After talking for a long time, Guo Tu finally got to the point.

As soon as Liu Zheng heard Guo Tu's words, he understood that this was the point of Guo Tu's coming to him.

The words mentioned above are just a foreshadowing for the last thing, what to reward the official position, ask for an alliance, are all preparations for the last opening to ask for food.

When Guo Tu said this, Liu Zheng also began to think in his heart, Jizhou actually has no shortage of food, Jizhou has a large population, and it is also a big state. In terms of the total population of the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, excluding Yuzhou and Yizhou, Jizhou had the largest population, and even Jingzhou was only about the same as Jizhou.

However, after Jizhou experienced the poison of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the population suffered heavy losses, and the Yellow Turban Army was known as a million army, of which Jizhou was the hardest hit area, not to mention the million population, at least 780,000 people died in the Yellow Turban Rebellion.

Later, there was Wang Fen's puppet emperor rebellion, which made the turbulent Jizhou experience a baptism of war again, and the population plummeted again, and the successive battles made Jizhou have no time to develop economy and agriculture.

As a result, after Yuan Shao took control of Jizhou, although he had a huge territory in Jizhou, the population of Jizhou was directly lost from six million to only three million.

And it's a mess that doesn't work in business, and he needs to redeploy these things himself.

One year is simply not enough time for him to feed so many soldiers and horses, not to mention that there are hundreds of thousands of Karasuma people waiting to be fed, if he doesn't give the Karasuma people food, these Karasuma people may be the ones who defect in the next second.

So Yuan Shao himself was worried.

After there was no way, I could only think of Liu Zheng, who occupied Yangzhou.

After all, Yangzhou has not experienced the Yellow Turban Rebellion, and the Yellow Turban Rebellion has little impact on Yangzhou.

As long as Liu Zheng can help Yuan Shao tide over this difficulty, Yuan Shao will have the confidence to reclaim wasteland next year and solve the problem of eating.

But this kind of thing, how can Liu Zheng readily agree?

"Mr. Guo Tu, if you are here for other things, I can really help you, but you are here for food, I'm afraid I will be a little helpless."

Liu Zheng immediately pretended to have a bitter gourd face and looked at Guo Tu, looking a little embarrassed.

"My lord, why is this, you can sell grain and grass to Su Muyan, why are you not willing to sell some grain and grass to my lord?"

Guo Tu was also stunned, although he knew that Liu Zheng must have a reason to refuse, but he still didn't understand what difficulties Liu Zheng had.

Liu Zheng sighed and began to explain to Guo Tu, although it was an explanation, it was just an excuse.

Liu Zheng's subordinates have a lot of grain in stock, and they can still maintain it without growing grain for two years.

"Mr. Guo Tu doesn't know, there was a tsunami in Jiaozhou earlier this year, and then the tsunami ended and there was a drought, and all parts of the coastal area were devastated, and there was still plenty of grain, but there was no harvest this year."

"Now our people are eating last year's stockpiles, where is there any grain to sell to you?"

Liu Zheng's remarks are naturally just an excuse, although Jiaozhou and Yangzhou did have some tsunamis this year, but they did not particularly affect the growth of grain.

He still has a large amount of grain and grass under his hands, and it is more than enough to support Yuan Shao, but the business is like this, strange goods can live, you have to make your things scarce, and the other party can pay a high price.

Although Guo Tu's strategy is not very good, he is not a fool.

Liu Zheng's prevarication, he can still see it.

I knew in my heart that Liu Zheng was shirking and increasing the value of the grain in his hands.

However, he quickly followed Liu Zheng's words and continued to ask.

"Lord Liu Zheng, although you don't have much surplus food, but my lord is even more short of food in his hands, you can take out some of it, otherwise I won't be able to go back and pay for it, and you sell some grain to my lord for your own good, if my lord can't survive this winter, the war with the court will inevitably be controlled everywhere, once my lord has an accident, you will have to face the soldiers and horses of the court alone, and the pressure is very great."

Guo Tu can still clearly express what Liu Zheng would have looked like if he hadn't sold grain to Yuan Shao.

Although there is no food from Liu Zheng, Yuan Shao will definitely not fall down, but the battle with the imperial court is definitely not as arrogant as it is now, and it must be to shrink the forces and focus on defense at the same time.

If there is food, it will be different, there is no worries, Yuan Shao can spread his hands and feet to fight against Lu Zhi.

"Hearing you say that, it seems to be the same thing."

Liu Zheng nodded, and followed Guo Tu's words, and went down, Guo Tu gave a concession, and Liu Zheng also had to climb up the pole.

"Then maybe I really have to tighten my belt and squeeze out some grain and grass for Yuan Benchu, but you also know that although this grain can be given, the cost of going back and forth is not cheap."

Liu Zheng continued to ask for the price.

Where would Guo Tu refuse, now as long as there is food, where do you dare to have any price, when there is a shortage of money, there is no price, and there may not be money to buy food.

"Don't worry, my lord has said a long time ago that we will pay for all expenses, and we are willing to buy grain and grass from you at a price thirty percent higher than the market!"

"Buy it with money? I'm afraid it won't work. ”

When Liu Zheng heard this, he immediately shook his head.

Guo Tu frowned, he didn't know what the hell Liu Zheng was playing in his heart, Guo Tu, who already had a bad impression of Liu Zheng, secretly scolded in his heart that Liu Zheng was really a shameless person, but he still had to ask Liu Zheng carefully.

"Then I don't know what kind of way Lord Liu Zheng wants to sell this grain and grass?"

"Don't worry, what I want, you must have it, you also know, I am in the Yangzhou Jiaozhou area, there is no shortage of food, but there is a shortage of war horses, although I got some war horses from Su Muyan and others before, but it is still far from enough, so if you want food, I don't need your money, you will exchange it for war horses."

"Your lord Yuan Shao, after accepting so many Karasuma people, there will definitely be no shortage of war horses under his command, so it shouldn't be too much to exchange war horses for food."

"I have thought of the price for you, when Su Fuyan exchanged 400 war horses for our 20,000 stone grain, I am willing to take out 200,000 stone grain and grass to sell to you, but you need to give me 10,000 war horses!"

Liu Zheng took a breath and said his request, and after telling Guo Tu, Guo Tu's face turned green after listening to it.