My younger brother Lü Fengxian

Chapter 286 Taiping Taoism
Han Dynasty, the sixth year of Guanghe (183 AD), midwinter.

Yanmen County had been governed by Lu Yi with all his efforts for two years.

After absorbing a large number of dependent refugees, the prosperity far exceeded the past.

The counties are densely populated, business is prosperous, and the people are wealthy.

However, according to the official records of the court, although Yanmen County had been governed, the effect was not significant and it was still in a languid state.

Lu Yi, who was in power, was in a situation where he could neither be promoted for his merits nor dismissed for his mistakes.

However, this was also specially designed by Lu Yi himself.

But, in private.

Lu Yi imitated the aristocratic families, grabbing land on a large scale, sheltering refugees, setting up private farmland, and secretly raising assassins.

Under his corruption and collusion, Yanmen County has become a place where he has the final say.

Among them, the officials had either been completely bribed by Lu Yi or had been transferred from their original places to other places by Lu Yi.

The vacant vacancy would be immediately replaced by Lu Yi's own confidants.

As for those officials who could neither be bribed nor found any evidence against him and were determined to oppose him, Lu Yi was not a good man and naturally had ways to make these troublemakers shut up.

Nowadays, most of the officials in Yanmen County are Lu Yi's men.

Gao Lan, Hou Cheng, Song Xian, Wei Xu, Cao Xing and others have all become county magistrates.

The rest of the officials also behaved well under Lu Yi's golden bullet attack, for fear of offending Lu Yi, the God of Wealth and King of Hell.

However, they were deeply impressed by their colleagues who had often died in the past two years for ridiculous reasons.

After Lu Yi satisfied the interests of the upper-level officials, he did not forget the common people.

The law enforcement for the people in Yanmen County and Jiuyuan County was divided into two categories.

A group of registered citizens still paid taxes and performed corvee labor according to the laws of the court.

The corvée labor in the Han Dynasty was actually hard labor for the imperial court.

When the system was first established, the imperial court and local governments would bear the cost of food for those serving, determine the length of service based on the degree of hardship, and sometimes even provide compensation to those serving.

However, at the end of the Han Dynasty when the imperial court was about to fall, those who performed corvée labor for the imperial court or government not only did not receive a penny, but also had to bear the cost of their own food rations during their service.

Moreover, there are many cases of extortion.

If you want to do simple work, you have to pay.

If you want to go home early, you have to pay.

Even if you want to save your life and avoid being punished or even executed by officials on the pretext of being late for work, you still have to pay money.

In response to this situation, Lu Yi tried his best to reduce corvée labor so that the people could recuperate.

In addition, for some projects that are really necessary, food and drink will be provided and money will be paid according to how difficult the project is.

As for taxation, although Lu Yi could not change the court's implicit rule that land-owning farmers had to bear the taxes of the fugitives, he paid the extra levies for these people out of his own pocket.

Anyway, after the Xianbei Rebellion, the population of many counties and prefectures has been greatly reduced, and some villages have even been slaughtered by the Xianbei people. Lu Yi used the excuse of the Xianbei people's invasion to repeatedly report to the court that the population had been greatly reduced, so the taxes levied were not much.

In addition, the population of these people was indeed not large, so Lu Yi did not spend much.

Moreover, he now has a monopoly on the smuggling trade with the Huns, and can be said to be making a fortune every day. He can still afford the price of winning people's hearts.

As a result, the registered people in Yanmen County and Jiuyuan County were all grateful to Lu Yi, and everyone praised the benevolence of Lord Lu.

Even the social phenomenon of widespread escape was curbed. Not only did the proportion of escapes drop significantly, but many people who had already fled and lived in the countryside returned to their homeland after hearing about Lu Yi's benevolent policies.

The vast majority of the other people were unregistered refugees and displaced persons who voluntarily brought their families with them to rely on Lu Yi.

Lu Yi incorporated all these people into the military settlements.

According to a semi-military and semi-civilian system, these people, ranging from hundreds to thousands or tens of thousands, were scattered across the vast land of Yanmen.

Although these settlers temporarily lost their freedom, they gained the security and food they had always dreamed of.

Moreover, Lu Yi also gave them hope. The taxes he levied on them were much lower than the amount they had to pay to the imperial court as civilians. Therefore, they were satisfied and content to serve under Lu Yi as settlers.

Two years passed quickly, and the number of these military settlements had increased fivefold from the previous size of 100,000 to 500,000.

You should know that when the Ji Han Dynasty fell, the total registered population was no more than 200,000 households, including 900,000 men and women.

And if Lü Yi adds the registered people under his rule, the number will be basically close to this.

Lu Yi now controls only one county and one county, but its population accounts for more than half of Ji Han's.

Yanmen County was just a county of Bingzhou, and Bingzhou was one of the least populous states among the Thirteen States of the Han Dynasty.

Although Ji Han actually controlled only Yizhou, it was still one of the three powerful kingdoms.

From this we can see how much damage the natural disasters and man-made disasters at the end of the Han Dynasty caused to the Han people.

The population of the mighty Ji Han country is now only slightly larger than that of a poor county, which really makes people feel deeply moved.

Although Cao Wei and Eastern Wu were better than the Han Dynasty, they were not much better.

but!

It is such a poor, weak and divided China that has always beaten the surrounding ethnic minorities into submission.

If a unified and complete China is equipped with a leader who does not even need to be outstanding but is qualified, the energy and potential that China can unleash will astound the whole world.

But unfortunately, although China is complete now, it is completely separated from high-level interests. Emperor Ling, who only knows how to satisfy his own low-level desires all day long, is obviously not a good leader.

He didn't even know that there were enemy spies lurking around him.

It is now December. In two months, the Yellow Turban Rebellion that sweeps across the world will begin.

Unlike the unaware Emperor Ling, Lu Yi had made full preparations for this.

Although now he still has five battalions of five thousand private soldiers under his command.

However, in the past two years, he has retired half of the veterans in the army every year and placed them in the military settlement system as middle and low-level management.

In this way, he could not only easily control the number of up to 500,000 households, but also hide soldiers and civilians, saving a lot of expenses.

After all, maintaining soldiers, especially the king of the military in this era, the armored cavalry, is quite expensive.

If Lu Yi did not have a stable and monopolized trade route, he would not be able to support such a large army with just the 500,000 households under his command.

Now, after Lü Yi's painstaking efforts, he not only had 5,000 cavalry ready to go, but also 5,000 veterans who could be regrouped and restored to combat effectiveness with a little training as a reserve force, waiting for Lü Yi's sign at any time. In addition, Lü Yi had already prepared 10,000 pieces of armor.

As for horses, Lu Yi prepared a total of 20,000 horses, enough to ensure that each heavy cavalryman had two horses.

However, in addition to the 10,000 military horses currently in service, the remaining 10,000 military horses belonging to Lu Yi are being cared for and grazed on the Monan grassland by Lu Yi's father-in-law He Xutuo and his subordinate Qin Han.

In addition to these ten thousand cavalry.

Lu Yi also trained an equal number of auxiliary soldiers among the settlements.

However, these auxiliary troops basically did not undertake combat missions, and were mainly responsible for being stationed in various counties to defend against the attacks of the Yellow Turban Army.

These Yellow Turban soldiers were poorly equipped, and their men were all pale and skinny, mostly poor people who could barely make a living. If it weren't for their large numbers and hasty rebellion, it would have been difficult for them to capture a well-prepared and fortified city.

Lu Yi's arrangement can ensure that the cities under his rule are safe.

Moreover, after two years of development, the Zhang family of Mayi has expanded its private army to 3,000, plus the 4,000 Xiongnu soldiers of the Hunye tribe, and the 3,000 Hu soldiers of the Qin and Han dynasties.

When necessary, Lu Yi could completely rely on himself to raise an army of 30,000 people.

As for food, Lu Yi also put in a lot of effort.

According to the original historical trajectory, the first outbreak of the Yellow Turban Rebellion lasted for about ten months.

To be on the safe side, Lu Yi prepared enough food to support the military and civilians for one and a half years in various counties of Yanmen County and Jiuyuan County.

In addition, Lu Yi also prepared a full one million shi of military rations for the army.

If they were to attack other states, fighting only in Bingzhou could support the consumption of 10,000 heavy cavalry under Lu Yi for a whole year.

In order to get these grains, Lu Yi exchanged all the money he had earned in the past two years for grain, and added the income from his own land reclamation, and only then was he able to make up the money.

In order to deal with the next crisis, Lu Yi maximized the potential of the territories and trade routes under his rule.

He was so focused not just on getting through this crisis.

He now possesses such a powerful military force and such abundant food reserves that he can easily consume the Yellow Turban Army.

What Lu Yi really wanted was to gain more benefits, obtain greater power, control more population, and control more territory through this major historical event that changed the course of Chinese history.

Starting from the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the highest administrative region of the Han Dynasty was upgraded from county governor to provincial governor at the suggestion of Liu Yan, a relative of the Han Dynasty and the future ruler of Yizhou.

Moreover, in order to suppress the Yellow Turbans and protect the territory and the people, Emperor Ling allowed the governors of the states to simultaneously control the military and political power of their respective areas of jurisdiction. Except for the fact that they did not have the title of king, the governors of a state were almost equivalent to the princes of a country.

Lu Yi would not miss such a good opportunity as the Yellow Turban Rebellion, which would allow him to gain military merit without suffering too much loss.

However, the Taiping Sect has not yet started an uprising, so Lu Yi still has some time to prepare.

He planned to take advantage of the brief break to go to Youzhou and pick up two top-notch generals who were still in the wild.

Just as Lu Yi embarked on the journey of seeking talents.

In Julu County, not too far from Bingzhou.

A rebellion against the Han Dynasty was about to begin secretly.

In Julu City, thousands of people were parading through the busy streets.

They carried a huge incense table, scattered talisman paper and banners along the way, and chanted long strings of incantations.

However, even though there was such a group of suspicious people parading through the streets, no one stepped forward to stop them.

The crowd of onlookers, on the contrary, kept scrambling to grab the talisman papers they were distributing, as if they were fighting for some rare treasure.

More people were kneeling on both sides of the road, bowing down to the middle-aged man who looked like a Taoist priest and was being lifted high in the middle of the crowd, shouting for blessings from the Taoist priest. They were obviously loyal followers of the Taoist priest.

What is even more surprising is that there were many officials in official uniforms among the kneeling crowd.

"Those who enter my gate are my disciples..."

"Those who join my religion will be protected by me..."

"Humility and repentance can cure all diseases..."

"Peace is everywhere, and disasters will retreat!"

The Taoist priest had an ethereal and elegant demeanor, and his every word and action seemed to have some kind of magic, causing the crowd following him to burst into hysterical cheers and applause.

That crazy posture left no doubt in anyone's mind that even if this person asked these believers to go through fire and water, they would definitely do it!

This man was Zhang Jiao, the leader of the Taiping Dao sect and a native of Julu.

He called himself the Great and Good Teacher, and used magic and talismans to cure illnesses and save lives for free. He once traveled all over the world, recruiting many disciples, and eventually had many believers all over the world.

Not only did many poor and helpless people believe in Zhang Jue and Taiping Taoism, but even many dignitaries became his disciples and were willing to cheer for him and promote his teachings.

On the surface, Zhang Jue was just a religious leader who was kind and generous and encouraged people to do good, but his influence was slightly greater.

However, secretly Zhang Jue was unwilling to be just a spiritual leader.

He traveled around the world for half his life, witnessed many human sufferings, and was well aware of the corruption of the Han court and the dark politics.

The emperor was so foolish that he ignored state affairs and allowed eunuchs to abuse their power. He only cared about collecting rare treasures and beautiful women from all over the world for his own debauchery and pleasure.

If the upper beam is not straight, the lower beams will naturally be crooked. Officials at all levels in the court were greedy by nature. They did not care about the people and instead exploited them.

If the emperor is licentious and immoral, and all the officials in the court are just sitting there doing nothing, the Han Dynasty will not be able to survive for long.

Therefore, Zhang Jue, together with his brothers Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang, recruited disciples in the name of preaching and sent them to various provinces and counties across the country to spread Taiping Taoism. In fact, they were secretly accumulating strength in an attempt to overthrow the corrupt Han Dynasty and establish a peaceful world.

When Zhang Jue saw these fanatical believers around him, he couldn't help but feel excited.

He has worked hard for many years, gone through countless hardships, and planned for half his life. Now it is finally time to close the net!

His two younger brothers, Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang, who were standing on either side of him, also showed signs of excitement.

As long as their brothers' plan succeeds, Taiping Taoism will replace the corrupt Han Dynasty.

As they are the dragon's followers, they will naturally be able to rise to prominence and become extremely wealthy.

After the daily routine parade, Zhang Jue and his brothers returned to their base and went into the dark room to discuss.

"Now that the uprising is imminent, how are the weapons and food preparations going?"

In the dark secret room, there was only a faint candlelight on the stone table in the middle, which flickered and made the faces of the three people sitting opposite each other look uncertain and strange...

(End of this chapter)