Ma Chao helped the two of them up, and said: "Although the two are called 'anti-thieves', they are also people who have poor people in their hearts!" The Montenegrin Army was also a rebel army at the beginning, and it was originally entrusted to the two of you to do the important task that was currently in place, and if it could be done, it would be a great achievement! ”

He said: "My lord, please speak, I will go all out!" ”

Ma Chao asked: "A few months ago, did you have heard of the fact that you were going to go to the Southern Huns?" ”

Yang Feng said: "Naturally, I heard that the lord led the Xiliang Iron Cavalry to massacre in the land of the Southern Xiongnu, and the blood flowed like a river, and a large number of livestock, grain and people were plundered to the land of Xiliang" Speaking of this, he knew that it was inappropriate, and said embarrassedly: "The last general will lose his words for a while, don't blame the lord!" ”

Ma Chao didn't care, and continued to ask: "Then do you know where the Southern Xiongnu grassland is?" ”

Yang Feng thought for a while and said: "North of the Great Wall, south of the Yellow River are the Southern Xiongnu grassland, when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty also established Shuofang, Yunzhong, Jiuyuan, Dingxiang, Shangjun and other counties, there were also a large number of Han people migrated to settle there, but it is a pity that Wang Mang let the Huns occupy it during the period, so that the glory of the past was ruined, and the built cities were also in ruins. ”

Ma Chao nodded and continued: "Since the Guangwu Xiongnu descended to the Han Dynasty, the Southern Xiongnu have been placed by the imperial court in this area to live on grazing, and only a very small number of Han people are cultivating a huge area, resulting in a large area of developed fertile land turning back into grassland, which often makes people sigh!" ”

Yang Feng was not a stupid person, he immediately understood what Ma Chao meant, and exclaimed: "Could it be that the lord wants to arrange these homeless people to the land of Shuofang, Jiuyuan, and Yunzhong County?" ”

Ma Chao said: "Yes, I am the champion of the Han Dynasty, and the Son of Heaven has been allocated by the Southern Xiongnu to this Hou as a place to eat." And the Southern Xiongnu have led the army to pull the net massacre in advance, and now the population has dropped sharply, many villages have been abandoned, and they are in urgent need of fresh blood injection, not to mention that you and other hundreds of thousands of displaced people, even millions of displaced people can also tolerate it, and at the same time there are large tracts of fertile land to be cultivated, there is no official oppression, and there is no chaos in the army and thieves, and the people will be able to live and work in peace and contentment! ”

Ma Chao's words were also well thought out, the area occupied by the Southern Xiongnu was not an ordinary feng shui treasure, it was the famous Hetao area in later generations.

The Hetao area refers to the plains impacted by the Yellow River and its surrounding basins, including the Huangshui Basin, Taoshui Basin, Luoshui Basin, Weishui Basin, Fenshui Basin, Sangqian River Basin, Zhangshui Basin, and Hutuo River Basin.

As the folk proverb goes, "the Yellow River is harmful, but only one set of riches", and the east of Helan Mountain, the west of Luliang Mountain, the south of Yinshan Mountain, and the north of the Great Wall all belong to the Hetao. It includes parts of the Yinchuan Plain, the Ordos Plateau and the Loess Plateau, and now belongs to Ningxia, Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi. Here, the Yellow River first goes north along Helan Mountain, then goes east because of the Yinshan block, and then goes south along Luliang Mountain, forming a "several" shape, so it is called "Hetao". Of course, there was no such thing as a loop at the time.

Previously, it was mainly the Huns who operated here. After the unification of Qin, Pai Mengtian led an army of 300,000 to expel the Xiongnu from the Hetao, "migrating to fill it", but Taizuo was short-lived, and the world was in turmoil at the end of Qin, and the immigrants returned to their hometowns, and the Hetao was restored to the Xiongnu. Later, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty counterattacked the Xiongnu and occupied the Hetao. Due to the long distance, inconvenient transportation, and extremely difficult transportation of grain and wages, the Western Han Dynasty made a major decision to develop the Hetao and achieved world-recognized achievements. Shuofang County, Wuyuan County, Yunzhong County, Dingxiang County, as well as the northern part of Beidi and Shang County and the Hexi part of Xihe County were established, all of which belonged to the Shuofang Thorn History Department.

Wang Mang's relations with the Xiongnu were tense, and Hetao was reoccupied by the Xiongnu, so the border people flowed into the inner county. In the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu adopted a policy of contraction, and most of the western and northern counties were abandoned, and a large number of Han people moved back. Then the Xiongnu had internal strife, the Southern Xiongnu were singlely annexed, the Xiongnu who had been attached to the Han Dynasty since the beginning were placed in the Hetao, most of the fertile land became pastures again, only a small number of Han strong landlords stayed here to cultivate a small part of the land, and most of them were supplied to the Xiongnu, and most of the cities established in the Western Han Dynasty were also abandoned.

When the Southern Xiongnu rebelled against the Han Dynasty and conquered the state, these powerful landlords either moved back to the interior or defected to the Southern Xiongnu rebels, and the officials set up by the imperial court in the Hetao were slaughtered. Subsequently, Ma Chao led the Xiliang army to conquer the Southern Xiongnu, and under the "Three Light Policy", the number of Xiongnu decreased sharply, and the Han people were either wiped out or fled, resulting in a large area of land cultivated by the Han people and powerful landlords was also vacant, and there was not even time for the autumn harvest. Ma Chao naturally didn't want to waste these fertile lands, so he took the initiative to ask for the extermination of the Black Mountain thieves, the purpose of which was to let these displaced people go to Hetao Tuntian.

Originally, Ma Chao also wanted to open up the Hetao on a large scale, so that this large grain-producing region in the northwest would repeat the glory of the Western Han Dynasty. But after careful consideration, he felt that it was unrealistic, his power was too small, and he could not afford the material, financial and human resources used in the early stage of development, and it was not justified in name, after all, there was no real chaos in the world now, and he could not do whatever he wanted.

But it's still okay to find someone to cultivate the fertile land that the landlords were forced to give up, and there are a lot of these fertile fields! And they were all developed in the Western Han Dynasty, the water conservancy facilities are complete, as long as the labor force is sufficient, there is no problem at all for the surplus grain to feed the army of 120,000 people. In addition, there are large areas of grassland with abundant water and grass that can be used to develop animal husbandry, and the entire Hetao area can be developed into a huge logistics supply base. More importantly, Hetao produces iron and salt, and large-scale iron smelting and salt drying were carried out here during the Western Han Dynasty, and these resources can be redeveloped as long as there is labor.

As for transportation, it is not a problem, although the Yellow River is not conducive to water transportation in this area, but it is a horse production base, there are countless horses, and in this era, horses are more useful than cars.

At that moment, Ma Chao carefully explained the situation of the Southern Xiongnu to Zheng Gu and Yang Feng. The two were overjoyed when they heard this, and agreed without thinking about it, and promised to persuade the displaced people who had taken refuge in them to move to the Southern Xiongnu Tuntian. The land is ready-made, with all the livestock, and there is no need to worry about shelter, which is a hundred times better than the barren land they nest in the valley to cultivate.

Although the city of the Southern Xiongnu is deserted, there are a lot of villages, most of them are left after the Han people fled strongly, and there are also many of them are vacated after the Huns were slaughtered, if it is not enough, it can be built again at any time, as long as there are manpower, there is no need to worry about having no place to live.

After thinking about it, Ma Chao decided to announce a series of appointments, and said: "Zhengfang is quite talented in governance, this time he will return to the Southern Xiongnu steppe, settle the people, distribute land, and deal with the relationship with the Huns, everything is a top priority, how about leaving it to you to be responsible?" At that time, Ben will mobilize his own manpower and soldiers for you! ”

Li Yan was extremely excited, and immediately bowed down, and said: "The lord trusts the last general so much, dare not do his best?" ”

Ma Chao nodded, helped Li Yan up and said to Wen Ping: "Zhongye is also a person of all-round talent in civil and military affairs, and when the general will deal with the affairs of the party, he will ask you to be the party too guarded, and at the same time, transfer 5,000 Xiliang elite soldiers as soon as possible to help you exterminate the bandits in the territory!" ”

"The last general obeys!" Wen Ping was slightly surprised, but he didn't expect Ma Chao to directly hand over Shangdang County to him for governance.

"Wen Qian and Shu Zhi first followed Yang Feng and the two into the mountains to collect the Black Mountain Army, and they must select elite soldiers according to the method that the general said, rather than indiscriminate, how much can be recruited, for the time being, train in place and stand by, the required materials, food and herbs will be solved by themselves!"

"Yes!" The two of them were also full of joy after being reused.

"Han Sheng is good at shooting, more than 1,000 strong men under his command are brave people who can open four-stone bows, mountain combat bows and arrows should be the first choice, I immediately ordered to give you the two-stone iron tire bow equipped with a thousand Shenwei battalions, and you will definitely train a bow and arrow battalion for this general!"

Huang Zhong was overjoyed, these 1,000 people are definitely the elite of the elite, and the individual combat ability is even more than Ma Chao's Shenwei Battalion, if it is equipped with a strong bow, it is an elite unit with both close and long combat, and it is not a problem to have a hard face against 10,000 people.

"Don't worry, my lord, the last general will do his best to bring out a real elite army!"

Ma Chao nodded and said confidently: "Ben Jiang believes in Hansheng's ability?" Ru Ming said that he led these 1,000 people to Huguan with the documents of the general to hand over, and at the same time guarded Huguan, he recruited 5,000 soldiers locally, and the required money and food were sent later. ”

"Yes!"

Ma Chao looked at Zhang Liao again, and said: "Wen Yuan is temporarily sitting in the eldest son city, and will follow the general to incorporate the local officials and troops, get rid of the Duan family, a big local tumor, in one fell swoop, and then rush to Jiguan to recruit 5,000 troops in the name of the general, and at the same time train the troops, we must also guard the northern gateway Jiguan!" ”

"The last general commands!"

After arranging a few subordinates, Ma Chao felt relaxed for a while, and then said: "Lao Dian led his subordinates to rush to the Southern Xiongnu with the general, and General Zhenggu and General Yang Feng immediately rushed back to the valley to gather and mobilize the people, and led the crowd to vote after five days!" ”

"Obey!" The four nodded yes.

Yang Feng hesitated slightly, frowned, and said: "Lord Qi, there will be a word in the end, I don't know whether to say it or not?" ”

"But it doesn't hurt to speak!"

Yang Feng said: "The last general and the white rabbit (the word of the solid) two people have a relationship with the black mountain marshal Tao Sheng, this person is the Yellow Gate official during the Heng Emperor period, and then he was persecuted before gathering troops and calling himself 'General Pinghan'. This person loves his subordinates and the homeless people very much, never oppresses the nearby civilians, and at this moment he is also entrenched in the south of Huguan, and he will be seventy percent sure that he can persuade this person to vote, why not settle the lord together! ”

Ma Chao pondered for a moment, shook his head and said: "Although there are 10,000 acres of fertile land in the land of the Southern Xiongnu, most of them have been deserted, I am afraid it is difficult to accommodate hundreds of thousands of people, and the food on your hand is only enough to survive the winter. ”

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