The Three Kingdoms: I asked you to save Guan Yu, not to destroy Sun Quan.

Chapter 440 Huang Chengyan's Reasons for Betraying Liu Bei

Pan Jun was a man with ambitions for officialdom, and he knew that surrendering the city to Wu was an indelible stain. Even if Liu Bei was magnanimous and did not pursue the matter, he would never be able to give him an important position again. That is why, after the Wu army was defeated, he decisively contacted Jiang Ji to betray Wu and surrender to Wei. But why did Huang Chengyan do the same?

The Huang family was a deeply rooted gentry family in Jingzhou, and Huang Chengyan himself was Zhuge Liang's father-in-law. In addition, he was old and didn't have many days left to live. What was the reason for his so-called active betrayal of Liu Bei?

A flash of displeasure crossed Huang Chengyan's eyes, but surprisingly he did not turn hostile. Instead, after a moment's consideration, he truthfully said, "Because Zhuge Liang is a sage and I am just a mortal."

"Kongming is too selfless. Like Liu Bei, he wanted to build a world like the one during Emperor Wu's era, where everyone was equal and the world was in harmony. But such a world would come at the cost of the interests of our gentry. You know how miserable the gentry and nobles were during Emperor Wu's era."

Thinking of Emperor Wu's era, Pan Jun couldn't help but shudder, and a deep fear even appeared in his eyes.

Emperor Wu of Han was too ruthless. Dukes and marquises were stripped of their titles, powerful families were relocated en masse, and the wealth accumulated by aristocratic families over generations was instantly plundered. Even Emperor Wu himself had three clans exterminated, leaving the people who could not survive without a target to attack if they wanted to rise up in rebellion.

The common people couldn't survive and wanted to rebel, but when they turned around and saw that the landlord next door was even worse off than they were, they thought, "What kind of rebellion is this? I'll just keep enduring it."

It must be said that Emperor Wu of Han was truly remarkable. He managed to achieve universal harmony through exploitation, keeping everyone stably poor, and thus achieving the effect of the primary stage of socialism within a feudal society.

But this era was a nightmare for the aristocratic class. They worked hard to live a good life, not to be robbed by bandits.

Huang Chengyan continued, "Kongming was a martyr who could put public interests aside for the sake of public good and was willing to sacrifice his own interests to realize his ideals. If he could sacrifice himself, what about others?"

"And then there's Liu Bei. Liu Bei is far more terrifying than Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu. Emperor Guangwu seized power by relying on the gentry of Hebei. After gaining power, he was naturally hampered by the gentry. As soon as he had the idea of ​​reforming, he provoked a rebellion across the country and almost lost his country. He had no choice but to give up and watched as the gentry grew stronger and stronger, eventually giving rise to a monster like Yuan Shao, who came from a family that had held high office for four generations."

"But Liu Bei is different. Who did Liu Bei rely on during his decades of campaigns? How many of his civil and military officials came from top-tier powerful families like the Yuan family of Runan or the Chen family of Yingchuan? Not a single one, right?"

"Liu Bei has now gained power. He did not rely on the gentry at the beginning of his uprising. Now that he has gained power, he will certainly not care about the gentry. In addition, Guan Xing has carried out land reform in Jiangdong. Under these circumstances, do you think Liu Bei will use the pretext of the gentry of Jingzhou betraying Guan Yu to attack the gentry and promote land reform after regaining control of Jingzhou?"

Every gift in this world comes with a hidden price. The shortcuts you take will one day become insurmountable obstacles for you. Take Sun Quan, for example. He stabilized Jiangdong by compromising with the gentry, but as a result, he had to consider the whims of the Jiangdong gentry no matter what he did. He couldn't do anything that the gentry disagreed with, no matter how hard he tried.

Then there's Cao Cao, who relied on the Yingchuan gentry to defeat Yuan Shao and unify the Central Plains. Just as he was about to heavily rely on Yuan Shao's former officials to suppress the Yingchuan gentry, the Yingchuan gentry ambushed him at the Battle of Red Cliffs, shattering his dream of unifying the world.

However, Liu Bei did not have the shackles of the aristocratic families like Sun Quan and Cao Cao. He could have easily beaten the aristocratic families like grandsons. Otherwise, with the wars of entering Shu, the war of Hanzhong, the eastern expedition, and the northern expedition, how could Liu Bei have persisted until now without collapsing?

To put it bluntly, Liu Bei's tattooed soldiers were even worse than Emperor Wu of Han's. If Sun Quan or Cao Cao had played this game, they would have been finished long ago. But Liu Bei not only didn't collapse, but became more and more excited as he fought. Why? It was because he had sucked the blood of the aristocratic families.

Huang Chengyan said indignantly, "The provisions for Liu Bei's campaign into Shu were provided by the gentry of Jingzhou. We finally defeated Liu Zhang, but before we could even catch our breath, the Battle of Hanzhong broke out and lasted for three years. Our gentry worked hard for generations to accumulate some wealth, but it all benefited Liu Bei. Why should we?"

"Now Liu Bei wants to carry out land reform in Jingzhou, turning the gentry into peasants like him. He's trying to drive us gentry to our deaths. It's true that I'm related to Zhuge Liang, but did Zhuge Liang treat me like a relative when he forced me to pay money and grain?"

"Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang were both martyrs who were willing to sacrifice everything for their ideals. You also know what Guan Yu did in Jingzhou. To put it nicely, he was arrogant to his superiors but not to his inferiors. To put it bluntly, he only cared about the safety of the common people and not about the life or death of the gentry. He was just like Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang. Now there is Guan Xing, who is even more radical than them. If Liu Bei really wins the world, how will the gentry survive?"

"Therefore, we must not let Liu Bei succeed. If he succeeds, he will definitely reinstate the decree to relocate powerful families, instantly reducing the efforts of generations of aristocratic families to nothing. Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang want to be saints, but I only want to be a greedy and lustful commoner, a mortal who just wants to eat and wait to die, to stay in my hometown and enjoy my old age, and incidentally leave some inheritance for my unfilial descendants. I don't want to be sent to Chang'an or Luoyang to guard the tombs of the previous emperors of the Han Dynasty when I'm old. I believe you wouldn't want that either, would you?"

This makes sense. According to later interpretations, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang represented the proletariat, while Huang Chengyan represented the bourgeoisie, and the two sides had irreconcilable contradictions.

Pan Jun rose and bowed, saying, "I have been presumptuous. Please forgive me, Elder Huang. Since that is the case, let's take a gamble and offer Jiangling to Cao Cao so that Liu Bei and Guan Yu will never be able to reunite. But we need to plan carefully how to do it."

With Sun Quan out of power, Jiangling City instantly became a hot commodity, with everyone wanting to use it as a pledge of loyalty to their new master. But there was only one Jiangling, so who would ultimately get it?

Huang Chengyan seemed to have already planned this out. Upon hearing this, he immediately said, "Let's first expose the rebellious actions of Gu Yong, Mi Fang, and others to Sun Quan. This will confuse Sun Quan and at the same time let the Jingzhou gentry and Wu generals see Sun Quan's tyranny, forcing them to feel insecure and have no choice but to surrender to Cao Cao."

"After deceiving Sun Quan, we will secretly mobilize troops to seize the city. We do not need to take the entire Jiangling. As long as we hold one city gate and hold out until Jiang Ji's reinforcements arrive, we will have won."

Jiangling's defenses are too strong, so strong that there is almost no possibility of breaching them from the outside. But don't forget that such strong cities all have barbicans. As long as they hold one barbican and protect the city gate, Jiang Ji's army will be able to easily storm into the city and seize Jiangling. With the help of their gentry, they will be able to quickly stabilize Jingzhou and cut off Liu Bei and Guan Yu's path to a triumphant return.

Huang Chengyan continued, "However, Sun Quan is not an opponent but an ally that can be won over. While being prepared to completely break with Sun Quan, we should also try to win him over, but we cannot do it openly; we must do it secretly. Find a few trustworthy experts to disguise themselves as Wu soldiers and assassinate Fei Yi. Once Fei Yi, Liu Bei's envoy, is dead, even if Sun Quan wants to surrender to Liu Bei, Liu Bei probably won't believe him easily."

"Also, inform Jiang Ji to hurry up. After Lu Xun's eastern expeditionary army was annihilated, Sun Quan is very likely to call Zhou Tai back to reinforce. If Zhou Tai returns with the garrison at Ruxukou, we will have no chance at all."

Pan Jun's expression changed slightly, and he quickly said, "This junior will take care of it right away."

Huang Chengyan shook his head and said, "This matter is not urgent. Let's go see Sun Quan first, expose the crimes of Gu Yong, Mi Fang and others to Sun Quan, and gain his trust before we talk about anything else."

Poor Gu Yong and Mi Fang, who had been clinging to Pan Jun and Huang Chengyan as their lifeline, were unexpectedly betrayed by the two men.

Compared to Huang Chengyan's shrewdness and deep calculation, Gu Yong and Mi Fang's impatient jumping around was just like a clown.

Pan Jun bowed and said, "I am willing to follow Elder Huang's instructions."

Both men were decisive and efficient. Once they made a decision, they did not hesitate. After briefly discussing what they would say to Sun Quan, they left the mansion and headed to the general's mansion. When they arrived at the mansion, they bowed to the guards and said, "Please inform our lord that we have something very important to report to him, and it is extremely urgent."