Your Majesty, please spare Diao Chan; your yang energy is too strong.

Zhou Heng's strength increased dramatically after he subdued the Yellow Turban army stationed at Zhumashan.

The number of combat-ready soldiers has increased dramatically from two thousand to four thousand.

However, the corresponding consumption has also increased significantly.

Unlike other forces, the Yellow Turban Army was mostly composed of ordinary people.

There are too many elderly, weak, women and children.

You can't say you only accept strong, healthy men and reject the elderly, weak, women, and children.

This would be tantamount to leaving the elderly, women, and children to die.

Zhou Heng, being a modern person, was incapable of making such a cruel decision.

Moreover, his subordinates were basically all Yellow Turban soldiers. If he really dared to make such a decision, they would probably rebel against him in an instant.

Left with no other choice, Zhou Heng took in all the elderly, women, and children as well.

The amount of grain consumed is almost twice that of Zhou Heng's previous amount.

However, although it was very costly, it was still well worth it.

Because Pei Yuanshao was dealt with.

Zhou Heng was already considered the largest bandit force in the entire Xuzhou area.

In the martial arts world, almost every faction has to give you some face.

The letters he had Liao Hua write out quickly received many responses.

The vast majority of them expressed their willingness to serve under him.

Therefore, in just half a month, countless bandits and outlaws came to join them throughout Xuzhou.

Their strength skyrocketed to over 10,000 within just half a month.

They were strong, capable men who could fight on the battlefield, not the elderly, weak, women, or children.

Ten thousand people—what does that even mean?

Keep in mind that Lu Bu currently only has ten thousand soldiers under his command.

Before Liu Bei lost Xuzhou, he had more men, but after losing Xuzhou, he only had a few thousand men left.

But who are they?

That was a regional lord, vying for supremacy over the world.

Who is Zhou Heng?

To put it nicely, he was a local leader; to put it bluntly, he was just a bandit.

As a result, their strength is now no less than that of a regional warlord.

It's easy to imagine how shocking it was.

Of course, this only applies to the number of people.

In terms of actual combat strength, they are worlds apart.

In particular, Lü Bu had 8,000 cavalry and elite troops like the Trapped Camp.

They are completely incomparable to Zhou Heng.

However, none of these are problems...

He believed that over time, his ragtag group would soon transform into an elite force.

A corps of 10,000 men.

Zhou Heng directly divided him into ten battalions.

Liao Hua was the leader, Zhou Cang was the deputy commander, and ten capable men were selected from below as captains.

Each person commands a thousand people.

In order to train this army well, Zhou Heng even personally created a set of rules and regulations.

In a short period of time, the army was trained to be quite well-organized.

.............

Time flew by during this training.

Soon, a month had passed.

Besides recruiting 6,000 people in the first half month.

In the following two weeks, many more bandits and Yellow Turban rebels came to join them.

After all, in this era of war and chaos, even bandits sometimes go hungry and sometimes full.

You can tell from Liao Hua's previous actions.

Hearing that Zhou Heng had money and food, the surrounding bandit forces naturally flocked to him.

In the following two weeks, the number of people surged by another 5,000.

This brought his army to 15,000 men.

The number of elderly, weak, women, and children reached an astonishing 70,000.

They account for almost 80% of Zhouheng's total population.

Nearly 100,000 people.

What does this mean?

Even though Zhou Heng had previously obtained 100,000 shi of grain from the Mi family.

With so many mouths to feed, we were at a loss for what to do.

If it weren't for the tomb raiders holding things together, the collapse would have been inevitable sooner or later.

"Should we send people to other places to purchase grain and fodder?"

Zhou Heng muttered to himself.

In Xuzhou today, the Mi family not only has to support Zhou Heng, but also Liu Bei.

It is almost impossible to mobilize a large amount of food and supplies in a short period of time.

Therefore, even if Zhou Heng had money, it would be difficult for him to purchase a large amount of grain.

"Perhaps we can send someone to Jizhou and Jingzhou to take a look."

Zhou Heng stared intently at the maps of the various states, finally focusing his attention on Ji and Jing states.

Compared to other prefectures and counties, these two places are undoubtedly the richest places in the entire world.

"Jizhou, the Zhen family, if I remember correctly, Zhen Mi should not have married into the Yuan family yet."

"If I can intercept Zhen Mi... and gain the Zhen family's enormous financial support, I will never have to worry about food supplies again."

Zhou Heng thought to himself.

Without hesitation, they immediately arranged for someone to go to Zhongshan to make contact with the Zhen family.

Let's see if we can get their support.

If all else fails, just snatch Zhen Mi away.

If that still doesn't work, then I'll just have to take all five of you sisters away.

He refused to believe that the Zhen family, where all the women were in charge, would not support him now that they were all his women.

"My lord, my lord, something terrible has happened..."

Just as Zhou Heng had instructed Liao Hua to arrange for someone to do this,

Suddenly, a voice sounded outside the door.

Immediately afterward, a figure rushed out in a great hurry; it was Zhou Cang.

"My lord, something terrible has happened! News has just come that Lü Bu launched a surprise attack on Xuzhou. Zhang Fei, drunk, was no match for him and fled in a sorry state."

"Lü Bu has already taken control of the entire city of Xuzhou."

Zhou Cang didn't even have time to drink a sip of water before speaking anxiously.

What he didn't expect was.

I originally thought that Zhou Heng and Liao Hua would be very surprised when they heard this news.

The change of control of Xuzhou was not a good thing for those who were within its territory.

However, neither of them showed the slightest surprise.

He even seemed completely unfazed.

For a moment, he was completely bewildered.

"My lord... Xuzhou has changed hands."

Zhou Cang repeated himself, but before he could finish speaking, Liao Hua interrupted him.

"Alright, Zhou Cang, the outcome in Xuzhou was something our lord had already foreseen a month ago. What's there to be surprised about?"

Liao Hua said dismissively.

"A month ago?"

Zhou Cang was greatly surprised.

"Indeed, my lord is a man of foresight. He knew a month ago that Lü Bu would rebel."

Liao Hua said with admiration.

"what?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Cang looked completely taken aback.

To know what will happen a month from now, even a god couldn't do that.

However, he then remembered that the other party was his lord.

And yet, it felt perfectly natural.

If my lord were not a god, how could I, Zhou Cang, have so easily submitted to him?

Upon realizing this, I immediately calmed down.

"I see. However, my lord, now that Xuzhou has changed hands, shouldn't we make some preparations?"