Time flies, time flies, a year flies in a blink of an eye, although there is occasional friction between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao in the Central Plains, but generally speaking, both sides are still in a relatively stable stage.

With the help of Zhou Yu, Jiangdong Sun Ce finally got the recognition of the local wealthy families, and harvested a large number of talents including Lu Su, Zhang Zhao, Zhang Hong, Gu Yong, etc., and then a series of martial arts such as Zhou Tai, Chen Wu, Dong Xi, Ding Feng, Xu Sheng, Ling Cao, etc., finally gained a firm foothold in Jiangdong.

Subsequently, Sun Ce seemed to really forget his father's revenge, and took the initiative to order Lu Su to get in touch with Xu Shu in Jingzhou, and sent a large number of materials to repair the rift between the two sides, and this move was also consistent with He Si'an's strategic goals, and Xu Shu naturally accepted it gladly.

After many maneuvers in Lusu, the two sides not only signed an alliance, but also opened up trade routes and carried out a series of transactions including grain, iron tools, and horses.

Compared with Sun Ce, who worked hard, Liu Bei is obviously much more low-key. After the previous defeat, it can be said that it was a great loss of vitality, not only lost most of the troops, but also directly lost Jiujiang County (Shouchun).

At this moment, even if Liu Bei was unwilling, he had to rely on Cao Cao again. And the latter is also happy to see it, after all, the battle with Yuan Shao is coming, and he doesn't want to lose Liu Bei's buffer point, and directly face the more powerful Sun Ce.

Compared with Liu Bei and Sun Ce's low-key, Han Sui on the other side is quite active!

After a large number of mysterious Xiongnu troops withdrew from Liangzhou, the first three months were calm, but the good times did not last long, with the arrival of the severe cold, Liangzhou once again poured into a large number of Xiongnu, different from the constraints of Ma Chao when he was in office, Han Sui almost let them go, which led to the burning and looting of Liangzhou from time to time.

Although Tianshui Pang De and Chang'an Zhang Xiu wanted to stop it, they were powerless and could only let the situation develop.

During this period, the two counties of Longxi and Jincheng were also harassed from time to time, and it was incomprehensible that neither Han Sui nor Pang Tong's side, nor the Western Regions Protectorate had taken any measures.

This also gave the Xiongnu a false impression that the so-called King Hongnong and the Western Regions Protectorate were still as weak and deceitful as before, so they intensified their raids, and there was a tendency to intensify.

In the winter of the sixth year of Jian'an (December 201 AD), when the Huns were planning to cut meat on the fat sheep again, they did not expect Zhang Liao and Xu Rong to suddenly attack at the same time, not only killing the Huns who came to rob, but also following the other party's fleeing team all the way, going deep into Liangzhou to annihilate their tribe in one fell swoop, not only killing nearly 10,000 Huns in one go, but also directly taking away a large number of women, children, horses, etc.

At first, the Xiongnu were quite unconvinced, but after repeating this two or three times, no tribe dared to go to the three northern counties under He Si'an's tent to do something.

In the following months, the Xiongnu saw that there was no other place to plunder, so they pointed the spearhead at the interior of Liangzhou, and the people of Liangzhou once again realized what the situation was.

Tianshui Taishou Pang De and Chang'an Taishou Zhang Xiu repeatedly asked the acting assassin Shi Han Sui to expel the Xiongnu, but Han Sui prevaricated with various excuses, and finally had no choice but to stop the army from resisting on the one hand, and turned to He Si'an for help on the other.

Chengdu, in the Supervision Yuan, He Si'an carefully read the letter in his hand and looked at Fazheng on the side.

"Xiaozhi, how many letters are this?"

"The Seventh!"

"Hey, it seems that the situation in Liangzhou has collapsed... but the people were afflicted..."

"My lord, don't be kind to women, from all indications, what Shi Yuan said is extremely true, I think they are planning to introduce our army into Liangzhou, although I don't know what the purpose of this is, but now it seems that there must be a plan."

"Hmm... Lone knows, as the so-called general will not be affected by the life of the foreign monarch, just let Shiyuan adapt to the situation! ”

Fa Zheng nodded yes.

"Lord, the money houses in various places have been built properly, I don't know when the lord is going to open?"

"Oh? Can the training of personnel be selected? ”

"According to the Lord's will, most of them are men who are skilled in arithmetic selected from the Salesian Division!"

"Okay, let's go and get ready! Pick an auspicious day next month and you can officially open for business.

By the way, what's going on on Yuan Zhi's side? ”

"Jingzhou is already fertile, and although there has been a year of war, self-sufficiency is not a problem, and the focus is now on building roads and infrastructure in the four counties of Jingnan. In short, the consumption is quite large! ”

Originally, He Si'an also wanted to ask if there was a real culprit behind the secret poisoning of Liu Biao, but since Fa Zheng didn't say it, it proves that the matter has not yet been investigated, and it is likely that it will not be resolved in the end.

Bidding farewell to Fazheng, He Si'an returned to the back house, looking at the children playing around the house, counting the three children on Captain Chi Yanyan's side, He Si'an now has seven women and four boys, a total of eleven children! Of course, this does not include the children in Huang Yueying and Ao Ruolan's wombs...

If this is in the future, what family can support so many children! If the whole family wants to have a self-driving trip, they will take a big ticket! ’

After playing with the children, I heard a crackling sound in the house from a distance.

"Two cylinders!"

"Bump!"

"Sister Tang, why are you eating my card again!"

The corners of He Si'an's mouth twitched, afraid that his concubines would be idle and bored, so he handed over the mahjong of later generations to them.

But this can't be blamed on He Si'an, after all, there are too few entertainment projects in this era, especially for women!

He Si'an thought for a while, turned around and walked through a courtyard, and saw two women with big bellies fiddling with an object under the nervous care of a group of maids and grandmothers.

He Si'an also walked over curiously, saw the object in front of him, and asked uncertainly.

"It's... Steel? ”

The sudden man's voice startled everyone, and Huang Yueying rolled her eyes at He Si'an with disgust.

"Husband, don't you walk silently?"

"You're too focused, aren't you? Is this really steel? ”

"This is just iron with relatively few impurities, and the husband also knows that if you want to really make a steam engine, you must have the corresponding material of iron as a backing!

And this is not something that you, me, and Sister Yueying can achieve, it can only be achieved with the participation of 3,000, 30,000 or even more people, don't even think about it until Xianggong does not unify the world.

But... As long as the method of smelting iron is improved a few more times, I will have a way to make a gun for the prime minister. I'm afraid it won't work for mass production, but three or five can still be used! Ao Ruolan raised the corners of her mouth, with an expression of 'you praise this baby'.

Hearing this, everyone was confused for a while, He Si'an is not good at making guns, what is the use of making them? And even if he is good at it, can he still let him charge into battle in person?

Since experiencing Sun Jian's incident last time, if it weren't for the crossbow given by Huang Yueying, I'm afraid the pattern would have changed completely. It would be nice to design a small and beautiful pistol to carry around!