The General's Mansion has a double blessing. Firstly, Huang Zu, the traitor who caused trouble in Jiangxia, has been entrusted to Echeng. Secondly...
But it didn't come from Zhang Ling. After all, Chen Gong's talk about moving the Guyue tribe was just a "thought", a good start, but no actual benefits yet.
Moreover... the next step is to chase tigers and devour wolves, and drive Baiyue to attack the Wuling barbarians in Jingzhou. It is not easy to tell them.
The real happy event is that the imperial court awarded him "Nine Tins" and he came to Jinling for the fourth time!
Bai Tu had declined three times before, and these four times...the imperial court was so determined, and people from more than a hundred counties in Yangzhou sent dozens of letters from the people, all of which were urging Bai Tu to accept Jiuxi.
Helplessly, Bai Tu, as a thin-skinned person, had no choice but to accept it.
The celebration banquet for Jiangxia’s victory added a bit of joy!
At the same time, the envoys also brought news from the Prime Minister's Office to Cao Pi and Sima Lang. At this time, the puppet general Yuan Shao and the Prime Minister's Office had already dispatched troops to Liyang and Yanjin respectively.
The two places are important towns to the north and south of the Yellow River respectively. The war between Hebei and the Central Plains... is about to break out!
In terms of numbers alone, it even exceeds that of the Jingyang battlefield. Yuan Shao dominates Qingjiyou north of the Yellow River and merges with the four states, Wuhuan, and Liaodong. Their vitality has been severely damaged by Yuan Shao before, and less than half of the Black Mountain bandits have come out to join.
There is also abundant food and fodder, and the power of war horses, it can be said to be a powerful force. The army is said to be one million, and the cavalry is one hundred thousand!
Of course, it is just a claim, but in fact, with the population of Qingjiyou and the four states, it has just experienced the battle between Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan. No matter how fat Hebei is, it is impossible to have more than a million troops, but...
It is very possible that there are five or six hundred thousand.
In addition, Yuan Shao took over the four states of Hebei, and naturally had to bear the responsibility of resisting the Xiongnu, Qianghu, and Xianbei in the north in Hetao. Liaodong also had to guard Gongsun Du...
Although it may not be possible to fight with real swords and guns, or even to cooperate, but... the premise is that there must be enough troops left to intimidate, otherwise there will definitely be a fight!
Just like Bai Tu, some people must be separated to stay in Yuzhang and Zhangling.
Those who can be pulled to the Yellow River battlefield are estimated to be "only" 300,000 - don't underestimate 300,000... The more the army is concentrated, the greater the pressure on logistics. Counting the civilians who need to be recruited at the same time, the total number of people is actually
Reaching a million is not necessarily impossible!
Moreover, there cannot be one hundred thousand cavalry, but there are thirty thousand. In the world of Chengji, an elite cavalry requires at least two batches of good horses and four or five rogue horses to be "trained".
Just like a real cavalry requires several horses.
Yuan Shao is definitely the most generous prince in terms of cavalry nowadays...
As for Cao Cao, although he had all the yellow turbans in Qingzhou and occupied Runan, but... at full cost, he only had about 100,000 troops and a few thousand cavalry that could be used in the north.
It is slightly weaker than in history without the White Rabbit Effect - although due to Bai Tu's previous disaster relief, the population of Runan is larger than the remaining population in history, but... Xuzhou and Huainan are not under Cao Cao's control now.
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But it is not too weak. After all, Xuzhou was "slaughtered" by Cao Cao before, especially the Pengcheng area, which has long been overdrawn by Cao Cao. In fact, Liu Bei has been the worst in recent years. Xuzhou has a large population, but a serious shortage of manpower.
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As for Huainan... Historically, Cao Cao's Huainan was originally a Huainan that had ten houses and nine empty houses after the drought. Moreover, most of the people in Huainan later moved south to the east of the Yangtze River. When they competed with Yuan Shao, Huainan was just an empty space!
So Cao Cao is not much weaker than in history, but... his potential is much weaker.
Moreover, at this time Liu Bei had already come to Xudu alone under Cao Cao's repeated urging.
Liu Bei had hesitated before, but under the current situation, if Cao Liu does not join forces, he will only be annexed by Yuan Shao, and Cao Liu joins forces... The gap between Liu Bei and Cao Cao is wider than the gap between Cao Cao and Bai Tu!
On the other hand, Liu Bei also heard some rumors in Xuzhou, saying that Cao Cao bullied the Han emperor...
Liu Bei didn't have much confidence in Cao Cao's character before, but... in Liu Bei's eyes, or in the eyes of most people, massacring a city and treating the emperor poorly are definitely two different things - the latter
The nature is much more serious!
Especially recently, the imperial court has repeatedly awarded Bai Tu nine tins. Although Bai Tu has been refusing, anyone with a discerning eye knows that this is "three concessions and three concessions"...
For a while, Liu Bei could no longer completely believe in Bai Tu - indeed, he could only rely on himself to help the Han Dynasty!
So, Liu Bei decided to go to Chaozhong to have a look in person.
Of course, Liu Bei is now also a prince, unlike in history when he was still relying on others during the Battle of Guandu.
Although he came to Xudu in person, his second brother and third brother were both leading troops in Xuzhou, so Cao Cao did not dare to touch him easily.
…
The ceremony for awarding the Nine Tins has already been held in Jinling.
People in the Han Dynasty actually didn't know what the etiquette of "Nine Tins" in the Zhou Rites looked like. Before Wang Mang, Confucian scholars in the Han Dynasty only studied it from an academic perspective.
It can be said that Wang Mang's etiquette when conferring Nine Tins was original to Wang Mang, but Cao Cao... I don't know whether he didn't have time to create something original, or he was deliberately making trouble. At this time, he completely copied the "Nine Tins" ceremony at the turn of the Han Dynasty!
However, Bai Tu didn't want to cause any further complications, so he hastily cooperated with the court's guard of honor and completed the process.
What Ling Bai Tu didn't expect was that in addition to being able to get rid of the suppression of some of the court's righteousness in name, "granting Nine Tins", which meant that Cao Cao gave up some of his righteous advantages over Bai Tu, it actually had some practical benefits!
Jiuxi refers to nine kinds of things given by the emperor, from carriages and horses to clothing, most of them have only symbolic meanings...
But it also includes three hundred "tiger warriors", as well as bows and arrows for "conquering injustice", and axes and axes for "punishing guilty"!
Although there are only three hundred elite soldiers, but... given the current situation, Cao Cao cannot waste it. Besides, he is willing to give it away, but Baitu is not willing to use it!
So what is actually given is just a name, or a quota.
However, this gave Bai Tu's guards a chance to be promoted and strengthened...
As Bai Tu's personal bodyguard, although it seems that his rank has not changed, but... from the personal bodyguard of Yangzhou Mu, to the personal bodyguard of the Chariot and Cavalry General, to the personal bodyguard of the General... In fact, Bai Tu's personal bodyguard also has
There is no shortage of "rubbing" grades.
Now, he has officially become the personal bodyguard of the "Marquis of Chu", and he is also the titular Tiger Ben given by Jiuxi!
They have been undergoing the most brutal training from Tai Shi Ci and have the best welfare protection from the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Nearly half of the three hundred people have been promoted to gilded armor, and the other half are approaching the limit.
There are also "one red bow, one hundred red arrows, one black bow, one thousand black arrows", which are used as bows and arrows to conquer injustice.
Of course, it's just a symbol. Who can eleven bows and arrows be enough to defeat?
And Cao Cao didn't even come up with eleven sets of bows and arrows, he also gave them "quotas", and... one big and one small, two buckets of pink paint - painted by himself, the ones painted red are Tong Gong and Tong Ya
, those painted black are Xuan Gong and Xuan Ya.
However, in Cheng Ji's world, since it is the Nine Tins awarded by the Han Dynasty, it has the luck bonus of the Han Dynasty. The Tong Gong is about twice as much, and the Xuan Gong is about 30% - this is Lu Su's expectation.
So Baitu directly sealed this batch of "paint".
Okay, don’t you want to save money?
Then save it...
Isn't it true that the more powerful the "arrow" is, the greater the blessing of luck to the Han Dynasty?
Well, that means "double, a hundred times", "30%, a thousand times"... You have to think about it and tap more of the potential of the Han Dynasty!
Bai Tu didn't know yet that under Xi Zhicai's arrangement, the fate of the Han Dynasty, especially the imperial court, had been transferred to Cao Cao's fate, and in the future Cao Cao... would really regret this decision.
After all... you just need to use a strong bow, but if you use it to use it to brush iron knots, is it too much to call it a "Tongyi Cannon"?
This is the next thing...
Now in General Jinling's Mansion, Cao Bang's favorite item is the banquet.
Seeing that it is already summer, Jinling is getting hotter and hotter day by day, but in the General’s Mansion, the Ice Qilin is not enough!
What is ice unicorn?
Legend has it that God was moved by Bai Tu's diligence and hard work and sent down the white jade unicorn, so that Bai Tu could eat more than he could eat and use up endless ice to relieve the heat. Therefore...desserts made with ice are also called "ice unicorns".
These are all stories and dramas!
Sima Lang secretly sneered at this kind of legend - I believe you, you are a ghost! You even sent down the white jade unicorn...
And this is unreasonable. The unicorn appears and the saint appears!
I co-authored such a big vision, and ended up giving you a few pieces of ice? What a shame for Qilin!
But what puzzled Sima Lang was that he had inquired specifically, but never found that the General's Mansion mobilized civilians to harvest ice in the middle of winter...
Could it be that the people in the General's Mansion picked it themselves? Can it last so long?
Not only the General's Mansion itself, but also the staff who were highly regarded by Bai Tu sent ice trucks to various government offices every day. They also sent ice trucks to every household, all day long.
"Boda, look at this ice unicorn. It's cool and cold...does it smell good in this hot summer?" Cao Bang asked Sima Lang seriously.
"It is indeed a rare treasure to relieve summer heat, but..." Sima Lang said and frowned.
As he becomes more and more proficient in boiling sucrose, even Bai Tu is no longer as good as himself. Now there is a folk sugar making craft in Jiangdong...
Naturally, the grasp of "sweetness" has become more and more calm, and the taste of this "Ice Kirin" is getting better and better day by day.
It’s just that Sima Lang still feels that this kind of thing is a model of arrogance, extravagance and debauchery!
However, before he finished his "but", Cao Bang had already interrupted: "In that case, Boda, after the banquet, how about you ask Mr. Bai for some daily ice supply?"
"Ah? Isn't this too abrupt?" Sima Lang was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then when he saw Cao Bang's eyes, he suddenly became ashamed.
Cao Bang's eyes seemed to be saying: [Isn't this rude to you? Aren't you good at this? 】
Sima Lang was reminded of the fear of being dominated by Liulizhan...
Cao Pi couldn't help but said: "Anguo! Don't be rude!"
When Sima Lang heard this, he forced a smile towards Cao Pi - Mr. Pi was still caring.
"Before, Liuli Zhan could be said to be liked by Boda and his second brother. Now that Boda's second brother is not here, how can we use it as an excuse to ask for Bing Qilin... Ahem, I meant 'reason'." Cao Pi reprimanded.