Chapter 793 Moving the capital to Luoyang

With Liu Bei's announcement of rewarding all officials with satin and resting on holidays, Chang'an City soon entered a warm atmosphere of celebrations throughout the world, and the good news of the revival of Yan and Cao also spread throughout Guanzhong.

"General Cheqi and General Guard not only captured Jixian, but also restored Youzhou, but also defeated Cao Cao in the Battle of Yishui!"

"Cao's army lost more than 50,000 troops! It was a great victory! It was expected that Yuan Xi would be isolated and helpless. Only tens of thousands of people would be surrounded sooner or later.

Cao Cao is the best among the princes of Guandong. He can defeat Cao Cao's reinforcements head-on, and the Han Dynasty's reunification is just around the corner!"

All the officials were talking about it, and as expected, everyone had a good vision. Knowing that the unexpected surprise of defeating Cao was more important and rare than taking over Jicheng. After all, the latter was a foregone conclusion.

As a result, court officials who wanted to make more plans at the end of the process of unification of the world also racked their brains to give Liu Bei a message to war.

Even some pure civil officials who did not understand military affairs and did not talk about military affairs began to join in the fun, almost like the scholars and officials of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Of course, there are some who join in the fun, and some who are truly aware of the military. For example, the Minister of Justice's calligraphy is always eager to return to his old career and ask about the military he was very good at back then.

Fa Zheng gave Liu Bei two or three consecutive statements, and gave a detailed discussion, advising Liu Bei to take advantage of the time difference between Youzhou and Cao Cao's new defeat, and Yecheng was not yet broken, and to make a quick decision to expand the war in the last stage before the cold winter this year, and to cut a few more pieces of land in Jizhou.

With the wisdom of the Dharma, these words are certainly not random, and the military accounts are settled very clearly.

Liu Bei also looked at Fazheng's account carefully: Before Yuan and Cao merged, the veterans and new forces of the two major princes of Kanto had only a total force of 500,000. If Yishui had not been defeated, then Cao's army would have about 350,000 new forces after integrating Guandong.

But now the defeat of Yishui has caused Cao's army to lose more than 50,000 people, and has also lost the strong men in Xinla, Bohai, and lost a lot of the population potential of Qinghe, Bohai.

The total number of veterans in the puppet dynasty of Kanto fell to 300,000, while Liu Bei temporarily increased to about 630,000 (because there were more prisoners, some of these troops were strong men from Xinla. After the world was unified, they would be dismissed and returned to the farmers, and they would not retain so many standing troops)

This force ratio is more than twice. It is only September now. If you mobilize urgently, a new offensive can be launched in early October. Fa Zheng feels that it may still be a little more this year.

Of course, when the winter comes, the war will be fought again, and the cold weather will cause the soldiers to suffer unbearable. Moreover, the people in the attacked areas will also fall into deeper and deeper suffering.

Especially the sharp decline in population caused by famine and plague will worsen in percentage overlap.

The reason is also very simple: when you start fighting now, people will not be allowed to rest in winter. People in Hebei will definitely continue to plough in spring next year. The sowing and spring plowing of winter wheat are gone.

The number of people who have been delayed for two consecutive years of farming has definitely been much more likely than "there are large-scale farming accidents and poor harvests in two years in three years, but the two years are separated by intervals."

After all, if there is a normal year interval in the middle, many people on the verge of death can take a breath, and those who have accumulated some surplus food can rely on surplus food to support it.

But the two great years of the wilderness are connected together and all the remaining grains are eaten up, so people can only eat people.

The same is true for plagues. The more you add, the easier it is to contagious.

Two plagues infected by 10% of the population may gradually calm down herd immunity. A plague infected by 20% of the population may reach the critical point of the total outbreak, and will deteriorate to 30% and 40% infection rate in the future.

But Fa Zheng's reason for insisting on expanding the war was a bit convincing. He believed that long pain was better than short pain. If Cao could be destroyed one or even two years in advance, and if swords and guns were entered into Kuma earlier, the people would suffer less.

Liu Bei was a little moved to the truth. He discussed with Xun You with Fazheng's opinion, and then with Liu Ba and Zhuge Jin.

Xun You had no obvious tendency, but just advised Liu Bei to be cautious before making a decision.

Zhuge Jin and Liu Ba clearly advised Liu Bei not to do this, and that such a big thing should be discussed with the Prime Minister first.

Liu Ba, who is quite familiar with economic laws, also expressed a view to Liu Bei in private:

During the Huanling period, the world was in chaos and the Han Dynasty declined. At that time, it was not just because of "continuous wars and difficulties in the people", but because of the world's land annexation, huge gap between the rich and the poor, and other social ills, which had accumulated to a very profound level.

Therefore, if the war ended as soon as possible without solving social problems and not renovating social and economic operations, even if peace was returned to the future, it might cover up more problems, that is, to return to Emperor An of Han and Emperor Shun of Han before Chongzhi Huanling.

In other words, the situation will be much better than Huan Ling, but the degree is limited. If Huan Ling's state belongs to "the world will be destroyed in thirty years", the period of Emperor An Shun Emperor was only "the world will be destroyed in 60 years."

Liu Bei would never hope that he would pass the throne to future generations in the future. The world would only last for fifty or sixty years. That would be far worse than the effect of Liu Xiu's revival. Of course, Liu Ba dared not say this directly, but this truth was hidden in the subtext.

Finally, Liu Ba pointed out keenly that he had been engaged in economic work over the years and had received the Prime Minister's advice and made progress in his studies and figured out a truth:

That is, the state of war can divert internal contradictions and facilitate reform.

Some reforms have many obstacles in peaceful times because they cannot use the excuse of "the reform needs to be launched to enhance the court's foreign combat effectiveness" to make all obstructions give way.

The wartime system can defeat all those who obstruct reform into a collaboration with the enemy, and can also strengthen mobilization reasonably and legally. It is a very good tool for the hero who really wants to revolutionize the world, so Liu Bei should not think that the wartime state is a burden.

Liu Ba also gave an example: If the war was over so quickly, what reason would His Majesty have to continue issuing "war national debts"? The reforms that had not been completed yet had enough financial support? Why not take advantage of the end of the war to bring private goods?

(Note: It is necessary to clarify that using a wartime emergency is more conducive to doing things, which is a double-edged sword. In the hands of Liu Bei and Cao Cao, they have indeed eliminated the bad policies and reformed and promoted profits for the country and the people.

However, there are many people in history who have tasted the benefits of this system and are reluctant to cross the river due to the convenience of the wartime system. For example, during Cao Rui's fourteen-year term, he used the wartime system to do serious business in the first eight years and withstood the pressure of Zhuge Liang. He himself did not dare to slackew.

But after Zhuge Liang's death, Cao Rui's last six years of no external threats were lost, and he was refusing to come down from the dividends of the wartime system and still mobilized with high intensity. However, the people's plundered were used to build palaces for personal enjoyment and corruption. So I am not just advocating for the advantages of the wartime system.)

Liu Ba cannot say this in court. It is too shady and it is okay to talk to Liu Bei in private.

Moreover, Liu Bei wanted to reject Fazheng, and the reasons were very sufficient, and they were all ready-made. He said that he could not bear to the continuous suffering of the people of Hebei, so there was no need to mention anything else.

After hearing this, Liu Bei hesitated and was no longer influenced by Fa Zheng's opinions. He decided to go to Luoyang and asked Li Su and Zhuge Liang before making a decision.

It can be seen that Liu Bei, who was forty years old, was not so arrogant and did not say such words as "Ask the Prime Minister in everything, is it because I don't know how to govern the country?"

On the sixth day of the September 19th, Liu Bei finalized three things:

First, we formally discussed the establishment of Situ Zhong Yao as the Marquis of Huaili and his fief was 3,000 households. This was quickly approved and taken effect.

Then Liu Bei announced that he would go to Luoyang from now on, and all officials would make plans to go to Luoyang in batches within three months. Next year's New Year's Court meeting will be held in Luoyang, and then the suburbs will be re-sacrificed in Luoyang and all the functions of the court will be moved.

During this process, a small number of officials were actually asked to stay in Chang'an to form a transitional team, which was equivalent to following Zhong Yao to retreat to the second line.

As for the troops around Chang'an, in addition to staying in Guanzhong and being alert to the northwest, other troops that should follow the imperial court will be dragged until the spring plowing is over next year before leaving.

Because the army is crowded, it may involve more than 100,000 people. If these people eat more food in Guanzhong area for more than four months, they can also reduce the pressure on grain transportation in Luoyang and reduce waste and losses.

In the future, the food in Luoyang will be supplied by Guandong Henan and Hebei, otherwise the narrow Yiluo Plain will definitely not be able to support a million-level population.

Now Henan and Hebei are still occupied by the enemy. Even if they are liberated in the future, they will have to be rebuilt after the war in the first one or two years, and it is impossible to collect taxes normally. Without the canal transportation of Henan and Hebei, Luoyang is not suitable for too many troops.

The troops that Liu Bei wanted to take from Chang'an this time were just going through the motions in Luoyang, and then he would join the War of Unification. At that time, he would rely on the newly built Nanyang Canal to extract materials from the Yangtze River and Han River Basin to support the war.

The Jing and Yi states in the south were always the richest, best-built and most perfectly preserved places in the Han Dynasty today. Only Jingyi's surplus grain could afford the full-time troops of hundreds of thousands of orders of magnitude.

Three days later, on the ninth day of the ninth month, Liu Bei went on a tour of the east again, bringing only a few thousand cavalry of the guards, as well as royal relatives and palace maids.

In terms of officials, there were Shangshu Ling Xun You, some supporting teams of Shangshu Tai, and officials and family members of the three ministries of the Army, Finance and Civil Affairs.

These parts have a total of more than 10,000 people, and they took their families to embark on the eastward journey. From the perspective of the emperor's move to the capital, this scale is already very simple. Later emperors may lead more than 100,000 people when they go on tour, and the first wave of moving the capital starts at more than 100,000.

Liu Bei also considered that Hongnong's road was difficult to move, and the pressure of walking in batches was less, and it would not disturb the local area.

On September 15th, Liu Bei left the subsequent team and arrived in Luoyang first. In order to hurry, he did not sit on the sedan chair slowly, but rode his horse to the road.

As usual, Li Su and Zhuge Liang went out of the city for dozens of miles to greet him.

When Liu Bei saw Zhuge Liang, he was surprised: "Nephew Kong Ming, isn't he in Bowang supervising the construction of the canal?"

Zhuge Liang responded quickly: "Everything goes well. Before the spring plow next year, the canal will be built. I have also seen the war situation in Hebei change, so I came to Luoyang to ask the Prime Minister if the Jingzhou army should be prepared to adapt to the situation."

Liu Bei nodded and smiled: "I came in a hurry, and it's just because of this matter. Why, can the Prime Minister make a conclusion?"
Chapter completed!