Chapter 1007

At this time, spring was in the air in the State of Ji, and Wei Yuan scattered the people in the city to reclaim and cultivate the fields, while building multiple fortifications several dozen miles away from the county town to protect the people reclaiming the land.

This was a purely defensive measure, and Wei Yuan did not know if the other side could understand it. During this period, the rebels came less frequently, basically seeing one wave every ten days, and the people sent were only a little over one or two thousand. Wei Yuan sent people to chat with the rebels, and they all said that there had been no one in the nearby area for a long time, and the Feng Yuan Commandery was even more desolate for thousands of miles, with large swaths of land having no vitality at all.

Xiangshui and Feng Yuan commanderies were the hardest-hit areas, with the commandery cities all slaughtered empty, and more than 80% of the counties and towns were also slaughtered empty. According to the arriving rebels, after the Duke of Long died unexpectedly, the Great Army of Ji attacked the rebel headquarters multiple times, but all returned in defeat before the steep and majestic passes. Now, although the Ji army had many troops, their morale was low, their military spirit was scattered, and at a glance, it could be seen that they could not hold on for long.

And as one grew and the other waned, Lu Jiande began to be active frequently again after a period of silence, seemingly about to have a big move again.

Now, around Wei Yuan's location, only the Hanchuan Commandery in the northwest still had many people. Most of this commandery was mountainous, with steep terrain and barren products, so even the rebels were unwilling to come. It had always been used by the State of Ji as a place of exile, and instead, it was able to avoid being looted by the flames of war.

However, there were also multiple rebel groups on the northwest border of the State of Ji, one of which was preparing to enter Hanchuan Commandery. Wei Yuan decided to take the initiative, sent a small unit of 3,000 people, directly crossed the entire Hanchuan Commandery, and then stationed in Tingliu County on the northwest border of Hanchuan Commandery, blocking this rebel group there.

At the same time, Wei Yuan also sent people to the Hanchuan Commandery city and various counties to notify local officials to relocate the population and move everyone who could move to Xiangshui Commandery.

Wei Yuan brought out the identity of the Xianghan Military Governor that the Tang Chamber had not yet approved, and sent a delegation composed of multiple Dharma Forms. It was a notification, not a discussion, but if any local chief official had the slightest bit of non-cooperation, Wei Yuan would directly behead them on the spot on charges of colluding with bandits.

With such vigorous and resolute actions, in this remote and desolate Hanchuan Commandery where no one wanted to go, Wei Yuan finally made people move, constantly walking out of the mountains and moving to Xiangshui Commandery.

Wei Yuan set up porridge sheds at the entrance of the mountain road, and there was food to eat when walking out of the mountains, and then set up locations for distributing steamed buns and cooked cakes in every county, but they had to be collected by the Qingming soldiers responsible for leading the refugees. Basically, when they walked here, these people could never return to the mountains.

At this time, Wei Yuan drew another big cake, claiming that there was uninhabited land to cultivate when they arrived in Xiangshui Commandery. The vast majority of mountain residents longed to own a piece of fertile land on the plains, so when they reached this step, basically no one turned back.

Relocating the residents of the entire commandery would take about two months, and Wei Yuan's small unit of 3,000 people had to block the rebel group that wanted to enter Hanchuan for two months.

That rebel group had more than 100,000 people and originally wanted to besiege Tingliu County, but the troops were in chaos and had not yet deployed before they were hit by a round of heavy artillery. After more than a dozen shots, the entire army was stunned and had to retreat, and since then, there had been no intention of besieging the city.

The two sides fought for more than ten days, the rebels suffered more than 10,000 casualties, and the defenders in the city also suffered dozens of casualties, all dying under the spells of Dharma Forms or Dao Foundation cultivators.

At this time, a battle report from the west had also reached Lu Jiande. The battle report stated that the State of Ji and Wei Yuan joined forces to deploy more than 100,000 troops to defend Tingliu County, and they fought a bloody battle for a month, beheading 30,000 enemies, while only losing 5,000 themselves, which could be called a great victory in Hanchuan.

Lu Jiande was cunning and naturally saw the true meaning behind the battle report: the enemy was powerful, and we could not fight them.

Lu Jiande ordered people to fetch the commandery annals of Hanchuan Commandery, as well as the household registration information counted by the government. The entire Hanchuan Commandery had about 800,000 households, totaling more than 3 million people, and this place was poor and desolate, almost unable to find anything of value. The earth energy here was barren, and even medicinal herbs did not like to grow.

Lu Jiande stared at the map for a long time again, feeling that this place had no value in military terms. Further west was the territory of mountain people. Without this place, the western rebels moving east would only be taking a detour, and because the main road was easy to travel, the marching speed was much faster than passing through the commandery.

After repeated consideration, Lu Jiande officially replied, letting the western rebels abandon Hanchuan, but before that, they had to dismantle the three defensive mountain passes on the western border of Hanchuan Commandery.

As for after that, whether Hanchuan fell into the hands of the mountain people or remained in the hands of the State of Ji, Lu Jiande did not care. If the mountain people's army poured in along the gap and rushed straight to Xiangshui, that would be the best. And Xiangshui and Feng Yuan commanderies were now all white land, and it was difficult for the mountain people to supply.

This problem, let Wei Yuan have a headache.

At this time, Wei Yuan also had a Hanchuan Commandery Annals in his hand, and after reading it for a full hour, he finally finished reading it. Wei Yuan put down the book and said to Zhang Sheng: "The State of Ji taking Hanchuan Commandery back then was truly legendary."

This place was originally unsuitable for human survival. At that time, there was a female chieftain here who was widowed at a young age. Since then, she led her clansmen to open roads and build bridges in the mountains, reclaim fields and multiply. During this period, she fought countless battles with the mountain people, and it took a hundred years to slowly occupy the entire territory of Hanchuan today, and then petitioned the King of Ji to request annexation, which led to the Hanchuan Commandery of today."

Zhang Sheng said: "Then you move all the people of Hanchuan Commandery over, wouldn't that be giving this place to the mountain people again?"

Wei Yuan spread out the map and pointed to the surrounding terrain: "The entire Hanchuan Commandery doesn't have many boundary stones, and they are not connected to each other. This region is not only unsuitable for human habitation, but even the mountain people find it difficult to survive. I plan to extract all the boundary stones, then extend northwest from our mystical realm exit, then cut off the mountain people in this large area from the mountain people's hinterland, and then slowly nibble away."

Wei Yuan's finger drew a vast area of more than 40,000 square miles, with an area equivalent to four or five times the size of the complete Azure Void.