People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 245 Prosperity
The death of Dong Zhuo was a real shock to the current court, which meant that the situation in the court would become turbulent again. Not only Cai Yong and Liu Hong realized this, but even Cai Yan also felt that a storm was about to come.

Seeing Cai Yong hurriedly leaving the house and entering the palace, Cai Yan's heart was filled with sorrow, and she inexplicably had a bad premonition.

Looking back, it seems that wherever I went these years, disaster would occur.

Her husband died of illness soon after she got married. She then followed her father to Luoyang, which was a tragedy of population migration. Even if she wanted to spend some time in peace in Mount Tai, she witnessed the decline of her brother-in-law's family with her own eyes. She and her sister were lucky to escape.

I didn't expect that such a huge change would happen so soon after I arrived in Chang'an. I don't know what will happen in the future.

Along the way, Cai Yan felt her fate was tragic and couldn't help wondering if she was a disaster star. She could only pray that this new turmoil would not affect herself and her loved ones.

However, her wish was destined to be just a luxury, because the disaster of Dong Zhuo's death soon affected Cai Yong.

Cai Yong went to the capital and did not return for a long time. Cai Yan and her sister waited anxiously, but what they got was bad news.

Just because Cai Yong expressed his gratitude to Dong Zhuo at Wang Yun's banquet, Wang Yun became furious and imprisoned him to await execution.

After Dong Zhuo's death, Wang Yun and Lu Bu took control of the government. However, Wang Yun hated Dong Zhuo so much that he wanted him dead, and Cai Yong offended him, which led to the disaster.

In order to save her father, Cai Yan ran around the capital and was able to use some connections. In addition, many scholars sympathized with Cai Yong and there were many voices in the court pleading for him.

However, no matter how hard they tried, they could not make Wang Yun give in at all, and in the end Cai Yong died because of this.

Cai Yan, who had just arrived in Chang'an, was greeted with such bad news, which made her heartbroken for a moment. She was only twenty years old, but she had already endured the greatest suffering in the world. It was really miserable.

However, in such a world, even the situation in the court is unpredictable and fluctuating. In comparison, my sorrow is not important.

Wang Yun and Lu Bu controlled the government, thinking they could rectify the situation. However, before they could gain a foothold, Li Jue, Guo Si and Zhang Ji brought disaster again.

These former subordinates of Dong Zhuo were wanted by Wang Yun and could not live in peace, so they wanted to gather their troops and retire.

However, at this critical moment, Jia Xu offered them a vicious plan, which led them to turn their guns and counterattack Chang'an. They succeeded in one fell swoop, not only forcing Wang Yun to death, but also driving away Lu Bu.

As a result, the Chang'an court, which had just escaped from Dong Zhuo's clutches, was immediately held hostage by Li Jue and Guo Si.

The twists and turns of events here were so intense that it was hard to keep up. This undoubtedly dealt a heavy blow to the Han Dynasty's carriage as it was rushing towards the cliff, accelerating the process of the Han Dynasty's demise.

The young emperor of the Han Dynasty, Liu Xie, was even more pitiful. He had not been emperor for a few days before he was once again controlled by Li Jue and Guo Si.

After the situation that the loyal Fu Xie had risked his life for collapsed, he no longer had a second chance to risk his life.

Fortunately, outsiders thought that Dong Zhuo was assassinated by Lu Bu and ignored his existence, which also prevented Li Jue and Guo Si from being overly prepared. He could still stay by Liu Xie's side to look for new opportunities.

A shuffle began on the Han side. It might seem earth-shattering, but in fact this was no longer the center of the world.

No matter how exciting the drama is in the Chang'an court, no one will care.

In today's world, the main theme is the struggle among the princes. Xuan Xia, which is entrenched in the north, is also a prince participating in the battle for supremacy in China in terms of power. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is one of the most powerful princes at the moment.

After all, even a leading prince like Yuan Shao would feel frightened when hearing the words "Xuan Xia".

After the previous battle, the Xuanxia army returned to the capital. Zhang Baiqi immediately stepped up the local military construction in Changshan. Relying on the large amount of equipment left behind by the Xuanxia army, he promoted Xuanxia's military training and conscription system in Changshan, and slowly got on the right track.

The advantage of the system and institutional advantages is that it does not rely on the outstanding military qualities of a particular general. Regardless of the general's level of leadership and training, the system and institutional advantages can produce excellent soldiers with relatively qualified average qualities, which brings about a huge improvement in the lower limit.

Perhaps it will only take a year for Changshan's troops to reach a generally qualified level.

Fortunately for Zhang Baiqi, this year may not be difficult to gain.

Since the last war, both Yuan Shao and Xu Chen have become obedient at the same time, and neither side has any intention of causing trouble for the other.

Yuan Shao was defeated by Xuan Xia and realized that he was not strong enough to deal with Xuan Xia. He was busy building cavalry and equipment, and was also planning to seize Qingzhou, Yanzhou and Bingzhou. Xu Chen was also busy developing. After Yuan Shao was defeated, he turned to the strategy of starting with the easy and then the difficult. Xu Chen did the same.

This greatly alleviated the military pressure faced by Changshan, leaving enough time for military construction.

Changshan has the 5,000 standing troops left by Xu Chen as the skeleton, and has given Zhang Baiqi an additional 20,000 troops. As long as there is a war, Changshan can organize 30,000 troops, including civilians, under extreme conditions.

Such 30,000 troops are completely different from the previous 30,000 Yellow Turbans in Changshan. Through regular training of grassroots military households and militia, daily training before the war, and various weapons and equipment delivered from Youzhou, the combat effectiveness of the Changshan soldiers can achieve a huge leap.

Zhang Baiqi, stationed in Changshan with 30,000 troops under his command, could intimidate the disobedient Black Mountain Army in the south and subdue them bit by bit in the name of the Yellow Turban orthodoxy.

Second, it can resist the military pressure brought by Yuan Shao in Jizhou. As long as Yuan Shao does not launch a large-scale attack, Zhang Baiqi can handle general small-scale battles on his own.

In this way, Xuan Xia would not have to be kidnapped by Changshan. Xu Chen did not want to compete with Yuan Shao, lest Xuan Xia fall into an endless vortex of war. Now it is good. Both sides feel the pressure and behave themselves. Xuan Xia has time to breathe, and Yuan Shao also has time to strengthen his armaments.

The previous war exceeded original expectations, but it also brought many benefits. At least the large number of people brought back from Qingxu greatly supplemented the labor force in Youzhou.

The population of Youzhou, which originally numbered only 800,000, instantly expanded to 1.3 to 1.4 million after this wave of additions.

A large amount of idle farmland originally controlled by the government was also distributed, and a new round of land reclamation began. It can be imagined that the annual income of the Xuanxia court will usher in a surge this year. The new population and new land in Changshan will inject powerful strength into Xuanxia.

A considerable portion of this population was absorbed by various emerging industrial sectors, further promoting the prosperity of industry and commerce.

After the forced promotion and support of Xuanxia's military supplies and various livelihood projects, a large number of large and small civilian factories began to spring up everywhere. After these factories met the military orders, their own production capacity spontaneously overflowed to the civilian population, and thus all kinds of goods on the market began to be dazzling.

Guan Hai and Zhang Rao, who were strolling in the street, had a deep understanding of this.

On the streets of Ji County, vendors and shops on both sides stretch so far that there is no end in sight. The items sold are diverse, including teahouses and inns, farm tools and household items, tables, chairs, beds, cabinets, bookstores and clothing stores, bricks, stones and wood, coal, ironware, ceramics and glass, toys and groceries, etc., which are dizzying to watch.

There was a constant stream of pedestrians coming and going, and there was no shortage of customers coming in and out of the shops.

From time to time, you can see a team of yamen officials in uniform leading the team through the streets. These yamen officials belong to the Ji County government. On weekdays, they not only have the responsibility to arrest bandits and criminals, but also supervise the market and investigate and punish unscrupulous businessmen. The order in the county town is mostly maintained by them.

Such a prosperous scene is hard to find in other places. Although Zhang Rao has been here for some time, he is always amazed every time he is in the street and feels the strong urban atmosphere.

It is hard to imagine that such a strong and vigorous urban atmosphere can emerge in border areas like Youzhou, which is often invaded by foreign tribes.

As the two were walking, Zhang Rao often looked around. The various kinds of goods here dazzled him. He had been to Jixian Street Market many times, but every time he came, he would stop to choose. The gradually prosperous commodity market could always meet the various consumption needs of citizens.

When a large number of people moved into Youzhou, they had to build houses to settle down, which required the use of bricks, stones, and civil engineering, as well as a kind of cement unique to Xuanxia, ​​which was a very powerful tool for civil engineering.

Once a house is built, large pieces of furniture, daily necessities and farm tools are essential.

Business production requires high-quality grain varieties, firewood and charcoal are daily consumption, and clothing and bedding are indispensable. Even if all kinds of factories of different sizes in Xuanxia try their best to operate, it is still not enough to meet the huge market demand, which forces the factories to continue to grow.

The productivity at the end of the Han Dynasty was indeed low, but Xuanxia's strong support with the court's will and policy orientation was fully capable of promoting the rapid development of Xuanxia's productivity.

In today's Xuanxia, ​​traditional family handicraft workshops have almost been completely eliminated, and large-scale centralized production factories have become the main form of industrial production, which is actually an advanced form of production.

The Xuanxia court above supported the development of industry and commerce in various forms. The various technological advances brought about by the Institute of Works also provided support for productivity, which led to Xuanxia's industrial and commercial market that far surpassed its contemporaries.

It is difficult for people outside Xuanxia to imagine the current situation in Xuanxia. Zhang Rao and Guan Hai are like those who have suddenly entered a land of abundance from a barren world with scarce resources, primitiveness and backwardness. This even makes them feel a sense of separation.

This naturally made them happy. At least they were very sure that their choice to go to Xuanxia was the right one.

However, although Guan Hai was impressed by Xuan Xia's wealth and strength, he still had some complaints after staying here for a while. It was all because of the huge difference in his situation after coming here, which made it difficult for him to accept.

Although Xuanxia is rich and powerful, it is meaningless if you don't live comfortably.

(End of this chapter)