Xuande

Chapter 531 Yuan Shu Can't Support an Army

In order to control prices, Liu Bei ordered the transfer of grain from Sanfu, purchased grain from Chenliu County, Yingchuan County and other places, and simultaneously promoted the collective farm policy in some areas of Luoyang.

He used the properties and land controlled by the officials of the Yuan Group that he had cleaned up to resettle the refugees who wandered to the land of three rivers, build collective farms, arrange for them to farm, and resume agricultural production as soon as possible.

At the same time, he mobilized the officials of the ancient literature school in the court to attack the external officials who drove up prices with all their strength. He also strictly stipulated that hoarding was not allowed internally, which restricted the insects inside the ancient literature school.

Then, he mobilized his members of the salt dealer circle all over Sanfu and Sanhe to fully support his material transfer, and he made every effort to crack down on the families that hoarded and raised prices, and made legal provisions to prohibit hoarding and raising prices.

Whoever is hoarding, as long as Liu Bei gives an order, they can rush forward and tear each other clean.

After severely punishing several families who took the lead in not abiding by the regulations, and forcefully suppressing ill-intentioned opposition from the government and the opposition, Luoyang food prices, which had risen in May and June, finally returned to the level of the fifth year of Zhongping.

Through this struggle, Liu Bei successfully proved to the people of Luoyang that he was not only strong in military affairs, but also in politics with many supporters and strong wrists.

In order to kill the Modern Literature School, the Ancient Literature School essentially recognized Liu Bei as the leader of the Ancient Literature School and was willing to support him and restrain the behavior of family members.

The local family with whom he had a salt peddling relationship was willing to support him.

Hongnong County under Yang's influence did not oppose him.

Zhang Rang clearly asked Shi Changshi not to oppose Liu Bei at least at this time.

At this strange moment, Liu Bei is the only person who can be trusted to protect the eunuch's interests. If Liu Bei is annoyed, the eunuch's political future will be very gloomy. Never let him know that some of the ten permanent attendants are at this time Drive up prices, otherwise internal punishment will not be soft.

Jian Shuo's power was the weakest, and he thought about it. Although he wanted to take the opportunity to make a fortune, he was frightened by Liu Bei's prestige and dared not act.

Then there are really not many forces that can oppose him and influence him economically and materially.

Not to mention that he still has more than [-] troops in his hands. Under such a strong deterrence, at least the insects around Luoyang dare not jump around for a while.

So Liu Bei gathered a lot of troops around Luoyang, but there was no problem with food prices and material transportation, everything was running smoothly, and the training of the troops was in full swing.

And Liu Bei did not predict wrongly.

Compared with him, who has rich experience in governing and fighting, Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu are like political amateurs.

Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu had never commanded a large-scale army in battle. Their original learning and practical experience were all positioned in the position of a leading general, and did not involve deeper areas.

But the position they are in now requires them to be a commander in chief.

There are too many things for the commander to manage.

Among other things, the transportation of the army's logistics needs to be coordinated by the commander. Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu were just generals who were in charge of fighting on the front line. He Jin is doing support.

But this time, He Jin, who moved his head, obviously couldn't provide them with any effective support. They could only rely on themselves, so when the number of troops was still small, they could still support them. When the number of troops increased, problems arose. .

The expansion of Yuan Shu's army was relatively fast, so problems appeared relatively quickly, such as lack of food, money, and living supplies.

The Yuan family does have background and money, and it is true that they can support a lot of troops if they take it all out, but the problem is that they can't take it all out. How can they live a luxurious life if they take it all out?
Aside from other things, Yuan Shu, who has been well-clothed and well-fed since he was a child, is willing to use his living expenses for the army?

So the problem arises, there is money, but it will not be used by the main soldiers. After the number of troops exceeds [-], let alone food, and only the loss of people eating horse chews, it will be a big problem every day. numbers.

A person needs at least one catty of grain a day to maintain his basic survival, and this is [-] catties of grain a day, which is the most basic consumption of the leading soldiers of the combat troops.

In addition to the front-line fighting soldiers in the combat troops, there are also a large number of technical arms in the army, represented by crossbowmen and cavalry. The rations of these technical arms are often better than those of the front-line hand-to-hand soldiers.

Therefore, if you add a little more than [-] catties of grain, you will spend almost [-] catties a day.

In addition, there are thousands of officers of all ranks, military officials, generals' personal guards and private soldiers in the army. Their food standards are getting higher and higher, which is completely different from the big soldiers.

From personal guards to senior officers, these people consume several times more food than the big-headed soldiers. There is no upper limit, and the treatment is slightly better. These 1000 or so nearly 1 officers can consume more than [-] to [-] The supplies needed by the [-] leading soldiers were wasted.

The supplies that guaranteed a minimum of [-] catties of grain were spent.

In addition to the main soldiers, the army also needs auxiliary soldiers, civilian husbands, etc. to help with chores and transportation. Of course, these are not always available, and they mainly appear during wars, but once they appear, the number of them often exceeds that of combat troops.

At least [-] as a base, with no upper limit.

Together with the war, they lost another [-] catties of food every day.

In addition to people, there are livestock. The army needs war horses and other livestock that help to carry them, such as rough horses, donkeys, and mules.

There are also tens of thousands of them, and the loss is often several times that of a big soldier, especially the war horse, which is more than ten times.

This part of the food and fodder expenditure is too large, and the loss of the static state and the marching state are different. If the fodder is not enough and is simply fed with grain, [-] livestock can equal the loss of [-] soldiers.

Calculated piecemeal, it is only in a static state. In order to maintain the 3 soldiers, Yuan Shu needs to spend almost [-] catties of food for it a day.

If it is a marching state or a state of war, this number will be doubled.

One hundred thousand catties of grain, for a behemoth like the Yuan family, the equivalent amount of money is not surprising. They can definitely afford this amount of grain. As long as there is grain, they can buy it, and they can still buy it. a long time.

The Yuan family is very rich.

But the problem is that people don't want to pay too much money.

Because the safety of life was tied to Yuan Shu, everyone had no choice but to provide Yuan Shu with a huge amount of starting funds and supplies. This was the main reason why Yuan Shu was able to raise an army of 3 people within two months.

It is not an exaggeration to say that only an old family like Yuan's can afford the expenditure of money and supplies.

And this is almost all they can support, and if they go further, they will start to reduce their living standards to help Yuan Shu fight the war. After all, there are tens of thousands of mouths to eat.

Will they?
Not very willing.

Members of the Yuan family can easily accept one more dish on their table, but they cannot accept one less dish on their table, even if they don't eat that dish at all.

Although they are now facing a life-and-death problem, they will not take the initiative to bleed more before the knife is placed on their necks.

So two months later, when Yuan Shu found out that his troops were unable to make ends meet, he became anxious. On the one hand, he asked the family for money, all kinds of mischief, rolling around and crying, just asking them for money, and it would not work if they didn't give money.

On the other hand, Yuan Shu also realized that although this way of crying poor can get some money, the efficiency is too low, the speed is too slow, it is not convenient to accumulate wealth quickly, and it is also a big debt of favor.

So Yuan Shu suddenly remembered the call from that bastard Yuan Shao.

He is very reluctant to admit that Yuan Shao's method is very useful, but the fact is that this method is really useful.

Runan County has a large number of eunuch industries, and even if Runan County is gone, Nanyang County and Yingchuan County, two famous and wealthy counties, also have a large number of eunuch industries.

The ten permanent servants represented by Zhang Rang have a large number of industries in Hebei and the Central Plains. The Central Plains is also the place where many eunuchs were born. Once they were dignified, they would go back to their hometowns to buy properties, and they bought a lot.

By acquiring all these industries, not only can I live a more luxurious life, but I can also feed the big soldiers in the army and give them more rice porridge.

So Yuan Shu salivated over these eunuch properties.

So he called Yan Xiang, Yang Hong and other advisers who planned for him, and consulted them about the feasibility of doing so.

Of course, Yan Xiang did not support it, and felt that doing so was too direct and shameless, and it might cause some unexpected problems, which would not have a good impact on Yuan Shu's reputation.

Yang Hong knew the actual situation in the army, and after much deliberation, there was no good way. With a county in Runan and a stingy Yuan family, how could it be possible to support [-] troops?
"Although this method is a little inappropriate, it will easily cause widespread concern in the local area, but if the army does not have enough rations, it will also cause mutiny, and the consequences will be more serious. Lord Yan, choose the lesser of two evils, let's do this .”

Yan Xiang was helpless, even though he still didn't support him in his heart, the actual situation was stronger than others.

So after much deliberation, Yan Xiang came up with a compromise solution - don't publicize it publicly, do things in private, rob quietly, don't shoot guns, carry out precise strikes on the eunuch industry, don't make things go up in the world like Yuan Shao Everyone knows.

Moreover, Yuan Shu has his own righteousness to claim that he has his own foundation, and he doesn't need to learn from Yuan Shao to win the support of some people. He can monopolize this part of the benefits by himself.

All in all, come quietly, don't make it public, and then look at the reaction of the local government. If the local government acquiesces, then of course it is best. If not, you still have to be careful.

(End of this chapter)