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The Rise of Heroes Chapter 231: Economic Plunder

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    The two armies marched slowly, and after about half an hour, they finally arrived at the Shilipo area, but there was no trace of Cao Cao anywhere.  Xu Chu knew that he had been tricked and cursed loudly: "How dare you bully me? What is your purpose in teasing me here? Do you want to fight me to the death?" After saying this, he opened his stance and prepared to take action.  Xia Houyuan took a few steps back, clasped his fists and said, "Don't be surprised, Mr. Xu. Although my lord has made some small plans, he has absolutely no intention of harming you! If you go back to Xu's Wubao, everything will be revealed!" Xu Chu was worried about his father's future.  For safety, he did not dare to quarrel with Xia Houyuan anymore, and hurriedly rode back the way he came, with dozens of horses following closely behind.  When I returned to Wubao and opened the gate, I saw that the city gate was tightly closed, the gate tower was full of Cao Jun, and there were many dead bodies beside the city wall, but most of them were Cao Jun's corpses.  After thinking for a while, Xu Chu, no matter how stupid he was, figured out what was going on. It turned out that he had fallen into Cao Cao's plan to lure the tiger away from the mountain.  Cao Cao used these three days to use local materials to build simple siege tools such as ladders and hooks.  He took away half of his troops as soon as he went out. There were less than a thousand people to defend the fort, and the fort itself was not strong. How could he withstand the fierce attack of nearly ten thousand Cao's troops regardless of the cost?  Cao Cao only spent one meal, and before Xu Chu and others arrived at Shiliting, they had already captured Wu Fort. Mr. Xu and Xu Chu's wives and concubines were all prisoners, and all the private soldiers in the fort were under Cao's control.  Down.  Cao Chu had been waiting on the gate tower for a long time. When he saw Xu Chu returning quickly, he laughed loudly and said, "Is Xu Chu all right?"  Then ministers, ministers also choose kings, you are not my king, and I am not your minister, why do you have to force each other so hard?" Cao Cao shook his head when he heard this and said: "When the world is in chaos and all the princes are rising up to fight for hegemony, we should use all our scheming and means.  ! I love Xu Zhuangzhi very much, so I have no choice but to do this! Don¡¯t blame me for offending you!¡± After that, he turned around and shouted: ¡°Open the city gate and let Xu Zhuangshi go home!¡±  The suspension bridge was relieved, but Xu Chu was hesitant in his heart.  Today's lair has turned into a dragon's nest and a tiger's den in the blink of an eye, but if we don't enter, the old father, his wife, and his seriously ill brother Xu will still be in Wubao.  After pondering for a moment, he had no choice but to dismount and stride into Wu Bao.  Cao Cao had been waiting for a long time. When he saw Xu Chu come in, he knew that most of the work was done. He immediately knelt down and bowed down, saying: "Cao Cao has offended many people. Please calm down your anger. The family members and property in the castle have not been harmed. I only ask Xu Chu."  A strong man can put aside his past grudges and join hands with Cao Cao to create a great cause! "Xu Chu was stunned. He didn't expect that Cao Cao would do something like this. Xu Chu is a loyal person who values ??loyalty above all else, but he doesn't have many tricks.  The kind of person with the straight surname who will rush straight to the dark side after identifying a door.  This time when I saw Cao Cao as a prince paying him such a great gift, I was inevitably moved and my hatred was lessened.  He said: "Why should Mr. Cao do this! Xu Er is just a common man from the countryside, so why bother Mr. Cao so much? You'd better return to Yanzhou quickly! I am willing to offer 200,000 dendrobiums of grain and grass, and more than 1,000 young men and guests.  To make up for it, Xu Er still has to take care of his father and brother. It is absolutely difficult for him to obey his orders!" Cao Cao stood up and said: "To be honest, I have a great enemy Lu Bu. This man is extremely brave and unstoppable. He almost died in the previous battle.  Under the arrow. Now I invite Xu Zhuang to come out. Firstly, he can help destroy Lu Bu, and secondly, Xu Zhuang can become a famous general." After that, he did not give Xu Chu a chance to refute, and continued: "Looking at the world, Yuan Shao has already.  It was decided to send troops to attack Ma Chao. Qiao County is the border area between Yuzhou and Yanzhou. It will be a war-torn place. The Xu family's Wubao can't even resist my thousands of troops. How can we resist the millions of troops from various princes?  Being captured by Ma Chao, it is difficult for a big family like Ru Xu to survive! It¡¯s better to make plans early! As long as Xu Zhuangshi is willing to help me, your father is my father, and your brother is my brother!  , why worry about not creating a big career!" Xu Chu frowned when he heard this. He is now twenty-six years old. Seeing that he is about to turn 30, it is impossible for him to say that he does not want to go out and make a living.  However, his old father was nearly seventy years old, and his brother was suffering from chronic illnesses. If he, the backbone of the family, left his hometown, the Xu family's foundation would be difficult to protect if someone came to attack him.  Now that I heard about the blueprint drawn by Cao Cao, my heart was a little moved.  While hesitating, the elderly Xu's father came closer and said with a complex expression: "It turns out that Duke Cao is interested in my son's bravery. In this case, Xiao Er'er can make his own decision, and he must not let him go because of his father."  There is a bond! Mr. Cao is resourceful, not rigid in his actions, and has great ambitions. Although he is in a difficult situation, he is still a wise leader. My son can help him. Maybe he can bring glory to my Xu family in the future.  It¡¯s not like I don¡¯t know!¡± Cao Cao was overjoyed when he heard this. Mr. Xu said ten words to him. When he heard that Mr. Xu personally came out to persuade him, he immediately bowed and saluted, saying: ¡°Thank you uncle for your care. If you achieve great things, the Xu family will definitely become one of the best in the world.  ! I also treat Xu Zhuangshi with brotherly courtesy!" Xu Chu was deeply moved when he heard this!With tears in his eyes, he immediately knelt down and prostrated himself, saying loudly: "Chu is willing to do the work of a dog and a horse for the Lord. From now on, he will never have any second thoughts in front of the horse and behind the horse!"  Immediately he helped Xu Chu up and laughed loudly and said: "I have General Xu, just like the Emperor Gaozu has Fan Kuai! Why worry about Lu Bu being immortal? Why worry about Ma Chao showing off his power?" Xu Chu was also impressed by Cao Cao's magnanimity and was extremely grateful. Xu Chu  The old man also agreed to move his family to Yanzhou to settle down.  It was agreed that in addition to leaving some soft things, the Xu family donated all the 500,000 dendrobium grains in the family to Cao Cao. The Xu family's more than 2,000 diners and strong men were also accepted by Cao Cao.  The large and small forces that were attached to the Xu family also expressed their allegiance, either sending money and food or slaves and young men, which made Cao Cao a big fortune.  Cao Cao was also very interesting. He appointed Xu Chu as the Lieutenant of the Cavalry, and gave Xia Houyuan's sister Xia Houling to Xu Chu as his second wife. From then on, the relationship between the two was brother-in-law and brother-in-law, and the previous feud was naturally resolved.  Half a month later, Cao Cao first recruited hundreds of carriages, and loaded all the money and grain on the carriages. A group of more than 20,000 people rushed back to Yanzhou in a mighty manner.  .  And Yuan Shao is not stupid. He knows that his own strength coupled with Cao Cao, Liu Biao and others may not be able to defeat Ma Chao. While dispatching troops and generals, he also dispatches Xu You, Feng Ji, Guo Tu, Xin Ping and other counselors.  He rushed to various big families in Yuzhou and Yangzhou to lobby for their support in the crusade against Ma Chao.  Some of these powerful families are local families, and many are powerful people who escaped from the north.  Ma Chao began to suppress powerful families when he arranged for the Montenegrin refugees to take over the Hetao area of ??the Southern Xiongnu.  Later, in Bingzhou, Jizhou, Sili Guanzhong area and Qingzhou, they ruthlessly suppressed the local families who annexed land and raised slaves to farm their fields.  Most of them were annihilated by force, and some fled to Yanzhou, Yuzhou, Yangzhou, Jingzhou, Yizhou, and even Jiaozhou south of the Yellow River.  Now that Ma Chao has just planted his forces in Xuzhou, many powerful people who fled to Xuzhou and have not yet established themselves have become frightened. After hearing the news, their families moved out of Xuzhou, and most of them moved into the adjacent Yangzhou Jianghuai area.  Even many local aristocratic families in Xuzhou gathered their wealth and moved with their slaves.  It can be said that under Ma Chao's rule, except for a small number of powerful families who defected to Ma Chao, the rest almost never ended well.  Of course, these people are large landowners who have annexed thousands or even ten thousand acres of land, but rich peasants with less than 500 acres of land are not within the scope of the attack.  These powerful landowners who had left their hometowns all hated Ma Chao and sent assassins to kill Ma Chao many times.  However, Ma Chao was protected by Dian Wei, and the soldiers around him were even more extraordinary. They also had amazing martial arts skills. Any attempt to assassinate him was like flying moths to the flames.  Now that they heard that Yuan Shao was going to launch an army to attack Ma Chao and drive him back to Xiliang in one fell swoop, all the powerful landowners and families applauded.  Coupled with Yuan Shao's words and deeds of making bad promises, various large and small families donated their wealth and domestic slaves. The specific number of domestic slaves cannot be calculated for the time being. Yuan Shao received "donations" in less than a month.  Tens of billions.  With money, Yuan Shao was confident and immediately ordered people to purchase refined iron, grain and horses from the private sector, but after a few days no one was willing to sell grain or iron.  When there was no one to sell, we had to raise the purchase price, from 200 yuan per jin to 300 yuan for corn, 100 yuan per catty for fine iron, and 150 yuan for horses, from 10,000 yuan to 12,000 yuan.  .  There was an effect, but it was minimal. Yuan Shao kept raising the price in a rage, and finally it reached 2,000 yuan for a handful of grain, 1,500 yuan for a pound of iron, and 100,000 yuan for a horse.  But even so, there were still very few people who came to exchange money.  Little did they know that Ma Chao had already asked the Wei family and the Zhen family to purchase large quantities of refined iron and other materials in the south at high prices, and at the same time, he also let a large amount of five baht money flow to the south.  Seeing that there was a profit to be made, whether it was common people or powerful landlords in the south, they exchanged all the remaining materials in their hands for five baht coins and gold and silver.  Over the past two years, a large amount of grain, refined iron, silk, cloth, cattle and other materials have flowed into the north.  There is a shortage of supplies in the south, and prices have begun to rise continuously. In some places, there has even been a phenomenon where money cannot be spent.  The north is rich in materials and prices are falling.  But even so, Ma Chao still did not let go of the economic plunder of the south. After taking complete control of the Yellow River, he sent heavy troops to guard the major ferry crossings and blocked the north-south trade. Materials from the south could enter the north, but materials from the north were not allowed to cross the Yellow River.  Of course, this move also offended many business people. Ma Chao adopted a policy of co-optation. First, he bought the materials he was planning to transport to the south, and then asked him to go to the south to purchase cattle, grain, refined iron and other supplies, and then sold them at high prices.  acquisition.  Seeing the profits, the businessmen all readily agreed and became Ma Chao's accomplices in plundering the south economically.  Of course, the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River are two thousand miles long, and it is impossible for Ma Chao to prevent all merchants from smuggling across, but these small fights will not affect the overall situation at all. As long as Yuan Shao and other princes do not discover this, they can continue all the way.  (Not yet?To be continued.
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