The Cui Family Head had no choice. He could not persuade these shortsighted peers within the family.
One younger member volunteered, saying, "I've heard that Gongsun Zan, Marquis of Duting and General of the Household in You Province, is brave and skilled in battle. He has repeatedly crushed the northern nomads beyond the frontier. We can invite him to fight."
That younger member was named Cui Cheng, courtesy name Bujiu.
"Bujiu, you are mistaken. Gongsun Zan is from You Province, while we are from Ji Province. If we invite him here, wouldn't that be driving out a tiger through the front door only to let in a wolf through the back?" someone immediately objected.
They did not want their newly peaceful lives to be disrupted by war again.
War required provisions.
This was also the first time they had learned how many laborers an army passing through would conscript, how much grain and fodder it would extort.
Though they were a great clan and had people at court,
the eunuchs now held power. As a prestigious family of the pure stream, they could not easily associate with eunuchs, so they could only endure it.
Besides, if they refused to provide it, the Yellow Turbans would come and take it themselves.
Every household had shed untold blood.
Fortunately, it had ended after ten months.
Ji Province had been one of the regions hardest hit by the Yellow Turbans.
Guangzong and Julu had both erupted within Ji Province.
Even so, Ji Province later remained the largest province by population. This showed that the north remained overwhelmingly dominant during the Three Kingdoms era.
That was also the ultimate reason Jin Dynasty had been able to unify the realm.
Precisely because it had the largest population, it was also the most fiercely competitive, with