Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 154: The Prince Recruits Soldiers, Chaos in the Capital

Leaving Beijing to Shangdang to recruit soldiers, or going to Shangdang to develop, was the result of Zhang Yu's careful consideration for a long time.

The name of Shangdang is different from many place names in the Central Plains. It is named after its special terrain. Dang means "place". Because it is the highest place on the mountain, it is called Shangdang.

Shangdang is located on a high ground, overlooking the Hebei Plain. Therefore, due to its height, it is known as the backbone of the world.

In old days, Qin and Zhao contended for power in Shangdang. Qin won and unified the world!
When Zhang Yu was studying history in his previous life, he learned about the geographical advantage of Shangdang. However, because he had never seen it with his own eyes, his knowledge of it was mostly on paper.

Until today, when I went south to the Central Plains and passed Shangdang, I overlooked the Hebei Plain from the perspective of Shangdang, or looked up at the highlands from the plains, and then I realized the value of "the Central Plains can be seen from Shangdang".

For example, if you enter Shangdang from the Hebei Plain, the rugged mountain road of just over ten miles will raise the altitude to more than one thousand meters. It is so high that it can be seen with the naked eye even on the banks of the Yellow River.

In addition to its commanding position over Hebei, Shangdang is also of great significance to the counties of Bingzhou.

In ancient times, there were eight passes through Taihang Mountain to enter Bingzhou from Hebei. If we count the eight passes, there are three passes from Youzhou to Bingzhou, and from Henei, you can go to Hedong via the Chenjing Pass. From Jizhou, you can only go to Taiyuan via the Jingxing Pass. In addition to the above five passes, there are three passes in Shangdang that directly connect to Weijun and Henei.

Therefore, occupying Shangdang not only allows one to overlook the Central Plains, but also blocks the passage from the Central Plains to Bingzhou!

Judging from the current situation, Liu Yu, the governor of Youzhou, has no ambition to expand, so the three northern passes are not dangerous. However, from the perspective of historical development, the three passes of Shangdang are the most dangerous because they are close to the capital.

Now Zhang Yu has arrived in Shangdang to recruit soldiers. When the time is ripe, he will be able to capture Shangdang and block the Sanxing Pass. Anyone entering or leaving Bingzhou will have to observe Zhang Yu's mood.

This is why Zhang Yu sought to recruit soldiers in Shangdang. Although Shangdang had a small population, it was geographically important and Zhang Yu had to pay attention to it.

In early August, after several days of marching, Zhang Yu arrived at Huguan County (now Changzhi), the seat of Shangdang. With a handwritten letter from the imperial court, more than a thousand men were provided with supplies by the counties along the way.

The previous Shangdang governor, Wei Xuan, fled before the battle. The current Shangdang governor appointed by the court is Liu Bo, a native of Jinan, Qingzhou.

Because Zhang Yu had some fame in Bingzhou, Liu Bo was very enthusiastic when he learned that Zhang Yu came to recruit soldiers and suppress bandits. He not only provided money, food, and equipment, but also allowed Zhang Yu to set up camp at Li Ting, 50 miles south of Huguan.

Luoyang was not in chaos yet, so Zhang Yu could not openly kill the county governor and seize the throne. So he followed Liu Bo's instructions and went to Li Ting to set up camp and prepare to recruit soldiers.

On August 9th, Li Ting Village was completed.

Inside the big tent, Zhang Yu was arranging matters with his generals.

"The Black Mountain Bandits are entrenched in the valleys along the mountains. Since there are few common people in Shangdang and many large clans, they are mostly distributed east of the mountains."

Zhang Yu pointed to the map and said, "If we want to recruit soldiers now, I will recruit soldiers in Shangdang, and you can go to the counties and prefectures of Yuanshan to recruit soldiers, such as Henei and Wei. There are many soldiers who are good at running."

Zhang Liao hesitated for a moment and said, "We are leaving the capital now. The army does not carry much money. If we go to Henei and Wei to recruit soldiers, I wonder if the local government will help us finance the army."

Zhang Yu drummed his fingers on the table and frowned in thought. He had no foundation yet and Shangdang was not rich, so he could not recruit soldiers and horses with the same treatment as the imperial guards in the past.

At the same time, if the timeline does not deviate too much, in the future, the Guandong samurai headed by the two Yuans will rise up to fight against Dong, and the counties around the capital will probably fall into chaos.

"Do you have any opinions?" Zhang Yu asked.

Man Chong looked at the people around him and said, "Sir, our army has more than a thousand elite infantry and cavalry. With these thousand people, we can defeat the bandits who are several times more numerous than us. Therefore, in my opinion, our army should recruit auxiliary soldiers to boost our army's momentum and fight against the old and weak enemies."

Zhang Yang nodded and said, "There are no auxiliary soldiers in the army, so many trivial matters need to be handled by the soldiers themselves. If there are auxiliary soldiers to help, the soldiers can concentrate on training."

"Even if there are auxiliary troops, the soldiers still need to do it themselves!"

Gao Shun reminded him, "If we let the auxiliary soldiers do the cleaning of armor, checking of weapons, and feeding of war horses, wouldn't it be absurd if they lost their lives due to mistakes in armor when facing the enemy in battle?"

"Correct!"

Zhang Yu agreed and said, "Weapons, armor, and horses should not be lent to others. If there are auxiliary soldiers to help with trivial matters, the soldiers must be required to follow strict military discipline."

"What about the treatment for recruiting auxiliary soldiers?" Zhang Liao asked.

"Recruit them with three thousand coins?" Xu Shu said.

"It will cost six million coins to recruit two thousand men. But there are only several hundred thousand coins in the army. If we want to recruit soldiers, we need to find the governor of Shangdang County. And from what I have seen of the poverty of the people in Shangdang County, I am afraid there is not enough six million coins in the treasury." Lu Fan calculated.

Zhang Yu had already gained some insights, so he asked, "Does Ziheng have any opinions?"

Lu Fan pondered for a while and said, "My Lord, since I entered Shangdang from Henei, I have seen many wastelands along the way, but few people are cultivating the land. So in my humble opinion, why not allow the soldiers to use the wasteland, or see if we can reduce or exempt taxes?" "I'm afraid it will be difficult to do!"

Yu Yi said: "If the soldiers are given land, but they join the army, who will farm it? The people of Shangdang have no shortage of land, so why would the people of Wei and Henei leave their homes and property to join the army in Shangdang? As for reducing taxes, it is a good idea."

"Then let's see if we can recruit refugees?" Lu Fan looked at Zhang Yu and asked.

Zhang Yu sorted out his thoughts and said, "The people of Shangdang can be exempted from taxes and given land as a condition for recruiting soldiers. As for the two counties of Wei and Henei, they should first show their handwritten letters and ask the two county governments to provide funds, and then recruit refugees, or poor people, and move them to Shangdang; if they want money, they can recruit them with money."

"The court is currently short of money and grain. Although our department can obtain local money and grain with handwritten letters, it is not prepared for unexpected events. When recruiting soldiers, we will not spend money if we can. We will recruit soldiers on the grounds of granting land and tax exemption."

Yu Yi frowned and said, "If we reduce the taxes for the people of Shangdang, I'm afraid the governor of Shangdang will not agree to it, and he will file a petition to the court to sue you."

"nothing!"

Zhang Yu showed a meaningful look and said, "If the Shangdang governor is dissatisfied, I will find a way to deal with it. You can discuss recruiting soldiers according to what I have said now."

"Wenyuan, Yuanzhi, you two go to Weijun to recruit soldiers; Zhangjun, Shaoran, you two go to Henei to recruit soldiers. I will camp with other officials in Shangdang to recruit soldiers and investigate the distribution of the Black Mountain Army."

"Yes!" everyone responded in a deep voice.

Kirby hesitated for a moment and said, "Sir, should we recruit the cavalry from Yanbei, or should we let my troops lead the cavalry south?"

Before he defeated the Xiongnu, Kobe might have had ambitions to lead his people to independence, but after seeing Zhang Yu defeat the Xiongnu and kill the Chanyu, Kobe was impressed by Zhang Yu's military prowess.

Not only that, since Kobe followed Zhang Yu into the Central Plains, he has seen too many things that he could not have on the grassland, which made Kobe gradually addicted to the comfortable life of the Han people in the Central Plains, rather than the hard life on the frontier.

Therefore, it cannot be said that Kobe is completely devoted to Zhang Yu, but at least he is willing to work for Zhang Yu in exchange for more wealth, as well as higher official titles and status.

Zhang Yu shook his head and said, "The old troops in Yanbei don't need to worry. We will recruit soldiers in Shangdang first."

"promise!"

As the situation changed, Zhang Yu had changed his original plan. When he was in Yanmen before, Zhang Yu wanted to use Yanmen as a base to connect Youzhou and Bingzhou, and then go south to annex the counties of Bingzhou. However, as he was transferred from Yanbei, Zhang Yu had already planned to choose another county.

Now Zhang Yu intends to occupy Shangdang to block the key points in and out of Bingzhou. Then the duties of the old Yanbei troops will change. After Zhang Yu seizes Shangdang, the old troops will act as pawns to cooperate with Zhang Yu in planning Taiyuan and Yanmen counties.

On August 10, Zhang Yang and Yu Yi were ordered to go to Henei to recruit soldiers, while Zhang Liao and Xu Shu went to Weijun to recruit soldiers. Zhang Yu led his troops to stay in Liting, where he comforted the people and recruited soldiers from the counties of Shangdang.

When Zhang Yu was recruiting soldiers, Dong Zhuo ignored the dissuasion from Luoyang and forcibly led his troops to the vicinity of Luoyang, forcing Empress Dowager He to expel the eunuchs.

Seeing that Dong Zhuo really wanted to use military force to persuade him, Empress Dowager He finally gave in and dismissed Zhang Rang, Guo Sheng, Duan Gui and others. He Jin then sent Zhong Shao to envoy Dong Zhuo and forced him to stop 20 miles away from Luoyang.

Dong Zhuo saw that the eunuchs had been expelled and knew he had no excuse to continue his advance, so he camped at the Sunset Pavilion outside the capital. Ding Yuan's troops, under the order of He Jin, crossed the Yellow River and stationed at Jinkou to prepare for Dong Zhuo's rebellion.

After being expelled from the palace, the eunuchs thought that He Jin was magnanimous and would spare their lives, so they wanted to return home to retire. However, the news that Yuan Shao had falsely conveyed He Jin's order to arrest the eunuchs' relatives reached Luoyang, which made Zhang Rang, Guo Sheng, Duan Gui and others despair, thinking that He Jin deliberately tricked them out of the palace so that he could return home to kill them.

The eunuchs, who were desperate, decided to fight to the death to see if they could repeat the incident of Dou Wu. Zhang Rang pleaded with his daughter-in-law He, asking her to let him see Empress Dowager He once more before returning home to end their worries in Luoyang.

He told the Empress Dowager He, who did not suspect it was a lie, so she summoned the eunuchs into the palace. After the eunuchs entered the palace, they falsely conveyed the Empress Dowager He's order to kill the eunuchs, and summoned He to the palace on the pretext that he was stationed in the Forbidden City.

That afternoon, He Jin did not suspect a trick and entered the palace from the south gate, intending to meet Empress Dowager He. However, when he was halfway through the palace, he was suddenly ambushed by dozens of eunuchs and died on the spot in front of the Jiade Hall.

Then, in order to control the situation, Zhang Rang appointed Fan Ling, a member of He Jin's faction, as the lieutenant of Sili and Xu Xiang, the junior official, as the governor of Henan in the name of He Jin. However, the officials of the Secretariat saw something fishy and disobeyed the order, and asked to see He Jin himself.

Zhang Rang threw He Jin's head at the officials of the Secretariat, which frightened them into panic. Under threat, they drafted an imperial edict. But when the edict was sent out of the palace, someone took the opportunity to leak the news.

Upon learning of He Jin's death, Yuan Shu led two hundred of his trusted subordinates and burned down the Nangong Gate together with He Jin's former subordinates. Yuan Shao rushed over after hearing the news and incited He Jin's former subordinates to kill He Miao on the grounds that He Miao had killed his brother.

When the eunuchs saw that the situation had changed, they took Empress Dowager He, Liu Xie and Liu Bian hostage and fled from the North Palace. On the way, they met Shangshu Lu Zhi who was protecting the emperor, so they left Empress Dowager He and fled, heading straight to Mangshan.

While Yuan Shu, Yuan Shao, Lu Zhi, Wang Yun and other ministers were hunting down the eunuchs, Dong Min took the opportunity to win over He Jin's former subordinates Wu Kuang and Zhang Zhang, attacked the General of Chariots and Cavalry's mansion, and beheaded He Miao and his subordinate staff.

That night, a huge fire was visible in the Luoyang Palace. Dong Zhuo, who was stationed in the Sunset Pavilion, went to Mangshan to welcome Emperor Liu Bian of Han and Prince Liu Xie of Chenliu. He used the unrest in the capital as an excuse to force the two to station in Xianyang Garden.

(End of this chapter)