Chapter 76 5. Liu Zhang: Being weak by nature takes advantage

In the first year of Xingping (194), a major incident occurred in the Yizhou Governor's Department in the southwest. Yizhou Mu Liu Yan died. Liu Yan was the one who put forward the proposal of "changing governors from governors". After this political reform was adopted by the imperial court, he was one of the first batch of governors appointed. In the fifth year of Lingdi Zhongping (188), he came to Yizhou took office. Those who came to Yizhou with Liu Yan included his confidant think tank and astrologer Dong Fu, as well as Zhao Wei, Wu Yi and others.The group of them planned to go up the Yangtze River from Jingzhou to Yizhou, but when they got to the state border and inquired, they were taken aback: the peasant uprising in Yizhou was raging, and it was up to them, the civil officials, to rush there It must be sent to death.

As mentioned earlier, the folk customs of Yizhou have always been fierce and full of rebellious spirit.The greed and cruelty of the former governor of Yizhou, Jian Shijian, aroused the peasant uprising led by Ma Xiang, Zhao Da and others. They also killed Jian under the banner of the Yellow Turban Army. million people. Liu Yan and others hesitated, not knowing whether to advance or retreat.At the time of being disheartened, good luck came. News came from Yizhou that Ma and others were suppressed, and Yizhou was basically pacified.The one who made this great achievement was Jia Long, who was formerly in charge of the Yizhou governor's department.The role of Jia Long is a bit like Chen Gong and Mi Zhu. They are locals and powerful factions. Their political leanings are enough to affect the local situation.After Jia Long pacified Yizhou, he heard that the new leader sent by his superiors was trapped at the state border, so he hurriedly sent someone to greet him.

In this way, Liu Yan picked up a big deal and got Yizhou without much effort.He moved the state government to Mianzhu and began to govern Yizhou.It should be said that Liu Yan has some skills, and it can be seen that he has some skills in resolving the conflict between the local faction and the outside faction. At that time, the political situation in Yizhou was divided into two factions. One was locals like Jia Long, who made great contributions to suppressing the Ma Xiang uprising and should have been rewarded; the other was outsiders like Dong Fu and Zhao Wei, whose foundation was still shallow. , but occupies a high position.

Liu Yan himself was also an outsider. At that time, there were still a large number of people from Guanzhong and Jingzhou who came to Yizhou to take refuge. Liu Yan selected a team from them, called "Dongzhou Soldiers", which was the direct line of the outsiders. Liu Yan couldn't break his face with the local faction at first, but because of the support of Dongzhou soldiers, he decided to strike first.In the second year of Lingdi Chuping (191), Liu Yan found an excuse to kill more than a dozen important members of the local faction, including Wang Xian and Li Quan, forcing Jia Long, Ren Qi and other local faction people to rebel. Prepared early, not only mobilized Dongzhou soldiers, but also introduced Qiang mercenaries, and soon killed Jia Long and Ren Qi, the local forces were hit, and Liu Yan's position in Yizhou was consolidated.

But this is a superficial phenomenon under the authority. The vitality of the local forces in Yizhou is still tenacious. Although they have succumbed for the time being, they will explode in the future.At that time, the political divisions in Yizhou became more complicated. With the influx of a large number of people from other places, in addition to political forces such as locals, foreigners, and the Dongzhou faction, the Fufeng Group also quietly emerged in Yizhou, and everyone had their own concerns. , Not going anywhere, coupled with the weakness of the successor, finally led Liu Yan and his son's foundation in Yizhou to destruction step by step.

In dealing with the internal political conflicts in Yizhou, although Liu Yan was very tough, this "hard landing" technique inevitably caused political flaws and left hidden dangers for the future. Another major move after Liu Yan pacified Yizhou was the combination with the Zhanglu Group, a separatist force in Hanzhong. Zhang Lu, his father Zhang Heng, and grandfather Zhang Ling were all early Taoist leaders. Through the efforts of three generations of their grandparents, they created a Taoist organization called "Five Dou Rice Sect".When he arrived in Zhanglu, he called himself a celestial master and used the Hanzhong area south of the Qinling Mountains as his base to expand his power through preaching.

Hanzhong County belongs to the Yizhou Governor's Department. As Yizhou Mu, Liu Yan was obliged to send troops to suppress the Zhanglu Group, but he adopted another strategy: cooperation. Liu Yan privately granted Zhang Lu the official position of governor and Sima, and sent Sima Zhang Xiu to assist Zhang Lu in attacking his subordinate, Su Gu, the prefect of Hanzhong County, and let Zhang Lu occupy Hanzhong.After Zhang Lu gained a foothold in Hanzhong County, he still vigorously promoted Taoism and established a political and religious organization, which was controlled by Liu Yan in name but had great independence.

Hanzhong County is the northern barrier of Yizhou. To enter Yizhou, one must first enter Hanzhong, and then cross several extremely dangerous passes to get there.Between Guanzhong and Hanzhong is the majestic Qinling Mountains. There are only a few steep trails to pass between the high mountains and canyons. In the most dangerous places, they can only be passed by artificially built plank roads. Liu Yanmi ordered Zhang Lu to burn the plank roads in the Qinling Mountains and cut off the entrance and exit to the north of Yizhou.To the east of Yizhou is the Daba Mountain and the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, to the south is the uncivilized minority areas, and to the west is the uninhabited plateau. In this closed world, Liu Yan found the feeling of being an emperor.

Liu Yanting was very grateful to Dong Fu, he was the one who urged him to come to Yizhou at the beginning, it seems that this place is really good, as long as Zhang Lu guards the north gate for him, he can sit back and relax. There is another reason for Liu Yan to feel at ease with Zhang Lu, which is recorded in the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty".It is said that Zhang Heng's wife and Zhang Lu's mother know how to keep in good health. She is quite old but still looks like a young girl (with a little face), and she is very good at pretending to be a ghost (and ghosts). I fell in love with Liu Yan.In Liu Yan's eyes, Zhang Lu may have been treated as half a son, so he is more at ease.

Liu Yan himself had four sons, namely Liu Fan, Liu Dan, Liu Mao and Liu Zhang.When Liu Yan came to Yizhou to take office, he only had his third son Liu Mao with him, and the other three sons stayed in Luoyang.This was probably arranged deliberately by the imperial court. Keeping Liu Yan's three sons in Luoyang is considered a hostage. Dong Zhuo and later Li, Guo Si and others took the Liu family as hostages. The brothers were not bad, let the eldest brother Liu Fan be the general of Zuo Zhonglang, the second child Liu Dan was the official secretary and censor, and the fourth child Liu Zhang was the car capital. Lieutenants are basically middle and senior leading cadres.

One day, the imperial court received a secret report saying that Liu Yan was planning to commit crimes in Yizhou. The evidence was that he had built a private car in Yizhou that only the emperor could ride, and there were more than a thousand vehicles. The person who made this small report was Liu Biao.There is a very interesting sentence in Liu Biao's complaint letter, saying that Liu Yan is now like Zixia who was regarded as a sage Confucius when he was teaching in Xihe (there is a theory that Zixia doubted the sage in Xihe).Zixia was a disciple of Confucius. When he was teaching in Xihe, he was mistaken for Confucius because he displayed the scores of his teacher Confucius everywhere. Liu Biao strongly hinted to the court: Liu Yan wanted to rebel. The imperial court had moved to Chang'an at this time, and Emperor Xian Liu Xie could not ignore Liu Biao's report, so he sent Liu Yan's fourth son Liu Zhang back to Yizhou to persuade his father to recognize the situation and return when he was lost.Among the three sons of Liu Yan, Liu Zhang was chosen to go back, firstly because he was the youngest, and secondly, Liu Zhang was a weak character, gentle and generous, non-aggressive, and would cause the least harm to the court in the future. However, Liu Zhang did not complete the task, but was kept by his father (Yan Sui stayed Zhang and refused to return). In the first year of Xingping (194), a strange thing happened in Yizhou. An inexplicable "sky fire" burned Mianzhu City beyond recognition, and a large number of people's houses were burned to ruins. All the cars were also burned down. Liu Yan had no choice but to move the government office to Chengdu, which is near Mianzhu. Liu Yan is a very superstitious person. He felt that the fire came from an unknown source, which was very unlucky, and he felt very heavy.At this moment, news came that his two sons, Liu Fan and Liu Dan, who had stayed in Chang'an, had been killed because they participated in an attempted coup d'etat. He died of a malignant sore (carbuncle). As a member of the Liu family, Liu Yan has certain abilities, and he is always busy working for his own interests, and he has a reputation as an ambitious man in later generations. After Liu Yan died, Zhao Wei and other powerful factions pushed Liu Zhang to succeed him.Liu Zhang also had an elder brother named Liu Mao who was also in Chengdu, but Zhao Wei and others unanimously supported Liu Zhang. Some analysts believed that this was due to Liu Zhang's character. Because he was gentle and weak, he was favored by powerful factions instead.For the next twenty years, Liu Zhang ruled Yizhou.