When Liu Bei had sold straw sandals, his family had been very poor. Of course, he knew that ordinary people were poorly equipped to withstand disasters.
People who owned land often lost it after disaster struck. And that was without even mentioning powerful families bullying the common people and seizing their land.
But if the Great Han's territory were vast enough, then even after the aristocratic clans took land, the people could simply go elsewhere to farm. They wouldn't stay behind as tenant farmers. The clans might occupy the land, but with no one to work it, they would gradually lose their appetite for more.
Thinking it over, Liu Bei agreed to Wang Yue's suggestion. With Wang Yue's consent, he enfeoffed him as the Marquis of Nan'an and reassigned him to an official post in Lingnan.
Liu Bei had agreed so readily in the interest of the Great Han's stability. Wang Yue's achievements were simply too great, and the Bandit Eradication Captain's Department under his command had made enormous contributions.
If Wang Yue stayed in Yangzhou, with his influence in Jingzhou as well, Liu Bei genuinely feared that with his two sworn brothers gone, the Great Han might one day end up bearing the Wang name.
Wang Yue understood that Liu Bei might not suspect him, his son-in-law, but an emperor might. That was why he had voluntarily given up prosperous Yangzhou and chosen Lingnan, farther to the south.
During the Three Kingdoms era, Lingnan had yet to see a mass southward migration, so its population was still relatively small, and transportation was difficult.
When Wang Yue went to Lingnan, Liu Bei allowed him to take a large army. To Wang Yue's surprise, more than twenty thousand elite troops from the Bandit Eradication Captain's Department brought their families along and