"Well, everyone is good, I'm proud of your existence!" Sweeping his gaze towards the five hundred heavy horses, Zhang Chao raised the three-foot long sword in his hand and said loudly.

"Long live the second son, long live the second son!" The black-clothed heavy rider was also very excited, and after two years of separation, he saw their master again, which made them just as excited.

The battle of Chaoge came to an end, and Zhang Chao fought more with less and won the final victory.

At the same time, he also took the opportunity to give the Montenegrin army a heavy blow, so that they did not dare to dare Zhang Chao, the general worshiped by the emperor himself.

Escorting the captives and carrying nearly 100 carts of belongings, Zhang Chao and others returned to the road and headed towards Huguan from Chaoge.

Huguan, also known as Hukou Pass, Wu'er Yu. It is now Dongyangguan Town, northeast of Licheng County, Shanxi. It is the gateway to the southeast of Shangdang County.

As long as the Huguan is held, it is equivalent to holding the road from Yanzhou and Jizhou to the north and west, which can be said to be the first strategic fortress of Bingzhou.

Guo Jia and Xu Shu, who came here first, also saw the importance of this place, which led to Xu Yuanzhi and Xu Huang, the so-called Shuangxu with heavy troops here.

Repelled the army of Yu Poison and Bai Huan, from Chaoge to Hukou Pass, all the way without hindrance, and arrived under the pass three days later. Xu Shu, Jia Xu, and Lu Su took five hundred soldiers to greet them at the pass.

Zhang Chao stepped forward, and the three strategists bowed down together and said, "Welcome the lord into the customs!" ”

The five hundred sergeants behind him also said in unison: "Welcome the lord into the customs." ”

"Hahaha, Yuan Zhi, Wenhe, Zijing, you have worked hard." Seeing the three senior strategists and the soldiers Zhang Chao dismount, he stepped forward with laughter and helped the three of them up one by one.

"The lord is the hard work all the way." Xu Shu looked at Zhang Chao and said very sincerely.

Since being recommended by Cai Yong to become Zhang Chao's staff, Xu Shu has found the goal of his life. Especially the lord's trust in him made him even more grateful. The ancients had the concept that a man dies as a confidant, and he is like this.

"Yuan Zhi guards the first important place in Wuhe Prefecture, and Fang is the hardest. Now, tell me a little bit about the situation. Zhang Chao pulled Xu Shu's arm and walked towards the mouth of the pot as he spoke.

"No." After Xu Shu agreed, he began to introduce what he knew, and there were some plans to discuss with Guo Jiazai.

Two years ago, Guo Jia, Xu Shu and the generals Huang Zhong, Tai Shici, Xu Huang and others came to Bingzhou. With five hundred chests of treasure, he quickly established his power here. And according to the suggestions made by Zhang Chao when he was separated, he began to prepare for the construction of Jinyang City.

At that time, Zhang Chao was just a nominal Guangling Taishou, but Guo Jia and Xu Shu both firmly believed that even if the lord said that it would be a year and a half soon, and three years later, he would definitely be able to do it, and what they had to do was to do all the preparations well, so that when the lord came, they could realize the plan in their hearts faster.

For this matter, Guo Jia took heavy troops to Taiyuan County, and Xu Shu led troops to Shangdang County and began to make their own preparations.

The preparation for this includes: Fight against the Montenegrin Army to increase the fame and influence of the First Legion; Finding quarries and preparing timber for future development; Understand the customs and customs of the state, map and landform, and prepare for easy management; Send members of Tianyan into the surrounding ethnic minorities to know themselves and their opponents, so that they can win all battles...

Listening to Xu Shu's introductions one by one, Zhang Chao nodded incessantly while walking: "Well, you and Fengxiao are doing a good job, and I am relieved that you are doing things." ”

"Thank you for your trust." Xu Shu hurriedly bowed down again.

"Hehe, Yuan Zhi, please come in. By the way, what you just said was the progress of some things, so let's talk about the difficulties now. "Zhang Chao doesn't believe that everything will go well, to say that when you come here, there are the Black Mountain Army inside, and the Xiongnu and other nationalities are watching, and there is no difficulty at all, it is impossible.

"No." Xu Shu agreed and then said, "Lord, if you want to talk about difficulties, there are actually a lot of them. But one of the most important is that the population is too small. Don't you know, because of the reason that Bingzhou is located in the northern Xinjiang, coupled with the perennial invasion of the Xiongnu and other countries, so that at this time the land is vast and sparsely populated, a large number of fertile fields are barren, and there are a large number of grain fields that can be cultivated. However, now I am often troubled by lack of food, and I have tried all kinds of ways to buy it at a high price in Jizhou, Youzhou and Hedong, which makes our treasures dwindle day by day. ”

Speaking of these things, Xu Shu obviously had a melancholy look on his face, obviously the money was spent on food, and he was very distressed.

"Hmm." Zhang Chao's face also became heavy.

When it comes to wars, in ancient times, as in modern times, all about money and food was fighting. If the logistical supply is insufficient, the desire to win on the battlefield becomes a luxury, is it possible that you still expect a hungry army to win the battle?

Moreover, Zhang Chao has always attached great importance to the army. He knows the meaning of power in the barrel of a gun, and if he wants to create an empire of his own, he must have enough troops to back it up. And this army must also be loyal enough, otherwise like Dong Zhuo, his subordinates can rebel at any time, and that kind of regime is unstable.

For this reason, Zhang Chao will pay the army and develop the army under the premise of ensuring their rights and interests, which requires more money as support. And now, the limited money and materials are indeed used to buy food, which is definitely not the result he wanted.

"Okay, Yuan Zhi, I know everything you said. Rest assured, this matter will be resolved soon, and this time I brought so many displaced people here to prepare for it. ”

"Yes, the lord has already planned, and with these people, the need for food can be alleviated." Xu Shu said with admiration from the bottom of his heart. When 100,000 homeless people appeared under Huguan yesterday, he knew that Zhang Chao had a plan.

In ancient times, there was not such a high level of science and technology, and if you want to do something, you often have to rely on manpower to pile it up, so it shows the importance of population. And Zhang Chao has long seen this, and the 100,000 displaced people brought this time are the main new force in the construction of the state.

Naturally, it is difficult to accomplish anything just by pointing to these people, but everything is difficult at the beginning, as long as there is the support and efforts of these people, the state will eventually prosper.

After staying in Huguan for three days, Xu Shu, Jia Xu and Lu Su respectively registered and registered 100,000 displaced people.

In fact, this kind of thing has been done all along, and now that it has entered the state, it can be regarded as safe, and this matter has entered the final stage of the later stage.

After registering the displaced people, Zhang Chao had to lead the army out of Hukou and go to Jinyang City, Taiyuan County, the capital of Bingzhou.

When leaving, Zhang Chao divided the Montenegrin army of more than 10,000 prisoners and left it to Xu Shu. According to what he meant, Hukou Pass is not high enough, not dangerous enough, and it must continue to be built, and it will become a dangerous pass in the future to ensure the safety of the gateway to the state.

...... ......

Jinyang City.

At the end of June 192, Zhang Chao appeared in front of the city gate with 5,000 cavalry, 30,000 captured Montenegrin troops and 100,000 people.

The chief military advisor Guo Jia, the general Tai Shici and other soldiers of the First Army lined up in front of the city gate to welcome them. Along with it, there were 30,000 people from all over the city who came to see the excitement.

Long before Zhang Chao appeared, the news that he was worshiped as a general by Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty and was named the state pastor spread, and the people here also knew that they were about to usher in a young state pastor, but everyone did not have any confidence in this person's ability.

Bingzhou also had a state pastor at the earliest, and there was also a famous one, that is Ding Yuan.

And since Ding Yuan went to Luoyang and did not return, the entire state has become like an unattended child, that is, there is not even a symbolic state pastor. Now after three years, there is a new master, and the people can't help but be very curious.

As for the people who wanted to see who the state pastor was, Guo Jia did not stop him after knowing the news, but only arranged a key security work. He believes that Zhang Chao is also willing to get close to the people, which may be exactly what the lord needs.

When Zhang Chao appeared at the east gate of Jinyang City with more than 100,000 people, he saw the scene in front of him.

"Look, my lord! It was Guo Junshi and General Taishi who came to greet us. Dressed in a milky white cloak, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, Zhao Yun, who had a broad face and a heavy face, rode to Zhang Chao's side and said excitedly.

"Hmm." Zhang Chao looked into the distance with a smile, very excited.

"Lord, why are there so many people, there are some assassins hidden in it, wait for me to go and disperse them." Dian Wei, the chief of the guard on the side, saw that it was indeed tens of thousands of Jincheng people, and he was worried that there would be safety problems, so he said so, and wanted to take the iron guards around him to step forward first.

It's just that this move was really stopped by Zhang Chao. "Ziman must not be reckless, these people will be our brothers and sisters in the future, how can they be treated like this?"

"My lord, but what if there are assassins among them?" Dian Wei said anxiously.

"Don't you believe that you can't do it, in short, you can't disperse, maybe you and Zhongkang will follow me for a while." Zhang Chao couldn't be sure that there were no bad intentions among these people. It's just that this is indeed a good appearance and an opportunity to meet the local people, and he doesn't want to miss it like this.

"Hmm." Dian Wei agreed, and then took the double iron halberd that was not from the back of his waist in his hand, ready to shoot at any time. Xu Chu also held the long-handled knife between his hands, a picture of being able to take someone's life at any time.

Zhang Chao did not comment on these two final-level guards, it was understandable that they had their duties.