The Revolt of the Three Feudatories: All-in at the start in Beijing

Between being a duke or leading an army, Wang Fuchen ultimately chose to join the army, and as for the title of Duke of Anle, he decided to give it to Liu Shan!

With Wang Fuchen's surrender, Zhou Peigong finally gained military and political power in Guanzhong and immediately issued a proclamation in Guanzhong, announcing the rule of the Han Dynasty.

In order to further consolidate the rule of the Han Dynasty, Zhou Peigong, following Galdan's orders, divided Shaanxi into three provinces: Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia. The three provinces were centered around Guyuan, achieving a situation where each province was intertwined with the others.

At the same time, Zhou Peigong was also a Han dynasty official, serving as the first governor of Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia provinces. He was in charge of the people's livelihood in the three regions, and was responsible for pacifying Ma Dingbian in Ningxia and Zhao Weishang in the Hexi Corridor.

Just as Zhou Peigong was implementing sweeping administrative reforms, Wang Fuchen was officially appointed Governor-General of Shaanxi, leading 20,000 veteran soldiers and 10,000 new recruits to Hanzhong to guard against Wu Sangui.

As for the remaining 10,000-plus veterans, Zhou Peigong would disband their units and recruit over 10,000 new soldiers for further training to defend Guanzhong.

The poverty and desolation of the Northwest were not important to Wu Sangui and his ilk, but for Galdan, whose hometown was in the Western Regions, as long as he could open up the Hexi Corridor, he could revitalize the Northwest.

While it may not be able to recreate the glory of the Tang Dynasty's Ever-Bright City, it can certainly become the heart of Central Asia.

For the major powers in Central Asia, such as the Ottoman Empire, Tsarist Russia, Persia, and the Kazakh tribes, they all needed porcelain, silk, and tea from the Ming Dynasty.

Especially in the Ottoman and Tsarist Russia, these were all luxury items for the nobility. Without them, one could hardly call oneself a nobleman, and it was considered shameful to go out without a silk scarf.

As long as the land route from Chang'an to the Altai Mountains remains unobstructed and free from bandits, they will send caravans to help, since buying from Western colonists is really expensive.

It's Chang'an, you read that right.

Following Galdan's orders, Zhou Peigong immediately renamed Xi'an as Chang'an after receiving Wang Fuchen's letter of surrender, making it the western capital of the Han Dynasty.

Right here in Chang'an, the Han Dynasty will build an imperial palace and replicate a political system. If they can truly conquer other regions, this will form the foundation for their rule.

In addition to dividing the region, Zhou Peigong used the discretionary power granted to him by Galdan to preside over a small-scale scientific expedition in Guanzhong, which still tested the eight-legged essay and arithmetic.

Don't think too badly of the eight-legged essay. Zhu Xi simply standardized the Four Books and Five Classics to achieve a basic level of fairness for all candidates, which was a good thing for the country and its people.

Even later examinations were formatted.

If candidates write whatever they want, the examiners can use their habits and thoughts to identify them, thus enabling them to cheat.

As for the number of participants, only scholars who had passed the imperial examinations could participate, and this could only happen at the beginning of the dynasty when talent was scarce; it was absolutely impossible at other times.

All the scholars who passed the imperial examination were assigned to various places as temporary county magistrates. Those who wanted to continue to rise in rank had to make good political achievements, the most important of which was planting trees.

Indeed, Galdan's requirement for the Northwest was to gradually restore forest coverage. Guanzhong is a good place; as long as the ecology can be restored, it will be a gift from heaven.

Therefore, Zhou Peigong wanted to take advantage of the weather in April and May to plant trees, mainly along the Yellow River and various small rivers, focusing on planting jujube trees, camellia trees, and walnut trees, so as to maintain the principle that food is the most important thing for the people while greening the land!

As for whether it can be done well?

If an official can't even plant trees, then there's definitely something wrong with him, because this involves sending laborers, and if it's not handled properly, it can lead to conflict between officials and the people.

Zhou Peigong had seen the Qing Dynasty's government accounts and found that the Northwest was now practically deserted, with a population of less than two million, while neighboring Shanxi had more than six million.

With such a low population, there's not enough land in Guanzhong to cultivate, let alone the fields nestled among the loess gullies.

Fortunately, the government granaries still had reserves, and the Qing dynasty didn't have time to transfer them to the front lines, but it still couldn't feed two million people.

So, the most important reason for sending so many officials down to the countryside was to encourage the reclamation of farmland.

The main purpose of planting trees was to earn a little food by working for the government, so that more people could survive until the autumn harvest.

Two months passed quickly. Zhou Peigong handled most of the government affairs, and saplings were planted along the rivers throughout Guanzhong.

Fortunately, there are many cattle on the Galdan Grassland. With enough cattle to plow the land, the reclamation efforts in Guanzhong have been maximized, and an additional 10,000 hectares of wheat fields have been reclaimed.

These are actually good fields, but they were not cultivated for several years due to the chaos of war.

With the governance of Guanzhong nearly complete, Zhou Peigong led 5,000 troops to Lanzhou, while the remaining 25,000 were stationed in Guyuan and several Guanzhong trails.

In fact, most of this army of 30,000 men were unarmored and had no firearms whatsoever. They only wore khaki uniforms and headscarves, as well as cold weapons.

Since defending against Wu Sangui was of paramount importance, all firearms had been handed over to Wang Fuchen to take away, and the firearms and armor produced in Beijing were to be sent to Shandong first.

Fortunately, although Lanzhou was designated as the capital of Gansu Province at this time, the city was still a garrison city, sitting alone on the banks of the Yellow River, and like an army, it needed to develop slowly.

The dozen or so civil officials who had followed looked worried as they saw the city wall riddled with holes and cracks.

"Your Excellency, Lanzhou is in such a dilapidated state; I fear the enemy will easily breach it!"

These scholars who grew up in Guanzhong had an innate fear of war, a fear ingrained by decades of chaotic warfare, which Zhou Peigong could understand.

"Don't worry, we've cut off supplies to Guanzhong for the past two months. Ma Dingbian in Ningxia can still support himself by relying on the Yellow River, but the Hexi Corridor only has 70,000 to 80,000 people. How can they support Zhao Weishang's 10,000 Green Standard Army soldiers? They'll come looking for us sooner or later."

"You must govern Lanzhou Garrison well and make this valley prosperous and thriving. Only then will you be worthy of His Majesty's reduction of the imperial examination for you!"

……

In the study of the Prince's Mansion in Hengzhou City, the floor was littered with torn books and shattered porcelain vases, accompanied by the furious roar of Wu Sangui wildly hacking away with his sword.

"This Wang Fuchen accepted my silver and jewels, and even condoned the Han envoys to kill my messengers and blockade Hanzhong. This is simply outrageous and intolerable."

Fang Guangchen, standing to the side, looked worried. "My lord, Wang Fuchen is very likely to surrender to the Mongols. Hanzhong is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and will become a major threat to our army. We should quickly send troops to Hubei and Henan to expand our advantage."

Upon hearing this, Wu Sangui waved his hand, calming his breathing slightly, and said, "Pass down the order: let Liu Shun march into Hubei!"

Just then, Wu Sangui's personal guards entered.

"Report... General Liu Shun urgently reports that Prince An of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, leading 30,000 troops from the Manchu, Mongol, and Han Eight Banners, has arrived at the Wuchang-Jingzhou-Yichang line!"

The opportunity was fleeting, and the road to the Central Plains was blocked again. Fang Guangchen shook his head with a sigh.

puff.

Wu Sangui was filled with rage, and he spat out the tea he had just drunk, along with blood.