The Han army continued their bombardment calmly. Siege requires patience. They bombarded for three days in a row, firing accurately during the day and running to the foot of the city wall at night to retrieve the boulders under the cover of darkness.
Sometimes the boulders destroyed an entire section of the city wall, sometimes a part of the city wall, sometimes a tower, or a breastwork - no section of the city wall was strong enough to withstand the horrific bombardment of such huge cannons. Brick and stone fragments fell down like raindrops. The defenders witnessed this scene and were all dumbfounded, panic-stricken and at a loss. A large number of Black Mountain soldiers even knelt on the ground, praying for protection from the Yellow Heaven.
Amid the endless bombing, the heavy city walls collapsed, the tall houses crumbled, the entire Guangmu land was shaking, and the city walls and siege positions that stretched for hundreds of meters raised billowing smoke. The smoke, accompanied by the red and black Han dragon flags, soared into the sky! The battle clearly broke out in the westernmost wall area, but even the easternmost city gate was trembling under the huge rocks bombarded all over the sky.
The psychological impact of this kind of stone-throwing bombardment on the defenders was even more severe and effective. The deafening roar of the greenskins' weapons, the smoke and vibration of the Han army's weapons, even the experienced Black Mountain soldiers felt panic. For civilians, this was more like a sign of the end of the world. People's screams, cries and shouts mixed together, forming a chaos and panic. There were crowds of people running around, women fainting in the streets, and helpless citizens could only gather in Huang Tian's church, hoping in vain for Huang Tian's salvation.
Although Guangmu City is located in a critical location and is one of the fortresses in the mountain pass transportation between Jinyang and Jingxing, it is a safe hinterland after all. The last war broke out here was during the reign of Emperor Guangwu. Over two hundred years of peace have meant that the defense here has not reached an outrageous level. It can only be said that it is difficult to fight with the blessing of mountains and rivers.
Chapter 189: Flying Man
Seeing that the army's morale was about to collapse due to the endless hammering of the Han army's catapults, Zhang Yan waved six snow-white wings and personally descended on the battlefield to scout the Han army's deployment to see if there was any chance to destroy these catapults.
This time, she flew very carefully. The accident that happened last time when she scouted the Liuzhuang military camp was still vivid in her mind. She had one of her wings inexplicably chopped off by a young general in silver armor. For Zhang Yan, this was no different from breaking an arm. Her balance was destroyed, and it took her a long time to recover. She missed the final battle between Guangzong and Quyang.
Zhang Yanfei was very careful, but after some investigation, he was so scared that his blood ran cold.
These siege weapons were well protected in the center by the Han army. A long trench was first dug on the outermost edge, and then a layer of antlers and chevaux de frise were deployed inside the trench. The assault troops had to fill the trench, destroy the antlers, and then defeat the more than 1,000 Han soldiers who were defending the engineering weapons before they could reach these catapults and blast the city waste.
Moreover, so many things had to be done before the Han army with a large number of cavalry came to support. Zhang Yan had just finished half of the reconnaissance when he came to an extremely desperate conclusion: give up, we can't win.
He captured some cities and horse farms in Yanmen and Daijun, and the shortage of horses was alleviated, but it would still take time to transform them into qualified cavalry.
Even if he gathered all his cavalry and thunder warriors together, it would be impossible to break through this level of defense!
Zhang Yan gritted his teeth and flapped his six wings to get closer, hoping to use his natural air force advantage to throw boulders and flying axes from the air to destroy the siege equipment.
As a result, when he was halfway through the flight, he saw a black shadow suddenly jumping up from the ground and rushing towards him!
Zhang Yan's face was solemn. She turned around and found that it was actually a heroic Xianbei horse wearing iron armor. There were two huge holes on the ribs of her horse's armor, allowing two giant wings with a wingspan of more than ten meters to flap and actually carry the horse high into the sky!
Flying Xianbei troops? Didn't I see them when I fought Liu Zhuang last time? Is it a new warrior he recruited, or is his dragon blood talent becoming more complete?
Not only that, there was a heroic young general on the horse's back. He was also wearing a helmet and armor. When the two of them flew to less than a hundred meters away from them, they drew their bows and quickly shot out deadly feather arrows!
Zhang Yan's six wings flapped and flew at different angles, perfectly controlling the direction of the surrounding airflow. She danced gracefully in the air, and dodged one deadly feather arrow after another with incredible agility!
Although she is a direct descendant of the Yellow Turbans, Zhang Yan has never been exposed to the transformation of a Thunder Warrior. Her body is extremely thin and slender. She does not wear heavy armor, nor does she wear a robe with great wind resistance. Instead, she wears a white one-piece tights. The clothes fits tightly on her icy skin, outlining extremely slender and attractive curves on her chest, waist, and thighs, showing a kind of restrained beauty.
A pair of extremely slender and straight beautiful legs, which can be described as golden ratio. Although not as round and fleshy as Fengxian's, but thin and slender with a unique beauty, the graceful curve of the legs sways in the air, creating a charming shadow. The waist is as delicate as a willow in spring, and the chest is flat with almost no bulge. The slender and tender body presents an exaggerated contrast with the six huge wings behind her, so that when she flies, the streamlined and slender body will not be affected by any air resistance, and her speed is frighteningly fast.
Looking at Tuoba Yun approaching, Zhang Yan's eyes were filled with mockery and ridicule.
Are you new to air combat? Air combat is different from ground combat. First of all, there are only a handful of people who can fly, and victory can only be achieved by personal bravery. Secondly, air combat is three-dimensional, and the pursuit is extreme speed and flexibility.
You Xianbei people, do you know how to fight in the air? You are wearing such heavy armor and flying into the sky with an extra person on board. You are as slow as a turtle. What can you use to fight me? ? ?
It just so happens that Liu Zhuang is still conducting the investigation personally as he did before, so I don’t have to look for your location and launch a decapitation operation!
Zhang Yan flapped his six wings fiercely, and the whole person was like a hummingbird, climbing up to a height of fifty meters in the sky, and then retracted his wings, diving down like a peregrine falcon! It was so fast that Tuoba Yun couldn't even see the afterimage clearly. Even Liu Zhuang, with his double pupils, could only barely keep up with Zhang Yan's frightening speed.
“Swoosh! Swoosh!!!”
Zhang Yan suddenly pulled out two flying axes and, using the force of the dive, threw them over the heads of the two men at an equally frightening speed.
Liu Zhuang saw the flight path of the two flying axes clearly. He was about to block them, but he found that Zhang Yan's flying speed was already as fast as lightning, and he could even speed up due to the dive! He was even faster than the flying axes he had just thrown! He rushed to him first, pulled out two new battle axes and chopped at his head fiercely, trying to behead him!
"clang!!!"
Zhang Yan was like a bolt of lightning, instantly brushing past the bodies of Tuoba Yun and Liu Zhuang. The three of them overlapped for only a short moment, and Tuoba Yun didn't even have time to react before she saw Liu Zhuang's night spear and Zhang Yan's battle axe colliding fiercely in front of her forehead, flying sparks all over the sky. She was so scared that cold sweats broke out. If Liu Zhuang hadn't had a powerful double pupil and was able to see clearly and block the attack, the axe would have hit her in the face.
Zhang Yan's speed is much faster than five years ago. His speed is even faster than Zhang Liao's thunder tribulation, but his power is much weaker than that of thunder tribulation.
It's not just me who has grown in strength over the past five years.
At this moment, Zhang Yan had dived down dozens of meters, and the battle axe she threw out was just now spinning, whistling, and roaring in front of the two men. Liu Zhuang had just used all his strength to block Zhang Yan's attack, and now it was too late for him to return to defense. Tuoba Yun barely blocked it, but his right shoulder was hit solidly by the battle axe!
Speed is power. Even if the two axes did not penetrate the armor, the rapidly flying rotating axes were enough to smash Tuoba Yun's shoulders with bruises and swelling by brute force, and the bones might even be cracked.
Zhang Yan frowned. Blocked it? My speed was so fast that it far exceeded the limit of normal people's dynamic vision, but he still blocked it? Liu Zhuang's eyes were very unusual. He actually had four pupils. It seemed that his dragon blood talent might be something like supernormal dynamic vision? So that he could see my extreme speed clearly.
It doesn't matter, as long as he can't see me.
"Liu Zhuang! Give me your life!!!"
Zhang Yan flapped his six wings, and the whole person suddenly accelerated, flying around Liu Zhuang, spinning, and almost instantly disappeared from the side of Liu Zhuang's sight!
When she flew behind Liu Zhuang, she quickly descended and climbed up like a hummingbird. When Liu Zhuang and Tuoba Yun turned their heads, there was only blue sky and white clouds in their eyes, and there was no trace of Zhang Yan!
The structure of Zhang Yan's six wings is exactly the same as that of an owl. As long as she wants, she can fly without making any sound. After she got rid of Liu Zhuang's field of vision, Liu Zhuang's extraordinary hearing could not determine Zhang Yan's location at all! He lost her!
There was no other choice, so Liu Zhuang immediately swung the four-meter-long night spear, spinning it rapidly above his head like a windmill. The whistling sound of the spear blade tearing through the air was terrifying, and he narrowly blocked Zhang Yan's second attack!
"clang!!!"
Zhang Yan frowned as he saw that his second surprise attack was blocked by Liu Zhuang, who could neither see nor hear him.
Yes, in order to maximize speed, strength and damage, I can only choose to dive attack.
If he launched a dive, he could only attack the tops of Liu Zhuang and Tuoba Yun's heads. Liu Zhuang saw through this instantly, so he raised the long spear above his and Tuoba Yun's heads, waving it tightly, and even though he lost his vision, he received his attack for the second time.
After not seeing each other for five years, his combat experience has improved by leaps and bounds.
Add to that his extremely troublesome dragon blood talent and his dynamic vision that can actually keep up with his own speed... It's really tricky. I should have assassinated him at all costs five years ago.
But it doesn't matter, I won't dive, the speed is still amazing! At most the damage will be less!!!
"Gao Yun! Invisibility!!!"
Seeing that Zhang Yan had figured out the routine and was no longer diving monotonously, and disappeared from his sight for the second time with great speed, Liu Zhuang immediately shouted Tuoba Yun's name, and the two blasphemous priests cast invisibility spell together, instantly hiding their figures in the air.
Now it was Zhang Yan's turn to be at a loss. Her flying speed and maneuverability were indeed the best in the world.
However, she was a warrior who could not cast spells, a Muggle. The focus of her training was air combat. Zhang Jue forced himself to learn a professional level of a Huangtian priest, using a small magic of the first ring to make up for the blindness. Facing the invisible couple, she was somewhat at a loss.
The author says:
Author's words: 2950 monthly votes plus more chapters~ A new month~ Please vote! The more you vote, the more chapters I will get!!!
Chapter 190: Air-Ground Integration
With the help of the invisibility technique, the person who could not find the target now changed from Liu Zhuang and Tuoba Yun to Zhang Yan. She watched helplessly as a man and a horse seemed to be covered with a layer of invisible gauze and suddenly disappeared in front of her eyes. They flapped their wings in the air for a second before she figured out what was going on. She immediately launched a dive attack towards the place where the two disappeared at a speed that was too fast to be captured by the naked eye. She wanted to knock the two invisible people out with one blow, but she was still a step too slow.
The two of them had already switched positions the moment they completed their invisibility.
Liu Zhuang and Tuoba Yun, the two blasphemous priests, used only ordinary second-ring invisibility, which did not last very long and any attack would destroy the invisibility, but this simple spell immediately reversed the situation of the battle. Zhang Yan, who swooped down, was once again captured by Liu Zhuang's dynamic vision. Since the opponent had extremely high speed and dodge ability, he could not use rays or explosion spells as they would not be able to hit him at all.
However, some magic and curses that take effect immediately and target physical strength and mental will are the weaknesses of this extremely fast man!
Tuoba Yun was the first to use the second-ring spell, Earth Binding. With a point of his finger, the invisible veil covering the entire body was instantly destroyed. The tall, handsome, half-man, half-horse with wings on his ribs reappeared above the sky. A magic curse instantly took effect on him. The white feathers on Zhang Yan's wings immediately secreted a large amount of dirty mud, which condensed into solid clods in a very short time, causing her to flap her wings slower and slower!
Tuoba Yun had a solemn expression. This spell could directly destroy the enemy's flying state, but perhaps because Zhang Yan had six wings, a spell of [Earth Binding] only slowed down her flying speed.
Zhang Yan looked back and found that Tuoba Yun's body had emerged from the invisible state, while Liu Zhuang, who was riding on Tuoba Yun, had not yet appeared. He immediately showed a victorious smile.
This time, I won't give you the chance to escape invisibly! Quick victory!
With a horrifying afterimage, Zhang Yan in the sky once again disappeared in front of Tuoba Yun at a rapid speed, forcing her to protect her face, heart and other parts of her body to save her life, and rely on her extremely tenacious physique and armor to withstand Zhang Yan's attack!
In just six seconds, Zhang Yan launched three attacks in a row. The three attacks were as fast as a charge. Each charge was enough to tear the red rope connecting the armor and dent the black iron armor, but it could not cause fatal damage to Tuoba Yun! Liu Zhuang, who was riding on the horse, had not yet revealed himself, which also put a lot of psychological pressure on Zhang Yan. He didn't know what he was doing in hiding.
However, it doesn't matter, it's this centaur that can fly, not Liu Zhuang! Since there is no way to kill this centaur in a short time, I will charge and knock you off the horse's back and smash you into a pulp!
Zhang Yan's murderous intent was revealed, and her eyes were fixed on the empty horse's back. She retracted her wings again and launched a silent and rapid charge! But this time, just when she was halfway through the flight, she felt that she had hit something head-on, and waves of heart-wrenching pain came from her left shoulder!
“Sizzle!!!”
Zhang Yan's eyes widened in astonishment, and he found himself halfway through the charge, and perhaps, it seemed, perhaps, he had hit a spear? That thing pierced his left shoulder and came out of his back, directly making two holes in his body!
Bright red blood gushed out from her body! In the empty air in front of her, a bloody human figure appeared, and the invisible veil covering Liu Zhuang fell off immediately as he launched the attack.
It turned out that Liu Zhuang was not on Tuoba Yun's back at all. Although he could not fly, he could float in the air for a short time with the help of levitation. Guo Huai also knew this spell. Although his speed and maneuverability were very poor, he could stay in the air for a short time.
After Zhang Yan had only four wings left, Liu Zhuang's double pupils were able to keep up with her speed. Based on where Zhang Yan's eyes were focused, he predicted her attack route in advance. Therefore, he floated between her and Tuoba Yun, holding a four-meter-long night spear horizontally, and assumed a standard spearman's counter-charge defense posture.
Speed is power. The faster and harder Zhang Yan rushed, the more painful it was when she hit Liu Zhuang's spear. At this moment, the spear pierced her left shoulder directly! She flapped her wings in pain, trying to break free from Liu Zhuang's spear, but found that Liu Zhuang had a plan. Tuoba Yun flew behind her at the fastest speed and grabbed the spear head, making her like a hunted animal, skewered on the spear and unable to move.
Seeing that things were going badly, Zhang Yan also became ruthless. Her beautiful face flashed with an unruly and fierce light. She simply flapped her wings again and charged forward fiercely, allowing the black spears to pierce through her body and flesh. She endured the severe pain and crashed directly into Liu Zhuang's arms!
"boom!!!"
Zhang Yan suddenly tilted her beautiful head back, and with the last bit of strength of the charge, she smashed it forward fiercely, hitting Liu Zhuang's forehead with a headbutt. He struggled to break free, and the night spear completely penetrated the wound on Zhang Yan's left shoulder, allowing the wild girl to escape.
Liu Zhuang quickly handed the Night Spear to Tuoba Yun, and he bent his bow and shot arrows. Even though Zhang Yan was extremely fast, he was still hit in the right shoulder and in the lower back by Liu Zhuang's arrow despite being seriously injured.
At this moment, Zhang Yan didn't even dare to turn her head. Her face was as pale as snow. She dragged her left shoulder that was pierced through and quickly fled back to Guangmu City. Blood gushed out from the wounds on her shoulders, like a hearty blood rainstorm, covering the entire battlefield. In the end, she fell back to Guangmu City like a head-over-heels onion.
Although he failed to catch up with the extremely fast Zhang Yan, Liu Zhuang completely gained air superiority over Guangmu City. Riding on Tuoba Yun, he flew directly to the top of Guangmu City, saw the Black Mountain Army's troop deployment clearly, and commanded the siege from the sky!
Seeing the Black Mountain leader defeated in front of the battlefield and being bombarded by catapults, the Black Mountain army's morale was also greatly hit. The Han army's stone-throwing offensive lasted for four days and smashed down three sections of the city wall. At this moment, the Black Mountain army had already begun to panic and lost its organization. At this time, the siege troops took advantage of the situation and launched an attack!
Zhang Yan was very helpless at this moment. She heard that Liu Zhuang sent three armies, "claiming" to have 50,000 troops to attack, so she thought the actual strength was only 10,000 or 20,000 troops, plus 20,000 or 30,000 civilian laborers and corvée labor, which was not a big deal. After all, everyone was bluffing like that.
I didn't expect that Liuzhuang really had nearly 50,000 soldiers! Each soldier was assigned two logistics, and the total force was almost 150,000. Do you think you can do that? ? ?
A large number of Han troops covered the battering rams and rammed the city gate. The sturdy gate was shaking under the blows of the battering rams. Ten siege towers that were taller than the city walls were also pushed outside the Guangmu city wall by the Han army. The Han army was on the high towers, shooting down at the Black Mountain Army on the city wall, which made these soldiers defending the city lose their height advantage.
Not only that, floating bridges were also stretched out from the siege towers. A large number of Han soldiers raised their shields and rushed to the city wall against the rain of arrows from the Black Mountain Army! Liu Fujun has ordered! The first person to climb the city will be rewarded! A large number of high-spirited Han soldiers sang war songs, waved their weapons, and rushed to the city wall in a mighty manner, fighting a desperate battle with the soldiers defending the city. Although the combat effectiveness of these Black Mountain soldiers was not high, their morale was very scary. They were obviously at an absolute disadvantage, but they were still able to withstand the wave after wave of death charges from the Han army.
After the tall and sturdy siege towers approached the city wall and attracted the enemy's firepower, the Han army also pushed the vast number of crude ladders that were just folding ladders with wheels added to them. They rushed towards the city wall in dense crowds. The Han soldiers, dressed in black armor and red clothes, vied with each other to grab the honor of being the first to reach the top. The huge army was like a black ant carpet, densely covering entire sections of the city wall.
Not only that, after the Han army that broke through the gate and the Han army that climbed the city wall first attracted the enemy's attention, a large number of Han troops were divided into three parts and tried to charge through the three gaps in the city wall that were destroyed by the catapults. If the blocking crowd was not dense, the cavalry would be able to unleash an unstoppable force and destroy the enemy.
If the people blocking the way are very dense, then send the infantry squad to form a formation a hundred meters away, use strong crossbows to concentrate fire, shoot them until they are dead all over the ground, and then send the cavalry to charge! The Black Mountain Army's morale is high, but it can't stop this absolute crushing of tactics and strength.
In an instant, the entire battlefield turned into a chaotic slaughterhouse, with blood and mud mixed together, and corpses lying on the ground in all directions. The roar of catapults, the shouts of soldiers, and the collision of weapons intertwined to form a mournful movement of death.
At this moment, Zhang Yan was still seriously injured, and Liu Zhuang's spear grazed his heart and almost took his life. This also caused the Black Mountain Army to lose its long-standing air advantage. Liu Zhuang and Tuoba Yun had been flying in the sky, having a clear view of the Black Mountain Army's deployment, and they were able to micro-manipulate and adjust the army's advance!
Not only that, Yuwen Tai also dug a tunnel in this general attack, and appeared directly in the city with a large number of Han troops like a god descending from the sky! Supporting the Han troops outside the city, they rushed left and right, as if they were in an empty space! Zhang Yan sighed that the situation was over, and immediately gave up Guangmu City with his elite troops and hurriedly fled to Shangai.
Chapter 191: People's Support
Liu Zhuang marched for four days, built siege equipment, dug trenches and tunnels for ten days, and broke down the city walls for four days, but it only took him one day to break into the city and seize control of Guangmu. In nineteen days, he quickly conquered Guangmu City, one of the fortresses in Jingxing. In ancient sieges that could last several months, this was considered incredibly fast.
Although Zhang Yan ran away, Liu Zhuang was not worried at all. He directly opened the warehouses in Guangmu City, collected half of it as public property, and used the other half to reward people based on their merits. No matter whether you were a military household, a noble family, a human or an orc, all were treated equally. Those who had made contributions were rewarded, and the rewards were extremely generous and abundant, which made everyone excited. Knowing that fighting could lead to promotion and wealth, their fighting spirit was extremely high.
Although the aristocratic families looked down on the blood-stained money gained from wars, after all, their family assets were too rich.
However, when the noble families of Bingzhou found out that Liu Zhuang was being promoted according to his military merit, their fighting spirit was also aroused - who told the governor to have the power to recommend filial and honest people to be officials? I have studied poetry and books for decades, and now is the time to show my skills and see how strong the Confucianism I have learned is. Moreover, I must kill enemies on the battlefield and establish meritorious service, so that the governor will be willing to promote me.
As Liu Zhuang gave enough rewards, the military discipline was strict enough, and the prestige of many captains and Sima of other departments was also high, looting after the city was broken almost never happened.
The Lord of the Prefecture is not unwilling to give money, and he is extremely generous. Why should I violate the terrible military regulations and rob the local people? How much money can these people, who have been oppressed for decades at the end of the Han Dynasty, have?
Those with high moral standards would not rob, and those with low moral standards were suppressed by military law. All people were fed by Guangmu’s warehouses, which avoided the occurrence of looting in the city. In this way, Guangmu City did not fall into chaos after the city was broken. Brave and combative armies carrying the black and red Han Xuanlong flag shuttled through the streets, stabilizing the local people's hearts as quickly as possible.
Naturally, it was impossible to distribute the newly conquered land to the aristocratic families. Zhang Yan might have sent spies to Hedong to carefully observe what he was doing. Therefore, he began to carry out large-scale land reform in the area where the Black Mountain Army was wreaking havoc.
The Yellow Turban Army's previous motto was that Cang Tian was dead and Huang Tian should be established. Their goal was only to overthrow the imperial court and unite all the forces that could be united except the emperor, including the aristocratic families. As a result, they were beaten up by the aristocratic families and the emperor.
This time, the Black Mountain Army thought it through and only united with the poor people. After copying Liu Zhuang's policies, they carried out crazy land reforms, attacked everyone except the basic people, and began to preach and educate the people on a larger scale. This is why the scale of the Black Mountain Army this time was unprecedentedly large, even spanning the three states of Bing, You, and Ji.
Illiterate people have no organizational skills, and people without permanent property have no perseverance.
Zhang Yan realized this, so the people who joined the Black Mountain Army had extremely high morale when fighting against the Han army in order to protect the land they had obtained. Moreover, all the grassroots officers more or less followed these Yellow Turban remnants to learn Taoism and other knowledge, and at least learned the basic left and right directions, and knew how to control the army to turn left and right.
Little-known fact: this basic skill of distinguishing left from right was very rare even during the Republic of China period. A large number of warlord armies could not even march in step, so they simply changed from wearing straw sandals to cloth shoes, and only then could they start marching in the most basic way.
Liu Zhuang felt helpless about the Black Mountain Army's behavior of copying his example, and he raised the threat of the Black Mountain Army to a higher level. Land distribution had already been carried out once in Guangmu. Liu Zhuang checked the records and found that Zhang Yan did a good job. He simply acknowledged the Black Mountain Army's move to distribute the land to the local people, but simply divided them all under his own military land system, which made the local people breathe a sigh of relief.
I don't understand what heaven and earth are talking about, but anyway, Zhang Yan came and gave us land, and Liu Zhuang came and also gave us land, and the taxes collected by the two were almost the same, so let it be, it's just someone else collecting taxes, and I will just farm the fields here honestly, and you two can continue to fight, and I will pay taxes to whoever wins.
In this way, Liu Zhuang took three days to completely stabilize Guangmu, at least making the people here choose neutrality between the Han Dynasty and Heishan. The army continued to carefully take the ghostly mountain road of Jingxing, which was so narrow that two carriages could not drive side by side, to attack the next fortress: Shangai.
When passing through this extremely difficult mountain pass where the mainland had to line up in a long snake formation, Liu Zhuang chose the same strategy as King Xiutu. He sent light infantry to carefully check the mountains on both sides to prevent ambushes. At the same time, he led his own troop of soldiers, which had expanded to 2,400, to the front of the army to prevent the Black Mountain Army from suddenly collapsing his front line, while leaving the rear line without any assistance.
Not only that, Liu Zhuang sent a large number of scouts and messengers to the villages under the control of the Black Mountain Army to publicize his policies and join the military-farming system.
No taxes were collected in the first year, and only 40% of the grain was collected in the second year. Apart from that, there were no other levies or taxes. Even if people were required to perform labor service, they did not have to prepare their own dry food, as the government provided them with meals.
Once a famine occurs, the government will lend grain on its own initiative and will not charge interest. You only need to repay the principal in two years according to the amount of grain you borrow. If your family's working ox dies of illness, the government will give you a new ox. You are allowed to buy more cows in three or four years without charging interest. You can use the grain first and then buy more. There are many benefits.
Not only that, if you are lucky enough to be selected as a military household, then the tax rate will be directly reduced from four out of ten to three out of ten, and you don’t have to perform corvée labor, and you can complete class transition through military merit!
Liu Zhuang's move directly hit the Montenegrin Army's base.
The Black Mountain Army has been wreaking havoc at the junction of Bingzhou, Youzhou and Jizhou for more than a year. People from Youzhou and Jizhou have come to suppress the bandits, but they are all soldiers from aristocratic families. The people know that once the Black Mountain Army is defeated, the land they distributed to us will inevitably be annexed by the aristocratic families, so the battles are extremely bloody and fierce.
The Han troops in Youzhou and Jizhou were in the Black Mountain occupied area, just like they had entered the grasslands south of the desert. They could not get any support from the local people, and had no way to buy food from them for replenishment. They could only rob. This led to the local people hating the Han army more and more, and they became enemies with them. The progress of the rebellion suppression work became slower and slower. In addition, Zhang Chun proclaimed himself emperor in Youzhou, which attracted a large number of troops. The end result was that the armies of Youzhou and Jizhou could not suppress the Black Mountain army at all.
On the other hand, in Bingzhou, Liu Zhuang's reputation over the past five years and welfare policies similar to those of the Black Mountain Army made the people hesitate instead of uniting against him. A large number of people had no objection to either Liu Zhuang or Zhang Yan, so they remained neutral and waited and watched.
