Now that everything was prepared, Li Xiang did not delay at all and led the army to set off early.
In this campaign, Li Xiang himself was the commander, with his generals Xing Tian and Xue Rengui, and his military advisor Wei Xiaokuan.
Before dawn, 30,000 cavalry set off in a mighty manner.
Although Li Xiang was not happy about sending troops this time, he still did not waste time on the road. In less than ten days, Li Xiang's army had entered Jizhou.
White bones are exposed in the wild,
There is no cockcrow for a thousand miles.
One of the hundreds of living things left by the people,
Thoughts are heartbreaking.
This is the first impression Li Xiang saw after entering Jizhou.
Tragic, too tragic. Jizhou is one of the richest states in the Han Dynasty, but now Yizi cannibalizes each other, and people use their bones for wages. Some places are even uninhabited for thousands of miles.
After seeing this scene, Li Xiang fell silent. I am afraid that not only now, but for a long time in the future, this kind of scene may be staged in all the states of Han Dynasty.
Historically, in the late Han Dynasty in the Middle East, the population was still over 50 million, but after more than a hundred years of the Three Kingdoms War, the population actually dropped to less than 10 million.
It was not until the unification of the Eastern Jin Dynasty that the population stopped declining and began to rebound. But the good times did not last long, and the subsequent Wuhu chaos once again brought the people of the Central Plains into war.
Thinking of this, Li Xiang's heart instantly became heavier.
I don't know how long it took, it seemed like just a moment, and it seemed like a lifetime.
Li Xiang changed. From this moment on, there was less cynicism and more sense of responsibility and mission in his eyes.
Although he still strives to dominate the world for his own ambition, he also has a little more hope for saving the future.
He wanted to defeat his possible opponents in the future as quickly as possible and unify the world as quickly as possible, so as to preserve as much vitality as possible of the Han people.
He hoped that Han'er could defeat the Hu people in the north under his leadership in the future, and he hoped that things like Wu Hu's rebellion against China would not happen in the future because of his arrival.
"System, now that you have balanced the creation of so many founding emperors, and the momentary heroes come out, wouldn't the war in the world be more chaotic than the Three Kingdoms in the original history? Can the population of the late Han Dynasty be able to support such consumption?" After a long time, Li Xiang finally said He asked about the worries in his heart.
In history, the situation after hundreds of years of war in the Three Kingdoms period was so miserable. Now that the system has balanced out so many outstanding people through the ages, I am afraid it can really defeat this big man.
But Li Xiang's question did not receive an answer. Instead, he made a sizzling sound like the last time he summoned Yu Ji.
Li Xiang knew that there might be something wrong with the system again, but he didn't know whether the situation this time was good or bad.
With an inexplicable mood, Li Xiang continued to lead the army forward.
After entering Jizhou, Li Xiang no longer dared to be as safe and secure as he was in Bingzhou. As soon as he arrived at Weijun in Jizhou, Li Xiang sent a large number of scouts to disperse around.
Soldiers are important matters of the country, the place of life and death, and the path to survival. They must be observed. Nowadays, there are yellow scarves everywhere in Jizhou, and Li Xiang does not dare to take it lightly. How many generals in history have lost wars because of their carelessness. A lesson from the past and a teacher for future generations.
Fortunately, the main force of the Yellow Turbans is now on the battlefield in Yecheng, and the other counties in Jizhou are just some scattered Yellow Turban soldiers, no more than ears.
The situation now is different from the situation in history. In history, Lu Zhi surrounded Zhang Jiao's Yellow Turban army in Guangzong City, slowly eroding the power of the Yellow Turbans.
But now, the power of the Yellow Turbans has greatly increased, but the officers and soldiers of the Han Dynasty have been restrained everywhere. They just rely on fortified cities to resist the Yellow Turban Army, and use the solidity of the cities to offset the numerical gap between the two sides as much as possible.
Although the Han Dynasty now has the support of aristocratic families, after several months of war, Jizhou only has one hundred thousand soldiers left, including many new recruits from aristocratic families.
Even with the support of soldiers and horses from Youzhou and the other states, I'm afraid they can only put together 160,000 to 70,000 in the end. There may be some rebel armies formed by local powerful people, but the combat effectiveness of these people is not much better than that of the Yellow Turbans.
According to Fushui Fang, after Zhang Jiao mobilized some of the Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou, his military strength had reached a terrifying 600,000.
Of course, this is not the most troublesome thing. Because of the existence of Zhang Dingbian and Chi You, they would naturally not fail to see the shortcomings of the Yellow Turban Army's low combat effectiveness.
Therefore, the two of them trained 200,000 elites on two battlefields in Jizhou and the Central Plains respectively. Now that several months have passed, the results have already begun.
The reason why the officers and soldiers of the Han Dynasty can still confront the Yellow Turbans is that the Yellow Turbans in both places each have 200,000 elites and have never participated in the war.
The 30,000 cavalry led by Li Xiang are still very intimidating. At least there are no yellow turban stragglers coming to provoke Li Xiang carelessly.
Although Li Xiang was happy and relaxed about this, he was still cautious and did not dare to take back the scattered scouts, and ordered the army to stay in armor day and night and remain ready for battle at any time.
In this way, with Li Xiang's all-out efforts, he finally approached Yecheng ten days later.
And the moment Li Xiang approached Yecheng, the system was finally restored.
"System, how are you? Is there another problem this time?" Li Xiang asked impatiently as soon as there was movement in the system.
"Ding, host, please don't worry. The system found some loopholes just because of the host's problems, so it was upgraded. Congratulations to the host for getting the upgrade reward, one divine weapon card and one BMW card each."
"Oh, system, in that case, what changes have been made to the system after this upgrade?" Li Xiang is still very concerned about system upgrades. After all, some small functions will be added to the system every time it is upgraded.
“Ding, host, since the system is recovering from vulnerabilities due to problems with the host, this system upgrade is mainly aimed at population issues.
After the system is upgraded, the population of the Han states will directly increase by 200,000 every year in the future, and the population growth rate will double.
In addition, as the host, you can spend 100 summoning points every year to double the above number in the area under the jurisdiction of the host. "
Hearing this, Li Xiang was overjoyed. This system upgrade solved the problem of declining population due to war.
But if you are willing to spend summon points to double it, you can gain an advantage over other princes. In times of war, the population of the princes is a precious resource.
And 100 summoning points a year is not a heavy burden on Li Xiang.
"System, use 100 summoning points for me first, and double the number of summons for Bingzhou's population this year." Li Xiang said excitedly
"Ding, congratulations to the host, the population of Bingzhou will increase by 400,000 this year, and the population growth rate will triple this year."
However, this benefit is obviously beneficial to some populous states. It seems that this state merger must take the opportunity to introduce as many refugees as possible.
Just when Li Xiang was about to log out of the system, Li Xiang suddenly realized something not too big or too small.
"System, what's going on with this upgrade reward?" Li Xiang asked expressionlessly.
"Ding, due to previous loopholes in the system, the system upgrade rewards have not been issued. In addition, the system has been upgraded three times in total, and the host has been awarded three magic weapon cards and three BMW cards." The system responded with a hint of embarrassment.
This upgrade gave Li Xiang a big surprise, so Li Xiang never bothered with the system. After receiving the rewards he deserved, Li Xiang silently left the system space.
