Chapter 464 Sending Heads

Cao Cao's will was quickly written on silk paper through pen and ink.

These silk papers were recorded by the Prime Minister's Office and sent out in different categories.

The main gate of the Jiaxian military camp was opened, and groups of knights placed these silk papers close to their bodies, then rode their horses to choose a direction, and galloped out in all directions without looking back.

These military orders made the air in August become a little thicker.

Before the knights rushed to Xudu in Yecheng to convey the order, the people in the fields in Yuzhou, Hebei and other places had already sensed that this year was unusual.

After all, in previous years, if Cao Jun collected one stone of grain, he only collected five or six buckets of grain as land tax.

Although there is no market, it is not impossible to survive such a life with barter.

Since the beginning of this year, farmers' orders in various villages have announced that Prime Minister Cao cares about the people, making new farm tools to facilitate farming, and ordering retting fertilizers to fertilize the fields.

This should be a good thing. After all, this thing commonly known as the curved plow is indeed labor-saving. The retting fertilizers are also cheap, and the retting method is also simple.

Although there are sporadic rumors that this thing was made by Uncle Liu Huang in Jingzhou, most people have no energy to pay attention to this.

These two items were indeed said to be simple and easy to use, making farming easier, so words of praise for Prime Minister Cao began to appear in the villages.

But soon such praise was followed by an unexpected stab in the back:

Dian Nongguan announced that since he had received the favor from Prime Minister Cao, he should repay it.

This year's field tax requires seven dou for one stone of grain. Those who borrow official oxen to plow the fields will not be exempted from the additional one dou.

More than half of the people who work in the fields are poor households, so it is almost inevitable to rent official oxen to plow the fields. Now that the new order has been issued, the vast majority of the people in the fields have to pay 80% of the land tax.

As soon as the order was issued, the public sentiment was raging, but this agitated public opinion was soon silenced by Cao Jun's soldiers, leaving only an undercurrent flowing slowly.

Although the dianong officer soon came forward to guarantee that the 20% of the land tax to increase income was only for this time and would not be taken again after Prime Minister Cao used it to quell the thieves, it was of no use.

After all, many people didn’t come here voluntarily to farm in the first place, right?

But in any case, at least according to the statistics of the Prime Minister's Office, there is indeed a lot of surplus grain in Taicang.

Based on these surplus grains and following the orders of the Prime Minister's Office, soldiers from Sizhou, Yanzhou, and Jizhou also began to assemble on a large scale toward Yuzhou.

For many generals under Cao Cao, the message conveyed by such actions could not be clearer:

At the beginning of the year, the attack failed and they were thrown into Guanzhong, and then they fought for several months with no results. Now that Jiangdong has been defeated and the river is blocked, the prime minister finally can't hold it in anymore!

Several armies were gathering towards Runan, Yingchuan, but a group of strange soldiers rarely appeared on the official road, marching in the opposite direction towards Tongguan.

To say that it is strange is the real first impression of the people along the road.

About a thousand people were marching together without any armor and unarmed soldiers. On the outside of this group of people was a group of Cao soldiers who were well-armed and carrying helmets and armor.

It seems to be a relationship between the prisoner and the escort.

But the strange thing is that the unarmed soldiers were all laughing and joking, talking and laughing loudly among themselves, and the joy in them was almost overflowing.

On the contrary, Cao Jun, who was heavily armed with helmets and armor, rarely talked or laughed, and spent most of his time staring at the group of people inside to prevent any changes.

But occasionally when he was free, Cao Jun looked at the group of people inside with indescribably complicated eyes.

"I miss home."

Someone in Cao's army whispered something, and the others were waiting to agree, but soon the stern eyes of the army made them silence themselves.

Comparing the two, the cheerful chatter and laughter of the group inside became more and more harsh.

But even if they were angry in their hearts, it was difficult for them to spread their anger on this group of unarmed people. Gein, this group of Yizhou soldiers, was the key to regaining General Xiahou.

For this group of Yizhou soldiers who had been ordered to leave their armor, even though Tongguan was in sight, they still couldn't believe it, and they still felt like they were in a dream.

They were in Cao's camp a month ago, and anyone could come and bully one of them.

A month later, they were escorted by Cao Jun. It is said that the new leader of Yizhou, Liu Huangshu, defeated Xia Houyuan and wanted to exchange more than a thousand of them for returning home with the younger brother of Prime Minister Cao.

Every one of them once looked back and lamented to themselves that the festive season was painful, and they were all afraid of dying in a foreign country.

Now that the opportunity to return home is close at hand, each of these Yizhou soldiers is beginning to worry about gains and losses.

With the escort of Cao Jun, there were no obstacles along the way. After leaving Guangcheng Pass, we headed west, and finally passed through Shaanxian County. After traveling for a few days, Tongguan Pass was already in sight.

At this point, the mentality of Yizhou soldiers worrying about gains and losses has reached its highest point. They no longer talk and laugh loudly, but start to feel uneasy.

I was looking forward to this trip to really be able to return home, but I was also afraid that this trip was just a pretense of returning home, but in fact I was going to serve on another battlefield.

The closer the frightened Yizhou soldiers got to Tongguan, the more clearly the appearance of this grand pass in the world became clear.

Along with it, there are two lines of characters that are clear: "Tongguan Dala La".

Not many Yizhou soldiers were literate, but the content of these two lines was quite simple. After whispering to each other, everyone in Tongguan knew the content of the book:

"The son of Yizhou has suffered so much"

"Enter the customs and head west to return home"

These two simple and straightforward sentences made these Yizhou soldiers burst into tears.

Some people howled to vent their anger, some people ran wildly to express their emotions, and some people cried bitterly, chanting the names of their parents and brothers, and beat their heads on the ground.

Among Liu Bei's subordinates, the only one who could welcome the warriors home with such straightforward words was Zhang Fei.

"You, a Yan man, are really good at scheming."

Because he had to wait for the exchange of prisoners, Xiahou Yuan was finally able to leave the small courtyard and go to Tongguan to wait with Zhang Fei.

The Yizhou soldiers arrived at Tongguan, which meant that Xiahou Yuan would soon be able to go out of the pass to the east, and it would only take a few days to see his elder brother. After that, when he saw Zhang Fei again, it should still be a military battle.

But even so, Xiahou Yuan still didn't want to formally call Zhang Fei's name.

Zhang Fei didn't care, and smiled:

"A few tricks, no one can beat the Fu Weng's tiger steps on the right side of the pass."

Xiahou Yuan was choked, and felt that Zhang Fei was really hateful!

After choking, Zhang Fei led his horse forward to take the initiative to welcome this Yizhou soldier who had experienced many ups and downs.

Relying on the list of soldiers collected in Jingzhou before, Zhang Fei quickly gained the trust of this group of soldiers.

After half an hour of confirming the names, Zhang Fei crossed out those who had been confirmed dead, and waved his hand to let them go.

However, before entering the Cao army, Xiahou Yuan hesitated for a moment, and was about to turn around and say something goodbye, but as soon as he turned around, he saw Zhang Fei staring at him:

"My dear, I have a good word for you."

Such a serious matter immediately made Xiahou Yuan's heart tighten:

"Tell me."

Zhang Fei said seriously:

"If you return to the east, don't go to Jingbei to give Huang Zhong a head."