Chapter 5: The Warriors of Bingzhou Arise

On the battlefield of Jingzhou, Qin Jie, the Administrator of Nanyang, devised a strategy to lure the enemy deep into his territory, intending to directly execute Zhang Mancheng, the divine emissary of the Yellow Turban Army. Just as the plan was on the verge of success, an unexpected turn of events suddenly occurred.

At that very moment, several hundred cavalrymen abruptly charged in from the south. Without uttering a word upon approaching the battlefield, they swept wildly through its center before galloping away into the distance.

Although this cavalry force did not inflict heavy casualties on the Han imperial troops, it completely disrupted the Han formation, affording Zhang Mancheng a fleeting opportunity. Abandoning the troops that had fallen into the ambush, Zhang Mancheng managed to slip away amidst the chaotic melee.

Within Jingzhou, the only ones both willing and capable of coming to the rescue of the Yellow Turbans were naturally the reclusive Xiang clan residing there.

Of course, the commander leading the reinforcements this time was not Xiang Yu himself, but Long Ju, one of the five fierce generals who had once served under Xiang Yu.

The reason Xiang Yan forbade Xiang Yu from taking the field was, on the one hand, that one does not use a butcher's knife to slaughter a chicken, and on the other hand, he feared that Xiang Yu's volatile temperament would ruin a major undertaking.

After all, Xiang Yu had always looked down upon the Yellow Turban Rebellion, believing that they could never achieve anything significant. Moreover, Xiang Yu had long been eager to enter the fray personally; had he led the troops there, he probably would have clashed directly and openly with the Han army.

Ever since this ambush, Zhang Mancheng became thoroughly cautious. He preferred to miss a favorable opportunity rather than take the slightest risk again.

Consequently, relying entirely on his numerical superiority, Zhang Mancheng slowly and systematically devoured Wancheng. Within ten days, the Han forces were unable to sustain their defense, and both Wancheng and Nanyang Commandery fell.

As a result, the situation across the entire Jingzhou province became perilous. More critically, Nanyang Commandery was a strategic hub facing battles on all sides: northward, it posed a direct threat to Luoyang; eastward, entering the Central Plains, the outlook was scarcely any better. Once Zhang Mancheng's massive army converged with Zhang Liang and Bo Cai in the Central Plains, the defeat of Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun would be inevitable. Should that happen, the Han imperial house would be in grave peril, and the entire realm would be in jeopardy.

Influenced by the system, although only a small fraction of these historical paragons had gathered together for the time being, their presence had clearly brought about a fundamental transformation in the momentum of the Yellow Turbans—even if that shift was currently maintained only in this manner.

From this, the extraordinary nature of these legendary figures was clearly evident. Under their covert orchestration, the Yellow Turban Rebellion, which had initially been heading rapidly toward its curtain call, remained remarkably resilient, continuously draining the meager vitality of the Han Dynasty and laying the foundation for their own future.

Returning to the Yellow Turbans, their prospects had originally been exceptionally bright, but a single command from Zhang Jue caused the situation across the realm to reverse once again.

Or rather, even though Zhang Jue knew such consequences would arise, he had no choice but to issue it. At this very moment, the inherent flaws of the Yellow Turban Uprising finally began to expose themselves.

In the wake of the uprising, the Yellow Turban Army had swept forward like a bamboo being split down the middle in a remarkably short span of time, seemingly poised to engulf the entire realm. It was then that Zhang Jue issued an order to pillage the aristocratic clans throughout the empire. Behind this directive lay the increasingly severe food crisis plaguing the Yellow Turbans.

After all, the Yellow Turbans engaged in no production. Although Zhang Jue had systematically stored a reserve of grain prior to the uprising, and the rebel forces had subsequently accumulated provisions through continuous plunder, they were nonetheless consuming a mountain of grain with nothing being added, compounded by the colossal population of the Yellow Turban Army. Less than two months into the uprising, a grain shortage struck the rebel forces.

In truth, Zhang Jue had anticipated this scenario at the very beginning of the revolt and had implemented preventive measures early on, dispatching officials to govern the territories they captured.

Yet the members of the Yellow Turban Army were all drawn from the lowest strata of society, consisting of commoners and the impoverished. While these individuals might possess a modicum of brute courage when charging into battle, expecting them to govern localities and foster people's livelihood was truly asking the impossible of them. For this reason, despite Zhang Jue's utmost efforts to restore local order and revive civilian life, the results remained negligible.

Faced with the bloodthirsty Yellow Turban soldiers, and compounded by Zhang Jue's explicit decree to plunder the noble clans, the major aristocratic families fared somewhat better, but the vast majority of small and medium-sized clans suffered catastrophic blows. Many of these lesser families lacked even the time to gather their gold, silver, and valuables before fleeing far away in panic; some did not even escape in time and were hacked to death by the rampaging Yellow Turban soldiers who broke into their manors, resulting in the extermination of entire households.

As the most powerful social stratum in the Han Dynasty, how could the aristocratic clans sit idly by and await their doom? Furthermore, having suffered such a crushing blow, they would never swallow their resentment without exacting revenge.

As for the elites among the aristocratic families, they had already seen through the true nature of this rabble. Their previous strategy of sitting atop the mountain to watch the tigers fight while seeking opportunities to further extend their influence was no longer viable. If this Yellow Turban Rebellion was not suppressed swiftly, their entire aristocratic class would likely suffer devastating blows alongside the Han Dynasty.

In an instant, driven by private interests or public duty alike, the various noble clans of the Han Dynasty contributed their wealth and grain to forge armor and weapons for the imperial court and to prepare armies. Within a short period, the power of the aristocratic families helped the Han assemble a sizable force of new recruits. Although their combat effectiveness could not be guaranteed, they were at least fully equipped with arms and armor, making them vastly superior to the peasant-composed Yellow Turban Army.

Some elite scions of noble families even directly joined the various Han armies, serving as generals to command troops in battle, or acting as strategists to devise plans for the commanders.

True to their reputation as the most powerful class in the realm today, the great aristocratic clans had not yet evolved into the peak-era powerful peerage families characteristic of the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties, but their influence at this juncture was already formidable.

Backed by the wholehearted support of the powerful clans, the Han army, though still numerically inferior, managed to halt the relentless, wave-like offensives of the Yellow Turban Army. The overwhelming momentum previously enjoyed by the Yellow Turbans came to an abrupt halt. The large-scale conflict settled into a delicate equilibrium for a time, with the main battlefields in Jizhou and the Central Plains reaching a genuine stalemate where neither side could overcome the other.

While the battlefields in the Central Plains and Jizhou were deadlocked, the massive conflict within Bingzhou was only just beginning.

As mentioned previously, Wang Qing, one of the four great outlaws of the marshes, had once suffered a disastrous defeat in Bingzhou. Unwilling to swallow that humiliation, Wang Qing had even remained behind in Bingzhou of his own accord, becoming a regional Yellow Turban general there.

This time, the momentum of the Yellow Turban Uprising shook the entire realm, causing widespread panic throughout the Han territories. With Wang Qing's notoriously unforgiving and vengeful personality, he naturally would not let slip such an opportunity. Resorting to every available means, Wang Qing traveled personally to lobby various regions, gathering over two hundred thousand Yellow Turban troops outside Bingzhou, preparing to breach the province and avenge his past defeat.

Naturally, aside from the bandits and outlaws originally gathered by Wang Qing and Tian Hu, only a small fraction of these two hundred thousand troops consisted of local Bingzhou believers—a number so negligible it could be ignored. All the remaining Yellow Turbans had been mobilized by Wang Qing through his various connections from the surrounding prefectures.

Given the overbearing governance of Li Xiang, the population of Bingzhou was never large. Although the influx of refugees summoned in recent years had greatly improved this condition, in times of war and chaos, population remained an invaluable resource. How could Li Xiang possibly permit the Yellow Turbans to expand their following within Bingzhou? Thus, it came as no surprise that the number of Yellow Turban devotees in Bingzhou was remarkably sparse.