Chapter 340

The first month of the sixth year of Jian'an.

At the same time as Luo Zheng implemented the reform of the law, he ordered the closure of thousands of households to govern Mobei, and gradually strengthened the control of the Mobei grassland. He also ordered to set up a large camp in Shuozhou and raise 50,000 soldiers. One is to guard the Hetao, and the other is to open up wasteland and cultivate fields.

In February, Luo Zheng wanted to assassinate, and Chang'an closed the door for three days to investigate suspicious people.

In March, Xun Yu was about to assassinate, but fortunately, the nearby city guards arrived in time to kill the assassin.

Luo Zheng was furious, and ordered the closure of the four gates of Chang'an for strict investigation, and all those who were of unknown origin and had no way to guide them did not ask the reason, and they were all demoted to slaves and sent to slave camps, and their families were reduced to slaves. All those who entered Chang'an had to go to the county government to issue road guides, and the counties under Chang'an were issued road guides by the county-level government officials, and whoever led the way to the Assassins was held responsible.

The plot is strict, and the nine generations are degraded to slavery.

Causing the death of important people, punish the nine clans, dig up their ancestral graves and whip the corpses.

The decree was issued, and the local counties and counties quickly investigated the unknown people.

Luo Zhengfu also ordered to select innocent, loyal and reliable soldiers from the whole army to form a thousand-person defense battalion, which was managed by Xu Chu, the commander of the wolf cavalry, and was responsible for the personal safety and family safety of his henchmen such as Jia Xu, Xun Yu, and Fa Zheng.

He ordered the commander of the army to strengthen his defenses so as not to be taken advantage of by the Assassins.

At the same time, Cao Cao and his henchmen were also assassinated by Cheng Dù.

Cao Cao was assassinated three times in a month, and Xuchang was also under investigation.

At the end of March, Tang Fa, Xuanqiang and other troops raised troops to invade the area of the head of the Cizhi River, and the 800 li Qiang plaintiff was in a hurry.

Luo Zheng reprimanded the general Yan Xing to lead 3,000 fine cavalry, west out of the Qiang Plain, and more than 3 million households of more than 10,000 cavalry crossed the river to the south, broke Tang Fa, Xuanqiang and other departments at the Chara Pass, and took advantage of the situation to enter the Qiangnan region, but because there was no one for thousands of miles, the army could not be replenished and retreated.

In July, the Montenegrin army went out to Taihang again to plunder.

Yuan Shaona's army division Tian Feng's plan, set up an ambush north of Fangshan, forced the Montenegrin army to Fangshan, and held the main road, 300,000 Montenegrin troops only held on for less than half a month, and had to surrender to Yuan Shao because of the exhaustion of food.

Yuan Shao then collected all his troops and selected 100,000 of his elite and strong troops to form the Montenegrin army, while the old and weak women and children were placed on the spot, and their strength increased greatly for a while.

The Montenegrin army surrendered, and there was no force in Hebei that had to argue with Yuan Shao, Yuan Shaozhi was complacent, and immediately took a break from the army to enter Qingzhou, and Cao Cao also hurried to deploy after receiving the news.

At the end of July, after the autumn grain was put to the ground, Cao Cao personally led an army of 30,000 to Wancheng in the south, and Jingzhou was in an emergency.

Sun Ce was still attacking the four counties of Jingnan, Liu Bei took away 30,000 soldiers and horses, although he temporarily repelled Sun Ce, but failed to drive Sun Ce out of Jingzhou in one fell swoop, and was in a stalemate with Sun Ce in Baling.

What's even worse is that there are less than 30,000 soldiers left in Jingzhou.

After Liu Biao, the king of Chu, urgently summoned a group of confidants and civil and military forces to discuss, he personally raised an army of 20,000 to go north to Wancheng to meet the enemy.

In August, on the way back to the division, Yan Xing led 3,000 Xiliang cavalry to attack and capture Guangrou, an important town in the west of Shu County, bypassing Yulei Mountain, and running for more than 300 miles in two days, and suddenly killed Chengdu, wanting to attack Chengdu in one fell swoop and capture Yizhou.

Unexpectedly, when he was about to enter the city, he was stopped by Ma Chao, who went out to return to the city.

Chengdu defenders quickly closed the four gates, and then the earth-shattering war drums rushed into the sky, Chengdu has not suffered from the military disaster for more than ten years, people have been accustomed to the peaceful and prosperous times, at first hearing the war drums are all at a loss, the streets and alleys are all boiling.

After Liu Zhang, the king of Shu, received the news, he fell backwards in shock.

Yan Xing and Ma Chao fought more than 50 times, and gradually felt overwhelmed, so he ordered the army to rush and kill, Ma Chao only had hundreds of horses, and did not dare to fight under the response of the defenders of Chengdu, and killed the Xiliang cavalry and went back to the city.

Not long after, Liu Zhang, accompanied by a group of confidants and civil soldiers, felt that the West Gate of Chengdu happened to be shouting and shouting to kill the Xiliang cavalry, shouting for the defenders in the city to quickly open the city and surrender, the momentum was extremely amazing, and Liu Zhang was frightened and fainted at that time.

By the time Youyou woke up, the three thousand Xiliang cavalry had already retreated.

Yan Xing's army was all lightly armed, without any grain and baggage, and seeing that there was no hope of attacking Chengdu, he could only retreat decisively.

Otherwise, if you are trapped in Yizhou, it will be difficult for the Yizhou army to rush to encircle it, and then you want to retreat.

The Xiliang Army's sneak attack this time came very suddenly, no one expected it in advance, it was purely Yan Xing's temporary intention, and after breaking Guangrou, he immediately rushed to Chengdu non-stop, so Liu Zhang was caught off guard.

If it weren't for Ma Chao going out hunting and returning to the city, I'm afraid that Yizhou would change hands.

After Ma Chao took refuge in Liu Zhang, he was squeezed out by the Xichuan clan, and he had nothing to do all day long, and he was depressed, but this time he happened to block Yan Xing for a while, so that the Chengdu defenders reacted in time and closed the city gate, but it was a meritorious achievement.

Liu Zhang thanked him for his merits, so he gave Ma Chao 8,000 soldiers and horses to guard Guangrou in case the Xiliang army attacked again.

Ma Chao was overjoyed, and secretly thought that with soldiers and horses, he finally had a chance to take revenge.

Chang'an, General Pingdi's Mansion.

Luo Zhengzheng discussed with Jia Xu and Xun Yu.

Cheng Ying rushed in and arched his hand: "Lord, General Yan Xing has arrived in Wudu. ”

Luo Zheng let out an 'oh' sound and asked, "What is the result, have you ever swept away the Qiangnan region?" ”

Cheng Ying said: "Because the southern Qiangnan front is too long, often hundreds of miles uninhabited, our army's supply is difficult, General Yan Xing has no choice but to retreat from southern Qiang, but Tang Fa, Xuanqiang and others have been broken, and they are no longer able to attack in a short period of time." Moreover, General Yan Xing led 3,000 cavalry to break through Guangrou from Mianhu Road on the way back to the division, and attacked Chengdu for hundreds of miles, almost breaking Chengdu. ”

Luo Zheng's eyes froze, "Yan Xing led the army to attack Chengdu?" ”

Jia Xu and Xun Yu also looked surprised.

Cheng Ying said: "Exactly, Liu Zhang was defenseless, General Yan Xing suddenly led the army to Chengdu, and now the city is about to be broken, but Ma Chao went out hunting and just returned to the city, blocking General Yan Xing for a moment, and the Chengdu defenders have already reacted." I heard that Liu Zhang was scared alive and fainted when he climbed to the top of the city, if it weren't for Ma Chao, Xichuan Qianli Fertile Field was afraid that he would be returned to the lord. ”

Luo Zheng said: "It's a pity that Yan Xing still failed to break through Chengdu in one fell swoop and capture Liu Zhang. ”

Jia Xu also said with regret: "Xichuan is thousands of miles of fertile fields, rich and rich people, and has not been subjected to military disasters, these years the Central Plains and Guanliang land have been in constant war, a large number of people have poured into Xichuan, the population of Yizhou has several times the population under the rule of the lord, but it is a pity that General Yan Xing failed to break Chengdu in one fell swoop, otherwise if according to Xichuan, there should be two of the five lords of the world, and the great cause can be expected!" ”

Luo Zheng said: "How many people are there in Xichuan? ”

Xun Yu replied: "No less than six million." ”

"So much!"

Luo Zheng was taken aback, this is indeed a bit surprising.

You must know that if the princes of today, if you talk about the breadth of the territory, he should be the first, Guanzhong, Liangzhou, plus the 800 miles of Qiang Yuan and the Mobei Prairie, the breadth of the territory is no longer under the strength of the Han Dynasty.

The only shortcoming is the lack of population.

Don't don't desert north and Qiangyuan, even in Guanzhong and Liangzhou, there are many places that are deserted.

In addition to plundering foreign races in recent years, Luo Zheng has basically not expanded much, and he has never suffered a military disaster under his rule, and has been sparing no effort to plunder the population, or trying to attract people from all over the world to settle in Guanzhong.

Although the population has doubled, the population under his rule is less than three million.

Xichuan is only a state, and there are no less than six million people, which is more than twice as many as under Luo Zheng's rule.

If the population is insufficient, the size of the army must be limited.

Luo Zheng is not short of food now, even if he raises hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, he can't afford to raise them. But so far, all the soldiers and horses under his command have only added up to 1230,000, which has reached the limit, and it is impossible to expand the army.

The main reason is that after a large number of young people enlist in the army, agricultural production and handicraft production will inevitably be affected.

In addition, if the army went out on the expedition, it was necessary to recruit the people to transport grain and straw, repair the road defenses after the heavy rain, etc., if it was not for the capture of a large number of foreign slaves to serve as labor, just to serve the labor every year, the people under the rule would be unbearable.

Judging from the news that came back in turn, after Yuan Shao pacified Youzhou, there was also a population of 50,000 or 60,000 under his rule, and if you add Bingzhou and Qingzhou, the population of Hebei should be more than 8 million.

Under Cao Cao's rule, there were three prefectures of Yan, Henan, and Xu, plus Huainan and Lujiang counties in Yangzhou, but the Central Plains had been in constant war over the years, and the population loss was strict, and Cao Cao's rule had a maximum of seven million people, which was not as large as the population under Yuan Shao's rule.

If it weren't for the Yellow Turban Uprising in the first year of Zhongping, the Central Plains would have been in constant war for more than ten years, and there were more than 10 million people in Yan and Henan Prefectures, plus Xuzhou, Huainan and Lujiang counties, the population would be nearly 20 million.

In addition to Sun Jian, Sun Ce's father and son's invasion of the four counties of Jingnan in Jingzhou over the years, there has been no major war, and the population is quite a lot, but at most it is only five or six million, which will not be more than Yizhou.

Thinking deeper, Yizhou has now become a piece of fat.

Whoever can eat this piece of fat will immediately increase his strength and become the most powerful prince in the world.

Jingzhou is not worried about much, but there are millions of people in Nanyang County, so it is no wonder that Sun Jian, Sun Ce, father and son are taking advantage of the chaos in the north to plot against Jingzhou, and Cao Cao can't help but make a move against Nanyang.

Luo Zheng thought for a while, and asked in a deep voice, "Can you take Xichuan before Yuan Shao goes south?" ”

Jia Xu pondered for a moment, then shook his head and said: "Difficult, Xichuan is easy to defend and difficult to attack, there are no less than 100,000 soldiers and horses, although the new army has been reorganized for a year, it has not yet become an army, and if you want to attack it, there is basically no possibility of taking Xichuan." ”

Xun Yu also said: "Yuan Shao has already killed Qingzhou, and within two years at most, he will unify Hebei and raise troops to the Central Plains in the south, leaving little time for our army." If troops are used against Qingzhou at this time, they can no longer take into account the war in the Central Plains. At that time, whether Yuan Shao defeated Cao Cao and entered the Central Plains, or Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao and entered Hebei, our army should not think of going east to the Central Plains. ”

Luo Zheng sighed and said, "That's it, let's let it go first!" ”

At this moment, Fa Zheng suddenly rushed in with a happy face. R1152