Shu Han Confucian General of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 134 Building Jingnan
"Bo Tao, it's been a few months, is everything okay?" Guan Yu, who was sitting in the main seat, waited for Zhao Feng to sit down, and asked with a smile.

"Thanks to the lord's concern, Feng is doing well." Zhao Feng looked at Guan Yu, who was smiling, and Zhuge Liang, who was shaking his feather fan, smiling and saying nothing, but his heart was getting more and more uncertain.I have a pretty good friendship with Guan Yu, but he is an arrogant person after all, so there is no reason for me to see myself smiling with wrinkle all over my face.As for Ah Liang, once he laughed, someone would be tricked.

"Bo Tao is really as humble as he is, even if he is demoted, he is still calm!" Guan Yu praised in surprise.Without waiting for Zhao Feng to express anything, Guan Yu sighed again: "It's a pity that I've been waiting for something bad recently, Bo Tao is my old friend, when this happens, I can't stand by and watch!"

If Zhao Feng had any biggest weakness, it would be that he was soft but not hard.Even if he faced the delicate and pitiful Xiao Qiao, he would not hesitate to face the familiar Guan Yu, and immediately said solemnly: "Second General, but let me do what I can, and I will do my best."

"Kong Ming, look, Bo Tao is indeed a man of righteousness, he promises money!" Guan Yu poured Zhao Feng another bowl of ecstasy soup.At this time, Zhuge Liang told Zhao Feng what happened. It turned out that since the two of them were in Jingxiang, they felt the pain of insufficient manpower.Although there are many talents of all kinds, there is really a shortage of talents who can stand on their own.All in all, they are trying their best to govern Jingxiang now, but they still lack energy.

Guan Yu + Zhuge Liang can't handle Jingzhou?This made Zhao Feng a little unimaginable.But after thinking about it, it seems to make sense, after all, Ah Liang is only 21 years old at this time, younger and immature than when he debuted in history.In addition, it is useless for people like Ma Liang to gather at Liu Bei's side as they did in history. At present, a large part of Jingxiang scholars are still waiting and watching.In addition, the two are now governing the entire Jingxiang, and there is one more Nanyang county than in history.Relying on Zhuge Liang and Guan Yu alone is indeed a bit stretched.

"Second General, Kong Ming, I don't know what you want me to do?" Zhao Feng finally understood the meaning of this, and felt that he had been arrested. "It's nothing, just let Bo Tao take charge of this year's recruiting, and take care of the affairs of the four Jingnan counties, Cangwu, and Nanhai counties by the way!" Guan Yu said casually.

"It's no problem." Zhao Feng knew that this was not too difficult a task, so he quickly agreed.Only then did Guan Yu tell him that Liu Bei had dismissed him as prefect of Chai Sang and General Yingyang, and redesignated him as the general who sought rebellion. all affairs of the county.

"Second General, what's the meaning of this?" Zhao Feng asked hastily, feeling like he was on a pirate ship.Wasn't this rebellious general the title of Sun Quan in the past, why did he give it to himself now?And let yourself take care of these six counties, at first glance, it looks like a replica of Sun Quan back then.What's more, after flooding Jiangling, he has become the number one public enemy in Jingzhou.Let yourself sit in Jingnan, isn't that a joke?

"Oh, Bo Tao. You also know that last time my elder brother asked to merge Nanhai and Cangwu counties into Yangzhou, but it was not approved. Right now, these two counties are neither under the jurisdiction of Jiaozhou Musun Quan nor Yangzhou. Some names are inappropriate. Therefore, the eldest brother thought for a long time before he came up with this compromise, and simply asked you to come and manage the two counties and the four Jingnan counties. The elder brother said that you can do things without worry, and only you can do it right now. Take this position. Among the six counties right now, unless it is the appointment and dismissal of the county guards, all matters, big or small, are up to you to decide. Make sure to build these six counties into a solid and stable rear area like Jiangdong." Guan Yu said carefully.Zhuge Liang also told him not to worry too much about those aristocratic families who opposed him before, these people are all in Jingbei.

"Thank you, my lord, for your trust!" Zhao Feng clasped his fists and thanked him.He knew that when he was demoted last time, Liu Bei did this now because of the lack of people in Jingnan to take care of him, but also to some extent as compensation.At this time, Zhuge Liang slowly introduced the situation of the four counties in Jingnan to him.

The four counties in Jingnan refer to the four counties from the west of Xiangjiang River to Yizhou Zangcang County.From east to west, there are Guiyang, Changsha, Lingling, and Wuling counties respectively, among which Guiyang and Lingling border on the South China Sea and Cangwu respectively.As long as these six counties are managed well, Sun Quan in Jiaozhou will be restrained to death.

Although the four counties of Jingnan and the second counties of Jiaozhou have fertile land, they don't want to be more sparsely populated than Jiangdong in the past.The combined area of ​​these six counties is not smaller than the original Jiangdong, but the combined population of the four counties in Jingnan is only 70. Among the two counties of Jiaozhou, Nanhai now has a population of 6 to 8 through the population migration when Jiangdong was governed. It is equal to Guiyang.But Cangwu is pitiful. The total population is probably only 90 to [-].If calculated in this way, the total population of these six counties may be more than [-] at most.

Considering that Jingzhou has a population of close to 400 million, and the four southern Jing counties that occupy half of its area only have so few people, then the population distribution of Jingzhou as a whole can be said to be extremely unbalanced.Moreover, the four counties of Jingnan are not the barren lands of Yizhou Nanzhong, including Nanhai and Cangwu. Most of these places have fertile land, and rice can be grown three times a year.Reminiscent of how prosperous Guangdong, Fujian, and Hunan provinces were in later generations, compared to the dilapidated state of the present, Zhao Feng felt a sense of confusion.

"Kong Ming, I think it's better to follow the old way of governing Jiangdong back then, to recruit new soldiers and at the same time let their families go south to open up wasteland, so as to balance the population." Zhao Feng thought for a while.

"General, the problem this time is not so simple. This year, there is a severe drought in Jingbei, and there is a shortage of money and food. Xuzhou and Yangzhou can't squeeze too much for the time being. Junhou and I have estimated that we can only recruit more than 1 new troops at most." Zhuge Liang smiled wryly. He shook his head and said.

"It's so?" Zhao Feng was shocked when he heard that.After thinking about it for a while, Zhao Feng said again: "Kong Ming, Cao Cao abandoned the three counties in Runan that day, and most of the people were forced to relocate to Yanzhou and Sizhou by him. It would be good if more people from Nanyang and Nanjun could be transferred to Runan to enrich the area. Reduce the pressure on Jingzhou."

"This method is feasible, but how can we relocate the people?" Zhuge Liang frowned when he heard this.

"There are so many wastelands waiting for them to reclaim, are you afraid that they won't go?" Zhao Feng said naturally.Reminiscent of the mighty expedition to the east of the Guandong in history, Zhao Feng didn't believe that farmers loved their families so much that they refused to land.

"It's not that simple." Zhuge Liang shook his head and smiled wryly, then he told Zhao Feng carefully.Although Kuai Yue and Cai Mao were killed, the power of the Jingxiang family is still huge.After the Jingbei Rebellion, the idyllic land that originally belonged to the Cai family and the Kuai family was divided up by other smaller aristocratic families, and there was very little left.Some of their domestic servants and tenants were also divided up as goods.Zhuge Liang himself also reaped a lot of benefits from it, and he wouldn't say it clearly that day.There are still nearly a million people left, all of whom have recovered their freedom, but still do not have any means of production. If this continues, they will sooner or later follow the old path of becoming tenant farmers of aristocratic families.

"That's it!" Zhao Feng had come to his senses now.Aristocratic families, this special group once played a very important role in Chinese history.During the Three Kingdoms period, in order to gain more support, the princes from all walks of life often gave these aristocratic families great preferential policies, and Liu Bei was no exception.Zhao Feng knew that he couldn't develop without the support of these people.But once the strength in their hands is too great, it is easy to cause turmoil.For example, the Cai family and the Kuai family, the combined strength of the two families accounted for more than half of Jingzhou.If it weren't for Liu Bei's meddling this time, Liu Biao, who once rode into Jingzhou alone, would have let them do it.

In history, the reason why the Western Jin Dynasty perished so quickly was that after Sima Yan came to power, he continued to give preferential policies to the aristocratic families who had already held great power.As a result, the power of the major wealthy families was too great, and finally the mere civil strife in the palace caused a nationwide melee, which gave the nomads in the north an opportunity to take advantage of it.After Sui Wendi Yang Jian unified the world, the imperial examination system was used to replace the nine-rank Zhongzheng system, which was extremely beneficial to the aristocratic family. This made the selection of talents more scientific, thereby preventing the aristocratic family from being too powerful.Therefore, since the Sui Dynasty, it is rare to hear about who has four generations and three generations. On the contrary, there is an extra philosophical saying: Wealth cannot last three generations.

Wang Mang, who was scolded as a careerist and a usurper, was actually, to some extent, a reformer with avant-garde ideology, or an idealist.He wanted to change the status quo of land annexation, but the means he adopted were too radical, which eventually led to the strong resistance of the aristocratic family, and he also took his life because of it.Zhao Feng knew the basic principle that productivity determines the relationship of production, so he didn't expect him to carry out such unrealistic things as land revolution, democracy and freedom.Even the imperial examination system, he didn't want to start it now, but planned to wait until the situation stabilized a bit.Previously, it had been relying on the Xuzhou Academy's system to balance the influence of the aristocratic family, but now it seems that something needs to be added.For example, if the more than one million peasants in Jingbei were allowed to become tenant farmers again this time, once the strength of certain aristocratic families rose sharply, there would probably be another Cai Mao or Kuai Yue in a few years.

"Kong Ming, I understand what you mean. That is to say, even if the people in Jingbei intend to go south, it is difficult for them to migrate spontaneously if they have nothing, isn't it?" Zhao Feng asked after thinking about it.

"Exactly!" Zhuge Liang nodded.

"Since this is the case, then I will solve the problem of rectifying Jingnan's military equipment and moving the population to the south. Kong Ming, how is Jingxiang's military equipment now?" Zhao Feng asked after thinking for a while.

"Not very good." Zhuge Liang said cautiously.Before Jingzhou attacked Jiangdong, it claimed to have 30 horses. In fact, this was the number of county soldiers and added water. There were not so many front-line combat troops, which probably added up to about 20.Among them, there are 12 infantry, 12 sailors, and 2 cavalry.After fighting Jiangdong, the infantry and navy suffered heavy losses.Although new recruits were added later, their combat effectiveness was extremely weak.After this war, there were only about [-] cavalrymen left in Cai Mao, Kuai Yue and others, as well as Liu Pan's old troops, among which there were more than [-] cavalry.

"Twenty thousand cavalry?" Zhao Feng's eyes lit up when he heard the words: he has been tossing around in Xuzhou for so many years, changing horses and extorting money, but he only managed to get nearly 2 cavalry.This Liu Jingsheng is really rich and powerful. He raised [-] cavalry at once, and now there are more than [-] left. Why didn't Cai Hao use it in the previous battle?
"General, most of the Jingzhou cavalry are Yanzhou horses, and they don't know how to ride and shoot. Their fighting power is not comparable to that of General Zilong's white horse." Seeing Zhao Feng's excited face, Zhuge Liang quickly poured cold water on him.

"It doesn't matter, it's better than nothing." Zhao Feng said with a wave of his hand.After thinking about it carefully, Zhao Feng felt that he already had a rough plan and could implement it immediately.It's really not easy to toss about by myself, so I should ask him for a few people.

At this moment, two civil servants walked into the hall facing each other.The older one on the left had an extremely long face, while the one on the right had white eyebrows, but it was Ma Liang and Ma Jichang who had met Zhao Feng several times before. After they met, Zhuge Liang greeted Zhao Feng again. Solemnly introduce, that long-faced man is his elder brother Zhuge Jin.

"Thanks to the general's life-saving grace in the past, Zhuge Jin never dared to forget it!" Zhuge Jin was extremely courteous, and thanked Zhao Feng solemnly, and the latter even said that he was welcome.Looking at the serious-looking Zhuge Jin and the bright-eyed Zhuge Liang brothers, Zhao Feng suddenly had the idea of ​​playing a prank, and asked Zhuge Liang on purpose: "Kong Ming, I heard you said that Brother Ling and Shi Guangyuan, The talents of Cuizhou Pingping are similar, and they are all talents of the same state?"

"Exactly!" Zhuge Liang nodded.

"So, Kong Ming, your talent and learning are not as good as Brother Ling's!" Zhao Feng shook his head deliberately and sighed, and everyone was a little confused at this moment.

(End of this chapter)