After internal stability, Lu Su announced his independence from Xuzhou and became a force of his own in accordance with the agreement with Gao Shun.

Subsequently, Lu Su signed non-attack treaties with Xuzhou Thorn Shi Taoqian and Huaiyang County Taishou Gongsun Kang, respectively, to stabilize the border security in the northeast; It turned out that it had a good relationship with Yangzhou Mu Liu Xuan, and the trade was very frequent, and Lu Su sent an envoy to Liu Xuan, promising to continue to maintain friendly relations with Liu Xuan, and would never take the initiative to attack Liu Xuan, which stabilized the relationship with Jiangdong.

When the news spread, the princes of the world were shocked and envious.

Especially the princes of Yuzhou were unhappy, they fought so desperately, just to occupy a county, but they didn't expect Lusu to be a tyrant, rise quickly, and occupy the rich four counties.

Many scholars despised Yuan Shu even more, and he started the earliest, but he failed so quickly, the four counties of Jiangdong were occupied by Liu Xuan, and the only two remaining counties were obtained by Lu Su; Yuan Shao's organs were exhausted, and he only got one county in Runan; The Yuan family is known as the fourth and third princes, but the ability of the heirs is so poor; The Yuan family is not worth relying on, but fortunately they did not take refuge.

More importantly, the territory occupied by Lusu is very well defended, with the Huai River in the north, the Yangtze River in the south, Dabie Mountain and Tongbai Mountain in the west, and the sea in the east, all of which are natural safety barriers; There is also Yuan Shu for its control of the southwest land export, and it also has a powerful naval army, it can really be said to occupy a unique good condition, only need to develop behind closed doors for a few years, who is the enemy of the surrounding princes?

Gongsun Kang's Huaiyang County was relatively stable, and there were very few people who fled.

Yuan Shao of Runan County couldn't sit still, the tax of the territory under his jurisdiction was extremely heavy, the original time, Jiujiang County and Lujiang County were Yuan Shu's territory, and the tax was not low, and it was not attractive to the people, but now it was suddenly replaced by Lu Su rule, the tax was very low, and there was no servitude, so the people in the south of Runan County fled to Lu'an County and Jiujiang County in large numbers.

Yuan Shao's army was concentrated in the north, and only a small number of officials in the southern county were ordered to maintain order, and there was nothing to stop the escape of the people.

The people there are oppressed and have no money to spare, and all their belongings can be carried with them, and they can walk as they say, which is very convenient.

Lusu has established a few new counties, and there is a shortage of a large number of people, and he is not short of money and food, so he does not refuse to come to the homeless

The two counties of Xia Cai and Ping'a in the east are located north of the Huai River, which is very convenient for accepting the people who have fled from Runan County.

In the west, Geyang County and Qisi County on the south bank of the Huai River in Runan County were connected to Lu'an County, and all the people fled, and even the people in the county fled to the county, so Yuan Shao had to abandon the two counties.

The central region faces the Tateshi County and Yangquan County of Lu'an County across the Huai River, so Lu Su took the initiative to send a naval army to meet the displaced people on the other bank to cross the river.

The displaced people only had to reach the banks of the Huai River, and there were warships to receive them, but the government was powerless and did not dare to go to the river to interfere.

Lusu has a strong cavalry, infantry has also grown to 50,000, and a strong naval army, and its comprehensive strength is second to none among the surrounding princes.

Yuan Shao had no choice but to swallow his anger, he could not afford to start a war on the northern and southern fronts at the same time, and he did not have enough naval troops to compete with Lu Su; At Feng Ji's suggestion, 1,000 cavalry and 2,000 infantry were transferred back from the front line and deployed on the north bank of the Huai River, but the effect was very unsatisfactory, and a large number of civilians still fled.

What made Yuan Shao feel even more threatened was that at the end of that year, Lu Su sent troops to capture Pingchun and Xiyang counties east of Tongbai Mountain in Jiangxia County, Jingzhou, controlled the southern three passes, and established Huaixi County in its place, and the county was governed in Xiyang City; Geyang County and Qisi County, which Yuan Shao had abandoned, were taken over by Lusu and placed under the jurisdiction of Huaixi County, which continued to accept displaced people from the north bank.

In order to escape the war, many people in Jiangxia County, Nanjun and Nanyang County in Jingzhou fled through Wuyang Pass and other passes, and Lusu accepted all of them and settled them reasonably.

Wuyang Pass, also known as Wusheng Pass, is known as a piece of feng shui treasure land of "Qingfen Yu Chu, Air Pressure Songheng, and Three Rivers", located at the junction of the east and west of the Tongbai Mountains and the Dabie Mountains, and the midpoint of China's north-south geography.

Fortunately, the territory occupied by Lusu is the alluvial plain of the Huai River and the plain of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and there is a large amount of wasteland to be reclaimed, and as many displaced people can be resettled.

Lusu has the support of Gao Shun, the wealth is abundant, all the newly resettled people, each person can get one stone of grain per month, until the first season of harvest stops, each person can get twenty acres of wasteland, the government provides agricultural tools, from the second year to pay taxes, the tax amount is thirty percent, but these cultivated land people can only cultivate, not the right to buy and sell.

As for the houses they live in, they can only build them with mutual assistance, but fortunately, the climate in the area south of the Huai River is warm, and people can live in a straw hut, and the demand for houses is not very urgent.

This is a good thing that fell from the sky for those displaced people who can't survive.

The good resettlement conditions not only attracted a large number of displaced people from Jingzhou and Yuzhou, but also a large number of domestic slaves, serfs, and hidden farmers from large families in their respective jurisdictions, disguised as fugitive refugees, and sought government resettlement.

This move made the big families in the county very dissatisfied, and they continued to resist Lu Su.

Lu Su himself is strong, and with Gao Shun as his backer, in case he can't stand it, Gao Shun will secretly support, so he is fearless and extremely domineering when he does things, completely ignoring the protests of those big households.

Then, Lu Su sent a large army to encircle and suppress several bandits in the Dabie Mountain, as well as to exterminate the independent forces in the jurisdiction, which was regarded as military training.

Those bandits were originally people who couldn't survive, Lu Su provided such good conditions for pacification, and the soldiers were strong, how could they dare to fight? Therefore, they all happily accepted Zhao'an, the brave men continued to serve in the army, and the rest of the people were settled as people, which not only increased the number of the people, but also stabilized the place.

As for those independent forces, they were all ambitious people, and in front of Lu Su's army, they were either exterminated or accepted Zhao'an and liberated a large number of ordinary people.

Not only that, Lu Su controlled Chaohu County, Zheng Bao went out on an expedition, and his family members were controlled, Lu Su took this as a condition and sent someone to contact Zheng Bao and ask him to lead the fleet to surrender, otherwise his family would be killed.

Yuan Shu is cowardly, his strength is weak, compared to Lu Su, not only the infantry and cavalry are strong, but even the naval army is not something that he Zheng Bao can compete with, if his family is killed, Yuan Shu will never avenge them, and he himself will be dismembered by those subordinates and die of a misfortune.

After careful consideration, Zheng Bao decided to surrender to Lu Su, and his subordinates responded positively, anyway, they heard that the bandits recruited by Lu Su had been well settled.

Therefore, after discussing with everyone, Zheng Bao not only prepared to lead the headquarters to surrender, but also actively contacted the part of the naval army led by Zu Mao to surrender.

Zu Mao was killed, and everyone surrendered to Lu Su by boat, which made Yuan Shu even more angry, and he was full of hatred for Lu Su, but he was surrounded by enemies on all sides and had no strength to attack Lu Su.

Sun Jian's old army, after occupying the county town along the river, had a foothold, and there was no threat, they slowed down the attack, and were unwilling to fight hard, but chose the opportunity to protect themselves; In troubled times, only the army and the knives in their hands make people feel safe, if they fight out their family foundations, they will lose their use value for Yuan Shu, and they will not be as loyal to the Yuan family as Sun Jian.

Lu Su only selected a few people from Zheng Bao's army to join the navy, most of the sailors were re-recruited, and the navy continued to train in the water village of Chaohu County; Most of Zheng Bao's sailors were placed as farmers, and their families were all here, which was the best place for them, with land to cultivate, houses to live in, very low taxes, no forced labor, peace and stability, they were very content, Zheng Bao continued to serve as the county commander of Chaohu County, but he did not care about the soldiers, only responsible for people's livelihood and construction, he had no objection to this, his little ability, in front of Lu Su could not make waves.

A large number of people who are engaged in water thieves outside the home, hearing about the changes in their families, look forward to returning home to live a stable life, and are unwilling to continue to live this fearful life, which leads to the instability of many people in Shuizhai.

Jiang Qin, whose name is Gongyi, a native of Shouchun County, Jiujiang County (now Shou County, Anhui), a water thief on the Yangtze River, learned of the changes in his hometown, and his subordinates thought of returning, and under pressure, they asked Lu Su to surrender; Lu Su gladly accepted it, and chose brave and healthy men from those who were willing to continue to serve in the army, but they were not under the jurisdiction of Jiang Qin; In order to facilitate control, Jiang Qin was appointed lieutenant of Dongcheng County.

The county lieutenants of each county were in charge of the cavalry and the infantry of the two districts, and they had to take on the duties of the government and be responsible for the security and order of the county town and the townships.

Zhou Tai, whose name is Youping, is a native of Xiacai County, Jiujiang County (now Fengtai, Anhui), and is also forced by life, leading some villagers to be thieves on the Yangtze River and plundering passing merchant ships for a living; For the same reason, he was forced to surrender to Lu Su, otherwise, he would likely be dismembered by his men.

The water thieves were treated the same, either in the army or as civilians; Zhou Tai was sent to Pang De's men, and after Pang De tested his strength, he was appointed as a cavalry marquis, and gradually promoted after his meritorious service.

The cavalry marquis enjoyed a salary of 400 stones, and he was already a middle-level military attaché, and Zhou Tai was very happy.

Seeing that their peers were placed in this way, they all lived a stable life, and those with strong force became officers, many bandits and bandits were envious, and there were no less than a dozen people who came to invest one after another, and there were many bandits on Liu Xuan's territory, and they were grateful to Lu Su.

In order to resettle so many people, in addition to transporting a large amount of grain and farm tools from Qingzhou, Lu Su also set up several counties to resettle them.

The reason why Lu Su spared no effort to resettle the people was because only these ordinary people were the main force in paying taxes, and those big families and wealthy families occupied a large number of estates, always trying to hide the land, hide the population, and evade taxes.

Lu Su is a local tyrant, claiming to be a ranger, and this move has made his reputation spread all over Jing and Yang, and the poor and chivalrous warriors are vying to vote, but the scholars are very resistant to Lu Su.

Now, Lu Su is powerful and ambitious, and his eyes are on Yuan Shu again, and Yuan Shu is on his side, which always makes him feel insecure and hinders his development to the west.

He didn't know that Yuan Shu was also calculating him.