Chapter 475: Mission - Suppress the Yellow Turbans
Chapter 475: Mission - Suppress the Yellow Turbans
September 25, 2017
After receiving the news from Zhang Ran, Lu HaiKong began to mobilize Bingzhou's three prefectures, and he also started preparing for his own deployment.
Despite the sudden transfer order, Lu HaiKong's deployment was a month or two earlier than planned. Fortunately, most of the preparations were already in place, and now he only needed to gather his troops and enter Jiuzhou.
According to Zhang Ran's information, the order from above was for Lu HaiKong to enter Jiuzhou from Yanmen or Taiyuan, capture Changshan Kingdom and Zhao Kingdom, and join forces with Lu Zhi, who was stationed in Weizhou, to surround and suppress Zhang Jiao's main force in Julu.
As far as Lu HaiKong knew, most of Jiuzhou was under the control of the Yellow Turbans, except for Weizhou.
Among them, Changshan Kingdom and Zhao Kingdom had relatively fewer main forces. Lu HaiKong's intelligence indicated that the Yellow Turban forces in these two kingdoms numbered around 200,000 each. However, unlike Bingzhou, there seemed to be a large number of Outsider territories within these kingdoms.
Lu HaiKong wasn't very familiar with this information, but it didn't matter. After receiving Zhang Ran's news, the Phantom Guard had already taken the lead.
Lu HaiKong began to mobilize his intelligence first, but he was still waiting for the military deployment order. After all, the deployment order hadn't arrived yet, and he wasn't in a hurry anyway. Even if the order came, he could take his time.
However, before that, Lu HaiKong had already made his camp selection, which had been available for several months.
Camp selection successful. Your camp is: Han Dynasty
Camp mission released!
Suppress the Yellow Turbans
Mission Briefing: The rebel Zhang Jiao and the Yellow Turbans have brought chaos to the world. As a Han Dynasty governor, you should clear the rebels for the court.
Mission Instructions: You will earn Han Dynasty Merit Points for each battle won against the Yellow Turbans or for capturing a city occupied by them. These points can be used to redeem rewards.
Reward redemption takes place every half a month.
Your current Han Dynasty Merit Points: 0
This mission is similar to the camp missions received by the previous wanderers, but Lu HaiKong was curious about the rewards for this mission.
Unfortunately, the reward redemption for this type of mission only happens once every half a month, so Lu HaiKong couldn't see the list of redeemable items at this time. However, the rewards for such a plot mission should be substantial.
Three days after Lu HaiKong received the news, the deployment order from the court finally arrived.
Upon receiving the order, Lu HaiKong began to act without haste.
Lu HaiKong deployed a large force this time, including the first and second battalions of the three armies, Gao Shun's Siege Legion, and a 35,000-strong Wuyuan Army composed of county troops from Wuyuan County.
Lu HaiKong personally led the Wuyuan Army, accompanied by Dian Wei and Pan Feng's Escort Legion.
This was Lu HaiKong's first deployment, with a total force of around 41,000. After less than five days of preparation, this army openly marched towards Changshan Kingdom.
Changshan Kingdom, or Changshan Prefecture, had 12 counties: Yuanshi, Luancheng, Pingji, Gaoyi, Fangzi, Shangai, Zhending, Jiumen, Puwu, Jingxia, and Nanxingtang, with a population of nearly two million. This number was significantly higher than in history and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
In reality, although Changshan Prefecture was adjacent to Jiuzhou, it wasn't very convenient for Lu HaiKong to enter from Yanmen. Therefore, he planned to attack from Taiyuan Prefecture.
Taiyuan Prefecture was located below Yanmen Prefecture, bordering Changshan Prefecture. Deploying from Taiyuan Prefecture would be more convenient for Lu HaiKong, and it was also an opportune time for him to do things that were previously inconvenient, such as truly controlling Taiyuan Prefecture.
However, before Lu HaiKong's troops even reached Taiyuan Prefecture, they encountered an issue—they were denied passage!
This was a very normal occurrence. After all, during this period, as Lu HaiKong gained control of the three prefectures, the Prefect of Taiyuan Prefecture, which bordered Yanmen and Dingxiang Prefectures, lived in constant fear, worrying that Lu HaiKong would invade and swallow up their Taiyuan Prefecture.
Therefore, the Prefect of Taiyuan was extremely vigilant towards Lu HaiKong. He was determined to prevent any infiltration from the Yanmen side.
He was genuinely terrified of Lu HaiKong infiltrating Taiyuan just as he had the other three prefectures. So, regarding Taiyuan's military and the major aristocratic families, there was strict control, fearing that Lu HaiKong would take over Taiyuan just as he had done with the other three prefectures.
What he didn't expect was that Lu HaiKong hadn't made any moves in the past few months, remaining surprisingly well-behaved. However, this didn't ease his mind. As soon as he saw Lu HaiKong leading his army and requesting to pass through, the Prefect of Taiyuan immediately tensed up. He wanted to send people to the junction between Yanmen and Taiyuan at Yuanping to block Lu HaiKong's army, forcing him to attack Changshan Prefecture from the Yanmen side.
However, the Prefect of Taiyuan also knew that his actions were irrational, but he had no choice. He truly dared not let Lu HaiKong in.
He was well aware that once Lu HaiKong chose to attack Changshan Prefecture from Taiyuan, Lu HaiKong would undoubtedly start to control Taiyuan Prefecture. This was only natural, and given such an opportunity, he himself would do the same.
But he also knew that he couldn't block Lu HaiKong, and there was no way to do so, nor any excuse to justify it.
His situation was difficult, and he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
In the Guanghe Year Six, the first edition of the Eight Provinces was released, and it was flawless!
Under these circumstances, he did something, something that seemed a bit crazy, something he had been contemplating for quite some time.
At Yuanping County, Lu HaiKong's 40,000-strong army didn't rashly charge into Taiyuan Prefecture. Instead, he first sent people to communicate with the Prefect of Taiyuan.
In fact, this was just a formality, but the people Lu HaiKong sent were detained by the Prefect of Taiyuan, who used various excuses to delay Lu HaiKong's army's advance.
Although the Prefect of Taiyuan had many excuses, his attitude was consistently cooperative. He raised various sincere questions, temporarily preventing Lu HaiKong from entering Taiyuan Prefecture.
In this situation, Lu HaiKong was delayed for a full five days before Taiyuan finally resolved the issue, releasing the people Lu HaiKong had sent and granting him passage.
"Finally willing to let us through? I thought that old guy would make us wait a few more days."
At Pingyuan County, in Lu HaiKong's temporary camp, when Lu HaiKong heard that the Prefect of Taiyuan was willing to grant passage, he immediately stood up. He then issued a series of orders, and Lu HaiKong's army began marching towards Taiyuan Prefecture.
Lu HaiKong's destination was Quyang County in Taiyuan Prefecture, which would serve as his temporary headquarters. From there, he would advance towards Changshan Prefecture.
The distance between Pingyuan County and Quyang County was about a hundred li. According to Lu HaiKong's army's marching speed, it would take around two days to cover this distance of over a hundred li.
This marching speed was quite fast, and there weren't any significant issues. However, as Lu HaiKong's army approached Taiyuan Prefecture, an unexpected event occurred.
At a narrow terrain where cavalry couldn't maneuver effectively, a group of Yellow Turban soldiers launched an attack...
(End of Chapter)
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