The Imperial Protector at once called his counselors together, and Adviser Zheng Du said, “Although Liu Bei has been successful and captured cities and towns, yet his army is but small, his hosts are not near him, and he depends upon chance for his grain and has no proper supplies. Therefore our best plan is to remove the people of Baxi and Zitong to the farther side of River Fu, burn all the granaries, fortify the city, and let starvation defeat him. Let us reject all challenges to battle, and in a hundred days his troops will go off of their own accord. Then we can do with him as we will.”
“I like not the plan,” said Liu Zhang. “Oppose invaders in order that tranquillity may prevail is a well-worn maxim, but till now I have never heard of disturbing the people in order to oppose the march of an enemy. Your words are not such as safety.”
Just at the moment the letter from Fa Zheng arrived. It was opened and the Imperial Protector read:
Liu Zhang flew into a passion. He tore the letter to fragments and began to abuse its writer, crying, “That traitor, ingrate, and renegade! How dares he talk thus to me?”
And Liu Zhang drove the bearer of the letter from his presence. He then sent an army under the leadership of Fei Guan, his wife's brother, to reinforce Mianzhu.
Fei Guan at once recommended as his assistant one Li Yan of Nanyang, and the two mustered their troops, thirty thousand, and set out for the city.
At this juncture Dong He, the Governor of Yiazhou City, wrote advising to borrow aid from Hanzhong, but Liu Zhang rejected this plan, saying, “It will be useless to try to obtain help from a region under the influence of our relentless enemy Zhang Lu.”
Dong He replied, “He may be an enemy, but Liu Bei is in possession of Luocheng, and the situation is extremely dangerous. When the lips are gone, the teeth are cold. If you clearly indicate the dangers to him, he must come to our help.”
So a letter was written and sent to Hanzhong.
Two years had elapsed since Ma Chao had been defeated and gone over to the Qiang tribes in the northwest. He had made friends with them and with their aid had conquered portions of Longxi. His expeditions had been very successful, the people opening their gates at the first summons. Only Jicheng had stood out, but ever this was on the point of yielding. The Governor of Jicheng, Wei Kang, had sent many urgent appeals for help to Xiahou Yuan, who, however, would do nothing without his master's order.
Wei Kang was in despair, and at a council his officers advised him to yield. However, one of them, Yang Fu, earnestly opposed yielding, saying, “We cannot surrender to a lot of rebels such as are Ma Chao and his colleagues.”
“What is there to hope for?” asked Wei Kang despairingly.
Although Yang Fu besought Wei Kang with bitterness to hold out, it was useless; Wei Kang rejected his advice, opened the city gates, and bowed his head in submission.
“You only yield now as the last resource,” cried Ma Chao, angry at the delay he had suffered. “This is no real submission.”
Whereupon he put to death Wei Kang and all his family to the number of two score.
But when one told Ma Chao that Yang Fu had been really responsible for the long delay, in that Yang Fu had urged his master to hold out, Ma Chao did not put him to death but praised him and said, “Yang Fu had but done his duty.”
Ma Chao further showed his approval by employing Yang Fu and two of his friends in his own army. These two friends were named Liang Kuan and Zhao Qu.
One day Yang Fu went to his new chief and said, “My wife has died in Lintao; I wish to take leave for two months to bury her.”
Wherefore Yang Fu was granted leave and went away from the army. On the way, he went to his maternal cousin, General Jiang Xu, Commander of Licheng. The general's mother, then an old lady of eighty-two was Yang Fu's aunt.
