Chapter 25: Xiangyang Cai Family
“These are the Yellow Turbans that the Lord has subdued?”

When Li Qian returned triumphantly, Zhao Xiancai came to greet him with Ma Yue, Zhang Dahu and others. They were shocked to see the huge number of Yellow Turban surrendered soldiers, as many as two thousand people.

The village chief is too fierce.

“Did anything important happen in the village while I was away?”

“My lord, the Yellow Turban rebels are causing chaos and the people of Xinye County are displaced. During the few days since my lord left, hundreds of refugees have poured into our Tiance Village every day.”

Zhao Xiancai’s words made Li Qian happy.

When Li Qian was attacking the Yellow Turban Army and plundering the population, the population of Tiance Village also increased significantly due to taking in refugees, and it was getting closer and closer to upgrading to a town.

Li Qian selected 500 elite soldiers including Yellow Turban strongmen and Yellow Turban leaders from more than 2,000 Yellow Turban soldiers and kept them as standing troops. The rest of the Yellow Turban soldiers were divided into ten villages to cultivate the land. Each village had a village leader who was responsible for managing the farming affairs.

The plains around Tiance Village were developed and turned into thousands of hectares of fertile fields.

Li Qian personally led the civilians to dig ditches and divert water from the Baihe River to irrigate farmland.

Li Qian carried the hoe, wiped the sweat off his face, looked around at the endless farmland, the neatly planned canals and ridges, and smiled with satisfaction.

As long as there are no natural disasters or man-made calamities, there will most likely be a good harvest this year. It would be best if we could store extra grain for use in next year’s war.

Li Qian cultivated land as much as possible. The most important purpose was to store grain, and the second was to meet the agricultural requirements for upgrading the town.

Li Qian killed the Yellow Turban leader Sun Xia and obtained 500 taels of gold, which he invested entirely in the construction of Tiance Village.

As the buildings were upgraded one after another, brick and stone houses appeared in Tiance Village, and able-bodied men were building rammed earth city walls.

The town’s walls need to be built by the lord himself. Only with walls can it look like a town.

The scale of the market and fish market in Tiance Village has expanded, trade between villagers has increased, business is booming, and there are players setting up stalls to sell various weapons, skill books, and animal skins.

In terms of culture, Li Qian ordered the construction of dozens of private schools and papermaking workshops.

All aspects of domestic affairs had to be taken into account. Li Qian realized how difficult it was for Zhuge Liang to devote his life to the country. Governing a village of ten thousand people was so trivial and difficult, let alone governing such a big country?

Li Qian’s mind is now full of thoughts about recruiting more civil officials to help him manage his territory so that he can be a hands-off manager.

Li Qian also wanted to free himself from the heavy internal affairs and lead his troops to attack the Yellow Turban Army to level up.

Li Qian asked Chen Qingzhi to be responsible for some internal affairs and used Chen Qingzhi as a civil official.

In addition, Li Qian was waiting for Deng Zhi to come with his family so that Deng Zhi could take over the internal affairs as soon as possible.

“My lord, the intermediate cavalry camp is completed, and we can recruit internal cavalry!”

Cheng Yaojin excitedly found Li Qian.

At present, Cheng Yaojin’s special troops are still the cavalry in Wagangzhai, and the Black Armor Army is Li Qian’s personal guard. Cheng Yaojin longs for a group of elite troops.

“Then recruit thirty internal cavalrymen first.”

Li Qian gritted his teeth and recruited thirty special soldiers for Cheng Yaojin.

The intermediate cavalry battalion can recruit up to fifth-level cavalry, and the inner army cavalry is the fifth-level cavalry.

Ordinary light cavalry can be equipped with the most common war horses.

The cavalry of the inner army needs good horses.

The Black Armor Army needs high-quality war horses, iron armor, and so on.

With the current financial resources of Tiance Village, it is impossible to recruit the Xuanjia Army on its own, and there are no barracks that meet the conditions for recruiting the Xuanjia Army.

Li Qian can still recruit thirty cavalrymen for the inner army.

Cheng Yaojin is a lucky general. Assigning him a team of elite cavalry may have unexpected effects at critical moments.

Cheng Yaojin was overjoyed when he heard this: “My lord, you value me so much. I will definitely charge into battle for you and capture the enemy generals!”

“No need to wait. Our scouts have already found out the whereabouts of a group of Yellow Turbans. We will lead our troops to defeat them.”

Li Qian spent a few days planning the construction direction of Tiance Village. After everything was on track, he could finally lead his troops to fight again. Li Qian also had to improve his level as much as possible to unlock the ability of the third-level template of Emperor Taizong of Tang.

“My lord, how many people are there in this group of Yellow Turbans?”

“Less than a thousand.”

Li Qian captured two thousand Yellow Turban soldiers alive and added five hundred elite soldiers. The actual strength of Tiance Village was nearly a thousand people. Now when they encountered a Yellow Turban army of several hundred or more than a thousand people, they really did not take it seriously.

Li Qian, with Chen Qingzhi, Cheng Yaojin and 600 elite soldiers, raided the Yellow Turban Army and easily won.

Li Qian shot an arrow and hit a yellow turban leader on the forehead.

With a flash of golden light, Li Qian was promoted to the next level.

“Finally reached level 30. Players level up really slowly.”

Li Qian checked his panel and found that his martial arts power had reached 80 without him noticing. He could fight with Fu Rong and Cheng Yaojin for a hundred rounds.

Shengzuo is a scholar, level 30, command 70, force 80, intelligence 57, politics 56, charisma 67.

“I am still 10 levels away from unlocking Li Shimin’s third-level template.”

Li Qian smiled bitterly. Unless it was a fierce battle like the attack and defense of Xinye City, experience would usually increase slowly.

Li Qian captured five hundred people and returned to Tiance Village.

On the way, Li Qian calculated in his mind how many people the territory would need to upgrade to a town.

“The population of Tiance Village has reached 17000, and we still need 3000 people.”

“The prosperity of commerce, agriculture, culture, and military is also close to the basic requirements for upgrading the town.”

“There is another important condition for upgrading the town, which is that a rammed earth wall at least four meters high must be built.”

“No lord player has upgraded their territory to a town yet. I still have a chance…”

While Li Qian was thinking, he escorted the captured Yellow Turban Army back to the village.

“My lord, a large army is coming outside the village!”

The scouts that Li Qian arranged around the village hurried to report.

“Yellow Turban Army?”

“No, they are soldiers from Jingzhou!”

“What are the soldiers from Jingzhou doing in our Tiance Village?”

Li Qian led his troops back to the village, and sure enough, he saw a large-scale Jingzhou army coming outside the village. A rough estimate was that there were 15000 to 25000 people!
There were only 10,000 Han troops in Xinye City, but the number of this Jingzhou army was actually greater than that of the Xinye defenders!

There are 3000 cavalry alone!

Not only that, there are also hundreds of naval ships crossing the surface of the Baihe River, which is a spectacular sight.

The Han army was strong in men and horses, with flags flying, and the “Cai” general’s flag fluttering in the wind.

“Could it be the Xiangyang Cai family?”

Li Qian thought about it and realized that the troops coming from the direction of Xiangyang and carrying the flag with the word “Cai” on it were most likely from the Cai family of Xiangyang.

The Cai family of Xiangyang is a prominent family in Jingzhou, and they influence the development of Jingzhou.

“It is said that Zhang Mancheng, the leader of the Yellow Turban Army, is attacking Wancheng, and Wancheng is in danger. The Jingzhou Army in Xiangyang is probably going to rescue Wancheng, and this Jingzhou Army may just be the vanguard.”

Chen Qingzhi had just arrived and was already aware of the situation.

“That should be the possibility. I hope the Jingzhou army won’t cause me any trouble.”

Li Qian does not have the strength to contend with the Jingzhou army. After all, the Jingzhou army has as many as 20,000 troops in the vanguard.

(End of this chapter)