Qinling and Daba Mountain in winter are really not a good place to go out and surf.

Since mid-November, heavy snow has gradually closed the mountains, limiting people's movement to relatively warm, humid and isolated valleys, making it difficult to communicate with each other.

The closure of the Qinling Mountains around Hanzhong is not as serious as in the north, but it will last for about two months, and the snow will not melt until about half of the first month of the second year.

Therefore, in the past few months, nothing major has happened up and down Liu Bei's camp, everything is in accordance with the farming plan planned in early winter, steadily hoarding grain, opening terraces, building water trucks, and doing some miscellaneous infrastructure work.

Throughout the winter, tens of thousands of farmers and idle people were gathered at the five water transport transit points along the Jialing River. Not only the displaced people who were settled in the local area, but also the idle local people in Langzhong and Jiameng counties, the government hired people to work with grain, and built a total of more than 100,000 acres of terraced fields, equivalent to more than 30,000 acres in later generations.

Liu Bei also allocated money and grain to build a new shipyard in Langzhong County, taking advantage of the profits of the midstream to build ships on a large scale. The original plan for the surrounding terraces was to cut down trees, cut out the isolation zone, and then set fire to the mountains to form black soil. Later, it was changed to directly pick out the big trees and cut down the shipbuilding, and the useless waste trees were burned to repair the terraces, which also restricted the speed of repairing the terraces in the first year, but in the long run, it was still profitable.

Upstream counties such as Guangyuan and Jiameng also made adjustments, cutting down and transporting all the big trees that can build ships downstream. Because the Han Dynasty people had no precedent for transporting timber by long-distance waterway in Shudi, the loss was quite large at first, and they had to use ready-made ships to load the timber.

Later, after Li Su personally went to inspect it, he found this problem, and remembered that the wood transported in the mountains of Sichuan that he saw on Douyin in later generations was directly discharged and drifted, so he taught the woodcutters and craftsmen to learn to directly tie the cut trees into large wooden rafts and put them down the river. A man can easily transport hundreds of large trees by fine-tuning the direction.

As a result, Liu Beijun's shipbuilding and wood collection efficiency was immediately several times higher than that of Liu Yanjun downstream. Liu Yan also set up a small shipyard in each county and made small fuss in accordance with the laws of natural economy. Liu Bei was able to concentrate the timber in several counties at a low cost, industrialize management, and let the craftsmen also have an opportunity to learn from each other, and even improve the efficiency of the division of labor.

Sun Qian and Guoyuan, who were in charge of the project on the front line, were also very happy and surprised when they discovered this new method of transporting timber along the waterway, and secretly praised Li Zhonglang's quick thinking, and his casual allocation was worthy of the experience of the working people over thousands of years. As everyone knows, Li Su also likes to watch small videos from all walks of life in later generations.

The grain stored in the official warehouse is almost allocated according to the scale of tens of thousands of stones per month, and the money is also a subsidy of 10 million yuan per month. Liu Bei had saved up the funds he had saved before entering Sichuan, and even the start-up capital given by Mi Zhu at the beginning, most of which had already been spent, and now they are mainly supported by the seized money and grain from the Zhanglu Mansion.

Fortunately, Zhen Yao, the second son of the Zhen family, immigrated to Nanzheng with his five younger sisters, and also brought a lot of Zhen family's assets, which can be borrowed and moved by Liu Bei.

However, the construction of terraces, water wheels, and the improvement of navigation will require a complete return on investment, at least a decade of recycling. Even if Zhang Lujia Zhen's family can spend such a large amount of money on infrastructure construction and farming for three years, after three years, it is still far from the hematopoietic capacity of the economic internal circulation, and Liu Bei must gradually swallow Liu Yan's population territory in the past few years in order to press the balance sheet back to a healthy state.

……

Winter went to spring, and the time blink of an eye to the beginning of April in the first year of Chuping (190).

More than five months of hard farming, the results are outstanding, more than 100,000 acres of terraced fields along the Jialing River, have completed spring ploughing and irrigation and fertilization, the supporting waterwheel is also running very stable and good, and after a summer growth period, you can usher in the first harvest.

On the Jialing River, Liu Beijun also built more than 200 large and small civilian transport wooden ships and 30 warships in the past six months, and the siege of the downstream Diaoyu City has lasted for almost two months-

From the beginning of February, after the ice and snow melted, Liu Beijun sent thousands of vanguard troops to strengthen the defense of Dianjiang County, and crossed the Jialing River to completely encircle Diaoyu City along the south bank of the river.

It's just that because of the existence of Diaoyu City, the water transportation on the river is blocked, and if Liu Beijun's ship dares to go up the river, it may be thrown down by the defenders of the city through the big wooden slide rail and sink the boat at any time. Therefore, the "last 20 miles" logistics route of the besieging army could not be completed by water, but the soldiers and grain were transported to the opposite bank of Dianjiang County, and the ships were unloaded, and then the last bit of the journey was completed by car.

The fortification of Diaoyu City is not much better than Jianmen Pass, but after all, this is a "city", and Jianmen Pass is a "pass". The biggest disadvantage of Chengbiguan is that it can be cut off from the grain road. If you encounter a pass, you can't surround it if you want to.

After Liu Bei's siege began, only in the initial stage, because Liu Yanjun bullied Liu Bei's vanguard because of the small number of troops, he actually dared to send thousands of reinforcements from the direction of Jiangzhou to the north, trying to fight with the 4,000 defenders in Diaoyu City inside and outside, and wipe out Liu Bei's army besieging the south side of Diaoyu City.

At that time, the total size of Liu Bei's besieging troops was only seven or eight thousand, and there were only three thousand on the south side. And the Jiangzhou garrison Liu Bi sent 5,000 people to cooperate with the attack in the city.

As a result, Liu Beijun's 3,000 besieging soldiers were the main general Guan Yu, and his 3,000 people were also the elite of Danyang soldiers who had fought for many years. Liu Bi and Liu Mao were soon taught to be human beings and learned the simple truth that "fighting a war is not counting people".

The two spent a total of six or seven thousand troops to attack Guan Yu's 3,000 people, but they were still beaten by Guan Yu to the point that they cried and shouted that their mother was full of bags. Those recruits of the "Dongzhou Soldiers" who have never fought are not the opponents of the Danyang elite soldiers who fought from Youzhou to Yizhou and penetrated the entire land of China.

In the end, Liu Mao's troops were defeated, and the remnants were afraid that they would not be able to escape back to Jiangzhou and would be chased and killed by Guan Yu.

After a month and a half, there was no field battle on the Diaoyu City battlefield, and they both learned to be obedient thoroughly, knowing that even if all the soldiers from Jiangzhou were transferred to the field battle, it was estimated that they would not be able to defeat Liu Beijun.

It's better to die and obediently defend the city.

However, Liu Mao's battle was not completely beneficial to Liu Mao, at least it added some troops to Diaoyu City - when the winter before the war, Diaoyu City only had 4,000 defenders, because Liu Mao also knew that Diaoyu City was too small, and the grain was just opened, and there was not much savings.

If too many soldiers are brought here in peacetime to garrison all year round, it is not a good thing that the food eats too quickly. Therefore, the optimal solution is to "usually be stationed less, so that the main force can eat in the county and Jiangzhou." When the war really breaks out, we will increase the strength of Diaoyu City."

After Guan Yu besieged the city, Liu Yu fought a battle with Guan Yu, although there were one or two thousand people killed, seriously wounded, and captured, but after all, he brought five thousand people, and the remaining three thousand people entered the city safely, and the defenders expanded to seven thousand.

Liu Mao felt that if there were 7,000 people guarding Diaoyu City, it would be too stable, and the gods would not be able to attack it.

But at the same time, he also knew that the problem of storing food after there were too many soldiers had to pay more attention. Since the second half of last year, 150,000 stones have been hoarded in Diaoyu City, and according to the estimate of one stone consumed by each soldier in 20 days, it is enough for about 4,000 people to eat for more than two years. Now it has increased to 7,000 people, which is only enough to eat for more than 400 days, about one year and two or three months.

This can't be blamed on Liu Mao for not hoarding more grain, after all, Diaoyu City was a newly built city last year, and it was originally a wild land that was poor and white.

Ba County is not a rich place now, Jiangzhou is a mountain city, far less rich than Chengdu in the agricultural era, in a few months to transport 150,000 stone of grain to a new city that rises from flat land, but also to eat and drink every day against the guards, Liu Mao's hoarding has been very hard.

Now he has to face a problem: if there is no other source of food, Liu Bei will be completely surrounded like an iron bucket, and after a year and a half, he can still starve the people in this fortified city to death!

Of course, Liu Mao can also carry out food rationing in advance when the situation is not right, reduce the daily rations of the soldiers, let them sleep a lot and reduce consumption, and it is not impossible to last for two years.

But it's for sure.

Liu Mao had to carefully consider the possibility of "open source" in Diaoyu City.

……

One day in early April, Liu Mao personally inspected the existing farmland on the high cliffs in the western part of the city, as well as the new mountain fields that had just been specially cultivated last winter and early spring this year, to see how much grain and vegetables could be recovered from the land in the city after the autumn harvest and how much help it would be for a protracted war.

In siege warfare in other cities, it is rare to be able to farm in the city, because the city is all land for construction, and if the enclosure is larger, then the circumference of the city wall will be longer, and more guards will be needed, and in the end, this account will not be calculated.

However, Diaoyu City is a purely military fortress from scratch, and it originally had farmland, so it is an exception - Diaoyu City can only be attacked by the northern section of the east wall, and the other seven-eighths are cliff terrain along the Jialing River, so multiple enclosures will not lead to an increase in the required defensive perimeter, nor will it lead to a significant increase in the required garrison.

Liu Mao has a map of the city, and he knows that this place is twelve miles long from east to west, and the average width from north to south is three and a half miles, and it is bone-like, thick at both ends and thin in the middle. However, the eastern half of the city is Diaoyu Mountain, which is too rugged, and there are no traversers around Liu Mao, so it is impossible to reclaim these places, and it is not even possible to grow vegetables, so the construction land and warehouse land in the city are concentrated.

The western half of the city is relatively gentle, that is, there is an area of three miles by six miles of agricultural land, which is equivalent to more than 6,000 mu (more than 20,000 Han mu) in later generations. Because they do not know how to make terraces, a small half of these fields are too steep and can only grow fruit trees and vegetables. After all the conversions, it is roughly equivalent to the supply of 15,000 acres of grain fields.

"A hundred acres of Han can feed five strong men, and 15,000 acres is the ration of 800 soldiers, and no matter how much you save, you can only feed 1,000 people. Now there are 7,000 people in the city, and while planting and eating, it has only slowed down the consumption of grain by one-seven......"

Liu Mao calculated the account in his heart, this simple calculation of the third grade of primary school, "a pool is filled in three hours, the water is empty in eight hours, and it takes several hours to fill it while irrigating", but in the late Han Dynasty, it was a difficult problem in the "Nine Chapters of Arithmetic". Liu Mao asked the money and food chief around him to help him calculate, and it took a long time to understand.

There is no way, the backwardness of farming technology in the Han Dynasty is an important reason why Wang Jian, the later Southern Song Dynasty guard, can hold on to Diaoyu City for more than 30 years, but Liu Mao cannot.

In later generations, the Southern Song Dynasty had to rely on half of the country to feed nearly 100 million people, but at the end of the Han Dynasty, only 50 or 60 million people in the country had already entered the Malthusian trap. Therefore, the degree of intensive cultivation in the Song Dynasty is incomparable to that of the Han Dynasty, and a strong laborer in the Song Dynasty can only plant one-third of the land of the Han Dynasty farmers, and the farming technology of the Han Dynasty is too extensive.

Therefore, in the specific environment of "saving the use of land and intensive cultivation to increase yields", the defenders of the Han Dynasty could not be self-sufficient in farming, not to mention that Liu Mao had already swelled beyond the critical line of self-sufficiency in Diaoyu City because he contained Liu Bi's rout.

What's more, the people of the Song Dynasty would open terraced fields, but the people of the Han Dynasty would not, and the effective cultivated land area in Diaoyu City was more than doubled.

If you keep besieging it, you will starve to death sooner or later, this premise is irreversible.

Therefore, Liu Mao must find another way to survive.

"Will we venture by water in the future and transport grain ships from Jiangzhou to the water gate of Diaoyu City, or will we think of another way? Liu Beijun's naval army is not as strong as their army, and it is estimated that they have just occupied the Jialing River and not long ago, and there are many dangerous shoals and shallow channels in the upper reaches, so they will definitely not be able to build big war ships.

Our Jiangzhou Navy Division has a big ship on the Yangtze River, and relying on the boat is good, which should be able to make up for the disadvantage that the soldiers are not as brave and good at fighting as Liu Beijun. That's it, if you are really short of food at that time, try to take the risk of replenishing the waterway. As long as the replenishment is successful, it can greatly hit the morale of Liu Beijun's continuous siege! ”

Liu Mao thought very clearly, the key to siege warfare is not to really starve people to death, but to convey a message to the enemy that "I can starve you to death" or "you can't starve me to death". As long as this mathematical model deduction assumption can hold up, it will be a major blow to the morale of the side that is not good for the deduction.

……

However, Liu Mao didn't know that while Liu Bei let Guan Yu besiege him, he also encountered new problems in his rear, so that Liu Bei had to devote his energy to dealing with and defending. The military operation on the Diaoyu City side can only be based on continuing to besiege and cut off food, and there will be no strong attack on human lives in vain for a while.

Because after two months of Shu Road delay, the news that "the outside world has begun to ask for Dong" finally reached Hanzhong, and Liu Bei had to take sides.

As a high-ranking and powerful Han clan relative, it is not appropriate to ask for Dong, after all, it is easy to be suspected of "having the ambition of the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms of Wu and Chu" and "wanting to usurp the throne in the name of the Qing monarch".

However, for Liu Bei, there was no reaction, and it was not in line with his loyal character, even if it was just a diplomatic condemnation, a gesture against Dong Zhuo and his own appearance, it was better than doing nothing.

After all, the gesture of courting Dong is itself a good opportunity to further strengthen his prestige and reputation. In history, Cao Cao and Sun Jian relied on "resolutely courting Dong" to win many worldly reputations, and Liu Bei himself must understand this superficial truth.

Therefore, he will ask the chief confidant Li Su to think about a way not to be suspected by the imperial court of "pretending to seize the throne by the Qing monarch", and at the same time correct his name.