Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms podcast.

This is episode 74.

Last time, we left off with Cao Cao riding high after defeating Ma Chao and pacifying Liang province,

which lay in the northwestern part of the empire.

As a result of his triumph, Cao Cao's prestige skyrocketed.

Word of his victory soon trickled into the region of Hanzhong

and was greatly distressing to the guy running that region, the governor of Hanzing,

a man named Zhang Lu.

We haven't talked about the region of Hanzhong previously in the novel, so let's talk about it now.

This area laid to the south of Liang province and to the north of Yi province.

The guy who runs things in this region, Zhang Lu, inherited his power from his father and grandfather.

His grandfather was something of a swindler. He forged books of Taoist teachings in the Swancault hills in the Riverlands.

No one ever got wise to his scheme, though,

and in fact, he gained quite a reputation. After he died, his son followed in his footsteps. People who

wanted to study Taoism under him had to donate five pecks of rice, and a peck is equal to about

nine quarts. This price of admission earned him

the nickname the Rice Rebel. After the Rice Rebel died, his son, Zhang Lu, took over and gave himself

the grandiose title of Lord Preceptor, and his followers were known as the Ghost Squad, which sounds like a Ghostbusters rip-off.

Captains in this Ghost Squad were known as libationers, and those commanding large numbers of followers

were dubbed head libationers.

Ironically, for a sect that started out as a scam, its main concern was sincerity.

Neither lying nor deception was condoned.

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