Chapter 405: Yellow Turban Rebellion in Bingzhou
Chapter 405: Yellow Turban Rebellion in Bingzhou
September 25, 2017
In the historical Yellow Turban Rebellion, Bingzhou was not heavily affected, and Zhang He had previously stated that there were no Yellow Turban forces in Bingzhou.
But the absence of Yellow Turbans before does not guarantee their absence in the future.
When Zhang Jiao shouted the slogan, 'Heaven is Dead, Yellow Heaven Shall Rise, Year of the Monkey, All Under Heaven Shall Prosper' in Juelu, the entire Bingzhou was shaken, and countless Yellow Turbans emerged.
Within a few days, Yellow Turbans rose in all nine counties of Bingzhou.
As the Governor of Bingzhou, Ding Yuan had no choice but to suppress the rebellion.
Without hesitation, Ding Yuan mobilized his army.
Although Ding Yuan had not been in Bingzhou for long, in the past half a year, he had been making a fortune in Jiuyuan County, and with money in hand, a well-trained veteran army, and his willingness to spend, his military strength grew rapidly.
Especially in terms of cavalry, the Xianbei tribe initially refused to trade with him, but they were eventually conquered by his iron cavalry.
In the past half a year, Lu Bu's cavalry had gone through countless battles and conquered numerous tribes. Now, the Flying Wolf Cavalry was no longer the same as half a year ago; their combat power was stronger and more terrifying. Lu Bu once boasted that with just two thousand cavalry, he could annihilate Lu HaiKong's group if they dared to leave the city and fight.
With such a powerful army, Ding Yuan paid no heed to the Yellow Turban Rebellion and directly crushed them with overwhelming force.
Initially, the Yellow Turbans in Bingzhou were no match for Ding Yuan's army, and they offered no resistance. But when Ding Yuan concentrated his forces to deal with the Yellow Turbans in Dingxiang, Yanmen, and Yunzhong, problems arose.
Ding Yuan discovered that the Yellow Turbans in these three places were completely different from the previous ones. The earlier Yellow Turbans were merely a group of rioting commoners, while these Yellow Turbans were well-trained troops.
These troops were not particularly strong individually, and their numbers were not large, but they were exceptionally vigilant and avoided direct confrontation with Ding Yuan's army.
When Ding Yuan's army arrived in Dingxiang, these Yellow Turbans fled, hiding from him. Meanwhile, the Yellow Turbans in Yunzhong and Yanmen seized the opportunity to plunder recklessly.
As Ding Yuan turned to suppress the Yellow Turbans in Yunzhong and Yanmen, the Yellow Turbans in Dingxiang became active again.
These three groups of Yellow Turbans were like cunning moles, playing a game of cat and mouse. They hid while the others wreaked havoc, then switched roles, tormenting Ding Yuan's army. For half a month, Ding Yuan's efforts in these three counties were almost entirely fruitless.
What made Ding Yuan even more frustrated was that these Yellow Turbans mainly attacked the villages and their gentry and landlords, rather than county towns. It was challenging to conquer a county town with a few hundred people, but killing a few landlords was an easy task.
In just half a month, two to three-tenths of the landlords and gentry in the three counties were killed. The Yellow Turbans took all the money and grain they could carry and distributed the rest to the local people.
This directly caused the commoners to favor the Yellow Turbans. When Ding Yuan's army launched a suppression campaign, the locals spontaneously provided cover for the Yellow Turbans.
With this strategy, Ding Yuan was exhausted from dealing with them.
In Dingxiang, Ding Yuan's temporary camp, he looked at the continuous reports of defeats, and finally lost his temper!
"Yellow Turbans, you think I'm a fool?"
"How could such a well-informed, swift-reacting, and militarily-savvy group be Yellow Turbans? Who would believe that?" Ding Yuan had realized that the Yellow Turbans in the three provinces were undoubtedly connected to Lu HaiKong.
It wasn't that Ding Yuan had singled out Lu HaiKong as a scapegoat, but the evidence against him in this matter was overwhelming.
Almost all nine counties in Bingzhou had Yellow Turbans, but they were mostly small-scale disturbances that Ding Yuan easily quelled. Only within these three provinces, despite his efforts, Ding Yuan couldn't gain control. In reality, Ding Yuan had taken countermeasures, but every step he took seemed to be under someone else's control.
After a couple of instances where the enemy fled before his army even arrived, Ding Yuan became alert. He dispatched small elite units ahead of his main force.
But each time these elites were sent, they either found nothing or walked into traps set by the enemy. The enemy, usually divided into several small groups, would gather together and wait for the elite units to enter, often resulting in heavy casualties.
Could the Yellow Turbans possess such reconnaissance abilities? It was clear that a powerful force was manipulating the Yellow Turbans in these three areas.
Considering the entire Bingzhou, who else besides Lu HaiKong could have such capabilities and motives?
"Bring my army here! We're heading straight to Qiangyin!" Ding Yuan commanded, his eyes flashing with determination.
Ding Yuan had never been one to spare the wicked. If Lu HaiKong was causing trouble, he would use this opportunity to eliminate him. With the Yellow Turbans rising everywhere, Lu HaiKong was just a minor county magistrate in Qiangyin. Zhang Ran, his backer, had already considered abandoning him.
At this moment, Ding Yuan, under the pretext of quelling the rebellion, approached Qiangyin and directly killed Lu HaiKong. He could then either claim that Lu HaiKong had sacrificed himself for the country or accuse him of colluding with the Yellow Turbans.
(Chapter End)
Chapter end
Report
