Chapter 986 A New Year Begins

Huangfu Chaobo accepted everyone's toast, and then quietly withdrew halfway through the banquet, leaving only a group of subordinates to continue eating and drinking in the hall, which was very lively, while Huangfu Chaobo himself slowly walked towards the backyard.

Here, Huangfu Song's voice came from behind. Huangfu Chaobo saw this and hurriedly stopped. When he looked back, he saw that Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun and several other old men had left the banquet hall and were walking towards him.

"Hello, uncle! Hello, mentor! Hello, Lord Taishan! Hello, Uncle Kong! Hello, Mr. Cai! Hello, Mr. Wenju!" Seeing this, Huangfu Chaobo hurriedly stepped forward and bowed one by one.

"We old guys are old, so we don't hang out with the little guys. We ate some food, drank a few sips of wine, and were about to leave and return. Seeing that you seemed to be worried, I called you!" Huangfu Song smiled;

Huangfu Chaobo nodded and said nothing.

Zhu Jun said, "Are you worried about Zigan's affairs?"

Huangfu Song said, "Don't worry, Zigan will make arrangements." Then he turned to the others and said, "I got a pound of good tea recently. How about going to my house to taste tea?"

After hearing this, the others nodded in agreement, and then turned around and left the mansion under the leadership of Huangfu Song.

After hearing Huangfu Song's words, although Huangfu Chaobo did not understand how Lu Zhi arranged it, he also removed a huge stone from his heart. He was also an open-minded person. Since he couldn't figure it out, he simply didn't think about it. When the boat reached the bridge, it would naturally straighten itself. Thinking of this, he left the front yard and went to the back yard. Today is the New Year, and he should spend time with his family in the game.

In 197, the second year of Jian'an in the Han Dynasty, on the fifth day of the first lunar month, Lu Zhi, a famous general of the Han Dynasty, the General of the Northern Central Army, and the Minister of State, finally breathed his last on his sickbed. It is said that before he died, he called his two sons into the room and told them for nearly half an hour before he died.

Huangfu Chaobo, who got the news, rushed to the Lu Mansion immediately, but found that the entire Lu Mansion had begun to be filled with white, and the Lu brothers had begun to prepare for Lu Zhi's funeral.

According to Lu Zhi's request, he did not need to carry his spirit back to his hometown after his death, but was buried directly on the Mang Mountain behind the Luoyang Academy. Moreover, Lu Zhi also required the two brothers to only guard the spirit for one month, and then return to their own army without delay.

At this time, Huangfu Chaobo understood what Huangfu Song meant by Lu Zigan must be prepared, and it turned out that he had already made arrangements.

Thinking of this, Huangfu Chaobo couldn't help but say a long speech to the Lu brothers, and then said that he would keep vigil for Lu Zhi with the etiquette of a disciple, and then told the two brothers that he would write to the court to recommend Lu Zhi as the Earl of Liangxiang, which moved the two Lu brothers to tears.

Lu Zhi's funeral took several days to finish, and soon it was the 16th day of the first lunar month, which was the time stipulated by the Zhengdong Army for all government offices to reopen.

On this day, Huangfu Chaobo's first military order of the Zhengdong General's Mansion in the new year was sent to the counties under him, ordering the counties to select 10% of the old soldiers from the city guards to go to the county city, hand them over to the commander of the war camp for training, and wait for further orders from the general's mansion. The vacancies of local guards were gradually recruited after the spring plowing.

As soon as the order was issued, everyone knew that Huangfu Chaobo was preparing for the next war. However, everyone was surprised that when discussing matters before the New Year, Huangfu Chaobo decided not to temporarily draw elite troops from the guards for training, but now that the New Year has just passed, the order has been issued. This is obviously a decision made during this period of time.

Everyone guessed that it might be related to Lu Zhi, but no one went into it, and Huangfu Chaobo did not explain too much about this matter. After the first military order was issued, Huangfu Chaobo continued his unfinished inspection trip last year under the escort of 5,000 guards.

Lu Zhi's words reminded Huangfu Chaobo that no matter how the war went, Sizhou was the foundation of Huangfu Chaobo. As long as he didn't lose it at all, it didn't matter even if the war was temporarily defeated.

If it didn't lose it at all, everything would be empty talk, so after dealing with the government affairs in Luoyang, Huangfu Chaobo set off again.

Because it is already past the fifteenth day of the lunar month, the Yellow River will thaw in a while. When the ice flood arrives, it will be difficult for him to lead 5,000 cavalry to cross the river. Therefore, although the heavy snow has not melted yet, Huangfu Chaobo has set out.

Spring is here, and everything is revived. After being silent for several months, the whole world has begun to recover its vitality. People from all over the country have come out of their homes and started to tidy up the fields to prepare for the busy new year.

Not only farmers, but also various princes have begun to move frequently. After receiving the military order from the General's Mansion, the chief officers of each city under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Expedition Army began to select suitable soldiers from the soldiers under their jurisdiction and sent them to the county city to receive unified training from the generals of the war camp.

For the soldiers, the change from guard to combat soldier not only means an increase in salary, but also means that his status will rise accordingly. This is a very honorable thing in the Eastern Expedition Army, so the soldiers from all over the country who received the call began to gather towards their respective county cities like streams.

In addition to these soldiers, vehicles transporting food and supplies have also begun to prepare to set off, delivering cartloads of food and supplies to designated cities.

This was not only the case under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Expedition Army. Cao Cao's army, Sun Ce's army, and the Night-rose army also mobilized troops and transported supplies. Yuan Shao's army in Hebei seemed to be making some preparations. Lu Bu in Bingzhou ordered Chen Gong to start preparing food and supplies just a few days after the New Year.

Tens of thousands of elite troops like Night-rose began to gather in Jiqiu, the southernmost part of Langya State, after the beginning of spring. Langya State originally had thirteen county towns with a population of about 600,000. After Night-rose took control of all of them, he divided it into two. At the same time, he successively occupied Gai County in the northeast of Taishan County and four county towns in the south, namely Feiguo, Nanwuyang, and Nancheng. Now Night-rose controls as many as seventeen cities above the county level.

As for population, Xuzhou has been in frequent wars in the past two years, and hundreds of thousands of ordinary people have fled to Night-rose's territory. In addition to the population of the four county towns in Taishan County, the population under Night-rose's rule has reached one million.

Over the years, Ye Lai Xiang has accumulated nearly 100,000 soldiers, including nearly 50,000 county soldiers and 50,000 combat soldiers. After agreeing with Huangfu Chaobo last year, Ye Lai Xiang began to transfer troops to Jiqiu, transferring 40,000 of his 50,000 elite troops to Jiqiu, and the remaining 10,000 were defending Qingzhou and Taishan.