[Lightscreen]
[Mi Fang and Fu Shiren sent envoys to welcome Sun Quan.]
For a moment, the hall fell so still you could hear a pin drop.
Liu Bei covered his face in agony. He had a bad feeling about this all along!
Mi Zhu looked utterly incredulous, while Guan Yu narrowed his sharp eyes, scrutinizing Mi Fang with intense, unreadable focus.
Mi Fang instantly burst into tears, throwing himself at Liu Bei's legs and sobbing uncontrollably:
"My lord! My lord! I gave up being the Chancellor of Pengcheng for you!"
"I followed you through Yecheng, Runan, Xinye, and Changban Slope! My loyalty has always been absolute!"
"There must be some vile conspiracy by the Cao thieves and Sun Wu!"
Mi Zhu finally snapped out of his shock. He stepped forward, raised his hand, and...
SLAP! SLAP!
Two brutal slaps, one forward and one reverse, landed squarely on Mi Fang's face.
Mi Fang was completely stunned, holding his stinging cheeks. "Big Brother?"
Guan Yu shook his head and interjected calmly, "I was advancing like splitting bamboo. Why would you, Zifang, betray me? There must be hidden circumstances. Let us wait and see what the screen says."
The others reasoned that this made sense. Everyone knew how close the Mi family was to Liu Bei. Even if Mi Fang defected to Sun Wu, could he possibly gain a more prestigious position than he already held?
Zhang Fei said nothing.
He simply took slow, deliberate steps until he was standing directly behind Mi Fang, staring at the back of Mi Fang's neck with deep, thoughtful contemplation.
[Lightscreen]
[Sun Shiwan-ge stabbed them in the back, while the fellow townsman stabbed them in the front.
After destroying the Seven Armies, Guan Yu besieged Xiangyang and Fancheng, stationed troops at Yancheng to guard against Xu Huang, and transported the prisoners to Jiangling.
Xu Huang, based in Wancheng, guessed that Guan Yu was unsure of his true strength and successfully pushed back Guan Yu's forces at Yancheng.
After receiving reinforcements of 12 battalions, Xu Huang broke the siege of Xiangyang-Fancheng. At one point, he invited Guan Yu out for a friendly chat, but halfway through, he suddenly shouted:
Whoever brings me Guan Yunchang's head gets 1,000 pieces of gold! With only 5,000 men, Guan Yu suffered a crushing defeat.]
Guan Yu, however, did not take it personally at all. He stroked his beard and sighed.
"Gongming and I are both from Hedong. My family is from Jie County, and he is from Yang County. When we were in Xuchang, we interacted frequently."
"Gongming used a trick to deceive me, but we were each serving our respective lords."
"Serving one's lord does not mean doing that," Zhuge Liang argued, defending his friend. "If it were truly just serving a lord, he should have pretended not to know you, rather than using your shared hometown to lure you out, only to ambush you."
The others nodded in agreement. It might not have been a major moral failing, but it was definitely a scummy move.
[Lightscreen]
[When Guan Yu was awe-inspiring to all of China, Jiang Ji and Sima Yi proposed a plan: offer to enfeoff Jiangdong and grant Sun Quan a title in exchange for his intervention.
The plan succeeded. Sun Quan begged: Please keep this secret, do not let Guan Yu prepare.
Thus, Sun Quan later presented Guan Yu's head to Cao Cao, thereby earning the title of King of Wu of Great Wei.
Sun and Cao formally allied. However, Guan Yu still controlled the Han River and had the natural fortress of Jiangling. Even in a direct fight, he still had a fighting chance.
But then, the unthinkable happened: Lu Meng crossed the river in white robes, and Mi Fang and Fu Shiren joined forces to hand over the city.]
Mi Fang lay on the floor, trembling like a leaf in a hurricane, drenched in cold sweat. Though he did not dare look at the light screen, he could hear every word, and his heart slowly sank into an abyss of despair.
"Heh, the Jiangdong rats who crawl on the ground like dogs!" Zhang Fei sneered from behind him.
"As a ruler, selling out an ally for glory and begging for secrecy in the process... you have completely disgraced Sun Jian and Sun Ce!"
"Why stop at his father and brother?" Huang Yueying shook her head. "Even if Zhou Yu and Lu Su, currently across the river, heard of this, they would likely cough up blood from sheer rage."
Zhuge Liang, however, spotted a blind spot:
"So the Wu in Sun Wu actually came from a title granted by the Cao Cao?"
No one had expected this. Previously, when they heard Eastern Wu or Sun Wu, they just assumed the Wu referred to the historical region of Wu and Yue.
"At this time, the Cao Cao had not usurped the Han yet. This title was granted in the name of the Han," Liu Bei argued defensively.
"Oh, come on, give it a rest, Big Brother." Zhang Fei bluntly ripped away the fig leaf Liu Bei was desperately trying to paste over the Han Dynasty's reputation.
"Second Brother's campaign was already in October. The Cao thief was about to croak, Cao Pi would declare himself emperor and usurp the Han. Therefore, this King of Wu was specifically the King of Wu of Great Wei."
Liu Bei went wordless, suddenly remembering that this very year also featured the Wei Feng rebellion, immediately followed by Cao Cao's death.
Why did I not just hold out a little longer in Hanzhong?
[Lightscreen]
[As for Mi Fang handing over the city, no one could understand it.
First, Mi Fang had been with them since Xuzhou. Although he was a mediocre man with high ambitions but low skills, thanks to his brother Mi Zhu and his sister, Lady Mi, he was practically a standard imperial brother-in-law by the founding of Shu Han.
Could an imperial brother-in-law get better treatment by surrendering to Wu than he had in Shu Han? Obviously not.
He would even end up getting pointed at and cursed by Yu Fan:
"You petty man without a shred of loyalty or trust. How dare you talk about serving your lord? You lost 2 cities and still call yourself a general? Have you no shame?"
"When you should have opened the gates, you kept them shut. When you should have held them closed, you threw them wide open. And now you expect a good ending?"
Living like a rat in Sun Wu... perhaps there was a hidden reason for Mi Fang's surrender?]
Finally, a lifeline!
Mi Fang wept uncontrollably. "My lord! Brother-in-law! Emperor Zhaolie! Zifang must have had unavoidable hardships! Just like Liu Feng was instigated by Meng Da, the fault must lie with Shiren!"
Liu Bei took a step back, stared at Mi Fang for a long moment, and let out a deep, chilling sigh.
"If you had not done this, how could there ever be an Emperor Zhaolie!"
"I dare not claim the credit!" Mi Fang kowtowed continuously. "Your Majesty becoming emperor is only due to my meager contribution!"
The crowd was speechless. 'That really does not sound like a compliment, does it?'
Mi Zhu could not bear to watch. He bowed deeply. "I beg you, my lord, to enforce the law."
"Let us see what the light screen has to say first," Liu Bei said calmly.
[Lightscreen]
[First, Mi Fang was definitely not coerced by his subordinates. The Book of Wu records that even after Mi Fang surrendered the city, the Jiangling soldiers still plotted to retake it. It was only because Lu Meng was extremely meticulous that he discovered the plot and thwarted it.
Second, he did not surrender because he could not win. Guan Yu had imprisoned Yu Jin's 7 armies there. Between the garrison and the prisoners of war, plus the natural double-city fortress of Jiangling, it would have been incredibly difficult for Lu Meng to take, even with his white-robed river crossing.
It also could not have been coercion from Fu Shiren, because Jiangling surrendered first. Then, Sun Wu used the exact same trick on Fu Shiren, telling him:
We have already taken Jiangling. How do you expect to defend Gong'an?
Even Mi Fang, your lord's own brother-in-law, surrendered. Why risk your life for that meager salary?
Thus, Fu Shiren surrendered as well.]
With every sentence the light screen spoke, the expressions in the room grew darker.
Liu Bei stood up and kicked Mi Fang over, staring down at him with a fixed, icy gaze.
"If your sister knew she had a brother like this, how would she ever face me?"
Zhang Fei, however, still remembered Hao Pu, who had wanted to dig a hole and hide in the earth out of shame, and he spat bitterly:
"This Lu Meng is utterly despicable and shameless! Disguising himself as a civilian and spouting nothing but lies. How can such a person be considered a general?!"
[Lightscreen]
[As for the reasons behind Mi Fang's betrayal, historical records point to 2 main factors:
First, before Guan Yu departed, there was an incident in Nan Commandery where military equipment caught fire. Before leaving, Guan Yu dropped a harsh warning: I will deal with this when I return.
This is exactly like when a modern warehouse catches fire right before an audit. There is a famous saying from a chief eunuch of the Ming Dynasty:
Unweighed, it is a mere 4 taels. Put it on the scale, and 1,000 catties cannot hold it down! To avoid getting my video flagged and deleted, your uploader will not elaborate further on the specifics.
However, this kind of crime could only be used to punish ordinary officers. Because, as everyone knows, Liu Bei is a man who deeply values old friendships.
If Mi Fang had pulled this stunt under Cao Cao, there would be only one outcome: unlocking the Nine Familial Exterminations match-3 achievement.
But Liu Bei did not even utter a single word of harsh criticism. In the end, Mi Zhu fell ill from shame and anger, and died a year later.
Which basically means he was pissed to death by his own little brother.
Therefore, Guan Yu's' 'I will deal with this' was likely just an empty threat. Mi Fang probably knew this himself. At most, he would just write a letter to Liu Bei to complain.
But he still surrendered without hesitation. This can only mean one thing: if the burning of military equipment was put on the scale, even the imperial brother-in-law could not suppress the weight of it!]