Chapter 261 Preparing for Natural Disasters
When Liu Feng thought about the severe drought that would last for two years starting next year, Liu Feng couldn't help but feel his teeth.
Previously, Liu Feng was reluctant to attack Yuan Shu. When discussing the strategic direction with Liu Bei, Lu Su, Liu Ye, Chen Deng and others, he always emphasized conquering Jiangdong first and then taking Jiangbei. The fundamental reason is this The drought lasted for more than two years.
At that time, Liu Bei only had four counties in Xuzhou, and Pengcheng was a white land. Although grain output had increased significantly through Liu Feng's tireless farming, encouragement of mulberry farmers, and sinking management.
But this increase in grain can only be said to be a drop in the bucket in the face of the severe drought in Huaisi.
Liu Feng had the heart to save people, but he had no ability to save them, so he could only reluctantly choose to give up.
But now the situation is completely different. Over the past year or so, Xuzhou’s farming has received greater impetus, and hundreds of thousands of refugees have been resettled.
The tax contribution of these refugees is almost worth millions.
There are just a few reasons. The first and most important point is that there are no middlemen.
These refugees were resettled by Xuzhou in Pengcheng, Xiapi, Donghai and other counties. There were large areas of uninhabited land and enough land to accommodate them, but there was no exploitation by the local gentry.
In this way, even though the nominal tax is heavier than that of private households, in fact their burden is lighter.
Secondly, the managers of these refugees are all selected by Liu Feng, and they are controlled by Liu Feng. The data on money and food output are true and effective, which undoubtedly eliminates another layer of exploitation.
The most important thing is that most of these refugees are able to survive until now, and most of them are strong young people, who are precious labor forces. Investing in them can get immediate returns, and it is extremely generous.
In addition to the large output brought by the refugees, the Yangtze River trade between Jingzhou and Xuzhou also brought a large grain surplus.
The frosted sugar, snow salt, salted fish, kelp, pearls, etc. sold in Xuzhou are all products with extremely high profits, strong sales, and wide market.
Especially the two flagship products, frosting sugar and snow salt, are both love-hate and love-hate for Liu Biao.
While these two things brought a large amount of food to Xuzhou, they also sent a steady stream of goods to Liu Biao's private treasury.
In fact, when Liu Biao learned that Liu Bei was worshiped as a hussar general by the emperor and entrusted with the important task of supervising the affairs of Xu, Yu, and Yangzhou, he became afraid and wanted to cut off the export of grain. .
But the problem is that Liu Biao wanted to cut off the export of grain, but he was unwilling to part with Xuzhou's various commodities.
But Xuzhou only needs food.
Of course, Xuzhou does not want everything else. If Jingzhou is willing to provide important strategic materials such as iron armor, farm tools, equipment, weapons, medicinal materials, and war horses, Xuzhou is also willing to exchange.
Compared with food, the things mentioned above are undoubtedly more important.
How can anyone give up something more precious and important for the sake of food?
Isn’t this just abandoning the basics and chasing the last?
In the end, looking at the treasures and treasures that were constantly being sent into the treasury, as well as the armor and weapons, rare and rare treasures that these treasures could buy, Liu Biao finally failed to make up his mind to cut off this trade route. .
In fact, it is not that Liu Biao has never tried it. He used the excuse of lack of food to suppress the trading volume.
Then he was shocked to find that the trading volume he gave up was eaten up by Kuai and Huang in an instant.
As a result, Liu Biao was angry and anxious, but there was nothing he could do.
The Kuai family controlled all the officials in Jingzhou. Without the assistance of the Kuai family, Liu Biao would have problems even collecting taxes.
As for the Huang family, it’s even worse.
Whether it is from the perspective of friendship or the length of cooperation, the Huang family is undoubtedly a latecomer.
Before Liu Biao entered Jingzhou, the Huang family, as a native of Jingzhou, had an ordinary relationship with him and had no deep friendship. And unlike the Kuai family and Cai family, the Huang family had its own spokesperson at the center of the court, and that was Huang Wan.
Huang Wan was actually quite powerful, and his great-grandfather was Huang Xiang, one of the twenty-four filial piety "Fan Pillow and Warm Quilt".
When Huang Xiang was only nine years old, he knew the principle of family relations and became famous in the capital. He was called "Unparalleled in the world, Huang Xiang of Jiangxia".
With this short sentence, you can see how powerful the Huang family was at that time.
A nine-year-old child, who fanned his father and warmed the bed, became famous in Luoyang and was called unparalleled in the world.
The status of the Huang family among the noble clans is evident, especially their influence in Jiangxia, which is even more deeply rooted and terrifyingly strong.
Therefore, after Liu Biao entered Xiangyang, he also established a relationship with the Huang family through the intermediaries of the Kuai, Cai, and Pang families. The leader at that time was Huang Zu.
Huang Zu not only shot Sun Jian and saved Liu Biao's life, but now he also took control of Jiangxia, and his navy was the strongest in the world.
The Yangtze River waterways are all under the control of the Huang family. Do you dare to say anything if I take your cake?
Not to mention that you took the initiative to give this cake away because you thought it was too delicious.
Having no choice but to swallow this bitter pill, Liu Biao continued to maintain the deal with Xuzhou.
This also made Xuzhou's granary increasingly full, giving Liu Feng greater strategic space.
At the same time, Liu Bei was able to supervise the affairs of the three states of Xu, Yu, and Yang, which meant that Liu Bei could collect taxes and allocate grain from Jiangdong and northern Henan.
Such a large increase gave Liu Feng the confidence to save the people of Huaisi.
In addition, in fact, the two counties of Lujiang and Jiujiang are not short of water.
There are three large lakes, two tributaries, the Huai River and the Yangtze River in Jiujiang County.
The severe drought that swept across Huaisi, Jiujiang, Jiujiang, southern Peiguo and southern Runan was not only a natural disaster, but also a man-made disaster.
Liu Feng felt that as long as he relied on these large rivers and lakes to repair water conservancy, even if he could not completely avoid drought, he could at least greatly alleviate drought and disasters.
The Huaisi area has a population of one million, fertile land and numerous rivers, making it a fertile land.
But after experiencing this severe drought, Huaisi became a hell on earth, with a population of more than one million barely surviving.
After Cao Cao went south, he began to carry out large-scale demolition and moved away tens of thousands of people, forcing the remaining tens of thousands of people to go south to defect to Sun Quan.
This sacred land of Huaisi has become an 800-mile no-man's land, and it has also become the largest main battlefield between Wei and Wu.
The two sides have been fighting here for decades, and the number of wars involving more than 100,000 people has reached double digits, which can be called the most among the Three Kingdoms.
One of the most dazzling generals among the Three Kingdoms, Sun Zhongmou, King of Wei and Wu, established his world-famous reputation here.
The Sun family has the Yangtze River as its support and can allow Huaisi to become a white land.
But for Xuzhou, Huaisike has become a close confidant and a granary in the rear.
As long as they can survive this hurdle, these two counties will immediately become the foundation of Liu Bei and his son.
You must know that decades later, after receiving the full support of Sima Yi, Deng Ai only built Guangcao Canal and Baichi Canal on the bank of Shapi Lake in Jiujiang County. The canals connected Yingshui and Huaishui, and irrigated Not only do we have 20,000 hectares of farmland, but we also have more than 300 miles of water transportation routes, which is a double the result with half the effort.
What’s more important is that the annual tribute of these fields is three million shi of grain. Although it is the Cao-style farming method of 82 Kai, for a kind-hearted man like Liu Bei, as long as he has the choice, he will definitely not I received such a heavy one.
Historically, when Liu Bei was in Xuzhou, Yuzhou and Xinye, tax rates were relatively light. It was not until after Red Cliff, without Liu Biao's assistance and the army expanded on a large scale, that taxes began to be increased.
Based on Liu Bei's current tax policy, if calculated based on the farming system, this part of the grain should be able to earn two million shi. If calculated based on the household system, it would be much less, probably only about one million dan.
The difference between the two is hundreds of thousands of stones.
But no matter which one it is, it means that Xuzhou can harvest millions of shi of food, tens of millions of dollars of wealth, and more human resources for a population of one million.
Liu Feng is willing to fight for the sake of the people of Huaisi and the foundation of the Liu family.
One of Liu Feng's great confidence was the upgrade of water conservancy facilities such as waterwheels and rollovers.
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were actually crude versions of waterwheels and rollovers, but in terms of efficacy and performance, they were far from comparable to the drafts Liu Feng produced.
What Liu Feng brought out was the Song Dynasty Dacheng version of the water wheel and rollover wheel. It used an axle gear system and could be used continuously in relays.
When two waterwheels are connected in relay, the water diversion height can even reach forty feet.
In addition, during the development process, Liu Feng also emphasized the hope that it would be easy to assemble and that the parts should be of the same mold as much as possible so that the parts of the basic version can be used universally.
Don't think that this is a very difficult thing. The parts of this era are far from the high-precision ones of the later industrial era. It is actually not difficult to do this. As long as you pay attention to the dimensions when doing it, there will be no problem at all.
After inspecting the water conservancy facilities such as the waterwheel and the overturned truck, Liu Feng was quite satisfied. The craftsman surnamed Zhou who was in charge of the waterwheel project also gave a high-scoring answer.
The next step is to vigorously promote the water diversion irrigation system with water wheels and rollovers as the core in Xuzhou. On the one hand, it can continue to increase Xuzhou’s local grain production, and at the same time, it can also train a professional team. Water conservancy engineering team.
After the war begins in the second half of the year, this team will start building water conservancy facilities in the areas occupied by the Xuzhou Army while ensuring safety.
"Ah Yin did a very good job."
Trebuchet still needs to leave the city the day after tomorrow to check the actual combat situation, but there is indeed no problem with the water conservancy facilities.
Xian Yuyin was very happy to receive Liu Feng's approval, while Liu Fa and others showed envy.
But they are not jealous. On the one hand, they are all orphans adopted by Liu Feng, and they have a good relationship with each other. And they are not very old. Although they have begun to come into contact with power, they have not changed, or not completely changed.
On the other hand, everyone has different divisions of labor, and they are very confident in the things they are responsible for. Xian Yuyin was awarded Liu Feng's award, but Liu Feng happened to be the first to check this part of his work.
In the afternoon of the same day, Liu Feng continued to hold a meeting with the teenagers from Liu Erying, demanding that four to six water conservancy construction teams of more than 600 people must be established. Each team must include 20 to 30 craftsmen to ensure that they can be managed. A team of farmers with less than 10,000 people.
Liu Fa immediately accepted the order and promised to make a plan within a week and submit it to Liu Feng for review.
Liu Feng is making intensive preparations, planning to destroy Yuan Shu in one fell swoop and swallow up Yangzhou.
Sun Ce of Yangzhou happened to be talking about his neighbor to the north.
At this time, Sun Ce was sitting high in the hall, and his generals were sitting below.
The first person on the left hand is naturally his uncle Wu Jing, and the first person on the right hand is Sun Ce's cousin Xu Kun.
The Soochow of later generations did respect the right, but that only started from the era of King Wu of the Wei Dynasty.
At this moment, it is still the same as mainstream society, where the left is respected.
Below Wu Jing and Xu Kun, there are veterans and new players such as Cheng Pu, Huang Gai, and Chen Wu.
After a winter's rest, the strength of Sun Ce's ministries has been improved to a certain extent.
Jiangdong's current total military strength has exceeded 20,000, among which Wu Jing's troops are the strongest, with more than 7,000 troops, accounting for almost one-third of the total.
The second is Xu Kun. He also transferred the rest of his troops from Li Yang. Together with the new soldiers Sun Ce gave him, the number reached 4,000.
The rest are the troops directly controlled by Sun Ce, including Cheng Pu, Huang Gai, Chen Wu and other new small army leaders, more than 10,000 people.
The remaining Sun family army, led by Sun Bi, continued to be stationed in Liyang and confronted Liu Yao's army in Niuzhu.
Sun Ce gathered people together this time, mainly to discuss the trends after the beginning of spring.
Now that the weather has begun to warm up, if Sun Jiajun wants to continue to develop in Jiangdong, expansion is imperative.
"Let's talk about it, what should we do next?"
Sun Ce's face was calm and his expression was calm. There was nothing strange about him, but he was actually quite restless inside. .
Originally, from the second half of last year to the winter, Xuzhou made no southward movement. It only sent two thousand people across the river and stationed in Jiangcheng County.
This made Sun Ce a little happy, thinking that Xuzhou was playing with fire and burning himself.
Sun Ce felt that the reason why Xuzhou did not send a large army across the river was because he wanted him to expand in Jiangdong, so as to put pressure on the local forces in Jiangdong and Liu Yao to make greater concessions to Xuzhou.
In fact, what Sun Ce thought was not wrong, but it was impossible for him to guess that there was cheating in Xuzhou.
Liu Feng could guess his inner thoughts and subsequent actions with his eyes open. What's even easier is that with the current situation in Jiangdong, Sun Ce has almost no possibility of changing the historical trend.
Sun Ce's only way out is to go south and defeat Xu Gong's remaining army first, and then attack Kuaiji.
If he dares to turn around and return to the north of Danyang, he will immediately be besieged from all sides. Xuzhou will never sit back and watch Sun Ce eat Liu Yao.
The only possibility of turning back and heading west is for Zhou Yu to persuade Zhou Shang to rebel, and then attack from three sides. Only in this way can Liu Yao be defeated in the shortest possible time, leaving Guangling and Jiang Cheng's Xuzhou army unable to rescue the other party.
But even so, the Xuzhou Army was still able to plant a nail in the north of Danyang, and Sun Ce still could not stabilize the rear. However, his opponent changed from Liu Yao to the Xuzhou Army who was stronger and more capable.
So Sun Ce still prefers to continue going south, but the current situation makes Sun Ce worry about whether he will lose worse if he goes south.
This is the key reason why he summoned everyone to discuss.
As soon as Sun Ce finished speaking, the hall fell into silence again. Everyone in the hall either looked at other people's expressions or remained silent, but no one wanted to speak.
A flash of violence flashed between Sun Ce Yingwu's brows, but he suppressed it immediately.
After a while, Cheng Pu said hesitantly: "Pu thinks it is best for us to follow the plan we made before and defeat Xu Gong's remaining soldiers first, and then go south to Kuaiji."
Cheng Pu opened his mouth, and Huang Gai immediately followed him: "What brother Demou said is true, and Gai thinks so too."
The reason why Huang Gai is so strange His performance was really because his situation was quite embarrassing.
Huang Gai's identity is actually completely different from that of Sun Jian, Cheng Pu, Zu Mao, and Han Dang. His background is much stronger than the other three.
Huang Gai is a true descendant of the Huang family and the backbone of the Lingling branch.
Cheng Pu was just a son of a good family in the North, Zu Mao was an old man beside Sun Jian, and Han Dang had an even lower status, as he was a military slave.
You must know that Huang Gai is a real Lingling Ju Xiaolian.
Therefore, during Sun Jian's era, Huang Gai's status was actually far superior to the other three. He was capable of both literary and military skills and was one of Sun Jian's important assistants.
But what’s embarrassing now is also because his surname is Huang.
Sun Jian died in Huang Zu's ambush, and Huang Zu's Huang and Huang Gai's Huang were really one family.
Huang Gai and Huang Zu are really distant relatives.
Can this yellow lid not be waxed?
Huang Gai has such an old qualification, he is also a civilized and military man, and he was born as a filial and honest person.
But in the era of Sun Ce and Sun Quan, not only was Cheng Pu overtaken by Cheng Pu, but Han Dang was even above him, which shows how ugly his situation was.
Why would Huang Gai choose to surrender to Cao Cao in the future?
Isn’t it because it would be very reasonable for him to surrender?
Huang Gai's current situation is very bad. Sun Jian's death has caused the generals within the Sun family to keep a certain distance from him.
That is, Cheng Pu, Han Dang and a few other old guys still maintain a good relationship with him.
Therefore, although Huang Gai tried his best to persuade Sun Ce to continue going south and not waver, the embarrassing situation determined that he was the least suitable person to speak first.
After hearing this, Sun Ce smiled at Cheng Pu and Huang Gai and nodded to show comfort.
After Cheng Pu and Huang Gai spoke one after another, the atmosphere in the hall became a little more lively.
The rising star Chen Wu followed closely and said: "If we go south, we need to beware of Yan Baihu from the west of Quan. The Yan brothers are bandits from Wu County, with a crowd of more than ten thousand, and they have an irreversible friendship with Xu Gong. If Wu Yi's army goes south, he will come to rescue Xu Gong, so we must be on guard."
Brother Yan Baihu is from Wucheng, Wu County. He is very powerful in Wucheng County and has won the hearts of the people. If he led troops to rescue Xu Gong, it would definitely bring a lot of trouble to Sun Ce's army.
When Wu Jing, Xu Kun, Cheng Pu, Huang Gai, Han Dang and others heard this, they all nodded in agreement.
Only Sun Ce was sitting in the main seat and seemed to be distracted.
Wu Jing and others looked at each other, not knowing how to react for a moment.
Soon, Sun Ce came to his senses and took the initiative to speak: "Gentlemen, if I can't wait to go south, how about we go west with all our strength and capture Liu Yao?"
Sun Ce These words were like a stone stirring up a thousand waves, instantly shocking everyone in the hall.
(End of this chapter)