Han officials

Chapter 196: Struggle is Everywhere [12]

With Sun Jian's death in battle, Yuan Shu's Jingzhou strategy was completely declared a failure.

Without Sun Jian, the fierce tiger from Jiangdong, charging forward, he could no longer capture cities or territories, and even the counties in Jingzhou that he had originally occupied could not be defended. Not long after, he retreated to Nanyang County.

Liu Biao took advantage of the situation and seemed to have tacitly acknowledged that Nanyang County was Yuan Shu's territory.

At the same time, with the death of Gongsun Zan, the war in Jizhou, which had lasted for nearly a year, finally came to an end.

Yuan Shao, who finally secured his position as Governor of Jizhou, did not start another war and seemed to have forgotten about Bohai County and Hejian State.

After all, we are all smart people, and what we cannot get on the battlefield cannot be obtained by mouth alone.

For a time, all over the world, the Han Dynasty actually experienced a rare period of peace.

……

That day, Ji County.

In the main hall of the shogunate, a group of officials were busy working with sweat on their foreheads.

Wei Zhe was also watching the letters presented by Taishi Ci and Zhong Hu.

After a long time, he slowly put it down, and then after a moment of hesitation, he ordered: "Draft an order."

Ren Jun, who was standing by, immediately straightened his expression upon hearing this, picked up his book and pen, and listened attentively.

Then Wei Zhe walked with his hands behind his back and said, "Recruit Zhang Chao from Hejian as a literary official in the shogunate; Xing Zhen from Hejian as a council official; Gao Na from Bohai as a military official; Feng Ren from Bohai as a five-in-one official."

At this point, Wei Zhe's face turned slightly cold. "Order Taishi Ci and Zhong Hu to implement it with all their heart and not to evade it."

To be honest, the names he just reported were not ordinary people.

Take Zhang Chao for example. His courtesy name was Zibing. He was from Zhuo in Hejian and a descendant of Liu Houliang.

Zhang He under Yuan Shao was a member of the Zhang family in Lu County, but he was only a side branch. Zhang Chao was the main line of the direct line.

But unlike his nephew Zhang He, Zhang Chao was famous for his literary talent.

During the reign of Emperor Si, he followed General Zhu Lun in the campaign against the Yellow Turbans and was appointed Sima of a separate army. Unfortunately, he did not have many military achievements.

On the contrary, he was quite talented in literature. He wrote 19 pieces of poetry, including odes, epitaphs, recommendations, edicts, notes, letters, petitions, and ridicules, all of which were brilliant.

Moreover, Zhang Chao was also very good at cursive script, which was far superior to his contemporaries. Whenever his works were published, they were often circulated among the prefectures and counties.

It can be said that in the Hejian State area, the Zhang family of Lu County is an absolute local tyrant.

Compared with them, the Xing family of Lu County is slightly inferior.

It is said that Xing and Wei Zhe have some connection, because his family is related by marriage to the Li family of Xiangping in Liaodong.

For the stability of Hejian State, even Wei Zhe had to recruit the sons of the gentry to serve him.

After all, if he doesn't win over the Hejian gentry, they will stand on the enemy's side.

Without the support of local forces, Hejian State’s desire for stability would naturally become empty talk.

The reason why Gao Na and Feng Ren were recruited was also for this reason.

After all, compared with the Xing family of Ou County and the Zhang family of Ou County, these two families have a greater influence on Bohai County.

The Bohai Gao family is said to be a descendant of Gao Qi, a nobleman of the Qi State in the Spring and Autumn Period, and has a profound heritage.

But even if we don't trace back our ancestors, the Gao family is still an undoubted family of nobles, with each generation having a rank of 2,000 stones.

His grandfather Gao Hong once served as the prefect of Bohai, and later Gao Hong's descendants settled here.

Gao Bao, Hong's fourth-generation grandson, also served as the Prince's tutor.

Gao Cheng, the grandson of Gao Bao, also served as the chief academic officer of the Imperial College and the prefect of Dongguan.

Gao Yan, son of Gao Cheng, served as prefect of Hanzhong during the reign of Emperor Si.

By the time of Gaona's generation, if the world had not been in chaos, he would probably have been appointed as a prefect.

For a family like the Bohai Gao family, it is no different from the county families in later generations.

Although the Bohai Feng family was slightly inferior, Feng Ren's grandfather also served as the Shizhong and the Governor of Liangzhou.

The best way to deal with these local prominent families is actually to be inclusive.

In this regard, Wei Zhe does not have any mental obsession with cleanliness.

Because he knew that the gentry in the world today were not a specific bureaucratic group like the Donglin Party. They had neither a specific personality will nor a so-called alliance form.

Even the struggles among the nobles were often life-and-death.

For example, the Hebei gentry had long disliked the Yingchuan gentry and wanted to confiscate their property and exterminate their clan.

The Youzhou gentry were often looked down upon by the Jizhou gentry, and the relationship between them was never harmonious.

Therefore, for Wei Zhe, the Jizhou gentry were not only useful, but also played a great role.

Mao's Dragon-Slaying Technique says:

Pull one group and beat another!
Wei Zhe deeply agrees with this!
……

But then again, divide and win over may seem like one word, but in fact they are two words.

If you only divide and don't bring together, you are crazy;
Anyone who only tries to win over others without dividing them is a fool.

Wei Zhe neither wants to be a madman nor thinks of himself as a fool.

So the next day at the shogunate meeting, when he expressed his thoughts, both civil and military officials were shocked.

Ju Su, who was sitting in the hall, couldn't help but say, "Your Excellency, you're taking such drastic measures... aren't you being a little hasty?"

Wei Zhe was not surprised by their reaction. Seeing Ju Su speak first, Wei Zhe stroked his beard and smiled, "Not really. Now is the most appropriate time."

After saying this, Wei Zhe ordered his attendants to present the household registration books of Hejian and Bohai counties.

Without even opening the household register, Wei Zhe recited the details like the back of his hand: "Bohai Commandery has 132,389 households and 1,106,500 people; Hejian State has 93,754 households and 634,421 people."

"Tsk tsk! The two counties total only nineteen, but there are a full 173 million people." Wei Zhe couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "I knew Jizhou was densely populated earlier, and now I know it's true!"

In the past, Wei Zhe thought it was not easy for Yuan Shao, a maid, to give birth to a son. Although they were both members of the Yuan family, Yuan Shu was able to rely on his family to directly occupy the largest county in the world, Nanyang County, while Yuan Shao could only get the pitiful Bohai County.

However, after reading the information sent by Zhong Hu, Wei Zhe realized that he had made a wrong choice after all.

It turns out that among the nine counties of Jizhou, Bohai County actually has the highest population density.

Even Wei County, where the provincial capital is located, currently has only about 700,000 people, far less than Bohai County.

Bohai County, located on the coast of the East China Sea, also has the advantages of fishing and salt production, and can be regarded as one of the top counties.

As for Yuan Shao's starting capital, it surpassed all other princes of the late Han Dynasty except Yuan.

You should know that during the reign of Emperor Huan, the entire Youzhou had only about 204 million people.

Yuan Shao’s Bohai County alone is equivalent to half of Youzhou.

Of course, Yuan Shao’s family background is not as good as Wei Zhe’s now.

After being bitten hard by Wei Zhe, it is now considered a good thing for Jizhou to have four million people.

As for Youzhou, it has become increasingly densely populated in recent years.

In particular, during Liu Yu's tenure as governor of Youzhou, he implemented a policy of recuperation and development, which attracted many refugees from other states. For example, more than 500,000 scholars and refugees from Qing and Xu fled to join Liu Yu to escape the Yellow Turban Rebellion.

In addition, Wei Zhe has expanded the territory in Liaodong and recruited refugees in recent years. The total population of Youzhou is now estimated to be around 3.5 million.

If we include the recently incorporated Bohai County and Hejian State, Wei Zhe has more than five million people under his rule, which is more than Yuan Shao, but still not as many as Yuan Shu.

It is precisely because of this that Wei Zhe feels that Youzhou is now too administratively cumbersome.

"Everyone, Youzhou is too big now. It's time to reduce it!"

As soon as Wei Zhe finished speaking, everyone couldn't help but nodded.

Indeed, putting aside the size of the population, the area of Youzhou today is indeed a bit exaggerated.

From Dai County in the westernmost part of Youzhou to Dongming County in the easternmost part of Youzhou, it stretches nearly four thousand miles from east to west.

With such a long distance and such complex terrain, it is impossible to speed up the transmission of government orders.

Especially at the moment when provincial governors were transforming from simple supervisory officials into local chief executives, administrative agencies that were too large, too far away, and too many were all disadvantages.

You should know that Xuzhou only has five counties and kingdoms, but Youzhou has twelve counties and kingdoms, which means that Guo Yuan must have extraordinary abilities to be able to handle it.

If it were an ordinary Youzhou governor, he would have been confused by these twelve counties...

(End of this chapter)