Secondly, even if the other party rebels, he has another legitimate heir of his tribe in his hands. He can establish these hostages as the new chief of the Huyan tribe and the new Xiutu King of the Xiutu tribe, thus directly shaking the other party's rule from a legal level.
The last step is sinicization. Train these children to be pro-Han. When they return home and take power in the future, they will naturally be more friendly to the Han people, killing three birds with one stone.
While Liu Zhuang was busy recruiting and reorganizing the orcs, he did not notice the awe-inspiring looks of the more than 3,000 captives toward him, nor did he notice the expressions on his faces when the orcs of the Huyan tribe looked at him after Huyan Chu personally expressed his submission. He also did not notice the admiring looks of the fifty orc children.
But when he finished his work, he suddenly felt that the table in front of him was a little low and he had to bend over to write something.
The door curtains of some soldiers' tents seemed to have become shorter. Sometimes, if they were not careful, they would hit their heads. However, there was no problem with the tents made to suit Lu Bu and Tuoba Yun's body shapes.
The most exaggerated thing is that Tuoba Yun and others seemed to have become shorter in front of him.
And when everyone looked at him, they would ask, "Master, have you grown taller?"
Liu Zhuang was extremely puzzled, and then he found that his strength had also increased a little. He quickly looked at himself in the mirror in surprise. The golden silk thread wove gorgeous words on his head. Everything else was fine, but his strength and physique really increased by two points! Strength increased from 18 to 20, and physique increased from 14 to 16.
Not only that, there was also an inexplicable entry below his attributes.
[I think you are very strong]: The green-skinned orcs think you are very good at fighting, so you become taller and bigger, with strength +2 and constitution +2.
Liu Zhuang looked at this entry and felt at a loss whether to laugh or cry. He measured himself and found that he was eight feet and three inches tall. One foot in the late Han Dynasty was about centimeters, and one inch was about centimeters. He had grown from meters tall to a two-meter-tall strong man.
At this moment, the war in Xihe County was nearing its end. After receiving the green-skinned captives repatriated by Liu Zhuang, Huyan Chu's strength skyrocketed, and he became the strongest chief of the Xiutu tribe. It was only a matter of time before he became the king of Xiutu. The remaining chiefs had to unite together to fight against the emerging Huyan Chu - if this guy is not defeated, no one can become king. Let's kill the strongest one first, and then we can slowly decide the winner!
At this moment, facing this final decisive battle, Liu Zhuang, the General of the Northern Army, and Lu Bu, the General who protected the Xiongnu, entered Xihe County at the same time, one in the south and one in the north, to assist Huyan Chu in reaping the fruits of victory.
After all, the Southern Xiongnu had begun to assimilate into the Han Dynasty since the reign of Emperor Wu of Han. They had no aversion to Hu Yanchu's behavior of surrendering to the Han people. The reason they rebelled against the Han Dynasty and established themselves as emperor was simply because they felt that Emperor Ling of Han was messing around and was unworthy of continuing to rule the Southern Xiongnu.
To put it bluntly, many orcs even thought that they were warlords of the Han Dynasty like Ding Yuan and Dong Zhuo, ready to reap the fruits of troubled times, and had no resistance to the Han Dynasty.
When Liu Zhuang led two thousand personal soldiers to join Hu Yanchu, the other coalition forces of Xiutu tribe did not react much, but only strengthened their vigilance and training.
When Lü Bu also led two battalions and 5,000 men into Xihe County, the entire Xiutu tribe went wild. Oh my god, isn't that the Han general who killed the previous King Xiutu? Am I really going to fight Lü Bu?
Seeing Lu Bu personally coming to the battlefield, the morale of the greenskins who had been defeated in the battle of the canyon was gone. Several small tribes secretly withdrew from the alliance and surrendered directly to Lu Bu. Lu Bu was a real General of the Xiongnu, appointed by the emperor himself, and he also killed the previous King Xiutu. It was not shameful to surrender to him.
Taking advantage of the low morale of the coalition forces and the fear of many chieftains, Liu Zhuang and Hu Yanchu launched a general offensive from the front. They fought fiercely in Xihe County for a month, fought three major battles and twenty minor battles, and won victory after victory. Finally, they ran over the last subordinate clan of the Xiutu tribe on the bank of the Yellow River. A large number of Xianbei troops fired rockets at their retreating ships, setting them on fire, leaving these orcs with nowhere to go. In the end, they surrendered in despair.
At this point, after a three-month-long civil strife, the Xiutu tribe recognized Hu Yanchu as the new Xiutu King. The Xiutu tribe, one of the five tribes of the Southern Xiongnu, was reunified and swore allegiance to Liu Zhuang, the General of the North and the Governor of Hedong.
At this moment, it was already June of the fifth year of Zhongping.
Xihe County is a very small border county. There is not even much arable land here, and there are many horse farms for grazing horses.
After experiencing two rounds of looting and destruction by Yuwen Xianbei and Xiutu Xiongnu, the remaining population of Xihe County was only 30,000. To put it bluntly, the population of Anyi County alone was more than 30,000, but it had a large number of pastures, numerous fortresses, and passes, and its geographical location was extremely pivotal.
This also gave Liu Zhuang a deep understanding of Bingzhou's poverty and backwardness, as well as the importance of horses and geographical location.
The small population did not matter. After a fierce battle, more than a quarter of the Xiutu tribe suffered casualties. The new Xiutu King Huyanchu led the remaining 14,000 orc households, a total of 70,000 orcs, to relocate to Xihe County to make up for the population deficit, bringing the population of Xihe to 100,000.
Liu Zhuang re-registered the Xiutu tribe according to his own method of thousand and hundred households, and let Lu Bu, the General of the Guards against the Xiongnu and the Governor of Xihe, sit in Xihe County to supervise the tribes of King Xiutu. Then he asked all the heirs of the hundred and thousand households and other senior generals to come to Anyi to learn Han culture and become Liu Zhuang's personal soldiers.
In the end, after Liu Zhuang obtained an extremely brave and warlike group of Xiutu orcs, he also had his own green-skinned personal guards, the Janissaries, consisting of two hundred green-skinned orcs.
The author says:
Author's words: 2800 monthly tickets plus more~
Chapter 181: Selling Official Positions and Titles
After Liu Zhuang tried his best to recover half of Xihe County east of the Yellow River and the Xiutu Huns, he immediately disbanded the army and organized the local people to resume production. The Han people in Xihe County had been defeated, with only 30,000 people left, and the aristocratic families were almost wiped out. He easily incorporated these 6,000 households and 30,000 people into his military-land system and turned them into farmers. He promised them tax exemption this year because of the Xihe war and to collect food and fodder from next year.
Liu Zhuang counted the food and grass. This time, he mobilized nearly 10,000 troops to fight against the greenskins. The food consumption of the cavalry was five times that of ordinary people. Five thousand shi of food was consumed a day, and 450,000 shi of food was consumed in three months.
His own two thousand personal soldiers were even configured with three horses per person. One elite cavalryman consumed the food of thirteen people a day, and two thousand people directly consumed 230,000 stones of food and fodder.
These 680,000 shi of grain and grass were not the bulk of the cost. In order to allow these 10,000 people to go on the expedition, he had to provide logistics for 20,000 people, and the back and forth consumption was almost five times that of the soldiers. During the three months of fighting, the various logistics for transporting grain and grass, including cattle and sheep, directly consumed million shi of grain and grass, adding up to a total of 4 million shi of grain, which consumed nearly one-sixth of the 26 million shi of grain and grass in his inventory.
This horrific consumption of food and fodder was based on the fact that the war was taking place within Shanxi and the distance was not far. The consumption of food by the civilians transporting food increased exponentially with the increase in distance. The farther the distance, the more exaggerated the consumption.
The three-month expedition made Liu Zhuang further realize the importance of agriculture. He tried to establish military and agricultural rule in Taiyuan County, which was abandoned by Ding Yuan, before the autumn harvest this year. Taiyuan County had at least 300,000 people, and given the current situation, he could harvest as much as possible.
But unfortunately, he had real power but no fame in Taiyuan County.
The three major families in Taiyuan County, the Yangqu Guo family is his wife's family, the Jinyang Wang family, and the Qixian Wang family have also been related to the Guo family by marriage for generations. The three major families are very willing to let Liu Zhuang rule here. After all, they are all family members, and Guo Huai's husband is such a good fighter. It is naturally the best thing to have him to ensure the safety of our family.
Although the military-field system he implemented in Hedong to protect the peasants, the military-official system he implemented in Hedong to protect the interests of the aristocratic families to a certain extent did greatly protect the interests of the aristocratic families - it was more reliable than Ding Yuan who fled to Shangdang and Henei County: Damn, that guy took away all the elite border troops of Yanmen, causing Guo Yu, the head of the Yangqu Guo family, to still struggle to hold on in Yanmen.
However, he never had the title to rule Taiyuan.
Liu Zhuang thought about it and suddenly had an idea. He sent Lu Ze, with gold, silver and jewelry, to Luoyang in person to bribe the eunuch.
Lu Ze's current status is neither high nor low. To put it simply, he is just a warlord who came from a businessman background. When he started his business in Liuzhuang, he invested a large amount of original shares.
But to put it in a higher perspective, he was after all the Zhangshui Captain appointed by Liu Zhuang himself, and his sister was the recently famous Lu Bu. In the canyon battle where King Xiu Tu was killed in battle, Lu Ze also led his soldiers to fight on the front line, covering Lu Bu's all-out charge, and his contribution was not small.
Therefore, the eunuchs did not neglect him. They received the border general with normal etiquette and wanted to see what he was going to do.
When Lu Ze came to Luoyang for the first time, he was shocked by the prosperity and wealth of the capital. Nine out of ten pedestrians on the street wore brocade and silk, eight out of ten people wore fine gems, merchant ships were constantly flowing in the quiet Luo River, the wide streets were crowded with vehicles, the goods in the shops on both sides were dazzling, the aroma of all kinds of delicacies from land and sea in the hotels filled the streets, and countless leftover delicacies were discarded by the shop owners without any regret, even if the dish was only eaten by dignitaries.
I was born on the border of Wuyuan, which is completely different from Luoyang.
In other words, Luoyang, which always complained about having no money, no soldiers, no food, and being unable to provide any support to Bingzhou, was actually so rich.
Lu Ze slowly recovered from the shock and met several eunuchs in an extremely luxurious pavilion near the imperial palace.
"The captain has traveled thousands of miles from Hedong to Luoyang. What is his intention?"
The eunuchs asked directly.
"Ze came to Luoyang today to ask for an official position from the eunuchs."
Lu Ze also went straight to the point and respectfully took out a few copper coins to bribe the eunuchs.
Seeing that this boy was quite sensible, the eunuchs accepted the copper coins and nodded with satisfaction.
"Well, I heard that you are both civil and military in Hedong. You can govern counties and lead troops into battle. You are a talented person. What kind of position do you want to apply for?"
"Zhang Yi, the governor of Bingzhou and prefect of Taiyuan, died for his country three months ago. Your Majesty only let Ding Yuan take over his post as governor of Bingzhou. The post of prefect of Taiyuan has been vacant. Ze is willing to buy the post of prefect of Taiyuan."
When they heard that Lu Ze wanted to buy this official position, several eunuchs' eyes lit up.
The Taiyuan prefecture governor had 300,000 people under his jurisdiction, which was not a large population. Among the more than 100 counties in the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was considered to be of medium and lower level, but its location was extremely critical. It was the heart of the Bingzhou Provincial Government. A few hundred years ago, it was one of the two capitals of Zhao State, Jinyang and Handan.
But the problem was that Bingzhou had been defeated. Even if Liu Zhuang solved the problem of the Xiutu Xiongnu and recovered Xihe County, Taiyuan was still facing two powerful threats: the Xianbei troops in the north and the Black Mountain bandits in the east. At the same time, the remnants of the Yellow Turban Rebellion were also spreading throughout Taiyuan. Ding Yuan, the governor of Bingzhou, was unwilling to stay here and ran to the safer Shangdang County and Henei County to recruit soldiers.
Even Ding Yuan, who had more than 10,000 elite border troops under his command, did not dare to stay in Jinyang; other aristocratic families who had no soldiers or power but only money were even more unwilling to travel thousands of miles to Taiyuan to take up the post. No one dared to buy this position at all. This was also the reason why the position of Taiyuan prefect had been vacant for three months and there had been no news.
And now, there is finally a sucker, and no, a loyal and patriotic person is willing to buy this position!
Although the eunuchs can't wait to sell this position to replenish His Majesty's private treasury, and we have our hands dirty, we still have to do the surface work.
"Your Majesty, there is a saying about selling official positions and titles. I wonder if you have heard of it, Captain."
No matter how excited the eunuchs were inside, they pretended to be extremely calm on the surface and spoke slowly.
"Six hundred shi, six million; two thousand shi, twenty million."
"I heard."
Lu Ze nodded.
"A county magistrate with a salary of 600 dan was sold for 6 million coins, and a prefect with a salary of 2,000 dan was sold for 20 million coins, or 20,000 strings of copper coins."
"This is an old rule. Now more and more people are buying official positions. The supply of various official positions is in short supply, so the prices are also rising amid the rush to buy them."
The eunuch said calmly.
"The current price of a prefect with a salary of 2,000 dan is 60 million coins, 60,000 strings of copper coins. If you want it, you have to pay 60,000 strings of copper coins to buy it. You know the rules."
"This... Eunuch, can you be flexible? Sixty thousand copper coins is a bit too much. I am a border general and I really can't afford so much money and food."
Lu Ze wanted to curse in his heart, thinking that what his brother-in-law said was right, the Han Dynasty was doomed, the Han Emperor had a good idea, selling official positions and titles could not only allow rich people to hold important positions, allowing a large number of new parties to dilute the monopoly of official positions by the aristocratic families; it could also force the children of the aristocratic families in power to pay for work and bleed them; by the way, it could also save his own treasury, it was really killing three birds with one stone.
However, the emperor's control over the grassroots had long collapsed, and even taxation could not be stabilized.
These county magistrates and prefects who bought their positions, these noble families who had to pay to work for no apparent reason, would only transfer all the oppression from the emperor to the common people to make up for their own huge losses. The money of the Han emperor was not squeezed from these wealthy families, but from the poorest and most struggling people in the empire!
What's more, there were only 30,000 people in Xihe County, and the orcs really had nothing to rob. The biggest gain from suppressing the Huns' rebellion this time was the large number of Huns' population. There was almost no financial gain, as all the money was given to the soldiers. Everyone's public property was still the 30,000 strings of copper coins that were used to defeat the Xianbei army a few years ago. After several years of consumption, there were only 15,000 strings of copper coins left.
"That's fine. We support installment loans here."
Several eunuchs began to solicit business with great skill.
"The 60,000 strings of cash for buying an official position can be divided into six installments. You only need to pay 10,000 strings of cash to our family every year, and it will be paid off in six years. The interest rate is only 30%. Starting from the second year, you will have to pay an additional 1,800 strings of cash in interest every year. In consideration of Captain Lu's hard work and great contributions, you only need to pay 10,000 strings of cash this year, and 11,800 strings of cash every year for the next five years."
You really can pay in installments!
Lu Ze was stunned. Liu Zhuang sent him here to really buy an official position in installments. He vowed that these eunuchs supported buying officials in installments, but they didn't know the specific price and wanted him to test the waters first.
"This interest rate is too high."
Lu Ze's merchant instinct was wrong, and he argued with the eunuch about the price.
"Taiyuan County is not a safe and rich rear area now, but the front line of the battlefield. When I take office in Taiyuan, I will need money and food to recruit soldiers and horses to guard the border for Your Majesty. This money is not saved for myself, but for Your Majesty's army and the defense of the empire. My Lord, you don't want to see Taiyuan County fall, right?"
Several eunuchs, who had been asking for exorbitant prices to begin with and then paying low prices, now began to lower their prices and negotiate with Lu Ze. Born as a businessman, Lu Ze was very good at observing people's expressions and after several confrontations, he was able to find out the bottom line of these eunuchs.
In the end, Lu Ze managed to negotiate for the position of Taiyuan prefect. The total price was 42,000 strings of coins, to be paid in six installments, but the interest was waived. Every year during the autumn harvest season, he only had to pay 7,000 strings of copper coins. If he was unable to pay, he would be dismissed immediately, and the money he had paid for the position would not be refunded.
Lu Ze breathed a sigh of relief, finally the deal was made. He immediately contacted Liu Zhuang to send over 7,000 strings of cash. As soon as the money arrived, the seal of the Taiyuan prefect was immediately handed over to Lu Ze.
However, Lu Ze was very confused. Although it was divided into six installments, it was 42,000 strings of cash! With so much money, can I really get my money back if I buy a position as the governor of Taiyuan County, which has become a frontline battlefield? This is a losing deal no matter how you look at it! Maybe we will have to lose the money we have worked hard to run in Hedong for many years on the two fronts in Taiyuan.
Liu Zhuang shook his head and did not answer Lu Ze's question.
Repay in six installments? Emperor Ling of Han will send it next year. Fast forward to Yuan Shao and Cao Cao killing the Ten Eunuchs. I only used 7,000 strings of cash as a down payment to obtain the legal status to rule the entire Taiyuan! How could it be a losing deal!
A bunch of eunuchs who will send it next year, and still want to collect their own installments? Dream on!
Chapter 182: Autumn Counterattack
At this moment, the land actually controlled by Liu Zhuang has expanded from one county in Hedong to four counties, although Xihe County and Yanmen County are only half, and Taiyuan County is also a bit remnant.
He was the General of the North and the Governor of Hedong, and was in charge of Hedong County with a population of million.
Lu Bu was the General of the Central Army who protected the Xiongnu and the Governor of Xihe. He was in charge of half of Xihe County with a population of 100,000. The other half was in the Hetao area, west of the Yellow River.
Lu Ze was the newly purchased governor of Taiyuan, in charge of Taiyuan County with a population of 300,000.
His father-in-law, Guo Yu, was the governor of Yanmen. Unfortunately, only half of Yanmen was left, and almost all the land in the Pingcheng Basin was occupied.
Although Ding Yuan was nominally the governor of Bingzhou, the power of Bingzhou was almost entirely in the hands of Liu Zhuang's family. Ding Yuan's actual control area was only Shangdang County with a population of 150,000 and Henei County with a population of 800,000.
The other half of Xihe County is a historical issue. Liu Zhuang didn't know which Han emperor gave half of Xihe County to the Southern Xiongnu as a pasture. Moreover, this half of the county was in the Hetao area west of the Yellow River, with no strategic location to defend. It would be impossible to take it back in a short time, and even if it was taken back, it could not be defended.
Liu Zhuang had no way to deal with the fall of Yanmen County for the time being. The conventional defense line of Yanmen County required at least 10,000 professional soldiers who did not do any production to guard it all year round. These people were usually supplied with a steady supply of food and grass from the two major states of Jizhou and Sili. But now, the macro-control of the Han Empire had collapsed.
Ding Yuan gave up Yanmen due to food shortage, and he himself could not go up because of lack of troops. I only have 2,000 professional soldiers, and the rest are half farmers and half soldiers. Where can I find 10,000 professional soldiers to make up for the shortfall in Yanmen's defense line?
Now, he could only support his father-in-law Guo Wei and defend the two fortresses of Loufan and Yinguan, so that the troops all over the mountains could only wreak havoc in the Pingcheng Basin and could not continue to move south to invade Fenyang and Guangwu Basin.
After fully realizing the food problem, Liu Zhuang immediately led all the officials in June and, with the help of Lu Ze and Guo Wei, quickly implemented the military-field system in Taiyuan County and the remaining half of Yanmen County. The aristocratic families in Taiyuan were all his relatives and they also cooperated with his government soldiers and military-field system. After all, this did not harm their own interests.
After some calculations, he found that the population of Taiyuan he actually controlled was not the 300,000 registered population, but 400,000. He also discovered 100,000 hidden registered households from the aristocratic families, totaling 80,000 households.
Among them, 50,000 aristocratic families had private properties, totaling 253,200 people.
The other 30,000 households were all incorporated into the military farming system, totaling 155,000 people.
The 250,000 people in Yanmen County were divided into two groups, 100,000 of whom were in the Pingcheng Basin in the north, and most of the people here were captured.
The other 150,000 are in the Guangwu Basin in the south. There is still hope. Perhaps because Yanmen is a frontier fortress, the aristocratic families are not active and no super families have been born. They are all small fish and shrimps. After some calculations, there are only 10,000 aristocratic families and 50,000 people, and they don't even hide their household registrations.
The remaining 20,000 households, more than 101,000 people, were all incorporated into the peasant households under the legion system.
Bingzhou has everything good: iron, coal, horses, and strategic mountains and rivers, but there are not many people. In Hedong alone, there are 40,000 military households and 80,000 farming households under the military-farm system.
After he took control of Taiyuan, Xihe, and half of Yanmen County, he did not increase the number of military households for the time being, but the number of farming households only increased from 80,000 to 136,000, not even doubling. The total population under his governance only increased from million to million.
After settling the household registration of Taiyuan and half of Yanmen, it was almost time for the autumn harvest. Liu Zhuang urgently sent down his own officers who were literate and knew numbers, as well as minor officials promoted from aristocratic families in Hedong, to supervise the grain tax collection in Taiyuan and Yanmen.
These Hedong families are also eager to try at this moment. In the past two years, these family descendants from Bingzhou supervised the taxation of Hedong. Now the situation has changed, and it is our turn as Hedong people to supervise the taxation of Bingzhou. Okay, if you don't let me embezzle, I won't let you embezzle either.
The autumn harvest of the fifth year of Zhongping continued in an orderly manner. In the end, the military households missed some farming time due to the war, and only paid million shi of grain and grass this year. Except for the 6,000 households in Xihe, the other 130,000 households paid a total of million shi of grain and grass, bringing the total grain and grass income to million shi. Together with the 22 million shi of grain and grass in stock, the grain and grass surplus reached million shi, and the consumption of the three consecutive months of conquering the Huns was finally made up.
Not only that, the farmers throughout Taiyuan were shocked to find that this year's grain tax had suddenly dropped from 70% to 40%, which was enough to squeeze people to death. Under the pressure of Liu Zhuang's sincere talks and the threats of the Black Mountain Army, the various aristocratic families were forced to lower the farming tax rate for their dependents and give the people a rest, which was reduced to about 50%.
All the farmers suddenly had hope of survival. Seeing the extra food in their homes, they were grateful to Liu Zhuang and cut off contact with the Black Mountain Army. Who would rebel if they didn’t have to live?
Now that Liu Fujun has come, we have a good life. The tax rate has been reduced to 40%, and all kinds of strange and exorbitant taxes have been eliminated. When we are doing corvée labor, the government even provides daily food, so we don't have to bring our own dry food... Who are the Black Mountain Army? I don't know them well.
The leader of the Black Mountain Army, Zhang Yan, was surprised to find that Liu Zhuang had only taken a few months to cut off the soil for the Black Mountain Army to wreak havoc in Taiyuan. Before, when he entered Taiyuan to incite the people and faced an encirclement and suppression by government troops, the people scrambled to protect him, hid the whereabouts of their missionary team, and acted ignorant, uncooperative, and passive towards the government troops.
But now, they have turned to support Liu Zhuang. I sent a small team to Taiyuan County to brush the Yellow Sky Corrosion, but found that it was impossible to brush it off. The people began to adopt a passive, uncooperative, and ignorant attitude towards me. Although they are not hostile to me, they will definitely ignore me.
