Chapter 197 Vigorous Vitality
In these troubled times, Xuzhou has a rare burst of vitality, with all things competing and a scene full of vitality.
Liu Feng kept raising his expectations. He originally planned to increase the production of armor to 300 sets next year, but now it seems that it can be increased to at least 400 sets of armor, and is even expected to hit the figure of 500 sets. And this can also ensure an increase in the output of other weapons, farm tools, and iron products.
In addition, the population can be restored to at least two million, which is extremely beneficial to food production and soldier recruitment.
Because this comes and goes, the increase or decrease in population is worth twice as much.
The population of Yangzhou is actually not large, which is also Liu Feng's heartache.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the entire Yangzhou had a population of only 4.33 million, of which Yuzhang County accounted for 1.66 million.
However, Yuzhang County is vast and sparsely populated, and there are many Shanyue barbarians, so it is very difficult to manage.
The situation in Kuaiji County, with a population of 480,000, is actually very similar to that in Yuzhang, but because it was developed earlier, the situation is better than that in Yuzhang.
Therefore, the most efficiently utilized population in Yangzhou is actually only the four counties along the Yangtze River.
The total population of the four counties along the Yangtze River is only 2.9 million. Because of Yuan Shu's great kindness, this number is probably only 70%, or even 60%, of the original number at most.
In the core lands of Xu and Yang prefectures, the population together is less than three million. This is the biggest driving force behind Liu Feng's frantic pursuit of refugees.
Liu Feng clearly remembered that during the Battle of Guandu, the population of Yuan Shaoguang's Jizhou was more than four million, and the population of Cao Cao's Yuzhou was also more than four million.
The so-called Battle of Guandu was actually a battle between Hebei and Henan for hegemony.
Jizhou plus Runan County versus other counties in Yuzhou plus Yanzhou.
In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, another very important reason for the rivalry was that the warlords only knew how to plunder, but not how to govern. This is the first time to be a warlord, so I have no experience.
In September, the horse buying team that went to Liaodong in April came back.
But the horses brought back were different. Originally, they purchased twenty second-class horses and eighty third-class horses. But now there are thirty first-class horses, fifty second-class horses, and only forty third-class horses.
After listening to the caravan host’s reply, Liu Feng understood why such a change occurred.
The fundamental reason is frost sugar and snow salt.
These two things aroused great interest in the Gongsun family in Liaodong.
The Gongsun family and Gongsun Zan are from the same clan, but they have been divided. The relationship between the two parties is extremely bad, and they even attack each other.
Yuan Shao nominally occupied half of Youzhou in the future, but in fact only one-third was left. The other third was in the hands of Xian Yufu and others, who clearly supported Cao Cao, and the remaining third One, it is in the hands of the Liaodong Gongsun family.
For the north, calories are very scarce, especially treasures such as frosting sugar with high calories and good taste, which are even regarded as miracle medicine and elixir.
Therefore, the price naturally increased a lot.
Moreover, the caravan host Zang Ming was also a smart man. When he noticed something strange, he immediately said that Shuangtang could only be purchased in exchange for gold and special and first-class war horses.
No one within the Gongsun family wanted to hack this vote, but they were directly repelled by the head of the family, Gongsun Du.
In Gongsun Du's opinion, if you cheated on this vote, not only will your reputation be lost, but you will never be able to buy such treasures again in the future.
Besides, it’s just horses. Is there still a shortage of horses in Liaodong?
Anyone who thinks this way is most likely seeking public benefit for personal gain.
Therefore, Gongsun Du personally made the decision. The number of special-class horses was rare and they were only one step away from the Ming horses. Naturally, they could not be given.
But first-class horses can still give a lot for exchange.
The horses here are graded, and the famous horses are naturally Cao Cao's Jueying, Liu Bei's Lu, and Lu Bu's Red Rabbit.
The horses that are slightly worse than these are special horses.
Special-class horses are the top-level horses, called famous horses, with the lowest shoulder height being more than six feet, such as the Red Rabbit Horse. Legend has it that the Red Rabbit Horse’s shoulder height is eight feet, which is equivalent to 1.8 meters. The human height of six. This kind of famous horse can be encountered but not obtained. If a celebrity gets it, it will shine in the annals of history.
First-class horses are inferior to first-class horses. They are the top horses in the regular level. They are called military horses. Their shoulder height is generally more than four feet and four inches, reaching the excellent standard of armored cavalry mounts. The price generally ranges from 80,000 yuan to 100,000 yuan. Depending on the qualifications, the price will naturally be different.
Second-class horses are slightly weaker than first-class horses and are called field horses. Their shoulder height is generally more than four feet and one inch, meeting the minimum passing standard for armored war horses. Horses of this level are already sold in batches. When trading in large quantities, only an agreed price will be set, not a price for each horse.
Third-class horses are naturally inferior to second-class horses. They are called rhinoceros horses and are less than four feet tall at the shoulder. They cannot become armored war horses and can only be used as transportation horses for light cavalry or armored cavalry. The price is quite cheap, you can buy one for 20,000 to 30,000 yuan.
The last level is plow horses and carriage horses, which can only be used to plow land and pull carts. These horses are quite cheap, and you can buy one for 8,000 to 20,000.
Zang Ming brought two stones of frosting sugar this time, worth two hundred and forty gold cakes. The official price for each gold cake is 10,000 yuan, but it can be exchanged for 15,000 yuan in Beidi.
Moreover, Zang Ming insisted that Shuangtang only exchange special and first-class horses, and finally sold thirty first-class horses.
The remaining snow salt was also negotiated by Zang Ming at a price of three million yuan, and he exchanged it for fifty second-class horses.
He then used the extra cloth, silk, silk and other goods that Zang Ba asked him to bring, and priced them at one million. Gongsun Du gave him a discount and bought forty third-class horses.
Zang Ming completed this mission very beautifully, but when he returned to Langya, things had changed in Kaiyang.
As a loyal minister, Zang Ming even wanted to kill his horse and abscond.
Fortunately, Chen Deng stopped the other party in time and informed the other party that Zang Ba had been promoted to the position of Prime Minister of the City State.
Zang Ming was dubious, and then Chen Deng urgently reported to Tancheng. Zang Ai had already taken office at this time, and went to Pengcheng with Sun Yu, Changrong and others to serve as county magistrate and county magistrate.
There is no other choice but to invite Zang Ba’s second son Zang Shun to Langya to convince Zang Ming.
Fortunately, this is not a war. Although Zang Shun is only twelve years old, as long as he appears in front of Zang Ming, it is enough to prove Chen Deng's words.
The matter finally ended without any danger.
In the end, Zang Ming, who knew that he had misunderstood, wanted to die to apologize, but was stopped by Chen Deng.
For Xuzhou, the more loyal ministers and righteous men, the better. How could they die in vain here?
Finally, Zang Shun took Zang Ming and the entire caravan to Tancheng, and Liu Feng personally went out of the city to greet him.
This is a total of eighty war horses that can wear armor. Even third-class horses can also be used as backup horses. How many horses are there in Xuzhou? This is equivalent to a direct increase of one-third of the total number of war horses in Xuzhou.
Liu Bei was also very happy about this. After discussing with Liu Feng, he appointed Zang Ming as the leader of the caravan. Since the other party has already connected with Gongsun Du, there is obviously no need to look for such a suitable candidate.
"Father, it seems that the construction of this ship needs to be accelerated."
Liu Feng knew that trade brought money, but he did not know that trade brought such money, especially in exchange for war horses that were in great demand in Xuzhou.
Looking at it now, the sugar cane grown in Guangling, Xuzhou and sugar cane from Jiangdong is no longer enough, and we have to continue to expand the supply. There is sugar cane produced in Kuaiji, but not much, and the bulk of it still has to come from Jiaozhi. .
The sucrose output of Jiaozhi is much greater than that of Xu and Yang prefectures combined.
And Jiaozhi is not only a good thing like sucrose, there are also various precious luxury goods such as Mingji, Cuiyu, rhinoceros, elephant, tortoise shell, exotic fragrance, beautiful wood, etc. Selling to the North is definitely a huge profit.
In addition, Jiaozhi also has a large amount of food, population, and excellent rice seeds.
The Champa rice of later generations actually existed in the Eastern Han Dynasty. It can be harvested three times a year in Jiangdong, and it can be harvested twice a year in the north of Guangling.
Xuzhou is not short of water. There are a large number of paddy fields where rice can be grown. Coupled with Guangling's three crops a year, it is easy to increase the grain output by 30 to 50%, and even doubling it is still unknown.
Liu Bei nodded in agreement. Anyway, he didn't know much about this aspect. Since Liu Feng was interested and proficient, he simply left everything to Liu Feng.
So Liu Feng directly placed an order for fifty more ocean-going ships. At the same time, he also wrote down some of the shipbuilding techniques he remembered and gave them to the shipbuilding craftsmen for reference.
These techniques generally include watertight compartments, semi-fixed containers, etc.
These are very different from similar items in later generations, but the advantage is that they can be transformed and used.
Just like watertight compartments, it is naturally impossible to achieve true isolation with the technology of the Eastern Han Dynasty. But even just reducing the speed of seawater entering can save a ship's life at a critical moment. In addition, the reason for semi-fixed containers is that the center of gravity of ships in the Eastern Han Dynasty was very unstable, especially after deflection, it was extremely difficult to restore the center of gravity.
If the goods are packed and stored in boxes and then fixed with ropes, the problem of the center of gravity can be well solved. Although it is not completely solved, it is at least an improvement. A lot.
Liu Feng worked hard on technologies such as this. After all, sinking a ship would cause a lot of losses.
Ships in the Eastern Han Dynasty were actually really inexpensive. A large ship with a displacement of 100 tons only cost 100,000 yuan, which was about the same price as a first-class horse. As for the price of boats, they are even cheaper. A brand-new sampan only costs one or two thousand dollars. Boats and yachts are slightly more expensive, but they don't cost more than three thousand dollars.
The largest model, which can carry twenty people, only costs 5,000 yuan.
No wonder the Western Han and Eastern Wu Dynasties had tens of thousands of warships and more than 100,000 naval soldiers.
Similarly, the naval force should obviously continue to expand, but there is no need to directly recruit naval officers and soldiers for the time being. Instead, the merchant ship team can be used as the second echelon to recruit manpower.
In this way, when the navy needs to expand, it can directly draw the backbone from the caravan.
In addition, troops stationed in Quxian seaport, Guangling, Pengcheng, Rencheng, Tancheng and other places close to the sea, lakes and rivers can also increase their food expenses to purchase fish and meat.
Fish in this era were quite cheap. Except for a small amount of large fish that the nobles ate, other types of fish, sea fish, small fish, crabs, clam shells, etc. were completely worthless. of.
Because these are difficult to feed and extremely easy to corrupt, fishermen dare not keep them longer. It is for this reason that when the Sun family tribe was in Jiangdong and Jingzhou, the food was very good because they had fish and meat.
Soon after, Xu Shao and Bu Zhi returned from Chen.
After all, Xu Shao is a famous person in the world and a local boss in Yuzhou. His face really plays a big role.
At least Luo Jun was quite generous to Xu Shao. Not only did he express his willingness to give Xu Shao 10,000 shi of military grain as a gift, but he could also sell 100,000 shi of grain at a fair price.
At the same time, Liu Yao also sent Sun Shao to Xuzhou, expressing his willingness to give up Jiangcheng County to the Xuzhou Army for temporary garrison, threatening Sun Ce's retreat.
Although Xu Shao got this 10,000 shi of military rations out of his favor, Liu Yao didn’t ask for it. He directly transferred it to the Xuzhou Army and treated it as supplies for the garrison in Jiangcheng County.
Subsequently, Liu Bei ordered Zhao Yun to send two thousand troops to Jiangcheng County to take over the defense.
Jiangcheng and Dantu were connected by land and connected by a highway. Coupled with the threat of Jiangdu's waterway, it was equivalent to surrounding Sun Ce's retreat from two aspects. If the Xuzhou army and navy were to form an army and go south, Sun Ce and Yuan Shu would be completely divided into two pieces.
Therefore, the threat this poses to Sun Ce is still considerable.
At the same time, under Dingtao County, Jiyin County, Yanzhou, northwest of Xuzhou, a decisive battle was going on that would determine the fate of the entire Yanzhou.
On one side was Cao Cao, who sent troops to attack Dingtao, and on the other side was Lu Bu, who gathered more than 10,000 troops from Dongmin County and Chen Gong to come to the rescue.
Cao Cao led more than 20,000 troops to besiege Dingtao, so he built a large camp and surrounded Dingtao. At the same time, he divided his troops and horses to go around and harvest the food around Dingtao City to supplement military supplies. .
But Cao Cao never expected that Lu Bu would come by such a coincidence, arriving just when he was sending his soldiers out to harvest grain.
If you want to recall the soldiers at this time, it will take at least a day.
"Ming Gong, the last general wishes to be at the rear, please Ming Gong to retreat first."
Cao Ren is the most capable general under Cao Cao and one of the few high-ranking officials. He does his duty without hesitation. stood up.
The positioning of Cao Ren and Xiahou Dun is completely different.
Cao Ren was a military official, while Xiahou Dun was more political.
Therefore, Xiahou Dun usually replaced Cao Cao to guard the city, or an extremely important city. Cao Ren, on the other hand, led the troops alone and was responsible for military tasks in all directions.
After all, before Cao Cao raised his troops, Cao Ren already had eight hundred troops to rebel in the Jianghuai area.
"Ming Gong, you are a man of ten thousand gold, and you must not take risks easily."
Cao Hong also persuaded Dian Wei from the side. Before Dian Wei was favored by Cao Cao, his security mission In fact, Cao Hong was responsible.
This also shows Cao Cao's trust in Cao Hong, and Cao Hong did not live up to this trust. When Xingyang was defeated and was defeated by Xu Rong, it was Cao Hong who gave his horse to Cao Cao and followed the guards on foot, and finally saved Cao Cao from escaping. Danger.
The reason why Cao Ren and Cao Hong were so anxious was very simple, because there were only more than a thousand soldiers in the entire camp, and the remaining thousands were recruited to help harvest wheat. When Lu Bu's army arrived, they fled into the camp. of women and children.
The situation is indeed quite dangerous, the strength ratio is almost 10:1.
But Cao Cao didn't panic at all: "Gentlemen, why are you so anxious?"
Seeing Cao Cao still smiling, Cao Ren and Cao Hong almost wanted to escape with each other in their arms.
But he saw Cao Cao sitting down directly, with a straight face, and immediately assigned tasks: "Where is Cao Ren!"
Cao Ren was surprised, but he quickly raised his hands and responded: "The general is here!"
Cao Cao directly ordered: "I order you to lead five hundred soldiers to hide in the woods. You are not allowed to come out without my order."
Although Cao Ren was shocked and doubtful, he still accepted the order.
“Where is Cao Hong?”
Cao Hong also rushed out to receive the order.
"I order you to lead five hundred soldiers and hide behind the embankment. You are also not allowed to leave without my order."
"Liu Ming."
A scribe stood up Answered the order: "My subordinates are here."
Cao Cao warned him: "Immediately ask all the women and children entering the camp to change into sergeant uniforms, and then go up to the camp wall to defend themselves. If anyone dares to cause chaos, he will be killed immediately." .”
"Yes!"
After Liu Ming answered the order, he hurried out.
Cao Ren and Cao Hong looked at each other and looked at Cao Cao together: "Ming Gong, what are you...?"
Cao Cao stroked his beard and smiled and said: "Chen Gong has always been so smart and slow. He knows that I am cunning. If he sees me dispatching troops like this today, he will definitely suspect that I am ambushing my troops in two places and will not dare to attack him. In just one night, the surrounding grain collectors will definitely return to the camp. I am not afraid of him attacking again tomorrow. . ”
Cao Ren and Cao Hong suddenly realized that they admired Cao Cao for his resourcefulness and decisiveness, so they took orders to go out and ordered their troops.
Just talking about the Battle of Dingtao, God actually gave Lu Bu a huge opportunity. This was simply a God-given opportunity.
Lü Bu only needs to attack once, and Cao Cao has no choice but to escape.
It’s just that Lu Bu and Chen Gong were so smart in history that they waited until the next day to attack, giving Cao Cao time to gather his troops calmly.
This time Lu Bu came to the outside of Cao's army camp. Looking from a distance, he saw soldiers standing on the wooden walls of the camp, and the gate was wide open. There were 500 elite soldiers arrayed outside the camp.
Both sides of the camp rely on a forest and a dike. Whether there is an ambush in the woods or on the other side of the dike, there is no way of knowing whether there is an ambush.
Lu Bu suddenly laughed.
Chen Gong asked with some confusion: "Why is Fengxian laughing?"
Lü Bu tilted his head and smiled and replied: "Previously, Liu Feng, the son of Liu Xuande in Xuzhou, sent me a letter. , I don’t hesitate to give good words in my heart, but in the end it made me be careful about Cao Mengde’s deception, especially double deception.”
Chen Gong frowned, not liking Lu Bu’s playful attitude at this time: “Cao Mengde is here. A man is cunning and cunning, so beware of his deceit. I don’t know what’s funny about the general.”
Lü Bu heard Chen Gong’s concern, so he quickly put away his smile and pointed to the camp opposite. : "Now Cao Cao's camp is a little panicked, but he opened the camp gate again. If it is a double deception as Liu Feng said, wouldn't it mean that there are no soldiers and horses in Cao Cao's camp? Cao Cao's thieves are cowards. In order to escape for their lives in Puyang , You have the audacity to deceive me, and you are so treacherous and shameless that everyone is outraged.”
As Lu Bu spoke, he couldn't help but cursed his mother. It was really Cao Cao who bullied people too much that time in Puyang. If he had been honest and allowed General Lu to chop him into pieces, he would have been losing battles in the past six months and would almost no longer be able to stand in Yanzhou.
"Double deception?"
(End of this chapter)