Three Kingdoms: I am not Cao Rui

On the 20th day of the sixth month of the twelfth year of the Taihe reign, in Jiaozhi Commandery.

The area where Jiaozhi Commandery was located was in the Red River Delta, which largely overlapped with the densely populated areas in northern Vietnam in later generations.

With its warm climate, abundant rainfall, fertile soil, and suitability for cultivation, Jiaozhi Commandery became the most densely populated area in Jiaozhou. Objectively speaking, Jiaozhi Commandery was the most densely populated area south of the Yangtze River, even surpassing Nan Commandery, where Jiangling is located, and Wu Commandery in Jiangdong.

With such a large population, and having been far from the political center of the Central Plains for a considerable period of time, coupled with extremely inconvenient transportation, it was natural that a tendency towards separation would arise.

After Guanqiu Jian arrived in Jiaozhou, he tallied the population of each prefecture. Jiaozhi Prefecture still ranked first with a total of about 60,000 households and 400,000 people. This also meant that the population of the four prefectures of Hepu, Jiaozhi, Jiuzhen, and Rinan, which had recently rebelled, surpassed that of the three prefectures of Yulin, Cangwu, and Nanhai, which were still under the control of the Great Wei.

As for Zhuyai County in Zhuyai Prefecture, it is now just a single county under the jurisdiction of Zhuyai Prefect Sima Fu, and its territory is extremely remote and underdeveloped. Even the Jiaozhou rebels have no motivation to cross the sea to attack such a place. From Jiaozhou to the imperial court in Luoyang, they have almost completely ignored it and disregarded it.

The capital of Jiaozhi Commandery was Longbian City, which was named after the strange phenomenon of a dragon coiling in Jiangjin during the Former Han Dynasty.

However, even if there were dragons in Jiaozhi County, they were only jiaolong, which were still a level below the auspicious dragons such as the yellow dragon, green dragon, phoenix, and qilin in the Central Plains.

In the main hall of the prefectural government, Sun Deng was discussing matters with his generals, the prefect, and others.

Over the years, Sun Deng's mindset has changed several times.

When Sun Deng initially accepted the exchange of Xiling for Zangke Commandery due to the power of the Shu army, he felt only humiliation and helplessness. At that time, the people's morale was low, and Zhuge Liang had cleanly and decisively disarmed most of their military force, so he had no choice but to reluctantly bow his head and accept everything.

But soon, within a few months, after arriving in Zangke County, Sun Deng changed his previous feelings and became grateful to Liu Shan, his 'elder brother'.

Nothing more than that Sun Deng was finally free.

The territory of Zangke Commandery was vast, largely overlapping with the later province of Guizhou, providing ample space for Sun Deng to exert his influence. Of the sixteen counties in the two commanderies of Zangke and Xinggu, the Shu Kingdom had only effectively controlled Pingyi County before. The other counties either had officials appointed by the Shu Kingdom as nominal officials or had local powerful families appointed as county officials.

Conversely, the Shu Kingdom controlled more territory further southwest in Yizhou and Yongchang counties. There was no particular reason for this; it was simply because those areas produced copper mines.

Within three years, Sun Deng had taken control of twelve of the sixteen counties in Zangke and Xinggu prefectures, while the remaining four counties had clearly expressed their opposition to Sun Deng and were still in a state of stalemate.

Regardless, the barbarian tribes of Zangke County were no match for the remnants of Wu's former central army. For the Wu people, conquering the barbarians was much easier than conquering the Shanyue; it was a piece of cake. After three years, they had become a state within a state, with an army of nearly 30,000 on paper.

Of course, the core of the 30,000-strong army was still Sun Deng's original 10,000-strong remnant force. This time, Sun Deng led 5,000 old soldiers and 5,000 barbarian soldiers to Jiaozhou, which became the source of his confidence to instigate a rebellion in the four commanderies including Jiaozhi.

They knew that Guanqiu Jian had few soldiers.

After Sun Deng arrived in Jiaozhou, he appointed official titles to the prefects of the four commanderies of Jiaozhi, Hepu, Jiuzhen, and Rinan. Chen Shi, the prefect of Jiaozhi, was promoted to General of the Vanguard; Huang Fu, the prefect of Hepu, to General of the Left; Shi Song, the prefect of Jiuzhen, to General of the Right; and Huang Gai, the prefect of Rinan, to General of the Rear. Nearly twenty officials of various ranks, including those with salaries of two thousand shi (a unit of grain measure), were also appointed to these positions within these four commanderies. With the title of 'Emperor' in hand, when else would one not use it?

At this time, there were only a few people in the main hall of the prefectural government. Apart from Pan Zhu, the Chamberlain who came with Sun Deng from Zangke, and Liu Zan, the General Who Conquers the East, the rest were Chen Shi, the Prefect of Jiaozhi, Shi Song, the Prefect of Jiuzhen, and Huang Gai, the Prefect of Rinan.

But the current atmosphere seems to have reached a stalemate.

The governor of Jiaozhi, Chen Shi, said loudly, "I believe that the best course of action is to order Governor Huang to lead the troops and supplies from Hepu back to Jiaozhi. The troops from the Central Plains are in the north, and there are no natural barriers between Hepu and Yulin and Nanhai counties. If Lord Guanqiu were to attack us suddenly, wouldn't we lose thousands of soldiers for nothing?"

Prefect Shi Song of Jiuzhen also spoke up, saying, "I share the same thoughts as Prefect Chen, and I earnestly hope that Your Majesty will consider it."

Sun Deng's expression remained unchanged, but he was actually furious inside. Pan Zhu and Liu Zan listened to Chen Shi and Shi Song's words but did not react; they simply waited for Sun Deng's instructions.

Admittedly, Sun Deng was not a wise ruler, but Chen Shi, Shi Song, Huang Gai, and Huang Fu were not loyal ministers either.

When Guanqiu Jian came to Jiaozhou before, he offered relatively generous terms, and the four men immediately pledged their allegiance and were each granted the title of Marquis in the Great Wei. However, as the troops stationed in Nanhai Commandery gradually returned north, the men began to harbor other thoughts.

The northern soldiers could not bear the summer heat of Jiaozhou!
This was the reason the imperial court withdrew the troops under Guanqiu Jian's command, and also the reason why they harbored ambitions and plotted to seize power. In fact, they had already effectively seized control of several counties under their command, but since last year, Guanqiu Jian had intended to replace several county magistrates in their counties, which is why they began to rebel.

All they lacked was a clear pretext for rebellion.

The news of Sun Deng and the 10,000 troops he brought from the south provided the group with a legitimate reason for their rebellion.

Longing for one's homeland is understandable, even in historical records.

Moreover, the group had their own plans. Since Sun Deng had come from afar, he would still have to be mindful of their feelings when doing things in Jiaozhou. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the ruler and his subjects could coexist peacefully?
This mentality of self-preservation manifested in a strong opposition from several individuals to supporting Hepu in terms of specific strategic direction. Huang Fu, the prefect of Hepu, who had previously stood on the same side as them, naturally had to yield somewhat, since his territory was located in the north.

Sun Deng thought for a moment and finally suppressed the anger that was about to erupt in his heart. He slowly said, "I understand what Minister Chen said. Longbian is nearly a thousand miles away from Hepu. There are mountains and seas in between, so it is not easy to support Hepu. We should be more cautious."

"But has Minister Chen considered what would happen if Guanqiu Jian attacked Hepu and Prefect Huang was unable to defend it?"

Chen Shi had already prepared his answer: "Your Majesty, I am willing to use the ships from Jiaozhi to sail north across the sea and support Prefect Huang's army as it marches south. I have 15,000 troops in Jiaozhi Commandery, and 10,000 troops in Jiuzhen and Rinan Commanderies. If we add Prefect Huang's 5,000 troops in Hepu, then the court will have 40,000 troops in Jiaozhou!"

"With such a force, we naturally have nothing to fear from Guanqiu Jian! If he dares to come from the north, we are willing to lead our troops to repel him and relieve Your Majesty's burden!" (End of Chapter)