It was already late at night in Wancheng Commandery, but the Governor's Mansion was still brightly lit. Lü Bu had already stayed up late for two consecutive nights. As the lord of an army, staying up late was normal. However, it was also because of the war. Now that Sun Ce and the Lvbu's Army had made peace, and Liu Biao and himself were in a honeymoon period, it could be said that Lujiang was the rear of the Lvbu's Army. Even if the war broke out, it should start in Liu Mang's Shouchun. However, Lü Bu was still very busy.
Why? It was because of Liu Mang's order to recruit the people. Each person had two mu of fertile land and 30% of the tax. It really made many people excited. When Lü Bu received Liu Mang's order, he just smiled casually.
He did not stop it because he knew that Liu Mang's Shouchun was the place where they went south from Xuzhou. Lü Bu's old friend and old rival, Yuan Shu, Yuan Gonglu, had caused a lot of trouble in Shouchun for his dream of becoming the Emperor.
There was no one within a radius of a hundred li. One must know that the Yangzhou Commandery was once comparable to the Imperial Capital. Whether it was in the previous life or the future, it was always like this. However, such a precious land had almost become a land of death. It could be seen how great the price of Yuan Gonglu's dream was. After Liu Mang, Lü Bu's good son-in-law, took over Shouchun, he naturally wanted to use all the fertile land. However, there was no one to cultivate the land! If it was the same as other feudal lords, there would be no one to help you cultivate the land. Therefore, it naturally had to be different from other places.
Each person was equivalent to two mu of fertile land, and 30% of the tax was given out. Although it was an extreme loss, having income was better than nothing. Therefore, Lü Bu asked Chen Gong to help Liu Mang advertise. The reason why Lü Bu was so busy now was because of this conscription order.
Two days ago, the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry almost thought that there was an enemy attack. At that time, the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry was ready to go. They wanted to see who dared to touch the tiger's whiskers. Who knew that when they went out, they would see tens of thousands of people. They directly blocked half of the city wall. They could not see clearly in the dark, so they thought that there was an enemy attack.
When Lü Bu's Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry rushed out of the city wall and prepared to fight, they saw it. After seeing it, Lü Bu could not sleep. This was because he heard that these people came here because they heard the conscription order from the King Of Shu, Liu Mang. Liu Mang was Lü Bu's son-in-law. In Shouchun, it could be said that Lü Bu had given most of the autonomy to Liu Mang. Now that there were people coming to seek refuge, Lü Bu would naturally help Liu Mang to receive them. He might even send troops to escort them along the way.
If it was only tens of thousands of people, Lü Bu would not care. Tens of thousands of people were nothing. He could just ask the scholars in Wancheng City to help. After he ascended the throne, he would open food stalls so that the people would not starve to death. After he ascended the throne, he would send them to Shouchun. But these two days, it was not just tens of thousands of people, it was more than hundreds of thousands. Moreover, there were still more coming.
The entire Lujiang County only has a population of a hundred thousand people. Now that the population has doubled, Lu Bu was really busy and could not stay idle.
"My Lord, My Lord, these are the people that just arrived two hours ago!" A scholar on the side gave Lü Bu a rough number. For every 3,000 people, one more food stall would be needed. The scholar gave another 15 more food stalls. This meant that more than 40,000 people came to Lujiang.
"Sort out the records and send them all to Shouchun!" Lü Bu calculated. These hundreds of thousands of people could really make the land in Shouchun have a qualitative development. At the very least, the fertile land would no longer be empty. This way, Liu Mang's Army could import their own provisions and did not need Lujiang to send them. This was a good thing! Lü Bu did not expect that his son-in-law's idea would be able to gather so many people. The only thing that Lü Bu needed to worry about was the food and drink of these people.
These hundreds of thousands of people were able to survive for another year. After all, there were still more than 200,000 Dans of provisions in the granary of Wancheng City. These provisions were obtained after the confiscation of the houses. As long as they could survive this year, the sun would shine brightly tomorrow.
"Reporting to My Lord, outside Wancheng City, there is an Angel Xu Du asking for an audience!" A guard came in and knelt on the ground and said to Lü Bu.
"Angel Xu Du?" When Lü Bu heard this news, he thought. Although Xu Du had the Han Emperor, the one who made the decision was Cao Cao. Cao Cao was currently in Guandu and could not even take care of himself. Why would he send an Angel? Could it be that he wanted the ballistae?
Before Liu Mang left, he had told Lü Bu that the ballistae must not be given to Cao Cao. At least, it could not be given at this stage. This was because Yuan Shao and Cao Cao were fighting a protracted war. If either Cao Cao or Yuan Shao quickly destroyed the other party, then the Lvbu Army would not be able to develop. This was because the current Lvbu Army only had two counties. Liu Mang's Shouchun was still not settled. It could be said that no matter which one of them was Cao Cao or Yuan Shao, the Lvbu Army would not be able to defeat them.
"No, no! Tell him to go back and tell Cao Mengde that the matter of the ballistae is off the table! " Lü Bu waved his hand. He did not have a good impression of Cao Cao. After all, he was driven out of Xu Province. Although Cao Cao was afraid of Lü Bu, Lü Bu also knew that he had never been able to defeat Cao Cao.
"Wait!" Just when Lu Bu was about to order his personal guard to send away the angel sent by Xu Du, Chen Gong came in.
"Gongtai, you finally came!" Lü Bu's face was full of joy. Two days ago, Chen Gong did not go to Wancheng City. He went to Wuwei and Shucheng to pacify the people there. After all, after the war, they needed to rebuild everything. Therefore, Lü Bu had to go to Wancheng City to organize things. Now that Chen Gong was back, he could naturally teach everything to Chen Gong.
"Angel?" Chen Gong looked at the kneeling guard and asked.
"Hurry up and tell the Angel sent by Cao Mengde that the ballistae are absolutely not for sale!" Lü Bu waved his hand to send the guard away.
"Cao Cao wants to buy the ballistae again?" Chen Gong was a little puzzled. Why would he send an Angel? One must know that only the Emperor of the Great Han Dynasty could use Angels. Moreover, they were basically eunuchs. Cao Cao did not like eunuchs. Because of the chaos caused by the Ten Permanent Attendants, Cao Cao did not have many eunuchs. Even if Cao Cao wanted to buy the ballistae, he should have sent someone who could speak eloquently instead of a eunuch. The most important thing was that the arrival of an Angel represented an imperial decree. Could it be that Cao Cao wanted to use an imperial decree to oppress the Lvbu's Army? Wasn't this a joke? Although everyone said that they were the subjects of the Great Han Dynasty, how many people were truly loyal to the Han Dynasty? Even Liu Biao and Liu Zhang, who were relatives of the Han Dynasty, did not care about the Emperor of Han. Who else would care about the Emperor of Han? Who did not know that the current Emperor of Han was Cao Cao's puppet? Cao Cao was not that stupid. If he used an imperial decree to oppress Lü Bu, it would only make Lü Bu even more disgusted. The chances of him obtaining the ballistae would be even lower.
"Did the Angel bring an imperial decree?" Chen Gong asked.
"Yes!" The guard nodded. "The Angel said that he came to announce His Majesty's decree."
"Milord, go take a look! This time, it should not be an imperial decree sent by Cao Mengde! " Chen Gong said to Lü Bu. It was impossible for Cao Cao to use an imperial decree to oppress Lü Bu. Not only was this method useless, it would also anger Lü Bu. If at this time, Lü Bu was angry and returned to Xu Province, then Cao Cao would really want to cry. This imperial decree could only be issued by two people. One was Cao Cao, and the other was the Emperor of Han, Liu Xie. However, what did Liu Xie want to do with this imperial decree?
After hearing Chen Gong's words, Lü Bu still received the Angel. Originally, when the Emperor of Han issued an imperial decree, the Angel had to be personally received by the Han officials. However, now was a time of chaos. The dignity of the Han dynasty was about to be lost. Therefore, they did not go out to receive the Angel. Instead, they let the Angel come in to receive them.
"Great Han's Yellow Door Magistrate Qin Huai greets Wen Hou." A eunuch like figure led a few Great Han Imperial Guards and a few servants into the Administration Office.
Yellow Door Magistrate? This was a six-hundred-shi official position. It was much higher than the average Administration Office. Even before Emperor Ling of Han, a provincial governor's salary was only six-hundred-shi. The occupation of eunuchs reached its peak during Emperor Ling's time. They could cover the sky with one hand. It was not hard to describe how eunuchs caused chaos. At that time, if you wanted to become a high official, you could only walk the path of the Ten Permanent Attendants. Even Cao Cao's father, Cao Song, was able to become a Grand Commandant because he had money and connections. Emperor Ling called Zhang Rang father. Lu Zhi was removed from his position because he did not bribe a small Yellow Door Magistrate. It could be said that eunuchs were very popular in the past few decades.
However, it was now sunset. The Ten Permanent Attendants had all been killed by Yuan Shao and Yuan Benchu. The prestige of the Han dynasty had also plummeted. Even Emperor Liu Xie could not protect himself. How could he care about these eunuchs? Therefore, this little eunuch was very respectful to Lü Bu.
"Who sent you here?" Lü Bu did not care that he had to kneel in front of the Envoy and directly asked.
"His Majesty sent me here to issue a decree to Wen Hou and His Highness the King Of Shu." Qin Huai was very obedient.
"His Majesty?" It really was not sent by Cao Mengde. What kind of decree could this Emperor of Han send?
"Go ahead!" Lü Bu waved his hand. Since he did not understand, he would just let the little eunuch speak.
"Yes!" Qin Huai nodded and took out a yellow silk cloth from a wooden box at the side. He opened it and said, "By the will of the heavens, the Emperor decrees that today there is chaos and war everywhere. The common people have no way of making a living. Fortunately, our Great Han has the King Of Shu, Liu Mang. He saw the suffering of the world and wanted to save the common people. He reduced taxes and gave land to the common people. This is the fortune of the common people, the fortune of our Great Han. Today, we specially bestow upon the King Of Shu Liu Mang a pair of Jade Annulus, a pair of Eastern Pearls, and a hundred jin of gold. The King Of Shu is bestowed the title of Great Han Sage King.
Bestowing Liu Mang the title of Sage King? Lü Bu and Chen Gong looked at each other. What kind of situation was this? The Jade Annulus, Eastern Pearls, and gold were nothing! However, the title of Sage King was really a kind of glory. What was the meaning of Sage King? Sage Confucius was a Sage, Duke Zhou was also a Sage. However, these people had founded a generation of schools or established an entire country! Liu Mang was only doing this to prevent the land of Shouchun from being wasted. Although the tax price was very low, it did not reach the level of a Sage. Mencius was so great, but he was only a Quasi-sage. The word 'saint' was basically used for the dead. It was basically impossible for it to be used for the living. This was because the consequence of that was that a saint was comparable to an emperor. If a saint were to appear, would the people listen to the emperor or the saint?
"Eunuch Qin, are you sure you didn't make a mistake?" Lü Bu asked calmly.
"How could it be! Wen Hou, Lord Chen, the imperial edict is here. You can take a look at it. "Qin Huai handed the imperial edict over. Sure enough, it was written on it. Although it was not written with the Imperial Jade Seal, it was also stamped with another seal beside the Emperor of Han. Therefore, this imperial edict was definitely true.
"Eunuch Qin, why would His Majesty issue such an imperial edict?" Chen Gong wanted to fish for information from Qin Huai. He looked at the guard beside him and asked. The guard beside him also nodded and left the hall.
"This, I am not sure about this." Qin Huai looked like he wanted to say something but could not say it. It was very difficult for him to say it. The expression on his face was really changing, making people feel very strange. "This person's memory is not good. When the weather is so hot, he can't remember much. I hope Wen Hou and Lord Chen will not blame him."
"Hehe, Eunuch Qin, take your time to think. We are in a hurry. When the weather is hot, we naturally have to buy some ice to cool down. Here, my lord bought ice for Eunuch Qin because of your hard work." Chen Gong said as he pointed to the big boxes that several guards below brought over.
"How can I accept this?" Although Qin Huai said this, his face was full of smiles.
"Open them!" Chen Gong pointed to the boxes and said to the guards.
"Yes!" The guards cupped their fists and walked forward. They opened the boxes one by one. There were golden, silver, and colorful ones. The golden ones were gold. There were at least 100 gold in each box. The silver ones were pearls and the like. The colorful ones were jewels and jades. The value of these boxes added up was much higher than what Qin Huai had sent over. How could Qin Huai not be happy?
"Aiya, I suddenly remember." Qin Huai changed the topic. Of course, he remembered. These jewels and jades added up to thousands of gold. If he still did not remember, then he should not be Lü Bu.
"It's the memorial from the Left General of the Great Han Empire, Imperial Uncle Liu Bei. It praised His Highness, the King Of Shu. This is the reason why His Majesty issued such an imperial edict!" Qin Huai's attention was almost on the three boxes. If Lü Bu and Chen Gong were not still here, he would have pounced on them.
"Liu Bei?!" Chen Gong and Lü Bu really frowned. Liu Bei and the Lvbu's Army only had hatred and no kindness. Liu Bei's Xuzhou was taken away by Lü Bu. Similarly, Lü Bu almost lost his life under Liu Bei's scheme. Some time ago, there was a battle in Shouchun. There was even a Huainan's famous braised turkey. If Lü Bu wanted to take a step forward, or if Liu Bei wanted to support Lao Cao and Yuan Shao to take a step forward when they confronted each other in Guandu, then these two families would definitely have a big battle to fight! But now, Liu Bei was so kind as to praise Liu Mang to the heavens. He even applied for a promotion for Liu Mang.
"Eunuch Qin, you can leave!" Chen Gong waved his hand. He wanted to have a good discussion with Lü Bu! What did Liu Bei want to do?!
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