Chapter 237: Continuing Peace
Shangjun, Gaonu.

Military advisor Liu Ye’s camp was located in the city of Gaonu.

Seeing the bright sunshine, Liu Ye climbed up the city wall to relax.

The city wall is built with earth slabs. It has not been repaired and maintained for many years, and the yellow mud layer on the surface has fallen off.

The corner tower collapsed and was obviously weathered.

The north wind blew, and the white breath Liu Ye exhaled from his long sigh was blown away by the wind, leaving no trace.

The 8,000 men he led had difficulty in their initial advance and were barely able to stop the invading Qiang rebellion from the direction of Shangjun.

When the news of the Xiongnu's surrender came, the rebellious Qiang people dispersed; he also integrated his soldiers and waited for new combat orders.

When Black Bear marched towards Xihe, he also cooperated in advancing towards Gaonu.

Over a period of nearly three months, the conflicts between him and the 8,000 Guanzhong soldiers under his command became increasingly serious.

It's not that there's something wrong with his command, he's just giving orders and dispatching in a proper manner.

The problem is that the 3,000 cavalry led by Black Bear obtained huge spoils of war and meritorious service. As long as they are not dead, they are at least a squad leader now. They have cattle and horses as spoils of war, and they will give priority to women for marriage.

The officials and soldiers are disunited and are almost in a state of disarray. Not to mention the night curfew, even the scouts and reconnaissance are perfunctory.

Liu Ye felt not only tired but also frightened.

He noticed something unusual out of the corner of his eye. He stood on the city wall and looked out, and saw a migrating group slowly approaching from the north.

The snowfall in Shangjun was light and the wind was strong, so there was no deep snow on the roads.

Therefore, the front-line troops abandoned most of the sleds, drove away the captured herds, and returned to Guanzhong along the Shangjun and Guanzhong roads together with the rescued men and women.

As for the sled, it can only stay in Yulin area and wait to be used next year.

On the Shangjun Road, Black Bear was sitting on a high carriage.

The Xiongnu were good at making cars, and their vehicle designs had close exchanges with the Han, so the shapes were similar.

But now that the Huns have moved inland, they have begun to use taller wheels, which are more than six feet in diameter.

The tall carriage that Liu Bao presented to Black Bear was equipped with twelve horses and had a yurt built on it, which was a mobile tent.

The axles made a creaking sound as the black bear closed his eyes and took a light nap.

There was chaos in the Han area, and the Xiongnu absorbed too much technical strength.

The vehicles and tents for daily use have been improved in shape. The vehicles have become taller and larger, and the tent structure is closer to a yurt.

The yurt uses the least amount of material to obtain the maximum usable area, and its structure is extremely stable and can withstand wind and snow.

The only drawback is that it is inconvenient to exhaust smoke and make fire in severe winter, but if it is combined with mature kangs and smoke exhaust, the Huns will now have the ability to resist the heavy snow outside the Great Wall.

But in this case, the Huns would become more dependent on fuel.

Coal is difficult to mine, and the poor and fragile primeval forests outside the Great Wall are likely to be completely destroyed.

Thinking of the forest, the black bear observed the hillsides near and far on both sides of the road. All the gentle slopes that were easy to cultivate were now covered with low shrubs; all the deep and steep slopes must have various pine forests.

The strong winds here in winter mean that the ground and most slopes cannot hold snow.

The exposed ground looked quite strange, with large areas of yellow soil and black soil.

Sometimes a hilltop can be so strange that black soil and yellow soil are entangled.

The black bear glanced at the dense forest in the distance. In his opinion, the thickest of these trees could be used as pillars and supports for the Forbidden City after being cut down.

There is no problem in using it to build ships.

While thinking, he frowned slightly, a goose feather pen appeared in his right hand, he grabbed a piece of wood and wrote "Shaanxi and Tianjin build warships, Yuan and Cao are in chaos and unite".

After Yuan Shang had secured his position and weathered the natural disaster in Hebei, his dependence on his ally declined significantly.

His only role for Yuan Shang was to delay Cao Cao and prevent him from attacking Hebei with all his strength.

It was similar for Yuan Shang himself. He just had to hold Cao Cao back and prevent him from snowballing.

Therefore, when Yuan Shang has established a firm foothold and has sufficient troops and food supplies...either Xianyu Fu or Zhang Yan's Black Mountain Army will be in trouble.

With enough military prestige, Yuan Shang would naturally have new ideas.

As for Cao Cao, even if he had the military power to attack and destroy Cao Cao, he must avoid and restrain such a thing from happening.

Get off the stage and let them dance.

Otherwise, if the attack was too fierce, Yuan Shang would definitely attack him, instigate internal support, and unite with the Xiongnu and Liang Province.

Even if Cao Cao is defeated, the foundation will be damaged.

Besides, what's the point of attacking and destroying Cao Cao?
Are you going for Cao Cao's wives and concubines, or the emperor, ministers and officials in Xu Du?
Therefore, while Guanzhong vigorously developed the shipbuilding industry, it could not manufacture a large number of warships in Shaanxi and Tianjin. It was enough to reserve a batch of transport ships to avoid irritating Yuan Shang.

After thinking for a while, Black Bear wrote on the wooden tablet: "With forest as the border, raising cattle and horses".

The Western Han Dynasty strengthened the border counties and immigrated millions of people in order to compete with the various Hu peoples for survival resources and squeeze out their living space from their tiny corners.

The large number of immigrants can recruit soldiers nearby, manufacture weapons and provide food and fodder, which serves as a frontline production base.

The current dilemma is that the population is small and there is no room for immigration to the border counties; and if the number of immigrants is insufficient and they cannot survive, they will be cannibalized and assimilated.

If you want to rebuild the border defense, you must advance outward step by step.

They built camps one after another, using the camps as nodes to block important passages and support each other; they integrated farming, animal husbandry and garrisoning, and used captured slaves as cheap labor, and used these cheap labors to plant trees during the slack season.

Relying on the terrain, artificial forests are connected to the original forests to form relatively closed grazing spaces.

The population is limited, the farming area is limited, and other more vast areas are used for grazing cattle and horses. After a few decades, the planted forests will take shape... Even if these people do not pay taxes, they can still play a role in border defense.

The more concentrated the population in the border counties, the less pressure there is on defense.

The most frightening thing is that there are people everywhere. Soldiers must be stationed at the entrance of every ditch and valley, making it as small as an eggshell.

Reduce the redundant population and use forests to slow down the mobility of the Hu people; set up garrisons and camps to serve as material supply points, and then leave the fighting to professionals.

The outer garrison work was handed over to the Xiongnu, who were then left to compete with the Hu people who migrated south for survival resources.

When encountering problems that are difficult to solve with the Huns, send troops yourself; when the Huns become a problem, solve the Huns.

When the railways were laid and productivity exploded, the Huns had other missions.

Thinking of the railway, Black Bear smiled.

The industrial capacity and material transportation capabilities behind the railways can conquer any race.

In the future, people like Lu Bu will be used to hammer... fully automatic manual assembly line.

As long as you learn it yourself, it is the same as them learning it; with the right tools and materials, and mastering the skills yourself, you can remotely control their production, and even do fine processing in one step.

While thinking, he gradually approached Gaonu City.

Liu Ye and the main military officers were already waiting on the roadside. When Black Bear got off the car, he saw Liu Ye with a wronged look on his face, forcing a smile: "Military Advisor, I've been waiting for a long time."

"I am sorry for not coming to meet you here. Please forgive me, General."

"What crime have you committed? Military Advisor, you are too kind."

Black Bear stepped forward and helped Liu Ye up, saying, "I was able to withdraw my troops so smoothly, all thanks to the military advisor's support."

As he spoke, Black Bear helped up the other three thousand-man commanders who were saluting. Of the eight thousand men commanded by Liu Ye, only three thousand arrived at the Gaonu front line, and the other five thousand-man teams were deployed south of Gaonu.

Liu Ye led Black Bear towards Gaonu City, but Black Bear looked around at the surrounding mountains and pointed to a mountain in the south that looked like a head: "The city is crowded, I want to go to a wider place."

"As you wish, General."

Liu Ye agreed with a smile, and dozens of people rode their horses around the temporary camps and took the small path along the ridge to the mountain.

There was no snow, only various shrubs and no tall trees.

Black Bear looked around and nodded, "It is indeed a good place. I subdued the Xiongnu, wiped out the Qiang tribes in the north, and recovered three counties. Although this achievement is not as good as Fenglangjuxu and Yanran, it is enough to be engraved on a monument and passed on to future generations."

Liu Ye nodded: "This is what should be done. General, do you want to carve a stone and erect a monument here?"

"I want to build a tall tower. I will come here again after the spring plowing and lead the soldiers to supervise the construction of the tower."

Black Bear looked around. He didn't know the information about the nearby coal mines. The cost of quarrying stones for bricks was high, and burning bricks was equally expensive.

Looking at the mountains in the distance, he said, "From now on, Gaonu will be renamed Yan'an, which means continued peace."

Liu Ye agreed, but saw a clerk beside Black Bear carving words on a wooden tablet, so he asked, "General, is the seat of Shangjun in Yulin or Yan'an?"

"Yan'an will be temporarily set aside. In the future, the Xiongnu tribes will move out of the border and into the vicinity of Meiji, and the seat of Shangjun will be moved to Yulin."

Black Bear turned his head to look at Liu Ye: "I intend to recommend you to be the military advisor for the position of prefect of Shangjun."

Nearly three months have passed, and Liu Ye's current position is far worse than it was during the Battle of Weibei.

Due to the disloyalty of his subordinates, Liu Ye's influence declined to the extreme.

There was no problem with his command of troops, but the problem was that he was unable to meet the spiritual and material needs of the 8,000 Guanzhong infantry under his command.

Black Bear had raised the demand for officers and soldiers in the entire army too high. Not to mention Liu Ye, who was leading 8,000 soldiers for the first time, even veteran generals like Ma Teng and Duan Wei could not meet the demand for officers and soldiers.

Not to mention ordinary officials, even middle and senior military officials could not be satisfied by Ma Teng and Duan Wei.

Although these middle and senior military officers knew that Ma Teng and Duan Wei had excellent command capabilities, how many of them could restrain their instinctive impulse to follow the strong and devour all parties for profit?

Liu Ye fell silent after hearing this. No matter how unappreciated the military advisor was, he was still second only to Black Bear and was slightly higher than the Chief Clerk, who was the chief official.

The closer you are to the black bear, the more resources you can leverage and the greater your influence.

What is there in Shangjun now?
After about three years of careful cultivation, suppressing the scattered and miscellaneous Hu people, and registering the people in the county, he was able to live a stable life as a county magistrate.

Otherwise, he would pick up the bowl to eat, and the next moment he would ride on horseback to chase and kill the rebellious little barbarians.

Black Bear was not in a hurry either, as he was about to take up his new official position.

The Grand Marshal is a high-ranking official, and Guanzhong is to be governed by the public office. In this situation, Liu Ye, the military advisor, is in an awkward position.

Even the Chief Secretary Chen Zhen had to move.

Liu Ye calmed down and asked thoughtfully, "How many troops can you leave for Shangjun?"

"I will give you five battalions of garrisons, which will be served in rotation by soldiers from Guanzhong. One of them will be a cavalry battalion."

"Yulin will be the royal court of the Right Wise King for the next ten years or so. I will send a relative to serve as the Right Wise King, and he will guard the border."

"I have only one request for Shangjun. I hope you will join hands with him to eliminate the barbarians and bandits in the territory during your term of office and give me a clean Shangjun."

Black Bear looked at Liu Ye and tried to speak sincerely: "I have already negotiated with Hebei. With my merits in defeating the Xiongnu and recovering the three counties, I should be appointed as the Grand Marshal. When your term is complete, I will treat you as the Jingzhao Yin. Before that, the Jingzhao Yin is a nominal position."

Liu Ye was still a young man after all, and he couldn't stand such ups and downs: "Yes, I will obey your command."

Black Bear raised his hand and patted Liu Ye's shoulder, saying earnestly: "Chang'an is not a paradise. I will build a fortress in Ganquan Mountain in the spring to serve as the residence of my Grand Marshal's Mansion. You will be a psychological and political soldier outside. This is a position that countless people envy. Don't despise it."

"Yes, I understand the general's intentions."

Liu Ye nodded and calmed down: "The situation is strange and changeable. I will keep an eye on Shangjun for the general."

(End of this chapter)