At the end of the fifteenth year of Jian'an, after Liu Bei obtained Yizhou and Jingzhou, he began a series of internal adjustments.
The first is to carry out military rectification.
After pacifying Yizhou, Liu Bei received a large number of Yizhou soldiers.
Among them were Zhang Lu's surrendered troops and generals, as well as a large number of Liu Zhang's soldiers and horses who surrendered because Liu Zhang chose to hand over Yizhou.
Especially in history, Yang Huai, Gao Pei, Deng Xian, Leng Bao, Zhang Ren, Liu Quan, Fu Jin, Xiang Cun and other generals who were unwilling to submit to Liu Bei, because Liu Zhang abandoned the city and fled, abandoned them, so that he was heartbroken.
They all defected to Liu Bei.
In this way, the total number of Zhang Lu's and Liu Zhang's armies was about 70,000 to 80,000, plus the remaining garrisons scattered in the rear areas and the soldiers led by fleeing generals such as Pang Xi and others, the number was nearly 100,000.
These people need to be reorganized, eliminate the old and weak, and train elite soldiers.
Now Guan Yu, Pang Tong, Xu Shu and others are doing these things. From the time they arrived in Yizhou in August last year to the end of this year, it took more than a year.
By the time of the fifteenth year of Jian'an (AD 210), Liu Bei's 50,000 troops had been eliminated, and about two-thirds had been eliminated.
There were about 150,000 people in Yizhou, and in the end only about 50,000 elite people were left.
These elite men can be said to be the best of the best. Almost 90% of them are young men between the ages of 20 and 30. They are also veterans of hundreds of battles. They are rich in experience and are first-class soldiers.
About half of the eliminated soldiers are older or younger, and they are all soldiers under the age of twenty or over thirty-five.
These people gave them fields so that they could reunite with their families and become tax payers.
The other half are of the right age, but the situation is not suitable. They are either new recruits with insufficient experience, or they are tired of fighting, no longer want to participate in the war, and want to disarm and return home.
For this group of people, Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, Xu Shu and others who were in charge of the administration also made arrangements.
Some stayed and were placed in Shu County, Qianwei County, Ba County and other places to become county soldiers, some went to local places to serve as county government servants, and some were given fields to return to their hometowns for farming.
After more than a year of restructuring, the original approximately 150,000 troops were reduced to approximately 50,000, becoming the main force of Yizhou's fighting force.
The remaining more than 50,000 people returned to the countryside, and more than 30,000 people were scattered in various counties to become second-line county soldiers or county government officials.
In this way, the number of troops that Yizhou can mobilize is about 50,000 main troops plus 30,000 county troops, for a total of 80,000.
But it's actually more.
Because Liu Bei obtained Jingzhou and Yizhou, his treasury was extremely rich, and the rewards for his soldiers were also very high, so many elite men from the Jin and Ba people also enthusiastically joined the army.
After Zhuge Liang arrived in Bashu, he conducted field inspections and believed that the barbarians who were willing to submit were available, and the barbarians who were unwilling to submit needed to be conquered, so he planned to build a barbarian army and selected 10,000 elite Xi and Ba people to become the main fighting force.
As a result, in addition to the 50,000 main elite warriors and 30,000 county soldiers, there were 10,000 ethnic minority troops who could climb mountains and ridges as well as walking on flat ground.
In this way, the total number of soldiers and horses that Yizhou can mobilize reaches 90,000.
certainly.
The current situation is that this ethnic minority unit is still under preparation and needs time to be selected and trained.
Nowadays, a large number of Ji and Ba people who are living in difficulty have been moved to the plains, and have been given land to cultivate with the Han people, and have integrated into the Han people.
Liu Bei also fulfilled his promise and made the leaders of the seven surnamed Yi kings officials in various places. If they really did not have the ability to govern, they would be given corresponding status and wealth.
And according to the policy, if you perform meritorious service in battle, you will not only be promoted, but also receive a large amount of coins, silk, land and other rewards.
In this way, when the leaders were won over and the lower class people got land and benefits, the enthusiasm of the people to join the army was very high, and many people signed up to join the army.
There are countless lower-class people and Han people who want to join the army and leapfrog their class. Recruitment offices everywhere are full.
The situation is excellent.
But Zhuge Liang also knew that the reason why Liu Bei dared to throw away money now was because he had obtained the treasury accumulated by Liu Biao and Liu Zhang over the years.
Liu Bei is not a stingy person, he can use all the coins in the treasury for rewards.
But Zhuge Liang knew that if he really gave away all the things in the treasury, the government would not have a large amount of inventory to protect him. In the event of an emergency, it would easily lead to financial difficulties and the people would be impoverished and the country would be weak.
Therefore, during this false prosperity, Zhuge Liang wrote to Shen Chen many times to exchange opinions and adopt a series of economic measures and internal affairs reforms.
For example, we vigorously developed Shu brocade, set up brocade officials under Shen Chen's suggestion, improved looms, and introduced various types of mulberry and hemp.
Then he took aim at Hanjia Gold and Zhu Tiyin, and sent people to Hanjia County and Zhuti County to set up Jin Guan, Yin Guan and Tong Guan to explore undeveloped minerals and mine developed gold, silver and copper mines to fill the treasury. Loss.
At the same time, the salt and iron monopoly was established, and Mi Zhu and Zhou Lin were ordered to establish government-run salt merchants and grain merchants. The grains from Jingzhou, which was rich in grain, were transported to Yizhou, and the well salt from Yizhou, which was rich in salt, was transported to Jingzhou to promote the economy and trade between the two places.
Although the implementation of a series of policies has not yet yielded immediate results, in two or three years, it will surely make Yizhou and Jingzhou rich, the treasury will be full, and the poverty of the people will be greatly improved.
We must know that in this era, the economy in the north under Cao Cao's rule and Jiangdong under Sun Quan's rule has almost collapsed, the people are stuck in the barter period, and business is close to stagnant.
Only Jingzhou and Yizhou are in a much better situation because they were not seriously affected by the war in the north. There is still trade on the Yangtze River and there is no need to exchange things for things.
Now that the Nanyang Basin continues to produce grain, coupled with Shen Chen’s introduction of Champa rice, Jingzhou’s grain income has been very large in the past two years, allowing almost 95% of the people in Jingzhou to have enough to eat, unlike in the north where people starve to death. .
Therefore, through the complementarity of grain and salt between Jingzhou and Yizhou, and the addition of Shu brocade, gold, silver, copper and other valuables as national credibility guarantees, the private sector will maintain commercial prosperity without worrying about financial collapse.
When the government has money, it can hire people to build water conservancy projects, pay salaries to officials, and pay soldiers to stabilize social order and ensure the foundation of rule.
Therefore, even if Zhuge Liang's reforms have no effect now, they will be of great help to Liu Bei Group in the future.
In this way, the current military situation in Yizhou is that there are 50,000 elite soldiers, 35,000 of which are commanded by the bandit general Guan Yu, assisted by the military advisor Zhonglang General Xu Shu, guarding Hanzhong, and another 15,000, of which 5,000 are stationed in Hanzhong. Chengdu, 10,000 garrisoned in Jiangzhou.
Then there are 30,000 soldiers from various counties, each with a garrison. Finally, there are 10,000 soldiers who are still under preparation, and thousands of cavalry currently led by Zhang Fei. This is the current military situation in Yizhou.
The situation in Jingzhou is similar.
During Liu Biao's time, he had more than 200,000 people, but that was because he obtained the Nanyang Basin and a large population with Shen Chen's help, and became rich overnight through farming, and became a big fat man in one bite.
After the pacification of Jingzhou, after two years of weight loss, the number of more than 200,000 was reduced to about 100,000.
Among them, Shen Chen led 50,000 people, under the jurisdiction of the Wenpin and Ganning tribes, stationed in Nanyang and Xiangyang respectively to guard against Cao Cao.
Liu Pan had about 20,000 men stationed in Changsha, and 30,000 Jiangxia naval troops and thousands of elite infantry, led by Huang She, were stationed in Jiangxia County and Xunyang County in Lujiang County.
Moreover, Jingzhou's foundation is much stronger than that of Yizhou. In addition to the 100,000 main soldiers, there are about 50,000 county soldiers and thousands of embroidered cavalry. In addition, the Wuxi barbarians who surrendered also selected 10,000 elite men. To form a legion, Jingzhou can use 170,000 soldiers and horses.
In this way, the entire Liu Bei Group can mobilize 260,000 soldiers and horses, including 150,000 main combat troops, 80,000 second-line county troops, about 20,000 ethnic minorities, and 7,000 to 8,000 cavalry.
It doesn't seem like much, because the total military strength of Yuan Shao before the Battle of Guandu and Cao Cao before the Battle of Chibi must have exceeded this number.
Yuan Shao's total troops at that time may have been more than 250,000, and Cao Cao had more, probably more than 300,000. Otherwise, if there was no large defense force in the rear, they would not have been able to dispatch more than 100,000 troops to launch two major battles.
But Liu Bei is different from Yuan Shao and Cao Cao.
The Liu Bei Group at this time was the total number of troops after reducing elites and reorganizing the army.
If we only consider the quantity and not the combat effectiveness of the army, with the current population of tens of millions in Jingzhou and Yizhou, there is no problem at all in recruiting an army of 400,000 to 500,000.
Therefore, these armies are the armies that maintain the current peaceful situation. They not only ensure that Yizhou and Jingzhou will not be invaded, but also allow Jingyi to become richer, more populous, and have more food and grass after completing a series of internal reform policies to strengthen the state. Expand the army and start foreign wars.
The military rectification process lasted for one to two years. Hanzhong was garrisoned by General Guan Yu, with 35,000 soldiers, plus 5,000 county soldiers, and 3,000 cavalry from Zhang Fei's department, which is the current military strength of Hanzhong.
On the Nanyang side, there are 50,000 Jingzhou regiments led by Shen Chen, plus Zhang Xiu's thousands of cavalry, plus Huang She's Jiangxia Navy, and this is the overall external situation of the Liu Bei Group.
After military reform comes internal affairs and diplomacy.
Liu Bei left the internal affairs of Yizhou to Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong. Zhuge Liang was in charge of Jiangzhou. He was not only responsible for handling affairs in Yizhou, but also handling official documents from Jingzhou.
Pang Tong was in Chengdu, responsible for the actual management of Yizhou's affairs, and he also had to travel around to inspect local conditions.
The internal affairs of Jingzhou were handled by Fazheng Zhang Song and Jia Xu.
Following the suggestions of Zhuge Liang and Shen Chen, Liu Bei won over the eight major aristocratic families in Jingzhou and gave their juniors official positions, allowing them to formulate laws, manage people's livelihood, and have a high political status.
The major aristocratic families reciprocated by handing over a large amount of land and population, and compiled the existing population into a register to pay taxes uniformly.
It seems like a win-win situation, but in fact the family is losing blood.
Because what Liu Bei can give them is only part of the power.
But what they lost was the ultimate goal they had obtained by using power.
The Chinese people's obsession and nostalgia for the land will always be something that even Westerners cannot understand.
Throughout the dynasties, the first thing most businessmen did after making money was to buy land for themselves and return to their hometowns to become big landowners.
Many scholars have studied hard for decades. Once they become officials, the first thing they do is to use their power for personal gain and obtain land.
Kuang Heng, the protagonist who cut through walls to steal money, stole money when he was a child, stole land when he grew up, and owned more than 300,000 acres of land.
Xu Jie, who overthrew the corrupt official Yan Song of the Ming Dynasty, was portrayed as an upright official in many TV dramas of the Ming Dynasty in later generations. In fact, Xu Jie was more corrupt than Yan Song and owned more than 400,000 acres of land.
Where did the wealthy family come from?
When any of our ancestors became a high-ranking official with two thousand dan, he started to develop land and property, and his family prospered. Then he concealed his population, hid his land, embezzled national property, and became rich.
Therefore, being an official in this era is to acquire land. What the aristocratic families want is land and power at the same time. Just like Cao Cao was forced to compromise with the Yingchuan family and the Yanzhou family, they got official positions, family land and population.
It won't be investigated, it's that simple.
Under Liu Bei's rule, although he received official positions and power, the family's land and population were cleared away. This was unacceptable to the wealthy family and could easily lead to civil strife.
Fortunately, in this era, there are not only a large number of corrupt officials, but also great sages and hermits like Pang Degong, Sima Hui, and Huang Chengyan.
They don't attach much importance to fame and fortune. To a certain extent, they can be regarded as betrayers of the class. With their help, the Pang family and the Huang family took the lead in handing over a large amount of land and population. The rest of the Kuai family and Cai family because of Cai Mao and
The relationship between Kuai and Yue is also like cutting flesh and bleeding.
Afterwards, the four families, Ma, Xiang, Yang, and Xi, also followed suit and paid land and population. Almost half of the land and population were taken away, and the remaining land and population were also registered and began to pay taxes.
A series of actions, it seems that as much as the Pang family and the Huang family pay, the other six major families must also follow suit.
But the tycoon's money does not need to be repaid in full.
A large amount of land and population were liberated, which relieved the government finances of Yizhou and Jingzhou. The wealth of Liu Bei Group far exceeded the imagination of Cao Cao and Sun Quan Group.
It's just that the eight major aristocratic families are only the eight major aristocratic families in Jingzhou. The reason why they were defeated is that with the support of sensible people like Pang Degong and Huang Chengyan, the other small and medium-sized aristocratic families are unwilling to hand over their land, and there are many people who can't see the situation clearly.
Not only in Jingzhou, but also in Yizhou.
In this case, Zhuge Liang, Pang Tongfa, Zhang Song and others could only raise the butcher's knife in their hands.
In August of the 16th year of Jian'an, the Lou family of Nanyang refused the New Deal and secretly sent a letter to Yecheng to collude with Cao Cao and wanted to act as an internal agent of the Cao family. Fazheng noticed this and ordered the annihilation of the three clans. After Shen Chen's intervention, only one of them was killed.
Kill the master's family.
Because aristocratic families often have hundreds or even thousands of members, there are also people with lofty ideals among these people who are willing to accept government orders, but the control of the clan is in the hands of the head of the family.
Just like the two families of Deng and Shen in Huangmenting, although the two families have been intermarried with each other for many years and are like one family, the actual control is in the hands of the head family of brothers Deng Mao and Deng Hong. If Shen Chen hadn't suddenly emerged, I'm afraid that Deng Mao and Deng Hong would have lost control.
Misjudgments will also occur when encountering government policies that want to seize their land.
Therefore, in order to avoid hurting innocent people, Shen Chen chose to kill the masters who disobeyed the government orders and support the class traitors among the aristocratic families. In this way, one faction would fight against another and the aristocratic families would be divided, which would lower the level of the family.
The possibility of widespread civil unrest.
It's just that this kind of thing is about slicing the flesh of a big family, and we can't expect every family to have enlightened people. In ancient times, the interests of the clan were above all else, and often the whole clan would go into battle together, young and old, to fight against the government and start rebellions.
The government decrees started from the end of the 15th year of Jian'an to the 20th year of Jian'an. During the five years, there were countless aristocratic families who followed the government's orders in secret, had a negative attitude, promised on the surface but actually procrastinated, and even directly opposed the government.
For example, in February of the 17th year of Jian'an, the Wang and Huan families of Linxiang, the Li family of Quanling, and the Zhao family of Zhaoyang conspired to launch a rebellion, wanting to separate Jingnan and defect to Sun Quan.
Fortunately, Sun Quan actually sent someone to inform Liu Bei in advance, and Liu Bei immediately notified Fa Zheng, who then gave Liu Pan an order to cut through the mess quickly and eliminate hidden dangers.
In September of the 17th year of Jian'an, many aristocratic families and the Nanman rebels in southern Yizhou were revolted, and Zhuge Liang sent people to put them down.
This situation happened from time to time in the past five years. Almost wherever the policy was implemented, rebellions continued. In just five years, more than 20 aristocratic families were wiped out, thousands of people were killed, and tens of thousands of people were implicated.
However, the achievements achieved in these five years were also remarkable. The total population under Liu Bei's rule was more than 10 million, including millions of barbarians, such as Wuxi barbarians, Zhi people, Ba people, Nan barbarians, Qiang people, etc.
It covers a large number of ancestors of Tujia, Miao, Dong, Dai, Yao, Bai, Zhuang, Yi and other ethnic minorities in Hunan, Guizhou, Yunnan and Sichuan provinces in later generations.
Excluding these ethnic minorities, the real Han population may only be eight to nine million people.
At least half of them are controlled by aristocratic families.
Now that the policy has been issued, more than three million people have been liberated. At the same time, the liberated land and tens of millions of acres of newly reclaimed land can bring unimaginable increases to the finances of Jingzhou and Yizhou.
But these are all things in the future. At the end of the fifteenth year of Jian'an and the beginning of the sixteenth year of Jian'an, their work has just begun.
Liu Bei sat in Jiangzhou, and at the end of the year he took turns summoning the generals and officials from all over the country, and enfeoffed the ministers.
Except for the seven great heroes Shen Chen, Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, Xu Shu, Fazheng, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu, each of them has five hundred catties of gold, one thousand catties of silver, fifty million copper coins, one thousand pieces of Shu brocade, and countless treasures.
There are also many awards and rewards reaching hundreds of millions, which almost empty the treasury.
And a large number of generals were also established. The generals in Liu Bei's group basically started from here. There were more than 40 people with the title of general among the civil and military ministers. In addition to the generals with various titles that originally existed in the Han Dynasty, there were actually
More than twenty more were added.
Zhao Yun wrote a letter to dissuade him, hoping not to reward so much money and grant so many generals. But Liu Bei still insisted. In the end, because he offended too many people, Zhao Yun was sent to Lujiang County to serve as the prefect of Lujiang County and became the general of Xunyang County.
Outsiders thought it was a match, but they didn't know it was Shen Chen's suggestion.
During this feast of rewards, Zhuge Liang and the others remained silent for a long time, allowing Liu Bei to spend as much as he wanted.
Because they knew Liu Bei had no choice.
The first is the issue of rewards.
As an outsider, Liu Bei has no roots in Jingzhou and Yizhou, so there will inevitably be conflicts between the local factions and the outsiders in the two places.
Just like in history, Liu Yan's visit to Yizhou also triggered rebellions among many Yizhou families.
Disagreement between the two sides is inevitable.
Therefore, in order to win over them and gain the support of their land and population, we must not be stingy in rewards, and we must not be less than a penny of the rewards that should be given.
For example, people like Yang Song, Zhang Lu's original counselor, was obviously a villain who betrayed his master, but he did help Liu Bei get Hanzhong.
Therefore, Liu Bei could not kill such a villain, but instead wanted to reward him with a large reward, which had the effect of buying a horse's bones with a thousand gold coins.
Otherwise, who would choose to surrender when they attack Cao Cao in the future?
Secondly, there is the issue of official position.
Liu Bei is now a general of the left. Although in the hierarchy of official positions in the Han Dynasty, the generals of the front and rear are second only to the general, the general of the hussar, the general of the chariot, and the general of the guard. They are ranked above the nine ministers and belong to the senior generals of the Han Empire.
But he couldn't give him a position beyond this position, just like when Colonel Ka came to power later, he was just a "colonel", so he couldn't reward a general.
Therefore, except for the governors and county magistrates of various places, the other high-ranking ministers can only be placed as generals with various titles.
For example, Mi Zhu worked hard and made great achievements. He spent all his wealth to help Liu Bei, so he was awarded the position of General Anhan, above many other generals, which was regarded as giving him a superior status.
Zhuge Liang is now the military advisor general and the governor of Banan. He is responsible for the affairs of General Zuo's office. He is essentially equivalent to the prime minister and has overall power.
Guan Yu was the general of the Dang bandits and was in charge of the military affairs in Hanzhong.
Zhang Fei was the general who conquered the captives and the governor of Bazhong, and was in charge of the military affairs of Bajun.
Shen Chen was the general of the town army and the prefect of Nanyang, and was in charge of Nanyang's military affairs.
Zhao Yun is the general of the Yi army and the governor of Lujiang, and is in charge of the small half of the Lujiang military that Liu Bei's group received from Sun Quan.
Huang She was the general of Hengbo and the prefect of Jiangxia. He inherited his father's position and was in charge of the Jiangxia navy.
Liu Pan was General Jianwei and the governor of Changsha, in charge of the military affairs in Jingnan.
Currently, these six people are the chief generals of the six main military distribution areas in the two war zones.
According to Shen Chen's strategy, Yizhou only needs to defend and does not need to take the initiative to attack. In addition, the geographical location is conducive to defense, so there are only two small war zones in Hanzhong and Bajun, while Jingzhou has four small war zones to deal with Sun Quan and Cao Cao.
The reason why Guan Yu did not concurrently serve as the prefect of Hanzhong was because Liu Bei had previously promised to make Yang Song the prefect of Hanzhong. In order to get the effect of buying horse bones for a thousand gold, he pinched his nose and gave him the post of prefect of Hanzhong.
However, the new decree states that the status of generals in war zones is higher than that of the chief executive, so Guan Yu's rank is higher than that of Yang Song, and there is no need to worry about Yang Song causing trouble.
Wait a year or two, and then find an excuse to get rid of Yang Song, or send him to Jiangzhou by being promoted overtly or secretly.
After the feudal officials were enfeoffed, Jingzhou and Yizhou became more stable.
The new policy has begun to be implemented. Although some aristocratic families are dissatisfied and start civil strife, it is within the tolerance range, so everything is developing in a good direction.
At the same time, Sun Quan had been urging Liu Bei to marry Sun Shangxiang, so at the end of the 15th year of Jian'an, Liu Bei accepted the marriage and sent people to Jiangdong to discuss the details of the marriage.
At the beginning of the 16th year of Jian'an, Liu Bei, two years later than in history, finally completed his wedding to Sun Shangxiang and took the Sun family to live in Jiangling.
The reason why Sun Shangxiang lives in Jiangling is because she doesn't want to be too far away from Jiangdong and doesn't want to go to Yizhou.
In fact, she was instructed by Sun Quan, who hoped that she could stay in Jiangling and observe the military situation in northern Jingnan and Jingnan to act as internal countermeasures.
Including his betrayal of the Jingzhou rebel family, it was also to gain Liu Bei's trust. Once the civil war between the North and the South changed, and Liu Bei relaxed his vigilance against him, that would be the time for him to attack and stab him in the back.
Liu Bei naturally knew this, and he also knew that Zhuge Liang promoted this marriage with the intention of taking advantage of the situation.
So he simply followed the trend and built a palace for Sun Shangxiang in Jiangling. He did not restrict her movements, and even stayed there from time to time, making outsiders think that he had a deep relationship with the Sun family, so as to make the Sun family believe that he trusted the Sun family.
Unexpectedly, Sun Shangxiang was not too barbaric after he arrived, but was well-educated and very virtuous.
This is also normal.
Historically, her marriage to Liu Bei was classified as a lower marriage.
At that time, Liu Bei was displaced and had no stable territory, which was far inferior to Sun's separatist control of Jiangdong.
Therefore, Sun Shangxiang's unruly and willful nature was exposed, which aroused everyone's disgust.
Now that Liu Bei is powerful and the Sun family is weak, no matter how unruly or willful she is, it will be detrimental to Jiangdong. What's more, Sun Quan has repeatedly warned her, so she can only hide her true nature and pretend to be virtuous and virtuous.
So the couple seemed to be in harmony on the surface, but in fact they began to fight secretly among each other.