When Liu Bei arrived in Ningliang County, Tian Feng, Gu Yong, and a number of civil and military officials of Ningliang County were already waiting for Liu Bei in Ningcheng!

"Ladies and gentlemen, you must have known that the 2,000 women's army led by me was ambushed in the valley and suffered heavy casualties, and even the Marquis of Pingyang was unfortunately killed in battle.

Although I learned that the drought in Ningzhou had caused a serious problem of banditry, I never thought that it would be so corrupted, was it the people's trickery or your inaction? "Because of the death of Zhang Ji and 1,400 women's troops, Liu Bei is still very annoyed!

"My lord, Ningzhou is in trouble like this, it's the fault of his subordinates. Last year, Ningzhou just returned to the Han Dynasty, and officials from all walks of life were also working hard, and the people of Ningzhou gradually regarded themselves as the people of the Han Dynasty;

However, Ningzhou was previously ruled by slave owners, and the nobles of the various tribes in Ningzhou did not work, and raised slaves to work for them.

And now that the lord has liberated all the slaves after capturing Ningzhou, in this way, the nobles of the Ningzhou tribe need to work on their own, and they will inevitably have a grudge against the Han and the lord after a long time!

However, local officials have failed to solve the problem fundamentally, which is why today's disaster has been caused! Gu Yong first stood up and took the initiative to take responsibility, and told the reason for the formation of the bandit!

"In this way, the bandits in Ningzhou were caused by some of the nobles in Ningzhou originally? But I remember that most of the nobles have been migrated to Liangzhou and Yongzhou by me, why can tens of thousands of horse bandits still form in Ningzhou? Liu Bei began to ask again!

"The size of the Ningzhou horse bandits can be divided into more than a dozen shares, among which the horse bandits in the three northern counties of Ningzhou have not yet been unified, but the horse bandits in the four southern counties of Ningzhou have now been merged into one share, and there are basically 10,000 people per share!

And only a few of these horse bandits are the original nobles, most of them are civilians who can't eat, and more importantly, these horse bandits are actually not very old, only sixteen or seventeen years old, because the original young and strong elders have been confiscated into the army by the lord, or killed by the lord! Hearing this, Tian Feng began to explain the composition of the horse bandits!

"In this way, some of the current Ningzhou horse bandits have enmity with me, and some have relatives in the army? Can that divide these horse bandits? Liu Bei thought for a moment and asked!

"It is true that these horse bandits can be divided, after all, they are still teenagers, and it is really helpless to be thieves!" Tian Feng said!

"In that case, why don't you send troops to fight the bandits?" Liu Bei asked again!

"My lord, it's not that Feng doesn't send troops to fight, but there are two main reasons:

First, the seven counties of Ningzhou were all in flames, but the defenders of Ningzhou only had more than 75,000 people;

Second, in recent months, there has been a great drought in Ningzhou, but the tribes in the Tibetan region have begun to assemble, and there are signs of attacking Ningzhou.

As a result, the garrison strength of each county is not very abundant, and the horse bandits of the four counties of Ningnan were finally able to gather together, but it was also because we had heavy troops in the south! Tian Feng explained!

"If that's the case, you can't be blamed, but now the matter of Ningzhou is very important, what do you think?" When Liu Bei heard Gu Yong and Tian Feng's explanations, he could be regarded as approving them, so he asked!

"My lord, in order to solve the rebellion in Ningzhou, my lord needs to first solve the problem of famine caused by the drought in Ningzhou, as well as the problem of horse bandits gathered by the previous nobles due to the drought, and the problem of the remaining nobles!" Gu Yong suggested!

"For the famine caused by the drought in Ningzhou, the lord needs to mobilize grain and grass from the Western Regions to come to Ningzhou for disaster relief." Gu Yong continued!

"The mobilized grain is already on the way, and then it is necessary for Yuan Si to recruit people to clean up the rockfalls in the valley, so that the grain can be transported smoothly to Ningzhou.

In addition, I also mobilized a large number of potatoes, which can be widely planted in Ningzhou in the future, thereby reducing the pressure on Ningzhou's grain.

As for the issue of horse bandits in Ningzhou, Yuan Hao, how many soldiers and horses can be mobilized on the premise of being able to resist the invasion of Tibet? ”

"Back to the lord, the 60,000 troops stationed in the four southern counties of Ningzhou cannot be mobilized, and the three counties in the north of Ningzhou are currently 5,000 soldiers per county, and each county can mobilize 2 to 3,000 soldiers for the lord to conquer the horse bandits!" Tian Feng replied.

"Lord, Yong has a suggestion for the rebel horse bandits in Ningzhou, I don't know if I should talk about it!" Gu Yong saw that Tian Feng finished speaking, so he spoke!

"Tell me about it!"

"For the rebellious horse bandits in Ningzhou, the lord can be divided into three parts, one is the previous nobles of the tribes in Ningzhou, and the lord can capture and kill them; Second, if the bandit sergeant has family members in the army, the lord can send someone to lobby him, presumably this part of the people can surrender without a fight; For those who have no choice but to follow the thief, the lord can appease his family, and he will not blame the past, so that the rebellion in Ningzhou will be able to get twice the result with half the effort! Gu Yong hurriedly said!

"This is a good word, Yuan Hao, you will mobilize 7,000 soldiers from the three northern counties of Ningzhou, and then follow me to quell the bandits in Ningzhou, as for the other government affairs in Ningzhou, they will be handled by Yuan Si for the time being, and major matters will be sent to my military camp!" Liu Bei finally arranged it!

After Liu Bei's affairs were arranged, Gu Yong and Tian Feng's companions began to inspect Ningliang County, and the horse bandits in Ningliang County were handed over to Yan Yan to investigate the specific situation.

Before Liu Bei occupied, the people of Ningzhou lived a nomadic life, and occasionally encountered a major drought and relied on meat to survive the famine.

And now, more than just after the war, the young and strong suffered heavy casualties, plus a lot of middle-aged laborers were captured by Liu Bei and migrated to Liangzhou, and most of the remaining people in Ningzhou were women and children, plus Liu Bei forcibly promoted agriculture, resulting in a decrease in animal husbandry, cattle and sheep and other meat.

In this way, in a rare year of great drought, the people were displaced, and it is conceivable that they were hungry and cold!

Liu Bei inspected all the way, and the entire Ningliang County was more depressed than the Ningliang County after the war, so Liu Bei also communicated some governing policies with Gu Yong and other ministers!

And just when Liu Bei was inspecting the entire Ningliang County, Xun Yu of Luoyang also set off for Nanyang to send an envoy to Yuan Shu in Nanyang!

At present, all the princes of the Central Plains can basically divide the land of a state, and I think that after a prince like Yuan Shao captured Jizhou, he began to attack and annex the state!

And Yuan Shu only has a county in Nanyang, but don't underestimate Yuan Shu, a county in just one county!

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Nanyang County belonged to the Jingzhou Department, and Nanjun was bounded by the Han River. Nanyang County is the largest county in the world, with 37 counties and a population of 2.4 million.

Nanyang County of the Eastern Han Dynasty has jurisdiction over 37 counties, including Wan, Guanguan, Ye, Xinye, Zhangling, Xi'e, Pheasant, Luyang, Li, Duyang, Bowang, Wuyin, Biyang, Fuyang, Pingshi, Jianyang, Huyang, Sui, Shuyang, Niyang, Yin, Yu, Deng, Li, Shandu, Sui, Chaoyang, Caiyang, Anzhong, Zhuyang, Wudang, Shunyang, Xiangxiang, Nanxiang, Danshui, and Xi.

Moreover, Nanyang is the granary of the Eastern Han Dynasty at that time, although there are many people, but it is also a warehouse with enough grain, Yuan Shu seized this place and did not return Liu Biao, but it is mainly because of this!

Therefore, although Yuan Shu only has one county, its population is comparable to the population of Liu Bei Ming, and the grain and grass are comparable to Yuan Shao, which can be described as a first-class prince in the Central Plains!

This is also one of the reasons why Liu Bei Xuanze exchanged the heirloom jade seal to Yuan Shu, and another reason is that Liu Bei wants to follow history and promote Yuan Shu's path to becoming emperor!