Shu Chen

Chapter 362 Ingenious
Luomen in Jixian County gathered together, and the Lu family lived in another courtyard on the mountain.

In the small pavilion in front of the trickling stream, Zheng Pu, who was resting at home, was sitting alone, closing his eyes and falling asleep.

Recently, the affairs of the Lixiangfu's other offices have not been too many, but the trivial matters in the family house have increased.

He took Xiaozi as Cai Ji's second daughter, and she came to the world for more than ten days; and Zhang Yan, who was nearly four months pregnant, was very sad, and she inevitably regarded him as an object to vent her grievances under the mood swings. For the first time in his life, he had the realization of what is called "the family has a fierce wife who dare not return".

cough!
All in all, he has been suffering in happiness these days.

But leisure time is not long after all.

When I was young, my servant Qi Yacuo came in a hurry, and the voice came first before the person arrived, "I want to report to you, sir, the soldiers from the prime minister's office came to inform you, and the prime minister asked you to go to discuss the matter immediately."

Why is the prime minister recruiting me urgently?
Could it be that there is a change in Niwei!

Zheng Pu who was awakened by the sound hurriedly got up, and when he hurried back to the house and changed his home Yanfu, he was also thinking.

After galloping all the way, when they entered the other office of Xiangfu in Ji County, they found that other important officials in the meeting hall, such as Xiang Lang, Yao Ni, Ma Di and Dong Jue, were already present, and even Zong Yu, who was stationed in the military camp outside the city, rushed back. up.

And at this time the discussion has already begun.

Yao Ni, who was responsible for the storage of staple food, fodder and supplies, was talking about something, and the prime minister sitting high in the middle listened carefully, with a pen still in his hand, as if he occasionally wrote down something important.

Seeing Zheng Pu arrived, without waiting for him to salute, he nodded slightly to show his eyes and sat down first to listen.

Zheng Pu bowed in a low voice, then sat down on the reserved leftmost side, and saw that there was a piece of military newspaper cloth on the table, which was from Hexi according to the sign.

Spread it out, take a closer look, and only see a few words recorded.

Said: "On the [-]th day of the first month, about [-] troops of the Confucian Warlords of Xiahou against the Wei Dynasty crossed Quwu Mountain by way of the Shuiquansha River, and were trapped in the fortress of Yinyin. There were about [-] cavalrymen of the Qinlang against the Wei Dynasty, and on the same day they drove to the east of Wushaoling. Three of them Qianqi's armor and clothing are quite different, they seem to be tiger and leopard riders."

It was actually Xia Houru who was stationed in Wuyuan County, Bingzhou, who came to commit the crime!

And even the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, who selected a hundred generals and turned into the army against the Emperor of Wei, were sent here!

After seeing it, Zheng Pu couldn't help being surprised, and knew why Yao Ni spoke first.

The three armies have not moved, and the grain and fodder go first.

Niwei even sent Tiger and Leopard Cavalry to help Guanzhong Jingqi, who had lost more than half of their steps. It can be seen that this attack has been planned for a long time, and they will definitely not return in an anticlimactic manner.

The Prime Minister wanted to let everyone have a general understanding of the current situation of Longyou's grain, fodder and supplies, and then make countermeasures against the enemy according to the actual situation.

It's just that the actual situation is not good.

After Yao Ni talked about the situation of the counties and counties in the north at the critical juncture, he cupped his hands and spoke with a slightly sad tone, "Prime Minister, gentlemen, the food and fodder accumulated in various places and the grain of the war horse trade that Sun Wu successively transferred can be shared at most. The [-]-strong army will go out to fight for three months. Because the garrison troops at all levels need to be ready, and the spring plowing season will be a few months away, if the war lasts for a long time, Liangzhou and the counties and counties of Longyou may fall into the predicament of being outnumbered. .unless."

Having said this, he paused for a moment, and turned his attention to the prime minister above.

After seeing the prime minister's invisible nod, he gritted his teeth and continued, "Unless, in the name of the imperial court, the land of Bashu is paid more food, or the above table asks the emperor to follow the example of Emperor Xiaowu of the former Han Dynasty and use the method of grace Raise food for the family and the people."

Increase the tax collection~~
As soon as these words fell, everyone fell into a dead silence for a long time.

Because the power of the people in Bashu is now on the verge of exhaustion, if more taxation and grain collection are added, it will be a militaristic fishing, and it will also personally destroy the image of benevolence and compassion that the imperial court has built up with great difficulty.

At least, the violent and tyrannical government against Wei that Qiao Zhou propagated before can no longer be proclaimed.

"Heh, since it's not the time to increase the tax, let's not discuss it."

Seeing that everyone was silent, the prime minister put down his pen on the case, and said in a slow voice, "Gong Xi, let's talk about the recent purchase of war horses by the Jiangdong family."

"promise."

Dong Jue, who was at the bottom of the army, quickly took orders and said in a clear voice, "Since Army Division Zheng returned from his envoy earlier, Jiangdong's nobles were led by General Wu's youngest son, Uncle Zhuge, to purchase more than [-] horses every month. However, since the middle of last year Since November, the number has dropped sharply to [-] to [-] horses per month, and most of them are cheap riding horses. I don’t know if it’s because of the inconvenience of transportation in late winter, or because all the folk grain in Jiangdong has been purchased as military rations.”

"Um"

In this regard, the prime minister made a nasal sound in response.

Because the prime minister knew the specific reason: he had already received a private letter from his brother Zhuge Jin.

I also know that Sun Quan is making great preparations for this year's military deployment.Those Jiangdong aristocratic families were driven by interests and had countless followers, so there was not much surplus food to buy a large number of war horses for the time being.

But in any case, this is still bad news for Dahan.

However, what Dong Jue said next finally made everyone feel relieved, "Prime Minister, there was news from the Prime Minister's Mansion in Chengdu a few days ago, claiming that the raw silk exchanged from Jingnan had arrived in Berkshire, and the quantity was extremely large. The weavers in Shu brocade workshops in counties and counties are already in place, and in at most two months, they can resume silk road trade."

The mountains in Jingnan are continuous and horizontal, and many low hills and gentle slopes are not suitable for developing rice fields, but it is extremely easy to grow mulberry.

Therefore, Jingnan has accumulated raw silk every year, and it is resold by merchants in winter.The land of Bashu, where Shu brocade is one of the pillar industries, is the biggest buyer.

That is to say, after two months, the imperial court could exchange these Shu brocades for the cattle and sheep of the Qianghu tribe in Liangzhou, which would be eaten by the soldiers or transferred to the aristocratic and powerful families for food fodder.

More or less, it can supplement the military rations by one or two.

"Very good."

The prime minister nodded with a smile on his face, and he did not forget to ask, "Gong Xi should put more thought into this matter, and tell Chengdu to speed up the production of Shu brocade, which can save a day."

After saying that, before Dong Jue could take the order, he set his eyes on Zong Yu again.

Meng Yan, the leader of the tiger infantry army, was stationed in the area of ​​Ayang City, and there was no time to negotiate with him. Zong Yu, who was serving in the Chinese army and was stationed in Ji County to participate in the affairs of the prime minister's government, reported the matter on his behalf.

He, who had been prepared for a long time, did not neglect, and hurriedly cupped his hands and made a sound.

"Prime Minister, because of the great victory in the battle of Lushui tributary in the west of Hexi last year, our army thought that Wei Wei would not attack in a hurry, and because it was the end of the year when there was nothing to do, so many soldiers in the army returned home in rotation. Today, Except for the guarding soldiers and horses in various places in Longyou, only the [-] soldiers of the Chinese army can go out. If the soldiers sent back to the various places are summoned by the post post, it will take more than a month to return to the army. .”

Alas, another bad news.

It has to be said that Wei Guo's invasion from Bingzhou this time was very skillful in terms of strategic purpose and timing.

The Han army fell into a passive state for a while.

(End of this chapter)