Chapter 254 Liu Bei’s Doubts
Six days later, Liu Feng finally arrived outside Suiyang City.
Suiyang City is an important transportation hub in the Central Plains and is well preserved.
Liang State was the first Yuzhou prefecture to fall under Cao Cao's control in the original time and space. Guo Gong barely made any effective resistance and disappeared from the long river of history.
After Cao Cao captured Liang, he swept across Chen, Peijun and Yingchuan, which shows the importance of Liang in Yuzhou’s geographical transportation.
But now, this place belongs to the Liu family.
Although Suiyang was in the rear and there were no enemies on all sides for the time being, the soldiers outside the city gate still performed their duties faithfully. After checking Liu Feng's seal, they opened the level and let them enter the city.
"What's your name?"
Liu Feng was not in a hurry to enter the city, but curiously asked the gatekeeper of the village.
The commander of the village was startled and replied with some fear: "Huang Kuang, who has a humble position, has been appointed as the Sima of the Bingcheng Gate in Liangguo County."
"Yeah."
Liu Feng nodded and didn't say anything more, but marched into the city again.
The group went directly to the governor's mansion. Before they reached the door, Liu Feng saw his father waiting for him outside the mansion from a distance.
"Father!"
Liu Feng turned over and dismounted from a distance, and then bowed down and saluted Liu Bei.
Liu Bei hurriedly came over and helped the big baby up.
"Zisheng, thank you for your hard work these days."
After not seeing each other for a while, Liu Bei noticed that Liu Feng's height had grown again and he had gained a lot of weight. Less, the whole person looks taller.
"The child is unfilial and troubles his father."
Liu Feng took Liu Bei's hand and said with tears of gratitude: "The child has often missed his father along the way."
Liu Bei nodded with satisfaction, and then introduced the people behind him to Liu Feng.
Needless to mention Lu Su, in Xuzhou, where he had been a humble man but had a flood of talented people, he could be regarded as a veteran of Liu Bei and his son after two years in the government.
Liang Guo’s newly appointed Prime Minister, former Yuzhou farewell, Huang Jiu, a local celebrity and big landowner in Liang Guo, became the focus of Liu Bei’s introduction to Liu Feng.
Huang is a very typical scholar. He has an upright character, hates evil, and is an honest official. He often distributes grain to relieve disasters, builds bridges and roads, and comforts the orphans and widows in the local area, which makes him popular among the people of Liang State. The reputation is very high.
According to the Three Mutual Laws, Huang Jiu cannot actually serve as the governor of Liang State. Now Liu Bei temporarily invites him to serve as the prime minister of Liang State in order to appease people's hearts.
It could take as little as half a year, or at most a year. After people settle down, Huang will definitely be transferred to another official position.
In fact, the most important reason why Liu Bei and his son insisted on letting Huang Ji serve as the Prime Minister of Liang was to appease Guo Gong.
Guo Gong himself is a famous scholar in Yuzhou. He serves as the governor of Yuzhou. This itself violates the Three Mutual Laws, so Guo Gong does not value this law very much.
On the contrary, Huang took this very seriously and even declined twice at the beginning. But in order not to destroy the friendly relationship between them, Liu Bei made an exception to persuade the other party, making Huang feel aggrieved.
Huang Ju's previous official career ended in Shang County. Now he can serve as a county governor and prime minister, which is of great benefit to his career. Even if he is transferred in the future, it will only be an official position of two thousand dan.
Huang was also very curious about Liu Feng. Moreover, he was already a general with various titles conferred by the imperial court, and he also had the honor of being one of the three nobles and founding a government. In terms of status, he really couldn't keep up with him.
So, Huang Jiu kept his attitude very low. He was just upright, not stupid.
After being polite, the relationship between the two parties improved slightly, and Liu Bei took Liu Feng into the governor's house.
After arriving in the hall, Liu Feng reported everything that happened along the way to Liu Bei in detail. Especially the situation in Luozhong, this is also the focus of Liu Bei and the others.
After all, for the Xuzhou Army, wiping out the Yingchuan Yellow Turbans was just a matter of effort, and the difference was nothing more than the size of the victory. But the situation in Luozhong cannot be completely solved by force.
Li Jue and Guo Si were so domineering at the beginning. One kidnapped the emperor and used him as a human shield, and the other kidnapped the three ministers and nine ministers as meat tickets.
The Xiliang Army under their command can be regarded as the elite of this era. Not only are they extremely rich in combat experience, but they also have a large number of cavalry and extremely luxurious equipment. They have inherited more than half of the armored weapons in the entire Eastern Han Dynasty.
But what about the end?
After all this trouble, the emperor still returned eastward and successfully escaped from their hands.
At the moment, the emperor still has some unsteady foothold. Once the emperor gains a foothold in Luozhong, the next step will definitely be to attack and destroy Li Jue and Guo Si. These two people seem to be strong, but in fact they are already destroyed.
When he heard that Liu Feng had roped in Yang Feng, Han Xian and Zhang Yang and asked them to farm in Luozhong and respect the emperor at the same time, Liu Bei showed a satisfied smile, stroked his beard and sighed: "Now the emperor returns to Luozhong and lives in Luozhong. The Imperial City, this is a sign of resurgence."
Lu Su glanced at Liu Feng, smiled and nodded: "What Ming Gong said is true, but the princes in the country have risen together, Yuan Benchu in Hebei, and Yuan Gonglu in Huainan. Gongsun Zan of Youzhou, Liu Jingsheng of Jingzhou, and Liu Jiyu of Yizhou are all heroes, occupying the prefectures and counties, and controlling the place. The emperor may not be able to leave Luozhong."
After hearing Lu Su's words, Liu Bei also sighed. He said: "What Zijing said is exactly what worries me."
Huang cupped his hands towards Liu Bei and said: "The world is like this, why should Ming Gong blame himself? On the contrary, there is Ming Gong who is so loyal to Liu Bei." In the imperial court, it is rare for Fang Bo to be diligent and caring for the people. Because of this, Fang Bocai should cheer up and win over the emperor. Yan, refreshed, nodded towards Huang.
After chatting for a few words, Lu Su and Huang had official business to attend to, and they also saw that Liu Bei and his son had other private matters to discuss, so they stood up and left one after another.
Before leaving, Lu Su glanced at Liu Feng, which made Liu Feng a little confused.
When Lu Su and Huang left, both father and son obviously became more relaxed.
"This time you went north to King Qin and achieved great success. Even my father thanked you for your blessing and was promoted to General of Hussars. How do you think my father should thank you?"
< br>Liu Bei looked at him with a half-smile, obviously there was something behind his words.
Liu Feng suddenly remembered that he had impersonated Liu Bei and wrote to Yuan Shao, accusing Cao Cao of being unfaithful.
Before Liu Feng went north to visit King Qin, Liu Bei was worried because he was far away, so he specially stamped the seal of Xuzhou Prefecture Mu on several blank pieces of silk, so that Liu Feng could act quickly.
It turns out that Liu Feng did take power in a hurry, but he only used it to write informant letters.
After Liu Bei received Yuan Shao's letter, he was a little confused at first, but after thinking about it carefully, didn't this help him find the culprit?
Seeing his old father's attitude of asking for justice, Liu Feng quickly explained: "Father, the child is not..."
"Okay, okay."
Before Liu Feng could explain, Liu Bei interrupted him with his hands: "As a father, I don't really blame you. Do you want to say that Cao Mengde also wrote to Yuan Benchu? Are you trapping us?"
Liu Feng looked at Liu Bei in surprise, not expecting that the other party could guess this.
Liu Bei laughed: "My father has known Meng De for more than ten years. I still don't know what his character is?"
"This man has a contradictory nature and a magnificent and generous spirit. , but he is also suspicious and jealous; his character is jealous of evil, but he is also cunning and deceitful.”
Liu Bei sighed: "In terms of talents, my father is really not as good as him."
Immediately, Liu Bei saw his eldest son again, suddenly laughed, and said very proudly: "But Meng De "My son is probably not as good as my Qilin'er."
Leng Buding's father made a fuss, which made Liu Fengguai feel a little embarrassed.
However, after this small talk, the sense of unfamiliarity that had not been seen for a while has completely disappeared.
“Father, it’s time for us to turn our attention to Yangzhou.”
Liu Feng took the initiative to bring up the business: "The child originally wanted to recommend his second uncle as the governor of Xuzhou and take charge of Xuzhou for his father, so that his father could personally supervise Yuzhou. But now it seems that my second uncle will have to stay in Yingchuan for a while."
Although Yuzhou and Xuzhou are both state-level administrative units, Yuzhou is superior to Xuzhou in terms of territory, population, and economy.
At its peak, one Yuzhou could equal three Xuzhous.
Moreover, Yuzhou is also a gathering place for talents. In the future, the Henan faction, the backbone of the Cao Wei regime, and its core members, the Ying and Ru clans, were all Yuzhou scholars. If Cheng Yu and other Yanzhou nobles hadn't joined the party, the Henan faction could even have been renamed the Yuzhou faction.
But even so, Yanzhou scholars are still lower than Yuzhou scholars. No matter in terms of reputation, ability, or quantity, they cannot be compared with Yuzhou scholars.
For such an important place, the only way to go is for Liu Bei to take charge personally and digest it slowly.
As for his third uncle, Liu Feng wanted him to serve as the governor of a county in Yuzhou.
"Go south to Yangzhou."
Liu Bei hesitated: "Now that the army has just finished sweeping Yingchuan and has not returned to the state, is Zi Shengqian too impatient?"
Liu Feng had to be impatient. It was already the first year of Jian'an. In three years, Yuan Benchu would unify Hebei.
Liu Bei must rectify and digest the two states of Yu and Yang within these three years, at least to consolidate them to the level of Xuzhou today.
Therefore, the sooner we go south to Yangzhou, the better.
"Father, Yuan Benchu was in Hebei. Uncle Gongsun killed the former Grand Sima. He was so cruel and tyrannical that he had long been abandoned by the people of Hebei. He was no match for Yuan Benchu."
Liu Feng advised: "Although King Qin used a large army to move thousands of miles north this time, the battle was not stressful. The casualties of the troops were very small. With a little reorganization, they can go south and cross the river."
"My father now has the power of governor of Yangzhou. Now when he crosses the river, the people in the east of the Yangtze River will have to eat pots of milk to meet the king's army. Sun Ce, the young general under Yuan Shu, inherited the bravery of his father, Sun Polu, and is quite good at fighting. If he is allowed to go to the east of the Yangtze River, If you wreak havoc, you may lose the popularity of Jiangdong people."
Liu Feng's words are reasonable and well-founded, and Liu Bei has been moved by them.
The most important thing is that now is indeed the best time to go south to Jiangdong.
At this time, Liu Bei had the power of governor of Yangzhou endorsed by the central court. Not only could he openly seduce the Zhou, Lu, Gu, Zhu and other Jiangdong clans, but the other party would definitely be happy to accept Liu Bei's recruitment.
With Liu Bei's current advantage, even Zhou Yu would be tempted by him, let alone others.
"Then how many men and horses do you plan to use to cross the river?"
Liu Bei also has a heroic temperament. After making a decision, he went straight to the topic: "Right now, my father is the governor of three states, especially Yuzhou, which is vast and densely populated. There are too many yellow scarves. If you don’t have a heavy army to guard it, I’m afraid I won’t be able to allocate many troops to you.”
“You don’t need too many, thirty thousand people are enough!”
Liu Feng had already made up his mind. , and immediately presented in front of him: "Teacher Taishi can be the deputy general. Xu Sheng, Pan Zhang, Gao Shun, Jia Kui, Xu Huang, and He Luan's troops, plus six thousand naval troops, will be enough."
Taishi Ci, Xu Sheng, and Pan Zhang all had four thousand troops, Gao Shun had two thousand, Zhang Liao had two thousand, Xu Huang had two thousand, Jia Kui had one thousand, He Luan had three thousand, and the naval forces of Zhou Tai, Jiang Qin, and Dong Xi , Gan Ning's four tribes, six thousand people, plus Zhao Yun's troops guarding Guangling, the total number is 32,000.
"Thirty thousand people are enough?"
Liu Bei said angrily: "Now there are only more than 80,000 people in Xuzhou. This still includes Liang Guojun soldiers. You have almost exhausted all the elites. How should other places be guarded? ? "
"Father, there are allies all along the border. Only Yuan Shu threatens the south of Runan. But after the child crosses the river, Yuan Shu will definitely be restrained by the child. "
Liu Feng. He said with a smile: "Besides, the child came back this time and brought 20,000 Yellow Turban surrender soldiers. My father can select elites from among them to expand, and after the remaining ones are dispersed, they can be sent to farm."
"Twenty thousand Yellow Turban surrender soldiers?" ”
Liu Bei came to his senses. In the battle of Yingchuan, he heard that he had captured 40,000 to 50,000 prisoners. Now he has taken 20,000 directly. It will also help the stability of Yingchuan, and at the same time, it can also solve the problem of young men when the Xuzhou army continues to expand. shortage problem.
In this way, the expansion of Xuzhou's army will not affect local agricultural production. The 20,000 Yellow Turbans seem to be a lot of people, so they can select their elites, break them up and integrate them into the 80,000 Xuzhou Army. , these Yellow Turbans will inevitably lose contact and be digested by the Xuzhou Army, instead of becoming as big as Cao Cao's Qingzhou Army.
“If we want to expand the army, how much should it be expanded by?”
Liu Bei frowned, clasped his fingers and said, “Where should the money and food come from?”
Liu Feng He had a comprehensive idea about this and immediately replied: "It can be divided into several steps. The Yingchuan area can be expanded to two thousand people. Most of them will be recruited from local civilians in Yingchuan, and a small number will be selected from the remaining Yellow Turban soldiers. , In this way, the 8,000 men of the Second Uncle and his son in Yingchuan, plus the 2,000 men of He Yi, are safe. The money and food captured in Yingchuan will be enough to support the expansion of the Second Uncle's army. "
This time Liu Feng captured a large amount of food and treasure in Yingchuan. In less than a month, he consumed very little, leaving a large amount of loot.
But it is quite inconvenient to transport these money, silk and grain to Xuzhou, and the cost consumed on the road will be astonishing.
In this case, it would be more cost-effective to simply recruit and raise troops in Yingchuan.
Liu Feng continued: "Besides, father, Yingchuan is located above Runan and is connected by Yingshui and Rushui. When the time comes, my father will go south from Pei Kingdom and let his second uncle go east from Yingchuan. The army joins forces in the south of Runan. Not only can they take over the entire territory of Runan, but they can also work together to expel Yuan Shu's influence from Yuzhou."
Hearing this, Liu Bei hesitated for a moment, and then turned over the table to find it. Open the map of Yuzhou and lay it out on the desk, then look at it carefully.
Hiss...
After reading it, Liu Bei couldn't help but gasped.
According to Liu Feng's plan, Liu Bei's speed and efficiency in capturing Runan will increase several times. On the contrary, the food logistics loss will be reduced several times.
This is entirely because Liu Feng established an advanced base with logistical supply capabilities for the Xuzhou Army in the northeast of Runan.
Guan Yu's army currently has a strength of 10,000, and he can recruit another 10,000 from the Yellow Turbans and Yingchuan civilians anytime and anywhere.
An army of 20,000 people is advancing from west to east towards central Runan, but Xuzhou does not have to worry about its logistics at all. Is there anything better than this?
He raised his head and looked at his eldest son in surprise: "Have you planned this for a long time?"
Liu Feng was stunned for a moment, then he realized it after a moment and shouted loudly He called Qu and said: "How is this possible? How can I get to this point? This time I went south to Yingchuan. I just wanted to seize the Yingchuan Yellow Turban before General Cao Yan..."
"General He wanted to set up farming in Yingchuan, but the population of Yanzhou was obviously insufficient. The local Yellow Turban Army and the remaining population in Yingchuan naturally became the best target for the general's farming. "
In order to explain clearly, Liu Feng did not hesitate to kill him. All his plans came out: "My child wanted to raid Yingchuan first, rob all the people, and leave only the land to the general. In this way, we can strengthen Xuzhou's strength and weaken the general's." Foundation.”
Liu Bei was stunned when he heard this. He didn't know why, but his grown-up son had such strong opinions on his good friend. He targeted him at every turn and was always on guard.
Recalling Liu Feng's words and deeds before, Liu Bei didn't know it at first, but later he noticed a little bit, and he just thought that Liu Feng was disgusted with Cao Cao's two massacres of Xuzhou, so he specifically targeted him.
But looking at it now, my judgment is still different. My big brother almost regards Cao Mengde as his life-and-death enemy.
"What do you mean to the general..."
Liu Bei looked at the elder with complicated eyes, and stopped mid-sentence.
After a while, Liu Bei shook his head and said: "Forget it."
"You just came back and you are tired. Go down and have a rest first."
Liu Bei looked at Liu Feng with a look on his face. Dusty said with distressed concern in his eyes: "Clean up first, then take a good rest. If you have any questions, we'll talk about it tomorrow."
Liu Feng was indeed tired at the moment after trekking all the way.
Besides, he also saw that Liu Bei seemed to be in a low mood at this time and was not very interested in talking.
So Liu Feng listened to Liu Bei's advice and decided to discuss it tomorrow.
It just so happens that tonight I can sort out my thoughts after starting from Chen Guo and turn them into a mature plan.
After saying goodbye, Liu Bei personally sent his son out of the hall, and then looked up at the sky.
After a long time, he sighed.
At this moment, Liu Bei had no intention of usurping the Han family.
Although the influence of the Xuzhou Group currently controlled by Liu Bei has penetrated into the five prefectures of Qing, Henan, Yang, Yan, and Sili, Liu Bei still thinks about how to protect the environment and the people.
Liu Feng's non-stop expansion of power and his rare positive and strong driving force made Liu Bei a little surprised and even a little uneasy.
Liu Feng didn't know this. He returned to the small courtyard that Liu Bei had arranged for him to clean and rest.
After cleaning, Liu Feng put on his pajamas and was about to take a nap when he suddenly heard his bodyguard coming to report that Lu Su wanted to see him.
Liu Feng was a little surprised, but immediately changed his clothes and asked his guards to invite Lu Su into the room for a detailed discussion.
(End of this chapter)