Ever since Liu Hong obtained the art of making paper, he had made a fortune. He had even earned the praise of the wise ruler and was praised by the scholars.
When Zhang Rang presented the paper-making technique, he also mentioned that it was passed down from the Liu family. Now that someone was criticizing Liu Heng, he naturally could not shoot himself in the foot."Your Majesty, with a virtuous minister like Liu Heng guarding the border, not only does he defend against the enemy, but he also summons refugees to reclaim the border, making the northern part of the Great Han peaceful and the people have no worries about food and clothing. This is a good thing for the country and the people, and should only be praised.”
These words made Liu Hong feel that he had a good eye for people. Now that he looked at these people below, he was furious. "Didn't you want to accuse Liu Qing's family of plotting a rebellion? Alright, all of you go to Liangzhou. As long as you manage that place to be as rich as Xuantu Prefecture, I will immediately do as you say! Get lost!"
On that day, the three officials on the list were fined their salaries and sent to the border of Liangzhou to be prefects.
As a result, Liu Hong felt like a wise ruler. Coupled with Zhang Rang's words, he issued an unprecedented imperial edict of praise to Liu Heng, praising him for taking in the rootless people for the sake of the country and the people.
Liu Heng was also given full authority to deal with the affairs of the surrounding foreign races. Any foreign land that was conquered would become Liu Heng's fief in name.
However, Liu Hong was still suspicious and secretly ordered Zhang Rang to send his confidant to the three counties to investigate.
Zhang Rang was naturally happy. How could he let go of such a good opportunity to collect money? Therefore, he sent his adopted son Zhang Ang to patrol the area while he was passing on the imperial edict.
When these people came to Xuantu Prefecture to eat, drink, and have fun, they asked for money openly and secretly, but Liu Heng always greeted them with a smile and gave them money and items without hesitation to shut their mouths.
Soon, it was time to go back. Zhang Ang left reluctantly after he had a good time. It wasn't until he left Xuantu Prefecture that he remembered the secret instructions of His Majesty...
Zhang Ang's report naturally said all the good things about Liu Heng.
This imperial edict made Liu Heng's Xuantu Prefecture the first special administrative region of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
However, Gongsun Du, who was nearby, was suffering. The migration tide that had stabilized with great difficulty was once again revived, and it seemed to be getting more and more intense.
Gongsun Du had no choice but to set up checkpoints on the road connecting the two counties, forbidding ordinary people from entering and leaving. Merchants had to pay a considerable amount of money to be allowed to pass.
This series of extraordinary measures forcibly stopped the loss of population, but it also planted the seeds of conflict between the officials and the people of Liaodong Prefecture.
After the basic institutions of the three counties resumed operation, Liu Heng selected a few densely populated areas and built four primary schools, one middle school, and one university under Xun Yu's supervision.
June 5th, Liu Heng reassigned the mission: Xun Yu was in charge of the civil affairs of the three prefectures, and Gao Shun was appointed Chief of Staff and Minister of Intelligence. Gao Shun was in charge of military affairs.
After that, Liu Heng promoted Chen Hu to a lieutenant and commanded 500 soldiers to defend Xuantu Prefecture from Liaodong.
Qin Feng was promoted to lieutenant, and he would be in charge of the defense of Goguryeo and Fuyu.
Zhao Feng continued to hold the post of Right Beiping County Mayor and Chief Historian. At the same time, he transferred 1,000 soldiers back to Right Beiping.
By May, the population of the three prefectures had increased to 220,000, of which nearly 100,000 were concentrated in Xuantu Prefecture. The number of weapons and equipment kept increasing, and the new army expanded again, creating five new regiments.
By the end of May, the new army of the Military Governor's Office had one heavy cavalry regiment, two light cavalry regiments, two crossbow regiments, two heavy infantry regiments, two light infantry regiments, one engineer battalion, one artillery battalion, one reconnaissance battalion, one special battalion, and two service regiments. 10000 combat personnel, 250 officers, 2000 service regiments, and 50 officers; The number of soldiers in the original county was reduced to 2,000.
Seeing that Xuantu County City was overcrowded, Liu Heng decided to build a new city.
Firstly, they could build a first-rate city for offense and defense, which would become the main logistics base for the future invasion of the northeast.
Secondly, the new city could be used as the center to build a scattered road network, which would become the commercial, political, military, and logistics center of the northeast to facilitate the management of the northeast in the future.
Thirdly, the workload of building a new city was huge, so they could use this as a pretext to continue recruiting large numbers of immigrants into the three counties.
Fourthly, he could use the fastest way to enrich the people, stimulate domestic demand, speed up commercial development, and expand the scale of industry and commerce to the maximum in the shortest time possible.
Of course, according to the laws of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the construction of a new city required the permission of the imperial court.
Of course, Liu Heng would not forget this, so he sent an application letter to Luoyang with a large sum of money and a new artifact.
Zhang Rang and the others had persuaded him, and the Youzhou Provincial Governor had promised him, but Liu Hong accepted them all.
When they learned of this, Gongsun Zan and Gongsun Du immediately cursed. Wang Yun sat in the mansion and secretly mourned.
After the imperial edict to allow the construction of the new city was issued, Liu Hong secretly found He Jin, Huangfu Song, and Lu Zhi to discuss.
"A few days ago, Youzhou reported that the Wuhuan have gathered troops at the border again," said Liu Hongan, sitting on the dragon throne. Last year, after we repelled them, I issued an edict requesting the border prefectures and counties to recruit their own troops and raise money and food to guard them. According to the report of the Youzhou governor, the situation is quite optimistic.
There were 8,000 soldiers from Yuyang Prefecture, 6,000 from Shanggu Prefecture, 6,000 from Daijun Prefecture, 4,000 from Youbeiping Prefecture, 5,000 from Liaoxi Prefecture, 5,000 from Xuantu Prefecture, 7,000 from Liaodong Prefecture, 5,000 from Lelang, and 30,000 from Youzhou. In total, there were 76,000 soldiers.”
"Your Majesty is wise!" He Jin rejoiced."With 80,000 troops, there is no need to worry about the Wuhuan being destroyed!"”
"Your Majesty, 80,000 troops are enough, but how are we going to prepare the provisions?" Lu Zhi asked worriedly. In recent years, Youzhou had been suffering from natural disasters and man-made disasters. It was already extremely poor. It was probably difficult for it to support the army in battle!”
Huangfu Song was very optimistic." Duke Lu, His Majesty does not necessarily want to attack the Wuhuan first. I suggest that we lure the enemy deeper and gradually eliminate the invading enemies in the western part of Liaodong and Shanggu. When the time is ripe, we can send troops to attack the Wuhuan.”
Liu Hong was overjoyed and praised,"What Huangfu Qing said is very suitable for me." In that case, Huangfu Qing's family should make preparations. When the Wuhuan attack, they should immediately go to Youzhou and lead the entire prefecture's army to exterminate the Wuhuan!”
Liu Hong's secret spy was not known to outsiders. Soon after, the Youzhou governor died of illness, and Liu Yan, a relative of the royal family, was transferred to the post of Youzhou governor. Huangfu Song was also promoted to a former general and began to train the Luoyang Royal Guards.
Xuantu Liu Heng didn't notice the abnormal activity in Luoyang, he was fully focused on the new city.
The location of the new city was extremely important. It had to take into account the geographical location, water sources, supplies, transportation, and so on. After comprehensive consideration, only the later Shen Yang was the most suitable. Therefore, it was chosen to cross the Hun River on the west side of the county city and named Hanyang City (Anti-Harmony).
The construction of Hanyang City started in the middle of June, and almost a third of the forces of the three counties were mobilized. Liu Heng also wanted to take this opportunity to check the actual mobilization ability of the three counties.
The city was designed to be 45 feet high, but to the public, it was only 20 feet.
Xun Yu was dissatisfied with this and advised,""My lord, Luoyang's Imperial City is only thirty-five feet tall, and the Great Han Dynasty's laws state that the height of the walls of the cities in other counties is fixed. Those who violate it without authorization will be punished for treason. Once someone reports to the imperial court…"
Liu Heng also knew the pros and cons, but considering the important military use and symbolic significance of the new city, he could only stick to the bottom line: "The height of the wall cannot be changed. This is a border county, and it is being attacked from three sides. If the wall is not high enough, it will not be enough to defend against the enemy. The loss of Bintu and Changli in Liaoxi County was caused by this.”
Xun Yu knew what Liu Heng said was reasonable and said,""What did the Imperial Court say?"
Liu Heng frowned slightly,"We can only continue to rely on Mister Kong Fang!"”
"Mister Kong Fang?" Xun Yu asked curiously. I've never heard you mention him before. Who is he?”
"Xun Gong will know later," Liu Heng smiled.”
Soon after, a large sum of money was sent to Zhang Rang's residence in Luoyang. Zhang Rang was greedy for money. Coupled with Liu Heng's generous spending, Zhang Rang decided to stand up for Liu Heng after considering that there might be more benefits in the future.
He then contacted the Ten Generals and some of the court officials to deceive their superiors and subordinates. All the memorials to the secret report were detained. Even if they were occasionally sent to Liu Hong, they were eloquent enough to exonerate Liu Heng.
In short, Liu Hong was skeptical and sent people to investigate because Zhang Rang and others had reported the news to him.
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