[Cao Cao felt that things shouldn’t be like this. The common people just wanted to survive. What was their fault?]

[After Cao Cao established the basic ideas for governing the country and the army, he made the most critical decision, which was to focus on criminal law. ]

[No matter who you are, no matter what your status or position, military law is as strict as a mountain. Once you commit a crime, you will be severely punished! ]

……

Ying Zheng, who founded his country on law, gave Cao Cao a thumbs up.

In fact, establishing a country based on laws is the most effective choice when a country is weak.

The Qin Dynasty was extremely poor and weak at that time, but it gradually grew stronger through the Qin law.

Moreover, a person who is determined to enforce the rule of law regardless of feelings is definitely not an ordinary person!

……

[After a period of time, Cao Cao’s implementation of the legal system began to take shape. With a team of military law, the combat effectiveness would definitely be stronger than that of bandits and robbers. A well-trained army was born. ]

[In 191 AD, Cao Cao relied on his newly trained army to defeat several rebel forces entrenched in Dongjun.]

[Since Cao Cao was weaker than Yuan Shao, who was entrenched in Hebei, he took the opportunity to recruit some of the rebels to strengthen his own strength.]

[Due to his merit in defeating the rebels, Cao Cao was appointed as the governor of Dongjun by Yuan Shao. With the help of his big brother, Cao Cao initially gained a foothold.]

[But then the problem came again. In an era when there were governors everywhere, the position of a mere governor was still too humble. However, Cao Cao’s opportunity soon came. ]

[Here we have to mention our old friend Liu Bei Liu Xuande. After the disbandment of the princes’ coalition, Liu Bei moved around in many places and finally settled in Gaotang County and became the magistrate of Gaotang County. However, the embarrassing thing was that not long after Liu Bei became the county magistrate, a million-strong Yellow Turban Army from Qingzhou attacked. ]

[After the city was captured, Liu Bei went to Liaodong and joined his old classmate Gongsun Zan. The Qingzhou soldiers also planned to cross the eastern part of Jizhou to join another rebel army, the Black Mountain Army. Liu Bei decisively passed the news of the Yellow Turban Army to Gongsun Zan.]

[Gongsun Zan had been fighting against the Xianbei soldiers for a long time, and his soldiers were well-trained. After receiving the news, Gongsun Zan decisively dispatched troops and led 20,000 infantry and cavalry to defeat the Yellow Turbans in Qinzhou in the south of Dongguang, beheading more than 30,000 people.]

[After the Yellow Turban Army of Qingzhou was defeated, they abandoned all their baggage and rushed to cross the river. When Gongsun Zan waited for them to cross halfway, he attacked again, and the Yellow Turban Army was defeated again. Tens of thousands of people died, and more than 7 people were captured. Countless chariots, armor and property were lost.]

[After this battle, Gongsun Zan’s reputation soared. Since the rebel army itself could not be very wealthy, from the perspective of the Yellow Turban Army, this time, Gongsun Zan had stripped them of their underwear in a physical sense.]

[It was already late autumn, and the more than one million poorly clothed and hungry Qingzhou soldiers could only flee southward to Yanzhou.]

[Faced with these more than one million naked, skinny Qingzhou soldiers who looked like a million zombies, Yanzhou Governor Liu Dai wanted to lead the army to wipe them out, but Bao Xin dissuaded him.]

[Bao Xin believed that the army that is in despair will win, but Liu Dai thought there was nothing wrong with that.]

【Liu Dai’s confidence was not blind, because the Qingzhou soldiers had already been defeated by Gongsun Zan’s 100-strong army, and their food, supplies and equipment had also been confiscated by Gongsun Zan. How could these million people who were short of food and clothing be a match for the regular army?】

【But as Bao Xin said, it is a fact that the army that mourns will win. 】

[Things did not develop as Liu Dai expected. The fighting power that these more than one million people who were starving and cold could unleash was immeasurable.]

[In fact, this battle can’t be considered a battle at all, it can only be considered a battle between the Knights and the Ghouls.]

[People were so hungry that they were all fed. The entire army of Liu Dai, the governor of Yanzhou, was annihilated, and not even a bone was left. 】

【Liu Dai was defeated, Bao Xin had to ask Cao Cao for help, because Cao Cao’s army had a good military discipline and good fighting ability. After Cao Cao learned the news, he immediately led his troops here. 】【At this time, Cao Cao had just been appointed as the governor of Yanzhou. In fact, this place was also his territory. There was no problem for him to come and help, so Cao Cao led his troops directly to this place. 】

[Cao Cao, who had just arrived, did not quite understand the seriousness of the situation. Bao Xin had fought side by side with Cao Cao and had seen Cao Cao’s bravery in battle, so he proposed to Cao Cao that the two of them join forces to attack the Yellow Turban Army in Qingzhou. Cao Cao agreed to this plan because this battle seemed easy to win.]

[We are the regular army, with strict military discipline and well-trained troops. What about the other side? They are all peasants.]

[However, when Cao Cao arrived at the battlefield in person, he was also dumbfounded. ]

[The peasant army did fight, but how to fight against millions of zombies? The peasant army knew to run away when they saw the regular army coming. And when these people saw Cao Cao’s regular army, they were drooling! ]

[Not only was he not afraid of the army, he was actually drooling! ]

[It’s fucking horrible! ]

【Cao Cao was keenly aware that these people could not be defeated, and as expected, Bao Xin was defeated and his body was not found.】

[Seeing that Cao Cao was about to be defeated, Cao Cao was extremely anxious. This moment was also a watershed in Cao Cao’s life. On the one hand, Cao Cao was unwilling to give up his newly acquired official position and return to Dongjun, so Cao Cao’s only option was to stay and deal with the one million Qingzhou soldiers.]

[So how can we deal with these one million Qingzhou soldiers? ]

【According to the thinking of the powerful people in Yanzhou at that time, Cao Cao’s only choice was to wipe out the Qingzhou army. The guns and pens were in the hands of the powerful people. Even if Cao Cao killed all the 100 million unruly people, the history books would not record a word about Cao Cao, but would record Cao Cao’s merits in suppressing the rebels.】

[These surviving people can also flow into the manors of the powerful and become cheap labor. Cao Cao gets a good reputation, while these powerful people get benefits. How pleasant it sounds.]

[But Cao Cao didn’t think so. What Cao Cao wanted to do most was to promote the rule of law and curb annexation, which would never allow the powerful to become stronger.]

[So Cao Cao decided to walk on the unknown road, a road where he couldn’t see the direction clearly and could only take one step at a time.]

[Cao Cao finally made his choice. He said he wanted to recruit the one million Qingzhou soldiers to surrender.]

[It is almost the twelfth lunar month. If we don’t do something, most of these one million Qingzhou soldiers will starve to death or freeze to death in the winter, even if we don’t do anything. However, Cao Cao is currently lacking a loyal army. If we can get these one million people to work for us, the strength of Cao Cao’s army will soar.]

[But recruiting 100 million people does not mean you can feed 100 million people. If you cannot take care of the food, drink, defecation and urination of these 100 million people, these 100 million people are like a nuclear bomb that can kill others or bring you to ruin at any time.]

[But if Cao Cao indulged himself too much in these problems, he would make the same choice as Gongsun Zan, Bao Xin, and Liu Dai, which was to let these people freeze to death or starve to death.]

[But whether out of ambition to expand his power or out of public interest in supporting the world, Cao Cao still surrendered these 100 million slaves who were about to become dry bones. ]

Cao Cao said to them, “Follow me. I promise you a future where you can have enough food and clothing, where those who till the land own their land, and where the world is stable.”

[Beside the icy river, the leader of the Qingzhou army surrendered to Cao Cao with a million soldiers and their families.]

[However, Cao Cao’s move caused dissatisfaction among most of the powerful people in Yanzhou. The powerful people who thought they could become rich overnight by accepting Liu Ming received military supply orders from Cao Cao.]

[That is to say, for the powerful people, not only did I not get cheap labor, but now that you have more people, I have to get more military supplies for you. It is really a case of going from getting rich overnight to going into a huge loss overnight! ]

[But the powerful people dared not disobey, after all, Cao Cao had 100 million men at the moment, at least 30 fresh troops, so they could only obediently hand over the grain. ]

[In addition, Cao Cao’s action also touched many people, such as Xun Yu, the representative of the Yingchuan clan, and Cheng Yu, the representative of the local gentry in Yanzhou, who both came to Cao Cao at this time. 】(End of this chapter)