mother passed away, he returned to Xin'an to mourn. He had just resumed his duties a few years ago.

The existence of the three southern migration families of Huang, Zhang and Yu was the key to Bian Jing's ability to gain a foothold in Xin'an County.

Faced with an important decision at this time, he could only discuss it with these three people.

"Zhong Yi, the situation is urgent!" Seeing the three people coming in, Bian Jing burst into tears, "The king's army was defeated, Xuancheng is in danger! Xin'an is in danger!"

Huang Xun hurriedly supported Bian Jing and asked in shock: "Master, why are you like this? We have been defeated, so we can fight back."

Bian Jing continued to cry, "How can we fight? Where are the soldiers? The Xin'an household register has not changed for many years, and there are only 5,000 people. How can we fight? Where will the soldiers and food come from?"

Huang Xun was stunned and asked tentatively: "What does the Lord mean..."

"You don't understand!" Bian Jing pushed him away and cried, "My ancestors are descendants of the Shanyue leader. Our territory is connected to Xuancheng and Xin'an counties. The three mountains and eight villages can respond to a call. He has already started a rebellion. Where can Xin'an provide soldiers and generals?"

Zhang Meng and Yu Zong looked at each other, both feeling helpless.

One of the important tasks of the Xin'an governor was to control the barbarians. If you ask who the barbarians are, everyone will just say barbarians without mentioning their tribe. In fact, they are the descendants of the Shanyue tribe, which was famous during the Eastern Wu period.

The campaign against the Shanyue reached its peak during the reign of Sun Quan. It is unknown how many people were registered, and there were also many generals who surrendered without changing their ways. Zu was one of them.

To be honest, in these counties south of Yangzhou, there are more barbarians than Jin people.

In the past twenty years, due to the large-scale migration of overseas Chinese to the south, even three northern families have come to this remote corner of Xin'an. The speed of assimilation of the barbarians has begun to accelerate, but it is still far from enough.

Whenever the imperial court mobilized troops, it often recruited barbarians. Now that the Zu family had rebelled, Xin'an County had lost its largest source of troops.

But is it really important? Zu went to Xuancheng and was defeated by Sima Chong's imperial guards and Wuhu overseas soldiers. Now he probably doesn't dare to come to Xin'an, so why worry?
Is it possible——

Zhang Meng swallowed his saliva and asked, "Master, since there are no soldiers available, I'm afraid we can only die."

Bian Jing stopped crying for a while and murmured, "Die for the sake of loyalty..."

Huang Xun pushed Zhang Meng, secretly scolding him for being ignorant, and then he moved closer to Bian Jing and said, "Master, things have come to this point, why don't you surrender?"

"Surrender?" Bian Jing seemed to have heard something incredible. He jumped up and cursed, "Huang Xun, are you trying to put me in an unjust position? My father was the Minister of the Chancellery, my grandfather was the Minister of the Central Secretariat, and I am the governor. I have been blessed by the country for generations, and you actually want me to surrender to the thieves?"

"Alas." Yu Zong sighed and said, "If the Lord wants to fight, then let's fight. The worst that can happen is that we will die."

Huang Xun quietly kicked Yu Zong again and said to Bian Jing, "My Lord, some of my words are unpleasant to hear, but it's too late to continue fighting. I heard that your majesty is the sister of Liang Guo's Pei Guipin. Surrendering to Liang is a way out."

"What? Surrender to Liang? Absolutely not!" Bian Jing shook his head like a rattle and said, "Unless I die - even if I am captured by the bandits, I would rather die than surrender."

Huang Xun understood. He turned to look at Yu Zong and asked, "Why are you still standing there?"

Yu Zong suddenly realized what was going on. After hesitating for a moment, he let out a long sigh and went out to find a rope.

When Bian Jing saw this, he yelled, "Yu Zong, you bastard! What are you trying to do? Are you planning a rebellion?"

"I'm sorry." Yu Zong stepped forward and tied up Bian Jing.

Bian Jing didn't struggle too much, he just kept cursing.

"Be gentle, don't hurt the Lord." Zhang Meng said from the side. "Shut up." Huang Xun looked at his cousin and scolded him.

After tying up Bian Jing, Huang and Zhang escorted him to the government office. Many people saw him along the way and were all shocked.

Yu Zong took his trusted men to suppress a small number of county soldiers, ordering them to guard the city carefully and not to act rashly, and then sent people to Wanling to discuss surrender.

On the 21st, Bian Jing was "forced" to write to all counties, saying that they would return to Liang anyway. As for whether they would listen or not, only God knew.

******
If what was performed in Xin'an County was a comedy, then what was performed in Wuxing County was a tragedy.

On Yuanxiang Mountain (near Xianshan Mountain in Changxing today) between Wucheng and Guangde, Yuanxiang (county) chief Yao Ru sighed and said, "My Lord, I am leaving now."

Yu Tan had a tense face and faced the lake and dense forest outside the mountain to the west, without saying a word.

Yao Ru seemed a little ashamed and explained a few more words: "Xuancheng was defeated and the situation is devastating. My Yao family is small and weak, and we really can't afford to get involved in these things. Besides, my ancestral tomb is in Wukang, and the Shen family is threatening me. If I don't leave now, my clan members may be harmed by them."

The Yao family was a wealthy family in Wukang County, and neighbors with the Shen family. In terms of strength, they were much weaker than the Shen family.

Yu Tan recruited troops from the nobles of Wuxing to fight in the south and the north. Yao risked his life but could only send out 2,000 soldiers.

In the previous attack on the Qian and Sun families, they all took action. Even when the Yongshi Shijia broke up and left, Liu Chao and Yu Tan attacked from both sides, and the Yao family also joined in the fight. They worked very hard. Although they also recruited some of the Qian family's farmhands as rewards, did they really make money? If you calculate carefully, it may be a loss, because the Yao family will not get the majority.

Now the Shen family has rebelled brazenly and captured the county seat of Wucheng. After stabilizing the situation a little, they have begun to win over the various powerful families in the county to serve them, and the Yao family is one of their targets.

Yao Ru was caught between the imperial court and the Shen family, and was in a dilemma. He couldn't make up his mind. Now that the news of Xuancheng's defeat came, Yao Ru finally decided to leave.

"I will not help the tyrant to commit atrocities." Yao Ru added: "After I leave this time, I will close the garden and study, and no longer care about worldly affairs."

"Ridiculous! Ridiculous!" Yu Tan finally spoke.

He turned around, looked at Yao Ru, and sneered, "Go back to study in seclusion? How can such a good thing happen? When Jiangnan was in chaos, even Gu, Lu, Zhu, and Zhang were involved. How can the small Yao family stay out of it? Are you worthy?"

Yao Ru's face flushed a little, and he said, "Is it not okay if I don't help either of them?"

"Stupid!" Yu Tan cursed, "Eternal Historian also wanted to not help either side, but ended up being surrounded in the old house, which was breached by General Liu a few days ago, and countless of his descendants died. Not helping either side at this time would offend both sides. Is Shen easy to get along with? When you return to Wukang, aren't you still at his mercy?"

Yao Ru was speechless, but he did not change his mind and stayed. He just bowed and said, "I will never go against you, Lord."

After that, he turned around and left.

The Yao clan members surrounded him tightly, put their hands on the hilts of their swords, and slowly retreated.

Yu Tan did not order to stop it, not because he didn't want to, but because he didn't have the money.

It’s not just the Yao family that left in the past two days?
The Yuhang Ji family left yesterday without saying goodbye. There was another person in their family named Ji Xun Ji Maoyan who was the county magistrate of Guangjin County in Poyang. When they ran away, they had no scruples and did not care about what happened to the outstanding children in this family - it was really not easy for such a wealthy family to have a child as a county magistrate, but at the critical moment, they gave up.

The people of Yuhang Sheng family even ran away with some military supplies and equipment - Sun Xiu's teacher, Sheng Chong, a doctor of Eastern Wu, and Sheng Xian, who was a brother of Kong Rong (Cao Cao once recruited him, but he was killed by Sun Quan), were all from this family. The family had declined greatly compared to the end of the Han Dynasty.

Once these people dispersed, how many soldiers did Yu Tan have left? At most, there were only 5,000 or 6,000 people, including more than 2,000 surrendered soldiers. It was difficult to deal with the Shen family who had occupied Wucheng, Wukang, Changcheng and other places, not to mention others.

To put it bluntly, if the Shen family had not lost sight of the overall situation, they would still be eager to annex the Qian family's troops and farmhands. It would be a question whether Yu Tan could have held on until now.

"The situation is over!" He sighed and walked down the hillside somewhat dejectedly.

Xuancheng was defeated, and many counties responded to the Liang bandits. The situation deteriorated rapidly. Tao Fu retreated to Ningguo with two or three thousand defeated soldiers who were taken in. The Xu and Ge families retreated to Guangde, but were forced by the Zhu and Shi families in Guzhuang to retreat to between Yongshi and Yuanxiang, and barely watched over and helped each other with Yu Tan.

The situation is now in a state of confusion.

The three tribes of Yu, Xu and Ge, totaling about 11,000 people, have the Shen family behind them, and the Zhu family, Shi family and even the Liang people in front of them. Behind the Zhu and Shi families are them, and in the north there is also Liu Chao's tribe who is besieging Yangxian to a critical juncture.

As for the Liang people who had just won a great victory, they also had the Shanxia tribe who were sending reinforcements behind them.

Next, the Liang people should focus on managing Xuancheng, Jingxian, Wanling, Guangde and other counties, and connect them with Wuxing's Guzhuang, Anji, Wucheng, Wukang, Changcheng and other counties.

Before they knew it, they had already built up a stable territory in the heart of Jiangnan.

There is no doubt that what will happen next is that people from Jiangnan will fight against people from Jiangnan.

Although Liang's soldiers were elite, their numbers were too small after all. They could not withstand several attacks and could only be used at critical moments.

After much thought, Yu Tan could only do the best he could: focus on defense and try his best to block the Liang people in the swamps and mountains.

(End of this chapter)