My father Liu Xuande

Chapter 189 The East Sea King's Banquet
Zheng Wang, however, was the fastest to leave, being the first to return home from the county government.

After arriving at the study, only a short while later, Zheng Hu, the servant, came in.

She glanced up at Zheng Wang, who was deep in thought, and asked in a low voice, "Master, did you call me?"

Zheng Wang looked at Zheng Hu and instructed him, "Make preparations, go to the north, find Guan Ju, and have him prepare to bring people to Qu County to help me."

Zheng Hu respectfully replied, "Yes, sir."

Zheng Wang continued, "Tell Guan Ju that this matter is of utmost importance. If he doesn't help me, he can forget about getting any supplies from me in the future, whether it's food, weapons, or ships."

Zheng Hu replied as usual, "Yes, sir."

"Go."

After giving his instructions, Zheng Wang closed his eyes.

Unlike the Wang and Gan families, who were established powerful clans, the Zheng family was a newly rich family. Zheng Wang's father's generation had only just risen to prominence through salt smuggling.

The Eastern Han Dynasty did not monopolize salt, so theoretically there should be no question of salt smuggling.

But reality is just that absurd, because Zheng Wang's father's smuggling was not to evade the government, but to evade salt magnates like Wang and Gan.

Only after the Zheng family grew powerful did they have the right to sit at the table, thus becoming a newly emerging powerful family.

Therefore, the Zheng family's sense of perception was far more acute than that of the Wang and Gan families.

Don't let Zheng Wang's appearance fool you; he's a brute with brains.

He saw further than Wang Yu and Gan Zhen, keenly realizing that the prefectural government was serious this time. Even if Liu Gong, the magistrate of Qu County, yielded to the demands of the salt magistrates of Qu County and sent the prefectural magistrate back, he could not withstand the pressure from the prefectural government.

In the end, both sides will have to settle things with their fists.

Of course, this does not mean that Zheng Wang is confident that he can withstand the attacks and suppression from the Xuzhou army.

In Zheng Wang's view, the state government's ban on them boiling salt was simply an attempt to cultivate new salt merchants to replace them and then profit from it.

Therefore, Zheng Wang was very clear-headed. He knew very well the fighting strength of Liu Bei's Xuzhou army. Based on their performance over the past six months, the Xuzhou army had undergone a complete transformation compared to when Tao Qian was in charge. With his small frame, he probably couldn't even withstand a single blow.

But Zheng Wang was full of confidence, because the opponent he was looking for was not the Xuzhou army, but the new salt merchants.

Regardless of who Liu Bei's government wanted to find to replace Zheng Wang and the others, these new salt tycoons and merchants would eventually have to boil salt by the sea.

Zheng Wang will then focus on killing these people, whether he kills them until they are too scared to continue boiling salt, or he kills them all. As long as Xuzhou cannot supply salt, the prefecture will eventually have to ask them to come back to produce salt.

This was the perfect plan that Zheng Wang had come up with after much thought.

The question is whether or not to consult with the Wang and Gan families, or even join forces with them.

After careful consideration, Zheng Wang felt it was unnecessary.

There are two reasons.

Firstly, the two sides are not on the same path. Zheng Wang and his family rose from the bottom, with pirates as their backers. On the other hand, the Wang and Gan families are the money bags supported by feudal lords and powerful figures. Their backers are not aligned, so how can they possibly reach an agreement?

If I were to discuss it with them and we couldn't reach an agreement, wouldn't my plan be exposed?

Secondly, Zheng Wang realized that this might not be a bad opportunity.

If the Wang and Gan families can persuade the prefectural government with their powerful connections, Zheng Wang will be happy to benefit from it. But if they can't convince the prefectural government, then those families will be the first to suffer.

He could then hide in the background and wait for an opportunity to strike. Even if he couldn't ultimately swallow up the Wang and Gan families' shares, he could at least tear off a large piece of flesh from them.

No, perhaps I can use the Wang and Gan families as a pledge of allegiance.

Why is it that only the Mi family can seek refuge with the prefectural government?

Can't I do it myself?

Zheng Wang's mood brightened somewhat; perhaps this ban on salt in the prefecture was actually a good thing.

The news that Gan, Wang, and Zheng had coerced the county magistrate into having Liu Gong oppose the prefectural magistrate quickly reached the Mi family.

As arranged by Liu Feng, Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin led their 1,000 naval troops to garrison in the harbor on Duzhou Island, ready to respond to Qu County at any time.

Gan Ning supplemented his retinue with 500 men, and Dong Xi recruited more than 800 close followers from his hometown, forming a unit that was stationed in the harbor outside Qu County.

Meanwhile, Taishi Ci personally led fifty cavalrymen and Pan Zhang led five hundred armored soldiers to ensure Liu Feng's safety, serving by his side and stationed in Mi Mansion within Qu County.

The three groups formed a mutually supportive formation, not only protecting the most important salt fields on Duzhou Island, the shipyard in Qu County's harbor, and the county seat of Mifu in Qu County, but also responding to each other from afar and providing mutual support at any time.

More importantly, the islands of Duzhou and the port of Qu County have been brought under control, with entry and exit restricted. Taishi Ci, Pan Zhang, and their men entered the Mi residence in batches, blending into the Mi family's merchant caravans.

This also means that, up until now, Liu Feng has quietly deployed nearly three thousand troops in Qu County, and the local bullies in Qu County are completely unaware of this.

Their primary focus was on the harbor outside Qu County, speculating about the prefectural government's reasons and objectives in blockading it. Meanwhile, the forces on Duzhou Island and within Mi Prefecture remained completely unaware.

"These people act like moths to a flame. It's laughable that they not only have no self-awareness, but also want to rebel against the state government. They are truly arrogant and ridiculous."

The speaker was Qin Song, Sun Ce's chief strategist in the original timeline, who assisted Sun Ce in winning sixteen consecutive battles in Jiangdong and taking northern Danyang. He later served as the second-in-command of Jiangdong and was a staunch supporter of the Zhang brothers. However, he died too young, and as Sun Ce's chief strategist, he disappeared from history.

At this time, he and Chen Duan, another strategist of Sun Ce, were recruited by Liu Bei. This time, they accompanied the young master to participate in the salt monopoly operation, which made both of them somewhat excited.

In Qin Song and Chen Duan's view, such an action could only be carried out by trusted confidants.

Although they didn't understand why the Liu family father and son trusted them so much, Qin Song and Chen Duan felt a surge of excitement and secret joy at repaying them as national heroes.

"Mr. Qin, you may not know this, but they each have their own trump cards."

Liu Feng wore a smile, but it was a cold one: "The Gan and Wang families are backed by the King of Donghai, and Liu Gong is backed by the King of Langya. Langya originally produced salt, and the Haiqu area was a very good salt-producing region. However, when Cao Cao launched his second campaign against Xuzhou, he was defeated by Cao Ren's detachment. Most of the surviving salt workers went south to seek refuge in Qu County, which made the salt magnates of Qu County even more powerful."

"More importantly, after losing Haiqu, the Prince of Langya also set his sights on Qu County, wanting to get a share of the pie there. The salt magnates like Gan and Wang were worried about not having a strong enough background, so they naturally hit it off with the Prince of Langya."

"Liu Gong was also transferred to Qu County for this reason, to act as an intermediary in the tripartite cooperation. At the same time, he also protected the salt magnates of Qu County."

After Liu Feng finished speaking, he sighed softly, "Next, we'll have to see how things go on with Father."

Liu Feng's idea was absolutely correct.

After Liu Gong rejected the order from the prefecture, Liu Bei, who was in Tancheng, immediately became busy.

The Prince of Donghai, who had previously ignored Liu Bei, suddenly remembered his kinship with the imperial family. Rao Zhi, the chief physician of the Prince's Palace, made a special trip to the Prince's Palace to request an audience and invite Liu Bei to a banquet.

Under the Han Dynasty system, the feudal lords were divided into kingdoms based on commanderies, and each kingdom had one prime minister and one tutor.

The prime minister is in charge of foreign affairs, while the royal tutor is in charge of domestic affairs within the royal court.

Both the prime minister and the tutor were high-ranking officials with a salary of two thousand piculs of grain. However, as the prefecture-county system became more and more mature, the tutor's status and strength were increasingly lagging behind the prime minister, and he had been left far behind.

The prime minister of the Donghai Kingdom was Xu Qiu, but in reality, he was the governor of the Donghai Kingdom.

Previously, when the governor was in charge, the prime minister and the governor were enemies. Although the governor was above the prime minister, it was only because the governor had the power to supervise the prime minister that he was able to control him. In reality, the two were not in a superior-subordinate relationship.

The governor, however, was a completely different case. He was a high-ranking official appointed by the imperial court, a position equivalent to that of the prime minister or prefect. As for the imperial tutor, he was confined to the palace by the system, reduced to a mere steward.

As the Chancellor of Donghai, Xu Qiu had no need to concern himself with the King of Donghai; he only needed to be responsible to Liu Bei, the Governor of the State. Given Xu Qiu's refined and scholarly demeanor, he naturally accepted Liu Zhi's overtures without hesitation.

For this reason, the King of Donghai did not seek out Xu Qiu, but went directly to Liu Bei.

"It has been almost a year since Lord Liu arrived in Xu, and Your Highness has not yet met him, as you were unwell and unable to do so. Now that Your Highness is feeling better, you have prepared a banquet and would like to invite Lord Liu to the Prince's residence. I urge you not to refuse."

After hearing Rao Zhi's words, Liu Bei readily agreed: "Yes, go back and tell Your Highness that I will definitely keep the appointment on time."

Rao Zhi was somewhat surprised. He had actually prepared for Liu Bei to decline, but he hadn't expected the other party to agree so readily. However, this was still a good thing, at least he could go back and report.

Two days later, Liu Bei went to the Prince of Donghai's residence for a banquet.

To Liu Bei's surprise, the King of Donghai was a slender, elderly man.

Throughout the Eastern Han Dynasty, Xuzhou was truly a blessed land.

Xuzhou, which has only five prefectures, has four fiefdoms, one of the first crown princes of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the other three are sons of Emperor Ming of Han.

The most remarkable thing is that all four vassal states have signs of longevity.

One of the most distinctive characteristics of the Eastern Han imperial family was that its emperors died young.

Emperor Guangwu lived to the age of 63, making him the longest-lived emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

The entire Eastern Han Dynasty was a cycle of emperors dying young, children succeeding to the throne, generals acting as regents, young emperors relying on eunuchs to kill generals, and then dying young again.

It's no wonder that the emperors of the Eastern Han Dynasty favored eunuchs and distanced themselves from scholars.

What were you scholars doing when I was being bullied by the general?
In contrast to the royal family, the lineage of the Prince of Guangdonghai in Xuzhou has two members who have held the title for more than forty years, both of whom became kings in their prime and lived to at least sixty or seventy years old.

The lineage of the Prince of Langya lived longer than that of the Prince of Donghai, with one even reigning for fifty-four years.

Liu He, the Prince of Pengcheng, reigned for sixty-four years, exceeding the lifespan of Emperor Guangwu.

The most successful was still the lineage of the King of Xiapi. Liu Yi lived to be a full ninety years old. If it weren't for the Yellow Turban Rebellion, he probably would have lived a few more years.

Therefore, it was relatively rare to see fat-headed, big-eared people among the Xuzhou clan, after all, diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol were all terminal illnesses in those days, and they led to a very quick death.

At this banquet, Liu Zhi treated Liu Bei with great courtesy, sending his tutor Wan Ze to greet him at the entrance of the palace, while he himself, along with his sons Liu Wan and Liu Xian, greeted him at the inner gate.

Liu Bei's expression was calm and gentle, and his manners were impeccable. He showed no arrogance whatsoever, which earned him the approval of the officials in the Prince's Palace.

Liu Zhi also secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He actually regretted not befriending Liu Bei earlier. Who would have thought that this fellow would be so capable? In just over half a year, he had managed to organize the complicated and dilapidated Xuzhou into an orderly place and win battle after battle. It was truly amazing.

Upon seeing Liu Bei, Liu Zhi hurriedly stepped forward and grasped his hand, saying, "I have heard that Lord Liu is also a member of my Han clan. The reason we have not been able to meet in the past is that I have been unwell. Please do not blame me, Lord Liu."

Liu Bei replied, “Why does Your Majesty say such a thing? I am the son of Emperor Jing of Han and a descendant of Prince Jing of Zhongshan, a member of the imperial clan. In public, I am an official of Xuzhou, while Your Majesty is the Prince of Donghai, so I should naturally welcome Your Majesty. In private, Your Majesty is an elder member of the imperial clan, while I am a relative, so I should naturally treat you with the respect due to a junior. If Your Majesty has any requests, please feel free to give them. As long as they are reasonable, I will comply.”

Liu Zhi's eyelids drooped, concealing the displeasure in his eyes.

Liu Bei's words, ostensibly praising him, were actually a trap set for him.

He addressed him as "Your Majesty" and "Supreme King" repeatedly, but in reality, he was subtly giving him a warning.

The Eastern Han Dynasty treated the vassal kings very differently from the Western Han Dynasty, keeping them under extremely tight control.

It was a sin for local officials to even associate too closely with the princes.

If the relationship between Prince Liu Chong of Chen and Luo Jun had occurred twenty years ago, they would probably have been sent to Luoyang in chains long ago.

At the same time, the Eastern Han Dynasty strictly prohibited members of the imperial clan from interfering in local affairs. As a result, the power of the Grand Tutor, who had a dual nature, gradually diminished. Meanwhile, as the power of the Chancellor expanded, he completely broke away from the master-servant relationship with the princes and became an official within the court system.

Liu Bei was also warning Liu Zhi: If you become the king of the clan, I will naturally treat you with respect and courtesy.

But if you go beyond your circle, don't expect me to listen to you.

The last sentence directly tells the other party that any requests must be reasonable, otherwise they shouldn't blame me for being impolite.

After hearing such words, how could Liu Zhi still be happy?

It's already a testament to Liu Zhi's good self-control that he didn't immediately lose his temper.

However, Liu Zhi was not too disappointed, as Liu Bei's reaction was within his expectations.

After all, what Liu Zhi wanted was money, not power, and he felt that there was no fundamental conflict between him and Liu Bei.

He simply wanted Liu Bei to stop harassing the salt merchants so that they could continue to pay tribute to him.

Strictly speaking, even if this matter were reported to Luoyang, the imperial court would not blame Liu Zhi.

If the world hadn't changed, would Liu Zhi still need to be beholden to Liu Bei?
He had already sent a memorial to Luoyang, directly accusing Liu Bei of extorting money, harassing the local people, and coercing the local gentry.

Then, Liu Zhi began the banquet.

Liu Bei was very courteous, accepting all the toasts offered by Liu Zhi and his two sons, as well as those from the Imperial Tutor and the Palace Attendant. Fortunately, Liu Bei had a high tolerance for alcohol, drinking over a dozen cups in one go without showing any signs of fatigue.

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, however, did not take their seats. Instead, they stood behind Liu Bei like two guardian deities, awe-inspiring and unapproachable.

Liu Zhi and the others frequently glanced at Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. They had never seen such fierce warriors before, let alone such valiant men who were as loyal and diligent as hunting dogs, guarding them from the side.

"These two are my trusted confidants, and they are like brothers."

Liu Bei noticed that Liu Zhi and the others kept glancing at Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, so he introduced them: "This is my second brother Guan Yu, who is from Jieliang in Hedong. This is my third brother Zhang Fei, who is from the same hometown as me. The two of them have followed me since the Yellow Turban Rebellion, fighting in all directions and making many outstanding contributions."

"Truly a fierce and ruthless man."

Liu Zhi was very envious. If there were such a fierce warrior in the Donghai Prince's mansion, he would probably be able to sleep more comfortably.

Not to mention the Yellow Turban Rebellion a few years ago, even when Cao Cao attacked Tancheng last year, he was terrified by Liu Zhi.

Although he was a feudal lord, Cao Mengde, that butcher, was in a bloodthirsty frenzy at the time, and heaven knows if he would spare his life.

"Such a brave warrior, I shall bestow upon him fine wine in celebration."

Liu Zhi wanted to offer wine to Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, partly because he was genuinely excited about hunting, and partly to enhance Liu Bei's prestige.

Guo Fu Wanze naturally understood Liu Zhi's intentions. As a high-ranking official with a salary of two thousand shi, he personally picked up two cups of fine wine and walked to Liu Bei, intending to offer him the wine.

Unexpectedly, neither Guan Yu with his red face and narrow eyes, nor Zhang Fei with his leopard-like head and piercing eyes paid any attention to him.

This displeased Wan Ze. After all, he was a high-ranking official with a salary of two thousand shi (a unit of grain). In terms of status alone, he should theoretically be the third most powerful person in Xuzhou, second only to Liu Bei and on par with Xu Qiu.

Now, they've been completely ignored by two brutes.

Only then did Liu Bei seem to have just heard Wan Ze's words, open his eyes, and order, "Since the Prince has bestowed wine upon you, then you shall accept it."

As soon as Liu Bei finished speaking, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei sprang into action.

The two men each took a few steps, walked around Liu Bei's desk from both sides, and snatched the wine cup from Wan Ze's hands.

What enraged Liu Zhi and Wan Ze even more was that after Guan Yu and Zhang Fei drank their wine cups in one gulp, they simultaneously thanked Liu Bei, saying, "Thank you for the wine, my lord!"

Liu Bei casually rebuked, "Stop talking nonsense. This wine was bestowed by the King of Donghai and poured by Wan Guofu. Why don't you two quickly thank them?"

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei then stepped forward and bowed, saying, "Thank you, Your Majesty and Imperial Tutor."

What could Liu Zhi and Wan Ze say?
The two looked at each other, and could only force a smile and let the matter drop.

After two attempts to test the waters, Liu Bei's responses were both rather blunt and unfriendly, which greatly displeased Liu Zhi and Wan Ze.

The two exchanged a glance and decided to stop beating around the bush and get straight to the point.

"Your Excellency, I have heard that the prefecture has issued an order to Qu County, instructing the county magistrate to rectify the salt industry and suspend salt production."

Wan Ze spoke first, saying, "This matter has been making headlines recently, and even His Majesty has heard about it. Qu County is an important salt-producing area in Xuzhou. If salt production is suspended, it will definitely affect the salt supply in the state. His Majesty is also very concerned about this."

(End of this chapter)