Han officials

Chapter 4: The Heritage of the Han Dynasty
After coming out of the central army tent, Wei Zhe followed Fu Xie back to his own camp.

Because no one except messengers was allowed to ride horses after nightfall, several people left on foot.

Fu Xie remained silent as usual, and the other four looked at Wei Zhe with complicated expressions.

Similar to Sun Jian, Fu Xie, the military commander, also led a separate unit and had the Five Clans of Yicong under his command.

In fact, this was also a workaround formulated by the Luoyang court in response to the large number of Yellow Turban Army.

That is, the size of the regular troops remained unchanged, but these brave volunteers were temporarily recruited to form an army and commanded by court officials.

In this way, it will not only be cost-effective, but also reduce the risk of local unrest.

It was in this context that Fu Xie and Sun Jian were promoted.

But unlike Sun Jian, Fu Xie was a righteous and upright person. He never recruited any followers and was only served by two old servants, even though this was an unspoken rule known to everyone in the army.

Not only that, this person usually acts impartially, which makes Wei Zhe feel a little ashamed.

For example, at this moment, after entering the camp, Fu Xie saw that Taishi Ci and Zhong Hu's armor was mostly damaged, and he immediately nodded and said, "You have worked hard in this battle. If you need anything, please feel free to speak up."

Having followed Fu Xie for so long, Wei Zhe knew his character and immediately said without hesitation: "Thank you, Sima. Everything else is fine, except for the armor and weapons that need repairing. Also, the camp is running low on medicine, and the war horses have also suffered a lot of damage."

Hearing this, Fu Xie paused for a moment before nodding and saying, "I'll have the armor, weapons, and war horses delivered tomorrow. As for the medicine... we'll have to wait a day. Dongwuyang City is in ruins, so we'll need to gather it from elsewhere."

As soon as these words were spoken, the other four military marquises looked at Wei Zhe with envy.

But no matter how much I envy them, there's nothing I can do about it, because Fu Xie treats everyone equally and doesn't care about relatives or strangers.

They also wanted war horses, but Fu Xie only had one cavalry general, Wei Zhe, under his command.

Moreover, the combat effectiveness of the Liaodong Volunteers under Wei Zhe was not even inferior to that of the Sanhe Knights, which made them too embarrassed to ask for war horses, and Fu Xie would not agree.

It can be said that Wei Zhe enjoyed the treatment of a personal guard under Fu Xie, and it would be strange if Sun Jian could poach him away.

Of course, Fu Xie was fair-minded and Wei Zhe also treated him with sincerity.

At least since he joined the army, Wei Zhe has never made any concessions on tasks that he was responsible for completing.

……

Not to mention how others envy Wei Zhe.

Back in his tent, Zhong Hu still couldn't hide his excitement.

"Tens of thousands of soldiers have searched for Bu Si in vain, yet he was captured and killed by you, my lord. I wonder how the court will reward you for this great achievement."

Upon hearing this, Taishi Ci also looked curious and said, "That Bu Si is the leader of the Yellow Turbans in East Commandery. Even if he can't be made a marquis for this achievement, he should be able to become the governor of a county, right?"

Hearing this, Wei Zhe couldn't help but shook his head with a wry smile: "How can it be so easy? That's two thousand koku!"

However, Wei Zhe knew in his heart that the most important thing was that he had no one in the court.

If he comes from a prominent family, then even a small achievement can be rewarded greatly.

Because the merit itself is not important, what is important is the reason, like Cao Cao.

He sought an official position but could not obtain one, but Cao Cao was selected as a filial and honest official when he reached adulthood and started his career as the Northern Commander of Luoyang. Even after killing the uncle of the eunuch Jian Shuo, he was still promoted to the magistrate of Dunqiu County.

At the beginning of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, he was appointed Cavalry Commandant, a rank equivalent to two thousand stones. Before he even turned thirty, Cao Cao had already reached a goal that many ambitious people could only dream of. Even if he lay low and did nothing now, he could still inherit the title of Marquis of Feiting in the future.

Tsk tsk~ It’s true that comparing yourself to others makes you feel the thief of frustration!
Wei Zhe admitted that his jealousy of Cao Cao had changed him somewhat beyond recognition.

However, he also knew in his heart that this was something he could not envy. After sending Zhong Hu and Taishi Ci away, Wei Zhe could not help but secretly estimate in his heart: "Although there is no one in the court, with such achievements, it should not be a problem to get the position of county magistrate of a large county, right?"

According to the Han system, counties were divided into large and small. Those with less than 10,000 households were called "chang" and those with more than 10,000 households were called "ling".

The rank of a county magistrate is generally between 600 and 300 shi.

The rank of a county magistrate is basically between 1,000 and 600 shi.

If Wei Zhe could really become a county magistrate, he would actually be better than 90% of his peers in the Han Dynasty.

So with such expectation, Wei Zhe slept very comfortably.

……

The next day, Wei Zhe got up early before dawn.

Breakfast was wheat rice with fermented black beans and meat soup. It smelled delicious but tasted very irritating to the throat, but the followers did not dislike it at all.

No matter how good your teeth are, it’s already pretty good to be able to eat your fill these days.

Of course, winning the battle is still useful. I guess there will be more meat in the meals these days.

The same was true for Wei Zhe, but as a military marquis, he only had one more meal than ordinary soldiers.

In fact, it was only after he traveled through time that he realized that most ordinary soldiers and common people could only have two meals a day.

Breakfast is usually between 7 and 9 in the morning and is the staple food, so the quantity is large.
The second meal is usually eaten around four in the afternoon, so it is also called "snack".

As for the three meals a day today, it is also a symbol of status and rank.

Even for the powerful, being sentenced to skip a meal after making a mistake was a punishment.

For example, during the reign of Emperor Wen of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Chang, King of Huainan, was punished by being limited to eating only two meals a day because of rebellion.

And only the emperor in the world can have "four meals a day".

And each has its own name, namely: morning food, daytime food, evening food, and dusk food.

For those in later generations who like to eat midnight snacks, they basically enjoy the treatment of an emperor.

Therefore, in the Han Dynasty, not only could you not speak carelessly, you couldn't even eat carelessly.

Therefore, if Wei Zhe wanted to provide extra food for his cavalry, he could only find a way to do it himself instead of asking the logistics department for food. Otherwise, no one would think it was wrong if Huangfu Song executed him.

This is also the reason why Wei Zhe still had to carry some food and fodder even though there was a baggage camp in the army.

You should know that all the food in Wei Zhe’s camp was purchased with his own money at the military market.

If not for this, not all of Wei Zhe's Liaodong volunteers would be willing to die for him.

However, there are not many military officers who do the same as him. Many generals are lucky enough not to embezzle supplies, let alone pay for them themselves.

To a certain extent, this is actually one of the reasons why Fu Xie treats Wei Zhe differently.

After breakfast, Wei Zhe took Taishi Ci to practice martial arts together.

Like the marching notes, this has become Wei Zhe's regular morning and evening lessons every day.

First there was wrestling, then an archery contest, and finally a weapons showdown.

After several rounds, both Taishi Ci and Wei Zhe were sweating profusely.

"Okay, let's take a break first."

As Wei Zhe spoke, he paused with the long spear in his hand, then dismounted and walked towards the Huchuang beside him.

There's no way around it, losing more than winning is always discouraging.

Of course, this kind of limited competition is somewhat unfair to Wei Zhe.

After all, he always likes to defeat the opponent with force on the battlefield, but he cannot compare with Taishi Ci in terms of dexterity.

Taishi Ci was also clear about this in his heart. If he really fought for his life, he might not win.

Therefore, he was not very happy about defeating Wei Zhe. He was just curious about why his game ended so quickly today.

"Have you forgotten? Armor and weapons are to be delivered today."

After Wei Zhe casually flushed his face, he began to inspect the accounts to determine which ones needed to be replaced.

However, when the baggage was delivered, Wei Zhe was shocked. He did not expect Fu Xie to be so helpful!
After counting the supplies, Taishi Ci couldn't help but wonder, "This... are you sure it wasn't sent to the wrong person?"

The other supplies delivered this time were fine, except for the 500 cavalry crossbows, which surprised and delighted Wei Zhe.

"This is the military order, the Marquis of Wei can rest assured!"

The clerk in charge of transporting the baggage also knew that Wei Zhe had made great contributions yesterday and was a favorite under Fu Xie, so he explained with a smile.

Only then did Wei Zhe realize that Dongjun was different from other places and there was no county armory here.

To be precise, the Dongjun Armory was not under the jurisdiction of the county government, but directly under the central government. The Dongjun Armory Commander was a rank of six hundred stones, and was directly under the jurisdiction of the Secretariat.

In fact, the Han Dynasty court not only had a national arsenal directly under the court in Chang'an and Luoyang, but also had separate arsenals in border counties and inner counties to facilitate the dispatch of troops at any time to suppress the four directions.

As a result, the scale of the Dongjun Arsenal is naturally far beyond the reach of ordinary county arsenals.

For example, ordinary county armories only stored armor and weapons, but the East County armory contained royal artifacts.

Even though the emperor rarely toured the country, according to the rules, the Dongjun armory still had a carriage ready.

However, this kind of thing is of no help in suppressing the rebellion, and is not suitable for use by human officials.

Therefore, this time Huangfu Song dispatched some weapons and armor from the Dongjun armory.

This is also the biggest advantage of the Han Dynasty compared to the Yellow Turban Army.

You should know that the Dongjun armory alone has more than 520,000 spears and more than 537,000 bows and crossbows of various types. The many treasures are enough to equip an army of 500,000.

Even though the weapons' damage rate was extremely high, the scale of the Dongjun arsenal would not be a problem in supplying an army of 200,000.

Therefore, Huangfu Song's military supplies for a mere 20,000 men were no pressure at all for the Dongjun Arsenal.

What really limits the size of an army is mainly manpower and food.

At least given the current financial situation of the Han Dynasty, it certainly could not afford an army of 500,000.

You have to know that the logistical requirements of an army of 500,000 are more than what Emperor Wu of Han spent when he fought against the Huns.

If they had forced it, the Yellow Turbans would probably have destroyed the Han Dynasty before they did.

But then again, it was fortunate that Puyang City, the capital of Dongjun, had not fallen, otherwise Huangfu Song and others would have been in big trouble.

Of course, Wei Zhe doesn't need to consider these issues yet. Right now, he just wants to test the power of the new crossbow.

So after the people from the baggage camp left, Wei Zhe opened a box of crossbowmen and assembled them.

Similar to later firearms, the Han crossbow also had many accessories, such as the crossbow body, crossbow arm, crossbow weft, crossbow string, crossbow extension, crossbow arrows, crossbow calf ball, crossbow orb, crossbow orb crown, etc.

However, what Wei Zhe had was a cavalry crossbow, not a waist-drawn crossbow, so it had fewer accessories.

"Whoosh~whoosh~whoosh~"

A moment later, looking at the dense crossbow arrows on the target, Wei Zhe smiled brightly.

However, he then couldn't help but say with regret: "It's a pity that it's a cavalry crossbow. It would be better if there were more strong crossbows and large yellow crossbows."

Even Taishi Ci couldn't help but shake his head when these words came out: "Brother, we are all cavalrymen. Even if we have strong crossbows and large yellow crossbows, we can't use them!"

You should know that the Han army already had a prepared crossbow unit, which was an infantry material officer.

Among them, Jue Zhang Shi, She Shi, Ji She Shi, are all set up in the Northern and Southern Armies and the County and State Armies.

After all, "powerful crossbows and long spears" and "tough armor and sharp blades" have always been the Han army's advantageous equipment for attacking the Huns.

Wei Zhe also knew this truth, so he quickly got rid of the delusions in his mind and started to make arrangements.

You must know that this time Fu Xie sent them supplies according to the standards of the Tunqiying Camp. If you don't make good use of them, it would be a shame to Fu Xie's good intentions.

So in the next few days, Wei Zhe's cavalry unit practiced almost non-stop.

……

After a brief rest outside Dongwuyang City, Huangfu Song was preparing to lead his troops to meet up with Zhu Jun.

Because Zhu Jun's expedition against the Yellow Turbans in Nanyang was unsuccessful, although he killed the leader of the Yellow Turbans, Zhang Mancheng, the remaining Yellow Turban soldiers appointed their leader Zhao Hong as commander and continued to occupy Wancheng.

And because Nanyang County is the largest county in the world, its population even surpasses Bingzhou, Jiaozhou, Liangzhou and other places, with a total of 2.4 million registered people.

As the Nanyang Yellow Turbans occupied Wancheng for a longer time, their numbers grew.

When Zhang Mancheng called himself "God's Envoy", he only had tens of thousands of followers. But now that Zhang Mancheng has been beheaded, the size of the Yellow Turbans in Nanyang has reached more than 100,000.

Therefore, although Zhu Jun and others besieged Wancheng, they were unable to win from June to August.

It can be said that the battle situation in Wancheng has now reached a stalemate.

Because no one can guarantee that after killing the current leader Zhao Hong, the Yellow Turbans in Nanyang will continue to elect a new leader to continue resisting.

Faced with such a situation, Huangfu Song naturally could not sit idly by.

You must know that the purpose of him and Zhu Jun's Han army was to pacify the Yellow Turbans in Yanyu at the gate of Luoyang.

If the Yellow Turbans in Nanyang are not destroyed and Wancheng is not recovered, the emperor will probably not be able to sleep well.

However, Huangfu Song had issued the order to march, and the entire army was ready, but on the day of departure, the goal suddenly changed.

Instead of going to Wancheng, I went to Guangzong.

After receiving the latest military order, Taishi Ci immediately wondered, "Why are orders changing so frequently? Has General Huangfu become senile and lost his mind?"

"Not necessarily!" Wei Zhe pointed to the sky and said, "Don't forget that the emperor is always watching us."

You should know that in June, when Wei Zhe and others were chasing Bo Cai in Yangdi, the emperor had already changed his generals on the battlefield. He sent the Northern General Lu Zhi to the capital in a prison cart and ordered the Eastern General Dong Zhuo to take over the war in Jizhou.

Now, almost two months have passed. I heard that Dong Zhuo gave up the siege of Guangzong County held by Zhang Jiao, and led his main force north to attack Xiaquyang County held by Zhang Bao. As a result, he still failed to capture it after two months of siege.

The patience of the Emperor of Luoyang must have been exhausted.

"No way, this isn't Hu..."

Halfway through his words, Zhong Hu realized that he had spoken out of turn and quickly shut up.

However, Wei Zhe and Taishi Ci did not say anything, because they actually had the same opinion in their hearts.

Soon, Wei Zhe learned the detailed information from Fu Nanrong.

As expected, Dong Zhuo was asked to be taken to the Supreme Court for trial, and was replaced by the Left General Huangfu Song.

When they learned of the result, the entire army, including the soldiers, felt complicated.

The commander-in-chief has changed three times within half a year. Can the mess in Jizhou be cleaned up?
However, no matter what they thought, after the imperial edict was issued, everyone began to head north to Jizhou.

Fortunately, Guangzong is not too far from Dongwuyang, only more than 200 miles.

Five days later, the Han army camp outside Guangzong City.

Looking at the Han army generals who came to greet them, Wei Zhe behind Fu Xie couldn't help but show curiosity.

There is no way, because Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei are so famous in later generations.

That is to say, Sun Jian is not here, otherwise the three founding leaders of Wei, Shu and Wu would probably have gathered in advance.

But right now, Wei Zhe was only curious about one thing, that is, did Guan Yu really have a red face?
-
references:
Yinwan Han Dynasty bamboo slips, "Arsenal Collection of Military Vehicles and Equipment of the Fourth Year of Yongshi Period"

Li Junming, "A Preliminary Study on the 'Arsenal Yongshi 4th Year Military Vehicle and Equipment Collection Book' Unearthed from the Yinwan Han Tomb"

The arsenal-related data are mainly referenced from the above literature.

(End of this chapter)