Who do you think you are? A prince of the Liu clan? Faced with the unreasonable demands of these powerful families who wanted to form an alliance with him but required him to divorce his two wives, or demote his two daughters to concubines and then marry their daughters, Liu Zhuang just treated them as nonsense and refused to agree in order not to offend them. The three plans of treating guests, beheading and keeping them as dogs all failed. The nobles in Yanmen were very troubled by the fact that Liu Zhuang and his gang were entrenched in their territory. Ding Yuan, the commander of the Northern Di army, and Guo Wei, the governor of Yanmen, who were the most powerful forces in Yanmen and had formed an alliance with them, thought carefully and came up with a good idea. ------------------------------------- A few days later, Yanmen prefect Guo Yu came to Mayi from Yinguan in person and invited the generals of Baimaying to a banquet. Liu Zhuang did not dare to neglect him and brought the generals to the banquet. Guo Yu looked to be in his thirties or forties. He was wearing a dark Han official robe and sat in the main seat in an elegant and easy-going manner. A terrifying aura emanated from this prefect. Behind him, although there were no colorful galaxy branches and leaves, there were still extremely strong magical fluctuations. Golden threads weaved terrifying information above his head. An 11th-level modern Confucian scholar, his rank is even higher than Lu Bu. Ding Yuan also changed into casual clothes and sat in the main seat with Guo Wei. On both sides of the two were some famous figures in Yanmen County. Each of them was dignified and had an imposing aura. However, when these people saw the two-meter-six-meter-tall Lu Bu, their faces changed color: her record of killing a Thunder Warrior with one halberd was too dazzling and terrifying. Everyone had fought with the Thunder Warrior in the past month and knew how powerful it was. Seeing the even more terrifying Lu Bu, they were a little frightened. Everyone sat down in turn. After three rounds of wine and five dishes, Guo Yu clapped his hands. A servant brought a huge tray to Liu Zhuang. He lifted the red cloth and found that it was filled with a large number of jade tablets and official seals that symbolized identity. All the official positions that a battalion should have were collected. "Liu Zhuang, you have worked hard and made great contributions. You have recruited more than a thousand strong troops for the empire and defeated and strangled the Yellow Turbans in Mayi. Therefore, I specially submitted a petition to the court to recommend you as the Sima of the other army and the commander of the White Horse Camp. Just a few days ago, His Majesty recognized your contribution and approved the establishment of the White Horse Camp. The jade tablets and square seals of all officers and civilians have also been made and are now here. From today on, the White Horse Camp has truly become a legion of the Han Dynasty."
"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Liu Zhuang thanked the emperor for his grace in an unfamiliar manner and took a jade seal. From today on, his White Horse Battalion officially became a Han army. The function of the Sima of the Separate Department was exactly the same as that of the Colonel, both were the head of a battalion; however, the Colonel was a formal official position, while the Sima of the Separate Department was an independent non-staff member. For example, there are only four battalions and four colonels in a certain place, but if the fifth and sixth battalions are added for various reasons, the commanders of these two battalions cannot be called colonels, because there are only four of them, and they can only be called Sima of other departments. The rank of colonel was of high value. The salary of a county governor was two thousand dan, and the rank of colonel was equivalent to two thousand dan. "Equivalent" meant close to, which means second only to two thousand dan. It was impossible to demote him easily. Although the duties of the Sima of the Separate Department were the same, because there was no official organization, his salary was equivalent to one thousand dan. Even so, the position of Sima of Separate Departments was quite high. The salary of a county magistrate in the Han Dynasty was between 600 and 1,000 dan. Many famous people in the late Han Dynasty, such as Sun Jian, were the first to be rewarded as Sima of Separate Departments because they had their own troops and had made meritorious contributions in the battle to suppress the Yellow Turban Rebellion. And now, I am standing on the same starting line with them. "but." Guo Wei changed the subject. "The Yellow Turban banditry in Bingzhou is not rampant, and the main outbreak area is still Jizhou. Your Majesty sent General Lu Zhi to lead the five most elite northern army battalions in the entire empire: Tunqi, Infantry, Shesheng, Changshui, and Yueqi to quell the rebellion. At the same time, an imperial edict was issued to various places, requiring the volunteers recruited from various places to quickly move towards Jizhou, obey the command of the General Lu Zhi, and jointly defeat the bandit leader Zhang Jue. Sima of the other division, you are also from Bingzhou. You know that there are still various Hu tribes in Yanmen County that need to be fought. We really can't spare any people to support the General of the Central Army. Please take the White Horse Battalion to Jizhou to represent our Yanmen County and go to Jizhou to support the Han Dynasty and eliminate the traitors." Guo Yu counted the beads on his abacus clearly and loudly. Since treating him to a meal, beheading him, or treating him like a dog are all useless, I will first give you a decree to bring you into the Han system, and then give an order to kick you to Jizhou. You can do whatever you want over there, just don't interfere with our wealthy family's strategy for Yanmen. Lu Bu frowned, wondering if he had been fooled. Why was he kicked out of Yanmen and had to go to Jizhou to work? Just as he was about to get angry, he was stopped by Liu Zhuang. Liu Zhuang could see through what Guo Yu was thinking at a glance. These Yanmen families had already tried to treat Yanmen County as their own exclusive territory. In order to prevent him from making trouble, they would rather appoint him as the Sima of another department and then throw him to Jizhou. But this was exactly in line with his plan. Chaos was a whirlpool that devoured countless lives, but it was also a ladder to climb up. With the help of the chaos in Yanmen, he had directly transformed from an unknown farmer to a Sima of a separate department. However, Yanmen was still not chaotic enough. After only one month, the local Yellow Turbans were all pacified, but he was still constrained and suppressed by those aristocratic families. It was too difficult for only a thousand people to fight against the aristocratic families who were colluding with each other in Yanmen. There were four camps of the Han army stationed in Yanmen County alone, and Ding Yuan's Beidi Camp was just one of them. But Jizhou was different! As the center of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, it was the real eye of the vortex, the center of the storm, and the degree of chaos was dozens of times that of Yanmen! Even the five battalions of the most elite northern army of the Han Dynasty had been defeated by the main force of the Yellow Turbans. There was real chaos there. Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Zhang He and other Youji people were all heroes who emerged from this killing purgatory. They fought their way out of the terrifying chaos and made their initial reputations. If they could fight their way out of that Shura hell, then so could I and Lu Bu and the others! Maybe I could even run into these famous heroes and recruit them. After all, he was still not strong enough, nor powerful enough. At most, he could be considered a big dragon on the chessboard that could influence the situation, but he had not become a chess player. That was why these local tyrants wanted to drive him away.
As long as he can attract more brave men and heroes from all over the world during this trip to Jizhou and make his White Horse Camp stronger, those aristocratic families will have to truly cooperate and compromise with him - just like when Lu Bu arrived in Xuzhou, people rushed to marry their daughters to be his concubines. Chapter 50: Detailed strategies, questioning Qin Yong Although Liu Zhuang had no major objection to going to Jizhou, he still showed an unwilling expression on the surface. "Jizhou? Governor, this is too far. My people are all from Dingxiang and Yanmen. Governor, you want them to cross the Taihang Mountains and go to Jizhou to suppress the bandits. How can we have so much food to support the expedition?" "It's okay. Since the White Horse Camp has become part of the Han Dynasty, I also arranged the Jizhou expedition this time, so the military rations will of course be provided by Yanmen County. I will allow you to cross the Taihang Mountains safely. When you reach Jizhou, you can ask the local officials for enough food and military pay with the letter I wrote." Guo Wei had anticipated this and came up with a complete solution. "Alright, then the food and fodder supply for the 4,000 men in my White Horse Camp will depend on the governor. Besides food and fodder and military pay, I have two more things to do..." Liu Zhuang continued to negotiate terms. "Wait? Four thousand people, where did four thousand people come from? Your White Horse Camp only has thirteen troops, 1,300 at most. How come the number suddenly more than tripled?" Guo Wei was a little surprised. "It's always been 4,000 people, right? 1,300 are main combat soldiers, and the remaining 2,700 or so are auxiliary soldiers and laborers. It's normal for one soldier to be assigned two laborers." Liu Zhuang was equally surprised. Are you kidding me? How dare I abandon the families of more than 2,700 soldiers from the White Horse Camp to Mayi? Are you crazy? I know people like you best. As soon as I left, they became slaves again. Maybe they can even use the soldiers' families to threaten me. "Okay, I'll supply food and fodder for four thousand people." Guo Yu frowned, calculated carefully, and finally agreed to the request. It's okay. When they leave, the fields occupied by the Huang family will be vacant. I have helped your Huang family to get back so much land, you should return the favor and take out the grain stored in your family to fill the food gap for these two thousand people on the expedition - who told you to be so incompetent? You were already on the verge of death at the beginning of the Yellow Turban Rebellion game, and were about to withdraw from the stage of competition. "Thank you, Governor. I have two more requests." Liu Zhuang spoke again. "Secondly, my White Horse Camp is short of craftsmen. I beg the governor to assign a group of carpenters and blacksmiths to join my team. I need these workers to teach my auxiliary soldiers skills and help me repair the damage to weapons and armor after each battle, as well as some carpentry knowledge when setting up camp and attacking cities. With the addition of these workers, I can ensure the safety of everyone in Jizhou. Otherwise, if I go to Jizhou to help as a Bingzhou soldier, but I don't know how to do anything, then the people of Jizhou will not laugh at my White Horse Camp, but at the entire Bingzhou Army. I am unknown and have lost many soldiers and generals. Being ridiculed is not a big deal, but I am afraid that the people of Jizhou will laugh at the adults present here and undermine the wisdom of the governor and the lieutenant. " "No problem. This is easy. I will assign some of my men to you, and also give you a group of artisans and auxiliary soldiers." Guo Yu agreed readily. It was no big deal. If he wanted, he could just give him some craftsmen. He had no shortage of such people. "Thank you, Governor. There is one last thing. We in the White Horse Camp are all locals from Dingxiang and Yanmen. We have never been to Jizhou. We are not familiar with the local terrain and environment, and most of us are farmers." Liu Zhuang put forward the last condition in a neither humble nor arrogant manner. "Therefore, I need the governor to send a confidant who is courageous, knowledgeable, and can speak in front of the county magistrates and governors under Jizhou to go with us. This will not only solve many of our problems, but also allow me to pass on the White Horse Camp's expedition situation in Jizhou to the governor through this person." Guo Yu thought about it carefully and found that what Liu Zhuang said made sense. It would be a good idea to send a trusted person to act as a spy beside Liu Zhuang. Although they had never met before, he had always been prejudiced against Liu Zhuang because of his peasant identity. The reputation of this peasant among the nobles was not very good, especially Ding Yuan, who was resentful of him for giving away so many of his officers. But when I saw him today, I found that he had a very majestic appearance and his four-pupil eyes showed the look of a dragon. He was graceful and neither humble nor arrogant in front of the Yanmen officials. Even a terrifying cavalry general like Lu Bu seemed to follow him as their leader, which showed that he was a real character. The conversation just now also made Guo Yu look at him differently. He was obviously kicked to another place, but he was not panicked. Instead, he was able to put forward three very reasonable requests in an orderly manner, which he had not thought of. It is hard to say what kind of trouble this kind of person can cause in such a chaotic world.
Although I cannot control him, I can still place bets on him; I bet on Ding Yuan and Liu Zhuang. This is the healthy way. Let's see who will have the last laugh in this chaotic world. Guo Wei put aside his contempt for Liu Zhuang and began to consider the issue seriously. The candidate for the military supervisor must be one of his own direct descendants, preferably a direct blood relative, but not too strong. If he is too strong, he will have to keep him to manage Yanmen… Blood relatives, their combat power is not strong… Well, he has three sons and one daughter, all of whom are just starting out and are being trained. It is better to choose one of them to be the military supervisor, so that he can also gain some experience. With a monster like Lu Bu around, the possibility of being defeated and killed is extremely low. "Okay! Guo Huai, I will promote you from Erqu Army Officer of Beidi Camp to Supervisor of Baima Camp, and supervise the Baima soldiers for me." Guo Yu hardened his heart and finally made the final decision. He called out a young girl who was about the same age as Zhang Liao from among the people present. She looked gentle, dignified and virtuous, and her every move was full of the grace and upbringing of a lady from a wealthy family, as if she was sure of victory. "Sima of the other department, I believe in your and your wife's strength, so I specially sent my legitimate daughter Guo Huai to your account. She is sixteen years old this year. Because of the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, she was forced to enter the officialdom early. She is still very immature in all aspects, but the various tribes in Jizhou still have to give her and me, Yangqu Guo, some face. Guo Yu made up his mind, clasped his hands together, and saluted Liu Zhuang as a father, not as a prefect. However, I ask you to agree to one request: no matter how much you have achieved in suppressing the Yellow Turban Rebellion, I only hope that you and your wife can take care of my daughter and prevent her from getting hurt. " Guo Huai? Liu Zhuang was stunned for a moment, and after thinking about it carefully, Guo Yu was indeed Guo Huai's father. This man was too effeminate. She was the General of the Western Expedition and the Governor of Yongzhou of Cao Wei in the future. When Zhuge Liang was on the Northern Expedition, she was the second most important figure in Yongliang, second only to Sima Yi. She was a fierce person who could withstand Zhuge Liang's attacks, had detailed strategies, and was good at asking about the talents of Qin and Yong's generals. However, she is only a level 3 modern Confucian scholar, that is, a level 3 wizard, and her attributes are mediocre: the source of a spellcaster's power is not muscles, but mysterious magic. A real scholar briefly joins her team. "Zhuang, I will definitely live up to your trust." Although he felt that a prefect had no right to appoint a military supervisor to supervise his White Horse Camp, Liu Zhuang, a peasant himself, had now become a Sima of another army. He did not care about such trivial matters, bowed solemnly, and reached an agreement with the prefect of Yanmen. The author says: Author's words: There are still 13 monthly tickets left, so it's time to add more chapters~ Chapter 1100: Ancient Beauty ( monthly tickets plus more!) After reaching an agreement, Guo Huai sent a hundred craftsmen, a ten-member army, and some slaves to accompany his daughter to the White Horse Camp. Guo Huai's appearance and attire immediately attracted the attention of everyone in the White Horse Camp, who then cast hostile glances at him. The square-collared round robe, high hat and wide belt, these clothes that symbolize Confucian scholars are actually worn on the tall and slender body of a young girl. Her slender breasts, which can be held in one hand, push the square-collared brocade robe forward in a lovely arc. The whole dress is made of expensive blue brocade, embroidered with white flying snow and red proud plums. Her black bun is tied up high behind her head, and inserted with a luxurious hairpin forged with gold and rubies, like a broken golden branch, blooming with crystal blood plums that never wither. The gentle and peaceful face is decorated with white powder; the delicate and tender red lips are adorned with blood-red rouge. Liu Zhuang glanced at Guo Huai beside him out of the corner of his eye. She was graceful and polite, like a red plum blossom standing tall and proud in the snow. When she walked, her hairpin and earrings did not even shake much. Her delicate chin was slightly raised, and her hands were politely placed in front of her chest. Her wide green sleeves hung down to her knees, swaying gently in the wind along with the picture of red plum blossoms in the snow embroidered on it. And at the tip of his nose, he could smell a faint fragrance from her. Gentle, dignified, elegant, and intellectual, she seemed like a beauty that had walked out of a painting, perfectly meeting all of Liu Zhuang's fantasies about classical beauties. The only problem was that she didn't fit in with the soldiers in the White Horse Camp. One could tell at a glance that she was the daughter of an aristocratic family, and the White Horse Camp had not been doing well with the aristocratic families recently. Looking at the hostile eyes of the crowd, Guo Huai still responded with a sweet smile. Although she was full of arrogance and disdain for these peasants in her heart, her outward attitude was still very respectful. She politely bowed and greeted everyone one by one. Her etiquette was perfect and impeccable. Her pair of beautiful smiling eyes curved into two bright moons. There was no offensive look in her expression. Even Liu Zhuang could not see what she was thinking. Compared with this true noble lady, Huang Si's dress, manners, and the contempt revealed in his eyes made him look like a monkey in clothes. Humph, white horses? What great things can a group of lower-class civilians do in troubled times? Liu Zhuang was just lucky enough to catch the wind and create a powerful peasant army. During the transition between the Qin and Han dynasties and the New Han dynasty, many peasant armies also took advantage of the wind and became successful, including the Yellow Turbans this time. Guo Huai had no good feelings towards these peasant armies. They had neither lofty goals nor long-term plans, and their leaders were unable to control their troops. All the peasant armies he had seen in history books were a loose group that would often collapse due to a single failure. They had great limitations and, in the end, were just a handful of dust under the wheel of history. "Put aside your hostility. This is Guo Huai, the military supervisor Guo. She is here to help us go to Jizhou to support the Han Dynasty. She is our friend now, and will be our comrade-in-arms in the future."
Liu Zhuang looked around, and saw four terrifying golden pupils swaying in the darkness like flying stars. All the people around him were shocked when they were swept by those terrifying eyes, and they all put away their hostile gazes. Those who needed to pack up packed up, and those who needed to train continued training. Wei Xu and several other village chiefs also obeyed obediently, at least they did not dare to openly be hostile to Guo Huai. Guo Huai was a little surprised and raised his eyebrows slightly. This peasant-born Sima had such a high control over his soldiers? He really underestimated him. Liu Zhuang first took Guo Huai around the White Horse Camp, letting her visit his magnificent army and introducing the situation of the military camp. Guo Huai became more and more shocked. Before coming, she only heard that the White Horse Camp had made a small fortune, resulting in these refugees being well-equipped. But after arriving, she found that the soldiers of the Thirteen Troops were actually training meticulously according to the rules and regulations of the Han Army? If I hadn't known that they were the White Horse Camp, I would have thought that this was some regular Han army. What's even more terrifying is that these soldiers are not forced to train here by the officers' swords, but are doing it voluntarily. There is excitement in the eyes of all the soldiers, and everyone knows why they are training and why they are fighting. There were many generous and heroic people in the land of Yan and Zhao. Among the 1,300 soldiers, 29 senior officers and 200 men resigned directly from the army. Another 500 to 600 were retired soldiers from Bingzhou or soldiers who were expelled due to army downsizing. They heard about the reputation of Lu Bu and the other garrison commanders and came to join them. Even the 2,700 civilians were all ruthless people who had seen blood and fought in the battlefield. Some of them were young women who had fought with Liu Zhuang in Dingxiang, children of thirteen or fourteen, and retired veterans in their fifties or sixties. Their combat effectiveness was only slightly lower than that of ordinary soldiers. In other words, the proportion of veterans in the White Horse Camp exceeds 50%. With this configuration, as long as the other half of the refugees and Yellow Turban surrendered soldiers follow the veterans to fight a few battles and accumulate experience, they can also become qualified Han soldiers. What shocked Guo Huai the most was that when Liu Zhuang announced that everyone was going to Jizhou to support the Han Dynasty, not to mention the soldiers, all the people said that they would go wherever Liu Zhuang went, and they didn't care at all about the land they had just snatched from the Huang family. This was very terrifying: these refugees did not trust the government at all, they only trusted Liu Zhuang. Guo Huai looked at Liu Zhuang deeply and said, "Okay, I admit that I was wrong. The White Horse Battalion is not the refugees we imagined. In other words, they have been gradually trained and transformed into a regular army during these months of training." Well, in this doomsday catastrophe game, if Liu Zhuang had not been defeated, he could at least have become a warlord. After a few generations, he might have become a noble family like ours. My father was right. Although this man cannot be controlled, he is indeed worth making friends with and it is worth investing in. After Liu Zhuang issued the order to march south to fight the bandits, everyone began to prepare intensively. At the military meeting, Guo Huai elegantly and calmly ordered several personal maids to pour tea leaves, various spices and river water into the cauldron, and brewed a pot of fragrant tea. She proudly displayed her tea art, and after serving the fragrant tea to all the leaders of the White Horse Camp present, she began to issue tasks to everyone - she actually went out with a full set of tea-making utensils. Not long ago, the imperial court received a secret report that Zhang Jue heard that General Lu was leading five battalions of the Northern Army from Luoyang to attack, so he urgently ordered the nearest Yellow Turban Army from Youzhou to go south for support. They had already reached the edge of Zhuo County and were about to enter Jizhou. Our first task is to cooperate with the Youzhou Legion and the local volunteers in Zhuo County to kill these people and prevent Zhang Jue from getting any support. Then we will continue to move south and join forces with Lord Lu Zhi to fight Zhang Jue together. Guo Huai elegantly took a sip of the fragrant tea and calmly took out a detailed map: the majestic Taihang Mountains separate Bingzhou and Jizhou. There are only eight narrow valleys between the mountains that are barely passable, also known as the "Eight Jings of Taihang". The marching route she planned for everyone was Puyin Pass, one of the Eight Passes. From here, they crossed the Taihang Mountains and arrived at the boundary between Youzhou and Jizhou. Here, they cooperated with the Han army and volunteers in Youzhou to block the Yellow Turbans in Youzhou. Liu Zhuang nodded in agreement. A large number of livestock from Dingxiang and Xianbei, pulling carts of baggage, food, and weapons, and 3,600 people began to march south, passing through Yinguan, entering Yanmen, taking a boat at Guangwu, going north along the Hutuo River, and then changing boats at Lucheng, heading east along the Fenshui River, and began to cross the Taihang Mountains. They took boats the entire way, using water transportation to minimize logistics pressure. The journey was about 350 kilometers. With the convenience of water logistics, Baimaying took only 15 days to get out of the Taihang Mountains and enter the Hebei Plain on March 20th of the seventh year of Photosynthesis. The towering Taihang Mountains on both sides gradually became lower, and the endless Hebei Plain was exposed in front of everyone, like a piece of emerald jade under the sky, a towering pass standing at the boundary between the Hebei Plain and the Taihang Mountains, faintly appearing in front of everyone. "Do you see that pass? That's Changshan Pass. It crosses mountains and rivers, and is located on many important water and land transportation routes. It connects Youzhou in the north, Hebei in the south, and Taihang in the west. It is a fortress that controls the throat of Puyin Pass. The geographical location is very critical. As long as the Han army is stationed here, Jiyou's Yellow Turban Army will not be able to pass through Puyin Pass and enter our hometown: Bingzhou to cause chaos." Guo Huai, who is knowledgeable and experienced, holds the tea he just brewed and elegantly introduces the customs and culture of Jizhou to everyone. As expected of the eldest daughter of the Guo family, she has never drunk bitter river water or well water in all these days. She only drinks tea brewed by herself and her maid. Although she doesn't know much about this, according to Lu Ze, the tea she drinks is the most expensive one in Bingzhou. "On the other hand, if the Yellow Turban Army occupied Changshan Pass, we wouldn't be able to leave Puyin Pass?" Liu Zhuang frowned. "That's right. As long as they shoot arrows into the river from the city wall, throw logs and rocks, or even pull an iron chain, no ship will be able to pass through the Fenshui River. Even if the army can bypass it by land, the logistics can't be bypassed, unless you deploy a large army that can fight the Changshan Pass garrison for each logistics unit, and force the grain to be transported by land, raising the cost of grain transportation to the sky... No, why do you ask that?" Guo Huai held the tea saucer and frowned elegantly, not understanding why Liu Zhuang asked this. "Because on the wall of Changshan Pass, there was a large yellow flag flying, with a golden double-headed eagle painted on it and the two big characters "Huang Tian" written on it." Liu Zhuang looked solemn. With his double pupil vision, he could tell from several kilometers away that something was wrong. Jizhou was indeed the core area of Zhang Jiao's missionary work. The Yellow Turbans here were a bit scary. How could such an important military town fall so easily? They were completely different from the Yellow Turbans in Bingzhou. He immediately waved his flag and ordered all the ships to stop immediately.
"Stop the ships! Stop the ships! All troops draw their weapons and prepare for battle!"
Chapter 52: Nineteen Bowls of Talisman Water