Tiger Guards

Chapter 201: Slaughtering the World
Merit statistics is a troublesome matter, and fairness, justice and openness are basic requirements.

These were all earned through desperate battles at the risk of losing one's head or becoming disabled. If other means were used to increase the amount by 20% or 30% when reporting and counting military achievements, it would be a huge profit.

Therefore, when the officials and soldiers report their achievements, if they cannot suppress these people, those who come to reminisce with you, make loud noises and boast of your achievements, and unite with each other to create momentum, demonstration, and intimidation.

People in the countryside would glare at someone forcing them to buy or sell something, let alone at this moment.

Therefore, Zhao Ji continued to invite Pei Xiu to serve as the Gongcao, who had offended people, and was responsible for evaluating merits.

With Pei Xiu's qualifications and prestige, he can suppress everyone.

In this way, Pei Xiu was responsible for the performance evaluation, which lasted for three days. During the period, the heads of the soldiers were inspected, and then the bodies of the enemy soldiers would be cremated.

The Tiger Guards, Tiger Infantry, and Purple-robed Volunteers who died in battle were buried in Longshan, west of the city. If nothing unexpected happens, this place will become the highest-level cemetery for the entire army in the future.

Zhao Ji led his troops out of the city and ordered the captives to plan roads in the suburban fields and build rows of houses to accommodate the captives and their families.

Find something for them to do, otherwise they will have random thoughts when they are idle. If they are energetic, they will have the physical strength and execution ability to take action.

Only by letting them participate in labor can they realize that they are still useful and not be frightened by rumors.

Anyway, the food cannot be eaten for free, so some prisoners with minor injuries on their hands and feet were pulled over to do some auxiliary work within their ability.

Expanding Jinyang City is a huge project. Just by visual estimation, the expanded area is about twelve or thirteen times the size of the old city.

When the core population migrates here in the future, this will be the most solid support.

It’s not that Pingyang and Anyi are incapable of being cleaned up, but it’s impossible to clean up the situation in the same way as Taiyuan.

With the help of Hedong's power, Taiyuan will be cleansed and all the chains that restrict production will be freed.

When Taiyuan takes off, it will naturally be able to take Hedong off with it.

Once they all flew up, many of the restraints collapsed and broke on their own.

The captives were generally more active in their work because the Hedong soldiers did not violate their wives and daughters under Zhao Ji's restraint.

Even if they were demoted to slaves and their wives and daughters became slaves in the future, they would be slaves with complete families.

In the future, some of them will be assigned to become riding slaves, and they can also redeem themselves and their families by doing meritorious service.

Therefore, it was impossible for Zhao Ji to directly release or reorganize these people. Compared with them, the Wang family troops reorganized by Xu Huang were luckier and directly skipped the step of redeeming their freedom through meritorious service.

Knowing that they had gained an advantage, the new recruits from Jinyang worked extra hard when supervising the slaves.

I was afraid that if I showed any weakness for a moment, I would be misunderstood as colluding with the prisoners to cause chaos...

After all, Jinyang has shed enough blood and no one wants to bleed any more.

Although Xu Huang entered Taiyuan with the imperial edict in a deceptive manner, and suddenly attacked and killed the Jinyang Wang family and the surrounding in-laws, he actually killed people, and the people he killed were powerful people.

Later, Zhao Ji's situation was even simpler. He defeated the rebels in a field battle and won with fewer troops.

Up to now, no surviving Taiyuan person wants to struggle or fight anymore.

In particular, victory in field battles is very helpful in consolidating rule and coordinating people's hearts.

It was in this atmosphere that Zhao Ji received the emperor's instructions.

When the Zhou Zhang was issued, he needed to answer in the Zhou Zhang, and then hand the Zhou Zhang to the messenger, who would take it back to report.

It is equivalent to Liu Xie sending a new two-person chat group, and Zhou Zhang goes back and forth between the two of them. The content of the conversation is not deleted and remains.

Zhouzhang is a more formal form of consultation and advisory than face-to-face answers, and there are archives available for verification.

Hearing the emperor's question, Zhao Ji paused for a moment before writing, "Your Majesty, adapting to local conditions and planting in spring and harvesting in autumn is the objective law of nature. It cannot be changed by the efforts of one person, which shows that human power cannot match the will of heaven. Wang Yun, driven by his own will, acted on his own accord. He killed Cai Bojie over a sigh. From then on, who dared to consult with him? He appears to be the prime minister and the leader of all officials, but in reality he is a lonely and helpless man. How can he be victorious?"

"And my victory was due to the protection of the Emperor above and the concerted efforts of my fellow officers and men below. Therefore, orderliness prevailed over disorder, and it is not surprising."

Zhao Ji stopped writing, took a blank bamboo slip, and wrote on it: "When Wenhe was in the wild, the court was defeated; now that Wenhe is in the court, the wild is defeated."

Feeling that it was impolite to frighten Jia Xu like this, he immediately dipped a brush in ink and smeared the bamboo slips, completely blackening them.

After finishing the Zhouzhang, Zhao Ji handed it to the messenger, the Imperial Censor Dong Fen, and asked, "How is the camp these days?"

"All are the same as the system left by the Minister of the Interior, without any changes."

Dong Fen was the censor and a court official of the emperor; in the eyes of the court officials, Zhao Ji's most valuable identity was the minister of the imperial court, and they were colleagues.

Zhao Ji thought for a moment and said, "When I return, I will ask the nobles if they are interested in coming to Jinyang. If so, you can come with the fleet to Jinyang to meet me." Dong Fen did not dare to say much, but bowed deeply and said, "Yes."

"If you are not interested in Jinyang, I will go south to meet the emperor after I have pacified the Linghu and Guo clans, the rebels in the north of the county."

"Here."

Dong Fen saluted again. Seeing this, Zhao Ji didn't want to pull this person aside to ask more questions, so he turned his head to look at Han Shu who was on duty nearby.

Han Shu stood up to see Dong Fen off, while Zhao Ji picked up the blackened bamboo slip, walked to the fire pit outside the reed shed, threw it directly in, and watched it burn before turning back.

Everywhere outside the reed hut, the prisoners were busy.

People have been sent to Longshan to cut wood, and miners and blacksmiths have been selected from the captives and sent back to the smelting site to produce various farm tools and implements.

Jinyang City is not far from the smelting plant. If we choose to rebuild the new Jinyang City in the north, it will be a bit far away.

For daily administration, a distance of thirty miles and a distance of sixty or seventy miles are equivalent to the difference between within the county and outside the county.

The development of various satellite cities in the future will naturally enrich the north-south passage between Dongshan and Xishan.

If about 300,000 people could be settled and live around Jinyang... then the Xiongnu and Xianbei would have no way to survive.

This is not only a crushing of productivity and economy, but also a crushing of the military.

Even for the Xianbei people who were at the peak of their power, how many standing armed forces could their royal court have?
There couldn't be more than five thousand cavalrymen, not to mention that there were only about a thousand knights living in seclusion in the camp!
As long as the Xiongnu and Xianbei were dragged into a regular competition, they would definitely not be able to hold out with their economic production methods.

Therefore, a large border city with military priority not only has a very far-reaching radiation range, but also plays an irreplaceable role in politics.

Of course, a huge border city with a population of 200,000 to 300,000, a strong military tradition, and a military-dominated economy and culture... is very unfriendly to the central government. If the central government lacks confidence, it is very likely to abandon its own military power and actively demolish it.

These are not problems at the moment. What we need to do now is to build our ideal Jinyang and make it a giant capital in the north.

When your own destiny is firmly tied to this emerging metropolis, then it is time to draw your sword against the world.

Otherwise, the better it develops, the easier it is to be usurped by others.

Thinking about this, Zhao Ji climbed up the mound near the reed shed, where he saw prisoners working shirtless everywhere.

Everything was lacking, even straw sandals.

But now Jinyang has no shortage of labor and food!

Once Xu Huang and his men defeat the Linghu and Guo families, they will be able to send in at least 5,000 captives.

When the city of Jinyang was being expanded, the new and old armies were gathered on the east bank to build a large camp and reorganize the army.

After order in each county was stabilized, weak soldiers were converted into garrison troops, and professional military settlements were carried out based on the confiscated land.

About two thousand Han and Hu knights must also be selected from them to serve as mercenaries to be loaned to Lu Bu.

Since they wanted to send troops to intervene in the Central Plains, it was not enough to just send horses, they also had to demonstrate the use of force.

How can we attract the attention of Kanto without ten thousand knights?

Taking away enough knights can also indirectly stabilize Taiyuan and Hedong.

In order to maintain stability, Huochequan had to lead the troops on the expedition.

Therefore, in late July, he led his troops to Luo to escort the emperor and the court back to Luodu, and then marched out of Hulao Pass, across Yanyu, and headed straight for Xuzhou.

He assisted Lu Bu in securing Yuzhou, and used the imperial edict to urge King Chen to untie his bonds, thus releasing the fighting power of the State of Chen.

It is better to let Prince Chen lead the troops to assist in the administration than to let Cao Cao and Yuan Shao hold the court hostage.

Only by uniting the Liu clans could we suppress the two Yuans and the Yuan-Cao alliance at the world level.

Once Jinyang City is formed and we have established ourselves, we will be able to conquer Li and Guo and bring Guanzhong and the north under our control.

The now ruined Guanzhong, Shangjun and other places are very suitable for...horse herding.

Since the population is small, the noble cavalry should be the main force.

Every time they went into battle, their main goal was to capture people and feed on the enemy.

Give up the claim to the Guandong land, weaken the enemy's population potential, and waste twenty years. As they weaken and we grow, the world will be settled.

(End of this chapter)