People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 69: More traitors like this
The seventh year of Guanghe was definitely not a good year for the Han Dynasty. The Yellow Turban Rebellion left the world in tatters.

Although the Han court, after recovering from its shock, largely quelled the movement in just one year, the far-reaching impact of the Yellow Turban Rebellion had only just begun.

This movement exposed the weak nature of the Han Dynasty. Some restless people in various places dared to challenge the majesty of the Han Dynasty.

The aristocratic families that had been trapped in the party system were liberated overnight. The Han court's control over the local areas became more difficult, and the trend of the weak becoming stronger was bound to develop faster and faster.

Of course, at least for now, the Han court was still happy about the general pacification of the Yellow Turbans. Although some remnants of the Yellow Turbans in places like Qingxu, Heishan and others were still causing chaos, they could not cause any trouble after the death of Taoist Zhang Jiao.

In order to seek a good implication, the Han Emperor Liu Hong (Emperor Ling of Han) finally changed the reign title from the seventh year of Guanghe to the first year of Zhongping, which means revival and peace.

He hoped that the Han Empire would prosper and be peaceful after the disaster, but the reality did not meet his good wishes.

After entering the second year of Zhongping, Liu Hong received bad news one after another. Now the Yellow Turbans in Heishan, Qingxu and Heishan have not yet been pacified. In Liangzhou, Beigong Boyu forced Bian Zhang and Han Sui to raise the banner of rebellion. At one time, they had hundreds of thousands of soldiers and were ready to attack the three auxiliary areas of the Han Dynasty.

After the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the Han Dynasty seemed to be on fire in various parts of the country. The news of the unrest in Liang Province really gave Liu Hong a headache.

At this juncture, the first name he thought of was Huangfu Song, who was now the Left General of Chariots and Cavalry of the Han Dynasty and also the Governor of Jizhou. Only this number one hero in suppressing the Yellow Turbans could make Liu Hong feel a little relieved.

Since he was going to use Huangfu Song, Liu Hong had to give him some face and approved Huangfu Song's memorial pleading for Lu Zhi.

Lu Zhi, who was originally framed and imprisoned for offending the eunuchs, escaped and was reinstated as the Minister. However, I wonder how Lu Zhi felt after he was released from prison and learned that his entire family had been slaughtered by the remaining Yellow Turbans in Youzhou.

Huangfu Song, the governor of Jizhou, had not even had time to get comfortable when he accepted Liu Hong's imperial edict and hurriedly led his troops to defend against Beigong Boyu.

After finally arranging the affairs of Liang Province, Liu Hong had no time to catch his breath before another report from the local army was sent to the court.

"There is a bandit chieftain Xu Chen in Youzhou, who calls himself the leader of the Natural Way. He leads several thousand remnants of the Yellow Turbans and harasses the people and kills the nobles in Zhuo County. Now he has moved to Yuyang and is entrenched in a county, threatening the surrounding counties, causing great unrest."

The eunuch Zhang Rang on the side carefully read the report to Liu Hong. After he finished reading, Liu Hong, who was lying on the couch with his eyes closed, raised his eyebrows and roughly understood what the situation was.

The name Xu Chen was very unfamiliar to him, and he didn't know where this bandit chief had come from.

After some inquiries, Zhang Rang found out that this man had been wanted by the imperial court and was just a Taoist boy serving the Taoist master Zhang Jiao.

When Liu Hong heard that this person was related to Taoist Zhang Jiao, he was shocked at first, but then he did not take it seriously. He thought that with only a few thousand soldiers, what kind of trouble could they cause? Youzhou could handle it on its own.

Today, there are still hundreds of thousands of Qingxu and Yellow Turbans that have not been pacified in the Han Dynasty, Black Mountain bandits have risen up again in Jizhou, and Beigong Boyu has appeared in Liangzhou, not to mention that the Hu people in the north are still eyeing them covetously.

At first glance, these guys were all ferocious and vicious. The Han Dynasty was already overwhelmed dealing with them, so how could it have the mood to care about a few thousand Yellow Turbans occupying a mere county.

Compared with the unrest in other places, Xu Chen was just a small ripple.

However, Zhang Rang's expression changed slightly. After putting down the report, he came close to Liu Hong and said something meaningful.

"Your Majesty, although Xu Chen has few soldiers and little power, in the eyes of the Youzhou nobles, he is probably the most hateful person."

Hearing this, Liu Hong was stunned at first, then after looking at Zhang Rang, he slowly understood.

Soon, he understood what Zhang Rang meant, and then he picked up the report and saw the words "slaughter of the nobles" on it, and then the corners of his mouth curled up. "Interesting, Xu Chen, this thief, has few soldiers, but he is very bold, and he really dared to slaughter the nobles of Youzhou."

Liu Hong's eyes lit up slightly, and he seemed to be interested in something, and he couldn't help but sit up straight.

After thinking for a moment, he looked at Zhang Rang again with an expectant look on his face.

"Look through today's memorials and see if there is any Shangshu Lu Zhi who submitted it."

Hearing Liu Hong's instructions, Zhang Rang responded quickly and began to search on the imperial desk. After a while, he paused and picked up a copy.

When the memorial was brought to Liu Hong, Zhang Rang spread out the bamboo slips and began to read it without Liu Hong's instructions.

Liu Hong listened carefully and found that it was just as he expected. In his memorial, Lu Zhi bitterly described the evil deeds of the bandit Xu Chen, and then volunteered to lead troops to Youzhou to fight the bandits.

Although the memorial was very concise, the hateful and fierce words in it frightened Liu Hong.

Just by looking at Lu Zhi's intense reaction, he could guess that the Lu family must be among those "slaughtered with the rich". After confirming it, Liu Hong sneered.

The idea of ​​fighting against the enemy was fake, revenge was real. The whole family was slaughtered, and Lu Zhi must hate Xu Chen to the core now.

However, Liu Hong simply suppressed Lu Zhi's memorial and pretended not to have seen it.

There are not many such good rebels who dare to massacre the powerful families. Liu Hong hopes that they will develop further. A few thousand rebels are not scary. The powerful families are the ones that really give him a headache.

No one knows the current situation of weak trunk and strong branches better than Liu Hong, otherwise he would not target the general public so much.

The struggle between him and the aristocratic families and scholars has never stopped in this dynasty. If he had not been forced into a corner during the Yellow Turban Rebellion, I am afraid he would not have loosened the party ban now.

The so-called struggle between scholars and eunuchs was essentially a confrontation between the gentry and imperial power.

Under such circumstances, seeing someone like Xu Chen brutally slaughtering the nobles, and whose own power was weak and not threatening much, Liu Hong not only did not hate him, but even felt a little happy to see it happen.

"Just raise the reward for the wanted thief Xu Chen. I believe Youzhou can suppress the thief by itself, and the court does not need to spend any more energy on it."

Liu Hong lay down lazily again, then waved his hand casually and sent Youzhou away to report.

This sudden appearance of the Yellow Turbans from the Natural Way, not to mention that the Han Dynasty did not have the extra energy to deal with them, even if it had the energy, Liu Hong did not want to care.

He hoped that Xu Chen would bring disaster to the Youzhou gentry again, and then the imperial court would take over, which would be a relief.

After saying this, Liu Hong changed the subject and talked about another bad thing that happened recently.

"There was a fire in the palace yesterday, and many buildings were damaged, which has damaged the majesty of the imperial palace. Unfortunately, the current situation is turbulent, and there is not enough money. I don't know how to repair it."

(End of this chapter)