Regarding Zang Hong's death, there is no special feeling for arrogance. A stubborn enemy, kill and kill, and live anyway, it is a waste of his own food. However, after this battle, the princes of Henan [south of the Yellow River] had more fear in addition to gritting their teeth and hatred when they talked about arrogance.

Moreover, after the news of Ganling City falling in one day reached Donglai, the easternmost part of Qingzhou, it actually made the trial match that was originally guarded dare not continue to insist. According to the battle report sent from the east, the trial was willing to hand over Donglai at the cost of asking Zhang Qiang to promise to save the lives of Yuan Tan's family. For such not too harsh conditions, of course, Zhang Qiang happily agreed.

Yuan Tan is just a middle-aged person, and his power was close to disintegrating before the collapse, so there is no harm in staying behind. Besides, Zhang Mad had no idea of killing the Yuan family. After all, the current time is less than ten years before the great changes in the imperial court, and the popularity accumulated by the Yuan family in the past hundred years is still huge. If it wasn't necessary, Zhang Qiang didn't want to take the initiative to provoke more resentment from the Shiren group against him.

Anyway, as long as the political status of the Yuan family is effectively deposed, within ten years, the Yuan family, who was originally the "fourth world and three dukes" whose prestige was crowned in the Han Dynasty, will not have any influence at all. In the face of the passage of time, the fickle human heart is very fragile.

The judge is a talented man and very loyal. For him, Zhang Qiang is very appreciative. Historically, the trial was to resist Cao Cao even when Yuan Shang's defeat had been decided, and even if he was captured in the end, he would rather die than give in. With such an impression in my memory, it is no wonder that Insolence would look forward to judging the appearance of being loyal to himself.

However, the insolent idea ultimately fell through. With his temperament and background, he is never willing to succumb to such "demons" and "moth thieves" as arrogance. After handing over the land of Donglai as promised, the judge immediately refused the arrogant appointment on the grounds of physical illness. Resolutely returned to his hometown and lived in seclusion. Even when the insolence was later completed, he was specially recruited to be an official many times, and the trial and match have always been stubborn.

In this way, more than ten years later, this capable minister with an upright temperament died of illness in a state of loneliness.

Retirement of the trial. It's just a small episode of the arrogant expansion of one's own power. After taking the Donglai region, the arrogant forces really became the first power in the world with the four prefectures of Merge, Hebei, You, and Qing, plus the two counties of Hedong and Hanoi. In the face of the formation of such a great enemy, the princes of Henan, who had been fighting with each other endlessly, were not at ease one by one, and began to quietly strengthen their mutual connections.

In particular, it only took a month for Zhang Qi to take Qingzhou's terrifying strength, which made Cao Cao and Lu Bu, who were directly facing Zhang Qi, very frightened. They don't want to be the next Yuan Tan.

Thereupon. Several of Cao Cao's important advisers began to get busy. When Cao Cao mobilized the Yanzhou army on a large scale to deal with the threat from the north, several strategists such as Xun Yu, Xun You, and Mao Jue left Yanzhou one after another and rushed to the banquet of the princes.

Among them, Xun Yu went to Yuan Shu, Xun You went to Sun Jian, and Mao Yu went to Lu Bu. As for Liu Biao. Cao Cao sent Lou Gui, a famous scholar, to persuade him.

One thing is clear, the princes who are afraid of the insolence of the south. Cao Cao is not alone.

At the end of May, the people sent out by Cao Cao to connect with each other had good news in return. Lu Bu and Sun Jian both expressed their willingness to form an offensive and defensive alliance with Cao Cao against the northern thief army. And Yuan Shu and Liu Biao, although they did not agree to join the offensive and defensive alliance, they also said that they could invade the south when the northern thief army invaded. Provide Cao Cao and Lü Bu with some grain, grass and baggage supplies.

In addition, Liu Chong, the king of Chen, the prince of the Han Dynasty, sent an envoy to Yanzhou without Cao Cao's envoy to express his willingness to send troops. Work with Cao Cao to deal with the insolence and go south.

With these mutual aid agreements, Cao Cao's mind can be regarded as settling down. As long as the princes of the south did not pull his back, Cao Cao was confident that with his own military strategy, in the face of the arrogant army, the progress may not be enough, but the defense of the homeland is absolutely worry-free.

The fear of arrogance among the southern princes was apparently quite strong. This can be reflected as long as you look at how quickly and quickly the troops, money, and food provided by Cao Cao's allies came.

Only at the end of June of the sixth year of Anding [198], 8,000 reinforcements from Yuzhou entered Yanzhou under the leadership of Huang Gai, a general under Sun Jian, and joined Sun Cejun, who was already in Yanzhou, and more than 10,000 elite soldiers led by Liu Chong, King of Chen. With more than 20,000 reinforcements, plus the first batch of aid brought back by the envoy Lou Gui from thousands of miles away, and 10,000 pieces of grain and grass, Cao Cao finally stopped worrying about the arrogant movements in the north.

Even if the arrogant strength is strong, Cao Cao, who has a solid backing, has greatly improved his confidence in sticking to Yanzhou. Even if Zhang arrogantly launched an army of 100,000 to attack, Yanzhou would be able to firmly keep the enemy out of the border.

Moreover, Cao Cao even secretly discussed with Liu Chong, Sun Ce and others, whether he would simply give the arrogant thief army in the border area of Zhengchen Bing a good look?

××××××××××××

In mid-July, Yuancheng County, Wei County, Jizhou.

Yuancheng fell into the hands of insolence, about a year ago. Previously, although Yuancheng belonged to Jizhou, it had been managed by Yanzhou Mu Cao Cao. Later, the Jizhou army and the Yanzhou army conducted a series of small-scale tug-of-war near Yuancheng, Cao Cao considered that the city was isolated and had no advantage in defense, so he took the initiative to retreat and gave it to the Jizhou army.

Due to the fact that it has not been under the rule of Zhang for a long time, the personnel of Yuancheng has not been completely integrated into the Jizhou system. No, although the county order has changed the talents selected from the imperial examination, most of the officials who work under the county order are still the original people.

The thief Cao official Chen Qi has been on an errand in Yuancheng for twenty years. Because he was sleek and proficient in criminal names, Chen Qi was promoted from a "thief" under the jurisdiction of the pavilion chief to a thief Cao official step by step. Thinking that he was not even a small official in the past, and now he is also an important official in the county of 200 stones, Chen Qi is still quite satisfied with the results of his 20 years of struggle.

The political changes in Yuancheng in recent years cannot be said to have had no impact on Chen Qi, but it is almost negligible. Whether it is Wang Fen's death, or Han Fu's abdication to make way for Xian, or Yuan Shao's defeat, or Cao Cao's retreat, every time the power belongs, Chen Qi does not mention half a word of opinion, just honestly cooperate with the work of the new boss. Anyway, as long as the boss still needs to maintain law and order in the county, he, a thief, will not be useless, and he can continue to live a steady life.

The only thing that worries Chen Qi a little is his eldest son who is about to weaken the crown. That kid has been out of character since he was a child, and he is idle all day long, causing trouble, which makes Chen Qi worry a lot. Fortunately, after all, that kid has a family background, and he has always looked good, and he hasn't made any trouble that Chen Qi can't hold.

However, now that kid has reached the age when he should talk about marriage, he just said at home that "the Huns have not been destroyed, why should the family be", "why is the big husband without a wife" and other nonsense, that is, he refuses to agree to the marriage set by Chen Qi.

- No matter, even if it is tied, this stinky boy must be tied to the wedding field......

Chen Qi is also a ruthless person at a critical moment. Otherwise, in the face of those fierce wanderers and homeless people in the countryside of the county, how could he hold the field?

While thinking about his son's marriage, Chen Qi came to the city gate. He was going to inspect a few pavilions in the countryside to-day, so he rode his donkey early in the morning with two attendants, intending to leave the city as soon as possible, so that he could return before the gates were closed.

"Lao Xia, open the door!"

The gate official guarding the city is also Chen Qi's old acquaintance. He has been in the temple in Yuancheng County for twenty years, and there are really few officials he doesn't know. This Lao Xia was a fighting official in charge of the prison before, and he had no authority. Later, Zhang Jizhou came, this guy took refuge quickly, entered the eyes of the new county order, and was only promoted to the city gate official of 200 stones two months ago.

"Ah, it turned out to be Brother Chen, quick, you open the door and let Brother Chen go out on business!"

When Lao Xia came out of the exclusive hut of the city gatekeeper, he still had a list in his hand. There is a bulletin board next to the city gate, so Lao Xia is also responsible for posting and managing the notices here.

The announcement that came out of the county temple was nothing that Chen Qi didn't know. Chen Qi roughly guessed what was written in Lao Xia's hand, but he still asked knowingly:

"Huh? What's new? What is written? ”

"What else? Isn't it just to recruit people to go to the north to open up wasteland? If you want to say that the conditions are really good, if we don't have land, we don't have the errand at hand, we must also go and sign up! ”

Lao Xia is a recognized supporter of the state pastor's arrogance, and it is not surprising that he would say this.

If you just look at the content on the list, it is indeed very attractive to many homeless people. As long as you are willing to go to northern Xinjiang, you can get fifty acres of land. In addition, the government can provide migrants with food rations, cattle and necessary agricultural tools for half a year. Although those things are considered credit, and they will have to be paid back slowly when taxes are collected in the future, but after all, they are a family belongings, right?

Chen Qi is not very literate, and when he was dealing with official documents, he often had to consult some old documents. However, since Zhang Jizhou recovered Yuancheng, most of the official documents in the county have become "military letters". Compared with the original traditional Chinese characters, the much more concise military script is not only easy to remember and easy to recognize, but also easier to write.

In the past six months, Chen Qi has not only been able to recognize all the traditional characters he originally knew in military books, but also learned many words that he had never been able to recognize. Therefore, Chen Qi has a very good impression of the military book, which is evaluated as a "vulgar" text by the soldiers in the county. Incidentally, the creator of the military book, Zhang Tianshi, that is, Zhang Jizhou, has also become an unfathomable immortal first-class in Chen Qi's heart.

With emotion in his heart, Chen Qi rode a donkey and led his entourage out of the city gate that had just been opened. Although it was still early and had not yet reached the required time to open the door, some villagers who were in a hurry to enter the city were already waiting outside the city gate.

Among these people, Chen Qi has many acquaintances. There are Lao Huatou who delivers food to the "Quanjulou" in the east of the city every day, Qingba who specially delivers mountain spring water to Xufu on North Street, and a bunch of unknown faces......

- Wait!

- Today is not the day to rush to the polder, where did so many fresh faces come from? (To be continued......)