Chapter 478 Visiting Zhengguo again
The night was deep, the candlelight in the study swayed, and the light and shadow jumped on Liu Feng's face, reflecting his thoughtful expression. "Calculate the time carefully, Gongsun Zan may have died of self-immolation." He whispered in a low voice, with a hint of impermanence in the world.
Gongsun Zan, the white horse general who once dominated the north, has now ended such a tragic ending.
If history has not changed, once Gongsun Zan dies, Yuan Shao's next step will inevitably be to launch a large military parade.
Yuan Benchu has always been ambitious and has always coveted the world of the Han Dynasty. Through the war with Gongsun Zan, he also understood the reason that combat power does not equal quantity.
In the original time and space, after Gongsun Zan's death, he launched a large military parade almost unstoppable, and carefully selected elite troops in the military parade, prepared to march southward.
Less than a few months after Gongsun Zan's death, Yuan Shao's vanguard troops drove to the edge of the river. The army drank horses in the Yellow River, eager to try, and his ambition to march into the Central Plains showed no sign of hiding.
What kind of bloody storm will it be, Liu Feng dared not think about it carefully.
At this subtle juncture, if you fight Cao Cao, you will undoubtedly give Yuan Shao a huge gift. Liu Feng seemed to have seen Yuan Shao's complacent and overjoyed appearance after learning the news, and he was secretly alert.
Liu Feng paced back and forth in the camp, and various pros and cons in his mind collided violently. After a long time, he nodded with difficulty and said slowly, "Forget it, in fact, before we decided to invade Jingzhou, we had already considered the possibility that Liu Biao would bow to Cao Cao. But he didn't expect that he would bow his head so simply and quickly."
Recalling the plan to invade Jingzhou, Zhuge Liang pointed out with a firm expression that the possibility that Liu Biao would seek help from the court and Cao Cao after he lost. After Lu Xun saw Zhuge Liang speak, he followed and expressed the same view.
As a native of Jingzhou and a child of the Pang family, Pang Tong is more familiar with Liu Biao and understands Liu Biao's character and the political situation in Jingzhou better.
So, he not only agreed with Zhuge Liang and Lu Xun's views, but also talked freely, and analyzed clearly under what circumstances Liu Biao would bow to Cao Cao.
Liu Feng also agreed with their views at that time. Everyone thought that Liu Biao was a hero who had been in a high position for a long time and had his own pride and dignity. He had to wait until he was at the end of his life and had no way out before he gave up completely and chose to bow to Cao Cao in exchange for the latter to help him resist the Yangzhou army.
This is also the reason why Liu Feng deliberately slowed down the offensive rhythm, made steady progress and made progress slowly.
On the one hand, we can take this opportunity to train the army, allow the soldiers to accumulate experience in actual combat, and improve the overall combat effectiveness of the army; secondly, we can also give Liu Biao a false hope, making him mistakenly think that there is still room for negotiation and not ask Cao Cao for help too early.
After all, once winter begins, the amount of water in the Han River will drop sharply. If it encounters extreme low temperatures, the Han River will even freeze. By then, the supply line of the Yangzhou Army will be greatly affected, and the transportation of materials will be difficult, so the supply will naturally be reduced accordingly. As long as it is delayed until that time, the Yangzhou army will have to withdraw even if it does not want to withdraw, otherwise it will be like seeking death.
But who would have thought that in August, Liu Biao had already surrendered and sent someone to invite Cao Cao to mediate. This incident happened too suddenly, and it was really unpredictable in the world, completely beyond everyone's expectations.
However, if they learned more information and knew many things that have happened in Xiangyang City in recent times, they would understand that such a result would be true, which is actually very reasonable.
After all, the cause of the whole incident was that Liu Biao vomited blood and fainted in the hall. This emergencies caused the power of Jingzhou to be temporarily lost, giving Han Song and Cai Mao the pro-Cao faction an opportunity to take advantage of. This is a typical black swan event.
If anyone could predict all this in advance, it would be like opening the eyes of the sky, and it would probably not be inferior to Liu Feng, a person who traveled through time in later generations.
"Then let me see you first."
Liu Feng was humiliated for a while, and secretly angrily criticized Liu Biao's knees for being too soft. He slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air and said helplessly: "I can't afford to offend the general now."
If you think about it carefully, Liu Feng had the upper hand in the previous encounters with Cao Cao, and the first time it was like snatching food naked from the tiger's mouth. What he relied on at that time was nothing more than a threat to defeat the death. And this has become Cao Cao’s current bargaining chip.
This is really a turn of feng shui, one retribution for another, and now Cao Cao has caught the opportunity. "Yes, even if the general mediation was successfully made, other things may not be impossible to fight for." Zhuge Liang nodded slightly, a wise light flashed in his eyes, and he said in agreement: "Lord, let alone the general mediation of this matter may not be a good thing." Zhuge Liang's words successfully aroused the curiosity of Liu Feng, Lu Xun, and Pang Tong.
"Oh? How do you say this?" Zhuge Liang said slowly: "Now the general and the lord are allies, so this matter cannot be regarded as a joint force between the two parties to divide Jingzhou together. With this transaction, the general naturally trusts our state more, which is conducive to joining forces to fight against Hebei in the future. Take another step back, the war in Jingxiang will be pacified as soon as possible, and we must rest calmly, and Jingnan and Jiaozhi also need to free up people to take over." Liu Feng and others all agreed with each other when they heard this.
As a native of Nanjun, Pang Tong also smiled and said, "It is rumored in the state that Liu Zhendong has hoarded no less than three million stones of grain, weapons, wealth, money, and materials in Xiangyang. The lord must not be lenient this time. It is important to know that if we don't let us take these things, it will probably be cheaper for the general."
After hearing this, Lu Xun also said with a slight interest: "Liu Jingsheng is so capable?"
Pang Tong nodded and explained, "Half of the credits still lies with the lord." Liu Feng said in surprise, "Is there any of my credits in it?" "Quyuan plow and iron farm tools are of great use."
Pang Tong said with a smile, "I don't know the situation in Nanyang, but in my Nanjun County alone, the grain earned last year was far more than 25% of the previous year. If there were no war this year, it would have been estimated that the output would have increased by more than 40%. Liu Feng couldn't help but be amazed. He developed the Quyuan plow and iron farm tools with the knowledge of later generations. He naturally knew how strong the effect was. But he was surprised that Liu Biao was so courageous that he actually spent a lot of money to promote it in Jingzhou. As far as Pang Tong said, if Liu Biao had not done his best and promoted it to all Jingzhou, the annual output of Nanjun would not have increased so much.
Lu Xun also praised: "The chubby plow made by the lord is now well-known in Jiangdong, and its promotion is extremely smooth. The popularity of this thing in Jiangdong is probably even above the north."
Lu Xun's words are just a point. The original chubby plow appeared in Jiangnan in the Tang Dynasty, and the more north it went, the weakening and restricting the help of this thing.
If in the Jiangnan region, the Quyuan Plow can be used all year round, allowing adult men to completely transform into hardworking human-shaped cattle and horses, then there will be only eight to ten months left when they arrive on the front line of the Yellow River. Because the cold in the north freezes the ground, the Quyuan Plow is helpless.
Walking further north, when you reach Youzhou and north of Youzhou, the service life of the Quyuan Plough is only half a year left. Moreover, the soil in the north is sticky and easy to adhere to the plow wall, which is far less light than that in the south. At the same time, it will be more troublesome and cost more.
But this did not affect Liu Feng's full promotion of curved plows and iron farm tools, because in addition to increasing grain production, there is also an important political means, that is, to curb or even break up the family.
As we all know, the special existence of the aristocratic family originated in the Eastern Han Dynasty and flourished in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and did not gradually decline until the end of the Tang Dynasty. Many people who have little research on history like to attribute the destruction of the clan to Huang Chao, which is actually ridiculous.
Huang Chao is just a bandit. He has never been to Hebei, one of the aristocratic base camps. He is worthy of eradicating the aristocratic family?
The so-called "there are all the bones of the ministers in the streets of heaven", but how many can he kill?
When the Western Jin Dynasty was destroyed, the northern clans were massacred by ethnic minorities in turn, but in the Northern Wei Dynasty, they were still prosperous. In addition to the Xianbei people, they were all Han clans, and several prime ministers were all Han clans taking turns to serve as the governor.
In the late Northern Wei Dynasty, Erzhu Rong, the "Little Cao Cao of Northern Wei" held the shocking "swimming competition" in Heyin, drowned more than 3,000 "athletes" in one breath. How could Huang Chao compete with Erzhu Rong?
But even so, has the clan perished?
No, they still had power in the Sui and Tang Dynasties.
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The imperial examination system of the Sui and Tang dynasties was on the surface to select talents, but in fact the recommendation was greater than the achievements. Why is this?
It's not just to leave a back door for the family.
What truly and completely destroyed the soil of the aristocratic families is the development of scientific and technological productivity, the birth and popularization of curved plows and iron farm tools.
It is precisely because of these two things that farmers no longer have to rely on the resources of oxen, farm tools and other resources from family families. And the aristocratic families can no longer use these means of production to control the population.
Adult men can use curved plows to cultivate the land with their own strength alone, and their dependence on expensive means of production, such as plowing oxen. With iron farm tools, an adult man can rely on his own strength to support his wife and children as long as he has enough land.
Under this objective condition, the core of the aristocratic family, the manor system economy, began to collapse, and correspondingly, the small peasant economy began to rise strongly, and the aristocratic family lost the means to imprison the population, and under the blow at the national level, they were slowly dismembered into small families of self-cultivated farmers.
This kind of transformation that has completely eliminated households is the real mourner of the family.
Huang Chao is just a new generation of "Ran Min" supported by some extreme heroic historians.
False family clans = family-style group led by senior officials, prominent officials and famous scholars who occupy the court.
The real aristocratic clan = a family group that uses means of production as the core and confines thousands of people on land with their own docks as the core, in exchange for government compromise, gain political recognition and allocate political resources.
If you lose your land and population, can you still be called a clan?
Of course, there is only the result of complete extinction.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the great gentry and powerful people were still very ignorant. Like the warlords, they were not adapted to this chaotic era and did not understand how to survive and develop in this chaotic era. Most importantly, they have not tasted the sweetness of the manor economy, nor have they experienced the huge benefits of imprisoning a large population.
Liu Feng wanted to promote the Quyuan Plough and curb the gentry and powerful people and imprison the population. Even if he used force, the other party was no match.
The curved plow has been promoted in half of the Eastern Han Dynasty, but the popularity of iron farm tools is far from enough, and it is mainly due to raw materials.
Liu Feng has a solution, but he does not plan to take it out for the time being.
Because that method is gunpowder.
Gunpowder mining is an epoch-making development of minerals, but as a surprise weapon, Liu Feng does not want to be exposed so hastyly for the time being. Under the traditional manual excavation or simple tool mining methods, the mining efficiency is low, the amount of ore that can be excavated every day is limited, and the harsh excavation environment will also lead to the death of a large number of young and strong laborers.
Once once gunpowder is used to start ore, the huge energy generated by explosive explosion can instantly break up a large amount of ore, separating the originally difficult ore from the ore body. Theoretically, compared with the traditional method, it may increase the amount of ore mining in a single day several times or even dozens of times.
For example, in some smaller mines, if you can obtain several tons of ore by manual mining a day, you may be able to mine dozens of tons or even more a day after using gunpowder mining technology.
The most important thing is that the manpower required for gunpowder mining is much less than that of manual mining, and miners can also become a normal job for making a living, rather than a job for criminals or hard labor.
"Okay, very good."
Liu Feng said happily, with an excitement flashing in his eyes: "We must continue to promote it, so that every household can use the curved plow to cultivate. In this way, the demand for cattle and horses will also drop a lot."
**
When Xi Lu first met Liu Feng, although he had known the other party's age, he was still shocked by the other party's youth. For a moment, he was completely unable to associate the young man in front of him with the scheming and scheming princes in Cao Cao's words.
Liu Feng showed great enthusiasm. Meeting Xi Lu in the main hall of the county government of Zhengguo was enough to give the other party a face.
After both sides, Liu Feng asked, "I don't know what the angel is coming?"
Xi Lu's eyes flashed with surprise and replied respectfully, "The emperor heard that Jingyang and the two states had lost peace, so he felt very distressed when his troops faced each other. He ordered his subordinates to come on an envoy to mediate the misunderstandings of the two states, so that they would release the troops and return to peace."
(The end of this chapter)