My younger brother Lü Fengxian

Chapter 277 Half a Year
"Gongtai, how many refugees have been resettled in the military settlement in Pingcheng?"

Lu Yi, who had finally freed himself, immediately seized the rare opportunity to ask Chen Gong about various matters in Pingcheng in the past few months since he was away. Among them, the issue that concerned him most was the population issue.

"My Lord, according to your instructions before you left, the military settlement in Pingcheng has already recruited 20,000 men."

"These 20,000 people only count the able-bodied laborers who are able to work. Their underage children and elderly parents are not included."

"The number of these old and weak people only accounts for a quarter of the size of the settlement households. If you recruit them alone, it will not benefit you at all, and it will only waste food and grass. I am also worried that if I force a distinction, it may sow the seeds of disaster. Therefore, I took the initiative to recruit only the strong laborers into the settlement households. I hope you will punish me."

Upon hearing this, Chen Gong immediately told him all the relevant data one by one as if he knew them all by heart.

Although Chen Gong was always one step behind others in strategy in the novel, his actual ability was more than enough to manage an entire state.

Historically, Lu Bu could rely on Chen Gong's assistance to hold out for several years in a place like Xuzhou that was plagued by wars. Even though he was finally defeated by Cao Cao, it was mostly due to continuous heavy rains, which was a natural trend.

Cao Cao attacked Xuzhou for many days, but in the end he almost couldn't hold on and had to withdraw his troops.

From this we can see that Chen Gong was definitely one of the top political and strategic thinkers in the late Han Dynasty.

Pingcheng was only a county, and although Chen Gong was serving as an official for the first time, he was still able to handle the job with ease.

"Alas... Gongtai is devoted to serving the public. This move is a mature and prudent one. Not only is it not wrong, it is also a great achievement!"

Lu Yi has not yet become so arrogant that he cannot distinguish right from wrong, loyalty from treachery. Naturally, he understands that Chen Gong's move has only one disadvantage and only one benefit, which is that it will only consume more food and grass.

Now that he has brought back a lot of livestock, he naturally doesn't need to worry about the loss.

"Your Excellency is wise, and it is Pingcheng's fortune!"

Chen Gong heaved a sigh of relief after hearing this and continued.

"In addition to these 20,000-plus settlers and the original 1,000 civilians in the county, because the reputation of the Lord of the Prefecture for benevolence and righteousness is known far and wide, there are more than 10,000 refugees from outside Pingcheng who also want to rely on the Lord of the Prefecture. However, there is limited food and grass in the city, so I dare not act rashly. These people have been accumulated for many days. If we don't deal with them properly, I'm afraid that something will happen over time. As for how to deal with them, please tell me, Lord of the Prefecture."

"Um……"

After Lu Yi pondered for a moment, he waved his hand.

"Since these refugees have come all the way here to rely on me, I cannot ignore them out of any sense of justice."

"Fortunately, I did not return empty-handed from this trip to Mo Nan. Now I have 100,000 cattle and sheep in my hands, and I am rich and powerful for once."

"We accept all these people, young and old."

"Now is the spring farming season. There are stretches of wasteland around Pingcheng. Even 50,000 people can be settled there. It's a good time to reclaim the wasteland."

"I obey your orders."

Upon hearing this, Chen Gong immediately nodded in agreement.

"Well, I estimate that there may be more refugees coming to rely on us. Now we have not only cattle and sheep, but also thousands of war horses. If necessary, we can trade them all for food."

"Right now, it's not just Pingcheng that is short of people. Most of the prefectures and counties in Hebei, except Qingzhou and Jizhou, have been looted by the Xianbei people. The population has dwindled and all businesses have been scattered."

"Although human life is as cheap as grass these days, it is also the most important resource. I believe there are still many people who can see the difference."

"Therefore, rather than waiting until the autumn harvest when all the states and counties have recovered and started to stop the migration of people, which makes it difficult to recruit people, it is better to wait and recruit more refugees now."

"so……"

Lu Yi spoke very quickly, so Chen Gong had to concentrate and not miss a word of what he said.

"Pingcheng will recruit 50,000 people this year, and no more than a quarter of them will be old and weak. After all, the appetite of these old and weak is equivalent to that of two or three strong laborers, so it won't be too difficult to support them."

"In addition to the 50,000 people, we will continue to recruit more refugees until we have 100,000 people. For those who exceed 50,000, we will send them to Jiuyuan County in batches of 1,000 people. Jiuyuan County Magistrate Cheng Lian is my confidant, and Jiuyuan has a much better foundation than Pingcheng because of my secret operations in the past two years. The 50,000 households can still be safely absorbed."

"If there are more, it will exceed our current management limit."

"Your Excellency, in fact, there are many people that can be settled in other counties in Yanmen Prefecture. The county magistrates and heads of these counties have requested to see you many times but have been denied. If we bring these people under our command, Yanmen Prefecture will be able to accommodate another 100,000 people."

Upon hearing this, Chen Gong immediately made a suggestion to Lu Yi.

"inappropriate!"

But Lu Yi waved his hand to stop his suggestion.

"These people have not yet been completely subdued by me. If we rashly absorb them into the Pingcheng system, if one or two of them have ulterior motives and report to the court, our plan will become a joke."

"To be on the safe side, we will continue to develop secretly in Pingcheng and Jiuyuan this year."

"Your Excellency is right. I understand!"

Chen Gong was not dissatisfied when he heard this. What Lu Yi said was safer, and he was just making a suggestion.

"Don't worry, Gongtai. After the spring plowing this year, I will recruit soldiers on a large scale. After the autumn harvest, when we have enough money, we will have the confidence to manage Yanmen County. By next year, Gongtai's stage will not only be in this small Pingcheng!"

After Lu Yi smiled and comforted him, he turned to look at Gao Shun who was standing beside him.

Now that Lü Yi had been promoted to acting governor of Yanmen County, he took some Hun heads and money and asked Zhang Xun to let Gao Shun take over his former position as county magistrate of Pingcheng County.

He did not let Pingcheng, which Lu Yi had spent a lot of energy and money to govern, become a wedding dress for others.

Gao Shun's position as county lieutenant was also replaced by Gao Lan.

Not only that, now that Lu Yi has been promoted to the position of county governor, Hou Cheng and other old men under Lu Yi's command have naturally risen in status as well, and it is only natural for them to become county magistrates or county heads.

Lu Yi has already made a plan for this. After the autumn harvest this year, he will continue to travel to the south of the desert to gain some military merit for himself and his subordinates and complete the matter.

"Although Gao Shun has taken over the position of county magistrate, Gongtai and Gao Lan are enough to guard Pingcheng. You should focus on recruiting and training soldiers in the future."

"This year, the population of Pingcheng and Jiuyuan alone is 100,000. I plan to recruit 3,000 good riders from the households in the two places after the spring plowing, and expand the number of cavalry directly under my Lu family to 3,000."

"This is different from the auxiliary troops in Lvwu. I want you to train all of them according to the standards of the Xianzhen Camp and train them all towards fully armored heavy cavalry."

"This way, the next time we encounter a war, even if Pingcheng can easily raise 3,000 armored cavalrymen, if we count Fengxian's subordinates and Zhang's children, we will have 5,000 cavalrymen. Even if the Xianbei people rise again, we will have the strength to fight!"

"Also, armor and weapons must be prepared in advance, based on the number of 5,000 people."

The size of three thousand people may not seem large, but they are the elite heavy cavalry among the elite.

Even the Han Dynasty would have a headache supporting 10,000 people.

The reason why Lu Yi could be so generous was that, in addition to his military and political system, which was much more efficient, streamlined and honest than the imperial court, he also engaged in border smuggling and relied on his own army to fight to support the war. If robbery was a business without capital, then Lu Yi's undefeated battles and plundering were simply printing money.

Of course, as long as Lu Yi's winning streak is interrupted, even just once, his development will fall into a huge bottleneck or even decline.

"Yes!" Gao Shun didn't say much after hearing this, but just nodded and clasped his fists to accept the order.

Gao Shun's performance caught the eyes of Chen Gong and Gao Lan, which made them doubt that even if Lu Yi told him to die, he would not have a different expression.

"Okay, go get busy..."

After arranging all the military and political affairs under his command, Lu Yi flipped through the dozen visiting cards from his nominal subordinates before the case was overturned and couldn't help but smile.

"Since I'm the governor of Yanmen County, it would be a bit unreasonable if I don't meet these county lords."

"I think this mansion master will meet these people..."

……

Spring goes and autumn comes, time flies, and half a year has passed in the blink of an eye.

After a whole year of rest, Hebei gradually regained some vitality.

Looking around, every state and county has harvested some grain to varying degrees.

Although we still cannot say that we have escaped the poverty of last year, at least we can harvest some food, and the people at least have a way to survive and no longer have to starve to death.

However, this would be the case if we did not mention the clerks who were about to go to the countryside to collect grain and urge payment.

But these corrupt clerks don't care whether this is the food that the common people's family depends on for the next year or the seeds for the next year.

They were responsible to their superiors who were even more corrupt, and their superiors were responsible to the extravagant Emperor Ling.

Therefore, their happiness only lasts for a few days after the autumn harvest.

Within ten days, most of the grain they had worked so hard to grow for a year was confiscated and taken away by the imperial court, and what awaited them was the familiar hunger and cold.

Only those servants who voluntarily sold themselves to wealthy families could barely make ends meet.

Although the rent and taxes borne by the landlords were also very heavy, they were very considerable and were only levied according to the actual amount of land they cultivated.

Those seemingly free self-cultivating farmers not only had to bear the taxes they were supposed to pay when facing the imperial court, but also had to bear the taxes of other self-cultivating farmers who had fled or died.

Often, even selling one's wife and children was not enough to pay off the taxes levied by the clerks, which only exacerbated the sharp decline in the number of self-cultivating farmers.

The only options left for these common people were to flee or to join the bandits.

Liu Hong's exhaustion of resources was tantamount to tearing down the bricks and tiles of his own country.

It was just that he was lucky, because he died in his prime due to years of drinking and sex, and thus avoided the fate of becoming a king who lost his country.

Otherwise, if he continues to play the game this way, his ending will definitely be even more unfortunate than his two unfortunate sons.

He, who was so high and mighty, would never have imagined that these obedient people under his rule, who seemed powerless to fight back against his harsh rule, would one day, when their way of survival was completely cut off, erupt with a power far more terrifying than that of other ethnic groups such as the Xianbei, Xiongnu, Western Qiang and Wuhuan.

A single spark can start a prairie fire. Two years later, it was these half-naked, hungry Han people who joined Zhang Jue's army and completely cut off the Han people's survival. They fought to the death and let the 400-year-old Han Dynasty be buried with them.

However, in the remote northern border of Hebei.

The people in Pingcheng and Jiuyuan breathed a sigh of relief because of the appearance of Lu Yi.

The official population of Pingcheng and Jiuyuan combined was less than 10,000, so they were not noticeable at all.

In fact, the population of the settled households under Lu Yi's command was ten times more.

Under Lu Yi's not-so-harsh military settlement policy, these people worked actively for half a year, from land reclamation and farming in the spring to harvest in the autumn. Even though they could only keep basic rations, they were extremely satisfied with it. Many of them were grateful to Lu Yi for this.

After all, these 100,000 people were just refugees who were about to starve to death half a year ago. These fields, seeds, farm tools, oxen, and food rations for the past six months were all provided free of charge by Lu Yi.

Most of the Chinese people are simple and honest people.

As long as they have food to eat, they are willing to be obedient citizens.

Even if they don't have enough food to eat, as long as there is a way to survive, few people are willing to rebel.

Therefore, these people are currently satisfied with their situation.

Moreover, becoming a resident of Luyi did not mean completely losing freedom.

As long as they honestly farmed the land and completed the tasks assigned by Lu Yi for five years, then according to the agreement between Lu Yi and them, the land they cultivated would belong to them, and the proportion of grain retained would be higher in the future. If they worked hard for a few years, they could become rich farmers.

Lu Yi also promised that for the settlers who made great contributions, he would sell their oxen and farm tools at extremely low prices, give them the sturdy and spacious brick houses in Luwu, and even give them priority in marriage.

Not to mention the Han Dynasty court, even among the servants of wealthy families, only those who were related to the head of the family were eligible to enjoy such conditions.

However, Lu Yi treated everyone equally and strictly fulfilled his promise as long as the performance was satisfactory.

Therefore, Lu Yi mobilized the enthusiasm of the settlers and filled dozens of granaries in Luwu and Pingcheng.

Although half of it will be used as grain seeds and food for the settlers next year.

But even half of it would be enough for Lu Yi to launch an extraterritorial war in a short period of time.

This year, the Huns' lives are more difficult than usual because of a series of actions taken by Lu Yi.

Caught in civil war, the Xiongnu, who were already exhausted from fighting each other, not only had no chance to go south to plunder Han territory, but even their own herding was greatly affected.

The population of the Xiongnu in the entire south of the desert has been decreasing again and again, and now it is less than 100,000 people.

And this is the total number of all men, women, young and old.

Among them, there were only 20,000 to 30,000 able-bodied combat soldiers.

The Huns, who once dominated the grasslands for hundreds of years, have now reached their weakest point.

And this is exactly what Lu Yi expected...

(End of this chapter)