Chapter 889

Zhang Lu and Liu Bei surrendered to Wang Yan one after another, and Wang Yan had already begun to rule Hanzhong and the eastern part of Yangzhou, promoting various systems, engaging in large-scale production and construction, and at the same time beginning to train militia; Cao Cao's side was naturally anxious.

They knew very well that if they did not go to attack Wang Yan, then after four or five years, when Wang Yan's food and fodder were sufficient and he had trained many reorganized troops, Wang Yan would definitely come to attack them at that time. Similarly, they also knew that within these few years, if they did not attack Wang Yan, then Wang Yan would definitely not come to attack them, and might even trade with them in a friendly manner, exchanging what they had for what they lacked.

Although many powerful clans and wealthy households that had traded with Wang Yan in the past had already had their families broken and their homes destroyed, no one would give up trading with each other. Everyone knew that Wang Yan would eventually kill them one day, but the profits from trade were truly too great, and there were many essential materials on Wang Yan's side, so they had to trade.

On one hand, they were happy that they were making money and their families were becoming more powerful and prosperous in this chaotic world, and on the other hand, they were sighing for the uncertain future of their families, looking toward the northern land, thinking about the power of the Wang thief, saying ugly dirty words, angry and terrified; in countless midnight dreams, they were all being skinned and fleshed by a knife, becoming bone people hanging with porcelain that people could play with, which was truly too terrifying.

In the past, they were still swearing, thinking that Wang Yan had no one in his hands and that governing the world still relied on them. But they watched as Wang Yan step by step started from papermaking, then printed books, and found Cai Yong, attracting many scholars from humble backgrounds, vigorously promoting literature and education; after more than ten years, he cultivated a large group of people who could write and calculate, and let them go deep into the grassroots, and the most basic pavilion-level administrative units were thoroughly incorporated into the scope of rule.

At the same time, he abolished the Three Elders, broke the clans, caused the clan patriarchal system to perish, selected students from each village to serve as village heads, assisted the Pavilion Chiefs in carrying out governance work, and brought the Wang Law deep into the villages and deep into every household.

At that time, Wang Yan had not yet moved south to Youzhou, and everyone also realized the great danger of Wang Yan, but at that time the warlords were fighting each other, and the interests were complex and intertwined, so there was no way to organize forces to concentrate fire and kill Wang Yan. As a result, step by step, it reached today, and Wang Yan unified the north, yet there was not a single powerful clan in his rule holding great power. Even the Zhen family only occupied many positions by relying on the many people in the family who could read. Their main power was still strong in commercial trade.

Their families no longer had huge amounts of land, and no longer had private soldiers; the families were indeed powerful, but they had indeed declined. Compared to the strength of the Zhen family in Wuji back then, at this time there was no momentum of a powerful clan at all; it could only be said to be a wealthy family.

But everyone knew that money was never the most important thing; as long as there was power, they would have money, which is also the reason why doing business has been a lowly profession since ancient times. Only the most useless descendants would go into business. But now they have money but no power, so no matter how much money they have, they are just meat on the chopping board and cannot become a climate.

The powerful clans firmly believed that even if Wang Yan killed them now, powerful clans would still appear in the future rule, and they would still little by little corrode and control the power of the empire, eventually becoming the way the Great Han was before. This is their understanding of themselves and of human nature; people are just never satisfied.

But so what? Because they are dead. The powerful clans that corrode and control the power of Wang Yan's empire will not be them, which is truly too terrible...

So they were actually even more urgent than Old Cao. Liu Bei surrendered to Wang Yan, making the Yangtze River not a barrier; Zhang Lu surrendered to Wang Yan, making Bashu, although having barriers, not impossible to attack. Furthermore, Wang Yan unified the north, with solid strength; no matter how one looked at it, it was a dead end.

As a result, they finally connected autonomously; Liu Biao of Jingzhou and Liu Zhang of Yizhou were directly forced to step down with swords at their necks; these two people were not decent, so they helped them be decent. Although it was indeed very humiliating, these two did keep their lives.

As a superior, if one does not have two loyal followers, then this position will not sit long. So some turmoil did happen, and a batch of people died; in the end, these powerful clans thoroughly purged the opposition within their borders and handed over Jing and Yi provinces to Cao Cao, welcoming Cao Cao to rule them with gongs and drums.

At this time, it was also spring; it was after Liu Bei handed over power that Cao Cao thoroughly unified all forces except Sun Ce and Shi Xie, with a sphere of influence including most of Yangzhou, the whole of Jingzhou, and all regions of Yizhou except Hanzhong, with a population of 13 million under his rule, instantly becoming huge.

And it was not just purely huge, because the powerful clans of Jing and Yi provinces welcomed Cao Cao very much; this was their common hope to resist Wang Yan. So this led to Old Cao's political decrees being unimpeded, the administrative efficiency under his rule being incredibly high, and the ruling class being unprecedentedly united, wholeheartedly wanting to kill the Wang thief and make China return to stability.

This is the thought they summarized: the harm of the Wang thief poisons the ages, causing the mountains and rivers to be chaotic, the people to have no livelihood, and the hearts of the people to be restless. If the Wang thief is not destroyed and his laws and systems are not abolished, China will perish. They have the obligation and responsibility to save the people of the world, reorganize the mountains and rivers of the Han family, and return to the old capital.

For this reason, some of them even wrote history, fabricated Wang Yan's experiences, and made Wang Yan play an important role in the Yellow Turbans, as if the Yellow Turbans were initiated by Wang Yan, wantonly attacking Wang Yan's policies, attacking Wang Yan's character, and denying everything he did.

They did not just frame him; they also learned from Wang Yan's way of promoting policies and promoted them to the people, describing Wang Yan as a devil who deserved to be cut into a thousand pieces, and only after killing Wang Yan would the people have good days.

It was uniting forces, writing attacks, distorting history, and engaging in large-scale public opinion warfare; so the ones most skilled at self-innovation are these people. They have always been changing, but they have never changed.

Wang Yan naturally knew about their movements, and they even dared to write an article condemning Wang Yan and send it over, wanting to publish it in the newspaper. They naturally knew it was impossible to be published; it was specifically sent over for Wang Yan to see; this is called attacking the heart, a proper advanced art of war. A great taboo in using troops is not to be angry and raise an army.

Wang Yan smiled at this and let it go; no matter how much they said, it was of no avail, and in the end, it still depended on strength. If the strength is not enough, what is the use of just knowing how to scold? Just one slap and it's over.

Before this, when contacting Liu Bei about the surrender, Cao Cao had sent troops to Wuhu and other places in the north of Danyang; this was Liu Bei's territory, and Old Cao hoped to force the rebellion of the powerful clans under Liu Bei through external military pressure.

But although Liu Bei did not slaughter the powerful clans as ruthlessly as General Wang, without any relaxation, he was consciously suppressing the powerful clans and employing more scholars from humble backgrounds.

Of course, the people two thousand years later should not put gold on their own faces and say they are scholars from humble backgrounds; they are truly not qualified. Scholars from humble backgrounds are fallen nobles, and the family at worst must be a landlord.

So it led to the fact that the powerful clans under Liu Bei's rule failed to rebel successfully. And Wang Yan's speed of mobilizing troops was very fast, without any military vacancy, and Taishi Ci and others were very strong; they came and fought a battle with Old Cao first, beating them back fifty miles, and only then turned back to pacify the chaos.

After this, the troops of both sides confronted each other, with only small-scale clashes and no large-scale wars, all developing on their own.

Generally speaking, the development on Cao Cao's side absorbed some of the experience from Wang Yan's side; of course, it was not copying, otherwise what they should do more is to kill themselves and hand over the great mountains and rivers. What they learned the most was still in farming.

Learning from the farming methods and farming tools invented and summarized by the large number of agricultural doctors and engineering doctors on Wang Yan's side. They even wanted to trade grain seeds from Wang Yan to increase grain production. Similarly, they also learned from Wang Yan to organize the army for large-scale production.

Another important point is to organize craftsmen to research and produce military equipment, going all out to prepare for war.

Of course, more importantly, it was Old Cao using his wise brain and tough political means to constantly deepen his control over Jing and Yi provinces.

In contrast, General Wang's side was very relaxed, and everything was developing in an orderly manner.

Everywhere was busily engaged in large-scale production and construction, farming, road building, water conservancy, bridge building, and so on. The various doctors of the Wenchang Pavilion were constantly solving practical problems.

Wang Yan naturally also encouraged the development of theoretical science, but undoubtedly, given the current social status, what was more needed was applied science. What should be done more was to solve practical production and construction problems. The current scientific development could not be called a bottleneck. General Wang started his enterprise for twenty years, and on the basis of him just opening a political cheat, developing to now, it is still an agricultural society; where is the need to think about long-term scientific direction problems?

Generally speaking, the ability to solve problems is still there; although they are all primitive, the scientific thinking has been cultivated, and the development is very rapid. In this point, the Chinese people have never been bad, and are even far ahead.

Wang Yan just needs to watch; there will always be surprises for him. Hearing that there is a madman in the Wenchang Pavilion recently who is researching boiling water, he knew it was done. After all, boiling water is known as the highest technology of mankind; although it is a joke, the meaning is not a joke.

And all of this is just him encouraging invention and creation, solving practical problems, and determining the status of craftsmen.

As long as the system is determined, the work process is insisted upon, and there is strong supervision, then everything will develop very smoothly.

The people farm and serve in the military, so the corresponding various doctors solve the problems of farming and military equipment, and the generals study the problems of better training soldiers and fighting battles. The people participate in public construction to earn money, so the various doctors solve the problems of the tools behind it, the rationality of construction, and how to build efficiently.

The people live their lives, needing oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, salt, sugar, cloth, and various tools, so the various doctors and merchants go to solve and enrich these things.

The people always have various strange disputes, and the laws cannot be detailed; there are always problems that local officials do not know how to solve and handle. Then, combined with reality, the central government constantly introduces and improves laws, considering them as comprehensively and meticulously as possible, keeping up with social development.

Merchants became arrogant, researching various ways to evade taxes, so various loopholes were plugged. Becoming even more arrogant, daring to collude with officials and act recklessly, then iron fists were used.

Officials became arrogant, not doing things well, then supervision and regulation were strengthened, laws and decrees were constantly improved, and there was no tolerance.

The army became arrogant, lawless, then the army was rectified; those who should be killed were killed, those who should be beaten were beaten.

Scholars became arrogant, then the literary style was rectified.

The atmosphere became arrogant, then the rectification was intensified, and it was toughly reversed.

In the final analysis, it is still about grasping the people well; if the people's lives are lived well, then everything is not a problem, and there is always a way to solve problems.

So Wang Yan has not just been shrinking in Luoyang City for the past few years, but has gone to various places for inspection. Now controlling such a large land, and still retaining the appearance of the past, many ancient sites that disappeared later are all fresh at this time. In fact, he came here and has not been to many places. It is nothing more than following the pace of expansion and roughly inspecting it once.

This time it was relatively leisurely, and there were precedents for various things; whether he was there or not did not make much difference. So he let Jia Xu and Liu Bei supervise the country and manage affairs, while he himself took a pile of children over ten years old and one hundred personal guards, and started the grand inspection work, and by the way, took an ancient tour.

Taking a pile of children, of course, was not for observation, but purely because they heard about it and wanted to go very much, so he took them along. As for the so-called danger, under his rule, no one dared to impersonate his name. No matter where he went, he only had to shout, and in an instant, there would be a great army by his side, saying who to hit and hitting who.

Similarly, Jia Xu and Liu Bei did not have the conditions to rebel, and even if they really acted, Wang Yan did not need to go too far; just turning around Luoyang, there would be an army of one hundred thousand.

This is the important role of the hearts of the people, and it is the absolute embodiment of his personal supreme influence.

He set out from Luoyang, first inspecting the construction work in Yangzhou and Henan regions, then went north to Jizhou and Youzhou, all the way to the Northeast; he went very far, all the way to the northernmost village on the register, which was considered finished. Then he went west, entered the grasslands, and afterward went to Liangzhou, inspecting the construction situation in these two places, and more importantly, the situation of ethnic integration. He even went out of Liangzhou and took troops to the Western Regions.

Han Sui, this old boy, is relatively cunning; he relied on the sharpness of his troops and also swept up the barbarians of the Western Regions, going all the way, destroying various countries, and sweeping the barbarians of the Western Regions further west.

However, Han Sui was not too excessive and did not dare to occupy the Western Regions without leaving. Wang Yan let him leave, which was to let him go to fight Guishuang, not to let him settle down in the Western Regions. Han Sui did not doubt at all that if he did not have real actions, Wang Yan would really send a great army to kill him. There was no way; it was truly that Wang Yan was too powerful. A Liao Hua led more than six thousand cavalry and beat him into submission in one winter, and Wang Yan had more troops that had not been mobilized.

So for many years in the past, Han Sui had already begun to fight with Guishuang, and heard that he was fighting well and was pushing outward. Wang Yan was his firm logistics supply line, and various battlefield first-aid medicines developed by medicine, finished cotton clothes, and weapons and equipment were continuously transported across a distance of thousands of miles from Liangzhou.

Wang Yan taking troops to the Western Regions was just out of precaution, to see if there were any hidden dangers. He did not really want to run to Han Sui's side to see Han Sui's situation; that was truly too far, truly not worth it; he would not have the chance to see it in his life.

After inspecting Liangzhou, he went to Bingzhou, then to Hanzhong, and finally via Chang'an, passing Hangu Pass, and returned to Luoyang.

This journey, General Wang swayed and walked for six years; along the way, he killed many people, and also harvested the hearts of the people, and saw many sceneries, which was very good.

Of course, the brats who followed along the way were changed in a batch; after all, it was rain and dew for everyone. As for the wife who kept an empty bed for six years, that was just how it was.

Luoyang is more prosperous, various buildings have ended, and the dilapidated city walls circle a new city. Inside the city, the flow of people is like weaving, the voices are boiling, and it is very prosperous.

Wang Yan carried his hands behind his back, without the slightest dust of traveling for many years, but rather a natural appearance, with quite a bit of meaning of being out of the world.

He smiled and nodded to the people who recognized him with wide eyes, and just walked on the street, heading toward the imperial palace.

There were many people who recognized him; after all, his portrait was realistic and exactly the same as his real person, and he had not changed much for so many years. Every household had his longevity tablet and hung his portrait; one or two might not recognize him, but when there were many people, they recognized him.

Just like this, the road that was not close was walked for a long time, and he even had a meal in a restaurant with good taste in the middle, and it was not until the evening that he really returned to the imperial palace.

Jia Xu and Liu Bei had long been waiting, just in time to have dinner with Wang Yan.

Wang Yan ate meat in big mouthfuls, listening to the two reporting on work.

In fact, he knew many things; he had always been able to receive their reports. Summarizing it, it is that after six years of great construction, the rule has become wealthy, food and fodder are sufficient, especially in recent years the population has exploded, and it has broken through the 20 million mark.

This is precisely because the children born under Wang Yan's rule in recent years have grown up, married one after another, and gave birth to a few batches in two years. Coupled with the development of medicine, as well as corresponding health construction, and the continuous cultivation of professional female doctors, the survival of infants was guaranteed. Moreover, the many women and children added to Henan previously also gave birth to many, so the explosive population growth is not strange.

It is just that the newly added ones are all children, and they are not yet usable.

Other various undertakings are developing stably, and the situation is excellent.

Then there is Old Cao's side, developing silently for many years, also with sharp soldiers and sufficient food, waiting for the battle. The recent small friction in Danyang has become more and more serious, from the previous scout clashes to small-scale wars of hundreds or thousands of people.

From this, it can be seen that Old Cao can no longer hold back and wants to fight a decisive battle early. The main reason is still that Wang Yan's development is too fast; in the same six years, Yangzhou can be significantly compared, Wang Yan's development is truly too fast, too terrifying, and he cannot sleep.

So summarizing again, it is that the war can be started.

"After the autumn harvest, attack Cao Cao."

Wang Yan made the final decision, setting that it would be fought this year, and turned to ask, "The potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, peanuts, etc., found overseas, how is the improvement?"

Jia Xu laughed: "Potatoes and sweet potatoes, after several cultivations, are now more than double our grain seeds. In addition... General, the China of the future will no longer have grain shortages."

Liu Bei was also laughing on the side, very sighing at Wang Yan's persistence and investment back then.

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn have many uses; people can eat them, livestock can also eat them, and they can also be made into starch, vermicelli, etc. In recent years, they have been fully promoted, and in the future, it is truly that they will never be hungry again.

Looking at it, General Wang is about to realize the slogan he shouted when he started his enterprise, that everyone has three meals full; he is really doing it...