Yizhou

Biodata

Geography and Strategic Value

• Agricultural wealth: Described as a “land of heavenly abundance,” with fertile fields stretching a thousand li 17 34.
• Natural defenses: Treacherous roads and defensible terrain make the province easy to defend and difficult to attack 22 34.
• Alternative to Huainan: Yang Feng regards Yizhou as a safer territorial base than exposed Huainan, where prolonged pressure from rival warlords could wear down his forces 34.
• Approach to Chengdu: The Heavenly Screen depicts Cao Cao advancing through the passes between Hanzhong and Chengdu 42 43.

Government and Local Power

History

Liu Zhang’s Rule and the Heavenly Screen

The Heavenly Screen identifies Yizhou as the refuge where Yang Feng will regain his freedom after Yuan Shu’s defeat. It subsequently reveals a struggle between Yang Feng and Liu Zhang, followed by Fa Zheng and Li Yan’s defection. These broadcasts expose divisions within Yizhou’s ruling establishment before the predicted events occur 7 11 22 25.

Liu Zhang repeatedly confronts Fa Zheng and Li Yan over their foretold betrayal. Although both deny disloyalty, he fears that executing them would destabilize the province or provoke their families’ private armies. After the Screen depicts his murder, he increases the guards around his bedchamber rather than moving against them 27 33.

Submission to the Great Yang Empire

Fa Zheng persuades Li Yan to act before Liu Zhang can retaliate, arguing that they should support Yang Feng regardless of the outcome of his anticipated confrontation with Cao Cao and Lü Bu. The two mobilize in Chengdu and kill Liu Zhang during the night 34 35.

At Chengdu’s gates, Fa Zheng displays Liu Zhang’s severed head and announces that he and Li Yan will jointly oversee Yizhou’s military and civil affairs while awaiting Yang Feng. Their letter formally acknowledges the Great Yang Empire’s sovereignty over the province. Yang Feng receives the news while still in Shouchun, and Chengdu’s residents reportedly raise Yang banners and celebrate 35 36.

Rival Claims and Uncertain Loyalty

• Cao Cao’s camp: Guo Jia argues that defeating Yang Feng would leave Yizhou leaderless and allow Cao Cao to secure it by proclamation 37.
• Jing Province: Liu Biao’s advisers likewise propose taking Yizhou after Cao Cao and Lü Bu destroy Yang Feng 38.
• Fa Zheng and Li Yan: Despite their submission, they privately retain surrender to Cao Cao as a fallback if Yang Feng is defeated. The cannon revelation later leads them to regret doubting him 39 41 45.

Yizhou in the Heavenly Screen’s Future

Refuge and Conflict

In the Screen’s version of events, Yang Feng gathers Yuan Shu’s surviving troops and travels west to Yizhou. Liu Zhang suspects that his request for refuge conceals an intention to seize the province, repeatedly attempting to poison Yang Feng and his followers at banquets. After other warlords send envoys to Chengdu demanding Yang Feng’s execution, Liu Zhang prepares an open military attack 11 22.

The Screen attributes Yang Feng’s escape from this predicament to his cultivation of Fa Zheng and Li Yan. His poetry wins their admiration, and both plan to marry their daughters to him and help establish his position in Yizhou 25.

The Yizhou Plan

Yang Feng presents Fa Zheng and Li Yan with a strategy for using the province as the foundation of an empire 28:

1. Secure Yizhou as the initial territorial base.
2. Take Jing Province to gain a region connected in multiple directions.
3. Ally with Sun Ce, rather than contest Jiangdong.
4. Reform domestic government and strengthen the state.
5. Befriend, then seek the submission of, tribes to the west and south.
6. Advance north from Jing Province when the wider political situation becomes favorable.

Chengdu Capital and Cao Cao’s Invasion

The Screen shows Fa Zheng, Li Yan, and Yan Xiang seizing Liu Zhang’s army and killing him. They then bring Yang Feng to Chengdu’s gatehouse, drape him in a yellow blanket, and proclaim him emperor. The Great Yang Empire is founded with Chengdu as its capital—distinct from Yang Feng’s present-day enthronement in Shouchun 30 31.

Cao Cao subsequently advances against Yizhou with three hundred thousand troops. The Screen describes the province as internally fragmented, with Yang Feng dependent on Fa Zheng, Li Yan, and their clan retainers. Yang Feng orders the passes between Hanzhong and Chengdu to surrender rather than resist 43.

The invasion ends with “Shooting a Cannon at the Camp Gate.” Yang Feng’s Heaven and Earth Cannon destroys an uninhabited hill, frightening Cao Cao’s army into retreat. Cao Cao postpones his southern campaign to concentrate on unifying the north 43 45.