The three states of Hebei are already in Liu Jian's hands. The next step is to organize the internal affairs, increase productivity, and make the territory rich.
It is estimated that it will take some time to unify the entire Han Dynasty. During this period, the three states of Hebei, Qing, and You, headed by Liu Jian, will probably face many wars.
No matter how wealthy Liu Jian governed Hebei, any war would have a huge impact on people's livelihood, and both powerful families and ordinary people would bear a huge burden.
As long as Hebei's economy is still circulating internally, it will be difficult to offload this burden from the people of the Han Dynasty under his jurisdiction.
Since this burden will always exist no matter how it develops, there is only one way to reduce internal pressure.
Shift the burden.
How to shift the burden of Han people within the country?
Colonize foreign countries, plunder other countries' wealth and resources, and transfer the burden of their own people to them, allowing them to bear the losses of the Han people in the war to the greatest extent possible.
This is a method of benefiting oneself at the expense of others, but in this world where the jungle prevails, Liu Jian can only do this.
Wolves eat meat, dogs eat shit, survival of the fittest is the law of nature.
If you don't control these neighbors while they are still weaklings, scare them to death, and treat them like dogs, they will not be grateful for your kindness when they become powerful in the future, and they will still talk to you and show off.
Political power comes from the barrel of a gun, and fists are the last word.
If you want to colonize them, you must first do two things. First, your productivity and technology must be far stronger than theirs, and second, your military power must be far stronger than theirs.
As far as these two points are concerned, the Han Dynasty is indeed ahead of the surrounding foreign races.
Especially after the Wuzhong Iron Mine is greatly developed, the iron smelting industry under Liu Jian's rule will flourish.
Iron in this era is equivalent to oil in oil.
Whether for people's livelihood or the military, iron is needed. In this era, iron has always been a strategic resource that is urgently needed by various countries but can never be satisfied.
Liu Jian's power is no longer short of iron, which means his potential will become endless.
When an army with weapons made of fine iron and more than half of its soldiers wearing armor stood in front of them, just asking them if they were afraid was the end, and everyone was so frightened that they became incontinent.
Including Xianbei.
Not to mention those Fuyu and Mahan on the border of the Han Dynasty.
Although these ethnic groups currently have a certain cultural foundation, they are far behind those of the Han people.
Moreover, Liu Jian also has a magic weapon in his hand that can open up the Northeastern countries.
That's graphite.
Processed graphite is undoubtedly the best heating product.
In places like Yilou and Fuyu in the northeast of the Han Dynasty, once winter comes, the cold temperatures are the biggest test for the survival of the local people.
This difficulty also applies to Sanhan.
Even in the current Hebei area, many common people freeze to death in winter.
But when graphite is mass-produced and processed, the living conditions in winter can be effectively improved.
As a magic weapon for keeping warm in winter, as long as it is coupled with the design of houses with earthen kang style, it can help people effectively prevent severe cold.
For the people of the Han Dynasty, after the processing of Wuzu graphite ore, they naturally had to be sold at a reasonable price to the common people, so that most people in the northern part of the Han Dynasty could survive the severe cold in winter.
But we cannot be too polite to our neighbors abroad.
If they want graphite for heating, they need to exchange resources that far exceed the value of the graphite itself.
This kind of thing that is related to survival, as long as people want to survive, it is impossible not to want it.
Graphite is just the first step. With the explosion of productivity and technology in the Han Dynasty, there will be more commodities that require them to exchange different resources.
Once Pandora's box is opened, it basically cannot be closed.
…
Just when Liu Jian was reorganizing the power in Jizhou, Yuan Shao began to drive troops into Shu to assist his brother Yuan Yi in dealing with Liu Yan.
Sun Jian was responsible for quelling the disobedient forces in the south of Jingzhou on behalf of Yuan Shao.
Yuan Shu's forces, on the other hand, moved to the east of Yuzhou and divided the border with Yuan Shao to rule. The Yuan brothers were temporarily at peace with each other.
But even though Yuan Shao gave half of the Yuzhou territory to Yuan Shu to manage, Yuan Shu still felt a little dissatisfied after receiving these resources.
Yuan Shu has been a person who likes to compare since he was young.
When his eldest brother Yuan Ji was around, Yuan Shu didn't dare to compete with his eldest brother, but since Yuan Ji's death, Yuan Shu is not afraid of anyone.
In Yuan Shu's view, the likes of Yuan Shao, Dong Zhuo, and Liu Jian are not worthy of comparison with him.
But unfortunately, these people are now more powerful than themselves.
I heard that Liu Deran had captured Youzhou and almost unified Hebei. This really made Yuan Shu jealous.
A kid from a border county, who used to be a little follower behind his eldest brother, is now living in the north of Jieyue, roaming the streets of Hebei Province!?
Although he has the honor of Yangzhou Shepherd, he only occupies half of the territory of Huaihe and Yuzhou.
Originally, Yuan Shu had wanted to take over the whole territory of Jiangdong, but he never expected that when he pretended to be ill and secretly confronted Yuan Shao, Dong Zhuo, who was on an expedition, actually did not forget to set a trap for him.
Taking advantage of Yuan Shu's illness, Dong Zhuo quietly sent many people to Jiangdong.
Among them was Yang Ci's disciple Wang Lang.
Due to the differences in the gentry groups between Guanxi and Guandong, the Hongnong Yang family and the Runan Yuan family have always had different political stances. Therefore, after Wang Lang arrived in Jiangdong, he would not easily fall to Yuan Shu. He would definitely review the situation and tend to
Self-preservation.
Liu Yao, a member of the Han clan, also went to Wu County to serve as the governor.
Although Yuan Shu has the support of the Yuan family, his reputation as a person is really not comparable to that of Yuan Shao.
Even though Yuan Shao's golden body as a model in the world has been broken, compared with Yuan Shu, he is still a few steps ahead of him.
After all, Yuan Shu's previous reputation was really bad. Although he was known as a heroic hero, most of his reputation was mainly for being idle and not doing his job properly.
Therefore, it is indeed more difficult for him to unify Yangzhou than for Yuan Shao.
In particular, although Shouchun and Jiangdong counties are all located in Yangzhou, Jiujiang and Luyang are to the west of the Yangtze River, while Wujun Danyang and other places are in the southeast of the Yangtze River. In terms of geography, there is a certain degree of fragmentation.
After settling in the eastern part of Yuzhou, Yuan Shu's generals Zhang Xun, Qiao Rui and others advised Yuan Shu one after another, hoping to ask Yuan Shu to send troops to Jiangdong and unify the entire Yangzhou in the name of Zhou Mu.
It was originally a logical strategy, but Yuan Shu was not in a hurry to agree.
Although Jiangdong has a vast territory, it was not the economic and political center of the Han Dynasty after all. In a sense, it was a borderland, and even most of the area was undeveloped wilderness.
As a descendant of the Yuan family, he did not go to the most prosperous place with the most prosperous economy and the most distant culture in the Han Dynasty, but instead went east. This is really not Yuan Shu's character.
It can be seen that Yuan Shu is somewhat lacking in the overall strategic view, does not know how to change his thoughts according to the current situation, and is too stubborn and arrogant.
At the same time, most people can't compare with him in terms of making extravagant efforts.
It seemed that God had done it on purpose. Just when Yuan Shu was considering his next strategy for entering the army, a messenger from an "old friend" came to Yuan Shu.
This person is Cao Cao's subordinate, Cheng Yu from Dongjun.
Now Cao Cao has been transferred from Shanyang County in Yanzhou to Dongjun, and on the recommendation of Yuan Shao, he became the prefect of Dongjun.
Qiao Mao, the former prefect of Dongjun, was killed by Liu Dai in a fight with Liu Dai. Yuan Shao was very dissatisfied with Liu Dai's unauthorized expansion of strength, so he asked Cao Cao to go to Dongjun to replace Qiao Mao, directly interrupting Liu Dai's integration of Yanzhou.
Thoughts.
In Yuan Shao's concept, the boundary of Yanzhou was a buffer for him, Liu Jian, and Dong Zhuo. It would be best for a group of younger brothers to hold the front line for him again. He was determined not to allow a unified force to appear here.
After Cao Cao was stationed in Dongjun, he did not expect that instead of invading Jizhou, the Black Mountain Army in Taihang would go straight to Yanzhou and wreak havoc in the Central Plains.
In fact, the Black Mountain Army had no choice. Jizhou and Youzhou were now connected, and Liu Jian was very popular in the area.
People in the two states all respected Liu Jian and vowed to serve him to the death.
Especially in recent years, many bandits who have invested in Taihang have seen that Jizhou has reorganized the government, the people have farmland, the landlords and rightists have been suppressed, and the livelihood of the farmers can be guaranteed, so they fled Heishan one after another and went to
Under the rule of Liu Jian.
Especially now, among the Montenegrin army, there has begun to form a tendency to rely on Liu Jian.
In particular, Qu Commander Chu Yan, who is currently very prestigious in the Montenegrin Army, is very optimistic about Liu Jian.
He kept fighting with Zhang Niujiao to recruit troops for three days, which caused the Montenegrin Army to be divided into two factions, one was against recruiting troops, and the other was in favor of recruiting troops. The middle and upper levels of the Montenegrin Army were not unified in their opinions, which greatly affected morale.
This is why Chu Yan dared to say this in front of Zhang Niujiao, because his prestige in the Black Mountain Army was too high, and he had saved Zhang Niujiao's life on the battlefield, so Zhang Niujiao had no way of attacking him.
If it were another Qu Shuai who dared to talk nonsense here, Zhang Niujiao would chop it into a thousand petals and he wouldn't be relieved.
In this state, if Montenegro wants to develop and survive, it is natural that it is best to attack Jizhou.
Therefore, they could only aim at the Central Plains.
Therefore, under Zhang Niujiao's dispatch, the Black Mountain Army united with Luan Tiyu Fuluo, a prince who had escaped from the Huns, and with Yu Du, Bai Rao, Sui Gu and others as commanders, they raised troops to invade Yanzhou's territory, plunder grain and grass, and plunder the population.
horses.
At this moment, Cheng Yu, Cao Cao's newly recruited envoy from Dongjun, came to visit Yuan Shu.
Cheng Yu brought Cao Cao's letter and wanted to ask Yuan Shu to raise troops and stationed in Yanzhou to help defeat the Yellow Turban tribes in Heishan and Yanzhou.
Cao Cao took the initiative to express his sincerity to Yuan Shu. Yuan Shu was naturally a little suspicious. After all, Cao Cao was Yuan Shao's die-hard friend. How could he suddenly turn to him?
But Cheng Yu gave Yuan Shu a clever explanation.
He told Yuan Shu that the reason why Cao Cao wanted to invite Yuan Shu to Yanzhou had no other intention. He just wanted to save it.