The leaders of the Three Barbarian Tribes did not fear the Prince of Badong nearly as much as Baoyue had imagined.
First, Wang Yang had explicitly told them that the Prince of Badong was merely using the suppression of the Southern Barbarian Rebellion as a pretext to gather troops. For the moment, he had no time to strike at the Barbarian Tribes. Any actual action might have to wait until after he seized the realm, so they were still safe for now.
Second, the barbarians had endured between heaven and earth without ever dying out; they had their own ways of surviving. If the situation truly became critical, they could retreat into the deep mountains and keep fighting, even at the cost of grievous losses. So long as they held out until the Han Army withdrew, a spark of life would remain, and their people would not be exterminated.
Third-and this was important-the barbarians did not understand the political structure of the Southern Dynasties. Many Tribal Chiefs, much like ordinary people in the Han Lands, harbored unrealistic ideas about the situation. In their imaginations, even if the Prince of Badong controlled Jingzhou, it was only one province. Unless the other provinces joined his rebellion, he might never amount to much. The neighboring provinces could send troops together and surround him, attacking from front and rear, left and right. Would destroying him not be as easy as reaching out and taking him?
The truth, however, was far different. With powerful northern enemies to resist abroad and regional military commands to guard against at home (the term "regional military command" was already common in the medieval period, not a later invention; "fan" meant a protective barrier, as when Liu Yu said, "Among the gentlemen of the Imperial Court, the great ministers, and