Chapter 1364

In mid-October, news spread to Luoyang that Liu Bian had ascended the throne in Chang'an and changed the era name to Jian'an, that the Minister of the Household Cui Lie had been intercepted and killed on the road with no corpse left, and that Duan Yu had been enfeoffed as the Prince of Liang.

The entire Luoyang was shaken by this.

After the hope of peace talks was cut off, the Empress Dowager Dong ordered the clan governors to enter Luoyang to protect the King.

In an instant, promotions flew like snowflakes to the twelve provinces of the world, excluding Liangzhou.

In addition, the Hangu Pass in Xinan County was closed, and a large amount of troops and supplies began to be transferred to the Hangu Pass in Xinan County.

However, if there are troops, there must be food.

But it was clear that the Luoyang court was now weak, even worse than when Liu Hong was on the throne.

A Huang Jin rebellion had exhausted the family fortune that Liu Hong had accumulated for many years.

If it hadn't been for Duan Yu's development in Liangzhou later, and sending a large amount of taxes to Liu Hong, Luoyang would have had no money or food to recover.

There wasn't even money or food to pay the officials' salaries.

However, these money and food sent from Liangzhou by Duan Yu were ultimately consumed by Duan Yu himself.

It ultimately fulfilled that saying: what comes from somewhere, goes back to where it came from.

In the Battle of Hangu Pass, the Luoyang court's more than two hundred thousand troops had long since consumed all the money and food that had been painstakingly accumulated.

It was precisely because of this that the Empress Dowager Dong had no way to borrow food from the aristocratic families who could collect it.

And that was why Jian Shuo's nephew went to the Hongnong Yang family to humiliate Yang Biao.

There were no troops, and troops needed to be transferred.

There was no food, and naturally, food needed to be transferred.

But Yanzhou and Yuzhou, which were closest to Luoyang, had too much wasteland due to the Huang Jin rebellion, and this year was a disaster year, so the harvest was not enough to pay taxes.

Coupled with the Qingzhou Huang Jin running rampant in Yanzhou, the people were displaced.

And Qingzhou goes without saying.

Although Qingzhou was not the place where the Huang Jin rebellion started, it was the province most severely affected by the Huang Jin rebellion.

Xuzhou, Yangzhou, Jingzhou, and other places were too far from Luoyang, and distant water could not quench near thirst in a short time.

Besides Yanzhou, Yuzhou, Xuzhou, Yangzhou, Jingzhou, and other places, there was also Jizhou.

Although Jizhou was the base camp of the Huang Jin rebellion, due to Duan Yu's early intervention, and Jizhou being the number one grain-producing province in the Central Plains, Jizhou was the least affected.

Hundreds of thousands of people migrating sounds like a lot, but Jizhou's total registered population was nearly seven million, and this did not count the population hidden by aristocratic families.

If counted, Jizhou's population of nearly ten million was not hurt at all by Duan Yu's migration of less than one million.

Coupled with Yuan Shao's diligent governance in the year and a half since he entered Jizhou, and Jizhou's favorable weather, Jizhou actually had a bumper harvest this year.

Ye County, Wei Commandery.

The Council Hall of the Inspector's Office.

At this moment, a court document was placed on the desk in front of Yuan Shao.

The content was also very simple, nothing more than two words: collect grain.

The Empress Dowager Dong enfeoffed Yuan Shao as the Governor of Jizhou, General of the Vanguard, and allowed him to establish his own office, but required Yuan Shao to collect one million shi of grain in Jizhou.

This was not a small number.

Jizhou's registered population was 6.5 million, and after last year's Huang Jin rebellion, the registered population was only 5 million.

After Yuan Shao's year and a half of governance, coupled with measures such as reducing taxes, the population recovered to 5.5 million.

Cui Shi, who was Cui Lie's brother, recorded in "Political Theory" that "the rich have fields connecting the fields, and the poor have no place to stand," meaning that the aristocratic clans occupied the vast majority of the land.

And the common people who actually owned land only had three mu per person.

Calculated according to a family of three, a family farming in Jizhou had about ten mu of land.

This was still because Jizhou had many plains; if it were Youzhou or Bingzhou, this number would clearly be insufficient.

Jizhou had many plains and high grain production.

The average yield per mu was half a shi.

Ten mu was fifteen shi.

Ten mu was also the land of one household.

5.5 million people, converted into households of three, totaled 1.83 million households.

Jizhou's total production last year was about 27 million.

At first glance, it seems like a lot, a lot for one million.

But these 27 million were related to the livelihood of the entire Jizhou.

A family of three had to survive for a year and also leave grain seeds.