I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 134: Yuan's shortcomings

Among the five standing army units in Luoyang City, the Five Schools of the Northern Army have the largest number of people.

Each school or battalion had more than 700 standing soldiers, totaling about 3,500 people. The Northern Army was often used as a field force in the Eastern Han Dynasty, usually commanded by a general. When there was no general, it was directly under the control of the imperial power.

Next are the guards directly under Guanglu Xun and the two battalions of Huben and Yulin under his command.

Guanglu Xun was one of the Nine Ministers. The troops he led were the imperial guards who were in direct contact with the emperor. They guarded the capital when the emperor was in the palace and acted as guards when the emperor was away. Sometimes they were also used in external battles, but less frequently than the Northern Army.

Its troops are also relatively elite and have considerable combat effectiveness.

In terms of numbers, Guanglu Xun himself had 81 direct guards, the Huben Lieutenant General led 1,500 men, and the Yulin Lieutenant General led 1,700 men, totaling about 3,400 people.

Next are the palace guards led by the Weiwei.

The Weiwei was one of the Nine Ministers, and was mainly responsible for the security outside the palace and at the palace gates, and guarding the palace city. He would generally not be transferred away from the palace city to fight, so his combat effectiveness was not as good as the Northern Army and the Huben and Yulin Battalions. However, he had superior equipment and was quite large in scale, so he should not be underestimated.

The total number of people is about 2,500.

Ranked fourth are the troops stationed at the city gates. The city gate captains guard the twelve gates of the outer city of the capital. Each gate has a gatekeeper. The number of soldiers stationed at different gates varies, ranging from one hundred to eighty and from thirty-eight to a total of about one thousand.

Finally, there were the imperial guards and halberd-bearing guards of the Praetorian Guard system, numbering about 720 people.

The Praefectus Urbi was originally a lieutenant who was responsible for guarding the capital during the Western Han Dynasty. He had heavy responsibilities and great power. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Praefectus Urbi was only responsible for guarding the armory and conducting monthly patrols. When the emperor traveled, the Praefectus Urbi was responsible for clearing the way in front.

But what was very humiliating was that the emperors of the Eastern Han Dynasty often used Langwei to perform this job, and in the end even the qualification to escort the emperor on tours no longer belonged to the Praetorian Guards, which made the Praetorian Guards inexplicably have some of the flavor of the gatekeeper of the Luoyang city armory.

In addition to the troops from these five systems, there are also some military personnel in Luoyang City, who act as fire brigades or guards for some special officials.

For example, among the 1,200 people under the command of the Inspector of the Capital, all of them were officials, clerks, and strictly speaking, they were part of the judicial system, not combat troops. They were useful during a coup, but if a real war came, it would not be the Inspector of the Capital's turn to take action.

The rest are basically not standing troops and cannot eat the emperor's food for a long time, so they are temporary workers.

There were only about 11,000 people who were officially organized and received royal food. Among them, the field troops mainly responsible for going out to fight were the five schools of the Northern Army, the Huben Army, and the Yulin Army, which together had only 7,000 people.

Among them, the main troops who went out to fight were the more than 3,500 people from the five schools of the Northern Army.

But don't underestimate these people. It is no exaggeration to say that the combat effectiveness of the more than 3,500 people in the five schools of the Northern Army belongs to the first sequence of combat forces of the Eastern Han Empire. They are always on standby, train frequently, are well paid, and can all serve as officers in battle.

Whenever there was a large-scale rebellion, the imperial government would issue a mobilization order, pull out these more than 3,500 people to serve as the backbone, and then recruit good family boys from the three river areas in the imperial capital - Henan Yin, Hedong County, and Henei County to join the army, and quickly raise a main force of 30,000 to 40,000 people.

Those boys from good families could be regarded as professional mercenaries of the central government of the Eastern Han Empire. Although they were not on standby duty, they would basically join the army whenever there was a war. Their military training, horse riding and archery were not inferior to the standing army, and they were quite capable.

The combination of the two is the so-called "Three Rivers and Five Schools" that the imperial government is proud of.

So although the standing army of the Eastern Han Empire seemed small, it actually only took a very short time to form a central corps with strong combat effectiveness and kill people in all directions.

As for the current situation, if Yuan wanted to launch a mutiny to depose the emperor, he would definitely not give the eunuchs the opportunity to mobilize the good families in Sanhe.

In other words, the eunuchs could only rely on the more than 11,000 people always on standby in Luoyang.

Judging from the information currently available to the Yuan family, although the eunuchs' control over the entire Luoyang standing army cannot be said to be absolute, it cannot be underestimated.

After all, they have not been in power for too long and have not yet completely controlled the central military system. It is only through various means such as bribery, marriage alliances, and placing people in the system that the eunuchs have a relatively large influence on the entire Luoyang central army.

For example, the current Guanglu Xun is Liu Kuan, who was previously at odds with the Yuan family but has now restored their relationship.

As a tough man who was both talented in literature and martial arts, Liu Kuan did not explicitly oppose the eunuchs, but he would not be their lackey.

Therefore, it is unrealistic to expect him to cooperate with the eunuchs and allow them to smoothly control the entire armed forces under Guanglu Xun.

But what is frustrating is that the two armies led by Guanglu Xun, Yulin and Huben, were the emperor's palace guards. They had been infiltrated by eunuchs long before Dou Wu and others launched the mutiny.

It is true that as a member of the royal family, Liu Kuan could be trusted to serve as Guanglu Xun and protect the emperor.

However, his subordinates Zhang Wei, the General of the Imperial Guards, and Chen Ba, the General of the Huben Guards, both had close ties with the eunuchs. Their appointments were not decided by Liu Kuan, and they were not Liu Kuan's confidants, so they could be regarded as being in the eunuchs' party.

In other words, Liu Kuan's title of Guanglu Xun is somewhat unworthy of his reputation.

The only imperial guards he could truly control were probably the eighty-one guards directly under his command. If something really happened, whether the Huben Army and the Yulin Army would obey his command... the possibility was not very high.

The current Weiwei is Yuan Pang, a famous scholar from the Chenjun Yuan family and a close relative of the Runan Yuan family.

The Yuan family of Runan and the Yuan family of Chenjun are from the same clan, or in other words, the Yuan family of Runan originated from the Yuan family of Chenjun.

However, the relationship between the two clans is delicate. The Chenjun Yuan clan has always been low-key. Although the family has a long history, it has always maintained a cautious and low-key family style.

The Runan Yuan family was relatively high-profile, and their style of doing things was like that of nouveau riche compared to the Chenjun Yuan family. They also had close relations with the eunuchs, so Yuan Pang never liked to associate with Yuan Feng and Yuan Wei.

To put it bluntly, the Yuan family of Chenjun looked down on them.

As for whether the palace guards under the command of the Weiwei, who were mainly responsible for guarding the palace gates, would completely obey Yuan Pang's orders, it is hard to say.

Anyway, the information Yuan Shu learned was that more than half of the officers under the Weiwei had ambiguous relations with eunuchs and had frequent contacts with them. If something really happened, it was unknown how much force Yuan Pang, the Weiwei, could mobilize.

Restricted by the political rules of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the positions of Weiwei and Guanglu Xun saw frequent personnel changes, and there were few foreign officials who could hold the positions for a long time.

However, the eunuchs always stayed in the palace, and they met the soldiers every now and then. Many things that needed to be done by the soldiers were accomplished through the mediation of the eunuchs. In a sense, the eunuchs were the "middlemen" between the emperor and the soldiers.

Anyone with normal skills knows how powerful it is for middlemen to make a profit from the price difference.

The superiors were frequently replaced, and before the soldiers had even gotten familiar with the previous one, the next one would take office. So were they more familiar with the eunuchs they lived with day and night, or were they more familiar with the superiors who were in danger of losing their positions at any time?

It is said that when Dou Wu launched the mutiny, these imperial guards "had always been afraid of eunuchs", so they turned against him later. Therefore, it goes without saying which side has greater influence.

Therefore, the emperor's guards and the palace guards can basically be regarded as the armed forces of the eunuchs.

Just treat them as enemies.

The post of Praefectus Urbi is currently vacant. The previous Praefectus Urbi was killed in September last year and no one has taken over the position since then.

However, the Praefectus Urbi had only 720 armed personnel under his command, and their quality and training level were far inferior to those of other armies.

In previous political changes in Luoyang, the Praefectus Urbi and his armed forces were mostly invisible, serving as an atmosphere group at best, nothing more.

The more than a thousand soldiers stationed at the city gates under the command of the City Gate Captain were not elite troops. They were slightly better than the Praetorian Guards, but their personnel were scattered and the total number was not large.

Lu Yu, who currently serves as the captain of the city gate, is from the Wujun Lu family and is a native of Jiangnan. He seems a bit out of tune with the central power center of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Although he is not a member of the eunuchs' party, it does not mean much to the overall situation.

These days, people in the Central Plains still have more or less discrimination against people in the Jiangnan region. Although they are slightly better than people in Liangzhou, the improvement is still very limited, and they basically cannot influence the central politics.

As for the elite troops of the Five Schools of the Northern Army, the eunuchs naturally tried to get their hands on them.

However, because the five schools of the Northern Army were under the jurisdiction of the general according to traditional regulations and were stationed outside the city of Luoyang, they had little contact with the eunuchs, and it was not easy for the eunuchs to control them.

Although there is no one who can serve as the general at present, the eunuchs do not have many tricks.

On the one hand, he used the position of the Northern Army Lieutenant General with an official salary of 600 stones to monitor and win over the five colonels of the Northern Army. On the other hand, he arranged for a man named Yao Xu to serve as the Colonel of Shooting Sounds, who was the only one among the five colonels who had a relationship with the eunuchs.

Except for Yao Xu, the Changshui Colonel, Tunqi Colonel, Yueqi Colonel and Infantry Colonel were all traditional military personnel and had no close relationship with the eunuchs.

So overall, a considerable portion of Luoyang City's military armed forces was under the control of eunuchs.

The Yulin Army, the Huben Army, the palace guards, and a Shesheng Cavalry Battalion, these four military forces that have been confirmed to belong to the eunuch system together have more than 6,000 people.

Together with several other troops that had no clear affiliation but obeyed the emperor's orders, the eunuchs holding Liu Hong's edict could even mobilize about 8,000 armed forces.

In comparison, the power controlled by the Yuan family is very limited.

Although the Yuan family had great power in the local area, in the Luoyang area, in terms of military strength, they were obviously weaker than the eunuchs. Even Yuan Shu could make important contributions to the Yuan family.

Let alone the emperor's guards and palace guards, Yuan had no say over them.

There were no members of the Yuan family under the command of the Praefectus Urbi.

In the system of city gate captains, two gate commanders are Yuan family disciples, and together they have more than 200 city gate guards under their command.

The rest are mostly in the five schools of the Northern Army.

Dong Xuan, the former Fufeng captain and current infantry captain, is Yuan Shu's man. He was arranged by the Yuan family to be among the five captains of the Northern Army to support the situation and is considered a part of the Yuan family's power.

The current Yueqi Captain Wang Chong is a former official of the Yuan family. He has a close relationship with the Yuan family and is backed by the Yuan family.

These two men commanded about 1,500 people, plus more than 200 guards at the city gate, a total of 1,700 people.

This number is really not big.

(End of this chapter)