Chapter 219: Situation in Jingzhou, Gan Ning Arrives In late August of the third year of Jian'an, more than a month after Qin Zhen's diplomatic mission, Liu Biao finally decided to send out the navy to help Liu Bei's army fight. After receiving this news, it was time for Qin Zhen to set off. However, this time he was no longer greeted by only Wang Can like when he first arrived. He had also made the acquaintance of many people in the past few days. Before leaving, Kuai Liang entertained him again on behalf of Liu Biao and invited Fu Xun, Wang Can, Pei Qian, Pang Tong, Pang Lin, Pang Shanmin, Shi Tao, Cui Jun, Meng Jian and others to come. Originally, Pang Degong and others were also invited, but unfortunately Pang Degong never entered the city, so only Sima Hui and Huang Chengyan attended the banquet. According to official rank, Qin Zhen naturally took the seat of honor, but Qin Zhen invited Huang Chengyan and Sima Hui to sit in the first and second seats. He let Kuai Liang sit in the third seat, and he himself sat in the fourth seat. Everyone sat down one by one, and naturally there was another banquet. When talking about the university that Qin Zhen wanted to build, Kuai Liang asked curiously: "I heard that Zixuan wants to build a university in Huainan. I wonder how much the tuition will be and what the enrollment is for?" Kuai Liang found the concept of this university very novel, because the Jingzhou Academy was built in imitation of the Luoyang Imperial College.

All the recruits were children of noble families and the group was large in scale. Since Qin Zhen was able to convince Huang Chengyan and others, he was obviously something. When he asked this question, everyone pricked up their ears to listen, and even Huang Chengyan and Sima Hui became a little curious. A university must be established, but tuition and enrollment are also problems. If it only recruits children of the gentry, then it is just a variation of an academy and cannot be considered a university. But when Qin Zhen heard this, he directly stated to everyone that he had only one purpose for running a school: to teach everyone! All tuition fees are free. As long as you are willing to learn and qualified to pass the entrance examination, you can enter the school. After entering school, one’s status is determined not by family background but only by academic performance. All students can get a complete set of Huaishu at a very low price, and scholarships are provided for students with excellent academic performance and conduct every year. When everyone heard about this, they were surprised. They had only heard of paying money to go to school, but had never heard of making money by studying. When young men from poor families like Shi Tao and Meng Jian heard this, they were all excited. Fu Xun and Pei Qian secretly thought that Qin Zhen's behavior was truly unusual, but Wang Can and others did not comment. Only Kuai Liang, Pang Tong, Huang Chengyan, Sima Hui and others had complicated expressions and different reactions. Among them, Kuai Liang was the most impressed. After hearing Qin Zhen's school plan, he said with some emotion: "If your army can really act in this way, then in the future, all the talented people in the world will fall into your hands!" There are many officials in this world who attach great importance to education, but the only one who dares and can run a school in this way is probably Qin Zhen. As a wise man, Kuai Liang could easily foresee what would happen after the university was established. I'm afraid that all the poor scholars in the world will go crazy for this university! You know, in this era when knowledge is controlled by the aristocratic families, many poor scholars cannot even get a book. But Qin Zhen first broke the knowledge monopoly with Huai Shu, and then used universities to attract people. This kind of attraction is even more terrifying than the call for talents! These students received education from Liu Bei's army and would naturally serve in Liu Bei's army. Just wait a few years and Liu Bei’s army will see a surge in talent! As he pondered, he admired Qin Zhen even more, and he couldn't help but raise his cup towards Qin Zhen and said:

"I heard that Liu Shijun once said that having you is like a fish in water. Now I see that it is more than just water, it is like a fish in the sea, a bird in the sky. Who can restrain us?" "Sir, your talent deserves my respect. I hope you will drink this cup to the full!" When Qin Zhen saw him toasting, he quickly expressed his praise and then picked up the glass to drink with him. While drinking, he thought that the Cai family had already intended to stick to them, and the Kuai brothers had also made a lot of efforts this time. After all the calculations, the three great families in Jingzhou have already won over two of them. If they can also bring in Huang Zu, then their future in Jingzhou will be a piece of cake! He then invited everyone to a banquet again, and the banquet lasted until late at night. Before leaving, Huang Chengyan and Sima Hui reminded him again that if he had any new works, he must copy them down and have someone send them over. Qin Zhen gladly agreed and then extended an invitation to everyone. At this banquet, people like Kuai Liang, Fu Xun and others all worked under Liu Biao. But the others don’t have an official identity, and this invitation is his last one. In the end, neither the brothers Pang Tong nor Pang Lin agreed, and Cui Jun, who disliked being restrained by nature, directly refused. Instead, it was Pei Qian who agreed. Because Pei Qian had long been disappointed with Liu Biao, he often told Wang Can and Fu Xun that Liu Biao was not a good ruler! According to the original plan, he was going to go south to Changsha to live in seclusion. But now that Qin Zhen had invited him first, he agreed to go to Huainan with Wang Can to take a look. As for Shi Tao and Meng Jian, they were still hesitating whether to go north to the Central Plains or to Huainan, but they could not resist Zhuge Liang's advice: "There are many scholars and officials in the Central Plains. A man should travel far and wide. Why would he return to his hometown?" Both of them were from the Central Plains. After hearing this, they gave up the idea of ​​going north and told Zhuge Liang that they would go to Huainan to take a look after they had packed up their belongings. So at a banquet, Qin Zhen attracted three talented people, and the next day he left Xiangyang with Wang Can and Pei Qian. When leaving, Liu Xian appeared again and gave Qin Zhen the thank-you gift from Liu Biao to Liu Bei. This thank-you gift was divided into two parts, one was a handwritten letter to Liu Bei, and the other was some gold, silver and jewelry as a reward for Liu Bei's gift. One of them was a farewell gift to Qin Zhen, consisting of a box of fifty taels of gold, a box of jewelry, and several hundred volumes of books from the Xiangyang collection. These classics were annotated and proofread by Song Zhong and others, as if to tell Qin Zhen that although there were more books in Huainan, most of the knowledge was in Xiangyang. Qin Zhen could only smile in response, thinking that Liu Biao was an old man, yet his desire to win was so strong. But at least the other party gave him some money, so he had no choice but to thank Liu Biao for his gift. If we count the income from his diplomatic mission this time, excluding public property, his personal income would be over a million. Although he is wealthy, he would rather accept free money than not take it. At this point, Qin Zhen finally completed all the tasks of his mission. Traveling from Xiangyang to the west for a few miles, they arrived at the ferry outside the city, where Cai Mao had already led his troops to make contact. Although the main force of the expedition was the navy of Jingzhou, Qin Zhen still asked Liu Biao to accompany him in order to ensure the results. Cai Mao's mission was to send Qin Zhen all the way to Jiangxia.

When they met again this time, there was no longer any tension between the two of them. They called each other brothers and were quite cordial along the way. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Qin Zhen asked Cai Mao about the situation of the Jingzhou army. Later, we learned that the Jingzhou army now had more than 130,000 soldiers and horses, including more than 15,000 naval forces. The navy was divided into three parts. One part, consisting of 3,000 men, was stationed at the Bin State Water Fort east of Xiangyang. A group of more than 3,000 people were stationed in the water fort south of Jiangling City. The last part, totaling more than 9,000 people, was stationed at Shaxian Water Fort in Jiangxia and was under the command of Huang Zu. Compared with Nanjun, Jiangxia had only more than 70,000 households and more than 300,000 people, but the garrison exceeded 30,000. Thanks to this, Huang Zu was like a local emperor under Liu Biao. He only obeyed orders and not announcements, and basically would not enter Xiangyang City to report on his work. After hearing this, Qin Zhen thought that Huang Zu and Liu Biao had no relationship. Since he knew that Huang Zu was so powerful, why did he let Huang She be the prefect of Zhangling? After thinking for a while, he asked his doubts. When Cai Mao heard it, he stroked his beard and smiled: "You may not know this, my dear brother. Although Huang Zu only controls Jiangxia, the tax revenue from Zhangling also belongs to Huang Zu!" As he spoke, he told Qin Zhen about Huang Zu's situation. It turned out that long before Sun Jian killed the governor of Jingzhou, Wang Rui, Jingzhou had already formed a situation of separatism among various factions. Nanyang County was occupied by Yuan Shu, Nan County was occupied by clan thieves, and except for Zhang Xian, the four counties in southern Jing were all in turmoil. And Jiangxia was occupied by the Anlu Huang family. With Anlu as the center, including Xiling, Zhangling and other places, all were the Huang family's territories. On that day, Liu Biao entered Jingzhou and with the help of the Kuai and Cai families, he successfully pacified most of Jingzhou. Only in Jiangxia area, the Huang family had become too powerful to be eliminated. Faced with this situation, it was naturally impossible for Liu Biao to launch a punitive attack, so he could only send an envoy to discuss with Huang Zu. Finally, he reached an agreement with Huang Zu and made Jiangxia and part of Nanyang counties obey Liu Biao's orders. The Huang family guaranteed to maintain public order in various places and had independent military power, but did not participate in the political situation in Jingzhou. Liu Biao was naturally not satisfied with this, but he could do nothing about Huang Zu, so he had to let it go. Later, he saw that Huang Zu's power was too great and intended to weaken it. After Yuan Shu left, he took advantage of the situation to seize Nanyang. He also carved out a Zhangling County from the part occupied by Huang Zu and appointed Kuai Yue as the prefect in an attempt to bring it under his own command. But Huang Zu was not happy with this and started to ask for a huge amount of money and food from Liu Biao to support the army. Liu Biao had to support the Jingzhou army on the one hand, and support Zhang Xiu on the other hand, so how could he have money and food to give to Huang Zu? Seeing that Huang Zu intended to take advantage of this opportunity to lose his temper, he had no choice but to remove Kuai Yue from the position of Zhangling Prefect and replace him with Huang She as the Zhangling Prefect. Only then did he stabilize the situation in Jingzhou. Therefore, Huang She's appointment as the prefect of Zhangling was not Liu Biao's original intention, but a way to discredit Huang Zu. This explanation naturally gave Qin Zhen a deeper understanding of Jingzhou. Although on the surface, Jingzhou is a whole. However, when Liu Biao entered Jingzhou alone, he used a lot of appeasement measures, which resulted in Jingzhou in Liu Biao's hands not being as stable as the territories of other princes. This is also the reason why Jingzhou fell into pieces after Liu Biao's death.

Because Jingzhou has never become a complete political system since Liu Biao took power. While thinking, he took this opportunity to ask Cai Mao some other questions, such as Wen Pin, Liu Pan, Huang Zhong and others. In a sense, these things are military secrets, but Cai Mao answered all of them at this moment. He clearly told Qin Zhen that Wen Pin and Liu Pan were close confidants promoted by Liu Biao himself. However, Huang Zhong was a captain under the former governor Wang Rui, and was never trusted by Liu Biao. In addition to these three generals, Liu Biao also had trusted generals such as Yuan Long, Liu Hu, and Han Xi. As the two men were talking, the boat passed Yuliang Island and just as they arrived at Lumen, they saw a troop of soldiers already lined up on the river bank. Seeing this army appear, Cai Mao stroked his beard and said leisurely: "It seems that Lord Huang has sent someone to receive you, my dear brother. I can only send you here!" Qin Zhen listened, came to the railing, looked out, and saw Huang She waiting on the shore with a smile on his face: "Brother Qin, I haven't seen you for a while. Are you okay?" "I heard that the envoy has already ordered troops to go to Jiangxia to help. Why don't you and I go together?" Seeing Huang She waiting here, Qin Zhen no longer had the contempt he had before. Before, he just thought Huang She was a second-generation rich man. But now that he understood the power structure of Jingzhou, he realized that Huang She might not be as simple as he imagined! So when he was sent away before, it was not that he did not take state affairs seriously, but it was obvious that he did not take Liu Biao seriously. Now that he has deployed his troops here, it is obvious that he does not take Cai Mao and others seriously. Seeing Cai Mao temporarily avoiding the limelight, he knew that the relationship between the Cai family and the Huang family might be even worse than that of the Kuai family. As the palms and backs of one's hands are all made of flesh and blood, he immediately said goodbye to Cai Mao and led everyone off the boat. When he came in front of Huang She, he bowed and smiled and said: "How could I be so worthy as to trouble you, Lord?" Huang She saw him bowing, so he naturally turned over and dismounted, and replied with a smile: "Sir, please don't do that. Don't say we are friends. We should see you off." "Before this, I promised to bring someone to see you!" "Now that this person has arrived, I will personally escort him to the palace!" As he said this, he turned around and looked back. Then he saw a burly general coming in front of Qin Zhen, bowing respectfully and saying: "Gentleman, I am Gan Ning, honored to meet you, sir!" (End of this chapter)