At the beginning, I gave up my military power with a cup of wine, and I ascended the throne

Chapter 472: Strategy for the Next Year
When the last citizen left the city, the Northern Wei empress immediately ordered the city gates to be closed. As for the noble families, they were all stopped by the soldiers and none of them escaped.

With Helian Bobo around, she was not very afraid of these people mutiny.

Having enjoyed endless wealth and glory, at this critical moment of life and death, it was only natural that they should be reduced to ruins along with the Northern Wei edifice.

In the camp, Lu Ju, wearing heavy black armor, patrolled around with his personal soldiers, then wrote a letter and sent it to Shuiyun Mountain at an urgent speed of 800 miles.

These more than 100,000 strong laborers need to be arranged as soon as possible, either by sending them back to their hometowns or by arranging them to other places.

After seven or eight days of recuperation, they would be able to recover most of their strength, which was just the right time to dredge rivers, build official roads, and establish villages and towns.

Soon, the letter was delivered to Shuiyun Mountain. Xiao Han discussed with the Military Affairs Department for an entire afternoon and finally arranged where these people should go.

Liao Huan immediately led his army to the Northern Wei imperial city to change guard, while Lu Ju led an army of 150,000 to escort more than 100,000 Northern Wei civilians southward.

After Liao Huan changed his guard, he still implemented Lu Ju's strategy, surrounding the city without attacking, and training soldiers outside the city every day.

Or send out cavalry from time to time to deal with the barbarians in the two northern states.

At present, the entire five states of the Northern Wei Dynasty have been completely controlled by Xiliang. Military stations and official roads are like huge spider webs, dividing the five states into prefectures, counties and villages.

Rely on networking to prevent chaos to the greatest extent possible.

Of course, the amount of manpower and material resources consumed in this way is extremely terrifying, and only Xiliang, which has a strong financial foundation, dares to do so.

But the effect was also very significant. The implementation of the government decrees was extremely smooth. Anyone who dared to obstruct or violate them would be imprisoned at the very least, or beheaded at the worst.

Whether it is distributing food, leveling fields, building official roads, digging canals, or conscripting laborers.

They are all directly specific to each village and town, and are under the jurisdiction of each county government.

This ensures extremely high efficiency.

The people who had been trapped in the Northern Wei imperial city for more than half a year were stunned when they arrived at the resettlement village.

The brand new houses, thick coats, sufficient food, flat fields, and smooth official roads were completely different from the Northern Wei Dynasty they knew.

In addition, the Xiliang army treated them well along the way, so the vast majority of the more than 100,000 people instantly turned to Xiliang and the King of Xiliang.

The snow and wind in December were extremely fierce, but the entire five northern states were full of vitality.

Xiao Han and Ning Xi went for another inspection before the New Year, and this time they returned to Daoshuiyun Mountain with peace of mind.

This year's New Year's Day is particularly lively.

The entire Shuiyun Mountain was decorated with lanterns and colorful lights. Of course, the rewards given were also extremely generous, all of which were silver taken from the treasury of the Xiliang Palace.

It was because Princess Ning Xi was good at managing the household, otherwise the inner treasury would have been spent by Xiao Han long ago.

The Military Affairs Department, the Xiliang Prefecture Government, all prefectures, counties, and Xiliang Army soldiers also received many rewards.

Compared with the New Year atmosphere in Xiliang, although the Central Plains is also lively, it is a bit more bleak.

This was because the Dong Yue army in the south of the Yangtze River took advantage of the approaching New Year's Day to attack the enemy unexpectedly and won several small victories in succession.

Compared with Xiliang, Jiangnan is not that cold. There is no snow, and the sun is even shining brightly during the New Year holidays.

Bashu.

It has become the capital of Dongyue. The original palace of the King of Shu was temporarily borrowed by Qingyao.

With Jianzhou and Jingzhou as barriers, Bashu is impregnable.

Moreover, Bashu had a grain route connecting it to Xiliang, which resulted in a steady supply of military equipment and war horses being delivered directly to Bashu via small roads.

The grain and grass from Bashu, Jianzhou and Jingzhou were also transported to Xiliang through this grain route to replenish Xiao Han's warehouse.

Directly bypassing the Central Plains and connecting Xiliang and Jiangnan, there are still many grassland tribes on this trade route.

But there was not much of a change. The cavalry of the Western Liang Army would often stick to the border between Qingzhou and Yanzhou, go deep into the western grasslands and deserts, and expel and slaughter these small tribes.

It was a complete dimensionality reduction attack. Facing the Xiliang Iron Cavalry armed to the teeth, those tribes had no power to resist at all.

However, the vast land in the west is either desert or grassland and has little utilization value. Otherwise, Xiao Han would have planned to station troops and build a city there.

When it comes to expanding territory, box culverts are the most familiar.

Just after the Chinese New Year, Xiao Han summoned all his civil and military officials to Shuiyun Mountain.

"Everyone, what will the gate do next year?"

In the main hall, Xiao Han lay in a soft recliner with his legs crossed, holding a cup of hot tea and drinking it slowly.

The people in the hall looked at each other in surprise when they heard this.

“What are you doing next year?”

"Are we going to attack Zhongyuan?"

Lin Xingye is ready to go.

"No."

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Lu Ju shook his head: "Although there is chaos in the Central Plains, the foundation is still there. It is not a good idea to start a war rashly.

"Don't attack the Central Plains."

Xiao Han said: "Save Zhongyuan for last."

He clapped his hands, and two maids opened the huge map hanging on the wall behind them.

"Let's see whether to attack east or west."

This is a question that needs to be thought about.

Now is not the best time to attack the Central Plains. If Xiliang does not continue to expand its territory during this period, then the hundreds of thousands of Xiliang troops will have nothing to do.

Relying on the remnants of the defeated soldiers in the Northern Wei imperial city to train their troops?

Do not make jokes.

With that small number of troops, they dared not leave the city and could only defend it. Moreover, they could only be besieged for half a year at most and would starve to death.

The remnants of the Northern Wei Dynasty posed no threat to Xiliang at all.

"Your Majesty, do you want to send more people to the Far North? The barbarians in the two states over there have been quite active recently."

Zhang Wei looked at the map and said in a deep voice: "Those barbarians may not have much, but they are still brave."

"That place has snow all year round, so there's nothing to fight about."

Shi Qing shook his head: "It's useless to take it down. It's better to station a few thousand people there to defend the city, rotate them every year, and use them to train the soldiers."

"If a large-scale garrison is not cost-effective, first of all, the journey is long and covered with ice and snow. Even if the official road is repaired, it will be inconvenient to transport food and soldiers."

"Secondly, the environment in the Far North is not universal. After all, there is only one place with snow all year round, so our army will not be able to use it for training."

"My opinion."

Shi Qing pondered for a moment: "It's the same as the prince. Either we expand our territory to the east, or we attack the west."

"Whether in the east or the west, there are many small countries. Goguryeo and Silla in the east invade the borders of the two Liaos from time to time. We will take them down sooner or later. Sooner or later, we will have to take action against them."

"It's better to fight now than later."

"And I mean strategically as well."

Shi Qing stood up, picked up the bamboo pole, pointed at the territory of Goguryeo and said, "As long as we destroy them, the entire north will be in our pocket. By then, we in Xiliang will also have an outlet to the sea."

(End of this chapter)