Chapter 880: Westward Advance

Liu Bei's situation was not very good, but he was able to withstand the attacks of Yuan Shu and Sun Ce and not be defeated. This was not easy.

What could support him was, of course, his reputation for benevolence and righteousness. Liu Bei had this set of skills and studied in Liaodong. Although he did not really rule for the people, his basic political line was still people-oriented, so the lives of the soldiers and civilians under his rule were relatively much better. How Wang Yan attracted other people back then was the same for Liu Bei.

Although Liu Bei could not do as well as Wang Yan and did not know how to use economic means effectively, as long as his life was visibly better than that of others, he would find a way to come here, or be loyal to Liu Bei and not resist his rule.

Even Liu Bei was forced to do nothing, and he learned from Wang Yan's appearance and persuaded the enemy to surrender directly in front of the battle. Don't say it, it really worked. So although he was beaten and at a disadvantage, his basic base was not a problem. As long as the time was extended, if it was purely Liu Bei fighting Yuan Shu, then there was still a possibility of victory.

But things are obviously not that simple. After all, the battle between Liu Bei and Yuan Shu is not only about them, but also about the battle between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao.

Cao Cao was suppressing Yuan Shao, and Yuan Shao's territory was being eroded by Cao Cao. Just when Yuan Shao could not hold on, something happened. That is, Liu Xie broke away from the control of Li Jue and Guo Si, and Yuan Shao welcomed Liu Xie into Luoyang, which was the famous "Emperor Xian moved eastward" event.

Originally, after a series of struggles, Liu Xie returned to Luoyang, and then Han Xian caused chaos, and the court officials discussed inviting Cao Cao to the capital. Xun Yu made suggestions and set the strategy of "serving the emperor and commanding the disobedient". At that time, Cao Cao was still attacking Liu Bei in Xuzhou, so he withdrew his troops and entered Luoyang, and then moved the capital to Xuchang, starting the era of holding the emperor hostage to command the princes.

But now because of the intrusion of Wang Da, the rebel, the original princes have changed beyond recognition. Now it is Yuan Shao who occupies Luoyang, and Yuan Shao controls a large area of ​​​​territory and has a lot of troops in his hands.

So after Liu Xie broke away from Li Jue and Guo Si, some people advocated issuing an imperial edict to Yuan Shao to lead the army to welcome him. Then Yuan Shao was happy and personally led the army to pick up Liu Xie back to Luoyang, and killed a group of people without mercy, and gave himself various titles.

He sent envoys to appease and surrender Li Jue, Guo Si, Zhang Xiu and other warlords, and at the same time sent envoys to Cao Cao to promote Cao Cao, intending to seek peace and stop the war.

At this time, it was the end of summer in 196. Yuan Shao and Cao Cao had been fighting for more than a year. Yuan Shao was beaten by Cao Cao throughout the whole process and lost a lot of land. From Yingchuan to Langya, Cao Cao occupied the entire territory of Yuzhou and Xuzhou, and part of Yanzhou. Henan and Jiangbei were almost half each of Yuan Shao and Cao Cao. Of course, this should be counted as the Sili area taken by Yuan Shao. Otherwise, Yuan Shao's territory would not be as good as Cao Cao's.

In the battle that lasted for more than a year, neither side was able to fight a decisive battle like the original Guandu Battle, and instead fought a protracted tug-of-war.

The main reason was that because he was defeated by Wang Yan, Yuan Shao was very sober, his subordinates were very united, and his decision-making ability was also improved. He was once called wise and powerful. Otherwise, more than a year would have been enough for Cao to occupy Henan.

The consequence of turning the war into a tug-of-war was that the logistics of both sides were blown up and there was no way to continue to support it. It was just that Yuan Shao could not support it earlier, after all, he was beaten by Wang Yan before and suffered considerable losses. So now that the Han Emperor was in hand, he also had the idea of ​​stopping the war, and giving Cao Cao a step to step up. After all, it was Cao who took advantage, and Yuan Shao had already surrendered, so there was no reason for Cao Cao to continue to fight.

In fact, Cao Cao didn't want to fight anymore, but he took advantage and was right, so there was no reason for him to ask for peace, so he kept resisting. Now Yuan Shao asked for peace, and there were a lot of additional titles, so Cao Cao naturally took advantage of the situation and stopped fighting to develop internal affairs.

In this way, the two families stopped fighting before the autumn harvest of 196, and each of them focused on development.

At this time, Yuan Shao set his sights on Sili, on Li Jue, Guo Si, Zhang Xiu, Ma Teng, Han Sui and others. His recruitment did not go as he expected. These people came to surrender, only Zhang Xiu came.

At this time, Zhang Ji had been shot and died, and Zhang Xiu took over. Originally, he listened to Jia Xu's idea and ran to rely on Liu Biao. Now Jia Xu had already run to Wang Yan. Yuan Shao was beaten to Henan, and Liu Biao was still allied with Yuan Shao, so he naturally surrendered directly to Yuan Shao.

Only Zhang Xiu was sensible, and the others did not express anything, which made Yuan Shao very unhappy. He couldn't beat Wang Ze and couldn't beat Cao Cao, so he couldn't deal with them? So he sent 50,000 troops directly to attack Li Jue, Guo Si and others.

Now they are fighting each other, and they have suffered heavy casualties. They are still not Yuan Shao's opponents, but Li Jue and Guo Si are unwilling to surrender. After all, they used to control the emperor and killed ministers. How can they be willing to work for others? Their psychological burden is much more serious than Lu Bu.

So Li Jue and Guo Si were beheaded by their subordinates, and they took their subordinates to Yuan Shao as a means of advancement. Ma Teng and Han Sui also stopped fighting and chose to rely on Yuan Shao. The two received a lot of rewards.

Ma Teng was arranged to be stationed in Mei County again, but Han Sui was not the same as Ma Teng. He led his troops to retreat to Liangzhou and stationed in Jincheng. He was nominally dependent, but he listened to the announcement but not the order. Whatever Yuan Shao said, Han Sui said yes, yes, yes, yes, and if he asked him to work, he would pretend not to hear it.

In this choice, Han Sui is undoubtedly more sober than Ma Teng. The Central Plains is a quagmire, and it is difficult to get a good result if you get stuck in it. What's more, the princes are now rising up and attacking each other. Even if they rely on Yuan Shao, they will be used as thugs by Yuan Shao. There is no other possibility.

On the contrary, Han Sui retreated, integrated the power of Liangzhou, became a local emperor in Liangzhou, honestly planted cotton, traded materials, and slowly accumulated strength. When the situation in the Central Plains is clear, he will go out to join the icing on the cake, how great.

Of course, he knows that the most powerful one now is the great rebel Wang, who is in the Hebei area, with elite soldiers and brave generals, and is very fierce. But there is no choice, he feels very clear that joining Wang Yan will definitely die. Since it is death, why should he join?

However, he also believes that Wang Yan is the most likely to win the world at present, but there is no way. If Wang Yan had not targeted the powerful families so much, he would have joined him two years ago.

After all, Wang Yan was too powerful. He was quite familiar with the movements on the grassland. Wang Yan was like crazy. Every year, he sent cavalry deep into the grassland to fight Xianbei and Xiongnu desperately. You know, in the winter on the grassland, once it snowed heavily, it was impossible to tell the direction, and it would be snow blind. Moreover, when the snow was heavy, the horse's legs could not be seen. Under such circumstances, Wang Yan fought for three months every year, and for eight consecutive years, he fought for two thousand miles.

Let alone, with such an invincible cavalry unit, it would not be a problem to trample the world. What's more, there are a large number of generals such as Lu Bu, each one is more powerful than the other. But why do you have such a big grudge against the nobles?

However, although Wang Yan has the hope of the world and is the strongest one now, Han Sui believes that Wang Yan will not come to the desolate Liangzhou in a short time. What he should do is to develop steadily for a few years, cross the Yellow River, and attack Yuan Shao and Cao Cao.

So he thinks that he still has plenty of time and can be free and easy for many years...

In the blink of an eye, it is another autumn. If you want to say that the happiest people this year are the people of Jizhou. Because they had been hungry for two years from the autumn of the year before last to the autumn of this year.

However, since the war ended and General Wang began to rule Jizhou, the people had no complaints. Because they felt how good General Wang was to them. What they thought was a rumor before has now become a fact, even better than the rumors that have long been circulating in Jizhou.

Brick factories and glass factories were built near their county town, and many people were arranged to work. Not only did they have a thick porridge lunch, but they were also given money to buy food. The bricks and glass they burned were finally sent to their village, and the whole village, young and old, built new houses one by one. That house was really good, with large glass windows, not pitch black every day. There was also a kang, which was very warm when it was burned.

Their fields were redivided, and each family had a large piece of land. They were also given a house for those with many people, and each family had a large piece of land.

Led by the civil officials wearing green gowns, they dug ditches for drinking water in the fields and built country roads leading to the main road. This was free work, but they were provided with two meals a day. There were also jobs that paid, which were to build the main road and to be transferred to other places to participate in the construction of water diversion projects. This kind of work was provided with meals and money.

With money, they could buy food, salt, oil, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, cloth and various tools in the county town with the household registration books issued to them. They were all things closely related to life. They could buy everything in the house of a boss.

Not only that, the general also gave them weapons and armor to protect themselves. The civil officials also emphasized again and again that they had to take up weapons to protect themselves.

They were also given chickens, ducks, geese and pigs. Every family had chickens, ducks and geese, and every village had two or three pigs, which were raised collectively. Chickens, ducks and geese were purely free-range, catching insects for themselves, and only occasionally were they given a few mouthfuls of food.

And the seed grain they planted this year was bought on credit from the general's mansion. This year's autumn harvest, they have to pay 20% tax, and next year they will be the same as the people in Youzhou and Northeast China, all of which are 10% tax.

In fact, even if it is 20% tax, they are still happy every day. Not to mention 20% tax, even if it is 50% tax, their life will be better than before. Although they used to pay 10% tax...

In short, they planted new seeds this year, used new tools, and had new farming methods. From the beginning of spring to now, everything is good, and they have ushered in a good harvest.

After paying 20% ​​tax, seeing that there are really no other taxes, the most favorite thing for the people of Jizhou is to look at the pile of food in front of the grain storage every day, even if they are hungry...

In Zhending, a new general's mansion was built in the west of the city. The original mansion was too small, of course, it did not fit the majesty of the general. Now it is much better. The entire building was designed and built by the doctor of engineering of Wenchang Pavilion and the Ministry of Industry under the government.

Huge, magnificent, gorgeous, and majestic, it is a small palace building. It has various architectural rituals and the designer's wild ideas. Overall, it is still very good.

It is definitely not too luxurious. After all, in more than a year, how luxurious can a palace building be. They are all temporary places, so it's okay. The main purpose is to investigate the Ministry of Works and the level of the Doctor of Engineering of Wenchang Pavilion. At the same time, it can also be used for relief, killing two birds with one stone.

At this moment, in the study of the general's mansion, Wang Yan was flipping through the statistical data sent by Jia Xu.

The land in Youzhou is not large. Although it is not saturated, the population has not increased explosively and the land has not been fully utilized. Food production is relatively stable. So compared to previous years, the output is not much different. There are few thalassemia people in Bingzhou, there is not much surplus, and the output is only enough for the people of Bingzhou.

Since a considerable number of people from Jizhou migrated to the Northeast, there has been a visible increase in grain this year. As for Jizhou, because it is located in the quintessence of the North China Plain, it has a population of more than three million, and its land has basically been developed. Taking into account new grain varieties, farming methods, fertilizers, etc., so although the current Ice Age, grain production The yield is still much higher than in the past, and it is truly a bumper harvest.

But even if there is a bumper harvest, the people still cannot let go and eat, and there is a long way to go...

"It's ripe this year, very good."

Putting down the documents in his hands, Wang Yan gave an evaluation of his work over the past year. Yes, a year of hard work is just for the autumn harvest. Food is the most important thing for people, and eating is a big deal. Other constructions are all centered around farming. Expanding the territory is also to have more land and population, and to produce more food.

Jia Xu put down the tea and smiled: "The general has the ability to govern the world, so he sends scholars to study grain seeds and farming methods. This is a move that will benefit the present generation and the future."

He has been a pavilion chief for half a year and a general for half a year. In the past time, he had a more in-depth and detailed understanding of the situation under Wang Yan's rule, and of course he discovered many advancements.

Especially the more contact he had with Wang Yan, the more he discovered that there was no better boss than Wang Yan. Now he is in a good mood, eating well and sleeping well. He is very happy to see the growth of various data every day.

Wang Yan also took a sip of tea and asked with a smile: "Now that the food shortage has been resolved, Wen He thinks, what should I do next?"

"Gather food for three years, then cross the river to attack Yuan and Cao to seek land in Henan."

Jia Xu didn't even think about it and spoke simply. Seeing that Wang Yan didn't express anything, he continued, "General, you want to take Liangzhou? Although Liangzhou is poor, cotton is necessary to keep out the cold. I recently heard that Han Sui returned to Liang and he fought against Liangzhou first. Jue, after the battle, Ma Teng lost his vitality, lacked food, and his troops were insufficient.

Therefore, only 20,000 troops and horses are needed to conquer Liangzhou in the west. Even if there are repeated attempts, we can still go to Liangzhou in two or three years without consuming much food. After three years of this, Liangzhou has been conquered and we have sufficient food, so we can choose Henan. "

"Wen He has a good plan, which is exactly what I want."

Wang Yan nodded with a smile, "You, Lu Bu and Zhang Liao sent an order, asking them to break camp and march westward, first occupy the two counties of Beidi and Anding, and clear out the barbarians. Send Guo Jia to make plans to plot against Han Sui. Don't forget your instructions. Don't be in a hurry, if there is no good opportunity, just Xu Tu."

"Yes, general, I am resigning."

Jia Xu cupped his hands, turned around and went out to arrange work. Sending troops to fight requires a lot of preparation, and he needs to coordinate...

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