Chapter 196: Sun Qian’s Visit
Actually, Liu Feng did not cheat Zhou Yu. In history, the Zhou family just lost everything.
After Sun Ce swept across Jiangdong, Zhou Shang was stripped of his position as governor of Danyang and called back to Lujiang. At the same time, he appointed his younger brother Yuan Yin as governor.
This pulled the trigger and ruined the Zhou family's several years of business in Danyang.
I wonder if the Zhou family at that time regretted abandoning Liu Yao and aiding Sun Ce.
Of course, Liu Feng was not a fool. Although he did not deceive Zhou Yu and all the information he said was true, the problem was that he did not tell the other party everything.
Obviously, Liu Feng didn't say a word about things like Xuzhou was purchasing grain from Yuzhou and Jingzhou, and Qu County had received hundreds of thousands of shi of grain.
If Zhou Yu really uses the information in Liu Feng's letters to do something unfavorable to Liu Feng, I'm afraid he will fall into a big fight.
“Let’s see again.”
After careful consideration, Zhou Yu decided to wait and see for a while.
In any case, the Xuzhou Army has indeed drunken the Yangtze River, and Liu Yao's Yangzhou Army does indeed have a close relationship with the other party.
The Zhou family's detailed work has also been reported back a long time ago, and the fact that Xu Shao and Teng Zhou went to Xuzhou for help cannot be hidden for too long.
Zhou Yu finally decided to wait and see.
At least the nominal governor of Danyang is still Zhou Shang, and the Zhou family actually holds the real power over Danyang.
He was really tempted by Liu Feng's invitation to Zhou Yu to travel to Xuzhou.
However, if you are tempted and go there rashly, the risk is still quite high.
So Zhou Yu put the letter away, then took out a piece of Saeki paper and started writing.
This letter was sent to Lu Su in Xuzhou. The relationship between him and Lu Su was quite good. The two hit it off at first sight, and Zhou Yu also recognized Lu Su's ability, vision and character very much. .
Therefore, Zhou Yu wanted to get some information from Lu Su.
Even if this information is only part of what Lu Su can disclose, it may not be without value.
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After more than 20 days of trekking, Sun Qian finally arrived at the coast of Kuaiji County. He landed in Qiantang County and rushed to the Kuaiji County seat without having time to rest. Shanyin County.
Shanyin County is also known as Shaoxing in later generations.
Although Shaoxing will live in trepidation every day in the future, for fear of being divided by Ningbo and Hangzhou.
But in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Shanyin was the seat of Kuaiji County. In terms of economy and population, it undoubtedly surpassed Hangzhou and Ningbo.
At this time, Wang Lang was also frightened and angered by Sun Ce's fierce attack on Wu County.
Although Yuan Shu was named General Zuo, he was actually a Han traitor. No local official who was loyal to the Han Dynasty admired Yuan Shu.
From Chen Wen to Lu Kang, then to Chen Gui, and then to Wang Lang.
They have all seen through Yuan Shu's cruelty and double-mindedness.
At present, Sun Ce was like a fierce tiger. He attacked four counties of Wujun and defeated Liu Yao at the Xiangxiang River. Wu Jing's army surrounded Wujun and Wu County. They attacked fiercely for days and almost broke the city several times.
If it were not for the Wudian nobles at this critical moment, through the mediation of Xu Jing, a famous scholar in Yuzhou, they temporarily put aside their conflicts with Xu Gong, the prefect of Wu County, and fully supported Xu Gong in defending the city, I am afraid that Wu County would have been captured by Wu Jing long ago. .
In fact, the reputation of the Sun family in the entire Wu region is quite complicated. There are quite a few people who support the Sun family and those who oppose the Sun family.
Many people only know that Sun Ce attacked Lujiang, and Lu Kang eventually died of illness, and more than half of the Lu family's children were killed.
But not many people know that the Sun family is kind to the Lu family.
When Sun Jian was serving as the governor of Changsha, Yichun County, Lingling County next door, was besieged by rebels, and the situation was precarious.
According to the system of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the prefect's authority was only within the boundaries of his own county, and he was not allowed to lead troops out of the country unless ordered by the central government.
At that time, Sun Jian's officials and cronies urged Sun Jian, but Sun Jian said: "The purpose of the cross-border expedition is to protect the county. Even if I am convicted of this, I will be worthy of the world."
After Sun Jian left, the Lingling rebels were afraid of his name and dispersed in a hurry.
The magistrate of Yichun County at that time was Lu Kang's nephew.
Sun Jian should have been a loyal minister of the Han Dynasty until his death. His words and deeds were all loyal to the Han Dynasty.
It's just that the nobles in the late Han Dynasty never trusted Sun Jian, nor did they like Sun Jian.
Therefore, based on a relatively simple division, in Wudi, the gentry were a firm opposition, the common people mostly supported the Sun family, and the powerful were evenly divided.
This result was vividly reflected after Sun Ce entered Wudi.
Sun Ce now has a total of four cities in the northern part of Wu County, all of which he sent troops to attack, and none of them surrendered directly.
From this point of view, it can be seen that the ruling class of Wu actually does not welcome Sun Ce.
But after Sun Ce occupied Qu'a, thousands of people came to vote in just a few dozen days. From this point of view, the Sun family's reputation in Wu was very high.
It can be seen that most of the people who support the Sun family are civilians.
But Hao is still waiting to see if he is powerful, or he is inclined to join forces with the nobles, which makes Sun Ce difficult to move in Jiangdong.
When he heard Sun Qian reported his name and intention, Wang Lang immediately ordered to greet him.
Wang Lang was originally from Tancheng, Donghai County, Xuzhou, and Liu Bei's current seat of government is Wang Lang's hometown.
Liu Bei has a reputation of benevolence, and now he is Xuzhou Mu. Wang Lang instinctively has a good impression of Liu Bei. In addition, he had been away from his hometown for three years and wanted to know about the current situation of his wife, children and relatives in his hometown through Sun Qian.
After seeing Sun Qian, the two parties sat down separately.
Sun Qian took out two letters from his arms and asked his attendant to hand them to Wang Lang.
"Prince Wangfu, one of these two letters is a letter from your family to you. Before my Lord sent me here, he informed your family and asked them to edit a letter to allow me to "Bring it here."
Sun Qian took time to introduce it to Wang Lang: "The other letter was written by my lord himself. Now Sun Ce is rampaging across Wu to attack Wu County. Once he captures Wu County, he will do it." The first step will definitely be Kuaiji, Wang Fujun will prepare early.”
Wang Lang suddenly became excited when he heard that it was a letter from home.
Although Xu and Yang are right next to each other, they are not close to each other. After all, Wang Lang's hometown is Tancheng in the north of Xuzhou, and Kuaiji is in the lower right of Jiangdong.
However, Wang Lang was a famous scholar and capable official after all. After suppressing the excitement in his heart, the first thing he opened was Liu Bei's letter.
In Liu Bei's letter, naturally he first expressed his admiration for the virtuous man to Wang Lang, and at the same time he praised the meritorious Cao Yu of Kuaiji County twice. Then he began to analyze to Wang Lang Sun Ce's occupation of Wu. After that, the troops will inevitably turn directly to Kuaiji and predict the direction of Sun Ce's attack.
In addition, Liu Bei also recommended Zhou Xin, a famous scholar in Kuaiji, to Wang Lang in his letter, and introduced in detail the feud between Zhou Xin and Yuan Shu.
The three Zhou Xin brothers are die-hard members of Yuan Shao's party. When Cao Cao and Liu Bei came to Danyang to recruit troops, Zhou Xin generously supported them with four thousand men.
Later, he fought with Sun Jian in Yuzhou for Yuan Shao. After the defeat, he retreated to Yangzhou. However, within two years he caught up with Yuan Shu and fled to Yangzhou, and the two sides had another fierce fight.
Although there are only a few entries in the history books about the three brothers of the Zhou family, in fact, these three brothers have appeared frequently in recent years.
Wang Lang was shocked after watching it.
Because the thoughts and speculations written in Liu Bei's mind coincided with him. In particular, Liu Bei predicted that Sun Ce would definitely cross the Qiantang River from Guling to attack the old city of Guling, which made Wang Lang admire him very much.
As for the last part of the letter, Wang Lang was reminded not to take it lightly. To the southwest of Guling, there is a Chadu trail that leads directly to Gaoqiantun after crossing the river.
At the same time, the letter also told Wang Lang an important piece of information. Sun Cezhi's uncle Sun Jing was living in Fuchun County on the other side of the Qiantang River at this time.
Once Sun Ce forces troops under Guling City, then Sun Jing will definitely send troops, food and strategies to Sun Ce.
Sun Jing has lived in Fuchun County for many years. He would know the information about Chadu Trail. This Gaoqian Village is located between Guling and Yuji County. It is the most suitable military base for hoarding food. land.
If Wang Lang adopts the opinion of sticking to Guling, then Gaoqiantun will inevitably become an important frontline food storage point for Wang Lang's army.
Once Sun Ce sends a surprise force out to check the Du Trail and penetrate directly into Gaoqian Village, it will not only directly cut off the connection between the Guling front line and Yuji County, but also risk a food shortage.
But when Sun Ce's army occupied Gaoqiantun, they would have a stable food supply, and the status of host and guest changed hands instantly.
Wang Lang was so frightened that he broke into a cold sweat after reading this paragraph. He really didn’t know the existence of Chadu Trail.
If Sun Ce had waited until Sun Ce had crossed the Qiantang River and arrived at the city to find out the news, the impact on Wang Lang's army would have been almost devastating.
"Your Majesty, Mr. Liu has a far-sighted vision, and his troops are superior to others. He is breathtaking." Wang Lang put down the letter, slowly exhaled the exhausted breath that he had just held because of the nervousness, and said gratefully: "The content in this letter is amazing." Good words of wisdom will never be forgotten.”
Sun Qian raised his hand and said: "Your Majesty, after the foreign ministers return, they will report the truth to my lord. Mr. Zhou Xin, your lord, is a famous scholar in Kuaiji. My lord advises you not to ignore this." People. If Mr. Zhou Xin can help, Kuaiji County's chances of surviving the disaster will be greatly increased."
Wang Lang nodded, he had heard a lot today, and he also needed to discuss it with his confidants.
"Your envoy has come a long way, and you should be tired now. Please rest for a night. I will host a banquet for your envoy tomorrow."
Sun Qian happily agreed.
After Sun Qian left, Wang Lang immediately invited the meritorious Cao Yu Fan over.
Yu Fan, courtesy name Zhongxiang, was from Yuyao County, Kuaiji County. He was straightforward and frank, and assisted Wang Lang in guarding Kuaiji. Although he failed in the end, he also succeeded in saving Wang Lang's life.
Yu Fan not only valued Sun Ce, but even Cao Cao wanted to recruit him, and his talents were also very outstanding.
After hearing what Wang Lang said, Yu Fan immediately changed his expression and exclaimed: "Could it be that Liu Shijun has been to my Kuaiji?"
Wang Lang shook his head and denied, "Liu Shijun has been here all year round. Bei, I have never been to Kuaiji.”
Yu Fan, however, was still astonished: "It's just that Commander Liu knows the topography of Kuaiji like a palm, and even I, a local, don't know about the ancient roads of Chadu, but he knows that Fan doesn't mean he doesn't believe what he said." , It’s just that such a thing is too unbelievable.”
Wang Lang nodded in agreement, and then asked: “Zhong Xiang, what do you think of this?”
“ As Liu Shijun expected, the Sun thieves will seize Guling, secretly inspect the ruins, and attack Gaoqiantun."
Yu Fan said firmly: "You can follow Liu Shijun's plan, please take action. Mr. Zhou Xin will help. At the critical moment, we can also set up an ambush at the exit of Chadu. If we can capture the Sun thief in one fell swoop, Kuaiji will be safe."
Since the right-hand man, Cao Yufan, is like this. Wang Lang was optimistic about Liu Bei's plan, so he could only accept it happily.
After sending Yu Fan away, Wang Lang opened the family letter and read it carefully.
The letter was written by Wang Lang's wife, stating that Wang Lang's eldest son, Wang Su, suffered from a serious illness years ago. It was the prefectural pastor Liu Shijun who invited the famous doctor Hua Tuo to treat Wang Su, and he was saved.
In addition, it is also said that Ambassador Liu often gave gifts and sent people to greet him during every year and festival, and he was very kind to him.
After reading the letter, Wang Lang lamented Liu Bei's kindness and virtuousness, so he wrote a letter of gratitude in his own handwriting and planned to give it to Sun Qian tomorrow, entrusting him to take it back to Xuzhou and present it to Liu Bei.
On the second day, Wang Lang hosted a banquet for Sun Qian, with Yu Fan accompanying him.
During the banquet, Wang Lang expressed his gratitude to Liu Bei and his willingness to follow Liu Bei's suggestion and recruit Zhou Xin as a school captain to take charge of the military in the county.
At this time, Sun Qian duly sent a third letter: "Master Fu, this letter is written by Chen Yi, the Prime Minister of the State of Lu. His father is Chen Fangong, the former Taifu, and Zhou Xin was My teacher is Chen Fangong. Although this letter may not have much effect, it can be regarded as a little help for our Lord."
Wang Lang and Yu Fan were overjoyed when they heard this.
Sun Qian thinks the situation is good. Kuaiji County has also had good weather and good grain production in recent years.
So Sun Qian tentatively asked if he could buy some grain.
Wang Lang and Yu Fan discussed it and finally declined Sun Qian's request.
The reason why Wang Lang and Yu Fan chose to refuse was because Sun Ce's army was under too much pressure. They relied on food for fighting, and they also needed food for conscription.
Kuiji County is quite rich in food now, but if there is a shortage after the war, Wang Lang will have no place to buy food.
However, Wang Lang and Yu Fan discussed it and were willing to give Xuzhou 20,000 shi of grain as a gift to help Xuzhou gather refugees.
Wang Lang himself is from Xuzhou. Seeing the elders in his hometown starving due to lack of food, of course he wanted to help.
The rare meritorious Cao Yu Fan also agreed, so Wang Lang was naturally happy to agree.
Sun Qian immediately bowed and thanked him. Although he couldn't buy food, he got 20,000 shi of food for free, so how could he be dissatisfied.
That is to say, there has been no war in Kuaiji County, Wang Lang has managed it well, and the weather has been good in recent years, so he has accumulated a lot of warehouses.
Historically, after Sun Ce captured Kuaiji County, his gains were not inferior to those of Wu County.
After only two or three months of rest, he began to invade Yuzhang.
At this time, Yuan Shu no longer supplied Sun Ce with military rations. With such a long distance, he couldn't afford it.
Wang Lang and Yu Fan were very sincere in sending grain. They allocated grain directly from the county's granary and prepared ships for Sun Qian.
Wang Lang took Yu Fan to the dock to see Sun Qian off in person, which made Sun Qian very grateful.
Of course, Wang Lang is not a good person. He did this to deepen his relationship with Liu Bei.
I heard that Liu Bei had already captured Guangling, and he was only across the river from Sun Ce.
If there is too much pressure on Kuaiji County, Liu Bei still seems to be more reliable than Liu Yao. Once Liu Bei attacks Sun Ce from behind, Sun Ce, who is surrounded by enemies on both sides, may have no choice but to return to the army for rescue.
Since Liu Bei wanted to be close to him, Wang Lang was naturally willing to reciprocate the favor and bring them closer to each other.
In the following days, good news continued to reach the ears of Liu Bei and his son in Tancheng.
Since August, Xuzhou has been recruiting refugees from all directions. Whether it is Qingzhou in the north, Yanzhou, Henan in the west, or Yangzhou in the south, refugees and disaster victims are constantly coming to Xuzhou.
Xuzhou prepared a large amount of materials for these refugees, and at the same time transferred many officials from various places, and promised them exceptional promotions, which made these overjoyed officials work hard and devote themselves to gathering the refugees. went on a mission.
According to Liu Feng's idea, when gathering refugees, the prime laborers from the family can be arranged to help with the autumn harvest in various places.
Spring plowing and autumn harvest are the times when there is the greatest shortage of manpower at any time, and the state government bears half of the food, so the refugee families cannot be hired by ordinary people at all, and they directly let the local gentry and powerful people The bag is round.
As for the lonely individual labor force, women were gathered into the city and entered textile workshops in the experimental stage to expand production capacity.
Men were gathered together and sent to iron ore and coal mines in batches to enjoy high rewards.
For these strong people who are satisfied with just one bite of food to survive, not only do they not complain at all, but they express all kinds of gratitude.
After entering September, the number of refugees began to gradually increase. After all, as time goes by and the weather begins to turn colder, if it really snows in winter, even if you want to migrate, you will most likely freeze to death on the road.
In August, there were only a dozen or less dozens of refugees migrating from Xuzhou every day.
After September, the number of people began to surge, doubling in one breath.
By the end of September, more than 100 households of refugees moved into Xuzhou every day.
You must know that many small counties only have a population of two to three thousand households, and there may be only a thousand households in the county.
This is equivalent to a county population moving into Xuzhou every ten days.
The manpower originally prepared began to be insufficient again, and Liu Feng had to disperse almost all of Liu'er camp's manpower. Even among the children who had just entered the camp at the beginning of the year, all those over twelve years old were They all followed him out to start the fight.
In contrast, food is also being sent out continuously.
In mid-September, more than 10,000 dan of food will be consumed every day, not counting the miners’ food expenses.
And now because of the autumn harvest, food consumption has actually been halved. After the autumn harvest is completely completed at the end of November, the food expenditure will be doubled.
However, refugees bring more than just burdens; the benefits are actually even greater.
The output of iron ore and coal mines alone has tripled, far exceeding the planned growth target of 150%, and is still growing.
At the same time, it was not just ordinary farmers who moved to Xuzhou, but also many craftsmen with skills, including blacksmiths, carpenters, clothesmakers, etc., and even shipbuilders from Yangzhou.
These precious talents were selected by Liu Feng and arranged in various workshops. In particular, the shipbuilders escorted them directly to the Quxian seaport. Now Xuzhou is not short of money and needs a large number of warships and merchant ships.
Other states are quite uncomfortable with this wave of recruitment by Xuzhou.
It's just that the north of Xuzhou is mainly Beihai Kingdom and Donglai County. Kong Rong and Liu Bei have a good relationship, and they are not the kind of character who would rather starve the people to death than let them leave the country, so they naturally turn a blind eye.
Cao Cao in Yanzhou is still fighting fiercely with Lu Bu. Both sides are exhausted. The decisive victory is likely to be within one or two months, and there is no time to worry about this with Xuzhou.
Guo Gong of Yuzhou is Liu Bei's ally, and the person running away is not from Liang, so he is naturally happy to see the joke.
Besides Cao Cao, the one who suffered the biggest loss was naturally Yuan Shu.
But what can Yuan Shu do against Liu Bei?
If he could really do anything to Liu Bei, he would have raised troops to attack Guangling again.
(End of this chapter)