Zhao Kuo stayed in Jicheng for half a month, and the car drove slowly towards Liaodong. Officials along the way trembled, for fear of being caught by Zhao Kuo.

Zhao Kuo is also ruthless, all officials who are corrupt and pervert the law are all beheaded and beheaded, and those who do not want to make progress will be directly dismissed and never hired.

Zhao Kuo is very powerful, and the whole country can almost be said to be his word, as long as he makes a decision, no one can stop it. The officials he was about to put to death had no one to protect them.

For some officials who performed well and were supported by the people, Zhao Kuo did not hesitate to reward and promote.

Most of the officials who were killed were former officials of Yan State, and these people were still immersed in the past, not realizing the difference between Zhao State and Yan State, and by the time they reacted, it was too late.

The main official roads in Yandi have been built, and official roads have been paved in every county, but even so, they still can't change the shortcomings of remote areas.

But at least with the efforts of Zhao Guo, the people's complexions are no longer sallow, and their bodies are no longer skinny. The vast majority of the people were able to eat without worrying about the northern nomads moving south and the exploitation of the government.

It's all going in a good direction.

In May, Zhao Kuo came to the most famous Daze in the northeast of this era: Liaoze.

Zhao Kuo didn't know how big Liaoze was, but as far as the eye could see, it was all dense swamps, covered with all kinds of aquatic plants.

There are many people working the edge of the swamp, and they are filling in the soil and water step by step, turning the endless swamp into fertile land little by little.

These people are all captives of Zhao State, including nearly 100,000 Chu troops captured last year were also sent here, and Zhao State has established a reward mechanism for these prisoners, for those who perform well, they can get points, and a certain amount of points can be exchanged for time to reduce their sentences.

Not only did the captives not dare to be lazy, but they worked hard to be able to go home a day earlier.

Behind the captives was a long and narrow strip of farmland, full of rice, which was blown by the breeze and made a pleasant sound.

This is the result of more than two years of hard work.

Zhao Kuo personally asked these captives, released the 1,000 captives who had performed the best in the past two years or so, and provided them with the money to go home.

Zhao Kuo told the remaining captives that as long as they worked hard and served their sentences, they would be released to return to China, and they would never break their promises.

The morale of the captives suddenly increased greatly, Zhao Guo's reputation in this regard is still very good, and he has just released a thousand captives, so everyone is willing to believe Zhao Kuo, a total of a few years, and now half of it has passed, and it will be over if you endure it a little longer.

Zheng Guo has become more vicissitudes, his face is dark, and the years have carved deep marks on his face, like the bark of an old pine tree, and his legs have been soaked in water for a long time, and there is no hair on them.

Only two eyes are still bright.

"I've worked hard for you all these years." Zhao Kuo patted Zheng Guo on the shoulder, although Zheng Guo was not a beautiful man back then, he was also handsome, and now he looks much older than him.

"It's not hard." Zheng Guo shook his head, he had learned a lot of knowledge about water control since he was a child, and hoped to become a water conservancy master when he grew up, and it was Zhao Guo who gave him this opportunity.

If there was no Zhao Guo, there would be no him today.

"Spread the order of the widow and canonize Zheng Guo as the king of Pingliao, and the fief is Xiling County. The rest of the people will be rewarded." Zhao Kuo ordered, although in terms of performance, Zheng Guo's merits are far less intuitive than those of attacking cities and seizing land, but for Zhao Guo, Zheng Guo is more than a famous general in terms of merit and role.

There is no shortage of famous generals in Zhao Guo, but there is only one water conservancy master like Zheng Guo.

"The minister doesn't dare to take it." Zheng Guo hurriedly knelt on the ground and said in fear. As we all know, the feudal monarch is either a relative of the emperor or a person with outstanding merits, where is a small person like him qualified to be crowned.

"The widow has always been meritorious, and the widow said that if you can bear it, Aiqing will be able to bear it. If Aiqing feels ashamed in her heart, she will govern Liaoze for the widow." Zhao Kuo helped Zheng Guo up and said kindly.

"The minister will not disappoint the king's expectations." Zheng Guo said solemnly.

Since ancient times, he had never heard of anyone who had been crowned a king for controlling the water, and this kindness alone was enough for him to repay with death.

"The widow heard that all the children of Aiqing's family are in Handan?" Zhao Kuo asked.

"Exactly." Zheng Guo said that when he first joined Zhao Guo, his family was also taken to Handan by Zhao Guo, and later went to Hetao alone, stayed in Hetao for a few years, and then came to Liaoze, where he has been living separately from his family.

"If you miss your family, you can take it over and live together, I have no taboos in this regard." Zhao Kuo said.

Under normal circumstances, generals or feudal officials who lead troops to fight outside the country will leave their relatives in the national capital, which has the meaning of asking the monarch to take care of them in case of an accident, and also has the meaning of hostage.

Prevent the general from surrendering to the enemy or standing on his own.

Although Zheng Guo is not a general, nor is he a feudal official, he is in charge of hundreds of thousands of people, and all of them are strong men, and the general who is in charge of the most soldiers in the world does not have as many people as Zheng Guo.

Although he is not a general, he is better than a general.

Therefore, Zheng Guo consciously left his family in Handan, but what he didn't expect was that Zhao Kuo offered to let him take his family over.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Zheng Guo knelt on the ground again and said with great emotion.

"Alright, get up, and take the widow around the neighborhood." Zhao Kuo said.

"No." Zheng Guo said.

Soon, the two came to the scene of the governance of Liaoze. It can be seen that hundreds of thousands of captives are in good order under the management of Zheng Guo, everyone has their own division of labor, and there is almost no chaos, and even if there is occasional chaos, they can be dealt with in a timely manner.

From this aspect alone, Zheng Guo's ability is definitely not limited to water control.

There are not many people in the world who can play with hundreds of thousands of people without chaos, and Zheng Guo is just one of them.

However, Zhao Kuo had no intention of letting Zheng Guo change careers, after all, Zhao Guo was more lacking than a water conservancy master, not a civil official.

"At the current rate, how long will it take to govern the entire Liaoze?" Zhao Kuo asked.

"Your Majesty, it will take five to eight years." Zheng Guo said that this is half the time he said last time, after all, these hundreds of thousands of prisoners are not busy in vain, if it were not for the fact that the prisoners were only serving five years in prison, the time could be shortened.

"What if you could keep so many people forever?" Zhao Kuo asked.

"Huh?" Zheng Guo looked at Zhao Kuo in surprise, among the prisoners who governed Liaoze, the most were the prisoners of Qin, according to the conditions that Zhao Guo promised them, they would be able to go home in more than two years, and the governance speed of the Liaohe Plain would inevitably decline sharply at that time.

And the time he just gave is also based on this.

"If we can keep so many people all the time, the time will be further shortened, and I am confident that within five years, the Liaohe Plain will be turned into ten thousand hectares of fertile land." Zheng Guo said solemnly.

"Okay. The widow believes in you." Zhao Kuo said.

However, it is impossible for Zhao to swallow back the promise made not long ago in order to govern the Liaohe Plain, so the only way is to get new prisoners.

Zhao Kuo's gaze swept over the vast mountains and landed in the north beyond the Great Wall.

It is the territory of Donghu.

Under the multiple blows of Zhao State, today's Donghu has long since lost its former grandeur.

A few years ago, Li Mu captured the king of Donghu and snatched the Donghu Golden Eagle.

The various tribes of Donghu swore an oath at that time that those who recaptured the Golden Eagle would become kings.

Today, Donghu Jinying is still in the palace of Zhao, but there are three Donghu kings in Donghu.

The vows I once made vanished like a fart, and no one took it seriously.

Donghu, which is a mess of scattered sand inside, can be said to be completely no opponent of Zhao State in terms of strength, coupled with Fan Tong, a female cadre, who constantly ventilates and reports, Zhao Guo has already studied the strength of various tribes in Donghu and the terrain and landform.

In front of Zhao Guo, there was only one problem: how to transport grain and grass.

To this end, Zhao led the official road directly to the Great Wall and built a city outside the fortress

, used to hoard grain and grass, but even so, Zhao State could not dispatch a large-scale army.

"The king wants to ......" Zheng Guo followed Zhao Kuo's gaze, and after a few breaths, his pupils suddenly dilated, and he understood Zhao Kuo's thoughts.

"Now is not the time, wait until next year, and then we may need to send prisoners from you to transport food and grass." Zhao Kuo said.

"Hahaha, these captives are all the king's, and the king naturally levies as many as he wants." Zheng Guo said with a smile.

After leaving the Liaoze Plain, Zhao Kuo finally arrived in Liaodong, which was also the easternmost part of the Zhao Kingdom.

After Li Mu's reminder, Fan Zeng finally showed his ability, and Liaodong can be said to be the best developed among the Yandi counties, except for Guangyang County.

Fan Zeng led the people to build roads, renovated some dilapidated houses, moved out the people living in the mountains, built houses for them for free, and distributed land.

Liaodong College also has a certain scale, with nearly 1,000 students, and it is the college with the largest number of students in Yandi except Guangyang County.

Zhao Kuo continued eastward to the border of Liaodong and Jizi Korea, which was separated by large rivers and mountains, and was deserted in between, with only a few adventurous merchants going to Jizi Korea to communicate with the two places.

Of course, Zhao Kuo has no idea about Jizi Korea, at least not now.

Compared with the Central Plains, it is a wild land, and even if it is defeated, it will take a long time to develop, and Zhao State does not have so much population and time to develop.

If it weren't for the fact that the Liaohe Plain was the main road to communicate with the Northeast, Zhao Kuo would not even develop the Liaohe Plain in a short period of time.

However, Zhao Kuo doesn't know what kind of gift Li Mu will give him in the future.

In July, Zhao Kuo returned to Handan by ship from Liaodong.

"I haven't seen you in a few months, do you miss your father?" Zhao Kuo did not go to the political affairs hall, but came all the way to the palace, picked up Zhao Ying, who he hadn't seen for several months, and happily rubbed Zhao Ying's little face with his beard.

Zhao Ying hadn't seen her father for a few months, and she had almost forgotten about it, and she was pricked by her beard again, and she was so frightened that she cried.

Zhao Kuo laughed happily and hugged Zhao Ying without letting go.

"The king, Xiangguo is asking to see you outside." At this moment, Guo Kai reported outside the door.

Seeing this, An Ning hurriedly took Zhao Ying, glared at Zhao Kuo, and signaled that he could leave.

"Wait for the widow at night." Zhao Kuo smiled and walked outside, "The widow just came back and looked for the widow, can't you handle anything by yourself?"

"Sangkook said there was an emergency." Guo Kai said.

"The widow is going to see." Zhao Kuo strode towards the political hall.

"King, you're finally here, take a look." When Lin Xiangru saw Zhao Kuo, he hurriedly got up and responded, and then handed the two letters to Zhao Kuo with a helpless face.

"Is something wrong?" Zhao Kuo took the fold and did not open it, but looked at Lin Xiangru.

"Didn't the imperial court make a plan two years ago that everyone could have enough to eat and occasionally eat meat? and made a promise that as long as 80 percent of the people under his rule could have enough to eat and occasionally meat, the county guard and the county order could be crowned marquis, and the rest of the officials would also be rewarded." Lin Xiangru said.

"Not bad." Zhao Kuo nodded, he set up the reward in the first place to motivate everyone.

"There are now two counties that have achieved their goal." Lin Xiangru spread his hands.

"How is this possible?" Zhao Kuo stood up in shock, he had set the time for ten years, even so, he didn't expect all the counties to be completed, and it would be good to be able to complete a small half of the counties.

But it's only been two and a half years, and it's no exaggeration to say that even if Lin Xiangru serves as the county magistrate, it is impossible to do it.

In other words, in terms of ability, the county orders of these two counties have surpassed Lin Xiangru.

"The minister sent someone to investigate, not only did he complete the goal set by the king, but he could even say that he exceeded it, and the minister dared to guarantee that the people who went to the investigation definitely did not hide or lie. But...

… There may be some differences between what happened and what the king thought...... These two county orders, one is from the Zhuo family and the other is from the Guo family......" Lin Xiangru explained to Zhao Kuo helplessly.

The Zhuo family and the Guo family have a special identity in the Zhao State, they are both rich and powerful businessmen, but they have no foundation in the court, and the two families have also tried to establish a relationship with the ministers of the DPRK and China, but in the end they all failed.

It wasn't until they got the news that the court promised that as long as 80 percent of the people under their rule could have enough to eat and occasionally meat, the magistrate would be made a marquis.

The two families suddenly realized that the opportunity had come, and instead of clinging to the nobility, it was better to become the nobleman themselves.

It just so happened that the Zhuo family and the Guo family had two sons who served as county magistrates in other places, and they immediately decided to devote their entire family resources to help them, as long as they could get the title, it would be worth it.

For the two families, money is just a number, what they want is a class leap, from a wealthy businessman to an aristocracy, they didn't have this opportunity before, but now that the opportunity has come, they will never let it go.

What is the level of the Zhuo family and the Guo family, there is no need to say much, helping a county is not a hand-to-hand capture.

Those who live in the mountains directly spend money to come down, build houses, plan farmland, and even prepare farm tools and cattle, and distribute piglets and chickens to every family.

In a word, as long as you come, I'll take care of the rest.

Then the two families tried all kinds of methods to increase the income of the local people, and as for how much money they lost, it was completely out of the scope of the two families' considerations.

Anyway, as long as it can be solved with money, it is not a problem.

It took the Zhuo family and the Guo family just two and a half years to build two impoverished counties into national demonstration counties.

"Kryptonite players are!" Zhao Kuo was stunned for a long time after hearing this, and finally slowly spit out a sentence.