Chapter 492 Born from sorrow
On the morning of the eighth day, Ganquan Mountain was even cooler and fresher after the night rain.

In the spacious barracks, Black Bear was concentrating on fiddling with a large Ganquan sand table.

The entire sand table is ten feet in radius and is placed on a square table. It condenses the current conditions of Ganquan's four townships and roads, mountains, rivers, and forests.

This is the site of Ganquan Palace from the Western Han Dynasty. At that time, Ganquan Palace was definitely not Emperor Wu’s personal summer palace.

The number of nobles, relatives, royal family members, officials, stationed troops and slaves who lived here with Emperor Wu was no less than 200,000 or 300,000.

Chang'an is the imperial capital, and government decisions come from Ganquan, which can be said to be the second capital.

At the same time, Ganquan is located on the Qinzhi Road, closer to the north, which is conducive to commanding the front-line troops.

Therefore, there are a large number of architectural ruins remaining near Ganquan Mountain. The biggest advantage of using these ruins is that it saves the work of leveling and hardening the ground.

In the future, Black Bear does not plan to stay in Chang'an for a long time. He will stay in Ganquan in summer and autumn, and in the south of Shanglinyuan in winter and spring.

With Ganquan's current development, it is time to rebuild the city.

He carefully observed the sand table and said to Fa Zheng beside him: "Ganquan is the place for government administration, and the entertainment facilities will be left in Chiyang. From now on, there will only be officials, garrison troops, and the wives, concubines and children of officials and soldiers. Servants and the like will be sent by the government, and private slaves are not allowed to stay here."

Fa Zheng remained silent. This made it even further away for the merchants to get closer to the center of the shogunate.

He held the wooden whip and walked around Ganquan, gesturing: "Should we build a wall around it?"

"This is useless stuff, there is no need to waste people's energy."

Black Bear used the wooden whip in his hand to pick up thumb-sized fortress models and placed them everywhere: "This is my way of building a city. If the enemy really attacks Ganquan, it won't matter whether there are city walls or not. Once the fortresses are built, the officials and people will be loyal to the shogunate. Even if there is a disturbance, the enemy will find it difficult to sweep in."

The fortresses everywhere are what Black Bear considers to be his greatest good policy.

A verbal promise may be broken in just one night, not to mention a generation.

Only such a solid and stable fortress can give officials and people the confidence to fight against disasters.

Seeing the small villages and towns formed by three or five fortresses, and the valley roads filled with them one by one, Fa Zheng said: "Your Majesty cherishes the people's strength, but I am worried that the people will suffer when the army is on an expedition."

"Don't worry, Xiaozhi, this will definitely happen."

Black Bear smiled and said, "I was originally hesitant about whether to continue hiding Qinghua Guard. Qinghua Guard can hide from mediocre people, but not from heroes in troubled times. Rather than being ambiguous, it is better to let my sword unsheath to prevent it from rusting."

"I will divide my troops into five groups during this expedition, leaving Guanzhong empty. This way, even if there is chaos, my veteran soldiers will not be involved."

"Five roads?"

Fa Zheng was shocked. Black Bear smiled but said nothing. Fa Zheng thought for a moment, "Your Majesty, are you planning to use a false or real strategy?"

"Not bad at all."

Black Bear suppressed his smile. As long as he mobilized the troops, he would turn Shuzhong, Jingzhou, Xiahou Dun in Luozhong, Hebei, and Youzhou into enemies for defense.

By then, all parties might not dare to move until the news of the battle situation of the Eastern Xianbei is clear.

The Eastern Xianbei war was a war of conquest, and what they wanted was people and livestock rather than land.

Black Bear had no interest in meeting with Gongsun Kang and Liu Bei in the bitter cold of Northeast China or signing any oath.

As long as they defeated the Eastern Xianbei and immediately withdrew with the main spoils, they could leave the subsequent cleanup and reaping the brunt of the losses to the Xianbei and Xiongnu.

Let them have some soup, and if Liu Bei sends troops to help, they can also plunder some.

After a successful attack, they would quickly return to Guanzhong and start the next war.

Few commanders on all sides are merciful. Rather than being worn down or dragged to death, they will definitely take the initiative to start a war.

If you take the initiative to start a war, you still have a chance of winning.

If a person with the courage to sacrifice himself starts a war, others will surely follow. If the war reports from the Eastern Xianbei do not appear, all parties can still be patient and restrained, hoping that the brave Eastern Xianbei will defeat them.

The defeat of the Eastern Xianbei meant that the South, north of Liaodong, would inevitably be the first to go to war.

Liu Ba came to Guanzhong with the mentality that he would die and become a martyr. He wanted to use his life to strengthen the courage of the big families in Jingnan and Jiangdong to fight.

Therefore, it doesn’t matter whether to send a governor to Jingzhou, because this place is destined to be destroyed.

I just hope there won’t be too many variables in Jingzhou, otherwise it will cause unrest in Shu as well.

The bad thing about the territory acquired through forced landing and diplomatic mediation is that it contains complex and inherent forces.

Even if they divide up their family businesses like the Zhang and Wang families did, their appeal and mobilization power in the local area still exists.

Hidden weapons cannot disappear out of thin air, and armed forces can be mobilized at any time.

While they are preparing for war, all parties are also making similar preparations for a decisive battle.

There is no such thing as surrendering and losing half, and even if they agree, they can't bear to do so.

In this land, the winner takes all since ancient times.

A founding emperor like Emperor Guangwu, who was blessed by heaven and had many supporters, was destined to be unable to investigate the partners who helped him conquer the world.

How can a court that cannot even inspect the land have any executive power?

But Fa Zheng had a different opinion. He said, "Your Majesty, the Donghu are far away and have no aggression against us. We should put it aside for now. Jingzhou is close at hand and is a fertile land. We should first conquer Jingnan and destroy Changsha. This will open up Jiaozhou and gain the benefits of the South China Sea. In this way, the stubborn bandits in Jingzhou can also be driven into Jiangdong. Then we can station troops in Jiangxia to resist them."

"By isolating the pseudo-dynasty in the southeast, Shuzhong will naturally be stable."

"In this way, the money and food supplies in Shu will leave the Three Gorges and gather in Jingzhou. During this time, warships will be built and the navy will be trained. When the time is right, we will send 200,000 troops down the river and conquer Jiangdong in one battle. The fake dynasty will be destroyed, and the rest will be just clowns. There is no need to worry about them."

Fa Zheng said, cupping his hands: "Your Majesty, you should act with integrity, why worry about the shame left by the two Han dynasties?"

Seeing that Black Bear was silent and did not refute, Fa Zheng went on to say: "The success or failure of the world is controlled by the king. The clowns are already dying. Their bodies will perish, their writings will be destroyed, and their descendants will be extinct. Who will care about the king's descendants?"

"Xiaozhi is right. This is the quickest way to pacify the world. That is why Liu Ba came to Guanzhong to seek death."

Black Bear walked around the table and looked at the sand table, his eyes drooping: "He wants to force me to submit. I will not do as he wishes, and it can also inspire the South to resist."

"It's just Xiaozhi, I want to expand the world more."

Black Bear folded his arms and opened them: "This world is big, and we will all grow old. Killing the enemy is a simple matter, but it is really difficult to let tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of heroes go to foreign lands to open up their foundations in tattered clothes. We can only force the enemy to open up foreign lands."

"Your Majesty, do you know what's happening overseas?"

"This is not a secret. The world is just too big."

Black Bear sighed with emotion: "In the past, Zhang Qian went on a diplomatic mission to the Western Regions and brought back many good breeds. This is just the Western Regions. If we go to more distant places to survey and explore, perhaps our descendants will no longer suffer from hunger and cold."

Fa Zheng was silent. Thinking that he had just entered adulthood, he was not so determined to go south to Jingzhou and quickly pacify the world.

Anyway, I am young and the Grand Marshal is wise and brave.

Even if the Grand Marshal was addicted to women, he could still restore the situation with the Grand Marshal's trust.

The worst situation is that I can repay your kindness with my own death.

Fa Zheng thought about it and nodded slowly: "Then let them go. I hope they will understand."

In response to this, Black Bear smiled and said, "This will also help future generations grow. The remaining enemies overseas are stubborn by nature and are always trying to make a comeback. Future generations will also have something to do."

"This is the principle of being born in sorrow and dying in comfort."

(End of this chapter)