Lu Bu watched the battle report, his face first fluttered with eyebrows, and he was overjoyed, but when he saw the latter, he already had a solemn face, and the previous joy was swept away. In recent days, the grain has been like a flood that has burst the embankment, and the inventory that has been accumulated for several years by himself has almost been emptied, so that if it continues, there is no need for Yuan Shao, Cao Cao and others to fight back, as long as he holds the city for a few months, he has to disintegrate because of the lack of food.

And he had strict military discipline and ordered the army not to disturb the local people's livelihood, so that Yuan Shao and others used this as a basis for every time the army was defeated and retreated, they would empty the local wealth and soldiers' rations, or simply burn them down and not leave a grain of grain for Lu Bu.

Although Gao Shun attacked countless cities, but the grain obtained was very small, although the army was strong, but not for long, although the combat power was strong, but could not hold for a long time, now can only look at the grain and sigh, dilemma. As the saying goes, people are iron and rice are steel, and if you don't eat a meal, you will be hungry, although Lu Bu's treasury is empty, he does not dare to let hundreds of thousands of troops starve and starve.

Convening the generals to discuss the countermeasures, Yang Xiuyan said: "Now the official warehouse is empty, and the scattered people only have a stomach, and only some big families can have surplus food. ”

Lu Bu had no other choice but to follow Yang Xiu's suggestion to discuss with some high-ranking families and summon them to discuss future plans. However, these people either prevaricate perfunctory, or only symbolically offer some money and food, but it is only a drop in the bucket and does not improve the current situation.

Chen Lin was born in a famous family, so he naturally knew the secret, and said to Lu Bu: "These people are all high-ranking families, who have been operating in the local area for decades or even hundreds of years, and they all say that they are once a son of heaven and a courtier, but for these people, no matter who is in the country, they are all immovable local heroes, no matter who sits in the world, they must rely on them to stabilize the neighbors, so they never put the official family in their eyes, if the lord is just kind to the other, and does not give them any benefits and promises, they will not be used by the lord." ”

Lu Bu said angrily: "I exempted them from taxes, and in recent years, I have opened up trade routes for them, and they have received more than a little favor. ”

Chen Lin smiled bitterly: "As the saying goes, the bustle of the world is all for profit, these people have been entrenched in the business for several generations, with wealth to self-respect, and there are children who have been carefully cultivated since childhood. ”

Lu Bu's head was bigger than two, rubbing the Baihui acupoint, and asked, "Does Kong Zhang have a good plan to deal with it?" ”

Chen Lin said: "If you want to take it first, you must give it first, the lord sits on countless black stone deposits, and the wealth obtained has long been red by these people, and the lord has expressly forbidden private mining, because they have many complaints, and can only get a small amount of income from it as an official." Nowadays, why not take the mineral deposits as the foundation, find the wealthy families to join the shares, and gather the power of the people, which not only expands the scale and speed of mining deposits, but also attracts the local wealthy and strong families, and can also solve the urgent need, isn't it a few in one fell swoop? ”

Lu Bu thought left and right, although this move will divide most of the wealth to the family clan, but the expansion of the scale of mining, but enough to fill the vacancy, the so-called people to collect firewood flame high, if it can be blended with the local Haoqiang clan, it should also be of great benefit to the development of the state in the future, and he also has an additional means to contain the local heroes, why not?

Then he said to Chen Lin: "I think this move is very good, you are the president of the Blackstone Chamber of Commerce, and this matter will be handled by you." ”

Sure enough, under Chen Lin's mediation, the ordinary scholars were like seeing a bloody hungry wolf, each holding a huge amount of money to buy shares, and even the local wealthy families in Yizhou who had been captured by Gao Shun heard the news, and they all said that they were willing to donate generously to fund Gao Shun's army with grain in exchange for the right to buy shares in the Black Stone Chamber of Commerce.

Lu Bu did not refuse, saying that the government must be the leading party, and a group of scholars will allocate shares in proportion to their capital contributions, and each person will participate in it, and then distribute dividends every year. Although the cost of this capital contribution is huge, dividends may be earned back in two or three years, but after two or three years, you will be able to make the most of the profits, if you can help Lu Bu stick to the state, the next ten years, a hundred years will be a hole of gold, a moment of capital, earn a hundred years of returns, how can not make everyone rush to it?

Gao Shun was supplied with food and soldiers, and he should have made a big show of his might, attacked Yuan Shao in one fell swoop, and occupied the land of Yizhou, but it backfired.

Yuan Shao ordered Zhang Hetun to guard Wei County, Gao Lan to guard Neihuang, and ordered Liu Bei, who came to him, to serve as the minister of Jibei to guard Jibei. In the north, Yuan Shao's son Yuan Tan joined with Chun Yuqiong, who retreated in defeat, and the army was stationed in Fanyang and Bohai, so that he had to divide his troops and take care of each other.

However, it was said that Cao Cao and Lü Bu were across the river, and he personally went to the riverbank several times to visit the army's defense, and saw the heavy troops on the bank of the Lü Bu River, and there were countless frightening heavy crossbows placed on it, and he couldn't help but worry and said: "Lü Bu's combat strength is so strong that I have no enterprising power, if he calms the north and leads the army, our army may be difficult to match it." ”

The strategist Xun You was beside him, and said with a smile: "Don't worry, the lord must not worry, Lu Bu's strong man is just a heavy crossbow armor, and this kind of equipment needs to be purchased with a lot of money, and his money is obtained by relying on the blackstone mine he produces, the lord only needs to cut off his trade routes, and prevent merchants from all over the world from going to Mengjin, he can block most of his financial routes." However, the annexation of the state is sparsely populated, and the production of grain is not the priority, and Lu Bu is reckless in military force, sitting on hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and without money as a basis, he has nothing to worry about. ”

Cao Cao was overjoyed when he heard this, and according to Xun You's suggestion, merchants were forbidden to go to Mengjin in Yanzhou, Sizhou and other places, and if they found the blackstone mining carts coming from Mengjin, they would all be confiscated.

For a time, there was no supply of black stone in the area south of the Yellow River, and overnight it returned to the pre-liberation period, and the charcoal industry, which was already on the verge of bankruptcy, was revitalized, and Cao Cao took the opportunity to annex countless people and make a lot of money. However, although charcoal can be used for heating, the firepower is far from enough, such as iron-making and forging, which makes the quality of southern armor plummet, and defective products are popular.

And Lu Bu was even more deeply affected, without the southern trade route, he lost most of his income, the ore was piled up, some workers had to shut down and stop production, and those wealthy scholars who had just become shareholders complained that they invested a lot of money, food and manpower, but they were abandoned by Cao Cao's order.

As soon as Cao Cao saw that the effect of this plan was very gratifying, far beyond expectations, he ordered the blockade of the river bank ferry, so that no commodities need to circulate between the two banks, and secretly said: Doesn't you Lu Bu have mines, horses, and weapons? I will block the trade routes, so that you will have no money, and you will be poor.

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