Chapter 115

"Damn, the Big-Eared Thief is truly lucky!"

"Zhen Zhen Jiang is so beautiful, just like a red apple. I really want to take a bite."

"The sister-in-law is the national beauty. Big-Eared Thief, where are you looking!"

"The Zhen family is a merchant family. Will the Big-Eared Thief make them buy one get one free?"

"Oh my, I don't even dare to imagine it. Can the Big-Eared Thief actually complete it?"

Zhen Mi thought of what was to come and ran out with a red face.

Liu Bei held Zhen Zhen Jiang in his arms.

"Wife, you are so beautiful."

Zhen Zhen Jiang lowered her head and smiled softly, murmuring,

"Husband, all of this is like a dream. If it is a dream, I hope it never wakes up."

Liu Bei pinched Zhen Zhen Jiang's snow-white chin.

"Wife, do you still want to dream tonight? You are still too young?"

Zhen Zhen Jiang?!

The livestream went black instantly, naturally being scolded wildly by netizens again!

Liu Bei glanced at the city walls of Ye City in the distance and waved his hand.

"The whole army, set off!"

Three hundred thousand people pushed four hundred thousand shi of grain and fodder, moving slowly.

This time, with the help of the Zhen family, Ju Shou, and others, Liu Bei recruited three hundred thousand refugees in Jizhou, which could be considered a full harvest.

He also obtained one thousand heavy crossbows and several hundred sets of fine armor from Han Fu, plus several hundred craftsmen who made bows, crossbows, and siege crossbows. The harvest was very rich!

Ding Yuan Shao scolded Liu Bei for a long, long time for this!

Liu Bei looked at Zhen Zhen Jiang's carriage again.

This time, the Zhen family's dowry was very generous.

One hundred carts of dowry and about two thousand servants—from this, one could see the wealth of the Zhen family.

Of course, it mainly came with a stunningly beautiful sister-in-law, Zhen Mi!

On the city tower of Ye City,

Ding Yuan Shao looked coldly at the migrating people outside the city.

"Liu Bei actually took away thirty thousand of my Jizhou people!"

Tian Feng also had a heavy expression.

"Lord, Liu Bei is very popular, has high prestige, and his subordinates are brave and good at fighting. Living in Bing Province for a long time, his ambition is not small. We must guard against him!"

Ding Yuan Shao thought of the incident where he was slapped in the face by Liu Bei, clenched his fists, and burned with hatred.

"Wait until I sweep away Brother Gongsun Zan, and with the strength of three provinces, I don't believe I can't take down the small Bing Province!"

Inside the carriage,

Zhen Mi's gaze passed through the window frame, secretly sizing up Liu Bei who was riding a horse, and bit her lip, not knowing what she was thinking.

"Little sister, what are you looking at?"

Zhen Zhen Jiang asked somewhat powerlessly. She admitted that she was indeed too young, still thinking about dreams and such.

Zhen Mi's body shook, as if she had been discovered.

"I'm looking at these people. Three hundred thousand people are willing to follow brother-in-law to Bing Province. Brother-in-law's reputation is truly good."

Zhen Zhen Jiang's eyes held pride and admiration.

"My husband's reputation is naturally very good. These people lost their land in Jizhou, and hearing that my husband's Bing Province can distribute land and not collect taxes for three years, they are naturally willing to go."

"However, if it weren't for my husband's reputation, many people wouldn't believe it."

Zhen Mi giggled.

"Sister, you are admiring brother-in-law more and more."

Zhen Zhen Jiang sighed.

Not admiring him wouldn't work; it's truly tiring! Wuwuwu!

"This time, Mother and Third Brother let you go to learn from the great Cai. You must work hard."

Zhen Mi covered her mouth and laughed softly.

"That's a must. I am a famous talented woman in Hebei."

One month later,

Jinyang City,

Liu Bei looked at the city walls in the distance and let out a long sigh of relief. Finally, he was back. Traveling with the people this time took much more time on the road,

but it also gave him more time to inspect the local conditions along the way.

Henei Commandery, Shangdang Commandery, and so on.

On the way, he recruited tens of thousands of refugees, plus the two hundred thousand or so from Yuzhou, increasing the total population of Bing Province by six hundred thousand.

The population of Hedong and Bing Province was previously about 1.2 million in total.

With the seven hundred thousand people from Luoyang, plus this time, the population directly doubled!

Fortunately, Liu Bei had Bai Yuekui and Han Hao plant some potatoes in the military colonies and had previously purchased a large amount of grain; otherwise, there really wouldn't be enough to eat!

What does fighting at the end of the Han Dynasty rely on? It relies on generals, money and grain, and population. Without people, what's the point of fighting!

What Liu Bei needed to do next was to constantly increase the population of Bing Province, reclaim wasteland, and develop the Hetao Plain!

Bing Province Inspector's Office,

Liu Bei sat in the main seat, listening to Guo Jia report on the current situation in Bing Province.

"Lord, we now have about 2.55 million people, mainly distributed in Hedong and Taiyuan commanderies, and there are two hundred thousand Hu Ren slaves."

"Our army now has sixty thousand troops, including twenty-six thousand cavalry and thirty-seven thousand infantry... 1.5 million head of cattle and sheep, and 120,000 horses..."

After listening to Guo Jia's introduction,

The newly joined Ju Shou, Xu Shu, Ju Yi, Zhang He, Shi Shi Guangyuan, and others were all greatly encouraged.

They didn't expect that Bing Province, which was considered barren in their impression, had undergone huge changes in such a short time.

Liu Bei listened to the report, his thoughts flying, but he was a bit distracted.

The end of the Han Dynasty was a tragic era.

The Yellow Turban Rebellion killed many people, Dong Zhuo killed many more, and the subsequent warlord chaos caused the population to plummet even further.

In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, there were fifty million people, but by the late Three Kingdoms period, they couldn't even scrape together ten million!

The "contributions" of the warlords were not small.

Li Jue and Guo Si fought in Guanzhong and often went out of Tong Pass and Wu Pass to burn, kill, and loot!

Cao Cao had eight recorded instances of slaughtering cities.

Starting from avenging his father, he slaughtered hundreds of thousands of people in Taking Xuzhou, and many counties were left without even a chicken or dog alive!

After breaking Zhang Miao, he slaughtered the city again—Yongqiu.

Attacking Lu Bu, in the winter of the tenth month, he slaughtered Pengcheng.

Attacking Ding Yuan Shang, he slaughtered Ye City, and so on.

His subordinates followed suit.

Xiahou Ding Yuan slaughtered Xingguo and Fuhan.

Cao Ren slaughtered Wan City!

The plague caused by the slaughter of cities killed even more people.

The so-called hypocrite Liu Bei and the poor-character Sun Quan never slaughtered a single city.

As a modern person, Liu Bei could not accept these actions of Cao Cao.

Thinking of this, Liu Bei sighed. What he could do now was to receive more people while strengthening himself, and prevent those tragedies from happening as much as possible.

Along the way, the gratitude and simplicity of the people were vivid in his mind.

Without knowing it, Liu Bei had gradually integrated into this world.

Hua Hua Mulan and Bai Yuekui looked at Liu Bei's eyes and exchanged a glance. The captain had really changed.