Although the dispute between Taixue became more and more intense, for the entire court, the overall situation was getting better and better.
In March of the third year of Yanxi, with the resurgence of the spring tide, the Wu people launched another offensive. It was still the same three-pronged attack as last year. The distribution of troops was almost the same. The generals of the commanding army had not changed. Even the marching route was exactly the same.
, the border army officers were already used to this. But after last year's battle, the Wu army had obviously realized that it was not feasible to break through the Han army's defenses head-on, so they changed their thinking and switched from siege of the city to plundering the population. The main direction of attack
It also turns from Huainan to Nanyang.
Lu Xun, the governor-general, took advantage of the rising tide of the Mian River, and the ships moved in and out of the river like the wind. Whenever he saw a place with people, he would send soldiers ashore to plunder the people and their property. Once the Han army came to help, they would immediately take the boats to avoid the battle and move the proceeds to the river.
Returning to the south bank, the cycle repeats itself, which is unbearable. Fortunately, Chen Chong had already sent additional new troops southward in February. Therefore, Nanfu's troops were able to deploy defenses everywhere and defend the city north of the bank. Therefore, the Wu people did not dare to go deep into Mian.
Bei, after a few months, they only captured more than 3,000 people.
Not to mention the war situation in Huainan, by the end of last year, the relocation of people from Huaibei had also come to an end. A large amount of money and grain saved by the imperial court began to be transferred to Huainan. Zhuge Liang therefore built dikes on both sides of Shaipi to raise the Feishui River.
He improved the water level and trained naval forces in Shaopi. At the same time, he built a large dock at the north entrance of Chao Lake where it connected with Shishui. It was called Youchaowu. Youchaowu was surrounded by water on three sides and had a canal inside.
By seizing the main trunk of Shishui, small ships such as swans and sterns can be attacked from Shuimen to Chaohu Lake. If the Wu people do not capture it, they will not be able to sail the large ships into Hefei, and they will not be able to use their naval superiority. This is exactly the fact.
After Lu Meng led his army to come for the second time, he and Zhuge Liang were in a stalemate for several months. Although both sides suffered injuries to each other, they were never able to break through the front line of Youchaowu.
The only progress made was on Sima Yi's west route. After the setback in Yanxi's second year, he had a clearer understanding of the situation in Ningzhou, and his course of action also changed significantly. He no longer attacked fiercely.
The Dianchi Lake where Wang Ping was located turned to be deeply engaged in civil affairs. In order to solve the problem of transporting grain, Sima Yi set up camps in the Nanzhong Army Camp. On the one hand, he captured and killed the local Nanman leaders, while on the other hand, he reduced the taxes and equalized the land for the civilians. At the same time, he imposed strict security measures and punished
Illegal. By the end of the third year of Yanxi, although Sima Yi had not officially fought with the Han army, he had taken deep root in Nanzhong and expanded his army by more than 20,000 people at the same time. The momentum was extremely alarming. Under this situation, Wang Ping did not dare to fight again.
Holding the Dianchi Lake and then moving the army to Qiongdu, this could only prevent Sima Yi from continuing to expand northward, and the imperial court actually lost its influence over Nanzhong.
But overall, the changes in South and Central have nothing to do with the overall situation. The gap in national power between the North and the South is still widening. Especially Chen Chong's governance of Hebei. By the end of the third year of Yanxi, the New Deal was fully on track. After the implementation was completed,
After the Wubao Order was abolished, Chen Chong ordered the governors of Hebei counties to start farming in Hebei again. Without the support of Wubao, except for a small number of nobles who still had a sense of luck, most scholars did not dare to fight against the New Deal.
It was nothing more than bribing officials with money in the hope of being lenient during the land transfer. However, Chen Chong attached great importance to this land transfer and would never allow anyone to bend the law for personal gain. In the process of transferring land, the local county often used the
The government, Chen went to both sides to jointly investigate, and afterwards sent envoys from the Prime Minister's Palace to conduct random inspections. If one party made any mistakes or omissions, the persons involved would be held accountable. As a result, within the first ten days of May, within just one state of Jizhou,
Fourteen cases of corruption were reported, and all the criminals were sent to work in the countryside. After hearing the news, local officials were all frightened and did not dare to give any clues.
It is worth mentioning that in the case of secretly concealing land, not only the nobles were involved, but also some clans and meritorious officials. For example, Liu Si, the son of Liu Deran, the Marquis of Pingshu, and Liu Duan, the son of Liu Xuan, the Marquis of Fangcheng, all secretly annexed thousands of acres of fertile land.
, the amount far exceeded the provisions of the land limit order. Unlike ordinary Hebei nobles, these people had experienced excessive farming before, and the imperial court personally divided the fiefdoms. However, they colluded with the local wealthy families, which can be said to be a violation of the law. After the news reached the Prime Minister's House,
Chen Chong was extremely disappointed and specifically ordered that these people be reduced by half of their landholdings, and the portion that exceeded the land limit was distributed to local refugees. This caused a lot of controversy in the court, saying that the punishment was excessive.
But by February of the fourth year of Yanxi (AD 224), Hebei's land transfer order was coming to an end. The Prime Minister's Office initially sorted out the number of farmlands, and was surprised to find that, in addition to the acres of land that had been recorded in the book, there were actually new fields added this time.
The taxable land was 6.1 million and 3,000 acres, and 1.77 million and 8,000 people were found to be living in hiding. It can be said to be a remarkable achievement. In the face of such facts, all objections seemed meaningless. Soon,
There was once again a chorus of praise for virtue both inside and outside the court.
At the end of the year, the Prime Minister's Office took advantage of the situation to conduct another census of the population of each state and county. The results were also very good. Although the country had not yet recovered the three prefectures of Jing, Yang, and Jiao, and the country had not yet thoroughly checked the hidden households, the registered population had reached 2,200.
More than 10,000. And last year alone, the country had one million newborns. Seeing these numbers, Chen Chong was very pleased. He thought that now that the national treasury is full, maybe after two more years of military training, the time will be ripe for reunification.
Already.
At this time, Chen Chong was already sixty-three years old. Working in the office all year round, coupled with the eyebrow injury caused by the Baibo thief in his early years, caused his eye disease to rapidly worsen in the past two years. He often couldn't read letters by the light at night.
After a while, his eyes felt drowsy, as if there was a hazy veil in front of his eyes. This brought a lot of trouble to his life. Every time he looked in the mirror to adjust his makeup, he would often cut his beard and beard wrongly and use a short knife.
When repairing his sideburns, he would accidentally scratch himself. This forced him to ask his wife Dong Bai to help him take care of it. At such times, he would be as helpless as a child, restless, as if he was being tortured.
Like torture.
After finishing the cleaning, he looked at himself dimly in the bronze mirror. For one or two dazed moments, he seemed to see his younger self smiling in the mirror. This made Chen Chong feel lost: at the moment when the vitality of the body was rapidly losing, he
Only then did he realize more and more clearly that he was heading towards irreversible decline.
Many young people may wonder, why do old people covet immortality? Chen Chong now fully understands: Just as a person who has seen the light can no longer endure the darkness, a person who has heard the fairy music can no longer endure the darkness.
No longer appreciate the extraordinary. And since a person has been young and has traveled on the vast land, he can no longer tolerate himself becoming a frail old man and gradually rotting into bones and trees in the world of mortals. Therefore, a young man often has no consciousness.
He realizes the value of life because he has never lost it. The old man will be greedy for all the things that exist in the world, love every moment of joy in the remaining years, and try every means to retain and enjoy it. Chen Chong suddenly thought of Zhong Yao, who is more beautiful than Zhong Yao.
He was ten years older and was even older when he died than he is now. It must be for this reason that he was unwilling to delegate power.
Whenever he had this moment of empathy with the First Emperor, Chen Chong sincerely admired his great ancestor Liu Bang. I am afraid there will never be another emperor like him who could be free and easy to despise death. Chen Chong also made up his mind to follow his example and do his best.
Be such a person.
It's the time of the New Year again, with scattered snow falling in the sky, and the plum blossoms in the mansion are also in bloom. Luoyang City is full of festive atmosphere, and Chen Chong and Dong Bai are organizing it together.
Some banquets were held in the mansion. In addition to his children, there were also his son-in-law He Yan, his disciples Pang Tong, Lu Yi, Zhao Qiu and others. There were about five or six tables of men and women, who were basically the relatives and friends of Prime Minister Chen Chong during the festival.
Although there were not many people, Chen Chong was still very happy. For the first time, he feasted with everyone until late at night. When it was almost curfew, everyone left in scattered pieces. Just as Chen Chong and his wife were cleaning the room together, someone suddenly came outside the door.
After knocking on the door and opening it, he found that it was his disciple Pang Tong. Chen Chong couldn't help laughing and said: "What, you can't walk anymore? If Shi Yuan doesn't mind, I have a side compartment here that you can make do with for the night."
The clinker Pang Tong looked cautious. After he entered the room, he first looked around behind him, and then said to Dong Bai: "Master, I have something important to discuss with the teacher. Please stay out of the way first."
Pang Tong was upright and open-minded by nature. He usually dealt with military and national affairs indifferently. Now in front of him, he showed such a serious look. Chen Chong was secretly surprised. Although he didn't know the reason, he also knew that his disciple did not
He knew how to make a fuss, so he asked his wife to leave first. Zhao Qiu was guarding the door while he made a pot of tea. He sat across from Pang Tong and asked, "What's the big deal? It's okay to say it."
Pang Tong looked at Chen Chong for a moment and then asked: "Teacher, have you heard about the recent rumors?"
"What rumor?"
"Those who were born in the Han Dynasty should be painted high. Painting high is a strong court, and they are also prime ministers."
When Chen Chong heard this, his tea-pouring hand shook slightly and almost spilled the tea. He wanted to cover it up, but after thinking about it, it was unnecessary in front of his disciples, so he put down the teapot and said to Pang Tong: "This is nonsense. I don't know.
If you can do such a mess, you won't worry about it."
This was the answer that Pang Tong had expected. He leaned forward slightly and said to Chen Chong: "Teacher, you don't have to worry about this, but what about the Queen Mother? Where is the Emperor? Where are the nobles left behind by the late Emperor? The Imperial Academy is in trouble
With this situation, everyone in the world is talking about it! Who doesn't know that there must be someone behind the scenes who is adding fuel to the flames! If the teacher doesn't make a plan, I'm afraid he will be like Chen Fan and be killed by a villain in the future!"
Chen Chong raised his eyes and asked, "What are your plans?"
Pang Tongli stood up and said: "At worst, we can learn from Huo Guang, get rid of the Queen Mother, and replace her with an emperor!"
Chen Chong stared at Pang Tong silently for a moment, until Pang Tong sat down uneasily, and then he continued: "You were drunk and talked some nonsense to me, and I didn't remember it." Pang Tong wanted to say something more, but Chen Chong immediately waved his hand.
Stopping, he patted his knees and said with a smile: "As a human being, I never take the initiative to make amends for wrongs, and I don't want to think about being poked in the spine by future generations when I am old!" He paused and poured another cup of hot tea for Pang Tong.
, said softly: "Shi Yuan, if you do it for my own good, don't say these things anymore. No matter I am here or not, if you, Kong Ming, Bo Yue and the others are here, I believe everything will be better."