The Three Kingdoms: Hindsight is 20/20, and the Three Revivals of the Han Dynasty

Chapter 151 Zhuge Liang Conducts Large-Scale Military Training in Ye City, Liu Bei's Old Friend Invites Them (1st Update)
Some time later, after drinking with Tian Feng.

While recruiting and training new soldiers, Liu Bei also sought out talented individuals in Ye City.

Now, Liu Bei can be considered a prominent figure, and because of his act of righteously rescuing Tian Feng, he has won the respect of the officials and people of Ye City. As a result, many heroes inside and outside Ye City are eager to join his cause.

To avoid slander from petty people that might arouse Yuan Shao's suspicion, Liu Bei adopted Zhuge Liang's strategy: whenever heroes came to join him, they should praise Yuan Shao.

at the same time.

Liu Bei then sent Yuan Xi to visit Yuan Shang as usual, ostensibly to report Liu Bei's daily whereabouts to Yuan Shang, but in reality to use this opportunity to find out about Yuan Shang's confidential matters.

Guan Yu would spar with Yan Liang and Wen Chou in his daily life and discuss military strategies. The more Yan Liang and Wen Chou understood Guan Yu, the more they respected him!

Zhuge Liang also frequently interacted with Tian Feng, and through Tian Feng's introduction, he met many famous scholars in Ye City, such as Chen Lin, a famous scholar from Guangling County who wrote "A Proclamation to Yu Province on Behalf of Yuan Shao"; Cui Yan, a famous scholar from Qinghe County who studied under Zheng Xuan in his early years; and Ying Shao, a famous scholar from Runan County who was very knowledgeable about the court system and the official system and wrote "Han Official System".

A truly virtuous and talented person will be respected wherever he goes. In a short time, Zhuge Liang's reputation soared in Ye City.

Even Yuan Shao, after hearing of Zhuge Liang's reputation, specially hosted a banquet to invite him. When he learned during the banquet that Zhuge Liang had a close relationship with Liu Biao, Yuan Shao was even more delighted.

Yuan Shao already had an alliance with Liu Biao, and now that he had suffered a major defeat at Guandu, he was even less willing to antagonize Liu Biao. He not only gifted Zhuge Liang a large amount of gold, silver and silk, but also offered to marry his daughter to him.

If Zhuge Liang hadn't lied about having a pre-existing marriage agreement in Jingzhou and if Yuan Shao hadn't been unwilling to let his daughter become a concubine, Zhuge Liang would have become Yuan Shao's son-in-law.

Although he couldn't marry off his daughter, Yuan Shao had other methods. He directly sent Zhuge Liang a large mansion and had Lady Liu select several clever and obedient girls from her clan to serve as Zhuge Liang's maids.

He sent gold, silver, money, silk, a large mansion, and maids. Yuan Shao's attempt to poach Liu Bei's men had backfired spectacularly.

Zhuge Liang accepted all of Yuan Shao's attempts to win him over.

On the one hand, it was to dispel Yuan Shao's suspicions; on the other hand, there was no harm in not taking the gold, silver, money, mansions, and maids.

The trust between Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang could not be shaken by any external factors.

Furthermore, Liu Bei complained that the gold, silver, and silk that Yuan Shao gave to Zhuge Liang were too little, the location of the mansion was too remote, and the maids were of too low birth, which was not worthy of the position of the Left General's military advisor who oversaw both internal and external affairs.

By December, the recruitment of new soldiers was nearing its end.

Most of these 10,000 soldiers came from the relatives of the soldiers who died in the Battle of Guandu, while some were sons of powerful families who brought their troops to join them.

These powerful clansmen, having heard that Liu Bei was going to march south to raid and harass the country, and outraged by Cao Cao's brutal massacre of surrendered soldiers, directly led their troops to join Liu Bei's forces.

Liu Bei accepted the situation with open arms and offered words of comfort.

Zhuge Liang was in charge of the specific training of troops, with Guan Yu assisting him. No one but Zhuge Liang could be the one to train the new soldiers into an army in a short period of time.

Zhuge Liang was equally willing to take on the task.

Reorganizing and dividing the troops, establishing military law, training physical fitness, practicing weaponry, conducting military drills, coordinating officers and soldiers... Zhuge Liang managed all these affairs skillfully and with ease.

Zhuge Liang's methods of training troops were so effective that Liu Bei and Guan Yu took it for granted, but Yan Liang and Wen Chou were utterly astonished. They had never imagined that training troops involved such complex strategies and meticulous rules.

Comparing the two, the two generals suddenly realized that their previous training of troops was as crude as children playing.

Take the "reorganization and division of camps" as an example: Yan Liang and Wen Chou followed the old custom and allowed the powerful clans' troops to form their own systems and grant them special privileges; then they selected the strong soldiers of the remaining soldiers to be their personal guards and assigned the weak soldiers to their confidants.

However, Zhuge Liang directly broke down the barriers between private soldiers and reorganized all the new recruits into "armies" based on their place of origin and age, under the unified command of platoon leaders and squad leaders.

If anyone disagrees, Zhuge Liang will not tolerate it: either obey military orders and stay in the camp, or leave on your own!
Zhuge Liang's goal was very clear: the new soldiers he trained must obey orders and not be like Yuan Shao's training of troops, where "there were many soldiers but unclear divisions of command, and arrogant generals with inconsistent orders."

This single reorganization and division of camps eliminated more than two thousand members of the powerful clans, which terrified Yan Liang and Wen Chou.

In the eyes of the two generals, those who went were mostly the strongest among the 10,000 new soldiers!
After all, the food, equipment, and training of the noble tribes' troops were superior to those of the generals, so their combat strength was naturally extraordinary.

However, Zhuge Liang did not care about those who left. On the one hand, he ordered Guan Yu to continue raising flags and recruiting soldiers, and on the other hand, he strictly enforced military law, ordering the new soldiers to recite it every day.

The detailed military regulations, down to the timing of marches and meals, gave Yan Liang and Wen Chou a headache: instead of making the soldiers practice their weapons, they spent all day reciting military regulations. Was this really training them?

What troubled Yan Liang and Wen Chou the most was that, as Liu Bei's deputy generals, Yan Liang and Wen Chou had to set an example themselves!

Ever since.

Yan Liang and Wen Chou had to ascend the general's platform every day, holding the military regulations set by Zhuge Liang, and recite them one by one to the soldiers below the platform. The soldiers would then loudly repeat after the two generals!
As time went on, these two brave and fierce generals from Hebei even muttered these words in their dreams.

It wasn't until the first month of the following year that Zhuge Liang shifted his focus to mechanics training.

However, Zhuge Liang criticized Yan Liang and Wen Chou for their poor execution of military law, citing the "delay in establishing military regulations." He said that military tasks that could have been completed in December had been delayed until January.

Yan Liang and Wen Chou were on the verge of tears, and in private they had kicked over the table countless times in the tent!

Although Zhuge Liang's training of troops was extremely strict, the results were obvious.

Sharpening the axe won't delay the work of chopping wood. The new recruits, familiar with the military regulations, were far more efficient in their execution than when they first arrived. Their training in physical fitness, equipment, and military formations also went exceptionally smoothly, which greatly impressed Yan Liang and Wen Chou.

During the training period, Zhuge Liang also had the soldiers disperse to garrison and cultivate the land with the people near Ye City. He also emphasized education, making the soldiers abide by etiquette and law, and forbidding them from disturbing the people or robbing woodcutters.

Such training left Yan Liang and Wen Chou speechless with astonishment.

Cao Cao's army had very poor discipline, and so did Yuan Shao's. Their soldiers were tyrannical and cruel, and they had a penchant for digging up graves. This was common in both Cao Cao's and Yuan Shao's armies. Randomly killing people and disturbing the daily lives of ordinary people was commonplace.

In contrast, Zhuge Liang dealt with all those who disobeyed orders, harassed the people, and robbed woodcutters according to military law!
In the beginning, Zhuge Liang even ordered the execution of seventeen soldiers who violated military law in a single day!
Such ruthlessness and decisiveness made even seasoned generals like Yan Liang and Wen Chou, who had fought on the battlefield for many years, feel a sense of fear towards Zhuge Liang!
Relying on one's martial prowess?

Even Guan Yu had to obediently lower his head and endure Zhuge Liang's scolding when he made a mistake, so how could Yan Liang and Wen Chou dare to act rashly?

While Zhuge Liang was conducting large-scale military training, Liu Bei's sworn brother Qian Zhao suddenly returned from Changshan, breaking the brief tranquility of Ye City: "The Black Mountain bandit Zhang Yan and Gongsun Zan's son Gongsun Xu have raised an army of 100,000 to invade various counties, seeking revenge for Gongsun Zan!"

　Chapter 1 is here! Please vote with your monthly tickets (late updates on weekends, please forgive me).
　　
　
(End of this chapter)