At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

Page 114

When the news came out, within ten months, the world was shaken.

Dong Zhongying, a personal rookie power minister who had only been practicing for four months, obviously didn't think clearly. He didn't expect that once this kind of thing happened, he would have fallen into an unwarranted situation.

Under the circumstances that the strength is not strong enough to control the central government, but has not yet met the expectations of the scholars, Dong Zhuo's end will inevitably become the target of public criticism.

At this time, no matter what he does, he will be carefully scrutinized by everyone.

Follow orders that are good for you.

For those who are not good for themselves, just say "the name is a Han prime minister, but he is actually a Han thief".

In short, Dong Zhuo's power is not strong enough, he took charge of the central government too hastily, he was pushed up purely by the infighting among the scholars, the foundation is too loose, and the slightest movement will cause him to crumble.

But the key point is that Dong Zhuo himself does not have such a consciousness. He has only been practicing for four months, and he is not a senior veteran.

Therefore, it was logical for the Kwantung Allied Forces to crusade against Dong Zhuo with the "indignation of the masses". All of a sudden, the rebellion of the ministers and the emperor to rebel against the upper and lower ranks had a righteous name.

With the word "righteousness" at the fore, the careerists who are about to make a move no longer hesitate.

The ambitious Guo Peng no longer hesitated.

chapter 207

At that time, Guo Peng led four troops of Zhao Yun, Guo Lie, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei with a total of [-] soldiers and horses to defeat Xu He and Sima Ju's [-] Yellow Turban Army in Le'an State.

The galloping cavalry made the Yellow Turban Army at a loss. Xu He and Sima Ju were beaten by Guo Peng and fled for their lives.

The remaining more than 3 Yellow Turban prisoners and more than [-] men and women were captured again, and Guo Peng incorporated them into the refugee team.

Half of these people will be arranged to farm in Le'an country, and half will be arranged to farm in Jinan country, and they will be assigned to Zang Hong and Cao Cao respectively.

If you say these people are Yellow Turbans, they are also Yellow Turbans, if you say they are not Yellow Turbans, they are not Yellow Turbans.

They simply use the Yellow Turban name to make a living. They don't even know how to write the word Yellow Turban, and they don't know the Taiping teachings. Some people don't even know that the great virtuous teacher is called Zhang Jiao.

These people are honest when they have something to eat and a piece of land to grow.

Those who are really dishonest are those who take the lead, who are literate, ambitious, and cunning, who will be killed if they are caught, and will never show mercy.

These people can be compiled into dozens of villages and townships. Guo Peng arranged a large number of his own people to be village and township heads and led them to build a new home.

And if there are those who want to join the army, Guo Peng also accepts them, incorporates them into the army, and sends them to the recruit camp in Linzi, Qi State, and hand them over to Yu Jin for training.

Yu Jin is really a talent who is good at training soldiers. Guo Peng discussed some principles of military training with him, and Yu Jin spoke clearly and logically.

Guo Peng was very happy, so he handed over the soldiers and horses to him to train, and then incorporated them into the army, and incorporated the elite soldiers brought from Shanggu as grassroots officers to pull the army together.

From mid-November to early February, more than 3000 new recruits were recruited into the army in more than three months, and Guo Peng handed over an excellent answer sheet.

As soon as Guo Peng was happy, he made Yu Jin a captain and gave him another nickname, Captain Zhongwu, who specialized in military training.

In mid-February, the news that Liu Bian was killed by Dong Zhuo reached Guo Peng, and only one day later, Bao Xin's letter was sent to Guo Peng again.

Bao Xin clarified this matter sincerely, expounding the importance of Dong Zhuo being a national traitor who must be crusaded, and once again sincerely invited Guo Peng to join their alliance.

This time, Guo Peng did not refuse.

"Dong Zhuo was tyrannical and immoral, he harmed the royal family, everyone got to punish him, and Guo was in charge of the emperor's favor. Hearing about this matter has already broken his heart. There is no reason why he should not put on a firm grip for this."

Guo Peng wrote back to Bao Xin, confirming that he would join the alliance against Dong Zhuo.

However, this matter was only a catalyst. Before Guo Peng confirmed his joining, the coalition forces to defeat Dong Zhuo had basically been established.

After the faction of the old generals led by Yuan Shao assembled, in late January, the faction of celebrities secretly operated by Yuan Kai almost gathered.

The initiator is Zhang Chao, the prefect of Guangling.

The opportunity came when Yuan Sui, who was an official in Luoyang, returned to his hometown.

Yuan Sui was from Guangling, and his position was rather special, that of Tai Fuchen, a subordinate official of Yuan Kui.

Yuan Kui was not reconciled to failure, and after secretly manipulating Dong Zhuo to appoint officials to the celebrities, he sent Yuan Sui to sneak out of Luoyang secretly, returned to his hometown, and found Zhang Chao, the prefect of Guangling.

Yuan Sui explained to him Yuan Wei's dissatisfaction with Dong Zhuo and Yuan Wei's preparations. He hoped that Zhang Chao could unite with his elder brother Chenliu prefect Zhang Miao to contact celebrities and launch a war against Dong Zhuo.

Zhang Chao readily agreed and entrusted Yuan Sui with the duties of prefect of Guangling. He led the army and supplies to Chenliu and found his brother Zhang Miao.

The two hit it off immediately, and following Yuan Shao, they launched the second batch of assembly orders to crusade against Dong Zhuo.

They sent the crusade to Tao Qian, Governor of Xuzhou, Yuan Yi, Governor of Shanyang, Zhang Zi, Governor of Nanyang, Kong Rong, Governor of Runan, Liu Dai, Governor of Yanzhou, Kong Ni, Governor of Yuzhou, Han Fu, Shepherd of Jizhou, and recruiting troops in Nanyang. Later general Yuan Shu and others.

So the two major factions of the crusade against Dong Zhuo, General He Jin's old faction and the Kwantung Celebrity faction assembled.

Yuan Kui's original idea may have been to let Yuan Shu lead the celebrities to attack Luoyang, and the faction of generals led by Yuan Shao may not be in his plan.

As a result, Yuan Shu was too watery. After the news of Liu Bian's death came out in February, the princes from the general faction and the famous scholar faction united because of their common appeal.

In the end, the leader was actually recommended as Yuan Shao, who was the first to issue a call to tough Dong Zhuo and preserve his reputation, not Yuan Shu.

Yuan Shu was very annoyed by this, and he also issued an appeal, but only Sun Jian, the prefect of Changsha, and Liu Xiang, the prefect of Jiangxia, responded, and they wanted to lead troops from Jingzhou to cooperate with him.

Yuan Shu also wrote to Guo Peng, wanting to join forces with Guo Peng to attack Dong Zhuo and strengthen his reputation. Guo Peng wrote back to him saying that the journey to Nanyang was too far, and he would go to Suanzao to join the rebel army first, and then join Yuan Shu in Luoyang.

Because Guo Peng wanted to participate in the campaign against Dong Lianjun, he summoned his important subordinates to discuss this matter, and decided who would accompany him and who would stay behind.

First of all, it is determined that the prime ministers and county magistrates of various countries and other people who have important affairs cannot leave, and must continue to stay to handle government affairs and resettle refugees.

Under Guo Peng's persuasion, Zang Hong and Cao Cao, who wanted to go but were too busy with government affairs, no longer fought for it.

"Brother, Ziyuan, at this time, there are not many people I can trust, I can only ask you, the Yellow Turban is powerful, and those who don't trust will stay in Qingzhou, I am really worried."

Guo Peng held the hands of Cao Cao and Zang Hong. The two were moved and decided to stay and guard the place so that Guo Peng could fight with peace of mind.

After Zang Hong left, Guo Peng had another secret meeting with Cao Cao.

"Brother said in the past that in order to protect ourselves, we need one person to follow Yuan Shu and one person to follow Yuan Shao in order to survive, but the current situation is chaotic, and we don't know what will happen tomorrow.

Yuan Shi doesn't protect himself, so why would he care about us?Brother, to put it inappropriately, Yuan Benchu ​​and Yuan Gonglu can be friends, but they cannot entrust their lives and the future of the family.

The most reliable ones will always be our own family members. Big brother, I am already a Qingzhou herdsman. Although my background is not as good as Yuan's, it is not difficult for us to make a career on our own. "

Hearing what Guo Peng said, Cao Cao immediately had expectations for the future.

He decided to cooperate with Guo Peng, cooperate with his family, and start his own business, instead of lingering under Yuan's protection.

To be honest, the matter of Yuan Shao exposing his scars in front of He Jin is really chilling. The heroic Yuan Benchu ​​back then is no longer there.

Cao Cao confirmed this matter.

The most reliable person is your own family.

With the belief in making a career of his own, Cao Cao returned to Jinan with ideals and feelings in his heart.

Guo Peng also appointed the four generals Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Xiahou Dun and Xiahouyuan as school lieutenants, and asked them to lead troops to stay in the four counties that Qingzhou could control.

Cao Ren cooperated with Chen Ji to defend Pingyuan County, Cao Hong cooperated with Cao Cao to defend Jinan, Xiahouyuan cooperated with Zaozhi to defend Qi, Xiahou Dun cooperated with Zang Hong to defend Le'an, and Cheng Li was in the middle to command, so everyone must keep the fruits of victory.

Yu Jin didn't take him with him, and stayed in Qingzhou to train troops. Guo Peng decided to take Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, and Guo Lie to attack.

Cao Chun and Guo Jia were taken to meet the world.

After basically deciding, Guo Peng decided to take only 5000 people to attack, [-] infantry and [-] cavalry, and the rest of the troops stayed in Qingzhou to prevent the Yellow Turban Army from attacking while he was away and messing up his lair.

chapter 208

As the number one confidant all along, Cheng Li was authorized by Guo Peng.

Once encountering the invasion of the Yellow Turban Army, the remaining four school lieutenants must obey Cheng Li's command and counterattack the Yellow Turban Army, but they must not take the initiative to attack.

After preparing all this, Xi Zhong suddenly came to see him, and asked to follow Guo Peng to fight against Dong Zhuo and gain experience.

"Loyalty loves the military, and it is really unbearable to suffer from government affairs. Please ask Ming Gong to complete it."

Xi Zhong asked Guo Peng bitterly.

Seeing Xi Zhong's bitter haha, Guo Peng shook his head helplessly, and said, "Okay, Zhicai, you can follow me to defeat Dong Zhuo."

Guo Peng arranged for others to take over the stall left by Xi Zhong, and included Xi Zhong in the crusade army.

However, although the composition of the crusade army was decided, Guo Peng did not lead the army to attack immediately, but continued to order the army to drill, and he went to Xiahouyuan's army to learn about the situation of the Yellow Turban Army in the direction of Beihai Kingdom with Xiahouyuan.

At the beginning of spring in March, Guo Peng also personally presided over the Spring Festival Sacrifice within Linzi County, and led all officials and generals to cultivate the fields together, officially announcing the beginning of the policy of garrisoning fields.

After several months of preparations, the four lands of Qi State, Jinan, Guole, Anguo and Yuanyuan County under Guo Peng's control began to farm at the same time. Guo Peng, who has invested a lot of money and energy, wants to see this moment with his own eyes.

Organized farming is definitely a very efficient way to accumulate food.

Guo Peng personally led people to inspect the farmland and water conservancy conditions in various counties, villages, towns and counties, one by one, and led the agricultural team to guide one by one to ensure the success of spring plowing and the bumper harvest of summer grain.

If they found that they did a good job, they would reward the low-level officials, and if they found that they did not do a good job, they would be dismissed directly and thrown back to Linzi to do hard work, as a punishment.

There will be a performance evaluation every quarter, and the outstanding ones will be promoted first, and the bad ones will be severely punished. This is used as a way to encourage the grassroots officials to lead Li Shu to work hard and not slack off.

Before the summer grain harvest, Guo Peng will not lead the army to go out.

He wants to ensure a bumper harvest of summer grain and the effective operation of the farming policy.

Tuntian is his fundamental strategy to stabilize Qingzhou. If this strategy is implemented well, Qingzhou can become his base camp to stabilize the world.

Everything else can be temporarily sidelined, and agriculture is the foundation of the country.

Not only that, but if the policy here works well, it can form a powerful public opinion offensive against the Yellow Turban Army, internally divide and disintegrate the Yellow Turban Army, and reduce the current headache of hundreds of thousands of Yellow Turban Army. .

It is convenient for him to operate later.

Guo has been treacherous, cunning, ruthless, and ruthless for a day or two.

He handles this kind of thing with ease, taking advantage of this stall to control a large amount of wasteland and unowned land, forming his confidence to control Qingzhou, and only then can he really gain a firm foothold in Qingzhou.

This is thanks to the Yellow Turban Army for weakening Qingzhou's local forces for themselves!

Although they cannot be awarded military medals, in Guo's heart, every member of the troublesome Yellow Turban Army has already worn military medals made by Guo's own hands on their chests.

Guo Peng led his subordinates to farm the fields with great joy, and at the end of February, Henan's Dong Lianjun had already sworn in the Suanzao League.

As for Suanzao, Liu Dai, Inspector of Yanzhou, Zhang Miao, Prefect of Chenliu County, Xiaolian Weizi of the County, Qiao Mao, Prefect of Dongjun, Bao Xin, Prime Minister of Jibei and his younger brother Bao Tao, Yuan Yi, Prefect of Shanyang County, Kong Ni, Governor of Yuzhou, and Chen Guoxiang Xu Yu, Liu Xun, the magistrate of Jianping County in Peiguo, and Zhang Chao, the prefect of Guangling County, made an oath.

Guo Peng's absence was an oath of ten towns princes.

At the oath meeting, everyone pushed me and pushed you. No one wanted to be the one who read the oath. In the end, Xiaolian Weizi of Chenliu County took the stage to read the oath, announcing the official establishment of the Alliance Army against Dong, and Yuan Shao was promoted as the leader of the Alliance Army Against Dong.

After the oath of alliance, most of the princes stayed in Suanzao to wait for Yuan Shao's further instructions, while Kong Ni led his army back to Yuzhou, stationed troops in Yingchuan, and threatened Luoyang from afar as Suanzao's support.

The Suanzao League vowed to be at the end of February, and before that, Dong Zhuo panicked when he learned that not only did he kill Liu Bian, not only did not make the Kanto princes stop fighting, but it aroused more people's resistance.

Judging from the detected information, several states and counties in the Central Plains will definitely raise troops to attack him. At that time, the army of more than 1 will come, how can the more than [-] people on his side be enough to fight?

Dong Zhuo was flustered and annoyed. He resented that all the celebrities he sent out were ungrateful and wolf-hearted, and he was even more resentful of those who spoke to make him seal the world.

If he had known that these people would rebel, Dong Zhuo would have killed them all in Luoyang.

But it is too late to say these now, and the top priority is to determine how to deal with the current situation.

In view of the current situation, Dong Zhuo issued an order to mobilize Guanzhong to recruit troops, forcibly recruiting strong men to join the army, and began to drill on the spot, making Guanzhong fly like a dog.

Later, Dong Zhuo thought of moving the capital.

Although Luoyang claims to have eight guards, it is too close to the front line of the Guandong. It is too dangerous to put the emperor here. If he is not careful, he will be defeated and there is no room for buffer.

Dong Zhuo felt that this was not possible, so he began to seek to move the capital.

So Dong Zhuo held a meeting of officials and proposed this strategic plan.

Dong Zhuo’s reason was that Liu Bang established his capital in Chang’an as the eleventh generation, and Liu Xiu’s capital in Luoyang has also passed on the eleventh generation. According to the content of "Stone Baoshi Prophecy", the capital should be moved to Chang'an now to comply with the wishes of God and the people.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty when the theory of prophecy and weft prevailed, the market for prophecy was very large, and it was also an important argument. Using prophecy to cover up one's actions could often get a righteous reputation.

But this time, the matter was too big, and Dong Zhuo encountered a lot of opposition.

Among the three princes, both Yang Biao and Huang Wan opposed it, but Xun Shuang was the only one who followed Dong Zhuo's will.

Dong Zhuo did not get support in the court, but among the staff, Wu Qiong and Zhou Yan, his confidantes, also opposed it.

Now Dong Zhuo was annoyed, and ordered Wu Qiong and Zhou Yan to be killed on the grounds that the people they recommended were all against each other.

Although Dong Zhuo regretted it a little afterwards, there are still benefits.