Originally, Hanzhong had five thousand soldiers. After dismissing the old, weak, sick, and disabled, there were four thousand soldiers left. Ding Huai immediately appointed Gao Shun as the commandant, commanding all the troops in Hanzhong. Cheng Lian was the commander, commanding 2,000 soldiers. Xu Rong and Pang De were the marquises, each commanding 1,000 soldiers. The 358 Whirlwind Cavalry and 3,000 Bingzhou Iron Cavalry were temporarily under Gao Shun's direct command.
After settling the army, Ding Huai began to look through the Hanzhong population records handed over by Su Gu. There were a total of 46,872 households and 569,700 people in Hanzhong. This number seemed very small today, but it was quite a lot during the Three Kingdoms period. This was because in the sixth year of Jingyao, when the Shu Kingdom was destroyed, the population was only 280,000 households, 940,000 men and women, 102,000 armored soldiers, and 40,000 officials.
From this, everyone could see why Hanzhong County, which had a population of nearly 600,000, only had 5,000 soldiers. This number was indeed too small. Under the system of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the army was subordinate to the central government. The number of troops in each state and county was very small. Once a war broke out in that place, the local government would definitely be unable to suppress it. At this time, the emperor would need to send a general with a tiger talisman to mobilize the troops from all over the country to suppress the rebellion.
Of course, this method had both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage was that the power of the central government had been strengthened, and the forces in various places had become weak. They were unable to resist the central government, and it was impossible for large-scale rebellions like the Rebellion of the Eight Princes in the Western Han Dynasty to occur again. The drawback was also obvious. Once they encountered a large-scale rebellion like the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the central government would be caught off guard. Without the power to resist, it was not enough to rely on the soldiers of the Imperial Army lieutenants. For example, during the Yellow Turban Rebellion, if it wasn't for the hasty uprising and Zhang Jiao's early death, the Eastern Han regime would have to step down early.
There was another point. For a riot like the Yellow Turban Uprising, it would take a long time after the central government sent troops to quell the rebellion. The local government would inevitably be unable to endure the disaster brought by the Yellow Turban and form their own armed forces. Because of the long time, once the riot subsided, the local armed forces would become too big to be eliminated. The central government would still be powerless to restrain them.
Ding Huai originally wanted to expand the army to 10,000 people, but he was worried that Luoyang would know. In addition, Ding Huai was not very clear about Hanzhong's financial situation and grain reserves. If he rashly expanded the army to 10,000 people, Hanzhong's financial resources and grain reserves might not be able to support it. Therefore, this idea could only be carried out after he understood everything about Hanzhong.
Ding Huai finally realized that he had made a fatal mistake. After learning from Zuo Ci for three years, Ding Huai was proficient in martial arts, military strategy, and medicine. However, when it came to internal affairs, Ding Huai was a complete layman. After coming to the Three Kingdoms, Ding Huai dreamed of having a province or county of his own, and then taking advantage of the chaotic times to unify the Celestial Empire. Now, this wish had finally begun to have a small success. Not only did he have a county in Hanzhong, but his subordinates, Gao Shun, Cheng Lian, Pang De, and Xu Rong, were either fierce generals who charged into the battlefield or leading generals. Unfortunately, they were only generals. If they were to talk about internal affairs, it would be impossible to kill all four of them. Now, Ding Huai finally regretted not recruiting a few talents before coming to Hanzhong. In terms of internal affairs, Xun Yu of Yingchuan, Zhang Zhao of Pengcheng, and Chen Gong of Dongjun were all rare experts in internal affairs during the Three Kingdoms period. Of course, there were many talents in internal affairs, not just these three. It was just that these three were more famous in the early days of the Three Kingdoms.
It was not realistic to look for Xun Yu, Zhang Zhao, and Chen Gong at this time. There were many reasons. Firstly, the new and old prefect of Hanzhong had been replaced. Ding Huai was needed to appease the people, so he could not leave easily. Secondly, the three of them were quite far away from Hanzhong, and it would take too long to go back and forth. Third, the Yellow Turban Rebellion had not yet happened, and the world was still calm. It was not yet time for them to come out of seclusion. Even if Ding Huai went to invite them, they might not agree to join him. Fourth, although Ding Huai was the prefect of a region and had a high position and power, Ding Huai was still young after all. Usually, talented people would always be unrestrained and unruly. How could he listen to a child? Fifth, Ding Huai's position as Hanzhong's prefect and Marquis of Yunting had been obtained through merit and achievements. He had relied on a few poems and a toothpick. The value of his position was not high and could not truly convince these people.
Therefore, if Ding Huai wanted to find talents, he could only look for them in his own county or in the surrounding counties of Yizhou. At that time, he would order them to send out scholars as the local county governor. However, there were no outstanding talents in Hanzhong County at the end of the Han Dynasty. Ding Huai thought of one person in the surrounding counties of Hanzhong County. It was Yan Pu, the number one strategist under Zhang Lu during the Three Kingdoms period.
There were not many records of Yan Pu in history. They only knew that he was from Brazil County in Yizhou. They did not know anything else. However, since he had come to Hanzhong, how could Ding Huai let go of a counselor like Yan Pu? As long as he could get through to the governor of Yizhou or the prefect of Brazil Prefecture, even if Yan Pu was unwilling to leave the mountain, it was not up to him. However, once he could invite Yan Pu, Ding Huai had his own way of making him follow him wholeheartedly.
Two months after he took over as the Hanzhong prefect, Ding Huai brought along Cheng Lian and Pang De, who had been confused by the government affairs, and prepared to go to Baxi County to recruit Yan Pu. This time, Ding Huai did not bring Gao Shun with him because Gao Shun had outstanding talent in training soldiers, and the Hanzhong army needed time to train. Therefore, Ding Huai left Gao Shun and Xu Rong in Hanzhong to train soldiers.
Everyone might know that there were three counties in Yizhou that were named after the word " Ba ". They were Ba County, Brazil County, and Badong County. It was very puzzling. Brazil County was adjacent to Hanzhong County, located in the south of Hanzhong. Starting from Nanzheng, passing through Hanchang of Brazil County, and heading west, they arrived at the administrative office of Brazil County. Ba County was located at the southernmost tip of Yizhou, bordering South Yue. During the Spirit Emperor's era, Yizhou was only half the size of Yizhou when Zhuge Liang left Qishan in the later period of the Three Kingdoms.
However, in the era of the Spirit Emperor, there was only one Bajun in Yizhou, and there were no Baxi and Badong prefectures. It was only in the sixth year of Jian 'an (AD 201) that Liu Zhang, the herdsman of Yizhou, separated Baxi and Badong from Bajun, which showed how large Bajun was.
Currently, Yizhou only had 12 prefectures, including Ba Prefecture, Hanzhong Prefecture, Wudu Prefecture, Yinping Prefecture, Xintong Prefecture, Wenshan Prefecture, East Guanghan Prefecture, Qianwei Prefecture, Shu Prefecture, Hanjia Prefecture, Jiangyang Prefecture, and Fuling Prefecture. In the later period of the Three Kingdoms, apart from these 14 prefectures (Ba Xi and Ba Dong had already been separated from Ba Prefecture), Yizhou also included the original residences of Meng Huo and other ethnic minorities. After Meng Huo surrendered to Shu, his residence was divided into seven prefectures by Zhuge Liang: Xiangke Prefecture, Zhuti Prefecture, Yuexie Prefecture, Yunnan Prefecture, Yongchang Prefecture, Jianning Prefecture, and Xinggu Prefecture. Although the number of prefectures was less than half, the area of these seven prefectures was similar to that of the fourteen prefectures. Of course, the population was much smaller. After all, these seven prefectures were only the gathering places of some ethnic minorities at that time. They had not been developed, and their environment, production, and technology were very backward.
Ba County's administrative office was in Jiang Prefecture. Since they did not know where Yan Pu's home was in Ba County, Ding Huai and his group could only visit the Governor of Ba County in Jiang Prefecture first, hoping to find out where Yan Pu lived. The current prefect of Ba County was He Kang. He was a decent person, but his ability was limited and he had no one to assist him. Therefore, he only became the prefect of Ba County at the age of 53.
Regarding Ding Huai's visit, He Kang did not seem to welcome him very much, but it was not considered rude either. After all, He Kang was somewhat disdainful of Ding Huai's ascension to the position of county governor with a few poems and a small invention. However, Ding Huai was, after all, a popular person that the Spirit Emperor admired. Moreover, he was a marquis, and his father, Ding Yuan, was also a high-ranking provincial governor of Bingzhou. He Kang did not dare to offend Ding Huai too much.
Ding Huai was also very clear in his heart that he didn't think much of He Kang's stubborn attitude. He only wanted to quickly find out where Yan Pu was. However, Cheng Lian and Pang De were a little angry at He Kang's attitude, but without Ding Huai's orders, the two of them did not dare to do anything. Besides, this was Ba County, He Kang's territory.
After the reception, the banquet was dismissed. The servants served tea, and He Kang chatted with Ding Huai for a while. Originally, He Kang's intention was to casually chat with Ding Huai to see if he had anything to do and just send him away. He Kang had a basic understanding of the situation in Hanzhong. Due to the mountains, there was not much land. In addition, the prefect Su Gu did not have much ability, so the lives of the people in Hanzhong were very difficult. As a result, the people left their homes and moved their families to Jingzhou or other counties in Yizhou. The more chaotic a place was, the more bandits there would be. Hanzhong was like this. Due to the complicated terrain, the bandits relied on the mountainous characteristics of Hanzhong to hide in the mountains. They would come out from time to time to harass them. Once the attack was successful, they would immediately retreat. Although the former prefect Su Gu wanted to eliminate these bandits, firstly, there was no general who could lead the army. Secondly, the soldiers of Hanzhong lacked training and military discipline. After two failures, Su Gu turned a blind eye and did not care anymore. Fortunately, these bandits usually only came out to rob and attack, and did not kill too many people. Otherwise, even if Su Gu risked being dismissed, he would ask the provincial governor Zhang Qiao to send troops to clean up.
Therefore, in He Kang's opinion, Ding Huai's new appointment would definitely not have any countermeasures. The purpose of coming here was nothing more than to borrow money or grain. This was because the Bandun Rebellion had occurred in Ba County in December of the second and third year of Guanghe respectively. Now that the rebellion had just subsided, Ba County's financial resources and grain were relatively tight. He Kang had just reported to the provincial governor Zhang Qiao a few days ago and asked Zhang Qiao to allocate money and grain. How could he have extra money and grain to lend to Ding Huai?
He Kang's guess was half right. Why did he say that? After Ding Huai and Su Gu handed over their tasks, they had indeed discovered these situations, and they did not know how to resolve them. Gao Shun, Pang De, and the others were only generals, so they did not know anything about internal affairs, let alone give Ding Huai advice.
He did not expect that in the process of chatting with Ding Huai, He Kang would be extremely surprised. He did not expect that this eleven or twelve-year-old youth in front of him was not only knowledgeable, but also extremely familiar with history. He could talk about many unsolved mysteries in history with ease. Moreover, Ding Huai's knowledge made He Kang admire him even more. Some of the novel ideas were even more unheard of by He Kang. Although it was not appropriate, it sounded flawless. He Kang immediately put away his contempt and treated Ding Huai as a distinguished guest. The two of them actually talked for a long time until late at night without feeling tired (Actually, this was only He Kang. Ding Huai could not stand it anymore. He was just troubled that he could not open his mouth to end this long conversation first).
This conversation had actually made the two of them become friends regardless of their age, so it should have been very easy for Ding Huai to find Yan Pu with He Kang's help. However, this was not the case. Most people with real talent had a strange temper, and they were arrogant and condescending, and Yan Pu was such a person. However, there was an advantage to this kind of person. Once he met a lord that he was truly convinced of and felt that he could follow for life, he would be wholeheartedly devoted and would never change sides midway.
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