People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 71: Small Success in Internal Strength
Since the Yellow Turban Army entered Yuyang, Yellow Turbans soon began to arrive in the villages below, which were known as "li" in the Han Dynasty.

According to the structure formulated by Xu Chen, ten Yellow Turbans would be arranged to settle in each village under his jurisdiction, and the ten people would choose one person to be the head of the team. As a result, the original "li" of the Han Dynasty became the "shi" of the Yellow Turbans.

A change in name also means a change in attributes.

The "li", which was originally the basic administrative unit of the Han Dynasty, became the "shi", the basic military unit of the Yellow Turbans.

The "Xiang" of the Han Dynasty above it became the "Tun" of the Yellow Turbans, and the head of this Tun was a squad leader selected from among the ten squads.

As this structure was deployed, each military settlement under the Yellow Turbans' rule was garrisoned with a hundred Yellow Turbans, each governing a group of ten, which was equivalent to the population of ten "li" of the Han Dynasty.

According to the Han Dynasty's rule of one hundred households per li, a Yellow Turban settlement had a thousand households. If one household was composed of four people, then a settlement had a population of about four thousand. Of course, these four thousand people included the elderly, the weak, women and children, and there were probably less than one thousand young and strong people.

Although Yuyang was a large county in Youzhou, the overall population of Youzhou was sparse, and Yuyang County had only six or seven thousand households. In the end, the Yellow Turbans only established seven military settlements in Yuyang.

These seven settlements are still not enough to accommodate the more than 3,000 Yellow Turbans released by Xu Chen, and they are now only being temporarily accommodated.

Moreover, the so-called one squad does not necessarily have to include ten Yellow Turbans. Once time passes and the governance of the Yellow Turbans becomes stable, it may even be enough to leave one Yellow Turban in each squad.

By then, as the territory gradually expanded, the more than 3,000 released Yellow Turbans would continue to disperse, which would be equivalent to more than 3,000 squads and more than 300 villages.

Of course, this is only the most ideal situation. As the war progresses, the Yellow Turbans will certainly suffer a lot of losses, but as long as the organizational structure remains, the personnel can be continuously supplemented.

If all these Yellow Turbans were really deployed, the Yellow Turban Army would almost control an entire state.

At that time, this military governance system was naturally out of date.

The system must change with the changing times, and the integration of military and politics will inevitably turn into separation of military and politics. Only after the Yellow Turbans have completed the complete establishment of their country can they turn their attention to the entire world.

The garrison commanders and sergeants currently stationed in the military settlements below are actually two parts, along with the 1,500 grassroots officers standing army left by Xu Chen.

If there is a war, the local garrison chiefs and squadron leaders will recruit soldiers and supplies from the local area to supplement the standing army. The original standing army of 1,500 was based on grassroots officers, but it can be expanded to thousands, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands in an instant depending on the scale of the jurisdiction, and it will also have relatively qualified combat capabilities.

The garrison commanders and squad leaders in these places still serve as members of the Yellow Turban Army under the current system, but they are also responsible for local governance.

But in fact, they are all reserve officials prepared by Xu Chen for the future. When the time is right, they will be able to completely separate from the Yellow Turban Army and then govern the place for themselves.

For several months, Xu Chen in Yuyang completely stopped external attacks and only maintained a defensive posture. His purpose was to improve the military governance system during this relatively stable period, launch a literacy campaign against the Yellow Turbans, and slowly begin to train them into professional officers and local officials.

By now, my internal strength has finally been cultivated to a high level.

With the successful establishment of the organization, the leader Xu Chen clearly felt that the governance of Yuyang had become simple and efficient. His orders could be quickly transmitted to every village in Yuyang, and then the Yellow Turbans would organize the people in this village to execute them.

The power of the unorganized Yuyang was scattered, but now it is integrated into a whole. With his fist clenched, Xu Chen began to consider whether to smash it out, but before smashing it out, he did not forget to clean up the internal affairs.

The Yellow Turbans had only been established in Yuyang for about three months, and their organizational structure had only just been fully rolled out. It could be said that they had only just taken the first step, but at this step, corruption problems had already emerged at the grassroots level.

In the past few months, Xu Chen has been taking Tian Shitou to inspect the countryside. He has now figured out a way to supervise the grassroots, which is quite effective so far. For example, the Yellow Turban who was being held in front of him was caught using this method.

Under his leadership, whenever Tian Shitou arrived at a village, he would hold a villagers' meeting together with the Yellow Turbans in the village, and every household in the village had to send representatives to attend the meeting.

As for the content of the meeting, Tian Shitou, as the inspector, listened to the villagers' opinions on Benshi Huangjin's work.

The villagers can express freely whether the Yellow Turbans have done their job conscientiously, whether their work results are good or bad, whether they have embezzled money, or whether they have oppressed the villagers.

Once the villagers raise questions, the Yellow Turbans involved must respond, and the captain of the army, Tian Shitou, will also begin an investigation.

Now, under the observation of Xu Chen, Tian Shitou completed the whole process in this village, and actually found out that the village headman was engaged in corruption!
The small bag of grain and money was the property received by the sergeant, and what he did was to give a large piece of land to the family that bribed him during the land distribution process.

The matter was brought up by the villagers who discovered it, and then the fields were re-measured and searched and confirmed.

However, in the face of irrefutable evidence, the sergeant still refused to admit it. It was clearly him who saw the dirty things that were searched out of his home, but he insisted that they were not his.

This almost shameless cry of grievance made everyone present despise him.

The representatives of the people who attended the meeting were curious about what would become of this sergeant. Although the sergeant made a mistake, he was also a Yellow Turban. Would the righteous army protect their own people?
Throughout this meeting, Xu Chen did not express any opinion. He just watched Tian Shitou handle things. He believed that after working his way through the past few months, Tian Shitou should be able to handle the situation.

Feeling the presence of the leader and the surrounding people, Tian Shitou was not panicked. Facing the denial of the sergeant, he just pointed at the bag of money and asked coldly: "I'll ask you again, do you admit the fact of taking bribes?"

Although the chief was sweating profusely, he still gritted his teeth and refused to admit it: "I don't know, I really don't know, someone must have harmed me, this is not my money, this is not my money, Master, you have to believe me!!"

The sergeant knelt down and kowtowed to Xu Chen repeatedly, crying and looking as if he had been wronged.

However, Xu Chen remained expressionless the entire time, just standing there watching like a clay sculpture, without any response at all.

Tian Shitou snorted coldly, then waved his hand, and two Yellow Turbans brought a very panicked villager.

When Tian Shitou's cold eyes swept over, the villagers were frightened and trembled, then pointed at the sergeant weakly: "Sir, it was only because we gave money and grain to the sergeant that we got an extra piece of land."

As the villager finished speaking, the sergeant's face turned pale, and he collapsed to the ground, looking lifeless.

(End of this chapter)