At the same time that Ma Tan broke through Jiangling and completely recovered the entire Jingzhou, a major war broke out in Yexian again.

This time, the protagonist is still Guo Huai, and as soon as Ma Jian left, he came back immediately.

After all, as the oldest general in Cao Wei's Northwest Theater, he has absolute confidence in his military literacy. Over the years, he has always been Ma Jian and Zhuge Liang, and as soon as they left, they are the self-identity of the pioneers of the anti-Shu emergency.

So, when Ma Jian quickly led his troops south to break through Lu Xun's capture of Jiangling, Guo Huai led his troops back without saying a word. But this time, it was no longer Li Hui, who was bullied before, who greeted him in Ye County.

At this moment, Wei Yan, the general of Ji Han, personally led the Han army in Yexian County.

The two sides quickly engaged in a tug-of-war here, and three high-intensity battles broke out over the course of several days. For this reason, Guo Huai even went into battle to compare with Wei Yan, and finally ended in defeat.

The fighting between the two sides continued until Ma Tan ended Jiangling and personally led his troops back north. When it was discovered that Ma Tan had returned to Wancheng from Jingzhou, Guo Huai urgently withdrew, and the battle for the Nanyang gateway came to an end.

At this point, the Han army was very tired in the Jingzhou operation for more than half a year, and had no time to recover Kunyang for the time being. And Guo Huai was also very satisfied after making a little progress, and quickly withdrew all the soldiers and horses.

Both sides have made satisfactory progress, referred to as a win-win situation.

As for who lost, I don't know......

All in all, after Cao Wei and Ji Han had made phased progress, the war officially came to an end. After the war in the Jingzhou Theater was completely over, Ma Jian also embarked on the journey back to Chang'an.

As for why he didn't return to Chengdu to work overtime, but to go back to Chang'an, I don't know.

With the news of Jingzhou's recovery, Ma Tan quickly entered Guanzhong all the way from Wancheng. After a dozen days of travel, Ma Tan returned to the capital of the Han Empire.

Although he has been away for less than a year, Ma Jian found that Guanzhong has changed greatly.

Large tracts of barren farmland in Weinan have been reclaimed, and a large number of farmers have worked on the ridges. Most of the official roads that had fallen into disrepair have also been repaired and become extremely smooth.

Even along the way, Ma Jian saw a lot of newly built granaries and newly built canals, and the whole Guanzhong showed a lot of vitality.

In less than a year, Guanzhong has changed so much, which makes Ma Tan amazed. And the source of all these changes is naturally Prime Minister Zhuge Liang, who no longer cares about military affairs.

"It's worthy of being a picture of the ages, how many people can't reach this level of internal affairs." Ma Tan looked at the vibrant scene along the way, and saw that the people of Guanzhong were no longer afraid of the passing officers and soldiers, and couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

Here is the power of Zhuge Liang, who is dedicated to government affairs, and it is no wonder that he can pull the tired Yizhou from the brink of collapse.

Seeing this, Ma Jian couldn't help but feel good. After all, Guanzhong is the logistics support for the next Eastern Expedition, and the more prosperous it is, the more troops he can draw from the Eastern Expedition in the future. As the leader of the Eastern Crusade, Ma Jian was naturally happy.

Along the way, Ma Tan also took the old farmers by the hand for a day and asked them what difficulties they had in Guanzhong.

In the face of Ma Tan's inquiry, the old farmer just replied with a smile,

"These months are due to His Majesty's blessings, the wind and rain are smooth, and the prime minister pays taxes lightly, which is enough for us. According to the current national scene, several members of Xiaomin's family have left surplus food at the end of the year, and they have nothing to ask for! ”

"But...... If there is any difficulty, it is probably that this level is still not very peaceful. There are bandits in many mountains and forests nearby, and we and other small people have nowhere to go......"

Along the way, Ma Tan asked many farmers on the ridges, and the answers were basically the same. Regarding taxation and production, Zhuge Liang has achieved the optimal solution.

However, because Guanzhong is the territory that has just been captured, even if the government has stationed a large number of troops here, it is still difficult to eliminate bandits everywhere. In addition, many people who have just moved here have tuntian, and their foundations are unstable, so they are often disturbed by bandits and robbers.

"It seems that the issue of public security must also be taken seriously, but it is also at the feet of the Son of Heaven, but there can be no problems." Ma Jian touched his chin and groaned, and began to recall that in history, there was such a policy that could solve this situation.

Local security was originally a headache for feudal dynasties. The finances of the normal feudal court could not support so many security personnel, so most of the time the wealthy families were allowed to defend themselves.

However, at present, the power of the Hao clan in Guanzhong is weak, and Ma Jian does not want to introduce the Hao clan here, so how to deal with it has become a problem.

In the process of Ma Tan's contemplation, he had quietly arrived outside Chang'an City.

Chang'an has a lot more popularity than before, and there are many more residents than when Ma Tan left. It still looks a little deserted, but it still has a bit of a capital look.

When Ma Tan arrived at the city, several young soldiers of the Northern Army came to intercept him, saying that the capital could not be ridden. Ma Jian didn't say anything about this, and simply dismounted neatly and entered the city.

Although normally he is qualified to ride into the city, it is better to think about it. Don't pass it to the prime minister when the time comes, and be beaten by him in the name of flying and domineering.

Walking all the way to the Prime Minister's Mansion, Ma Jian saw Zhuge Liang again.

At this moment, Zhuge Liang is handling government affairs in the Prime Minister's Mansion, but he doesn't seem to be busy. Compared with before, the government affairs on the board are basically less than half, and Zhuge Liang also seems to be more comfortable with me.

Of course, this pair of pleasantness didn't last long. When Zhuge Liang saw Ma Jian coming back, his brows suddenly furrowed.

"Come on, take my Zen!"

"Holy! The prime minister is calm! Ma Tan was shocked when he saw this situation, and he was a little confused for a while, and he had done something wrong.

"Calm down? Then as a pastor of Yizhou, you are not in Chengdu to deal with government affairs, and you ran away to Jingzhou, what should you be guilty of? Zhuge Liang glanced at him, a little speechless for his apprentice.

To be honest, Zhuge Liang was a little sympathetic to Li Mu, the chief of the Hussar General's Mansion. I don't know which evil person I believe, so I insisted on following Ma Jian and kept wiping Ma Tan's buttocks.

Now that he has been abandoned by Ma Jian in Chengdu again, Zhuge Liang feels distressed when he sees it.

"Ahem...... Prime Minister, isn't this the first provocation of Soochow? That criminal Sun Quan instructed to make a rebellion, and of course he had to go out in person to recover the territory. Ma Jian shrunk his neck and hurriedly explained to Zhuge Liang.

"I've already cleared the main force of Eastern Wu, and now I've recovered the entire territory of Jingzhou, and now I'm here to report the good news!"

"You've recovered all of Jingzhou? So fast? Zhuge Liang was slightly stunned by this, feeling a little surprised.

Although he knew Ma Yan's combat level, it was still beyond Zhuge Liang's expectation to recover the entire Jingzhou with the little strength of Jingzhou.

It seems that he is old after all, and his thinking has become too conservative.

(End of chapter)