Chapter 194 The Dispute in Jingzhou
Among them, Du Ji is from Sili, and he can be said to be at the foot of the emperor, but his current situation is as miserable as Yingchuan, and he has to run south. Historically, this man also went to Jingzhou After living there for several years, he returned to Henan in Jian'an.
In the end, it was because of his friendship with Geng Ji, a die-hard loyalist of the Han family, that his talents were discovered by Xun Yu, the martyr of the Han family. Finally, he forced Geng Ji to recommend him to the Han thief Cao Cao, and finally became He became a loyal minister of Cao Wei.
Of course, he also has a grandson who was unknown before but is now famous - Du Yu.
This man is truly the first and the only all-rounder to enter the Wen Mo Temple before the Ming Dynasty.
This is not to say that he overpowered Marquis Wu. After all, the Confucian Temple itself is not, as many people understand, the literati version of the Wu Temple. The Confucian Temple itself is actually the private domain of Confucianism, and its scope is limited to Confucian scholars. This is simply because China has equated Confucianism and literature since Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty deposed hundreds of schools of thought and only respected Confucianism.
So Zhuge Liang could not enter the Confucian Temple before the Ming Dynasty. It was not that Zhuge Liang was not good enough, it was just that Zhuge Liang was too strong, and he was so strong that he was pursuing higher-level dreams.
But even so, Du Yu's all-round ability cannot be underestimated.
Liu Feng is also looking forward to Chen Ji's arrival.
Because he and Liu Bei had already discussed it, and Chen Ji would be asked to be the governor of Guangling. At the same time, the counties in the north would be divided from Guangling County into a Haixi County, with Zhuge Xuan as the governor.
Liu Bei has also disclosed this idea to Liu Xian through private channels. I believe Liu Xian will definitely pass the news back to Jingzhou and inform Liu Biao.
Based on the discussion between Liu Bei and his son, Liu Biao will most likely think that this is a well-intentioned flattery, expressing Xuzhou's friendliness towards Jingzhou. Coupled with Xuzhou's background of purchasing food with salt, it can greatly increase the possibility of cooperation. .
Liu Bei and his son discussed diligently cultivating their internal strength and continuing to lay a solid foundation.
Jingzhou is also discussing the Xuzhou deal.
When Kuai Yue and Kuai Liang arrived, Cai Mao, Liu Pan, Zhang Yun, Liu He, and Deng Yi were all already present.
Cai Mao, also known as Degui, was Liu Biao's brother-in-law and the governor of Nanjun. Xiangyang, where Liu Biao was stationed, was the seat of Nanjun, which shows Cai Mao's strength and status.
Liu Pan is Liu Biao's nephew. He is extremely brave and a representative of Liu Biao's direct lineage.
Zhang Yunze is Liu Biao's nephew. He is in charge of some of the naval forces in Liu Biao's direct lineage. Together with Liu Pan, he forms the backbone of the Liu family's direct lineage.
Liu He, whose courtesy name was Kaiyang, was a native of Nanyang County, Jingzhou. He was now Liu Biao's assistant. He was the one who instigated Gan Ning and others to rebel against Liu Zhang.
Deng Yi, whose courtesy name is Zixiao, is from Zhangling County, Jingzhou. He is currently in charge of Liu Biao. He is resourceful and good at analyzing situations.
Zhangling County was originally Nanyang County. It was divided from Nanyang County at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty and occupied by Yuan Shu. Later Liu Biao defeated the opponent and occupied it.
Coupled with Kuai Yue and Kuai Liang, all the top leaders of the entire Jingzhou Center, except Huang Zu, were present.
"Yidu and Zirou are here, please hurry up and take a seat."
Liu Biao was meditating at first, but when he heard the noise, he looked up and saw Kuai Yue and Kuai Liang, he smiled and invited them People take their seats.
After Kuai Yue and Kuai Liang thanked Liu Biao, they took their seats and the meeting officially began.
"Everyone, Liu Shizong has compiled a letter and returned it to me. The things described in it are very important and I have to ask you to discuss it together."
As Liu Biao spoke, he took out Liu Xian's letter and Let the attendant deliver it to Kuai Yue.
The others who arrived first have already read the letters. Only Kuai Yue and Kuai Liang have just arrived and have not had time to read them.
Kuai Yue and Kuai Liang quickly read the letter.
Liu Xian mainly talked about three points in his letter.
First, the situation in Jiangdong is dangerous, and Liu Yao is in danger of overthrowing.
Second, Xuzhou is very interested in the clan alliance, but on the issue of aid, there is a lack of food.
Third, Xuzhou is willing to exchange salt for grain from Jingzhou.
After reading it, Kuai Yue fell into deep thought.
Kuai Yue not only had to think about issues from the perspective of Jingzhou, but also from the perspective of the alliance between Kuai and Cai, and even more from the perspective of the Kuai family.
Liu Biao was very patient and did not rush, but waited quietly.
After a cup of tea, Kuai Yue, who had finished reading the letter, stood up and raised his hands and asked: "I wonder what your views are on this, Duke Ming?"
Liu Pan was the first to stand up and said. : "Uncle, Pan thinks that food cannot be exchanged."
"Oh?"
Liu Biao nodded and encouraged: "If Pan'er has any ideas, you can try it."
"Uncle, food is the source of military courage."
Liu Pan began to explain: "Our state is located above Yangzhou. If you want to cut Yangzhou, you can go down the river, which is very convenient. Previously, Pan was worried about Xuzhou. The army recaptured Guangling and drank the Yangtze River. Will Yuan Shu and Liu Yao take the opportunity to cross the river while they are fighting for Jiangdong? If the Xuzhou army is unable to move due to lack of food, isn't it God's help to Jingzhou at this time? Isn't it just cutting meat? To feed the hungry tiger? If we wait for him to regain his strength, I, Jingzhou, will have to think about how to protect ourselves first, not to mention going to Jiangdong."
As Liu Biao's nephew, Liu Pan is also the leader. An important general in the army directly under Liu Biao, his words were obviously very important, and he might even have been instructed by Liu Biao.
Therefore, when Liu Pan spoke, almost everyone's eyes fell on Liu Biao, but no one looked at Liu Pan himself.
After listening to Liu Pan’s words, Liu Biao nodded.
Liu Pan's intention was obvious. He wanted to raise an army to go south, and take advantage of Xuzhou's lack of food and its inability to cross the river to seize Jiangdong first.
After listening to Liu Pan's words, Kuai Liang stood up and saluted Liu Biao, and then said: "What General Pan said is too hasty."
Liu Pan and Zhang Yun both Liu Biao presented him as Zhonglang General, so Kuai Liang called him a general.
"Ming Gong, General Pan's strategy of going south to Jiangdong is entirely based on the lack of food in Xuzhou and the lack of troops in Jiangdong."
Kuai Liang shook his head with a smile: "This is a big mistake. .”
"Xuzhou is one of the nine states in the world. Although it suffered repeated military disasters and suffered huge losses, its Guangling County was not affected. This autumn's harvest is coming, and there is no news that Guangling will have no harvest. It can be seen that the lack of food Liu Xuzhou said is because of the shortage of food. "Liu Zhengli rode down to Jiangdong alone. Within a few months, he got the support of the heroic people of Jiangdong and drove Yuan Shu across the Yangtze River in one fell swoop. This shows that the people of Jiangdong are popular." In Liu. Sun Bofu succeeded his father Lie, and succeeded in attacking Dantu, but he still failed to capture Wuxian."
Kui Liang turned to Liu Pan at this time, as if asking: "Shizong. The letter stated that Liu Zhengli still has 20,000 elite troops, with enough food, fodder and weapons to support him for a year, and he has Danyang North to stand on. If our army goes south along the river, who will we attack first? "
"This..."
Liu Pan was confused when Kuai Liang asked him, who should he hit first?
They certainly couldn't attack Liu Yao first, but Liu Yao blocked the way to attack Sun Ce.
If you want to attack Sun Ce first, you must agree with Liu Zhengli.
But now Liu Zhengli made it clear that he would rather invite the Xuzhou army to cross the river than go down the river from the Jingzhou army.
How to persuade Liu Zhengli is also a big problem.
Kuai Liang continued: "Ming Gong, the salt supply in our state is decreasing day by day. The price of salt in Xiangyang has increased by 21 yuan per liter. If this continues, the people may be unstable."< br>
One stone is worth ten buckets, one bucket is worth ten liters.
Twenty-five qian per liter is equivalent to 2,100 qian per liter of salt.
This price is only for coarse salt, it is indeed quite expensive.
Kuai Liang was a powerful local nobleman in Xiangyang and had a large number of local industries. However, the salt was not in the hands of the Kuai family, but was taken back to the state by Liu Biao.
Throughout the Han Dynasty, Jingzhou’s salt sources mainly came from the Jianghuai region, especially Xuzhou.
The output of brine salt from Sichuan salt and Guanzhong is small, and can often be digested locally, and the excess output will be sold to Jingzhou.
Now the two sides have banned salt in Jingzhou at the same time. Liu Zhang even secretly sent people to secretly buy a large amount of salt in Jingzhou and transport it back to central Sichuan. This was really a return to Liu Biao.
Nowadays, the price of salt is skyrocketing, and the nobles, powerful and common people are dissatisfied.
Even if the Kuai Liang family wants to eat salt, they have to buy salt at a price of two thousand one hundred and five baht per stone.
At the same time, Jingzhou has had good harvests of grain year after year, and the granaries of powerful noble families like the Kuai Liang family have been filled with grain, making the price of grain in Jingzhou very cheap.
Logically speaking, Jingzhou had a bumper harvest and food prices were very cheap. Corn even dropped to the price of one hundred and fifty qian per stone.
The price of grain in Yanzhou, where Cao Cao is located, has skyrocketed. Even now, a stone of corn can easily be sold for thousands of dollars a stone.
But why can’t Jingzhou transport grain to Yanzhou to sell?
Because the world is in chaos.
Most of the hoardings must have a major premise, that is, a place where the dynasty will return to the town.
Once the dynasty collapses, if you still want to hoard it, it is just like seeking death.
And in such a chaotic situation in Yanzhou, if a grain merchant wants to transport grain to Yanzhou for sale, how many armed forces must he hire to protect himself along the way?
These people all need to eat food. Therefore, these grains often can only rot in warehouses, and there is no way to sell them to places where grain is needed.
But now, Xuzhou has given Jingzhou such an opportunity.
Xuzhou was willing to exchange salt for grain.
What’s even better is that Xuzhou and Yangzhou are connected by a large river, so transportation costs and risk costs are almost minimized.
Although Yuan Shu is still entrenched in Huaibei, his geographical location is trapped between Liu Biao and Liu Bei. He is now trying every means to negotiate a peace with Liu Biao, how can he still dare to attack Liu Biao's ship? Team.
To sum up, Kuai Liang must stand on the side of supporting the transaction with Xuzhou both emotionally and rationally.
After Kuai Liang expressed his stance, the situation on the court became one to one.
Liu Pan did not agree to sell grain and wanted to take the opportunity to go down the river and attack Jiangdong.
Kuai Liang supports selling grain and wants to make a deal with Xuzhou.
Liu Biao, who was sitting at the top, nodded frequently, as if he had heard Kuai Liang's words, but inadvertently, he gave his nephew Zhang Yun a look.
Zhang Yun stood up immediately and said, "Mr. Zirou's words are ridiculous."
"I, Jingzhou, have always been short of salt, not just now."
Zhang Yun cupped his hands towards Liu Biao and said: "Because of this, Jingzhou should expand outward. If we can successfully capture Jiangdong and have the salt fields in Wu County and Kuaiji County, Jingzhou will no longer be controlled by others in terms of salt consumption in the future."< br>
Before Liu Biao nodded, Zhizhong Deng Yi retorted: "It would be great to capture Jiangdong, but can General Zhang guarantee that it will be done? Now Liu Zhengli was already leaning towards Xuzhou, so he just asked Xuzhou for help. Soldiers, and asked our state for material assistance, isn't the defense obvious enough? "
Deng Yi did not give any face to him, and directly mocked Zhang Yun for his superiority and inferiority.
“You!?”
Zhang Yun suddenly became angry and stared at Deng Yi fiercely, but the latter was not afraid at all and sat back leisurely.
The score on the court became two to two again.
Although Zhang Yun and Liu Pan are both Liu Biao's juniors and can be considered distant relatives, their relationship is actually not that good.
The fact that the two of them supported the expedition to Jiangdong with one voice obviously represented Liu Biao's wishes.
But Deng Yi's opposition meant that the Jingzhou scholars expressed that Liu Biao's wishes were not of much use, at least they, the Jingzhou scholars, did not care.
Liu Biao's face has darkened a bit. Today he just wanted to test the attitude of Jingzhou's senior officials towards attacking Jiangdong.
Unexpectedly, these nobles and celebrities would not give any face to him and objected so fiercely.
Following this, Liu He spoke and expressed his support for the Eastern Expedition, but then Kuai Yue also expressed his attitude and opposed the Eastern Expedition.
In this way, the situation has reached three to three, and Cai Mao and Huang Zu who are far away in Jiangxia County are left without any suggestions.
Huang Zu is far away in Jiangxia and will not be able to come over for a while, so Cai Mao is very important.
Cai Mao is the governor with real power. Although Liu Biao is also in charge of Xiangyang, the real power of Nanjun is controlled by Cai Mao.
In fact, compared with Kuai Yue, Cai Mao was more conservative, while Kuai Yue was more progressive.
It's just that Liu Biao was very wary of Kuai Yue's talents and never dared to trust him, let alone use him.
As a result, Jingzhou's pattern has become more conservative.
But no matter what, Cai Mao is at least the commander of the army and the general of Jingzhou. If he can support himself, the situation will be different.
Liu Biao's eyes shifted to Cai Mao, and he actually asked: "Degui, do you have any suggestions?"
Cai Mao has a handsome appearance and a tall figure, which is completely different from the villain in the novel.
In real history, Cai Mao and Cao Cao had a very good relationship. They had known each other since they were young and had been friends for many years.
Cai Mao also knows Yuan Shao and has a very good relationship. Moreover, at this stage, the Cai family and the Kuai family are actually the backbone of Yuan Shao's party, not the backbone of the Cao family.
Hearing Liu Biao's question, Cai Mao stopped stroking his beard, put down his hand to sort out his thoughts, and replied: "What you all said makes sense to Mao. In Mao's opinion, Ming Gong can "Adopt it together."
"Adopt it together?"
Liu Biao was stunned by Cai Mao.
How can two opposing opinions be adopted together?
Seeing this, Cai Mao continued: "Ming Gong, our state is seriously short of salt, and the people have been forced to live on a light diet. If things go on like this, I am afraid that they will not even have the energy to farm and work. Therefore, Xuzhou's There is no doubt that the salt must be replaced."
Liu Biao's face changed slightly, but he also knew that what Cai Mao said was indeed true. How can people not eat salt for a long time? It will be okay for a short period of time. As time goes by, then But something is going to happen.
But Cai Mao's words were tantamount to siding with the Jingzhou local camp, which made him very unhappy.
It’s just that Cai Mao hasn’t finished his words yet, and he continues: “The Eastern Expedition is actually necessary. Now there are strong enemies on the west, north, and south. Only the east can break through. It would be a pity if we miss this opportunity. "
Liu Biao frowned slightly. What on earth did Cai Mao have in mind? Did he think Liu Bei was a fool? If there was no food, one might sit back and watch Jingzhou annex Yangzhou, but with food, how could one remain indifferent?
Kuai Yue chuckled, obviously he had guessed what Cai Mao was thinking.
Sure enough, Cai Mao followed up and said: "If Ming Gong wants to enter Yang, why go to Jiangdong to get millet from the fire? Yuzhang is right next to our state, with vast land, abundant resources, and outstanding people. We might as well focus on Yuzhang Lord, please take care of it for Liu Zhengli. I guess Liu Zhengli won’t object.”
It turns out that Cai Mao’s so-called adoption changed the connotation of the Eastern Expedition.
His so-called Eastern Expedition no longer set his sights on Jiangdong, but on Yuzhang.
Yuzhang is very large. The territory of a county is even as large as two or three counties in Xuzhou, and the population is nearly 1.7 million.
If Yuzhang can be swallowed, it will not only give Jingzhou an eastern barrier, but also directly threaten Jiujiang and Danyang counties.
Historically, when the Sun family fought against the upper reaches of Jingzhou, the most important thing was the trinity of defense.
This trinity is Yuzhang, Danyang and Jiujiang.
Kuai Yue sneered in his heart, Cai Hao was really good at living.
Unlike the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cai Mao was never a naval commander, commanding the Jingzhou Navy.
In fact, Cai Mao has always been a feudal official with real power, and has successively served as the prefect of Zhangling, the prefect of Jiangxia, and the prefect of Nanjun.
Later Zhang Xian rebelled, Liu Biao also appointed Cai Mao as commander, and it took several years to pacify Jingnan.
So, Cai Mao actually has little relationship with the navy, or he is definitely not a simple navy general.
Therefore, Cai Mao changed his strategy of going down the river to Jiangdong to cannibalize or swallow up Yuzhang.
Going down the river to Jiangdong, Liu Biao, Liu Pan, Zhang Yun and even Huang Zu benefited.
But if Yuzhang is conquered, it will be his Cai family who will benefit.
In this regard, Kuai Yue saw the fire clearly, and the sneer in his heart was more directed at Liu Biao.
Sure enough, after listening to Cai Mao's words, Liu Biao's expression changed. He was angry at first, but then gradually turned into deep thought.
The corners of Kuai Yue's lips raised slightly, and his heart was filled with excitement.
Liu Biao is such an easily shaken person.
His initial anger was because Cai Mao did not give him a satisfactory answer, but then he was shaken by Cai Mao's suggestion.
Because Cai Mao's suggestion seems to have low risks and high benefits.
By attacking Yuzhang, you will not offend Liu Yao and Liu Bei, but you can also obtain salt from Liu Bei, while at the same time keeping Liu Yao and Sun Ce in check.
When he takes Yuzhang, he can advance by water and sweep across Jiangdong.
It sounds perfect, but only a top strategist like Quin Yue would see the absurdity of this plan.
First of all, Liu Biao's rule in Jingnan was actually very weak.
The current surrender of Jingnan to Liu Biao is because Liu Biao is the Jingzhou pastor worshiped by the imperial court. In essence, he worships the center of the Eastern Han Dynasty rather than Liu Biao.
If you want to conquer Yuzhang, it is undoubtedly most suitable to send troops from Changsha County and Jiangxia County.
But if the foundation of the back road is unstable, how can we talk about conquering Yuzhang?
In addition, the essence of Yangzhou is undoubtedly the four counties along the Yangtze River. Yuzhang and Kuaiji are vast and sparsely populated, and most of them are mountainous, with Han barbarians living together. How can they be compared with the four counties along the Yangtze River?
It is only a boastful person like Cai Hao who would come up with such a stupid workaround.
(End of this chapter)