"Whether you believe it or not, I do." — Cai Tong, Governor of Anzhou

  The people of the world are not fools, and Chen Liang's move to deceive heaven and cross the sea is not new. The news that Chen Liang was recruiting soldiers and buying horses soon reached the ears of the governor of Anzhou. The governor, who should have intervened in this matter, had been bribed by Chen Liang with 500 taels of silver and immediately began to turn a deaf ear. This corrupt official, who would do anything for money, had actually prepared dozens of large carts long ago and was just waiting to sell off the immovable property before resigning and returning home.

  Rebellion is a big deal with far-reaching consequences, and it's not something that can be prepared for in just two or three days. And it's not like I'm rebelling against my own position, what does Chen Liang want to do, after I die, who cares if the floodwaters overflow?

  Unexpectedly, the joints were easily opened, and Chen Liang saw more clearly the essence of the Great Qin Empire's external strength and internal weakness. This country had already rotted from the roots, and any idea of repairing or supplementing it was just a daydream.

  Under the pressure of the iron hooves of the Di people, the imperial court, which had hastily moved its capital from Chang'an to Luoyang, saw its influence greatly diminished. It could barely control the nearby areas, including the Three Rivers region and the neighboring provinces of Henan and Hedong. Central government orders were immediately discounted as soon as they left the capital, and the governors and inspectors stationed in various places took advantage of the bandits' blockade of roads and the Hu people's raids to ignore the Luoyang court and do their own thing. Even if most local officials had no ambition to compete for the nine provinces, their actions were limited to maintaining the status quo. If they felt that things were not going well, these bureaucrats who had gained wealth and power would immediately abandon their posts and return home.

  The situation has deteriorated to this point, and most imperial officials have given up hope for their own careers. Now they are in a state of mind where they just want to make the most of what's left, thinking that as long as they can get something out of it, that's good enough. Anyway, they don't plan on doing anything else, so whoever wants to rebel can go ahead and do so.

  That governor of Anzhou who neglected his duties is just one of countless bureaucrats, and it's these parasites that have brought the country to its current state.

  After the millennium, the administrative division of the Great Qin Empire was a continuous county system. As the population grew, more and more counties were added, resulting in strange phenomena such as one county governing dozens of counties and having nearly one million people in super-large counties.

  In order to eliminate the local forces that were too big to fail, during the reign of Qin Shi Huang, the imperial court at that time vigorously promoted the reform of local administrative divisions.

  Since then, between the old counties and counties, independent administrative regions have been separated and are called "states", which belong to the central government and are dispatched by the imperial court as the highest administrative officials. The imperial court's setting of "states" is also carefully considered, mainly for those densely populated cities with developed commerce, which are roughly similar to the directly-controlled municipalities that Lin Xu is familiar with in his time and space.

  Anzhou, where Chen Liang fled and took refuge, was a place of strategic importance in water and land transportation, and a prosperous place where merchants from the south and north gathered. If not, Lin Xu would not have used opening a shop as an excuse to make a move here.

  Commercial cities are tasteless chicken ribs for those who intend to rebel. Pulling the rod to rebel requires an army and grain, and commercial cities have good consumption capacity, but hoping to provide reliable troops and food is really seeking fish from a tree.

  Measuring the situation in Anzhou as unfavorable for a rebellion, Chen Liang set his sights further away and locked onto Jiangling, the prefectural seat of South Commandery, the largest city in Jingzhou.

  Chen Liang spent several months and a large sum of money to train a private army of thousands. Although it can't be said that they were elite, at least they were an organized and disciplined violent group. During this time, Chen Liang received news of uprisings from all over the country, one after another, without any pause. Although there were few examples of successful rebellions, this intense atmosphere still put a lot of pressure on him.

  An opportunity lost is gone forever. The matter of rebellion is very particular about the order of events, if others first gain a foothold in Jingzhou, Chen Liang, who has missed the initial chance, will find it difficult to proceed according to plan. After careful consideration, he was unwilling to wait any longer and immediately began making plans for action.

  Chen Liang's first step in preparation was to distribute ghost masks with green faces and sharp teeth to his subordinates. Every year on the fifteenth of July is the Yu Lan Festival, which is said to be the day when the gates of hell are open. At midnight, the wandering ghosts and wild ghosts will all come out from hell to visit their relatives and friends, and also enjoy some incense offerings from humans. Having already chosen the date for action, Chen Liang ordered his private army to set out three days in advance, maintaining a pattern of resting during the day and marching at night, taking those desolate and remote roads that were rarely traveled by people, relying on the bright moonlight, nothing major happened.

  To tell the truth, even if someone encounters this military procession in the wilderness and takes a look at those terrifying and ferocious ghost masks, they will not associate this troop with rebels who are plotting to revolt, but will definitely think that they have encountered ghosts.

  Thus, Chen Liang took advantage of the intimidating power of the gods and ghosts to maintain his covert actions, traveling west from Anzhou to the banks of the Han River, where he boarded a boat heading towards his destination, Jiangling.

  Jiangling City is the seat of the county government of Nangong, which controls the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and borders Bashu in the west and Jiangnan in the east. Compared to the northern counties that have experienced war fires and banditry, as well as ethnic massacres, Jingzhou is generally a place of peace and prosperity, especially in the Nangong area, which is almost like a paradise on earth.

  From a strategic point of view, the weight of the world is on Xiangyang, the weight of the southeast is on Wuchang, and the weight of Jingzhou is on Jiangling.

  Taking Jiangling is enough to intimidate the various counties of Jingnan, and Xiangyang in the north and Wuchang in the east are meat on the mouth, thinking about when to eat can be opened. Nanguo's money and grain are abundant, with a large population, it is not a problem to prepare military funds and troops for Chen Liang, who started from scratch, can be said to have taken a step into heaven, occupying a very advantageous starting point in the future chess game of competing for the world.

  Originally, ships traveling on the Yangtze River had to follow the strict and harsh inspection system of the Great Qin Empire. From the Han River to Jiangling, they would have to pass through the patrol area of the Wuchang Water Squadron, making it difficult for ordinary people to sneak through. That's what they say, but even with a well-designed system, it still requires those who execute it to follow the rules and do their job properly.

  As the imperial court's orders were not issued from Luoyang, local officials had the idea of sweeping the snow in front of their own doors. Normally, no one bothered with anyone else. Activities like patrolling the river to prevent minor incidents had evolved into an excuse for naval soldiers to extort money from traveling merchants by the time Chen Liang pretended to be a merchant selling cloth and after paying a toll to the naval patrol he encountered by chance, his fleet sailed from the Han River into the Yangtze River, with Jiangling already in sight.

  Snakes have snake paths, mice have mouse ways. Chen Liang sent out his family members to buy off a group of local people in Jiangling and gather intelligence through various channels, so he had a clear understanding of the situation in Jiangling.

  The garrison in Jiangling had about 20,000 soldiers, with infantry and navy each accounting for half. Chen Liang planned to rely on his own private army of thousands to take Jiangling by surprise. Regardless of whether the plan succeeded or not, just the courage to fight one against twenty was enough to make people sincerely admire him.

  The plan to raid Jiangling was not Chen Liang's original idea, but had another origin. Lin Xu planned to cultivate Chen Liang as an agent and did not want to make things too obvious. The original version of the military book with profound vocabulary in classical Chinese was also not something that a newcomer like Chen Liang, who graduated from a literacy class, could understand. In view of this, Lin Xu changed his approach and placed a large number of popular books in the mansion in Anzhou before Chen Liang fled there while being pursued by the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

  Works such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin", "The Records of the Grand Historian", "A Revelation of Officialdom" and "Modern Marvels", all sorts of these, as long as they can teach people to understand the world's complexities, the ups and downs of officialdom and the unpredictability of human nature, have all become Lin Xu's teaching materials for cultivating Chen Liang.

  Considering the practical needs of the future, Lin Xu solemnly introduced "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" to Chen Liang. Of course, Lin Xu also played a shameful role as a gold cutter, deleting those passages in the original book that were difficult to explain clearly, such as imperial examinations and changes of dynasties, which obviously had nothing to do with the historical background of this film. In the blank parts of the book, Lin Xu randomly filled in some patches, and these books themselves had also been made old, looking like old handwritten copies from the outside.

  Everything was ready, and the mansion welcomed a new resident. Chen Liang had killed the Jin Yiwei's guard, making him a first-class wanted criminal. In Anzhou, he could only sit in the courtyard, watching the sky, not daring to go out or see anyone. Three meals a day were arranged by Lin Xu, who ordered food from restaurants and had it delivered to the door, where someone would hand it over to Chen Liang.

  With no worries about food and clothing, and having nothing to do in his free time, Chen Liang spent all his spare time reading. As Lin Xu had expected, his favorite book was "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". A classic is a classic, it has an eternal artistic charm.

  It is said that the elderly should not read "Three Kingdoms", and the young should not read "Water Margin". The book "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has a name that means "historical records", and many of its contents are classic examples that conform to actual situations.

  This time, Chen Liang's inspiration for the surprise attack on Jiangling came from this Lin edition of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", where Lü Meng crossed the river in white clothes to seize Nangong and Guan Yu lost Jingzhou.

  Although on the earth of China, this story of Guan Yu's defeat and escape from Maicheng is a well-known allusion that has been performed countless times in various dramas, illiterate old farmers can talk about it endlessly, but in this piece of land, the situation is greatly different.

  For over a thousand years, the Qin Empire unified the Jiangshan region, and the Jingzhou area in the heart of the empire was peaceful and uneventful, with no major battles ever occurring. Therefore, Chen Liang was the first person to conceive the idea of using cunning to seize control of Jiangling. This time, he followed the example of the Eastern Wu general Lü Meng's old trick, and had himself and his entourage disguise themselves as merchants, strictly ordering his private soldiers to stay in their cabins and not venture out. He then lavishly bribed his way through all the checkpoints along the route.

  This journey was smooth sailing, without any twists or turns, which made Chen Liang feel suffocated instead. In vain had he devised so many contingency plans, only to find that none of them were needed as they arrived at their destination in one piece - what a waste of mental effort!

  Fortunately, Chen Liang's complaints were only muttered in his heart and did not come out of his mouth. Otherwise, Lin Xu, who had been serving diligently throughout, would have heard it and gotten angry.

  What is meant by "being in good fortune without knowing it"? Chen Liang's journey, Lin Xu has been secretly escorting him, and he contacted Da Jiang Long Jun Ao Ping to calm the waves on the river surface where the fleet passed. When passing through Wuchang, Ao Ping even deliberately raised a layer of thick fog on the riverbank to cover up the traces of the fleet in the water. The small team of naval soldiers who blocked the boat that day were privately driving out of the camp to scoop up oil and water, and they didn't mean to check seriously. If it was a regular naval operation, even if it was just for show, they would have to search the cabin. Would Chen Liang still dare to hope that his little trick wouldn't be exposed?

  If it weren't for these conveniences, let alone other things, just relying on Chen Liang's group of inexperienced ducks wandering around the boat for two days would be enough to make them vomit and feel like they're going to capsize. I reckon when they get off the boat, they'll all be dizzy and disoriented. Forget about launching a surprise attack on Jiangling, they should just find a place to rest and recover!

  Ignorance is bliss, unaware of the hardships and dangers that may be encountered. Chen Liang stood on the shore, gazing out at the not-too-distant Jiangling City. One of his attendants spoke up beside him:

  "Brother, will this method work?"