Second-hand time travel: Liu Bei, the big-eared bandit

Chapter 168 Two Hundred Thousand and Two Hundred Thousand

Early October.

Huangfu Song led a large army to Guangzong.

At this time, Liu Bei was stationed at Jieqiao. He originally thought that Huangfu Song would summon him to help in the battle, just like Lu Zhi and Dong Zhuo.

However, Huangfu Song only gave Liu Bei an extremely simple yet extremely strict military order: "Strictly guard the east bank of the boundary bridge; if the bridge is lost, the person who lost it will be executed."

In other words, he didn't need Liu Bei to do anything else, but if Liu Bei dared to let anyone cross the boundary bridge, he would lose his head.

Liu Bei was unwilling to participate in this battle, otherwise he would definitely be cannon fodder. So he simply placed barricades all over the Jieqiao Bridge, which can be considered as obeying military orders very thoroughly.

Subsequently, Huangfu Song and Zhang Liang engaged in a fierce battle.

Huangfu Song originally thought that the Yellow Turbans in Guangzong were just a rabble that relied on sheer numbers, like those in Dongjun. However, he did not expect that the Yellow Turbans in Guangzong had no old or weak people, and that they were all fearless and ruthless. In a moment of carelessness, the Yellow Turbans suffered heavy casualties.

Although it did not result in a major defeat, they were indeed driven back by Zhang Liang and retreated all the way to Boluojin, twenty miles northwest of Guangzong.

Both sides were somewhat bewildered after this battle.

Huangfu Song was naturally astonished by the huge difference in the fighting strength of the Yellow Turbans in Henan and Hebei.

On the Yellow Turban side, they never expected that the most elite Northern Army's Five Battalions, as well as the ruthless Huangfu Yizhen, would be defeated by them!
After defeating Huangfu Song, the morale of the Yellow Turbans soared, and they divided their forces into two groups to occupy Jing County and Quzhou respectively, while Zhang Liang remained in Guangzong County.

The three cities are not far apart and are arranged to support each other, which is a reasonable arrangement. These three places almost completely surround Huangfu Song's troops.

Zhang Liang remained rational; he did not underestimate Huangfu Song's abilities and did not launch an attack rashly, but instead attempted to encircle him from three sides.

But, but.

The Yellow Turban rebels in Jingxian and Quzhou launched a simultaneous attack on Huangfu Song without Zhang Liang's orders, attacking him from two sides.

Perhaps because they had previously defeated Huangfu Song, some members of the Yellow Turban Army became a little overconfident. They probably thought they could wipe out Huangfu Song's troops in one fell swoop.

But Huangfu Song is not so easy to deal with.

Huangfu Song first closed his camp and adopted a defensive posture, and then abandoned the camp twice in succession, making it seem as if he had suffered two defeats.

Seeing Huangfu Song suffer repeated defeats, the two Yellow Turban armies attacked even more fiercely and surrounded Huangfu Song's camp. Zhang Liang also led a large army to join the encirclement.

For three consecutive days, Huangfu Song retreated three times, and the Yellow Turban army also followed suit with three forced marches.

Just as Zhang Liang's "General of the People" banner appeared at the front of the camp, Huangfu Song set the camp on fire.

All the Yellow Turbans believed this was a golden opportunity to surround and kill Huangfu Song, and they launched a fierce attack despite their fatigue.

At this moment, Huangfu Song led his elite troops out and broke through the Yellow Turban formation, heading straight for Zhang Liang.

During the three days that Huangfu Song was defeated, he was actually waiting in ambush to lure the exhausted Yellow Turban army into a fierce advance.

Already starving and without proper rest for three days, the Yellow Turbans were worn out by the relentless pursuit of the stronger government troops. Although they remained fearless, their physical limits could not be overcome by willpower.

Unable to withstand Huangfu Song's attack, Zhang Liang attempted to lead his army back to Guangzong, waiting for reinforcements from the Yellow Turban armies on both sides.

However, the Yellow Turbans were not physically strong, while Huangfu Song led his elite troops in a very fast charge, directly breaking through Zhang Liang's army and pursuing them for thirty miles in one night, all the way to Guangzong County.

They then fought for another day without stopping.

In that day and night, more than 10,000 Yellow Turbans were killed in battle, and Zhang Liang died in the chaos of battle west of Guangzong City.

After Zhang Liang's death in battle, most of the Yellow Turbans fled eastward, attempting to return to Guangzong City.

Huangfu Song led his army in pursuit and killed his enemies, and sent his military commander Fu Xie to seize Guangzong City first.

The Yellow Turbans in Guangzong lost their leader and were thrown into chaos, fighting each other independently. More than 20,000 of them were pursued and killed outside Guangzong City.

Only then did the remaining Yellow Turban forces completely collapse and scatter in all directions.

The boundary bridge was completely blocked, and no one could cross it. After being chased to the west bank of the Qinghe River, most of the Yellow Turbans fought with their backs to the water on the riverbank.

But at this point they had lost unified command, lost their formation, and were exhausted; almost all of them died on the riverbank.

The Yellow Turbans in Guangzong no longer had any women or children; they had all settled on the other side of the river, and no one had jumped into the river to die.

But as before, Huangfu Song did not let any Yellow Turbans go. He did not stop attacking the three cities of Guangzong, Jingxian, and Quzhou for three days.

The entire county was massacred, and corpses were scattered everywhere. Fifty thousand heads were used to build a mound of heads in the south of the city.

Subsequently, Huangfu Song dug up Zhang Jiao's tomb, dissected the coffin and mutilated the corpse. He dismantled Guo Dian's already decomposed body into pieces and sent the skull-like head to the capital to report his victory.

In his report, Huangfu Song wrote, "I beheaded more than 30,000 Yellow Turban rebels in the battle of Guangzong, and pursued and killed 50,000 rebels in the process. No old, weak, women and children were found in the counties of Julu, which may have been eaten by the rebels."

The document did not specify the losses of the imperial army, only stating in general terms that "2,300 men were killed in battle, and good men from good families have been selected to fill the vacancies."

but in fact……

After this battle, the five schools of the Northern Army suffered more than half of their casualties, and currently only two thousand armored soldiers remain. The so-called two thousand three hundred casualties actually refers to the losses of the five battalions of the Northern Army.

Of the seven thousand soldiers from the capital region that Lu Zhi originally brought to Hebei, only a little over four thousand remain.

Of the more than 8,000 civilian laborers who accompanied the army, most of them perished when Huangfu Song retreated three times to lure the enemy.

The various righteous armies that followed Huangfu Song in battle from Runan, Yanzhou, Jizhou and other places also suffered some losses.

The actual casualties in this battle exceeded 12,000, but 8,000 of them were civilian laborers, and these civilian laborers... would not leave any names on the reports of merit.

Their deaths will not affect the morale of the various "righteous armies" at all.

Because Huangfu Song had filled the vacancies in the five battalions of the Northern Army and the troops of the capital region, and the military commanders who died in battle were replaced by the leaders of the various rebel armies.

The imperial army was still relatively well-organized, with the Northern Army still numbering 4,500 and the troops from the capital region still numbering 7,500...

The total number of the various rebel armies still exceeded 20,000 at this time.

The number of anti-justice forces is countless, as is the number of civilian laborers.

If people had no words, there would be no words in any documents.

Life and death are trivial matters.

……

In mid-October, Huangfu Song continued his northward march, preparing to attack Xiaquyang.

At this time, Huangfu Song issued a new military order to Liu Bei and sent Protector Fu Xie to Ganling, requiring Liu Bei to bring civilians to transport supplies with the army, and demanding 10,000 civilians.

"Ten thousand laborers? Commander Fu, do I look like I have that many people here?"

Liu Bei flatly refused: "General Huangfu has tens of thousands of troops under his command, do you really lack people to transport supplies?"

"The general's troops are all warriors. If they are all sent to transport supplies, how can there be any spare strength to attack Zhang Bao?"

Fu Xie looked at Liu Bei meaningfully: "Commander Liu, are you perhaps going to disobey orders?"

“Why would I disobey orders? I am the Commandant of Ganling, only in charge of military affairs in Ganling. As for the laborers, please ask Commander Fu to go to the Chancellor of Ganling. Recruiting laborers is a civil matter, and only Lord Bo’an can handle this.”

Liu Bei shook his head, refusing the job.

Fu Xie nodded, then shook his head: "Commander Liu, I know that Lord Bo'an is not in Ganling. With the Chancellor absent, Commander Liu should take on this responsibility."

“Fu Sima, take a look at this Ganling County… Let alone ten thousand laborers, if you can find two hundred able-bodied men in the county, you can set up a longevity tablet for Fu Sima and pray for his well-being day and night.”

Liu Bei pulled Fu Xie into the county town: "I received the order to defend the border bridge before, and I thought that General Huangfu knew that Ganling had lost its able-bodied men and was giving me a special favor. But I didn't expect that General Huangfu would actually demand people..."

Ganling County had been thoroughly cleaned, but the cleaner it was, the more desolate it seemed. Only women and children were in the town; not a single able-bodied person could be seen.

This place was first ravaged by bandits, then the royal palace was breached, and all the powerful families were moved away, leaving it an empty city.

The fact that there are women and children in the city at this time is because Liu Bei allowed the Yellow Turbans to live and clean up the city, which gave it a bit of life.

After entering the city, Fu Xie's face twitched a few times, somewhat bewildered: "There isn't a single able-bodied man here?"

"It's not just a lack of young and middle-aged men."

Liu Bei sneered, "When I first arrived here, there wasn't a single person here!"

"People only know that the Prince of Anping and the Prince of Ganling were captured by bandits, but few know what it means for a bandit to capture a king of a country... How could there possibly be anyone left in a county town that has been breached by bandits?"

At this point, Liu Bei shook his head and sighed, "General Huangfu only knows how to kill the enemy and win, and only knows how to demand laborers. But he has killed all the able-bodied men. Do you expect me to conjure up ten thousand men for him?"

Fu Xie grinned and sighed: "Captain Liu, I understand your predicament, but General Huangfu has always been strict in his military orders, only looking at the results and not the reasons... and after all, it is also for the purpose of punishing the rebels."

"Is it really to quell a rebellion?"

Liu Bei retorted without backing down: "Commander Fu, you achieved a great victory against the Yellow Turbans at Cangting last month, a truly remarkable feat. But where are your troops now? Huangfu Yizhen only cares about military achievements, but those achievements were built on the capital provided by Commander Fu..."

“To be frank, I am not as generous as Sima Fu, and I dare not serve under General Huangfu, nor do I dare to obey his orders.”

“If General Huangfu wants to find laborers, the Cui family in Anping has plenty, and they can gather ten thousand servants overnight, which certainly won’t delay the army’s journey… Why doesn’t General Huangfu go and ask for them, instead of asking me, Liu?”

Fu Xie's expression changed.

It became somewhat gloomy.

In the Battle of Cangtingjin in Dongjun, Fu Xie led his troops in the charge and killed three Yellow Turban leaders, Bu Si, Zhang Bo, and Liang Zhongning, earning him the greatest merit.

but……

His main force was reduced from eight hundred to less than three hundred.

Subsequently, all the Yellow Turbans in the Cangtingjin area were beheaded.

Or rather, all the men were killed, and the women...

Huangfu Song was indeed a famous general, but he didn't consider how to minimize losses—after all, these subordinates weren't his own soldiers, and all he needed to do was win and be invincible.

It was precisely because his troops always suffered considerable losses that Huangfu Song had to let his men kill to their hearts' content after winning a victory.

They usually don't stop using their weapons for three days at a time, slaughtering and robbing at will, and harming women as they please.

This was the norm for most famous generals of that era; otherwise, no one would be willing to travel thousands of miles to fight alongside them.

As for the laborers...

The laborers were all forcibly conscripted; whether they wanted to or not, what difference did it make?

Just like sending Fu Xie to Liu Bei to demand laborers right now—since they were all conscripted by local officials, it's not the general's fault.

They squandered people and refused to allow the powerful families accompanying the army to contribute their men, instead forcing Ganling to conscript commoners. This was actually a common practice.

People are different.

In any case, the common people are not usually regarded as ordinary people; they are only referred to as "people" when necessary, which is the usual practice.

The military in this era was prone to mutinies, internal strife, and even the assassination of generals, largely due to these established practices.

Actually, Huangfu Song's request for laborers from Liu Bei wasn't directed at Liu Bei specifically, but rather because Ganling was nearby.

Currently, Julu is only inhabited by Yellow Turbans, with no commoners, while the area around Guangzong has been basically turned into a wasteland by slaughter. If we want to recruit laborers nearby, we can only look to Ganling State.

But Liu Bei would certainly not obey orders, and it's true that they can't recruit anyone right now.

Fu Xie remained silent for a long time, then sighed: "I'm just here to deliver an order. Whether Commandant Liu obeys or not is his business. I will simply report the facts..."

After saying that, Fu Xie turned to leave.

"Minister Fu, you should pass on a few more words to General Huangfu."

Liu Bei stopped Fu Xie: "When the Qiang rebellion broke out, Huangfu Weiming (Huangfu Gui) restrained them with the law and did not kill the Qiang people without permission, nor did he lose any of the imperial army. The rebellion was eventually quelled, and 200,000 Qiang people willingly came to submit."

"During Huangfu Weiming's tenure, there were almost no battles in the Northwest, and he did not capture tens of thousands of heads, but the whole country knew that his achievements were unparalleled."

"But Huangfu Yizhen is now doing the opposite, killing any enemy he sees, disregarding the law, and ignoring the casualties of his soldiers... yet all those who die are my Han sons!"

"Huangfu Weiming became a famous general because 200,000 Qiang people came to join him; while Huangfu Yizhen achieved great fame because of the bones of 200,000 Han people..."

"But we don't know whether Huangfu Yizhen's actions are out of loyalty or filial piety."

"I am willing to follow Huangfu Weiming's strategy, to uphold the law and prevent the people from rebelling; I am also willing to bring peace to Ganling, to ensure that no one picks up lost items on the road and that people do not close their doors, so that no bandits have any opportunity to take advantage of the situation. However, if you ask me to conscript more Han men to become the bones beneath your feet, I am afraid I am incapable of obeying your command."

Huangfu Gui was Huangfu Song's uncle, and together with Zhang Huan (Ranming) and Duan Jiong (Jiming), they were known as the "Three Luminaries of Liangzhou".

Unlike Duan Jiong, Huangfu Gui quelled the Qiang rebellion not by suppressing and killing, but by ensuring that officials in various counties abided by the law. He dismissed a number of officials who had killed surrendered Qiang and disobeyed the law, and issued military orders requiring officials in various counties to strictly abide by Han laws, not to kill surrendered Qiang, and to pacify the Qiang people and enable them to live normal lives.

Afterwards, most of the Qiang people were moved by this, and more than 200,000 Qiang people surrendered, so that there was no war in the northwest.

And Huangfu Song...

Fu Xie glanced back at Liu Bei, as if he wanted to say something, but ultimately shook his head and left.

Liu Bei had no intention of dealing with Huangfu Song, nor did he intend to participate in the war against the Yellow Turbans again.

Liu Bei did not want to accept Huangfu Song's military order, but of course he had to find an explanation for not accepting it. So Liu Bei used Huangfu Gui's strategy to scold Huangfu Song.

Intentionally offending people can sometimes be a strategy. After Fu Xie returned to Huangfu Song's army, the army quickly went to Xiaquyang without mentioning the matter of the laborers again, and no one relayed military orders to Liu Bei.

In November, Huangfu Song fought a fierce battle with Zhang Bao at Xiaquyang. The two armies fought for several days, resulting in countless deaths and injuries.

Afterwards, Huangfu Song claimed that he could offer Zhang Jiao's head as bait to Zhang Bao to negotiate in front of the enemy lines.

Zhang Bao led his troops to form ranks outside the city, but was ambushed by Huangfu Song's army. Zhang Bao fought bravely and died.

After Zhang Bao's death, Huangfu Song, who had already suffered great losses, declared that he would only punish the ringleaders and not kill those who surrendered, and ordered the Yellow Turbans to lay down their weapons.

The Yellow Turbans outside the city surrendered.

Subsequently, Huangfu Song used the surrendered soldiers as the vanguard to attack Xiaquyang, ordering the Yellow Turbans to capture them to avoid punishment.

The following day, the city of Xiaquyang fell, and tens of thousands of Yellow Turban rebels were captured.

But then... whether they were those who had surrendered before or those who were captured later, all of them were slaughtered by Huangfu Song after they laid down their weapons, and Xiaquyang was turned into an empty city.

More than 100,000 Yellow Turbans were killed in this battle, and Huangfu Song built a Jingguan (a mound of corpses) with the bones of these 100,000 people in the south of the city.

At this point, the main force of the Yellow Turban Rebellion had been quelled.

As Liu Bei had said, Huangfu Song had indeed killed more than 200,000 people.

After this battle, all the court officials praised Huangfu Song for his merits. Huangfu Song was appointed as the Left General of Chariots and Cavalry, and concurrently served as the Governor of Ji Province. He was also promoted to Marquis of Huaili, with a fief of eight thousand households.

The soldiers of the five battalions of the Northern Army who accompanied Huangfu Song back to the capital to report on their achievements had all been replaced.

Just as Huangfu Song was returning to his army to receive his reward, a group of ragged, defeated soldiers arrived in Ganling.

They came to seek refuge with Liu Bei.

(End of this chapter)