Chapter 851 Light
The little girl of the Cao family has a distinguished status.
But in such an era, in such troubled times, she is insignificant, even just a symbol, a symbol.
For the scholars and people of Xuzhou, Cao's daughter was a victory and the object of their hatred. For the scholars and people of Qingzhou, Cao's daughter was another kind of humiliation.
But in any case, these are not decisions that Cao's daughter can make, nor are they what she wants.
She longed to be like the wild geese that could fly to the south, or be like the swimming fish that could dive into the water.
But perhaps Cao's daughter didn't know that her future husband, Chen Deng, who was regarded as the hero in Xuzhou, could not actually control his own destiny.
For example, Chen Deng was not willing to get married this time because he already had the love of his life, Mi Ji. But the situation is like this, Qingxu alliance is the general trend.
What can Chen Deng object to? Why should we object?
Is your so-called "happiness" of Chen Deng as important as the Han Dynasty? Personal happiness? Stop saying such childish things.
Therefore, Chen Deng compromised and finally decided to marry the Cao family daughter.
……
At this time, when Cao's motorcade entered the city, Chen Deng, who was supposed to be waiting in the shogunate of General Zhendong, was not here. He actually took his cronies and staff out of the city for an autumn outing.
Choosing to go to autumn at such a time may not be a way to avoid Cao's daughter, but more importantly, Chen Deng still wants to have some alone space to think carefully about how Xuzhou should go in the future.
Unlike his peers who loved singing, dancing and feasting, Chen Deng developed the habit of self-examination and introspection very early on.
He believes that when you get up early every morning, you should be alone for a moment and think over what you did yesterday to see if there are any mistakes or omissions, and then think about what you have to do today and what else you need to prepare.
It is this habit of fixed thinking every morning that enables Chen Deng to gain huge support from interpersonal relationships.
Give a clear role.
Since Chen Deng became aware of how to treat people when he was twelve years old, he would record the people and things he met every day. After that, whenever the temperature was kept at room temperature, when he met this person again, he would always naturally talk about the meeting that day. .
Who can stand this kind of treatment?
A son of a public family, from a famous family in Jianghuai, can actually remember the name of an unknown person like me. Not only can he remember the name, but he can also remember the scene when we met.
Who wouldn't be excited about this? That's just bowing down.
No wonder, Chen Deng was able to win the reputation of "the spirit of the lake and the sea" at a young age. He is really able to attract people from all over the world.
It is precisely because of this habit that even though he is already the leader of a state and his daily life is very busy, he still maintains this habit.
At this time, on the outskirts of Xiapi, on the bank of Surabaya.
The cavalry, chariots and horses behind him fell far behind Chen Deng, leaving Chen Deng himself a wide space.
The beauty of autumn colors has faded, and the power of frost has begun to show itself.
In the early morning, everything is covered with frost, and after the sun comes out, the frost begins to melt; from time to time, you can see groups of farmers driving their fat sheep out to graze, which is the last thing they eat after winter. A meal of fresh grass.
Although there was no resurgence of spring, the intense colors of summer, or the golden glory of autumn, the scene before him still made Chen Deng feel relaxed and happy.
Sure enough, a man should live in a vast world, how can he stay under the door for a long time?
In fact, Chen Deng's behavior today was very unusual in the eyes of the generals behind him.
It seems that the lord is really happy about something big today, otherwise he would not show his emotions like this, which would be quite rude.
Yes, Chen Deng did receive two happy events today.
The first thing that happened was that early this morning, Queen Mother He called Chen Deng over and gave Chen Deng the most important national treasure passed down from the Han Dynasty, the Red Emperor's Sword.
Chen Deng had only heard of this Red Emperor's Sword before, but had never seen it before.
It is said that Emperor Gaozu used this sword to kill the White Snake. Therefore, since the founding of the Han Dynasty, this sword has been enshrined in the Ancestral Temple and passed down as the most important treasure of the Han family.
At this time, the Empress Dowager He gave Chen Deng such important tools of the country, and its meaning is naturally self-evident.
The second good news is that Sun Jian from the south finally decided to join the remaining Han court represented by Chen Deng. Not only did he send troops to support, but he also sent an envoy to cross the river to Xiapi to meet the Queen Mother He.
With the support of the largest force in the south, the Han Dynasty's exile regime here in Chen Deng gained some confidence.
In the eyes of the empire, including the exiled ministers of the imperial court, the south was a barren land filled with people who only drank blood.
The reason why Queen Mother He stopped at the Yangtze River may not be without this reason.
Everyone knows that after arriving in the south, life will not be easy for a few days under the smog.
But as a native of Lipu, Chen Deng was on the bank of the Yangtze River. He understood better than those people that the south at this time was no longer what it was like in the pre-Han Dynasty.
For the empire, the so-called south refers to the vast area south of the Qinling Mountains-Huaihe River line and east of the Hengduan Mountains. For a long time, this place has been on the edge of the civilized world.
The reason is very simple, that is, the excessively abundant animal and plant resources in the south have greatly reduced the necessity of agricultural production, and it is too difficult for a nascent civilization to open up fields and establish irrigation systems in the vast forests.
Although there were later large countries in the south that could compete with the Central Plains, such as Chu, Wu, and Yue, these countries were more the result of interactions with the Central Plains, and their own degree of development in the south should not be overestimated.
In fact, until the late stages of the war, Jiangdong, where Yangzhou was located, was still regarded as inferior in terms of fertile land. Even Jinzhou, which had been a cultivated land of the Chu State for a long time, only received a middle-grade evaluation.
By the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Sima Qian still described Chu Yue as:
"The land is vast and people want to eat rice and fish, or they can plow the land and plow the water, and the fruits will be as good as cockroaches and clams, and they will be enough without waiting for the merchants. The land is full of food, and there is no risk of hunger. Therefore, they live in poverty without accumulation." Therefore, south of the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, there is no one who is cold or hungry, and there is no one with a rich family.”
In other words, the South at that time still relied on fishing, hunting and gathering. Most of the products obtained through these methods could only feed the stomach and keep warm, and could not accumulate wealth like grains.
And these foods are also very problematic, and most people south of the Yangtze River and Huaihe River will die young.
It can be said that this view was very common among the imperial elites at that time.
In the south, dogs don’t even go.
However, with the chaos in the Central Plains during the Xinmang period, more and more Central Plains people went south to the Central Plains. At the same time, due to the rise of local wealthy families in the south, they also began to pay attention to the water conservancy facilities in the Jiangdong area.
With the inflow of manpower, the enhancement of technology, and the rise of local wealthy families, the entire south has achieved unprecedented development.
In fact, in terms of water and heat conditions, compared with the north, the conditions in the south are too high. And no matter where it is, wherever it can support more people, there will be more and more people there, until it reaches the upper limit of its land capacity.
According to Chen Deng's own family records, the population growth in the south has grown tremendously in the past two hundred years.
According to the last census of this dynasty, among the counties in the south, the population of Danyang County was 630,000; Kuaiji County was 4.8 million; Wu County was 700,000, which is also a large county compared to the Central Plains;
The population of Yuzhang County is 1.66 million, ranking among the highest in the country, far exceeding that of Henan Yin and Yingchuan counties.
And this is only the increase in the population registered in the household registration. It is a well-known fact that the population registered in the household registration belongs to the state, and the rest belongs to you.
The number of people who are dependent on local powerful people is actually more than what is listed on the household registration. Coupled with the people who have fled to the mountains and forests and are called Baiyue, the real population of the south is already quite large.
The increase in population is just a result. Behind it is the fact that the south can finally become a major food production area.
In fact, the imperial court did not realize this until the period of Emperor An, and then twice mobilized rice renters from Yangzhou and Jingzhou on a large scale to provide relief to the Huaihe River Basin and counties further north.
But even so, too many people still underestimate the potential of the South, and think that the South is just a dispensable presence in the arena of hegemony.
But Chen Deng does not belong to this group of people. He attaches great importance to the south. If it were not for the purpose of recovering the lost land in Huaibei, he would definitely place the state government in Guangling to facilitate the attack on the south.
It's a pity that there is another person who has such insight as Chen Deng, and that is Sun Jian.
This talented general who failed in the battlefield of the Central Plains finally set his sights on his hometown after running into obstacles everywhere.
Therefore, Chen Deng was a step too late. Sun Jian had already integrated most of Yangzhou and Yuzhang, so he could no longer be an enemy, but could only be a friend.
In this way, Chen Deng came up with the idea of making an appointment with Sun Jian to cross the Yangtze River for a while.
In fact, Sun Jian also regarded this trip north as a major opportunity.
That is, after all, Chen Deng is still from Jiangbei, and he actually has some filters for the situation in the south.
Different from the mature development system of the Central Plains, the southern civilization at this time was more accurately a point-shaped civilization distributed along the water network.
In an area with dense water networks, after more than two hundred years of development, it has indeed become a land of fish and rice with high yields.
Those who immigrated from the north or registered households in local counties and counties basically occupied the areas with the best agricultural conditions in the south, and then established settlements and counties along the waterway transportation lines, and then radiated to the surrounding areas.
But the plains and valleys with these conditions actually occupy only a very small part of the South.
In most southern areas, hills are the most important existence. Maybe ten parts of the land are hills. And this ratio gets higher the further you move toward the southwest.
Those hilly areas with rugged terrain and rocky terrain are completely unworthy of development. The south does not have the manpower to do such land leveling work.
Therefore, the so-called Han civilization in the south is like a few sesame seeds sprinkled on a big cake. They rely on water networks to communicate with each other, but most of them are surrounded by endless hills and mountains.
Therefore, although the entire south is vast, what is truly valuable is the hometown of Wu and Yue on the Jiangdong Plain.
It is precisely for this reason that when Sun Jian successively took control of Wujun, Danyang, northern Kuaiji and other places, he found that he was powerless to control the surrounding areas.
If this time, he cannot take advantage of the opportunity to go north to expand his power and influence to Jiangbei, then Jiangdong will be locked in the desolate south.
The Shanyue people in those hills and mountains are like the pack of wolves in the mountains and forests, coveting the Han people on the plains all the time.
It's not that Sun Jian never thought about attacking these Shanyue and integrating them into households, but it was a pity that it would take a hundred years to complete such a task independently with the size of Jiangdong.
Unless more northerners were able to go south during this process, Sun Jian would have to fight from generation to generation, which would take at least five or six generations.
And what was going on in the world at that time?
Therefore, for Sun Jian, his only chance was to organize and train an elite army after occupying the most fertile land in the six southern counties, and then move out of Jiangdong and enter the Central Plains.
Yes, just like the overlord of Western Chu back then, Jiangdong's future is not in Jiangdong, but outside.
In fact, as long as he is slightly familiar with history, Sun Jian himself has no confidence in the south.
It has been four hundred years since King Qin Yingzheng conquered Liuhe. Have you ever heard of anyone who could achieve success by separatizing Jianghuai for a long time?
Whether it was Yingbu in the early Han Dynasty or the seven kingdoms of Wu and Chu during the reign of Emperor Jingdi, the rioters in the Jianghuai area came and went, so that by the end of Xinmang, all the heroes in the world were vying for supremacy. Even Hexi had separatists, but Jiangdong was like this. place, but not even one family dares to stand out.
From this, we can see the psychological state of the entire southern people.
That is to make things happen in the south, and the best route is Chu Bawang's route.
Therefore, when heading north this time, Sun Jian made many small moves behind his back.
Sun Jian did have loyal thoughts towards the Han Dynasty, but not much.
A genius like him always thinks that his rise is inevitable. He did not get credit because he was appreciated by the Han Dynasty, but he was rewarded after he made meritorious service for the Han Dynasty.
Therefore, for Sun Jian, the relationship with the Han Dynasty was more of a transaction than a gift as advocated by mediocrity.
This time, he sent an envoy north to Xiapi. In addition to sending this year's tribute from Jiangdong to the Queen Mother He, he also had a secret mission.
In this regard, Chen Deng, who thinks he has gained a major ally, is not clear about this.
In the final analysis, he still didn't understand the real south, nor did he understand Sun Jian's character.
At this time, Chen Dengzheng was chatting with a farmer about the harvest of the golden autumn.
Any ambitions and ambitions are based on realistic material foundations. For example, why did Chen Deng have the confidence to hold up the banner of the Han Dynasty? Why did he have the confidence to form an alliance with Qingzhou and Jiangdong as the alliance leader?
Without him, it’s just the rice in his hand.
When the entire Central Plains was short of food due to a severe drought that lasted for three months, Xuzhou did not have to worry about food at all.
Not only because most of the land in Xuzhou is plain and densely covered with water networks, it is originally a land that produces grain.
The more important reason is that this severe drought did not spread to Xuzhou, and the entire Xuzhou achieved a huge harvest this autumn.
What is more puzzling than this practical benefit is the political meaning contained in it:
If there is no drought in Xuzhou, wouldn't it be that Xuzhou, under the leadership of Chen Deng, will have a bright future?