Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 314 Six Towns Resurrection
In the second year of Xiaochang, on March 26, Zuo Rencheng of Dingzhou was built.

As a Gongcao in the governor's office, Sun Gongcao has rich experience in how to oppress ordinary people.

When choosing who to oppress, Sun Gongcao also has four rules that he does not oppress:
He did not bully the nobles whose sons were officials. The wealthy families in Hedong directly intermarried with each other and had intertwined relationships. Who knew what kind of relationship this ordinary scholar had with those high-ranking officials in the court, especially the wealthy families that were rated as the four surnames. Sun Gongcao always avoided them.

He did not bully the local gentry, as these gentry all had their own strongholds. If they made trouble, Governor Yang might use his head as a Gongcao to appease them. The government also required the cooperation of these local gentry in collecting taxes and grain every year.

He did not bully the chieftains and tribal leaders of Dingzhou. The leaders of the tribes settled in Dingzhou were all Yanchen. Although they were not welcomed in Luoyang, the tribesmen who were able to be named Yanchen were also the earliest "dragon-following" ministers who followed the Northern Wei Dynasty. They also had close ties with the top leaders. Just by being able to go to Luoyang every year, they could hear the emperor's words.

Finally, he would not bully the military men from the prefectures and counties of Dingzhou. Nowadays, the good men in Hedong area do not join the army. Those who join the army are all bad people from various counties and prefectures. After joining the army, they oppress the people even more, and ordinary officials dare not offend them.

Obviously, Xianyu Xiuli and other pastoral slaves were not on Sun Gongcao's list of "four no-buys".

In Sun Gongcao's view, these remnants of the Six Garrisons were rebels themselves, and it was the Queen Mother's "kindness of life" that allowed them to be enslaved in Dingzhou.

These guys have no roots in the court, and the local powerful people in Dingzhou are also hostile to them. If I deal with them myself, it will only make people happy, and no one will hold me accountable.

As for the rebellion of the pastoral slaves in Zuoren City?

The twenty-odd soldiers accompanying Sun Gongcao were all fully armed. How could this bunch of slaves, who didn't even have weapons, rebel?

In Sun Gongcao's view, Xianyu Xiuli was just a slave chief. He would first squeeze him dry and then have someone capture him and put him on the list to be killed. In the future, he would come to Zuoren City to give him a beating every now and then.

All I can say is that Sun Gongcao had a good plan, but most things in this world go against one's wishes.

As soon as he moved into Zuoren City, Xianyu Xiuli gathered his confidants.

This also included Yuwen Lian, who was sent by Ge Rong nearby to communicate.

Ge Rong was the deputy governor of Dingzhou. Although he was marginalized by the governor Yang Jin, he still had nominal power.

He was stationed at a garrison near Zuoren City, recruiting craftsmen to make weapons. In order to win over Xianyu Xiuli, he also asked Yuwen Lian to send weapons.

Xianyu Xiuli had already decided to rebel. He gathered his men and said:
"You also heard it during the day. Sun Gongcao wanted to kill one out of ten people from the six towns in Zuoren City. Are we just going to sit there and wait for death?"

Ever since the Rebellion of the Six Garrisons, the survivors of the Six Garrisons have been harboring a lot of resentment.

Being a shepherd slave in Zuoren City, he lived in peace for some time, but the governor's office still wanted to kill him.

The subordinates said:

"It's the other way around!"

Xianyu Xiuli had also read some books, and he said directly:
"If I don't rebel, I will die. If I make a big plan, I will die. If I wait for death, is it okay for the country to die?!"

"Tonight I will kill that Sun Gongcao with my own hands and raise the banner of the True King to rebel against him!"

Xianyu Xiuli knew that if he wanted to start a rebellion, he would naturally have to raise slogans. For the survivors of the Six Garrisons, the most resounding slogan was "True King".

Although Po Liu Han Baling failed, the slogan of "True King" still exists.

The prophecy of Po Liu Han Baling, "The Six Garrisons will destroy the Yuan clan," also spread throughout the Northern Wei Dynasty as the survivors of the Six Garrisons returned home with the army that had conquered the Six Garrisons.

Xian Yu Xiuli decided to raise the banner of "true king" again, and his subordinates expressed their agreement.

Then Xianyu Xiuli looked at Yuwen Lian and said:

"Yuwen Lang has also seen that if the Six Garrisons do not rebel, they will be wiped out by the people of Dingzhou! Today we will raise an army. Please ask Yuwen Lang to contact Chief Ge and start an uprising together!"

Then Xian Yu Xiuli said:

"I appoint your leader Ge as the King of Guards! He is second only to me!"

Yuwen Lian crossed his hands and nodded, then watched Xianyu Xiuli and others raise torches, take the weapons he had newly sent, and rush into the place where Sun Gongcao lived.

Yuwen Lian felt a little complicated. Back then, he and his son followed Heba Duba and his son to attack and kill the "King of Wei" Wei Kegu, who had defeated Liu Han Baling. In order to escape the chaos in the Six Garrisons, his father did not go to Pingcheng to join Yuan Shen, but came to Dingzhou to settle down.

No one expected that in less than four months, Ge Rong, to whom his father and son had defected, would also be named "King of Wei".

Immediately afterwards, Yuwen Lian heard cries for mercy and sounds of killing. Xianyu Xiuli climbed up the city wall of Zuoren City with torches and human heads in his hands, and there was a thunderous cheer from inside Zuoren City.

Yuwen Lian jumped on his horse and suddenly remembered what his younger brother Yuwen Tai once said:
"If the Six Garrisons rebel again, the world will be in chaos."

Yuwen Lian shook his head. There was no peaceful place in this world. Warriors like them could only go with the flow and be carried forward by fate.
-
On March 26th of the second year of Xiaochang, Xianyu Xiuli in Zuoren City raised the banner of King Zhen in rebellion, and killed Sun Gongcao of the Governor's Office as a sacrifice to the banner.

On April 1, Xianyu Xiuli gathered the remnants of the six towns near Zuoren City, and in the first battle, he defeated the private soldiers of the Sun family of Dingzhou, broke into their fortress and robbed it, seized 500 armors and weapons, and slaughtered more than a thousand members of the Sun family. On April 5, Yang Jin, the governor of Dingzhou, was horrified when he heard the news of Xianyu Xiuli's rebellion, and immediately ordered Ge Rong, the deputy governor of Dingzhou, who was stationed near Zuoren City, to suppress it.

Citing the lack of armor and weapons, Ge Rong requested to return to Dingzhou's capital, Lunu City (now Dingzhou City), for reorganization before fighting Xianyu Xiuli's rebels.

Yang Jin, the governor of Dingzhou, did not suspect any trick and allowed Ge Rong to lead his troops into Lunu City. He also opened the Dingzhou treasury to allow Ge Rong to equip his men.

On April 7, Xianyu Xiuli's rebel army gathered 10,000 people and arrived at the city of Lunu. Ge Rong immediately changed sides, opened the city gate, captured the governor's mansion, and welcomed Xianyu Xiuli into the city.

Yang Jin, the governor of Dingzhou, still had some integrity and vowed to never surrender to the rebels, so Xianyu Xiuli ordered him to be executed. The Six Garrisons Army looted Lunu City, and the nobles and powerful people in the city were frightened and wanted to flee with their families, but they were all killed by Xianyu Xiuli!

After the news of Xianyu Xiuli's rebellion reached Yingzhou and Jizhou, the oppressed survivors of the Six Garrisons rose up in arms. They were shocked to find that in the most fertile land of Hedong, the Great Wei, these aristocratic families, whom they usually dared not look up to, were so vulnerable?
Their private soldiers seemed to have good weapons and were strong, but they were no match for the men in the Six Garrisons who had fought in life-and-death battles.

The Six Garrisons had been staffed by military officers for a long time, with fathers, sons and brothers having fought in battles together and having experienced several wars, so they had already been tempered.

Compared to the fancy moves maintained by the powerful families of Ding, Ying and Ji, the people of the Six Garrisons were simple and unpretentious on the battlefield. They made no unnecessary movements, and everything they did was for the purpose of killing better.

Anything that can kill people becomes a terrifying weapon in the hands of the people in the Six Towns.

They are excellent riders and skilled in archery and horsemanship, and if they can seize horses and weapons they become cavalry.

The Three States were originally endless plains. The people from the Six Towns mounted their horses and moved like the wind, quickly cutting off the connections between the local nobles.

The slaves from the six towns who were bought by the wealthy families of the three states killed the wealthy family supervisors who oppressed them in advance and opened the fortress and manor to welcome the rebels.

Whenever they captured a fortress or manor of a local noble, they would plunder all their food, arm themselves with their weapons and horses, and then quickly kill all the resisting nobles.

By mid-April, the news of the war in the three states had spread throughout Hedong.

Yanzhou, Shanggu County.

Du Luozhou gathered refugees from the Six Garrisons in Shanggu County. Among his subordinates were Gao Huan, Sima Ziru, Dou Tai and other heroes who once served as military commanders in the Six Garrisons. His influence quickly grew and he gathered nearly 10,000 people in Shanggu County.

There is no way, the population of the Six Towns is simply too large.

Those who were relocated to the three states by the court were just the rebel troops from the Six Garrisons who followed Po Liu and Han Baling in rebellion, totaling 300,000 households.

Of these 300,000 households, 100,000 crossed the Yellow River to Xiazhou controlled by Su Ze, and the remaining 200,000 were settled in three states.

But the military and civilian population in the Six Garrisons was much more than just 300,000 households.

The court had an attitude of complete abandonment towards those townspeople who remained in the Six Garrisons. They were harassed and enslaved by the Rouran people, and many of them chose to move south like Du Luozhou.

Yanzhou was first plundered by the Rouran people, and then hit by a locust plague. The local government had completely lost control. When Du Luozhou heard that Xianyu Xiuli had raised the banner of the True King again, he immediately summoned his important subordinates to discuss the matter.

The refugees all stick together, and Du Luozhou understands that if he wants to rebel, he must get the support of most of the small groups.

He looked around and saw that the leaders of several small groups were scared.

One of the fellow villagers said:
"Commander, the three states rebelled because they were forced. We, the refugees in Shanggu County, have no government to oppress us, and everyone wants to make a living by grazing in Shanggu."

The governor of Yanzhou allowed the refugees from the six towns like Du Luozhou to stay so that they could defend against the Rouran people at the Great Wall. Therefore, compared with the oppression of Ding, Ji and Ying states, the people of the six towns in Yanzhou had not been oppressed to that extent.

It can even be said that Shanggu County, a land that the people of Yanzhou look down upon, is much more fertile than the Six Garrisons, and many people do not want to rebel.

Du Luozhou looked around, Gao Huan stood up and said:
"We are all from the Six Towns, and we are all of the same blood. If the three states rebel, how will the officials and nobles of Yanzhou view us?"

"Now that the court is short of soldiers, they can either disperse us or recruit us to quell the rebellion and let the people of the six towns kill each other."

"Commander, if we don't rebel, we will be killed. Now the only way is to rebel!"

After listening to Gao Huan's words, Du Luozhou immediately clapped his hands and said:
"Okay! He Liuhun is right!"

"It's not the six towns that want to rebel, it's the court that forces the six towns to rebel!"

After listening to Gao Huan's words, everyone felt that what he said made sense and nodded in agreement.

Du Luozhou drew his sword, cut off the corner of the table and said:

"Today we raise an army and swear to fight against Wei. Those who are not sincere will have such a table!"

(End of this chapter)