Weird Three Kingdoms

Chapter 3631: Gold and silk feed tigers and wolves every year, the night escapes from the gate and startles the drums

If Jiang Jiong's problem was just the Qiang people bargaining according to their old custom, seeking to get a good price for their lives, then for Cheng Yu, the trouble was not just a matter of price.

Most of the time in history, when problems can be solved with money, they are not big problems.

Unfortunately, what’s interesting is that when problems can be solved with money, rulers would rather give money to outsiders and foreigners than give a little more to their own “peasants”.

It is better to publish articles than to give money.

The reason is that they are afraid that the "mud legs" will develop lazy habits.

They are afraid!

Therefore, they would rather subsidize large households than give money directly.

The Han Dynasty may be the beginning of these many unspoken rules.

Good or bad, examples can be found in the Han Dynasty.

For example, "peace marriage".

The Han Dynasty was not the beginning of the practice of "marriage alliances", but it was the theoretical basis for the practice of "marriage alliances" and even "treason" in later unified dynasties.

During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, the strategy of "marriage + annual tribute" was adopted towards the Xiongnu, with large amounts of silk, grain, gold and silver given away every year in an attempt to alleviate border troubles through economic means. All the expenses for foreign peace talks were borne by the farmers of the Han Dynasty. When Chao Cuo proposed the "expensive grain policy" to try to reduce the burden on farmers, he was strongly opposed by vested interest groups.

This practice of "rather deal with foreign invaders than with domestic slaves" eventually led to the Red Eyebrows and Green Forests uprising in the late Western Han Dynasty. When Wang Mang reformed the system, land annexation across the country had reached a point where "the rich have fields stretching for miles, while the poor have no place to stand."

The Eastern Han Dynasty obviously did not make much improvement as a result.

During the Song Dynasty, the Liao Kingdom was given 10 taels of silver and 20 pieces of silk every year, and later even Xixia was required to pay money. It seems that money is spent to buy peace, but in fact all the expenses are passed on to ordinary people in the Song Dynasty, such as the additional "person money" and "silk purchase". When Fang La rebelled, the slogan he shouted was "Abolish the flower and stone gang and reduce the person money", but the Song Dynasty would rather transfer the Western Army that was originally used to defend against the Jin Kingdom to suppress it than give up this piece of fat meat that it had eaten for many years.

Finally, during the Jingkang period, when the women of the ruling class were treated as meat by the Jin soldiers and cried out in shame, did they ever think that they were the result of their own actions?
Obviously not.

Because by the time of the Braid Dynasty, bowing to the outside world had reached its peak...

This tradition, which has been passed down for thousands of years, did not disappear just because the braids fell down.

On the one hand, the interests of the ruling class are solidified. They understand that the source of all their privileges comes from the exploitation of the common people, so the vested interest groups would rather give up external interests to maintain internal privileges.

On the other hand, after the death of the first generation of the feudal dynasty, the incompetence and low governance ability of the second and subsequent generations of the ruling class led to path dependence. These so-called elites, but in reality wastes, were more accustomed to maintaining superficial stability through wealth transfer rather than making fundamental institutional reforms.

Once this habitual practice is noticed by the people and loses the original grassroots trust, any normal or abnormal policies of the ruling class will be interpreted as a means of exploitation.

As the saying goes, "It is impossible to accumulate resentment among the people and expect them not to rebel."

This is the problem Cheng Yu is facing now.

During the initial period of Cao's attack on Guanzhong, means such as military pay and bounties were enough to boost the morale of the soldiers. But now, no matter how loud Cheng Yu shouted or how round his pie was, or even if he took out some real money to give to the soldiers, he could not get any good results.

The soldiers of Cao's army took the money as usual, but turned around and started to curse, saying that Cao was playing some trick to trick them into death...

Once distrust arises, it is difficult to eliminate.

Cao's army was defeated in the Battle of Guanzhong. Even the newly recruited soldiers learned about the previous war from some channels. After Cao's army entered Henei County, military schools at all levels followed Cheng Yu's orders and urged them to move forward. The baggage and auxiliary soldiers behind them did not catch up, so these Cao soldiers were forced to carry their armor and dry food on their own and move forward. They had to carry dozens of kilograms of weight on their backs, and they had to hurry on their way without any rest. In addition, their morale was low, so they must have had many complaints.

But fortunately there were no external factors before. Now they have encountered Jiang Jiong’s troops. They can neither advance nor retreat. The old soldiers bully the new recruits. The resentment is like a compressed spring, constantly accumulating and being squeezed.

The key point is that there are still some military school non-commissioned officers and junior officials who are lamenting, "Why are the Cao army soldiers so resentful now? Can't they be more positive?"

Now, when Cheng Yu was planning to cut more trees and build baggage wagon frames to form a movable wooden shield wall to resist Jiang Jiong's cavalry, the resentment that had been accumulated inadvertently broke out...

There are actually some signs when resentment is about to explode.

For example, when setting up camp, digging trenches, building fences, and cutting down trees to use as stakes, these Cao army soldiers were exhausted and had to do the hard work continuously, so naturally everyone was cursing.

But no one cares.

Whether it was the military academy, the non-commissioned officers, or the petty officials in the army, they all thought that this was not a big problem. After all, weren't the people in the Shandong Central Plains region scolded in normal times? It was like too many lice would not bite.

Normally, when the noise gets too loud, the sergeant at the military academy only knows one trick, which is to deal with the person who curses the loudest on behalf of the Han people and the prime minister. In any case, he cannot let the shouting and cursing disturb his superior's peace.

Cheng Yu himself should have known about these situations, but he also didn't care too much about this issue.

It was far away from the bottom floor, so although I could hear the sounds, I couldn’t quite make out what was chirping under the stone slabs.

He felt that he had more important issues to think about and solve.

As for other things, they are not so urgent and important.

After all, we have been living like this for so many years. What problem can there be if we delay it for a while longer?
Night gradually fell, and Cao's camp was silent in the darkness.

The lights on the walls of the camp were blown by the night wind, making a sound similar to whimpering.

In the big tent, Cheng Yu stood straight with his hands behind his back, his eyes slowly scanning the hanging map, as if he was planning something, but some things did not go as he wished.

……

……

In the Cao army camp, in the second half of the night, the guards became relatively slack.

The soldiers on duty in the first half of the night can have a not-too-bad sleep in the second half of the night, while the soldiers on duty in the second half of the night can only take a nap in the early morning. Even if there is a rule that allows them to sleep until the morning, but...

One is noisy.

No one would deliberately create a "quiet" environment for the soldiers on duty in the second half of the night to ensure their sleep quality.

Another reason is that premature promnosis is not unlimited.

If the soldiers are willing to give a few coins, the cooks will be happy to take out some of their private stash and make some special "delicacies". However, most of the breakfasts are served in a canteen with a big pot of rice. If you go too late, there will not even be water for washing the pot.

Therefore, the soldiers on duty in the second half of the night were basically half asleep and half awake, and in some places they even simply found a corner sheltered from the wind to sleep.

Normally, the military academy sergeants were supposed to inspect their sentries every two hours, but in reality, few could really do that. Unless their superiors specifically assigned them to do so, or ordered them to conduct inspections, the middle and lower-level military academy sergeants would be lazy if they could.

Under such circumstances, most of the soldiers on duty in the second half of the night were new recruits from Cao's army. After wandering around for a few rounds, a few veteran soldiers wandered off and hid in some corner to sleep.

Without a leader, the new recruits of Cao's army were too lazy to continue patrolling. Instead, they stopped at some positions on the left side of the village gate, either sitting or leaning. Some of them were dozing off while holding their spears, while others were sleeping with their backs to each other with their heads tilted. Everyone looked exhausted and did not even have the heart to chat or laugh with each other.

Suddenly, footsteps were heard in the darkness of the night.

The soldier on duty at the camp gate was startled and looked up. In the flickering light of the fire, he saw an entire team of Cao's soldiers heading towards the camp gate.

The guard shouted: "What are you doing?!"

The other half-asleep soldiers around were also alarmed, but when they opened their eyes and saw the ranks carrying the same Cao army flags, they couldn't help but relax. Some of them yawned with their mouths wide open, and tears came out of the corners of their eyes.

A group of soldiers came over, and the one in the lead had a stern face and squeezed out a few words, "Under orders. Scout."

Every day, Cao's camp would send out a lot of scouts, and about every two hours, a team of scouts would be sent out. After all, basic operations such as grasping the changes on the battlefield and checking the surrounding movements can be done by any decent general, not to mention Cheng Yu, a military commander who is good at intelligence. But it seems...

A team of scouts went out not long ago, why are there another team coming?
But the soldiers on duty were not very sure. After all, the Han Dynasty did not have any watches or mobile phones to use for timekeeping. Maybe they were sleepy and passed the time without noticing?

Therefore, although he felt strange, the soldier guarding the camp gate did not say anything, but just stretched out his hand as usual, "Where is the flag and token?"

To leave the camp, you need two kinds of credentials.

One is a command flag, representing the authorization to perform official duties, and the other is a token, representing the basis for verification of entry and exit of the camp.

The team of soldiers gradually walked towards the soldiers guarding the camp gate. Suddenly, a whistle was blown and two or three of them rushed up. They not only grabbed the arms of the soldier on duty, but also strangled the soldier's throat, preventing him from shouting.

The sudden change scared the other soldiers on duty so much that they almost jumped up.

Some people on the village wall were also startled and leaned their heads to look down.

The firelight flickered, and the captain who led the group gritted his teeth and said, "Stop talking nonsense! Open the camp gate! Think about the little soldier's salary you get and the rat meat you eat! Is it worth it? I'm asking you, is it worth it? !"

"What...what do you want to do?" the guard asked with difficulty.

"Nothing..." said the captain, "We are all miserable people! If you and I fight, we will get injured or disabled, but we won't get any compensation! I won't make things difficult for you. I came here because I saw that your military school didn't come! Think about it, you are on duty here, and they are sleeping in the bed! If something happens, you will fight to the death, and they don't have to fight at all. Is it worth it? !"

The soldier on duty stared without saying a word. The other soldiers near the camp gate who were forced to serve as sentry in the second half of the night also fell silent after hearing these words.

Several soldiers walked out from behind the leader, unbolted the door of the camp, removed the latch that fixed the door, and pushed open a gap.

"Even if I starve to death in the mountains, it's better than eating this rat meat! If you believe me, just follow me, and I'll be able to eat a whole mouthful at least!"

The leader was a hunter from the mountains, who was recruited. He originally had little desire for war, and was bullied in Cao's army in various ways, so he wanted to escape a long time ago. He also contacted some fellow villagers one after another. After several days of investigation, he found that in the second half of the night, the military school officers on duty at the gate of the camp would go to sleep, so he took the opportunity to come. After all, they were all trying to survive, and they were ready to fight to the death if they disagreed.

The soldiers on duty at the camp gate were either new recruits or deputies. None of them were able to make decisions. Seeing such a scene, they either glared at each other. No one spoke for a long time, and no one took any action. They watched helplessly as these people opened the camp gate a crack and then filed out.

When the new soldiers in the camp saw these people running out of the camp, several of them ran down, "Good man, take us with you! Enough of this miserable life!"

The leader who was about to leave also nodded and said, "If you want to follow, follow me!"

A few more people followed, and in the blink of an eye, most of the Cao army soldiers who were entering the camp from the left were gone.

The leader clamped the deputy guarding the camp gate and dragged him out of the camp gate. He walked a few steps outside, said "I'm sorry", pushed the deputy guarding the camp gate, walked quickly forward, and disappeared into the darkness in the blink of an eye.

The deputy guarding the camp gate, although freed, looked around, rolled his eyes, and said to the soldiers who followed him with a sullen face, "Let's go! Staying here will lead to nothing good! Don't go in the same direction as them! We have to find another way!"

The deputy on duty knew that if this incident broke out, he didn't know whether the principal would be in trouble. However, as a deputy, and having been held hostage at the camp gate, he could not escape the responsibility no matter what!

So the deputy on duty thought about it and finally just ran away with the last few soldiers!

……

……

There are many factors, including coincidences, that led to this situation.

If the military officer guarding the camp gate had left a little later, or if the deputy had been tougher, perhaps the whole incident would have developed differently.

But overall, the outbreak of such problems is inevitable.

At most, the form of the outbreak may be different...

In the early morning, when someone discovered something unusual at the camp gate, the military academy guarding the gate did not report it immediately. Instead, he chose to conceal it and sent his trusted men to search for it.

Perhaps he thought that these soldiers were just like him, hiding there and sleeping.

It was almost morning and the roll call was about to begin when this guy finally realized how serious the matter was. However, he still did not think of reporting it to Cheng Yu. Instead, he asked someone to use his connections to get in touch with the clerk in charge of roll call in the army. He gave money and pleaded for mercy, and moved the missing persons' roll call list to the end, allowing the clerk to call the roll calls of other people first.

It was not until the second roll call in the evening that he could no longer hide it, so he bit the bullet and reported to Cheng Yu...

Cheng Yu suddenly became furious!
But before Cheng Yu could give the order to punish the military school student, the deputy general of the army came to ask for a meeting.

"Call!"

Cheng Yu knew that the deputy general would not come earlier or later, but he showed up at this time. Most likely, he came to plead for mercy from the military academy, but he couldn't avoid seeing him.

After all, although Cheng Yu is tall and handsome, and can wield a sword, he is still a little lacking when it comes to fighting on the front line, so...

The deputy general rushed into the tent and bowed deeply to the ground.

"You want to beg for mercy?" Cheng Yu's face was as gloomy as water.

The deputy general said solemnly, "Military advisor, please calm down. The military school failed to supervise. How can we know that the soldiers in the camp did not collude with each other? The war is imminent, and now is the time to use people. If you rush to punish them, I am afraid that the soldiers will be discouraged."

This is also an old tradition.

On the surface, it means "the time to use people", but in fact, the deputy general expressed another meaning.

If we kill the "usable people", what will be left?
Cheng Yu naturally understood the deputy general's implication, and slammed the table and said sternly, "When Guan Zhong governed Qi, he ruled the villages and towns, and the five-tenths fought against each other. Tonight, a young man escaped at night, and the military officer slept like a pig. If we don't execute him, how can we enforce military law? !"

Cheng Yu's meaning was also very clear. After all, although the deputy general could speak a few words of official language, he was not a well-read scholar, and he was afraid that the deputy general would not understand if he spoke too complicatedly.

"Now that bandits are everywhere in Guanzhong, we need military officers to die for us. It would be better to let them be the vanguard and attack Jiang Jiong's army. If they win, they will redeem their sins, and if they lose, they will be punished." The deputy general still did not agree with Cheng Yu's opinion, "What's more, it seems inappropriate to kill the loyal and filial military officers before we find out whether they are spies of the cavalry."

"Zhongxiao Military School?!" Cheng Yu's eyes were red with anger.

The deputy general said solemnly, "That's right. This military student is devoted to the Han Dynasty and loyal to the prime minister. He also entrusted all the money he earned in the army to Huiqiao to support his parents at home... Isn't he both loyal and filial? Such people, even if they are guilty, should be rewarded to preserve good customs and correct the people's habits. This is the foundation of the Han Dynasty!"

Cheng Yu gritted his teeth and said: "Are you determined to protect this person?"

As for loyalty and filial piety, generally speaking, if it is said by the superiors, then it counts, and if it is not said, then it does not count. Even if it is to avenge one's parents and eliminate harm, it does not count.

The deputy general said calmly, "I am not protecting him, but I am worried about the military advisor. The military advisor is a talented person, and he knows that managing an army is like cooking fresh food. If the action is too big... If the military officers in the army are sad because of this, even if there are 100,000 troops, they will probably be scattered in an instant! What's more, the soldiers' escape is the fault of the soldiers. How can we execute the military officers for the fault of the soldiers? Even if we punish them, we should be cautious, as the saying goes, "Don't let them know." If the soldiers and civilians all know that there is an escape, wouldn't it be..."

Cheng Yu took a deep breath and said after a while: "What do you think?"

"Now that things have come to this, I have sent people into the mountains to search for all the "deserters" and behead them at the gate." The deputy general smiled, "Their heads can be cast into a palace to suppress the scoundrels. Their meat... can also be used to supplement the army's rations... The military school will punish them in front of the army, which is like saving the military advisor with death!"

Cheng Yu stared at the deputy general, his long beard trembling, but finally waved his hand, "That's it!"

"Military advisor, you are wise!" The deputy general bowed and left.

Afterwards, the army beat drums, and the new soldiers watched the "deserters" being punished and beheaded at the gate.

"Hey, isn't that Zhang Laosan from the rear camp? He played with me the other day and still owes me money..."

"Shut up! Do you want to die?!"

"..."