Chapter 60: Furious Tian Ze was the governor of Liaodong, the chief historian of a vassal state and the general of the imperial court. Although he held great power, in theory he could not send troops without an imperial decree. Although there was a precedent in the Han Dynasty where a prefect sent troops to quell a rebellion without an imperial order and was not punished, Tian Ze did not want to give others an advantage. He ascended to the position of prefect at a young age, and was the "knife" in He Jin's hand, and had long been a thorn in the eyes of many ministers from aristocratic families. Therefore, in order to be safe, Tian Ze contacted He Jin early and asked for a military order. As the general in charge of all the troops in the country, He Jin could naturally make the decision on such trivial matters with just a single word. What's more, He Jin did not want the limelight to be stolen by those scholars, and hoped that Tian Ze, his "confidant", could make achievements for him. As special matters were handled specially, the imperial edict was processed on an expedited basis and quickly delivered to Tian Ze using water transportation. Tian Ze immediately assembled his troops and marched to various places according to the established plan. Today, the number of Liaodong soldiers has grown to nearly 50,000. Except for the five generals Xu Rong, Ma Teng, Le Jin, Gao Shun, Qu Yi and nearly half of the soldiers who stayed in Liaodong to be prepared, the rest of the generals have all rushed to the battlefields of various places. Moreover, as the war progresses, these soldiers and generals will be rotated to train new troops.
Cheng Yu was stationed in the southern part of Jizhou to carry out overall coordination, while Xun You followed Tian Ze and served as the military advisor. At this time, the four states were already in the midst of war. Although due to Tang Zhou's denunciation, Zhang Jiao was in a difficult situation and had to start the uprising earlier, which was a bit hasty. But Zhang Jue still notified the leaders of all parties, and the Yellow Turban Army spread to all provinces and counties in a short time. The imperial court at this time had not yet fully reacted. Due to the continuous war, Luoyang was almost surrounded. The emperor naturally focused on protecting Luoyang first, causing the situation in various places to deteriorate rapidly. Most of the Yellow Turban Army in the early days were farmers who had just put down their hoes. Their fighting power was not strong and they fought completely on their own. The reason why they were able to win battles one after another so smoothly was, on the one hand, that the Han Dynasty's military preparations were lax and they were completely unprepared. On the other hand, there were followers of Zhang Jue in every city, even some of the soldiers guarding the city and even the county magistrates were followers of Zhang Jue. With the help of both inside and outside forces, they easily captured many county cities. The Yellow Turban Army spread so quickly that the imperial court was caught off guard. But Tian Ze's reaction was just as quick, and he arrived at the four states almost as soon as he received the imperial edict. In order to avoid attracting the attention of the imperial court and Zhang Jue, Tian Ze did not rush to rescue the besieged counties, but instead deployed reconnaissance cavalry extensively to investigate the movements of the Yellow Turban Army. Whenever they discovered small-scale Yellow Turban Army and refugees who were being looted, they would send troops to capture them, escort them to the ferry where the navy was, and transport them to Liaodong. Chen Gong had already arranged for personnel to take over and screen the Yellow Turban captives and refugees. The most vicious ones would be directly tried and executed, the guilty would be punished according to law and given special attention, and ordinary people and those who were coerced would be properly resettled. In just one month, the Jizhou troops led by Tian Ze alone transported more than 100,000 people, with remarkable results. However, Tian Ze also realized that the Yellow Turban Army he was facing was rapidly expanding and degenerating. Many of these Yellow Turbans were probably initially forced to become bandits due to financial difficulties. However, most of the Yellow Turban Army leaders had no vision, no development plans, and no awareness of managing their troops. After their troops expanded rapidly, they began to think about occupying the land and becoming king. Due to the lack of constraints and the fact that the Yellow Turban Army itself rarely engaged in production and supply, it was difficult. In order to solve the problem of food and supplies and continue to expand their power, many Yellow Turban troops gradually acted arrogantly, burning, killing, looting and slaughtering fellow farmers. They had forgotten their original intentions and completely became bandits.
With their hands stained with the blood of innocent people and numerous evil deeds committed, the evil thoughts in the hearts of many Yellow Turban bandits were completely released. Especially under the extremely chaotic management environment of the Yellow Turbans, this evil thought continued to spread and soon spread completely. Cao Cao's Qingzhou soldiers in history are a typical example. Although they are extremely powerful, they often fail to observe discipline, harm their teammates, and rob the people. When Tian Ze passed by a village that had just been invaded by the Yellow Turban Army, he saw corpses everywhere in the village. Many old, weak, women and children were not spared, and many people died in a horrific way. Tian Ze, who always had a calm mind, had a gloomy face. He gently closed the eyes of a child who died miserably, clenched his fists, and was filled with anger and helplessness. Such a human tragedy is ultimately unavoidable. Countless ministers have reported the Yellow Turban Rebellion to the emperor, but all the reports were set aside and not dealt with, leading to the current chaotic situation. Troubled times are the breeding ground for evil. Perhaps at the beginning, these people were just a group of poor people who wanted to survive and they rebelled for survival. But human nature cannot stand the test. With the continuous looting and the expansion of evil thoughts, many of them have become more terrifying than corrupt officials and evil gentry in the eyes of the people. This was in Jizhou where Zhang Jue was located. The Yellow Turbans had already fallen so quickly. The situation in other places can be imagined. Tian Ze could hardly imagine the harm that could be caused by the nearly one million Yellow Turban bandits scattered throughout the Han Dynasty. "My lord, from now on it may not be advisable to send all these Yellow Turban bandits to the rear." Xun You said solemnly when he saw this scene. "Leave five hundred riders to check if there are any survivors and bury the bodies of these civilians nearby." Tian Ze was extremely angry at this time. "The rest of you, follow me and kill these inhumane beasts!" The soldiers present were also filled with anger. When they heard Tian Ze's words, they shouted, "Yes!" His hair stood on end with anger, and thousands of riders rolled across the plain. …… Wang Dang was riding on a poor horse in high spirits, looking at the huge team of nearly 10,000 people behind him and dozens of ragged but still beautiful women not far away, and he couldn't help feeling proud. I never thought that more than a month ago I was just a soldier guarding the city gate, but now I have become a leader, managing tens of thousands of people and holding great power. Thanks to his own cleverness, he saw the situation was not good at the beginning, and relied on the merits of seizing the gate to become a leader. Although he only had more than a hundred people at the beginning, now in just over a month, he has grown to more than ten thousand people. I don’t know what those old generals are thinking. They are all stubborn and have to fight to the death with those county officials and powerful people for no reason. Those Wu forts were difficult to capture, and even if they were, most of the money, food and supplies inside would be burned. It was a thankless task, and after so long, there were only two or three thousand people. Unlike me, I plundered the villages to get food quickly. Those villagers had no power to resist, so I killed the old and weak and coerced some young and strong people. My power grew like a snowball. In today's world, you still have to be ruthless to get ahead. At this rate, I will be able to surpass those veteran coaches in less than two months. Just as Wang Dang was daydreaming, he didn't notice that the ground around him was shaking slightly. A massacre is coming. (End of this chapter)