Chapter 211 Finalized

Chapter 211 Finalized
It was the tenth day of May in the second year of Yongjia, which was already the third day after the end of the war.

The remaining enemies were basically wiped out, and after being closed for several days, the gates of Luoyang city were opened again.

Everything seemed to be back to the way it was before.

Lu Zhi, Yu Liang and others hurried to Pan Garden, and what they saw was Marquis Luyang leading his soldiers to plow the fields, preparing to plant a crop of grains.

He walked along the ridges of the fields and found that most of the winter wheat planted last year had been destroyed, and not much remained.

In less than a month, the wheat can be harvested. It's such a sin.

"There are more and more ownerless lands in the suburbs of Luoyang. As long as you want to plant, you can occupy them." Shao Xun threw the rake to Tang Jian, wiped the sweat off his face, and said with a smile.

Lu Zhi could only smile bitterly.

If there was some revival in the past few years and the price of land in Luoyang had rebounded, after the Wang Mi Rebellion, the price of land in Luoyang is likely to have fallen to the bottom.

More and more people will move away, and more and more unowned land will remain.

The area around Pan Garden is all excellent and fertile land. It used to belong to someone else, but that may not be the case now. If we organize people to cultivate the land, we should be able to harvest a lot of grain.

"My lord, do you want to force the captives to farm?" Lu Zhi asked, stopping beside a canal.

Although there are a lot of weeds in the canal and it is slightly silted up, the water is still flowing and it is still tenaciously playing its irrigation role.

The so-called fertile land not only refers to soil fertility, but also includes complete water conservancy facilities.

Within ten miles of Luoyang City alone, there are large reservoirs such as Qianjin'e and Hongchibei, supplemented by rivers such as Gushui, Yishui, and Luoshui. Irrigation is very convenient, so the farmland yield is extremely high.

It is indeed a pity that these prime fields are not cultivated and are constantly abandoned.

If wars become more frequent in the future, water conservancy facilities will be destroyed, and it will be difficult to restore farmland after it has been left fallow for a long time, and Luoyang’s agriculture will be ruined.

"I have captured 12,000 bandits in Huanyuan Pass, Yanshi, Luoyang, and Fupingjin. I don't want to support them in vain. In the next few days, I will divide them into three camps and send soldiers to guard them. I will find some unowned land nearby and plant grains. After the autumn harvest, I will draw people from various forts and manors to teach them how to plant winter wheat. It will be ready for harvest in May or June next year." Shao Xun said, "It won't be that easy if it falls into my hands."

"Are there enough farm tools and oxen?" Lu Zhi asked.

"Farm tools are easy to deal with. The bandits don't like to steal them. Yanshi, Gaoshi and other counties have been ravaged by them. I have sent people to look for them. But oxen are difficult to find." At this point, Shao Xun smiled and said, "But it's not impossible to use people to do the farm. These bandits deserve death. If they can't do the farm, just beat them to death."

Lu Zhi didn't react, but Yu Liang's heart skipped a beat.

Marquis Luyang is indeed a murderous warrior, quite ruthless.

"There are also 5,000 prisoners in Yushanwu." Lu Zhi reminded.

"We will organize them into the fourth battalion and send them to Yangcheng County to find unowned land to cultivate." Shao Xun said, "Huang Biao reported that Liang County has collected about 8,000 prisoners. I will organize them into the fifth and sixth battalions and send them to Guangchengze to open up wasteland."

"Is there enough food?" Lu Zhi asked anxiously.

He knew that the prince had obtained a lot of the bandits' supplies, so there must be some food, but whether it was enough to feed more than 20,000 captives was a problem.

"The seized grain and beans have not been counted yet, but it's not much, probably only 200,000 or 300,000 hu. You poor bunch of bastards," Shao Xun scolded with a smile.

Lu Zhi silently calculated that if the prisoners were only allowed to eat half full, this amount of food would be enough to feed them for about half a year - if they were not full and had to work in the fields every few days, the prisoners would not have the strength to escape even if they wanted to.

However, the miscellaneous grains can be harvested in three months. After this part of the grain is stored, together with the captured grain and beans, it can almost feed the prisoners until the wheat harvest in May or June next year.

I just don’t know how many of these prisoners will be left by that time, what Luoyang will be like, and whether there will be another war.

"Sir, this time the bandits are wreaking havoc, causing severe damage to Yanshi, Goushi, Yangcheng, Yangdi and even Xiangcheng counties..." Lu Zhi said again.

"Go ahead, I'm listening." Shao Xun said.

"Your Excellency can go to the counties, collect the remains, and hold memorial services for the dead..." Lu Zhisui spoke slowly.

Simply put, these places were severely damaged, and even now there are still a few thieves and bandits active there.

The aristocratic families may have nothing to do - there are not many aristocratic families in these places.

But small powerful people, poor families and even ordinary people suffered a great disaster, and there were many unowned lands.

Lu Zhi suggested winning the hearts of the people first, and then using the reputation of having won a victory there to divide up those ownerless lands - giving priority to the families of the Silver Spear Army soldiers who were about to relocate, and also to accommodate the palace soldiers.

Shao Xun felt a little emotional after hearing this.

Lu Zhi was a qualified "image designer". He did everything he could to build momentum for him and consolidate public support, while at the same time quietly pocketing the benefits.

In addition, he was even more impressed by the fact that when he first arrived in Liang County, he had to use force to force local tyrants to give up the illegally occupied land. He didn't expect that after Wang Mi made such a fuss, he didn't have to worry about any bad reputation and directly gained countless good fields - as long as you have the force to keep these lands.

The Wang Mi Rebellion may have been a great opportunity for the small military and political group he established to consolidate its foundation and develop rapidly.

The families of the Silver Spear Army left the narrow and cramped fortress and moved to fertile plains such as Yangdi, Jiacheng and Xiangcheng, and their lives improved by leaps and bounds.

The placement of government soldiers can also be carried out in depth without having to directly break off relations with the aristocratic families.

Even the families of the Yamen Army can consider moving here, as there is plenty of land.

If this matter is accomplished, he will have completely established his foothold in Guangchengze, Xiangcheng County, and the northwest corner of Yingchuan.

From now on, Luoyang is his shield, protecting him from the wind and rain - when necessary, he will lead troops north to protect Luoyang from the wind and rain. Helping Luoyang is actually helping himself. The first choice for expansion is the Nanyang Basin, which requires patience to wait for the opportunity.

Yu Liang was stunned listening at the side.

If he could finish these tasks in a year or two, Marquis Luyang would in fact become the local tyrant in the Rushui and Yingshui areas. Even though there were many aristocratic families in Yingchuan, none of them had the strength to challenge him as they were far behind.

Thinking of this, Yu Liang felt a little sad.

When Wang Mi arrived, the Yingchuan families did not dare to challenge him.

Marquis Luyang had become powerful, and the Yingchuan families did not dare to challenge him.

If the Huns come in the future, the Yingchuan family may not dare to challenge them.

The world is changing too fast.

No wonder even my uncle (Yu Hua) no longer attacks my sister's marriage to Shao Xun, and my uncle (Yu Min) is even more pleased to agree. From what he said, if Shao Xun doesn't like Wenjun, he is even willing to marry his granddaughter to him.

In addition, the Chen family of Xuchang, which is nearby, seems to have the same idea.

Marquis Luyang has not married until now, probably because he is waiting for this opportunity.

Yu Liang let out a long sigh. He realized that compared with people like Luyang Hou and Lu Zhi, he was still far behind.

"Let's go and sit in Pan Garden." After Shao Xun finished talking with Lu Zhi about character packaging, he waved his hand and took the two into the manor.

Pan Garden seemed to have been occupied by a bandit army, and it was in a mess inside.

The houses were in ruins and many bamboos and trees were cut down. No one knew what had happened to them.

The garden was filled with human and animal feces, the stench was overwhelming, and the smell of urine was everywhere.

After the personal guards cleaned up the place roughly, Shao Xun pulled them to sit down.

After a moment's silence, he said, "I have made some contributions in defending the capital this time. Situ Wang may have some favor for me..."

Having said that, he tapped the table with his fingers, as if making a final decision.

Lu Zhi and Yu Liang remained silent and waited quietly.

"Zi Dao was once the Minister of the Central Secretariat, so he is more than qualified to be a prefect." Shao Xun looked at Lu Zhi and said, "I want to make you the prefect of Xiangcheng, what do you think?"

"I will obey your orders, my lord." Lu Zhi said calmly, as if he had expected it.

"Okay, let's do it according to this goal." Shao Xun smiled and said, "I am short of talents. I wonder who can replace me as the Prime Minister of Luyang?"

"The Cui family of Qinghe has always had talented people. If you are willing, I will send people to the north and persuade a few of them to surrender." Lu Zhi glanced at Shao Xun and asked tentatively.

Shao Xun seemed not to notice his gaze, and readily agreed, saying, "Please help me."

Lu Zhi was born into the Fanyang Lu family.

The several aristocratic families in Hebei are intermarried and have complicated relationships.

Lu Zhi's wife, Cui, was the granddaughter of Cui Lin, the prime minister of Cao Wei, and the daughter of Cui Can, the chief censor.

Lu Zhi also had two brothers-in-law, one was Liu Kun, the governor of Bingzhou, and the other was Wen Chan, the former prefect of Hedong.

Wen Qiao, the son of Wen Xun, was recruited by the Inspector of the Imperial Capital at the age of seventeen to supervise all officials. He impeached Yu Hua for plundering the people's wealth.

Yu Hua did not take it seriously, but instead praised him greatly, so he became famous and was selected as a scholar in Bingzhou. He now works in the office of Wang Yan and Wang Situ.

By the way, because of the impeachment of Yu Hua, Wen Qiao also got to know Yu Liang.

The competition among the aristocratic families was ruthless, but a closer look at the relationships between them revealed that they were extremely complicated; perhaps they were all relatives.

Yu Liang felt a little envious as he listened from the side.

In fact, he was eager to try to become Lu Yangxiang, but he knew that with his current age, identity and status, he was still a little short of it.

After finalizing these matters, Shao Xun said, "We should hurry up. Luoyang has defeated Wang Mi. When the Grand Tutor heard about this, he might be resentful. I'm worried that he can't help but return to the capital. It's a little late today. Tomorrow, Zidao and I will go to Luoyang to meet with Wang Situ and finalize this matter."

"Okay." Lu Zhi naturally had no objection.

As for what Shao Xun said about Sima Yue returning to Beijing, it is not impossible.

But what can he do now that he is back? There are people who oppose him everywhere, and both the government and the opposition have great opinions about him.

He might be able to show off his power in Luoyang by relying on the convenience of controlling the imperial guards like He Lun and Wang Bing, but it would be of no benefit except deepening his image as a clown.

If he had a clear mind, even if he returned to Luoyang, he should have remained calm, slowly restored his image, and used gentle means to take back power bit by bit.

But this could only delay his decline slightly.

In the matter of Wang Mi, he was ultimately terribly wrong.

(End of this chapter)