Three Kingdoms: Let Yuan Shen be great again

After several rounds of discussion, the easy target Yuan Yao was looking for became very clear.

That's right, it's Chen Deng's Guangling County!

Admittedly, compared to Hua Xin, who ruled by doing nothing, Chen Deng was both a scholar and a warrior. He was good at both governing and fighting, and he was also very popular with the people. Xuzhou has gone through many ups and downs over the years, changing hands countless times, but he has been able to stand firm. He is definitely capable.

The problem is that reality isn't a gladiatorial arena; strength on paper doesn't necessarily equate to actual strength.

Although Hua Xin looked weak and was indeed quite incompetent, the strategic location of Yuzhang Commandery was too crucial, sandwiched between multiple forces such as Yuan Yao, Liu Biao, Sun Ce, and even Zhang Jin, the governor of Jiaozhou.

This means that if Yuan Yao were to send troops to Yuzhang, the other factions would likely intervene, making the situation very complicated and contrary to his original intentions.

In contrast, Chen Deng—

Question: "Chen Yuanlong, do you consider yourself one of Cao Cao's men now?"

Answer: "I think I am."

After Liu Bei's defeat and escape, Chen Deng immediately announced a change of allegiance to avoid Cao Cao's attack. However, Cao Cao was not a fool. How could he be completely at ease after Chen Deng had changed sides so many times?

However, with the war in Hebei raging, Cao Cao didn't have time to waste on Chen Deng; a nominal submission was enough.

Therefore, before the battle between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao was decided, if Yuan Yao wanted to attack Guangling County, he basically didn't need to worry about anyone supporting Chen Deng.

Even Sun Ce wouldn't do it. The two of them have fought many battles in the past and their relationship is extremely bad. If Yuan Yao were to invite him, Sun Ce might happily join forces to attack Chen Deng.

On the other hand, Yuan Yao and Chen Deng had no past grudges or present conflicts. Moreover, during the Huainan defense battle some time ago, Chen Deng had even offered some support to Yuan Yao out of a sense of mutual dependence. Yuan Yao could be considered to have done Chen Deng a favor.

Although Yuan Yao could be shameless, as a politician, he could not be so blatantly shameless. He had to come up with a clever pretext and a suitable method to plot against Guangling County.

Furthermore, even if Yuan Yao were determined to launch a strong attack on Guangling, he might not be able to take it down. Even Sun Ce had suffered a minor setback at Chen Deng's hands, so how could Yuan Yao possibly expect to get away with it?

Therefore, Yuan Yao did indeed intend to make Guangling County the next direction for expansion, but he was not prepared to directly confront Chen Deng. On the contrary, he wanted to win him over and fight a very new kind of war.

As for the specifics of how to play...

After the meeting, Yuan Yao did not publicly announce who he was going to deal with. He simply asked Yang Hong to stay behind and planned to give him a task.

"Master Yang, besides Chen Deng, do you know many people in Guangling?"

"I know a few people here. What advice does Your Highness have for me?"

"I want to open a business specifically to do business with Guangling."

"Doing business?"

Yang Hong immediately perked up.

Yuan Yao explained his ideas in detail.

Since the coup last year, the internal and external environment in Huainan has been relatively stable. Even the recent large-scale trial only targeted the middle and upper classes and did not affect the production activities of the lower classes.

In fact, Yuan Yao's repeated crackdowns on the powerful local magnates in Lujiang, along with his efforts to appease and eliminate local bandits and strengthen public security, also liberated productive forces to some extent.

As people gradually regained their vitality, the foundation for commercial revival was laid.

The salt industry mentioned earlier was a core industry that Yuan Yao had prepared for Huainan, which could serve as a stable cash cow in the future.

However, the salt industry itself also has its drawbacks. One is that demand has a ceiling and the growth space is extremely small. Another is that there is always overcapacity, so it cannot create much added value and can not extract much extra profit.

Therefore, Yuan Yao still needs to find a more fundamental and reliable pillar industry.

He easily thought of the textile industry.

The traditional practice of men plowing and women weaving is nothing new.

Yuan Yao said with great enthusiasm, "I have asked the old farmers in Wancheng. The water and heat conditions in Huainan are very good, which is very suitable for mulberry and hemp cultivation. There are also many small-scale private weaving workshops in the area. We can set up large-scale government-run workshops on this basis, centralize the management, and make the textile industry bigger and stronger, creating new glories."

Yang Hong echoed, "Your Highness's insight is brilliant. The weaving industry is vital to people's livelihood. If this matter is handled well, not only will the people benefit, but the supply of military provisions will also be greatly eased. It can even be converted into money and grain and distributed as salaries. It is truly a win-win situation."

Yuan Yao shook his head and said, "Master Yang, your vision is still too narrow."

If he only cared about this little bit of benefit, he could have just told Yan Xiang to persuade Sang whenever he had free time. Why did he have to make such a big deal out of it and discuss it with Yang Hong?

"I've already had the craftsmen study the three-spindle foot-operated spinning wheel and the large water-powered loom. We'll also figure out how to break down the processes and build an assembly line. No matter which one we make, in the future, the entire textile industry in the world combined won't be able to compete with Huainan."

"Initially, we'll use military orders to nurture the industry. Once it's somewhat mature, we'll consider creating the Huai cloth brand to drive the development of upstream and downstream industries. Then, we'll dump our products aggressively into the surrounding states, destroying their industries and monopolizing the entire market!"

"It's alright, Master Yang, it doesn't matter if you don't understand. Just remember this: I have a dream. I dream that one day, Huainan will become the Lancashire of China. I dream that one day, the Zhongshi Army will be able to equip themselves with uniforms for all four seasons!"

"This old minister truly doesn't understand," Yang Hong asked earnestly. "Please enlighten me, Your Highness, what can this old minister do in this matter?"

Yuan Yao slapped his thigh: "Leverage your core competency—your network of connections!"

The commercial market at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty was dominated by powerful, tangible forces; Hayek would have been so angry he would have fainted on the spot.

Without the right connections, even if Huainan's textile industry has an enormous production capacity, it may not be able to sell a single piece of cloth.

Yang Hong, that scoundrel, knows people everywhere. He can take advantage of this and, with the help of transferring benefits, open up sales channels in various states and counties, thus forming a complete virtuous cycle.

Yang Hong roughly understood what he needed to do, but there was still one question he didn't understand.

"But what does this have to do with Guangling County?"

"Guangling County is exactly the raw material base I've found for the textile industry in Huainan!"

The biggest problem with mulberry and hemp is that they are not edible. If Yuan Yao forcibly expands production, and there is a climate fluctuation in the future that leads to a food shortage, then there will be big trouble.

Agriculture is the foundation of the nation and should not be easily touched; Yuan Yao was well aware of this.

Therefore, he planned to use market forces to purchase mulberry and hemp from Guangling County at high prices, while selling grain at low prices, inducing the other party to spontaneously expand production, and launching a vigorous large-scale conversion of rice to mulberry.

If all goes well, Yuan Yao will be able to achieve economic colonization and industrial control over Guangling County in just one or two years. Chen Deng will find it difficult to stop this, because Hayek's influence is still considerable, and he cannot stop the profit-seeking mentality of the local powerful families.

If Yuan Yao wanted to completely annex Guangling County at that time, it would be much easier.

This is truly a win-win situation.

Yang Hong finally realized: "So that's what Your Highness was planning, it's Guan Zhong's Hengshan Scheme."

"What Hengshan Scheme?" Yuan Yao was taken aback.

"Oh, Your Highness, don't you know?" Yang Hong explained, "This is recorded in the Guanzi. In order to conquer the State of Hengshan, the Prime Minister of Qi bought their weapons at high prices, causing the State of Hengshan to abandon agriculture and turn to industry. The land was left barren. He also bought grain from other states first, leaving the State of Hengshan unable to buy grain. The country was starving and had no power to resist. It had no choice but to surrender to the State of Qi."

"I see..." Yuan Yao's eyes lit up, and he decided to tell this little story in tonight's literacy class, and then ask Lü Meng to share his thoughts.

Incidentally, discovering that his strategy was remarkably similar to that of Guan Zhong, Yuan Yao's confidence soared, and his resolve deepened.

The wisdom of our ancestors, the financial warfare, and the ability to subdue the enemy without fighting.