The main goal of this southern expedition was to capture Luoyang City and Chang'an City. Therefore, Xu Wei took command of the army in Jinyang.
But Xu Wei did not expect that bad news from Yanzhou would come before the war started.
Xu Wei looked at Huang Lao's flying pigeon and said helplessly: "There is actually going to be another drought in Yanzhou. This drought really comes at the wrong time!"
Wang Ge on the side was surprised and said: "You said that there is another drought in Yanzhou? Impossible! Yanzhou has just ended its three-year drought. God needs to give people a breather!"
Xu Wei said with a bitter face: "Yanzhou has not had a drop of water since spring plowing until now. This is a precursor to drought. According to the practice in recent years, drought is a high probability!"
Xu Wei knew that natural and man-made disasters had not stopped in the late Han Dynasty. He had no expectations for this year's climate. As long as there were some signs of disaster, there would be worse news.
Xu Wei asked Jia Xu: "How long has it been since it rained in Bingzhou? Is there a sign of drought?"
The message from Huanglong made Xu Wei suddenly realize that he had been in Bingzhou for half a month. During this half month, there seemed to be no water falling, and the temperature was higher than in previous years.
Jia Xu was not very clear. He was not an official in Bingzhou. When he came to Bingzhou with Xu Wei, he had been dealing with military affairs. He was already so busy every day that he had no time to care about the rain in Bingzhou.
But he still said immediately: "I will ask the local people now!"
Soon Jia Xu came over and said: "The local people also said that it has not rained in Taiyuan County for about a month, and the river water this year is much less than in previous years. As for whether this is the case in other counties in Bingzhou, I can't tell clearly!"
Xu Wei sighed and said: "That is to say, the scope of this drought is very wide. Even Bingzhou will suffer from the drought! I just don't know what the situation is like in Youzhou and Jizhou. If these two states are also affected, then the extent of this drought will be
The scope will be extremely vast, and most of the Han Dynasty will be covered!"
Xu Wei immediately said to Jia Xu: "Send these messages to Niu Gui and ask the prefects and magistrates of all counties in Hebei to pay attention to the drought situation in Hebei and make preparations for disaster prevention and relief!"
Jia Xu nodded and said: "No!"
After five days like this, the governors and magistrates from all over Hebei sent messages to Jinyang, bringing the local news to Jinyang. However, it was not good news. All counties reported that there was less rain. The closer to Yanzhou, the worse the rain.
However, the climate in Youzhou and Liaodong is still normal. This can be regarded as a great blessing among misfortunes. At least the granary of Liaodong has been preserved. Even if grain production decreases this year, it will still be enough to feed the people of Hebei.
Xu Wei looked at the Dahan map in front of him. The positions of Daqian's armies had been marked on it. They were ready to attack Yuzhou and Sili as soon as he gave the order.
But at this time Xu Wei was a little hesitant. If there was no news about the drought, he would naturally eliminate Yuan Tan's forces without hesitation.
But now it seems that the scope of the drought this time is extremely wide. If a war is launched at this time, the number of people who will starve to death may be dozens of times more than those who die in war.
Why did the Han Dynasty in history go from having a population of more than 50 million to less than 10 million people after a hundred years of war? It was because despite constant natural disasters, the princes of the Han Dynasty not only did not give up the war, but also had many exits they wanted to take advantage of.
Scourge delivers a fatal blow to your opponent.
Just like Cao Cao, in history, he ran out of food several times during the war, but he defeated his opponent because of his ruthlessness. Cao Cao's opponent ran out of food, and the army collapsed, but even if Cao Cao ate rice and meat, he killed the grain and grass officials.
, but also to continue the war, relying on this fierce force, Cao Cao wiped out all the princes in the Central Plains.
But the consequences are also extremely great. Every place occupied by Cao Cao will be like locusts passing through, eating up all the food. Cao Cao will even massacre the city to grab food. In this way, the place occupied by Cao Cao
, the people were naturally outnumbered, and the surviving people hated Cao Cao deeply, which caused constant turmoil in various places in Cao Cao's later period. Even places like Nanyang County, which he had occupied for more than ten years, rebelled.
Also because there were too many princes like Cao Cao, the people of the Han Dynasty suffered heavy casualties due to natural and man-made disasters, and even the Central Plains was left uninhabited.
But princes like Liu Bei who did not rob the people when their armies were short of food became aliens.
Back then, Xu Wei didn't like Cao Cao, but liked princes like Liu Bei, so he always played Liu Bei when playing Three Kingdoms.
But what is the difference between what he is doing now and Cao Cao? Now that hundreds of thousands of troops are rushing into the Central Plains, how many people will be killed?
But it is very difficult to stop the war. Not to mention that the arrow is on the string and has to be fired, but to stop the war now is the morale of the military, which will be greatly affected.
It is indeed easy to become Cao Cao, but it is very difficult to become someone like Liu Bei.
Jia Xu saw Xu Wei's hesitation and asked: "Don't the rulers trust the generals on the front line?"
Xu Wei smiled bitterly and said: "I was thinking that there is going to be another drought in the Central Plains. If we start a war, how many innocent people will be killed?"
Wang Ge was shocked when he heard this and said: "In power, we have been preparing for this war for more than half a year. Now the soldiers are like a rainbow, and the food and grass on the front line are piled up like mountains. We have spent tens of billions of money to make these preparations. Do you want to
If we stop this war now, all our early preparations will be in vain! This will even affect the morale on the front line!"
Wang Ge has been in power with them for ten years, and he knows that although they are decisive in killing the nobles and nobles, they are a bit benevolent in their treatment of the people. When a natural disaster broke out in the Central Plains, millions of refugees were displaced, which originally had nothing to do with them.
Relationship.
But it was the ruler who cared about the life and death of these people, exhausted the granaries in Mayi, and starved millions of tribesmen, thus leaving millions of people in the Central Plains alive.
He is really worried about the benevolence of women in power and wants to stop the war at this time!
When Jia Xu heard Xu Wei's words, he immediately persuaded him: "Since I am in power, my granary in Dagan is enough to provide relief to the people of Sili and Yuzhou. You are worried that they will starve to death due to war, but you don't know how many people of Sili and Yuzhou will starve to death this year!"
Judging from the information I have received, tens of thousands of people in Yuan Tan's territory have starved to death this year, hundreds of thousands of people have fled to Jingzhou alone, and Sili has also fled hundreds of thousands of people to come to our Hebei province."
"See, this man is just a dandy. Last year, the entire Han Dynasty had a good harvest, but Yuzhou and Sili still starved to death. You are not a human being! Do you think that if you don't capture Yuzhou and Sili this year, many fewer people will die in these two places!"
"It's absolutely impossible. You have never thought about Yuan Tan's viciousness. Even in a good harvest year, people can starve to death. If it were a drought year, I'm afraid the people in Yuzhou and Sili would have starved to death.
If you don’t attack Yuzhou this year, I’m afraid that Yuzhou will be deserted for thousands of miles, and more people will starve to death by then!”
Xu Wei was awakened by the words of being uninhabited. He really shouldn't have high expectations for a young man like Yuan Tan who came from a wealthy family. Instead of waiting for Yuan Tan to come to help the people, it would be better to let him come!
So Xu Wei said firmly: "Convey the order, on April 15th, all armies will attack Sili and Yuzhou at the same time!"