Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 109
In the second year of Jian'an, the world is still turbulent.

After Liu Bei was defeated by Lu Bu, he defected to the imperial court and was entrusted with important tasks by Liu Xie.

Cao Cao was afraid that he would have too much contact with Liu Xie, so he asked him to lead Yuzhou Mu to Peiguo and stationed in Xiaopei again.

The reason for this has two functions. One is to separate Liu Bei from Liu Xie to prevent Liu Bei from rising and being cited as foreign aid by Liu Xie.

The second is to let him monitor Lu Bu. Liu Bei and Lu Bu have a deep hatred, and the two sides are in the same situation.

Placing Liu Bei in Xiaopei is equivalent to Liu Biao's placing Zhang Xiu in Nanyang, which acts as a peripheral barrier to prevent Lu Bu from directly attacking Yanzhou.

Later, it proved that Cao Cao's approach was correct. He slowly cleaned up Dong Cheng and other soldiers that Liu Xie relied on, and replaced the guards at the palace gate of Xudu Palace with his own people, further controlling the emperor.

When Lu Bu betrayed the court again in the third year of Jian'an and formed an alliance with Yuan Shu, Liu Bei bore the brunt and was defeated by Lu Bu again.

On the other hand, Cao Cao's power was not affected at all, and he indirectly used Lu Bu to weaken Liu Bei's strength, making Liu Xie's foreign aid a little less powerful, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

Now that Cao Cao has Chen Deng and his son in Xuzhou as internal support, it can be regarded as easy to hold Lu Bu.

After Lu Bu received Cao Cao's letter, although he was annoyed that he did not get the position of Xuzhou Mu, General Qianzuo was able to open the mansion, which he reluctantly accepted.

At the end of June, when Yuan Shu heard that Lu Bu had regretted his engagement, he sent an envoy to Xudu to be beheaded by Cao Cao. Tens of thousands, attack Xuzhou.

At that time, Lu Bu's power was actually very weak. Although he occupied Xuzhou, Xuzhou itself had been massacred by Cao Cao, and various forces, large and small, were divided one after another, and they did not obey his command at all.

Coupled with the many battles with Liu Bei, he had only a few thousand soldiers and [-] horses at that time, and the strength gap with Yuan Shu was still very large, so he was very worried.

Chen Gui and his son offered him a divorce plan again, asking him to recruit Han Xian and Yang Feng to attack Yuan Shu's camp together.

Lv Bu acted according to the plan, and he defeated Zhang Xun and Qiao Rui, and the tens of thousands of soldiers and horses he brought with him suffered heavy losses. It was this battle that caused Yuan Shu's strength to gradually decline.

In fact, since this year, Yuan Shu has shown signs of decline.It was at the beginning of the year when he proclaimed himself emperor, which was his peak time.

As a result, as soon as he became emperor, people's hearts were scattered, and Sun Ce immediately severed ties with him, making him lose Jiangdong.

If the loss of Jiangdong was nothing, then fighting against Lu Bu and losing a large number of soldiers and horses in this battle would be a serious injury and a severe decline in strength.

On the other hand, Lu Bu also gathered a group of Yuan Shu's troops who surrendered, and the troops gradually grew.

But when Yuan Shu's power was greatly weakened, Sun Ce was making great strides in Jiangdong.

At that time, Cao Cao did not let Lu Bu fight Yuan Shu alone, but in the name of the court, he asked Chen Yu, the prefect of Wujun, and Sun Ce, the general of Ming and Han Dynasties, to attack Yuan Shu together with Lu Bu.

Sun Ce's territory was in the Danyang area of ​​Kuaiji, while Chen Yu, the prefect of Wujun, occupied Wujun and Guangling.

As a result, when Sun Ce ordered Qi troops to go northward to meet Lu Bu and Chen Yu in the Guangling area, Chen Yu sent troops to attack Sun Ce's hometown Kuaiji and Danyang.

Upon hearing the news, Sun Ce was furious, and immediately led his army to attack Chen Yu, capturing 4000 of his family members.

Since then, Wu County has also been occupied by Sun Ce, and the entire Jiangdong belongs to him.

In September, Cao Cao attacked Chen Guo and Liang Guo, and completely drove Yuan Shu's forces out of Yuzhou.

However, Yuzhou was already very dilapidated at that time. Even if Liu Bei had the official job of Yuzhou Mu, he could legitimately integrate the power of Yuzhou, but he could not strengthen himself.

In addition, Xun You, the prefect of Runan, and Li Tong, the governor of Yang'an, restrained him, so that his strength did not recover.

But after Yang Feng and others defeated Yuan Shu, they kept plundering between Xuzhou and Yangzhou. Lu Bu sent Yang Feng and Han Xian to plunder Liu Bei's military resources, but they were trapped by Liu Bei and annexed Yang Feng's army. added a little strength.

In the same year, Li Jue and Guo Si in Guanzhong also decided the winner. After Guo Si was killed by his own generals, Li Jue temporarily occupied Guanzhong.

It's just that Guanzhong was not the only one of his family. At that time, Liang Xing, Zhang Heng and other small princes in Guanzhong had more than a dozen forces. They each had thousands of troops, while Li Jue had tens of thousands of soldiers.

Cao Cao knew that these people were afraid of being annexed by Li Jue, so in October of the second year of Jian'an, he sent Pei Mao, the servant of the audience, to Guanzhong to unite these small forces.

The history of the second year of Jian'an has generally not changed much from the original one. After all, Shen Chen is a soft-spoken person now, and he can't be that butterfly that can incite a tornado.

But he still changed a lot.

For example, in history, Cao Cao would personally conquer Nanyang again at the end of this year, in winter and November. However, this time he was photographed by Shen Chen. He could only make friends with Liu Biao and dare not go south again.

Also, when he originally sent Cao Hong to station in Ye County, he would attack Zhang Xiu from time to time, but this time he could only let Cao Hong defend Ye County.

Therefore, what Shen Chen changed was actually Nanyang's current situation.

Killing Cao Ren and Le Jin was like cutting off one of Cao Cao's claws stretching towards Nanyang. Before he licked the wound, he would no longer covet Nanyang.

And amid all the hustle and bustle in the world, the second year of Jian'an finally came to an end.

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In Jingzhou, the New Year is approaching. Liu Biao is in a very good mood these few days. He rewarded his subordinates with some property, especially Deng Hong. All kinds of valuable items and property are worth millions of dollars.

In addition to being happy at being rewarded by the imperial court, the more important thing is that his strength is about to grow again.

Last year, due to the Nanyang Rebellion, his villagers were unable to cultivate the land and had no harvest.

But the wheat has been planted at the end of the year, and it can be harvested in May of the next year.

According to the estimate reported to him by Nanyang prefect Wang Yi, if there are no accidents this year, the harvest will reach nearly ten million stones, grain and grass.

This is a very scary number, enough to feed a hundred thousand troops for a year and a half.

Later, Deng Ai used 500 soldiers to garrison fields in Huainan, and the annual harvest could reach 3000 million shi. In six years, he accumulated 10 million shi of grain, enough to feed [-] people for five years.

But his way of farming was quite extreme. At that time, it was already in the middle and late stages of the Wei state, and Cao Wei was about to perish in 20 years, so the proportion of farming reached [-]% or even [-]%, and the exploitation was very serious.

And Liu Biao's Tuntian people are more than 20, which is four times that of Deng Ai.But his ratio is low, [-] or [-]. If the common people rent official cattle, the highest is [-], so the annual harvest is only twice that of Deng Ai.

After having Tuntian, it was of great help to Liu Biao.

At that time, the most developed places in Jingzhou were Nanyang and Nanjun. Later, the Jianghan Plain in Hubei and the Dongting Lake Plain in Hunan are still soaked in Yunmeng Lake, including Shashi City, Jianli County, Hanyang District and other counties and cities in later generations. Blowing bubbles at the bottom of Mengze Lake.

Therefore, places like Jiangxia County, Guiyang County, and Wuling County are underdeveloped in terms of population and economy.According to the population statistics of Hedi period, the combined population of these three counties is less than half of that of Nanyang County.

In Jingnan area, only Changsha County and Lingling County are relatively better, but these places are too far away from Xiangyang. Changsha prefect Zhang Xian and others are considered to be in a semi-separatist state, and Liu Biao's forces have not yet touched these places.

Therefore, if Nanyang is eliminated, Liu Biao's real territory will only be Nanjun and Jiangxia.

The combined population of these two places is only one million, and the tax revenue provided to him is not much every year, which can only allow him to support Zhang Yun, Wenpin, Huang Zu and other [-] to [-] soldiers.

But after Shen Chen came to Jingzhou, he proposed the matter of farming, so in 195 AD, Liu Biao started farming in Nanyang.

Except for the two visits by Zhang Xiu and Cao Cao, the rest of the time had a good harvest. In the past two years, plus the taxes from Nanjun and Jiangxia, Liu Biao's treasury has accumulated more than 2000 million stones of grain and grass. The library is full.

After another harvest next year, his food reserves will rise again, and he can consider expanding his troops. Maybe he doesn't have to wait until the fifth year of Jian'an to defeat Zhang Xian, the prefect of Changsha who resisted him, and annex the four counties of Jingnan, so that he can gather the crowd in advance There are [-] troops.

For this reason, Liu Biao was full of joy, and the Jingzhou Shepherd's Mansion was decorated with lanterns and festoons, preparing to celebrate the new year with joy.

At the end of the year, Kuai Liang came to see him in the prefecture's mansion.

In the mansion, Liu Biao summoned him, and when Kuai Liang entered the hall, he happily asked, "Zirou, what's the matter?"

Kuai Liang knew that he was very happy recently, so he said with a smile: "Duke Ming, the harvest in Nanyang is coming soon, and the treasury is full, so I want to ask Duke Ming, do you want to renovate the military?"

Liu Biao nodded and said, "I'm about to have this intention. When Nanyang Sumai is harvested next year and the warehouse is rich, I plan to expand the army by another [-]."

Kuai Liang said: "Now Jiangdong is in chaos and Duke Ming's strength has increased greatly. Why don't you take the opportunity to seize Jiangdong?"

"Take Jiangdong?"

Liu Biao stroked his beard and thought.

Kuai Liang said: "Exactly, the Duke of Ming has a deep enmity with the Sun family. Now that he has Jiangdong, he will come to crusade one day. We should eliminate Sun Ce and seize the south while he is not stable."

"Well"

Liu Biao pondered.

This matter can be regarded as a rehash.

When Liu Biao first came to Jingzhou not long ago, he only had a land in Nanjun.

Yuan Shu occupied Nanyang and ordered Sun Jian to attack him, but he sent Huang Zu to shoot him to death with random arrows.

At that time, Kuai Liang suggested that he take the opportunity to seize Jiangdong.

But at that time Liu Biao thought that he was too weak to annex Yangzhou, so he rejected Kuai Liang's proposal.

Later, when his strength grew, Kuai Liang proposed to let him seize Jiangdong again.

However, Sun Ce had already crossed the river and occupied Danyang, Kuaiji and other places. Only Wu Jun and Yuzhang Jun had not been captured yet, and Liu Biao still did not dare to let Huang Zu march into Yuzhang.

As a result, two years later, in 199 AD, Sun Ce stabilized the situation in Jiangdong, but began to attack him instead.

Although repelled by Huang Zu, the hatred between the Sun family and Liu Biao had already been forged because of Sun Jian's death in Xiangyang. After that, Sun Ce died in an assassination.

So to a certain extent, Liu Biao also missed good opportunities several times, did not follow Kuai Liang's advice, killed the Sun family in the cradle, and made the Sun family grow stronger.

Unlike Kuai Yue, who cared more about family interests, Kuai Liang was Liu Biao's mastermind, and he hoped to promote Liu Biao's hegemony.

Therefore, his several suggestions are actually paving the way for Liu Biao's dream of dominance.

It's a pity that he died of illness relatively early, within two years. Otherwise, perhaps with the help of Kuai Liang, when Liu Biao wins Jingnan, he might really be proclaimed emperor.

Now that Liu Biao's strength has increased greatly, he annexed the Runan Yellow Turbans and Nanyang Yellow Turbans that Cao Cao had originally obtained in history, and obtained more than 20 Yellow Turban bandits.

Originally, the reason why he didn't dare to send troops to Jiangdong was that his strength was not very strong, but now even if he didn't get the four Jingnan counties, his strength will rise to another level when the harvest comes up next year.

So when Kuai Liang proposed to send troops to Jiangdong again, Liu Biao began to seriously consider it.

I have to say that now is indeed a godsend opportunity.

Jingzhou has grown stronger due to farming, but Jiangdong is now in chaos. Sun Ce has just defeated Chen Yu, and the internal forces are not stable. There are county commanders everywhere. If you take this opportunity to seize Yuzhang County first.

Thinking of this, Liu Biao slowly nodded and said: "Shan, Zirou's words won my heart. Next year, I will let Huang Zu send troops to Jiangdong to occupy Yuzhang first."

Kuai Liang cupped his hands and said, "Ming Gong is wise."

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At the end of the second year of Jian'an, Liu Biao discussed with Kuai Liang, the mastermind, and decided to seize Yuzhang.

And Cao Cao is also discussing what he plans to do next year.

Since Xun You and Cheng Yu were out of town, he summoned Xun Yu and Guo Jia in his Sikong mansion.

"Brother Huainan has been defeated by me this year. I heard that it hasn't rained in Huainan for a long time in the past two months, and all the wheat is short of water and withered. There is a great famine in Shouchun."

Cao Cao looked around at Xun Yu and Guo Jia and said, "I don't think Yuan Shu is anything to fear. Next year I want to attack Lu Bu. What do you think?"

Xun Yu smiled wryly and said, "Sikong, let's put this matter on hold for the time being. Now our treasury is not full. We have been fighting for years and the people are suffering. If the fighting continues, the people may not be able to survive."

Cao Cao frowned and said, "How much food and grass are there in the military depot?"

"Less than 40 hu."

Xun Yu is in charge of the government affairs in the rear, and he is also in charge of the food and grass issue. He knows too well how much food is in the treasury now.

Now Xudu has a large number of aristocratic families migrating here. These people have to eat, so the imperial court separates the treasury from the military treasury.

Today, the military stocks are less than 40 hu. According to the food consumption of soldiers recorded in "Juyan Han Bamboo" and "Three Kingdoms·Deng Ai Biography", each person consumes about three stones of grain per month, and 1 people spend nearly [-] grains per month on average. Thirty thousand stones.

In other words, if Cao Cao's current 12 soldiers go to battle again, he will have to eat [-] shi of grain a month. Even if he saves a little, he will have to fight for four or five months at most, and he will have to fall into the embarrassing situation of having no food and grass.

This actually has a lot to do with Shen Chen.

In history, Cao Cao did not capture more than 20 Nanyang Yellow Turbans, but about 10 Yingchuan and Runan Yellow Turbans were captured by him.

At the suggestion of Han Haozaozhi and others, he started farming in Yingchuan, and harvested a million shi of grain that year.

However, this time most of the Runan Yellow Turbans were deceived by Shen Chen to go to Nanyang. Cao Cao only got tens of thousands of Yingchuan Yellow Turbans.

In addition, supporting the emperor and the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty cost everything, causing Cao Cao to become poorer and poorer, and the food in the treasury began to be difficult to support him to fight everywhere.

From this point of view, it should also prove the sentence, "Everything is a double-edged sword", there are advantages and disadvantages to flattering the emperor.

The advantage is that it has gained a political reputation and righteousness.

The disadvantage is that it is very difficult for Cao Cao, a warlord, to support the capital of an empire. The civil and military officials of the whole dynasty have to pay salaries, and the emperor has to guarantee his expenses. For Cao Cao, it is really too poor.

Hearing the bad news from Xun Yu, Cao Cao's expression was very bad, and he asked, "Lü Bu is a capricious person. If he doesn't punish him, he may cause harm in the future. Is there no other way?"

Xun Yu said: "Now Yuzhou is dilapidated, Yanzhou is not very good, and there are bandits all over the place. If we can conquer some remnants of the Yellow Turbans and set up fields in Yuzhou, let the soldiers cultivate the fields and rest for a year or two, maybe the situation will improve. "

What he meant was that Cao Cao should not be allowed to fight on a large scale again. Either he should first clean up the remnants of bandits, bandits and yellow scarves left in places around Yingchuan, such as Funiu Mountain and Runan, and take the captives to the fields, or let the soldiers directly Cultivate the land, cultivate for a year or two, and restore your strength.

But this obviously goes against Cao Cao's strategic intentions. He intends to conquer Lv Bu eastward and control the whole of Henan. Yuan Shao hit?

So Cao Cao shook his head and said, "No way, Lu Bu must be eliminated, otherwise it will cause endless harm."

Guo Jia thought for a moment, then suddenly said: "Ming Gong, I heard that Liu Biao gathered a large number of fleeing Guanzhong people and Nanyang Runan Yellow Turbans in Nanyang, and farmed on the spot, and the harvest was very good?"

Cao Cao nodded and said, "That's right. When I conquered Nanyang, I actually wanted to include Nanyang in the city. If we could move the people of Nanyang to Runan or Yingchuan and other places to build fields, maybe we could solve the problem of lack of food and grass. .”

In history, he conquered Nanyang three times, and finally succeeded in making Zhang Xiu surrender. After that, he moved a large number of people from Nanyang to Yingchuan to fill the population of farmland in Henan and other places, and among them was Deng Ai who was born this year.

Now that Shen Chen has repelled Cao Cao, a chain reaction has been triggered, that is, Cao Cao lacks the people who live in the fields, and the food he gets is greatly reduced. It’s fine if Deng Ai didn’t go to Yingchuan. delay.

And this delay does not know how many unpredictable historical changes will be caused in the future.

But now Cao Cao is very eager to get rid of Lu Bu.

Because he could tell that Gongsun Zan couldn't last long, and once he was eliminated, Yuan Shao's eyes would definitely turn to the south.At that time, with Yuan Shao in the north, Lu Bu in the east, and Liu Biao in the south, his situation will be very bad.

So even if there is a lack of food, Cao Cao is still considering whether to bite the bullet and continue to attack Lu Bu next year as planned.

Guo Jia said with a smile: "I heard people say that Shen Chen preached everywhere in Jingzhou to fight against Duke Ming. Liu Biao not only acquiesced, but also supported him behind the scenes. I think he has unruly ambitions. But if he wants to dominate, he must win. Jiangdong, otherwise if you go north to Henan, the Sun family will have a blood feud with him, and they will attack Jiangxia."

"what do you mean?"

Cao Cao stroked the long beard on his chin, and narrowed his eyes slightly.

Guo Jia said: "In the name of the emperor, let Liu Biao offer millions of dendrobium grain and grass for the imperial court. What the emperor gave him was to worship him as a general of hussars, hold festivals and supervise Yi, Jiao, Jing, and Yang. It is a matter of the four states. At that time, Liu Zhang, Sun Ce and others will definitely turn against him, and this will also weaken Liu Biao's strength."

"Oh?"

Cao Cao pondered, "What if Liu Biao doesn't follow?"

Guo Jia said: "It doesn't matter whether he never obeys. If he doesn't obey, the emperor begs for food from him, and he will have to offer hundreds of thousands of stones of grain and grass. If he obeys, it will be even better, and we can also get grain and grass. He will get the opportunity to send troops to Yizhou, Jiaozhou and Yangzhou in a legitimate way, and we will not lose anything."

Cao Cao frowned and said, "If Liu Biao defeats Sun Ce and Liu Zhang, wouldn't the whole south be his own?"

"Duke Ming, Liu Biao doesn't practice martial arts. No matter how many troops there are, they are just mobs. How can Liu Zhang take advantage of the land? Not to mention Jiangdong, Sun Ce is so brave, how can he be defeated by Liu Biao."

Guo Jia laughed and said: "What's more, even if they lose one of them, can't they still unite? Even if they retreat ten thousand steps, they are still invincible. Liu Biao wants to annex Yangzhou and Yizhou, and it will take a few years. By then we will have already Unify Henan and grow in power."

"That's true."

Cao Cao took it very seriously, and felt that this idea seemed to be a good idea.

It has to be said that Guo Jia still has insight into people's hearts.

He was keenly aware that Liu Biao seemed to have unruly intentions and might become emperor, so he wanted to induce Liu Biao to confess.

If Liu Biao agrees, it will just happen to allow him to send troops to Yangzhou and Yizhou to weaken his strength.

It doesn't matter if you don't agree, Liu Xie asked him, no matter what, he should be mean, and pay tribute to order food and grass.

More importantly, even if he agreed and started to seek hegemony in the south, he might not be able to beat Sun Ce and Liu Zhang.

If he can't handle them, the best result is to continue to be the same as in history. He worshiped millions of stones, grain and grass, and then stayed in Jingzhou and couldn't fight anywhere, and finally died of old age.

The worst result is that Liu Biao won Yangzhou, Yizhou and Jiaozhou, and thus became the largest prince in the south.

However, by that time, he would be at most as strong as Yuan Shao now, and Cao Cao's top priority now is to obtain food and grass as soon as possible, unify Henan, and then fight Yuan Shao to the death.

It is estimated that when Cao Cao and Yuan Shao fought, Liu Biao was still pulling hair with Liu Zhang and Sun Ce, so he just used Liu Zhang and Sun Ce to contain Liu Biao, so that Cao Cao would have no worries.

This is very similar to the later Zhang Xian rebellion.

Due to Zhang Xian's rebellion, Liu Biao had to send troops to Changsha to suppress the rebellion, which gave Cao Cao a god-given opportunity to have no worries in the Battle of Guandu, and finally eliminated Yuan Shao and unified the north.

At that time, Cao Cao was lucky. If there was no such thing, and Sun Ce was killed by an assassin, maybe his hometown would have been stolen by Liu Biao and Sun Ce.

But now it's not luck, but Guo Jia believes that Liu Biao's harvest in Nanyang and his strength will skyrocket, which will inevitably lead to a skyrocketing ambition. Just give him a righteous name and let him conquer Sun Ce and Liu Zhang, so he can kill two birds with one stone.

Cao Cao pondered for a moment, and felt that Guo Jia's strategy would not be a disadvantage, so he nodded and said, "Okay, let's do it like this."

The general trend of the world is like this.

Because of Liu Biao's soaring strength in the field, he gradually developed a desire to separate himself and claim the emperor. Guo Jia understood people's hearts and immediately used this to give Liu Biao a pillow.

Both sides take what they need, which may have changed a lot of the general trend.

The only constant is the hapless Liu Bei.

The end of the new year is approaching, and Liu Bei has historically lived a miserable life in Xiaopei.

It's a little bit better now.

Because Shen Chen sent him a batch of gold and property so that he could have a good year.

Now Xiaopei is preparing some New Year's goods to reunite with his family.

And just when he held a dinner in the Xiaopei County Government House on New Year's Eve, he sent someone to call Guan Yu and Zhang Fei Taishi Ci to come over for dinner.

Zhang Fei excitedly ran to the county government office, opened the door and shouted: "Brother, I have robbed a group of war horses!"

These war horses were purchased by Lu Bu who sent people to Hanoi.

(End of this chapter)