The Jagged Cavalry of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 104 Chapter 104
On April 27th, the first year of Xingping in the Han Dynasty, Xuzhou Mu Zhangyan rode a horse on the road from Qu County to Pengcheng, with the scorching sun on his head, and the earth was a little cracked by the scorching sun. The temperature, at such a time, is too hot to come too early.

He didn't pay much attention to it, but continued on his horse. When he arrived at the Sishui River, he was surprised to find that the water level of the Sishui River had dropped significantly.

The hot weather, the cracks in the ground, and the drop in the water level all seem to indicate drought.

The crops in the field are not yet mature. If there is a drought at this time, the crops are likely to fail.

Thinking of the threat that the drought might bring, Zhang Yan felt a little uneasy in his heart.

After returning to Pengcheng, Zhang Yan immediately asked people to go to various places to measure the water levels of several nearby rivers. The result was the same as Zhang Yan's previous guess, the water levels of the rivers had dropped significantly, and a severe drought was quietly approaching.

Zhang Yan secretly rejoiced that he had discovered the signs of a severe drought before it came, so he sent a call to action to all counties and counties, asking the prefects and county magistrates of all counties to take the lead and organize the people to dig canals and use the river water from the rivers in the territory. Come to irrigate the farmland so that when the drought comes, there will be drought everywhere.

After the order was issued, all counties and counties in Xuzhou, Pei and Lu in Yuzhou, Shanyang County, Taishan County, Rencheng State, and Dongping State in Yanzhou, all under the rule of Zhang Yan, were organized by the government. , Counties and counties are actively carrying out drought relief work.

For a time, the drought relief work was in full swing. With the concerted efforts of everyone, thousands of canals were dug to draw water from the Sishui, Shushui, Yishui, Suishui, Jishui, Wenshui, Pushui, Huaihe and other water systems. water to irrigate farmland.

In just one month, all counties and counties put the drought relief work at the top of the priority list, and basically completed the tasks assigned by Zhang Yan. During this month, Zhang Yan visited various places and personally guided the drought relief work.

As the temperature rises, drought also follows. After entering May, the drought officially broke out in various places. The places under Zhang Yan's rule have not been affected much because they have actively done a good job in fighting the drought. .

Coincidentally, with the drought, there are also a large number of locusts.

Although Shanyang County, Taishan County, Rencheng State, and Dongping State escaped the drought, they failed to escape the catastrophic locust plague that broke out in Yanzhou.

Tens of thousands of locusts flew over from other places and began to destroy the crops in the four places, causing the crops in the territory to fail.Once the disaster broke out, it directly affected the nerves of Cao Cao, Lu Bu, and Zhang Yan.

Zhang Yan ordered the areas under his rule to use fire to fight against the locust plague, and at the same time open warehouses to release grain to relieve the people.And asked the government to persuade all the victims to migrate to the increasingly stable Pengcheng area.

As a result, most of the disaster victims in Yanzhou flowed into Pengcheng, and Chen Qun, the prefect of Pengcheng, actively made proper arrangements to resettle these victims in five counties with a small population of Liuxian, Guangqi, Qixian, Changli, and Hexiang. , and sent subordinate officials to temporarily act as county magistrates in five counties, not only distributing grain, but also measuring the land and redistributing it to them.

These people from Yanzhou were deeply moved, and they admired Xuzhou Mu Zhang Yan even more.

Lu Bu, who was stationed in Dingtao, was confident because he had received food from Zhang Yan before. He took the opportunity to set up a recruiting office in the territory, and all those who came to join the army would have food.In order to survive, some people joined Lu Bu's army one after another. Lu Bu's army suddenly increased by tens of thousands of people, and they are stepping up training.

In contrast, Cao Cao seemed to be in a lot of trouble. He had no money or food, and he could neither relieve the people nor recruit soldiers. He had the cheek to write to Yuan Shao in Jizhou, begging for food to survive the famine. Year.

Out of face, Yuan Shao sent someone to give Cao Cao some food and grass, but the food and grass were only enough for Cao Cao to last for a month or two, and he could not survive this famine year at all.

Cao Cao then followed the advice of his counselor Guo Jia, and dispatched General Xia Houdun to lead his Qingzhou soldiers, disguised as yellow turban bandits, to plunder grain in the relatively affluent Qingzhou.

Xiahou Dun directly aimed his spearhead at Pingyuan County under Liu Bei's rule, and plundered it. Liu Bei led Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and others to conquer, but they were outnumbered and defeated by Xiahou Dun, and even Pingyuan City was lost. The Qingzhou soldiers chased and killed them all the way.

Liu Bei, who had lost the plain, had no choice but to take the remnants of the defeated generals and went to attach himself to Tian Kai, the governor of Qingzhou, and temporarily stationed troops in Linzi.And Xiahou Dun sent his troops to plunder, and returned to Dongjun with food, grass and luggage.

In addition, in order to subsidize the army's salary, Cao Cao formed a special team and engaged in tomb robbery. He appointed the commander of this army as Captain Mojin, and specially set up Faqiu. Zhong Lang assigned this position to the management of Xiaowei Mojin and others.

Zhang Yan, Cao Cao, and Lu Bu divided Yanzhou into three parts, but none of the three forces has launched an action. Zhang Yan is also watching the changes, and is ready to free up his hands to continue to consolidate his position in Xuzhou. After all, Xuzhou is the foundation of his foothold.

In June, the drought relief work under Zhang Yan’s administration was coming to an end. As long as the victims entered Xuzhou, they were properly resettled, and Pengcheng’s population increased by 10,000+, all of which were reasonably distributed among five counties by Chen Qun. inside.

The locust plague in Yanzhou was completely cured under the concerted efforts of Zang Ba, Yu Jin, Bao Xun, Chen Ying, Mi Fang, Deng Yi and others.

After everything was stable, Zhang Yan began to recruit soldiers aggressively, and began to actively train soldiers.Without a strong army, it is absolutely impossible to gain a foothold in this world.

Today's Zhang Yan has money, food, and territory. It is not a problem at all to form a strong army.

Zhang Yan first asked the blacksmith in the smelter to create a heavy armor with excellent protection according to the armor he designed. After wearing the heavy armor, people can resist arrows and the lethality brought by swords, guns, swords and halberds. It's like being retracted into a turtle shell, free from outside interference.

However, after putting on the heavy armor, there is a disadvantage. Since the weight of the heavy armor itself has reached [-] catties, after wearing it again, the running speed will be relatively much slower.

The blacksmith forged a pair of heavy armor as promised. After careful inspection and repeated tests, Zhang Yan asked the craftsmen to forge [-] pairs of such heavy armor, and also asked them to forge [-] spears made of fine steel. Three thousand pairs of horse armor, three thousand helmets, and three thousand steel knives.

For this reason, Zhang Yan specially selected [-] soldiers with excellent riding skills from the army to form a bodyguard army.

Zhang Yan personally trained the guards and pro-army in various aspects such as discipline, speed, and physical fitness. The purpose was to build an elite army.

None of these soldiers lived up to Zhang Yan's high expectations. After Zhang Yan's one-month devil training, this group of soldiers has already been reborn and has become a well-disciplined army.

This morning, Zhang Yan was still training these soldiers on the school grounds, and a group of craftsmen came to the school grounds with their armor and weapons in a carriage.

Zhang Yan distributed these excellent weapons and battle armor to the soldiers. When the soldiers got them, they realized that even the horses sitting under them were also covered with armor, and the whole drive was wrapped in it.

All the men and horses were in armor, and after all the soldiers were dressed neatly, a heavy cavalry with a decent appearance appeared in front of Zhang Yan.

Zhang Yan reassembled his team and stood on the commander's platform, looking at the [-] heavy cavalry who had taken on a new look on the school field, and suddenly felt inexplicably excited.

Now that there are elite soldiers, but the lack of strong generals, Zhang Yansi thought about it, so he called Huwei Captain Xu Chu and Xiaoqi Captain Tai Shici over, and asked Tai Shici and Xu Chu to be the commanders of his personal guards.

When Tai Shici and Xu Chu came to the school grounds and saw such a heavily armed heavy cavalry, they were all surprised, but when they learned that Zhang Yan wanted the two of them to lead the army, they didn't even think about it. Thinking about it, I agreed decisively.

Zhang Yan also gave this army a name, called Iron Cavalry Battalion.

After the iron cavalry battalion was established, Zhang Yan successively established a heavy infantry battalion consisting of 5000 people, which was called the Iron Armored Battalion.Niu Jin and Xu Sheng were the commanders of the Iron Armor Battalion.

After the Iron Cavalry Battalion and the Iron Armor Battalion were established one after another, Zhang Yan began to focus on training the Iron Cavalry Battalion and the Iron Armor Battalion, making them the most elite soldiers and horses in Xuzhou.

In addition, Zhang Yan officially promulgated the decree on the establishment of the militia. The militia exists as a reserve service and is under the jurisdiction of the county captains. On the one hand, it can protect the environment and the people, and on the other hand, it can cooperate with the regular army to fight.He also made it clear that if there is a shortage of soldiers in the future, they will be directly selected from the militiamen, and the government will also be responsible for the military salaries of the militiamen.

Therefore, when Xuzhou was recruiting soldiers and buying horses, the militia was also quietly rising.

In terms of talents, because of the recommendations of Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong, Yan Yan, Bu Zhi, and Zhuge Jin came to vote one after another, and all of them were entrusted with important tasks by Zhang Yan and became the county magistrates who governed the local area.

And Zhang Yan even broke the traditional recommendation system, using self-recommendation and the official assessment mechanism, and only talents were selected. For a while, scholars in Xuzhou recommended themselves one after another. Anyone who passed the assessment was entrusted with important tasks and became a governing place. Officials who benefited the people swept away the haze of Tao Qian's era.

When all parts of the country are suffering from drought, Xuzhou is like a piece of paradise, which is booming.

As of the third day of July, Xuzhou had expanded its army to [-], and all localities were stepping up training of newly recruited soldiers and horses to prepare for emergencies.

One day, Zhang Yan was training soldiers on the school grounds, when Chen Qun suddenly came to the school grounds with a panicked expression, walked straight to Zhang Yan's side, cupped his hands and said, "My lord, Kong Rong, the Prime Minister of Beihai, sent someone to ask for help. Wait in the hall of the Mu Mansion, and please move, my lord."

"Kong Rong came to ask for help? What's going on?" Zhang Yan asked after hearing the news.

Chen Qun said: "My lord, let's talk as we walk, it's better to meet the envoy first."

Zhang Yan nodded, and handed over the task of training the soldiers to Tai Shici, while he and Chen Qun headed to the State Shepherd's Mansion side by side.

(End of this chapter)