Chapter 145 An unexpected incident
Just this morning, Qian Chun actually came over.
After this clever boy came to Jiangdu and found that the secret passage at the water gate was still there, he immediately planned to return north.
On the way, I heard that Liu Feng had led troops to attack Guangling, so he turned back to Guangling to find someone.
Finally, I met Liu Feng in Guangling City.
According to Qian Chun's report, the underwater tunnel still exists and is not well known. He ventured into it at night and found that the exit was still hidden and could accommodate dozens of people.
Liu Feng was overjoyed and rewarded Qian Chun generously as promised. At the same time, he also gave Qian Chun a level of merit.
Qian Chun was overjoyed and kowtowed in gratitude.
This trump card is Liu Feng’s trump card.
But Liu Feng is still thinking about how to use it. Anyway, Liu Bei and the main force of Xuzhou Army have not arrived yet, and there is still plenty of time.
In the days that followed, Liu Feng reorganized the city's defenses, sent out scouts to investigate the enemy's situation, repaired the destroyed east city gate, and took out property to compensate the people of Guangling County whose houses had been demolished.
Xuzhou Junqiu did not commit any crimes, Liu Ye handled the administration properly, and initially won the hearts and minds of the people in Guangling County, bringing peace and stability to the soldiers and people.
Liu Feng also sent people to Tieguanying to transport all the iron armor, iron armor blades and iron ingots stored in Tieguanying back to Guangling County, and also accompanied all the craftsmen.
For a while, only the iron-making craftsmen and hard laborers were left in the Tieguan camp. Their living conditions were also upgraded by Liu Feng. They were given an extra 10% of rations every day, and some medicines were specially allocated. Regulations were also set up so that the injured could rest in peace and return to work after recovery. During this period, food would be allocated by the government.
This series of actions, coupled with the strict implementation by the new officials, made everyone in Tieguan Ying inexplicably surprised, and their work efficiency improved a lot.
Everything was proceeding in an orderly manner, but Liu Feng did not expect that the biggest surprise would come from his father.
On this day, he was having a meeting with generals such as Zhao Yun, Taishi Ci, Xu Sheng, Pan Zhang, Zhou Tai and others.
It was discussed to draw elite warrior soldiers from the Zhao Yun, Taishi Ci, and Xu Sheng tribes to supplement and expand Rushan Camp to 300 people, and then draw elite soldiers from Guangling County to supplement the Xuzhou Army.
There are still three to four hundred people left intact in Guangling County at this time, but these people are relatively loyal and elite, and can be regarded as the core members of the Li family, otherwise they would not be able to persist to the end.
At the same time, Liu Feng also recruited two hundred light soldiers who were good at shooting in Guangling County and assigned them to Rushan Camp as auxiliary soldiers. They also served as archers and were well paid, with a monthly payment of one hundred and half millet. Stone, half a piece of linen.
Because of the fixed salary and the current hard currency of grain and linen, it actually caused quite a stir. In the end, the quality of the light soldiers selected far exceeded Liu Feng's expectations.
This further strengthened Liu Feng’s idea of a professional army in the future.
However, the steps should not be too large, otherwise not only will it be impossible to run, but the eggs will also be easily pulled.
Before a large-scale professional army, financial and food problems must be solved first.
Just when everything was going smoothly, a servant came to report that Liu Bei had sent someone.
Liu Feng was a little surprised. Counting the days, his father should have arrived in Gaoyou. How could he arrive at Guangling City in another seven or eight days.
At this time, someone was sent, but they didn’t know what was going on.
"Invite him in."
Liu Feng gave the order, and the messenger waiting at the door came in, took out a letter from his chest, and respectfully placed it in front of Liu Feng .
“Thank you for your hard work.”
Liu Feng nodded. His habits in his previous life made him reach the peak of being approachable and friendly in this life.
No matter who it is, after interacting with Liu Feng, they will lament that the young master is very open-minded, and his attitude towards everyone is like the spring breeze blowing on his face, and he is extremely amiable.
Na Chuanqi was obviously a little surprised and a little happy. It was obvious that Liu Feng's thank you was very useful to him.
Liu Feng opened the letter and read it carefully. The expression on his face remained unchanged, but there was a great fluctuation in his heart.
The letter contains two things. The first thing is to tell Liu Feng that the situation has changed.
Chen Yi, the Prime Minister of the State of Lu, sent a special envoy to ask for help, in preparation for Guo Gong's unprovoked attack on the State of Lu and his occupation of the northern part of the State of Pei.
Although Chen Yi was incompetent and unknown in history, at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, his reputation was quite high because his father was named Chen Fan.
Scholars all over the world regard Chen Fan as their role model, and they will naturally take it as an honor to make friends with Chen Yi.
Although Yuan Shao came from behind, it does not mean that Chen Yi is completely out of date.
This time Guo Gong raised his troops to attack the state of Lu, which simply gave Liu Bei a god-given opportunity to intervene in Yuzhou.
But the problem is that Liu Bei also faces another God-given opportunity to regain Guangling County and unify Xuzhou.
These two god-given opportunities were placed in front of Liu Bei at the same time, and Liu Bei could only choose one.
It is not impossible to have both, but the difficulty level is quite high, and it also requires taking a lot of risks, and there is even a high probability that you will be directly strangled to death.
The second thing is that Liu Bei was obviously tempted, so he specifically stopped in Gaoyou and stopped going south. At the same time, he sent a messenger to summon Liu Feng and Liu Ye for an interview.
After Liu Feng read it, he opened the map and started thinking about it.
From the fact that Liu Bei recruited him to go to Gaoyou, it can be seen that Liu Bei wanted to take it all, and the reason why he had such an idea was obviously because he was inspired to capture Guangling County.
In Liu Bei's view, with Guangling as a strong city to rely on, there are already 8,000 elites, one or two thousand servants, and several thousand more strong people in the city. The city is very rich in money, silk and food, so he can defend it no matter what. A year and a half.
And Liu Bei personally led the main force to march westward. Regardless of the quantity or quality of his troops, he overwhelmed Guo Gong. He could also easily cut off the connection between Guo Gong and Liang Guo, cutting off the other party's logistics. At most In just a few months, Guo Gong can be completely wiped out.
Then return the troops and go south to repel Yuan Shu, and you will have both the bear's paw and the fish.
However, in Liu Feng's view, Liu Bei was a little too arrogant, inflated, and thought too wonderfully.
"Uncle Zhao, teacher, Mr. Ziyang, I will leave Guangling City to you for the time being. My father called me and asked me to go to Gaoyou quickly."
Liu Feng felt that time was tight, and Guangling's work had been streamlined. Just follow the steps and there is nothing to worry about.
So, he simply explained a few words, confirmed the transfer of power, invited Liu Ye, and prepared to leave with Zhou Tai.
Pan Zhang also jumped out at this time to escort Liu Feng, but Liu Feng stayed behind.
Rushan Camp has just expanded. As a commander of another department, how could Pan Zhang leave at this time.
Pan Zhang was reprimanded by Liu Feng, but he did not dare to feel any resentment in his heart. He could only stay in Guangling and vent his pressure on the training soldiers.
Under the escort of Zhou Tai, Liu Feng and Liu Ye first took a small boat to Hangou, then changed to a larger boat and rushed towards Gaoyou.
On the way, Liu Feng took out the letter and gave it to Liu Ye to read.
Liu Ye was shocked when he saw it, and he closed his eyes and thought deeply.
After a long time, Liu Ye opened his eyes again, and the first thing he said was: "Young Master, Guo Gong cannot be arrested."
Liu Feng also nodded in agreement: "It is indeed impossible to arrest."
"Hey, what a pity."
Liu Ye shook his head and sighed: "If it weren't for our Xuzhou Army's strength, it would have been used to its maximum. , otherwise it would be a great opportunity.”
“It’s not such a good opportunity.”
Liu Feng said with a smile: “If we capture most of Yuzhou, let alone Yuan Shuhe. If Cao Cao is defeated, even Yuan Shao, Liu Yao, and Liu Biao will regard us as potential enemies.”
It is true that Yuzhou and Xuzhou are too powerful together.
Yuzhou is the number one state in the world, although its population is two to three hundred thousand less than that of Yizhou. However, Yuzhou is located in a plain and is connected in all directions, but its population density is several times that of Yizhou.
Although the Yellow Turban Rebellion and Dong Zhuo's Rebellion caused huge damage to Yuzhou in turn, the population of Yuzhou dropped sharply and was less than half of its peak period.
But even so, if such a large and fertile state is completely controlled by Liu Bei, it can have at least 300,000 to 400,000 households and maintain 30,000 to 50,000 professional troops.
The professional army here is based on the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and is not the professional army of the later Tang Dynasty.
This is no nonsense.
After the Battle of Guandu, it took Cao Cao seven years to capture Jizhou. When he found out that Jizhou could still win 300,000 people, he was so happy. What does this three hundred thousand people mean?
First of all, it is definitely not 300,000 soldiers. Even with the conscription model of the late Eastern Han Dynasty, which only provided food but no pay, it was impossible for a mere Yuzhou to support 300,000 soldiers. Soldier.
Secondly, it is definitely not just people. Here it means "get", not "have". There is still a difference between the two words.
Then the most likely thing is men. This means that after taking Jizhou, we got 300,000 men who could pay taxes and fight for Cao Cao.
According to the Han Dynasty ratio of almost twelve men having three daughters, 300,000 men would roughly equal a population of 1.2 million.
In this way, coupled with the hidden population of the powerful local nobles in Jizhou, there are still about two million people left.
Judging from the proportion, this answer has a certain theoretical basis.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Jizhou was the largest state in Hebei in terms of economy and population. It was governed in Gaoyi, Changshan State, but Yuan Shao was based in Yecheng.
Jizhou has a total of 9 counties and 100 counties, with a population of 910,000 households and 5.93 million people.
This data is the peak data before the turmoil in the late Han Dynasty.
Subsequently, Jizhou was the hardest hit area by the Yellow Turban Rebellion, followed by Zhang Yan's Rebellion, Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan's struggle for supremacy, and the Seven Years' War with Cao Cao starting from Guandu.
According to the intensity of these wars, it is quite reasonable to be able to retain one-quarter to one-third of the household registrations in the end.
It can be inferred from this data that Yuzhou, which was also the hardest hit area by the Yellow Turban Rebellion and experienced a major attack and sweep by the Xiliang Army, probably had a population of three to four million at this time.
This number will definitely eat Xuzhou to death, not to mention that Yuzhou itself still hides poison.
Runan County in Yuzhou is the foundation of the Yuan family, and Peiguo in Yuzhou is the foundation of the Cao family.
When Cao Cao, who was born in the state of Pei, fought Yuan Shao in the decisive battle at Guandu, there were various rebellions in Yuzhou behind his back. Not only was Cao Cao unable to get supplies of troops, food and weapons from Yuzhou, but he also had to waste his troops to suppress them.
What Cao Cao couldn't do even by holding the emperor hostage, Liu Feng didn't think that his family could completely win over the hearts of Yuzhou's people just by relying on the two Chen families, Chen Gui and Chen Ji.
Yuzhou is a typical tasteless thing. If it is friendly with Yuan Shao, then Yuzhou will be easier to stabilize, and there will indeed be a lot of manpower and material resources. But if so, is this the Yuzhou of the Liu family or the Yuzhou of the Yuan family?
After listening to Liu Feng's analysis, Liu Ye also expressed his agreement.
Indeed, in comparison, Yangzhou is more independent. Independence means it is easier to surrender. It is not dominated by local gentry, and the Yangzhou gentry will naturally be inferior to the Central Plains gentry. One end.
"If this is the case, then not only will Ming Gong not be able to attack Guo Gong, it would be best if he can win over me as an alliance."
Liu Ye thought for a while and came up with a new idea: "If Guo Gong can be called an ally, he is actually a vassal. After all, he is the governor of Yuzhou who was expelled by the imperial court, and he can justifiably inspect the counties."
Liu Feng somewhat agreed with this opinion, but Not much interest.
After all, he knew that at the beginning of next year, Cao Cao would welcome Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty. By then, it was not a matter of Cao Cao's word whether Guo Gong, the governor of Yuzhou, could be retained by coercing the emperor to order the princes.
But having said that, if this ally and vassal comes easily, it is naturally better than nothing.
The water route is much faster than the land route, but it took only two days to reach Gaoyou.
Liu Bei has been waiting for Liu Feng and Liu Ye in Gaoyou City for a long time. He will summon them as soon as they arrive.
"Feng'er, Ziyang, I would like to take Zilong as the commander-in-chief, Ziyi as the assistant, Xu Sheng, Pan Zhang, and Zhou Tai as generals, and stick to Guangling for three months to half a year. What do you think?" ”
As soon as they met, Liu Bei couldn't wait to tell him the plan he had been sketching in his heart for several days.
"I personally asked the army to go west, cut off Guo Gong's retreat at the Weishan Lake, and encircle and annihilate him in the territory of Lu."
Liu Bei showed a proud look: "As a father, I expected that at most In one and a half months, we can save the state of Lu and return to the south. It won’t take more than three months.”
“Father, I’m afraid things won’t be that simple.”
Liu. Feng did not accept this trick at all, and pointed out pointedly: "If it is true that my father's plan is true, Guo Gong's main force will be lost, and Liang's city defense will be useless. Should my father take it or not? If he doesn't take it, it will be given to Cao Cao or Lu Bu for nothing."< br>
Then, Liu Feng said: "Chen Yi of the State of Lu asked for help. Should my father recruit troops? Should he go in or not? The State of Lu is located in a strategic pass and is connected in all directions. If you advance, you can threaten Yanzhou's confidants, but if you retreat, you will cover Haidong. If you don't enter, you will definitely do it next time. There will never be such a good opportunity again."
"If Liang and Lu are both occupied, then Pei is an important transportation area, connecting Liang and Lu, with rich real estate and a prosperous population. To occupy or not to occupy? If not, Governor Chen’s father still has the title of Prime Minister Pei. If he comes to ask for help, will you really refuse?”
“In this case, my father’s subordinates Even if there are 20,000 soldiers, they may not be enough to prepare for the newly occupied territory, so why go south to repel Yuan Shu? "
Liu Feng's words were deafening and thought-provoking.
Liu Bei followed Liu Feng's train of thought and found that his thought was indeed too simple.
This is simply a chain plan, one link after another, making people get deeper into it without even realizing it.
As Liu Feng said, once Guo Gong's main force was eaten, Liang State would only have three or four thousand old and weak soldiers left, and the defense would be ineffective. He could really resist this temptation and watch Liang State be defeated by Cao Cao. , Lu Bu occupied it, and he led his troops south to rescue Guangling?
Liu Bei pondered for a moment, "Then according to Feng'er's opinion, our army should continue to go south and completely recapture Guangling first?"
"That's not what Feng'er suggested."
Liu Feng had already considered everything on the way here, and now he said according to the script: "The State of Lu must be saved, but Guo Gong cannot be destroyed."
"The State of Lu must be saved, but Guo Gong cannot be destroyed?"
Liu Bei chewed on Liu Feng's words and felt a little enlightened.
Liu Feng sighed: "If I have three to five years of savings in Xuzhou, I am willing to guard Guangling for my father for one year, so that my father can swallow up the three counties of Yuzhou. But now, although the state capital has some money and food, it can If we want to expand the army, it will be a drop in the bucket."
What Liu Feng said is actually a better solution in theory.
Let him guard Guangling and resist Yuan Shu. With the strength of Guangling and the accumulated food, it is not a problem to hold on for a year and a half.
In this year, Liu Bei can first destroy Guo Gong, and then take over the three kingdoms of Lu, Peiliang, and at the same time, Xuzhou can expand its army on a large scale and recruit another 20,000 to 30,000 people. In this way, the territory will be expanded and the army will be increased. , finances have also increased, forming a benign closed loop.
Furthermore, the target is also a county where the Yuan family has relatively little influence. As long as they take it and take a good rest for three to five years, whether they go south to sweep Yangzhou or go north to fight against Cao Yuan, they will have enough power. capital.
Although the risks are high and the one-year half-empty period is difficult to endure, there is finally a chance to get through it.
But the current savings are not enough to expand the army on a large scale. Even if we use the money and food to the extreme, we can only expand the army by 5,000 to 10,000 people at most. The difference is too big. Not only will we not become fat, but we will There is a risk of being strangled to death.
That's why Liu Feng came in a hurry to dissuade Liu Bei. He was worried that once Liu Bei became jealous and couldn't stop, even Xuzhou's foundation might be shaken by then.
"Exactly!"
Liu Ye also agreed: "Ming Gong can copy Guo Gong's retreat, but in the end he has to let him go so that he can return to Liang safely with his troops. . In this way, the Liang Kingdom will not fall into the hands of Cao Yanzhou and General Lu, and will buy time for me to obtain Lu Pei in the future."
At this point, Liu Ye paused and took a look. After Liu Feng, he continued: "It would be great if we can get him to be friendly with Xuzhou. Even if he can't, we must let him continue to maintain the strength to face Cao Cao."
After listening to Liu Ye's suggestion , Liu Bei sighed, feeling that it was reasonable, and he could only accept the reality.
“In view of Nail and others, what should our army do next?”
Liu Bei already had an idea in mind, but he still wanted to hear the opinions of his son and Liu Ye.
"My father asked Uncle Tian to garrison Gaoyou, and then lead the main force back to the west to march westward. My son will guard Guangling for his father. Within three months, even if Yuan Shu attacks with all his strength, the city can be preserved."
Gaoyou is an extremely critical node. If Yuan Shu's army has sufficient troops, it can surround Guangling while going upstream to attack Gaoyou.
Once Gaoyou is captured, Guangling will be completely cut off from Xuzhou. Not only will it be surrounded, but it will also be left alone. The impact on morale and people's hearts will be unimaginable.
And even if the Xuzhou Army wanted to rush to Guangling after returning from the Western Front, they would have to attack Gaoyou first. After capturing Gaoyou, they could continue south to Guangling.
Therefore, troops must be stationed in Gaoyou, and heavy troops must be stationed.
If Tian Yu can continue to stay in Gaoyou, then Liu Feng will be able to sit back and relax in Guangling.
Liu Bei did not hesitate and nodded directly in agreement.
Finally it was agreed upon that Liu Bei led 12,000 elite troops from the Guards Camp, Zhang Fei Camp, and Zang Ba Camp to the west to rescue the Lu State, while Tian Yu stayed behind in Gaoyou and Ping'an Counties.
Guan Yu is still active in Dongcheng, restraining Yuan Shu's troops Shouchun and Li Yang.
In order to join the army, Liu Ye directly followed Liu Bei in the Western Expedition. The county affairs of Guangling County finally fell to Liu Feng.
(End of this chapter)