Ma Chao is a fierce general, unruly and untamed, but he still respects capable people. Now seeing Huang Zhong holding a letter in his hand and looking stunned, he couldn't help but be very curious, and asked out loud as soon as he stepped forward.

Hearing Ma Chao's question, Huang Zhong did not answer, but just raised his hand and handed over the Flying Eagle Transmission that he had just received in his hand.

"What is this?" With curiosity, Ma Chao reached out and took the letter, and then looked at it casually. It's just that after this look, his eyes seemed to be unable to extricate himself, and he didn't move when he stared at it, which caused Ma Dai, the deputy commander of the regiment who was following him, to be very curious, and he stepped forward to look at it together, which also showed the same expression after looking at it.

The emperor was besieged in Youzhou Lu County, and then disappeared, and until now, there is no news. In Jinyang City, Lu Su, the minister of internal affairs, had already elected the eldest prince Zhang Tian and began to exercise the power of supervising the country.

Zhang Tian is Zhang Chao's eldest son, and he is also a candidate to be named as the successor king.

This was before Zhang Chao's conquest of the Rus' Kingdom, Lu Su and Guo Jia repeatedly requested, and he wrote a will, which was placed in the palace after the Zhengda Guangming plaque was set up as a new monarch. I thought that after winning the battle with Rose, this will would not see the light of day for the time being, but who would have thought that it would be used so soon.

"The eldest prince is now ten years old." Ma Dai was the first to see what the letter said.

Zhang Tian, who was born in July 195, is only in November 205, and judging from his age, he has just turned 10 years old.

Let a child who has reached the age of ten and is less than eleven years old be the emperor, this is obviously unconvincing, especially like the current war period, everything is undecided, and various accidents may occur at any time.

It is no wonder that Ma Dai was so surprised when he saw the letter.

Of course, what is even more surprising is that Zhang Chao will suddenly disappear, which is said to be something that should not be done. With tens of thousands of troops around him and the most elite Zhang Jiajun in the world, who can hurt him? This disappearance is indeed a source of too many doubts.

Could it be that Zhang Chao is going to do something? Maybe that's the only way to make sense, right? Only in this way would Lu Su be so anxious to let Zhang Tian come to prison for the country.

Thinking of this possibility, Ma Dai couldn't help but change his expression and gasped.

Obviously, Huang Zhong and Ma Chao on the side were afraid that they had also thought of such a possibility, and they had not been silent for a long time without saying a word.

At this moment, both corps commanders clearly thought of the most worrying possibility.

The current Celestial Empire, although it seems that there are enemies everywhere, it cannot be denied that they are indeed the most powerful, otherwise this time Cao Cao and Liu Bei would not have given up their previous suspicions, and they would have joined forces in one place, and even sent troops to Si Li and Yongzhou at the same time.

But even if this is the case, it seems unlikely that it will be possible to shake the Celestial Empire, but if Zhang Chao is gone, it is difficult to say what the situation will be.

At that time, will people's hearts still be so united? Will anyone have a different heart? After all, many people are convinced by Zhang Chao, not the Celestial Empire.

Even if they can guarantee that they won't rebel, but what about the others? If they are reversed, the Celestial Empire will have to face enemies inside and outside, where will they go at that time, and will they have to think about themselves and their families now?

But all those who have been reused in Zhang Chao Group, the first thing is that their families have received great benefits. In order to allow the soldiers to kill the enemy with confidence, their families are naturally protected by the best, and at the same time, they also have the most generous treatment in all aspects.

One person is one family. This is the most direct benefit that Zhang Chao gave to his ministers, and even a lot of resources are tilted towards them, for example, all the ministers' families will have relevant preferential policies when doing business, and if they are farming, they can also enjoy some rent-free discounts.

These good treatments made the interests of the ministers directly related to the strength of the Celestial Empire, and also made the families of the important ministers begin to grow rapidly. And now, not a single minister is alone, and they all feed a large number of people behind them.

is no longer alone, which makes the responsibility on their shoulders a little heavier, if they want to do something that is not conducive to Zhang Chao and the Celestial Empire, it also needs to be carefully considered. This is Zhang Chao's intention. It's just that now the shortcomings are also exposed, these important ministers have to think about it more for the sake of their families, knowing that Zhang Chao may have problems, even if it is not for themselves, for the sake of their families, they have to think about the future.

Ma Chao and Huang Zhong are now people with big families behind them, and their decisions are not only about themselves, but also dozens of people behind them, or even more people, which makes them face a sudden situation and have to think deeply.

It's just that they don't know that this kind of deep thinking is exactly what Zhang Chao wants to see.

These people have always been too smooth with themselves, so smooth that they don't even need to be tested in terms of loyalty.

If Zhang Chao can live for a long time, naturally these people will not dare to have different hearts, but who knows what tomorrow will be like? For the sake of future generations, he has to come to test people's hearts, he hopes that no one will have a different heart and let himself down, but many times, how things will develop is not up to him, and now he can guarantee to be himself.

After Lu County left, Zhang Chao rested during the day and hurried at night, and in order not to be discovered, he sent a large number of scout troops to ensure the safety of the army.

Carefully, Zhang Chao went from Youzhou to Jizhou, from Luxian to Zhangwu.

After coming to Zhangwu, Zhang Chao did not choose to enter the city, but found a no-man's land outside the city for a simple rest. After sending people to investigate the news of all parties and knowing that he had disappeared, there was no major movement in the Celestial Empire, at least no legion commander rebelled, so he left Zhangwu with peace of mind, continued to cross Yangxin south, and arrived outside the city of Leling Kingdom.

This has belonged to the border area of Jizhou, and to the south, it belongs to the Central Plains, which is Cao Cao's Qingzhou territory.

That is to say, if you continue to go south from here, you will enter the enemy territory, Zhang Chao only has 40,000 cavalry around him after all, although they are all elite divisions, but if you don't plan well, you will inevitably be in danger of being besieged.

Fortunately, Zhang Chao is already very intelligent, as long as he has a detailed plan, it is possible to enter the enemy camp and retreat. In addition, he is a raid trip, plus he can mobilize the nearby Celestial Empire army at any time, but he has more to rely on.

......

And the state of Jinyang City.

With the founding of the Celestial Empire, it became the most powerful political, economic, and cultural center in the country.

The Zhangjiawen Academy, the Military Academy, the Medical College and the Weapons Academy were all completed here, making it even more prosperous.

Today's Jinyang City has become the most densely populated place in the country. Someone has made statistics, and now the number of people in Jinyang City has reached millions, which is similar to Luoyang in the glorious period of the Han Dynasty.

You must know that in history, during the Three Kingdoms period, the number of the entire nation was only more than 6 million at its lowest, which is enough to prove how prosperous Jinyang City is.

The density of the population and the establishment of various important centers make it not too much to describe Jinyang City as an inch of land. And in the middle of the city, in a courtyard with three entrances, the silence was indeed terrible at the moment, which formed a sharp contrast with the bustling street crowd outside the house.

This is the Guo Mansion, the residence of the four-rank civil official Guo Tu.

Guo Tu followed the original Jizhou Mu Yuan Shao and surrendered to the Celestial Empire, because it has a certain social influence, Zhang Chao can be regarded as giving due respect, when the Celestial Empire was established, he was crowned a four-grade civil official, with the internal affairs of the matter, its main role is to be responsible for some things in the Ministry of Rites when Guo Jia is away.

To say that Guo Tu has been an official for many years, he is very clear about some national laws and etiquette, and such an official position is also very suitable for him. It seems to be Chen Lin, he was also assigned to deal with some affairs of the Ministry of Rites, and because of his good performance, he was promoted to one level, from a sixth-rank civil official to a fifth-rank civil official.

As a vassal, it is said that he can be satisfied with such a position. It's a pity that Guo Tu's heart is thinner than paper, and his heart is higher than the sky.

How to say, when he followed Yuan Shao in the past, he was also an important minister who was relied on, but now in the Celestial Empire, he is indeed just a Ministry of Rites that does not seem to have any oil and water, and he is only a four-grade civil official, he has always had a lot of complaints in his heart, but there is no better way to change everything. But this does not prevent him from showing a negative and slacking side, and he is in a bad mood, so he doesn't serve the boss.

originally thought that he would live his life in such a mess, but Guo Tu never dreamed that Zhang Chao, the emperor of the Celestial Empire, would suddenly disappear, and no one knew where he went. And this is not a shocking thing, only ten years old Zhang Tian actually began to supervise the country, although there is no mention of the word inheritance, but everyone can see that if the emperor has no news, this person's inheritance is just a matter of time.

Of course, these changes did not make Guo Tu feel too many changes, after all, whoever is the emperor, his position will not be able to move in a short time, but what he never imagined is that the arrival of an unfamiliar guest made his state of mind like a calm river being thrown into a stone, making waves.