"Gee!"

Zhen smiled, stared at Li Li with beautiful eyes charmingly, and said suspiciously: "I'm not sincere and indirect. Wenchang's original intention of this should be to ask me about the protection power of the Zhen family, right?

These things will be told to you sooner or later, but not now. You must recover from injuries and recover from arrow injuries as soon as possible. Don’t worry about other things for the time being.”

"Well, that's fine." From Zhen's bright and beautiful big eyes, Li Li had already got the answer he wanted. So he nodded and agreed immediately, and smiled and said, "You have heard what the doctor said just now. In fact, my injury was not serious. At most, I had a lot of blood. I would be fine if I had a little rest.

Now only two arrow injuries on the legs are troublesome. The golden dragon soft armor can protect the upper body but cannot take care of the lower body and legs. Therefore, the arrow injuries are deep and it is difficult to move for a while. In addition, some flesh and blood pain is really nothing to me. I have been used to it for many years in the battlefield. "

"After that being said, you can't be careless." Zhen obviously disapproved of Li Li's words and said to Li Li seriously: "If you are an ordinary person or a green forest ranger, then this kind of injury is naturally not worth mentioning. No one except me and Yunluo are willing to care about you. However, with your prominent position today, there must be no accidents. A slight mistake will lead to immeasurable consequences. Just like you are in danger this time, if you encounter an accident or are seriously injured and disabled, what should the Xiliang army do? What should those civil and military officials who follow you do? If you cannot continue to take charge of the Xiliang army, then the current good situation in the entire Xiliang area will inevitably be destroyed, and you may be trapped in war and internal friction again, which will affect the entire world.

Nowadays, it is precisely because you are guarding Xiliang and holding hundreds of thousands of Xiliang troops that the princes of Sili, Yanzhou, Ji Youqing and other prefectures and counties are forced to act rashly. No matter if they want to capture any county, they must always be wary of the mobilization of the Xiliang army, for fear that you will suddenly send troops out of the pass and enter the Central Plains. Therefore, you, Li Wenchang and the Xiliang army under your command have become a deterrent force to suppress the princes of all parts of the world. In the past two years, even if you do nothing in Xiliang, you still suppress the princes from all walks of life and dare not launch large-scale conquests, and you dare not easily concentrate all your troops to conquer the cities and territories. At the same time, as long as you have not sent troops to the Central Plains, they will not dare to be enemies with you, but will find ways to show kindness to you.

If you really are in danger this time, the world will be completely in chaos. The princes in each town have no scruples anymore and will launch large-scale troops to conquer and seize prefectures and counties. Within three years, the situation in the world will change drastically, causing the current situation of separatist rule to rapidly evolve into vassal states and the Han Dynasty to completely collapse. Therefore, your life now does not belong entirely to you, but the pillar of the sky that supports the safety of the entire Han Dynasty. Anyone can die, but you can't have any trouble!"

Zhen's words surprised Li Li, even shocked. He couldn't believe his ears and eyes, and could not believe that Zhen had such knowledge and had such high expectations for him.

"Maybe my wife is too proud of me. Even if I don't have me, Li Li, there will be another place to replace me." Li Li pretended to be dissatisfied and said self-deprecatingly.

Zhen smiled and shook his head and said, "Wenchang's words cannot be wrong, but they are biased. Wenchang is not a businessman, and perhaps he doesn't know that what businessmen value most is not vested interests. It is a business opportunity that can make a fortune. The so-called business opportunity is actually to seize the initiative. Only after taking the initiative can one expand its own interests infinitely. In other words, the current princes in each town are like big merchants. Wenchang is the first person to seize the opportunity and lead the trend of the world.

As you said just now, if you suffer this time, then someone will definitely take your position soon. This is self-evident. However, I wonder if Wenchang has ever thought that merchants can earn a lot of money by taking the initiative, and what is the things the princes want to get?

That is people, or population. As long as you have enough population, other things can be created, and there will naturally be more and more soldiers, horses, money and food. Since Wenchang occupied Chang'an, he has held powerful troops and shocked the world. On the surface, it seems that the world has not changed much, but it is still the vassal of princes and wars are everywhere; but the actual situation is not like this.

It was precisely because Wenchang quickly stabilized the court after Wang Yun's chaos, which forced the princes of the world to be afraid and looked forward to the front and back, and were greatly suppressed and did not dare to fight. Although the princes of all walks of life continued to conquer and often fought, the scale of the war was not large, and no one dared to go out and launch a large-scale war.

Such a situation gives the people in the battlefield a breather, allowing them to calmly choose relatively safe prefectures and counties to take refuge, or find hidden places to hide in the local area. All this is the result of Wenchang's assistance to the emperor to shock the world. In this case, the sooner the better. The sooner the people in the battlefield can be transferred to a safe place as soon as possible, which means that Wenchang indirectly saved the lives of countless people. On the contrary, if Wenchang had not taken the lead in stabilizing the Xidu, the wars in various parts of the Han Dynasty would not have been reduced, but would have been more intense than now, so that the people had no chance to migrate and take refuge at all. At most a small number of them could escape the war, while most people would live in dire straits and die innocently in the war.

Now Wenchang has implemented a strategy of rest and recuperation in Xiliang, which seems to have little impact on the world situation, but in fact it has delayed the outbreak of the war between the princes to the greatest extent. The Xiliang army, which does not miss the edge, is the most shocking existence, especially in the situation of the unification of Xiliang, the suppression of various princes has been maximized, thus providing the people with the opportunity to avoid the disaster of war.

Therefore, I dare to assert that if the entire Xiliang area could recuperate for twenty years like now, then the world will definitely be yours in twenty years, because you have a population and money and food far exceeding the princes in the world!”

After Zhen finished speaking in one breath, Li Li looked solemn and silent, concentrating on the situation in the world and the profound meaning revealed in Zhen's words.

Li Li never thought that he could secretly control the emperor, stabilize the court, quickly pacify Xiliang, recuperate, and prepare for war. He could indirectly help the people of the world. This was beyond his expectations.

In addition, Li Li expected that the Xiliang army would shock the princes in all directions. As long as the Xiliang army is not in chaos, who would dare to ignore the existence of the Xiliang army in all directions? Who would dare to gently grasp the sharpness of the Xiliang cavalry?

However, not all this is something that everyone can see clearly. At least Li Li's original intention of implementing the strategy of rest and recuperation was hidden from the eyes of many princes. They made them mistakenly believe that the Xiliang army was in short supply of food and grass, and they were unable to send troops to the Central Plains, so they could only streamline their troops and horses and save themselves in the military farms; but this was their wishful thinking, or self-righteous speculation.

In fact, it is an indisputable fact that the Xiliang army lacks food and pay. However, it is nonsense to say that the Xiliang army has no ability to send troops to fight. Since ancient times, no one has ever been short of food and pay. Not to mention the far-reaching ones, just Cao Cao in Yanzhou, which is the richest prefectures and counties in the Central Plains, but he still often lacks food. Yuan Shao in Jizhou may be one of the most wealthy princes among the princes in the world, but his wealth is not really not lacking food and pay compared to Cao Cao in Yanzhou. No matter how rich the prefectures and counties are, they are baptized by war. They will only be able to pay less money and food and population, and the more they fight, the poorer they become. This is an eternal iron rule.

Because of this, after Li Li pacified Xiliang, he no longer continued to send troops to fight, but adopted a strategy of rest and recuperation, restoring farming and mulberry silkworm farming in various prefectures and counties in Xiliang as much as possible, and absorbing barbarian prisoners and refugees from all over the country to settle down and settle down. In the troubled times, such rest and rest strategy may not have achieved obvious results, and it is far from reaching the expected effect of rest and rest. However, when all the prefectures and counties in the world were fighting, only the places in Xiliang were stable and peaceful. This alone was enough to attract countless people to travel thousands of miles to settle down to settle down.

And this is the real purpose of Li Li's implementation of the rest and recuperation strategy.

As Zhen said, the key to the victory or defeat of the princes in fighting for hegemony is population. Because talent is the foundation of all things in the world, the population is directly related to the strength of the princes and the potential for war; as long as they have a large population, they must have a steady stream of soldiers and inexhaustible money and food, so that they can be invincible.

The desolate Xiliang, the bitter and cold in Xiliang, all of which show that Xiliang is in a worrying situation. However, from another perspective, it also shows that Xiliang is vast and sparsely populated, and has a lot of space for utilization. As long as Xiliang is stable and there is no suffering of war, farming and people's livelihood can be quickly restored, and thus accommodate more people. In addition, it is precisely because of Xiliang's bitter and cold that the Xiliang people's tenacious and brave nature have been forged, and this is precisely the root of the brave and good warfare of the Xiliang army.

It is precisely based on these factors that Li Li decided to restore the agricultural work in Xiliang, vigorously develop people's livelihood, clear business paths, and strive to improve the living conditions of the people of Xiliang in the shortest time. Can the huge Xiliang area still support two or three million people? Four hundred years later, the Tang Dynasty alone had a population of millions, and the population of Yongliang and the two prefectures of Yongliang had nearly ten million. Could it be that the land of Xiliang is not as fertile as that of four hundred years later, and the territory of thousands of miles was equally divided into two or three million people. On average, each person owned at least hundreds of hectares of land. With so much land, he was still poor and could not have enough food. It was really absurd!

It is precisely with this idea that Li Li has really become angry over the past two years.

The treasury of all counties and counties in Xiliang is no longer the place where food and wages are collected, but the place where grain is opened. All officials under Xiliang are no longer high-ranking officials, but are full-time personnel who supervise each other's style of administration and vigorously promote and encourage the people to cultivate farming, distribute grain seeds, farm tools and oxen. Nowadays, if any people in Xiliang have no 100 acres of arable land, it proves that the family is lazy, or there is no male laborer at home, and there is no other reason.

More than a year later, Li Li's strategy of rest and recuperation was initially achieved. Generally, the family of ordinary people had no problem having enough food, and the hardworking family had already lived a relatively wealthy life. The whole area of ​​Yongliang and Liang prefectures basically did not require relief and relief from counties; and nearly one million new population was added. The rapid results and the abundant results were far beyond Li Li's expected goal. The addition of one million new population alone was enough to cheer him up.

After traveling to the Central Plains, Li Li did see many wealthy counties, but also found that these counties were becoming increasingly depressed and declining, which was exactly the opposite of the booming momentum of Xiliang counties. With this increase and decline, Li Li firmly believed that in two years, the prefectures and counties in Xiliang would come from behind and completely reverse the prefectures and counties in the Central Plains. The source of all this was the war of wars.

Compared to Li Li, who was extremely cunning, Ma Yunluo, who was sitting next to him, was much simpler. She had no intention of thinking about military and national affairs, and was more concerned about the mature and plump Zhen family in front of her.

Just as Li Li lowered his head and thought, he saw Ma Yunluo staring at Zhen’s beautiful face meaningfully, her beautiful eyelashes blinking up and down, and a smile that only women could understand was hanging on the corner of her mouth.

"Sister Zhen, you let my husband recover from the dormitory, so why do you sleep in the evening?" Seeing Li Li squinting his eyes and thinking about things, Ma Yunluo gently stood up and walked to the tea table with Zhen's arm in his arms, and asked softly with a smile.

Zhen's pretty face was blushing, and she didn't dare to look at Ma Yunluo's suspicious eyes, and she whispered calmly: "My sister is joking. Zhen's house has many houses, and there are nearly 200 dormitories in the backyard alone. I'll move in and live with Mi'er in the past two days."

"This,,,,,,,,,,,? After all, my husband and I live in Zhen's house. How can we bother my sister to give up the main house? It's not right!" Ma Yunluo smiled knowingly at Zhen and said hesitantly.

Zhen heard the teasing intentions in Ma Yunluo's words, reached out and held Ma Yunluo's hands, and whispered softly with her cheeks: "Good sister, we have known each other for nearly a month. Why are you still so disgusting with your sister? Wenchang is now injured by an arrow and needs to rest. The house is the quietest of Mingyue Pavilion. The maid is also a caring person who has followed her sister for many years. Only with them serving Wenchang at any time can I feel at ease, otherwise I will not be at ease."

"Hihehe!" Ma Yunluo smiled happily, "My sister is so meticulous and thoughtful to my husband. My younger sister is ashamed of her. Since my sister has made up her mind, I am willing to accomplish this. However, there are eight beautiful ladies in the Hanyang General's Mansion. The husband and wife have always been loving. My sister must know this in her heart."

"Thank you for your fulfillment. I already know these things. I will never let my sister make things difficult for you." Zhen nodded slightly with a blushing face and responded in a low voice.

———————————— (To be continued)
Chapter completed!