It is said to be a reform, but this system is actually good for the military.
Anyone with a discerning eye can tell at a glance that this system does not harm the interests of the army. If we insist that the change in the title system is somewhat of an honorary change, then everyone has no intention of getting upset with Liu Bei over such trivial matters.
Therefore, this policy was quickly adopted and officially implemented.
Liu Bei informed the army of his arrangements at the army meeting, and then went directly to the court to announce the new army title system.
When this system was first established, it was obvious that generals and marshals did not exist. If we insist on talking about generals and marshals, then in the entire Han Empire, only Liu Bei himself had this qualification recognized by everyone, and no one else had this qualification. Therefore, when the system was first established, the highest military rank of the Han army was only lieutenant general, but there were no generals or marshals.
The five people originally known as the Five Tiger Generals among the people and the army were the five highest-ranking people below Liu Bei in the Han military system. Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Liu Sheng, Qian Zhao, and Xu Huang each served as a general. The leaders of the military region, so the new rules will start with these five people.
The world recognized Guan Yu as the leader of the Five Tiger Generals.
So Guan Yu's new military position was General Zhengnan, the chief general of the Jiangnan Military Region, his military rank was the second-grade lieutenant general, and his title was the first-class marquis.
Zhang Fei's military position is General Zhengxi, the commander-in-chief of the Western Region Military Region, his military rank is second-grade lieutenant general, and his title is first-class marquis.
Qianzhao's military position is General Zhengbei, the commander-in-chief of the Northeast Military Region, his military rank is second-grade lieutenant general, and his title is first-class marquis.
Xu Huang's military position is General Zhengdong, the commander-in-chief of the Central Plains Military Region, his military rank is second-grade lieutenant general, and his title is first-class marquis.
Liu Sheng's military position is General Zhenglu, the commander-in-chief of the Western Shu Military Region, his military rank is the second-grade lieutenant general, and his title is also the first-class marquis.
These five people serve as the commanders of the five external military regions respectively.
In addition, their respective deputies Huang Zhong, Zhao Yun, Ma Teng, Cao Ren, and Zhang Ren were appointed as generals of the five towns. Their military ranks were also second-rank lieutenant generals, and their titles were all second-class marquises. Their status was slightly lower than that of the five generals. .
At the central level, in addition to Lu Bu, who had been serving as the rear general since the Second Empire, Liu Bei appointed Xia Houyuan as the front general, Pang De as the left general, and Dong Huang as the right general. Together with the rear general Lu Bu, he was appointed center General rank, first-class marquis title.
After Lu Bu learned about this, he was inexplicably surprised and went to the palace in person to express his gratitude to Liu Bei.
In fact, on the matter of Lu Bu, public opinion in the military is still somewhat controversial. Everyone generally believes that Lu Bu is not suitable to be one of the four generals.
Obviously Cheng Pu, Han Dang and Cao Chun are all suitable for this position, but if they are not suitable, there are other new generation generals. Lu Bu's sensitive identity is really a problem.
However, Liu Bei believed that Lu Bu had surrendered. When the Third Empire was established and the army was reorganized, Lu Bu naturally handed over the Bingzhou soldiers to accept the reorganization, expressing his surrender with practical actions, which made Liu Bei very satisfied.
Of course, he also cherished Lu Bu's bravery and fearlessness, and believed that Lu Bu could use his abilities in future wars, so he decided to retain his post as general.
Therefore, after the positions of the fourteen lieutenant generals were established, the remaining officers with sufficient status and military merit were appointed by Liu Bei as generals with the rank of major general, and the official registration was confirmed.
For example, Cheng Pu was appointed General Fuyuan, Han Dang was appointed General Anyuan, Cao Chun was appointed General Longxiang, Liu Yong was appointed General Pingyuan, Gan Ning was officially given the military title of General Zhenghai, Yan Xing was appointed General Huwei, and Shi Huan He was appointed general of Pinglu, Zhang He was appointed general of champion and so on.
They are all from the rank of second-rank major general, some of them are second-rank marquis, such as Cheng Pu, and most of the others are third-rank marquis.
In addition to these generals, generals, lieutenants, army commanders, and military princes have also received their own new military positions and ranks. People who have previously had military merits and the title of Marquis have also received new military titles. A new title under the system.
From the first-class uncle to the third-class male Liu Bei, this wave took into account many officers who did not have suitable titles under the old title system but did have tangible military merits. They changed their titles and added a thousand titles. Multiple titles and accumulated military merits from both inside and outside the army were wiped out in one wave.
It can be regarded as solving some difficult problems that have been difficult for a long time.
The morale of the army has greatly increased and the atmosphere is high. The desire to achieve military success for this purpose has become more urgent, and more people want to participate in the war to gain honor.
It's a pity that for a while, there really wasn't much military merit for them to earn.
Currently, the places where wars will occur are mainly in the Western Regions, which is the responsibility of the Western Regions Military Region. In other areas, after the establishment of Liaozhou, Liu Bei has no intention of starting large-scale wars in other areas.
Whether it is Yangzhou, Jingzhou or Yizhou, at present, the slave-hunting operation is going on vigorously, and the strong and enterprising spirit of the people has solved to a considerable extent some things that needed the army to solve in the past.
Therefore, the frequency of large-scale wars in these places is decreasing significantly. In the end, Liu Bei estimated that after the natives were oppressed to the extreme, there would be a violent rebound, and then the army would enter the scene to deal with the rebound. From then on, the natives would not recover, or they would simply be exterminated. .
Their future is to passively integrate into the mainstream of the Han Empire, or die. There is no third way.
Their numbers are too small and their level of civilization is too low, while the Han people are too numerous and far superior to them, and their level of civilization is also higher.
Living on the same land, driven by fierce interests, the Schrödinger's martial ethics burst out by the Han people will completely devour them. They will no longer have the possibility to survive independently. Sooner or later, the concept of natives will be eliminated. It will completely disappear in the Han Empire and cease to exist.
Liu Bei didn't think there was anything wrong with this. Rather than passively promoting national integration, it was better to actively promote it. Regardless of the process, the final result would be national integration.
Future generations who have not personally experienced the blood and tears will not understand what happened.
No one cares about the wailing of the dead, and they haven’t heard it with their own ears anyway. Therefore, the description of this period of history in history textbooks thousands of years later must also be about the great integration of ethnic groups.
There will be no large-scale military operations in the northeast, southeast, and southwest in the short term. Only the northwest will see a certain amount of military operations. Liu Bei believes that Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun can handle such military operations, so the Privy Council sent them there Their advisory team can also assist them very well.
Therefore, Liu Bei only paid attention to the news there and had no intention of personally intervening in command.
He still focused his life on handling internal affairs, doing what he should do well, and doing his best to promote the growth of the Third Reich's rising period. He hoped that this rising period could last longer and reach higher.
The restoration of Bingzhou, the restoration of Youzhou, the construction of Liaozhou, and the great development of Jiaozhou, these things became the focus of his life. At the end of the third year of Zhenguan and the entire fourth year of Zhenguan, Liu Bei did not promote a new national level. policy changes, but allowed this situation to persist for more than a year.
In more than a year, in addition to the improvement of the country's internal construction, the Han Empire's strategy of returning to the Western Regions also announced the success of the first phase.
After the Yanqi Alliance was torn to pieces by Zhang Fei with a single move as fierce as a tiger, the prestige of the Han Empire in the Western Regions was completely restored. Countries in the Western Regions remembered the fear of being dominated by the strong men of the Han Empire. Regarding the arrival of Han envoys and Han troops, Fearful and unable to resist.
For example, when Dong Zhuo's deputy envoy took the southern route to declare the prestige of the Han Empire, countries such as Mumi, Xiye, Zihe, Puli, Yinai, and Wulei were all well-behaved and willing to surrender to the Han Empire. , accepted the leadership of the Han Empire.
Of course, there are also some ignorant people who try to resist.
On the northern route, when Dong Zhuo entered the Kingdom of Kucha, there were people who were not well-behaved.
King Qiuci was a pacifist. He saw what the Han army did to conquer Yanqi, and knew how powerful the Han army was. He was afraid of it. He advocated surrendering to the Han Empire, following the path of greatism, and following the footsteps of the Han Empire to obtain stability and peace. life.
However, the Prime Minister of Qiuci did not support this view. He was obsessed with his own power and felt that the intervention of the Han Empire would affect his power, so he secretly contacted the Wusun Kingdom and the Xianbei forces who were temporarily living in the Wusun Kingdom.
He believed that Wusun and Xianbei forces would not surrender to the Han Empire easily.
That's what he said, but his planning was not thorough. Someone soon reported the matter to the King of Kucha. The King was furious and ordered the arrest of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister's affairs were revealed, he failed to resist, was killed, and his head was handed over. Give it to Dong Zhuo to show Kucha's loyalty to the Han Dynasty.
Dong Zhuo was very happy and satisfied with King Qiuci, but at the same time he was afraid of Wusun and the Xianbei people living in Wusun, so he informed Zhang Fei of the news and asked Zhang Fei to make appropriate preparations.
Of course Zhang Fei will make preparations, or in other words, he has already regarded the Wusun Kingdom and Xianbei forces as his scheduled military exploits.
Zhang Fei, who had just served as General of the Conquest of the West and obtained the rank of second-class military officer and first-class marquis, was very ambitious at this time and was planning to become the first military duke since the establishment of the Third Han Empire through a hearty victory. To this end, he did Very careful deployment and planning.
It can be said that since he became the governor of Longxi County, all the skills and patience Zhang Fei learned were used in the planning of this war.
While he was arranging troops and generals to arrange manpower, he asked Dong Zhuo to continue traveling westward, inspecting various countries and recruiting younger brothers to distract the attention of Wusun and Xianbei people so that they would not always stare east.
So after the Qiuci Kingdom surrendered, Dong Zhuo continued to travel westward and successively arrived at the Gumo Kingdom, Wensu Kingdom, and Weitou Kingdom. He received courtesy in these three kingdoms. The kings of the three kingdoms also expressed their willingness to surrender to the Han Empire, but they also expressed their feelings for Shule. country’s fears and worries.
Similar to Qiuci Kingdom, Shule Kingdom has been a major country in the Western Regions since the Western Han Dynasty and has considerable strength.
In the early years when Ban Chao and Ban Yong were running the Western Regions, Shule State had a very close relationship with the Han Empire. They were one of the important helpers for the Ban family to run the Western Regions. They sent troops to follow Ban to attack the rebels in the Western Regions many times.
But after the Ban family withdrew from the stage of history, the relationship between Shule State and the Han Empire became rigid.
In the third year of Jianning during the reign of Liu Hong, Meng Da and his father Meng Tuo, who was the governor of Liangzhou at the time, used the power of the Han Empire in the Western Regions to gather more than 30,000 people to attack the Shule Kingdom. The expedition lasted for more than 40 days without any results. , had no choice but to retreat. Since then, the relationship between Shule State and the Han Empire has entered a freezing point.
As the power of the Han Empire gradually weakened, Shule State also paid less and less attention to the Han Empire. Until now, twenty-seven years later in the third year of Zhenguan, Shule State still regards the power of the Han Empire as enemy.
When they learned that the envoys and troops of the Han Empire had entered the three kingdoms of Gumo, Wensu, and Weitou, they had a great reaction. They mobilized domestic troops to deploy defenses in the north, with the intention of entering the Three Kingdoms and annihilating them. The Mo Kingdom, Wensu Kingdom, and Weitou Kingdom were greatly frightened. While setting up defenses, they asked Dong Zhuo for help.
Dong Zhuo was staying in Gumo State to investigate the intelligence of Shule State. After receiving the relevant information, Dong Zhuo was furious and immediately informed Zhang Fei of the matter. Together with Zhao Qi, he led a thousand Han troops into Shule State to march to show off his force. .
Dong Zhuo's intimidating march made the Shule Kingdom very nervous. He concentrated his defense forces against the Han army and relaxed the defense of the Three Kingdoms. This made the Three Kingdoms relax. They were greatly grateful for the Han army and took the initiative to provide food and fodder for the Han army.
This tense atmosphere of confrontation lasted from the end of the third year of Zhenguan to the first month of the fourth year of Zhenguan. On the 28th of the first month of the fourth year of Zhenguan, Zhang Fei, the general of the Han expedition to the west, led 5,000 Han troops through the Qiuci Kingdom and entered the Shule Kingdom. The country issued an ultimatum.
Surrender, submit, or perish the country and exterminate the species.
Shule State responded by expelling the Han envoys and declaring war.
Zhang Fei laughed in anger and led 5,000 Han troops to attack. At the same time, Dong Zhuo and Zhao Qi also led 1,000 Han cavalry to attack from the north. They easily defeated the 1,000 Shule army facing them and moved further south.
The two Han armies met in Zhenzhong City, an important town in Shule State. Faced with a city that had not been conquered by more than 30,000 Han and Western Region coalition forces, Zhang Fei only felt funny.
"I heard that old boy Meng Tuo organized more than 30,000 people to attack Shule Kingdom, but he couldn't capture this small earth city. Now I just feel funny when I look at this city, or maybe the people back then were not united. He was just dealing with errands, or the person who directed him was too incompetent, Meng Tuo should be responsible for making money, he is good at this."
Zhang Fei mocked Meng Tuo at Dong Zhuo, and then commanded the army to launch an attack on Zhenzhong City. In this attack, Zhang Fei used Liangzhou's specialty - fierce fire oil tanks, and a large number of fierce fire oil tanks were launched. The projectile of the weapon was thrown towards the top of Zhenzhong City.
The strange sight of fire raining down from the sky scared the defenders of Zhenzhong City. The exploding fireballs burned many people, and the strange flames that were difficult to extinguish made the defenders at the top of the city wail repeatedly, completely losing their will to fight.
As a result, the Han army captured Zhenzhong City in just one morning, wiped out all the defenders, and marched directly to Shule City, the king's city in Shule.
(End of chapter)
