In winter, the factories in the north are still in full swing to build all kinds of weapons. In order to prevent Lü Bu from moving south, Tao Ying, at Liu Ye's suggestion, began to accumulate grain and grass, and then transported it to various cities on the border by water. In the autumn harvest of 197, Xuzhou also caused a drought, and Huainan was even worse. However, fortunately, Xuzhou actively built water conservancy when Chen Deng was there, so when the drought came, the people had water to irrigate the fertile land, and the famine was not so serious.

The year 197 was the most nervous time for Yuan Shu. There was a great drought in Huainan, and some officials asked Yuan Shu to open a warehouse and release grain, but Yuan Shu angrily reprimanded the officials, and more and more people began to dislike Yuan Shu, and more and more people began to flee to other places. In addition, the loss of the land of Danyang in the south, as well as the defeat of the Yangtze River water battle, made Yuan Shu's vitality even more damaged.

Yuan Shu got up early and extorted a lot of grain, so he only cared about Shouchun, but didn't care about anything else. But Tao Ying is different, the Ministry of Government recruits soldiers in the border areas to tuntian, anyway, there are a lot of wasteland in the border areas, and then recruit strong men as soldiers, and their families can get the hukou of the military hoarding land where they are located. Once they have a hukou, they will be able to get a share of the land, and the military farm will also distribute their necessary subsistence food and autumn grain, but they will return it at a certain interest rate in the following year.

In this way, the common people can not only survive, but also enrich the population of the frontier, and they can get more grain and grass in the coming year, and the military farms will be taxed every year in the future. If you don't ask about the homeless, they will form groups of three or five, and then they will fall into the grass on the mountain, and then there will be chaos everywhere!

The place where the south meets Huainan is constantly absorbing Yuan Shu's men and horses, while Tao Ying in the north is busy transporting grain. First of all, the grain and grass of the southern Xiapi State were hoarded in the Xiapi City Grain Depot and the Pengcheng State Grain Depot, which were all military rations to ensure the safety of the state administration and could not be moved at will. The second is to transport the grain and grass of Donghai County to the cities along the border, so that the safety of the northern barrier can be better ensured after the military grain is transported enough.

In 197, because of the war with Cao Cao in Nanyang County, coupled with the drought, famine began to prevail in the prosperous Nanyang, and for a time the price of food in Nanyang soared, and the people began to be displaced. In order to quickly stabilize Nanyang and not give Cao Cao a chance to take advantage of it, and at the same time to win the hearts of the people of Nanyang, Tao Ying ordered Liu Xun, who was stationed in Liang State, to escort 100,000 stone grain and grass to support Nanyang. In order to prevent thieves from blocking him on the way, Tao Ying dropped Cao Chun and led the Hell Demon Army to escort grain and grass with Liu Xun.

100,000 stones of grain and grass were transported for a whole winter, but fortunately, when the heavy snow closed the road, the grain and grass were escorted to Nanyang on time, which stabilized the soaring grain prices in Nanyang, and the people finally did not have to starve to death in the snow.

Time is very fast, and when the spring sun shines on Taoling Town again, it is already the spring of 198. Tao Ying stayed in this world for four years, during which he opened the Mathematics Classroom, and the agricultural industry has been greatly developed, but the first industrial revolution has not yet been carried out as expected. However, this year is an extremely important year for Tao Ying, because this year, Tao Ying has completed the three-year period of filial piety.

He wants to fulfill his promise to Miss Gan and take Miss Gan as his wife!

Tao Ying wants to marry a wife, which is a big deal for Xuzhou! Originally, it was planned to get married in March, but according to the specifications and etiquette, it was impossible to rush to get married at this time. So in the end, Tao Ying had to set the date in autumn. Marriage needs a matchmaker, and it was the current Shanyang Taishou Zang Ba who was the matchmaker for Miss Gan at the beginning. Hearing that Tao Ying had moved back to Pengcheng from Taoling Town, Zang Ba and the veterans who followed Zang Ba were all excited.

Four full years have passed, and they have followed Tao Ying from when he had nothing, and now Tao Ying sits on the land of nine counties. And Tao Ying also promised to give it to the state pastor in the future, and now Tao Ying is going to get married, and he wants Zang Ba to be the matchmaker, and each of them is thinking all the time that Tao Ying can think of these veterans and then reuse them. Now every battle in Xuzhou is led by newcomers, and their main general, Zang Ba, has not killed the enemy on the battlefield for a long time.

In March 198, Sun Shao sent news from Yuzhang that under Sun Shao's persuasion and Zhao Yun's troop display, many of Liu Xuan's subordinates were willing to follow Tao Ying. However, because there was no holy decree to offer the emperor, Hua Xin was reluctant to go to Donghai County to take up his post. Hua Xin didn't want to offend Tao Ying, a strong general in Xuzhou, so he entertained Sun Shao in Yuzhang, and asked Zhao Yun to station his soldiers and horses in the north of Yuzhang to defend Sun Ce's soldiers and horses.

Hearing that Liu Miao had died, Sun Ce was also eager to try Yuzhang, and Zhou Yu also sent an envoy to Yuzhang. But at this time, Sun Ce continued to fight against Liu Xuan, and many of his fellow villagers died at the hands of Sun Ce, and many soldiers were reluctant to surrender to Sun Ce. Hua Xin also left Sun Ce's envoy in Yuzhang, and wrote to Xu Du on the other hand, asking Emperor Xian to take the idea.

After Hua Xin's letter was delivered to Xu Du, after Cao Cao got the letter, he knew that Tao Ying wanted to take Yu Zhang, so Cao Cao deliberately embarrassed Tao Ying. What Tao Ying wanted, he didn't give it to Tao Ying, so Cao Cao sent an order to Hua Xin in the name of Emperor Xian, and let Hua Xin come to Xu Du to serve. Then Cao Cao gave the land of Yuzhang to Sun Ce, let Sun Ce attack Wu County in the west, and at the same time canonized Sun Ce as the Marquis of Wu, and let him rule the three counties of Danyang, Wu County, and Yuzhang.

In order to reach Danyang, the holy decree was intercepted by Liu Pi, a yellow turban thief stationed in Runan. At this time, Runan was also short of food and clothing due to drought, and was often harassed by Cao Cao, in line with his hatred of Cao Cao, Liu Pi sent the holy decree to Pengcheng Tao Ying, wanting to exchange this holy decree for a cannon and twenty shells plus a thousand stone grain and grass.

When the holy decree was sent to Pengcheng, Zhang Zhao did not allow it, and exchanged the holy decree not far away. How can this decree be worth so much silver? And now Xuzhou's grain and grass are not very abundant, how can they give them these yellow turban thieves?

But when it comes to Liu Pi, Tao Ying has often heard of him in history, he is a warrior who dared to resist Cao Cao. And the Yellow Turban thieves, the reason why they are thieves, sometimes it is a last resort, if there is something to eat, who wants to rebel?

So in order to make friends with this thief leader, he said that he might not be able to use it in the future, so Tao Ying agreed to Liu Bi's request and gave Liu Pi a cannon with a thousand stones of grain and grass. In return, Liu Pi was willing to give up a passage so that Tao Ying's subordinate Nanyang County could be linked to Liang Guo.

After receiving the holy decree, Tao Ying summoned Jia Xu overnight to discuss countermeasures with Liu Ye and Zhang Zhao. This Cao Cao wants to borrow other people's stones to smash himself, so that he can have a civil war with Sun Ce, he can sit back and collect the power of the fisherman, he really thinks well!