Luoyang is not far from Jizhou. In terms of straight-line distance, the distance from Guangzong to Luoyang is actually 400 kilometers.
But Chen Mu still didn't like the slow traffic of the Eastern Han Dynasty. He traveled all the way through mountains and rivers, and took a carriage every day. He could only walk thirty or forty kilometers. It took more than ten days to return to Luoyang, and all his time was wasted on the road.
Taking advantage of this period of time, Chen Mu has been thinking about the next move. Jinan has been obtained, and it must recuperate and develop the base area.
It was good luck that Zhang Rang did not send his eldest brother Liu Bei to Jiaozhou to become the governor.
After all, according to Chen Mu's original consideration, if he really wants to conquer the world, he must start from the Central Plains, not Guanzhong, Sichuan, Shu, and Soochow.
I have occasionally seen some arguments before, about occupying Guanzhong and following the Qin and Tang dynasties to conquer the world. But in fact, it is extremely nonsense and completely out of tune.
Why?
The reason is very simple. The past two years in Guanlong and Yongzhou have been really troubled by disasters, including earthquakes, famines, droughts, and plagues. Before Dong Zhuo moved the population of Luoyang to Chang'an, the total population of Yongzhou was only two to three million people. Even if it was added
Sichuan and Shu have a population of four to five million people.
On the other hand, the total population of the Central Plains region, including Jizhou, Youzhou, Qingzhou, Xuzhou, Yuzhou, Bingzhou, and Sili, exceeded 20 million. Even with the great changes at the end of the Han Dynasty and the population greatly reduced, the Central Plains region still had a population of more than 10 million.
Population migration was a very troublesome matter in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Except for Dong Zhuo who moved the population away from Luoyang, only the population from Xuzhou was left to flee to Youzhou in the north and Yangzhou in the south.
It was all because of Cao Cao's good deeds in massacring Xuzhou. However, although the population of Xuzhou dropped sharply, it was actually just an increase of hundreds of thousands of people in Soochow's Yangzhou. Generally speaking, there was still no particularly large population migration in the Central Plains.
Therefore, there is no doubt that the Central Plains has the largest population.
What were the battles fought in ancient times?
Money, food and people.
The side with the larger population has the absolute initiative.
It is indeed a good way to occupy Guanzhong and compete for the world. This is how the Qin and Tang dynasties succeeded.
But first it depends on when.
The reason why the Qin Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty were successful was that they were internally stable but externally chaotic. If they took the initiative, they could encroach on it step by step.
The situation in the Eastern Han Dynasty was very special. After Dong Zhuo's rebellion, Guanzhong was occupied by the Xiliang warlords, including Li Jue, Guo Si, Ma Teng, Han Sui and other more than a dozen warlords, all of whom had Xiliang cavalry.
These dozen or so warlord forces are also in chaos internally. No matter how powerful you are, the reincarnation of Han Xin, the military immortal, it will definitely be impossible to deal with these powerful Xiliang warlords in less than three to five years. Even if they are cornered, it will be impossible to join forces.
It's not impossible to get together and attack together.
Therefore, it is almost impossible to maintain internal stability like the Qin and Tang dynasties.
And when you pacify the Xiliang warlords and unify the two states of Yongliang and Liang, you will find that Cao Cao has occupied the Central Plains and captured the richest and most populous territory in the Han Dynasty. In this way, including Sun Quan's Eastern
Wu, there is no difference from the original historical Three Kingdoms structure.
Then the Three Kingdoms continued to fight for several decades. In the end, Cao Wei relied on their large numbers and slowly eroded away the other two countries. Then Sima Yi carried out the Gaopingling Incident, and the three families returned to Jin. Five Huanhua came one after another, and continued to maintain
This humiliating history of the Han people.
Therefore, if you want to change your destiny, the most correct and reliable way is to capture the Central Plains. This is what a counselor should do, instead of hiding in Bashu and Soochow and passively being beaten.
Now Chen Mu has succeeded in taking the first step, helping Liu Bei to gain a small piece of land in Jinan, so that at least when Dong Zhuo is in chaos, he can pull together a team to attack Dong Zhuo, gain a reputation with Dong Pangpang, and then
If we take advantage of the trend and capture Qingzhou, we will at least have the capital to start a business.
When Chen Mu graduates from Hongdu School, he will also find a way to transfer to Qingzhou. It would be great if he can get a Qingzhou governor. In this way, in a larger sense, Qingzhou will belong to the Liu Bei Group, and he will have a place to rest and recuperate.
The place.
Owning a state is the capital of the world!
Chen Mu was calculating in his mind.
In fact, he felt that the best place was Xuzhou. Firstly, it was rich, and secondly, it had a good source of soldiers. Although it was a place of the Fourth War and had to fight everywhere, it was still better than Qingzhou in general.
But he can't choose seats for this kind of thing like going to a cinema to watch a movie. As I said before, the prefects in the world are all in trouble, and all of them have paid money to take office. Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty can't do it without the other person's fault.
If he is dismissed without reason, Zhang Rang can only help him find a better place if there is a vacancy.
So it’s not impossible to settle for the next best thing, Qingzhou.
The most important thing is that Qingzhou's geographical location is very interesting, with Yanzhou to the west, Jizhou to the north, and Xuzhou to the south. Yanzhou and Jizhou are only bordered by a small area, and the other large areas are like a protruding corner, close to
seaside.
Once a war breaks out, the most direct conflict will be with Yuan Shao or Cao Cao. Tao Qian will definitely not take the initiative to cause trouble. And even if Yuan Shao and Cao Cao come to cause trouble, they can just defend Dongguan County and Jinan County, and they will not be able to invade other places.
Therefore, if Qingzhou is actually occupied, Tao Qian will attract most of the firepower, which is equivalent to a shield. Maybe when Cao Cao attacks Xuzhou, he will be able to stage another three-confrontation drama with Xuzhou.
By then, with the population and troops of Qingxu and Qingzhou, even Cao Cao and Yuan Shao may have to suffer.
Thinking of this, Chen Mu nodded, he had to do something else.
…….
…….
After Liu Bei said goodbye to Chen Mu, he planned to take his mighty army to Jinan to take up his post.
When he was in the army, he could receive military rations. Now that he was out on his own, he finally understood the disadvantages of having no money, because he would soon be unable to support so many people.
Fortunately, before leaving, Chen Mu left a solution, which was to let him continue to stay with Huangfu Song and wait for another month or two before taking up his post.
Although he didn't quite understand why Chen Mu did this, Liu Bei didn't have enough money to support more than 10,000 people, so he could only find Huangfu Song and said that he was willing to stay and help him.
Huangfu Song was naturally happy to hear that Liu Bei wanted to stay. Who doesn't like to have more troops, the better, not to mention Liu Guan and Zhang are as fierce as ghosts.
More than ten days later.
In early October of the first year of Zhongping, Huangfu Song attacked Guangzong, killing tens of thousands of Yellow Turban soldiers, and 50,000 people drowned in the river. At this time, Zhang Jiao had already died of illness, and Huangfu Song dissected his coffin and stabbed his body, and passed it on to the capital.
In mid-October, Julu County was captured by Huangfu Song, and Zhang Yan abandoned the city and fled into Heishan.
In November, Xiaquyang was captured. Huangfu Song killed Zhang Bao, killed more than 100,000 Yellow Turbans, and built a Jingguo with more than 100,000 corpses, which shocked the world.
The Yellow Turban Uprising, which lasted for more than half a year, came to an end.
Liu Bei finally understood the reason why Chen Mu wanted him to stay. After Guangzong's city was destroyed, not only could he obtain a large amount of food and supplies, but he could also obtain countless trophies. In this way, he could make huge fortunes from the war.
So Liu Bei took his money and troops and went to his post happily.
Some people may wonder why he can lead so many people.
Because the only army that truly belongs to the imperial court is Liu Bei's five hundred soldiers who were incorporated into the Northern Army. The rest of the soldiers can only be regarded as private troops.
It is not a secret that the powerful in the late Han Dynasty kept slaves. After the Yellow Turban Rebellion, many wealthy people in the north recruited a large number of young men and built their own forts, like Xu Chu.
Moreover, Liu Bei's people were all his people who spread wealth around Jizhou, showed kindness and righteousness, and voluntarily defected to him. There were even a large number of old, weak, women and children among them, and they were not considered a real army.
According to Chen Mu's plan, he will go to Qingzhou to cultivate fields in the future to supplement Qingzhou's population.
In this way, Liu Bei successfully took his people to their posts.