Smoke and dust billowed at the end of the almost abandoned official road, and the rumble of horse hooves came like thunder in the distance, causing the ground covered with weeds to tremble slightly.
When two or three villages within a thousand miles radius heard the noise, they immediately sounded the alarm. The large wooden doors connecting the inside and outside were quickly closed, and soon there were many young men holding fine iron swords and guns on the tall wooden walls.
"A few years have passed, but I didn't expect that the changes here have been so great, and villages have appeared!"
The rumbling sound of horse hooves was getting louder and louder like thunder, and a Guanzi flag was flying high. Even the smoke and dust could not hide its arrogance and edge.
A big man with a red face was riding on a maroon horse, squinting his eyes and looking for hundreds of miles. When he saw the overreaction of those villages, he couldn't help but smile and said to the man dressed as a scribe next to him.
"General Guan is joking. The hinterland of Qingzhou has been very peaceful in recent years!"
The scribe said with a smile while riding his horse: "Qingzhou has suffered from wars before and the people were displaced. When the situation stabilizes a little, they will naturally choose a place to settle down!"
"That's not right, Mr. Mi, I saw clearly just now that there are only two or three villages within a thousand miles!"
The red-faced man squinted his eyes, and his voice was unhurried but very clear: "Aren't you afraid of encountering bandits? Why don't you enter the Yellow Turban territory?"
"This person does know!"
Mr. Mi smiled bitterly and said: "These villages were actually built by a certain clan. Those clan leaders would not agree with the Yellow Turban collar's approach, so they had to build villages on the periphery to support themselves!"
The red-faced man suddenly fell silent. He did not say anything more, but led a cavalry team of ten thousand men under his command, escorted hundreds of carts of money and went straight to Qingzhou Yellow Turban Leader.
Don't talk about clan affairs to him. Even the eldest brother Liu Bei doesn't dare to touch it easily, otherwise it will be a huge disaster.
Yes, the red-faced man is Guan Yu, and the Mr. Mi next to him is Mi Zhu. Their destination is Qingzhou Yellow Turban. In addition to purchasing enough military supplies, they also have other important tasks.
The relationship between the Liu Bei Group and the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans is very complicated, and they have never lost contact.
Or to be more precise, the Liu Bei Group was supported by the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans, which allowed them to stay in Xuzhou until now and not be driven out, and their power and strength have increased to varying degrees.
Although this kind of thing is a bit embarrassing, the fact is the fact, and Guan Yu will not make excuses because of his arrogance.
The Liu Bei Group purchases a large amount of ordnance supplies from the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans almost every year. Every time, the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans do not make any discounts and even send an extra batch of sophisticated ordnance. This is Chi Luoluo's support.
I don’t know how Qingzhou Yellow Turban got it. The ordnance materials produced are all of extremely high quality. Any fine steel long knife can be compared to the finished product made by a good craftsman. Even the Qinglong sword used by Guan Yu at this time was specially purchased from Qingzhou.
Made by the Yellow Turban, it is not only the right weight but also extremely sharp, which is just right for his fighting style.
Although the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans collected enough money from each transaction, in fact, this approach was to support the Liu Bei Group.
Not to mention the current troubled times where heroes are fighting, even before the order of the Han Empire has completely collapsed, it is not easy to purchase enough military supplies even if the government gives the green light, and the price is astonishingly high.
Nowadays, we are in troubled times, and those who have the ability to make weapons are basically the powerful and aristocratic families from all over the world. Sometimes, no matter how high the price is, you can't even hope to purchase enough weapons and equipment.
But the Qingzhou Yellow Turban is quite generous. No matter how much quantity the Liu Bei Group needs, as long as it spends normal purchasing expenses, it can basically be satisfied, and it can be done in a very short time.
If this is not called support, what is it called?
Mi Zhu, the chief steward of the Liu Bei Group, makes a trip to Qingzhou Yellow Turban almost every year, so he is quite able to accept the changes here.
It's really helpless to say that although Liu Bei is now the nominal lord of Xuzhou, the resources he can mobilize are very limited. There are too many powerful families in Xuzhou and their power is too huge.
Liu Bei walks the world in the name of benevolence and righteousness, and naturally he will not destroy his reputation, so his life in Xuzhou is not very good. Of course, both the resources he has and the talents he can utilize are much better than when he was in Pingyuan.
, it’s not in vain for him to fight with all his strength.
The violent Cao Jun is not that easy to deal with. Even if Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, the two most powerful generals, can kill ten thousand men with one man, they often go into battle shirtless at critical moments. However, in a battle with tens of millions of people, they can only affect a small area.
The trend of war in the region.
Cao's army is not without its heroes. Whether it is the Xiahou brothers or the heroes of the Cao family, there are indeed several top-notch generals among them. Together with the extremely brave Cao army, their combat power is strong enough to stop the terrifying impact of Guan Zhang.
If it weren't for the tall city walls of Xuzhou's important towns, Liu Bei's troops, and the millions of elite Danyang soldiers under Daqian, the faction would not have been able to withstand Cao Jun's fierce offensive.
Just like this, in the series of earth-shattering bloody battles, Xuzhou Mu's millions of Danyang elite soldiers were almost wiped out, and Liu Bei's group's 1.5 million horses were reduced to less than 500,000.
Guan Zhang and Cao Cao's army fought from the ground to the sky, and then from the sky to the ground. Their violent energy blasted huge cracks in the land thousands of miles around. They were also exhausted and found it difficult to continue.
When the situation was at its most critical, Liu Bei was ready to send Mi Zhu to ask for help from the Qingzhou Yellow Turban Army.
The risk of doing this was quite high. A reputation that had not been managed for many years was gone. At that time, Liu Bei was extremely anxious and had no choice.
As for Xuzhou's senior officials, all of them were very weak and courageous. They were all ready to run away and surrender. Even the three brothers Liu Bei became a bargaining chip for their surrender.
Fortunately, at the most dangerous moment, something happened to Cao Jun's lair, and Cao Jun had to retreat from Xuzhou.
The Liu Bei Group took this opportunity to take control of Xuzhou, but unfortunately without the great enemy Cao Jun, the aristocratic families in Xuzhou did not cooperate very well, and the resources they could mobilize were less than imagined.
For example, steel smelting and weapons manufacturing are basically in the hands of Xuzhou's aristocratic families.
As the lord of Xuzhou, Liu Bei has the ability to start from scratch. However, it is a huge project to build a complete set of metal mines from scratch to smelting, and then to the creation of military equipment. It will take at least three to five years.
unit.
Fortunately, the Liu Bei Group was able to purchase enough ordnance supplies from the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans, and at the same time, it was difficult to establish its own military industry system. However, three years later, it can only produce a small amount. This makes the Liu Bei Group very depressed. Obviously, they
Previous estimates still underestimated the difficulty of establishing a military-industrial system.
The aristocratic families in Xuzhou are not good people. Naturally, they will not just watch Liu Bei's group grow and gradually control the military and political power of Xuzhou. For this reason, they did not hesitate to lure wolves into the house and invited Lu Bu, the evil god, to Xuzhou in order to contain Liu Bei.
group.
Their goal was achieved. The arrival of Lu Bu and his men, Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry, made Liu Bei's group feel like they were facing a formidable enemy, and most of their energy was diverted to defending against this guy.
With millions of Bingzhou wolf cavalry, under the command of Lu Bu, they could even force their military spirit to form and become one of the absolute elite.
There are still 80,000 trapped in the camp. Under the leadership of the general Gao Shun, their combat power is unparalleled and they can be called the elite in the world. Not even Guan Zhang Zhiyong has the confidence to fight head-on without any damage.
In addition, there are generals such as Zhang Liao, who is also a first-rate military general, and Cao Xing, who have their own characteristics and are second-rate generals, each of whom is good at it.
Even if Liu Bei is capable, he doesn't dare to say that he can control the most powerful general in the world like Lu Bu.
By the way, Lu Bu is also a good guy. He couldn't survive in Chang'an and came to join Yuan Shao.
Yuan Shao was worried that he would not be able to control him, and he did not want to waste his strength and directly kill him, so he had to let him go and harm Cao Cao. As a result, Cao Cao's lair was almost captured by him.
If Cao Cao's army had not evacuated from Xuzhou in time and arrived with reinforcements when the last few cities in his lair were crumbling, suppressing and driving away the arrogant Lu Bu who was capable of killing, Cao Cao would have become homeless.
What a big joke.
That's it. Afraid of Lu Bu's powerful personal force, Cao Jun did not dare to pursue too closely for fear of being killed by Lu Bu. Even top-notch guys like the Xiahou brothers, who barely reached the threshold of peerless warriors, did not dare to say that they could survive whole body.
retreat.
At this time, the Xuzhou family invited Lu Bu to settle in. Although Liu Bei's group was unhappy, they could only accept it with a pinched nose. They assigned an area of more than 100,000 miles around Xiaopei to be stationed by Lu Bu and his men, Bingzhou Langqi. The relationship between the two families was still at odds with each other.
They could barely coexist, and this state of affairs lasted for nearly three years.
Liu Bei's group was eager to break this situation, but a major event happened at this time. Liu Bei, as a clan member of the Han Dynasty, had to send troops. Liu Da'er immediately thought of the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans and asked Guan Yu to come over in person.
While purchasing a large amount of military supplies from the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans, they also invited the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans to send troops to participate in major events.
Because the relationship with the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans has always been good, and there is a large-scale sale of military equipment every year, the Liu Bei Group has a rough estimate of the strength of the Qingzhou Yellow Turban Army. Except for the military generals, only Taishi Ci, Guan Hai and Wu Anguo support the scene.
The generals are not worth mentioning.
However, the combat power of the Qingzhou Yellow Turban Army cannot be underestimated. Three years ago, a strong military force emerged from the battle with the Jizhou Army. After three years, the Qingzhou Yellow Turban Army's combat power will definitely reach a higher level.
Except for Guan Yu, who is arrogant and has not had direct contact with the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans for many years, both Liu Bei and Zhang Fei have sufficient respect for the combat power of the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans. This time, Guan Yu came here to see it with his own eyes.
Purpose.
But when he arrived at the outer area of Qingzhou Huangjin Territory, Guan Yu was a little surprised. With his eyesight, he could see several villages within a thousand miles. He pointed at one of the villages and asked curiously: "Why, the swords and guns in the hands of these village guards look like