Chapter 875

Liu Bei's situation was not too good, but being able to withstand the attacks of Yuan Shu and Sun Ce without being beaten into collapse was already not easy.

What could support him to go on was naturally his name of benevolence and righteousness. Liu Bei originally had this set, and he also studied in Liaodong; although he didn't truly govern for the people, the basic political line was still people-oriented, so the life of the military and civilians under his governance was relatively much better. How Wang Yan attracted other common people in those years, it was the same here at Liu Bei's place.

Although Liu Bei couldn't reach Wang Yan's level, nor did he know how to effectively use economic means, as long as it was on his side, it was visibly better than others' governance, so they would find ways to come and defect, or their hearts would be toward Liu Bei, and they wouldn't resist his rule.

Liu Bei was even forced to have no way, learned Wang Yan's appearance, and directly persuaded surrender before the battle. Don't say, it really had an effect. So although he was being beaten and was at a disadvantage, his basic board had no problems; as long as the time was stretched, if it was purely a battle between Liu Bei and Yuan Shu, then there was still a possibility of victory.

But things obviously wouldn't be so simple; after all, the battle between Liu Bei and Yuan Shu didn't just concern them, but also the battle between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao.

Old Cao was pressing Yuan Shao to fight, and Yuan Shao's territory was being nibbled away by Cao Cao. Just when Yuan Shao couldn't hold on, something happened, which was that Liu Xie escaped the control of Li Jue and Guo Si, and Yuan Shao welcomed Liu Xie into Luoyang, which was the famous "Emperor Xian moves east" event.

Originally, after a series of struggles, Liu Xie returned to Luoyang, and then Han Xian caused chaos, and the ministers requested Cao Cao to enter the capital. Xun Yu then suggested, setting the strategy of "serving the Emperor to command the disobedient"; at that time, Cao Cao was still attacking Liu Bei in Xuzhou, so he stopped the army and entered Luoyang, and then moved the capital to Xu Chang, starting the era of holding the Emperor to command the warlords.

But now, because of the intrusion of the big rebel Wang, the original development of the warlords was unrecognizable. Now the one occupying Luoyang was Yuan Shao, and Yuan Shao controlled a large territory, and there were quite a few troops in his hands.

So when Liu Xie escaped Li Jue and Guo Si, some people advocated issuing an edict to Yuan Shao, making him lead the army to welcome the Emperor. Afterward, Yuan Shao was happy, personally led the army to welcome Liu Xie back to Luoyang, and didn't soften his hand at all, killing a group of people, and adding various titles to himself.

He sent envoys to appease and recruit Li Jue, Guo Si, Zhang Xiu, and other large and small warlords, and at the same time sent envoys to Cao Cao, promoting Cao Cao, intending to seek peace and cease hostilities.

At this time, it was already the end of summer in 196. Yuan Shao and Cao Cao had been fighting for more than a year, and Yuan Shao had been beaten by Cao Cao all the way, losing quite a bit of territory, from Yingchuan to Langya; Cao Cao occupied the entire Yuzhou and Xuzhou, and had parts of Yanzhou. Henan and north of the river were almost half and half between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao; of course, this had to count the Sili region that Yuan Shao took down; if not, Yuan Shao's territory was not as good as Cao Cao's.

In the battle that lasted for more than a year, both sides couldn't fight an annihilation battle like the original Guandu, thereby deciding the world in one battle, but instead fought into a protracted tug-of-war.

The main reason was that because he was beaten into submission by Wang Yan, Yuan Shao was very clear-headed, his subordinates were very united, and his decision-making ability had also come up, once being called wise and martial. If it weren't for this, a year's time would have been enough for old Cao to occupy all of Henan.

And the consequence of fighting the war into a tug-of-war was that the logistics of both sides were blown up, and neither side could continue to support it. It was just that Yuan Shao had to support it earlier; after all, he was beaten by Wang Yan before, and the loss was quite large. So now that he had the Han Emperor in his hands, he had the intention to cease hostilities, giving old Cao a promotion to have a step down. After all, it was old Cao who took advantage, and he, Yuan Shao, had already softened, so Cao Cao had no reason to keep fighting to the death.

In fact, old Cao didn't want to fight anymore, but he occupied the advantage and the reason, so there was no reason for him to come and seek peace, so he kept holding on. Now Yuan Shao sought peace, and there was a pile of promotions, so Cao Cao naturally borrowed the slope to get off the donkey, ceased hostilities, and developed internal affairs.

Thus, the two sides ceased hostilities before the autumn harvest in 196, and each focused on development.

Yuan Shao then set his sights on Sili, on Li Jue, Guo Si, Zhang Xiu, Ma Teng, Han Sui, and others. His recruitment didn't run over to defect as he expected; only Zhang Xiu came over.

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 long run to defect to Wang Yan, and Liu Biao was allied with Yuan Shao, so he naturally defected to Yuan Shao directly.

Only Zhang Xiu was sensible, and others had no expression, which made Yuan Shao very unhappy; he couldn't beat Wang the Thief, couldn't fight old Cao, but couldn't he clean them up? So he directly sent an army of fifty thousand to suppress Li Jue, Guo Si, and others.

Now they were fighting each other, suffering heavy losses, and were not Yuan Shao's opponents, but Li Jue and Guo Si were unwilling to surrender; after all, they were people who had controlled the Emperor and killed ministers before, so how could they be willing to work for others? Their psychological burden was much more serious than Lu Bu's.

So Li Jue and Guo Si had their heads cut off by their subordinates, and took their subordinates to defect to Yuan Shao as a stepping stone. Ma Teng and Han Sui also stopped fighting and chose to rely on Yuan Shao, and the two of them also got a pile of rewards.

Ma Teng was arranged to be stationed in Mei County, while Han Sui was not the same as Ma Teng; he led his army back to Liangzhou, and was stationed in Jincheng, belonging to relying on in name, but listening to the proclamation and not listening to the mobilization. That was, whatever Yuan Shao said, Han Sui said yes, yes, yes, but if he was asked to do work, he would pretend he didn't hear it.

On this choice, Han Sui was undoubtedly clearer than Ma Teng. The Central Plains was a mud pit, and falling into it was hard to have a good result. What's more, now the warlords were rising together, fighting each other, and even if they relied on Yuan Shao, they were just used as thugs by Yuan Shao, and there was no other possibility besides that.

Instead, Han Sui retreated, integrated the strength of Liangzhou, acted as a local emperor in Liangzhou, honestly planted cotton, traded materials, and slowly accumulated strength. When the pattern of the Central Plains was clear in the future, he would go out to defect then, and come to add flowers to the brocade; how good that would be.

He naturally knew that the most powerful one now was the big rebel Wang, who was sitting in the Hebei region, with elite soldiers and brave generals, and was fierce. But there was no way; he felt very clear that defecting to Wang Yan was definitely death. Since it was death, what was he defecting for?

However, he also thought that the current Wang Yan was the most hopeful to obtain the world, but there was no way; if Wang Yan wasn't so hostile to powerful clans, he would have defected two years ago.

After all, Wang Yan was too powerful; he knew the movements on the grasslands quite well, and Wang Yan was like crazy, sending cavalry deep into the grasslands every year, fighting the Xianbei and Xiongnu people for his life. One had to know that in the winter on the grasslands, once there was heavy snow, one couldn't distinguish the direction at all, and there would be snow blindness, and when the snow was heavy, it could even submerge the horse's legs; it was under such circumstances that Wang Yan fought for three months every year, for eight consecutive years, and fought out two thousand miles.

Not to mention anything else, just such an invincible cavalry unit could trample the world. But alas, why did he have such a big grudge against powerful clans?

However, although Wang Yan had hopes for the world and was the strongest one now, Han Sui thought that Wang Yan wouldn't come to the desolate Liangzhou in the short term; what he should do more was to develop stably for a few years, cross the Yellow River, and attack Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, which was the right thing to do.

So he thought that his time was still very abundant, and he could still be carefree for many years...

In a blink of an eye, it was another autumn; if one had to say who was the happiest this year, it was the common people of Jizhou. Because from the autumn of the year before last, until the autumn of this year, they had been hungry for two whole years.

But ever since the war ended and Grand General Wang began to govern Jizhou, the common people had no complaints. Because they felt how good Grand General Wang was to them; what they thought were rumors before had all become facts, and even better than what the rumors that had long been circulating in the Jizhou land said.

Brick factories and glass factories were built near their county towns, and many people were arranged to work, not only providing a thick porridge for lunch but also giving money to buy grain. And the bricks and glass they burned were finally sent to their villages, and all the old and young in the village built new houses together. Those houses were really good, with large glass windows, not dark every day. There were also heated brick beds, which were especially warm when burned.

They were re-divided into fields, and every family had a large piece of land, and they also divided the families with many people, and every family had a large piece of land.

Under the leadership of civil officials in green long shirts, they dug irrigation ditches in the fields and built country roads leading to the main roads; this was not paid, and they were provided with two meals a day. There were also paid jobs, which were building main roads and being transferred to other places to participate in building water diversion projects; this kind of work provided meals and money.

With money, they could buy grain, salt, oil, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, cloth, and various tools in the county town based on the household registration book issued, all of which were things closely related to life, and all could be bought in one big house.

Not only that, the Grand General also issued them weapons and armor, letting them protect themselves. The civil officials also emphasized repeatedly that they should take up weapons to protect themselves.

He even issued them chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs; chickens, ducks, and geese were for every family, while pigs were two or three for each village, and everyone raised them collectively. Chickens, ducks, and geese were purely free-range, catching insects to eat, and only occasionally would they be given two mouthfuls of grain.

And the seed grain they planted this year was lent by the General's Mansion. For this autumn harvest, they had to pay a two-tenths tax, and by next year, it would be the same as the common people in Youzhou and the Northeast, all of which would be a one-tenth tax.

In fact, even if it was a two-tenths tax, they were still laughing from ear to ear every day. Not to mention a two-tenths tax, even if it was a five-tenths tax, their lives would still be better than before. Although they were also a one-tenth tax before...

In short, they planted new seeds this year, used new tools, and had new farming methods; from spring plowing until now, everything was very good, and they ushered in a bumper harvest.

After paying the two-tenths tax, seeing that there were really no other taxes, the thing the common people of Jizhou liked to do most was to look at the pile of grain in the grain barn every day, even if they were hungry...

Zhending, the General's Mansion was newly built in the west of the city; the original mansion was too small, and naturally didn't conform to the dignity of the Grand General. Now it was much better; the entire building was designed and built by the engineering doctors of the Wenchang Pavilion and the Ministry of Works under the governance of the government.

Huge, magnificent, gorgeous, majestic, it could be considered a small palace building, with various architectural rituals, as well as the unconstrained thoughts of the designers; generally speaking, it was still quite good.

It certainly wasn't too luxurious; after all, in a year's time, no matter how much of a palace building it was, how luxurious could it be? It was just a place for temporary use, and it was enough. The main thing was to examine the level of the Ministry of Works and the engineering doctors of the Wenchang Pavilion. At the same time, it could also be work-for-relief, killing many birds with one stone.

At this moment in the study of the General's Mansion, Wang Yan was looking through the statistical data sent by Jia Xu.

The land in Youzhou was not large, although it was not saturated, but the population did not explode, the land was not fully utilized, and relatively speaking, grain production was stable. So compared to the previous few years, the output was not much different. Bingzhou was poor and had few people, with little surplus, and the output was only enough for the consumption of the common people in Bingzhou.

Because a considerable portion of the common people of Jizhou migrated to the Northeast, there was a visible increase in grain in the Northeast this year. And Jizhou, because it was in the essence of the North China Plain, had a population of over three million, the land was basically developed, and adding the new grain seeds and farming methods, as well as fertilizers, etc., so although it was now an Ice Age, grain production was still much higher than in the past, which was truly a bumper harvest.

It was just that even if it was a bumper harvest, the common people still couldn't eat freely, and the road ahead was long...

"A bumper harvest this year, very good."

Putting down the document in his hand, Wang Yan gave an evaluation of the work of the past year. Yes, busy for a year, it was for the autumn harvest. People take food as their heaven, and eating was the big thing. Other construction was all around farming. Expanding territory was also to have more land and population, and produce more grain.

Jia Xu put down the tea and also said with a smile: "The General has the ability to govern the world, specially sending scholars to study grain seeds and farming methods; this is a feat that benefits the present and the future."

He had been a Pavilion Chief for half a year, and had been an assistant to the 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 governance, and naturally discovered many advanced aspects.

Especially when he had more contact with Wang Yan, he increasingly found that there was no better boss than Wang Yan. Now he was in a good mood, eating well, sleeping well, and seeing the growth of various data every day, which was quite happy.

Wang Yan also took a sip of tea and asked with a smile: "The grain famine has been solved, what does Wenhe think I should do next?"

"Should store grain for three years, and then cross the river to attack Yuan and Cao, to plot the Henan region."

Jia Xu didn't even think about it, saying it simply; seeing that Wang Yan didn't express anything, he continued: "Does the General want to plot Liangzhou? Although Liangzhou is poor, cotton is a necessity for cold protection. Recently heard that Han Sui returned to Liang, fought Li Jue first, then fought Ma Teng, his vitality was not restored, he lacked grain and food, and his military strength was also insufficient.

Therefore, conquering Liangzhou only needs twenty thousand troops. Even if there is repetition, Liangzhou can be taken in two or three years, consuming little grain. Thus, after three years, Liangzhou will be taken, and our grain will be sufficient, and we can take Henan."

"Wenhe has a good plan, which fits my intention."

Wang Yan nodded with a smile, "You pass the order to Lu Bu and Zhang Liao, asking them to break camp and move west, first occupy the two counties of Beidi and Anding, and clear out the barbarians. Let Guo Jia set a plan to plot Han Sui. Don't forget to instruct, the war is not urgent; if there is no good opportunity, just plan slowly."

"Yes, General, I will retire."

Jia Xu arched his hands and turned to go arrange work. Sending troops to fight, this process required a lot of preparation, and he had to coordinate...