There are only a dozen people who have been named earls this time, only thirty or forty people who have been named viscounts, and there are no more than 100 people who have been named barons, which shows the preciousness of his title. The only one who was made a marquis was Guan Yu, not to mention the position of duke that made people look up to the mountains. But where there is hope, there is motivation, the position of the Marquis and Duke is placed there, and the conditions for promotion are also clear, as long as there is enough merit, anything is promising. Therefore, when the new title system was announced, it really made people's blood boil for a while, and the prelude to Xuzhou's foreign war had just begun.

Below the fifth-class title, Liu Ze also specially set up a lord rank, which is divided into nine ranks, the highest being a first-class lord and the lowest being a ninth-class lord. Unlike the male fifth-class title of duke and uncle, the lord does not enjoy the fiefdom and cannot be hereditary, but he can receive the corresponding salary according to the rank every year. Due to the scarcity and difficulty of obtaining the title of the fifth rank of the duke, the title of lord is a good supplement, and the threshold for obtaining a lord is very low, as long as it can accumulate a certain amount of military merit, it is the most ordinary brave soldier, and you can also obtain the status of a lord, in addition to receiving a small amount of annual salary, the lord status of the quasi-nobles is enough for those soldiers from the common people. What's more, as a soldier, you can only get food when you are in the army, and once you retire, you will not have this salary, and you will eat food as a soldier, and you will not be a soldier where you will get food. The lord title is different, once you get the title, although it cannot be hereditary, you can enjoy it for a lifetime. After retiring, you can also get the corresponding salary.

Although the lowest-level ninth-class lord does not have much money, and he can make ends meet, but every time the title is promoted, the servant is obviously improved, and when he reaches the third and fourth class, the age he gets is enough to mix with a well-off family, and when he is promoted to a first-class lord, he can already get a glimpse of the threshold of the baron, and he is only one step away from becoming a real nobleman.

There are risks and opportunities. The flowers of wealth are always watered with sweat. Although the number of feats required to rise to a lord level is doubled, in the face of the greatest temptation, almost all soldiers will choose to sacrifice their lives and die and fight with all their might. Wealth and danger are sought. Everyone understands this.

Military merit is undoubtedly the fastest and most effective way to increase the title. But it's not the only option, as long as you get merit, it doesn't have to come from the battlefield. Even if you come from ordinary people, as long as you have a skill, as long as you have intelligence, you can still get the honor. This time, Ma Jun was awarded the title of third-class count because of his most outstanding invention and creation, Zhang Ji was also awarded the first-class baron because of his achievements in the field of medicine, and Dong Ci, who made a breakthrough in the selection of excellent breeds, was also awarded the title of third-class baron. The honors they have achieved have made the officials at the lower levels see the hope of Jin Jue, as long as they work hard, everyone has a chance to succeed.

The fifth year of Jian'an, the second hundred years of A.D., is destined to be an indelible day for China's history.

Yuan Shao's army, known as 700,000 people, broke through the danger of the Yellow River in Liyang, and marched in the direction of Xudu.

Cao Cao personally raised troops to meet the battle, and entered Guandu, which was easy to defend and difficult to attack. Guandu is located in the upper reaches of the chasm, on the verge of Bianshui. The chasm canal connects Tiger Prison, Gong and Luo Yao Pass in the west, and goes down to Huaisi in the east, which is the barrier of the north and east of Xudu, and is the important and contentious place for Yuan Shao to seize Xudu. Cao Cao placed the main force in Guandu, and the high base was deep to base Yuan Shao. In addition, Xiahou Yuan was the assassin of Qingzhou, went out of Taishan County in the east, attacked Qi, Beihai, Dong'an and other places, contained Yuan Tan in Qingzhou, and relieved Yuan Bing's threat from the flank from the west of Qingzhou.

In Baima, the first battle of the Battle of Guandu broke out, Cao Cao used the strategy of attacking the east and the west, thwarted Yuan Shao's forward troops in one fell swoop, and beheaded Jiang Qi, the general of Yuan's army, and won the first battle. In the second battle of Yanjin, Yuan's army suffered heavy losses again, and this time it was the general Han Meng who was damaged.

Yuan Shao fought in the north, the momentum was frustrated, and he could not change the points and attack the combined attack to close the camp, and hundreds of thousands of troops pushed forward horizontally, and Cao Cao's main force confronted Guandu, and the two sides fell into a protracted positional battle in Guandu.

Liu Ze has been closely following the movements of Guandu, and the decisive battle between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao has begun, and the northern pattern in the next few decades will be determined by this battle, which is both an opportunity and a challenge for Liu Ze.

The non-aggression pact with Cao Cao was not just a verbal agreement, and after the meeting with Cao Cao's green plum cooking, Liu Ze spent more than ten days in Xudu to implement the treaty into written text. Although Liu Ze may not believe that Cao Cao will abide by this five-year contract, at least in the first few years, Cao Cao will compete with Yuan Shao and Hebei, which is flawless in the south, which undoubtedly gives him a relatively relaxed environment for operating in the south. Once the treaty was signed, Cao Cao had no worries and could go all out to meet Yuan Shao. Also for Liu Ze, without the biggest threat of Cao Cao on the northern front, it is more convenient to dispatch troops. This treaty is a win-win outcome for both parties.

At the same time, there were some additional provisions of the treaty, such as the exchange of envoys between the two sides, trade and so on. Due to the isolation of the war, the communication between the north and the south was cut off, the trade routes were blocked, and the trade in goods came to a standstill. Liu Ze proposed the resumption of the trade route this time, and soon won Cao Cao's approval, the north of the war is frequent, natural disasters and man-made disasters continue, the most headache for Cao Cao is the shortage of food, although Cao Cao implemented the tuntian, in a certain way to alleviate the contradiction between supply and demand of grain, but in the spring famine, the price of grain will often soar to tens of thousands of dollars or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, the people are unbearable, people compete for cannibalism, people eat people is definitely not a rare thing. Xuzhou under Liu Ze's rule has a surplus of warehouses and stable grain prices, and if Xuzhou's grain can be transported to Yanyu, it will be enough to solve the problem of grain shortage.

And the coal, iron ore, horses and other materials in the north are also lacking in Xuzhou. But the problem then arises, for the strategic materials such as grain, salt, iron, and horses, both sides want to get more from the other party and give less to the other side, after all, these materials are strictly controlled for both sides. After repeated bargaining, the two sides made a preliminary agreement on the variety and quantity of materials for bilateral trade, which was regarded as solving the problem of opening the trade route.

Commercial trade is always a double-edged sword, solving their own difficulties, but also making up for the other party's shortage, their own strength is growing at the same time, the opponent's strength is also improving. For Liu Ze, horses and iron ore are undoubtedly the most scarce materials, in the war, the consumption of war horses and weapons and equipment is huge, and Xuzhou itself does not produce these things, how to solve this problem has always been very nerve-wracking for Liu Ze. The shortage of grain and grass has always been the bottleneck of Cao's army, in the battle of Guandu in history, Cao Cao almost gave up because of lack of food, when Xu Yu defected to Cao Cao, there was no food for three days in Cao's camp. With the opening of trade this time, Xuzhou's grain and salt can be continuously supplied to the front line of Guandu, solving Cao Cao's urgent need.

But Cao Cao is also shrewd, it is impossible to fully liberalize the amount of trade, and the control of strategic materials such as horses and iron ore is even stricter, strictly limiting the amount of trade, but for Liu Ze, this is also the best result that can be obtained from this trip to Xudu.

In view of the next strategic move, Liu Ze summoned all the chief and deputy governors of the army and the strategists to discuss the plan.

In front of Xuzhou, there were two targets for attack, one was Sun Ce in Jiangdong, and the other was Liu Biao in Jingzhou.

Chen Deng first said: "The lord is the Yangzhou pastor of the imperial court, and has the right to govern the four counties of Jiangdong. What's more, the land of Jiangdong has the danger of the Yangtze River, and it is said to be the land of fish and rice, the land is vast, if the lord gets Jiangdong, he sits on half of the country, and it is enough to have the capital to dominate the world. ”

Xu Shu held a different opinion and said: "The land of Jiangdong has been obtained by Sun Ce, since Sun Jian, the Sun family has a solid foundation in Jiangdong, the country is dangerous and the people are attached, and he uses the risk of the Yangtze River to confront Xuzhou." Yuanlong's construction is good, but if you want to plot Jiangdong, you must first solve the problem of how to cross the river, our army is the northern army, and the horse and foot battles can be called elite, but the naval army is a weakness. If our army does not have the ability to defeat the Jiangdong naval army, how can we break through the Yangtze River defense line held by Jiangdong? If the defense line of the Yangtze River is not broken, the Jiangdong naval army is not destroyed, and the land of Jiangdong is unattainable. ”

The Xuzhou army is strong, strong in land warfare, this is well known to all people, although in recent years in Guangling Liu Ze also made Zhang He form a naval army, but whether it is in terms of scale or personnel, it is very different from the Jiangdong naval army. Liu Ze's army was all northern soldiers, riding horses, and the boat ride was not satisfactory. What's more, the water on the Yangtze River is turbulent, and if you want to train troops, there is no big lake in Xuzhou like Taihu Lake and Poyang Lake in Jiangdong, so the navy in Xuzhou has not been formed, which is also a headache for Liu Ze all along.

Chen Deng said: "Although the Yangtze River is dangerous, but the Jiangdong Army is also impossible to deploy defenses everywhere, our army can choose one place and break through, once it enters the Jiangdong realm, it can give full play to the advantages of our army's infantry and cavalry, first take Danyang, then go to Wuhui, and encroach on it step by step." The advantage of Jiangdong's naval army will inevitably be lost, and it will be easy to take the four counties of Jiangdong at that time. (To be continued......)