Chapter 50 Sorry, I don't need your help, old man

  Zhang Mao and Zhang Chao's army of over 40,000 people were mostly the retainers of Chenliu's powerful families, landlords, and aristocratic clans, and were not entirely loyal to the two Zhang brothers. Otherwise, Wei Hong would not have been able to stir up such a big commotion with just one provocation. What kind of retainers are these?

  At the end of Xin Mang, local tyrants organized their clansmen, guests and children into armed forces with military organization. The formation of guest troops was a first in Chinese history.

  In the Eastern Han period, the private armed forces of the powerful landlords had not yet taken a regular and open form.

  By the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when the Yellow Turban Rebellion and subsequent warlord wars broke out, many peasants who suffered from the war went to ask the armed aristocratic families for protection. The aristocratic families also needed to strengthen their armed forces in order to gather people for self-protection or to go out to fight. Therefore, following the example of the powerful men at the end of the Xin Dynasty, they adopted a more military feudal system to control their own clansmen, guests, tenants, students, and former officials.

  In this way, the Buqu was once again formed in large numbers and became a common alias for the private armed forces of the aristocratic families. This privately-owned Buqu is also known as Jia Bing in some cases. They inherited the tradition of private soldiers since the Eastern Han Dynasty, fighting as Buqu during wartime and farming as tenants during peacetime, thus becoming armed cultivators who both farmed and fought.

  At the same time, the officer troops originally led by government troops also carried out garrison farming when they were not at war. Later, generals saw the benefits and widely recruited troops to engage in production. In a chaotic world where people had nowhere to turn, the troops followed their commanders forever, and the troops absolutely obeyed the orders of their superiors, and the color of belonging to the private property of the main general became more and more intense.

  In the city of Chenliu, more than 40,000 soldiers had been gathered, among whom over 10,000 were recruited by Huang. That's why they dared to rebel against Zhang Miao. However, when Cao Cao besieged the Huang family residence, the Huangs didn't dare to make a move. They relied on their influence in Chenliu and weren't afraid of Cao Cao at all. Unfortunately, Cao Cao wasn't afraid of them either.

  Cao Cao asked Li Yu how to deal with the aristocratic families and powerful clans of Chenliu. Li Yu only said one sentence: "Pull a batch, suppress a batch, kill a batch." What does it mean? It means pulling in people close to himself like Wei Hong, suppressing those who are not very close to him and have some resentment towards him, and killing off those who strongly oppose him, using this to intimidate those with ulterior motives, that is, killing the chicken to scare the monkey.

  "Let me go! Do you know who I am?", a white and chubby old man struggled to shout, like a small chicken being lifted into the air, no matter how he struggled and flapped, a pair of huge hands grasped his collar firmly and carried him to the camp of Chen Liu Zhang's army.

  "Ah, sir! How can you treat Old Master Huang like this? Let him go at once!", Cao Cao rebuked Dian Wei as he helped the disheveled Old Master Huang adjust his clothes. This old man was the current head of the Huang family and its master.

  Dian Wei scratched his head with a puzzled face, didn't you just ask me to be more fierce? His simple brain couldn't keep up with Cao Cao's thoughts!

  "Come on, come on! Let's dispel the bad air, Old Master Huang. Shout a couple of times and call out your family members. I have a few words to say to them!" Cao Cao said with a sly smile, but no matter how you looked at him, he didn't seem to have good intentions;

  "Hmph!", Old Huang snorted in anger, turning his head away and falling silent.

  "Oh dear! Don't be so stubborn! Rest assured, they won't harm them! Call out to them! Hmm?", Cao Cao kept saying, staring at the silent and closed-eyed Old Man Huang.

  Cao Cao smiled as usual: "Who's that! Yuan Rang! Bring him over!", from a distance, in the Cao army, the burly Xiahou Dun brought out another young man, threw him to the ground, stepped on him with one foot, and slowly raised his long spear!

  Just now, the Huang family's mansion was breached by Xiahou Dun and his men. Those soldiers were not elite troops, and their military training time was still short. Even if they desperately tried to stop Cao's army, it would only delay for a while, just a few minutes, and the main people left behind in the Huang family would be captured.

  They're so stupid, they decided to surrender to Yuan Shao, and as a gift, Chenliu City should have been given with all their might without hesitation; having rebelled, they should have secured their own retreat first, and acted more fiercely, but they only used the unscrupulous tactic of inciting soldiers to mutiny, and their own retreat was not guaranteed, once caught off guard, they were at a loss and didn't dare to make a move.

  Now they are just fish meat, and Cao Cao has become a sharp knife that can kill them at will. They still think they are the biggest aristocratic family in Chenliu, hoping that Cao Cao dare not move them, but they don't think that Cao Cao is someone who can be compared to Zhang Miao, who is afraid of wolves in front and tigers behind.

  "Grandson!", Old Man Huang cried out in alarm, and the young man wailed: "Grandfather! Save me!" This was the most beloved younger generation of Old Man Huang, how could his heart not be in turmoil? Xiahou Dun slowly lowered his steel spear, deliberately dropping it bit by bit, also destroying Old Man Huang's psychological defenses bit by bit.

  People are like this, once they panic, everything becomes confused, losing rational judgment and decision-making.

  "Oh no, oh no! Old man! Hurry up and leave quickly, don't get splattered with blood!" Cao Cao exaggeratedly pulled the old man Huang back, "Stop it!... I'll listen to whatever you say! Don't hurt him!", The old man Huang finally couldn't hold on anymore, crying out in anguish;

  "That's right! Go shout a couple of times! Gather all the people from the Huang family here!", Cao Cao coldly commanded, his expression changed from being cheerful to being stern. These people had already been sentenced to death, and Cao Cao absolutely would not allow anyone else's voice in his army besides his own second-in-command!

  "Can General Cao guarantee our safety? We are, after all...", Old Man Huang was still worried and wanted to say a couple more sentences, but the young man on the other side had already shouted out, and Xiahou Dun's long spear was already pointed at his face;

  "Hurry up! I'll do whatever you say! Whatever you say!...", muttered Old Man Huang, not daring to waste any more words, and quickly gathered the Huang clan members from the military camp;

  Soon, more than 200 members of the Huang family, students, guests and others were gathered here. As long as they were dealt with, the remaining temporary recruits would all belong to Cao Cao. Those people were some simple-minded and lovely farmers who became soldiers for food, whoever gave them food, they would work for him.

  "Hah!", Cao Cao sneered, waving his hand. "Swish!" A head flew into the air and landed with a thud on the ground, rolling to a stop in front of the young man at Xiahou Dun's feet. The headless body swayed and fell to the ground. "Ahh--!", panicked voices shrieked out as they finally realized - they had been deceived!

  "General Cao! Didn't you promise to guarantee our safety?", the young man cried out in a shrill voice, asking pitifully.

  "Sorry! We don't need old men here! Get out!", Cao Cao walked away with his hands behind his back, followed closely by Dian Wei who was like a dark tower behind him; the wailing voices from behind seemed to be completely ignored.

  More than 200 unarmed people were slaughtered by Xiahou Dun, and more than 300 members of the Huang family who were captured were beheaded, including the old, weak, women and children, among whom was General Huang, who had been exchanged for Taishi Ci with ten horses.

  The powerful landlords in the city of Chenliu were intimidated for a while and did not dare to have any objections to Cao Cao's occupation of Chenliu. They immediately offered all their private troops to Cao Cao, withdrew all their men from within, and opened the door wide for Cao Cao to take control of the army. Cao Cao expressed his verbal gratitude to these people for being so sensible.

  Just as the Zhang brothers were still hungover, Cao Cao completely grasped the military power with lightning speed, without any unexpected changes, and didn't need to think of any strategy to deceive the Zhang brothers before seizing the military power!