My younger brother Lü Fengxian

Chapter 233: Journey to Luoyang

Autumn of the third year of Guanghe (180 AD).

A cavalry team of dozens of people was advancing easily on the official road to Luoyang.

Now, the battle to defend Hebei has just ended.

Not only the four prefectures in Hebei were recovered in their entirety.

The Xianbei people were severely defeated by the Han army, and less than one-tenth of the 300,000 Xianbei people were able to return to the outside of the Great Wall alive.

With such a great victory, Emperor Liu Hong was very pleased and immediately lavished rewards.

This group of people were Lu Yi and others who had made the first contribution and were preparing to go to Luoyang to receive Liu Hong's gift package.

"Brother, now that we have made such a great contribution, I wonder what kind of reward the court and the emperor will give us!"

Lu Bu was in high spirits and asked Lu Yi with great interest.

"Fengxian was already a Sima before the battle. During the battle, he not only killed the general and seized the flag, but also snatched the body of the old slave. His achievements are unmatched among the three armies. I'm afraid he can't escape being a lieutenant or a county governor."

Lu Yi also had a happy smile on his face and joked to Lu Bu.

For him, the rewards from the court were secondary.

The direct benefits he obtained after the war made him quite satisfied.

This time the Xianbei suffered a great defeat, and all their baggage and prisoners were lost.

All of them were divided up by the Han army that arrived later.

As the commander of the special forces battalion and the greatest contributor to the decisive battle, Lu Yi also got a big piece of the spoils left behind by the Xianbei people.

Originally, all this money and people were looted by the Xianbei.

However, after the Xianbei were defeated by the Han army, these supplies rightfully became the spoils of the Han army.

Except for some noble families or wealthy children among the population who were sent back home.

Whether it was money, food or population, they were all divided up by the Han army.

Although Lu Zhi, Zhu Jun and Huangfu Song were honest and incorruptible, they led their troops to fight against the Xianbei out of loyalty and justice in their hearts.

But not all of their generals are so selfless.

The three commanders who could become commanders naturally knew that if the water is too clear, there will be no fish. Although the three commanders themselves did not participate in the division of the spoils, they turned a blind eye to the division of benefits among their generals.

Otherwise, the hundreds of thousands of Han troops and the rebel army formed by tens of thousands of Hebei aristocratic families would continue their rebellion.

Among the spoils of war, food and horses were the most important, followed by wealth, and finally countless captives.

The current population of Luwu is approaching its limit.

Horses and clothes can also be obtained through the trade routes that have become open again.

Therefore, Lu Yi focused on competing for money and food.

However, the Xianbei people were already short of food, and Lu Yi did not get enough food.

Finally, thanks to the transaction with Zhen family, he was able to refill the granary with a capacity of 100,000 shi, which finally solved the immediate problem.

Hebei is now in a state of decay. There was no harvest in Hebei during the entire Guanghe period, in addition to the plundering by the Xianbei people and the supply provided by the Han army.

The price of food rose to an astonishing level, allowing aristocratic families like the Zhen family, who had enough wealth to survive the disaster, to make a fortune.

Fortunately, because the Zhen family is optimistic about the growing potential of the Lu family, the price of the grain that Lu Yi traded from the Zhen family is still reasonable.

Although all the spoils obtained from the Xianbei camp were consumed, there were still tens of millions of reserve money in Luwu, enough for Luwu to spend for a year and last until the autumn of next year.

Lu Yi himself is also a big landlord. Now, due to Zhang Xun's operation, the remaining land of Jiuyuan Pavilion has basically been assigned to Lu Yi.

As long as we farm well, it will not be a problem to harvest more than 200,000 shi of grain a year.

In this way, relying solely on itself, Luwu has the most basic self-sufficient ability to support the more than 10,000 people who are now under Lu Yi's command.

However, what made Lu Yi happiest was that the trade routes were open again.

Now, in addition to the 10,000 people in Luwu, he also has nearly 2,000 soldiers and 4,000 horses at the Mayi Great Wall Pass and the Xianzhen Camp.

The cost of these troops is far greater than that of 10,000 civilians. Without the continuous supply from the trade routes, Lu Yi's fragile finances will go bankrupt and collapse within half a year.

Now the Xianbei people not only suffered heavy losses in vitality and strength, but were also forced to abandon the area south of the desert.

The Southern Xiongnu people, who had been hiding under the protection of the Han Dynasty, immediately seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. After reporting to the court and obtaining permission, they immediately moved their entire clan from Bingzhou to the area south of the desert. Not only did they have a larger territory than before, but they were also no longer threatened by the Xianbei people in the north in the short term. They were sure to grow rapidly.

The Xianbei population was three million, several times that of the Southern Xiongnu.

Therefore, the imperial court also intended to support the Southern Xiongnu to grow stronger and take on the role of barrier south of the desert again, so as to defend the imperial court against the Xianbei in the north and the Wuhuan outside the Great Wall in the northeast.

And Lu Yi's adoptive father-in-law He Xutuo turned a disaster into a blessing, because Lu Yi gave all the thousands of captured Xianbei prisoners to the Hunye tribe, resulting in the Hunye tribe becoming more powerful than before, and has steadily advanced from a medium-sized tribe to a large tribe.

There are frequent changes in tribes on the grassland.

Power is divided mainly by fists rather than blood.

Therefore, after getting a chance to survive, these Xianbei captives were successfully integrated into the Hunye tribe with almost no accidents.

After all, the rapid growth of the Xianbei was also inseparable from the submission of the Northern and Southern Xiongnu and other tribes of the Hu people.

Therefore, the power of the Hunye tribe was almost as strong as that of the Hutuo tribe that had previously besieged Luwu during its heyday.

Not only did they reoccupy the Yanmen grassland, but they also extended their tentacles to the Yunzhong County grassland and Wuyuan County grassland west of Yanmen.

The border line of Bingzhou is not as narrow and long as that of Youzhou and Liangzhou.

In this way, the Hunye tribe almost covered the entire southern border of Bingzhou.

It created more convenient monopoly conditions for the original four alliances.

The reason why we are talking about the original four alliances.

This was because Lu Yi, with the momentum of a great victory, took the initiative to go to Zhongshan and look for the Zhongshan smuggling alliance that had previously been dependent on Su Shuang.

Except for a few families like Wang Fu who were almost wiped out by Lu Yi, most of the other families had already suffered a significant reduction in profits over the past year due to the decline of the smuggling alliance.

During the past six months when the Xianbei had been wreaking havoc in Hebei, almost every aristocratic family in Hebei had suffered severe damage.

Therefore, after hearing that Lu Yi announced that he would still form an alliance according to the model set by Su Shuang and Zhang Shiping, they all joined Lu Yi's army without any hesitation.

Therefore, the original four alliances became the current Zhongshan Chamber of Commerce.

What surprised Lu Yi was that after he gave up a lot of shares in order to win over Zhen, Zhen said that they would not join in due to some considerations. Lu Yi felt regretful but also felt a little fortunate.

After all, with the size and power of the Zhen family, it is absolutely possible and possible for them to pull down Lu Yi and take the lead.

After the Chamber of Commerce was established, the interests of the Lu, Zhang and Hunye tribes still accounted for the majority. Only Huang Yi was gradually squeezed out of the core of interests because the power he relied on was gradually corrupted and hollowed out by Lu Yi.

However, Lu Yi did not treat him unfairly. After spending a lot of money and giving up some credit, Huang Yi successfully fulfilled his long-cherished wish and became the captain of the first battalion, becoming a true General Huang. He was also transferred from the bitter cold land of Bingzhou to the glamorous world of the Central Plains, and everyone was happy.

As for the other newly joined families, Lu Yi was also very enthusiastic and kind.

He said that as long as they paid enough membership fees and gave up a certain amount of benefits, each family would only need to arrange carriages and accountants. As for the remaining security and protection issues, Lu Yi said that he could take care of them all.

Even if some individual families say they don’t want it, that won’t work.

What a joke! How could Lu Yi let others do this when he had such a good way to hide his troops and use other people's money to support his own troops?

In this way, Lu Yi can expand his team again and make efforts to continue to consolidate his power.

During the period of waiting for the court's reward, Lu Yi made precautionary arrangements.

The Chamber of Commerce is running very smoothly.

Just before Lu Yi set out, the first caravan of 500 baggage carts had returned safely, bringing with them herds of healthy horses.

While verifying the feasibility of the new trade route conjectured by Lu Yi, it also brought huge profits to Lu Yi and members of the Zhongshan Chamber of Commerce.

With these rewards, the Zhongshan family, which had originally been on the sidelines and wavering, increased their investment in the Chamber of Commerce and immediately became Lu Yi's loyal lackeys. As long as it did not affect their interests, they would do whatever Lu Yi told them to do without any ambiguity.

All of a sudden, the Jiuyuan Lu family, which had been unknown in a remote corner like Jiuyuan, became a hot new star in Hebei. Many families extended olive branches to Lu Yi, and even those who did not have the opportunity to cooperate for the time being all tried to make friends with Lu Yi in advance.

However, the icing on the cake provided by these families is naturally not as important as the timely assistance provided by the Zhen family.

Whether out of emotion or just pretending, Lu Yi always continued to maintain the closest cooperative relationship with the Zhen family, which was far beyond the reach of other families.

After arranging the Zhongshan Chamber of Commerce, Lu Yi immediately worked to reorganize the hidden households in Luwu.

Because of the defeat of the Xianbei, the situation in the entire Hebei Province improved greatly, and the people south of the desert were the Xiongnu people who had been well-taught by the imperial court, so there was no possibility of war in the short term.

Even a frontier fortress like Jiuyuan was suddenly free from the threat of war.

Therefore, except for a few trustworthy elders, Lu Yi built new houses for the original villagers and newly attached captives in Jiuyuan, allocated fields to them, and carried out unified reclamation activities.

Internally, Lu Yi, emboldened by the proceeds from the first horse smuggling trade this year, began a new round of large-scale construction in Luwu.

Originally, Luwu’s city defense, foundation, warehouses and other infrastructure were all complete and did not affect the defense of the city.

But the rest of the buildings were not completed at all.

If it remains vacant for a long time, it will not only look out of place, but will also affect people's living conditions.

Therefore, Lu Yi immediately followed some of the real estate rules of his previous life.

Ten thousand single-story houses were built uniformly. Although the area was not large, it was enough to accommodate a family of four or five people.

Moreover, due to the unified construction, the original construction cost of 20,000 coins per building was greatly reduced.

Lu Yi estimated that after 10,000 houses were built, the project would be basically completed with a total cost of 100 million yuan.

Ten thousand dollars per building is just a small goal.

At that time, Lu Yi will sell the houses as welfare to the dependents who have passed the test and review at a cheap price of 15,000 coins per house. Not only can the buyers save a lot of money, but Lu Yi can also make a small profit.

Besides, it doesn’t matter if you can’t come up with so much money at once.

Lu Yi also thoughtfully offered a five-year low-interest loan.

Based on the salary of the lowest-ranking clerk under Lu Yi, it can be easily afforded.

And although it is said to be a low interest rate, in fact the interest rate is almost nothing.

It doesn’t really matter whether there is interest or not. What Lu Yi wants is to more deeply bind the interests of these dependents with his own.

On the one hand, it arouses their desire to protect their homes and increases the defensive effect, but on the other hand, it increases the cost of their betrayal.

It can be said to serve multiple purposes.

If Lu Wu's project progresses smoothly, Lu Yi plans to continue promoting it.

Promote more docks.

These forts will become nails firmly embedded in the earth, extending Lu Yi's tentacles.

And once the game of annexation among the princes begins in the future.

These docks will immediately become bridgeheads.

It can serve as both a fortress to defend against enemy attacks and a front-line position to attack the enemy.

However, although Lu Yi's idea is good, these things are progressing slowly and we can't be impatient.

Slow is fast.

If we lay a more solid foundation now, we will be able to develop faster in the future.

Moreover, Lu Yi now has plenty of time and can take it step by step.

Therefore, Lu Yi is in a very good mood now.

After receiving the imperial edict of reward from the court, he left Cheng Lian, Hou Cheng, Song Xian, Wei Xu and others to guard Luwu and Jiuyuan counties and carry out business, and took Lu Bu, Gao Shun, Zhang Xun and others to the court to receive rewards.

The caravan went one way, Luwu went one way, and the imperial court went one way.

Lu Yi divided his forces into three teams: one visible and two hidden.

Except for a few people who were specially arranged by Lu Yi to be promoted, he was not planning to push all his subordinates to the front.

On the one hand, this will expose one's true intentions.

On the other hand, it will also increase the cost of Lu Yi's rule.

After all, Hao Meng had a previous experience as a lesson.

Except for those who have both loyalty and ability, not everyone can control their desires and be willing to continue to obey Lu Yi's orders besides becoming an official or general in the court.

Although Lu Yi had accepted the imperial decree of reward, the specific official position he was awarded was not clear.

Because, firstly, the scale of this war was huge and the task of awarding merits was arduous.

Secondly, for Liu Hong, whose talent and ability in business were no less than Lu Yi's, this was also a good opportunity to make a fortune.

For a court where selling official positions and titles had become an industry, it was hard to believe that there were no hidden rules even for rewards given for military merit.

Liu Hong's move undoubtedly conveyed a clear subtext to these heroes.

Sometimes the size of a military achievement is not as closely related to the battlefield as people imagine.

Instead, it has more to do with the strength of your wallet.

But for Lu Yi, who was carrying more than a dozen carts with deeply rutted supplies, this was quite sufficient preparation!
(End of this chapter)