I, Liu Bian, Sanxing Han Dynasty

Chapter 484 Manifesto
"Since ancient times, the rulers of Yao, Shun, Yu and Tang have all respected the Supreme Yuan and loved and nurtured the people..."

Liu Duan refused to read the manifesto until his death. Wu Fang was worried that he was forcing him too much and that something might happen while Liu Duan was reading it.

After all, there are people they want to mobilize under the city.

So, he chose to read it in person.

Wu Fang was afraid that some of the people in the city would not understand what he said, so he specially arranged several people in the city to explain the contents of the manifesto to him.

Of course, stir up some emotions.

"Emperors Huan and Xian formed cliques and persecuted scholars... causing the people to suffer and leading to the rebellion of Zhang Jiao..."

Sure enough, when the Yellow Turban Rebellion eleven years ago was mentioned, the people listening to the manifesto under the city were already emotional without waiting for the support arranged by Wu Fang.

Who caused such great destruction due to the Yellow Turban Rebellion?
As Wu Fang read it and felt the reactions of the people in the city, he felt that everything was stable.

With the two emperors Huan and Xian in front, there is no need to worry about not being able to mobilize the officials and people under the city.

After severely cursing two generations of emperors, Wu Fang finally got to the point - "Today's monarch is ambitious and ambitious. He turned a blind eye to the natural disaster and mobilized the army, but he did not achieve any success in pacifying the Xianbei, Qiang and Di tribes. He bribed them with land and took credit for it... He treated officials and civilians harshly, confiscated homes and dug up the ground for money to supplement his own interests. His tyrannical acts are too numerous to count..."

Wu Fang became excited and listed all of Liu Bian's faults.

In his opinion, when Liu Bian talked about confiscating people's property at will, the people under the city should have made some movement again!
Not only he thought so, but the person he arranged also thought so.

As the Wu army paused for a moment, someone from the city shouted, "Kill the tyrant!"

"Kill the tyrant!"

“Punish the tyrant… Ouch!”

"You pig dog, I just disliked you. Don't we know whether the emperor is a tyrant? Beat you to death, you pig dog!"

Hearing the screams from below the city, Wu Fang's heart began to panic. This was a little different from what he had imagined!

He leaned over and looked down, and saw someone staring at him. When he saw him looking at him, he cursed directly: "Thief, you are here to cause trouble. I have saved so much tax in recent years. I have received such a favor from the emperor, how can I go along with you?"

"Rebel!"

"running dog!"

Hearing the endless curses, Wu Fang cried out that it was not good. He quickly called out to the troops he could control: "Quick, go and kill all those people!"

The troops looked at each other in bewilderment. Those below were all their fellow villagers, and maybe there was someone they knew among them.

"Go quickly! Anyone who disobeys my order will be killed!"

Under Wu Fang's intimidation, his troops finally went forward, and the officials and civilians under the city who had already witnessed this scene immediately fled in all directions.

Wu Fang shouted, "Those who are willing to join us in this great cause will be spared death!"

The only response he got was the officials and people's faster pace.

There were three people who stood still. One of them was beaten so badly that he couldn't move, and the other two were a little at a loss. All three were spies arranged by Wu Fang.

Originally, in order to encourage more people to come, Wu Fang did not arrange troops to block the road. But now, as soon as his troops arrived, nearly half of the officials and civilians had already run away.

However, except for a few of his troops who still resolutely followed Wu Fang's orders, most of them turned a blind eye and let go of all those who could be let go. But even so, after the troops charged, dozens of civilians were killed or injured, and the rest fled in all directions.

Wu Fang excitedly pulled Liu Duan to look down from the top of the city wall, and laughed: "See? This is the fate of not following the great way!"

Liu Duan had never seen such a scene before and was so frightened that his legs went limp.

Wu Fang, who was holding Liu Duan, suddenly felt that his shoes were a little wet. He immediately threw Liu Duan aside and cursed with the letter: "After today, this letter will be sent to all directions. This letter was written in your name."

"Don't forget, this is your second time participating in a riot... Can that person in Luoyang really forgive you?"

"Think about it!"

After being scolded this time, Wu Fangzi no longer had the idea of ​​reading the manifesto in public. He even began to doubt the prospects of his career after being refuted.

In his opinion, the emperor had changed his policies frequently in recent years, changing his ideas every one or two years. People all over the world should be as annoyed as he was.

From frequent house searches to tax increases after the new tax system, and then to the current census of land and population, there must be many people who have fallen victim to the emperor's new policies!

"Don't daydream!" Liu Duan, the Marquis of Hefei, who had been lying on the ground vomiting for a long time, was not a fool. The scene when Wu Fang read the imperial edict just now had already shown the will of the people. Liu Duan knew that if he refused to compromise, he might be able to gain a chance of survival. If he went along with Wu Fang and the others, others could still escape, but he would definitely die.

"The people's hearts are with the Han, you can't accomplish anything. You have seen the public opinion just now, it is better to surrender now. The emperor is merciful, and there is still a glimmer of hope."

"My opinion is the public opinion!" Wu Fang kicked Liu Duan hard and called for people to take Liu Duan into custody.

As Wu's manifesto spread to all directions, the news that Marquis of Hefei openly raised the flag to punish the unjust tyrant spread widely.

Officials, common people, and local gentry in various places had different reactions.

However, Wu's power did not collapse as Liu Duan had expected. Upon hearing the imperial edict, the local tyrants in several counties around Hefei killed and expelled the officials in response. In just five days, Wu had gathered more than 10,000 people under his command.

When Jiujiang prefect Fu Qian heard that Hefei under his jurisdiction had rebelled, he immediately summoned 5,000 soldiers from the county and led them to suppress the rebellion.

Fu Qian was well-versed in the sutras, and although he had never led troops in battle, he was not afraid at all when he first fought. He led his troops to suppress the rebellion, wearing armor and riding a horse to charge forward. Seeing his bravery, the county soldiers all rushed forward and followed him, defeating the rebels.

Just as he was about to wipe out the remaining enemies in one fell swoop, Fu Qian's mount was hit by an arrow and fell off the horse.

Fu Qian was already old, and after falling off his horse he was immediately unable to lead the troops into battle.

The rebels took this opportunity to gather their remaining troops to counterattack the government troops. Most of the county soldiers were recruited temporarily, and seeing this, most of them simply fled.

Fortunately, there were still some elite soldiers protecting Fu Qian, allowing him to escape back to Yinling County, the capital of Jiujiang County in the north.

Fu Qian considered himself a great writer, and he once made friends with Zheng Xuan, citing his books as annotators. But he did not expect that when he led an army to fight in his later years, he was defeated because of his own misstep. After returning, he became bedridden and was about to die.

"So, how many bandits are there in Hefei County now?" Taishi Ci asked after examining Fu Qian's illness.

He was originally going to garrison Guangling County, where the farmland was not well managed. However, when he passed through Pei State, he encountered a rebellion in Hefei. He was ordered to change his route and lead his army to quell the rebellion.

But the scale of the rebellion was somewhat beyond Taishi Ci's expectations.

The county magistrate replied, "Since the Lord has been defeated, the rebels are very arrogant and are announcing that they have gathered a hundred thousand soldiers!"

(End of this chapter)