Zhang Yan took the initiative to let Yang Xiu serve as the governor of the Taiwei Mansion, and he asked the Son of Heaven to make Yang Biao the Situ, and re-pulled Yang Biao to the position of the third duke, and successfully won Yang Biao's support through a two-pronged approach.

After leaving the Yang Mansion, Zhang Yan asked Yang Xiu to take office tomorrow, the residence of the Taiwei Mansion is actually the General's Mansion, Zhang Yan combined the two mansions into one, but divided two different courtyards in the mansion, one is used as the staff office of the Taiwei Mansion, and the other is used as the staff office of the General's Mansion.

After Zhang Yan returned to the mansion, he officially took the position of Tai Lieutenant and recruited staff from all over the world, according to the regulations, in addition to the long history of the chief of staff, there was still a lack of a master book in the house, as well as the West Cao, East Cao, Hu Cao, Song Cao, Ci Cao, Fa Cao, Wei Cao, Thief Cao, Decision Cao, Bing Cao, Jin Cao, Cang Cao and other twelve Cao's Peng, history, and genus.

Peng is the chief of each Cao, Shi is the deputy director, and the status of the genus is slightly lower than that of Peng and Shi, who are also in charge of the twelve Cao. Under normal circumstances, there are only Peng and Shi in the Taiwei Mansion, and unless the government affairs are particularly busy, the staff will be expanded and subordinates will be set up to share the pressure of Peng and Shi.

Taiwei is the head of the Three Princes, who was originally in charge of the military, and is a senior military adviser to the emperor's side, equivalent to the current position of chief of the general staff.

However, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, with the strengthening of Liu Xiu's imperial power and the gradual transfer of actual power to Shangshutai, the post of Taiwei gradually evolved into the manager of state affairs, and his functions and powers were roughly equivalent to those of the prime minister.

The twelve Cao under the Taiwei have the following powers: the History Department of the West Cao Lord's Mansion. The East Cao lord 2,000 stone long history moved and military officials. The main households, ancestral shrines, and agricultural mulberries. Cao played the main recital. Resign from the lawsuit. Fa Cao is the main post officer. Wei Cao's main pawn transferred the matter. The thief Cao is a thief. Decide the main crime of the law. The soldiers are the main soldiers. Jin Cao is the main currency, salt, and iron. Cangcao is the main Canggu business.

From the subdivision of the duties and powers of these twelve Cao, it is not difficult to see that the Taiwei of the Eastern Han Dynasty. It has completely degenerated into an official position in the management of state affairs. It is the same as the name of the Taiwei who was in charge of military affairs in the early Western Han Dynasty.

Thereupon. Zhang Yan asked people to recommend capable people and openly hire staff.

After the news came out, Chen Jiao, the Taishou of Xiapi, heard about the incident, so he recommended Xu Xuan, Wei Jing, and Liu Ying from the same county.

Xu Xuan is an old friend of Chen Jiao, a native of Haixi, Guangling, and Chen Deng is too punctual in Guangling, so he is appointed as the commander of Haixi County. Haixi is close to the sea and has a long coastline. Most of the people in the territory are engaged in salt production. Since Zhang Yan promulgated the salt and iron official camp, if the people sell illegal salt, they must obtain a license, this order angered many salt merchants in the territory, Xu Xuangang on the second day of his appointment, the salt merchants in the territory gathered a crowd to rebel, elected a salt merchant surnamed Li as the leader, led the crowd to besiege the county government.

Xu Xuan was surrounded in the county government, and after learning that the rebels were all bewitched by the salt merchant surnamed Li, he was in a hurry. pretended to surrender to the salt merchant surnamed Li, but secretly found four strong men to follow him. When the two met, they suddenly attacked and killed the salt merchant surnamed Li. And Xu Xuan even found someone to pretend to be Chen Deng's army and scared away the rebels.

After that, Xu Xuan recruited an army of 500 people, while recruiting the rebellious salt merchants, while attacking the salt merchants who were unwilling to surrender, and skillfully used a discordant strategy to divide the rebellious salt merchants, and each one was defeated.

A month later, Zhang Yan put down the rebellion of the salt merchants in Haixi, and beheaded all the salt merchants who participated in the rebellion in the market with 37 people.

Wei Jing and Liu Ying are both relatively talented people in Guangling, and they were recommended to Zhang Yan by Chen Jiao.

Zhang Yan then took Xu Xuan as the thief Cao Peng, Wei Jing as the resignation Cao Peng, and Liu Ying decided Cao Peng.

Subsequently, Weiwei Wang Lang also recommended three people, namely Kan Ze and Yu Tuo, who were Huiji, and Cheng Bing, who was from Runan.

Wang Lang was too punctual in Huiji, and he hired Yu Tuo as a meritorious Cao, and now that he is a guard lieutenant, he naturally will not forget Yu Tuo, so he directly recommended him.

Kan Ze is a native of Huiji Shanyin, and his family has been farming for generations, but Kan Ze likes to learn, and because his family is poor and has no money, he often hires people to copy books in exchange for paper and pen. When he had finished copying the book, he had read it all. He made a name for himself by remembering his lectures, inquiring and reading a wide range of books, and being proficient in the celestial arithmetic calendar. Just last year, he was promoted by Wang Lang as filial piety and served as the head of Qiantang, and he can be regarded as a subordinate of Wang Lang.

As for Cheng Bing, Wang Lang was too punctual when he was in Huiji, and Cheng Bing once passed by Huiji and went to Jiaozhou. Wang Lang met Cheng Bing by chance, and the result was like acquaintance at first sight, only then did he know that Cheng Bing had studied with Zheng Xuan and was very speculative with Wang Lang.

Now Cheng Bing is a long history under the account of Jiaozhou Shepherd, but Wang Lang cherishes Cheng Bing's talent, so he recommended it to Zhang Yan, and at the same time he personally wrote a letter to send it to Jiaozhou, hoping that Cheng Bing can come to Pengcheng.

Subsequently, Sima Zhi, the chief supervisor of the court guard, recommended his brother Sima Lang, as well as Wang Xiang and Yang Jun of the same county. The rest of the officials successively recommended talents, and Huan Jie, Ruan Yu, and Liu Yan were also hired.

In just two days, twelve virtuous talents were recommended, and Zhang Yan ordered these twelve people to be recruited to serve as twelve Cao Peng in the mansion with the order of the Taiwei Mansion.

A few days later, Yuan Jian escaped from Yuan Shu, brought his family with him, and came to Pengcheng to serve Zhang Yan. Zhang Yan then took Yuan Jian as the chief bookkeeper of the Taiwei Mansion. He specially arranged a place for Yuan Shu to live, and learned about Yuan Shu's recent situation from Yuan Shu.

Yuan Shu sent Sun Ce to lead an army of 10,000 to attack Lujiang, and even took Zhou Yu as his military advisor. Zhou Yu relied on his incorruptible tongue and influence in Shucheng to successfully persuade Lu Kang, the Taishou of Lujiang, to surrender.

Sun Ce led his army to stay in Lujiang and sent someone to inform Yuan Shu. Yuan Shu had said before that if Sun Ce could lead the army to capture the Lujiang River, he would let him be the Taishou of the Lujiang River. Who knows, after the deed was completed, Yuan Shu actually broke his promise and sent his confidant Liu Xun to be the Taishou of Lujiang, only sealing Sun Ce as a Dingyuan general, rewarding him with some money and letting him lead the old department back to Liyang to garrison.

Sun Ce was teased by Yuan Shu, and was very displeased, so he wrote to Yuan Shu and asked him for justice.

Yuan Shu reluctantly let Sun Ce make a Xunyang order, and asked him to lead the old troops to be stationed in Xunyang to guard against Huang Zu in Jiangxia.

Sun Ce was unwilling to be this small county commander, and decisively rejected Yuan Shu's canonization, but was persuaded by Zhou Yu and hoped that Sun Ce would temporarily settle in Xunyang. Then make another plan.

Yuan Shu sent someone to find Zhou Yu again. Let Zhou Yu go to Shouchun to do things for him. Zhou Yu politely declined with a leg disease. Together with Sun Ce, he went to Xunyang to take office.

In addition, Zhang Yan learned from Yuan Jian that Yuan Shu was actively recruiting troops and horses, and was secretly preparing to become emperor.

After Zhang Yan knew about these circumstances, he didn't dare to slack off, Yuan Shutun was in Huainan, and he was a close neighbor. Now he is safe and sound on the surface, but he still has to be on guard against Yuan Shu at all times.

Therefore, Zhang Yan sent Xu Huang to lead an army of 10,000 to garrison the area of Longkang and Xiangxian to guard against Yuan Shu and inquire about the recent situation.

Since Yuan Shu's defeat in Xuzhou, he attacked Runan in the north and Lujiang in the south, and surrendered tens of thousands of Yellow Turban thieves, plus he was still constantly recruiting troops and horses, so that his military strength increased greatly. The number of troops has exceeded 100,000, and its strength cannot be underestimated.

But judging from the recent situation revealed by Yuan Lian. Yuan Shu has just pacified Runan and Lujiang counties, which are still in the digestion stage, and there should be no big moves in at least a year and a half.

Around this time, Yu Ban and Zang Ba came news from Yanzhou and Qingzhou respectively that Yuan Shao's eldest son, Yuan Tan, finally put down Zang Hong's rebellion after more than half a year of siege.

At the same time, Yuan Shao united with Liu Yu's old department to further besiege Gongsun Zhan, almost sweeping the entire Youzhou, and now Gongsun Zhan is only stuck in Yijing City, Yuan Shao was difficult to capture for a while, so he had to lead the army back to Yecheng.

However, Yuan Shao was not idle, at Cao Cao's suggestion, Yuan Shao suddenly turned the spearhead and pointed directly at the state.

Although Zhang Yang was appointed as the governor of the state, the scope of his jurisdiction was limited to the Shangdang. Yuan Shao suddenly fought without declaring a war, and personally led a large army to attack and annex the state, and for a time Zhang Yang's army suffered setbacks one after another, and was defeated in successive battles, so he had to hold Huguan tightly.

Huguan is easy to defend and difficult to attack, plus Zhang Yang secretly contacted the Montenegrin thief Zhang Yan, Zhang Yan led the army to help, and Yuan Shaoqiang could not defeat the loss of troops.

Later, Cao Cao suggested to Yuan Shao that he should surprise his troops, bypass Huguan, go north to Taihang Mountain, take Taihang Bacheng, take Jinyang first, and then go south from Jinyang, and attack Shangdang with the army outside Huguan.

After hearing this, Yuan Shao was very happy, but it was quite difficult to choose a general.

So, Cao Cao volunteered, and Mao recommended himself, willing to lead a partial army to the north.

Yuan Shao agreed to Cao Cao's request because Cao Cao had good generals and elite soldiers, and transferred 3,000 elite soldiers to Cao Cao's command to attack Jinyang, but he led a large army to camp outside Huguan City to contain Zhang Yang and Zhang Yan's troops.

Cao Cao led 5,000 elite soldiers, with Xiahou Yuan as the vanguard, left Yuan Shao's large army and headed for Jinyang.

When the news came, Zhang Yan knew that Zhang Yang would be defeated, and he couldn't help but have some worries.

Gongsun Chan has completely lost the strength to confront Yuan Shao, although he has not been eliminated, he is already struggling, and it will not be long before he will be eliminated by Yuan Shao.

If Yuan Shao defeats Zhang Yang again at this time and captures Bingzhou, then Yuan Shao will be equivalent to occupying Bingzhou, Jizhou, Youzhou and part of Qingzhou, so that he has the capital to compete for the world, and it will also become a big trouble for him.

At the same time, Zhang Yan was also worried that once Yuan Shu proclaimed himself emperor in Huainan, secretly connected with Yuan Shao, and the two Yuan sent troops at the same time, attacking him from the north and south, at that time, he would be difficult to care about, and he would definitely fail.

Therefore, Zhang Yan must first solve one of Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao to solve his worries, so that he can concentrate on dealing with the other.

Yuan Shao is located in Jizhou, with strong strength, a lot of talents, and Cao Cao's help, which is really too difficult to deal with.

In contrast, Yuan Shu's strength is slightly weaker than Yuan Shao, but Rao is so, Zhang Yan is not sure enough to deal with Yuan Shu at this stage, after all, Yuan Shu's strength has surpassed him, if he exerts all his strength to deal with Yuan Shu, Yuan Shao in Hebei will inevitably attack south.

Therefore, Zhang Yan must use external forces and unite other powerful princes to jointly eliminate Yuan Shu, and only in this way can the possibility of fighting on two fronts be avoided.

As soon as he thought of this, Zhang Yan immediately made a decision to ask Yang Xiu to ghostwrite and write two letters, one of which was sent to Jingzhou for Liu Biao, and the other letter was sent to Xunyang for Sun Ce.

In addition, Zhang Yan gave an order to Henan Yin Zhang Hong and the former general Tai Shici, with Tai Shici as the commander and Zhang Hong as the military advisor, leading an army of 5,000 to cross the Yellow River north and go to Shangdang to rescue Zhang Yang.

In addition, Yu Ban led Mi Fang, Bao Shao, Li Dian, Mao Jue, etc., a total of 10,000 soldiers and horses, to cross the Yellow River to the north and go to rescue Zhang Yang with great fanfare.

Zhang Yan also dispatched Zhang Liao, Gao Shun, and Wei Xu to Luoyang, where they belonged to Tai Shi Ci's tent and went to rescue Zhang Yang with him. (To be continued......)