Three Kingdoms: I am not Liu Bian

Chapter 46 The prince swore an oath to march out to fight the enemy!
"Zhang Jiao, a scoundrel of the Jianghu, falsely claimed the Way of Heaven, boasting of peace. He used talismans and water to deceive the people, and stole the secrets of the Yellow Emperor to disrupt social order. He used a white scarf as a banner and used refugees as soldiers. He destroyed the foundations of the state and tore apart the order of the mountains and rivers. Before the Yellow Heaven was established, the fields were covered with bones. Before the great sages were even called, the land was barren for thousands of miles.

The Han Dynasty has inherited the throne of Heaven, spanning over four hundred years. The Emperor's benevolence and virtue are now widespread, and the land is peaceful. You, the rebels, deceive the world with sorcery, gather a mob to defy Heaven's majesty, and drive out the ignorant to resist the royal army. Don't you know that a mantis trying to stop a chariot will only end up being crushed to dust? A gadfly trying to shake a tree will only bring on thunder!
I now hold the imperial seal and axe, commanding a hundred thousand brave warriors. Wherever the banners point, evil spirits will be dispersed; when the drums and gongs roar, the scoundrels will be executed. On the day the edict arrives, those who quickly disarm and return to their fields will be pardoned; those who stubbornly refuse to fight will have their entire clan exterminated. Those who unite with one heart will be granted titles of nobility and commissioned as generals; those who surrender will be rewarded with silk and gold.

Heaven and Earth, witness this heart!"

I have to say that Chen Lin is indeed a talented writer and the content of his manifesto is also grand and magnificent.

When a king's army goes out to war, they naturally cannot curse like a country shrew.

The courage in this manifesto is far superior to the petty behavior of small tyrants like Zhang Jiao who targeted Liu Bian and made personal attacks on him during their rebellion.

As the manifesto to attack the Yellow Turbans was announced to the world, on the fifth day of the eighth month of the sixth year of Guanghe, Liu Bian ascended the command platform that had been built long ago on the outskirts of Luoyang, personally beheaded three animals, and their blood splattered on the red Han dragon flag with a dark black border, and then swore to go to war.

Instead of the long speeches of righteousness that the Han Empire made when it sent troops in the past, Liu Bian simply said six words to the soldiers on the parade ground - rewards must be carried out and punishments must be credible!

During these days, Liu Bian also took over many military affairs in the army, especially the rewards and punishments in the army. Any officers who arbitrarily abused soldiers were punished by Liu Bian according to military regulations.

Those who actively train in the army and perform better than others will also be rewarded generously.

Receiving rewards before fighting is an unprecedented treatment.

Even if Liu Bian only made sure that punishments were carried out faithfully, these soldiers would have enough trust in His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, not to mention that the Crown Prince also made sure that rewards were carried out.

These soldiers from good families are not stupid. Not only are their treatment in the army much better than before, but the prince has also actually rectified the atmosphere in the army. Therefore, the prince's "rewards must be carried out and punishments must be credible" has great credibility.

In fact, the soldiers do not need their commanders to share the hardships with them. All they want are the six words "rewards must be carried out and punishments must be credible."

Just six words are worth a thousand words!

Afterwards, Liu Bian officially embarked on the road to suppressing the rebellion. With more than 48,000 troops and Dong Zhuo's 20,000 troops who had already marched towards Jizhou, he claimed to have an army of 100,000. He marched eastward along the Luo River, went south through Huai County in Henei, crossed the Bian River, and passed through Guancheng and Xinzheng.

Liu Bian did not find it boring to march with the army. Instead, every time he set up camp, he would ask Huangfu Song about the reason for camping there and military affairs, absorbing the knowledge taught by Huangfu Song like a sponge.

Along the way, the commander-in-chief Liu Bian delegated all power to Huangfu Song, allowing Huangfu Song to make orders and only asking a few questions for the purpose of learning.

However, Liu Bian also left a means of checks and balances on Huangfu Song.

Stationed around his tent were two thousand Tiger Guards led by Cao Cao, as well as nine hundred Yulin cavalrymen on the left and right, temporarily commanded by Cao Cao's cousin Cao Ren and Xiahou Dun's cousin Xiahou Yuan.

Then came Gao Shun's infantry captain's unit, Sun Jian's cavalry captain's unit and Huang Zhong's archery captain's unit, which protected Liu Bian tightly and could easily capture Huangfu Song at any time.

In addition, the logistics of the army were also in the hands of Liu Bian.

No matter which direction the supplies transported from Luoyang came from, they could not avoid Jia Xu, Dong Zhao, Cheng Yu, and Zhong Yao, the Luoyang magistrate.

As for the allocation of military supplies and equipment, although Liu Bian did not rashly place his own people in the baggage camp, he temporarily created two positions for Chen Lin and Li Su, namely the Military Food Censor and the Military Equipment Censor, and gave them the responsibility of supervising the corruption of military supplies and equipment in the baggage camp.

Such an arrangement not only allows his trusted team to gain practical experience, but also allows them to take precautions against any problems.

Of course, he did trust Huangfu Song completely, whether it was his character or the historical books of later generations. However, a ruler can trust his subjects, but he cannot be without the means to restrain them.

The army marched thirty miles a day, resting for every six days. Along the way, this force of nearly fifty thousand men saw little use for its troops. The people of the Three Rivers region lived comfortably, with few Yellow Turban rebels causing trouble, mostly roving knights and bandits. Henan Yin Jia Xu, Hedong Prefect Dong Zhao, and Henei Prefect Cheng Yu, mobilized young and strong men from the prefectures and counties, and were able to quell these small-scale bandit attacks.

The prefectures and counties of the Han Dynasty originally had county and state soldiers. During the reign of Emperor Guangwu, in order to centralize power, an edict was issued to abolish the county and state soldiers. All the knights, material officers and other soldiers who had received formal military training and were responsible for military functions were dismissed, leaving only a small number of auxiliary soldiers in charge of logistical tasks.

These auxiliary troops have little training, so their combat effectiveness is self-evident.

But after all, this is an army that is legally owned by local counties and kingdoms and can exercise military functions. It is better than nothing, and it can also be regarded as a county and kingdom army with the characteristics of the Later Han Dynasty.

Usually, the number of county soldiers in the inland counties is about one thousand, while the number of county soldiers in the border counties is about three thousand. If it is a county like Wuling and Yangzhou, which are threatened by barbarians, the number of soldiers is usually around two thousand.

But no matter how poorly trained they were, it was easy to wipe out a group of bandits who took advantage of the chaos to plunder, not to mention that Jia Xu, Dong Zhao and Cheng Yu all had some knowledge of military tactics.

It was not until the eighteenth day that the army finally reached Yingchuan County and encountered a well-organized Yellow Turban Army.

This Yellow Turban Army was small in number, with only about 3,000 people. They held a large flag with the word "yellow" on it, and were dressed in tattered clothes, with few wearing armor.

The soldiers were walking in groups of three or four, many of them with their clothes open and weapons casually hung on their waists. They were talking and laughing loudly as they walked, and some even hung the looted property on their bodies, swinging it around, without any sign of marching.

The team also had more than 30 large carts and many women, and it was obvious that they had just finished looting.

After the scout's report, Huangfu Song did not speak, but just turned slightly and looked at Liu Bian calmly, with a hint of expectation in his eyes.

Liu Bian understood that Huangfu Song intended to let him, the crown prince, give command of the first battle.

With only 3,000 people, Huangfu Song naturally didn't worry about anything going wrong. After all, they were just some low-level bandits.

This idea of ​​looking down on the Yellow Turban Army was prevalent in the Han army, and people often called them "moth thieves" to show their contempt.

But Liu Bian knew that the Yellow Turban Army was not so easy to deal with, so he chose the safest way and sent out professional soldiers from the Northern Army!

"Wentai, Zixiao, and Miaocai, each of you will lead your cavalry to attack the Zao formation from the two flanks and the rear of the enemy. Then Xiaofu and Hansheng will lead their own troops to follow up and kill them."

When Liu Bian finished speaking, everyone in the tent couldn't help but be stunned.

When these words were spoken, everyone in the tent was stunned.

Sun Jian opened his eyes wide, as if he couldn't believe his ears. Cao Ren and Xiahou Yuan also looked at each other with confusion on their faces.

More than 2,600 cavalrymen attacked 3,000 scattered bandits who were not in formation?

In this situation, you still want to send another 800 heavily armored infantrymen and 800 crossbowmen to kill and reap the rewards?

Even Huangfu Song was choked by Liu Bian's words. He originally wanted the prince to consider sending a group of soldiers to make merit, that is, to send eight or nine hundred people to fight against the three thousand people. Who would have thought that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince sent four thousand well-trained professional soldiers, but was so... well, cautious!
"Your servant Sun Jian obeys your orders!"

After a brief moment of daze, Sun Jian did not hesitate, put on his tiger-head helmet and left the tent.

Cao Ren, Xiahou Yuan, Gao Shun and Huang Zhong also immediately received the order and left the tent, each gathering their own troops and preparing to go into battle.

(End of this chapter)