Chapter 174 Father and Son Transaction
Chen Deng was so disdainful of Chen Yu, and he was convinced that Chen Yu could not even manage by doing nothing when he went to Guangling, and would only hinder his plan to go south to Jiangdong. Naturally, Firmly express opposition.
"Father, you are too indulgent towards Cong's father. You are the head of the family now, not Cong's father."
Chen Gui is seven or eight years older than Chen Yu, and has outstanding talents. Chen Qiu almost treated him like his own son. He promoted filial piety and integrity, and promoted talents. From the county magistrate to the center, he released two thousand stones.
This is almost the most beautiful resume of a nobleman.
Moreover, Chen Qiu was imprisoned and executed. Although the Chen family is directly descended from Chen Yu, how could it be possible for Chen Yu to take over the family at this time.
Therefore, after Chen Qiu's death, the head of the Chen family was Chen Gui, but Chen Yu's lineage was still the direct lineage and controlled most of the family's resources.
And because of gratitude and debt, Chen Gui has always been very indulgent towards Chen Yu, letting Chen Yu do all kinds of things.
Historically, the Chen family later took advantage of Chen Deng's appointment as the prefect of Guangling and set aside half of Guangling County for Chen Yu, allowing him to recruit troops and food to counterattack Wu County.
The imagination is beautiful, but the result is very skinny.
Chen Yu was unexpectedly landed by sea by Lu Fan and others sent by Sun Ce. They defeated him in a battle and directly killed Chen Yu's general Chen Mu. At the same time, they also kidnapped the Chen family and thousands of local women and children and returned to Jiangdong.
Chen Yu escaped by luck and disappeared from history.
“My son, don’t be anxious.”
Chen Gui’s temper is completely different from Chen Deng. He was not unhappy at all when his son accused him like this. Instead, he explained with a smile: “You never My father didn’t know about this, but he was just happy to see him and wanted to pave the way for him.”
“But this matter is indeed my father’s fault. Ming Gong’s journey south to Jiangdong is indeed extremely important. There must be a comprehensive plan. It is wrong to make a deal rashly.”
Listening to Chen Gui taking all the responsibilities on himself, Chen Deng knew that there was a lie in it, but he had no choice but to let it go.
Early the next morning, Liu Bei sent someone to invite Liu Feng over.
Liu Feng saw the shy look on Liu Bei's face, and his heart suddenly skipped a beat.
Seeing that Liu Bei was a little embarrassed to speak, Liu Feng could only take the initiative to ask: "Father, what do you want to see me for?"
Liu Bei coughed twice and slowly told what happened yesterday. Den's strategy and his plan to expand the army to four thousand were revealed.
When Liu Feng heard this, he immediately understood.
Liu Bei must be loyal and has directly agreed to Chen Deng's request.
Today I want to discuss with myself how to make up for the four thousand holes.
"My son has always been resourceful. Do you think there is any way to make up for the four thousand shortfalls?"
Liu Bei looked at Liu Feng eagerly, hoping that Liu Feng could come up with a solution that would best both worlds. Find a way.
Liu Feng smiled bitterly in his heart. If these four thousand soldiers and horses did not consider wearing armor, they would cost at least 12 million yuan, and the rations would cost hundreds of thousands of dan. How could they easily make up for it.
If you consider wearing armor, it would be even more terrifying.
In the Han Dynasty, a set of leather armor was worth 2,000 yen, and a set of iron armor was worth 7,000 to 8,000 yen.
How much armor coverage you plan to match, you need to calculate extra armor money.
But the problem is that Xuzhou has no money.
The reason why Liu Bei and his son have delayed discussing the expansion of the army until now is actually because they are waiting for this year's money and grain to arrive in the warehouse.
Starting in July and August, counties began to collect various taxes.
The total revenue Xuzhou paid to the state government in previous years was 500-600 million yuan. After deducting various expenses of the state government, there were still 200-300 million yuan left.
Xuzhou has suffered great losses at the moment. Not only has it shrunk into four counties, but Donghai, Xiapi and Langya have all been damaged to varying degrees.
Based on Liu Feng’s estimate, it would be pretty good if Xuzhou could hand over 300 to 400 million yuan to the state government this year.
After all, the current population is only more than 60% of its peak. If you discount taxes, it is almost exactly this number.
But fortunately, Rencheng, Pei State and Lu State will also pay a tax.
Especially Lu and Pei, that is a lot of money.
Take the State of Lu as an example. Although it only has six counties, its population is as large as Guangling County. Taxation with head tax as the main source means that the property Lu can turn over is likely to be similar to that of Guangling.
The population of Pei State is more than 1.2 million, and it has not experienced too many wars. There are still 8.9 million people today.
Even if Chen Gui only has six counties in the northern fan area of Pei State, he can still get almost half of the tax revenue of Lu State.
If there are counties in other parts of Pei State that are willing to send taxes to Xiang County, then Chen Gui will be able to receive more money.
This is not impossible, although most of the counties in the southern sector turned to Yuan Shu and sent grain and grass taxes to Yuan Shu. But it’s hard to say for the counties in the west, mainly Qiao County.
If they send part of the tax to Xiang County, it will be equivalent to Liu Bei making money.
These taxes combined are enough to make up for Xuzhou's losses.
But before the tax arrives, no one knows how Qiao County will react.
Therefore, Liu Bei made an optimistic estimate and felt that he might receive more than 300 million yuan in taxes this time, and with luck he could exceed 350 million yuan.
The reason why it is 100 million less than at its peak is because Liu Bei is not as aggressive as Tao Qian, so the tax will naturally be reduced by several percent.
What Liu Bei can really use is the surplus money of about 150 million yuan left after deducting various expenditures of the state government from these taxes.
Theoretically, this money should be turned over to the central court, but no state pastor is stupid enough to do this now.
But Liu Bei's army expansion this time was quite large, with 10,000 people in Guangling, 7,000 people in Lu, Pei, and Rencheng, and 12,000 people in Tancheng, a total of 29,000 people.
Based on the minimum configuration, light troops alone require nearly 90 million yuan.
Light soldiers naturally means unarmored soldiers, which are soldiers without leather armor.
If the light soldiers are armed at a 50% armor rate, Xuzhou will have to prepare 15,000 sets of leather armor for these people, which will cost at least 30 million yuan.
As a result, Liu Bei only had 30 million yuan left in his hand, and he instantly became a pauper again.
Even most of the balance must be used to continue investing in farming. Even if there is any leftover, it must be reserved as reserve funds and cannot be squandered at will.
Now that Chen Deng’s request for a quota of four thousand suddenly appears, Xuzhou’s finances are actually not helpless.
First of all, four thousand light soldiers only cost 12 million. If the armor rate is 50%, only 4 million more armor money is needed.
As a result, the total is only sixteen million, which is just half of the surplus.
As for food, Liu Bei can still afford it here.
However, in this way, the grain reserves in Liu Bei's hands can only be used for one defensive battle at most, and it is very likely that he will not be able to support Guangling's move south to Jiangdong.
From this perspective, although Xuzhou can barely support Chen Deng's expansion of the army, the cost is a bit serious and will seriously weaken the mobility and adaptability of Tancheng's main force.
But the reason given by Chen Deng is indeed very reasonable.
Others don’t know, doesn’t Liu Feng still know? In a month or two at most, Lu Bu will come to Xuzhou.
That is to say, there are only one or two months left in Yanzhou's window period. If you miss it, it will be much more difficult to win Fei and Hua counties than it is now, and it is also likely to anger Cao Cao.
Liu Feng frowned and replied: "If Governor Chen can afford the rations..."
Liu Bei said awkwardly: "You also know that all the food stored in Langya was transported to Tancheng for us to go south to Guangling. Langya doesn't have any extra food at the moment, so it can only rely on Tancheng to allocate it."
As soon as Liu Bei said this, Liu Feng naturally understood what his father meant, so he tried it: "What's father's? "What do you mean?"
Liu Bei hesitated for a moment, and finally decided to be honest with his son: "My father means that Feng'er will temporarily reduce the number of people by 4,000. Are you willing to accept it?"
Liu Fengxin shouted as expected.
No wonder Liu Bei thinks so. After all, Liu Yao has come to ask for help. Guangling only needs to release 4,000 to 6,000 people, and the remaining 10,000 people will cross the river. Cooperate with Liu Yao's tens of thousands, not to mention completely annihilating the Sun family. At least it's easy to fight against each other.
Then Guangling has no urgency to expand its army, at least not as much as Langya.
To be honest, Liu Bei's request was not excessive, and his judgment was indeed correct. Judging from the current situation, as long as Liu Yao can stabilize Danyang, the situation will be stable, and Guangling does not even need reinforcements.
In this case, it would be most beneficial to Xuzhou if Guangling sacrificed a little. Looking at his father's attentive eyes, Liu Feng sighed helplessly: "Father has a destiny, and children must obey it."
"Okay! Okay! Great!"
Liu Bei clapped his hands happily, but he obviously knew that he had wronged Liu Feng, so he added: "Feng'er doesn't need to be embarrassed, how can he treat him badly as a father?" This time my father returned from Pei State. Not only did he take over the government affairs of the six counties in the northern region of Pei State, but he also emptied the iron guan camp outside Pei County. In addition to the iron armor detained by Guo Gong, a total of There are as many as seven hundred sets."
After Liu Bei surrounded and annihilated Guo Gong, the two sides quickly reached an agreement. The Yuzhou Army captured by the Xuzhou Army naturally became allies. Liu Bei gave an order to let them all go.
And since Liu Bei had decided to become an ally with Guo Gong, it was naturally difficult to keep prisoners and equipment, so he returned all the ordnance except the armor to Guo Gong.
The reason why the iron armor is not returned is because it is too precious. If you have money, there is often no place to buy it.
Guo Gong could accept this. After all, he had returned a large number of weapons and armor, and even his leather armor had been returned. What else could he be dissatisfied with?
Although more than three hundred sets of armor are indeed quite valuable, they are nothing compared to maintaining one's status.
Subsequently, Liu Bei passed by Peiguo on his way back and packed up the Tieguan Camp outside Peiguopei County. Not only did he pack more than 400 sets of finished iron armor and armor leaves, but also the craftsmen. After bringing it back, only the iron official slave was left untouched and continued to dig iron ore.
This time, Liu Bei obtained more than 700 sets of armor, which can be said to have made a fortune.
This is actually equivalent to wiping out all the savings of Liang and Pei.
"I will give you a token later, and you can choose two hundred sets to take away."
Liu Bei frowned as he spoke, obviously distressed.
Unexpectedly, Liu Feng was still not satisfied and counter-offered: "Four hundred sets."
Liu Bei immediately became furious, I am so kind to compensate you, but you actually Talk to me, the lion.
So, he angrily said: "Just two hundred sets, do you want it if you want it?"
Unexpectedly, Liu Feng didn't buy it and argued: "Father, our Guangling gave up 4,000 troops. It is reasonable and reasonable for you to give me 400 sets of armor as compensation."
Liu Bei was very angry. However, there was really no way to deal with Liu Feng, so he had to compromise in the end.
"Only four hundred sets, one more set is not enough."
Liu Feng was overjoyed and bowed to Liu Bei: "Thank you, father!"
Liu Bei hummed twice. The sound was heard, and the matter was approved.
Seeing the displeasure and pain on Liu Bei's face, Liu Feng remembered something and said to Liu Bei: "Father, I have a good deed I want to report to you."
"Oh?"
Liu Bei was stunned when he heard this and became a little interested: "What good thing can my son do?"
Liu Feng stepped forward and said: "Yesterday, I had a chat with Mr. Xun and reached Yangcheng, Yingchuan The battle reminds me of a certain person.”
“The Battle of Yangcheng?”
Liu Bei obviously didn't even know what the Battle of Yangcheng was, so he couldn't guess who Liu Feng was thinking of.
Liu Feng hurriedly explained: "In the past, Sun Ce's father Sun Wentai went north from Changsha in the south of Jingnan, killing two people with two thousand stones along the way, and captured Nanyang County and gave it to Yuan Shu. After that, Yuan Shu recommended Sun Jian as the governor of Yuzhou , allowing him to take control of Yuzhou. "
The reason why Yuan Shu's commendation was so effective was largely because Runan, the largest state in Yuzhou, was the Yuan family's private land.
Yuzhou had a population of more than six million at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and one county in Runan had 2.1 million people, accounting for one-third of Yuzhou.
Even with the support of only one county in Runan, Sun Jian, the governor of Yuzhou, is considered secure, not to mention that the Prime Minister of Pei State, Yuan Zhong, is a relative of Yuan Shu.
Therefore, Sun Jian quickly stabilized the situation in Yuzhou, then garrisoned Yangcheng in Yingchuan, and used it as a base to attack Dong Zhuo's army in Luoyang.
Precisely because Sun Jian's performance was so outstanding, he almost single-handedly drove Dong Zhuo out of Luoyang and regained Henan Yin.
As a result, Yuan Shao, who was excited by Sun Jian's achievements, could not stay in Hebei any longer. He immediately declared that Zhou Zhe, one of the three Zhou brothers in Kuaiji, was the governor of Yuzhou and attacked Sun Jian's base camp Yangcheng. A fierce battle.
This battle is not well-known, but it actually led to many subsequent events.
First of all, Gongsun Zan's closest brother Gongsun Yue assisted Yuan Shu's army in this battle, but he was accidentally hit and died.
Therefore, Gongsun Zan hated Yuan Shao deeply. Even if Yuan Shao gave Gongsun Zan the position of governor of Bohai because of this, it could not prevent Gongsun Zan from turning against Yuan Shao, and he refused to reconcile with Yuan Shao until his death.
Secondly, the Zhou brothers also formed a deep hatred with the Sun family, and finally destroyed the family for Sun Ce.
There are three Zhou brothers. The third brother Zhou Zao was elected as the governor of Yuzhou by Yuan Shao. After the defeat in Yangcheng, he resisted Yuan Shu in Yangzhou Jiujiang. In the end, he was defeated. On the way home, he let the prefect of Kuaiji Xu Gong was killed.
But this time Zhou Xin, Zhou Xin's eldest brother, is still alive and is now in his hometown of Kuaiji County. What's more, Zhou Xin turns out to be Chen Fan's disciple.
The Zhou family is also a famous family, ranking among the best in Kuaiji County, with two to three thousand people in its tribe alone.
Although he suffered heavy losses in Yangcheng, Yuzhou and Jiujiang, Yangzhou, his status and influence in his hometown and township party are still very high, and he can be said to respond to a hundred calls.
To put it bluntly, if something happens in Kuaiji County, the support of the Zhou family will be an indispensable and important help for Wang Lang.
Zhou Xin traveled to the capital when he was young, met Chen Fan in Luoyang, and later became his teacher. Later, he served as the governor of Danyang and became a thorn in Yuan Shu's side.
His two brothers were holding on to Yin Ling, and it was not until the Sun family army appeared that they were driven across the river.
Zhou Xin stayed in Danyang until Sun Bi issued a notice that the people of Jiujiang in Yangzhou could only choose between Zhou Xin and Yuan Shu. Anyone who dared to choose Zhou Xin would be executed directly.
After learning about this, Zhou Xin said: "Although I am not moral, what are the sins of the people?"
So he disbanded the army, abandoned Danyang City, successfully returned to Kuaiji County, and lived in seclusion at home.
After listening to Liu Feng’s explanation, Liu Bei suddenly realized.
"Feng'er, what do you mean, let Chen Yi edit the book for Zhou Xin?"
Liu Feng nodded: "Yes, that's what I mean. Chen Yi is Chen Fan's son , even if Zhou Xin did not know him, Zhou Xin would definitely give way to him. The Zhou family and the Sun family had an old grudge, and it was deeply rooted in Kuaiji County. If they could contact Zhou Xin in the name of Chen Yi, they could join forces to attack Sun Ce from the north and the south. , it will be of great benefit to us going south to Jiangdong.”
"Oh?"
Liu Bei became interested: "Is this possible?"
Liu Feng almost guaranteed: "It must be feasible."
In history, Sun Ce After capturing Wu Commandery, Zhou Xin responded to Wang Lang's request and recruited rural troops to help Wang Lang resist Sun Ce.
Zhou Xin used the advantages of rivers and ships to successfully block Sun Ce for several months and still had a small upper hand.
Just when Sun Ce was at his wits' end, Sun Jing happened to give him a plan.
Sun Jingnai is Sun Jian's younger brother and Sun Ce's direct uncle. He has been in Wu County for many years and has an extremely good understanding of the terrain near the battlefield. He directly offered a plan to let Sun Ce take a small road to attack the back of Wang Lang's army, kill Zhou Xin and defeat Wang Lang. .
Without Chen Yi's letter, Wang Lang could have invited Zhou Xin to fight against Sun Ce.
Liu Feng is now writing a book to Zhou Xin to let the other party make plans in advance. Then the accumulated strength will obviously be greater and he can stop Sun Ce for a longer time.
The only thing to worry about is that Zhou Xin's younger brother Zhou Xin died in the hands of Xu Gong, and there was a hatred between the two parties for killing his brother.
However, Zhou Xin did not cause trouble with Xu Gong in history. Although the two sides failed to work together to deal with Sun Ce, there was no internal strife.
As long as Wang Lang and Zhou Xin can garrison in Guling in time, and remind them to pay attention to the defense of Chadu Road and protect the rear granary and move to Gaotun, Sun Ce can be blocked in Wuzhong.
As a result, Sun Ce would only occupy most of Wu County at most, making it difficult to expand, and he would immediately be surrounded by enemies on all sides. There is Wang Lang in the south, Liu Yao in the west, Guangling in the north, and inside Wu County, there are bandits such as Yan Baihu.
Even if Sun Ce had three heads and six arms, he might not be able to do anything.
At that time, the initiative will be in Liu Feng's hands. He can freely choose the right time to cross the river without worrying that Liu Yao will not be able to hold on.
After Liu Bei heard this, he thought carefully and found that it was indeed what Liu Feng said.
If Zhou Xin could help Wang Lang block Sun Ce from going south, then even if he occupied most of Wu County, he would be just a caged bird.
"Don't worry, my son. My father immediately sent someone to the State of Lu to ask Prime Minister Lu to write a letter to Zhou Xin, asking him to come out to assist Liu Yao."
(End of Chapter)