Tiger Guards

Chapter 701 Necessary Price
South of Taiyuan Prefecture, in Zhongdu County.

The Xu clan and their fellow villagers were mostly settled in the five counties of Zhongdu on the east bank of the Fen River.

Under the cold night sky, Xu Chu, who had been secretly ordered by Zhao Yan to go south, started a fire alone in the courtyard. He piled up coal and charcoal to build a cone-shaped tower. After lighting it, the cold wind blew, and the fire burned fiercely and roared loudly.

Standing upwind, he could still feel the heat coming at him, almost equal to the cold wind blowing against his back.

He slowly stepped forward, used his sword to lift a scroll of silk he was holding, and handed it to the fire to burn.

The silk scroll had just caught fire when it was blown away from the sword by the wind and drifted higher into the sky.

Xu Chu looked up at the scroll of silk that was spinning in the night sky and about to burn out, and couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

After a moment, he came to his senses, turned around and went out. Outside the door, more than a hundred members of the Xu clan and local strongmen were all wearing leather armor, carrying swords and bows and crossbows, standing in two rows on the left and right, leading their horses, and more than a dozen people were holding torches and looking at Xu Chu.

Xu Chu looked around and then looked at one person who was holding a head that had just been cut off, still bleeding and steaming from the severed neck.

The other person stepped forward, holding the head in both hands, and showed it to Xu Chu: "Captain, the bandit leader is here."

Xu Chu glanced at the severed head, and after confirming that it was indeed Pei Zheng's, he said, "Clean it up and come back to Jinyang with me."

"Here."

The subordinate agreed and led a few men to jog away to deal with the head.

Xu Chu strode out, and as he passed a courtyard, he instinctively turned his head to look. This was the place where Pei Zheng had been killed. The headless corpse lay face up inside the threshold, its severed neck hanging in the snow-covered courtyard vegetable garden, the gushing hot blood staining a large area of ​​snow red.

Xu Chu was not surprised. He withdrew his gaze and continued walking forward. He went out of the front gate, went down the steps, and came to a carriage.

A group of knights stood around the carriage. When they saw Xu Chu approaching, these soldiers from the Marquis of Jinyang simply bowed to him without saying a word.

Xu Chu returned the greeting with a bow and called out to the carriage, "This humble general has been impolite."

After saying this, Xu Chu stepped forward, raised his hand, and lifted the carriage curtain made of layers of velvet leather stitched together. Immediately, a knight holding a torch approached him.

Inside the carriage, Tongxiang Jun looked dazed, slowly raising his head to look at the torchlight, completely ignoring Xu Chu's face.

After confirming that it was indeed Lord Tongxiang, Xu Chu looked at the two armored women escorting and protecting Lord Tongxiang on both sides of the carriage. Both of them were selected from Xu Chu's relatives.

The two men were dressed warmly and were both looking at Xu Chu.

Xu Chu said, "Take good care of Lord Tongxiang."

"Yes."

The two armored women agreed, and Xu Chu then lowered the curtain and turned to walk quickly toward his warhorse.

With a nimble leap, Xu Chu mounted his horse and waved his hand forward: "Let's go!"

Now that things have come to this, Xu Chu has no other choice.

Just like in the Battle of Bianshui in Chenliu, Cao Cao's central army was almost wiped out. If peripheral commanders like Xu Chu did not want their troops to be destroyed, they could only rise up in rebellion on the spot. Otherwise, if they were defeated by Zhao Ji on the spot, they might be lucky enough to be captured and selected as auxiliary soldiers or used as suicide soldiers.

If you're unlucky, you'll become a government slave.

It was only through his decisive change of allegiance that Xu Chu's troops were able to alter their fate.

Upon joining the Jin army, Xu Chu did not experience the anticipated war of attrition... On the contrary, Zhao Ji's original troops were all eager to join, and if they hadn't been so short of manpower, they really wouldn't have given these surrendered generals the opportunity to make merit.

Therefore, in the past three years, Xu Chu has only been promoted two ranks, from Colonel of the Five Battalions to General of Miscellaneous Titles, and then transferred to his current position as Cavalry Commandant.

One cavalry captain is not the same as another cavalry captain, and Xu Chu was quite satisfied with his current situation.

However, news has already arrived from Guanzhong and Pingyang: Wang Cheng, the Northern Commandant of Jingzhao, committed suicide, and Ma Wan, the Left Army Commandant of the Five Battalions, committed suicide.

Wang Cheng was a Tiger General and a meritorious general, while Ma Wan was a powerful clan leader from Hedong. Although their military ranks were not high, they could be considered high-ranking military officers.

However, their relatives and former subordinates, having rendered meritorious service, have already filled the ranks of the troops, and the number of troops indirectly influenced by them is at least 10,000, if not 20,000.

This founding father, in despair, committed suicide to atone for his sins.

This further proves that the Zhao family could not tolerate powerful figures in the army, and it is clear that Xu Chu is now one of those powerful figures.

The clans and local ties are distributed across the five counties of Zhongdu. If they do not cause trouble, all will be well; but if they do, the five counties will immediately descend into chaos.

This was under the previous circumstances when the five counties of Zhongdu were unprepared. But now, with Grand Tutor Zhao returning to the Pingyang camp and the counties of Taiyuan beginning their preparations for war... Xu Chu's golden opportunity had vanished. But what could Xu Chu do?
Even if he won the gamble, Xu Chu was just a local tycoon with insufficient connections and no prestige in the court. He was simply powerless to seize or take control of Xizhou.

He always felt that the Pei family had a great chance of winning, but he never expected that there would be someone as ruthless and vicious as Pei Xiu.

Killing people from other tribes or outsiders is not considered truly ruthless; killing one's own people or fellow tribesmen is the most insidious consensus and certification of the time.

Xu Chu had no choice but to obediently carry out Zhao Yan's orders and burn the silk scroll sent by Cao Ang.

As dawn approached, Xu Chu's escort force of over two hundred cavalrymen gradually left Zhongdu and headed north towards Jinyang.

Throughout the Pingyang camp, a remarkably peaceful night passed amidst the howling north wind.

As the sky gradually brightened, the camps of Pingyang were bathed in the new sunlight, and the hearts of the middle and senior military officers who had barely completed the collective mobilization finally settled down.

The fact that no low-ranking officers or veterans mutinied last night shows that the Grand Tutor enjoys high prestige and that no one, from the lowest to the highest ranks, is disobedient.

Even if there were still those who were dissatisfied, they dared not cause trouble under Zhao Ji's nose.

After getting through this toughest night, fewer and fewer people will dare to cause trouble.

As the chain of evidence becomes more and more substantial, the Pingyang camp, which had a garrison of 60,000 troops, is very likely to be reduced to 50,000.

In the central army camp, Zhao Ji also did not sleep all night.

He was alone, reviewing the major plans of various prefectures that had taken place in Jinyang in October. Except for the prefectures of Liangzhou that were embroiled in war, the accountants of the other prefectures had all participated in the major plans of October.

The population and economic data of each prefecture were presented to Zhao Ji... So far, Zhao Ji still has not found the right and qualified soldiers in his mind.

Whether it was the Tiger Warriors, the Tiger Steps, the Five Battalions, the newly formed Daredevils, the various Hu tribes' Righteous Cavalry, or the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, they all had various shortcomings.

A new round of military reorganization is imperative. Some units with poor composition and potential risks must be disbanded and strictly eliminated. Only veterans with serious destructive capabilities will be retained, their military ranks and benefits will be maintained, and they will be dispersed and incorporated into other armies.

We will keep fighting until these people are too old to fight, or they die or are injured in battle.

Zhang Heng was the third mid-to-high-ranking military officer to commit suicide after Wang Cheng and Ma Wan. Following this trend, the more than 20,000 unstable troops with military ranks would surely be reduced to nothing.

It's their business if the other party falls into a lower social class, but Zhao Ji absolutely cannot tolerate these people eating his food and then smashing his pot!

In the military alone, more than 20,000 families were removed from the military household system. Those who were not deeply implicated were demoted to official tenants and organized to go to the border to carry out civilian settlements in the four prefectures of Shuofang.

Those deeply implicated and unable to prove their innocence were demoted to government slaves, with their families also placed under centralized management.

Once officials and ordinary people are involved in a case, it inevitably becomes a case involving a large number of people, and in terms of scale, it can result in the demotion of more than 20,000 households.

Zhao Ji silently calculated the changes in the cost of maintaining the army. He saw the good side, but he also had to face the bad side.

After the purge, the reorganization and resettlement of the standing army will be completed after the spring planting next year. To restore the morale and combat effectiveness of the expeditionary force, it will take at least six months of recovery and training.

If implemented, the army's morale, command, and supply systems will be thrown into temporary chaos, during which time it will be impossible to intervene militarily.

Therefore, there are internal costs, and there will also be various external costs.

If military intervention is possible, changes in the external situation are relatively controllable, and the country will not bear the costs that may suddenly arise.

If we cannot intervene, we can only watch helplessly as the external situation deteriorates until we have no choice but to confront it and take action to resolve it.

Should we bear this immeasurable cost?

No matter how things change internally, it can't get too bad.

What troubled Zhao Ji was the external situation. If he carried out the Great Purge, he could not use military means to hinder Yuan Shao, Sun Ce, Liu Bei, and others, nor could he intervene with imperial edicts.

In short, this external cost may be small or it may be large.

After figuring out the details, Zhao Ji prepared to wait for a response from Jinyang.

Strictly speaking, the Empress Dowager and Grand Tutor Zhao Yan were his partners, so their attitudes should be taken into consideration.

However, there's no need to guess the old man's attitude; he's a ruthless grandfather who'd love to see rivers of blood shed.

The Empress Dowager, having experienced so much, was not necessarily a kind and benevolent person.

(End of this chapter)