When he learned that Zhang Jiao had begun his activities, Guo Peng had a deep sense of crisis.

In order to survive in the troubled times, he must make various preparations.

Internal, external, industrial, and even military security.

Since his father was a county magistrate, there were still some soldiers in the county, although those soldiers looked weak and had no combat effectiveness at all, and they were no different from miscellaneous servants.

But it doesn't matter, the Eastern Han Dynasty has come to the present, except for a few troops in the central government, the local army has long been useless.

The major local families have their own private troops to ensure safety, protect their property and agricultural estates, and their own fortresses, and if something really happens, these miscellaneous servants in the local counties will not be useful at all.

Since Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu deposed the military service system of the whole people in the Western Han Dynasty and changed it to a conscription system, the mainstream of the military system in the Eastern Han Dynasty was the conscription system.

There are several standing armies in the central government, but there are almost none in the localities, and they are temporarily recruited when something happens, and they are sent home after the matter is resolved, and they are not always prepared, so as to maintain the tradition of "strong cadres and weak branches".

This situation was maintained until the later period of Cao Cao's reign, when Sima Yi's eldest brother Sima Lang proposed the reintroduction of the local county and state standing army system, and the local standing army reappeared.

For a long time before that, it was a temporary recruitment and dismissal home, which really maintained the need for centralized power, and the local county guards could not be separated.

However, this also made the local forces weak, and it was okay to make small fights, and once there was a major rebellion, the fragile foundations of the Eastern Han Empire were exposed.

That's why the Yellow Turban Rebellion was in full swing, sweeping through most of the states and counties across the country, and dealing a heavy blow to the Eastern Han Empire.

At this moment, the Eastern Han Empire's lost mobilization capacity was simply not enough for it to organize the forces against the Yellow Turban Rebellion without relying on the local tycoons.

In the end, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty had to lift the party's shackles, drink water to quench his thirst, and allow the local county guards to recruit soldiers, which opened the chaotic era at the end of the Han Dynasty.

But before that, most of the yeoman farmers had been bankrupted by the local wealthy clans, and they were included in their own estates to hide their hukou, and the Han government could not recruit enough soldiers, because they were all in the estates of the local wealthy clans and became their private property.

Nowadays, the Cao family has a private armed force, and the Xiahou family also has a private armed force.

Guo Peng grew up in the estates of the two families, watching the tenants of their estates work hard to create all kinds of objects, and saw large wheat fields, fish ponds, and even large pear fields and grape fields.

These local tycoons occupied most of the land in the local area, owned a large number of tenants and farms, each of which operated different industries, such as farming, iron smelting, food processing, weaving clothes, etc., and could complete daily business transactions internally, achieving a relatively complete manor economy.

And some of them are directly privileged and do not have to pay taxes, and the local tyrants also have various ways to evade taxes or even not pay taxes directly.

The main taxpayers are the homesteaders, who are growing in numbers and are burdened with extremely heavy taxes.

The Cao clan and the Xiahou clan occupy a large amount of land and set up a large number of manors, which is quite self-sufficient, and the income is huge, but they will not take it out and hand it over to the state at all.

After seeing these scenes, Guo Peng had a deeper understanding of the saying that "the economic base determines the superstructure".

No wonder Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty wanted to sell his official position on a large scale for money.

The Eastern Han Empire is dead, the country has begun to split at the economic level, and the division at the political level only needs an opportunity.

Therefore, if Guo Shan does not get the support of these local tyrants, he will not be able to sit firmly in the position of county commander at all.

Fortunately, after Guo Dan received some help from the Cao clan and the Xiahou clan, he also had a little bit of his own tribal power, and as the strength of his own family, it was enough to protect himself.

As the eldest son, Guo Peng naturally has his own security force, which is required by Guo Peng himself, Guo Shan wants to arrange an attendant for him, he doesn't want it, and asks Guo Shan for money and buys it himself.

Buy those peasant children who have to be sold because their families are too poor to survive.

Guo Shan bought a total of five, relatively healthy boys, who were about the same age as himself, and brought them back to Guo's family to raise.

He personally took care of their food, clothing, and housing, gave them names, practiced martial arts with them, and personally taught them to read and write.

They all shouted "young master" to Guo Peng, which was requested by Guo Peng himself, and they were the only ones in the whole family who called Guo Peng like this, which was very special.

After getting along for a while, I ate enough, put on warm clothes, learned the rules between master and servant, and recognized words, so everyone followed Guo Peng with all their hearts.

Basically, they are inseparable to protect Guo Peng, except for Guo Peng himself who asked them not to follow, basically they followed.

The five of them are together, although they are not very old, they look quite majestic, and they don't want Guo Dan to send someone else to protect them.

Guo Peng named them with gold, wood, water, fire and earth, and called them Guo Jin, Guo Mu, Guo Shui, Guo Huo, and Guo Tu according to their age and birthday, and they were all very happy and felt that it was a very honorable thing to be named by their masters.

And being able to read and write is a great gift in their eyes.

When Guo Peng took the bamboo slips to teach them to read, they stared at the bamboo slips as if they were looking at some god.

Guo Peng doesn't think it's strange that in this era when education is a privilege, it is normal for ordinary people to never see a single "book" in their lives.

Of course, as attendants, their literacy is Guo Peng's special treatment for them, and martial arts is a compulsory course.

They are the servants of the Guo family, which is equivalent to Guo Peng's personal subordinates, from the moment they were bought, their lives were only for Guo Peng, and their necessary duty was to do so when they were required to sacrifice themselves to protect Guo Peng.

Because of Guo Peng's own request, relying on Guo Dan's relationship, Guo Peng obtained the qualification to practice martial arts with the exclusive martial artists of the Cao family and the Xiahou clan, and practiced martial arts with Cao Ren and Xiahou Yuan.

The Cao clan and the Xiahou clan are naturally insightful in terms of culture, Guo Peng followed Guo Dan to learn scriptures, but in terms of martial arts, the private martial artists of the Cao clan and the Xiahou clan are still relatively good.

This martial artist is relatively old, and it is said that he is a veteran leader after participating in the crusade against the Qiang rebellion in Liangzhou, and he also served as a centurion.

was sought by the Cao family to be a family martial artist for the children of the Cao family's Xiahou family, not only teaching martial arts, but also teaching some skills on the battlefield and the basic knowledge of leading soldiers.

Guo Peng had such an opportunity, so he asked Cao to let his five followers also learn the skills together.

The Cao clan naturally would not object, so Guo Peng took the five people of Jinmu, Water, Fire and Earth to learn martial arts and the art of battle formation.

I have to say that some things are written in books, and these veteran leaders who don't know a single big character have really never seen it, and they don't know it when they see it, but they know what to do.

This is the most simple accumulation of experience, and the experience gained in exchange for life is precious.

So Guo Peng has a lot of respect for this veteran leader, and there is no contempt for him in his words, which makes the veteran leader very grateful to Guo Peng.

The veteran leader often opened a small stove for Guo Peng, and taught Guo Peng some of the battlefield life-saving techniques that he "did not easily teach to the outside world", and Guo Peng did not look down on him at all.

It is a skill to survive on the battlefield, and it is an amazing ability to be able to crawl and roll in the army for decades and still be able to get out of the army, which is a kind of ability that ordinary people really can't learn.

The book of war, Guo Peng asked Cao Ren and Xiahou Yuan to borrow it, and they must learn it in a real way, some of which can correspond to some chapters in the book of war, while some are contrary to each other.

So Guo Peng understood what it meant to read to death, and what it meant to talk on paper.

On the battlefield, soldiers are indeed only a part of the whole army, but in the end, soldiers are not machines, but living flesh and blood.

With the exception of the very few Iron Divisions who can be trained as Iron Men, most of the army is a rabble.

How to control the rabble who are greedy for life and afraid of death and can easily flee from the wind is actually a skill.

From this veteran leader, Guo Peng gained insight into the psychological state and thoughts of the grassroots leaders in this era.

There is no sense of family and country, no ideals and beliefs, all he does is to eat well, wear warm clothes, take a little pitiful military salary, and carefully think about how to survive the next battle and loot more property.

A true rabble.

Defend the country?

Inexistent.

I don't know a word, I can't eat enough, where does the feeling of family and country come from?

There is no doubt that if Guo Peng wants to live well in the future, there is a chance that he will come into contact with these rabble.

And in the process of contacting the veteran leader, I also heard him tell some tragic stories that happened to him.

At the age of fifteen or sixteen, he was recruited to Liangzhou at a young age to fight against the Qiang, and the war between the Eastern Han Empire and the Qiang lasted for a hundred years, and he participated in it for a full thirty-five years.

During this period, he experienced countless life and death situations, the people he knew died and died, and the comrades-in-arms who were eating together just now were stuck in the head by the Qiang people's arrows after a while, and they died lifelessly, and never got up again.

It's not that he's no longer afraid, but he's already numb and has no feeling.

But the most difficult thing for him to accept was that when he left home, his family was still alive, and when he finally got out of military service and was able to return home, his hometown was already deserted by the war.

He searched his hometown, but only a few families remained, and a villager who had survived told him that all his family had starved to death.

Speaking of this, the veteran leader who looked down on life and death couldn't cry silently, and his heart-rending appearance made Guo Peng feel painful.

But apart from sighing, Guo Peng also knew that he couldn't do anything.

Grass people, that is, their lives are as cheap as grass, and they are never in the eyes of those big people.

At least the veteran leaders themselves are still alive, but how many of them will continue to live in the tragic and chaotic times that are coming?

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