I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 265 Duan Ying's Reward

Seeing that everyone was willing to obey his orders, Yuan Shu breathed a sigh of relief and began to arrange things.

There is a lot to do.

The first thing to do is to gather the Han troops and surrendered soldiers in the city, let the Han troops and the surrendered soldiers of the rebels gather together, leave the city, and temporarily stay in the camp outside the city.

Soldiers who have just fought a battle, killed people, and have red eyes should leave the city.

The surrendered soldiers should also leave the city and be guarded in the prisoner-of-war camps.

Then, the troops that did not enter the city to fight were transferred into the city to maintain order, and a notice was issued to reassure the people, asking all residents in the city to return home and not go out until notified.

Soldiers must also be arranged to carry all the bodies inside and outside the city out of the city.

All the bodies of the rebels were burned and buried, while the bodies of the Han soldiers were picked out, identified, and burned separately. Their ashes were placed in jars and prepared to be sent back to their hometowns and given to their families.

Transport enough food into the city and arrange soldiers to distribute rations to the residents in the city so that they will not starve.

At the same time, in exchange for providing food, the able-bodied men in the city were allowed to come out and work. All traces of the war in the city were cleared away, and then the city walls, houses, streets and other facilities in the city were repaired.

In addition, he also had to provide pensions, medical treatment and comfort to the Han army, and he had to preside over the selection of officers and officials from the rebels. All officials who had served the rebels had to be singled out and brought to justice together, and they would not be allowed to hide among the ordinary soldiers and escape.

These guys will definitely pay the price.

There were a lot of things to do. Although he assigned many tasks to the officers and everyone was willing to obey his orders, there were still many things that required him to personally monitor.

For example, visiting the wounded soldiers, showing up in the wounded camp, and implementing the label of benevolence that has always been there.

The officers were picked out from the surrendered rebel soldiers and all of them were beheaded. Those who had massacred people in the surrounding villages before the war were not spared either. They were all identified and beheaded in front of other surrendered soldiers, and they were told the consequences of their crimes before being let go.

The military merit book of the Han army soldiers must be well prepared, and the soldiers' merits and corresponding rewards must match each other. Things that people have worked hard to get cannot be swallowed up. Some things must be distributed publicly in front of all soldiers and cannot be left entirely to officers.

So Yuan Shu was busy running around, sometimes inside the city, sometimes outside the city, sometimes in the wounded camp, and sometimes in the prisoners' camp. He wished he could be divided into three people.

However, it was also because of his efforts that all the aftermath matters were on track and arranged in place in just three or four days. All that was left was for time to heal the pain of Puyang County.

But to be honest, Puyang County was actually very lucky, because they met Yuan Shu, who tried hard to restrain the behavior of his soldiers. So after the Han army broke into the city, they did not massacre the people or kill innocent people indiscriminately. They quickly put down their weapons and stopped fighting.

Thus, Puyang County escaped the disaster.

As a price, the extra rewards that Yuan Shu promised to give to the Sanhe recruits must also be in place. Yuan Shu made a public promise to them in the Sanhe recruits' camp. When they return to Luoyang, Yuan Shu will directly push the rewards to them in a cart. Everyone will get some, and no one will lose anything.

He guaranteed with his own reputation that he would never let the Sanhe recruits suffer any loss.

Then he specifically inquired about the identities of the soldiers who had made the most military achievements, prepared ten small bottles of wine, and went to the military camp with great fanfare to find these ten people. He rewarded these ten people with the precious wine in public, which caused a sensation among the entire army.

Among them, there were three soldiers from his own Isshinkai, three from the imperial regular army, and four from Mikawa recruits.

These ten people received wine rewards from Yuan Shu. They were given precious wine that was worth more than gold, which made the surrounding soldiers' eyes red with envy. They all drooled at the small bottle of wine.

This incident further enhanced Yuan Shu's reputation and trust among the soldiers, further boosted morale, and brought a lot of happy atmosphere to the army.

On the 23rd day of the first lunar month in the second year of the Zhengshi reign, Duan Xing convened a military meeting in the prefectural government of Puyang City to integrate the work done over the past few days. He praised Yuan Shu for his hard work and achievements over the past few days and expressed his willingness to record another achievement for Yuan Shu.

Next, Duan Xing expressed his intention to carry out the next phase of military operations.

He said that he would divide his troops, and send several armies to enter Jiyin County at the same time, and then go south from Jiyin County to Liang State, Pei State, and Pengcheng State. He also wanted to divide his troops to go to Jizhou and Bohai State to wipe out the officials and local forces in Jizhou, Yuzhou, and Yanzhou who followed the bandit army.

Those officials and local forces who obeyed the orders of the rebel army and had connections with the eunuchs should be captured alive if possible, and if they resisted stubbornly, they would be killed without mercy, even if it meant destroying their families and clans. However, compared to the previous offensive, this military mission was more like a reward.

Because the main force of the rebels had been destroyed, these rear forces could not have sufficient military strength to fight against the elite Han army, so this mopping-up battle after the main battle was more like a reward from the commander after victory, allowing everyone to deal with these rebels at will and take part of their property for themselves.

In name, all the rebel property was to be nationalized and handed over to the imperial court. However, in practice, as long as they did not seize too much and gave nothing to the imperial court, the imperial court would turn a blind eye and also regard this as a benefit to the army.

This is an opportunity to gain extra wealth in a legitimate way, which is something that officers and soldiers are looking forward to very much. Moreover, such opportunities do not come along every time, so if you come across one, it is definitely a great opportunity to make your family rich.

In Yuan Shu's view, as long as innocent people are not attacked, such things as liquidation and fighting against the rich directly touch his DNA. He said that he, Yuan, must help in such matters.

Afterwards, Duan Xing assigned the tasks with a smile. He himself would lead a group of people to Jizhou to carry out this task, while Yuan Shu was assigned to go to the more wealthy Pei State to carry out this task.

It is hard to say whether this was not intentional on Duan Xing's part.

Of course Yuan Shu accepted the task with a smile.

On the 25th day of the first month of the second year of Zhengshi, Yuan Shu, as a cavalry commander, led 5,000 of his own troops south, crossed Jiyin County, and headed directly to Pei State. He began to deal with local officials and local forces from Feng County and Pei County.

Pei State was the source of the rebellion and the first place to raise the banner of rebellion. According to the conclusion drawn by Yuan Shu's interrogation of prisoners of war, because of Wang Ji's tyranny, many counties in Pei State provided soldiers and food to Wang Ji.

Yuan Shu discovered that there were prisoners of war from many counties of Pei State among the prisoners of war. The only ones not found were soldiers from Qiao County, Taiqiu County and Longkang County.

After further interrogation, Yuan Shu learned that the three counties openly opposed Wang Ji's rebellion, and they had fortified their borders and closed their borders. Wang Ji was busy sending troops north and had no time to personally lead his troops to greet them, so he ordered several surrounding counties to besiege the three counties.

However, except for a few counties whose magistrates were Wang Ji's confidants and therefore attacked according to orders, most counties did not actually mobilize troops. They probably wanted to leave a way out for themselves so that they could meet again in the future.
No matter what, Yuan Shu had to carry out a "cleansing" of the entire Pei State - on the "eunuch property map" that Yuan Feng had given Yuan Shu a circle on, Pei State had a very prominent mark.

Yuan Shu drew a big circle in Pei State.

So starting from Fengxian County, Yuan Shu launched a swift and resolute liquidation operation.

When Yuan Shu's army arrived at Feng County, the people in Feng County had probably heard some news. The county magistrate Ding Xi and all the officials opened the city gate to welcome the arrival of Yuan Shu's army. Ding Xi knelt at the gate and saluted Yuan Shu who was riding on a horse.

Yuan Shu didn't say any more nonsense. He rode his horse forward and looked down at Ding Xi from his horse.

"Are you the magistrate of Feng County?"

"That's right. I am Ding Xi, the magistrate of Feng County. May I know who the general is?"

"Cavalry Commander, Yuan Shu."

"Yuan... Could it be that he is the son of Yuan Sikong?"

"Exactly."

"........."

Ding Xi raised his head slightly, looked at the young Yuan Shu, and then immediately lowered his head.

"I wonder what instructions Captain Yuan has for you?"

"Don't you understand clearly? You've brought your men to kneel here."

Yuan Shu sneered, "Did you send a lot of soldiers and food to Feng County when Wang Ji was in turmoil? Wang Ji is the remnant of the eunuchs. Not only did you not resist him, you also helped him to commit atrocities, betrayed the court and the emperor, and openly followed the enemy. Ding Xi, do you know your crime?"

(End of this chapter)