Chapter 1080: Heading North

After finishing the discussion with everyone, Huangfu Chaobo left only Meng Yi to deal with the upgrade of each territory with him, and the rest of them were busy.

Under the leadership of Hao Jian, several people came to the management jade in the administrative hall, took out the small city upgrade drawings that had been prepared long ago, and Huangfu Chaobo immediately clicked the upgrade button. In an instant, the familiar halo appeared in front of Huangfu Chaobo again, quickly expanded, and then the entire administrative hall was surrounded. After a while, Huangfu Chaobo heard the system prompt sound: "Congratulations to the player, the territory of Xiaban Town has been upgraded to a small city scale!"

For the name of the city, Huangfu Chaobo did not make any more changes and was ordered to be Xiaban City. The county magistrate after the upgrade has not been appointed yet. Huangfu Chaobo called Hao Jian, who is currently in charge of Xiaban, to him, and handed over the affairs in the city to him. Then he left Xiaban City the next day and went to the next destination.

In the five territories in Longhua area, except Longhua which is a county town, the other four have reached the scale of large towns. All kinds of materials have been prepared, and they are just waiting for Huangfu Chaobo to upgrade.

In the next few days, Huangfu Chaobo spent ten days to upgrade all four large towns into small towns. As for the appointment of officials, because the officials supported by Qingzhou and the young generals arranged by Huangfu Chaobo have not arrived yet, they can only be temporarily responsible by the original people.

Although preparations have been made, because it is not certain where the county town will be determined, all preparations are made in Longhua, including the huge amount of materials needed to upgrade the county town, which are all stored in Longhua. Fortunately, after the meeting, Ma Xuan had rushed back to Longhua for preliminary preparations, and also began to transport some materials to Chengde.

In addition to the need to transport materials, some workshops must also be moved here. Since Chengde City is already a county city, many workshops no longer need to be crowded in the small city of Longhua, especially large military workshops such as weapon workshops. Moving to a large city like a county city will have a higher safety factor.

Another point is that Chengde is located in the middle of various cities. To the north is Longhua and a city and a town to be built further north, while to the east is Xiaban City and the territory of Gongsun Zan, and to the west is Shuangluan City and Luanping City. It can be said that the location should be the best.

However, on the other hand, there are not many ways for Chengde City to connect with the outside world. There are only three directions: north, west and southeast. Especially with Youzhou in the south, there are only two ways to go. One is to enter Rushui along Luanshui and go all the way down to Youzhou Liaoxi. The other way is to go east along Xiaban City to Pingcheng under Gongsun Zan's rule, then turn south there, pass Kuancheng, and enter Liaoxi from Lulong Fortress.

In fact, there is another way to go, which is the original road from Longhua to Junmi. That road starts from Longhua, continues to live in Shuangluan for dozens of miles west, turns south from a valley, and then goes all the way south to Junmi City, and then enters the Great Wall from the Great Wall Pass south of Junmi City and enters Youbeiping. But this road is more complicated and difficult to travel. Relatively speaking, now everyone is willing to go to the east, which is easier to travel although the road is longer.

This is also the reason why the Xianbei people took Lulong Fortress as the main attack direction when they entered Youzhou, and took Longhua and Junmi as secondary directions. It is okay for ordinary caravans and small-scale troops to go along the Longhua Junmi line, but it is more difficult for tens of thousands of troops to pass. Of course, it is not impossible to go, but the speed is much slower, especially for large armies.

If the Central Plains army passes through, the baggage carts will move very slowly, and if it is a foreign army, it will be difficult to walk with cattle and sheep all over the mountains.

After arranging the affairs of Chengde and handing over the work of upgrading to Meng Yi, Huangfu Chaobo led his troops north again and headed for Longhua. There, Ma Xuan had already prepared 2,000 infantrymen and nearly 5,000 civilian craftsmen, as well as hundreds of carts of various materials, which were prepared for Huangfu Chaobo to build a city and a town in the north.

Now it is the end of July,

Huangfu Chaobo will stay there until the end of September, and return to Chengde after the northernmost territory is upgraded to a small city. By then, the upgrade of the county city has met the requirements. Huangfu Chaobo will return to the Central Plains after dealing with the upgrade of the county city.

A few days later, Huangfu Chaobo and his party rushed to Tangtougou Town in the east of Longhua. This small town was originally built to appease the players, but now it is no longer as lively as it was at the beginning, because Chifeng, occupied by Gongsun Zan, is closer to the grassland, and there are four or five player counties, so many players, especially individual players, have changed to migrate to that grassland.

Outside the south gate of Tangtougou Town, Ma Xuan led everyone to wait for Huangfu Chaobo's arrival. Seeing his large group of soldiers and horses coming, Ma Xuan hurriedly led everyone to greet him.

"Meng Chang, you have worked hard. How is the situation now?"

"Reporting to the lord, two thousand infantrymen and five thousand civilian craftsmen are all ready. As long as the lord arrives, they may lead them north. After arriving at the destination, they can start to build a new territory."

"When did Hu Yanda and his party leave?"

"After returning to Longhua, Captain Hu Yan took a day off and led a thousand cavalrymen and nearly two thousand horse trainers and horse catchers and horse breeders under his command to leave Longhua and head north to Chifeng. According to the itinerary, they should have arrived in Chifeng and started to catch horses."

Today, Hu Yanda is no longer the young man he was back then. He has been promoted to the position of lieutenant and has thousands of subordinates. Now, all the horse trainers in Longhua area are under his management. In addition to nearly a hundred horse trainers, there are nearly a thousand horse catchers and thousands of horse breeders. This time, in addition to a dozen senior horse trainers, he also brought almost all the horse catchers and hundreds of horse breeders.

Now, Longhua's horse training and breeding has become the most important source of funds for the entire Tang army. In addition to providing war horses for their own families, there are hundreds of horses of all levels sold to Youzhou and Jiangdong, in exchange for the money and various raw materials needed by the Tang army.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to establish Yanbei County this time, Huangfu Chaobo plans to move all other industries in Longhua away, leaving only the horse training project here. This is also because Longhua is isolated from the outside world by the two passes of Tangtougou Pass and Hutougou Pass, and it has almost become a closed place.

After Ma Xuan finished speaking, Huangfu Chaobo nodded, then left Tangtougou Town and headed westward towards Tangtougou Pass. It had been several years since he left Longhua. Anyway, it was already afternoon today, so he might as well rest in Longhua for a night and set off again early tomorrow morning.