The question asked by Guo Peng made Xiahou stunned for a moment.

Thinking about it carefully, Xiahoudun felt that what he said was correct.

Reclamation of wasteland for growing food is not something that can be harvested today and tomorrow, but also has to go through a long process of time, ranging from one year to two or three years.

Leveling the land, digging ditches, draining water, weeding, logging, establishing settlements, etc., a whole set of processes, before growing food, you have to spend a lot of money on raising people.

The food during the wasteland reclamation period must always be prepared for those people, and the wasteland cannot be reclaimed without starvation, right?

This is also money, and the expenditure is still very large, and the expenditure on the wasteland reclamation operation in the three states south of the Yangtze River is the absolute majority of the financial expenditure of the Wei Empire.

Guo Peng's annual expenditure on this is definitely an astronomical amount.

For this reason, there were constantly courtiers who suggested that the emperor could slow down the efficiency of his actions a little, not spread out so much, and shrink a little, which could also save a lot of money.

The treasury will be a little fuller.

However, Guo Peng was always refused, and Guo Peng strictly ordered the reclamation operations in the three prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River to continue as usual and not stop, and repeatedly reprimanded those officials for not having a long-term vision, only seeing the immediate benefits, but not the long-term benefits.

Meat eaters despise!

Xiahoudun was a supporter of this policy, because Guo Peng was not only reclaiming land in the three states south of the Yangtze River, but also in the border states, and he was also one of the responsible persons.

Comparing the two situations, Xiahoudun found that there was no difference between the two.

"I want the grassland to livestock, also because it is not worth it to carry out livestock on the cultivated land of the Central Plains, and if there is not so much pasture, the ration cost of raising a horse can support 30 to 50 people, how can it be considered how it is not cost-effective.

With the grassland, it is different, the cost is reduced, not only can you raise horses, but also a lot of sheep and cattle, in addition to transportation, you can also increase a lot of meat, and when the time comes, if it is supplied to Zhongyuan Prefecture, it can greatly increase the amount of meat eaten by my Wei people. ”

Guo Peng smiled and said: "Only eat food, not only is it difficult to eat enough, but it is also difficult to be strong physically, if you want to be strong, you have to eat meat, you look at the elites in our army, which one is not eaten by meat?"

When I was a farmer before, everyone had yellow faces and thin muscles, but when I got to the army, the food improved, and the pimples and meat on my body came out, which were all eaten by eating pork and duck meat, and with pork and duck meat, isn't the amount of food eaten in the army also decreasing? ”

This is true, Xiahoudun can confirm it.

Judging from the information obtained from various sources, after the increase of meat and bean food, the army's demand for rice and grain has steadily declined, and the consumption of grain has greatly decreased compared with the original era when it mainly relied on thick vegetable porridge and wheat rice.

Therefore, Guo Peng had the confidence to use grain to play a trade war with Liaodong and collapse Liaodong, so Guo Peng was able to equate grain with Wei five-baht money and use grain as a general equivalent.

The main thing is that there are many, and stable, and the storage capacity is also very large, so you can afford to play.

As far as Xiahoudun himself is concerned, after the increase of non-staple foods, the amount of grain eaten is indeed declining, and the average farmer can eat four or five bowls of grain at a time, and after adding some non-staple foods, he is almost full of two or three bowls.

The production of grain is increasing, but the increase in non-staple food has reduced the consumption of grain, so the amount of grain has naturally increased.

"What Your Majesty says, the minister also knows."

"Not only that, in the grassland north of your state, not only have horses been raised over the years, but I have also asked the government to come forward to organize border people to raise sheep, although the number is not large, but hundreds of thousands of sheep are still raised.

Guo Peng said with a smile: "Dong Zhao, the secretary of the Ministry of War, was so happy when he learned about this, you can imagine how much burden these sheep that he can run have relieved him, and how much burden he has reduced to the people of Hebei."

And think about it carefully, Yuan Rang, when the Huns and Xianbei people went south to knock on the border, didn't the army follow with cattle, sheep and horses? Grab grain and eat grain, eat cattle and sheep if there is no food, how good is the physique of each one? ”

Xiahoudun didn't know how to object, so he had to nod.

"Your Majesty is thoughtful and submitted."

"Don't be in a hurry to obey, I'll leave this matter to you when the time comes, Yuan Rang."

Guo Peng reached out and patted Xiahoudun on the shoulder.

"Minister?"

"Well, Yuan Rang, you have been at the border for a long time, you are familiar with border affairs, and in terms of familiarity with the grassland, the officials of the Central Plains are not as good as yours, you are also good at civil affairs, and you are doing things safely, I will be very relieved to have you presiding over this matter, what do you think?"

Guo Peng looked at Xiahoudun.

Xia Houdun licked his lips.

"Your Majesty has an order, and the minister will naturally obey it, but Your Majesty, the minister has already presided over the state affairs, I am afraid it will be difficult to be distracted......"

"Don't worry, I plan to set up a separate state to manage the grassland after the capture, you still do the history of thorns, and leave the state to someone else to manage, I think only you can handle this kind of thing of animal husbandry on the grassland."

Guo Peng shook Xiahoudun's hand: "The Xiahou clan is also my relative, there is no precedent for this kind of thing, I really don't feel at ease when I hand it over to someone else, Yuan Rang, in private, I don't treat you as an outsider, I can only rest assured if you do it, don't let me down." ”

Guo Peng said this, and Xiahoudun felt that he really had no way back.

In fact, Xiahoudun really wanted to leave Bingzhou, but his direction was to go south, not to continue north......

He has been doing thorn history in Bingzhou for some years, and he has always been conscientious, vigorously promoting Tuntian in Bingzhou.

He often personally led people to inspect the villages, make statistics, and resume production throughout the state.

After Guo Peng became emperor, he gave him an order to concentrate on production and build tuntian in Bingzhou, because the future Northern Expedition needed Bingzhou to play the role of a logistics base.

For the same food demand, starting from Bingzhou to the grassland is of course different from starting from Luoyang to the grassland, it is much easier to start from Bingzhou, and the loss from Luoyang is even more.

From this point of view, Bingzhou has developed from a chaotic state completely destroyed by the Montenegrin Army and the Southern Xiongnu to a point where it can provide one-third of the logistics support for the Northern Expedition, and Xiahoudun has made great contributions.

But Xiahoudun really wants to go back to his hometown to live, and he also wants to enjoy the world of flowers in the Central Plains, instead of blowing the wind and eating sand here, and living a miserable life.

But what can the emperor do if he orders so?

I can only work hard.

On 14 June, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei came to Yanmen County to meet Guo Peng again, and Guo Peng and Guo Peng determined the route and strategic plan for the last time, as well as the tasks of both of them.

"Yun Chang, Yide, I reiterate once again, there is no tactic to speak of this time in the army, it is the simplest destruction in the middle, outflanking on both sides, the strongest main force of the Xianbei people is handed over to me to deal with, and you are mainly responsible for outflanking the left and right sides.

If the Xianbei people are attacked in the same three ways, you are free to defeat them, and then outflank, in short, after sending out the army, you keep in mind your own purpose, and on this basis, let you play. ”

Guo Peng gave Guan Yu and Zhang Fei maximum military freedom, allowing them to take any military action to expand the strategic advantage of the Wei army while completing the outflanking tactics.

In fact, when it comes to strategy, the Wei army has already won, and the volume of Xianbei is no longer the era of Tanshihuai, and the current volume of the Wei Empire is not comparable to that of the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

Strategically speaking, there is quite a feeling that Dou Xian's northern expedition to the Northern Xiongnu was back then.

Again, the two are not on the same level, but the specific guiding ideology is completely different, and the final strategic results will of course be different.

In this battle, the main conflict is focused on the tactics of the battle, and the fierce fighting between the two sides will be the biggest conflict, and the result will not change.

The Wei army will not be defeated.

The Xianbei people are doomed.

On such a basis, there is nothing wrong with letting Guan Yu and Zhang Fei play a little.

In the end, there is still a difficult building left.

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