Chapter 501 The Road Has Changed
The next day, the army took Feihu Road to the northeast, and sent Fa Zheng to Mayi via Yanmen Road to enter Zhang's Fortress to comfort Zhang Liao's mother and give her ten pieces of Shu brocade.

When Fa Zheng completed his mission and returned to the garrison camp with his large group of troops, he saw a group of messengers waiting outside the camp.

Fa Zheng drove his carriage straight into the camp gate. He looked at the group of messengers curiously and told the driver, "Stop."

He leaned forward to observe, and the officer on duty came over quickly and bowed: "Sir."

"Is this the envoy from Liu Zhenbei?"

"It's an envoy from Yunzhong County."

The officer answered truthfully and immediately asked, "Do you want to summon him for questioning?"

"No need."

Fa Zheng waved his hand and the military officials bowed and watched the carriage leave.

The driver was also curious: "Why did Ling Gong ask about these people?"

"They were wearing the uniforms of envoys, but they were stout and had wild eyes, not like Chinese people."

Fa Zheng explained his doubts, and said mentally exhausted, "It is normal that it came from the clouds."

After Emperor Lingdi lost the battle for the Xianbei and gave up all the counties outside the Great Wall, the powerful people in Yunzhong either moved inland or became close to the various Hu people.

After the restoration of Yunzhong County, county officials would be selected from local people, and it was inevitable that the county would be filled with a group of people with strong Hu style.

After Fa Zheng arrived at the central army area, he got off the car and walked inside. In the big tent, Black Bear was holding a deerskin to wipe his armor. Hearing the footsteps, he saw that it was Fa Zheng. Fa Zheng also saluted and said, "Your Majesty, I have completed my mission. The Zhang family has given me a very generous reception. General Wenyuan's brother insisted on giving me a Donghu pony. I couldn't refuse, so I brought it."

"I'm glad I didn't cause any trouble to the old lady. You can hand over the pony to the inner treasury. I'll let it roam freely in White Goose Valley when I get back, and let your eldest son take care of it."

"Thank you, sir!"

Fa Zheng looked excited. He immediately took a half step back and bowed deeply.

Black Bear just smiled, turned around and continued to wipe his bright gilded dragon scale armor, without looking back: "There is a letter from Yunzhong County on the table, you read it first."

"Here."

Fa Zheng walked to the table and picked up the silk book. It was a letter from Jian Yong, the prefect of Yunzhong County.

As usual, Jian Yong greeted them and said that he would collect a batch of livestock and drive them to Pingcheng, Dai County to entertain the officials and soldiers. He hoped that the Grand Marshal could give him a pass to allow the team to enter the Dai County.

The prefect of Dai County was Sun Qian, so this official document seemed a bit abrupt at this moment.

Fa Zheng savored the difference and said immediately, "Since I entered the shogunate, I have heard that you have reported to the emperor that Mi Zhu, Jian Yong, Sun Qian, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhao Yun should lead different counties. In addition to Liu Zhen's military command over the six counties of Youzhou in the north, Yunzhong and Dai counties are also under the jurisdiction of his former subordinates."

"Now it seems that Sun Qian does not govern Dai County, but often regards himself as a subordinate of Liu Zhenbei, running back and forth to negotiate with various parties, like a strategist, which can be said to be not doing his job properly."

"Yes, who do you think is suitable to lead the county?"

Black Bear asked casually, Fa Zheng thought for a moment and answered: "I have no friends, and I don't have a good choice. I only have a good friend, Meng Da, who is my sworn brother. Although he is both civil and military, he is not as good as Gan Xingba and Zhang Wenyuan in martial arts, nor as good as me in literature, and he pursues elegance. He can be competent to lead a small county, but he is not qualified to lead an important frontier town like Dai County that needs to negotiate with Jizhou and Youzhou."

"This is not a recommendation, but it's better than a recommendation."

Black Bear casually hung the deerskin towel on the armor rack, turned around and sat back in the main seat, reached out to pick up the teacup, Fa Zheng picked up the silver pot to pour tea for him, and then poured tea for himself.

Black Bear took a sip of tea and said, "You also know how rich Yizhou is. I can resist destroying it, but the people of Yizhou will inevitably want to destroy everything. There is always a shortage of short-sighted and reckless fools in the world. We cannot expect the people of Yizhou to always remain rational and restrained. This is a pile of dry wood covered with boiling oil. So transfer Meng Da back. When he comes back, you must negotiate with him clearly. Let him take charge of Dai County, and he will let you take charge."

With Dai County in hand, the Guanzhong army split into two routes. One route went north along the Qin Straight Road to Wuyuan, then eastward to Xiangwu and Yunzhong, and then to Dai County to enter the Great Wall; the other route went to Fenshui, Taiyuan, and Yanmen. No one wanted to attack, not even Black Bear.

Handing over the circular defensive fortress group formed by the pass cities and strong cities to Liu Bei would only fuel Liu Bei's ambitions.

Fa Zheng did not object to taking on this joint responsibility, and did not refuse. Instead, he asked directly: "Then how should Sun Qian be dealt with?"

"I decided to give Liu Xuande and Sun Qian a chance. I will first go through the procedures to remove Sun Qian from his post as acting prefect, and then recommend him as the governor of Lelang County. I want to see if he dares to take the position and if Gongsun Kang dares to refuse."

Black Bear was drinking tea and talking about Liaodong County, which was Gongsun Kang's foundation. If he didn't touch it, he would have to take over the two outer counties of Lelang and Daifang.

Both counties were handed over to Liu Bei's men. If Gongsun Kang dared to resist, he would be rebelling against the imperial edict of the Jian'an court and he had to attack the other side on behalf of the court.

When meeting Liu Bei, he came with a hammer, and he had to hit him when necessary.

Not only Liu Bei, but also the Xianbei Budugen was within this range.

As for the Yanmen County Magistrate Shentu Bei, he was a minor character. Caught between himself, Liu Bei and Yuan Shang, Shentu Bei had no other choice.

Especially with Zhang Liao's surrender, the Yanmen nobles had a channel to enter the government and join the shogunate based on their military merits.

If Shentu Bei acted irrationally, the powerful people in Yanmen would naturally correct him.

Moreover, the process of this alliance was also full of surprises. From Guanzhong to Jixian, the nearest road was Feihu Road.

Liu Bei also took this road to Ji County, but when he attended the alliance meeting, he did not take the Feihu Road in the south, which was close to the area controlled by the Yuan family. Instead, he marched north through the area controlled by Guan Yu, Zhao Yun, and Xianyu Fu, and took the Juyongkou route.

In this way, the plan of holding an alliance on Feihu Road had to be changed. After passing the Wutai Mountain area, they had to turn northwest, cross the Northern Peak Hengshan, and re-enter the Dai County area.

This invisibly increased his marching distance, and Liu Bei's decision not to go through Feihukou meant that the area around Feihukou had not been cleared or checked. If Yuan Xi was bolder, he could have hidden a large army at Feihukou to ambush him.

When marching on mountain roads, encountering an ambush is an extremely terrifying thing.

Originally, we really didn't want to hit Liu Bei too hard, but his passage through Juyongkou in the north would be a huge change and hidden danger.

But Liu Bei also had a reason, that is, going through Feihukou might also provoke the Yuan family and lead to the outbreak of war.

But the most important thing is that Liu Bei could replenish the elite forces of Guan Yu, Zhao Yun and others along the way by going through Juyongkou.

It is estimated that Liu Bei's side also wanted to show the strong military presence at this alliance.

But the more serious problem is that the Hengshan Road has been in disrepair for a long time and is not suitable for large troops to pass through.

The cavalry is fine, but it is very inconvenient to carry two chariot camps.

Without the wagon camp, setting up camp would be very troublesome, and a large amount of spare weapons would also be lost.

Therefore, they continued to march normally. If they still did not see Liu Bei's proper attitude when they arrived at the intersection of Feihu Road, Black Bear would decide to go east through Feihukou and enter Youzhou.

If Yuan Xi dares to set an ambush, then let’s fight.

An ambush in a mountainous area relies on the absolute advantage of using the greater numbers against the lesser ones locally, and then launching a crushing attack.

Whether it was a tacit understanding between Liu Bei and Yuan Xi that led to this situation or some other factor, he didn't want to take the Hengshan Road anyway.

(End of this chapter)