August of the first year of Xingping in the Han Dynasty (194 AD)
After August, it finally rained a few times. The drought in Jizhou and Bingzhou finally eased. Even Xu Wei breathed a sigh of relief. Bingzhou and Jizhou are the largest grain producing areas in Daqian. If it doesn’t rain again and affects the autumn harvest, Daqian will The time to attack the big man will have to be slowed down for a few more years.
Wang Ge and others paid great attention to the Central Plains. After conquering Jizhou, senior officials like Wang Ge had planned to attack the Central Plains. However, they did not expect that the drought last year scrapped their plan and Daqian could only stop the attack. Find ways to dig canals, build waterwheels, build new water conservancy projects, and find ways to accumulate food.
But God is not as good as man, and Wang Ge and the others did not expect that God would bring two droughts in succession, and this year's drought was actually worse than last year! It affected the entire eight states of Han Dynasty, and Jizhou was considered to be the least affected place, but There was no rain for 3-4 months, and Guanzhong, the center of the disaster, had not rained for 8 months, and there were also locust plagues and military disasters. It can be said that Guanzhong at this time has become a purgatory on earth!
These two droughts and the locust plague in Guanzhong frightened Xu Wei. After he learned that locusts appeared in Guanzhong, he immediately found someone to transport all the chickens, ducks, geese and other poultry in Daqian to the line near Sili, and even In order to expand the number of chickens, ducks and geese, Xu Wei also developed a method of hatching chickens on a fire bed. Although the success rate has never been high, it can explosively increase the number of poultry in Daqian!
In Shangjun, Xihe County, Shangdang County in Bingzhou, and Weijun in Jizhou, Xu Wei found a way to get hundreds of thousands of poultry to place on the border. As long as there were locusts crossing the border, Xu Wei would let his subordinates take command. These poultry armies were culled, and in order to control the number of locusts, Xu Wei paid 4 pounds of locusts for a pound of wheat to buy dried locusts!
It may be that these methods of Xu Wei have worked. Maybe the locust plague in history has not left the country. Anyway, the locust plague has come to an end now and has not spread to Bingzhou and Jizhou. This also makes Xu Weisong The tone finally stopped the locust plague from spreading in Bingzhou and Jizhou!
But after experiencing the disasters of the past two years, Xu Wei thought of the disasters that the Celestial Dynasty encountered just after the founding of the country. If there were not fewer people in this world and more land, and he extracted struvite for thousands of years to fertilize the land, he would have been thousands of years ahead of schedule. To develop Liaodong, if not for these things, I am afraid that this drought will cause the dry skin to peel off, and it will not be able to survive it so easily.
But these two shocks also made Xu Wei pay more attention to the food issue than ever before! Daqian's food security line has always been in a red state. When the grain accumulation in the granary was at its highest, it was only enough for the people of Daqian for six months, and Xu Wei wanted to The goal of accumulating three-year rations has not been achieved.
He feels that now is the time to accomplish this goal!
He even set a three-year ration target for all senior officials in Daqi during a high-level meeting in Daqi!
But Wang Ge regretfully said: "In power, we are at most short of food, but this is a shortage of food. Yuan Shao, Cao Cao and the others can no longer eat. In early August, Cao Cao and Yuan Shao's men almost simultaneously attacked the powerful nobles in Xuzhou. They broke through the Wubao of Xuzhou noble families and robbed these noble families of their money and food. Now they are all killing each other. It shows how serious they think about the food crisis. The Central Plains is just a dead tree now. We only need to push it away. Just pour it!"
Xu Wei was surprised and said: "Cao Cao and Yuan Shao also started to fight against local tyrants and divide their fields?"
Wang Ke said disdainfully: "How could they attack the local tyrants and divide their fields? This is just their internal division of wealth. In order to resist us, Yuan Shao and Cao Cao recruited hundreds of thousands of troops in the Central Plains and Qingzhou. The local nobles and nobles were all
They were suppressed by them. When the drought came, they had no ability to resist it. The merchant class and ordinary people of the Han Dynasty had already been squeezed out by them, and it was impossible to provide money and food.
In the Central Plains, those who have the most money and food are now the noble families in Xuzhou. Because the noble families in Xuzhou are far away from us, and Tao Qian is also supported by them, there is no difference between the noble families in Xuzhou and the original Han family, but their
Life was getting better, which naturally aroused the dissatisfaction of the noble families under the rule of Cao Cao and Yuan Shao. In addition, the noble families of Xuzhou were the losers in the war and had not realized it yet, so they were naturally swallowed up by Yuan Shao and Cao Cao!"
Then Wang Ge excitedly said to Xu Wei: "They are in power, they are killing each other, they must be unable to bear it. After our autumn harvest, we will have enough food. At this time, if we attack the Central Plains, only 200,000 troops will be enough to defeat us."
Yuan Shao and Cao Cao occupy the Central Plains, and then we can defeat them one by one. First destroy Yuan Shao, and then kill Cao Cao. In less than five years, the entire Central Plains will be annexed by our Dagan."
But Xu Wei frowned and said: "An army of 200,000 requires millions of civilians. This battle will cost 15 million stones and grain and grass in half a year. This does not include the consumption of cavalry. Otherwise, we will not be able to defeat it even if we spend 20 million grains.
And now the disaster in the Central Plains is much more serious than ours in Daqian. It is impossible for us to get food from Yanzhou, and we may even get tens of thousands of victims with nothing, and we must feed these victims until next autumn harvest, which is almost another year.
In one year, even if we follow our minimum standards, it will cost 24 million shi of food to feed 2 million disaster victims. In total, this war will consume 44 million shi of food. If we add some extra budget, it will be 50 million shi of food!"
Then Xu Wei looked at Wang Ge seriously and said: "Do you think we can get these 50 million in grain based on our current situation!"
Daqian still has some grain in storage. After this year's autumn harvest, as long as nothing goes wrong, there will be tens of millions of grains in storage. However, Xu Wei will not take out these grains, because these grains are Daqian's last guarantee!
Then Xu Wei became more serious as he spoke: "We don't need some food to prevent natural disasters? If the drought continues next year, you will just watch our Daqian subordinates starve to death!"
Wang Yong thought for a while and did not want to give up and said: "The opportunity now is too rare. It would be a pity to let it go like this. 200,000 troops are too many. We can only send 100,000 troops, 60,000 infantry, and 40,000 cavalry outside the Great Wall. If there are
These 100,000 cavalry, plus the navy to support us from the Yellow River, are enough, so that the number of civilians can be reduced by more than half, and Yanzhou is now starving and dying everywhere, so we simply recruit civilians from Yanzhou, so that we can save more food.
You can fight this battle with 30 million stones!
Our army used the navy to transport soldiers from Dongwuyang in the east county of Yanzhou to Chiping on the Yellow River with a total length of 150 miles. At the same time, we launched a cross-river attack and directly attacked the Central Plains. It is simply impossible with Yuan Shao's current situation. Can't resist!
A hundred thousand troops march south to the Central Plains, and we can conquer the Central Plains in one go. After we have a base in the Central Plains, we can not only divide the forces of Cao Cao and Yuan Shao so that they cannot unite, but we can also take the opportunity to weaken Yuan Shao's strength and prepare to eliminate Yuan Shao's forces in the future! "
Huang Long on the side shook his head and said: "With our strength, it is not difficult to sweep across the Central Plains, even if the princes of the Han Dynasty unite. What is difficult for us now is that we have no food and grass. The climate in the past few years is not stable at all. No one knows. Will there be another disaster next year? If drought continues in the Central Plains next year, I'm afraid Jizhou will have to reduce production. By then we may not even be able to feed ourselves. If there are millions more refugees in the Central Plains, we are not asking for trouble!"
Huang Long continued: "It is still the long-term vision of the government. This year our Daqian, that is, the Liaodong area, did not suffer from drought. The land we cultivated last year even had a bumper harvest, which gave us tens of millions more grains in Daqian. And when it comes to this autumn harvest, We can still have tens of millions more shi of food. It can be said that if there is no food transported from Liaodong, we will have to use food stamps again, and all the tribesmen will go through hungry days again!"
"At this moment, instead of going south to the Central Plains to get millions of refugees and a land with a high probability of drought, we might as well find a way to eliminate Fuyu State and continue to immigrate and develop the land of Liaodong. Liaodong is more than 10 times larger than Jizhou. If we continue to develop, we will definitely be able to get several times more grain and grass than Jizhou, and this grain and grass will not be afraid of drought!"
After hearing Huang Long's words, Old Man Wang and Old Man Niu nodded in agreement and said: "When you are experiencing a once-in-a-hundred-year drought, you are still thinking about fighting. This is not to starve everyone to death. Even if our tribesmen will not starve to death, but Ordinary people in the Han Dynasty will also starve to death in large numbers due to the war. The reason why we captured the Central Plains is to get the people on the land, not to starve them to death! We do not agree to attack the Central Plains at this time!"
At this time, a staff officer handed Xu Wei a note. Xu Wei could only smile bitterly and said to the old man and the others: "We don't want to fight, but now the war has come on its own!"
July of the first year of Xingping in the Han Dynasty (AD 194)
Ma Teng and the others wandered around Guanzhong for a month without even grabbing a blade of grass. Zhang He also guarded the passes around Guanzhong tightly. Ma Teng and the others could neither conquer Guanzhong nor break through the passes in Guanzhong and enter Sili. In other places, when the food is about to run out, they can only withdraw from Guanzhong!
But at this time, Yuan Shao's counselor Guo Tu came to Ma Teng and others with 40,000 shi of grain, and told them the facts and reason, telling them that Sili had no grain at all, and their poor soldiers were all eating dirt, and now the entire Han Dynasty still had grain. The only one left is Lei Gong. If you don't rob Bingzhou, which is rich, you will rush into Guanzhong, which has experienced drought and locust plagues. How can you get food? This is not asking for fish by chance!
"These 40,000 stones of grain are supported by our lord. If you really want to survive, you can only lead your men to rob Bingzhou. Even if you rob one county, it will be enough to feed your entire Xiliang!"
After being pointed out by Guo Tu and the others, Ma Teng and the others suddenly realized that they had robbed the wrong place. What they originally thought was that Lei Gong was very powerful and it was not cost-effective to rob Lei Gong. Yuan Shao was weak and could rob Yuan Shao, but they had forgotten that Guanzhong was now
There is nothing to rob at all. Only Bingzhou has food. The only target they can rob is Thunder Lord! This has nothing to do with whether Thunder Lord is strong or not!
So they turned their horses' heads, and tens of thousands of cavalrymen, like bandits, divided into dozens of groups and attacked Shangjun and Shuofangjun from various directions such as grassland and desert.
The defenders of Shuofang and Shangjun were unprepared and were robbed by Ma Teng and others of tens of thousands of stones of grain, thousands of cattle, sheep and horses, and more than 500 tribesmen were killed. The two places suffered heavy losses!
The governors of the two places sent letters to Jixian County to report the battle. At the same time, they also requested a battle, hoping to enter Xiliang and completely wipe out Ma Teng and Han Sui's gang of horse thieves!
Everyone was speechless when they heard this information. Compared with the Central Plains, Xiliang is a terrible place. Xu Wei didn't even want to fight in the Central Plains, let alone Xiliang. There wouldn't be much profit in Xiliang.
, and we have to find a way to feed the hundreds of thousands of refugees in Xiliang. It can be said that the situation that the big men had to face before is now it is Xu Wei's turn to face it.
But if you don’t attack the rebels in Xiliang, they will come to harass you. If you attack them, Xiliang is 6,000 miles long from east to west and thousands of kilometers long from north to south. Xiliang is like a huge dumbbell. Such terrain is enough to drag guerrilla warfare to death.
anyone!
Ma Teng and Han Sui are more like horse thieves than they are princes. They have never thought of building Xiliang. Xiliang has been in their hands for nearly 10 years. They have not built canals or planted fields. Xiliang has never been built.
The area is considered to be among the top five among the thirteen states of the Han Dynasty, but it does not even have a population of one million. The last census of the Eastern Han Dynasty had only 600,000 people.
Xu Wei didn't want to mess with Ma Teng and the others, but Ma Teng and the others decided to stick to them themselves, and made Shuofang County and Shang County uneasy!
After learning about the chaos in Bingzhou, everyone turned their attention to Xu Wei!
Xu Wei immediately said: "Order Wang Lei to lead 20,000 cavalry and drive Ma Teng and others out of Bingzhou! We will teach Ma Teng and others a lesson when we are free!"
But at this time, Jia Xu, who was beside Xu Wei, smiled bitterly and said: "In power, I am from Xiliang, and I understand what Ma Teng and the others think! It is impossible for you to drive Ma Teng and the others away with this approach! Starting from the first year of Zhongping
, Xiliang has been at war. They fought with the Han army, fought with the Hu people, and fought with their own people. They have never stopped. The 10 years of turmoil have laid waste all the fields in Xiliang, and the political system of Xiliang has also been destroyed.
Total collapse, now Ma Teng and the others are more like bigger horse thieves than princes!"
"They attack Bingzhou not to seek death, nor to provoke the ruler, but Xiliang has no food at all. If they don't attack us, they will starve to death. In this case, Ma Teng and the others will not care about the power of the ruler.
After all, the Han Dynasty was so powerful back then, and the rebels in Xiliang were defeated repeatedly, but they still fought repeatedly because they would starve to death if they didn't fight, but they might survive if they fought!"
Jia Xu finally said firmly: "If the ruler wants to avoid the trouble in Xiliang, it is best to wipe out Ma Teng and others while they are out of Xiliang, then occupy Xiliang, use Xiliang to defend Bingzhou, and occupy Xiliang at the same time so that we can do a lot of work Using the force to control Shu will give us a strategic advantage in attacking Shuzhong in the future. It can also allow us to form a two-pronged attack on Guanzhong, which will give us a strategic advantage in attacking Guanzhong in the future!