Super Cultivation System of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 612 Huge Wealth
Liu He called Xun Yu and Cui Jun over, and the four of them went to the study and sat down.

"Gongda, how is the inventory of Jizhou's population and supplies going?"

Xun You stood up and said, "My lord, during this expedition to Yecheng, our army, including the casualties of the Baibo army in Zhongshan County, lost more than 14,000 soldiers, more than 9,000 were seriously injured, and more than 8,000 were slightly injured. More than 87,000 defenders in Yecheng surrendered, and among the defenders scattered in various cities in Jizhou, more than 14,000 have surrendered. The situation of the remaining cities will be known after the generals have cleared them."

"Well, Jizhou does have a lot of soldiers and horses. Just adding these two parts together, there are more than 100,000. What about the population, food and other supplies?"

Liu He asked.

"There are more than 5.7 million people in Jizhou, and now Gongsun Zan governs about 1.9 million people. In total, there are about 3.8 million people in the area controlled by our army. At present, we have seized more than 3.6 million shi of grain and grass stored by Yuan Shao, more than 40,000 sets of weapons, more than 18,000 pieces of armor, more than 27,000 horses, more than 6,000 kilograms of gold, and more than 840 million yuan."

Even though Liu He was considered knowledgeable, he was still slightly stunned by these numbers.

"Tsk tsk tsk, I have heard for a long time that Jizhou is the richest place in the Han Dynasty. I thought that after managing Bingzhou for many years, I was already comparable to Jizhou. Now I know that Jizhou is even richer than Sili and Guanzhong. I own both Bingzhou and Sili, but I have never accumulated such a lot of wealth. Yuan Shao really knows how to choose a place."

"This is not over yet." Xun You said.

"These are only the materials in the Jizhou governor's treasury and military treasury, not including the personal wealth of Yuan Shao and many civil officials and generals. After searching the Jizhou governor's mansion, the mansions of Yuan Shao's sons, the Wen, Yan, Gao families, and the mansions of Guo and Xu who pretended to surrender but secretly plotted assassination, we found more than 37,000 slaves, guards, maids, more than 8,000 sets of weapons, nearly 500,000 stones of grain and grass, more than 1,000 catties of gold, and about 100 million coins. As for the fertile land, it is distributed all over Jizhou, covering hundreds of thousands of acres, all of which are first-class irrigated fields. As for silk cloth, jade and treasures, they are countless."

"Ha! My lord, you have made a huge fortune." Cui Jun joked.

Xun Yu said, "My lord, what you said is both right and wrong. It is true that Jizhou is rich, but the reason why Yuan Shao and others were able to accumulate such a huge amount of wealth is that they are good at exploiting people. My lord is kind and has light taxes on the people. Even for merchants and travelers, there are few harsh taxes. On the contrary, there are many benefits to reduce taxes. In the short term, the income is naturally inferior. But in terms of wealth, Bingzhou today and Luoyang in the past are not inferior to Jizhou."

Liu He smiled and said, "I feel much better after hearing what Wen Ruo said. Now that Jizhou has been secured, what do you think we should do now? I want to send troops to retake Luoyang and take advantage of the situation to annihilate Yuan Shu. As for Cao Cao, if he is willing to surrender, I can still keep him. If he has any other plans, I will eliminate them all."

"Then I will recruit Tao Qian, Ma Teng, Kong Rong and others, and then advance in two directions, heading south to seize Yanzhou, Yuzhou, Yangzhou, and Jingzhou respectively. In the end, most of the world will belong to me, and I believe they will not dare to refuse to surrender the rest. In this way, in three years at the fastest and five years at the slowest, the world will be settled."

His heart was now extremely inflated. One hundred thousand soldiers from Jizhou surrendered, and one hundred thousand soldiers from the Baibo Army officially returned. In addition to the soldiers used for garrisoning in various places, the number of soldiers he could mobilize at any time now exceeded 300,000. He was filled with pride and felt that he had no rivals in the world.

Unexpectedly, Xun Yu immediately opposed it.

"I think it's inappropriate."

Liu He frowned slightly and looked at him: "Oh? What do you think, Wen Ruo?" Xun Yu stood up from his seat: "Although the lord is now very powerful, the people of Jizhou have not yet attached themselves to him, and the surrendered soldiers have not been trained. The military discipline has not been strict. If we attack hastily, I am afraid that the morale of the army will be unstable. This is one of the reasons."

"Secondly, although our army has seized food and supplies from Jizhou, it can only solve the problem temporarily. Jizhou has 100,000 soldiers and horses, all of which need to be fed. In the past, the Baibo army relied on cooperation with merchants to obtain most of the supplies themselves, and the lord only needed to provide the remaining small part. Now that they have gotten rid of their identity as bandits, they naturally cannot trade with merchants. As a result, the logistical pressure on our army has increased greatly. The army has almost run out of food, and it is difficult to sustain it for long with only the more than 3 million shi of food and fodder from Jizhou."

"Third, in addition to the 20,000 soldiers assigned by the lord at the beginning, the rest of the Baibo Army is mostly the surrendered subordinates of Zhang Niujiao and Zhang Yan, as well as many roaming bandits. In their mountain strongholds, there are nearly 300,000 elderly, weak, women and children. Now that they are out of Taihang Mountain, how to accommodate these people is also a problem."

"Fourth, since the two Luoyang rebellions, most of the ministers in the court and local officials have been killed, arrested, fled, or resigned. In Bingzhou alone, there are now nearly 20 counties without a county magistrate. Bingzhou has been managed by the lord for many years. All the prefects, county magistrates, and commanders are all trusted by the lord, and the people are all loyal to him. It was not a problem for a while, but the areas under the jurisdiction of the lord are now in trouble. Government orders are not implemented, taxes are difficult to collect, bandits are resurrected, and local tyrants have begun to ignore the law and run rampant. The people have many complaints."

"Fifth, according to the report from the front, although Yuan Shu and Cao Cao have had many frictions since the beginning of spring, there has only been one fierce bloody battle between the two sides. It was Yuan Shu who took the initiative to send troops from Luoyang to attack Hulao Pass occupied by Cao Cao. On the contrary, Cao Cao has never sent troops to attack Luoyang City. Therefore, the damage on both sides is very small. In addition, I think Cao Cao is ambitious and decisive. He can adopt Jia Xu's chain of strategies, which shows his heart. This person's ambition is probably higher than the two Yuans. If the lord attacks at this moment, there is no guarantee that he will not choose to join forces with Yuan Shu to fight against the lord. Even if he does not do it openly, he will definitely have some means in secret, and it is hard to guard against."

"If these five points cannot be properly resolved, it would be a bad idea to hastily launch another expedition."

After listening to this, Liu He also fell into silence.

"System prompt: Xun Yu activates the special skill 'King's Assistance' and currently assists the host in handling internal affairs. Xun Yu's intelligence increases by 3 points, and the host's intelligence and politics each increase by 2 points. Xun Yu's comprehensive intelligence is 100 points, and the host's comprehensive intelligence is 94, and comprehensive politics is 81."

As the system voice sounded, Xun Yu's words repeated in Liu He's mind, like lingering sound, lingering for a long time. As these sounds lingered, Liu He felt that his thoughts became clearer and his mind became clearer.

"Yes, these five points are indeed the biggest problems now. Oh, if it weren't for Wen Ruo's reminder, I would have been carried away by this great victory and made a big mistake."

"My lord is wise and intelligent, and a wise ruler of the time. However, no one is perfect. It is understandable that I was careless for a moment. My lord, do not worry about it."

Xun Yu said comfortingly.

Liu He nodded slightly and said, "These five points are all difficult problems that cannot be solved in two or three years. Does that mean our army cannot send troops out in the next few years? If this continues, won't the soldiers become lazy?"

Cui Jun also frowned. "The surrender of soldiers is easy to deal with. We just need to order all the generals to train them strictly. It will be fine in less than half a year. Jizhou, Qingzhou, Youzhou, and our army have been fighting for years, and the people are suffering. If we want to appease the people, it is easy. We only need to send officials to enforce the law and discipline, improve public order, and exempt taxes and labor service for one year. Naturally, everyone will praise the lord and be loyal to the court. But in this way, the issue of food and grass for our army will inevitably become more difficult."

For a moment, there was silence in the study.

(End of this chapter)