This system has greatly improved the treatment and status of military personnel. Generally speaking, you can join the army at the age of sixteen, the golden age is from 20 to 35, and you can retire at the age of 40 at the earliest, and you can even delay it until you are 50 years old. After taking off the military status, they can also work as local arresters and jailers.

Ma Chao intends to build a military power that advances both civilly and militantly, first of all, it is necessary to have a complete military system, and the determination of military ranks and ranks is only a general framework, and there are still many places that need to be gradually improved in the future. Second, in order to have a strong national strength, the productive forces must be developed, and it is necessary to ensure that some people can be freed up to specialize in work outside of production, and not just to join the army. Finally, it is most difficult to maintain political stability and social stability, and the current conditions are far from sufficient.

At the same time, Ma Chao also issued an order on disarmament and recruitment, and all veterans over the age of 40 and disabled veterans in the army were relegated to the second line, either to serve in local posts or to stay and train new soldiers. Nearly 50,000 of the 300,000 troops left the army, and among them, experienced veterans with outstanding martial arts skills were left behind as instructors to train newly recruited recruits.

Finally, it was announced that 100,000 new soldiers would be recruited in various places, of which 50,000 would be stationed in the passes around Luoyang, and the other 50,000 would be distributed to Huang Zhong, Zhang He, and Zhao Yun. Now Ma Chao has three states and a population of nearly 10 million, so the expansion of the army naturally cannot be left behind, after all, there are still ten states that need to be pacified one by one.

However, it was said that Ma Chao was busy with various matters in Luoyang, and the princes everywhere were not idle, seeing that Ma Chao had become bigger, they were all busy developing their forces. First of all, because Li Ru and other Xiliang soldiers were banished, Xu Huang was stationed at Bishui Pass, and after Cao Ying in Chenliu County lost his threat, he immediately remembered Mrs. Bian, Mrs. Yi and his son Cao Pi, who were occupied by Lu Bu.

Therefore, Cao Ying led Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Xiahou Yuan, Xiahou Yuan, and Li Dian to lead 20,000 troops to take Yang Zhai, the seat of Yingchuan County, and at the same time sent an envoy to Yuan Shao, stating that the purpose of sending troops was only to get back his wife and children from Lu Bu, and there was no intention of infringement.

Yuan Shao didn't like Lu Bu, who had been penniless since he escaped from Luoyang, and after he was stationed near Yingchuan County, he sent troops to loot everywhere, which caused great public anger in the local area. At this moment, he happened to get rid of Lu Bu by Cao Ying's hand, and he immediately agreed without thinking about it.

However, Feng Ji, the chief strategist under Yuan Shao, did not forget to remind Yuan Shao, and said privately: "The lord must not let Cao Ying destroy Lu Bu, otherwise he will raise a tiger and regret it!"

Yuan Shao frowned and said, "What does Yuan Tu mean by this?" ”

Feng Ji said: "Lu Bu forgets his righteousness when he sees profit, and he is brave and unscrupulous, just like an unweaned child in the hands of the lord, it is easy to get rid of it." And although Cao Ying is not worrying about it at the moment, but this person has the ability to recognize people, and there are many talents under his command, just like the golden scales in the pool, once the power changes, he will turn into a dragon and rise, and he is really the enemy of the lord! Therefore, this time, not only can Cao Ying destroy Lu Bu, but also have to support Lu Bu to destroy Cao Ying, if this matter is successful, the lord of Yanzhou will be in the bag sooner or later! ”

Yuan Shao felt that it was reasonable, but his relationship with Cao Ying was extraordinary, the two had known each other as a young man and had been friends for many years, so it was inevitable that he couldn't bear it, and he pondered for a while and said: "Meng De is a great talent in the world!" I can't bear to hurt him, but what Yuan Tu said is very reasonable, so I will send someone to secretly support Lu Bu with a batch of grain and grass, and use Lu Bu's hand to weaken Cao Ying, and when he is cornered, he will come to the same place! ”

Feng Ji said: "The lord must not be a woman's kindness, Cao Mengde is ambitious, and will never be subservient, the lord's move is not pleasing to both sides, and there will be endless troubles in the future!" ”

Yuan Shao said: "I have made up my mind, no more words, the top priority at the moment is to take Huainan and Shouchun, there are these two states, the west can map Jingzhou, the south can cross the river to take Jiangdong, the east Xuzhou and the north of Yanzhou can be put aside for the time being." ”

Feng Ji sighed slightly and said: "Now that Ma Chao is coercing the Son of Heaven to order the princes, Liu Yan in Shuzhong is also known as the emperor, if the lord wants to buy time to develop his power, he must try to get Ma Chao to recruit Liu Yan, otherwise the lord is one step behind, step by step!" ”

Yuan Shaoshen thought so, nodded and said: "Yuan Tu's words are very reasonable, I don't know if there is a good plan!" ”

Feng Ji said: "Ma Chao coerced the Son of Heaven but wanted to fight for a righteous name, but how can there be two Sons of Heaven in the world?" If Ma Chao wants the princes of the world to recognize him as a court and a general, he must send troops to destroy Liu Yan, otherwise, the lord can unite all the princes to choose a Han clan to set up another court, and there are two courts in the world, so he doesn't care if there is a third court! ”

Yuan Shao was overjoyed when he heard this, stroked his palms and smiled: "This plan is very good, in this way, Ma Chao can't send troops if he doesn't want to, and Shuzhong is easy to defend and difficult to attack, even if Ma Chao can win, he will suffer heavy losses, and he will not have five years to take Liu Yan, and we can just use this time to pacify the princes of Kanto!" ”

Feng Ji said: "This is one of them, this alone is far from enough, then Liu Yan dares to be the emperor, there must be ambitious people, how can he satisfy a small Shuzhong?" While doing this, the lord also sent an envoy to Shu to see Liu Yan, and asked Liu Yan to send troops to attack Ma Chao as the leader of the alliance, as long as he can get rid of Ma Chao, he is also a relative of the Han family, why not temporarily support him as the emperor? ”

Yuan Shao immediately contacted all the princes through letters, united and submitted a table to the imperial court, asking the imperial court to send troops to crusade against Liu Yan, who was the emperor in Shuzhong, otherwise he would not recognize this imperial court. At the same time, he sent Xin Ping to enter Shu and tried to persuade Liu Yan to send troops to Luoyang, promising that as long as he cleaned up Ma Chao, the princes of the world would support him as the orthodoxy of the world.

The princes from all walks of life didn't want to watch Ma Chao become bigger, so they responded one after another, including Xuzhou Tao Qian and Youzhou Mu Liu Yu all responded to this matter.

said that Luoyang is calm on the surface, but in fact, it is not so peaceful secretly. Liu Xie has been silent a lot since he met Mrs. Dong, and the Empress Dowager Dong is not as affectionate as before, but frequently urges Ma Chao to marry Princess Wannian. Not only that, Liu Xie also privately named Dong Cheng as a hussar general.

This Dong Cheng is the nephew of the Empress Dowager Dong, and he is a cousin of Dong Chong, who was killed by He Jin. After Dong Zhuo entered Beijing, because of his family's relationship and the fact that he was the nephew of the Empress Dowager Dong, he reused it. He was named Zhonglang General, under the command of Niu Fu, and was mainly responsible for the defense of the palace. But he didn't have real power in his hands, so neither Wang Yun nor Li Ru took him seriously.

Ma Chao smiled slightly after learning about it, Empress Dowager Dong and Liu Xie, the old and the young, are too naïve, what is the use of a mere name? Now that they have no money, no soldiers, and the assassins and even the county guards in the land of the three states are all appointed by themselves, which one will listen to the orders of the imperial court? Just control these two points and let them toss.

But the above table of Yuan Shao and others made Ma Chao have to pay attention to it, and he had also thought about this problem beforehand, since he was a general of the imperial court, he would naturally not allow two imperial courts to appear, but Liu Yan in Shuzhong was not so easy to crusade. In history, Liu Yan died of back sores in 194 because of the murder of his two sons, and it is only the autumn of 191.

After thinking about it, although Ma Chao already had several feasible plans, he still summoned the four strategists Xun You, Fa Zheng, Shen Pei and Xu Shu to discuss countermeasures. (To be continued.) )