I, Liu Bian, Sanxing Han Dynasty

Chapter 458 The Principal Evil Was Me

Just as Liu Bei entered Nanzhong and began to steadily advance his strategy, someone became anxious.

Yizhou County.

Yong Guan summoned all the chieftains who supported him and said excitedly: "At first, you were dissatisfied with the governor Zhuo Yang and rebelled and killed him. Later, you were afraid of revenge and rebelled."

"These things have nothing to do with me. You all nominated me and promised to obey my orders. That's why I risked my own death and the extinction of my clan to lead you in the rebellion."

"But what did you guys promise in the first place? If I had known that you would break your promise, I would never have agreed to it!"

Yong Guan finally said with great sorrow: "You have caused me so much suffering!"

After he finished his performance, the chiefs at the scene did not show any reaction. He took a deep breath and said, "Well, since you are unwilling to obey my orders, I will abdicate and return home to die. Just think that you trusted the wrong person!"

Having said that, he was about to leave.

Now, the chiefs finally couldn't sit still anymore.

One of the children who was brought in, who was only in his teens, suddenly jumped up and hugged Yong Guan's legs.

He shouted, "Meng Huo, let go!"

But Meng Huo refused to let go.

Yong Guan was afraid of hurting Meng Huo, so he didn't dare to use too much force.

This delay finally bought the handsome chiefs some time to retain the team.

Meng Huo's father shouted, "Your Majesty, you must not leave. If you leave, there will be no one to lead them against the Han army."

This reminded the heroic chiefs, and they realized that without Yong Guan in charge, who could bring together the tangled conflicts among their tribes?
They immediately tried to keep him.

At this time, Yong Guan continued to speak emotionally: "If you don't agree to my request, even if I stay, I will die. Why bother struggling?"

"But..." a chief said cautiously, "The Han people are willing to teach us how to farm and provide seeds, and they don't charge any fees. No one would refuse such a good thing!"

"This is a conspiracy by Han officials!" Yong Guan shouted righteously, "They just want to trick you into farming. If you farm, they will have an excuse to levy extra taxes in the future!"

"But... I heard from someone in Zhu's department that the Han official who went to him said that he would not consider collecting other taxes until every household had surplus grain every year. Now he is only collecting the Qiang fee per mouth. I think it is quite credible. If he said that he would always collect the Qiang fee, I would not believe it."

"If you can trust the words of the Han officials, even pigs can climb trees! You have been deceived less in the past, just take Zhuo Yang for example, didn't he deceive you?"

Once these words were spoken, all the chiefs began to have doubts in their hearts.

But the voice of the chieftain from before sounded again: "But the Zhu tribe wants to trust the Han officials and does not allow us to stay in their territory, so we won't go. Why do we have to assassinate the Han officials in the Zhu tribe? In this way, no one will dare to come and teach us how to farm."

Yong Guan looked at the man angrily: "Before, we were not allowed to kill Han officials. Now we are not allowed to go. What about the future? Are we going to follow the Han officials and kill them together?"

Yong Guan's words were not groundless.

Initially, the tribes near the Han army’s base would secretly help them.

Then, these tribes gradually became neutral and watched from the sidelines.

Once the Han officials achieved some results, these tribes simply changed from protecting the Han officials to prohibiting them from attacking the Han army in their own territories.

And the whole process only took a few months.

Liu Bei's arrival had an immediate effect.

Yong Guan sensed the future trend, so he thought of solving the problem from the source - directly killing the Han officials distributed in various tribes.

But this attracted opposition from a number of rebellious tribal chiefs. Although they rebelled, they rebelled against the Han officials who deceived them. They were always willing to respect and protect the Han people who were good to them.

Otherwise, Yongguan was also of Han origin, so why did they obey his orders? It was because they felt that Yongguan was fair and knowledgeable and would not oppress them.

Yong Guan was also somewhat helpless. He never imagined that these barbarians could be so easily bribed by farming techniques and seeds.

In fact, is it possible that the wealthy and powerful people who migrated from other places like them did not know any advanced farming techniques? After all, the Wa people in Nanzhong still used the most primitive slash-and-burn farming.

Just like the officials sent here, he is unwilling to spend time, energy and financial resources to promote it.

In their view, this is a thankless task, and allowing the barbarians to follow their old customs is the way to achieve long-term stability.

At this time, the young Meng Huo had stopped clinging to Yong Guan. He suddenly said, "Since no one wants to fight among themselves, why not go and fight the Han army directly?"

"As long as we win, won't there be any problem?"

Meng Huo's father quickly covered Meng Huo's mouth.

But the child's words woke the dreamer up.

In the past, Yong Guan was unwilling to confront the Han army head-on. One reason was that he was afraid of the Han army's combat effectiveness, especially the elite troops from Xiyuan, which made him very wary.

The second was to take advantage of the favorable terrain in Nanzhong to weaken the Han army.

But now, under Liu Bei's operation, the offensive and defensive situations have become easy.

Yong Guan said: "This is also a good method."

He emphasized again: "The Han army has an elite force that must be guarded against. I want to draw warriors from various tribes to fight against them!"

Yong Guan understood that if he could not stop the Han officials' gradual encroachment, he would have no choice but to fight the Han army in one fell swoop.

But after he finished speaking, only a few were willing to respond to his call and send out warriors.

"Well!" Yong Guan made a gesture to leave again.

This time he failed to leave.

Yong Guan said dissatisfiedly: "You don't want this, you don't want that, why keep me here?"

He thought, now they will agree to send troops.

But a chieftain said, "We don't necessarily have to fight. I heard from Zhu's people that the new General Anxi in Yizhou is a kind person and he can manage all of us in Nanzhong. Besides, we had our reasons for killing Zhuoyang in the first place. If he is not the main culprit, General Anxi may consider forgiving him."

"It would be best if someone could negotiate with General Anxi on our behalf and ask him to forgive our previous sins. We don't really want to cause trouble."

"Yeah yeah!"

"I also heard that General Anxi sent someone to tell us that as long as we are not the main culprit, we can be exempted from punishment."

At this moment, Yong Guan was stunned.

General Anxi Liu Bei sent someone to convey the message of surrender? But how come he didn't know about such a big thing before today?
Wait, Yong Guan suddenly realized that in Liu Bei's mind, he couldn't be the main culprit of the rebellion in Nanzhong!

He looked at the chiefs present.

He used to take advantage of them.

Now, I spend the whole day hunting geese, but unexpectedly I get pecked in the eye by a wild goose.

(End of this chapter)