Surviving as Guan Yu in the Three Kingdoms

Zhang Yan, the leader of the Yellow Turbans in Yu Province, was in a good mood these days.

Although his subordinates had been defeated by some strange fellow in Xu County, his Yellow Turbans had been victorious in all other battles.

Half of Yu Province, including Xu Commandery, had already effectively fallen into his hands, and if he could just defeat Liu Yan, the Governor of Yu Province who was holed up in his city…

‘I, Zhang Yan, could obtain all of Yu Province.’

Perhaps because the thought alone was too pleasing?

He started laughing like a madman.

“Hehehe, well now. To think that someone who used to barely serve as a Dun Zhang under a county magistrate now controls half of Yu Province. I really made the right choice following General Heavenly Master (Zhang Jiao).”

Zhang Yan, who had been receiving a salary as a lowly but proper Han military officer and had some power, didn’t actually join the Yellow Turbans for any grand reason.

Rather, even in the Han army where all sorts of misdeeds were commonplace, they were about to cut Zhang Yan from his position, saying his evil deeds had gone a bit too far.

At that time, seeing the Yellow Turbans rising like locusts all over the country, he thought “life is just one shot anyway” and joined the Yellow Turbans.

To survive, since he would die if he stayed put.

Deng Wu, Zhang Yan’s closest aide, chimed in.

“Honestly, if your heart doesn’t race when you hear General Heavenly Master’s grand cause of overthrowing this damned world at once and creating a new world under the yellow sky, are you even human?”

Other subordinate generals added their own words.

“Aren’t the government troops being swept away like fallen leaves before General Heavenly Master’s lofty will?”
“A new world will soon come.”

Although Zhang Yan still had Liu Yan, the Governor of Yu Province, and Liu Bei and Zhu Jing hindering him, he boasted as if he had already taken all of Yu Province.

“When I devour this Yu Province, General Heavenly Master will appoint me as the Governor of Yu Province. Then I’ll give you, Deng Wu, the position of Bieljia Congshi, and I’ll sprinkle positions like Prefect and County Magistrate to the rest of you. Let’s thoroughly enjoy luxuries we couldn’t even imagine before!”

He hadn’t even taken all of Yu Province yet, but in his mind, he already felt like he had eaten it all up.

The people here started getting excited as if drunk, even though they hadn’t had any alcohol.

“Good, we can’t miss out on drinking at such a good time. Just one cup.”

As he said that, a Yellow Turban soldier hurriedly entered the tent and reported.

“A thousand elite troops are now encamped in Dongzhong Gorge.”

At those words, Zhang Yan frowned.

Even though the enemy was only 1,000 strong, if they were elite troops and not disorganized government soldiers, he had to pay some attention.

In other words, his plan to have just one drink during the day was ruined.

“Do they look like government troops?”
“For government troops, their armor is too shiny, and they look too orderly to be government troops. Wouldn’t it be some local magnate who mobilized all his family’s soldiers?”

Hearing this, Zhang Yan showed an unpleasant expression.

He wasn’t angry at the scout, but he felt wronged that some trash had appeared to hinder him when everything was going so well.

‘The elite units that local magnates have are dangerous.’

In the late Han to early Three Kingdoms period, those called “peerless warriors” like Guan Yu or Zhang Fei could actually face about 100 disorganized troops alone.

A unit of elite soldiers under a local magnate, fully equipped with armor and weapons, was powerful enough to sweep away more than ten times their number in disorganized troops.

“It’s hard to deal with them if they’re blocking a gorge. I understand for now, you may withdraw.”

As the scout withdrew, Zhang Yan’s subordinates swallowed hard.

“It might be a bit difficult to face elite troops, but don’t we still outnumber them by 30 times? Let’s overwhelm them with sheer force.”
“Right now, what we lack compared to the government troops is armor, so shouldn’t we take this opportunity to get plenty of armor?”
“If we rob those rich bastards once, it’ll be an enormous amount of money.”

Zhang Yan had a headache.

These guys were brave fellows who knew how to charge recklessly without any regard for their lives when they went into battle.

But when such a huge amount of wealth dangled before their eyes, they completely lost their minds, and once their eyes rolled back, they didn’t even listen to his orders well.

Amidst this, Deng Wu, Zhang Yan’s right-hand man, stood up and spoke carefully.

“Since brother said he would eat up Yu Province and receive this place from General Heavenly Master, everyone has been refraining from looting. Isn’t that right?”
“Indeed, these days we’re only looting local tyrants and officials, not poor civilians. That’s because when we take over Yu Province, there need to be people left to pay taxes. If we kill everyone, only wasteland will remain.”

In Yu Province, the wealth distribution was so unequal that the wealth owned by one family belonging to the ruling class was more than the wealth owned by hundreds of other civilians.

So, in fact, you could loot almost all property and food by robbing only the rich.

However, the Yellow Turbans under Zhang Yan were the kind who felt itchy if they didn’t loot from poor civilians, sell women, and commit atrocities like killing men.

So everyone here was in a state of some accumulated dissatisfaction.

“Everyone agrees with that, so we’ve somehow endured, but the soldiers are getting antsy wanting to make a big score. So we need to thoroughly loot those guys wearing sturdy armor and distribute it to quell the dissatisfaction. Otherwise, who knows when they might cause trouble again.”
“Well, that’s true.”
“The difference in troop numbers is 30 times. Some of our comrades might die in the process, but if we capture a thousand sets of armor and other supplies, it’ll completely resolve the dissatisfaction.”
“If we select those who’ve fought well among those who’ve followed us so far and distribute armor to them, everyone will be happy.”

With one set of armor, you could buy a cow and quite a large plot of land.

So for the Yellow Turbans who rose up saying “let’s live well for once,” there’s no better reward than this.

“Ah, alright. Even though they’re in a gorge, their numbers are small so we should be able to handle it. We’re going to crush those guys camped in that gorge soon, so from today, give strict orders to all troops not to drink. Let’s thoroughly rob them once.”

**

“Yunchang, is this really okay? No matter what, the enemy outnumbers us by more than 30 times.”

I understand why Gan Ning is worried.

No matter how thoroughly I’ve prepared, the enemy force is 30,000 while we only have a thousand men.

To those words, Liu Bei admonished Gan Ning.

“The other soldiers over there are bravely keeping their positions, but if a general like Gan Ning shows anxiety, everyone will worry more. So don’t say such things.”

On the battlefield, even if you joke about us losing, they might cut off your head right there.

It might seem a bit cruel, but originally in war, everyone has to endure and suppress their fear of having to fight the enemy with their lives on the line.

If even one person shows fear, it spreads faster than a plague and makes everyone unable to fight.

That’s why even the most cautious generals before battle will push forward boldly as if they hadn’t been worried at all when the battle is about to begin.

Because that’s how you can win.

What Gan Ning said violates this, so it’s natural that he gets scolded.

“I’m sorry, Xuande…”
“Still, don’t worry. Although we’re certainly fewer in number, we have a bit of an advantage here. Right, Yunchang?”
“The passage here is narrow, so it’s difficult for the enemy to deploy many troops at once. So even if the enemy brings a large army, they won’t gain an advantage.”

The biggest reason a large army is good is that they can deploy 3-4 allies to face 1 enemy.

If it’s 1 vs 1, you can’t know which way the victory will tilt, but if 3-4 people attack at once, one person simply can’t handle it and will end up dying.

This grows like dominoes, with companies being wiped out, battalions being annihilated, leading to the army’s defeat.

However, when fighting in such a narrow place, the enemy can’t throw in many soldiers at once, so they can’t gain this advantage.

“The skill of each individual soldier is far superior on our side. Moreover, if all thousand of us combine our strength, our firmness will be like that of Mount Tai.”

Of course, soldiers who have received even a month of proper training are stronger than those who just thrust randomly.

Moreover, drill training has the power to allow mere soldiers to exert tremendous strength by forming a group.

Without exaggeration, from the perspective of the disorganized rabble we’re facing, we’ll feel as solid as a rock.

“That’s right, Gan Ning.”

Gan Ning smiled wryly at those words.

“If Xuande says so, it must be true. And looking at the dust rising over there, it seems the enemy has finally arrived.”