People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 36 Bold!

Together with Liu Bei's 500 volunteers, Zou Jing led a total of 4,000 soldiers and followed Gongsun Zan all the way to Zhuo County. Fortunately, Guangyang County was adjacent to Zhuo County, and the two places were very close. With a quick march, they arrived in less than two days.

The reason why Gongsun Zan went there first was because Zou Jing's troops were the fastest fighting force he could find.

If we had slowly communicated with the counties to organize troops, or sought help from the powerful families, it would have taken who knows how long, and the Yellow Turbans would have fled long ago.

If we look for Zou Jing, it will only take four or five days to go back and forth and he will be able to return with thousands of troops and take revenge immediately.

Gongsun Zan originally thought that he was fast enough. Given the Yellow Turbans' habit of adapting to circumstances, they would certainly still be in the city after he fought back. At that time, it would not matter even if he suffered a loss while sieging the city.

Zhuo County is not a strong military town, but just an ordinary small city with low walls. As long as we trap the Yellow Turbans and slowly mobilize troops from the surrounding areas to reinforce them, we will eventually be able to conquer it.

But when he brought Zou Jing back, he found that he had come to nothing.

When the army arrived, the gates of Zhuo County were wide open, and there were no guards at the gates. The people were able to enter and exit freely until the soldiers appeared outside the city, at which point they scattered like birds and beasts and hid.

Zou Jing and his men were initially worried that this was a ploy by the Yellow Turban bandits to lure them in, so they ordered Guan Yu to lead hundreds of soldiers into the city to investigate carefully. They did not enter until they were sure that there were no Yellow Turban bandits in the city.

Liu Bei was concerned about his mother, so he immediately took Guan and Zhang back home, while Gongsun Zan and Zou Jing went to the government office as soon as possible.

They had just entered when they saw someone coming over and started blaming Gongsun Zan.

"Tian Kai was the county lieutenant, but he let the Yellow Turbans easily break into the city. This was my dereliction of duty!"

As he spoke, Tian Kai lowered his head, too ashamed to look Gongsun Zan in the eye.

Gongsun Zan's expression suddenly became embarrassed. If this matter was really discussed, it was definitely not Tian Kai's fault. He could only pat Tian Kai on the shoulder and take the responsibility.

"The responsibility for this is mine. If I had listened to the advice of County Magistrate Tian, ​​I wouldn't have been ambushed by the bandits."

Gongsun Zan sighed, and a look of self-blame appeared on his face.

But this matter was not very glorious after all, so he was unwilling to talk about it. He then pulled Tian Kai to sit down and changed the subject.

"After I broke out, I immediately went to find Captain Zou to help me fight the bandits, but when I came back, the bandits had disappeared.

Do you know how they robbed the people in the city these days and where they went afterwards? Please tell me in detail."

At this time, what Gongsun Zan was most concerned about was the situation in the county in the past few days. If the county was severely robbed by thieves, he would be guilty of a serious crime.

Next year when the imperial court evaluates the local governance, I don’t know how embarrassing it will be for me.

This crappy county magistrate is just a transitional stage in his official career, and he doesn't want to be locked up here for the rest of his life.

When Tian Kai heard Gongsun Zan ask about this, his expression became a little strange: "The county magistrate is worrying too much. In fact, the Yellow Turbans have never harmed the people in the past few days."

"No one was harmed?" Gongsun Zan was stunned and wondered if he had heard it wrong.

Zou Jing, who had been silent all this time, was also dumbfounded. He was the first one who did not believe that the Yellow Turbans had done no harm to the common people.

He had fought the Yellow Turbans for nearly a whole year, how could he not know the Yellow Turbans' military discipline? After all, the Yellow Turbans were just a mob of refugees, not a real army at all, and the various generals had no power to control the Yellow Turbans under them, which resulted in no grass growing wherever the Yellow Turbans passed.

Ordinary people would not have a good ending when they encountered the Yellow Turbans. Without exception, they would be robbed completely, and in the end they would have no choice but to join them as they found it difficult to survive.

It has always been like this with rebellions. If the rebels do not rob, they cannot sustain themselves. On the contrary, only by robbing can they rally more people to strengthen their momentum.

Zou Jing would never believe that thousands of Yellow Turbans would refrain from taking action when faced with a civilian population that had no ability to resist.

"If the Yellow Turbans had such military discipline, would they still be the Yellow Turbans?" Zou Jing looked at Tian Kai, with suspicion written all over his face. "Besides, if they can't plunder, wouldn't it be a waste of effort to capture the county?"

Tian Kai smiled bitterly. In fact, not only did they not believe it, even he, who saw it with his own eyes, found it hard to believe.

But that was the fact, and he had to believe it whether he wanted to or not.

"They really didn't attack the civilians." Tian Kai thought for a moment, then added, "A few civilians were unfortunately killed, but the Yellow Turbans who committed the crimes were all executed on the spot by their leader."

Gongsun Zan and Zou Jing looked at each other. It was just a few families, which was certainly not a big deal. Not to mention that the Yellow Turbans severely punished the perpetrators. No one could find fault with this.

But the question is, when could the Yellow Turbans achieve such a degree? Could this be the military discipline of the rebels?

After a moment of silence, Zou Jing finally accepted it with satisfaction: "Since they didn't rob the people, then what did they do?"

"It is true that they did not rob the common people, but they robbed all the wealthy families in the county, and even killed them all..." When Tian Kai said this, he suddenly remembered the scene of the beheading in the vegetable market that he saw while hiding in the crowd that day, and he couldn't help but feel a lingering fear.

Afterwards, he told them in detail everything that had happened in those two days, but these details gave Gongsun Zan and Zou Jing even greater shock.

Those Yellow Turbans actually slaughtered all the powerful families in the county. This is simply insane!

Previously, when the Yellow Turbans were causing chaos, they would not go too far towards the aristocratic families. Firstly, the aristocratic families all had strongholds and armed forces and were not easy to mess with. Secondly, Zhang Jue did not want to offend the aristocratic family too much.

One fact is that the eight Yellow Turban states rose up, but until the end, the gentry in the eight states were still the same gentry, without much change. Instead, they became even more wealthy.

So when they heard that the Yellow Turbans had used such violent means against the aristocratic families in Zhuo County, Gongsun Zan and Zou Jing both gasped.

This really stirred up a hornet's nest. In the past, when the government was fighting against the Yellow Turbans, the local aristocratic families did not see any real benefits and were not necessarily willing to cooperate fully.

But after the Yellow Turban Rebellion, there was no need for the government to say anything more, as these aristocratic families were going to be furious themselves.

After all, the Yellow Turbans' leader named Xu Chen made it clear that nobles all carry original sin and should naturally be deprived of their property and punished.

With this attitude, it would be strange if the wealthy families didn't get angry with you.

"The Yellow Turbans are seeking their own death by acting so cruelly, but it is surprising that they can distribute money and goods to bribe the people. Compared with the previous Yellow Turbans in Youzhou, their behavior is very different." After hearing everything, Zou Jing couldn't help but look a little curious.

Gongsun Zan snorted coldly: "How can it be possible to distribute the government's wealth to the people for free? They even dare to take the thieves' things. I think these common people are really bold!"

(End of this chapter)