Chapter 210

The seventh year of Zhongping was a very restless year. In March, Han Lingdi finally died. The Liu clan used all possible methods, but they could not suppress the injuries within Emperor Ling's body.

The backlash of the Luck Golden Dragon severely damaged his divine soul. Being able to persist for these few years was thanks to the foundation of the Liu clan.

Once Han Lingdi died, the impact on the imperial court was significant. When he was alive, although there were struggles in the court, they were not as intense as they were now, because Han Lingdi kept them in check.

It always remained in a state of balance.

However, once Han Lingdi died, it was different. With no one to suppress them, all parties began to fight openly and fiercely.

Then, General-in-Chief He Jin became a sacrifice, a sacrifice of the noble families.

He had a poor brain and thought he controlled the power; it was simply ridiculous. Even Han Lingdi would not easily trust those people.

As a result, the General-in-Chief was eventually killed by a group of eunuchs led by Zhang Rang.

This also brought the court's struggle to a situation as irreconcilable as fire and water.

Then came Dong Zhuo entering the capital with hundreds of thousands of Xiliang border troops. Originally, the Imperial Guard could not be unified due to various parties, and facing hundreds of thousands of Xiliang border troops, they didn't even fight a few major battles before being taken down by Dong Zhuo.

The struggle between the noble families and the eunuchs ended up benefiting Dong Zhuo.

According to the information Su Fan received, Dong Zhuo entering the capital was the idea of the Yuan clan. Dong Zhuo originally rose slowly by relying on the Yuan clan, from a small soldier in the border army to a great general of the border army step by step. Before entering the capital, he was the Inspector of Liangzhou.

In fact, at that time, the imperial court's control over border generals like Dong Zhuo was already very low.

The Yuan clan thought that Dong Zhuo rose by relying on them and would naturally submit to the Yuan family. With Dong Zhuo's hundreds of thousands of troops, they would surely be able to control Luoyang.

As a result, they didn't expect that Dong Zhuo would give the Yuan family a heavy blow. When Dong Zhuo's Xiliang army controlled the hundreds of thousands of Imperial Guards, they instantly turned the tables.

It could be said that the Yuan clan lost both the girl and the soldiers.

Just like in history, Dong Zhuo occupied Luoyang City with the Xiliang border troops and controlled the imperial court, although many people were unconvinced.

However, Dong Zhuo himself had a very high cultivation level, and coupled with the fact that the Xiliang border troops and the Imperial Guard were both in his hands, even if some were unconvinced, they dared not openly oppose him.

Of course, the changes in the court actually had little to do with Su Fan. He was now far from the center, and here in Donghai, he was like a local emperor.

After taking the position of Prefect of Donghai Commandery, Su Fan did not make many changes to the counties under the jurisdiction of Donghai Commandery, except for a few officials, such as the Commandery Commandant, whom he controlled; he didn't care about the Commandery Assistant.

Anyway, he controlled the military power, and the Commandery Assistant had no ability to confront him.

Donghai Commandery itself had no major noble families, mostly local county tyrants. It was impossible for them to compete with him.

He was the Prefect and held the power of life and death over the region.

It was just that he didn't replace the local officials too much for the time being, firstly because he didn't have that many civil officials under his command.

Secondly, he focused more on the Donghai territory, where hundreds of li of land were his newly built territory, with no one to restrain him, and he could develop to his heart's content.

Unlike other cities, there were always local gentry, and he couldn't wipe them all out.

His current strength was still unable to confront the noble families of the world.

After taking office, he only took down two of the most active noble families. After killing the chicken to scare the monkey, no one in Donghai Commandery dared to confront him head-on.

The two sides were still considered peaceful.

Su Fan spent most of his time in the Donghai territory.

He rebuilt a large city in the Donghai territory.

After more than five years of development, the Donghai territory had undergone earth-shaking changes, with a population of over ten million living here.

Most of these were Yellow Turban soldiers and civilians, especially from Guan Hai's side. In these five years, at least one million refugees were sent every year.

Su Fan supported him, secretly providing him with grain and grass, while he transported refugees or some craftsmen and Mohist craftsmen to him.

Although the Yellow Turbans were suppressed, there were still many Yellow Turbans ravaging various places.

The imperial court had no heart to suppress them, and the local areas did not have the strength. Guan Hai himself, because of Su Fan's reminder, had been hiding in Qingzhou and had not moved.

It was not until the large army returned that he slowly appeared.

In these five years, with the grain and grass provided by Su Fan, he didn't have many troops under his command, only a few hundred thousand, but they were all strong and had undergone limited training.

Their strength was still very powerful.

In Qingzhou, almost no one could rival him. He was not like the previous Yellow Turbans who burned, killed, and looted locally; he just frequently collected tolls on major roads.

As long as you were willing to pay the toll, he would let you pass and ensure your safety.

So over the years, local noble families were unwilling to go to war with him. Paying some money and grain was not a big problem.

So in these five years, relying on Guan Hai's dark side, Su Fan's Donghai territory already had a population of over ten million. As for Donghai Commandery, it also had several million.

The potential for development was no worse than Xiapi.

More importantly, after spending seven or eight years, the Donghai territory was built by Su Fan into a production base.

It could provide Su Fan with absolute logistical support.

Especially with the development of rune technology, productivity had already exceeded the limits of ancient times, and some were even no worse than later generations.

For example, carriages, although still relying on animal power, because of the blessing of various floating techniques, a carriage could carry several tons, and relying on animal power, it could reach a speed of tens of kilometers per hour, or even higher.

The animal power of this world, even the most inferior pack horse, was better than the fine horses of the *Datang* and *Smiling Proud Wanderer* worlds.

Real fine horses were comparable to demon beasts.

Su Fan had seen top-tier thousand-li horses that even some martial generals at the ninth layer of Qi Energy were no match for.

Relying on this kind of animal power, the transportation under Su Fan's rule was extremely developed, and commerce went without saying.

Now the Mi clan of Xuzhou had moved most of their business to Donghai Commandery, because the productivity of the Donghai territory could produce 'epoch-making' things.

Of course, the most important thing in the Donghai territory was the Military Industry Department. To develop the military industry, Su Fan specially built a city and allocated it to the Ministry of Industry.

The number of people in the Ministry of Industry even reached hundreds of thousands.

It was not much worse than Su Fan's army.

Since Su Fan took office in Donghai Commandery, he naturally did not forget to develop the army. Relying on the ocean, he was not short of money, and he had been reclaiming wasteland, so he was naturally not short of grain.

As a result, he was naturally not short of troops.

After five years of development, from an army of seventy thousand, it now had a regular army of thirty thousand.

Of course, he didn't just have this many troops. Really, when it came to dangerous times, he could pull out an army of three million at any time.

And they were not composed of farmers, because of the militia system in the Donghai territory, people living in the Donghai territory, as long as they were strong and had no farm work, had to undergo training.

At the same time, he could also influence the Qingzhou region.

In terms of strength, he really didn't fear Dong Zhuo, who was the number one in the world.