"General, let's go." Gao Lan advised. He had seen the current situation clearly. Unless a team of people descended from the sky and stopped Cao's army's pace, the Jizhou army could reduce the losses.

The Cao army outside the city had tens of thousands of troops, which was far from comparable to the army in the city.

Ma Chao's first reaction to the news was to escape immediately. The strength of the enemy and us was very different, and we were fighting to the death. Ma Chao clearly remembered Jia Rong's advice before leaving. After gathering the troops, he immediately fled without even saying hello. This was not Ma Chao's unkindness. The situation on the battlefield changed rapidly. If you were not careful, you would die. What's more, Ma Chao was also responsible for the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers.

The speed at which the Western Liang army gathered was Wen Chou and Gao Lan here, they would definitely be shocked. In just a moment, the cavalry and infantry were ready. The cavalry wrapped the infantry in the middle to prevent the situation from changing, and could react at any time and start retreating in an orderly manner.

It was not until he walked out of Pingyuan County that Ma Chao breathed a sigh of relief.

Ma Chao escaped, but the Jizhou army in the city suffered. The Cao army had 30,000 soldiers and horses entering the city. Both sides fought in full swing in the city. The Jizhou army that had just woken up and the Cao army that was like a wolf and a tiger.

Seeing the soldiers under his command constantly being killed or injured, Gao Lan felt the corners of his eyes beating and grabbed a soldier and said, "Where is the Xiliang Army?"

In this case, the Xiliang Army should have heard the news to support it, so that more soldiers could be withdrawn from the city. In the current situation, if Ma Chao led the army to join the battle, it would be possible to influence the situation on the battlefield.

"The villain just went to inquire about the Xiliang Army's barracks and found that there was no one." The soldier replied truthfully.

Gao Lan let go of the hand that grabbed the soldier, his heart was mixed, and the motivation to support him in fighting might be the reinforcements of the Xiliang Army. Unexpectedly, this pillar had already escaped without any loyalty.

"Get away." Gao Lan said to Wen Chou.

"Retreat." Wen Chou shouted loudly.

There were only more than 5,000 Jizhou troops withdrawing from the city, and most of them were injured. The attacks of Cao's army at night surprised them, but they had no combat power at all.

After only one hour of moving forward, Wen Chou met Ma Chao. He was about to come forward and scold him, but was caught by Gao Lan. The current situation is that the Xiliang Army and the Cao Army are better than them. If there is any conflict, the Jizhou Army will be unlucky.

"General Ma is not in the city, why does he appear here? I believe General Ma has also learned about the changes in the city just now?" Gao Lan said with a slight smile.

Ma Chao naturally heard what Gao Lan said. As a general, he didn't want to be looked down upon, but compared with the lives of the soldiers under his command, it was still a bit insignificant. He would never understand the importance of a lower-level soldier without entering the Western Liang army.

"I have something wrong with the matter in the city, but the chaos in the city is a must. I hope the two generals can clearly observe this matter. After I go back, I will report to King Liang according to the truth. No matter what kind of punishment is there, Ma Chao is willing." Ma Chao said with his fist.

The earnestness between the words did not make Wen Chou and Gao Lan feel anything. The eyes of Ma Chao became a little hatred. You are from the Xiliang Army and you have not lost your troops. You will naturally be rewarded after you go back. The Jizhou Army suffered countless losses. After the two returned, they were not only punished. The fall of Pingyuan County means that the Jizhou Army completely lost control in Qingzhou, and Yuan Shao's previous ceding of Zhuo County to the Xiliang Army was also wasted.

In the past, the Jizhou army might be a little dissatisfied and compared with the Cao army, but the current situation cannot tolerate Yuan Shao being presumptuous. Cao Cao's hands will only have more troops than Yuan Shao, and Cao Cao occupied more places and is easier to provide supplements to the army. How could he be afraid of Yuan Shao's revenge?

After Ma Chao returned to Chang'an, he reported what happened to this trip one by one and went back to rest. He ran around the battlefield for a while, which made him excited and felt a little tired.

Without Ma Chao's report, Jia Rong had already learned about a series of changes in Qingzhou through intelligence. Unexpectedly, Yuan Shao's power in Qingzhou was completely disintegrated so quickly. After Qingzhou was in Cao Cao's hands, it was not only that Yuan Shao's strength was weakened as simple as that.

Jia Rong rubbed his head and said what happened in the future. The most important thing at the moment is to develop strength as soon as possible, so that Xiliang Bank can bear fruit throughout the entire land of China, and to allow the money in the hands of the princes to move towards Chang'an in a steady stream.

The expansion of Xiliang Bank was when the war between the princes had just been extinguished. After the war, neither Yuan Shao nor Cao Cao wanted to offend the Xiliang army. However, in the face of the establishment of Xiliang Bank, Cao Cao still implemented a series of measures. One of them was to establish a bank belonging to Cao's army, named Yanzhou Bank, and also opened Xuzhou Bank in Xuzhou, Yuzhou Bank, and Qingzhou Bank. In short, under the rule of Cao's army, the banks were like mushrooms after a rain and rose from the ground.

Cao Cao followed the example of the system in the bank, moved out the Xiliang Army's set and printed paper money.

But who do businessmen trust more? Not to mention the merchants running in various counties of the Han Dynasty, they are the aristocratic families in the city. It seems that under the pressure of Cao Cao, after buying some banknotes, they secretly bought some banknotes from Xiliang Bank. The reason is that some merchants collected banknotes from Cao's army under the policy of Cao's army, but they secretly didn't want them. If you use money to buy things, you are not the old man at all. It depends on the merchant's face, unless you take out banknotes from Xiliang Bank or cash.

However, when the banknotes you took out were issued by Xiliang Bank, the merchant immediately changed his face, carefully checked the banknotes in his hand, and accepted them with confidence, and the customer became the master.

This situation quickly spread among cities. The establishment of the bank under Cao Cao's rule indirectly provided an opportunity for the development of the Xiliang army.

Cao Cao repeatedly tried to destroy the Xiliang Bank in the city, but he finally endured it. When Xun You went to Chang'an to form an alliance with the Xiliang army, Jia Rong had a Cao army that could not prevent the development of Xiliang Bank for any reason. If it was discovered, the alliance would immediately expire.

On the Qingzhou battlefield, the appearance of the Xiliang Army once made Cao Cao angry, but in the end the performance of the Xiliang Army made Cao Cao's treacherous plan succeed, and his anger towards Jia Rong was greatly alleviated.

It is roughly the same as in history. When Zhang Song came to Cao Cao's rule, the treatment he received was very different from that of Chang'an. Even when Cao Cao received Zhang Song, many ministers looked at him, obviously amused by Zhang Song's appearance and looked at him like a monkey.

Faced with such a situation, Zhang Song was already very angry. After all, he was also the one who was received by King Liang in Chang'an.

After Cao Cao came forward, he was not very fond of Zhang Song, and there were many disdainful words in his words. The ancients attached great importance to talent, but also valued their appearance. They were like Pang Tong, with great talent, but they could never be valued because of his poor appearance.

Then Zhang Song refused to give up and arrived at Liu Biao and Yuan Shao's tent, and was both rolled. After several times, Zhang Song decided to set off for Chang'an again.

Time flies, and in a blink of an eye, two years have passed, and the nine years of Xingping are destined to be an extraordinary year. Although Liu Biao changed his year name after becoming emperor, the princes did not buy it very much, and they did not comment on the title given by Liu Biao.

After two years of rest and recuperation, the Xiliang Army achieved unprecedented development, with a permanent force of 150,000, but Luoyang in Chang'an was built incredibly prosperous. The population of the two cities combined has 600,000 people. Whenever the market is opened, there are bustling traffic and pedestrians are flocking, which is very lively.

In the past two years, although the princes had some minor frictions, they did not make much moves, and they did not have the level of tens of thousands of soldiers at any time, and the people had achieved short-term peace.

In the craftsman workshop, Jia Rong stared at the things in front of him with a bright eyes and could no longer move them away. After seeing this thing from an artist walking around the world, Jia Rong immediately organized talents to conduct research. With the advanced knowledge of later generations, he studied gunpowder, something that Jia Rong had always forgotten.

However, the explosives made were somewhat dangerous. A few days ago, a pack of explosives exploded. The momentum directly overturned a small house where the explosives were studied. It was Liang's mansion that came forward and explained it before stopping the remarks.

After two years of rest, the Xiliang Army will definitely use force. With gunpowder help, it will be easier to capture the city. No matter how strong the city gate is, can it withstand the bombardment of several packets of gunpowder? Jia Rong seemed to have seen the princes trembling under the power of gunpowder.

The research on gunpowder began immediately. Jia Rong naturally hoped that the greater the power of gunpowder, the better, and the stability requirements were also very high. It is best to study gunpowder that could explode in water.

All the things Jia Rong said were a bit ahead of the curve. Anyway, craftsmen don’t understand why gunpowder can explode in the water.

This is also Jia Rong took care of them, otherwise it would be even more difficult for them to find out the pistol and grenade.

It is very simple to develop gunpowder, but its power is worth exam. Using the formulas from later generations, its power will definitely increase dramatically, but would the ancients understand these?

This time, Jia Rong targeted Jizhou. Although Yuan Shao had never taken any action against the Xiliang army, such an enemy was always a little uneasy. If Yuan Shao from Jizhou could be removed and then occupied Jizhou, it would be of great significance to the development of the Xiliang army. Unlike Liangzhou and other places, Jizhou has always been a large grain prefecture of the Han Dynasty, but there were also many aristocratic families. Yuan Shao's name was the third generation of the three kings, so he could easily control Jizhou and gain benefits under Yuan Shao. Naturally, the aristocratic families would not cause trouble.
Chapter completed!