Super Cultivation System of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1147 Taking advantage of the situation
"Ding... System prompt: Liu Zheng has been practicing the "Shocking God Spear Technique" day and night. His basic strength has increased by 1 point, and he can fully unleash the power of the accompanying skills."

"System prompts, Liu Zheng's basic force..."

Liu He no longer paid attention to the reminder tone that followed. He was flipping through a long memorial in his hand with a somewhat angry look on his face.

Under the desk stood Man Chong, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice. He was now notorious in Luoyang. In just one year, he had punished nearly a hundred cases of corrupt officials and bullies. His temperament was completely opposite to that of Zhong Yao, the Minister of Justice. Zhong Yao was more conciliatory and in most cases, he would reduce the sentence by one level.

But Man Chong was different. He advocated severe punishments in times of chaos. In the cases he handled, those who were originally sentenced to ten years in prison were changed to exile, those who should be exiled were changed to beheadings, and those who should be beheaded were changed to beheadings. He did not distinguish between the powerful and the noble, or the close relatives. Zhong Yao originally did not like such a style of behavior, but he had no choice because Emperor Liu He valued him so much.

This time when Liu He went to Mount Tai to offer sacrifices to heaven and earth, he brought along the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice. Xun Yu and others understood the emperor's intention very well. The offer of heaven and earth was fake, and the point was to take the opportunity to find some excuses to eliminate the wealthy gentry in Qingxu who did not cooperate with the Equal Field Order.

These local nobles were used to being rampant in the past, so it was not difficult to find their crimes. By arresting a group and killing a group to serve as a warning to others, the court could eliminate the obstacles to the implementation of the Equal Field Order to the greatest extent possible, allowing the court to smoothly calculate the number of acres of land in various places and the number of people in each family.

Therefore, Liu He lived in the palace at the foot of Mount Tai for more than a month and had no plans to climb the mountain. Instead, Man Chong took hundreds of his men and traveled around, which frightened many officials in the court and they wrote letters to their family members and relatives in Qingxu to warn them.

Man Chong reported respectfully: "This time, I have investigated various places and found 21 cases of crimes committed by powerful people."

"Among them, eight noble families in Yanzhou, nineteen noble families in Qingzhou, sixteen noble families in Xuzhou, and six noble families in Yuzhou are involved."

"The officials involved in the case include four officials with a salary of 2,000 shi, 13 officials with a salary of 1,000 shi, 27 officials with a salary of 600 shi, and 58 petty officials of various levels."

"Your Majesty, please decide how to deal with it."

There was a hint of anger between Liu He's brows. Although this was the main purpose of his visit to Mount Tai, looking at these shocking case files still made him furious.

"Hehe, there are actually people who dare to collude with local officials, plot against the wine shop of the widow of a meritorious officer of the imperial court, and even kill her son. They are really very bold."

When Man Chong heard about this case, he immediately responded, "The meritorious soldier in this case was originally the General of Zhennan, the captain of a garrison under Lord Cheng, and died with Lord Cheng in the battle of Hulao Pass. His wife was already proficient in brewing wine, and she came to Luoyang to learn a few years ago. Her skills have become more refined. After returning home, she opened a wine shop, and all the major restaurants in the surrounding area came to place orders, which greatly affected the brewing business of the five local tyrants. However, she did not dare to do anything because of her husband's status in the army."

"After her husband died, these five powerful families colluded with local officials and falsely accused her widow of brewing poisonous wine. They ordered the government to seal up the winery and then kidnapped her eldest son to torture him to death in order to force her to hand over the winemaking method. They also beat her mother, causing her old illness to relapse and she died."

"I think that among all the cases, this one is the most abominable. There are many crimes in it, ranging from caning to beheading. The accumulation of many crimes should lead to the death penalty."

Liu He sneered: "My third brother's body is not even cold yet, but they can't wait to attack the family members of his soldiers. They are so audacious and ignorant of their own lives. How can we allow these villains to trample on the dignity of our brave soldiers?"

Man Chong was also a little frightened standing by.

Since the battle of Hulao Pass last year, his sworn brothers and his biological mother, the empress dowager, have died one after another. The emperor is filled with anger and doesn't know where to vent it. Now that these people have brought bad luck upon themselves, Man Chong can already imagine how miserable their ending will be.

Liu He threw the case file directly to the ground.

"There is no need to try this case. All the nobles and officials involved will be exterminated, and the rest of the accomplices will be exiled. It just so happens that the lands ceded by Goryeo and Buyeo are being used to build cities and counties. The black soil over there is extremely fertile, so let them go to waste."

Two new counties were established to the north of Xuantu County in Liaodong and Liaoxi County. They were recently determined, one is Heishui County and the other is Tongbei County.

There are many areas in Heishui County where the soil is black, so we must vigorously reclaim it.

Tongbei County was mostly woodlands and grasslands, so Liu He planned to follow the example of Bingzhou and give equal importance to grazing and animal husbandry, providing the court with war horses, cattle and sheep, and producing wool and animal skins. In addition, rich coal mines were discovered in this area, and the anthracite produced was also very popular. With these industries, it would be enough to feed millions of people in a county. In this way, the Wuhuan and Xianbei people would be able to settle down for a long time and naturalize as soon as possible.

Liu He naturally knew that these two places would become the granaries and coal warehouses of the Han Dynasty in the future, but in the eyes of Man Chong and other Han officials, they were still desolate and uncultivated cold places, and most of the prisoners exiled there would not survive the winter.

It was precisely because of the construction of these two counties that Liu He did not mobilize a large army from Yuzhou and Xuzhou to support the Battle of Hanzhong. After all, although the Han court today was much richer than at any time in the four hundred years since Emperor Gaozu, it was still difficult to support the expedition of hundreds of thousands of troops and the construction of dozens of counties in the two counties at the same time.

After Liu He finished his confession, he flipped through other case files.

"As for the remaining cases, the Ministry of Justice will conduct a detailed review and sentence them severely. They will not be lenient."

"The minister obeys the order."

After receiving the order, Man Chong bowed and walked out.

Liu He's expression softened a little, and he instructed Gong San'er beside him: "Take 50,000 yuan from the inner court and give it to the widow. Ask her if she is willing to come to Luoyang to live."

"Yes." Gong Saner took the order and did it immediately.

Liu He rubbed his temples, then stood up and walked to the door, looking southwest.

"I think the matter in Hanzhong should be over by now. I think there should be a response to the move we made in Jiangdong soon..."

On the mountain road, Sun Ce and Liu Zheng fought for a long time. His soldiers were still thinking about the food, salt and beef jerky while fighting. Especially the beef jerky, they stuffed it into their arms desperately, which greatly affected their combat effectiveness. Even if Sun Ce suppressed Liu Zheng, he could not stop the Jiangdong troops from falling into a disadvantage. Sun Ce shouted: "Retreat quickly, abandon all baggage, push what can be pushed into the river, and those who disobey the order will be executed!"

The Jiangdong soldiers were originally reluctant to give up the refined salt and beef jerky, but the Han army's blades were pressing forward step by step, so no matter how unwilling they were, they had to give up the delicious food in front of them. After pushing down more than a hundred grain carts, they quickly retreated towards Xicheng County.

Fortunately, almost every soldier had a lot of beef jerky in his arms. Smelling the fragrance coming from their arms, these soldiers, even if they were injured, were happy to eat it.

Liu Zheng could not miss such a good opportunity, so he picked up his spear, spurred his horse and chased after them, while Deng Zhi and others followed behind him, bringing out their men to continue pushing the grain carts forward.

There were more than 10,000 soldiers from both sides, chasing each other on the mountain road beside the river. It was really thrilling. After running for only more than ten miles, hundreds of Jiangdong soldiers fell into the river. Their panic-stricken scenes were truly tragic.

"Damn it, I haven't seen this kid Liu Zheng for a long time. His martial arts have improved. The soldiers he brought are also stronger than those in the last night battle. Could it be that this thief deliberately showed weakness just for today?"

As Sun Ce ran away, he cursed in his heart.

He prided himself on being a young hero and having extraordinary martial arts skills, but when Liu Zheng was his age, he was far inferior to him.

"We must get rid of this little thief this time, otherwise he will become a big trouble in the future."

However, as he was running, Sun Ce suddenly felt a dull pain in his stomach. At first he did not pay much attention to it, thinking that he was too tired. But soon he discovered that he was not the only one in the army who felt the same way. The other soldiers who were retreating were also running while holding their stomachs with painful looks on their faces.

"How is this going?"

Sun Ce was filled with fear and terror. Just as he was about to endure the pain and call his deputy general to inquire about the situation, he suddenly couldn't help it and farted several times in succession.

"I'm going to fuck Liu Zheng... um..." Sun Ce was about to swear when his stomach started to ache again, forcing him to shut up quickly.

He hadn't figured out at this time that Liu Zheng and Zhuge Liang had expected that he would intercept the grain, and not only set up an ambush, but also added croton and other substances to the grain. However, there were too many grain carts, and there were probably not enough croton. The amount of croton powder added to each bag of grain and beef was not much, so it took the army a long time to attack after eating the beef jerky.

"There are such despicable people in the world. I must... puff puff..."

Some soldiers could not bear it any longer. Some ran to the nearby mountains and forests to relieve themselves, while others simply relieved themselves in their pants. Sun Ce gritted his teeth and endured it, but the bumpy ride on the horse made him feel so painful that he wished he was dying.

"Hahaha, Sun Ce, you bastard, you call yourself the Little Overlord of Jiangdong in vain. Now it seems that you should change your name to the Little Overlord of Xie Qianli, haha..."

Liu Zheng was chasing closely behind, mocking them crazily. The Han army soldiers who were chasing him also laughed uncontrollably. Sun Ce and Zhou Tai didn't know whether they were angry or holding it in. Anyway, their faces and necks were red. They didn't dare to say a word in rebuttal, otherwise, if they tried to shout at such a distance, they would inevitably have to exert force on their abdomens, and who knows what would happen.

Sun Ce secretly hated in his heart: "You little thief, since you have followed me today, you will inevitably fall into the trap set by Gongjin and me. Let's see if you can still laugh later!"

In just over a dozen miles, the number of Jiangdong soldiers who were killed by the Han army for falling behind was close to a thousand. No matter how angry Sun Ce was, it was of no avail.

Liu Zheng and the Han army soldiers behind him were in high spirits at this moment, shouting that they wanted to capture Sun Ce alive and let everyone see the "style" of this little overlord of Jiangdong.

The two sides chased each other and soon came to the foot of a cliff.

This kind of terrain is common in the mountains of Shu. Although most of the mountains are covered with dense jungles, there are often cliffs like this, standing abruptly on both sides of the mountain roads or river valleys, which are very steep.

Sun Ce ran as fast as he could and passed the cliff. Liu Zheng stopped before reaching the cliff.

He looked up at the top of the cliff and hesitated for a moment.

The deputy general beside him seemed a little anxious: "Your Highness, this is a rare opportunity. If we don't give chase, Sun Ce will run away."

However, Liu Zheng still hesitated to move forward, which made the other soldiers urge him forward. After all, such a great achievement was just around the corner, and wealth, honor, wife and children were all within reach. Who wouldn't be anxious?
"Your Highness, there is nothing unusual on this cliff. No beasts are roaring, and no birds are flying. If someone is ambushing, it will definitely alarm the birds and beasts. Don't worry too much."

Liu Zheng thought for a moment before making up his mind: "Okay, continue the pursuit and make sure to capture Sun Ce alive."

However, when his several thousand soldiers had just entered the mountain path which was seven or eight miles long under the cliff, there was a sudden sound of drums from the top of the cliff. Looking up, they saw flags and spears everywhere.

"Haha, little Liu Zheng, your death is imminent, why don't you surrender!"

Zhou Yu's wild and complacent laughter echoed among the mountains.

Liu Zheng was both regretful and angry: "How despicable! Sun Ce, the thief, actually used himself as bait to lure me into a trap. Retreat quickly, retreat quickly..."

(End of this chapter)