Before King Zhong left, Zeng Tong also left Daliang City with fifty carriages.
Compared with other forces who came to Daliang City to test Emperor Qianwen's attitude as an opportunity to express their condolences, Zeng Tong and his party came here to make a fortune. All forty-eight luxurious four-wheeled rubber carriages were sold, and a total of nearly one million yuan was obtained. Ten million taels. And this is just the beginning. They have also received a lot of orders. Since the carriages are not enough, many people choose to send people to Jicheng to buy them in person. Although the journey is a bit longer, the price can be quite cheap. It's less, but it's worth it in comparison.
In addition to earning a lot of money from selling carriages, Zeng Tong also reached a consensus with some merchants in Daliang City, especially grain and rice merchants. He promised them that as long as the grain was sent to Jicheng, the government would contact them and hand over the money. Grain delivered at one hand. Although the price is only 80% of the usual selling price, the profit does not seem to be much, but the advantage is that there is no need to press the goods, and they will eat as much rice as they are sent. For businessmen, this can With such a rapid withdrawal of funds, the profits are not small.
After selling things and purchasing some things, Zeng Tong's trip can be said to be very successful. The only shortcoming is the recruitment of talents, which makes him very dissatisfied. Although he has fully displayed his three-inch skills However, with the news spreading everywhere that King Ji was very unfriendly to the powerful, no one thought highly of Tang Ao, so there were no talents willing to serve in the remote, poor and cold place of Jizhou.
Fortunately, Tang Ao's territory is still very small now, and there are enough talents. If no talent is willing to come for a while, he will stop coming. Tang Ao believes that one day, he will make those who don't want to come now regret it. They know what it means if you ignore me today and I will make it impossible for you to reach tomorrow.
...
Luzhou.
King Xiang escaped from Daliang City first after being reminded by Shentu Wei, and then successfully entered Luzhou under Zongzheng's arrangement, where he met King Qi's two sons Yuan Zhong and Yuan Yi, who were his two cousins. .
As sons, Yuan Zhong and Yuan Yi were naturally filled with righteous indignation when they heard that their father was being detained by the emperor. They expressed their intention to send troops to seek justice from Emperor Qianwen. However, before they could unify their thoughts, the imperial edict came, asking them to hand over If you surrender your military power to King Xiang, you can still preserve your glory and wealth for the rest of your life.
How could the angry Yuan family accept this order? They cut off one of the ears of the eunuch who came to deliver the order. The eunuch who was originally missing a part of his body to deliver the order was now missing another ear and fled back in embarrassment. .
Although the eunuch was not an important figure, he represented the majesty of Emperor Qianwen. Being treated like this by the Yuan family, Emperor Qianwen was furious at the court meeting. He immediately decided to send a large army to conquer the four areas of Qizhou to conquer the Yuan family, who was not a good person. The clan of ministers.
Emperor Qianwen openly said in the court that this time it was a matter between him and King Xiang, a matter between father and son, and a family matter. It was best for others not to interfere in the matter. In this way, other ministers who opposed sending troops could not say anything. Then the order to dispatch troops was issued, and Mo Chengyu, the deputy commander of the Jinjia Guards, was ordered to be the commander-in-chief, Huo Yang, the ten thousand silver armor guards, was the vanguard, with 10,000 Jinjia guards, 30,000 silver armors, 10,000 Guzhou soldiers, 10,000 Suzhou soldiers plus Jizhou soldiers. The 50,000 new soldiers recruited, as well as the 6,000 cavalry led by Protector Lu Zhi, totaled about 120,000 people. It was known to the outside world that an army of 150,000 troops was dispatched to Luzhou to conquer the traitors of the Yuan family and the traitorous son of King Xiang.
At this point, the land of the Han Dynasty suddenly became stormy!
...
Jizhou.
In April, the land of Jizhou is already full of spring flowers. Except for the thick ice that has not melted in some dark corners, the land is already full of green and full of vitality.
It has been eight months since Tang Ao came to Jizhou. After smashing a lot of gold and silver and showing off his thunderous methods, Jizhou is now different from what it used to be. It no longer looks like it used to be dull. On the earth,
Countless farmers are preparing to plow the land, waiting only for a month to sow seeds and harvest a bumper harvest in this fertile black soil.
In just eight months, the changes in Jizhou can be described as earth-shaking. In terms of population, the original statistical population of the entire state capital was only about 800,000, but now, the number of registered good people has reached 100.
There are more than 10,000 people. If the lowly and slave status are added, the number of people will probably be doubled.
The increase in population means stronger productivity and the ability to do more things. Grandpa Mao once said, it is easier to get things done when there are more people.
Jizhou's strength has grown so fast, far beyond the imagination of the powerful people. Although the summary of population data is only known to a limited number of people such as Tang Ao, these powerful people are also very capable and can guess a
Probably, it was because of this that they realized firsthand how terrifying this young King Ji was, and they would not just sit back and wait for death.
Mei family.
Mei Du had already taken sick leave at home on the grounds of being unwell, but in fact he secretly went to Didi in the north in disguise. When they thought they were doing it in secret, they didn't know that their every move was under Long Ya's control.
Under control.
Among the dragon teeth, there is a special team. They are all found among the people. They are all craftsmen who have raised animals all their lives. With the strong support of Tang Ao, the king of Ji, they have the ability to communicate with birds.
They had the opportunity to be taught by Tang Ao personally, allowing them to have more intimate communication with the birds. Although it was far more powerful than Tang Ao's beast language, there was no problem with simple communication.
With such a group of people joining Long Ya, the birds in the sky are enough to help Long Ya achieve the purpose of monitoring anyone in silence. I wonder, under such circumstances, how could Mei Du's every move be possible?
Escaped Dragon Teeth's surveillance.
Mei Du didn't know this. He thought he was doing it without anyone noticing, especially after he successfully arrived in Beidi.
Later, when he expressed his willingness to pay one million taels of silver and requested to send troops, Helianzhe, a so-called warrior in the family, brought two thousand private soldiers and followed Mei Du to Jizhou.
The Mei family spent enough money on this matter and used various connections to transport a lot of Han clothes to the border area in advance. Their idea was to let the Di people change into Han clothes and then defect to them in the name of
Arriving in Jicheng, after all, these days, people come to Jizhou every day to make a living, especially knowing that one person can get twenty acres of land by registering a good registration, so the number of people continues to increase.
Taking this opportunity, as long as the Di people enter Ji City and capture the Zhizhou Prefecture in a surprise attack, they should be very sure of capturing or even killing King Ji alive. As long as Tang Ao dies, Jizhou will return to the loyalty of King Ji.
In his arms, as the biggest contributor at that time, the Mei family would definitely be appreciated by King Zhong, thereby expanding their strength, and even becoming the largest family and force in Jizhou would be possible.
For this goal, the Mei family is willing to give it a try.
Jicheng Zhizhou Prefecture.
Although Tang Ao invested a large amount of money here, building roads, building city walls, and building houses, he did not build himself a Prince Ji's Mansion, but just lived in the backyard of Zhizhou Mansion with his family members.
Tang Aofei is not a person who doesn't know how to enjoy himself, but he still knows what he should do when. For this point, Zeng Tong and Han Ce gave high praise.
In the backyard of Zhizhou Mansion, the main hall not far from Tang Ao's wing has become a place to discuss important events in Jizhou. Here, Tang Ao received the news that the Di people sent two thousand troops to enter Jizhou in disguise.
"Are you only sending two thousand people? You look down on me too much." Tang Ao couldn't help laughing when he saw the news.
The laughter also caused Zeng Tong, Han Ce, Shi Lei, Feng Xun and other generals to burst into laughter.
"Master, give me the order. The Shanshan Guards can attack at any time." Feng Xun was the first to stand up and ask for a fight.
"Your Highness, the Quartet Army is ready and can be dispatched at any time." Feng Wanli stood up, unwilling to be left behind.
Subsequently, Sun Fuhu also represented the Guiyi Army, and Zhou Qian also represented the Jizhou Army Reserves in requesting battle.
In eight months, the Shanshan Guards increased from 500 to 1,000. The number of people increased and the strength became stronger. With 1,000 cavalry against 2,000 infantry, he was more than 90% sure of annihilating the opponent.
100% determination to win.
Although the Quartet Army and the Guiyi Army are still two thousand in number, they are all elite divisions, and all of them are veterans who have seen blood, either on the battlefield or in the suppression of bandits. In short,
If you have never killed anyone, you are not qualified to join these two powerful armies.
Finally, there is Zhou Qian’s Jizhou Reserve Army, which is the largest army with 20,000 people. It was composed of carefully selected soldiers. Speaking of which, Tang Ao’s treatment for the soldiers was too high.
, one person can get fifty acres of fertile land by serving as a soldier. Ordinary soldiers can get five taels of silver per month as military pay. More importantly, their children can attend Jizhou School for free.
The people respect scholars and aspire to become scholars. In their view, as long as they have knowledge, they will have fame and success, and they can stand out and bring glory to their ancestors. But everyone understands the truth. In the past, the family did not even have enough to eat, and they still talked about it.
What about reading?
Well now, as long as a relative is a soldier of the Jizhou Army, there will be a free quota for studying, which greatly stimulates the enthusiasm for joining the army. It is not that Tang Ao must come up with such harsh conditions, nor is he reluctant to spend money.
It is true that the talents at hand are limited, there are too few teachers, and the school cannot be expanded due to the limited scale. Otherwise, he wants all children to be able to study.