Tiger Guards

Chapter 752 A Heart Full of Eagerness
Yunzhong County, with its capital at Beiyu City.

To the northeast is Wuquan, which leads to Jining and Tanhanshan; to the northwest is Wuchuan City, the residence of the Protector of the Xianbei.

The governor of Yunzhong County and the Eastern Protector-General are not the same person. The original Eastern Protector-General, Xu Huang, was stationed in Wuquan.

The Eastern Protectorate did not have direct jurisdiction; it only had the power to conscript various thousand-household militia.

However, after the Eastern Protectorate recruited the righteous followers of the various Hu tribes in Hebei, it would engage in armed nomadic herding and land reclamation. The vast area east of Wuquan City was the horse pasture, back garden, and hunting ground of the Eastern Protectorate.

Last year, the Eastern Xianbei and Liaodong Xianbei migrated deep into the east, but did not invade the territory of the Eastern Protectorate.

The enemy's tribesmen and herdsmen did not show any tendency to migrate or move closer to the more fertile Yunzhong region, so the Protectorate had no prey to hunt.

In comparison, the Eastern Protectorate enjoyed a peaceful year last year. For each of the thousand-household tribes, a year of recuperation was crucial, but not particularly important.

It would take three consecutive years of nomadic life to restore the herds to pre-war levels.

However, under the system of Thousand Household Offices, the families of the Yi Cong did not need to rent ranches from noblemen, nor did they need to do various miscellaneous tasks. Overall, the various departments recovered very quickly last year.

Even without the losses of war, the recovery speed is only so-so if the herds reproduce on their own.

After a year of nomadic herding, fishing, hunting, and farming, they generally had a relatively comfortable and less impoverished winter.

Since the beginning of spring, the willingness of various militia units to volunteer for battle has been growing stronger with each passing year.

The Western and Central Protectorates participated in the Liangzhou War, but the beneficiaries were the conscripted members of the entire Hebei Righteous Army.

After the volunteers were conscripted, two-thirds of them would be assigned to serve in other protectorates... so the real envious officers and soldiers of the Eastern Protectorate were the ones who were truly envious.

Ever since Xu Huang, the Eastern Protector-General, led the vanguard into the pass to rescue Gongsun Zan, these red-eyed officers of the Eastern Protectorate have followed Xu Huang.

Now that Zhao Yun, the Protector-General of the West, has taken up residence in Wuquan City, his subordinates, including clerks and officers, are directly replacing the Eastern Protectorate in carrying out its functions.

Meanwhile, the position of Protector-General of the Central Region was still concurrently held by the former strategist Jia Xu. Thus, during Xu Huang's campaign, the power to recruit volunteers from various counties and tribes in Hebei fell to Jia Xu and Zhao Yun.

Jia Xu was right next to Zhao Ji, but he wasn't interested in personnel or military power. He simply followed Zhao Ji's orders.

Needless to say, Zhao Yun would naturally carry out the instructions given by Zhao Ji.

Especially since Zhao Ji escorted the regent empress out of Yulin Pass, the prefects of the four prefectures of Shuofang have all fallen silent.

The four prefects were also having a hard time, as the four prefectures had the largest population of various commanderies and pastoral supervisors.

The few registered households were distributed among the counties and governed by the county magistrates.

The prefects could only manage and supervise the governance of the counties, and had no contact with the front-line civil affairs. Even the arrest of bandits and horse thieves was the responsibility of the prefectural commandant and the commander of a thousand households.

The number of registered households in the four prefectures was already small, and they could not withstand exploitation. The governors of the four prefectures had no access to the management of the registered households, so they had no way to make money or do anything else.

They couldn't get involved in military affairs at all, and they didn't even have the opportunity to earn military merits.

At the same time, none of the four prefects could escape the harshness of Shuofang.

Even now, upon learning that Grand Tutor Zhao was escorting the Empress Regent on a tour beyond the Great Wall, these four prefects were unable to mobilize their resources to receive him or present him with auspicious omens.

Therefore, when the Empress Dowager arrived in Wuyuan County, the Prefect of Yunzhong County, who lived next door, left his office and traveled lightly to Wuquan City to see Zhao Yun. The Prefect's arrival was just a small interlude in Zhao Yun's busy military affairs, and could be considered a break.

Inside the barracks built of loess slabs, Zhao Yun strode in, and the prefect hurriedly stood up and bowed, saying, "Protector."

"May I ask what brings you here, Lady?"

Zhao Yun returned the greeting with a cupped hand and directly inquired about the purpose of the visit. The prefect smiled awkwardly, and after exchanging pleasantries with Zhao Yun, they sat down together. The prefect sat upright, cleared his throat twice, and then said, "Grand Tutor Zhao is escorting the Empress Regent on her tour of Hebei, which is a blessing for the officials and people of Hebei. However, the people of this prefecture are few in number, and I am unwilling to trouble them or waste resources. Therefore, I have come to visit the Regent with a request."

As he spoke, the prefect rose and knelt solemnly before Zhao Yun, pressing his head to the yellow earth. His voice was sincere: “I come from a humble background and have only been able to rise to the position of prefect by the Grand Tutor’s support. If we were to entertain the Grand Tutor with the meager resources of the prefecture, it would be an insult to the dignity of the court and the prefect’s honor.”

Upon hearing this, Zhao Yun's expression turned serious, but he remained silent, waiting for further explanation.

The prefect then said, “Given the esteemed status of the Empress Dowager and the Grand Tutor, if I were to ask the herdsmen and households around the prefecture for help, I could easily raise over ten thousand cattle and sheep, let alone manpower. However, I fear that this would cause them to feel contempt. Therefore, I have come to trouble the governor to borrow a thousand soldiers to build a camp to receive the Empress and the Grand Tutor. As for the cattle and sheep, the officials of the prefecture can each contribute their own resources, and we can obtain a thousand head.”

"If we need to mobilize troops, I must ask the Grand Tutor for permission."

Zhao Yun was also in a dilemma. As long as it wasn't about borrowing cattle and sheep from the army's reserves, everything would be fine.

These cattle and sheep were lent out to entertain the officials and their families accompanying the emperor; how many bites could the real guards eat?

Let alone the accompanying guards, how much could the Empress Regent and Grand Tutor Zhao possibly eat?

And these people ate the cattle and sheep, so who will hold them accountable for this mess?

In the end, this mess will be left over to the Eastern and Western Protectorates, and over time it will become an even bigger mess.

Zhao Yun neither refused nor agreed. Seeing that the other party was unwilling to get up, he said, "The county official may take the lead and lead his men, women, servants and other servants to work together. I also have several hundred servants and I can borrow five hundred people to help your county build the fortifications."

The dilapidated prefectural city was not suitable for entertaining the regent empress, and not building city walls was the governing principle of prefectural governors and magistrates in various places.

To emulate Jinyang is the greatest form of loyalty.

As soon as you took office, you conscripted the people to start repairing and reinforcing the city walls... What are you trying to do?
Therefore, Zhao Yun was well aware of the prefect's predicament, because Yunzhong County was truly in a terrible state, with even the ruins inside the city not being cleared away. How could they possibly welcome and entertain the regent empress?
The best solution would be to emulate Wuyuan County by setting up a military camp on the vast grasslands of Heyin and prohibiting grazing for half a month to allow the grasslands to recover.

The Empress Dowager and Grand Tutor Zhao of Wuyuan County treated them very well, and the governor's son was immediately recruited as a court official.

The Prefect of Yunzhong was not greedy for the official position of a mere Gentleman of the Palace. From the moment he left the army to become the Prefect of Yunzhong, under the system of appointing sons, his eldest son immediately obtained the status of a Gentleman of the Palace.

However, his eldest son was only eleven years old, so he was changed to a student at the Imperial Academy.

He simply didn't want to be outdone by the Wuyuan side.

He also knew that the situation on the Youji battlefield could change at any time, and that Grand Tutor Zhao and Governor Zhao could lead their troops to attack Yan and Zhao at any time, causing the Liangzhou war to repeat itself.

He had participated in the campaign against the Hu... If he could leave a good impression on Grand Tutor Zhao, he could be appointed as a prefect with the title of general and lead troops into battle to achieve further merits.

Military merit can lead to promotion much faster than the experience of becoming a prefect.

Only those who achieve military merit are granted titles; I've never heard of anyone being granted a title after serving as a prefect for thirty years.

(End of this chapter)