"Your Majesty, the conscription work has been completed, and now some civilian officials have returned to Jinyang City, and the task of training new soldiers has been taught to the military generals." Lu Su, a member of Zhengyipin, knelt down in the palace hall in the general's mansion very reverently, and bowed to Zhang Chao.

"Good. After the conscription is completed, the next step is to consider the issue of people's livelihood. Zhang Chao, who was sitting in the seat of the Ninety-Five Emperor in the hall, nodded with satisfaction, and then said with a smile: "The problem of the people's will is the foundation of the country. In this way, we should arrange for those civil officials to go to various states and counties to investigate and see how much grain each state and county can pay and how much taxes merchants can pay each year. Ling, prepare a caravan, let them go to the countries of the Western Regions, see if they can trade with that side, and arrange for Zhang Chun to do the team leader. He still remembered that Zhang Chun, the head of the branch of Tianyan, played a big role in the affairs of Liangzhou, and this time he had to entrust him with a heavy responsibility.

And just yesterday, Zhang Chao received a military report that the Dian Wei Department of the Sixth Army Corps left behind in Xiliang had basically completed the task of purging and opened a safe passage.

That is to say, from now on, the caravans of Jinyang City can start from here, enter Yongzhou through Sili, enter Xiliang and then enter the Western Regions.

In this way, it is equivalent to having the basic conditions for trade. Zhang Chao knew that there were many local specialties in the Western Regions, and many of them were needed in China, but because he had always thought that there was no safe road, few of the things there spread to the Central Plains.

And now, once it can be traded, it is equivalent to sending the good things of the Central Plains to the Western Regions to sell for a large value, and after that, you can bring some local specialties back from there, and the profit margin obtained from this coming and going is huge.

And the most important thing is that Zhang Chao can deliver 0 pieces of opium through this channel, once this thing is addicted to the locals, the benefits will be the most abundant. Just like the current Rus' Kingdom, a large amount of opium was transported, and Zhang Qiang, the principal there, would send back a lot of gold and silver every quarter to support the development of the empire more powerfully.

This is Zhang Chao's invasion road. In history, someone once used opium to open his own country, and today he wants to follow the same example and use the same method to open the door to a foreign country, the difference is that he is thousands of years ahead of himself.

Once the opium 0 enters other countries, it will fundamentally shake their foundation, and after a long time, the national strength declines, and then there is an opportunity, Zhang Chao can really expand the territory and realize the ideal.

Zhang Chao said above, and Lu Su nodded vigorously. Guo Jia, another Zhengyipin official on the side, kept laughing and not saying a word. He had already guessed Zhang Chao's thoughts, and he agreed with them very much.

For a country to be strong, it must first have a good system, and this system includes strict laws and various rules and regulations that can bind others.

This is the so-called meaning that there are no rules, and there is no circle.

It's just that this rule is only fundamental, and it is easy to do things with money, which is not only for businessmen and ordinary families, but also for a country.

When the country has money, it can do more things and benefit the people more. On the contrary, the country has no money, and if it wants to do things, it can only find ways from the people, which is tantamount to shaking the foundation of the country.

It can be seen that money is also extremely important for national development. In particular, the country has fed so many soldiers and soldiers, and I don't know how much it consumes every day, and if there is not enough economic support, it is impossible to support it, and it is also prone to civil strife.

Zhang Chao is dealing with these things with far-sighted thinking, and he is also preparing in advance, which is very good.

Zhang Chao's growth, Guo Jia can be said to have watched step by step, from a small second son in Chen Liu's mansion to the current Emperor of the First Emperor. Along the way, it seems to be smooth sailing, but it is actually full of dangers.

Fortunately, everything has come, and now that the country has been built, what we are waiting for is to finally unify the Central Plains and strengthen the Celestial Empire. Guo Jia himself also wants to see how strong the country will be in the end.

Naturally, at this time, there is another advantage of starting to grasp agriculture and business, which can make these civil servants who are most accustomed to pondering people's hearts busy, and only when they are busy will they not think blindly and will not cause trouble. As the DPRK has just been built today, stability is still a very important thing.

Lu Su wrote down a few important words that Zhang Chao said, and said respectfully, "Obey the order", and then go down to do it. Zhang Chao and Guo Jia were left to conduct more detailed research on what kind of caravans they were sent.

The news of Zhang Chao's founding of the country and the beginning of the expansion of the army came out, and the most shocking thing was the other princes.

In fact, it would be inappropriate to speak of other princes. Following Yongzhou and Xiliang becoming Zhang Chao's territory, for example, there are four today, and each of them is either the emperor or the king, which is far from the previous era of princes.

And among these four forces, it is naturally Zhang Chao himself who is the most powerful, monopolizing the six states.

Next was Cao Cao, Emperor Wen of Wei, who occupied four states, and then Liu Bei, Emperor of the Han Yuan Dynasty, and Sun Jian, who occupied two states.

Among them, Sun Jian did not feel too much pressure. First, his territory does not border Zhang Chao, and secondly, his daughter is now a Hua Guifei, with this relationship, even if one day, the army of the Celestial Empire kills Dongwu, he can go to peace talks.

Sun Jian is not under pressure, and the pressure is naturally Cao Cao and Liu Bei.

Seeing that Zhang Chao seemed to be getting stronger and stronger, and the strength of the whole army once exceeded two million, they also felt great pressure.

After all, even fools can see that what Zhang Chao wants so many soldiers to do, just to defend it? Even if you don't need to do this, after all, one more soldier will cost a little more.

Obviously, this is Zhang Chao preparing to do something to them.

If that day really comes, they don't think they have enough strength to resist where the Celestial Empire's soldiers are pointing. And how to do it before the Celestial Empire is completely ready, it is extremely important to take a step forward.

It's not just the swords that move the fingers, there are also some other methods.

For example, Prime Minister Zhuge Liang has already thought of a way, that is, to use his strength.

Zhang Chao's strength was seen in Zhuge Liang's eyes, which shocked him at the same time, but also felt a trace of fear. He remembered very well the last Battle of Chang'an, the first emperor of the Celestial Empire was simply a madman and a wise man, and it was very difficult to take advantage of such a big advantage. There is no chance of winning against him, and even if so, then this person will be left to someone else.

It's like a confrontation between the two armies, Zhuge Liang can't play a big role, after all, he can't personally lift his sword, but he can still do it with his smart brain to make some small moves and create some conspiracies, and he has already had an idea and started to prepare.

After Zhuge Liang reported his idea to Liu Bei, the Han Yuan Emperor, the delegation dominated by Mi Zhu came to Jingzhou from Yizhou, and then entered the territory of Cao Cao in the Central Plains.

Mi Zhu was one of the first scholars to help Liu Bei, and the two brothers, Mi Zhu and Mi Fang, are now doing things for him, and even his sister Mi is also one of the concubines of Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty, and she is still very valued.

It can be said that the Mi family has long been tied to Liu Bei's chariot, and it can be said that one hundred families are prosperous, and one hundred families are defeated.

In this way, Mi is also very concerned about Liu Bei's affairs, and this time Zhuge Liang gave Mi Zhu a task, which is to let him go to see Cao Cao, and say that he will move the other party to do one thing together.

In fact, Zhuge Liang is not worried about Cao Cao, he believes that Zhang Chao's powerful rise will also worry about the other party. And now that he has come up with a way, he doesn't need them to do anything, just watch the tiger fight on his own, which he can't help but disagree.

This is indeed the case, as soon as Mi Zhu appeared in Cao Cao's Xu Capital, he was immediately received and courteous, and the two sides soon reached an agreement on some things, and soon after, a convoy dressed as an ordinary merchant left Xu Du and headed for the land of Youzhou in the northeast.

At the same time, rumors about the First Emperor of Heaven also spread among the people.

In Cao Cao's territory, there were rumors about Zhang Chao, and many people must have thought it was bad at first. But this time it was really a little different, it was about his benefits, and it was about how Zhang Chao protected his calves.

The incident began with Xu Rong being killed by Zhang Xiu, and then Zhang Xiu was killed.

was killed by Wang Shuang in the mud, and then Wang Shuang was killed again.

What he said is nothing more than that Zhang Chao is very emotional, once he votes for his disciples, he will try his best to protect, if the person around him dies, he will definitely take revenge, and the personality of flaws will be infinitely exaggerated.

As soon as this kind of rumor came out, it made people smell it for the first time, and it felt that it should be the wind released by Zhang Chao, after all, such a voice came out, and it was beneficial to improve his influence.

In fact, this rumor was not arranged by Zhang Chao. After the members of Tianyan reported this matter, Zhang Chao, as the First Emperor of Heaven, was indeed a little confused.

"Fengxiao, is this something you arranged?" couldn't figure out why such a thing happened, so Zhang Chao asked Guo Jia to ask.

Guo Jia and Lu Su are the same product, but in fact, they are indeed responsible for one government and one army.

One is in charge of the army and the other is in charge of internal affairs, which is also why Zhang Chao does not want the two to have too much intersection in their work, and this is also a means to reduce infighting.

"Your Majesty, this matter is not Jiazhi's doing." Guo Jia said respectfully below.

"Oh, that's weird." Zhang Chao also laughed when he heard Guo Jia's denial. It's not his own people, so how did this rumor come about, he won't believe that Cao Cao was kind enough to help with the propaganda, isn't there such a reason?