Chapter 73 lord it over

In the sixty-ninth chapter, Guan Ren, the god of divination, divined the general situation of the world for Cao Cao, and set up a saying: "Three and eight vertical and horizontal, the yellow pig meets the tiger, and the south of the army is set, and a share is injured." The first sentence of the hexagram "three-eight vertical and horizontal" refers to the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an.Jihai was the year of Jihai, which belonged to earth, corresponding to yellow, and Hai belonged to pig, so the year of Jihai was a "yellow pig". The second sentence "yellow pig meets tiger" corresponds to "the first month of the year of Jihai". "In the south of Dingjun, one share of injuries" refers to Xia Houyuan's death in Dingjun Mountain.

Guan Ren did have a real person in history, and there are too many records about his divination. The most famous one should be the part where he and He Yan "talked about each other".However, judging from historical data, Guan Ren should have never met Cao Cao, at least he would not have made the above prediction twenty-four years ago in Jian'an.Guan Ren was born in the fourteenth year of Jian'an, and he was only ten years old when the battle of Dingjun Mountain was held. A ten-year-old child can tell fortunes before he even grows hair. I'm afraid it can only be the third prince of Nezha, the Vajra gourd baby, etc. Possessed upper body.

However, with historical hindsight, the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an was indeed the bottleneck of the Cao Wei regime.Lu Ji, a writer of the Western Jin Dynasty, also wrote in his "Mourning Wei Wudi Essay (Preface)": "The thirty-eighth of Jian'an is the limit of life", pointing out the huge challenge that Cao Cao faced around this year. pressure.Unsurprisingly, most of these pressures came from the Liu Bei Group's powerful counterattack. First of all, in the first month of the 23rd year of Jian'an, Jin Yi, Geng Ji, and Ji Miao, the royalists of Xudu, launched a mutiny in an attempt to snatch Emperor Xian of Han and united with Liu Bei, but they were finally suppressed by Wang Bi, the long history appointed by Cao Cao.

In October of the twenty-third year of Jian'an, Hou Yin of Nanyang Wancheng gathered thousands of people to rebel.He defended Wancheng and united with Guan Yu, forcing Cao Ren, who was stationed in Fancheng at that time, to return to attack.After three months of bloody battle, in the first month of the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an, Cao Ren finally broke through Wancheng and massacred it. In the first month of the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an, Xia Houyuan was beheaded in the battle of Dingjunshan; in May, Cao Cao withdrew from Hanzhong, Liu Bei pursued the victory, and advanced in three ways, preparing to clear the banks of the Han River; Meng Da, who originally guarded Yidu, led his troops northward to attack Han Fangling County on the water's edge; Liu Feng, the deputy army general Zhonglang, went from Hanzhong to the east and attacked Shangyong and Xicheng counties along the Han River; finally, Guan Yu led the Jingzhou Corps to attack the Han River fortresses Xiangyang and Fancheng with heavy troops .

Shangyong, Xicheng, and Fangling are collectively known as the "Three Eastern Counties". They are located in the east of the Han Dynasty, northwest of Jingzhou, which is the junction of Hubei and Shaanxi today. This area is the intersection of Qinling Mountains, Daba Mountains, and Wudang Mountains. Precipitous, so it has become a strategic location in the upper reaches of the Han River, and has a condescending advantage over both the Guanzhong and Nanyang Basins. Liu Bei led troops by Meng Da and Liu Feng to attack the three eastern counties from the east and west. This series of victories greatly encouraged the Liu Bei Group. After decades of hard work, it finally paid off, and it was time to get promoted and make a fortune.Of course, the promotion must first rise from the boss.

In July of the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an (AD 219), led by General Pingxi and Duting Hou Ma Chao, 120 Han officials "listed" to the emperor, indicating that Liu Bei's current title was "General Zuo, Lieutenant of Sili , Yuzhou Mu, Jingzhou Mu, Yizhou Mu, and Yicheng Tinghou" are too shabby to "guard the country", so following the old practice, the ministers elected Liu Bei as the "King of Hanzhong". Guanghan and Qianwei are the country. Liu Bei was also not polite, and simply sent a report to the emperor, expressing that it was inconvenient to violate the public opinion, so he had to accept the title of the king first, and returned the seal ribbon of General Zuo and Tinghou of Yicheng that he had received before.In the future, he will work harder to hunt down the rebels in order to repay the emperor's favor.After a series of formal cutscenes, Liu Bei held a coronation ceremony in Mianyang, Hanzhong, and accepted the crown of King Hanzhong.

Some people may ask why Liu Bei should not be the "King of Ba", "King of Shu", or even "King of Bashu", but why should he be the "King of Hanzhong". Isn't this lack of conscience?The author tells you that the reason why Liu Bei proclaimed himself King of Hanzhong has far-reaching political significance. Four hundred years ago, Liu Bei's distant ancestor, Liu Bang, was also conferred the title of King of Han, and established the Han Dynasty starting from Hanzhong. Now Liu Bei is king in this land of Longxing in the Han Empire. It is obvious that he is demonstrating to Cao Cao and Sun Quan, telling the two brothers , I am the orthodox of the Han Dynasty, you two stay where you are cool.

Closer to home. The so-called "one person attains the Tao, chickens and dogs ascend to heaven", with Liu Bei becoming king, all the generals under him will naturally be promoted to a higher level. First of all, the four generals came out: Guan Yu was the former general, with a false yue; Zhang Fei was the right general, with a false festival; Ma Chao was a left general, with a false festival; Huang Zhong was a rear general. Here is a brief explanation. The so-called "false festival yue" and "false festival" are both symbols of military power. A special axe (usually made of jade), generally used as a royal ritual vessel, symbolizing authority. "False Festival Yue" or "False Festival" is equivalent to the emperor's personal authorization to the general, so that the general has the power to punish or mobilize the army.And "Fake Festival Yue" is higher than "Fake Festival". According to the system established by the Jin Dynasty later, the generals of "Fake Festival Yue" can even directly execute the generals of "Fake Festival".Liu Bei's arrangement shows that after entering Shu and Hanzhong, Guan Yu's position as the second highest in the group has not been shaken at all.

For civil servants, Fazheng, who had made great contributions in the Battle of Hanzhong, was promoted to a higher level and became Minister of State, which is equivalent to Ge Kui (Prime Minister) of the Kingdom of Hanzhong. Under him, Liu Ba and Yang Yi, who had just been transferred from Jingzhou, were added to serve Shangshu makes this Shangshu department the most difficult department to get along with. Another major and unexpected promotion was Wei Yan. Liu Bei promoted him from a small Yamen general to Zhenyuan general, and took over the post of Hanzhong prefect to guard the front line.At that time, folk gamblers were generally optimistic about Zhang Fei as the prefect of Hanzhong, so once the result of Wei Yan's victory was announced, "all the troops were shocked."

Not only that, but Liu Bei also specially raised the standard of worshiping officials, gathered all the officials, and asked Wei Yan in public: "You will have a heavy responsibility in the future, what are your plans?" Wei Yan said arrogantly: "If Cao Cao brings all the people in the world, I will block them for the king; if he sends a general to lead a hundred thousand people, I will swallow them for the king!" Liu Bei gave a big praise of "Yes", and the people below did not dare to raise any objections, so they all applauded. In principle, there are two reasons for Liu Bei and Wei Yan to be the prefect of Hanzhong. The first is his hometown, and the second is his age.At that time, the main force of Liu Bei's army was still the Jingzhou Corps, and among the generals from Jingzhou, Huo Jun had already passed away, and Huang Zhong had only one year left to live (of course Liu Bei and Huang Zhong didn't know it), so it was imperative to cultivate new blood from Jingzhou. The most qualified are Wei Yan and Liu Feng.Therefore, Wei Yan served as the general of Zhenyuan to guard Hanzhong, and Liu Feng used the deputy general to guard the three eastern counties, and both of them shouldered the heavy responsibility of the front line.

The story of Wei Yan and Yang Yi, the "happy lovers", started here.For the next fifteen years, these two people were like two fighting fish in a tank, fighting to the death, but that was another story, so I won't repeat it here. As for Comrade Zhao Yun, whom everyone is looking forward to, although he has performed well in Hanzhong, he has not been promoted, and he is still the general Yijun with the same name.Comrade Zhuge Liang also did not get promoted, and he still did his old job-military adviser and general. After becoming king and sealing up his officials, Liu Bei braved the scorching sun and returned to Chengdu. At this time, the news of Guan Yu's attack on Xiangfan came from Jingzhou.Liu Bei just nodded, and sent people back to encourage Guan Yu to fight well. At the same time, he ordered people to build post roads and official buildings between Chengdu and Hanzhong to prepare for north-south transportation and military transfers. Amidst the bullish sound, Liu Bei was full of ambition, and his dim drunken eyes seemed to see that his childhood dream was gradually becoming reality.However, he didn't know that the conspiracy was stirring faintly in the depths of the dark swamp.