Knowing Zhang Lu's method of asking for food, he used salt as bait and asked merchants from all over the world to transport food to the east of the river. As long as there is not enough salt in Hedong, there will theoretically be endless food! The Prime Minister's Office approved the plan to use prisoners without hesitation, and recruited 10,000 prisoners from various counties and sent them to Anyi. When talents arrived in Anyi, Hedong issued a recruitment order, announcing that all those who wanted to move to Hedong would be exempted from crime and granted land and houses. Between farming and building forts, a large number of prisoners chose to immigrate without hesitation.
Zhang Lu reported it to the police and asked to make up for the shortfall of prisoners. So the second batch of prisoners arrived, and most of them were transferred to immigrants! Repeatedly and again, tens of thousands more prisoners chose to immigrate directly.
This time, Zhang Lu strictly followed the procedures and transferred the names of each family in a formal manner. Only after the name and registration are truly transferred to Anyi can the people be exempted from labor service.
Taking advantage of this time difference, Zhang Lu asked the prisoners to move from near to far, from Puban to Anyi, to repair the city walls that were on the verge of collapse in various counties. In terms of time, after the city of Puban was restored, the names of the first batch of prisoners had been moved there, and Zhang Lu settled them on the spot in Puban. During the restoration process of Yi's city, the names of prisoners were transferred one after another, and these people were resettled to Yi's... By the time Anyi was restored, the name transfer work was basically completed, and only the extra ten thousand prisoners were left. people. It was the end of the year and the beginning of the new year, and most of the relocated households carried freshly harvested grain. Most people took the time to tidy up their houses and cultivate the allocated fields, looking forward to a good start in Hedong.
Zhang Lu's policy of exchanging salt for grain was working steadily: tens of thousands of stones of grain were transported to Hedong every day, and grain was also transported from various counties in the history of Qin. In addition to paying the daily expenses of prisoners and soldiers, Wealth can replenish the county's granary. Originally, grain was a low-value-added commodity, and most merchants were unwilling to transport it long distances because they usually could not make enough money; but now grain is linked to salt, which is a high-profit commodity, especially the Anyi monopoly. After the sale of the salt industry, there was a shortage of salt in various places, and the price rose rapidly. These days, not to mention people from Han, Wei and other surrounding places, even Chu people transport grain to Anyi in exchange for salt.
Zhang Lu did not let the 10,000 prisoners repair Anyi, but let Pi Wan lead him directly to the entrance of Sushui Valley to build the city that he had been thinking about for half a year. This city is located to the north and west of Anyi, facing Zhongtiao Mountain, and to the left of Anyi, so the officials in Hedong called it "Zuoyi".
Since discovering the entrance of Zhe Road, Zhang Lu set up a recruiting list at the mouth of the valley to recruit Wei people living in Zhe Road to come out of the mountains and return to Anyi. In the past few months, it has been quite effective. Hundreds of households living scattered in the mountains have come down to Hedong. Zhang Lu attaches great importance to this group of people. Whenever someone goes out on the road, he must go there in person to inquire about the specific situation. Over the past few months, Zhang Lu learned that at the west entrance of Zhe Road, about thirty miles away from the mouth of the valley discovered by Zhang Lu, there was a relatively open valley, which was the seat of the ancient state of Gen, so it was called Yuan County. There are now tens of thousands of families living there, most of whom came from Anyi. Yuan County is located deep in the mountains, and transportation with the outside world is very inconvenient. There is a clear stream of water in the valley, which is the water source that the people of the city depend on for their survival. Most of the people of the city live on both sides of the river, with large acres of land available for farming. But this clear water flows from north to south and is said to lead to the Yellow River; while the Zhidao flows from west to east, and the two are inconsistent.
Zhang Lu asked Chen Si to draw a picture based on what these residents said. Chen Si couldn't draw a clear picture. It was a valley, surrounded by mountains, a mountain road running east-west, and a river flowing south. There were acres of fields on both sides of the river. Below the river is the Yellow River.
Although it is just a simple picture, when it is presented to everyone, it really triggers different thinking. Pi Wan added a valley mouth on the outside of the west peak, with several small streams flowing through it. Then he also drew a city outside the mouth of the valley and marked it with the word "Zuoyi".
Zhang Lu pointed to the lower part of the Yellow River and asked: "Where is the other side of the river where the clear water enters the river mouth?"
No one present could answer.
Zhang Lu pointed to the westernmost mountain and asked, "Where is the highest mountain?"
No one can answer.
Zhang Lu let out a long sigh...
Pi Wan knew what Zhang Lu wanted to do, so he said: "Merchant travels all over the world, and when it comes to geography, there is no one better than merchants."
This sentence reminded Zhang Lu. He asked Pi Wan to pay attention to the merchants who entered Anyi from Zuoyi to buy salt, and look for opportunities to enter Yuancheng. He returned to Anyi and looked for merchants who followed the Zhi Road among the salt merchants.
Most of the merchants who entered Anyi via Zuoyi came from Xintian, Pingyang, or even as far away as Taiyuan. There are very few merchants coming out of Zhe Road. Mr. Xie Yan, who was doing business with Zhang Lu's annual salary, worked hard to find several businessmen who took the Zhidao route from among the salt merchants. These merchants all said that there were not many ways to sell salt. Most of them went down the clear water, boarded the boat on the bank of the Yellow River, and went directly to Mengjin to unload the goods. Zhang Lu was very excited and asked where was the other side of Qingshui? The salt merchants shook their heads in confusion. According to them, there are not many people on the other side of Qingshui, and it seems to be deserted. This made Zhang Lu very disappointed. He gave up his plan to attack Yuancheng from the south road and concentrated on preparing to enter Yuancheng from the mouth of the valley. He sent Mang Wei to Zuoyi to assist Pi Wan in repairing the city.
The weather is getting colder day by day, the hotel is drafty from all sides, and Xiaonu is about to give birth. The order of Anyi suggested that Zhang Lu withdraw one or two hundred people to repair the post. Zhang Lu disagreed and insisted on focusing on the construction of Zuoyi City.
Zhang Lu's annual salary was originally in kind, but after Mr. Jie Yan made a lot of money, it was all converted into money at the most favorable price. In the end, everyone was so cold that they had no choice but to ask Zhang Lu to pay for someone to repair the walls of the hotel and replace all the broken doors and windows. Zhang Lu had no objection to this idea. When Anyi Ling saw this, he thought it was Zhang Lugong who had forgotten his own selfishness and sacrificed himself for the country. He felt emotional for a while.
In fact, when Pi Wan was building Zuoyi City, his main focus was actually on the direction of the wall. After Mang Wei arrived, he handed over all the daily work of building the city to Mang Wei and assigned him a few of his own servants. He himself asked one of the servants to take several residents from Zhedao to the city every day. Zhe Daokou recruited Wei Min, and the position became deeper day by day.
Finally, a heavy snow covered the entire valley, and a city with a side of a thousand steps was already standing at the mouth of Sushui Valley.
All prisoners were arranged to live in the barracks in the city. Fried millet is constantly being transported here from Anyi, which makes the prisoners a little excited: there may be a war! Building a city is just a service, which can be converted into a sentence, but it only has food to eat; if you want to get rid of the crime in advance, fighting is the most reliable way out. As for pardoning the crime and immigrating, that can only be regarded as a hopeless solution.
Sure enough, when the weather cleared after the snow, the prisoners began to train in formation outside the city; they used the sticks used for building the city as weapons and carried out sprint training. At the same time, Pi Wan asked those who came out of Zhidao to sneak back to Yuancheng and spread the word that the Qin people were coming to attack the city!
On this day, Zheng Anping and Chen Si led a hundred soldiers, armed only with simple wooden sticks, and under the guidance of the Wei people who came out of Zhidao, they climbed over the mountains and ridges to Yuancheng. This time, Chen Si could finally see the mountain scenery around Yuancheng with his own eyes.
After crossing a pass, the walled city unfolded before our eyes. There were originally sentinels on the pass, but they had been withdrawn due to heavy wind and snow. The hundred people descended the mountain without any hindrance and appeared at the gate of Yuancheng.
There was no inn in Yuan City, so Zheng Anping went directly to the gatekeeper, showed his talisman, and said that he was an envoy sent by Hedong and wanted to see the Yuan Order. The guard reported it, and it took a while before he got the answer: Please come in.
Under the guidance of the guard, Zheng Anping and his party were brought to the front of the city. Yuan Ling led his officials to greet him in person at the gate of the mansion. Zheng Anping held a wax goose as a gift, and Yuan Ling responded with courtesy. The two of them recited the ceremony for a long time. Yuan Ling brought Zheng Anping and Chen Si into the city palace, and a hundred soldiers rested inside the palace gate.
Zheng Anping explained his intention and said: "Qin and Wei are in alliance. The former Wei army left Taihang and promised to enter Anyi, but they did not enter. Anyi cherished it. Now a county is set up in Anyi, and the governor of the county is Zhang Qing. To express my friendship, I would like to express my special invitation to you!"
Yuan Ling even said, "How dare you", and said: "Zhang Qing is guarding the east of the river, and the King of Wei does not know about it. I should report to the king, and there will be an answer!"
Zheng Anping said: "The reason why I entered the Yuan Dynasty was to discuss one thing with the Yuan Dynasty. In the past, Anyi was the capital of the Wei Dynasty, and the Wei people lived in Yan. Qin and Wei were at odds with each other, and Anyi was ruined and entered the Qin Dynasty. , and the Wei people came out. I heard that most of the Wei people in Anyi lived in Yuan, and their livelihood was difficult. Now the King of Qin sympathizes with the Wei people's difficulties. In the spirit of the alliance between Qin and Wei, he is willing to invite all the Wei people in Anyi to return to their hometown and maintain their old business. Qin will When the people of the country encounter it, they swear to share the good fortune and misfortune. Therefore, I order the ministers to declare this proposal in the order, let them think about it and agree to it. "
Yuan Ling was speechless for a moment and didn't know how to answer. Lieutenant Bian Yuan scolded: "The people of Qin are rude. They took our land and drove away our people. Now we are humiliating each other and bullying our Wei people?"
Hearing this, Zheng Anping smiled slightly and said: "Although Anyi is the land of Wei, the king of Wei dedicated it to Qin. The Wei people in Anyi were scattered in all directions, and they had done a bad job in the city. Now they want to recruit their people, and everyone can return to their old business, or they may also make up for it." Isn't it okay? Why humiliate it? The county knows that there are people in the wall, so it wants to send an army to garrison in Anyi, go out of the river valley and cross the ridge to enter the wall. An army garrisoned in Wu and went out. Maojin enters Yan at the mouth of the Qingshui River. If you want to celebrate with Yuan at the foot of the city, the Yuan's order must have no words! "
When Yuan Ling heard this, his expression changed greatly and he said, "Do you also know about the mouth of Qingshui River?"
Yuan Cheng said: "More than twenty years ago, King Wu'an of Qin led his army into the river mouth and went up the clear water. The minister was still young and knew a little about what happened. The official records are still there today."
Zheng Anping and Chen Siju were shocked. Bai Qi led his army to conquer Yuancheng more than 20 years ago! Then why is the city still in the hands of the Wei people? They tried their best to suppress the shock in their hearts, and looked at Yuan Ling with smiles without showing any expression on their faces. Seeing the expressions of the two of them, Yuan Ling thought that Yuan Cheng was right and was even more frightened.
