Chapter 60: The Blue Heaven is Dead, the Yellow Heaven Shall Stand

Since Emperor Xiaozhang, the lifespan of every Eastern Han emperor has generally not exceeded thirty years or so.

Only Emperor Xiaohuan lived to be thirty-six.

Liu Hong felt that the short-lived fate of the Liu family was also about to descend upon his own head.

Perhaps he truly did not have much time left.

In his final years, Liu Hong acted with increasing recklessness.

This year, Liu Hong held a military parade at Pingle Observatory in Luoyang, styling himself "Supreme General," riding a horse and holding a sword to inspect the troops.

It was also this year that a thunderclap rang out across the flat plains of Jizhou.

"The Blue Heaven is dead; the Yellow Heaven shall stand. The year is Wuchen; the world shall be prosperous."

The Taiping Sect Leader and Great Worthy Teacher Zhang Jiao raised the banner of rebellion in Jizhou.

This year was the Wuchen year; the Han possessed the virtue of fire, and fire gives birth to earth.

Therefore, the followers of the Taiping Sect who rose in rebellion all wore yellow turbans, and were known as the Yellow Turban Army.

At the end of the fifth year of Zhongping, the Great Worthy Teacher Zhang Jiao launched the rebellion with Jizhou as his center.

In a mere three months, the rebellion swept across the Thirteen Provinces of the Han, shaking the entire Great Han.

In the sixth year of Zhongping, Zhang Jiao led the Yellow Turban Army to victory after victory.

This World once again witnessed the power belonging to the common people, belonging to the farmers.

Within a short time, Zhang Jiao had already seized control of Jizhou, remotely commanded Qingzhou, and annexed Youzhou.

In five months, of the Thirteen Provinces of the Han, three provinces were already completely under Zhang Jiao's control.

And in the other ten provinces, the Yellow Turban Army was also marching forward in constant victory.

Over these years, the Taiping Sect followers had gone deep into the villages, infiltrated the county seats, and at the same time, were constantly advancing toward the provincial capitals.

Now, at Zhang Jiao's command, that hidden power had all erupted.

At the same time, some ambitious men who had long been unable to restrain themselves also began to rise in the wake of the trend.

Provincial commanderies fell, officials fled, the world responded, and the Imperial Capital was shaken.

The Great Han Empire, which had lasted for four hundred years, suddenly seemed to be in a state of precarious instability.

In the sixth year of Zhongping, the Great Han imperial court appointed Huangfu Song, Lu Zhi, and Zhu Jun as generals, leading one hundred thousand elite troops of the Great Han to suppress the Yellow Turban Rebellion.

The inertia of history revealed itself once again, according to normal history.

These three generals of the late Han were the main force that pacified the Yellow Turban Rebellion.

But some things had already changed.

The Yellow Turban Rebellion led by Zhang Jiao was absolutely not a riot without a purpose.

It was an organized and disciplined uprising.

The Yellow Turban Army did not burn, kill, and loot like locusts.

Instead, wherever they arrived, they carried out construction to reshape the local order.

Every Taiping Sect follower at this moment believed with absolute certainty that the future of this world belonged to them.

These Thirteen Provinces of the Han would sooner or later belong to their rule.

Therefore, facing the places they would rule in the future, they naturally could not destroy them.

After stabilizing his rule over the three provinces, Zhang Jiao marched directly into Sili, threatening the Imperial Capital, and the world was shaken.

Emperor Ling of Han, who had always been high and mighty in the imperial palace, finally felt panic at this moment.

Sili was the vital territory of the Imperial Capital.

Now that the Yellow Turban Army had invaded Sili, this Central Plains region was a flat path, directly threatening the Imperial Capital.

The Imperial Capital Luoyang faced the spearhead of the Yellow Turban Army, which made Liu Hong, who had always looked down upon the Yellow Turban Army, and those ministers, all feel terror.

In the eyes of these rulers, the Yellow Turban Army was nothing more than a group of mud-legged peasants in the mire.

Now that these mud-legged peasants were actually threatening their lives, how could this be allowed?

Liu Hong immediately ordered Huangfu Song, Lu Zhi, and Zhu Jun to quickly annihilate the Yellow Turban Army.

No one looked down upon the Yellow Turban Army, and everyone thought they were just a mob.

But they were wrong.

Over the course of five years, the strength of the Yellow Turban Army had long undergone earth-shaking changes.

The Yellow Turban Army had long since grown into a strong, organized, and disciplined army.

Now, all the Yellow Turban Army lacked was real combat experience.

At the beginning, the Yellow Turban Army might have been at a disadvantage when facing the imperial court's troops.

But very quickly, the cruelty of the battlefield caused the strength of the Yellow Turban Army to undergo earth-shaking changes, and they grew rapidly.

Even when facing the imperial court's troops, the Yellow Turban Army grew stronger with every battle.

The Great Han Empire had ruled the world for four hundred years, and for four hundred years, the rule of the Great Han had gone deep into the hearts of the people.

Since the Han, this name had become the name of an ethnic group.

The Great Han Empire was now increasingly corrupt, but it still possessed a group of loyal and devoted troops.

No one could deny the former strength of the Great Han Empire.

But no one could deny the current corruption of the Great Han Empire.

The Great Han Empire was like the sun; in the past, its light shone upon the Thirteen Provinces of the Han.

But now, it was like the setting sun, dying and gasping for breath.

Yet even so, there was still a group of people who, out of loyalty to the Great Han, risked their lives for it.

In history, these three generals of the late Han, Huangfu Song and the others, joined forces to pacify the Yellow Turban Rebellion.

But at that time, what they faced was a group of sallow and emaciated refugees, a group of unarmed commoners.

Even though the Yellow Turban Army shook the Thirteen Provinces of the Han, their strength was inferior to the imperial army, relying only on a group of desperate refugees who had no way to survive.

Coupled with the proper command of Huangfu Song and others, they were able to hold back the Yellow Turban Army, and eventually, Zhang Jiao, the core figure of the Taiping Sect, died, and the Yellow Turban Rebellion was finally quelled.

But the current Yellow Turban Army is not the group of refugees from history who had no weapons, were underfed, and were unarmed.

The current Yellow Turban Army's equipment is even more advanced than that of the imperial court, and every one of them is strong and sturdy.

After five years of farming and development, both weapons and food had long since been researched and produced by Zhang Jiao.

The current Yellow Turban Army is a force armed to the teeth.

As for military command, strategy, and the art of war, Zhang Jiao, having studied abroad in the modern era, has also trained a large group of relevant talents.

Men like Huangfu Song and Lu Zhi are famous generals of the age, but Zhang Jiao has the backing of the modern era, condensing five thousand years of Huaxia wisdom.

Therefore, even outstanding talents and famous generals of the late Han era like Huangfu Song cannot take down the Yellow Turban Army in such a situation for the time being.

Instead, the Yellow Turban Army fights more bravely with every battle, pressing directly toward the capital with a vast and mighty momentum.

At this moment, generals like Huangfu Song finally realized that what they were facing was not a mob, but an iron-blooded, powerful army.

The Yellow Turban Army threatened the Imperial Capital, and it seemed they could break through at any moment, which made Liu Hong in the imperial palace even more terrified.

In the imperial palace of the Divine Capital, Luoyang.

Liu Hong threw the battle report in his hand down in a rage and cursed, "Useless fools, all of you are useless fools! The Great Han has hundreds of thousands of troops, yet you cannot stop a group of insignificant commoners."

Liu Hong was furious, and the ministers present all knelt on the ground, trembling with fear.

"Your Majesty, please calm your anger! Your Majesty, please calm your anger!"

"Your Majesty, although the Yellow Turban Army is powerful, they are ultimately just a bunch of peasants. Your Majesty need not worry; once our Great Han elites gather, that Yellow Turban Army can be wiped out in an instant with a flick of a finger."

"Indeed! Indeed! Mere rioters can be wiped out with a flick of a finger."

Regardless of what the ministers present were thinking, at this moment, they all spoke in unison.

(End of this chapter)