Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 319 People in Troubled Times

The last time the Six Garrisons Rebellion was quelled, the biggest beneficiary was Prince Guangyang Yuan Shen.

However, Yuan Yanming, the Prince of Anfeng, and Yuan Gong, the Prince of Guangling, who were the first to follow Li Chong in suppressing the rebellion, did not receive sufficient rewards from the court.

Anfeng King Yuan Yanming was originally the governor of Yanzhou. After suppressing the rebellion, he was still the governor of Yanzhou, but his fief was increased by 300 households. In fact, he did not get much benefit.

The same was true for Prince Guangling Yuan Gong. He was originally the governor of Hengzhou, and his biggest wish was to be transferred back to Luoyang and remain the governor of Hengzhou after making meritorious service in battle.

Rumor has it that Prince Guangyang Yuanshen was unwilling to see the two princes return to Luoyang because he did not want the princes who were well versed in military affairs to come to Luoyang, as this would cause him to lose his say in military matters.

Pei Yan raised his head and looked at Yuan Shen. This rumor did have some possibility. In any case, in the memorial Yuan Shen drafted to the court to request merit, he downplayed the contributions of the two kings.

Prince Guangyang was indeed one of the few princes in the court who had insights into military affairs, but his outstanding military ability did not mean that he had good moral character.

He had an affair with the wife of Prince Chengyang, accepted bribes, and lived an extravagant life. This pillar of the Northern Wei Dynasty was not a very good person.

In the past, he was attached to Jiangyang Prince Yuan Yi, and then relied on speculation to turn to Queen Mother Hu. It is true that he is no longer trusted by the court.

Prince of Anfeng Yuan Yanming and Prince of Guangling Yuan Gong didn't even receive decent rewards, so it's no wonder they were resentful.

Pei Yan finally realized what his ominous premonition was. He looked at Yuan Shen. Prince Guangyang, the Grand Commander, was not trusted by the court. He wanted to implement a strategic plan of strategic contraction and then striking back. Would the court agree?
If you want to reduce your military forces, you must give up some of the land that you could have defended, and you must gather a large number of troops.

With Yuan Shen's current appeal and the trust the court has in him, can he really achieve this?

Pei Yan didn't know either, but as Yuan Shen's deputy, he could only prepare according to his orders.

Yuan Shen sent an envoy to chase after Yuan Gong, the governor of Hengzhou, who had gone out to pursue the enemy. Then he recruited refugees from the six towns in Hengzhou as soldiers and waited in Pingcheng for the army from Luoyang to gather.

Then Yuan Shen went to Zhuolu in Yanzhou in person, where he gathered the government troops who had escaped from Yanzhou, Youzhou and Dingzhou.

Zhuolu (now Zhangjiakou) is the place where Huangdi and Chiyou fought a great battle. It is the place where the Sanggan River and the Yanshui River meet.

The water (Sanggan River) was called Gaoliang River in the Tang and Song dynasties. When Emperor Taizong of Song fled in a donkey cart, he fled along this river. This river is the most important water vein in Hedong.

Yuan Shen had good military capabilities and was able to immediately choose Zhuolu to gather troops.

Faced with the pressure of Yuan Shen's troops stationed in Zhuolu, Du Luozhou, who had just started an uprising in Shanggu, also summoned his men to discuss.

Before he started the uprising, Du Luozhou was just an ordinary soldier in Rouxuan Town. However, he was kind and generous, and accumulated reputation among the refugees from the three eastern towns who fled to Shanggu. In addition, he saw the weakness of the imperial court during the last uprising of the six towns, and driven by ambition, he also recruited talents and finally started the uprising in Shanggu.

Du Luozhou also has two teams under him. One is the fellow villagers from Rouxuan Town who followed him to Shanggu. These people are his most trusted subordinates.

The other group was led by Gao Huan, and mainly consisted of refugees from the three western towns. Du Luozhou's attitude towards Gao Huan was more complicated.

On the one hand, Gao Huan used to be the commander of the Six Garrisons Army, and in his early years he served as a messenger traveling between Luoyang and the Six Garrisons. Among all the poor people in the Six Garrisons, he was considered to have the broadest experience, so Du Luozhou would discuss important matters with him.

On the other hand, as Gao Huan's fame grew, Du Luozhou also became wary of this subordinate and did not dare to give him too much military power.

But today, when discussing the future of the Shanggu rebel army, Du Luozhou could only listen to Gao Huan's opinion.

Gao Huan was silent for a moment and then said:
"Yuan Shen is the most knowledgeable minister of the Pseudo-Wei in military affairs. He suppressed the Six Garrisons Uprising last time. I don't know how much blood of the Six Garrisons people is on his hands."

"But he leads the elite troops of the imperial court. If we want to attack Zhuolu, we have to cross the river. We should tell the True King that Yuan Shen is gathering troops in Zhuolu and ask him to lead the troops to fight."

Du Luozhou nodded repeatedly after listening to this. The progress of the Shanggu rebel army has been very smooth these days.

Not only did he establish contact with Han Lou in Youzhou, he also successively attacked the fortresses of several aristocratic families in Yanzhou and robbed them of their stored food, greatly enhancing his influence in Yanzhou.

Gao Huan's words reminded him that he was just a volunteer army in Shanggu County. Facing such a major event as the encirclement and suppression by the government troops, it should be the true king Xianyu Xiuli who should bear the brunt of it!

Du Luozhou nodded repeatedly, and he called his confidant to say:

"Come! I want to write a letter to the True King!"

But Du Luozhou's confidants looked at each other and spread their hands to show that they were illiterate.

Du Luozhou looked at Gao Huan helplessly and could only hand the paper and pen to Gao Huan. Du Luozhou dictated the words, and after Gao Huan finished writing, he stamped the words and gave them to his confidant to deliver to Dingzhou City.
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The problems encountered by Du Luozhou were also the problems encountered by rebel leaders such as Xianyu Xiuli.

Because of their origin in the Six Garrisons, they could not get the support of the local gentry. Even because of Xianyu Xiuli's act of massacring the city when he first started his rebellion, the gentry of the entire Jizhou began to flee.

The result was that Xianyu Xiuli could not find enough officials to maintain the civil system since he started his rebellion. After he occupied Jizhou, he was still unable to collect taxes effectively and could only rely on looting to mobilize food and weapons.

This naturally led to even greater hostility from the local nobles. Some of them even burned their stored grain, left their hometowns with their families, and vowed to never "follow the bandits."

Jizhou, Bohai County.

The leader of the local noble family is Bohai Gao family, and Gao Yi, the current head of Bohai Gao family, is the current head of the family. Although Bohai Gao family was implicated by the powerful official Gao Zhao, it is still very influential in the local area.

Gao Yi's eldest son, Gao Qian, had already served as an official in Luoyang. He started out as a Yuanwai Sanqi Shilang and is now a Yuanwailang of the Shangshu Tai. Although his promotion speed is not as fast as that of the Jia family, he can also be regarded as "receiving the grace of the country for generations."

"Grandpa!"

A young man from the Gao family strode into the Gao family's ancestral home.

This young man was probably in his twenties. Bohai was the land of Yan and Zhao during the Warring States Period. It was said that "Yan and Zhao were home to many generous and tragic men", and the local nobles also had the habit of practicing martial arts, but it was rare to find noble sons as strong as this man.

When Gao Yi was young, he did not become an official, but studied in the countryside. The young man in front of him is Gao Yi’s third son, Gao Aocao.

"Grandpa! My brother has sent me a letter!"

Gao Yi heard the noise of the third son, put down the pen in his hand, and said helplessly:
"Your brother wrote to you every month, asking you to take care of your energy. But how much energy have you taken up now?"

After scolding his son, Gao Yi took the letter. After reading the letter written by his eldest son, the letter in Gao Yi's hand fell to the ground.

"Grandpa?!"

Gao Aocao stepped forward, thinking that the letter contained some bad news.

He picked up the letter on the ground and read it quickly. It turned out to be an urgent message from his brother Gao Qian. The court wanted to appoint Gao Yi as the governor of Bohai and let him recruit volunteers to fight against the rebels.

Gao Aocao was overjoyed. His father was implicated by Gao Zhao, so he did not take up an official position, but that did not mean that Gao Yi did not want to be an official.

On the contrary, he actively sent his eldest son to Luoyang, which shows that he was also obsessed with official career.

Now that the court has suddenly appointed him as the governor of Bohai, how can Gao Yi not be happy?

Gao Aocao saw his father gradually returning to normal, and muttered to himself, "What a bullshit Qi-raising" and then said:

"Congratulations, Grandpa! Congratulations, Grandpa!"

Gao Yi pretended to be calm while stroking his beard and said:

"The court employs your grandfather because they hope that our Bohai Gao family can lead Bohai to fight against the bandit army. This is not an easy task to accomplish."

This old man!

Gao Aocao had been unruly since childhood, and he had little respect for his father and brothers. He couldn't stand watching his father acting, so he immediately said:
"Grandpa, I will go and recruit soldiers from my clan and contact the heroes of Bohai to fight against the rebels!"

Gao Aocao didn't like reading on weekdays. He often wandered in the countryside and made friends with local heroes.

In those days, ordinary people couldn’t even get enough food to eat, and the one who could carry a sword had to be at least a child from a poor family.

Those who want to gather younger brothers to become a powerful person must be the children of big families.

Another group of so-called "heroes" are actually land thugs who gather near cities. The cities in the Hedong region are densely populated and the urban economy is developed, so there are many such "heroes".

Local wealthy families would also recruit these people to guard their homes or do some dirty work. Even when the government went to the countryside to collect taxes, they would recruit these "bad people". Even the search for criminals in the city would be handed over to these "bad people".

Gao Yi allowed his third son to make friends with heroes because Gao Aocao did not like studying and the family also needed children like Gao Aocao to handle some dirty and tiring work.

However, in a turbulent time, warriors became more important than scholars. Gao Yi decided to give more resources to his third son, whom he had not been optimistic about before, and to give him some military merits to help him build momentum.

The pure aristocrats were exterminated as early as the Wei, Jin and Sixteen Kingdoms period. Today, the aristocrats who remain in Hedong and have taken root there are often both civil and military talents.

The Bohai gentry quickly united and, led by the newly appointed Bohai governor Gao Yi, organized local militias to resist Xianyu Xiuli's army.

However, the Gao family of Bohai was relatively lucky. Xing Gao, who once served as the chief clerk of Youzhou, was born in the Hejian Xing family, which was as famous as the Gao family of Bohai. However, his hometown had been conquered by Han Lou, the leader of the Youzhou rebel army. Xing Gao was elected as the leader and led the Youzhou gentry to flee.

Like Xing Gao and Gao Yi, the vast majority of the gentry and most of the powerful people in the five states of You, Yan, Ding, Ying and Ji were unwilling to join the rebels.

The nobles were well-informed and usually received news before the rebels attacked.

Some of them, like Gao Yi, raised an army to help the government suppress the rebellion.

Or many of them had already led their clansmen to flee to other states in advance, among which Bingzhou, Xiangzhou, Qizhou, Qingzhou, and Yanzhou all became destinations for exile.

Just when most people left the five states of Hedong, some people began to go in the opposite direction.

(End of this chapter)