Chapter 24 Uninvited Guests – Part 1 (1/2)
Chapter 24 – Uninvited Guests – Part 1
February 16th, 181 AD. Ningjin County.
A group of twenty horsemen and one child in leather armor was observing a village in front of them.
”We've arrived, this is the village. Get off your horse! We'll find Zhang Jiao's resident first. If they are there, show your warrant and arrest the girl.”
A late middle age man issued an order.
”Boss, can we …?” A soldier asked.
”I know, you can do whatever you want. But don't kill her.”
”Heheheh, thanks boss!”
”…”
”Sima brat! As usual, you will be the lookout outside of the village. Unless I said so, you have no permission to enter the village.”
”Heheheh, you also have no permission to enjoy the desert too.”
”How can he enjoy it? He still hasn't grow a hair!”
”HAHAHAHA!!!”
”…”
”… Yes, sir.”
The boy eyes showed signs of contempt, yet he accepted the order. It was only a coincident that he had something to do here. If not, he would not give a damn to these kind of people.
…
…
…
Zhang Tong Boot Camp, formerly Zhang Bao's camp, Ningjin County.
Tong sat in the commander tent, leaning on his chair, knitting his brows.
Managing and training troops at the same time was not an easy task.
Tong managed to teach a few former officers about the basic fitness training for the soldiers, such as sit-up, push-up, squat, jogging, marching and etc. So he could delegate the training to the officers and squeezed more free times to manage other matters.
Fortunately, Zhang Bao and Gao Sheng chose to remain in this camp, aiding Tong and learning his way of doing things.
Tong also wanted to employ a couple personals to be provision and logistic managers, but none of the men could calculate, let alone reading and writing.
Gao Sheng didn't know mathematics, reading or writing, so he was sent to manage the training.
Zhang Bao was a Taoist priest so he could write and read a little. But when it came to the management skill, other than human relationship skill and military training, he was no good.
In the end, Tong had to manage this job himself, and this task was a nightmare.
The supplies and provision was the major problem. The harvest season would arrive in September to October so he had to wait seven to eight more months before he could buy more supplies for his army.
Buying provisions from the merchant right now was like announcing that you wanted to be ripped off.
One soldier ate one kilogram of grain a day. One thousand men would consume a ton of grain each day.
To supply one thousand soldiers for a year, Tong was required to store up 365 tons of grain!
One gold could buy ten tons of grain, assuming it was a bumper harvest. Other than that, the worst price of grain was one gold per one ton of grain, which was a ripped off.
As the old saying said ”War costs money”. Without money, Tong could do nothing.
It was fortunate that Zhang Bao had stored enough to supply this army to the end of the year, which had over 300 tons remaining.
But Tong couldn't be satisfied with just the current stock because he knew that the harvest season this year might even be the last good harvest season before the true chaos began. The long years of hellish suffering was about to arrive.
…
One of the reasons so many people decided to join the Yellow Turbans army was because of the drought season where farmers could barely harvest anything during the year 183 AD.
Peasants and civilians starved and the heartless officials came knocking their doors, asking for more tax money and food, or their entire family would be sent to jail.
During the years 180-183, the Emperor Ling wanted to expand his luxurious imperial gardens so he asked his government officials for more tributes to fund the construction project, ignoring all objections from the advisers and officials.
All commanders and principality officials wanted to gain an achievement by providing more tributes to the Emperor, so they resorted to corrupt practices, bleeding their own citizens for more taxes.
Without money to buy food or anything to eat, ordinary civilians transformed into thieves or bandits, robbing and killing everyone and everything to survive.
The weak women, children and elders were either ravaged, enslaved, killed or starved to death.
With more corpses and blood scattered on the land without proper burials, more germs and bacteria gave birth to more diseases. Epidemic emerged and consumed more lives.
The guards, soldiers and officials that protected each city and county ignored the plight of the people. They only cared about protecting their own self-interest and their families.
It was the year that all Hell was let loose.
It was the trouble time that Zhang Jiao took a stand. He wanted to drive away the government officials and the emperor, so he raised his banner to save the people.
However, because there were too many bandits mixing into his forces, Zhang Jiao's true intension was soiled and disgraced. Later after he lost, everything he did was overwritten by the winners. The rest was history.
…
…
…
Tong skimmed through PTW shop and his lifespans status, contemplating and calculating pros and cons.
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**Status**
Name: Zhang Tong