Since the Wuhuan tribe moved south to the Han dynasty in the twenty-fifth year of the establishment of the martial arts, that is, in 49 AD, they were placed in the pastures on the border of the northern counties.

The Han family gave gold, cloth and other goods to the Wuhuan tribe every year, and Wuhuan also gave back slaves and livestock every year, and the two were safe and sound for more than 100 years.

After Emperor Huan and Emperor Ling succeeded to the throne, the Han family was declining day by day, and the Wuhuan in the north gradually became stronger after a hundred years of recuperation, but because the strength of the various tribes was almost the same, the tribe (the leader of the Wuhuan tribe was called the adult) did not obey anyone and attacked each other. Therefore, there is basically peace between the Han family and Wuhuan.

And it wasn't until Qiu Li, the lord of Liaoxi Wuhuan, took the top position, that Liaoxi Wuhuan's strength grew rapidly, and this balance was suddenly broken. Without the knowledge of the imperial court, he unified the Wuhuan tribes and became Wuhuan Shan Yu, and the herdsmen called him Khan.

During the Yellow Turban Rebellion last year, Qiu Liju wanted to take advantage of the chaos to loot Youzhou, but unfortunately all the troops going south were blocked from the Great Wall, and a small number of troops who infiltrated it were also devastated, and the whole army was annihilated.

At that time, Qiu Liju realized that the timing was not good, so he decisively withdrew his troops. And on this day, a God-given opportunity was placed in front of him again.

In the royal tent, which symbolized the status of the khan, Qiu Liju and the lords of the Wuhuan tribe were gathering, and in the middle of them stood a man who was dressed completely differently from them. With his hair tied and crowned, and his clothes on the right side, he is obviously a Han Chinese.

There were also two large boxes in front of him, "Honorable Khan, on behalf of my lord, I would like to express my great respect to you, these are small gifts for the Khan, and please accept it with a smile." ”

After speaking, he opened the two boxes in front of him, one box was full of gold cakes, and the other was all kinds of jade jewelry.

The adults of the surrounding tribes stopped eating, staring at the treasure in front of them with a look of greed in their eyes.

Only Qiu Liju, who was sitting at the top, was unmoved, still cutting the roast leg of lamb in front of him with the golden knife in his hand.

He ate the cut mutton in one bite, and his face, with several scars, became hideous and terrifying with the action of chewing.

Qiu Liju did not look at the treasure, but stared at the Han envoy, and saw that the messenger's scalp was numb.

He swallowed the chewed mutton and asked in very pure Chinese, "Who is your master?" ”

As the most powerful and wealthy country in East Asia today, the Han Dynasty was attracted to the surrounding nation-states and took the initiative to learn from her culture.

Of course, the reasons will be different, some are learning because she is advanced and wants to be strong, and some are learning because she is greedy for her wealth. Qiu Liju is clearly the latter.

The envoy was covered in a cold sweat when Qiu Liju's prestige saw it, and said tremblingly: "My lord is... It's Nakayama Taishou... Sheet... ZHANG Chun. ”

Qiu Liju thought about it carefully: "Oh~ Zhongshan, if I'm not mistaken, Zhongshan is still south of Youzhou, on the border of Jizhou and Zhuo County. ”

"Heh... Hehe, Khan remembers... It's so clear. The messenger was still afraid.

"The Central Plains is rich, I have long longed for it, remember the place and I won't get lost when I go to it later, hahaha~"

The other tribesmen laughed too, but most of them laughed at the cowardice and cowardice of the messenger.

Qiu Liju laughed and said: "Zhang Chun sent you thousands of miles away, and sent so many treasures, there must be something to ask for, you just say come and listen, Khan, I am in a good mood today, maybe I will agree." ”

The envoy thought of the purpose of this visit, calmed down again and said with a smile: "My lord does have something to ask me to bring a message to the Khan, but not to ask the Khan, but to discuss the plan with the Khan. ”

Qiu Liju said impatiently: "I don't like to talk in a twisted way, you hurry up and say the purpose." ”

The envoy's face was a little embarrassed, and he scolded in his heart: This Yidi chief really doesn't know etiquette, and he is so arrogant. But at the moment, he was in the Yidi tent, but he had to bow his head.

"Now that the Han family has no way, and the people of the world are in dire straits, my family decided to respond to the people and raise troops. However, the strength was weak and the uprising failed, so he wanted to ally the Khan and led his army south to crusade against the Daoless Han Dynasty. The time is set after the autumn harvest, and the aftermath will be successful, and there will be heavy thanks. ”

Qiu Liju thought: It will be three months later, and the cattle, sheep and horses will be fat and strong, and they can indeed go south.

After speaking, the envoy looked at Qiu Liju with a smile, he felt that these Yidi were greedy and stupid, and for the sake of these treasures and after-the-fact rewards, he would definitely agree.

After hearing this, Qiu Liju stood up, walked up to the messenger, and looked up at him. And the envoy also looked down at Qiu Liju with a smile.

The Han family was powerful and wealthy, and the men were generally much taller than those of the surrounding ethnic groups. Just like the two of them who are now looking at each other, the envoy is a head higher.

Looking at it, Qiu Liju suddenly burst out and punched the messenger in the stomach. The messenger's eyes protruded, his mouth opened, but he could not scream, and slowly fell to the ground, arched himself, looking like a boiled shrimp.

Qiu Liju lowered his head and looked down at the messenger who was foaming at the mouth and crying, and said lightly: "Only the heavens can make Ben Khan look up, and the others can only kneel on the ground and look up at Ben Khan." This time I will teach you a lesson, go back and tell Zhang Chun that the Khan agreed to the matter of the alliance. After the deed is completed, in addition to the reward, I have to give me the plain in Liaodong in the Great Wall as a pasture, get out. ”

The messenger endured the severe pain, got up from the ground, said goodbye to Qiu Liju, and walked away in disgrace.

Then there was another burst of laughter in the tent. Originally, the lord of the Wuhuan tribe of Liaodong vassal country, the greedy king, couldn't straighten his waist with a smile: "Khan, the Han people are still so cowardly, his frightened appearance just now made me want to laugh for a long time, hahaha~"

Another lord of the Wuhuan tribe in Liaodong said: "The Han Dynasty is like an old man who is about to die, and it is no longer as strong as it was back then. It is a terrible thing that a weakened nation should still have such a rich land. Such a beautiful and rich land should be ruled by more powerful people. ”

Qiu Liju laughed loudly: "The two adults are right, the last time we didn't succeed in going south, it was because no one answered us and failed. Now this heaven has once again sent the opportunity to us, and the flower world of the Central Plains has opened its arms to us.

Three months later, the tribes went south, and the western Liaoxi tribes crossed the Great Wall and plundered all parts of Youzhou, and Ben Khan personally led the men and horses of the eastern Liaodong tribes to occupy Pingzhou. When the time comes, we will meet in Zhuoxian and plunder the Central Plains! This time we're going to grab one. ”

"Your subordinates obey the orders of the Khan!"

……

Three months later, the autumn harvest was completed, and all the people were truly settled. Even if the most difficult time in Pingzhou has passed, everything will be on track next year.

Zhang Hao can finally breathe a sigh of relief, but it's not time to rest.

If it were not for the fact that the world was still in the Xiaoice period during this period, and the cold winter was far longer than that of later generations, Zhang Hao would rather open up more farmland than build pastures, after all, China is an agricultural people. Now Pingzhou can only be half farming and half pasture, so it operates like this.

However, the construction of the pasture is almost complete, and the lack of livestock has become a big problem, and the livestock in the pasture in Fang County alone cannot fill the newly built pasture. Therefore, I still have to go to the mutual market on the border to the north to buy it.

Relying only on the loot and compensation, Zhang Hao was still able to buy enough livestock. However, if the government bears it alone, the pressure is still too great. You can't put all your money in one basket, can you?

Therefore, Zhang Hao learned the method of raising funds in later generations, and openly raised funds from the landlords of Quanping Prefecture, so that they could occupy a part of the equity, so that they had common interests. I believe that if they come up with any radical policies in the future, they will be less opposed.

Forced by Zhang Hao to extinguish the prestige of Lelang's strong resistance, no matter how unhappy those heroes were, they all took out money and sent it to the government in exchange for a share ownership contract written in black and white with the official seal.

With money, you will not be constrained to do anything, Zhang Hao personally led people to the mutual market outside the Great Wall of Wangping County, which is also the largest trading mutual market in the entire Pingzhou.

As a businessman, Mi Zhu was called over by Zhang Hao, he is used to doing business, and he has much more vision than Zhang Hao.

The livestock in this season have been very robust after grazing in spring and summer, so those steppe tribes will take advantage of this time to exchange excess livestock for other scarce materials on the grassland, such as grain and salt.

After shopping around the mutual market for a while, Zhang Hao and the others still bought a lot of cattle and sheep, but they didn't see a single horse after walking for so long.

Zhang Hao didn't notice it, but Mi Zhu, who often travels back and forth between the north and south in autumn and winter, felt a little strange. He said to Zhang Hao: "Lord Assassin Shi ......"

"Why does Zizhong still call me like that in private, just call me by my name at this time." Zhang Hao interrupted him.

Mi Zhu smiled and changed his words, but his tone was serious: "Mingde, something is wrong?" ”

Zhang Hao looked puzzled and asked, "What's wrong?" ”

"You don't come often, so I don't know, every time I came here before, there would be a lot of people, but this year there are more people, and more cattle and sheep are exchanged, but there is not a single horse."

"There's nothing surprising about this, maybe it's because the production of cattle and sheep is relatively high this year."

Mi Zhu shook his head: "The grassland was also affected last year, so why won't so many livestock come out this year." And didn't you notice, when we exchanged cattle and sheep just now, those people asked for all the food or salt and other materials, and they didn't ask for any gold. ”

"The grasslands are already short of salt, and that's not surprising."

But gold was just as important to them, and it was a tribute they used to sacrifice to their ancestors. I have a guess that the Wuhuan people on the grassland are going south again this year, what does Mingde think? ”

Zhang Hao was still a little scoffed when he heard this, they did go south during the Yellow Turban Rebellion last year, but only a small force took advantage of the chaos to run into the Great Wall. This year is not a big deal, compared to last year, it is quite smooth.

The grassland is also rich in water and grass, which can be seen from the number of cattle and sheep in the market. The Wuhuan people themselves are well fed, why should they go south to plunder and fight with the Han army.

Suddenly, Zhang Hao thought that there was still a big event this year, there was a rebellion in Liangzhou in the west, the imperial court had sent Zhang Wenqian to quell the rebellion, and Dong Zhuo, who was originally reduced to a white body, also regained it.

Zhang Hao remembered that Zhang Wen seemed to have something to do with Cao Cao's family, and Cao Cao's grandfather Cao Teng recommended Zhang Wen. And Zhang Wen recommended Gongsun Chan to go to Liangzhou to quell the rebellion, but later Gongsun Chan stayed in Youzhou to quell the rebellion because Zhang Chun and Zhang Ju contacted Qiu Liju, the leader of Wuhuan, to rebel.

It was like a bolt of lightning that slashed through Zhang Hao's mind, and he stood motionless in place.

Mi Zhu saw that he looked strange, so he asked, "Mingde, what's wrong with you?" ”

"Zizhong, something big is about to happen."