The Rise of History’s Most Powerful Empire - Chapter 88

[Chapter 89 The Chaos in Xiliang 1]

Generals die in a hundred battles, and strong men return in ten years.

At this time, this sentence is profoundly reflecting the current situation of the regular army and the county and county soldiers of the entire Han Dynasty.

Beginning in February of the seventh year of Guanghe, all the counties and counties in the entire Han Dynasty began to be in flames, and people who could not survive everywhere rose up.

They joined the Yellow Turbans, burned down the government, killed officials, and looted everywhere. Within a month, wars broke out in twenty-eight counties in seven prefectures across the country.

All the officials and squires who were unwilling to lose their status and wealth gathered together.

Join forces with other local tyrants that have not been affected by the war, and propose to the court to organize troops and horses to quell the Yellow Turban Rebellion that has plagued the entire Han Dynasty.

Because of the Yellow Turbans’ looting regardless of class and circumstances, villagers who were full of fear and indignation in their hearts also formed rebels.

To deal with these rebels, all the local gentry all contributed money and food, and sent troops and weapons.

He dispatched outstanding talents from his own clan, organized them, and brought them on after a little training to resist the first-line battlefield of the Yellow Turbans.

Suddenly, this dynasty, which had been passed down for hundreds of years, organized its army of hundreds of thousands in an instant, and quickly pacified the Yellow Turban Army that had eroded the entire northern part of the Han Dynasty and was spreading everywhere.

The Yellow Turban Army, which had hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, and covered millions of people, was pacified in this way, in just nine months.

With bloody examples, I told future generations that since ancient times, the peasant army has been uprising without a clear goal and command.

After more than half a year of fighting against the rebellion, there are only 200,000 of the hundreds of thousands of rebels and officers left, and most of them are exhausted, especially disgusted with war, and long for a stable Life.

However, this wish did not satisfy them. After the imperial court had just pacified the Yellow Turbans, they discovered that a rebellion of the Qiang people in Western Liang had appeared in their Guanzhong area.

The emperor’s own ancestral tomb and the rear are threatened by the enemy, and this rebellion must be quelled to ensure the normal operation of the entire dynasty.

Therefore, following the emperor’s imperial decree, the 200,000-strong army of rebels in the Central Plains has just been pacified, and they haven’t had time to take a good rest.

In addition to leaving tens of thousands of people to stay in the necessary counties and counties, the remaining 150,000 to 60,000 people were all transferred to Guanzhong to quell the raging rebellion in the northwest direction of Dahan.

With this order, all the soldiers at the bottom were complaining.

Only those high-level generals who are eager to make achievements and gain more merits are excited and eagerly looking forward to the arrival of this war.

Soldiers without the will to fight will have the will to fight.

This sentence is a very profound experience, the actual state of the entire Han Dynasty army.

Different hearts, different opinions.

Soldiers resented that their superiors did not treat them as human beings and ordered them at will; when generals complained, the soldiers under the command did not obey orders and refused to fight timidly.

Two naturally contradictory classes are in the midst of an explosion at this time.

What was missing was just a flashpoint to ignite the disappointment and indignation of the imperial court in the hearts of the soldiers.

Sure enough, when this group of soldiers was transferred to the Guanzhong battlefield, a large number of soldiers idly fought, and those Xiliang rebels fought a little, and they collapsed at the touch of a button.

The situation in the entire Guanzhong battlefield was completely corrupted, and the influence of the rebellion was getting bigger and bigger.

Either take the initiative to join the rebel army, or more and more people are coerced, and the officials of the imperial court are at a disadvantage on the entire battlefield.

And the generals who kept defeating battles blamed all their anger on the soldiers, constantly beating and scolding those soldiers, even more every day.

Contradiction and anger, slowly accumulated, finally one night, all the soldiers who had endured to the limit united together.

They agreed with each other to kill the main general’s tent when the torches were raised, and together they rebelled, attacked the capital together with the rebellious Xiliang army, wiped out this rotten and tattered dynasty, and then returned to their hometown, waiting for The end of the war.

Finally, with the lighting of a torch, countless torches like fire dragons followed.

“kill!”

Following a few prestigious people among the leaders, an order was given.

All the soldiers, full of anger and desire to go home, rushed like a dark cloud to the center of the entire camp, where the commander-in-chief of the army lived.

In 185 AD, in the second month of the first year of Zhongping, Emperor Ling, the soldiers who had been tired of war for a long time and were looking forward to returning to their hometowns, under the persecution of their superiors, finally inspired a mutiny.

Of the remaining 120,000 counter-insurgents, 20,000 participated, and dealt a heavy blow to the unsuspecting officers. Dozens of generals and officers were killed in the turmoil, and the army suffered 50,000 or 60,000 casualties. About 10,000 rebels fled in the direction of Xiliang, brought the news to the Xiliang army, and joined with it.

The Xiliang Army, who received the news of the civil unrest, was overjoyed and immediately summoned 30,000 cavalry to raid the already panic-stricken official army camp.

The officers, who were caught off guard, suffered heavy losses again.

After a civil strife, only 20,000 of the remaining 40,000 or 50,000 troops fled to the Great Wall. They defended the city and quickly sought help from the court.

In the entire west of Guanzhong, except for several counties around Chang’an City, which are still in the hands of the imperial court, all other places were occupied by the rebels of Xiliang. For a time, the chances of victory of the Xiliang army greatly increased. The people who had suffered from the tyranny of the imperial court for a long time responded in succession. The uprising of the Liang Army.

Three days later, I received the news that the counter-insurgent army had been defeated, leaving only 20,000 people in the Great Wall.

Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, who was enjoying the life of a wine pond and a meat forest in the imperial palace of Luoyang City, was very angry and frightened.

Urgently ordered the officials in the court to come up with countermeasures to curb the more rampant offensive of the Xiliang army and prevent him from spreading to Luoyang, Guandong.

After an urgent meeting, the court princes tried to prevent the Xiliang army from coming to their old camp.

They gave money and food, sent troops and men, and once again assembled an army of about 100,000 people and transported them to Chang’an.

Let the Guanzhong aristocrats who have been suppressed by them for hundreds of years gain power again. At that time, how will the Guanzhong aristocrats who have been oppressed by the Guandong aristocrats for a long time treat their old enemies who have been feuding for hundreds of years?

That’s really hard to say.

Therefore, all the gentry are working hard to support the territory this time to suppress the rebellion, even more than the quelling of the Yellow Turban rebellion.

Those Yellow Turban thieves would at most disturb some small noble families with no background, and they still have no threat to the big family that has been passed down for hundreds of years.

Each of these top families can pull out thousands of well-equipped armour.

And he has a good reputation in the local area. If he climbs high and calls at any time, there will be tens of thousands of his people who will gather in Jingjing.

This is a huge force, one, two, five or six families are nothing, but in the entire Dahan, this kind of force consists of dozens of his, plus a little less big family, united, it can be said to be an extremely powerful force. Terrible power.

And these aristocratic families colluded with each other and concluded a marriage relationship.

It can be said that every aristocratic family has a few traces of his blood, and it is enough for them to unite and protect each other by taking their own blood as their bond.

At that time, anyone who dares to violate the interests of their class will be united by them to attack and overthrow them together.

Just like Wang Mang two hundred years ago, he implemented the New Deal, demanding that the interests of the gentry be delegated to the poor.

But he was immediately obstructed by the gentry, who twisted his decrees everywhere.

In the end, he found that Wang Mang’s will could not be stopped, so he simply revolted, overthrew it and established a dynasty that safeguarded their class interests and conformed to the gentry’s will.

Therefore, the Han Dynasty, which had already perished, continued its life again, and a so-called Eastern Han Dynasty appeared, but in fact it was just a puppet of a gentry.

The Guanzhong gentry that I am participating in the rebellion are the victims of Wang Mang’s change of dynasty.

Because he was on the wrong team and chose Wang Mang, he was suppressed by Liu Xiu and the entire Guandong family.

The Guanzhong, which was originally very rich in the Western Han Dynasty, gradually became the now sparsely populated and barren Xiliang.

How dare those Guandong aristocrats now let those Xiliang troops enter the customs?

Aren’t you afraid of becoming the second Guanzhong gentry?

When it comes to the means of dealing with the gentry, the Xiliang Army, who is also a gentry, is more skilled and wise than the Yellow Turbans born from peasants.

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