Tiger Guards

Chapter 345 A New World
When Wei Yue returned to Lü Bu's army, everything was already out of control.

It's unclear whether the military is manipulating the disaster victims, or the disaster victims are manipulating the military.

The entire Nanyang was plunged into a great upheaval. Not only did the refugees from the Three Auxiliary Regions rise up in rebellion against the powerful families of Nanyang, but even the ancestral servants of the powerful families of Nanyang began to cause trouble.

Faced with Lü Bu's massive army, which had come in the name of the emperor, the powerful families of Nanyang had no chance to fight back.

Li Tong even went thirty miles outside the city to welcome Lü Bu into Wancheng, and Wancheng naturally became the capital of Wancheng.

Lu Bu's central army maintained order, and the surrounding disaster victims had little impact on this area.

But the order of the other armies was completely disrupted. The forces formed by the disaster victims looted and plundered. How could Lu Bu's army just stand by and watch?
The Eagle Army, which he painstakingly built, was originally composed of young and strong men selected from the disaster victims of Liangpei.

Now, the various armies of Eagle Soaring have become unstoppable. If they can't loot, so be it; they still maintain their military structure. But if they do manage to loot, they abandon their units and join the army of disaster victims.

Nanyang was not small, but it was completely shattered by the invading army of refugees, with the Eagle Army as its backbone.

The small clans in Nanyang, unprepared for the situation, were swept away and wiped out in an instant. Even the larger clans that were prepared could perish overnight due to internal strife.

Even those large clans that managed to survive would face formal attacks and annihilation by Lü Bu's army.

Lu Bu's army also needed to be paid military pay and food. By gathering as many resources as possible for the central army, Lu Bu could gradually increase his control over the entire army.

Thus, when Wei Yue entered Wandu, Nanyang had already undergone a complete upheaval, a world turned upside down.

Lü Bu, with his exceptional strength, became another, larger version of Zhang Xiu in Zhao Ji's eyes.

Wei Yue's return eased Lü Bu's tense mood slightly, but he still didn't look pleased.

During Wei Yue's absence, Lü Bu didn't even dare to divide his troops to make any big moves.

Dividing your forces too few times is pointless, while dividing them too many times risks the enemy losing control.

Neither Zhang Liao nor Gao Shun's family members were in the court. Zhang Liao was a collaborator, so there was no need to give him hostages. As for Gao Shun, a man single-mindedly focused on establishing himself and making a name for himself in the chaotic world, he didn't even want children until he felt secure enough.

In terms of sheer ruthlessness towards himself, even Lü Bu couldn't compare to Gao Shun.

Wancheng... Wandu, the headquarters of Lü Bu's general, was also built with logs as its frame and earthen planks, becoming a small city within a city.

He distrusted the mansions left behind by the powerful families in the city, and only rebuilt the General's Palace on the ruins of a few mansions.

This military-style government made Lü Bu feel at ease.

In the side hall of the barracks, built of logs, Lü Bu drank wine by himself and listened to Wei Yue's story. Then he said, "Zhao Yuansi has the intention to reform."

Wei Yue listened without refuting. To put it nicely, they were being bold in their reforms; to put it bluntly, they were rebelling.

Zhao Jizheng used the army to coerce the people of Taiyuan and Hedong. If they wanted to live a better life, the people in these places had no choice but to join the army.

If one didn't join the army, only people from Hedong received preferential treatment and controlled a lot of land. Even so, after the ten-year tax exemption ended, they still had to pay heavy taxes.

Taiyuan served as a model for other prefectures and kingdoms in the future; families that did not enlist in the army were likely to end up as government tenants.

In name only, the exploitation and oppression suffered by official tenants were even greater than that of the Qin people.

But in reality, that's not the case. The reason why the Han Dynasty was able to support so many standing troops in the early years was definitely not because of the tax rate of one-fifteenth or one-thirtieth. Under such tax rates, with the Seven Kingdoms still intact, the central government simply could not support a central standing army and border troops capable of resisting the Seven Kingdoms.

Zhao Ji's core now consists of two prefectures. He only needs to take over the three counties in Guanzhong. Although it's only five prefectures, it's the core of Qin and Jin.

If Zhao Ji manages these five counties well, he can easily support a core population of three million. With the military-first system in Zhao Ji's territory, he can easily mobilize a combat army of two hundred thousand.

There's no need to deploy all 200,000 troops to the front lines. Two-thirds can be used to maintain supply lines, and one-third can be used for conquest. This would be enough to subdue Liangzhou and Bingzhou, and indirectly gain access to a million people.

Based on Lü Bu's understanding of these regions, Zhao Ji's population would be around four to five million within the next ten years.

Nanyang now has a population of one million, but it is in a state of upheaval and restlessness.

Lu Bu could not act rashly. Only by staying quietly in Wandu with the emperor could he use Wandu as the core to pacify the various restless refugee armies from the inside out, and wait for and organize the restoration of productivity.

Without a focus on production, even a large population cannot withstand the disruptions.

But in that case, it depends on whether Liu Biao will cooperate.

Most importantly, would Liu Biao still dare to trust him...? And that was almost impossible to answer.

In one fell swoop, the powerful clans of Nanyang were wiped out. The powerful clans of Jingbei and Jingnan had already become disloyal to the court and dared not and were unwilling to trust Lü Bu again.

The issue wasn't whether Liu Biao dared to trust them, but whether the vast majority of scholars and officials in Jingchu dared to trust them. If they refused to trust them, and instead engaged in full cooperation, organizing troops and provisions to fight against Nanyang, it would severely hinder Lü Bu's recuperation and recovery.

Without securing grain from Jingchu, the large number of displaced soldiers in Nanyang would be unable to quell their unrest.

For the sake of food, the military and civilians united, and could even coerce Lü Bu and the imperial court into launching a full-scale war against Liu Biao and Jingchu.

Despite the chaos in Nanyang, Lü Bu was able to gradually recover.

If Jingchu were truly destroyed, Lü Bu would likely lose his strong control over the various tribes, forming a relationship similar to that between Liu Biao and Zhang Xian and Huang Zu today.

The most fatal flaw is the current diplomatic relations. Zhang Xian, the governor of Changsha, and Zhang Jin, the governor of Jiaozhou, are both from Nanyang; Han Song, the governor of Lingling, is also from Nanyang.

After recounting his experiences on the trip, Wei Yue asked about his doubts: "Brother, why did things change with Han Ji, Deng Zhan, and the others in Nanyang? Did you leak the news?"

"It was not my fault."

Lu Bu sighed with regret: "It was my carelessness and negligence that led to this. Now it seems that Xun Yu, Handan Chun, and others had planned this all along. They prepared and forged military documents in advance, and when the upheaval occurred in Xuchang, Han Ji and his men were merely pushed to the front. Xun Yu and his men faked their deaths and escaped, so there's no difference between them being alive and dead."

"They actually forged the military dispatch in advance?"

Wei Yue's eyes widened, but he also felt it made perfect sense. Only in this way could a large number of uninformed troops be mobilized to participate in the coup.

As long as the procedures are legal, military involvement in a coup is a normal thing in Wei Yue's view.

Even when the procedures are legal, the military may deliberately ignore some unreasonable minor details.

The chaos of a chaotic world is evident here, because those who abide by the rules rarely reap any benefits.

Only by defying the order can one go against the tide.

Take Gao Shun, for example. He was very law-abiding, so he always served as Lu Bu's troubleshooter.

I've worked hard a lot, but it's just hard to get promoted or given important responsibilities.

For example, the prominent families in Taiyuan and Shangdang were not the ones who followed the rules. Rather, they were facing Zhao Ji, who had come to escort the emperor and command the royal army. These people had no choice but to follow the rules, and as a result, they were devoured alive by Zhao Ji.

A counter-example is Zhao Ji. Every step of Zhao Ji's rise to power was against the tide, and he constantly disrupted the established order.

Who doesn't envy Jo Ki?

An opportunity for a mutiny is presented to you, along with official troop mobilization documents. Will you take action or not?
The troops confined to their barracks are not qualified to participate in negotiations; they can only get a share of the spoils afterward.

Only those armed with military force and appearing on the streets are eligible to divide the inheritance and have priority in choosing their turn.

Lu Bu's biggest problem was this: when Wei Yue was not around, he didn't even dare to launch a large-scale troop deployment.

Fortunately, Wei Yue has returned. Now it's up to Liu Biao and the scholars of Jingchu to decide.

If they don't provide food, Lü Bu will have no choice but to fight.

This was not just Lü Bu's choice, but the collective choice of hundreds of thousands of starving soldiers and civilians in Nanyang.

Even if we can't take all of Jingchu, or destroy the old Jingchu clans, we can still drag Liu Biao down with us!
Zhao Ji had similar concerns; if Zhao Yan did not evacuate from Luodu, Zhao Ji would not dare to leave Jinyang.

When Zhao Yun and Xu Chu escorted Zhao Yan to Jinyang, Zhao Ji officially launched his campaign.

There are ambitious individuals within each faction, and they are not necessarily colluding with external enemies.

Rather, it is people like this who, when faced with an opportunity to establish a separatist regime, find it difficult to refrain from taking action.

Some people can endure it, but in life, everyone has relatives, friends, confidants, and henchmen.

If you refuse when others force you to do something, you may be implicated or affected afterward.

Take Jia Xu for example. When his fellow villagers started causing trouble, Jia Xu himself wouldn't just sit idly by and wait to die.

Jia Xu was neither the type to kill his fellow villagers to prove his innocence, nor was he the type to relinquish the power of choice and judgment to others.

He's the kind of person who seizes every opportunity he has, preferring to rebel first and then negotiate surrender rather than tie his own hands and wait for fate to decide his fate.

Therefore, when Zhao Yan returned and took charge of Jinyang, many people were able to work with peace of mind.

(End of this chapter)