After receiving the reply from Li Chongjiu, Gao Yaxian and Dou Xianniang left with satisfaction. Half a month later, news came that Dou Jiande built an altar in Leshou County, Hejian County and proclaimed himself the King of Changle (Note 1), showing his determination to dominate Hebei.

After reaching an agreement with Dou Jiande, Li Chongjiu left Su Su and Zhao Wansan as civil servants to coordinate the affairs of Shanggu County, while Gao Chu, Yuchi Jingde and other generals were responsible for commanding and training troops. As for Li Chongjiu, he also served as the county cavalry as the county cavalry. Li Chongjiu gave them a reward of a piece of silk every year. These foreign soldiers were selected from the Nine Thousand Cavalry who followed Li Chongjiu south, all equipped with iron armored leather horse harnesses, and were one man and three horses, far better than ordinary cavalry.

These five hundred cavalry soldiers were stationed in Lingqiu County (Note 2) in Yanmen County, fifty miles away from Feihu County, Shanggu County.

The current situation in Yanmen County has been surrounded by Yang Guang in Fenyang Palace two years ago. Yanmen He County was plundered by the Turks, and only a few cities have survived. Although it recovered slightly, it was rebelled by Liu Wuzhou. After Liu Wuzhou defected to the Turks, he led his army to attack Yanmen.

Liu Wuzhou's army was strong and sharp. Chen Xiaoyi, the chief of Yanmen County, and Wang Zhibing, the general of Wuben, was defeated repeatedly. He lost the natural dangers of Yanmen County, Chun County, and Wutai County. Now he took away the remnants of troops to retreat to Fanshi County. When he was surrounded by Liu Wu, Chen Xiaoyi repeatedly asked for help from Li Yuan, the remaining guard of Jinyang, but the news sent in was like a rock sinking into the sea, without any news. Now the connection between Fanshi County and Taiyuan County has been cut off. Chen Xiaoyi and Wang Zhibing have become an isolated army, but even so, the two still did not surrender and continued to confront Liu Wuzhou.

In the five counties of Yanmen County, Liu Wuzhou occupied three counties, and Chen Xiaoyi held one county and resisted stubbornly. As for Lingqiu County, it was ignored for the time being. It was not that the strategic location was not important. It was just that when the Turks invaded Yanmen, the damage was the most serious, so two years later, it was still deserted. Now Li Chongjiu decided to rebuild Lingqiu County and gather refugees here. The purpose of rebuilding Lingqiu County was naturally to wedge a bridgehead in Yanmen, which was used as a barrier to Shanggu County to resist Liu Wuzhou, and also to ensure the smooth flow of this trade route between Feihu County and Huaihuang Town.

Of course, the reconstruction work is not just Lingqiu County. In Shanggu County, Li Chongjiu, in addition to the current Feihu, Yi and Fanyang counties, it is also necessary to rebuild the three counties that were abandoned due to the robbers' plunder. The reconstruction work was not smooth. Although Song Jingang was defeated, there were still many bandits in the mountains, and many people were worried about being striking the thieves, so they would rather hide in the deep mountains than go down the mountain. Therefore, Li Chongjiu asked Yuchi Jingde, Gao Chu and others to lead troops to encircle and suppress the newly established county soldiers, which could also give the people's work, so that they could go down the mountain to settle the fields with peace of mind.

For the surrendered bandits and refugees, Li Chongjiu settled and settled the land, striving to restore farming within these three counties this year. At this time, winter wheat is too late, so we cannot miss the spring plowing. Su Su sent the seeds of spring wheat to the refugees in an interest-free manner, so that they could not farm with peace of mind this year and not collect any taxes. As for the tax cuts next year, the full amount will be collected in the third year. Under such a policy, Shanggu County has gradually surrendered to various prefectures and counties every day, requiring them to return to their hometowns and people.

Seeing this scene, Li Chongjiu couldn't help but sigh that it had only been one year since the King Xuba plundered Shanggu. According to the seventh year of Daye, there were 38,700 households in Shanggu County. The more than 200,000 people have now withered to less than 100,000 in five years. It really took only one year to destroy, but it took ten years to achieve construction.

Looking at the current situation in all parts of the Central Plains of Hebei, such as Dou Jiande and Du Fuwei, the rebel kings like him are busy annexing power, fighting for population, and expanding their troops to conquer cities and plunder money and food, so that the more soldiers and horses the people under their command, the better and the stronger their strength. They believe that there are many people and naturally many powers.

In terms of force and robbery, Dou Jiande and Du Fuwei are of course good, but Li Chongjiu's advantage is not this. Compared with the large number of people, the people's support in troubled times is also important. If people are stable and the people are rich, their reputation will be improved. In the future, they will invest in all directions and make other people's territory easier to digest. Compared with the large number of people, reputation is also part of the power.

Of course, there are many disadvantages of such development, that is, reputation is too slow to rise. As the saying goes, only when you get rich can you establish a rank. When Zhu Chongba's rebel army was in Huaiyou, when the military rations were insufficient, they still ate people when they had insufficient military rations. Then they had a fundamental foundation, so they paid attention to propriety, righteousness, integrity and shame. Although Zhang Shicheng was deeply loved by the people, when the city was finally broken, the people in the city were willing to die with him. The people had something to say, but they would not thank Baoqingyang for their lives, and they would not blame Zhang in Taizhou for his death. In the end, they were defeated by Zhu Yuanzhang.

If Li Chongjiu wants to chase Li Yuan and Li Mi, he must first accumulate reputation in the Central Plains and cultivate his reputation. On the grassland, he does not have to take into account his reputation, and he will rob and expand his power. After all, there is little benevolence and righteousness on the grassland, and he also advocates the strong as kings.

For Li Yuan and others, they must adopt the method of uniting and joining the ranks and conquering their speed of making a move. Now, Li Mi has been delaying from going south to attack Dongdu after repeated urging and explaining the truth. As long as Li Mi did not attack Dongdu for one day, the Sui army in Guanzhong would not advance eastward to reinforce. If the Sui army in Guanzhong did not advance eastward for one day, then Li Yuan would not dare to raise an army from Jinyang to attack Guanzhong. This is equivalent to domino. In history, Li Mi has been postponed for half a year. Without attacking Dongdu, Li Yuan would not be able to rebel from Jinyang, and the plan to seize Guanzhong would be much delayed than in history.

However, Li Mi did not reply now, but at this time the elders on the grassland began to urge him again. Li Chongjiu was unwilling to make the relationship too stiff, so he arranged the defense of the garrison in Shanggu County and led his army back to the grassland.

In the first month of the 13th year of Daye, after the New Year, Li Chongjiu led the grassland cavalry to walk on the snow from Feihu County to Lingqiu County and return to the grassland. When passing Lingqiu County while passing by Lingqiu County, you can see the ragged people walking around the snow like savages in the mountains. Many people didn’t even have shoes, and were frozen green and purple.

When the people saw the official army, they all hid, and Li Chongjiu felt strange. He ordered King Ma Han to investigate. Later, he learned that the people of Lingqiu County had just obtained the official uniform and sent the spring wheat seeds in their hands. In a blink of an eye, they swallowed all the seeds in their backs.

When Li Chongjiu heard this, he immediately ordered Wang Mahan to capture these people. Wang Mahan immediately brought hundreds of cavalry to collect everywhere. Then he and his soldiers captured more than 30 people who had collected spring wheat seeds in one breath, but secretly curled them with the people they cooked. Li Chongjiu looked at the spring wheat seeds he had sent, and the half of the spring wheat seeds were stewed on low heat. The rice porridge in the pan had already been boiling and was bubbling.

More than 30 people on the side held ropes on their hands and feet, and looked at the Fan Jun beside them so scared that their legs were weak. Seeing this, Li Chongjiu sighed and said, "It is the responsibility of my parents to not have enough food for the people. I am ashamed of you."

"But the law cannot be violated. If everyone is like this, no one will cultivate the wasteland in Lingqiu County. You will still starve to death next year, but the difference between dying early and late. Those who come will be dragged down and whipped ten times, and the elderly, weak women and children will be halved. After the criminal law, they will give them the seeds of spring wheat. If they commit the criminal law again, they will double the number of them."

After saying that, Li Chongjiu turned around and left, and the sound of peeling clothes and whipping whips came from behind. Listening to the screams, Li Chongjiu jumped up and endured for half a day before he sighed and left.

It was about to be the time when the green and yellow were not in contact. At this time, there was not enough food and grass, and rice merchants took the opportunity to stock up, and a large number of people would starve to death every year. Li Chongjiu ruled more than 100,000 people, and his own grain reserves could only barely maintain enough food for soldiers and not robbery among the people. Of course, this was countless times more than the anti-kings in other places, let alone the army of the ogre king Zhu Can.

A few days later, Li Chongjiu led his army to Huaihuang Town to rest for a while. Liu Yi, Zhou Xu, Ji Chuan, three civil servants from Huaihuang Town, and Tan Zong, immediately came to visit Li Chongjiu. Everyone also met again after a long separation.

After not seeing each other for a year, Huaihuang Town is much different. Caoshi, in the north of the city, has now developed into a city that is no less than the city. According to Zhou Xu, there are more than 3,000 Hu and Han merchants around here, and even Goguryeo merchants came to the Western Regions. Even the market in Huaihuang Town is a prosperous scene.

If it weren't for the financial support of Huaihuang Town, Li Chongjiu's large-scale expenditure on troops went south this time, it would not have been able to maintain it. Less than two years after the establishment of this city had already brought continuous support to Li Chongjiu. However, Li Chongjiu felt more worried when he heard this. Huaihuang Town was on the front line of the Turkic and Liu Wuzhou forces. Once the war started, it would be at the forefront. Wouldn't it be a great destruction of Li Chongjiu's current largest fiscal revenue?

Zhou Xu did not see the worry on Li Chongjiu's face, but instead introduced him to the Hope Mengguan with enthusiasm. The Hope Mengguan has been inaugurated for a year and a half, and has basically completed the basic Chinese language training and simple Chinese characters for the Chinese generals in Huaihuang Town. For those children who are studying, they are also teaching rhyme books, as well as the recitation, exegesis, and basic arithmetic training for Thousand Characters, the Analects of Confucius, etc.

Zhou Xu was already enjoying it without realizing it, deeply immersed in Principal Zhou's fun. He felt that the scale of teaching could be expanded. Zhou Xu even proposed to Li Chongjiu that elementary school, elementary school, county school, and three colleges that were promoted to level. The reason was that Li Chongjiu has now become a county magistrate, and he could no longer run education in a single place in Huaihuang Town, but also to expand the scale and number of students.

Note 1: Biography of King Dou of the New Book of Tang Dynasty. In the first month of the 13th year, he built an altar in Hejian Leshou and established himself as King Changle.
Chapter completed!