Goose Three Kingdoms

Chapter 653 The So-called Division

On the other hand, Cao Zhi first returned to his hometown in Qiao County before heading towards Qi State.

It was only after entering Jinan that Cao Zhi saw relatively dense population.

The roads were filled with caravans collecting grain. Cao Cao's hegemony also ensured order and stability within the territory and reduced military costs.

The biggest advantage of taking Pingyuan away from Yuan Shang is that it provides a strategic buffer and can reduce the size of the garrison.

The peaceful production in the country in the past two years has also led to the return of people who had been living in the mountains, further increasing the population.

Even so, including the plains, the total population of Qi was only more than 2.3 million.

But they are all high-quality population, with few elderly people and mostly young and middle-aged men and women.

Guanzhong is only within the Three Auxiliary Prefectures. Although there are not many elderly people, every family has many children, starting with four or five.

In another ten years, the children who were first rescued from the Huns would be able to wear armor and go into battle.

Ten years later, even if peace remained in the two states of Yan and Yu, the newly born population would find it difficult to grow to a large scale.

It will take about thirty years for the two states of Yan and Yu to have a healthy population base.

At this moment, Qi State already had the conditions for large-scale population growth, it just lacked time.

During this period, domestic stability must be maintained, foreign wars must not be lost, and the scale of the war must be controlled.

Cao Zhi was thinking about the population problem all the way and finally arrived in Linzi.

His arrival was uneventful, and no one even came out of the city to greet him.

It was just like a caravan of merchants returning from afar, and did not alarm anyone.

At nightfall, Cao Cao held a family banquet.

Only at night did he have free time.

After losing people like Xun Yu and Xun You, and also losing the righteousness of the court, Cao Cao had to do many things by himself.

Before this, although the emperor was in power, he was restrained, but he also restrained the ministers.

The warriors of Qiaopei and the scholars of Yingchuan cooperated with each other, showing their strengths and living in harmony.

It’s no longer possible now, as Cao Cao is the core of Qi’s military and political affairs… As for establishing a Qi State Secretariat, unfortunately, only the grassroots military and civilians are stable in Qi.

These military and civilians are easily satisfied, and the stability at the top is temporary and cannot withstand fluctuations.

Only by holding on to power firmly can the top leadership be allowed to settle down and stabilize.

Cao Cao himself was unable to read official documents, and yet he had to conceal this shocking news.

Therefore, it was necessary to unite with Cao Zhang, and the father and son should handle military and political affairs together.

This also had its benefits. Cao Zhang grew rapidly and his authority was gradually consolidated.

Not long after the family dinner began, Queen Bian left with the pregnant Crown Princess Sun, leaving the father and his two sons alone.

Cao Zhi recounted his life experiences in Guanzhong over the past few years and answered questions from Cao Cao and Cao Zhang from time to time.

Cao Cao felt a headache again. He rubbed the temple near the right corner of his forehead. He could even feel the swelling and throbbing of the skin there.

Cao Cao patiently asked, "You concluded that the steam engine is very difficult to build?"

"Yes, we speculate that after the Grand Marshal entered Guanzhong, he started manufacturing, and the results were not achieved until the conquest of Youzhou. Since I left Guanzhong, there have been only seven steam engines that can be used in Guanzhong. The most powerful one is the iron forging machine in Hancheng, which can forge iron like kneading clay."

Cao Zhi put the gold and copper coins he brought with him on the table: "Father, these are new coins minted this year. The gold coins have not changed, but the five-zhu coins are all pressed by steam engines."

Cao Cao reached out and took the coins. Gold coins had also flowed out from Guanzhong. They were indeed of high quality, and the patterns on them were very clear.

Previously, the Guanzhong Wuzhu coins were initially cast from molds, but were soon improved by Zhuge Liang and stamped, but the stamping machine was not as precise as the one carved by Lu Bu.

Therefore, after the second edition of the Wuzhu coin was stamped, the corners needed to be polished, unlike the gold coin which had clear serrated edges.

The Wuzhu coins that Cao Zhi brought now had clear serrated edges.

Starting from the second edition of the Wuzhu coin, the square hole in the middle was gone.

Cao Cao could accept fine gold coins, but he could not accept Wuzhu coins with square holes... This made him feel uncomfortable.

It wasn't that I felt uncomfortable, but I felt a sense of distortion. I just casually put down the copper coins and listened to Cao Zhi continue to say: "In addition to making gold coins and copper coins, the General's Office also forged dragon scale armor. When I left Guanzhong, the Grand Marshal had nearly a thousand dragon scale armors under his command."

Cao Zhang held a copper coin and rubbed the characters on it: "Indeed, there are similarities. How does this dragon scale armor compare to my armor?"

Cao Cao was also concerned about this issue and went to see Cao Zhi with some expectation.

Cao Zhi smiled bitterly: "How can a child know this secret of Guanzhong? During the battle of Chanhe Pond, the personal army of the Grand Marshal and the cavalry led by Grand Historian Wen Gong wore dragon scale armor. It is said that spears and halberds could not penetrate them, and bows and crossbows were nothing."

"Oh~!"

Cao Cao sighed and asked again, "Recently there are rumors that the black bandits were injured at Chanhe Pond, so they stopped fighting."

"Didn't father hear about what happened at Huashan?"

Cao Zhi was puzzled. Seeing that Cao Cao and Cao Zhang looked confused, he realized that this story related to ghosts and gods had not been officially reported from Luoyang.

Cao Zhi then said, "I took the warship of the Grand Marshal to Shanjin, and then from Shanjin to Luodu. Then I heard that the Grand Marshal had a dream that a god had summoned me, so I led my men into Huashan, and climbed the dangerous peak with the Grand Historian Wengong and others. Before we could get down the mountain, a meteorite suddenly fell from the sky and destroyed the Huashan mountain network, only more than 20 miles away from the Grand Marshal."

Cao Zhang frowned: "Talk about ghosts and gods is too much nonsense."

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Cao Cao concentrated his mind. He always suspected that he was murdered by the black bear using the power of ghosts and gods, but it was not completely murdered.

He waved his hand and said, "And then?"

"I heard that the goddess of Huashan is the daughter of the Emperor of Heaven. She had an affair with Yang and gave birth to two sons and a daughter, which violated the laws of heaven. When the gods and ghosts were hunting her down, they killed Yang and the eldest son, and imprisoned the goddess under Huashan. The second son came from Kunlun to learn martial arts and broke the mountain to save his mother."

Cao Zhi lowered his voice and said, Cao Zhang frowned unhappily: "Goddess of Mount Hua? Why didn't the Lord of Mount Tai appear in my dream?"

The Cao family has worshipped Taoism for generations. It's not that Cao Zhang doesn't believe in it, but he feels that it's unfair that he hasn't encountered this kind of opportunity from ghosts and gods.

"There is no need to discuss this matter any further."

Cao Cao asked again: "What about the effect of loading a steam engine on a ship?"

"We set out from Chencang in the morning, boarded the ship in Chang'an before noon, and arrived at Shanjin at nightfall. We sailed downstream and could travel a thousand miles a day."

Cao Zhi answered seriously, his voice trembling: "There are more than 400 officials, guards, and servants on the warship, including the Grand Marshal, and at least 300 passengers. If it is fully loaded with officials and soldiers, there will be no less than 2,000. I estimate that once the pillars are dug through, it will only take three days to get from Chang'an to the Honggou."

After thinking for a while, Cao Zhi said, "There are many young men on the road along the shore, riding horses to chase after him, but they are unable to catch up."

Cao Cao also had some knowledge based on the accumulated intelligence information, and after listening to Cao Zhi's story in person, he remained silent for a long time.

A warship that can travel a thousand miles a day and carry two thousand men is too terrifying.

Without waiting for Cao Zhi to continue, Cao Cao said, "The Grand Marshal has already pointed out a way out for my family, but the people of Yan and Yu are so unruly. I intend to attack them and offer a large sum of money to Guanzhong. I wonder if I can buy a warship?"

"It's very difficult. Father, you don't know that the use of steam engines in vehicles and ships is really a pearl hidden in the dark."

Cao Zhi rejected it outright: "I have heard that the hammer of the steam engine built in Hancheng is as big as a carriage. It can hammer thousands of pounds of iron at a time. In less than half a day, it can forge a hundred times of good steel. Since the people in Guanzhong have not been able to build a usable steam engine so far, I guess they lack good steel."

Cao Zhang also understood. This was not about buying a battleship, but about buying a steam engine that could continuously forge iron and fine steel. With these materials, wouldn't imitation be a piece of cake?

So even if it is sold, it will be at a sky-high price.

Cao Cao was well prepared. He just wanted to dismantle a steam engine and then imitate it. He didn't expect that the steam engine could directly forge steel.

But you really can't give up, you have to give it a try.

After thinking for a while, Cao Cao made up his mind: "After the autumn, I will send troops to Yanzhou and Yuzhou, capture men and women and make them slaves to enrich Heluo. I will also pay 100,000 gold for a steam chariot."

The two states of Yan and Yu have been recuperating for four or five years, and have accumulated enough oil and water. This year they have started to rob the tombs of kings and princes, and oil can be obtained with just a handful of money.

One hundred thousand golds. It’s not like Cao Cao offered one hundred thousand golds. It can’t be squeezed out of the two states of Yan and Yu.

As for the population, he selected the best ones and left the rest to Xiahou Dun.

Use the grain from the two states of Yan and Yu to sustain the war; use their money to buy steam engines, and use their population in exchange for Black Bear's tacit consent to the war.

Finally, who knows, he might be able to pack up the ancient books dug up by various families in the two states and bring them back to Qi!
It would be against the will of heaven if we don't rob this!
Even if the steam engine is not given, it is not a loss to exchange 100,000 gold and hundreds of thousands of people for a tacit permission to go to war!

The State of Qi must operate its war machine from time to time, otherwise there will be various problems.

When it comes to war, the problems are very simple. There are only two questions: how to win and how to distribute the resources.

(End of this chapter)