Nan Commandery was now a major commandery of Jing Province, and its Administrator was Cai Mao, military adviser to the General Who Pacified the South.
This Nan Commandery was also the "Jing Province" Liu Bei had borrowed in history. Its territory was vast, and its population immense.
Nanyang had originally been Jing Province's largest commandery, with a population exceeding two million and countless cities.
But after the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Nanyang suffered a round of devastation at Yuan Shu's hands, and great numbers of its people migrated south.
As a result, Nan Commandery gradually became Jing Province's largest commandery, with nearly a million registered residents.
The population concealed by the great clans numbered well over a hundred thousand, especially in a place like Jiangling.
Jiangling City had once been the capital of Chu State. It lay along the Yangtze River, with high walls and stout defenses—easy to defend, hard to attack.
Ever since Cai Mao had been ordered south, he had ordered the city strictly guarded against attacks from the south.
Yet he had not expected that before Qin Tian could march north, Wen Ping in the east would be the first to collapse in defeat.
As April arrived, news of defeat came pouring into his residence like snowflakes!
Xiling had fallen! Wen Ping had been captured! The Huang Clan had rebelled! Jiangxia had fallen! Su Fei had surrendered!
Any one of these reports would once have been enough to cause an earthquake in Jing Province, yet now they came one after another.
It made Cai Mao wonder just how much longer his brother-in-law, Liu Biao, could remain in control!
Jing Province had certainly faced chaos many times before, but Liu Biao had always managed to suppress it in the end.
But now, as Liu Bei and Qin Tian won