"I wouldn't dare to wipe out the world. The two of us are just helping each other. If the two of us are lucky enough to take Jingzhou, then with the Yangtze River as the boundary, the north will belong to me, Zhang Xiu, and the south will belong to you, Zhang Xian. In addition, Jiangxia can belong to you. How about it?”Zhang Xiu said greedily.
"The north of the Yangtze River belongs to you?" Zhang Xian was stunned. He was now in Jingnan, which was equivalent to the south of the Yangtze River. He could only wait until Jiangxia.
"General, you should know that the one who gets Xiangyang will get Jingzhou. However, since General Zhang did not spare any effort to help, so what if Xiangyang is given to you?”
"If this matter can succeed, General will guard the north while I rule Jingnan.”Zhang Xian shouted.
However, the corners of his eyes revealed a deep and ruthless expression.
"That's straightforward. Then we'll make a blood oath. When the time is ripe, we'll attack from the north and south to chase Liu Biao.”Zhang Xiu laughed innocently.
Then the two of them swore an oath of blood to heaven, waiting for others to expel Liu Biao together.
After a long while, Zhang Xian's face gradually turned cold as he watched Zhang Xiu's departing figure.
"My lord, Xiangyang is a strategic location. If you get Xiangyang, you get Jingzhou. How can you give it up?”The scholar looked anxious. He had not interrupted just now.
"Ha, Zhang Xiu has less than 10,000 remaining soldiers, yet he wants to swallow Xiangyang. I'll agree to him for now. When Liu Biao is defeated, I'll take advantage of the situation to take Xiangyang, set out from Nanyang, and unify the nine prefectures of Jingxiang.”
Zhang Xian sneered, his fingers clenched in anger as he spoke in a sinister manner.
In this way, the nine counties of Jing State would be under his control.
At that time, it would be just around the corner for him to dominate the world.
The scholar was stunned, then he immediately cupped his fists and bowed."My lord is far-sighted, and I can't catch up with him.”
……
On the way,
Hu Che 'er couldn't help but scratch his head and said,""My lord, Zhang Xianhu is in the four counties of Jingnan. He is definitely not a simple person. How could he promise Xiangyang to us so easily?”
"If you think it's impossible, then it's fine. They were just using each other. As for who would win, it was still unknown. Otherwise, with the terrain of Jing Xiang, even if there were a million corpses, they could still take it?”
Zhang Xiu was expressionless, but his eyes were also filled with killing intent.
At the end of the Han Dynasty, it was an era that would eat people without spitting out their bones. How could it be as easy as reading novels to end this war?
…………
A few days later, outside Xinye City.
Zhang Xiu pulled the reins lightly and looked at the thousands of hectares of land, revealing a smile.
Along the banks of the polder fields, countless people were transplanting mulberry trees to stabilize the soil. Otherwise, if the water soaked for a long time, the banks would become soft and collapse.
"I haven't seen you for many days, and there are actually many more people coming and going.”Zhang Xiu looked at the endless stream of commoners and felt rather emotional. When he arrived at Xinye, this place was barren. How could he have such a life?
He could have today because he had food.
Not long after, they entered the city.
Xinye City was currently being repaired and expanded. Countless people were sweating like rain, making Xinye City taller and thicker, and even opening up a New town area.
The ancient city was built with rammed earth, similar to the inverted pillars of the later era. It was fixed with large wooden planks, then rammed earth was poured in and poured over section by section.
Other than some stone cities, most of the other rammed earth cities had a very wide foundation. Then, it became thinner and thinner like a fishing rod. It was very different from movies and television dramas.
"Don't slack off.”Lei Xu held onto his sword and shouted loudly. Seeing Zhang Xiu return, he hurriedly stepped forward and cupped his fists," My lord, you're back."
"Where is Wenhe?" Zhang Xiu nodded.”
"Advisor Jun should be dealing with government affairs in the General's Mansion. Advisor Jun has been working day and night these days and is mentally and physically exhausted.”Lei Xu sighed.
Zhang Xiu shook his head helplessly. He had no choice. Currently, only Jia Xu could use it. But these days, the government affairs were busy, and no one could help from the side, presumably it exhausted Jia Xu.
After a while, he was about to leave the house.
Looking at Jia Xu attentively correcting the government affairs, especially that tired face, Zhang Xiu couldn't help but feel sour in his heart. Ai, he wasn't a famous person, otherwise he would definitely find a few great talents to share his worries.
"Xing Ba is here too!"
"My lord." Gan Ning clasped his fists.
"My lord, why didn't you send someone to inform me in advance that you're back so that Xu could bring people to welcome you?”Jia Xu put down the bamboo slips, his eyes bloodshot.
"There's no need for the red tape. Have the rations promised by the Jing State's great clans been delivered?”Zhang Xiu said in a deep voice. This batch of rations was the key at the moment. Whether or not they could survive this shortage of supplies depended on this.
"Cai clan, Huang clan, Xi clan and Ma clan have sent most of their grain to the Xinye granary.”At the mention of this matter, Jia Xu's old face was full of smiles.
He had never thought that Zhang Xiu would actually collect a million dans of grain on his trip to Jing State. In this chaotic world, a million dans of grain could do too many things.
Zhang Xiu nodded in agreement and continued," I see that most of the polder fields outside the city have been successfully planted. Next, other than transplanting mulberry trees, the rest of the people will have to work as relief. They will repair the city walls, official roads, houses, and so on.”
"That's right!" Jia Xu cupped his fists and said.
"By the way, how's the household registration statistics of the people under our rule?”
"My lord, a few days ago, there were a total of 300,000 naturalized residents in Nanyang.”Jia Xu was quite satisfied.
This population was no less than the South County of the Jing State. As long as the war was reduced, it would be the same in less than three years.
"During its heyday, Nanyang had nearly three million people and was known as the hometown of the emperor. Today, it is only one-third of its former population, not worth mentioning.”Zhang Xiu's expression was solemn. This was a matter of millions of lives, and countless people had been buried here.
"Wenhe, you have to worry about the people.”
"Right, Xing Ba, how's the recruitment going?”Zhang Xiu asked.
In troubled times, the foundation of the country is one grain and two soldiers.
Why was it that Yuan Shao of Hebei could dominate the four prefectures and suppress Cao Cao so much that he could not breathe?
It was precisely because Jizhou was prosperous, with sufficient troops and food, and there were many brave generals and celebrities in Hebei, such as the four pillars of Hebei, and Yuan Shao's background that Cao's camp secretly colluded with Yuan Shao on the eve of Guandu.
"Replying to my lord, the people have signed up enthusiastically. Currently, we have already recruited 8,000 strong soldiers.”Gan Ning clenched his fists excitedly.
"However, my lord, if we want to take Xiangyang, we must have a navy to suppress Cai Mao's navy. This subordinate believes that the current navy should be the most important.”
Zhang Xiu frowned and pondered. Xiangyang was surrounded by many mountains, so he could only swim across the Han River. Without the navy, they wouldn't even have the chance to attack the city.
If Zhang Xiu remembered correctly, the reason why Guan Yu crossed Xiangyang and attacked Fancheng was because of the navy. He and Le Jin had fought many times at Qingnikou. The river was wide enough for warships.
Qingnikou was close to the Mianshui River and could turn into the Han River. The Cao Wei navy was exhausted, so Guan Yu dared to cross Xiangyang and surround Fancheng. Once Fancheng was lost, Xiangyang alone could surrender without fighting.
"Xing Ba is right, it is difficult to conquer Jing Xiang without a navy.”
"Gan Ning, listen up. I order you to set off immediately. Station your troops at Biyang, repair the docks at Bishui, build ships, and train the navy. You must train more than ten thousand elite navy troops within a year.”Zhang Xiu said heroically.
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