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Chapter 829: Return to Liang (Part )
The border troops still have two months' worth of rations.

General Fan took out all the military rations without reservation and ordered the kitchen to cook porridge and steamed buns. The porridge was thick and chopsticks could stand upright in it. The mixed flour steamed buns were soft and hot, and the quantity was large enough to fill you up.

After working until midnight, the people of Daliang who had returned from afar finally had a full meal.

Someone started crying again: "Wow, I never thought that we would be able to come back alive one day...hiccups!"

Burping and crying at the same time.

"Our homes are destroyed. Where can we go in the future?" This is a commoner from Pengcheng. All his wives, children, old and young were killed. He was the only one left. A strong man who had been a slave in the grassland for several years, now he is as thin as a stick, with tears streaming down his face, which is heartbreaking.

Amid the cries, a firm voice rang out: "The Emperor has sent people to rescue us, so he will not ignore us. Don't worry, everyone. We have endured so many hardships, and we will definitely have a better life in the future."

Yes! The greatest suffering is over.

No matter what, being able to return to Daliang is the greatest luck.

The people wiped their tears and started laughing again.

The people wrapped themselves in thin blankets distributed by the border troops, snuggled up to the fire, and fell asleep with a sense of relief and anticipation for the future.

General Fan was so worried that he couldn't sleep.

With so many mouths to feed, the army could only survive for half a month with only the food from the frontier army. The imperial court sent military food every two months. He did write a memorial to the imperial court, but it took a long time to go back and forth. If the food was not delivered in time, the people and soldiers would go hungry. That would cause a big mess.

The next morning, General Fan went to see General Zuo with a pair of dark eyes.

Liu Hengchang and others were also there.

General Zuo simply held a brief meeting.

How to settle the people had to wait for the order of Her Majesty the Empress. The generals only led the troops to fight, and they had no idea about the people's livelihood. The most urgent thing at the moment was the shortage of military rations.

Liu Hengchang said, "Generals, please be patient. The emperor is wise and must have made preparations. Perhaps the military rations are already on the way and will reach the border in a few days."

As expected, Liu Hengchang knows Her Majesty the Empress best.

Five days later, convoys delivering food arrived in an endless stream.

The person who delivered the military rations was none other than Tang Youyin's father Tang Xianzhong.

Today, Master Tang Wu is the number one grain merchant in the North. With the support of the Nanyang Palace and the support of the Queen of Daliang, the Tang family's grain shops have spread across all counties in the North.

Master Tang Wu was also over fifty years old, but he was full of energy. He was not afraid to meet such important figures as General Zuo and General Fan. He calmly bowed and said, "The emperor sent a letter to the Tang family two months ago, asking them to prepare food for the army and the people."

"I have transferred all the grain in the grain store. This is the first batch, a total of 100,000 dan. Another 300,000 dan of grain will arrive in the next few days."

"In addition, there are also caravans delivering food and seeds. Once the people are settled, they can reclaim wasteland and plant corn and sweet potatoes. In half a year at most, they will be self-sufficient."

General Fan, the Left General, was delighted and admired the Empress's impeccable strategy.

Along with Master Tang Wu came an ugly, skinny, black man. This ugly man, who looked like a black rat, was called Cai Ye, the magistrate of Li County in Nanyang Prefecture.

When Liu Hengchang saw Magistrate Cai, he immediately relaxed his brows and smiled: "I should have thought that the emperor would send you."

Hundreds of thousands of poor people who had been slaves of the Rouran needed to be slowly settled down and to live and work in peace. A smart and capable official who puts the people first must be sent. Who could be more suitable than Magistrate Cai?
With an imperial decree issued by Her Majesty, County Magistrate Cai was promoted from a seventh-rank county magistrate to a county governor. The hundreds of thousands of people who returned from the grasslands would be under the jurisdiction of County Magistrate Cai.

After being promoted, Magistrate Cai remained humble and low-key, laughing and saying, "I am the emperor's employee and I share his worries. I am only worried that I am not capable enough to shoulder the heavy responsibility and fail the emperor's trust."

General Zuo smiled and continued, "The great name of Magistrate Cai is well known in the Daliang court. Since the emperor has asked you to come, it means he trusts you. Magistrate Cai does not need to be modest. If you are short of manpower, just speak up."

The Magistrate Cai was not polite at all and immediately said, "It is not easy to settle the people. We need to give them land and help them build houses. I do plan to borrow some manpower from the general."

General Zuo: “…”

It is absolutely true that Nanyang County produces talented people.

Needless to say, Prime Minister Chen and Shangshu Feng are now the backbone of Daliang. People like Chen Jinyu, Tang Youyin, Ma Yaozong, Yang Zheng, etc. are also shrewd and capable ministers.

The ugly Cai County Magistrate in front of him was even more suspicious of appearance. After arriving, he started to work without stopping for a moment.

General Zuo made a big promise and had to lend out 20,000 people.

The governor of Cai County was very careful and divided the 20,000 people into hundreds of teams according to the original regulations. Each team had 100 people and was responsible for building houses in a village.

The house had to be built quickly and also be windproof and warm. A page of paper filled with all the requirements was distributed to all the team leaders. If any team had problems with the house they built, they could always find that team.

General Zuo also read the page, twitched his lips, and turned to ask Liu Heng: "Did Magistrate Cai work like this in Li County before?"

Liu Hengchang looked accustomed to it: "This is nothing. General, just wait and see! In three to five years at most, Guiliang City will become the most dazzling one among the counties of Daliang."

That’s right, the emperor personally set up Guiliang County for the returning people of Daliang.

The place where the people were settled was the original Pengcheng. After several years, the empty Pengcheng had already fallen into disrepair. However, the original city walls could still be used after some repairs. Some of the houses inside could be cleaned up and lived in, and some of the uninhabitable ones could be demolished and some stone and wood materials could be used.

It was not realistic to accommodate hundreds of thousands of people in the city, so Magistrate Cai selected the original people of Pengcheng and let them live in the city first.

The rest of the people built villages around Pengcheng. With the help of the elite soldiers under General Zuo, they cut down trees and built houses at an astonishing speed. In just over a month, the village took shape.

General Zuo was about to lead his troops back to the capital, and the Magistrate of Cai County shamelessly approached General Fan to borrow some men.

Every village needs to be surrounded by a fence and a canal needs to be dug!

General Fan was very friendly to the emperor's trusted minister and readily lent him 10,000 soldiers.

The Magistrate of Cai County bowed his hands repeatedly to express his gratitude, and at the same time, he made a brazen request to General Fan: "The village has been mostly built, and the people have already moved in. Next, I will lead the people to open up wasteland and cultivate the fields, raise chickens and pigs, and grow some vegetables and fruits. The seeds were sent by the Marquis of Changning from the imperial farm, and the yield is very high. When the people are self-sufficient, how about selling the excess to the military camp?"

General Fan: "..."