Chapter 462: Chengdu City
"Zheng Fang, have you made up your mind?" Meng Da, one of the leaders of the Dongzhou faction, appeared on the city wall at some point and asked Li Yan.
"What decision?" Li Yan asked without changing his expression.
Meng Da looked at Li Yan deeply, and a meaningful smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, "Zheng Fang, it's already this time, don't pretend to be confused when you know the truth."
There are not many representative figures in the Dongzhou School, and the leaders are him, Li Yan and Wu Yi.
Although the three of them had different political views, they were ultimately family members and were much more united than Zhang Song and other members of the Yizhou faction.
At this time, Meng Da no longer played tricks with Li Yan.
The surrounding Dongzhou soldiers had left without making a sound, leaving a circle of uninhabited area.
Meng Da said in a deep voice: "In the current situation, Liu Fan's position as the emperor is unstable. We in the Dongzhou faction cannot follow him to the end. Tian Ze's army is approaching and the military is at its peak. A man who knows the current situation is a hero. We must make plans early."
The Dongzhou faction was originally composed of people from Chang'an and Sanfu. Most of these places have now fallen into the hands of Tian Ze, so in Meng Da's view, surrendering to Tian Ze is undoubtedly the best choice.
By then, they can return home and no longer be drifting helplessly in this troubled times.
If you are not in the position, you don’t know the pain.
The Dongzhou faction seemed to be enjoying a high reputation. Not only was it trusted and valued by Liu Yan and his son, but it had also been suppressing the Yizhou faction and acting arrogantly in Yizhou.
But these people are very clear about the nature of being strong on the outside but weak on the inside.
A strong dragon cannot defeat a local snake, not to mention that the Yizhou faction is already very powerful.
The reason why the two were in check and balance with each other was entirely due to the deliberate maintenance of Liu Yan and his son.
In reality, the Dongzhou faction had no base and no reinforcements. It only had a base of tens of thousands of people. If one person died, one less person would be left. It was too weak.
Moreover, Meng Da knew very well that in Yizhou, they were just outsiders no matter what and it was impossible for them to truly integrate into it.
At this time, the Dongzhou School had not stayed in Yizhou for too long and still had a strong desire to return to their hometown.
The current situation is undoubtedly the best time for them to return home.
Li Yan's face darkened when he heard this. He turned to look at the soldiers who were busy setting up fortifications under the city wall. After a moment of silence, he said, "Zi Du, His Majesty has been very kind to us Dongzhou Faction. Now is the time to recruit people. How can we have any other thoughts?"
Meng Da snorted disdainfully, "Not bad? Zheng Fang, don't be confused. Let's not talk about Liu Yan for now. You are not unaware of Liu Fan's actions over the years. The strength of the Dongzhou faction in Yizhou has been decreasing, and it will be suppressed sooner or later."
"And now Liu Fan can't even protect himself. Even if he manages to hold on to Yizhou, he only wants to hand it over to Liu Bei. Why should we accompany him and work for Liu Bei? The Yizhou faction has already become our mortal enemy. Are we going to welcome another Jingzhou faction to come in?"
"On the contrary, Liangzhou and Sili now have a large number of vacancies for officials, population, and land. His Majesty the Great Qi is kind and generous, and he employs people in a flexible manner. We will definitely be valued after we return. Isn't it wonderful to return to our roots?"
Meng Da was from Xiliang, and people of that era naturally favored their hometown more.
"I know that the place where your hometown is, Nanyang, is now under the rule of Liu Bei, but Liu Bei cannot achieve anything." Meng Da said quietly.
"Hanzhong, Jinniu Road and Jiange have all fallen into the hands of the Great Qi. Without the geographical advantage, it is only a matter of time before Yizhou falls to the Great Qi. The same is true for Nanyang."
Li Yan frowned, but he knew in his heart that what Meng Da said was not entirely unreasonable. Over the years, the Dongzhou faction had served Liu Fan closely, and although they had been promoted, the Yizhou faction had indeed taken advantage of him in terms of the distribution of benefits.
Moreover, in the current situation, Liu Fan's throne is shaky, Liu Bei is still far away, but Tian Ze's army is very close. Naturally, he has some ideas.
But betraying one's master and joining the enemy is shameful after all.
Li Yan looked at Meng Da and said quietly: "Zi Du, Zhang He's army will attack the city tomorrow. I need to hold on here tonight. If we are trapped by the treacherous people, I'm afraid it will be difficult to take Chengdu." Li Yan didn't want to be a mantis trying to stop a chariot, but he also didn't want to tarnish his reputation.
Therefore, he had already made a plan in his mind, and now Meng Da took the initiative to come to him, giving him a better choice.
Meng Da immediately understood the hidden meaning when he heard this, and said without hesitation: "Zheng Fang, don't worry. I will arrange for my confidants to guard this place tonight to ensure that nothing goes wrong."
He is not like Li Yan, who has so many concerns.
In his eyes, a wise bird chooses the right tree to roost in.
He was quite disdainful of Li Yan's behavior of being both in power and independent.
You have already decided to surrender, but you are still acting. Do you really think others can't see through your thoughts?
Since Li Yan doesn't dare, then he will do it.
Opening the city gate and being the first to surrender was both a risk and an opportunity. And what Meng Da lacked most was opportunity.
He and Li Yan had a common problem, which was that they had a very high opinion of themselves.
Because there were really not many capable fighters in Yizhou, they were able to gain the upper hand with only tens of thousands of Dongzhou soldiers, which made them feel that the heroes in the world were nothing special.
Meng Da believed that as long as Tian Ze could give them fair treatment and room for advancement, he would be able to rise quickly.
Li Yan looked at Meng Da with a complicated expression.
Meng Da looked down on him, but how could he look down on this villain like Meng Da?
Li Yan had no objection to surrendering to Tian Ze, but Li Yan did not want to work under Tian Ze. Instead, he planned to continue to follow Liu Fan.
The reason is simple: it is better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix.
Tian Ze has too many talented people under his command, and he can't make a name for himself. For Li Yan, who is extremely ambitious and has a strong desire for control, Liu Fan is his best choice.
Liu Fan was not wrong to some extent. Li Yan was loyal to him, but he was loyal to him who was not under Liu Bei.
Under the current situation, Liu Fan's ministers, in addition to the Yizhou faction and the Dongzhou faction, the surrender faction and the die-hard faction, have already evolved into three new factions, the Independence faction, the Liu Bei faction and the Tian Ze faction.
To some extent, this was also the evil consequence that Liu Fan had sown himself.
Yizhou City was captured without any disturbance. The city changed hands overnight.
Unlike the historical situation where it took Liu Bei a long time to capture Chengdu, Zhang He's capture of Chengdu was more like the situation where Deng Ai sneaked across Yinping and the enemy surrendered before his own troops arrived.
Guo Jia breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the gate of the south city wall was wide open.
Great, everything went just as they planned.
After Chengdu was captured, it was only natural for Liu Fan to surrender. After Tian Ze's army entered the city, they quickly controlled various key strongholds. The people in the city gradually calmed down in the panic. Looking at the changed flags on the top of the city, they knew that the ownership of Yizhou had changed.
Liu Fan and the tied-up Li Yan and others were brought before Guo Jia.
Guo Jia did not expose Li Yan's little trick. Everyone has their own ambitions, and Tian Ze does not need a Li Yan. On the contrary, Li Yan can really play his role under Liu Fan.
(End of this chapter)
