Dou You said with a bitter face when he heard this: "King, now there is no shortage of grain in the Chu State, but the King exempted the people of Chen Di from taxes for two years, and then exempted Deng Ye from taxes for one to two years, these places are all important grain producing areas directly under the Huaishui Valley of my Chu State." ”

"Because of the new occupation of the Huaibei land of the Qi State by the Chu State, a large amount of grain needs to be supported, and the grain in Huaishui has been insufficient after so many years of consumption, and there will be no tax revenue in the three places of Chen Deng Ye next year, and grain must be transferred from Jianghan to support all parts of Huaishui."

"Next, the state of Chu will build another city on the Han River, which also requires the mobilization of a large number of people and food, the two major expenditures of building the city and supporting Huaibei, and the food between Jiang and Han will be extremely tight."

"Excluding Huaishui and Jianghan, in the next two years, only Dongting has surplus grain in our Chu State. However, Dongting has not been developed for a long time, the population is insufficient, and the grain in Changsha alone may be difficult to support a large-scale war once there is something in the world. ”

Xiong Huai knew what Dou You was talking about.

In this day and age, war is not something you don't want, it won't come, countries are ready for war at any time, and it is a dangerous thing to have a shortage of food

Since the Chu State lost Daliang and other places, its sphere of influence has retreated from the river basin to the south, and the current granaries are mainly concentrated in Huaishui and Hanshui, and the grain production areas in the Hanshui basin are mainly concentrated between Jiang and Han.

As for the grain-producing area of Dongting, it was still developed when Wu Qi changed the law, and in just a few decades, the population was still insufficient, and the grain reserves were not as good as those of Jianghan and Huaishui.

Xiong Huai asked, "Is it possible to buy grain from other countries?" ”

Dou You shook his head and explained: "King, not long ago, the king rewarded the army with 20,000 gold, and Taifu has no money for the time being. ”

Xiong Huai was stunned, is this the legendary spending money for a while!

There will be a shortage of food in my Great Chu Country, which is really a rare thing...

Xiong Huai was a little skeptical that he was the right thing to do to rashly exempt grain-producing areas.

It seems that in the future, only tax reductions can be made, not tax exemptions.

Xiong Huai continued to ask: "Is there a way for Taifu Yin to save some of the grain?" ”

Dou You bowed: "The minister is incompetent, and the minister is guilty." ”

Xiong Huai was very disappointed with his answer, shook his head and said: "Since there is still surplus grain in Dongting, let's transfer grain from Dongting first, as for the past two years, our Chu State will first recuperate and recuperate, and fully switch to defense." ”

After Dou You left, Xiong Huai said to Li Qiu: "Doctor Sanlu came to see the widow. ”

Xiong Huai waited in the main hall for a while, and saw a radiant Qu Yuan walking in.

"Meet the King."

"No courtesy."

After Qu Yuan straightened up, Xiong Huai asked, "The widow heard that more than 500,000 people gathered in Chen Di not long ago, is this true?" ”

Qu Yuan nodded, his face was solemn, and he said: "King, this is indeed the case, after ordering Yin to order the transfer of grain, the minister sent someone to check, and what Yin said was true, 550,000 people, only a lot more." ”

Xiong Huai took a big breath of cold air and asked, "The Chu State has gathered nearly a million troops, how can there be so many people going to Chendi." ”

Qu Yuan sighed and said: "Great King, the extra 300,000 Shu people, mainly the Shu people who went to Huaishui, Shouchun, Wan Deng Ye and other places, and some of the Shu people from Wei and Han who came to Chen Di. ”

Xiong Huai was stunned, there were still people from other countries who came over, what should I say about this!

I had only heard of it before, after the Qin State changed the law, the people of the Three Jin and Chu States went to the Qin State to farm, but I did not hear that the people of other countries came to the Chu State.

Is this the name of his benevolence spread abroad?

"How many people came from Wei and Han?" Xiong Huai asked with some hope.

Qu Yuan said: "Back to the king, the two countries together are less than 10,000, of which the Korean people account for the majority, and they all migrated with their families. ”

Xiong Huai was disappointed, that is, there were only a very few Wei and Han immigrants, and most of them were Koreans, and they must have been frightened by the 500,000 army of Chu and hurriedly changed their nationality.

Qu Yuan hesitated for a moment and continued: "King, although the people recruited this time are men over the age of fourteen, not all the people who go to Chen Di are men over the age of fourteen. ”

"In addition to the men over the age of fourteen, there are many men under the age of fourteen who have come with their people, and there are even a small number of women who have not yet reached the age of fourteen."

"Ahem, ahem..." Xiong Huai suddenly choked on saliva.

Woman?

It's amazing.

Unexpectedly, there were many Mulan with unknown purposes in the Chu State.

If this kind of thing appears in the history books, then the brutal act of the king of Chu who even recruited women in order to attack Korea will definitely be written about and can stage one legend after another in future generations.

Of course, himself, the King of Chu, must be a villain.

Xiong Huai hurriedly asked, "How many of these women are there, and how did Ling Yin deal with them?" ”

Qu Yuan replied: "There are less than 100 people, and after Yin knew about it, he gathered all these women, and then directly married the unmarried countrymen of Chen Di." ”

In the past, according to the requirements of the Zhou rites, men were twenty and crowned, and women were fifteen and hairy, and they were not adults and could not be married. However, now that wars are frequent, no one has paid attention to this rule, and the age of marriage for ordinary people has been greatly advanced.

If you are not married for a long time, all countries directly refer to marriage.

"Good, good."

As soon as Xiong Huai heard that the marriage was matched, he was relieved, and Xiong Huai resolutely refused to carry the black pot of recruiting women to join the army.

Even with the brutality of Qin Shi Huang, he didn't do such a thing as recruiting women to join the army.

While breathing a sigh of relief, Xiong Huai's eyes narrowed and looked at Qu Yuan, who was lowering his head.

Qu Yuan is admonishing.

Could it be that the people of my Chu country are already in danger to this extent?

Xiong Huai said slowly: "Chang Tai breathed to cover up his tears, mourning the difficulties of the people's livelihood, Xianqing, this is your sentence in "Lisao". ”

Qu Yuan responded: "That's right. ”

Xiong Huai sighed: "How difficult the people's livelihood is, Confucius once sighed: harsh government is fiercer than tigers." Could it be that the people of my Chu State have reached the point where they are not even afraid of the threat of death from war? ”

Could it be that the next step is to be afraid of death, so why be afraid of death?

Xiong Huai snorted.

Qu Yuan shook his head and said: "Great King, although the Shu people are difficult, they have not reached this level, and the Shu people who really can't live have already fled. Most of those who have not fled now are living a decent life, and the reason why they went to the war was just for the identity of their countrymen. ”

Xiong Huai breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that it hadn't reached that level yet.

But Chen Di's situation also gave Xiong Huai a wake-up call.

That is, these savages already have their own demands, and are no longer satisfied with getting by, and desperately want to change their political status.

Thinking of this, Xiong Huai said to Qu Yuan: "Xianqing, you should know about where the widow decided to build a city in Beijinshu, right?" ”

Qu Yuan nodded: "The minister knows it, and Weichen is already preparing the materials for building the city." ”

Xiong Huai was noncommittal, stared at Qu Yuan, and said undoubtedly: "The widow decided to name the new city Xiangyang, and the arduous task of building the city, the widow hopes that Xianqing can personally preside over and build Xiangyang City for the widow." ”