“So, strategists can’t actually ascend the throne?”
Chapter 234: The Heart of a Rebel
Finally, Zhao Wei wasn’t entirely clueless. Before making any bold moves, he decided to pay Liu Zhang a visit.
Even with his subtle inquiries, Liu Zhang didn’t spill the beans about the possibility of being sent to Chang’an as a hostage. Still, Zhao Wei had a nagging feeling that things weren’t looking good.
After all, Liu Zhang did mention that two messengers had once brought up two important topics.
Firstly, Liu Qi, the son of the Jingzhou governor Liu Biao, had made his way to Chang’an and taken up the post of Chief of the Imperial Stables, the same position once held by Yuan Ji.
The Chief of the Imperial Stables is tasked with the royal horses, but let’s be real—it’s more about managing the emperor’s travel entourage.
It’s a pretty cushy job, considering Liu Yu led a life of minimal pomp and circumstance.
So essentially, they gave a royal family member a decent title that came with little hassle—perfect for showcasing the Chang’an court’s feelings toward the royals.
Of course, this came from Li Ru and not from Qi Zhou.
But Qi Zhou didn’t find anything wrong with that statement.
It was simply a way to express that as long as the Yizhou governor didn’t act against them during their assault on Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan, everyone could play nice and win together.
It also served to score some points for Liu Yu.
The second point Li Ru made was that Cao Cao’s son, Cao Pi, had already enrolled in Leping Academy last year.
Now, this statement by Li Ru had two implications.
First off, even though Cao Cao was appointed as the governor of Yanzhou through the Ye City court, he stabilized Yanzhou primarily through his own strength. The fact that he sent his son to Leping Academy and had dealings with Bingzhou meant no one could be sure if Yanzhou would switch from being enemy territory to a forward base if the Chang’an court ever chose to swallow Ye City.
It was a display of military might.
On the flip side, why would Cao Cao send his son all the way to Bingzhou? It must be because of the talents like Cai Yong and Zheng Xuan residing there.
That was a showcase of cultural strength.
Thanks to this little discussion, Qi Zhou even thought, “Li Meng,” didn’t seem so bad after all. At the very least, he managed to speak some sense while trying to hold up the Chang’an court’s dignity.
But what was the actual story?
According to what Li Ru told Qiao Ting, those two statements had ulterior motives.
“The tidbits we gather from others are all trivialities—we need various methods to dig and piece everything together until we pinpoint that key informant. Likewise, anything that others learn from us is bound to be fragmented,” Li Ru explained.
“So don’t expect the other party to grasp all the false information you send. Instead, give them a bit of ambiguous info, so that no matter how they mix and match, they still reach the same misleading conclusion—that’s true misdirection.”
This effective misdirection had been used when Li Ru helped Dong Zhuo evade the Qiang encirclement, and now it was aimed at Zhao Wei.
The info Zhao Wei received from Liu Zhang didn’t make him question the potential falsehood of the news—it only deepened his suspicions.
Liu Biao sent his eldest son into Chang’an, and Cao Cao sent his second son to Leping. To Zhao Wei, it was like giving away sons who clearly had no chance of inheriting, all to cozy up to the Chang’an court.
It seemed there was some hidden meaning in those words spoken in front of Liu Zhang.
From Zhao Wei’s perspective, the idea of sending hostages had to have some truth to it!
So he figured there’s no need to dwell too much on whether the information was true or false; he needed to think about how to shift the situation.
He thought of going straight to Liu Yan, saying that even if a hostage had to be sent, it couldn’t possibly be the Fourth Prince. That was just plain ridiculous.
Choosing Liu Zhang was really because of his gentle approach, the top reason Zhao Wei picked him. If it were up to Liu Yan, he might very well have chosen his second son, who was off trading and living a luxurious life, rather than his youngest.
Liu Yan clearly wasn’t keen on having the Yizhou guys meddling in his decisions too much.
So how about outright harming those messengers from Chang’an, ensuring they couldn’t complete their mission and cutting Liu Zhang’s chance of being taken away at the root?
That wouldn’t work either!
The attendants sent from Chang’an were pulled from Zhao Yun’s troops—real tough guys from Yan and Bing. If things got noisy while trying to deal with them, it could draw quite a bit of unwanted attention.
That would force Zhao Wei to lay his cards out in front of Liu Yan, which could easily backfire on him.
It was all downside for him.
What’s more, if something happened to the envoys sent from Chang’an, the peaceful relations between Guanzhong and Chang’an could go down the drain overnight.
Qiao Yan had just routed Li Jue’s invading forces into Liangzhou and then swept into Guanzhong—who’s to say she wouldn’t leverage the Taihang Mountains’ defensive advantages to launch an offensive against Yizhou under the pretext of all this?
Given the geographical conditions, it truly wouldn’t be impossible.
This made things even trickier for Zhao Wei.
His dissatisfaction with Liu Yan favoring the Eastern State gentry didn’t mean he was eager to hand Yizhou over to someone else to lead.
Liu Yan’s ties to the Han royal family and his governing methods still provided advantages for the Yizhou locals.
Otherwise, after Liu Yan executed the Yizhou elites on flimsy charges and suppressed the rebellion initiated by Ren Qi, the Yizhou folks, led by Zhao Wei, would never have remained supportive of Liu Yan.
Therefore, he couldn’t go about this too aggressively and turn Yizhou directly into a thistle in the eyes of the Chang’an court.
Time to rethink the strategy.
He recalled the message he’d received from the relay station.
It indicated that compared to the likes of Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan, Liu Yan was seen as relatively cooperative and had no rebellious intentions.
Could there be a way to slightly heighten the perceived threat Liu Yan posed to the Chang’an court, yet not cross any boundaries, thus making the previously reasonable demand for hostages suddenly seem strict?
Zhao Wei wound up lost in thought.
Honestly, he wasn’t just a muscle-bound warrior.
Before entering Yizhou, he held the position of Chief of Granaries at the Luoyang court.
As a subordinate official under the Grand Minister of Agriculture, that was a proper civil service role.
Had it not been for his modest intelligence, Li Ru wouldn’t have chosen Zhao Wei as a pawn.
Zhao Wei initially considered making some noise with Zhang Lu to up the ante.
But Zhang Lu, or rather the Taishi Path folks, were entirely unpredictable in their actions.
Even as fellow Yizhou residents, they sought different benefits.
To Zhao Wei, it seemed Zhang Lu was more interested in claiming his own preaching territory rather than striking a winning deal with the royal Han family.
If things heated up, Yizhou could be in for trouble.
So he needed another approach—
Feed these envoys vague information while ensuring to erase any incriminating proof!
In that case, Chang’an would end up merely suspicious but without grounds for real accountability.
Just as long as things didn’t go too far.
After all, the current Minister of Works, Huang Wan’s aunt, happened to be Liu Yan’s mother. Surely she could mediate some?
With that thought, Zhao Wei felt a sense of clarity.
He immediately called in his confidant and began planning the operation.
“Hey, what’s up with these bizarre orders?”
The subordinate was taken aback and quickly asked, “Isn’t that gonna cause a problem?”
Zhao Wei replied firmly, “What kind of problem could arise? If you think about it, we’re actually doing the marquis a favor by eliminating a potential threat.”
The subordinate had no doubts and promptly got to work.
So, the night before General Liu Yan’s big promotion, the formerly peaceful night was suddenly shattered by a commotion.
Qizhou, staying at an inn, was jolted awake by the noise and hurried outside to check; the eastern sky was lit up in red—it looked like a massive fire.
And to the east was the location of Liu Yan’s provincial office!
Even though it was a dry winter night, how could a fire start like this, and at such a time?
Qizhou instinctively felt something was off, and then he heard Li Ru, who was also roused, asking, “What happened?”
The two exchanged confused glances and, driven by the fear of a mess with the decree, they quickly decided to head over and take a look.
To prevent a repeat of the chaos like in Yizhou two years ago, they brought along half of their guards.
Luckily, upon arriving at the source of the fire, they found that the situation wasn’t nearly as bad as they feared; it was just the government storehouse in flames.
However…
Qizhou looked at the raging inferno and couldn’t help but ask, “Liu Yizhou, did you stash a bunch of outdated furniture in the storehouse or something? Why is the fire burning so fiercely?”
This was no ordinary fire; it was fueled more like it had oil poured on it. A typical fire wouldn’t have reached this intensity.
But surely, Liu Yan wouldn’t be so tactless as to set his own house on fire before his grand promotion ceremony to stir up some excitement, right?
Seeing the fire spreading, Qizhou quickly directed people to help extinguish it.
What he didn’t see was the anxiety masked by urgency on Liu Yan’s face, half-hidden in the darkness.
Fortunately, the fire was soon brought under control, but everything in the storehouse was reduced to ashes.
Liu Yan lamented his losses while thinking that this unexpected fire might be a wake-up call for his reckless mindset.
Little did he know that the following day, as he received his official seal amid the watchful eyes of various prefects, someone slipped a piece of silk into the inn.
It stated that the fire in the storehouse happened because it concealed thousands of carriages and was created out of Liu Yan’s treacherous intentions.
The informant mentioned that the reason for reporting this was due to an old friendship with Ren Qi, the former governor of Qianwei, who was disgruntled by Liu Yan’s harsh treatment, leading to his betrayal and murder.
Qizhou, upon reading the secret letter, whispered to Li Ru, “Considering this Ren Qi incident, it really is rather puzzling. In the past, the rebel Ma Xiang murdered the provincial governor Qie Jian and even proclaimed himself emperor in Shu until Ren Qi defeated him, paving the way for Liu Yan’s rise. Yet, less than two years later, Ren Qi declared himself general and launched an attack on Liu Yan…”
This was truly strange.
Perhaps Ren Qi was unhappy with Liu Yan’s treatment of the people of Yizhou.
So, someone coming forward on Ren Qi’s behalf wasn’t entirely unexpected.
However, this could also hint at a plot against Liu Yan.
He called in his subordinates who had participated in firefighting to ask if they noticed anything unusual.
And sure enough, one mentioned he had wanted to help douse the flames but was stopped by Liu Yan’s attendants, who only let him fetch water.
Another heard whispers in the crowd saying, “What a shame for those carriages.”
Some murmured, “Perhaps he really crossed a taboo.”
Listening to all this, Qizhou started to think that the items burned in the fire were indeed more than meets the eye.
Considering Liu Yan’s government office had moved from Mianzhu to Chengdu, and the informant’s note mentioned another suspicious piece of information related to Mianzhu, Qizhou immediately conferred with Li Ru and decided that after bidding farewell to Liu Yan, they would take a detour to Mianzhu to investigate further.
The hasty departure gave Zhao Wei, who orchestrated the fire at the provincial storage, a sense of security.
If it weren’t for that fire, they might have left with hostages.
Now, it was time to hesitate.
However, Zhao Wei had no real intention to betray Liu Yan; their trip to Mianzhu wouldn’t yield any substantial evidence.
As Qizhou and Li Ru passed through Mianzhu, they noticed it had also caught fire the previous day, incinerating all relevant documents.
That was exactly Zhao Wei’s intention.
With no way to verify anything, it only confirmed there was something amiss.
Dong Fu was one of Liu Yan’s key ministers when he entered Shu, and his ties to Liu Yan through the establishment of the Provincial Governor System in Yizhou couldn’t be ignored; his abilities in divination were also renowned in Mianzhu.
Putting all these pieces together… Qizhou felt a sudden shock.
It seemed that Liu Yan wasn’t just aiming to be the Yizhou governor!
If he had larger ambitions, perhaps the threat from the north had pushed him to destroy the evidence of his plans, which still posed a significant threat.
Considering Yizhou’s resources and its geographical uniqueness, it wouldn’t be that hard for Liu Yizhou to stab Chang’an while the Marquis was preoccupied with Yuan Shao!
If only they had known this sooner.
Now that the Grand General’s appointment had been read out, there was no turning back.
Any further actions at this point would only make the Chang’an court appear ridiculous.
“Even if we had known earlier, it wouldn’t change a thing,” Li Ru interjected drily, “If you had found out sooner, would the imperial decree have been any less official?”
“With the terrain of Shu, if we wanted to halt this decree and head back to Chang’an, we’d probably be intercepted by Liu Yan before we got far. Whether we could stop the decree is one question; our lives would be at stake.”
Qizhou asked, “So what do you suggest?”
Li Ru replied, “Let’s not hesitate. We need to return to Chang’an quickly and inform His Majesty before Liu Yan realizes we linked these two fires and discovers his intentions.”
Qizhou thought Li Ru was quite the character, managing to make a run-for-it sound so dignified.
But in this unfamiliar place, it truly seemed like the only choice they had.
He quickly put on a facade of having rushed back to Chang’an after buying a few things in Mianzhu.
By the time Liu Yan received word that Dong Fu’s residence had burned, sensing the odd timing, Qizhou and his men had already entered Ba Jun.
At that moment, chasing after and verifying anything was out of the question.
Qizhou even urged his men to speed up within Hanzhong until they crossed Xiegu Road, where he finally felt relieved upon meeting their supportive team.
In that location, the tension of constantly being pursued finally dissipated.
But he couldn’t rest yet.
He hadn’t reached Chang’an yet, but he had already sent an urgent request for an audience with the Son of Heaven.
As a result, he stepped into Chang’an city and immediately received word from Liu Yu granting him an audience.
Liu Yu, still puzzled, watched Qizhou drop to his knees in the hall, claiming to have urgent matters to report.
Startled, he quickly asked, “What are you doing?”
Qizhou, looking panicked, replied, “Your Majesty! Liu Yan harbors unworthy ambitions! He shouldn’t be the Grand General!”
