June of the first year of Xingping in the Han Dynasty (AD 194)
Qingzhou, Beihai County!
Since the drought broke out this year, all parts of Qingzhou have been affected, and even Xuzhou has been affected by the disaster!
Faced with such a drought, Cao Cao sent hundreds of thousands of his troops to dig canals, learned from Da Gan to make waterwheels, and used wooden barrels to carry water to water the wheat, trying every means to preserve this year's grain harvest.
Cao Cao's background is not as good as Yuan Shao's, and the harm he has done by expanding his army and preparing for war over the years has fully erupted during this drought. Cao Cao, who does not have much food in his hands, can't even relieve his soldiers now!
Although the land was divided among the soldiers who followed Cao Cao, it did not last long in their hands. In addition, due to the constant natural and man-made disasters in the Han Dynasty in recent years, these soldiers did not have much savings at home. After this drought, the entire Qingzhou was going to run out of food.
He teamed up with Yuan Shao to kill Tao Qian of Xuzhou. This time he couldn't find an ally to raise his troops.
Trying to borrow food from the noble families in Qingzhou is a drop in the bucket. Qingzhou has been at the center of the wars in the Han Dynasty in recent years. There have only been two or three years in the past ten years that it has not suffered from natural or man-made disasters. In addition, these noble families have armed their own private soldiers. As the old saying goes, the landlords have no food left.
Starting from April, the people of Qingzhou continued to flee to the Daqian Kingdom north of the Yellow River. By June, the drought had not slowed down. This time, even Cao Cao's soldiers began to despair and fled to Hebei.
Faced with such a situation of internal and external troubles, Cao Cao could only send soldiers to patrol the south bank of the Yellow River and arrest the fleeing people. He also increased the relief for his subordinates and led the people to dig various water conservancy facilities and find ways to provide disaster relief.
Cao Cao can now only rely on the food and grass from his own treasury to feed his soldiers and maintain the stability of Qingzhou!
But in the face of such a century-old drought, these measures were ultimately of no avail, and even the grain reserves in his treasury were about to bottom out. At this time, Cao Cao was completely like a mouse in a maze and could not find a way out at all.
Now Cao Cao can only lead the civil and military officials of Qingzhou to dig ditches in the fields with the people, using this method to encourage the people of Qingzhou and let them know that the court has not given up on them.
At noon in the morning, Cao Cao and his closest men were resting on the side of the field.
"Wen Ruo, have the envoys sent to the imperial court returned?" Cao Cao asked Xun Yu who was standing aside.
The only one who can still get food now is Liu Bei, who is located in the south. In Cao Cao's view, Jiangnan is densely covered with water networks and swamps are everywhere. The drought is even a good thing for Jiangnan, which can allow Jiangnan and Jiangnan to develop at a low cost. The swamps of Jiangnan.
Xun You sighed and said: "Although I haven't come back yet, I'm afraid there won't be any good news. In the past two years, Liu Bei has used troops every year, and he has consumed very little food and grass. Moreover, the messenger has brought news that heavy rains in the south have caused disasters. Liu Bei also has to find ways to help the victims, but I’m afraid Liu Bei won’t be able to provide food to support us!”
There is another point that Xun perhaps did not mention. Cao Cao and Yuan Shao took advantage of Liu Bei's expedition to Yizhou to destroy Xuzhou. Now Liu Bei has objections to Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, and it is impossible to support them with food and grass.
Cao Cao said helplessly: "God wants to kill people. There is no water here, but there are heavy rains in the south. This is to destroy my great man!"
Then he asked Guo Jiadao: "How is the situation in Fengxiao Hebei?"
What Cao Cao is most worried about now is that they are suffering from disasters here, but Hebei is not suffering from drought, but has a bumper harvest. Then they are really doomed. Lei Gong will definitely seize this opportunity to attack the Central Plains, and they will have no power to fight back.
Guo Jiadao: "Droughts broke out in both Bingzhou and Jizhou. Lei Gong personally led Hebei's civil and military officials to build canals and make waterwheels. However, it is difficult to have much effect in the face of such a century-old drought. Hebei's grain production is bound to decrease, but it is not
Knowing how much production will be reduced, if Lei Gong doesn’t want people in Hebei to starve to death in this situation, it’s impossible to launch an army!”
Cao Cao nodded. What he admired most about Lei Gong was that he was the only one who really tried his best to rescue the victims in this troubled time. Back then, Emperor Ling wanted to move the disaster eastward and drove millions of Han Han victims to Bingzhou. Lei Gong could completely close the pass.
, to prevent the victims from entering Bingzhou, but Lei Gong did not do this. Instead, he opened the pass and spent a huge amount of money to treat these millions of victims!
This move made Lei Gong stand out from the other Yellow Turbans, and gained Lei Gong a lot of prestige. The people in the Han Dynasty did not regard Lei Gong as a bandit, but as a separatist vassal force!
The drought situation this year is so serious. As long as Lei Gong does not want the Central Plains to be starved to death, it is impossible to send troops south. This is a blessing among misfortunes. Finally, this year we do not have to face the fierce enemy of Lei Gong.
Cao Cao asked: "How many more months can our food and grass last?"
Xun You smiled bitterly and said: "For three months at most, we won't be able to help the victims later. If the autumn harvest in three months' time is reduced by more than half, the people will not even be able to feed themselves with this amount of food, and it will be even less possible to pay taxes.
But if we don’t receive food, our Qingzhou Mufu’s finances will collapse!”
Cao Cao sighed and said, "Food! Food! Where can I find food now?"
Xun You thought for a while and said: "My lord, you can send someone to contact the powerful families in Qingzhou to borrow food! Now we can only carry it to death. When others around us can't carry it, we can annex other forces to tide over the difficulty!"
In Xun Yu's opinion, among the princes and powers in the world, their power and Yuan Shao's power are the weakest. Whether they or Yuan Shao can't hold it back, it will definitely lead to annexation by other powers. If they want to survive now, they can only hold on to the end.
Yuan Shao's forces were in turmoil.
Cao Cao sent people to find Kong Rong. Now Kong Rong was the middleman between Cao Cao and the Qingzhou nobles. He would talk to Kong Rong first if he had any ideas. And Kong Rong would also find a way to persuade the Qingzhou nobles to support Cao Cao!
Two people who were enemies of life and death in another world have become close friends in this world.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Soon Kong Rong came to Cao Cao and asked: "I wonder if Brother Meng De has anything to do with me?"
Cao Cao said: "We have seen the situation in Qingzhou. The number of people who have fled to Hebei during this period has exceeded 100,000, and Qingzhou Prefecture is almost out of food. If we can't find food anymore, I'm afraid the entire
Qingzhou will surrender without a fight and join Lei Gong, so I have no choice but to shamelessly ask Wenju to borrow 3 million shi of food from you. As long as we survive this drought, I will pay you back twice as much!"
But Kong Rong frowned and said: "Although we still have some food, each of our families has to feed not only tens of thousands of people, but also the soldiers and their families. We don't know if we can feed so many people."
We can survive this drought, but there is no way we can find food to lend to Brother Meng De!"
Now that Kong Rong and other clans have become warlords, and soldiers serve as generals, warlords like Kong Rong naturally have to find ways to feed their soldiers, otherwise who will sacrifice their lives for them! To a certain extent, this can be regarded as
It reduced Cao Cao's burden.
Kong Rong asked instead: "Brother Meng De, didn't you capture half of Xuzhou? Tao Qian didn't raise many troops, and he didn't pay taxes to the court in the past few years. Logically speaking, the money and food should be very generous?"
"This food and grass can not only save the entire Qingzhou, but it will not make Brother Mengde run out of food so quickly?"
Cao Cao said helplessly: "All the money and grain in Xuzhou were annexed by the local tyrants, and there are not many left in this treasury. After we captured half of Xuzhou, we only seized hundreds of thousands of stones of grain and 50 million yuan, and barely got them back."
Warlords on the move!"
Kong Rong said angrily: "We broke up our family in Qingzhou to resist the Thunder God. Not only did the nobles in Xuzhou not do anything to resist the Thunder God, they also hindered us. Brother Meng De, you should ask the noble families in Xuzhou to borrow food. Now they are the only ones who have it."
forage!"
Kong Rong's words made Cao Cao's eyes light up. The nobles in Qingzhou were sharing life and death with him, but the nobles in Xuzhou were not even their own people. Not only were they unwilling to help him raise troops, they even delayed taxes as long as they could.
They also annexed the money and food from the treasury of counties and counties in Xuzhou. In this critical moment, of course they have to kill some forces that are not their own to maintain the situation. Now there are fatter pigs than the noble families of Xuzhou!