Giten Engi ~To Aru Sakushi No Sangokushi~ - Chapter 3

Guang He 6 (183 AD), November, Luoyang, Governor’s Office of Henan Province.

I’ve been serving He Jin for three years now. After achieving some level of accomplishment, I was given a position that is too much for a young man who is not even 20 years old, such as serving as an assistant to a general, being in charge of various admissive and military tasks, and being involved in the official business of the province where I am currently working.

This could be due to the acknowledgment of my work, but it’s also because He Jin refuses to negotiate with the famous families. In other words, I was assigned a position as a means of He Jin informing me that I should be the one dealing with the famous families in his place.

That being said.

“So, what’s the current situation right now?”

He Jin’s appearance has improved as a result of the reduced stress associated with working with famous families. But that does not imply that he has lost his edge.

Rather from becoming dull, he is sharper than before, spreading his network of knowledge to discourage any attempts by eunuchs and influential families to disrupt him while assuring the seamless extension of his influences without revealing any vulnerabilities.

He Jin asked me about the scope of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, which is set to take place next year.

“Everything is already in place. The only thing left to do is to let Ma Yuanyi enter Luoyang and have him stay there for a few days before arresting him. Our plan is to apprehend him at the beginning of next year, right after New Year’s Day. After that, we will interrogate him for information, then we will proceed with arresting their members.”

“I guess people who panics will easily confess, this is a really great plan.”

“I’m extremely happy with your compliments.”

“Don’t say things if you don’t fully mean them.”

He chuckled and lightly patted me on the head with his hand. Over the course of three years of working for him, we’ve grown close enough to engage in fun banter like this on occasion.

“The remaining problem is that the scale of the plan turned out to be larger than expected.”

I never imagined that this plan would spread across the entire Central Plain. It’s certainly surprising that it’s devolving into such widespread turmoil.

“That is true.”

He Jin and Li Yu both smiled menacingly while plotting something sinister behind the scenes. What they are preparing is a plan to instigate the Yellow Turban Rebellion.

For starters, in ancient China, having tens of thousands of commoners rise up at the same time was a difficult task. (This is not restricted to ancient China.)

There are several elements to consider, one of which being distance. Historically, the Yellow Turban Bandits’ bases during the Yellow Turban Rebellion were originally located at Julu Commandery in Jizhou, which is quite far from the capital. Zhang Jiao manages this base. Zhang Manchen and others raised their armies near Luoyang in the Yingchuan Commandery in Yuzhou and the Nanyang Commandery in Jingzhou.*

Considering the physical distance between these three places, the Yingchuan Commandery in Yuzhou and the Nanyang Commandery in Jingzhou are quite close, but the Julu Commandery in Jizhou is fairly far away.

To put it in perspective, the distance between the Yingchuan Commandery in Yuzhou and the Nanyang Commandery in Jingzhou is roughly the distance between Tokyo and Nagoya, and the latter is roughly the distance between Kagoshima and Aomori, with Kagoshima located on Shikoku Island, which is not part of Honshu. The Yellow River is a natural barrier that separates the bases of the Yellow Turbans. As a result, it’s understandable that they can’t merge all of their bases, and communicating information among themselves is difficult.

Under such circumstances, in order to carry out simultaneous uprisings, meticulous preparations, such as exchanging information ahead of time and stockpiling weapons and food for individuals who will gather, are necessary.

He Jin isn’t so dull that he wouldn’t notice the preparations for an insurrection; rather, He Jin’s faction, including myself, secretly backed these preparations.

As a former butcher and leader of the meat industry in Luoyang, He Jin could readily assess the size of his opponents by studying food flows in Nanyang and Henan. As a result, Li Ru’s idea to capitalize on this by gaining control of the military was simple to understand.

When He Jin learned about these movements, his first thoughts were, “What am I supposed to do?” and how he could take advantage of this opportunity. To which Li Ru responded:

“The dissatisfied people are going to rise up in the near future anyway, so let’s fan the flame now to vent their anger. Additionally, this would also be a good time to reduce the number of prominent families living comfortably in rural areas. So it’s killing two birds with one stone.”

Saying nonchalantly.

The people aren’t revolting because they expect things to change in the future; they’re not doing so because they lack the necessary materials, such as money, food, and weapons. That is why, once they have such items, they will be unable to hold back.

And when that happens, no matter how many times the government advises the people to calm down, they will most likely shake free their reins like wild horses.

After hearing Li Ru’s idea, He Jin acted fast. He used various couriers to provide food and weaponry to the Yellow Turbans, arranging enough provisions for around 100,000 warriors to last for two months.

That’s right; a hundred thousand men requiring food for two months would necessitate a significant number of supplies. That is, given that the scale of the rebellion in Yangcheng is projected to be in the hundreds of thousands (and that those hundred thousand troops, their friends and relatives, as well as ordinary citizens, have yet to be included), that’s why a food shortage appears to be inevitable.

That is exactly what we are going for.

Question: Can a mob of rebels who have never led an army understand how much that provision is? Can they distribute it properly?

Answer: It is impossible.

Of course, the answer is quite obvious.

Now, if Ma Yuanyi or the other high-ranking leaders of the Yellow Turbans were still alive, the story would be different, but since they will be killed in Luoyang, so there’s no problem.

And the remaining members are unlikely to be able to calmly calculate and allocate their food consumption. When people see how many provisions they have and the hundred thousand men, they would be misled and believe, “With this much provision, we will be able to fight.” Of course, if the government finds about the uprising, they would most likely respond rashly, as they do not want the rebels to corner them.

After all, the government soldiers will not just hide and allow themselves to be defeated by the rebels.

Following their revolt, they will learn that they do not have as much food as they expected, and as a result, they will become outlaws, attacking their fellow Han people. At that point, they will just become a mob with no legitimate reason.

Yancheng and Nanyang are undoubtedly among the regions they will attack, but we also expect most of Yuzhou and Yanzhou to suffer significant damage.

We also predicted that the northern Jizhou province near the Julu commandery, as well as Youzhou, which is home to many strict Confucianism followers led by Kong Rong, who is ruling harshly (though he is unaware of it), would sympathize with the Yellow Turban rebels and cause even more chaos.

Furthermore, long-standing frustration among commoners with the nation’s exploitation is sure to explode, resulting in random disturbances in locations unrelated to the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Regardless of whether the people become bandits or not, the initial Yellow Turban Rebellion will begin in February, with the others joining them around between April and June. And at that time, the spring harvest had already been completed.

Finally, it is certain that there will be a food shortage, or, more specifically, that even if they invade several towns, there will be no harvests to pillage in the majority of them, causing both the inhabitants and the bandits to hunger. And there’s no need to describe what happens to an army without food.

Simply said, we intend to let He Jin reap the rewards of this upheaval and develop a reputation based on military merits as a method of advancing his position.

While regular residents caught up in the tumult bear the brunt of the consequences, as He Jin previously indicated, sooner or later, the people’s scorn for the government will emerge regardless of what we do, causing anarchy. So ending it quickly and bringing an end to the Han Dynasty can be considered merciful.

Now that the sequence of events from the emergence to the suppression of the uprising has been established, the issue remains: who will bear responsibility for the turmoil that the insurrection would cause once it was all over?

Is it the Ten Attendants that wield supreme power in the kingdom yet are powerless to stop the chaos? Or Is it the military that failed to prevent the uprising from arising in the first place? Unfortunately, none of them.

According to post-Han standards, the local officials in the provinces and commanderies where the uprising began should be held accountable for everything.

Furthermore, local leaders have solid relationships with the eunuchs and famous families. As a result, those eunuchs and prominent families will attempt furiously to prevent news of the major rebellion in their jurisdictions from reaching the imperial court, fearing the consequences for their accomplices.

And to keep that from happening, we must apprehend Ma Yuanyi.

That is where He Jin will come in, as it is only natural for him, having served as the Governor of Henan and the previous Prefect of Yancheng, to notice suspicious activity among Yancheng residents and apprehend thieves and bandits who attempt to infiltrate Luoyang.

Also, because He Jin is a palace attendant, it is normal for him to inform the emperor about Ma Yuanyi and his rebels’ actions.

If this occurs, the reputations of the Eunuchs and other well-known families will be entirely ruined, and everyone involved in this situation will face appropriate consequences.

Surprisingly, contrary to appearances, many Seiryuu School members joined the Yellow Turban Rebellion rather than the Dakuryuu School.

Some claim that they did so because, despite the prohibition imposed by party oppression, their discontent remains simmering beneath the surface. Another theory is that they utilized harsh measures to intimidate the eunuchs.

Incidentally (or, more likely, one of the main reasons), they did so to undermine the reputation of He Jin, Henan’s current governor. That idea was most likely conceived by someone at a desk somewhere.

But he cannot outwit He Jin, who has perfected the ability to see and control the movement of food in the market. Furthermore, he cannot fool me—someone who is aware of the Yellow Turban Rebellion and does not want He Jin to fail. We are completely prepared to track down anyone involved in this.

Putting that aside, one of the key elements contributing to the Han Dynasty’s demise, aside from the Yellow Turban Rebellion, was the rise of local warlords.

“Now the remaining problem that remains is that the local famous families are also arming themselves under the pretext of self-preservation.”

“Yes, that’s right, but unfortunately, I apologize, but I have no way to prevent this from happening.”

“Well, it’s a given that they won’t just stay in their hole while bandits ransack their lands.”

That’s right, in this uprising, in addition to the forces deployed against the attacks in Liangzhou, Youzhou, and Guzhuo, independent armed forces develop domestically, distinct from the soldiers from Luoyang.

Authority is only effective if it is supported by armed force. In contrast, individuals with a certain level of military power will earn a certain level of authority.

In this case the prominent families won’t be able to argue that carrying weapons equals corruption. More crucially, arming themselves will increase their own authority and allow them to avoid interference from the Ten Attendants. Once they understand this, they will be unwilling to give up their military power.

It would be appropriate for a faithful Han Dynasty retainer to consider what to do in this situation, but Li Yu is not so kindhearted.

“Yes, that’s why if Your Excellency became a Great General or a Da Sima, which controls all the military power in the country, the power of the local warlords would also belong to Your Excellency.”

Regardless of what the local warlords say, everything in Han belongs to the emperor. As a result, if the emperor decided to give He Jin complete military authority, all of the local warlords’ troops would automatically belong to him as well.

Using this Post-Han Dynasty common sense, Li Yu persuaded He Jin that instead of restraining the rise of warlords, he might simply hasten the division of military forces.

“So you are going to take advantage of their plan, huh? Well, you are right about that; it is more likely that the emperor would entrust the authority of the army to me, the former prefect of Yancheng, the one who prevented this rebellion from happening, rather than the eunuchs who didn’t know anything about warfare or someone from a famous family who couldn’t detect the preparation for rebellion in Yancheng.”

Furthermore, if the emperor’s favorite concubine, Empress He, accepted this plan, the eunuchs and the famous family would have no choice but to comply. That’s right, it’s not the people that decide what course society should take; rather, it’s guided by people who pull the strings in the background.*

All of the pieces are now in place.

With this, the great chaos that led to the fall of the Han Dynasty and ushering in an era of warring states, the so-called “Yellow Turban Rebellion,” begins.

Notes:

1. Zhang Jiao, or Zhang Jue, was a former doctor and the leader of the Yellow Turban.

2. Zhang Manchen is one of the most high-ranking generals in the Yellow Turban.

3. A commandery is an administrative region in ancient China.

4. The distance between Tokyo and Nagoya is 344.6 km, while the distance between Aomori and Kagoshima is 1 898.2 km. Kagoshima is near the southernmost part of Japan, while Aomori is in the northernmost part of Honshu (the largest island of Japan; basically, it’s the island where Tokyo is located).

5. Da Sima is the official name in Chinese history, and it’s the highest military officer. More like General of the Army, but since Great General and Da Sima are written separately, I included them both.

6. Empress He also known as Empress Lingsi is the sister of He Jin.