Section 22: The Single Father Shows Respect and Humility

  Several county officials hiding behind the city wall's battlements, secretly observing the situation, looked at each other in dismay, at a loss for what to do.

  Yesterday, the county magistrate went out of the city to ambush the Yellow Turbans and took all the important officials in the city with him. As a result, there are only a few minor officials left in the current Single Parent City, and there is not even one official with a salary of 200 stones. If we really count it up, the current Single Parent City is not only lacking in soldiers and generals, but also has no leader, and is actually empty to the extreme.

  "What should I do?"

  "Ah! Where are you going?"

  A county official smiled wryly and said:

  "Now, while the Yellow Turban Army has not yet attacked the city, hurry up and leave. Do you want to stay behind and get killed?"

  After finishing speaking, this county official pulled his legs and left. The other county officials looked at each other for a few eyes and also dispersed with great tacit understanding.

  Yu Jin shouted for a while at the bottom, seeing that the number of people on the city wall was gradually decreasing, and he knew that the hearts of the people in the city were already scattered. He then ordered his newly recruited subordinates to bring over a simple ladder and lean it against the city wall.

  In this process, unexpectedly no one came forward, not even a symbolic shot was fired from below. Yu Jin's heart became more determined, he grasped the ladder with one hand and jumped up to the city head, shouting loudly:

  "I'm Wen Zhen, I've boarded first!"

  The soldiers on the city wall saw Yu Jin ascend to the city, but they did not come up to block him. Instead, they shouted loudly and scattered in all directions. The soldiers behind them swarmed up one after another, and the city of Shangfang fell into the hands of the Tianping Army without a single drop of blood being shed.

  "All troops entering the city must observe military discipline and are forbidden from looting!"

  Having obtained the first city in his life, Zhang Kuang was overjoyed and also emphasized military discipline. In recent days, through recalling modern knowledge, military books, and personally leading troops, his military governance level has been rising all the way.

  Zhang Kuang now deeply understands that the discipline of an army is the fundamental guarantee of its combat effectiveness. If he cannot grasp the discipline of his troops, these ragtag soldiers under him will never be able to compete with the elite regular Han army.

  As for taking things arbitrarily, once you indulge a little, it will be hard to stop afterwards.

  Even if it's a robbery, it must be an organized, disciplined, step-by-step and selective robbery. To learn from the German tank, you can't learn from the old Soviet polar bear.

  Zhang Kuang lay on the soft bed, thinking with a bad taste.

  That night, Wang Guo led his personal troops to patrol all night and indeed caught some bandits who intended to loot. In order to calm the people's minds, Zhang Kuang beheaded those miserable children severely, punished them lightly, and sold a big good deed to the city residents.

  As expected, after these bloody gifts were presented, the attitude of the single father towards the Tianping Army improved greatly. Although it cannot be said that they supported them, they also had a more cooperative obedience.

  Yu Jin had the "letter of recommendation" for capturing the city of Danfu County, and Zhang Kuang's trust in him reached its basic value. In this way, the word "acting" before Yu Jin's job title was smoothly removed.

  After more than half a month of long-distance marching, the generals and soldiers of the Tianping Army had accumulated considerable fatigue. Zhang Kuang's injuries also needed to be nursed back to health. There was also the need to replenish weapons and make arrangements for food and fodder, all urgent problems that needed to be solved at present. In view of this, the entire Tianping Army temporarily halted its advance in Shangfu City.

  As the Tianping Army did not besiege the city, many wealthy families inside the city had already fled before the army entered. Zhang Kuang unceremoniously confiscated all the assets left behind by these fleeing wealthy and powerful households.

  Fortunately, due to the hasty departure, most of the fleeing wealthy households only brought some light and valuable goods with them, leaving behind a large quantity of coarse grains and hemp cloth. The legacy of these wealthy households alone allowed the Tianping Army to gain a considerable income.

  Fighting is not a problem for Zhang Kuang, but when it comes to carefully checking those miscellaneous goods, he doesn't have the leisure to do so. Fortunately, there is Chen Dashi in the team who is proficient in arithmetic and takes charge of the logistics statistics work of the Tianping Army, which allows Zhang Kuang to have a more relaxed mood.

  Zhang Kuang used a long spear as a walking stick, and under the leadership of Master Chen, he inspected the harvest entering the city. Twenty-three wealthy households, with a total of more than 6,000 dan of grain, more than 800 bolts of various fabrics, more than 1,370,000 wu of five-cash coins, more than 4,200 catties of iron materials, and many other miscellaneous items.

  Facing these gains, Zhang Kuang was overjoyed and gathered the blacksmiths in the city of Danfu to forge weapons; he also let the women in the city sew clothes for the army. Of course, Zhang Kuang would not let the people work for nothing, and all the work was paid according to the number of pieces. As a result, the ordinary people in the city had a very good impression of the Tianping Army, and even more people came to join the army.

  Because of his good mood, for those wealthy families who did not have time to escape, Zhang Kuang visited them with a smile - actually it was to test the attitude of the Tianping Army towards them - and let these wealthy families offer some grain and iron according to their assets, and then let them off lightly.

  This move, although it cannot change the stance of the local tyrants and wealthy households, can at least appease these potentially powerful guys, so that they won't join forces with the local bullies to make trouble for the Heavenly Balance Army.

  However, as a result of this effort, Zhang Kuang obtained 4,300 dan of grain and 2,000 jin of iron from the nine wealthy and powerful households. Moreover, one of the wealthy and powerful households even offered 200 jin of high-quality "refined iron" to assist the officers of the Heavenly Balance Army in forging weapons.

  As for these two hundred catties of fine iron, Zhang Kuang originally didn't think much of it. However, his subordinates, the martial generals, as soon as they heard this news, immediately came running to Zhang Kuang one after another, asking for weapons. It was only then that Zhang Kuang realized that this fine iron might be something good, and he hastily invited a blacksmith to explain things to him.

  After listening to the senior blacksmith's explanation, Zhang Kuang looked up at the sky and laughed loudly. What kind of iron is this? It's obviously high-quality steel! No, even ordinary steel can't achieve such performance. Zhang Kuang searched through his memories of later generations and felt that only some special alloy steels could possess such good performance!

  No wonder! These guys are like flies smelling blood. Sure enough, there's a problem.

  Such a good thing, even if it's worth 100,000 or 1 million yuan, shouldn't someone want it? Why is that wealthy family being so generous?

  When you humble yourself before others, you must have an ulterior motive. But I didn't know...

  Sure, here is the translation:

  As expected, the next day, the family who had offered "refined iron" came to visit again.

  "Are you saying that the Qi family wants to ransom back those captives?"

  "I'm just conveying a message for the Qi family. To be honest with you, General, my third son's wife is actually the fifth daughter of the Qi family. It's because of this relationship that I'm willing to convey this message for them. As for whether you should agree or not, I don't dare to say more."

  Although somewhat nervous, the middle-aged man who had been here once yesterday did not have a stiff expression.

  "This matter can be discussed..."

  Zhang Kuang said with a sigh:

  "Let the Qi family send someone themselves tomorrow! You can go ahead and take care of your own business, General. I need to change my bandages..."

  After sending away the messenger, Zhang Fei summoned his trusted subordinates Wang Fu and Zhou Cang for a discussion.

  "Not only can the Qi family ransom him back, but the other two families' captives can also do so. Those who are willing to join our army have already done so. The rest all have families and businesses to return to; keeping them in the army is of no benefit and would just waste food."

  Wang Guo analyzed it for a while, and everyone had no objection.

  "Alright, then you, Military Advisor, go and discuss this matter with them. Zi Ren, you can play the role of a white face on the side. If it's done well, I'll have a pair of 80-jin iron halberds made for you."

  Upon hearing that there were a pair of iron pikes available, Tian Wei, who had been feeling extremely bored, suddenly became overjoyed.

  "My lord can rest assured, our household will definitely squeeze out all the oil from those tyrants!"

  The negotiations went smoothly, and the representative of Qi Jia Hao only haggled with Wang Guo for a while before readily agreeing to the terms of the Tianping Army. The speed at which this was accomplished even surprised Zhang Kuang.

  "What? They actually agreed?"

  Four hundred and twenty strong men were captured, and in exchange, they got 4,000 dan of grain, 1,200 pieces of cloth, 4 million wu zhu coins, 50 pigs, and 50 sheep. Such a price had far exceeded the expectations of the generals of the Tianping Army.

  "That man said that since most of his strong men were captured, they are now short-handed. These goods need our army to send people to transport them."

  This news left Zhang Kuang somewhat perplexed. Did these powerful families really not fear that the Tianping Army would take advantage of the situation and attack their strongholds?

  "Tell them to leave the grain behind and transport other goods to Suanzao City first. As for the grain, our army will send people to transport it."

  Zhang Kuang thought for a moment, then ordered. After Wang Guo responded and retreated, he immediately let his personal soldier go and call He Qian of the scout team to come forward and give orders.

  Hao Qiang's actions were swift. A day later, he had delivered more than half of the promised goods to Danfu City. In accordance with the agreement, the Tianping Army also released half of the captives and sent two teams of soldiers to escort the other half of the captives to transport grain.

  The person in charge of this grain transportation mission was Shen Fu, the hundred-man captain. Yu Jin, a newly surrendered general, served as his assistant and set out with him. Both were from the same background of provincial troops, so their relationship was relatively closer than others.