Chapter 890

Wang Yan specifically ran to the agricultural doctor who was researching seeds, went to see the test fields, and understood in detail the data of various crops at present; this is naturally the top priority.

What Liu Bei thought, Wang Yan did not know, but a small shock was no problem. The advantage of seeds is there; from the 200 years of finding back seeds to the 208 years of today, eight years of research, from the original yield like China's local grain to today's double. Continuing to research, it will double again in the future.

With sweet potatoes and potatoes, the gap in human food can be supplemented; potatoes can also make many dishes, and both can be made into vermicelli, etc., which also enriched the people's dining tables. The excess yield can well supplement the food gap of poultry. It can be very luxurious to feed cattle, horses, pigs, chickens, ducks, and geese with grain, which prospered the raising of meat and supplemented the people's meat food.

Corn goes without saying; although the yield is not as high as sweet potatoes and potatoes, it is actually higher than the current grain. Most importantly, corn does not have high requirements for soil quality, and many inferior poor lands can be farmed. And corn as feed has higher value than potatoes and sweet potatoes, and deep processing can also brew beer.

And in the Liangzhou region, after more than ten years of development, the planting of cotton has been thoroughly spread, and the yield is quite good. Although the road is long and the transportation cost is high, Wang Yan still pressed it to a level that the people could afford. To this day, cotton clothes and quilts have been thoroughly popularized.

Calculated this way, Wang Yan can be considered to have initially realized that the people under his rule have no suffering from cold and hunger, and basically can be said to have achieved food and clothing for all. This level can be said to have reached the peak before 1949. The so-called prosperous age later is all inferior.

Of course, it is only the more than 20 million people under his rule; the more than 10 million people on Old Cao's side are still hungry, and there is still a long way to go.

Over the years, the navy has not stopped developing. Warships are still being built, soldiers are still being trained, and they are still going to sea. They are still exploring the ocean and obtaining external resources. One Eastern Fleet perfects the route to the Americas, one Southern Fleet perfects the route to Nanyang; in recent years, a large amount of spices, minerals, and external species have been brought back, which is also a prosperous route.

After all, extracting the value of indigenous people in other places to subsidize the lives of one's own people is undoubtedly the proper path of a king.

Regarding this point, the Japanese country, which has always been separated from China by a strip of water, has the deepest feeling. There is no way; it is truly too close. In the early years, the Japanese country sent people to ask for help; at that time, Wang Yan sent the navy over, and after so many years, after so many years, Yamatai had long passed the crisis and was working for General Wang; they were very happy.

Of course, they could not be unhappy; the consequence of being unhappy was something they could not bear...

Since the situation stabilized and he obtained Jing and Yi provinces, Cao Cao moved his base from Chaisang to Linxiang (Changsha City). He admitted Wang Yan's power, so it was appropriate to be further away from the river and further away from the Yangzhou region controlled by Wang Yan. Otherwise, once the war really started, Old Cao did not doubt at all that a group of generals under Wang Yan would definitely rush toward his base, kill him, Old Cao, and then everything would be over.

The most critical point is that the generals under Wang Yan are truly fierce. Lu Bu, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Huang Zhong, Zhao Yun, Liao Hua, Taishi Ci, etc., are all the top in the world today; Xu Chu and others under his command can indeed fight, but in a one-on-one situation, Wang Yan has extra fierce generals, which is what he does not possess; the high-quality generals are relatively worse.

Linxiang is surrounded by mountains on all sides, has terrain advantages, can attack and defend, which gave him a lot of sense of security. It is also true that Wang Yan is too strong; developing for the same six years, he watched how the eastern Yangzhou region became richer year by year; Wang Yan's development was truly too fast, too terrifying, and he could not sleep.

Another important reason is that he wants to strengthen his control over Jing and Yi provinces.

He used to be the terror of the powerful clans; after all, his Old Cao family was a powerful clan, and he was placed high hopes by the family; if not for this, he would not have taken him to find people to make a name for him; he knew even more clearly what kind of power his family possessed.

But he was immersed in that atmosphere; he was in the ruling class, and in fact, he would ignore this kind of power, making him think it was ordinary, because it had been like that since ancient times; this is a very thought-kidnapping idea. Just like "everyone says so," "everyone does so," and so on. It is not to oppose for the sake of opposing, to be a contrarian. But in this process, people seem not to have used their brains.

People might briefly realize this, but after a while, they would have no feeling, and people would be paralyzed.

But this time, the changes in Jing and Yi provinces, although the beneficiary was Old Cao, still made him feel shocking. He could also be considered to truly understand why Wang Yan had such great hostility toward the powerful clans and had to kill them all; just like this, would it work if he didn't kill them?

It's just that Old Cao had no way; he certainly dared to kill the powerful clans; in fact, to this day, he had killed many who did not obey. But he did not have the courage to kill like Wang Yan; it was really no different from killing pigs and dogs.

Besides, he can now suppress the powerful clans; they are all very cooperative with him, following, implementing, and carrying out his orders. On the other hand, he is not like Wang Yan, who has carried out education for more than twenty years to this day; although it is far from thoroughly completing universal education, he has indeed cultivated a large group of scholars and built a talent echelon.

These are all things Old Cao cannot do, or rather, before Wang Yan did these, they were things they had never thought of. If they couldn't even think of it, how could they talk about doing it...

In the Prime Minister's Office in Changsha, watching Xun Yu come in, Old Cao waved his hand to let the dancers and musicians retreat, drank a glass of wine by himself, and asked with a smile: "Wenruo, what is the matter?"

Xun Yu knelt and sat, cupped his hands and said: "Reporting to the Lord, the spies report that Wang Yan returned to Luoyang half a month ago. Six years have passed, Wang Yan's food and fodder are sufficient, the generals are eager to try, and after this autumn, he will definitely attack us; the Lord should prepare early."

Cao Cao was stunned for a moment, and then started drinking again.

The preparations for the past few years were all for this battle, but when the clouds of war really came, thinking of Wang Yan's terrifying strength, Old Cao had a rare moment of tension.

It was a kind of sudden violent beating of the heart, empty, a kind of panic with nowhere to land.

But the reason for being a strong person is that at such a time, one can stabilize emotions and overcome fear. Just like in the original time, he only had one hundred thousand troops, but dared to fight the Battle of Guandu against Yuan Shao's seven or eight hundred thousand troops.

At that time, he had to fight; now it is the same, he has to fight, because Wang Yan will come to attack him.

Old Cao calmed his chaotic mood, remained calm on the surface, and asked: "What does Wenruo think I should do?"

"The enemy is strong and we are weak, so we should defend. Wang Yan will definitely divide his troops into two routes, one to take Shu from Hanzhong, and one to advance west from Yangzhou to our place. Therefore, we should gather our forces, defend Jianmen and Ba Commandery to the death, and not let the enemy cross Jianmen, cross the Han River, cross Bashan, and go straight into Shu. Defend the riverbank to the death, and do not let his warships cross the river and drive straight into Jingzhou. Yangzhou is where Wang Yan's troops are advancing; the main battle must be in Yangzhou."

Xun Yu did not pretend to be polite and said it very realistically.

And it was indeed as he said; Wang Yan's offensive intention was very clear, which was to attack Yizhou on one route and attack Yangzhou to directly attack Jingzhou on the other. Looking at Wang Yan's rebellion for twenty-four years, he only took risks when attacking Liaodong and put himself in danger. Since taking root in Liaodong, he has always used troops in a straightforward manner; looking at Wang Yan fighting, one can feel the kingly spirit of dominating the nine provinces and the eight wildernesses.

Of course, this also stems from strong strength, strong enough not to need schemes and tricks, pressing forward little by little, which is a simple, direct, and efficient method; there is no need to do so many useless things.

So Xun Yu could say with certainty that Wang Yan's tactics were that there were no tactics. Step by step, steady and solid, continuously advancing the front line, constantly consuming their strength, encroaching on land and population, a very brainless flat-pushing fighting method. What he fought was national strength, was logistics.

What they can do is only defend, and find Wang Yan's weaknesses in defense, so as to counterattack.

Cao Cao nodded; he thought Xun Yu was correct. But Wang Yan had been wise for twenty-four years, and had Jia Xu, Guo Jia, and others under his command; it was unlikely that there would be any weaknesses, and even if there were, they were traps deliberately revealed.

After pondering for a moment, he said: "Although the enemy is strong and we are weak, we cannot just defend. His accumulation is deep, food and fodder are sufficient, soldiers are sharp and generals are brave, and the people are all fierce and brave; he can fight for three or even five years; this is not something we can match; I will definitely lose."

"What does the Lord mean..."

Old Cao laughed loudly: "Wang Yan will definitely come to attack me after autumn, because he values the people's livelihood, and both soldiers and civilians are busy harvesting grain, with no heart for war. The so-called attacking the unprepared, catching them by surprise. Since that is the case, I should attack Wang Yan first, forcing him to meet me; he will be in a hurry to meet the battle, and there will definitely be omissions, giving us an opportunity to exploit.

Wenruo, pass my military order, secretly reorganize the army quickly, and must not let Wang Yan perceive our movements. After the autumn harvest, divide the troops into three routes. One route to attack Yangzhou, one route to take Hanzhong, and one route to take advantage of Wang Yan's troop mobilization, cross Bashan, break Wuguan, and go straight to Luoyang. Even if it cannot be accomplished, it can also take Nanyang, enter Henan, and disrupt his hinterland."

Xun Yu responded and hurriedly ran out to pass the military order, summoning people to coordinate grain, fodder, military weapons, and other matters, and everything had to be done secretly. Old Cao was naturally not really a hands-off manager; now it was just Xun Yu doing the work, and various subsequent matters had to be reported to him for instructions.

Watching Xun Yu leave, Old Cao laughed loudly again, very proud of his order. Wang Yan must not have thought that he, Old Cao, would not honestly defend, but would attack first, and still attack during the autumn harvest.

Although he did not know how the subsequent development would be, after all, Wang Yan's strength was strong, but Old Cao confidently believed that he could gain the upper hand in the early stage.

Moreover, the army under his command had also been trained with high intensity for six years; although he did not make a million troops all elite, they were also hundreds of thousands of first-line troops. The military equipment had also been improved, and more than half of the army was equipped.

He knew Wang Yan's military system very well: conscripted at twenty, and those who did not become officers by thirty-two had to retire. Since the last battle between the two sides, six years had passed. Since Wang Yan unified Hebei, ten years had passed. That batch of elite soldiers back then had long since taken off their armor and returned to the fields, serving as so-called police officers.

The current reorganized troops are all a group of new recruits who have never seen blood. Even if Wang Yan conscripts old soldiers, those old soldiers have been away from the battlefield for a long time and have long since become wine bags and rice sacks, so how much combat effectiveness can they have?

Indeed, Wang Yan's logistics are good, the soldiers have enough to eat and drink, meat is not lacking, the oil is sufficient, the armor is lighter and thinner, the defense ability is better, the quality of weapons is tougher, and with lighter weight, they achieved hardness and sharpness exceeding the original weapons.

But no matter how good the weapons are, they are used by people, and Wang Yan's military equipment is not really invulnerable and hard to block. So Old Cao did not think that the army under Wang Yan could be much stronger than the army under his command.

Old Cao was very wild and waved his hand: "Sing and dance."

As the voice fell, the pile of dancers who had just retreated walked in with small steps, followed by the musicians, continuing to play music in a place that did not affect the vision and did not affect the transmission of sound.

Old Cao narrowed his eyes, drank and ate by himself, occasionally eating dishes and drinking wine, beating the rhythm with his hands, not realizing he was already drunk...

People two thousand years later would mostly not be able to live in this era, because there are fewer mobile phones and fewer various complicated information, and they cannot fight against time. Of course, the environment will teach modern people how to behave; if they cannot escape, they have to adapt.

They can only be bored all day, feeling that every day is very tormenting and long; when it comes to the evening, they are surprised that a day has passed, looking back, they have gained nothing, and then there is a panic for no reason.

Wang Yan is different; he is very able to endure loneliness. Even if there is nothing, no books, no women, no intrigue, just letting him stay, he can stay.

Not to mention that now the literary style under his rule is flourishing, and the books to be published are even scheduled for half a year later; he has some places to kill time.

Fighting a war is not a matter of one day or two; after Wang Yan returned to Luoyang, he had already been preparing for the autumn unification war. Sending grain and fodder to various places where the war was about to start, to facilitate use during the war. The so-called "troops and horses have not moved, grain and fodder go first" is the principle.

However, his original military plan was indeed to wait until after the autumn harvest to start the war; he had always fought after the autumn harvest, and even in the spring plowing, if no one attacked him, he was unwilling to do anything, because there was a lot of work in the spring. Fighting a war uses strong labor, and it is not just the soldiers on the front line, but also the huge logistics system that has to operate.

Just like the Battle of Hebei with Yuan Shao, the front-line soldiers were about fifty thousand, but the logistics troops had more than one hundred thousand.

This time, the unification war with Cao Cao is destined to be a comprehensive great war. He sent out one hundred thousand people, and behind them, twenty thousand people had to follow and be busy.

So Old Cao did not think wrong; Wang Yan did not think of his sudden attack.

After all, the grain was ripe, just waiting for the harvest. If it was not harvested in time, or if the weather was not good, wouldn't it all rot in the fields in the end, causing heavy losses?

But Old Cao is ruthless here; anyway, the military grain is enough, the grain in the fields is the grain of the people, or the grain of the old, weak, women, and children; it doesn't matter if it's not harvested, it doesn't matter if it's not enough to eat, the grain that should be collected still cannot be less.

Wang Yan actually should have thought of it; Old Cao is such a ruthless person; as long as he can win, as long as he is the one who wins in the end, then it doesn't matter. How can he be called an owl hero? It is just ruthless. Ruthless to himself, even more ruthless to others.

Several fast horses entered Luoyang one after another, Cao Cao's 150,000-strong army took Hanzhong, and 200,000-strong army attacked Yangzhou; the haze of war once again shrouded the earth.

The difference is that in this haze, there is hidden light...