The Rise of History’s Most Powerful Empire

A general dies in a hundred battles, and a strong man returns after ten years.

At this time, this sentence is deeply reflecting the current situation of the regular army and county soldiers of the entire Han Dynasty.

Beginning in February of the seventh year of Guanghe, all counties and counties in the territory of the Han Dynasty were besieged, and the people who could not survive everywhere rose up.

They joined the Yellow Turban Army, burned government buildings, killed officials, and looted everywhere. Within a month, fighting broke out in 28 counties in seven prefectures across the country.

All the officials and gentry who were unwilling to lose their status and wealth in this case gathered together.

Join forces with other local tyrants that have not been affected by the war, and together propose to the imperial court to organize soldiers and horses to put down the Yellow Turban Rebellion that ravaged the entire Han Dynasty.

Because of the Yellow Turban Army's looting regardless of class or situation, the villagers who were full of fear and indignation also formed volunteer armies.

To deal with these rebels, all the local gentry contributed money, food, troops and weapons. He dispatched outstanding talents from his own clan, organized them, and brought them on after a little training to resist the Yellow Turban Army's first-line battlefield.

Immediately, this dynasty, which had been passed down for hundreds of years, organized an army of hundreds of thousands in a short time, and quickly pacified the Yellow Turban Army that had corrupted the entire northern part of the Han Dynasty and was spreading everywhere.

The Yellow Turban Army, which had hundreds of thousands of troops and millions of civilians, was put down in just nine months.

Using bloody examples to tell future generations, peasant army uprisings have not had a clear goal and command since ancient times.

After more than half a year of anti-insurgency wars, only the current 200,000 people remained among the hundreds of thousands of rebels and government troops, and most of them were exhausted, hated war, and yearned for a stable life. Life.

However, this wish did not satisfy them. Just after the imperial court quelled the Yellow Turban, they discovered that there was a rebellion by the Xiliang Qiang people in their Guanzhong area.

The emperor's own ancestral tomb and rear were threatened by the enemy, and this rebellion must be suppressed to ensure the normal operation of the entire dynasty.

Therefore, following the emperor's imperial decree, the 200,000 troops who had just put down the rebels in the Central Plains had not had time to take a good rest.

In addition to leaving tens of thousands of people to stay in the necessary counties, the remaining 150,000 to 60,000 people were all transferred to Guanzhong to quell the raging rebellion in the northwest of the Han Dynasty.

With this order, all the soldiers at the bottom level complained. Only those high-ranking generals who are eager to make meritorious deeds and win more meritorious deeds are jubilant, gearing up and looking forward to the arrival of this war.

Soldiers who have no fighting spirit will have the will to fight. This sentence is a very profound understanding of the reality of the entire Han Dynasty army. Up and down the heart is inconsistent, the meaning is different.

The soldiers resented that the officers did not treat them as human beings and ordered them around at will; the generals complained that the soldiers under them did not obey orders and refused to fight cowardly.

The two naturally contradictory classes are currently in the process of erupting. All that was missing was a fuse to ignite the disappointment and indignation in the soldiers' hearts towards the court.

Sure enough, when this group of soldiers was transferred to the Guanzhong battlefield, a large number of soldiers were passive and idle, and those Xiliang rebels would be defeated at the first touch.

The situation in the entire Guanzhong battlefield has been completely corrupted, and the influence of the rebellion is growing. Either they took the initiative to join the rebels, or more and more people were coerced, and the imperial army was at a disadvantage on the entire battlefield.

And the generals who kept losing battles blamed all their anger on the soldiers, beat and scolded those soldiers constantly, and reprimanded them every day.

Contradictions and anger slowly accumulated, and finally in one night, all the soldiers who had endured to the limit united together.

They agreed with each other that when the torches were raised, they would attack the general's tent together, jointly raise a rebellion, and attack the capital with the rebellious Xiliang army to destroy this decadent and dilapidated dynasty. The end of the chaos.

Finally, with the lighting of one torch, countless torches rose up like fire dragons.

"kill!"

Following a few prestigious people among the leaders, an order was issued. All the soldiers, full of anger and longing to go home, rushed towards the center of the entire camp like a dark cloud, where the commander of the army lived.

In 185 AD, in February of the first year of Emperor Ling Zhongping, the soldiers who had been weary of war for a long time and were looking forward to returning to their hometown finally inspired a mutiny under the persecution of their commanders.

Of the remaining 120,000 counter-insurgency troops, 20,000 participated, which dealt a heavy blow to the unsuspecting officers and soldiers. Dozens of generals were killed in the turmoil, and the army suffered 50,000 to 60,000 casualties. About 10,000 rebels fled to Xiliang, brought the news to the Xiliang army, and joined them.

The Xiliang army was overjoyed when they got the news of the civil strife among the officers and soldiers, and immediately summoned 30,000 cavalry to raid the already panic-stricken officer camp.

The officers and troops caught off guard suffered heavy losses again. Only 20,000 of the 40,000 to 50,000 troops left after a civil strife fled to the Great Wall, defended the city, and quickly asked the court for help.

The entire west of Guanzhong, except for a few counties and counties around Chang'an City, are still in the hands of the imperial court, and all other places are occupied by Xiliang rebels. Liang army's uprising.

Three days later, I received news that the counter-insurgency army had returned in defeat, leaving only 20,000 people trapped on the Great Wall.

Emperor Han Ling, who was enjoying life in the wine pool and meat forest in the imperial palace of Luoyang City, was furious and terrified. Urgently ordered the officials in the court to come up with countermeasures to curb the increasingly rampant offensive of the Xiliang Army and prevent it from spreading to Luoyang in the Guandong.

After some urgent meetings, the princes of the imperial court wanted to prevent the Xiliang army from coming to their old base camp. One after another, they paid money and food, sent troops and people, and once again assembled an army of about 100,000 people and transported them to Chang'an.

Let the Guanzhong gentry who have been suppressed by them for hundreds of years gain power again. At that time, how will those Guanzhong gentry who have been oppressed by the Guandong family treat their old enemies that have been feuded for hundreds of years? That's really hard to say.

Therefore, all the gentry are working hard to support the territory to suppress the rebellion this time, even more than putting down those Yellow Turban rebellions.

At most, those yellow turban thieves would mess up some small noble families with little background, and they still did not pose any threat to the big families that had been passed down for hundreds of years.

Each of these top aristocratic families can pull out his well-equipped armor of thousands of people. Moreover, he has a good reputation in the local area, and when he ascends to the top at any time, he will have tens of thousands of people gathered in the scene.

This is a huge force, one or two, five or six families are nothing, but in the whole big man, this kind of power is combined by his dozens of families, plus a little less big family, it can be said to be an extremely powerful force. Terrible power.

And these aristocratic families colluded with each other and entered into a relationship of marriage. It can be said that every aristocratic family has a few traces of his blood relationship, and using one's own blood relationship as a bond is enough to make them unite and protect each other.

At that time, anyone who dares to violate the interests of their class will be united by them to attack and overthrow them together.

Just like Wang Mang two hundred years ago, he implemented the New Deal, demanding that the interests of the gentry be transferred to the poor. But he was immediately obstructed by the gentry, and his decrees were twisted everywhere.

In the end, it was found that Wang Mang's will could not be stopped, so he simply revolted, overthrew it and re-established a dynasty that safeguarded the interests of their class and conformed to the wishes of the gentry.

So the Han Dynasty, which had already perished, continued its life again, and a so-called Eastern Han Dynasty appeared, but it was actually just a puppet of a noble family.

The Guanzhong gentry that I am participating in the rebellion are the victims of Wang Mang's change of dynasty. Because he was on the wrong team and chose Wang Mang, he was suppressed by Liu Xiu and the entire Kanto family.

Guanzhong, which was originally extremely wealthy in the Western Han Dynasty, gradually became Xiliang, which is now sparsely populated and barren. Now how dare those Kanto clans let those Xiliang troops enter the pass? Aren't you afraid of becoming the second Guanzhong gentry?

When it comes to the means of dealing with the gentry, the Xiliang Army, which is also a gentry, is more skilled and clever than the Yellow Turban Army who was born as a peasant.