Chapter 115 Five...
Before the rain got heavier, the fields on Baidao River had already completed the reclamation goals set by Qiao Yan.
Among the soldiers who had previously gone on the expedition outside the Great Wall, except for those who returned to General Du Liao's camp and those who stayed behind to guard the Yanmen border, the rest were transferred to the military farms here.
Afterwards, Qiao Yan had the remains of cattle and sheep brought back from outside the Great Wall made into raw bone meal according to the instructions in the agricultural books, and buried them on this piece of fertile land.
Before the outline of the Suiyuan City wall was defined by blue bricks, the plowing and reclamation work on the land had been officially completed.
Qiao Yan did not plan to make any major changes to the planting content for the first year. Even though irrigation here was more convenient than most farmlands in Bingzhou, the final crop to be planted was still wheat.
She walked in the drizzle, wearing a straw raincoat, and passed by the ridges of the fields. She said to Jia Xu beside her, "I entrust this place to you, sir. Please manage it according to the agricultural book that has been compiled. I want to see that the harvest here is higher than that of other places in Bingzhou during the autumn harvest this year."
Only in this way can she convince the people that this raw bone meal fertilizer can indeed increase production.
After all, this is something that needs to be buried in the soil before planting, and ordinary farmers dare not operate it casually.
Jia Xu replied: "Please rest assured, Lord Qiao."
Being suddenly assigned such a job by Qiao Yan was undoubtedly far from his plan of punching in and getting an ordinary salary.
But he couldn't just say he couldn't do it.
If this is true, there is no guarantee that Marquis Qiao will come up with an excuse like "one person's wisdom is not enough, and the two people's abilities are just barely enough" to transfer Jia Mu here as well. At that time, he will be in a dilemma whether to contribute or not.
Another incident that happened this year made him realize that at this time of year, he might not be able to protect himself just by being prudent.
After the Yellow Turban Rebellion was quelled, Yan Zhong, a famous scholar from Xiliang who was still under Huangfu Song's command at the time, advised Huangfu Song that since he had such military power in his hands and the current ruler was so foolish, he might as well just rebel and be done with it instead of having to obey Liu Hong's orders.
This suggestion was not adopted by Huangfu Song, but was directly announced to the public by this loyal Han official.
For this reason, Yan Zhong had to flee back to Xiliang in a hurry and live in hiding.
However, after the first round of offensive by the Xiliang rebels to kill the governor of Hanyang and Liangzhou was blocked by Zhang Wen and Beigong Boyu was defeated, the Xiliang army fell into internal chaos for a while and invaded each other.
In order to make the rebel army more prestigious in Liangzhou, these people dug out Yan Zhong and forcibly promoted him to the position of leader.
Yan Zhong tried to persuade Huangfu Song to rebel because he trusted Huangfu Song's character, but he did not really want to do anything to help the tyrant.
The position of leader of the thirty-six rebel armies in Xiliang was undoubtedly a torment for him. Even though he was given the title of General of Chariots and Cavalry by Han Sui, Ma Teng and others, it was meaningless to him. So Yan Zhong died in sorrow and anger. 1
Jia Xu and Yan Zhong had some friendship in their early years, so it was inevitable that he felt a little sad about the death of the rabbit.
In his opinion, although this Marquis Qiao is young, he can handle the relationship with the current emperor well, focus on the farming and labor of the people in Bingzhou, attack the Xianbei externally, and after the military attack, come up with a strategy for the struggle between the East and West Chanyu for hegemony, and be able to strategize military affairs, command soldiers, and put down the Heishan and Baibo Rebellions. He is afraid that within one or two years of being the governor of Bingzhou, he can manage this place into an iron plate, and perhaps he can also be a qualified object of loyalty.
But don’t be in a hurry, let’s wait and see.
He didn't know if it was because of the common problems of young people, but in his opinion, the business that Lord Qiao had set up was a little too big.
If she had not been extremely talented and had not happened to have the help of Cheng Yu, Xi Zhicai, Guo Jia and others, she would inevitably have been in a situation where she would lose sight of one thing while focusing on another.
At least we have to wait until the autumn harvest to see the truth.
Jia Xu thought for a moment and asked again, "Marquis Qiao ordered Lü Fengxian to station here to conduct military exercises. Is there anything else I can do?"
He didn't really want to find something to do, he just wanted to determine the boundaries of his relationship with Lu Bu.
But in Qiao Yan's opinion, she was a little surprised that he would ask such a question.
"Please keep an eye on him for me, sir. I have plans for him."
Pay attention to this. With Jia Xu's intelligence, he will figure it out himself.
Fortunately, two months later, after Lu Bu completed various science courses in Leping Academy, he was allowed to come to Baidaochuan. No matter how Jia Xu looked at him, he felt that he was a bit like a hunting dog that was tired after running for dozens of miles, but not as arrogant and domineering as he had imagined.
He then saw Lu Bu take out a manual from his sleeve and carry out the instructions step by step with a serious look on his face.
The scene was somewhat funny.
Later he heard that this was because Lu Bu had not yet passed his daughter, who was also a beginner, in two courses, so he reached three rules with his daughter. He had to complete all the tasks assigned by Qiao Hou one by one, and then come back for a make-up exam.
Lu Bu was not a girl-con man, but when he saw that the young students recruited by Qiao Yan were all going to develop into wise and brave military generals, he couldn't help but feel a sense of crisis.
Even if according to what she said, these students would have to study for ten years and observe and practice martial arts in border areas before they could officially become apprentices, he would not even be forty years old at that time.
In Lu Bu's view, this is still the golden age for military generals. If he is surpassed by these up-and-coming talents, where will he put his face?
Listening to Lu Bu's chatter, Jia Xu fell silent.
For a moment he didn't know whether to say that he seemed to be facing such a crisis as well, or whether he should say that it made sense for Marquis Qiao to expand her business so much, since she was truly well versed in how to train subordinates and stimulate competition.
But in general, ignoring these strange competitions between the two generations, Bingzhou still presented a thriving scene in these five years of peace.
Outside Bingzhou, however, the situation in the court was extremely turbulent.
In April, due to the resurgence of the Yellow Turbans in Runan, Qingxu and Cao Song, who had bought his position as the Grand Marshal, was dismissed before he had even served for half a year.
But his successor was treated even less well.
In May, Liu Hong selected Fan Ling, the Shaofu of Yongle, to take over the position of Taiwei.
But in June, Liu Hong dismissed Fan Ling again because he was annoyed by the frequent strong winds in Luoyang City.
This is an even more outrageous reason for dismissal than previous reasons such as a solar eclipse, local rebellion, or the birth of conjoined twins.
In July, Liu Hong decided to appoint Ma Ritian, the commander of the Archery Team, as the Grand Commandant.
This was the case even for the position of Grand Commandant, the head of the Three Dukes, which was extremely important to the Han Dynasty, let alone other positions.
Everyone could see that the problems in Liu Hong's body were no longer manifested in the form of a straightforward chill, but had affected his mood, making him more irritable and angry than before.
But no one dared to reveal it at this time.
Amid the undercurrents in the capital, He Jin and He Miao restrained themselves a little because of Liu Hong's previous warning, but they couldn't help but worry about one thing again.
Liu Hong might get carried away by his emotions and directly bring the matter of establishing Liu Xie as the successor to the table.
At the same time, another group of people also developed their own way of survival.
For example, Zhang Rang suggested to Liu Hong at this moment that it has been more than half a year since the establishment of the Eight Schools of Xiyuan. Qiao Yan, the governor of Bingzhou, has been able to use the soldiers in Bingzhou to fight after a winter of selection and training, and won a great victory in the Xianbei royal court. The teams of the Eight Schools of Xiyuan should be more well-trained.
If Your Majesty is feeling depressed, why not hold another military parade to demonstrate your military strength to the outside world of the capital?
Liu Hong adopted his idea and mobilized the eight schools of Xiyuan, which were indeed more like regular troops than before, to Pingle Temple in Luoyang to conduct military exercises and show off their power.
As Zhang Rang said, he also called himself the Supreme General to show his imperial power.
Perhaps it was because this action of confirming that he had available force at hand did give Liu Hong a sense of security, and his manic mood calmed down a little.
So at the court meeting on the second day, he calmly issued a new troop deployment decision:
He ordered General of the Household Meng Yi and Lieutenant of the Left Army Xia Mou to go to Youzhou together with Cavalry Commander Gongsun Zan to defeat Zhang Chun's troops.
At the same time, an order was also issued to Liu Yu, the governor of Youzhou, that Zhang Ju's main force must be pacified before the end of the year.
These changes in the capital were reported back by the people Qiao Yan sent to Luoyang.
In August in Bingzhou, Qiao Yan received the final payment of the annual tribute from Budugen, and gave back a batch of mulberry fur clothes and coal as a reward for "watering the leeks".
She pondered the news, then selected the eight best horses from the batch of cattle, sheep and horses sent to Luoyang, claiming that they were obtained by her soldiers when they attacked the Xianbei outposts.
Even though she now has advantages over many people, she still cannot slack off when her boss is irritable.
Precisely because she had to successfully extend her positions as Marquis of Leping, General Suppressing the Enemy and Governor of Bingzhou until the death of Liu Hong in the sixth year of Zhongping, she could not only focus on the harvest in Bingzhou, but also had to maintain good contact with the capital.
In fact, her decision was quite wise.
The fine horses from outside the Great Wall seemed to be more untamed, wilder and more majestic than those in the capital. Whether it was Qiao Yan's victory through cruising and attack or the fact that the horses were presented to him because of their majestic appearance, it just hit the mark of Liu Hong's preferences.
He asked painters to draw the portraits of these eight horses, which were used as mounts for the chariot ridden by his "Supreme General". He also praised Qiao Yan as a loyal and good minister of the Han Dynasty during court meetings.
Of course, this was not just because Qiao Yan did something to please the other party.
Qiao Yan did this not just out of consideration for Liu Hong's feelings, but also to set up another control group.
Fu Gan was assigned by Qiao Yan to lead a group of people from Shangjun, Bingzhou directly to Liangzhou, and found out some special news.
Huangfu Song and Dong Zhuo joined forces to lift the siege of Chencang. Although they failed to inflict a fundamental blow to Ma Teng, Han Sui and others at that time, Dong Zhuo, a warrior from Xiliang, was able to gather a considerable private army.
Huangfu Song felt that something was wrong and reported it to Liu Hong.
Liu Hong also responded.
More than half a year ago, when Qiao Yan served as the governor of Bingzhou, Liu Hong had already expressed his intention to establish the governors of Jingzhou and Liangzhou.
However, at that time, the position of Governor of Jingzhou was temporarily reserved by Liu Biao through malicious bidding, and the position of Governor of Liangzhou had not yet been determined.
This time Liu Hong released another position.
However, there was no room for competition for this position. Instead, he directly ordered Dong Zhuo to be promoted to the position of Qingzhou Mu based on his military achievements, and to go to Qingzhou to quell the rebellion of the remaining Yellow Turbans. At the same time, he transferred the Liangzhou soldiers under his command to Huangfu Song.
If Qiao Yan had not been the governor of Bingzhou, the more appropriate place to settle Dong Zhuo would have been Bingzhou, and then let Huangfu Song supervise from the side.
But Qingzhou is not a bad choice.
In short, Liu Hong intended to first separate Dong Zhuo from his equally ambitious subordinates.
However, this promotion was rejected by Dong Zhuo.
Earlier, Liu Hong felt that Dong Zhuo might become a disaster for the region, and wanted to recruit him to the central government in the name of appointing him as the Minister of the Imperial Household. However, he was rejected with the sensational reason that his subordinates were pulling his carriage and not letting him leave.
And this time the answer he gave was even more pompous.
What he said was—
[I have neither old wisdom nor great deeds, but God’s grace has been bestowed upon me by mistake, and I have been in charge of the military for ten years. The soldiers, both great and small, have been close to me for a long time. They are grateful for my kindness in raising them and are willing to risk their lives for me. I beg you to lead me to the northern states and serve the border areas. 】2
What I meant was that I don't have much ability, I only have these soldiers who obey me, and I am willing to lead these people who are willing to die for me to guard the northern province and pacify the border for the court.
I, Dong Zhuo, am a loyal Han Chinese and I will defend the border to the death!
He not only said this in the edict to Liu Hong, but also said the same to the soldiers under his command.
What he meant was that he clearly had the ability to be promoted to the position of Qingzhou governor, but for the sake of these soldiers he would rather give up the opportunity to be the local military and political chief. It was precisely because of this rhetoric that he once again won over a wave of people's hearts.
But fortunately, he did this, which allowed Fu Gan to receive the news and send it back to Bingzhou by express horse.
Qiao Yan must know that some of her previous actions were somewhat similar to Dong Zhuo's, so she had to make a distinction for herself at this time.
This is also another purpose of the eight horses as gifts.
What she handed over were the Eight Horses, but her underlying reasoning was that she could return the military power to Liu Hong at any time.
In addition, from the end of the fourth year of Zhongping to the autumn of the fifth year of Zhongping, she always maintained a relatively friendly relationship with General Han Fu of Du Liao. Except for the construction of Suiyuan City on the east side of Yunzhong County, she rarely involved in military operations in Wuyuan County and the west side of Yunzhong County.
This also meant that Han Fu never said anything bad about her in the memorials he wrote to Liu Hong.
After receiving a commendation from Liu Hong, she could be sure that she had temporarily passed this hurdle.
Qiao Yan breathed a sigh of relief and had extra energy to pay attention to the autumn harvest in Bingzhou.
The harvest time has arrived...
In the late Han Dynasty when having enough food was more important than anything else, this was also the time that the people in the state looked forward to the most!
The normal yield per mu in the north is three shi, but after the promotion of Si Sheng's book, under the effect of the district field method, the yield per mu can reach between three and four shi. What about this year?
This year, Qiao Yan promoted deep plowing and scientific planting in Bingzhou, using ammonia water and sulfuric acid as supplementary fertilizers. The yield per mu will definitely increase significantly.
However, since there are currently no conditions for large-scale breeding of improved varieties, Qiao Yan has no idea to what extent this improvement can be achieved.
She could only roughly judge from the conditions of the farmlands she had passed by recently that the crops were growing well in this year's good weather, and old farmers passing by the fields also felt that the harvest was better than in previous years. But no matter what, there still needed to be a number announced by the provincial government to the people in Bingzhou.
Qiao Yan tried hard to appear calm while watching Qin Yu leading the team in the statistics. However, to Lu Yuan, who was also present here, their governor looked just like the students of Leping Academy waiting for their results.
After all, she had attended classes in the academy and had some say in the matter.
Then she was given a warning look by Qiao Yan.
"Lord Qiao, there is no need to worry. According to the estimation of an old farmer, most of the land in Bingzhou, except for the land on both sides of the Fen River, is not fertile. But judging by the ear setting, the yield of five stones per mu is still possible." Lu Yuan said with a smile.
Qiao Yan's nervousness at this moment was even more obvious than when she was harvesting yam in Leping that year. Not only did Lu Yuan not feel that it damaged her wise image, but it made her seem more real.
This statistics was not something that could be completed in one day, so Qiao Yan simply took Lu Yuan to visit farmers and merchants in Bingzhou for a few days until the per-mu yield data of each county was counted and reported to her.
When she took the per-acre yield data handed over by Qin Yu, she immediately saw the state average at the top.
Yield per mu——
Five and a third stone!
What an inspiring number!
Although this yield per mu is still far from the modern yield, it has almost doubled from the original three stones per mu to the current more than five stones per mu.
With this support of grain production, not only will the farmers in Bingzhou be able to store enough food for the winter, but the tax revenue paid by the state government will also be able to rise to a higher level.
This is even more important to Qiao Yan.
Even if this figure of more than five stones is the average income, the harvest on the barren land has reached four stones.
This not only means that production has increased in a general sense within Bingzhou, but also means that Bingzhou has the capital to attract refugees from the surrounding Liangzhou, Youzhou, and Jizhou to settle here!
Most of the newcomers can only choose to reclaim the wasteland by themselves, but if they follow the farming method promoted by the governor of Bingzhou, even the wasteland can have a higher yield than the fields in other states and counties. So what's the harm in migrating there?
Not to mention, there was a rebellion by the Western Qiang in the surrounding Liang Province, Zhang Ju had not yet been suppressed in You Province, and Ji Province was also severely affected. However, Bing Province was truly like the two words "Leping" in the name of Leping Hou, which was a safe place to live.
Qiao Yan understood these subsequent impacts clearly, and felt more at ease.
After assigning the task of collecting land taxes, she went straight to Yunzhong County.
There is also a field there.
People are never satisfied. Although this year's harvest is good, she can't help but want something better next year.
To satisfy this idea of getting more and more, we can only look at the harvest of the new fields before Suiyuan City, and use this as a basis for promoting base fertilizer next year.
This wheat field was planted later than other places, so the harvest was naturally later as well.
It was early September when Qiao Yan arrived here, and the wheat in the fields was just ready to be harvested.
She raised her eyes and looked towards the most iconic new city.
From spring to autumn, thanks to the hard work of many military soldiers, the nearby Yanmen County open-pit coal mine has made gratifying progress, fully meeting the output that Qiao Yan had promised when the Bingzhou family handed over the coal mine. It has also accumulated far more coal than the amount recorded in last year's account books.
This is true for the coal mine, and even more so for the construction of Suiyuan City.
This was not the first time Qiao Yan came here, but it was the first time she saw the city and the watchtowers completed.
Looking south from Suiyuan City, the scene here was very different from what she had seen when she sent troops from Baidaokou.
Even before getting close, it was not difficult to see that the fields irrigated by Baiqu water and Huanggan water, with their clusters in the golden wheat fields, were indeed better than what she had seen in Taiyuan County before.
The slow-release base fertilizer gradually showed its effect during crop growth, and according to Jia Xu who was traveling with her, it broke out when the harvest season was approaching.
Now that the governor Qiao Yan has arrived, it is time to harvest this new field.
But before Qiao Yan could give the order, she saw a conspicuous figure jumping towards Tanaka.
Who else could this person be if not Lu Bu!
"Does he know how to harvest?" Qiao Yan's eyelids twitched.
It’s hard to say whether she would think of a diving husky when she saw this scene.
Jia Xu stroked his beard and replied, "In fact, Commander Lu has done a lot of research on this this year, so he should be quite good at it."
The spring attack on the Xianbei brought Lu Bu a lot of military merit, and he obviously wanted to add more to his resume.
It's a pity that there will be no chance to fight in the short term, so he can only put the idea of gaining merit by farming in Baidaochuan.
If you have to count it, he did make a living by farming in his early years, and now he is just picking it up again.
Since the governor was here in person, he naturally had to do his best.
Fortunately, as Jia Xu said, he had some experience in farming and was not stupid enough to destroy the harvest.
With this good hand who can carry heavy objects and do hard labor, the wheat in the ten acres of land was quickly harvested, threshed and weighed.
A shocking per-acre yield figure was placed in front of Qiao Yan.
"Yield per mu...seven stones?"
Seven stones!
Even though Lu Bu often came to observe the growth of wheat, he knew that this number was probably much higher than that of ordinary wheat fields, and he almost dropped his jaw at this moment.
More than double the amount comes from military farms, which is the capital for expanding the border defense troops!
He immediately turned to the remaining unharvested wheat fields.
Even though Qiao Yan only told him to supervise the harvest and transport it to Suiyuan City for safekeeping, without mentioning any plans for additional troops or battles, it did not in the least dampen his motivation to work hard at this moment.
Qiao Yan was quite amused by his behavior.
But if you think about it, the fact that he puts his desire to win here might save her some effort in controlling him, so it doesn't seem to be a problem.
Seeing that Lu Bu did not require her concern for the time being, Qiao Yan turned to Jia Xu.
He is a good administrative official for this place, but the harvest will take some time. There are many sergeants and centurions assisting in the registration of the military settlements, so he has time now.
Qiao Yan thought for a moment and asked, "Wenhe, are you interested in climbing the mountain with me?"
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, some places already had the custom of climbing high places to ward off evil spirits on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month. However, it had not yet been officially named the Double Ninth Festival and was not considered a folk festival.
But perhaps because there were major epidemics in those years, the custom of carrying dogwood and chrysanthemum wine to climb high places for sacrifice gradually spread from both sides of the Ru River, and even the border areas of You and Bing also learned this.
Jia Xu looked towards Qiao Yan, but felt that she probably wasn't looking for him to perform some kind of exorcism ritual, but clearly had other intentions.
Because she invited him to climb Wufeng Mountain, which was not in the territory of Yunzhong County, but in the south of Yanmen County.
This place was later called Mount Wutai.
In Jia Xu's opinion, Qiao Yan did not have any belief in Buddhism in his daily behavior, so this move to climb the mountain was obviously not because during the Yongping period, a Xiantong Temple was built here at almost the same time as the White Horse Temple in Luoyang.
But if the governor invites him, he should obey.
The two of them, along with the governor's entourage led by Qiao Yan, went straight up to the Wanghai Peak on the East Terrace of Wufeng Mountain.
Or perhaps there is no such name as Wanghai Peak here, but Jia Xu is not from Bingzhou. When he heard Qiao Yan say this name with certainty, he also understood it according to this name.
But it is appropriate to name it Wanghai Peak.
It was early morning when they climbed the mountain, and the sun was rising in the east when they reached the top. There was a bright glow among the sea of clouds that moved from night to morning, and it was truly as magnificent as watching the sunrise over sea.
And under this sunrise scene, looking towards the east of Wanghai Peak of Wufeng Mountain, Changshan County of Jizhou is emerging from the slowly dispersing clouds.
Or perhaps, it shouldn't just be called Changshan County.
When the red sun is high in the sky and the morning mist has dissipated, one can see the entire Hebei Plain, a scene of refreshing air rising.
Jia Xu felt that he was probably not mistaken. When Qiao Yan withdrew his gaze from the vast plain to the east and looked closer, there was still a bit of covetousness in his eyes that he had not concealed, nor did he bother to conceal.
She began to say, "Although we can see other peaks in the Wutai Mountains from here, Wenhe and I came west together, so he should still remember the Yanmen Pass we saw when we went from Yunzhong to Yanmen and passed Juzhu Mountain."
Jia Xu replied: "Of course I remember."
Qiao Yan took two steps with his hands behind his back, and then continued, "Being here, with Yanmen in the west, Hebei in the east, Hengshan in the north, and Luoyang in the south, it is hard not to feel some emotion. This is the vitality of China."
"Mr. Wenhe——"
Qiao Yan suddenly changed the way she addressed him, which made Jia Xu feel that what she was about to say was definitely not simple.
Especially when he looked around, he suddenly realized that the followers who escorted Qiao Yan here had temporarily retreated at her signal, so that there were only two of them left on the top of Wanghai Peak.
Even though Jia Xu had seen the prosperity of the Bingzhou military settlement on the day of autumn harvest in Baidao River and had felt that it was not a bad idea to be loyal to Marquis Qiao, this kind of treatment of being put on the fire was the first time he had ever seen it.
Qiao Yan didn't think there was anything wrong with this behavior. Judging from Jia Xu's style of doing things in Suiyuan City, he had lost some of his intention to hide his incompetence.
If Bingzhou, especially Baidaochuan, was facing a crisis, he might jump out like Guo Jia did when he offered her advice to solve the problem.
But there are not many crises in Bingzhou at the moment, but there will be many changes next year that ordinary people can hardly imagine in advance.
As Jia Xu's attitude had already wavered, Qiao Yan no longer had the time to let him continue to hide in his shell, and could only take the initiative to pull him out.
To be honest, even Cheng Yu, who dreamed of holding the sun on Mount Tai, did not have the privilege of being accompanied by her to climb the mountain, so Jia Xu was the first one.
But he was from Liangzhou and had rich life experience. He also understood better than any of the counselors in Bingzhou what tactics to adopt if they were to face the Western Liang army, so this pressure was imperative!
"Sir, you are only forty. Seeing the sky covered with clouds and the boat floating on the clouds, you probably shouldn't feel that you are already in your twilight years, right?"
Qiao Yan bowed to Jia Xu and said, "Qiao Yan is not talented, but I would like to ask you to lend me a helping hand."
The conversation on Wanghai Peak lasted for half a day.
After going down the mountain, Jia Xu returned to Suiyuan City to continue handling the autumn harvest affairs, while Qiao Yan rode back to Jinyang Prefecture.
It seemed that this was not much different from the situation before going up the mountain, but only two of them knew about it. Even if it was not disclosed explicitly at this time, they should be considered as the relationship between lord and counselor.
However, thanks to the cryptic nature of the conversation, the system was fooled and thought that Qiao Yan was asking Jia Xu how to protect the people of Bingzhou after Liu Hong's death and buy time to see the current situation clearly.
After all, this is a happy ending for everyone. Smart people and stubborn people each have their own way of understanding.
After returning to Jinyang, Qiao Yan sent two letters.
One letter was an arrangement for Fu Gan.
It was not appropriate for him to withdraw from Liang Province at this time, but he had to continue to monitor Dong Zhuo's movements.
This was not an easy thing for him, because he was very close to the murderer of his father, but he had to continue to endure it.
But perhaps because of the teachings he received in Leping, or perhaps because he had no lack of silent patience, he gave Qiao Yan a reply that he would never act rashly.
The other letter was addressed to Mullen.
This is also a particularly special letter.
After sending these two letters, Qiao Yan temporarily became idle.
Or perhaps this could not be considered free time, because she used her extra time to improve her own combat power.
During this period, news from inside and outside Bingzhou also reached her ears one by one.
In November of the fifth year of Zhongping, Gongsun Zan of Youzhou fought against Zhang Chun at Shimen and defeated him.
Zhang Chun barely escaped, but Youzhou Mu Liu Yu offered a reward for his head, and then beheaded him.
Zhang Ju fled to the outside of the Great Wall and was captured by a branch of the Xianbei. Since Guo Jia had already contacted Kebi Neng, Kebi Neng sent Zhang Ju to Bingzhou as a bargaining chip.
Qiao Yan ordered his head to be beheaded and sent to the capital, saying only that he had escaped from Youzhou via Daijun to Bingzhou and was captured by her.
The rebellion of Zhang Ju and Zhang Chun was thus put down.
In December of the fifth year of Zhongping, Huangfu Song took the position of General of the Left and joined forces with Dong Zhuo to defeat Han Sui, forcing Han Sui and Ma Teng to retreat.
As marching in winter was difficult, the royal army did not continue the pursuit. Dong Zhuo stationed his troops in Longxi and had frequent conflicts with Huangfu Song.
In the blink of an eye, the sixth year of Zhongping has arrived.
As the first month of the lunar calendar approached, Qiao Yan received a letter from Luoyang. She unfolded the newly received letter and saw only four words on it:
The emperor is seriously ill.
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