Northern Prefecture Rivers and Mountains

Chapter 169 Worry
Jiangzuo, Kuaiji.

"This bunch of lowly guys are born lowly and unwilling to follow me in raising an army!" Sun En cursed.

It wasn't that he didn't want to rebel, but his followers had verbally agreed to the rebellion and had arranged a gathering place, but when they arrived, there were only a few thousand people...

When Wang Xin rebelled, he raised his arms and called out to countless people in the Three Wus, and in a short time he had gathered tens of thousands of people.

This made Sun En very depressed. These little guys had to eat coarse food and vegetables every day, had no clothes to wear, and were suffering from hunger and cold, but they were unwilling to resist.

"The land of the Three Wus is not the Northern Prefecture. As long as there is food to eat, people can endure it. It's a pity that there is no noble family among us, otherwise this situation would not be here." It was Xu Daofu who hit the nail on the head.

The people were not stupid. Although the court imposed heavy taxes and levies, they could still barely eat and survive.

There is no influential person in the Tianshi Dao.

Although Sun En was a descendant of the royal family of Eastern Wu, more than a hundred years had passed and the Sun family had long lost its reputation.

Sun En is not Sun Tai, nor is he the master of the Tianshi Dao, and he is even less popular.

Moreover, the Three Wu areas were the foundation of the noble families. The county magistrates and prefects were all children of the noble families, and they had strong control over the local areas.

Sima Daozi killed Sun Tai and immediately ordered martial law in the Three Wus.

The Tianshi Dao couldn't find any opportunity at all for a while, and instead many of their people were captured.

This made Sun En hide from place to place, looking embarrassed.

When Wang Xin started the rebellion, he had the support of the Wang family of Langya. Wang Xin led his troops and allied with the local noble family Yu Xiaofu, which is how he created such momentum.

Even the Yellow Turbans knew that "the blue sky is dead, the yellow sky should be established, the year is Jiazi, and the world will be prosperous." The Tianshi Dao still did not have a clear slogan, so the people were naturally unwilling to follow them in making trouble.

"So what do you think we should do now?" Sun En had a bad temper, and his mood became even worse after encountering setbacks.

Lu Xun said calmly, "Although the court is in turmoil, there has been no major fighting. Only Wang Gong has died so far. We can only wait."

Although the North Palace and the West Palace met each other, there was no decisive battle at all.

The confrontation on the surface is just to get a bigger share of the spoils, and privately no one wants to overturn the table.

If there is no chaos above, the people below will naturally be able to hold on.

The most important thing is that in the past eighty years, the threat posed by the northern barbarians has been too great. Compared with the north, at least the people of the Three Wus can still have food to eat, and at worst they can sell themselves to the wealthy families.

As long as there is a way to survive, who would be willing to put their head on the crotch and rebel?

"How long will this take?" Sun En felt that his ambitions were of no use.

Xu Daofu glanced at Lu Xun, his face filled with helplessness. "The Sima and Huan families are at loggerheads. Liu Laozhi killed Wang Gong, so how could the Wang family of Taiyuan give up? The court will surely continue to be in chaos. It's definitely beyond Sima Daozi's control."

Since Sima Yao's death, the last fig leaf of the Jin Dynasty has been torn off. Jiangdong is now like a sieve full of holes, and chaos is inevitable.

Lu Xun said, "The powerful families of Wang, Xie, Huan, and Yin will never allow a humble Liu Laozhi to rise to the top and become their equal. As long as the Northern Army is in chaos, the opportunity will come."

Not to mention Liu Laozhi, even Tao Kan, who rebuilt the Jin Dynasty, and Zhou Qi, who pacified Jiangnan three times, were kicked out by the gentry.

Sima Daozi and Yin Zhongkan certainly wanted to calm down the current confrontation, but Huan Xuan and Liu Laozhi were unwilling to give up. Only this kind of confrontation could allow them to sit at the table and share the meat.

Otherwise, he would have been kicked away long ago.

Therefore, the essence of this war is the uneven distribution of interests, and the various forces have not reached an agreement.

Lu Xun said slowly, "Huan Xuan is definitely not a man who is content with his lot. Sima Daozi is incompetent and foolish. The Jin Dynasty is doomed. We just have to wait for the right time."

There is no point in Sun En being anxious, this is the general trend.

Unless he had the courage to rise up with only a few thousand men under his command, attack the city and seize the land, and take the people hostage. Guangling.

After distributing rewards and food wages to the soldiers, Liu Daogui suddenly found himself a pauper again.

One string of coins was paid for each head, five strings of coins was paid for each cavalryman, and five strings of coins was paid for each officer or general. In this battle, Liu Yu and Liu Daogui defeated nearly 40,000 Yan troops.

Although most of them were a mob temporarily captured by the Murong family, they were all considered Yan troops.

Liu Daogui fought two major battles and killed or captured nearly five thousand people.

Liu Yu was even more powerful, killing more than 7,000 people. In the Battle of Zoucheng, he defeated Murong Hui's 5,000 infantry and cavalry, captured and killed 4,000 of them, and attacked Lucheng, defeating more than 6,000 reinforcements from various directions.

All the cavalry combined number over 3,000...

Kill one thousand enemies and lose eight hundred.

Our army had 3,500 men when we set out on the expedition, 672 of whom were killed, 53 were missing, and 831 were wounded or disabled.

A missing person is basically equivalent to being killed in action, and a disabled person will have to be supported for the rest of his life.

Therefore, all the various pensions and rewards added up to 50,000 strings of cash...

This does not include the consumption of food, fodder and military equipment.

Armor, long spears, ring-handled swords, arrows, bows and crossbows, shields, livestock, and wooden carts, these things basically become consumables on the battlefield. Take the ring-handled sword as an example, basically one-third of it will be lost in a major battle.

Wars are fought against people, but in essence, they are fought against money.

From a country to a family, money is essential for everything.

The newly acquired land was barren and needed to be reclaimed, which would take at least three years of investment...

If it weren't for the fact that there were still some assets in the treasuries of Lucheng and Pingyangcheng, Liu Daogui would have suffered a huge loss this time.

Gao Xun said: "If it is really not enough, why not suspend the regular payment? After giving out so much compensation and rewards, the soldiers will understand the difficulties."

"A man cannot stand without trust. Since this is a fixed payment, it cannot be broken."

This is the principle and bottom line, and the standard monthly salary is only 500 strings of cash. Money is what people want. Soldiers don't care who sits on the throne, they only care who gives them food.

Gao Xun thought for a moment and said, "If Dao Ze really needs money, I can act as a guarantor and borrow from the wealthy merchants in Guangling City! The Liu family in Pengcheng is no longer what it used to be. If we just ask, there will be plenty of people coming to us."

This is a good idea. Liu Daogui was a little tempted. "How much is the interest?"

Gao Xun stretched out his hand and slapped it. "I'll try to negotiate five times..."

Five times the interest is like lending them 100 strings of cash and having to pay back 500 strings of cash a year later. This isn't just usury, it's bone-sucking...

But this is the rule in this world. During the Han Dynasty, someone lent money to the court and offered ten times the interest. Gao Xun was able to negotiate it down to five times, which meant he really tried his best.

Anyone who can do business these days has a complicated background.

It’s not that Liu Daogui couldn’t come up with this allowance, but that he had too many places to spend the money and he couldn’t make ends meet.

After all, it would cost a huge amount of money to open up the south bank of Si Shui and build a dock.

"Forget it. The salt money from Langya will be delivered in a month. I still have some surplus food on hand, so I can make ends meet."

Food is much more valuable than money these days.

The land in the Si Shui River basin is fertile, so we should plant some beans, corn, and late wheat as soon as possible, and we can still harvest some this year.

(End of this chapter)