Chapter 431 Asking for Credit and Reward
Zhou Yu also saw at this moment that although Zu Xuan's curiosity was genuine, he was just acting with him. The purpose was naturally to find a way out.
Zhou Yu chatted with him for a long time and didn't chop him with a knife. It was obvious that there was some talk.
Wouldn't Zu Xuan just climb up the pole to find a step for himself?
Sure enough, Zu Sheng then shouted: "Tell me what method you used. If you can convince me, I will surrender!"
Zhou Yu was secretly happy in his heart, but said disdainfully: "Shan'er is so cunning, who knows whether you are really surrendering or pretending to surrender."
Zu Xuan's eyes lit up, and he pretended to be angry and said: "Han'er is so careless, I swear by the mountains and ancestral spirits!"
"A deal?"
"It's a deal!"
Zhou Yu was overjoyed and immediately took out the tray of his design.
In fact, there is nothing surprising about this design. It is nothing more than Zhou Yu having people tie up water birds and hide them outside the reed marsh. After checking, they then sneak into the reed marsh quietly.
When you see or hear the sound of arrows, immediately release the waterfowl in your hand.
After people in the distance saw it, they released the waterfowl in their hands in relays. In this way, it only took two or three relays for the fleet, which had been waiting in the distance, to receive the order and gallop towards the gathering point on the shore.
Although they were far away, their speed was much faster than on land. If Zhou Yu had not ordered them to hide in the reeds and wait for dispatch after arriving, they would actually have more men than Zu Xuan. Early.
As for whether Asuka would be mistaken, of course not.
There are a lot of people here, and Zu Shen sent people to check the reed swamp. The birds that were there have already been frightened by the people and flew away, so there is no need to worry about misjudgment.
"It's so..."
Zu Xuan's mouth widened and he was dumbfounded. He never thought that he could operate like this.
In fact, this strategy is not surprising in design, but in vision.
That is to say, when you meet it for the first time, you will be very shocked, but after seeing it once, you will not feel how subtle it is. Not to mention that Zu Xuan and the others lived in the mountains all year round and rarely went to the plains, let alone to the lakes.
Zu Xuan was able to send people to search the reed swamps to guard against Zhou Yu hiding his troops there, which was already quite alert.
That is to say, he met Zhou Yu. If he replaced an ordinary general and wanted to design a Hongmen Banquet for Zu Xuan, with better luck, he would be discovered by the other party and they would break up.
If you are not lucky enough, you may have to go directly to Zu Xuan's Hongmen Banquet.
Zhou Yu asked with a smile: "How about it, are you willing to surrender now?"
Zu Xuan came back to his senses and felt admiration in his heart. He immediately knelt down on the ground and shouted loudly: "Zu Xuan is convinced and willing to surrender!"
********
The memorials from Sun Ce, He Qi, and Zhou Yu happened to be delivered to Liu Feng on the same day.
After Liu Feng opened it and read it, his face showed obvious joy.
"Okay, good job."
Seeing Liu Feng not only beaming with joy, but also shouting excitedly, Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, and Lu Xun were also surprised. It was rare to see Liu Feng lose his composure like this.
"Take it and have a look."
Liu Feng smiled and pointed to the silk book on the case: "Sun Bofu tried his best this time and sent Sun He back to report. He asked me in the letter that he wanted to stay in Jingnan temporarily and make suggestions for the powerful gentry in Jingnan. .”
Liu Feng had no doubts about this and was not worried at all that Sun Ce wanted to run away.
Sun Jian's family is all in his hands, and Sun Quan is now the county magistrate. What's the point of Sun Ce running away alone?
On the other hand, the Jingnan area, especially the Changsha area, does have a very close relationship with the Sun family. Many people don't know that Changsha can be regarded as a die-hard Sun family.
Liu Bei took advantage of Zhou Yu's attack on Nanjun and Sun Quan's attack on Hefei to go south and sweep through Jingchu. However, with Liu Bei's reputation, official position and strength, plus Liu Qi's righteousness towards Jingzhou, Changsha was still the area with the strongest resistance.
Changsha didn't like Liu Bei at all, and Changsha was leaning towards Cao Cao and Sun Quan at that time.
I lean towards Cao Cao because Cao Cao has the emperor in his hands and is the most powerful force in the world. Naturally, there is no shortage of people to bet on him, while Sun Quan is completely dependent on his father's favor.
Later, when the Xiang River was demarcated, Sun Quan once again attacked Liu Bei. The four counties in Jingnan had almost no effective resistance. One of the key factors was that Changsha surrendered so quickly that the other three counties had no time to react and had already reached the city. .
In the original time and space, Changsha was able to resist Liu Biao for more than a year. Zhang Xian's appeal and the powerful people's aspirations of the Changsha gentry were all very important reasons, but there was another reason that was rarely known.
Those were the Changsha elites who followed Sun Ce in the Central Plains, repeatedly defeated Dong Zhuo's elites, and counterattacked into Luoyang.
Most of these powerful nobles and their tribes chose to return home after Sun Jian died in battle. There are quite a few of these people, tens of thousands of them.
This group of elites not only has rich war experience, but also has excellent ordnance and equipment.
Not only did he have supplies from Yuan Shu, but Sun Ce also obtained a large amount of ordnance and supplies from Jingzhou Prefecture and Nanyang County Prefecture when he killed the Jingzhou Governor and the Nanyang Prefect.
Nanyang County was the largest county in the world at that time and the largest iron smelting center in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Its annual steel production ranked first in the country, and it was still leading the way.
These armored ordnance are not only stored in the warehouse of Tieguanying, but also in the armories of Zhiwancheng in Nanyang County and Xiangyang in Jingzhou Prefecture.
Sun Jian can be said to have had a full meal. If we talk about the iron armor rate of various princes at that time, I am afraid that only Dong Zhuo, who annexed the Central North and South, Xiyuan Army, and obtained the Luoyang arsenal, could be higher than Sun Jian. Others, such as Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, may not have as much armor as Sun Jian.
Sun Ce still has the relationship of benefactor and old official with these people. As long as Zhang Xian nods, Sun Ce can even directly command these people to fight. The role he can play by staying in Jingnan is far greater than returning to Liu Feng in Wu County.
In addition to the good news coming from Sun Ce, He Qi, Gao Shun, Zhou Yu, Zu Lang and others also came with good news.
Taking advantage of the New Year, the troops of He Qi and Gao Shun led 3,000 elites on a long-distance attack by waterway. They beheaded more than a thousand people in the first battle and more than 700 people in the second battle. In the two battles, they broke six mountain strongholds and captured a total of five Shanyue and Han people. Although there were more than a thousand people, less than a thousand people ran away from the mountain trails.
After congratulating Qi for his powerful formation, less than ten days later, more than 30 nearby villages, large and small, asked for surrender, and more than 70,000 people surrendered to the imperial court. He Qi followed the trend and opened another county, establishing Jianyang County in the upper reaches of Jianxi River. Within a week of opening the county, more than 7,000 people from the surrounding mountains and mountains had to join the army.
While the situation was improving, He Qi also asked Liu Feng for help.
Precisely because the situation was so good, He Qi wanted to speed up and there was no shortage of troops. The people who surrendered to Shanyue were afraid that they would not have the chance to make meritorious deeds. As for the people on the other side who were his own compatriots?
No, the Shanyue people have been fighting each other for much longer than the Han people went south. Even the term Shanyue was given to the Shanyue people by the Han people for the convenience of collective name. What He Qi is asking for help now is commodities and food, especially food.
The large number of Shanyue people joined him, causing the food in He Qi's hands to be consumed quickly.
Even based on the extremely low consumption of half a stone of grain per month for an adult man, the more than 500,000 stone of grain in his hand will not last long, and he not only has to provide food and drink for these people, but also has to reserve it for next year. of seeds and rations.
Calculated based on Dongye County, next year's net grain income will be about three to four hundred thousand dan. It may be a little higher due to factors such as Quyuan Li, but it will not exceed 500,000 dan.
This year, it was because Liu Feng had previously subsidized He Qi more than 200,000 shi of grain that he had a figure of more than 500,000.
In addition, the influence of snow salt, frost sugar and sesame oil is also quite strong. It can be used as a powerful weapon to bribe Shanyue chiefs, clan leaders, and leaders. Naturally, the more the better.
Although Liu Feng gave He Qi a lot of support, in just half a year, He Qi had opened up three counties and recruited more than 100,000 Han people to work in the mountains. This speed was beyond Liu Feng's expectations. .
In the original time and space, He Qi worked for three years before developing the three counties of Jianou, Jianyang, and Hanxing. The population directly under the jurisdiction was even more pitiful, with the three counties combined not exceeding 20,000.
And even though it was so bleak, when the news of Sun Ce's death reached the local area, the three counties immediately rebelled. Sun Quan was forced to send 6,000 county troops to He Qi, so that he could return to Huinan to put down the rebellion.
Now, in just four or five months, He Qi has already achieved more than ten times the political achievements of his original time and space. How can he not make Liu Feng smile?
Similarly, there was great news from Zhou Yu.
Check out the 16-9 book bar to see the correct version!
With the help of Zu Lang, he successfully captured Zu Xuan, the most famous among the local Shanyue people.
Reading the records in the silk book, Zhou Yu and the other party actually held a Hongmen Banquet. As a result, Zhou Yu was superior and captured Zu Xuan alive.
Along with Zu Shen, there were fourteen small and large villages that surrendered, with a population of more than 70,000. As the news of Zu Shen's surrender spread, more and more Shanyue tribesmen would surrender.
After all, Zu Sheng and Zu Lang are almost the most famous local leaders.
After asking for help, Zhou Yu also made a request, almost exactly the same as He Qi, hoping that Liu Feng could provide financial and food support.
He Qina said that snow salt, frost sugar, and sesame oil are very lethal to Shanyue people. There is no reason why Shanyue people in the south like them, but Shanyue people in Poyang and Danyang in eastern Henan do not like them.
After reading the silk book, Zhuge Liang and others understood why Liu Feng was so happy.
The total number of Shanyue people is about three million. In just half a year, Zhou Yu and He Qi have surrendered 200,000 people, which is almost one-fifteenth of the total number of Shanyue people.
If you are still unhappy with this progress, you are being too demanding of your ministers.
Pang Tong asked: "General, how should we arrange the two county guards' request for help?"
A wry smile appeared on Liu Feng's face. What else could he do? The minister was so capable and the request was so reasonable. He had given me big words before, but now he naturally tried his best to support him.
But this is fine. These Shanyue people can start farming this year. With the guidance of Quyuanli and the Han people, and it is a farming practice, as long as there are no natural or man-made disasters, they can have a net income this year. And the longer the time, the greater the net income. At the same time, recruiting a large number of Shanyue people will not only greatly increase productivity, broaden the economy, products and population limit of the entire Jiangnan, but most importantly, it can also greatly improve the security of Jiangnan.
If these mountains are left unattended, they will become a serious source of instability.
Even though Sun Shiwan could only improve his performance against Shan Yue, just based on this, he gained a lot of points in the hearts of the powerful Jiangdong nobles.
Shanyue in Jiangdong is really too troublesome. Except for Wu County, almost every county has to face the problem of Shanyue looting, which is undoubtedly a heavy burden.
But by the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Shanyue's problem was much smaller. This was Sun's contribution to the Shanyue issue, and it also pointed out a clear way to Liu Feng.
"Give them."
Liu Feng thought for a moment and made a decision: "Each person will be given another 300,000 shi of grain, 10 shi of frost sugar, 500 shi of snow salt, and 100 shi of sesame oil. Make it clear to them that as long as there are achievements, I will continue to give they added.”
Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, and Lu Xun looked at each other with smiles in their eyes.
Obviously, what Liu Feng is saying now is what he really thinks in his heart.
Today, Jiangdong still has nearly three million shi of food stored in it, which can be fully replenished.
Previously, the expansion of the army mainly consumed money, and the consumption of food did not actually increase much.
Jiangdong has large lakes and swamps, as well as a large number of coastlines.
Liu Feng actively promoted methods of making salted fish and salted eggs, and provided the troops with a large amount of fish and shrimp as protein supplements.
In addition, Liu Feng continued to invest in the expansion of wind power and water conservancy mills in Jiangdong, which greatly increased the production of tofu and was able to supply the elite troops.
What Liu Feng did was to improve the food treatment of the elite troops, thereby improving their combat effectiveness.
They can provide meat and protein to the elite troops, so the food is naturally very sufficient.
Even if it is left, it will cost more to store it, and in another year, all this food will become old food, so it is better to send it to Zhou Yu and He Qi for use.
Of course, the reason why Liu Feng can be so relaxed is that he has big rivers to rely on for the next stage of strategy.
The Yangtze River and Xiangshui River serve as supply lines for the army in the north of Jingjing, and Jiangxia and Nanjun are both on the Yangtze River.
The most troublesome place is Xiangyang, but it is also connected by the Han River.
Zhuge Liang and others conducted simulations according to Liu Feng's instructions. With a scale of 100,000 people participating in the war, the monthly food consumption should be about 300,000 shi.
Usually, raising an army requires 200,000 dan per month, but the additional expenses are actually only 100,000 dan.
This is equivalent to only 50% more consumption than usual. This is transporting grain from Yangzhou to the front line in Jingzhou. The price/performance ratio is really surprising. The loss is about 5% per 100 miles.
The loss on land starts at 30% per 100 miles, and increases linearly. At 1,000 miles, the loss can even be as high as 300 to 500%.
It’s no wonder that Sun Tzu recorded in The Art of War that after an expedition of thousands of miles, a huge amount of gold was wasted every day.
(End of chapter)