"Want to run?" Seeing this, the surname Cao didn't think about it, and immediately led 2,500 horsemen to chase after him, and smoke and dust rose everywhere. Chen Zhi saw that the surname Cao went to chase the enemy, and the enemy army was only more than 3,000 horsemen, so he immediately commanded the cavalry under his command to chase and kill the remaining infantry army.

Qingzhou is the area of Shandong in later generations, the land is relatively flat, the hills and hills are generally not high, and there is no obstacle to the galloping of war horses. Chen Zhi led the cavalry to slash and slaughter, and shouted loudly: "Those who surrender will not be killed!" ”

Thousands of people scattered and fled, and in order to speed up their escape, they didn't even need weapons and armor, but no matter how fast a man ran, how could he outrun a war horse? After being slaughtered by thousands of people, the rest of them surrendered with their heads in their hands, only to tremble in fear. Chen commanded the team to be reorganized, and more than 4,300 people were captured and more than 2,000 were beheaded.

If he does not surrender, Chen Zhi can completely kill more than eighty percent of these people, but according to Ma Chao's combat spirit instructions, the war exploits made by capturing a living person are greater than the head of a dead man, killing one person can earn a thousand yuan, and capturing one is 1,200 yuan, no matter whether it is a general or a soldier, they are naturally willing to make more war exploits.

Ma Chao did not want to expand the army, at present he has 350,000 regular troops, and the military expenditure is extremely huge. You must know that his subordinates are very different from those of Yuan Shao and other princes, like Cao Ying, Liu Bei, Yuan Shao and others dare to accept Yellow Turban thieves and homeless people as soldiers in large numbers, that is because their subordinates have no military salaries, and a spear and a set of linen military uniforms are worth a few dollars? All that was paid was rations. And the homeless people and the Yellow Turban thieves worked for them, and all they asked for was a bite to eat.

Ma Chao's side is different, he advocates people-oriented, there are not many soldiers in the fine, there is a complete army establishment, complete arms, and each unit has its number. Not only that, Ma Chao has always put military spending in the first place, and set up three ordnance battalions in Jinyang, Jizhou Yecheng and Guanzhong Chang'an, with a total of more than 30,000 craftsmen and slaves responsible for crafting weapons and armor and other ordnance.

In addition to military spending, Ma Chao also paid special attention to the development of productive forces, and for him, the most important thing was not gold and silver, which for him was equivalent to some scrap metal. If the social productive forces are insufficient to produce enough materials, money loses its meaning. For this reason, on the one hand, he took out a huge amount of gold and silver to buy a large amount of fine iron, silk, grain and other materials in other southern states and counties through the caravans of the Wei family and the Zhen family, and on the other hand, he forbade the people under his rule to sell grain and cloth privately, with the purpose of plunging the southern states and counties into a situation of inflation through economic warfare.

That is, to exchange the gold and silver in the north for all kinds of materials in the south, and the south has more money, but the materials are lost in large quantities, and then you want to use the money to buy iron and sell grain in the north, but people don't sell it to you at all, and you only have a pile of useless gold and silver in your hand. While searching the south, Ma Chao also organized manpower to expand the scale of iron smelting and mining, with a special focus on coal and iron ore.

With coal, he can not only produce cement, but also try to build a blast furnace to smelt iron, but he does not have deep research on blast furnaces, only knows theoretical knowledge, and is currently in the stage of experimental exploration. For this matter, Ma Chao invested a lot of manpower and material resources, and even personally participated in it, because the metallurgical process is too important, if it can be successful, it can greatly promote social productivity, and its benefits are numerous, in the long run, even more than army construction.

And the purpose of taking in these captives is to catch strong men, dying too many people will only hurt the vitality of the Han nation, leaving these people can not only increase the population, but also retain the essential social labor force, everyone is dead, who will work? This is why the pace of social progress cannot be fast without work.

Let's say that the surname Cao led 2,500 cavalry to chase and kill Shan Jing, and the men and horses of the two sides chased and fled, and after running out of more than 20 miles in a blink of an eye, the distance between the two sides was less than five miles. At this point, the competition between the two sides is horsepower, and whoever has the strength of the war horse will have the advantage.

For this matter, Ma Chao had already prepared, and most of the horses in the cavalry team under his command were horses from the Southern Xiongnu steppe, to be precise, Mongolian horses. Mongolian horses are not tall and not very strong, so at first glance they are undoubtedly inferior. But Ma Chao knows the advantages of Mongolian horses, this kind of horse has a strong ability to adapt to the environment, strong vitality, although the speed and explosiveness of running are not outstanding, but the endurance is not comparable to ordinary war horses.

Historically, Genghis Khan's Mongol cavalry was able to conquer most of Eurasia, and the Mongol horses played an important role. It is precisely because of this that Shan Jing and the others just walked together and threw the Cao surnamed out of the distance, but after a long time, their war horses were powerless, and they were gradually caught up by the cavalry surnamed Cao.

The surname Cao did not adopt a white-knuckle battle, and when he was less than a hundred paces away from the enemy, more than 2,000 people began to scatter in formation again, galloping on horseback, bending bows and arrows, and flying straight forward one after another. Nowadays, stirrups and saddles are not uncommon, and they are basically popular in the Han Dynasty, and the cavalry tactics are well known, but there are not many cavalry teams that really master the tactics of mounted archery. The most basic training subject of the cavalry under Ma Chao is cavalry archery, and many Shenwei battalion generals have been sent to various departments to serve as instructors, which is by no means comparable to the hearsay of the rest of the princes.

Seeing the continuous casualties of his own cavalry, his heart was filled with grief and indignation, and he shouted: "Shoot the arrows!" Turn around and shoot the arrows! The soldiers with bows and arrows immediately turned around and fired their arrows. But they were not professionally trained, and it was a difficult move to turn back and fire the bow and arrow on the back of a running horse, and it was even more difficult to keep the right head.

In this way, they ran for more than 20 miles, until the feather arrows were exhausted, and the surname Cao had destroyed more than 800 enemies, and almost no one on his side was killed. In the face of the reluctant Cao surname, the two sides who ran out of feather arrows could only run away while carrying out white-knuckle battles, and people continued to fall off their horses.

In the evening, the two teams fought all the way to the vicinity of Changyi. Seeing that he was about to enter the city, he suddenly heard a gong, the city gate was opened, the drawbridge was lowered, and a pair of cavalry took the lead to meet him, just in time to meet the sleepy Shan Jing and Yan Gang. The two sides flanked the front and back, with a big advantage, and the surname Cao saw the opportunity, bent the bow and arrow, and passed through the throat in the middle. Yan Gang was also killed by random arrows, and the rest either fled or dismounted and surrendered.

In Zibo City, Ma Chao was overjoyed when he got the news, and said with a smile: "The two thieves of Shan Jing and Yan Gang have committed their own crimes, and now they have been ambushed, and there are only two local warlords left in Qingzhou, but I don't know that Tian Thorn Shi can be sure to incorporate the two of them in the Donglai area!" ”

Tian Kai said: "The general can rest assured, since the two are dead, the rest of the party is not worried, and dare not do the work of dogs and horses!" ”

Ma Chao nodded and said: "Okay, the two of you have the heart to join the court and the general, and the general will definitely reuse it." The two have been in Qingzhou for a long time, and they should be familiar with the local situation, and they can't do without the strong help of the two to govern Qingzhou! ”

Kong Rong said: "The general governs Qingzhou, and his merits are shocking the past and the present, and the two of us are just icing on the cake, but there are needs, and everything is corresponding!" ”

"Good! There are two people who help each other, why worry about Qingzhou's prosperity! Ma Chao pondered for a moment and continued: "In this case, the Qingzhou Governance Office will be moved to Beihai City, and Tian Thorn Shi will be appointed as Shangshu at the same time, and he will also lead the post of Qingzhou Thorn History, and he will be able to leave Xun You, the chief strategist under his command, to serve as a driver in Qingzhou." How about the establishment of the government and the selection of officials to be left to you and the two of you? ”

Hearing this, the two hurriedly got up and bowed, and said in unison: "It is rare for the lord to trust, dare not do your best!" ”

Ma Chao nodded, and helped the two of them up: "I will employ people on the basis of meritocracy, regardless of background, regardless of family, I hope you two can put down the concept of family and pay attention to examining people's conduct and talents." Qingzhou is a place of heavy capital, and there will never be a withering talent, and how to tap local talents is the top priority! ”

The two hurriedly responded, and Xun You said: "The lord's series of policies in Bingzhou and Jizhou are very good, and you have always admired them. But Qingzhou is in ruins at the moment, there are countless displaced people, if you want to prosper, it is not an overnight achievement, and you have to invest a lot of grain and grass in the early stage to ensure that these displaced people do not starve to death in order to seek development! ”

Ma Chao said: "Isn't it difficult to solve this matter? To support the displaced people in Qingzhou for a year, the amount of grain and grass needed is absolutely astronomical, and it may not be enough to rely on Jizhou's support alone." Ben will leave the existing heavy task to you! ”

Zhang He said: "The lord is outspoken! ”

Ma Chao said: "This general will immediately list you as the general of Dangkou, lead the Qingzhou soldiers Cao to take a position, lead the cavalry 5,000, the infantry army of 15,000, the Harada Assassin and the soldiers under the command of Kong Beihai are all under your dispatch, and order you to form an army, called the Qingzhou Legion, with a strength of 50,000 people, responsible for exterminating the Yellow Turban thieves in Qingzhou and maintaining local stability!" The required weapons and armor will be delivered to you within three months! ”

Zhang He was a little excited when he heard this, Ma Chao gave him power, and it was also his trust, the general with 50,000 horses in his hand was definitely equivalent to a prince, and from then on he could be regarded as entering the ranks of Ma Chao's henchmen and generals, and he bowed at the moment: "The lord has entrusted him with a heavy responsibility, and Zhang He will definitely live up to expectations!" ”

Ma Chao said: "With Junyi sitting in Qingzhou, I will have no worries!" Qingzhou is a place of war, which is a good place for military training, and it is adjacent to Yanzhou and Xuzhou, so prevention work is extremely important. While exterminating thieves and buying the hearts of the people, Junyi can select new recruits and recruit all kinds of talents, and will definitely create an elite division for Ben General, and there will be a wider land waiting for you to conquer in the future! ”

"The last general commands!" Zhang He's face was extremely grim.

Ma Chao nodded, and said: "As far as the general knows, there are still many heroes in Qingzhou who gather here to gather in Tuntian!" If you want to pay more attention to these places, you can send someone to investigate. If you find that there is a violation of the laws and regulations of the Han Dynasty, you can immediately lead troops to exterminate it, convict according to the law, and charge the family property to Xun Beijia for processing! (To be continued.) )