Chapter 80: Training the prisoners, letter from Ji Ling While Ji Ling and Yuan Huan were making plans, Liu Bei actually didn't make any big moves at all. After entering Xiacai that day, Liu Bei's army spent this period of time training its troops. It’s not that Liu Bei didn’t want to move, but that he couldn’t move. Surrendering soldiers have always been a nuisance to the army. That is, we cannot fight, but we still need to eat food. Fortunately, although they captured many prisoners this time, there was still enough food in the four cities. Combined with Liu Bei's own military rations, there would be no problem lasting two or three months. Without the problem of food, the key lies in how to restore the combat effectiveness of these soldiers and use them for Liu Bei. In order to resolve this issue, Qin Zhen gave Liu Bei a suggestion to carry out ideological education in the army. When Liu Bei heard this, he asked curiously:

"What is the ideological education that the military advisor is talking about?" When Qin Zhen heard this, he smiled and said to Liu Bei: "The so-called ideological education is to let the soldiers know good and evil and understand why they are fighting!" "I think they can't be used by our army. The key is that they are lazy under Yuan Shu and the military discipline is poor!" "There are some good people among them who have been infected by the bad habits of the army." "There are also those who were conscripted, but they only knew how to follow orders and didn't know why they were fighting!" "So our army must make them know who is right and who is wrong between our army and Yuan Shu, and who they should fight for." Liu Bei listened and understood the beauty of it, but then he frowned and said: "Although this method is good, although our army has come for a righteous cause, the other party may not understand it. Even if we publicize this matter, I am afraid it will be of no use!" When it comes to the legitimacy of sending troops, Liu Bei understands it better than anyone else. After all, during the Yellow Turban Rebellion, he took up the banner of supporting the Han Dynasty and knew the role of righteousness. The key point is that his previous targets were all aristocratic families and intellectuals. It has not yet publicized its correctness to the people. Because if you talk about the emperor to the aristocratic families, the aristocratic families will know. But if you talk about the emperor to the common people, it will be in vain. Many people don’t even know who the county magistrate is in their entire lives. You told him that you wanted to support the Han Dynasty, but no one paid any attention to you. Therefore, at this time, I felt a little strange about the ideological education proposed by Qin Zhen. When Qin Zhen saw Liu Bei like this, he smiled and explained: "Have you not heard the saying in Zuo Zhuan: 'If small favors are not extended to all, the people will not follow them'?" "They are just ordinary people, and they don't understand the righteousness of their country and family, but they know who treats them well and who treats them badly, so they should not be moved by righteousness, but by emotion!" "Yuan Shu's usurpation of power is secondary. The key is that he is tyrannical and ruthless in his taxation." "These soldiers are all from Huai, don't they know how evil Yuan Shu is? It's just that they dare not rebel because of Yuan Shu's strength."

“So if our army wants to do this, we can pick out those people who have been harmed by Yuan Shu and come out to tell about Yuan Shu’s harm.” "If our army sends people to preach, they may not believe it. We can also select those who have received favors from our army to tell us about our good deeds." "With such a contrast between good and evil, as long as one still has a conscience, he will know who he should fight for!" That’s right, his method is the grievance meeting of later generations! In Qin Zhen's view, this move is simply a powerful weapon for implementing benevolent governance! Because the soldiers of this era, except for a small number of elite soldiers, were mostly peasant soldiers. The emperor had no interests involved with them, and only policies could make them feel good or bad. As long as you make these soldiers feel that your policies are good, you don't need any money to motivate them to follow you. After all, lonely people are a minority. For those who have families, who doesn't want their family to live under a monarch with relatively benevolent policies? Even those bachelors will get married and start a family sooner or later and will also work hard for themselves. As for those who are stubborn and unyielding, they can be singled out and dealt with one by one. It can both deter people and eliminate troubles in the army. However, Old Liu seemed to understand his method, so he simply said, "Then you, military advisor, do whatever you think is necessary." So Qin Zhen began to organize a grievance meeting. During the day, the soldiers were trained, and at night they were organized to complain. Each person was given a bowl of millet porridge and sat on the ground. Then the soldiers who were oppressed in Yuan Shu's army were allowed to come out and speak. I didn't expect that once the meeting started, everyone would be so angry. There is only one reason: Yuan Shu really brought great harm to Huainan. For example, one of the soldiers came from a good family with a lot of land, so he could make a living. But when Yuan Shu arrived, he plundered their property first, and plunged his family into extreme poverty. If that were all, he would only be able to sigh about his ill-fated fate, but this was where Yuan Shu's unkindness came in. He took people's money and even recruited them as soldiers. There were even evil generals who recruited soldiers along the way, forced the good people to do rape and looting, and committed all kinds of evil. Once these people joined the army, they were oppressed by non-commissioned officers, bullied in the camp, and finally there were supervisory teams holding knives and urging them to die. It's like a dragon that has destroyed the whole family. It can be said that the people of Huainan have suffered from Yuan Shu for a long time! In the past, these soldiers had no channels to vent their emotions, so they could only follow it numbly. But now that Qin Zhen’s channel has been opened, they can talk endlessly. There were even many soldiers who were ready to fight to the death with Yuan Shu on the spot. The scene frightened Liu Bei, who was watching from behind, and fearing that it would cause a commotion in the camp, he hurriedly asked Zhang Fei to lead the troops to maintain order. However, Qin Zhen was not surprised by this and said he was not panicked at all. After the soldiers had vented their anger, he called in the actors he had hired to come on stage to publicize the treatment they had received in Liu Bei's army. It was also because Liu Bei usually did good deeds and accumulated virtue, and the effect was shown at this moment. In terms of military discipline, Liu Bei never robbed civilians or massacred people in cities. In terms of policies, Yuan Shu levied heavy taxes, while Liu Bei collected only the taxes that should be collected.

In terms of treatment, Liu Bei's army has completely banned non-commissioned officers from beating soldiers without reason. These are not considered to be anything outstanding, but in this chaotic world, they are like a breath of fresh air. In addition, Qin Zhen deliberately publicized the fact that Liu Bei was personally punished. After the speech, all the soldiers in Yuan Shu's army praised it highly. After comparing the two sets, there was naturally a criticism and denunciation meeting. Under Qin Zhen's control, a considerable number of Yuan Shu army officers were arrested and criticized. After all his crimes were listed, the just trial began. After such a process, in just a few days, the fear and panic of Yuan Shu's soldiers were replaced by anger towards Yuan Shu's army! This went on for seven or eight days, and Liu Bei had become the savior of Huainan in the eyes of these soldiers. Many activists even directly requested to join Liu Bei's army and join the battle against Yuan Shu. This kind of result made Liu Bei very happy! Because he seemed to see a right path. Now these soldiers are able to fight for him because they know the benevolent policies he has implemented. In the future, as long as he continues to implement benevolent policies and constantly spread his ideas among the grassroots, it will only take a few years for him to have the most loyal troops! This kind of army is far superior to the unawakened troops under the command of other princes! Therefore, after seeing the results, Liu Bei pulled Qin Zhen over and praised him: "The military advisor's way of managing the army is really very innovative. I have never heard of such a method of training prisoners. I really don't know how the military advisor could come up with such a strategy." When Qin Zhen heard this, he shook his head and denied it: "This method was not created by me, but taught by you, sir!" "Could it be that it was taught by Lord Cai?" Liu Bei naturally knew that Qin Zhen’s master was Cai Yong. However, Qin Zhen shook his head when he heard this: "My master's name is unknown, and even you don't know him, but his teachings are so profound that no one in this world can compare to him!" Behind him stands not only the vast modern knowledge, but also the great men who created that knowledge. Especially the one who created a complete set of dragon-slaying techniques and is his life mentor. But even if I tell him now, Liu Bei won't know him, so it's difficult to say. When Liu Bei heard this, he was naturally yearning and wanted to meet such a wise man, but Qin Zhen didn't say it clearly, so he didn't dare to ask any more. In this way, Liu Bei's army trained for many days, and after the reorganization, it was able to advance. Unexpectedly, before he set out on the march, he received a letter from Ji Ling, saying that he was now ordered to guard Jiujiang, and that with the three families advancing at the same time, Jiujiang would be difficult to defend. Also, knowing that Lü Bu was a looting person by nature and not wanting the common people to suffer, he was willing to hand over Xiquyang and Yinling to Liu Bei, and asked Liu Bei to quickly prepare his troops and station there. After receiving this letter, Liu Bei was extremely surprised. He had been fighting for so many years and had never seen anyone voluntarily offer up a city, especially someone in Ji Ling's current state. His intuition told him that there must be something fishy going on! Therefore, after receiving the letter, he hurriedly called Qin Zhen to discuss the matter. After Qin Zhen read the letter, Liu Bei asked: "What do you think of this letter, military advisor? Is Ji Ling trying to lure us to take the city and use this to plot against our army?"

But after Qin Zhen finished reading the letter, he thought about it carefully for a while and then smiled: "You are right, the enemy did have a plan, but the plan was not in the two cities!" "They offered the city because our army has broken through the northern front and Lu Bu has deployed troops on the eastern front. These two cities are powerless to defend, so they are using this opportunity to withdraw their forces to defend Shouchun." "As for the calculation, it is nothing more than to let us take the city and make our army hostile to Lu Bu!" "This is not a bad thing. Our army wants to occupy all of Huainan, and we want to seize all these counties. Since the enemy army has offered them voluntarily, we can just accept them." "As for whether Lu Bu will be angry or not, our army has nothing to worry about. If he has any doubts, we will just let him leave according to the original plan!" Upon hearing this, Liu Bei naturally smiled, thinking that Ji Ling's behavior was nothing more than a last-ditch effort. I'm afraid Ji Ling would never have thought that they had already planned the overall strategy before coming. Now that they have the advantage in military strength, what difference does it make even if they become enemies with Lu Bu? Besides, even if there were no these two cities, the relationship between him and Lu Bu would have collapsed long ago, and there would be no need to worry at all! Thinking of this, Lao Liu smiled and stroked his beard and said: "So according to what the military advisor said, we are going to move into these two cities?" Qin Zhen thought for a moment and suggested: "That's right. Not only must we occupy the second city, but we must do it quickly and take Yinling before Lu Bu does!" "Then we'll see how Lu Bu reacts, and then we can deal with it calmly." "Also, I see that the enemy is in such a situation inside the city that it seems difficult to deal with both sides. It must be that something is wrong with Sun Ce in the south. We can send spies to the south to see if there is any unusual movement by Sun Ce's army." "This time our army's enemy in conquering Huainan is not Lu Bu, but Sun Ce!" Hearing the name of Sun Ce, Liu Bei nodded and immediately sent spies south to find out Sun Ce's military intelligence. On the other hand, along with Ji Ling's arrangement, Sun Ce also received the news that Liu Bei had captured various counties. (End of this chapter)