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

Chapter 226 Emulation
Mi Zhu was not the only one who emulated Liu Bei; Cao Cao did as well.

Last month, Zhang Rao launched a major attack on Pengcheng, and Cao Cao suffered heavy losses in Liu County, but at least he understood what methods to use to quell the Yellow Turban Rebellion.

People with great talent are good at learning from their mistakes and will try their best to turn bad things into good things.

Both involve squandering money and grain, but money and grain can be used to recruit soldiers and horses, or to settle people down and bring them to peace.

After pacifying the people, recruit soldiers from the tenant farmers; they are much more obedient than the soldiers from Danyang.

Moreover, the Yellow Turbans of Qingzhou had not forgotten Cao Qingtian, who had once cracked down on powerful local tyrants in Jinan—the benevolent policies he had implemented out of conscience were finally being rewarded at this time.

Although the Danyang riots occurred, none of the Yellow Turban rebels from Qingzhou who were attacking Liu County attacked Cao Cao.

Zhang Rao himself also wrote a letter to Cao Cao, stating that he only wanted to take Pengcheng Kingdom to save his brothers' lives and would not enter Cao Cao's hometown of Pei Kingdom.

Therefore, Cao Cao transported most of his stored grain to Xiao County, west of Pengcheng.

Xiao County is located on the banks of the Si River, only thirty li away from Pengcheng.

After Zhang Rao led 100,000 Yellow Turbans into Pengcheng Kingdom, many Pengcheng people fled westward to seek refuge. Xiao County was not attacked, but the county's officials and powerful families, fearing an attack by the Yellow Turbans, also fled.

When Cao Cao led his troops to control Xiao County, it happened to be harvest time.

Cao Cao used his own stored grain, along with the grain, land, and houses left behind by the powerful clans of Xiao County, to settle tens of thousands of starving people, including some of the Yellow Turban rebels from Qingzhou brought by Zhang Rao.

Originally, Cao Cao's grain reserves were insufficient to support too many starving people, but after the harvest in Xiao County, Cao Cao brought all of it under military control and redistributed it along with his own grain.

This method of "equalizing wealth" enabled Cao Cao to settle tens of thousands of households in Xiao County.

This was certainly a forced seizure of the land of the gentry, but who made the gentry of Xiao County afraid that the Yellow Turbans would flee?
With their master fleeing, the servants and tenants left behind in Xiao County naturally dared not utter a single word of dissent against Cao Cao.

Many powerful families from Xiao County fled to Yanzhou and learned that Cao Cao had seized their land, houses, and grain. They were extremely dissatisfied and the scholars colluded with each other. As a result, Cao Cao was called "the leader of the bandit soldiers" by many of the gentry.

However, offending others is one thing, but Cao Cao doesn't care what others think of him, since very few people dare to directly confront the son of the Grand Commandant of the court.

Besides, this wasn't occupied by Cao Cao, but by the Yellow Turbans. After all, the people living here are remnants of the Yellow Turbans... If you're so capable, come and reason with the Yellow Turbans of Qingzhou.

For every discontented person, there was a supporter of Cao Cao, such as Ding Chong of the Ding family in Xiao County—a distant relative of Cao Cao's wife, Lady Ding.

Ding Chong led several hundred clan soldiers to assist Cao Cao and quickly stabilized Xiao County.

Cao Cao recruited 3,000 able-bodied men from the Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou, and these men were all veterans who had previously plundered Qingzhou. They were known as Qingzhou soldiers.

Although these soldiers, who were originally bandits, had poor discipline, they were Cao Cao's own troops, and their families were all farming in Xiao County.

Cao Cao left Xiahou Dun in Xiao County to manage the families of the Qingzhou soldiers together with Ding Chong.

Cao Ren once again gathered the wandering knights of Huai and Si. This time, the knights did not shirk their responsibilities or run away. Thousands of young men followed Cao Ren and gathered around Cao Cao.

In order to train his troops, Cao Cao did not return to Luoyang, but instead recommended Cao Chun, who was only eighteen years old, to the court.

Cao Song learned of Cao Cao's squandering of wealth to pacify the Yellow Turbans, but this time Cao Song did not object. Instead, he appointed Cao Chun as a Gentleman Attendant at the Palace Gate, so that he could prevent scholars in the court from accusing Cao Cao of seizing land.

The Yellow Turbans have already entered Pengcheng in force. My hometown, Qiao County, is not far from Pengcheng. No matter what method is used, it is necessary to quell the Yellow Turbans.

……

At the same time, Zang Ba received funding from Mi Zhu and prepared to recruit a large number of people to drive the Taishan bandits into Xiapi.

However, after Sun Guan went to Taishan County, he brought back bad news on his return.

During this period, a large number of Yellow Turban rebels and starving people poured into Mount Tai. Many bandits also fled to Mount Tai to avoid the Yellow Turban rebels in Qingzhou. Many bandit clans in Qingzhou were defeated by Tao Qian and also fled into Mount Tai.

Taishan County was teeming with outside bandits, so the real Taishan bandits had to busy themselves maintaining order and doing the work that the government should be doing.

Sun Guan originally wanted to contact Wu Dun and Yin Li, the leaders of the Taishan bandits, to lead their troops out of the mountains to help him, but there were too many outside bandits, and most of them did not care much about morality. In order to protect their base, Wu Dun and Yin Li's troops could not leave the mountains for the time being.

Furthermore, Zhuge Gui was no longer in Liangfu County.

When Sun Guan arrived in Liangfu County, Zhuge Gui had already resigned and left—he had left about a month earlier.

The people in the county said that Zhuge Gui resigned from his post and returned home after learning that his home had been attacked by the Yellow Turbans.

However, Taishan County was in extreme chaos at the moment, and Sun Guan did not know where Zhuge Gui was, so he could not deliver Liu Bei's letter of recruitment. Sun Guan went to Taishan but failed to complete either of his two tasks, which made him feel quite ashamed. Therefore, he volunteered to lead the existing Taishan bandits to launch a strong attack on Xiapi together with his brother Sun Kang.

However, Sun Guan was indeed an unlucky fellow.

At first, things went smoothly. The bandits in Liangcheng, Siwu and other counties all fled at the mere sight of them, and Mi Zhu also settled many Yellow Turbans in Liangcheng.

However, when Sun Guan arrived at Xiapi County, the seat of Xiapi Commandery, he encountered trouble again.

Si Wuren Que Xuan gathered several thousand soldiers and blocked Sun Guan north of the Si River.

Sun Guan's elder brother, Sun Kang, led his troops to take a detour in an attempt to secretly cross the Si River, but they were intercepted by Ji Ling, a powerful clan leader from Xiapi, and were forced to retreat.

The expedition was hampered at the Si River, causing Sun Guan considerable anxiety.

Being blocked by a river has always been a difficult problem for military strategists. Previously, Guan Yu was blocked by Zhang Rao and could not cross the river. Zang Ba and Sun Guan did not have a good solution for the time being.

Liu Bei was not in a hurry after learning about the situation.

Zhang Rao can now make his own arrangements in Pengcheng.

Liu Bei's soup kitchen in Donghai County has attracted at least 50,000 people, and people are constantly coming from Langya.

If this situation can be maintained in the long term, most of the Yellow Turbans in Xuzhou will be able to settle down. Including the people from Zhang Rao's side, the total number of people who need to be resettled is about 300,000. In fact, there is already enough land in Donghai, Langya, Pengcheng and other places to resettle these people.

However, there is indeed not enough food; there must be enough food to sustain these people until next autumn's harvest.

If enough food could be obtained, it wouldn't necessarily be necessary to kill the rebels in Xiapi and Guangling.

However, Mi Zhu and Zang Ba were more proactive...

This concerns their interests.

So Mi Zhu approached Liu Bei and said, “My lord, there is a prominent Chen family in Huaipu, Xiapi. They are the leading family of Xuzhou. If we can get their help, we will surely be able to pacify Xuzhou in one fell swoop.”

"At the residence of Grand Commandant Chen?"

Liu Bei knew of the powerful Chen family of Huaipu, but he didn't know their stance: "Is Zizhong acquainted with them?"

"Not familiar... Zhu is not qualified to marry into such a wealthy family."

Mi Zhu shook his head and mocked himself.

Huaipu County is located at the confluence of the Huai River and the Shu River. It is a true land of fish and rice, and one of the few places in Xuzhou that has not been harmed.

This is mainly because the Chen family, a prominent family, is located in Huaipu County.

The Chen family had held high-ranking official positions and enjoyed a distinguished reputation for generations.

The current head of the Chen family is Chen Gui.

Chen Gui's uncle, Chen Qiu, once served as Grand Commandant. After killing Wang Fu, he died along with Yang Qiu.

Although Chen Qiu died due to factional strife, the Chen family did not decline as a result. Many members of Chen Gui's generation entered officialdom under Chen Qiu's patronage.

It is true that it is easy to die if you become the leader of a factional struggle, but it is also a business. Those who stand at the front, as long as they are not exterminated by the clan, can naturally win some benefits for the clan members.

Chen Gui is currently serving as the Chancellor of Jibei. Chen Qiu's sons, Chen Yu and Chen Cong, are both high-ranking officials, and they have old friends in various places.

The Chen family had been officials for generations, and their household had more servants and retainers than the Mi family. Of the 13,000 households in Huaipu County, 10,000 were under the Chen family's control.

The most fertile land, spanning tens of thousands of hectares (Han dynasty hectares) between the Si River and the Huai River, all belonged to the Chen family.

Moreover, the Chen family and the Yuan family of Runan are old friends.

This is a legitimate wealthy and prestigious family; ordinary people simply cannot reach their level.

“If we were to let the powerful families of Xiapi manage agriculture in Guangling… no, a prestigious family like the Chen family would probably look down on us… Chen Gui is the Chancellor of Beihai; he knows Zhang Rao’s marching route. We must get the Chen family to follow my example…”

Liu Bei thought for a moment and then instructed Mi Zhu: "Zi Zhong, take my letter of recommendation to Huaipu and tell Chen Gui's son, Chen Yuanlong, that I want to first appoint him as an official in the Qingzhou governor's office, and then use the quota of Qingzhou to recommend him as a filial and incorruptible official... Let Chen Yuanlong come and meet me."

(End of this chapter)