Chapter 24: Increase Trade with Gong Sun Zan

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  The cloud is red and moist, like a flame, covering the entire county with a vast expanse of white clouds gathering together. This is a sign that the people's hearts are returning. The significance of this spring plowing is profound, even more so than opening granaries to distribute food or using labor instead of relief, because having crops represents hope. This is orthodox and not heretical, giving people a greatly different feeling in their hearts.

  Although the miracle was only performed in the county town, it spread throughout the entire Chang County domain with the connection between the county town and various farming points. Under Zhang Xu's system, believers could move freely within their territory, but to go out of Chang County, they must have a guarantee and official documents, otherwise they would be caught by the Gan Hai army patrolling at various checkpoints in Chang County!

  For the confidentiality work of Chang County, Zhang Xu did an extremely meticulous job, with a strict supervision system in place. He led five large camps with 2,500 soldiers and horses under his command, and completely sealed off all external communication channels in Chang County. Refugees were absorbed and arranged nearby, slowly digesting and absorbing them. As for external communication work, it was even more defensive, not allowing any carelessness.

  The entire Donglai County is adjacent to the sea, and Chang County is even closer to the sea. Geographically, it can be said that this area is extremely easy to defend. Therefore, although defending a county's pass requires only blocking key points.

  This world at the end of Han Dynasty was not as strict as Zhang Xu imagined, and the scouts of various lords were more concerned with rich places. The scouts from Donglai Prefecture were scarce, so it was easier to absorb refugees than he had imagined, without attracting the attention of the lords.

  Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao's contention for the region north of the Yellow River has reached a white-hot stage. Qingzhou is no longer the main battlefield, but the bad news is that Yuan Shao's influence is increasingly infiltrating Qingzhou, and the main direction of the war has shifted to the Youzhou battlefield!

  Benefiting from the turning point of the Jieqiao War, Yuan Shao defeated Gongsun Zan, causing the situation between the two sides to begin to reverse. Initially, Yuan Shao could only passively defend himself, but now relying on the prosperous Ji Province and his own influence as a fourth-generation noble, he began to counterattack against Gongsun Zan. Many of Gongsun Zan's civil officials defected, although it took ten years for them to rebel, their departure made Gongsun Zan's ability to collect taxes and supplies increasingly poor, with fewer and fewer supporters. Although he had many soldiers and generals, once they were defeated, there would be no more.

  Needless to say, the defeat of the Jieqiao War was a crushing blow, it can be said that they were wounded and exhausted. In recent days, they had already abandoned all other battlefields and were desperately defending Youzhou, making their last desperate struggle!

  At this time, Chang County had a population of over 50,000, mostly refugees. Zhang Jue put them all in Qinglin Town, making them members of the workshop villages, implementing strict management, and intensifying infiltration into people's hearts, increasing their faith in Zhang Jue.

  Now Zhang Xu is inspecting the workshop village, this place is the foundation of Zhang Xu's hometown, it is a very important place. Even if the workshop area in the county town is gradually improving now, here is also an important lifeline. The smelting of steel, salt fields and important cement plants, as well as other workshops are all located here, temporarily still having an irreplaceable important role. Moreover, there is a good port here, although it is not a large port that can dock giant ships of tens of thousands of tons in later generations, but at this time, it is already sufficient for use.

  Therefore, Zhang Xu is extremely important here, because now with the development of Chunxiu's work, the people's peace of mind, Chang County is also slowly prospering, and the demand for various iron products has increased greatly. Moreover, the daily training of the army has also caused a significant increase in the loss of steel.

  After all, although we have taken Chang County, the population has surged, but now a large army of 4,000 is barely out of the boundary of being poor and weak, and new militia have not been trained yet. If they are directly incorporated into the army, it will greatly damage the combat effectiveness of the army!

  After all, the current 4,000 troops, although still not many in number, are already seasoned veterans who have experienced battle. Although they cannot yet become elite soldiers due to the scale of the war, their actual strength is far superior to that of other vassal armies. This is what Zhang Xu considers his foundation of power.

  Power grows out of the barrel of a gun, people's livelihood is stable, and the army is strong. This is the development path defined by Zhang Xu. He destined that there would be no other family that could be considered an ally or partner, so he could only take this road to conquer the world and stabilize his foundation.

  So for Qinglin Town, which is now providing a large amount of financial support and a large amount of raw materials for his territory, Zhang Xu attaches great importance to it.

  All the way, countless followers were bowing and worshiping, the atmosphere of faith was still very strong, which made Zhang Xu extremely satisfied, and Li Ming, the person in charge of the workshop village, was extremely praised.

  I'm very satisfied!

  After re-examining the last fishing village and the village where salt fields and rice paddies coexist, Zhang Xu said with satisfaction.

  This praise made Li Ming so delighted that he didn't know what to do, and loudly said: "It's all thanks to the kindness of Master Xian, that there is a way for the followers to survive. They will naturally work hard with their lives, for themselves, for their homes, and to repay Master Xian!"

  "Hmm!"

  As for Li Ming, the veteran who followed him, Zhang Xu was still extremely kind and gentle. Although his ability was not as good as Bu Wu's, among the three deputy directors, he could only rank last in terms of ability. However, when it came to his own work, he was very diligent and worked together with the craftsmen, and his loyalty didn't need to be mentioned.

  "Expand trade with Gada and Gong Sun Zan!"

  Afterwards, Zhang Xu said to the following steps, this is also the reason why he wants to increase salt production and iron production. Gongsun Zan is currently short of civil officials, and his strength is beginning to decline. However, he also has advantages, his tough foreign policy allows him to hold a large number of war horses in his hands, which are extremely needed by Zhang Xu's troops. The role of war horses is self-evident, even those that cannot be put on the battlefield are good labor forces for farming and pulling carts. Now he has a lot of food under his command, and after deep plowing this year, there will be a big harvest again. Food can be traded with Gongsun Zan in large quantities, supporting Gongsun Zan at the same time, also hoping that Yuan Shao's energy will be pulled to the side of Youzhou, so his pressure will be greatly reduced.

  After all, if Yuan Shao unified Hebei after the destruction of Gongsun Zan, he would set his sights on Qingzhou and unify it. This is an inevitable thing. At that time, Zhang Chao's still developing forces will suffer a huge blow!

  It is now in the late Han Dynasty and the early Three Kingdoms period, the most chaotic time, but also the best development period for Zhang Xu!