For scholars like Ge Rong who came from a poor family during the Western Jin Dynasty, this era was an extremely painful era, although since the Eastern Han Dynasty, the aristocratic families have become more and more powerful, and now they have the power to control the overall situation of the world.
However, at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when all the heroes were vying for the throne, no matter how poor the Chinese were, as long as they had talent, they could be put to use in the era of great competition. It had only been a few decades, and those legends of success and fame, and the glory of those high-ranking nobles, had not yet been It has been passed down to this era.
Ge Rong was arrogant about his talent and reputation, but before Peng Lan promoted him as the governor of Langya County, he never had a chance to sink his subordinates.
When the Qingzhou Army suddenly attacked, Ge Rong used the power in his hands and his prestige to lead everyone to protect the country and the people.
Ge Rong himself never thought of surrendering.
Indeed, Ge Rong himself never said anything about surrendering, but Liu Yu in front of him already treated him as if nothing happened.
"Mr. Ge is the one who is expected by the people of the county. The prosecution and jailing of Langya County and the eradication of violence and peace of the people require your hard work."
Liu Yu said straight to the point.
In Liu Yu's view, the reason why Ge Rong refused to plead guilty and surrender at will was not because he really put life and death at risk, but because he really had other agendas.
As for the purpose, Liu Yu could roughly guess that among the people in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there were only those who were willing to sacrifice their lives for the sake of clan honor.
Since Peng Lan, the former prefect of Langya, was able to win Ge Rong's loyalty by using poor scholars, Liu Yu felt that as long as he could offer higher and more generous benefits, he would definitely receive the same benefits. Effect.
Sure enough, with Liu Yu's efforts to forget the past and the invitation to buy the property due to his high official rank and fame.
Ge Rong also quickly fell into Liu Yu's sugar-coated bullets. After all, if he didn't have to die, he could immediately greatly improve his and his clan's social status.
In this way, he had already died in his heart. Ge Rong was holding the official position granted by Liu Yu, which meant that he had almost no pressure.
Finally, under Liu Yu's prepared "confession", Ge Rong suddenly changed.
From being a soldier who joined the army under Peng Lan, the prefect of Langya County, he has now become the long history of Langya in Langya County.
In the Western Jin Dynasty, although Langya had always been a county, in formal situations, because of the presence of the Langya prince, Langya was always called a county and a country.
Moreover, although the Changshi is the deputy to the chief executive of a place such as the county guard, this position is more military-oriented and usually occurs most often in frontier states and counties. In Langya County, which is far away from the border fortress, Changshi is set up.
This is obvious. Liu Yu equates Langya County with the counties in the frontier fortress. As for who is the enemy of the border fortress counties, it is of course Xuzhou, which borders it.
After Ge Rong accepted the appointment, Liu Yu once again asked Ge Rong to recommend more than a dozen county figures who came from poor families, but they were officials at all levels in Langya County.
Because these people all came from poor families, and in Langya County where there were many high-ranking Chinese people, they naturally stood on the opposite side of the powerful nobles.
Liu Yu only met once with the poor disciples of Langya whom Ge Rong recommended for official positions, and then hurriedly awarded them various official positions.
The reason Liu Yu was so urgent was because he had received a letter from Dong Ping who was attacking Taishan County.
Dong Ping said in the letter that there were people who appeared frequently in Taishan County under the guise of messengers of the emperor. Not only did many powerful factions with wavering positions begin to side with the Jin court, but there were also many powerful people who wanted to become one of their own. They have all become apparent enemies.
Regarding this situation, Liu Yu couldn't help but feel a little angry.
When I realized that those useless emperor's envoys could no longer be used by me, I just kicked them out.
I really didn't expect that Liu Yu, who originally thought he was a waste of the emperor's messenger, would be so courageous and knowledgeable, daring to contact powerful forces in Taishan County, which was heavily suppressed by troops, so that the battle to capture Taishan County that could have ended quickly turned into Dong Ping's. The situation of leading the army to gnaw hard bones.
Finally, after Liu Yu discovered that the situation in Taishan County was getting more and more difficult, he decided to lead his army westward as soon as possible, and together with Dong Ping, attacked Taishan County from both sides.
At that time, in the face of absolute strength, those powerful clans who stubbornly resisted would be nothing more than withered bones in the grave.
Because he had to take away most of the elites, Liu Yu had to think of ways in advance to create a stable situation for Langya County after he left.
Prior to this, Liu Yu had ordered Ran Long from the rear to lead an army and horses to Langya County quickly, preparing to take over the defense of Langya County, so that Liu Yu could lead his troops and horses to the west as soon as possible to attack Taishan County.
Finally, while Liu Yu was waiting patiently, Ran Long led more than a thousand cavalry to Kaiyang City.
These thousand cavalry were composed of the strongest horses carefully selected from the horses traded with Youzhou, plus soldiers who had been carefully trained for several months by Wu Xin, Ran Long and others.
Liu Yu was not willing to use these thousand cavalrymen who had just been formed into battle to kill the enemy.
In Liu Yu's view, today's enemies in Dongguan and Langya County are just scabies.
In this way, there is no need to use a bull's knife to kill a chicken.
Moreover, these cavalry were hard-earned, and Liu Yu was not willing to use them at all.
However, these cavalry have extremely powerful maneuverability and are very powerful and intimidating. They are perfect for stabilizing the situation in Langya County.
After Ran Long arrived with the thousand cavalry, Liu Yu appointed Ran Long as the prefect of Langya County and General Xuanwei to manage Langya County and recruit other counties.
He also accepted the newly recruited Ge Rong as Langya's chief historian and middle man, and came to assist Ran Long.
The remaining scholars from poor families recommended by Kong An and Ge Rong were officially appointed by Liu Yu one by one.
In this way, with Ran Long's ability and more than a thousand elite cavalry at hand, Liu Yu felt that Langya County, as a newly attached place, was probably safe.
However, to be on the safe side, Liu Yu summoned Ran Long before leading his army to leave Langya County and march westward to Taishan County, and gave some final instructions.
"Yuan Chang, you are now a county, and you can be said to be an important member of the party. You must always pay attention to the movements of the powerful families in Langya County." Liu Yu said with a serious face.
Ran Long quickly said yes.
After leading a thousand cavalry to Langya County, Ran Long was also very surprised to be appointed as the prefect of Langya County. Although he now has some merits from the Goguryeo people, he has now become the two thousand Mr. Shi's opportunity still made Ran Long a little uneasy.
However, Ran Long knew that the reason why Liu Yu did this was not simply to take care of himself, but also to value the thousand elite cavalry in his hands.
Although these one thousand cavalry were all trained on the training ground and lacked a lot of experience, the strength of these one thousand mounted cavalry and dismounted elite armored soldiers was still very oppressive to the powerful families in Langya County.
"General, don't worry, I will be on the strongest alert at all times and will never let these powerful men of Langya County do anything else."
After hearing this, Liu Yu nodded slightly and continued.
"Brother Yuan Chang, not only that, in addition to the powerful nobles in these counties, you must also have sharp eyes and pay more attention to these newly promoted nobles from humble families."
Hearing Liu Yu's words, Ran Long was a little confused.
I haven’t heard that Liu Yu was very kind to many of Langya County’s surrender troops. It can be said that he was sincere, so why should he be wary of them?
"General, didn't you say before that Ge Rong, Kong An and others are all scholars from poor families in Langya County and can be trusted? Why did you say this?"
Faced with Ran Long's doubts, Liu Yu smiled slightly.
"Because, these so-called poor scholars sometimes exist and may not exist."
After hearing Liu Yu's words, Ran Long, who was originally confused, became even more confused.
"Although these poor scholars are almost at the disadvantage of having a good ancestor in the ranking evaluation, no matter how hard they try, it is difficult for an ordinary person to become a dominant figure in the county."
Liu Yu paused and said casually.
"These humble scholars have suffered at the expense of many Chinese families, but if they are given a chance, many of them will abandon their previous remarks about criticizing the noble families and wish they could become high-class Chinese families immediately. .”
After hearing what Liu Yu said, Ran Long finally understood.
It turns out that Liu Yu was worried about the moral integrity of these poor people. After all, many people had a mysterious love and affection for the high-class Chinese.
For these people, they have the attitude of singing like a transformed serf.
In this case, we must be wary of some of them having secret connections with the powerful officials in the county.
"General, please don't worry. I'm already aware of the affairs of this county, and I'll definitely tell everything about it."
Liu Yu nodded and said to Ran Long again.
"I know that although one thousand cavalry can be mobilized flexibly, if there is an emergency, it will still not be enough, so I have sent a letter to Cao Yi who is stationed in Dongwu, asking him to lead 2,000 people from Ju County, plus more The three thousand people from Shuqu and Liu Xun of Shangcheng Yang County are enough to take care of each other."
After hearing Liu Yu's arrangement, Ran Long's original worries about the lack of troops disappeared.
However, Ran Long didn't know that Liu Yu arranged for his closest confidant Liu Xun and his old acquaintance Cao Yi to lead an army to station nearby. This was not just to simply assist Ran Long, but also partly because he wanted to use these troops to monitor him. All the trends in Langya County include, of course, Ran Long himself.
There was no way. After Liu Yu led his army westward to Taishan County, he had to guard against anyone when his troops were stretched thin. Although Liu Yu was very confident in the loyalty of Ran Long's thousand cavalry, he still couldn't do it 100%. rest assured.
If anything happens, and if there is any change in the attack on Taishan County, Liu Yu's more than 7,000 troops will be cut off from their retreat.
It was early autumn in the fourth year of Yongjia.
After Liu Yu arranged everything in Langya County, he led more than 7,000 Qingzhou troops to march towards Taishan County along the mountain road.
Thanks to the flattery of the powerful Langya County officials along the way, the supplies of the army led by Liu Yu have been well guaranteed.
When they arrived at Taishan County, they suddenly discovered that the entire Taishan army had become their enemies.
After breaking through the two powerful Wubao that resisted, Liu Yu learned that the previous emperor's envoy, that is, the Jin court official named Gao Cheng, was returning along this road and announced along the way that the emperor was going to Later, Liu Yu was questioned.
Moreover, the emperor's envoy Gao Cheng also claimed that after the Qingzhou Army Liu Yu conquered Dongguan and Langya counties, he went against the grain and suppressed and extorted all the powerful Chinese people. Many families were destroyed and their families were destroyed, even if they surrendered. After that, the households and fields will be inspected.
Therefore, when the powerful Taishan County army faced the attack of Dong Ping's Qingzhou Army, they tried their best to resist.
After all, this kind of moving money is comparable to killing their parents.
In Taishan County, where mountains and hills are common, if Liu Yu wanted to control the entire county, he had to face these powerful men scattered in the valleys and plains.
Otherwise, even if Liu Yu occupies several important cities and counties, it will be difficult to connect them organically. After all, these powerful forts are like nails hammered into Taishan County.
Therefore, in the face of this doubt, after successively defeating two powerful families, Liu Yu returned all the captured grain, money, land and population to them.
Liu Yu used this to claim that he came to Taishan County to avenge the soldiers of the Qingzhou Army who were killed before. The real enemy was the Taishan County Governor and the Taiyang clan who were manipulated by the queen, and had nothing to do with these little tyrants.
As long as these heroes can ensure that the Qingzhou Army will not be harassed along the way, then the Qingzhou Army will definitely be safe wherever they go. Even if the Qingzhou Army needs to collect food, grass, medicinal materials and other items, they can still sell them. As for the price, they are all fair. Buy and sell, and it can also be compensated with white salt produced in Qingzhou.
After experiencing panic, fear, and the despair of losing their families, these two powerful families immediately burst into tears of gratitude for all the people, land registers, households, and property that were returned. As for those who died in the battle to destroy their families before, Those Dingkou steps are no longer important at all.
Under Liu Yu's training in practical actions, the powerful Wubao they encountered later became much more friendly to the passing Qingzhou Army.
These Qingzhou troops not only trade fairly, but also always claim that everyone's common enemy is the bully Yang family in Taishan County. As long as this powerful royal relative is eliminated, not only the other small powerful people, but also the ordinary people will live in peace. Everything will get better.
Although this kind of statement makes no sense at all when you think about it carefully. After all, even if the Yang family of Taishan County is wiped out by the Qingzhou Army, their land, property, and family will also fall into the hands of Liu Yu, and there will not be any loss. If it falls into the hands of other Taishan counties, it will not fall into the hands of ordinary people.
However, the truth is often obscured by some false lies.
Because of the continuous natural disasters, there are many poor people in Taishan County. In this atmosphere of "killing sheep and eating meat" that the Qingzhou Army can promote, more and more civilians have joined the army accompanying Liu Yu.
By the time Liu Yu led the Qingzhou Army and was about to arrive at Fenggao City in Taishan County, after getting rid of the 7,000 Qingzhou Army, Liu Yu was already followed by a temporary mercenary army composed of more than 10,000 poor people.
