On April 27 of the first year of Xingping of the Han Dynasty, Xuzhou Mu Zhang Yan rode a horse and walked on the road from Qu County to Pengcheng, with the scorching sun on his head, and the earth was also a little cracked by the scorching sun.

He didn't pay much attention to it, but continued on his horse, and when he arrived at the Surabaya River, he was surprised to find that the water level of the Surabaya River had dropped significantly.

The heat of the weather, the cracking of the earth, the drop of the water level, all this seems to indicate a drought.

The crops in the fields are not yet ripe, and if there is a drought at this time, the crops are likely to be lost.

Thinking of the possible threat of drought, Zhang Yan also felt a faint uneasiness in his heart.

After returning to Pengcheng, Zhang Yan immediately asked people to go to various places to measure the water level of several nearby rivers, and the result was the same as Zhang Yan's previous guess, the water level of the river had dropped significantly, and the drought was quietly coming.

Zhang Yan secretly rejoiced that he had discovered the signs before the great drought came, so he distributed letters to the counties, asking the county guards and the county orders of each county to take the lead, organizing the people to dig canals and use the water of the rivers in the territory to irrigate the farmland, so as to avoid drought in various places when the drought comes.

After the order was issued, the entire Xuzhou, Peiguo and Lu in Yuzhou, Shanyang County, Taishan County, Rencheng County, and Dongping County in Yanzhou, all the counties under Zhang Yan's rule were organized by the government, and all counties and counties were actively carrying out drought-fighting work.

For a time, the anti-drought work was in full swing, and with the concerted efforts of all the people, thousands of canals were dug to irrigate farmland by using water from the Surabaya, Shushui, Yishui, Suishui, Jishui, Wenshui, Pushui, Huaihe and other water systems.

In a short period of one month, all counties and counties have put the drought-fighting work in the first place, and they have basically completed the tasks assigned by Zhang Yan, and Zhang Yan has visited various localities in this month to personally guide the drought-fighting work.

As the temperature rose, so did the drought, and after entering May, the drought officially broke out in various places, and the places ruled by Zhang Yan were not very affected because of the previous active work of fighting the drought.

Coincidentally, the drought was accompanied by a large number of locusts.

Although Shanyang County, Taishan County, Rencheng State, and Dongping Kingdom escaped the drought, they could not escape the huge locust plague that broke out in Yanzhou.

Tens of thousands of locusts flew in from outside and began to destroy crops in the four places, leaving the crops in the territory without a harvest. As soon as the disaster broke out, it directly affected the nerves of Cao Cao, Lu Bu, and Zhang Yan.

Zhang Yan ordered the regions under his rule to use fire to fight the locust plague, and at the same time to open warehouses and release grain to relieve the people. And let the government persuade all the victims to move to the increasingly stable Pengcheng area.

As a result, most of the victims of the disaster in Yanzhou flowed into Pengcheng, and Chen Qun, the Taishou of Pengcheng, actively made proper arrangements to place these victims in the five counties with small populations, Liuxian, Guangqi, Qixian, Changxi, and Hexiang, and sent subordinate officials to temporarily serve as county commanders in the five counties, not only distributing grain, but also measuring land and redistributing it to them.

These people from Yanzhou were deeply moved, and they also admired Xuzhou Mu Zhang Yan even more.

The troops were stationed in Lu Bu in Dingtao, because he had received the food sent by Zhang Yan before, so he had no fear, and he took the opportunity to set up a recruiting office in the territory, and everyone who came to join the army had food. In order to survive, some ordinary people joined Lu Bu's army one after another, and Lu Bu's army suddenly increased by tens of thousands and was stepping up training.

In contrast, Cao Cao seemed much more embarrassed, he had no money, no food, neither relief nor recruitment, so he could only write a letter to Yuan Shao in Jizhou, begging for food to survive this year of famine.

Yuan Shao was afraid of saving face, so he sent someone to give Cao Cao some grain and grass, but these grains and grass were only enough for Cao Cao to last for a month or two, and he couldn't survive this famine year at all.

Cao Cao then followed the advice of the strategist Guo Jia and sent the general Xiahoudun to lead his subordinates to Qingzhou soldiers, disguised as yellow turban thieves, and plundered grain in the relatively wealthy Qingzhou.

Liu Bei led Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and others to conquer, but they were outnumbered and defeated by Xiahoudun, and even Pingyuan City was lost, and was chased and killed by the Qingzhou soldiers led by Xiahoudun.

Liu Bei, who lost the plain, had no choice but to take the remnants of the defeated army and go to attach to Qingzhou to assassinate Shi Tiankai, and temporarily stationed troops in Linzi. And Xiahoudun plundered the army, took the grain, grass, and baggage, and returned to Dongjun.

In addition, in order to supplement the military salary, Cao Cao set up a special team to rob the tomb, and appointed the commander of this army as the captain of the school, and specially set up the position of the general of the Zhonglang of Faqiu, specifically to manage the captain of the school.

Zhang Yan and Cao Cao and Lu Bu divided Yanzhou, but none of the three parties have taken action now, and Zhang Yan is also waiting to see what happens, ready to free up his hands and continue to consolidate his position in Xuzhou, after all, Xuzhou is the foundation of his foothold.

In June, the drought relief work under Zhang Yan's rule was nearing its end, as long as the victims who entered Xuzhou were properly resettled, and Pengcheng also increased its population by more than 300,000 people, all of whom were reasonably distributed by Chen Qun in five counties.

The locust plague in Yanzhou was also completely cured under the concerted efforts of Zang Ba, Yu Ban, Bao Xun, Chen Ying, Mi Fang, Deng Yi and others.

After everything was settled, Zhang Yan began to recruit troops and horses aggressively, and began to actively train soldiers. Without a strong army, it is absolutely impossible to gain a foothold in this world.

Now that Zhang Yan has money, food, and land, it is not a problem at all to form a strong army.

Zhang Yan first asked the blacksmiths in the smelter to use the armor he designed as a model to create a heavy armor with excellent protective power, after wearing the heavy armor, people can resist arrows, as well as the lethality brought by swords, guns and halberds, just like retracting into a turtle shell, without interference from the outside world.

However, after wearing the heavy armor, there is a disadvantage, because the weight of the heavy armor itself has reached thirty pounds, after people put it on, the speed of running is relatively slow.

The blacksmith forged a pair of heavy armor as promised, and after careful inspection and repeated shiyan, Zhang Yan asked the craftsmen to make 3,000 pairs of such heavy armor, and also had them forge 3,000 spears made of stainless steel, 3,000 pairs of horse armor, 3,000 helmets, and 3,000 steel knives.

To this end, Zhang Yan specially selected 3,000 soldiers with superb riding skills from the army and formed a guard army.

Zhang Yan personally trained the guards and soldiers, training from discipline, speed, physical fitness and other aspects, the purpose was to create an elite army.

These soldiers also did not live up to Zhang Yan's high expectations, and after a month of Zhang Yan's devil training, this group of soldiers had already been reborn and had become a disciplined army.

On the morning of that day, Zhang Yan was still training these soldiers on the school grounds, and a group of craftsmen came to the school field with horse-drawn carriages pulling armor and weapons.

Zhang Yan distributed these excellent weapons and armor to the soldiers, and when the soldiers got their hands, they knew that even the war horses under the seat were also covered with armor, and the whole drive was wrapped in it.

The men and horses were all dressed in armor, and when all the soldiers were fully dressed, a decent heavy cavalry was displayed in front of Zhang Yan.

Zhang Yan regrouped the team, stood on the point platform, and looked at the new 3,000 heavy cavalry on the school field, and suddenly felt an inexplicable excitement.

Now that there are elite soldiers, but there is a lack of strong generals, Zhang Yan thought about it, so he called Xu Chu, the captain of Huwei, and Tai Shici, the captain of Xiaocai, to come over, and asked Tai Shici and Xu Chu to serve as the commanders of his personal guards.

When Tai Shici and Xu Chu came to the school field and saw such a heavily armed heavy cavalry, they were all surprised, and when they learned that Zhang Yan wanted the two of them to lead this army, they didn't think about it, so they decisively agreed.

Zhang Yan also gave this army a name, called the Iron Cavalry Battalion.

After the establishment of the Iron Cavalry Battalion, Zhang Yan successively established a heavy infantry battalion composed of 5,000 people, which was called the Iron Armored Battalion. The commanders of the ironclad battalion are Niu Jin and Xu Sheng.

After the Iron Cavalry Battalion and the Iron Armored Battalion were established one after another, Zhang Yan began to focus on training the Iron Cavalry Battalion and the Iron Armored Battalion, making them the most elite soldiers and horses in the entire Xuzhou.

In addition, Zhang Yan officially promulgated the decree on the formation of the militia, which existed as a kind of reserve and was under the command of the county lieutenants, which could protect the territory and the people on the one hand, and cooperate with the regular army on the other. He also made it clear that in the future, if there is a shortage of soldiers, they will be directly selected from the militia, and the government will also be responsible for the salaries of the militia.

So, when Xuzhou was recruiting troops and horses, the militia was also quietly rising.

In terms of talents, because of the recommendation of Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong, Yan Ji, Bu Qi, and Zhuge Jin came to vote one after another, and they were all entrusted with important tasks by Zhang Yan and became the county magistrate who governed the place.

And Zhang Yan is to break the traditional recommendation system, the use of self-recommendation and official assessment mechanism, meritocracy, for a time, Xuzhou scholars have self-recommendation, all through the assessment, have been entrusted with important tasks, become the governance of the locality, for the benefit of the people of the official, sweep away the haze of Tao Qian era.

While all parts of the country are struggling with drought, Xuzhou is like a paradise and is thriving.

By the third day of July, Xuzhou's army had expanded to 100,000, and all localities were stepping up training for the newly recruited soldiers and horses in case of emergency.

On this day, Zhang Yan was training soldiers on the school field, Chen Qun suddenly came to the school field with a panicked expression, walked straight to Zhang Yan's side, and arched his hand: "Qi Qi lord, Beihai Xiang Kong Rong sent someone to ask for help, the messenger is waiting in the hall of the state pastor's mansion, and please move." ”

"Kong Rong came to ask for help? What the hell is going on? When Zhang Yan heard the news, he asked.

Chen Qun said: "Lord, let's talk while walking, it's better to see the messenger first." ”

Zhang Yan nodded, handed over the task of training soldiers to Tai Shici, and went to the Prefecture Governor's Mansion side by side with Chen Qun.