In the middle of July of the second year of Emperor Jing, four counties of Shuofang, Wuyuan, Yunzhong and Xihe were set up, and the land of Heshuo was governed, and they were thought to be border counties to fight against the Xiongnu.

What is unbelievable is that Prime Minister Yuan Ang invited the Son of Heaven, and the officials of the four counties were all transferred from the inner county to the competent officials, and the vacant vacancies in the inner county were filled by the people waiting for the edict.

When many wealthy families heard the news, they were resentful of Yuan An. They had already dredged up in private, thinking of trying to promote the children of the family who were officials in the court to the newly established border county gilding, but the word "flat tone" shattered their dreams. The border counties are not more prosperous than the inner counties, and if they can't be promoted, it's better to stay in the capital or the rest of the inner counties.

However, Emperor Jing soon approved the performance and issued an edict, requiring all government departments to evaluate and transfer officials as soon as possible. A large number of officials from humble backgrounds were "recommended" one after another, and after strict deliberation by the central government office, they quickly issued appointment orders and immediately took up their posts.

Immediately afterwards, Emperor Jing issued several edicts without warning, appointing all the four county guards, and at the same time clarifying their respective duties.

Zhidu except for Yanmen Taishou, Baiyunzhong Taishou, leading the northern generals, governing Shanggu, Daijun, Yanmen three counties to guard the border army, rectify border affairs, resist the Xiongnu Shan Yuting southward invasion.

Li Guang in addition to Tianshui Taishou, worship Shuofang Taishou, led the Xiliu Battalion to sit in Shuofang, took over more than 100,000 border troops under the command of Taiwei Dou Ying, stationed in the Northwest Great Wall Pass, and guarded against the right part of the Xiongnu and Xiqiang.

and Qin Guang led the army in addition to the middle and worshiped the five original guards; Shi Ti removed General Anbei, and Baixi River was too guarded. The two of them were ordered to be responsible for the affairs of the border tuntian, the camp and the city, the system to cut the house, the way to work through the field, and the boundary of the Qianmo. At the same time, the border counties were controlled to prepare for the enemy, so that the five families were together, and the army was long; Ten long and one mile, there are false soldiers in it; Four miles and one company, there are five hundred false ones in a row; Ten even one yi, there is a fake waiting in the city.

In this way, Wuyuan and Xihe two counties became the most important tuntian places in Heshuo, and at the same time shouldered the important task of providing logistics and emergency assistance for the hundreds of thousands of border troops stationed in Shuofang and Yunzhong counties.

As soon as the edict came out, in addition to Zhidu, who was in the clouds, continued to purge the border affairs step by step, Shi Ti, who was still escorting the Xiqiang prisoners of war, and Qin Yong, who was in Chang'an, hurriedly led their respective guards and immediately went north to take up their posts. And Li Guang took 30,000 fine willow elite cavalry to the pass of the Great Wall in the west, and handed over the border army with Taiwei Dou Ying.

As for Wu Kuai, the Taishou of Longxi County, he ordered his lieutenant to lead 30,000 Longxi County soldiers north along the Great Wall, and take over the western Great Wall Pass from the border army, so that Li Guang could lead the border army north to Shuofang.

For more than a month, nearly one million soldiers and civilians in the northwestern counties of Dahan carried out a vigorous change of defense. Stability, Northland, and Upper Counties, which were originally border counties, have suddenly become relatively hinterland.

Originally, because of the attack of 50,000 iron cavalry from Xiqiang, the county soldiers who came to the aid from Feng Yi on the left and Fufeng on the right all returned to Gyeonggi Sanfu. The Gyeonggi Heavy Territory, which had been empty for months, was finally redeployed, which made many royalist courtiers who had been worried for a long time secretly breathe a sigh of relief.

The remaining border armies of the three counties all moved their garrisons forward and stationed in the steppes that were originally grazed by the Huns. Many new fortified cities have sprung up as quickly as mushrooms after a rain, and the border armies of various ministries have temporarily implemented the practice of "entering the border fortress", transporting a large amount of grain and grass to the border fortress for storage, so as to guard the border fortress, aiming to provide sufficient logistical supplies for the border soldiers. But this is not a long-term solution, and it is extremely costly.

The policy of recruiting people to Tuntian, which had been delayed for more than a month by Emperor Jing and Yuan An, was once again turned out by the courtiers, and it was mentioned several times in the early court, requesting that it be implemented as soon as possible.

"What does the Lieutenant think?" Emperor Jing raised his hand to appease the ministers who were speaking one after another, and turned his head to look at Dou Ying on the side seat.

Dou Ying hurriedly got up and left the table, bowed down and said: "The minister has just arrived in Beijing, and he still doesn't know what to do, so he doesn't dare to say anything." ”

Emperor Jing smiled slightly and waved his hand to signal him to return to his position. Since a few days ago, Dou Ying led his headquarters to quietly return to Chang'an City, except for every time he went to the court, he returned to the mansion, closed the door, and did not have the grandeur of the general's class returning to the court.

Emperor Jing and the ministers also had a tacit understanding and lost their memories at the same time, as if Dou Ying had never led the army to battle. Obviously, Dou Ying's various actions on this expedition made all the factions in the court have a few suspicions about him, but because of his special status, it is inconvenient to move, and they all have the intention of waiting to see what happens.

Dou Ying was sad in her heart, but there was nothing she could do. All the private soldiers of the princes of the Dou clan were buried by him in the Great Wall Pass, and it was a great luck that he was not expelled from the family; He also served as the crown prince and concubine of the deposed prince Liu Rong, and the emperor had a lot of doubts about him; As early as when Dou Ying went to Longxi to train the new army, Qin Yong, the cavalry general, vigorously purged his old subordinates in the army. The incident of collaborating with the enemy at the Great Wall Pass led to the fact that many of the generals who accompanied him on the expedition were escorted to the Tingwei Mansion for strict interrogation, and now his power in the army can be said to be completely hollowed out.

All this made Dou Ying the weakest lieutenant since the founding of the Han Dynasty. Whether it is in the court or in the army, there is no help. Especially when Qin Yong and Li Guang successively took over the tiger talisman from him, now Dou Ying only has the seal of the Taiwei in his hand, but he does not have any troop transfer tiger talisman, although he is still ranked among the three dukes, but he is already in name only. The saddest thing is that he still doesn't dare to resign, if he takes off this official robe at this time, I'm afraid he will die without a place to be buried.

Emperor Jing didn't care about Dou Ying's mood, but turned to Prime Minister Yuan An, and asked again: "What does the Prime Minister think?" ”

Yuan Ang secretly smiled bitterly, this decision to suspend the implementation of the conscription of the people was privately agreed upon by the emperor, but now he asked knowingly, obviously wanting him to carry the black pot. Although he was full of slander in his heart, he had no choice but to take over the conversation, got up and said: "The minister thought that he could slow down, but now that the autumn harvest is imminent, the people are still busy with farming, and they can't delay." ”

Tainong ordered Cao Luan to hear this, and hurriedly got up and objected: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that the prime minister's words are wrong. Now that it is autumn, the northwest county is a bitter cold place, if you don't immigrate as soon as possible to build a house, and wait until the winter snowfalls, nearly a million immigrants are afraid that they will have no houses to escape the cold? If we wait for next year, the snow will warm up and then migrate, and it will delay spring ploughing, and there will be no harvest for many years, won't it consume millions of stones of grain and grass? ”

Emperor Jing frowned and glanced at Yuan An.

Yuan Ang understood and hurriedly explained: "There is no need to worry about the Tainong Order, the counties of Gyeonggi have already raised tens of thousands of ransom slaves, and they can be escorted to the border counties to build houses, and dig ditches, which will be enough to settle millions of immigrants before the winter." ”

Cao Luan smiled bitterly and pleaded: "If the prime minister has a plan, please show it as soon as possible." Tainong is in charge of the world's money and grain, and these millions of immigrants involve a lot of grain, grass and expenses, if you don't plan early, I'm afraid that the subordinate officials of this government will be at a loss! ”

When Yuan Ang heard this, his face showed unbearable expression, and he was about to open his mouth to say something, but he only heard Emperor Jing cough twice, and said slowly: "This matter will be discussed again, now that the autumn harvest is imminent, Zhuqing must check more about the agricultural affairs of each county, and I know about it." ”

The ministers agreed one after another, knowing in their hearts that His Majesty did not want to discuss the recruitment of the people, so they did not echo Cao Luan. After all, except for the subordinate officials of the Tainong Mansion and the Prime Minister's Mansion, this matter of recruiting people to Tuntian has little to do with the rest of the courtiers. With this kind of spare time, it is better to recommend a few of his own sons and nephews to occupy some positions in the many vacant official positions in the inner county.

That night, the depressed Cao Luan went to Yuan An's mansion to pay a visit, trying to persuade him to recruit the people as soon as possible. Although Yuan Ang had a lot of unbearability in his heart, it was inconvenient to announce His Majesty's plan, so he had to keep talking about him.

Cao Luan's persuasion for a long time was fruitless, and he was discouraged and lazy, so he had to resign and return home. However, as soon as he entered the house, he received a decree from the palace attendants that His Majesty would summon him overnight.

When Cao Luan came to the imperial study of Weiyang Palace, he found that Yuan Ang had also been summoned to the palace and was talking to Emperor Jing at this time. He stood outside the door and bowed, wanting to wait for the break in their conversation before entering the room.

"Cao Qing has arrived, come in quickly!" Emperor Jing inadvertently saw him and greeted.

"Your Majesty!" Cao Luan hurriedly entered and slammed to the ground.

Emperor Jing waved his hand and went straight to the point: "No need to be polite, I summoned you here overnight, just because I received a report that Qin Yong, the general of the cavalry, led more than 100,000 county soldiers to arrive in Shangjun." The soldiers have made great contributions and should have been rewarded. I have ordered Shaofu to withdraw 300 million yuan, and Cao Qing will transfer another 200 million yuan from the treasury to make up 500 million yuan, and then buy more wine and meat, and transport it to Shangjun to reward the soldiers. ”

Cao Luan first bowed down and agreed, and then asked suspiciously: "Why don't you let him enter Beijing to be rewarded, so as to show His Majesty's grace." ”

Emperor Jing smiled and said: "These rewards are all exchanged for flesh and blood by the soldiers, which is my grace?" Besides, these soldiers were originally county soldiers from the four counties of Henan, Hedong, Hanoi and Hongnong, and they had been dispatched for half a year, so they should be allowed to return home as soon as possible. I have decreed that after the reward, General Qin will hand over the county soldiers to the commanders of each county and return to his own county in Shangjun. ”

Don't look at the smile on Emperor Jing's face, in fact, he can't wait for these more than 100,000 county soldiers to return to the county as soon as possible. For several months, Hangu Pass was only garrisoned by 8,000 tiger guards and 1,000 forest guards, if Liu Wu, the king of Liang, rebelled, although Guanzhong was safe, but the four counties such as Hongnong, which was empty of troops, had no power to resist at all.

Now that all the county soldiers of Gyeonggi Sanfu have been rebuilt, it only needs these more than 100,000 county soldiers to return to the four counties of Hongnong, if Liu Wu, the king of Liang, dares to blow up the assassination again, it will be a good excuse to kill him.

Cao Luan couldn't know Emperor Jing's thoughts, but Yuan Ang was clear. He knew in his heart that after these county soldiers returned to their county, His Majesty would issue an edict to recruit people from the four vassal states, clearly to coerce the four most restless princes. Whether they dare to rebel or not, it makes no big difference to His Majesty, who has the chance to win. As for the deaths, injuries, and displacement of the people caused by the civil strife, compared with the removal of the hidden dangers of the princes, in the eyes of the emperor, who regarded the people as his dogs, it was really insignificant.

The three of them discussed for a long time before all matters were agreed. Yuan Ang and Cao Luan retreated and walked slowly in the huge palace city, the cold moonlight stretching the shadows of the two very long. (To be continued.) )