Three Kingdoms: Rebirth of Liu Bei, the Zhaolie

Inside the Wu family's inn, none of the people dared to make a move in the face of the fully armed Han soldiers.

For a moment, everyone in the shop looked fearful and their hearts pounded with dread.

A handsome young man wearing a single-beam cap and a light blue straight-hemmed robe entered the hotel lobby, escorted by several armored soldiers.

The soldiers were dressed in lamellar iron armor, wore iron helmets, and carried ring-pommel swords at their waists. Each of them was tall and imposing, with broad shoulders and a powerful build.

They were fully protected and were clearly elite soldiers, their demeanor completely different from the crossbowmen who rushed into the lobby and the halberdiers and shieldmen who surrounded the hotel.

Inside the attic.

Cheng Xiao, a border patrolman from the east, saw the man and murmured to himself:

"Isn't this Gong Liangjun, the clerk of the Commandant's Office?"

—In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Commandant's Office had assistant officials called Menxia Yuan, who were mainly responsible for drafting military documents, transmitting military orders, assisting the Commandant in making decisions, supervising military discipline, and overseeing the execution of military affairs. Sometimes, they could even directly lead troops into battle.

The "Gongliang Jun" mentioned by Cheng Xiao is Gongliang Wu, a clerk in the Zhuojun Commandant's Office with the compound surname Gongliang and the single given name "Wu".

Liu Bao, a border patrolman in the south, also whispered:

"It seems that there are notorious bandits lurking in the Wu family's inn... Otherwise, the Commandant would not have sent Gongliang Jun to personally oversee the battle."

Hearing their words, Liu Bei pondered to himself: If the Commandant's Office wanted to arrest bandits, they would usually notify the patrol officers and village heads of Zhuo County, directing them to assist in the suppression. Now, they hadn't been notified at all; clearly, they didn't trust them, and perhaps even suspected them of colluding with the bandits…

Immediately afterward, a masked man wearing a pheasant-feathered hat and a basin-collared iron armor, and a man in his thirties wearing a blue turban and a black curved-hem robe, came one after the other to the side of the gatekeeper, Gong Liangwu.

The masked man had a deep scar on his right cheek, making his entire face look somewhat terrifying. In particular, his large eyes were filled with a fiery and aggressive gaze. Just one glance at the entire Wu Family Hotel was enough to send chills down everyone's spines.

This murderous gaze is formed only after a bloody battle on the battlefield.

He was clearly a seasoned warrior who had fought countless battles on the battlefield.

The stern-faced man bowed to his subordinate, Gongliang Wuwei, and whispered something.

Gongliang Wu nodded slightly.

The stern-faced man then turned to the man beside him, a man in his thirties wearing a blue turban, and said:

"You can examine it carefully."

At this moment, the screens that had been blocking the view inside the hotel had been roughly pushed down by the soldiers, exposing the situation inside the pavilion to their full view.

The man in the blue turban carefully scanned the area, then whispered a few words to the man in the iron mask.

Upon hearing this, the stern-faced man nodded slightly.

He shouted loudly to the five or six guests in the lobby:

"All bystanders, leave immediately!"

The five or six guests, realizing they were being referred to, hurriedly got up and rushed out of the hotel.

After the lobby was cleaned up, several more guests in the private rooms were also ushered out.

When it was Liu Bei's turn to be in his chamber, he was also shouted at by the soldiers:

"Leave now."

Upon seeing this, Liu Bei knew that the Commandant's office's raid on the shop to arrest people had nothing to do with him.

Therefore, Liu Buyi, Liu Bao, Liu Ping, Cheng Xiao, and several officials and soldiers hurriedly got up and left the pavilion.

Liu Bei followed closely as they left the pavilion. He glanced at the next pavilion and saw a dozen burly men of various appearances sitting there, each with a fierce look on their faces. He knew that they were the ones the Commandant's Office wanted to arrest today.

Right now, the powerful bows and crossbows are already aimed at those dozen or so burly men, just waiting for the order to turn them into pincushions.

I walked to the entrance of the lobby.

Cheng Xiao, serving as a patrol officer in the eastern region, smiled and bowed to Gong Liangwu, a subordinate official of the Commandant's Office.

"Lord Gongliang, I am a patrol officer from Zhuo County..."

Before he could finish speaking, Gongliang Wu interrupted him:

"Stop talking nonsense! Get out of here!"

It was clearly an urgent matter, and he didn't want to say more.

They didn't give me a friendly look at all.

Cheng Xiao originally wanted to help catch the thief, but seeing that his subordinate Gong Liangwu was speaking in a very impatient tone, he couldn't help but feel embarrassed and lost face. He had no choice but to quickly walk out of Wu's Hotel.

The crowd stood at a distance by the roadside watching.

As soon as Liu Bei and his entourage stepped out, they heard the masked man's furious roar coming from inside the shop:

"Zhao Laoqi! You bandits and thieves from Baishi Mountain, listen up! Lay down your weapons and surrender immediately. Otherwise, you will be killed without mercy!"

Upon hearing this, Liu Bei finally understood: the Commandant's Office had come to capture the bandits and thieves entrenched in Baishi Mountain.

Baishi Mountain is located in Guangchang County, Zhongshan Commandery, Jizhou (now Laiyuan County, Hebei Province). It is named "Baishi Mountain" because there is a lot of white marble on the mountain.

The mountain is covered with strange rocks, towering peaks, deep valleys, waterfalls, forests, and spectacular sea of ​​clouds. It has been known since ancient times as one of the "Thirty-Six Blessed Lands" of China.

Baishi Mountain is located at the northernmost section of the 800-li Taihang Mountains, at the intersection of the Yanshan, Hengshan, and Taihang Mountains, making its geographical location extremely important.

From the summit of Baishi Mountain, one can see Wutai Mountain, Langya Mountain, and other mountain ranges in the distance, offering breathtaking views.

Liu Bei had once visited the scenic Baishi Mountain with his childhood friend Geng Yong. Little did he expect that it would be occupied by bandits and become their hideout.

At this moment, Liu Bao, the southern border guard, whispered to Cheng Xiao, the eastern border guard, and asked:

"Could the speaker be the Sheep Fortress Commander of Ironwall Dock?"

"It was him."

Cheng Xiao nodded, then whispered, "This Yang Tai, the commander of Yangbao, once followed General Xia Yuxia, the 'Protector of the Wuhuan,' in a fierce battle against the Xianbei in Beidi County of Liangzhou, and made meritorious contributions. — The Xianbei have been causing a lot of trouble on the border these past few years, and I get so angry just thinking about it..."

Everyone who heard this was full of admiration.

Liu Bei knew that since the Wuhuan tribes submitted to the Han Empire, most of the northern border troubles of the Han Dynasty came from the invasions of the Xianbei people.

The Xianbei and Wuhuan were both branches of the Donghu, nomadic peoples who moved with the water and grass.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, after Tan Shihuai, the son of the Xianbei Touluhou, unified the various Xianbei tribes and became the supreme leader, he began to lead the Xianbei cavalry to harass the borders of the Han Dynasty in Youzhou, Bingzhou, and Liangzhou.

Thinking of the border troubles of the Han Dynasty and the exhaustion of the empire's military funds, Liu Bei had an idea to emulate Han Long's assassination of Tan Shihuai.

Historically, the chivalrous Han Long was ordered by Wang Xiong, the governor of Youzhou, to infiltrate the territory of the Xianbei in the northern desert and assassinate the Xianbei leader Kebineng.

Liu Bei believed that only with the death of the brilliant and ambitious Tan Shihuai could the various Xianbei tribes fall into division and fight among themselves, leaving them no time to attack the Han Dynasty in the south. This would also allow the Han Dynasty to enjoy some peace.

At this time, his power was still small, so he could only secretly bury his idea of ​​assassinating Tan Shihuai in his heart. When the time was right, he would definitely try to find a way to kill Tan Shihuai and get rid of a great scourge on the border for the Han Empire.

Just as Liu Bei was pondering, the sound of weapons clashing came from Wu's inn, accompanied by roars and curses like those of fierce tigers and beasts.

"A fight broke out."

Liu Bao, a border patrolman from the south, looked slightly excited.

He couldn't help but grasp the hilt of the ring-pommel sword, his joy overflowing.

Liu Bei, being a fellow warrior, understood his cousin Liu Bao's feelings well; once he mastered martial arts, he always wanted to try them out.

This is what Qi Jiguang, the great general of the Ming Dynasty, meant when he said, "Once you have mastered a skill, you must test it on an enemy."

……

The mountain is covered with white stones, with towering peaks that stand in a graceful array like a screen. Sometimes, clear clouds drift above it, hence the name White Stone Mountain.

—Li Daoyuan, Commentary on the Waterways Classic