.    (ps: I was so drunk yesterday, and today I was feeling uncomfortable all day long, with fewer words. Please understand.)

"father--!"

Accompanied by Lu Die Xiao Luoli's cry, the little Luoli fainted in Tao Ying's arms. After nearly two years, the battle for Yanzhou, which had been twists and turns, finally came to an end. The Lu Bu army, which once almost captured the entire Yanzhou area, was wiped out, and the commander Lu Bu was also killed by the Cao army's indiscriminate guns. The Cao army, who had almost lost all the city and territory, fought back against the Jedi, and relied on the direct help of his ally Yuan Shao's army and secretly assisted the Xuzhou army, successfully reversed the battle and regained all the cities and lands of the eight counties of Yanzhou.

This was a long and cruel battle. Although the honorary victor Cao's army regained the land and cities, they also paid a huge price. The most prosperous and richest land in the eight counties of Yanzhou was almost flattened by the war, with a large population loss, the economy was on the verge of collapse, and the overall strength was seriously weakened. Yuan Shao's army, who had always stood on the same front as Cao's army, also paid a considerable price and was forced to support Cao's army to provide a large amount of money and food, and lost a lot of troops, which in turn affected the battle between Yuan Shao's army and Gongsun Zan's army in Youzhou, which made the declining Gongsun Zan's army win a period of breathing time, but in the end it almost gained nothing.

What made Boss Cao so angry was that he leaned against the wall to watch the wind and cleverly chose the opportunity to take action. The Xuzhou army, which had a grudge against Boss Cao to kill his father, unexpectedly became the biggest winner of the Yanzhou war. With only paying part of the money and grain price, the Xuzhou army first used the Lu Bu army to seriously weaken the overall strength of the Cao army. He also successfully held Yuan Shao's thick thighs and betrayed the Lu Bu army to join the victor's camp at a critical moment. He stole the greatest victory in the military talents and strengthened his own strength. At the same time, the five counties of Xuzhou, which were once severely injured, also won nearly two years of rest time. Not only did their own land not be ravaged by the war, but he also took the opportunity to restore the people's livelihood economy, further widened the economic gap with Yanzhou, and consolidated the money and grain foundation necessary for the war.

No matter how much he hated, there was no way to go. Tao Yingzheng, who had held Yuan Shao's thick thighs, fought with Yuan Shao's beloved son Yuan Shang. So good that the oil was mixed in honey. Boss Cao, who had just been severely injured, had just taken the risk of offending Yuan Shao and started a war with the Xuzhou army immediately. He could only watch the Xuzhou army robbed the most elite soldiers and generals of the Lu Bu army. In the end, he had to thank Yuan Shao and the Xuzhou army, carefully invited the two plague gods out of Yanzhou, signed a joint alliance with the Xuzhou army, and vowed never to offend each other.

Of course, Mr. Cao did not gain nothing in terms of talent. At least Chen Gong, the number one think tank of Lu Bu's army, and Zhang Liao, the cavalry general of Lu Bu's army, were captured by Cao's army. However, Chen Gong's hatred for Mr. Cao was not a little bit. Whether Mr. Cao was moved by emotion or threatening force, he refused to surrender to Mr. Cao, and kept asking for death. Mr. Cao was forced to do nothing and did not have the courage to hand over this dangerous role to Yuan Shang or Tao Ying. He could only be beheaded and executed, and then took Chen Gong's mother and wife back to Dongjun to support him.

As for Zhang Liao, although Tao Ying secretly found Boss Cao and expressed his willingness to take out some money and grain to redeem Zhang Liao on the basis of keeping his promise to hand over the Xiangyang cannon sketch, Boss Cao refused to agree. At the same time, Zhang Liao himself also expressed his willingness to surrender Boss Cao. Therefore, Tao Ying could only watch Zhang Liao throw himself into Boss Cao's arms with great regret. The Xiangyang cannon sketch he had promised to Boss Cao had only exchanged for more than 600 ordinary prisoners of Lu Bu's army.

However, Deputy Director Tao wanted to break his promise this time, but considering that the Cao army and Yuan Shao army still needed to restrain each other, the horses traded with Yuan Shao army must pass through Yanzhou land. Considering that the gravity leverage technical content of Xiangyang cannons is not high, it is difficult to keep it confidential even if they are not given. Therefore, Tao Ying could only grit his teeth and fulfill his promise and hand over the sketch of Xiangyang cannons that had done some tricks to Cao, in exchange for a short peaceful life with Cao, and the road to war horse trade is smooth.

At the end of November of the second year of Xingping, when the first winter snow fell from the land of Yanzhou, Tao Ying bid farewell to his third brother-in-law Yuan Shang, and also bid farewell to the eldest daughter Cao, who had long wanted the Xuzhou army to leave, led the Xuzhou army to set off south and returned to his current base camp, Pengcheng, Xuzhou. The 10,000 Xuzhou troops at the time of departure had already become more than 14,000 people. At the same time, those brought back to Xuzhou by Tao Ying were Lu Bu's family and Lu Bu's own coffin - Tao Ying wanted to win people's hearts, and Cao didn't want to bear the infamy of blaspheming the enemy's body. With each need, Cao Cao made a favor and agreed to Tao Ying's request to bring Lu Bu's body back to Xuzhou for burial.

Of course, in order to disgust Tao Yinghe indirectly restrain the Xuzhou army, when seeing off the Xuzhou army, Cao Boss deliberately took out the Tao Cao alliance signed by Tao Ying, asking Tao Ying to fulfill the last article of the Tao Cao alliance, and cut the Xuzhou army's garrison in Xiaopei to 1,000 people. Tao Yingze didn't even blink his eyelids, and patted his chest and assured him: "Please rest assured, uncle, my nephew may have no other strengths, but he has always been able to show off his reputation. Xiao Pei will definitely only station one thousand troops, and there will be no more soldiers and soldiers!"

"I hope my nephew will be trusted." Boss Cao sneered and said, "If my nephew doesn't mind, I want to send Man Chong Man Boning as an envoy to Xiaopei to supervise the nephew to reduce the garrison. Of course, my nephew can also send envoys to Hulu to supervise the count of my garrison in Hulu."

"There is no need for this. My nephew can trust my uncle." Tao Ying waved generously, and Cao Lao Da sneered repeatedly. While bowing to Tao Ying, he sent Cao Hong and Man Chong to lead a thousand elite troops south to supervise the Xuzhou army to go south and reduce the Xiaopei garrison. He also prepared to station this elite troops to Hulu County, which had been abandoned in the war, and build Hulu into a bridgehead to attack Xuzhou. At the same time, Cao Lao Da decided to stay in Shanyang to indirectly contain the Xuzhou army, so that the Xuzhou army could not develop south with peace of mind.

After a long time, the reason why the Xuzhou army repeatedly asked the Xuzhou army to reduce the garrison of Xiaopei was that the five counties of Xuzhou were located in the North China Plain. Although there were flat lands for reclamation and planting everywhere, there were no decent mountains to guard. Except for a city surrounded by water on three sides, which could be used as a barrier on the northern line, other cities were all without dangers and surrounded by enemies on all sides. Once the Xiaopei city fell into the hands of the Cao army, the two major cities of Pengcheng and Donghai in Xuzhou were immediately exposed to the sword of the Cao army. Therefore, for Cao, the fewer troops of Xuzhou army in Xiaopei, the better. In the future, the Cao army suddenly turned against each other. As long as one raided to capture Xiaopei City, the hinterland of Xuzhou would be in a hurry everywhere.

At the same time, if the Xuzhou army reduced the garrison of Xiaopei. In order to strengthen the northern defense line, it would inevitably increase its garrison in other cities in the East China Sea and Pengcheng counties, which not only dispersed Xuzhou's troops, but also increased the burden of money and food. It was impossible to invest the main force in the southern battlefield.

Although Cao's plan was good, unfortunately, Cao Da seriously underestimated the thickness of Deputy Director Tao's face. When Tao Ying sent an envoy to the Cao army in Hulu and informed Xiaopei that the garrison had been reduced, the Cao army envoy Man Chong also walked sixty miles happily to Xiaopei City to count the Xuzhou garrison, the first thing that came to Man Boning's eyes was that although there were indeed only one thousand regular Xuzhou troops, there were still more than three thousand Xiaopei County yamen runners!

In a fit of anger, Man Chong quickly found Sun Guan, the governor of Xiaopei of Xuzhou Army, to negotiate. Sun Guan pointed to the 'yamen runners' in the city and said with politeness: "Mr. Man, please see clearly that they are not troops, but yamen runners! They are yamen runners who maintain Xiaopei's public order! In the alliance between our two armies, is there any provision that Xiaopei County is not allowed to have yamen runners?"

Looking at the Xiaopei 'yamen runners' holding regular military weapons, Man Chong was stunned and naturally shouted again, "There are only more than 8,000 people in Xiaopei City, but there are more than 3,000 yamen runners in the county government. There are less than three people who have one yamen runner to maintain public order. Is there such a strange thing in the world?"

"There may be a little more yamen runners, but it doesn't matter. It's better to have more yamen runners." Sun Guan replied with a smile: "Besides, you should not bear the money and grain for raising these yamen runners. Mr. Man doesn't have to worry about the excessive expenditure of money and grain for us."

"I'm convinced. The Tao Envoy's face is more than just thick." Man Chong sighed helplessly. After the news came back to Changyi, Boss Cao, who was smiling and waiting for the news in Changyi City, was stunned and couldn't help but sigh: "I'm convinced. The face of this Tao Ying Xiaozhei is thicker than that of Xiaopei's city wall!"

When Boss Cao sighed so helplessly, Tao Ying had already led the team back to Xuzhou City and began to reward the surrendered soldiers and generals of the Lu Bu army, dispersed the elite soldiers of the Lu Bu army, and reorganized them into various teams of the Xuzhou army, allowing these veteran soldiers to undertake the training tasks and help the young master soldiers in the Xuzhou army improve their combat effectiveness. The only team that has not been reorganized was the only team of the Shanzhen Camp. Moreover, Tao Ying also adopted Gao Shun's suggestion and asked Gao Shun to select some elite soldiers from the Lu Bu army's surrendered soldiers, making up for eight hundred for the Shanzhen Camp, making them the infantry ace of the Xuzhou army.

After finally finishing the reorganization of the army, it was already mid-twelfth lunar month. As the Chinese New Year was about to come, Tao Ying planned to reward the three armies again. When he asked Chen Deng to discuss the reward amount with Lu Su, Chen Deng smiled bitterly and said, "Lord, you really have no money to spend? Do you know how much gold, silver and copper coins are left in our state Curry? Not to mention rewarding more than 70,000 military soldiers, even the salary for the first three months of the next year will be dangerous."

"We have no money?" Tao Ying was stunned and said in surprise: "No, I remember the last time I counted the state warehouse, we still had more than 3,000 kilograms of gold, more than 2,000 kilograms of silver and more than 60 million yuan, why didn't it go?"

"Lord, you are talking about the May treasury." Chen Deng smiled bitterly while taking out the expense list: "In the past six months, our army has first fought the Zhuyi War, and rewarded a large number of meritorious soldiers to win over the elite soldiers and generals under the command of Lu Wenhou. In addition, the Yanzhou War, supporting Lu Wenhou, asking for peace from Yuan Shao, expanding the army, building warships and lords prepared to marry Yuan Benchu's daughter, and the gold, silver and copper coins left to you have been almost tortured."

After reading the list of gold, silver and copper coins he had squandered, Tao Ying, the number one prodigal son in Xuzhou, pursed his lips and stopped talking. Chen Dengze said again: "Of course, if the lord just wants gold, silver and jewelry, this is not difficult. As long as we relax the trade in grain and cloth, some of the princes around Xuzhou want to buy grain from us, and the price can be sold at a high price."

"You can't let go." Tao Ying shook his head decisively and said in a deep voice: "In this chaotic world, grain and cloth are hard currency and the most important strategic materials. Gold, silver and copper coins are just dead items, they cannot be eaten or worn. No matter how much they hold in their hands, it is useless. You cannot do the stupid thing of using strategic materials for gold, silver and copper coins. Besides, our grain and cloth are only a little surplus. If we sell them, we will be in a difficult position."

"Then this year, we can only reward the three armies with food and cloth." Chen Deng said helplessly.

Tao Ying pursed her lips again. Tao Ying was not reluctant to reward the three armies with grain and cloth. The key was that once these grain and cloth were rewarded, they would likely be sold to cash or gold or silver by soldiers who were not short of food and clothing. These grain and cloth would then be smuggled out of the country, and then they might be smuggled out of the country in exchange for the gold, silver and jewelry dug from the grave by Boss Cao. After these gold and silver jewelry flowed into Xuzhou, they could only be circulated within the five counties of Xuzhou, and they could not buy any decent things from the surrounding areas. What is the point of using such gold, silver and jewelry?

"Smuggling?" Thinking of this word, Tao Ying naturally remembered another thing. He hurriedly called out, "Cao Hong."

Behind the screen, he quietly walked out of the Tao family's old lackey left by Tao Qian to Tao Ying. Cao Hong, the largest spy leader in Xuzhou, walked to Tao Ying and bowed with fists. Lu Su and Chen Deng didn't even blink. They had known that Tao Ying had two guard teams around him, and there was a personal guard led by Xu Chu, a captain in front of the tent, and in the secret, there was an inner guard led by Cao Hong, all composed of Danyang veterans. Unless Tao Ying spoke to summon him, he would never show up on his own initiative.

"What's new happening in Mi Zhu's business?" Tao Ying asked.

"Since Liu Bei disappeared on the battlefield in Yanzhou, Mi Zhu stopped smuggling northward, and all nine smuggling paths in the north and south have been closed." Cao Hong replied in an orderly manner: "In Jiujiang Yuan Shu and Qu A and Liu Yao, the excuse given by Mi Zhu is that our army is very tight in investigation and dare not export grain cloths. Gongsun Zan and Tian Kai in the north are their prices too low, and Mi Zhu wants to raise prices. The situation in Yanzhou is unclear, probably because Liu Bei disappeared and no one is in the middle to contact Cao thieves. Mi Zhu is forced to stop temporarily."

"Close all?" Tao Ying snorted and said, "I'm afraid I smelled danger? Our army and Cao thieves temporarily reconciled and formed an alliance with Yuan Shao. He dared to sell grain to Gongsun Zan again. He might be discovered by Yuan Shao's army at any time and sued me. Yuan Shu and Liu Yao, the crisis on our army's northern line has eased, and the main force gradually fell south. His face was on the southern line. If he didn't restrain himself, he would be looking for death."

Cao Hong nodded and said nothing. Tao Ying asked again: "Have you noticed that Liu Bei had recovered contact with Mi Zhu?"

"No." Cao Hong replied respectfully: "The four eyeliners placed in Mi Mansion did not notice this. The two Liu Bei secret envoys who had contacted Mi Zhu had never appeared in Xuzhou City."

"Very good, keep staring." Tao Ying nodded with satisfaction and ordered: "If you find Liu Bei's secret envoy this time, you cannot let them meet Mi Zhu, and arrest them immediately."

Cao Hong sang Nuo, and walked back to Hou Ming behind the screen quietly. It was at this time that Lu Su asked carefully: "Lord, do you want to kill the sheep and cut the flesh?"

"Those who know me are Zi Jing." Tao Ying smiled and said, "Mi Zhu is worth billions. In the past two years, Yanzhou has been in short supply of food, and Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao have fought to the death. Mi Zhu relied on grain smuggling and probably earned a lot of money. It is time to take back the military expenses and completely eliminate this hidden danger."

Lu Su nodded, and Chen Deng beside him warned: "Lord, although the crisis on the northern front of our army has basically eased and the time to attack Mi Zhu is ripe, the Mi family is deeply rooted in Xuzhou after all, and has close ties with the major gentry of Xuzhou. If the charges are not sufficient, attack Mi Zhu will not only damage the reputation of the lord, but may also bring incomprehensible consequences."

"Of course I know this, so I asked General Cao Hong to cut off his contact with Liu Bei." Tao Ying blinked his treacherous triangular eyes and smiled: "Zijing, Yuanlong, in your opinion, is Mi Biejia very anxious now? Are you in a hurry to resume contact with Xuandegong?"

Chen Deng had too much bad water in his stomach than Lu Su. As soon as he finished speaking, he immediately raised his eyebrows and asked tentatively: "Master, is it because he wants to send someone to pretend to be Xuande Gong's secret envoy to contact Mi Biejia instead of Xuande Gong, and get ironclad evidence of the crime that was enough to confiscate Mi Biejia's family and destroy the family?"

"The one who knows me is Yuan Long." Tao Ying smiled and put a high hat on Chen Deng, then smiled and said, "Let's discuss, how to act and what kind of evidence can make us trustworthy and borrow some money to solve the financial problems." (You are welcome to come and your support is my greatest motivation.)
Chapter completed!