Chapter 1: Survival and Despair

  The first to arrive were the Yellow Turbans who came at the news.

  The history of the Three Kingdoms began with the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Since the mid-Eastern Han period, due to the large-scale enclosure of land by powerful aristocratic landlords, the eunuchs and imperial relatives took turns holding power, leading to extreme political corruption and darkness, coupled with successive natural disasters, which plunged the peasants into a desperate situation. Therefore, from the time of Emperor An of Han's accession to the throne until the eve of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, a period of over 70 years, peasant uprisings occurred almost continuously. In the more than 30 years before the Yellow Turban Rebellion alone, there were no less than 20 recorded peasant uprisings in historical records. The widespread and high tide of peasant uprisings across the country foreshadowed an even larger-scale national revolutionary storm that was about to arrive. This was the Great Yellow Turban Rebellion led by Zhang Jue.

  Zhang Jue, originally the leader of a faction in Taoism called Taiping Dao. He called himself "Great Virtuous Teacher" and used the spread of Taiping Dao as an excuse to secretly organize uprisings among peasants under the guise of practicing medicine. At first, the Eastern Han government thought that Taiping Dao was a "good way" that encouraged people to do good, so it did not attract attention, allowing Taiping Dao to develop smoothly. Zhang Jue continued to expand the scope of his organization and sent eight disciples to spread the teachings in various places. After more than ten years of effort, more and more people joined Taiping Dao, covering eight states: Qing, Xu, You, Ji, Yan, Yu, Jing, and Yang. The number of followers reached tens of millions. To organize the scattered forces, they divided the followers into 36 factions, with a large faction having over 10,000 people and a small faction having 6,000 to 7,000 people. Each faction had a "qu xiang" (a military leader), all under Zhang Jue's unified command.

  As the timing was getting more and more ripe, they decided to launch an uprising in the "Jiazi" year and issued four slogans: "The blue sky has died, the yellow sky should be established, the year is Jiazi, and the world is greatly auspicious." The "blue sky" refers to the Eastern Han, while the "yellow sky" was what Zhang Jiao called himself. At the same time, they also sent people to write the two large characters "Jiazi" on the gates of temples in the capital city Luoyang and on the walls of government offices in various states and counties using white clay as a secret signal and symbol for the uprising.

  In AD 184, Ma Yuanyi first mobilized tens of thousands of rebels from the two provinces of Yang and Xu to gather in Yecheng, preparing to coordinate with uprisings in the capital and other places. Ma Yuanyi went to Luoyang several times, organizing eunuchs Feng Xu and others as internal responders, agreeing to rise up together on March 5th of that year. However, in February, a traitor named Tang Zhou appeared within the rebel army, revealing Ma Yuanyi's uprising plan to the Eastern Han government. The Eastern Han government immediately took action, first carrying out a large-scale search and capture operation in Luoyang, brutally suppressing the uprising. As a result, Ma Yuanyi was captured and martyred in Luoyang; over 1,000 officials, soldiers, and civilians who believed in the Taiping Tao were also slaughtered. At the same time, the Eastern Han government ordered the authorities of Jizhou to search for Zhang Jue and others.

  Zhang Jiao knew that the matter had been leaked, so he sent people to notify all parties overnight and launched a rebellion immediately. The rebels wore yellow turbans on their heads as a symbol, so they were called the "Yellow Turban Army". This organized and prepared peasant uprising finally broke out in February ahead of schedule. After the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out, Zhang Jiao claimed to be the "Heavenly General", his brother Zhang Bao was called the "Earthly General", and Zhang Liang was called the "Human General", unified command of the battle. They led the rebel army to attack the states and counties, burning government offices, confiscating the wealth of the wealthy families, and many local officials fled in fear. In less than ten days, all parts of the country responded one after another, and the capital was shaken.

  Three Kingdoms games also largely follow this rule. At the beginning of the hot-blooded Three Kingdoms game, when the player appears, it is during the Yellow Turban Rebellion period. Due to the suppression by local officials and powerful families, the Yellow Turbans have reached a dead end and can only maintain their survival by plundering everywhere.

  Qin Lan's city, because it had reached level 5, began to take shape and its reputation was revealed, attracting the attention of other forces. Also, due to its immense wealth, as soon as it appeared, it instantly became a giant in Xuzhou, causing the Yellow Turbans to swarm in from all directions. Fortunately, because the incident occurred suddenly, these Yellow Turbans had not yet formed a large scale, so this batch of attacking Yellow Turbans only numbered in the thousands and were the worst of the Yellow Turban soldiers.

  However, even this small amount of troops would pose a huge threat to the newly born Xiangyang City, because there were no troops in the city at all. The barracks in the city now have only one upgraded to level 5, and the others are still wandering around levels 2 and 3. Moreover, most of the manpower is used for production, so Jiang Wei has not recruited any troops at all.

  However, when Qin Lan walked out of the government office, Jiang Wei, as the main general, had already led his troops out of the city walls and began to set up defenses.

  Rushing to the city wall, Qin Lan shook her head instantly. Famous general is famous general, although it's a brave and strategic shadow of Jiang Wei, the fifth regent minister of Shu Han, but Red Card Jiang Wei still can't escape the fate of being rigidified.

  All troops were lined up in a single line formation, standing outside the city to await the enemy. Good heavens, if the other side had mobile troops like light cavalry, it would almost be a foregone conclusion that they would be annihilated as soon as they clashed.

  Qin Lan immediately opened her mouth and shouted loudly, "Jiang Wei, listen to orders!!"

  "Finally arrived!" Fortunately, the named general Ka Kaito is a bit stiff, but he is loyal and will not be dissatisfied with his master. He will perfectly execute all of his master's commands.

  "Everyone return to the city immediately!"

  "Yes!"

  Although the city wall of Xiangyang is only level 4 and not very high, it's absolutely not something that thousands of Yellow Turbans can easily take down. As a defender, instead of taking advantage of the city wall, he actually goes out of the city to meet the enemy, Qin Lan couldn't help but laugh and cry at this Red Card Jiang Wei...

  "The archers stood on the city wall and shot, other soldiers patrolled back and forth, strictly preventing this group of Yellow Turbans from climbing up the city wall." Qin Lan quickly gave the order to defend, because at this moment, within sight, the yellow flags of the Yellow Turban army had already appeared in a swaggering manner.

  The Yellow Turbans were actually mostly just peasants armed with simple weapons, wearing yellow headscarves, swarming towards the city gate of Xianyang like a beehive, still excitedly shouting and screaming, as if Xianyang was a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

  Just as they rushed into the city wall's range of over a thousand meters, the arrow towers on the city wall began to show their might. With just one round of intense shooting, three or four hundred Yellow Turbans fell to the ground in a pool of blood. These Yellow Turban soldiers were stunned and stopped dead in their tracks, shocked to see that their comrades who had charged forward had turned into cold corpses. But on the battlefield, where was there time for this?

  The second wave of arrow tower attacks was launched again, and another three or four hundred Yellow Turbans fell down with a miserable cry. The remaining ones suddenly panicked and screamed as they fled. Qin Lan had been preparing on the city wall for half a day, and he had even arranged ten light cavalrymen at the gate to wait. As long as the Yellow Turbans under the city wall were killed to a certain number, the light cavalry would charge out... But all of this was rendered useless by the Yellow Turbans' escape. Qin Lan was stunned, wasn't this the game "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"? How could those soldiers possibly run away?

  But now, what does he see? The excitement of the Yellow Turbans at their reunion, the despair of death in that instant, all vividly expressed on every face, and the panic of those who survived... Is this still a game? It's clearly a living world!!

  PS. Seeking recommendations...

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