Riding and cutting the imperial pirates of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 569
"As long as there is someone, the problems mentioned by Zhou Mu can be easily solved."

Lu Ji said: "For example, if the farmland is damaged and the ditches are damaged, if you want to solve it before the spring plowing, you need someone. When the cattle, farm tools, and grain seeds from Xuzhou arrive, you need someone to plant the land and open up wasteland. I think that the lack of labor is really a problem."

Zhang Zhao on the side pondered for a moment, then stroked his beard and said, "Prefect Lu's words are right, people are the foundation of agriculture. Of course, the problem of labor shortage needs to be solved urgently, and should be solved first. But let's not talk about it first, How to solve this problem, assuming we can solve this problem and recruit labor from other places, but there will be another problem, I wonder if Prefect Lu has considered it?"

Lu Ji looked sideways and asked, "What problem is Zhang Xiang talking about?"

"Lack of food!"

Zhang Zhao said in a deep voice, "Right now, the lord's territory is short of grain and fodder. Before the lord sent envoys to ask for food from Jingzhou, even if the labor was summoned, what would be used to feed it?"

"Besides, there was a lot of gap between Yuan Shao and Liu Biao at the beginning. Although the lord of Jiangdong has been replaced by the lord, even though the two sides have formed an alliance before, it has not changed the situation that Yangzhou and Jingzhou are adjacent to each other. Liu Jingsheng's intentions are unpredictable. Our side Even if the envoy arrives in Jingxiang, no matter whether it is borrowing or buying, it is still unknown whether the other party is willing to give generously."

"If we summon labor, but Liu Biao refuses to give me Jia Liang, what should we do?"

In Zhang Zhao's view, due to the damage to the farmland and the damage to the ditches, the autumn harvest was delayed, so there was a shortage of food. However, there was no food and no labor could be recruited, so the current situation could not be changed. The next year's spring plowing would continue to be affected, entering a Adding to the negative cycle.

Lu Ji was at a loss for words for a while, but Guo Jia at the side didn't think so, and said loudly: "Mr. Zhang's words are not because of choking?"

"If you don't call for labor, there will still be insufficient food for the coming year. If you call in labor, you will get through it. One winter and one spring will pass. This way, at least until autumn, I can slow down in Shouchun."

"Zhou Mu, I think that calling for labor is imperative, and there is really no delay! It should be the two most important things in Jiangdong at present, along with asking for food."

Zhang Zhao glanced at Guo Jia when he heard the words, but he didn't think so.

What is the rush to get through? Doesn't it mean that the grain and fodder should be transported from Xuzhou first? The key is that it is too risky to recruit people when there is a shortage of food in his opinion.Once there is a shortage of food, there will be a break, and the supply will not be available, which will inevitably lead to civil unrest. Just waiting to refute, but suddenly remembered the undercurrent that has been set off under the king's politics recently. His heart moved, and finally he swallowed the words that came to his lips. He said with a smile: "Guo Jijiu's words, heh, are not unreasonable."

The so-called "dark tide" that Zhang Zhao recalled was nothing else but related to the "equal wife" proposed by Wang Zheng.

Bu Wan'er, a maidservant, was chosen by Wang Zheng as his wife, and was even equal to Lu Bu's daughter. This was not only beyond Lu Bu's expectations, Zhang Zhao was also very surprised. During this period of time, a general understanding has been obtained.
Guo Jia took the initiative to recommend Wang Zheng to make Bu Wan'er his wife, and he made great efforts in it!
Many people privately believed that if the person recommended was not Guo Jia, Wang Zheng would never have done such absurd thing, and it can also be seen from this that Wang Zheng has so much trust in Guo Jia that he simply obeyed his words.
And when Bu Wan'er gets married next year, Guo Jia, the matchmaker, no, it should be said that the momentum of the benefactor will increase even more!
As Zhang Zhao, who supported Lu Qiling, he was very dissatisfied with Guo Jia's move in private, but the situation was stronger than others. In the nine counties of Xuyang today, the sky is big and the earth is big, and Wang Zheng is the biggest.

Wang Zheng regards Guo Jia as a humerus, so Zhang Zhao is naturally unwilling to have any conflicts and discord with him easily.

At least the bright side is absolutely unwilling.

So when Guo Jia opened his mouth, even though the discussion was about a major issue related to the national economy and the people's livelihood, Zhang Zhao smiled, took the initiative to retreat, praised Guo Jia for a few words, then sat aside and stopped talking.

Wang Zheng, who had a panoramic view of all this, was silent. Zhang Zhao had always behaved smoothly under his command, not at all like the hard-bodied ones when he served as Sun Quan in history. This made Wang Zheng quite helpless, and turned his eyes to You on the other side. Heng asked, "What's Zhengping's opinion?"

"Both Zhang Gong and Feng Xiao's worries are justified."

Now Mi Heng has also restrained all his sharpness, and said calmly: "Jiangdong is short of food and labor, and it is indeed very difficult."

"I have read the statistics of Prefect Lu before. In Jiujiang, Shouchun, Dangtu, Yinling, and some counties and villages around Chengde have the most serious labor shortages. These places were also the places where Yuan Shu used food and grass and recruited troops most frequently. It can be said that out of ten households, six out of ten households survived. Among the people who survived, most of them were old, weak, women and children.”

"As for Lujiang County, which was attacked by Sun Ce's bandits this year, the problem of food shortage is actually not much better. However, relatively speaking, the shortage of labor is not obvious. However, under the invasion of Sun Ce's bandits, the farmland has suffered The situation of damaged and damaged ditches is equally serious."

Wang Zheng raised his sword eyebrows when he heard the words, "If you want to restore all the damaged farmland and ditches in the two counties and dozens of counties, the amount of labor required may be extremely large, right?"

"Exactly."

You Heng said: "But if it is not solved in time before the spring plowing, the food shortage will become more and more serious. Therefore, in my opinion, what Feng Xiao said seems to be more reasonable. Although we are short of food now, labor is indeed not a call. No, otherwise next year, will Pengcheng and several counties in Beihai be able to support the two prefectures?"

Mi Heng was the first counselor to join Wangzheng's command, and he was a well-deserved minister of the dragon. He had participated in many such meetings earlier in Langya, and he knew Wangzheng's post-war construction concept very well. Come on, Wang Zheng should agree with Guo Jia's opinion more in his heart, the so-called long-term pain is worse than short-term pain.

Sure enough, Wang Zheng nodded again and again after listening: "That's right, but Zhang Xiang's worries are not unreasonable. Recruiting labor under the situation of insufficient food may lead to instability of people's hearts. I will not bear it."

Can the people be recruited without food?

In the eyes of most of the princes in this world, this is not a problem at all. There is no food, but I have weapons! Put the knife on the necks of those ant people, do they dare not work?
But Wang Zheng is unwilling to do so unless it is absolutely necessary.

With the journey of iron and blood along the way, he is naturally no longer a good person, but Wang Zheng has not forgotten that his family was born in the grassroots for two generations, and he still has a certain degree of empathy for the people at the bottom.

At this time, Liu Ye who was on the side suddenly interjected: "The state shepherd doesn't necessarily have to use grain, how about using the fields as bait?"

"Although Sun Ce's rebellion has dealt a considerable blow to the people's livelihood in Jiangdong, because of this festival, many tyrants in Lujiang County have destroyed their families. When the lord Ke Fushouchun, he also killed many stubborn local nobles along the way. Adding the two together, the amount of farmland returned to the government is quite a lot.”

"It's like Shouchun. It's better in the city. It's very rare for a family to have a hundred mu of land in the countryside outside the city."

Liu Ye said: "I heard that my lord used the fields as bait to attract a large number of refugees when he was in Pengcheng. If this old practice is followed, the people in Jiangdong, the refugees in the surrounding areas, and even some Shanyue people may all be attracted to do this. our labor."

In fact, not only did the Celestial Army kill many tyrants along the way of Kefu Shouchun, but later conquered various counties and counties in Jiujiang. Although there were many smart people who waited for the wind, there were also many people who did not know that it was because they were very loyal to Yuan Shu. I still have too much contempt for the Yellow Turban thief Wang Zheng, there are actually quite a few diehards.

Of course, in the end, they all died in the hands of Huang Zhong, Wei Yanhe and Qiao Wan, who were divided into troops. In just a few months, it was all returned to the royal government. Speaking of these generals, they are not without credit for their cruelty, but they killed too many nobles and gentry. On the day when Huang Zhong and Wei Yan returned to Shouchun, there were local officials for this. He wrote a letter of impeachment, saying that these generals were too indiscriminate, which would damage the reputation of Zhou Mu's benevolence.

Naturally, Wang Zheng nodded face to face, saying that what these people said was right, and promised to reprimand and severely punish these people, but turned around and comforted Huang Zhong and Wei Yan, and added clearly, "Kill them!" Well, the killing is wonderful, and the killing is croaking".

After all, in his heart, he really wished that all the gentry and powerful families under his rule would die, even for those who took refuge here, not to mention those stubborn and unrepentant diehards?

It's not that Wang Zheng doesn't know the importance of the gentry class, literati and Confucian scholars, but the centrists can be wooed, but what can't be wooed?Naturally, he must be killed.

He had occupied Jiujiang not long ago, and the war was over. In order to stabilize the situation, he was determined to fight against his own family. Naturally, he would feel unsympathetic like the autumn wind sweeping the fallen leaves. There was also another consideration in it.
If it is said that Wang Zheng currently controls the strongest territory, it is naturally Taishan, Langya, Pengcheng and Beihai. Too bad.

In comparison, places such as Donghai, Xiapi, and Jiujiang were occupied very smoothly. On the one hand, the time, energy, and losses were reduced, but at the same time, the gentry and gentry in the territory still had a lot of influence. force.

From this point of view, Huang Zhong and others helped to clean up some of the gentry forces first, so he was happy to see it.

Hearing Liu Ye's answer, Wang Zheng's eyes lit up: "It's a good idea to follow the old example of Pengcheng, so besides using the fields as bait, can we use the land to garrison the land?"

"I'll see you, Zhou Mu."

Liu Ye said happily: "In Shouchun City alone, there are now nearly ten thousand soldiers, and most of them are new soldiers. The combat power is already unbearable. Since this is the case, I think it is better to simply recruit the elite and form another army. , use the old and the weak to supplement the farmland. The number may not be too many, after all, they were all soldiers originally, but they can still be restrained by military law, and they are uniformly used to renovate farmland and repair ditches. It is expected that in terms of effectiveness, it should be more than usual The people are much better off."

"Of course, the reorganization of Yuan Shu's old department is related to military affairs. As a senior official, I dare not speak nonsense about it. It is a simple opinion, whether it is feasible or not, please let the state pastor decide."

Liu Ye is a smart man. Even though there was no war within the year, Wang Zheng still left a large number of Xuzhou troops inside and outside Shouchun City. He had already guessed Wang Zheng's intention, and he intended to reorganize the Yangzhou army, and proposed this plan. It is precisely for the purpose of pushing the boat along the way that it not only reorganized the army, but also solved the problem of labor shortage in Jiangdong, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

Wang Zheng laughed: "Military affairs are naturally not within your responsibilities, but Zi Yang's proposal is good and can be considered."

"However, the matter is of great importance and should not be decided lightly. Ah Fang, you and Feng Xiao and others should discuss the regulations first and come out to see, and then we can talk about it."

Speaking of this, Wang Zheng turned to look outside the hall to see that the night was getting darker, a few cold stars were hanging far away in the sky, the cold wind was blowing, sometimes covered by clouds, the stars appeared and disappeared, as if they were crumbling.Unconsciously, he felt it from his heart, and sighed softly: "Before I knew it, I became a poor soldier who ransom."

"It's just that we are in a world of great conflict, and we are like sailing against the current. If we don't advance, we will retreat. Sometimes if we don't fight, how can we get peace?"

Everyone in the hall, looking at each other, was silent.

Time flies too fast, day by day, before I know it, it will be the second year of Jian'an.

Although Sun Ce died and Yuan Shu was defeated, Liu Cao and Liu Cao, the greatest enemies in Wang Zheng's heart, are still alive and well. Of course, there is also Yuan Shao who is now very high-spirited and mighty!

This gave him a sense of urgency to not wait for me.

If the damage suffered by Lujiang and Jiujiang due to repeated military turmoil is not healed in a short period of time, Political Commissar Wang is really worried that people will see the truth, and there will be another wave of challenges.

A few days later, the rare sunny day shone brightly, and even the wind warmed up, making Jiangdong at the end of October appear rare and bright.

A column of cavalry rode out from the east gate of Shouchun to the pier. About a hundred people boarded a medium-sized boat. After half an hour, they left the Shouchun jurisdiction and headed south along the wide Shaohe River.

A tall and straight young man stood upright on the bow of the boat, looked back with his palms on his forehead, and murmured: "The wind is favorable, and the speed of this boat is unexpectedly fast. It took only half an hour. Then you can't see the shadow of the city."

"Is the wind of harmony only good for ships?"

At this time, Lu Su, who had finished ordering the soldiers around him, also boarded the bow, and said with a smile: "Isn't it very comfortable for you and me to be blown by the autumn wind? Right now, I feel refreshed and refreshed. "

"I heard that my lord also likes autumn the most, and I even wrote a poem about it. Since ancient times, autumn is sad and lonely. I say that autumn is better than spring. Hey, I see it clearly."

As he spoke, he smiled at the young man: "Does Gongjin think so?"

The young man was Zhou Yu who was forced to come here from Xiapi by Lu Su holding high the banner of friendship. Hearing this, he glanced at Lu Su and said calmly: "I don't want Brother Zijing to be an official for a few months, so he called the lord." ?”

(End of this chapter)