After leaving behind the spoiled Princess Wannian, there was no accident worth mentioning when she returned to Hanzhong.

Li Su took 4,500 troops and 300 large vehicles. He set off from Chang'an on the tenth day of September, arrived at Chencang in the 14th, and arrived at Nanzheng on the 28th. The distance between these two sections was actually about the same, but the second half was the Qinling Mountain Road, so it was three or four times slower than the Weihe River Water Road.

Cai Yong and Cai Yan and his daughter entered Sichuan for the first time. After seeing the scenery of the Qinling Mountains, they couldn't help but sigh, "The land of Nanzheng is really the heavenly prison." Then they became full of poetry and said something about the scenery.

Li Su also followed the response to the situation with a few words, "Ah, it's so dangerous, it's so difficult to reach the sky" - don't think that the ancients said so elegantly. These excuses are actually vulgar words, which is basically equivalent to later generations saying "Damn it! It's so high!"

There was basically no need to bring military rations along the way. They all rely on the imperial edict to go wherever they went. Only on the two hundred miles of mountain road between Chencang and Hechi, the troops had to bring military rations for seven days, because there was no supply point in the middle.

The second half of the mountainous area between Hechi and Mianyang was not very popular when Liu Bei first entered Hanzhong. Fortunately, Liu Bei had already recovered these places before the spring plowing in the early 2009.

Lu Su learned from the experience of Liaodong and organized refugees in the north who escaped the Qiang chaos and war to reclaim land and farm on the spot. Now, some mountain villages have been organized every ten miles. Although mountain irrigation is difficult and high-yield grain crops cannot be planted, by exempting the taxes of the people in the mountainous areas for the first five years, the people can still rely on woodcutting and mountain goods to subsidize.

It was only the end of May when Li Su left. It was not yet the harvest season. It was already September. He was rushing outside and doing business for four months. Along the way, he saw that the harvest was good. Li Su also spent money to ask these people according to Liu Bei's laws to buy supplies and military supplies, or exchange them with salt, and try not to exploit these people who live in villages around the mountain road.

However, the military rations I received were not serious grains and rice, but mountain products such as chestnuts, yams, radishes, and various wild fruits. They could only be bought and eaten immediately and could not be stocked up.

Li Su also found that in these valleys, as long as it is not winter, radishes can account for nearly half of the food rations of the people, which is very difficult, but who can let radishes be planted on slopes? No wonder in history, the white rice was supplied to the famous mountainous countries in Japan. Farmers almost relied on radishes to solve most of their livelihoods. The geographical difficulty of Shu was similar to that of the mountainous areas in Japan, and they naturally chose radishes to serve grain.

When Cai Yong saw this scene, he was very surprised and couldn't help but feel awe:

"The Liufu Jun is really a kind and kind man, and loves the people as much as his son. He actually exempts taxes, labor service for these people who have reclaimed wasteland. Even if the army passes through the border, it does not charge any grain, but only uses salt and iron money to buy grain. In this way, how can Liufu Jun raise military supplies?"

Li Su smiled and explained: "The transportation loss in Shu Road is nowhere else, and the income from expropriation is far better than the income from expropriation, so we should try our best to rest with the people and reduce the transportation of corvee. Four hu of grain was planted in the Hanzhong Basin, and only one hu was left to transport it to Chang'an. Therefore, the value of one hu of grain on the way was far greater than that of one hu of grain in Nanzheng County.

In the future, if we follow the Western Han River Valley and open the "terraces" method on these hillsides where no one originally cultivated, the army can solve some of the military supplies by "going wherever they go" and do not collect them first and make money first? So even if the tax-free encouragement of land reclamation along the river valley and finally spend money to buy them back, the court will not suffer any losses."

After all, Cai Yong was considered to be better among the literati in the late Han Dynasty. After following Li Su's thoughts, he found that it was indeed very reasonable and could not help but praise:

"A virtuous son-in-law is a talent for governing the world. When I arrived at Ba County, I must try to learn from it and make profits from the people. I heard that only Jiangzhou and Yong'an and other counties along the river were relatively open, and Brazil has more floor barbarians than Han people. Those barbarians are not resistant to taxes. If they can come up with a wonderful method to use the power of the barbarians without taxation, they will definitely have great merits."

Li Su casually pointed out: "What's the difficulty? Let the father and son and brothers draw one of the five-degree soldiers to join the army for a long time, and the other four official soldiers will be exempted from taxes and use their relatives' military service to offset taxes, so that they can help raise their relatives' wives and children.

This can greatly reduce the management cost of Banyan Man, and also save the complex loss of levying taxes first and then paying military pay. The barbarians can only stutter and wear food in the army, and they don’t need to reward money if they win a battle. Anyway, they can’t spend much money outside, so they can just reward wine and meat.”

Normally, the merciful king recruits soldiers and draws one soldier for ten households, or even 20 households with less taxes and less taxes. The proportion of "five colleges and draws one soldier" proposed by Li Su is strictly speaking, the proportion is very high.

But we must also see a difference: the ten households and one army of other princes were based on "only those who were in the army themselves were exempt from taxes and labor service", but the other nine households who did not send troops still had to pay taxes and labor service.

Although the tax rate proposed by Li Su has increased several times, it has benefited other relatives and neighbors who have become Baojia and completely exempted their taxes, so the entire taxation team can be saved and the administrative costs can be minimized. This proportion is simple and crude to manage, and it is also in line with the Manzi's bad math and does not like to calculate over and over again. It should have good governance results.

Cai Yong thought something after hearing this, but then realized some problems: "If the barbarians use military service instead of taxes and labor service, wouldn't that mean that they can never subsidize the local government and the court with money and grain? An emperor issued an imperial edict to let Liu Yan return to Beijing, and Shu must have issued an edict. Why would the virtuous son-in-law feel that there are still many wars to fight in the future? What should we do in the year when the soldiers are fine? Isn't it a waste of manpower?"

Li Su shook her head. It seemed that her prospective father-in-law had just thought the problem simple.

He really thought that with the imperial edict from He Jin to assist the young emperor, Liu Yan would be left alone?

The Beijing officials are used to the logic of the court officialdom, but lack the logic of fighting for hegemony in troubled times, so they cannot switch their minds for a while.

In Li Su's view, the greatest value of the Shao Emperor's will is not in the military operation stage, but in the future, after the war is over, the stage of winning people's hearts and governance.

At least, Liu Bei, who was originally in history, was subjected to a lot of internal administrative efficiency and disintegration of people's hearts after entering Sichuan, which led to Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang having to operate Shu Han into a military government and divert conflicts and attention through the Northern Expedition.

That is because Liu Bei lost too much righteousness when he attacked Liu Zhang in history, and he was more or less obedient to the reputation of "taking the foundation of the same clan", and was unwilling to accept the internal unyielding and moral integrity.

In this life, the emperor issued a clear edict to fight against the unjust ministers, and after taking it down, it was completely legitimate and internal friction could be minimized.

But the battle still has to be fought.

But Li Su didn't have to argue with Cai Yong directly. When he saw Liu Bei, he personally took everyone to the front line for inspection, and everything was naturally clear.

...

Before Li Su's army arrived, a messenger quickly reported it.

Liu Bei knew two days in advance that Li Su was finally back, and he also heard that Cai Yong, who was originally intended to serve as the minister, and Wu Kuang, who was the former Left General, came to help complete his mission to deal with Liu Yan.

Liu Bei was overjoyed when he heard the news and attached great importance to it. He took Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Zhuge Jin of Lu Su, and traveled 200 miles west from Nanzheng to welcome him.

In history, Yuan Shao welcomed Liu Bei in the suburbs of 200 miles, but directly welcomed Liyang Ferry by the Yellow River from Yecheng. This time, Liu Bei welcomed Cai Yong and Wu Kuang in the suburbs of 200 miles, but it was not enough to go directly to Yangping Pass, and he even followed the Mian River to Ju County.

As soon as the two sides met, Liu Bei personally gave Cai Yong and Wu Kuang a cup of tea, and asked Zhang Fei to pour wine beside him and ask him about his well-being. He was very polite and polite.

After chatting with Li Su for a few words and learning about the inside story of Cai Yong and Wu Kuang coming, Liu Bei bowed seriously: "It turned out that the general originally planned to be the prefect of Ba County, and was not appointed as the Shizhong, but was regained Ba County, so that this order could be taken over.

This is a blessing for Bei, and it is also a misfortune of Mr. Cai. By mistake, Mr. Cai was not allowed to serve as the post of the Qing dynasty. Please forgive me. Mr. Cai was a great wise man and was in Dongguan with his mentor Mr. Lu. He has been respected for a long time and has now been taught by Qing dynasty."

Cai Yong was a little embarrassed: "You don't have to be polite to the generals of the Western Expedition. In the past two years, the imperial court has suddenly moved several dozen officials to the prefect of Ba County, but only came to me. The good news came from heaven that Hanzhong had been pacified and Shu road was opened, and this was the will of heaven.

Moreover, after I left Beijing, I heard that there was a lot of chaos in the capital. Dong Zhuo and the three father-in-laws of Yuan and others discussed the destruction of the emperor, and also discussed that Empress Dowager He forced the Empress Dowager Dong to cause his death and rebelled against his aunt and wife for violating filial piety. I am afraid that the capital will not have any peace in the future. I can go to the outside world of Ba County to govern the people and teach, and educate the people to avoid disasters. They all rely on the protection of the general in the Western Expedition."

This was the first time that Liu Bei heard that the emperor was deposed and the empress dowager was asked about the unfilial crime of forcing the empress dowager to death, and he was shocked.

He was a little at a loss and wanted to condemn him, but he didn't know what the attitude of the ministers and ministers in the court were.

"This... Dong Zhuo's proposal to abolish and enact the three father-in-laws passed the proposal. Since Bei left the capital at the beginning of the year, the late emperor was still there. I don't know when the Empress Dowager will be in vain, but I don't know how to judge all the affairs in the capital..."

This cannot be blamed for Liu Bei's steady attitude. It's because the news has been blocked for too long. Before Li Su left, Liu Bei only knew that Emperor Ling of Han was dead. After returning from this four months, he brought him so much news. He even heard about Empress Dowager Dong was forced to death by Empress Dowager He on the first day, so of course he didn't know who was right and who was wrong.

To put it another way, after Dong Zhuo deposed the Shao Emperor, he did not immediately kill the Shao Emperor as the Romance said. The Shao Emperor lived until the second year after the princes began to fight against Dong, and Dong Zhuo was afraid that the Shao Emperor would become a banner for being used, so he stepped up to poison him to death.

But Empress Dowager He was questioned. In the Romance, she and the young emperor were killed at the same time, but they were separated in official history, with several months apart. Because Empress He was indeed not clean and was charged with forcing her mother-in-law to death, Dong Zhuo forced himself to catch up with relatives and pretended that he had a relationship with Empress Dowager Dong (in fact, he was not close, and it was two irrelevant Dong families, which Dong Zhuo strongly recognized). Once he took power, he could not stop taking revenge and inquire. The three ministers in the court also accompanied Dong Zhuo to complete the process of court discussion.

Liu Bei didn't know how to express his opinion, so he could only sigh: "Well, let's wait and see the reactions of other ministers and local towns.

We are not as good as the leader of the chariot and cavalry general. The chariot and cavalry general guard the three auxiliary passages, and have been loyal to the court for many years. I think he would not misunderstand it."

When Liu Bei put himself in such a position, he put himself in a position that would never be wrong. I am far away and I don’t know what happened in the capital. So I will depend on Huangfu Song’s attitude.
Chapter completed!