Second-hand time travel: Liu Bei, the big-eared bandit

Chapter 11 Soldier or Thief?

Gongsun Zan's reaction was actually expected.

Before the world descends into chaos, in a place like Zhuo County, if a county magistrate wants to form a private army, he either has to spend a lot of money to support his retainers or use the pretext of war to form local militia.

However, retainers are not allowed to carry armor or crossbows, otherwise it would be considered a plot to commit treason.

Zhuoxian is located near the city wall, making it too easy to be caught violating the law.

Therefore, the best approach is to create border troubles or large-scale banditry in the county, and then report it to the prefecture under the pretext of suppressing bandits and protecting the village, so that the prefect can allow the county to conscript local militia.

Then they would take them out to "fight a battle," taking the county's money and grain as "military funds," then "relieve the border troubles" and disband the local militia. The money and grain they obtained would then be used to turn the local militia into private soldiers.

This way, you can purchase armor and weapons without spending your own money, and also earn battle merits along the way.

Forming prisoners into commutation squads is also a form of conscription of local militia, and it is the fastest way to build up the fighting capacity of local militia.

Prisoners are also the most suitable group to recruit as private soldiers, because the vast majority of prisoners are strong and brave young men, and once a prisoner's crime is cleared, it is considered a great favor.

To avoid suspicion, the county magistrate would not command the troops himself, so someone else would be needed to assume the title of commander, and it would be best if this person were to recruit local militia.

That way, even if something goes wrong, someone will take the blame.

Or they could deliberately create some problems, such as letting soldiers become bandits and harm the people, so that someone else would take the blame first, and then the county magistrate would clean up the mess. This way, they could gain fame and also suppress the local bullies.

At this time, for Gongsun Zan, the most suitable person to take the blame in Zhuo County was Liu Bei.

Therefore, he recommended Liu Bei to be the military officer in charge of exile, so that Liu Bei could organize a prisoner corps.

In fact, Liu Bei knew that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, after the prisoners were formed into an army, Gongsun Zan would send him to the real battlefield with the released prisoners, rather than in a mock battle.

But this is exactly what Liu Bei wanted. He had been guiding Gongsun Zan with various hints all for this very result.

Because, apart from Gongsun Zan, no one would give themselves a reason to lead troops at this time.

Although the position of exiled garrison commander was temporary and his subordinates were all criminals, he was still a legitimate military officer.

Although these temporary positions for criminals may seem to have little future, at least they can be used to recruit people in a legitimate and legal way.

Having troops at your disposal is the only true advantage.

As for raising funds and supplies on their own...

"Whose food you eat, whose soldier you serve" is a common understanding, and Liu Bei couldn't be happier to raise his own army.

Besides, with the army already in place, why would they be worried about not getting paid?
……

Gongsun Zan was very efficient. The next day, under the pretext of "preventing border troubles and suppressing the barbarian bandits," he drafted a letter of recommendation for Liu Bei to be appointed as the military commander and sent it to the prefecture.

Zhuo County was the seat of Zhuo Prefecture. The prefectural government office was very close to the county government office, making it very convenient to report to higher authorities.

Liu Wei, the governor of Zhuojun, and Liu Kuan were of the same clan, both descended from the Hongnong imperial family.

In fact, Prefect Liu knew that there were no Hu bandits in Zhuo County. Last year, the only place in the entire Zhuo Commandery that had experienced Hu banditry was Liangxiang County in the north.

However, Gongsun Zan was under Liu Kuan's command, and was considered one of Liu Wei's own people, so he agreed—after all, the county didn't need to provide any funds or provisions, and Gongsun Zan had just taken office in Zhuo County, so this kind of face had to be given.

Thus, Liu Bei quickly took up his post as the exiled military officer.

Gongsun Zan also thoughtfully assigned Liu Bei a helper.

They were called helpers, but in reality they were supervisors.

The foreman was named Zou Dan, a retainer of Gongsun Zan, who was now appointed as the clerk of Zhuo County, in charge of money, grain, and criminal justice.

Of course, Zou Dan's main role was to oversee the finances and provisions.

The people most familiar with the criminal justice system of Zhuo County were Liu Bei and Jian Yong.

After all, most of the prisoners in this cell were put there by the two of them through a double-cross. "Gentlemen, we meet again."

Liu Bei greeted his old acquaintances in the prison: "I have good news for you all. You will soon be free from prison. I plan to release you."

"Liu family son, don't make fun of your father... He's in this predicament because you set a trap for him!"

The heroes in the prison were naturally the bandits who had been double-crossed by Liu Bei before, so they didn't have a good attitude towards him.

However, they did not utter any harsh words, since most of them knew Liu Bei, mainly because they had been beaten by him.

These prisoners were the ones who truly knew what business Liu Bei and Jian Yong were jointly engaged in...

"Hey, you were the ones who came to kidnap me in the first place, shouldn't I have captured you? Come to think of it, I should have just killed you back then."

Liu Bei shook his head and smiled: "Now that you're going to be working under me, instead of just talking your way out of it, you'd better think about how to please me so that I won't hold a grudge."

"Serve as servants? How can we sinners serve as servants?"

The prisoner was somewhat suspicious, but he stopped referring to himself as "Lord Nai".

After all, they also felt that Liu Bei was right, and what they should do at this time was to curry favor with him rather than offend him.

"Since you dare to rob people on the road, you must not be afraid of joining the army and fighting, right?"

Liu Bei sat down in the jailer's seat, picked up a bamboo slip and wrote: "This county is looking to select exonerated criminals. Anyone willing to join the army, come and sign up. As long as one head is beheaded, the previous crime will be forgiven, and there will be a reward of a thousand coins."

"Executioners get rewarded? Are you kidding us?"

The prisoners weren't very interested in joining the army. They knew about this form of forced service, but they believed that going to the battlefield was just a way to atone for their past sins and wouldn't bring them any merit.

But when it comes to a reward of a thousand coins, these guys get all excited.

"If there are any gains, there will be rewards. Not only rewards, but also merits. Merits will be calculated according to the usual practice of the county soldiers, and only half of the spoils need to be handed over."

Liu Bei nodded solemnly and said, "However, if you want to gain merit and rewards, you must obey military orders."

Zou Dan nodded in agreement, indicating that what Liu Bei said was true.

Those who were executed were usually not eligible for rewards; these conditions were actually the standard for retainers and servants.

In Zou Dan's view, the combination of rewards, merit, and the requirement to hand over only half of the spoils of war actually refers to the standard for becoming Gongsun Zan's private army.

"Hurry up and sign up... However, according to the law, bandit leaders cannot join the army, so you leading heroes can only pay money to atone for your sins."

The bandits here were originally small gangs, and Liu Bei knew the leader of each gang.

"Xuande, bandit leaders are usually brave and fierce men, why not let them join the army? They are special cases in forming an army, why follow the usual rules?"

Those who can become leaders usually have some skills, but Liu Bei insisted on abiding by the law and not letting bandit leaders become executioners, which Zou Dan did not understand.

"As long as there is a bandit leader, they will still be bandits. Only when the bandit leader is gone can they be controlled. This is the method of training soldiers."

Liu Bei explained in a low voice.

Zou Dan reported this matter to Gongsun Zan, who also felt that Liu Bei's words made sense.

In Gongsun Zan's view, recruiting executioners was just a pretext; the ultimate goal was to build his own private army, and it was indeed necessary to do so for the sake of easier control.

But Liu Bei actually deliberately prevented those leaders from joining the army.

Because the team he assembled was not composed of soldiers.

He was a thief.

(End of this chapter)