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

Chapter 221 The Way to Suppress Bandits
"Come with me... to the back mountain."

Zhuge Xuan, the father, appeared before Zhuge Jin, picked up the young Zhuge Jun, took Zhuge Liang's hand, and led Zhuge Jin's two younger sisters out through the back gate of the fortified village.

Before long, all the descendants of the Zhuge family were expelled from the fortified village.

"Father, why..."

As the fire in the fortified village behind him grew larger, Zhuge Jin was somewhat at a loss.

“If the house is not burned down, the Moth Thieves will be trapped here forever… Hide on the mountaintop and don’t make a sound. If I die, you will have to take up the sword.”

Zhuge Xuan spoke softly, holding his sword and standing guard on the path leading to the mountaintop, gesturing for Zhuge Jin to carry Zhuge Jun up the mountain.

The Zhuge family was small, and they were not capable of defending a fortified village.

The fire gradually rose, and the sound of footsteps fleeing for their lives filled the air, but no one cried out.

Zhuge Jin covered Zhuge Jun's mouth and hid among the rocks on the mountaintop.

Zhuge Liang lay on a crevice in the rock, watching his home burning down the mountain.

"Brother, soldiers are coming!"

Zhuge Liang saw a cavalry force galloping towards him from behind the bandits.

The cavalry kicked up clouds of yellow sand, obscuring everything.

All that could be seen was a general wielding a sword in both hands and a knight brandishing a long spear, each leading a squad of soldiers, splitting into two groups, charging and fighting their way through countless bandits.

As they got closer, they could finally make out the words on the banner: Liu, Left General of the Central Army.

……

"Zhuge Xuan, a resident of Langya, has met with Prefect Liu. He is deeply grateful for Prefect Liu's assistance..."

Outside the dilapidated fortified village, Zhuge Xuan, accompanied by several children, bowed to Liu Bei.

Liu Bei, covered in blood, was squatting by the pond at Zhuge's house, washing his hands with water. Hearing the voice, he wiped his face and turned around: "I rushed here as soon as I saw the smoke, but I'm still a bit too late. I'm afraid this place is no longer habitable... Why are these Yellow Turbans still besieging your house even after seeing the fire?"

It was indeed a bit late. The Zhuge family's waterside pavilion was already stained red with blood, and the fire in the fortified village had not yet been extinguished, but there was no need to put out the fire now.

It has been burned down to the ruins and pillars, and the roof has completely collapsed.

The elder of the Zhuge family died at the back gate of the fortified village. Instead of fleeing to the back mountain, he blocked the mountain road for two hours until the Yellow Turbans were scattered by Liu Bei and Zhao Yun.

If the clan elders hadn't set fire to their own fortified village, Liu Bei wouldn't have been able to arrive so quickly.

In fact, most of the Yellow Turbans were not scattered by being killed, but dispersed on their own.

When the fire broke out, most of the Yellow Turbans went elsewhere, but it was strange that many Yellow Turbans still besieged Zhuge's house after the fire started.

"Not long ago, our sect killed many Yellow Turbans to defend the fortified village. Perhaps they were seeking revenge... or perhaps they were seeking death."

Zhuge Xuan looked back at the house, now reduced to ashes: "My sect has no enmity with them..."

"The hungry cannot get food, and see everyone as an enemy..."

Liu Bei sighed: "Do you have any other place to go?"

"The only other place... is Liangfu County in Taishan, where my cousin Gui is working."

Zhuge Xuan replied.

"Taishan Prefecture..."

Liu Bei shook his head: "You probably can't get through now. The autumn harvest is coming soon, and all the bandits will come out to steal the grain."

Zhuge Xuan nodded and sighed, "Yes..."

"Lord Liu, I am willing to join the army to fight the rebels. I beg you to take me in!"

Zhuge Liang suddenly spoke.

“You are not yet an adult... If you want to join the army, you need the consent of your father and brothers.”

Liu Bei smiled at the young and inexperienced Zhuge Liang, then turned to Zhuge Xuan: "You two come with me first. I'll send someone to contact your cousin... I happen to be short of a water management official. Brother Zhuge, would you be willing to help me?"

"Since the magistrate has given the order, how could Xuan dare to disobey?"

Zhuge Xuan bowed respectfully.

Liu Bei beckoned to Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Liang: "If you want to defeat the traitors, you must first learn the skills. Do you have a master?"

Liu Bei came to Yangdu specifically because he was after the Zhuge family.

Although Zhuge Liang is still just a little kid, he can be nurtured.

Liu Bei was very curious to know what Zhuge Liang would become if he learned Jia Xu's strategies and Zhao Yun's martial arts...

On the other hand, after Cao Cao became the Commandant of the Western Garden, he was assigned a task to recruit soldiers because the number of troops he had given to the Western Garden was insufficient. So he asked He Jin for a task to recruit soldiers and went to Danyang to recruit soldiers.

Yuan Shu was in the same boat; he also didn't have enough troops, so he asked He Jin to take on the task of recruiting soldiers and went with him.

Cao Song was very uneasy after learning the news.

Now, the court is embroiled in a power struggle between the East and the West, as well as between the upright officials and the eunuch faction. The situation is far more complex than before, and Cao Song actually doesn't want to take sides.

But now that Cao Cao has aligned himself with Yuan Shu and He Jin, it's as if he's been forced to choose sides.

If no one was supporting Cao Cao in the court, Cao Song feared that Cao Cao would become cannon fodder.

Although he had a big fight with his son, Cao Song still felt sorry for his eldest son, so he had no choice but to spend money again, offering 100 million coins to Xiyuan to buy the position of Grand Commandant.

Zhou Xin, the governor of Danyang, gave Cao Song a lot of face and helped Cao Cao obtain three thousand Danyang soldiers.

However, Cao Cao himself did not want to follow his father's path. Instead of returning to Luoyang, he took the newly recruited soldiers to Pengcheng State.

He heard that a large number of Yellow Turbans had entered Pengcheng, and he planned to go there to suppress the bandits and train his troops, while also heading north to Jinan to rescue Xiahou Yuan.

In Pengcheng Kingdom, there was a small county called Liu County, located on the banks of the Si River and the shore of Weishan Lake.

Cao Cao encountered the Yellow Turban army here as he had hoped.

"Zixiao, you only managed to gather a little over a hundred people in Huai and Si?"

Cao Cao looked at Cao Ren in surprise: "With your skills and reputation, it shouldn't be like this..."

“Elder brother, the Yellow Turbans are powerful, and the bandits of Mount Tai have also joined the Yellow Turbans. Most of the brothers in Huai and Si have old ties with the bandits of Mount Tai, and none of them are willing to fight against them.”

Cao Ren said with a bitter face, "These hundred-odd brothers followed me here, already prepared to die..."

Cao Ren is 20 years old. After losing his father a few years ago, he separated from his half-brother Cao Chun and started working in the underworld in the Huai and Si River basins.

Now, he has over a thousand wandering knights under his command.

Cao Cao ordered him to bring his wandering knights to fight the Yellow Turbans, but Cao Ren led his men to Liu County, where they kept scattering along the way. By the time they arrived in Liu County, only a little over a hundred of the original thousand men remained.

"The Yellow Turban rebels and the bandits of Mount Tai are nothing but mountain folk. How dare the heroes of Huai and Si not stand against them? Fine, follow me into battle and wipe out the Yellow Turban rebels!"

Cao Cao was a little confused. He knew that the Yellow Turbans were numerous, but he also knew that if a small number of elite troops could break the morale of the Yellow Turbans, even the largest Yellow Turbans would collapse.

Now that he has acquired three thousand Danyang soldiers, plus five hundred elite troops who survived a bloody battle, and several hundred new suits of iron armor, Cao Cao is a little overconfident and fears no one.

but……

Cao Cao didn't even get out of Liucheng before he was blocked by the Yellow Turbans and Taishan bandits who roamed the mountains and plains.

Then, Cao Cao unfortunately encountered a Danyang-style demand for a price.

The Danyang soldiers demanded that each man be given twenty catties of millet and two thousand coins as a departure fee—if they didn't have money, they shouldn't fight, because they couldn't plunder the Yellow Turbans, who were even poorer than them…

Cao Cao was furious and immediately ordered his 500 elite troops to force the Danyang soldiers to fight. In other words, he held knives to their backs and forced them to leave the city, telling them that they would only get food if they won.

As a result... they did go into battle, but that very night, before they could even make contact with the main Yellow Turban force, the Danyang soldiers rioted.

The Danyang soldiers looted the warehouses, set fires throughout the camp, and then fled in large numbers.

Cao Cao donned his armor and left the camp, personally killing more than a dozen people, but still could not restore order.

Fortunately, Cao Ren and his chivalrous men protected Cao Cao; otherwise, Cao Cao might have been killed by his own soldiers.

The next day, when the headcount was taken, Cao Cao was devastated to find that not only had he been reduced to his original state, but he had also lost his stockpile of money and grain, and even half of the newly made iron armor had been stolen.

Only six or seven hundred soldiers remained.

On that very day, the Yellow Turbans and the Taishan bandits launched a massive attack, and Cao Cao finally understood why the wandering knights of Huai and Si were unwilling to come to his aid—there were just too many of them, the mountains and fields were teeming with people.

This cannot be defeated by simply breaking their morale with a small force; these Yellow Turbans are not soldiers, but simply starving people.

They already lacked morale.

Cao Cao also realized that the only way to quell the Yellow Turban Rebellion was not through military force.

It's grain.

Only by using the methods of the Way of Peace can the Way of Peace be quelled.

Cao Cao immediately returned to Pei State, retrieved the grain stored in his home, distributed porridge to the starving people, and recruited soldiers again from among them.

(End of this chapter)