Establishing a thousand-year family from the nobles of the Western Han Dynasty

Chapter 71 Development of Hetao

Zhou Yafu defeated Xu Zhou, a powerful enemy who had the support of everyone, in such a dramatic way and successfully sat on the throne of prime minister.

At the same time, the position of Taiwei was also vacant. In order to recover the military power, Liu Che did not continue to establish a new Taiwei, but chose not to establish one. He promoted Wei Qing to the rank of Grand Marshal and General, and Huo Qubing to the rank of Grand Marshal and General of Cavalry, thus dividing the military power together.

In addition, with Zhou Yafu's control, the emperor can hold all military power in his hands. This step is very critical.

Ever since the Han Dynasty occupied the Hexi Corridor and the Hetao region, Emperor Liu Che has been very concerned about these places and planned to make them part of the Han territory permanently. As for the local Huns, they had to either die or surrender.

To this end, Liu Che specially summoned the left and right prime ministers Xu Gong, Zhou Yafu and Taichang Xu Zhou to discuss the planning of the excess newly acquired land.

Liu Che knelt down and looked at the people below: "How do you think the Hetao area should be developed? Should it be just used as a horse farm, or should we build a city and relocate the people?"

Xu Zhou's idea was more conservative: "Your Majesty, it would be better to use it as a place to settle the surrendered tribes of the Xiongnu. If we build a city and relocate the people, the cost will be unimaginable."

"And those people who are far away from their hometowns may not be willing."

The fundamental reason for his refusal was that it was too expensive! The Hetao area was a new land, and it was almost the same as the Xiongnu tribe, which meant that everything had to start from scratch!
Now the national treasury is half empty, and Your Majesty plans to continue attacking the Xiongnu and conquering Nanyue in another two years, which will cost countless amounts of money.

If a new city were to be built, the wealth accumulated by several generations of emperors would probably be destroyed.

"Teacher, Prime Minister Zhou, what do you think?" This was obviously not the result that Liu Che wanted. He was a man who loved to show off his achievements. He was not like the monarchs of previous dynasties who had grown up in poverty. He had almost no feeling of sympathy for the people.

"My lord, it is necessary to build Hetao, otherwise it will be a castle in the air and will not belong to our Han Dynasty." Xu Gong thought for a moment and rejected his nephew's opinion.

He felt that Hetao brought real benefits. If it could be brought under his command, the Han Dynasty would not have to worry about the horse problem in the future.

If you want to truly acquire a piece of land, you must make the people there Han Chinese! Otherwise, you will lose it sooner or later.

"I agree with Prime Minister Xu's opinion." Zhou Yafu did not intend to express his opinion, but followed Xu Gong's words.

He really learned his lesson this time. He did not express many opinions but just worked hard. If the emperor expressed his opinion, he would support the emperor. If the emperor did not express his opinion, he would support Prime Minister Xu. If neither of them expressed their opinion, he would remain silent and pretend to be dumb.

Only in this way can he survive! If it weren't for Xu Xiang's warning, he might have died during the reign of Emperor Xiaojing.

"Well, since you have expressed your opinion, I will listen to you." Liu Che was of course more inclined to Xu Gong's idea. He did not want to waste such a fertile land as Hetao.

It must be properly utilized. Moreover, expanding territory is a huge achievement, enough to make another entry in history books!
"Your Majesty, I have something else to say." Xu Gong thought for a moment and continued. In fact, he did not approve of frequently wasting people's strength, but this time it was a special case, so he had to give another warning.

"Teacher, please speak. I am all ears." Liu Che was in a good mood.

"Your Majesty, apart from your subjects, the construction of a new city cannot be rushed. It must be done step by step, bit by bit. And the people to be relocated should be farmers without land, and they should be transported in batches to minimize the impact on the people."

Xu Gong's ideas were fundamentally different from Liu Che's. One wanted to do it at all costs, while the other wanted to do it step by step.

"But teacher, if the enemy takes the opportunity to march south and retake Hetao again, all our investment will be in vain."

Liu Che asked this question for some unknown reason, but he was actually asking about something else in disguise.

Sure enough, Xu Gong's eyes showed a hint of decisiveness: "If we want to eradicate the Huns completely, Your Majesty can give them a final blow!" "Then teacher, do you agree with my plan of Northern Expedition?" Liu Che smiled. This was the sentence he was waiting for.

"Well... Your Majesty has already made a decision, why bother asking your subjects again." Xu Gong said calmly. He had tried to stop Liu Che before, but it was actually of no use. It could only delay the process at most.

It may even make them more determined!

.........

Liu Che also adopted Xu Gong's suggestion and appointed Xu Ye to be fully responsible and withdraw money and grain from the treasury. After all, he was the Minister of Agriculture of the dynasty, equivalent to the Minister of Finance, and was in charge of the treasury.

So it is only natural that I am responsible for this.

The court first set its sights on the densely populated Henan County and summoned representatives of the three most prestigious local tyrants.

"The court wants to establish Shuofang County, which requires a large population. I wonder if there are refugees or farmers in the area."

Xu Ye went straight to the point. He knew that these powerful people had quite a few serfs. If he took some of them out and added them to the large number of refugees that had gathered, it would be more than enough.

As for whether they are willing to take it out or not, there is no need to care about it, because we don’t need their consent. Now the control of local tyrants over farmers is very weak. The most important thing is to understand the local information.

"Mr. Xu Nong, this is the list we have prepared, please take a look." The representative of the powerful people presented the things. Facing the powerful emperor Liu Che, the powerful people were very well-behaved.

He had been disciplined once before, so he was naturally very honest.

Xu Ye took the bamboo slips and began to look through them.

The above probably records the local hooligans. Hooligans in this era did not refer to rogues, but civilians without houses or land.

These people had almost no worries and must have been very happy to see the emperor open up the land.

"Well, on behalf of the court, I would like to thank you all for your cooperation." Xu Ye was very satisfied and even gave up the idea of ​​blackmailing them.

Afterwards, he immediately sent people to recruit these people. In fact, the court's attitude was still a compulsory requirement, and the reason for selecting people was to minimize resistance.

As expected, most people did not have much resistance in their hearts. They just had some nostalgia for their hometown, that's all. It is very painful to leave your hometown in this world.

One hundred thousand people were brought to Hetao as the first batch, and they reclaimed wasteland and built cities. With Xu Gong's insistence, the construction period was very generous so that everyone could take their time.

The person in charge is naturally Xu Ye. This is a good job. As long as he supervises the progress, he can reap a lot of political achievements.

At the same time, the newly built Shuofang counties were also the outposts of the Han Dynasty's attack on the Huns. As soon as they began to take shape, Liu Che dispatched a large number of border troops to garrison there and to deter the Huns at the same time.

It is worth mentioning that Xu Nan and Xu Ye met again, and the scene was a bit awkward for a while.

After all, the relationship between the two has not been very good since they started competing for the position.

(End of this chapter)