Xu Jing narrowed his eyes and asked, "Boji (Yi), I'm afraid these news are not something that a Jingzhou businessman can understand." I know so much about Liu Qingzhou, do you plan to go east? ”

Yi Yuan smiled proudly and pretended to reply easily: "When the lord of Qingzhou, Bo Jianxian and (Jian Yong), was in Jingzhou, I helped him a little.

Recently, Jian Xianhe went out of Wei County, Jizhou, and sent me a letter asking me to go to Panhuan for a few days, and sent a few Qingzhou "Di Bao" with the letter, saying that I wanted me to learn about Qingzhou affairs. The "Di Bao" was publishing the dispute between Liu Qingzhou and the Senate, and both sides were using pens as guns, and the argument was inseparable. ”

The Xu brothers showed envious expressions.

In this troubled era with frequent wars, Qingzhou is a rare place of peace. However, Qingzhou is a place where scholars yearn for it, but they dare not set foot easily. First of all, Qingzhou is famous for its harshness, and Liu Bei brutally used military law to control the four prefectures of Qingji and Youyou—throwing ashes on the street (taking out garbage on the street) will be punished, and those who do not live on the right side of the road (right-hand traffic principle) will be punished...... Once people who don't know the laws of Qingzhou enter, they will be blamed at every turn, and it will be difficult to move.

And Jian Yong's sending of "Di Bao" to Yi nationality is clearly to guide his behavior in Qingzhou, and furthermore, to test his ** in Qingzhou.

Due to the things published in the "Di Bao", wading. and many secrets. At the earliest, it was only issued to Qingzhou veterans. For the elders to understand the government policies and express their political opinions. Soon, reading Di Bao became a status symbol.

Two years later, Qingzhou veterans served. The society used the post stations under its control as a network to establish a primitive postal system and take over the distribution and delivery of the "Di Bao". They felt that it was too expensive to pay for just a few newspapers. Therefore, it is suggested that the circulation scope of Di Bao be extended to the meritorious class. Since then, the local post stations have become the sales and distribution agencies of the Di Bao, and they are responsible for identifying the buyers.

The elders and the meritorious people are all people with strong purchasing power. In this way, the newspaper broadened its reading scope. Merchants were the most satisfied, and they placed advertisements in Di Bao to introduce their latest products to entice readers to buy them. Since most of the elders of the meritorious class belonged to the martial arts, the advertisements of the merchants were often violent, and the introduction of weapons, chariots and horses, powerful crossbows and arrows, sturdy armor, and richly decorated helmets became a fashion for a while.

With the expansion of readers and the increase of advertisers, Di Bao began to make a profit. Sharp. This was followed by a flood of non-governmental newspapers and periodicals, which mainly focused on government adjutants with literati background. The "Di Bao", which single-handedly controls the release of government information, has incomparable authority, and only people with a certain status can see its true face. Jian Yong sent it to the Iraqi "Di Bao" to read, and the intention of the temptation was clearly revealed.

In this troubled world, the officials of Qingzhou treated. The encounter made the scholars particularly envious. Since taking Jizhou into its pocket, Qingzhou has begun to vigorously promote wheat and rice cultivation in South Korea and Japan. Rice and wheat are harvested twice a year, and in the case of continuous decline in grain prices, Qingzhou officials abolished the form of payment of the grain standard, and the monthly salary of 2,000 stone officials was 200 silver coins, while the grain price in Qingzhou at that time was 30 copper coins (100 copper coins for 1 silver coin), which was enough for the officials to live a rich life.

However, the choice of Qingzhou officials is the most resentful of the world's scholars, in the past, only need to obtain the identity of filial piety in their hometown, and all counties in the world can be officials at will, but Qingzhou refuses to recognize the filial piety status of other counties, and all Qingzhou officials must pay taxes in Qingzhou for more than three years, and they must pass the Qingzhou meritorious assessment. The scholars are all conceited and talented, and let people be dragged into the examination room for exams - those with low fame can bear it, while those who are big and small feel that this is a great insult to themselves.

According to Qingzhou practice, there is only one special case. Let the celebrities be exempted from the exam, that is: the two elders came forward to jointly recommend. But this recommendation is not easy to get, each veteran has only three opportunities to recommend in his life, the recommended person must legally pay taxes in Qingzhou in three years, and make meritorious contributions to Qingzhou, otherwise, the three years expire, and those who have no merit must retake the exam. In this way, no one wants to give the opportunity to others easily, unless, this person is really talented and famous.

Jian Yong sent "Di Bao" to the Yi nationality, which means that he is willing to help the Yi nationality, with his qualifications as the master of Liu Bei's mansion for many years, and then pull a joint recommendation from the veterans, the Yi nationality can skip the exam and go directly. Of course, it is likely that it was under Jian Yong's subordinates to take care of Wei Guojun for him.

"Congratulations to Boji, I wish you a smooth journey to the east", Xu Shao said sourly.

In the council hall of the elders of Yecheng, Jizhou, Liu Bei watched the elders scramble to accuse him. It turned out that not long after the New Fifth Army in Jizhou was formed, Liu Bei was preparing to bring the three legions of wind, rain, and lightning to Xihe County for training under the guise of training them

There were more and more horses, and everyone realized that this was beyond the scale of the joint exercise between Qingdao, Hebei, and Taishan County. The elders of the Qingzhou Great Senate (Supreme Council), who realized that the momentum was not right, hurriedly sent several important ministers to Jizhou, borrowed the hall of the Yecheng Senate, and beckoned Liu Bei to accept the reprimand.

The patriarchs had been talking for three hours, but Liu Bei had never said a word, and now, the patriarchs were also tired, and the hall suddenly fell silent.

These patriarchs don't want to rebel, it's just that as soon as people gain a little power, they always like to use it to the fullest. Liu Bei is very cruel to the enemies of Qingzhou, however, he is very supportive of the political system of the elders and village elders he created, and the questions of the elders have always been gentle to give and reply, Gao Tanglong is a rigid person, from the moment he was kidnapped to Izumo, he took it as fun to contradict Liu Bei, and many Qingzhou officials liked to follow Gao Tanglong's example, and took it as their responsibility to accuse Liu Bei of violating the law. The patriarchs who tasted the sweetness took the opportunity to publicly accuse the usually majestic lord, and they were all overjoyed.

However, don't look at them screaming fiercely in the Senate Hall, it seems to be very enjoyable, as soon as they get out of the gate of the Senate Hall, they all droop their tongues, wagging their tails at Liu Bei like pugs, and they are afraid that Liu Bei will hold a grudge - let Liu Bei remember, but it is a very terrifying thing, so far, most of the things he has remembered have been trampled under his feet, the four worlds and the three dukes, the power is great, and the ice disintegrates in one day; The Huns made him unhappy, no, 90,000 horses were about to go on the march.

Generally speaking, the patriarchs quarreled and quarreled, but they said three things: first, the lack of supplies; Second, too much manpower is used, which hurts the muscles and bones; Third, as the lord of the lord, he frequently conquests are not conducive to the rule of the territory.

At that time, the annual steel output of the entire Qingzhou Izumo reached 800 tons, which was equivalent to 17.134 times the output of the entire Dahan steel at that time, which was equivalent to the annual output of a medium-sized steelmaking mill in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China and a large British steel mill in the 17th century (in England, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, in the seventeenth century, the output of the most advanced charcoal iron-making blast furnace was 15 tons per week, while the output of a furnace was only 500 pounds). This production was even close to the annual steel production of the Roman Empire, which at that time spanned the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa (according to historical estimates).

However, this figure, while surpassing the history of the time, is extremely insignificant. It can be seen from some data that it is small: 120 tons of light welding rods for the steel structure of the arch rib of the main bridge of the Lupu Bridge; The total steel consumption of the roof truss on the second floor of the Guangzhou International Convention and Exhibition Center reached 15,000 tons. In other words: if all this steel were made of steel and used to pour concrete walls, if the construction was done by cutting corners, it would probably be possible to pour three walls of a small defensive castle, and the other wall would have to be built of masonry.

800 tons of steel are distributed in the production of agricultural tools, horse-drawn carriage spring plates, civil knives, water mills, looms, pipes, ship rope anchor chains and other civilian equipment, about 300 tons are used. The production of armor, bows, arrows, horse harnesses, swords, spears, spears, battle axes, etc., requires 350 tons. Building city walls, civil houses, water facilities, etc., can only be as much as is left.

In January of the fourth year of Chuping (398 of the Han calendar, 193 AD), Liu Bei sent an advance team to conquer Hungary to build a castle with a masonry structure in Jiexiu, and all of a sudden the civil steel was collected. In order to prepare for the war, Liu Bei resolutely did not allow civilian steel to encroach on the share of the military. This year, the new homeless people in Qingzhou have had to use bronze farm tools. Liu Bei planned to attack the Xiongnu in this difficult period, and to pull half of the Qingzhuang in Qingji and Sanzhou into the battlefield. In case of continuous war, this winter will be the most difficult for Qinghai, Hebei and Sanzhou.

Bingzhou was invaded by the Xiongnu for many years, and the population decreased sharply, and only some Han people remained in Shangdang County and Yanmen County, with a population of only 280,000. As a result, the soldiers were only organized into one corps, the Gushan Legion, which was less than 8,000 men. Jizhou and Qingzhou have a population of 2.3 million, each with a standing army of 50,000. Liu Bei took away half of the army this time, and requisitioned 40,000 young and strong people with the army, which had a great impact on the agriculture and industry of the three states. Qingzhou's policy for many years has prides itself on not disturbing the people, and this expedition has exceeded the bottom line of this policy.

Politically and economically, the campaign was not feasible. The most important thing is that now Liu Bei is also leading Qingji and the four states, and he is no longer the lord of Qingzhou. After five years of great rule in Qingzhou, there was an unpleasant "plain chaos" when Liu Bei went out for the first time, and not long after Ji and the state were annexed, Liu Bei was going to go out again, the affairs of the four states were complicated, in case there was a change, the person in charge was not there, who to ask for instructions?

Hearing the surrounding voices calm down, Liu Bei retracted the posture of a contemplative, stood up, struck the ground a few times with the scabbard in his hand, and said, "Everyone, do you know what the end of the earth is? Isn't it Zhoushan? Legend has it that Buzhou Mountain is like Optimus Prime, and the earth holds up the sky. I have always thought that if there is really a Buzhou Mountain at the end of the earth, then I will plant the military flag of the Han Dynasty on the Buzhou Mountain. After Liu Bei said this, a buzz sounded underground.

Liu Bei glanced at the whispering elders, quietly waited for them to calm down, and then said: "Once, there was an Izumo caravan that went all the way north, from spring to summer, from summer to autumn, and then to the heavy snow. They settled down by a river, survived the winter, and then they saw the end of the earth—the sea, the boundless sea.

I was disappointed to hear that there was no mountain at the end of the earth. However, the report of this caravan intrigued me deeply, think about it, it takes more than 20 days to travel from Qingshu to Izumo by land, and it takes a year to walk from Izumo to the extreme northern sea of the earth, what a vast land it is! If we own this land, in a thousand years, even if our population swells again, we will not worry about a place to live.

In addition, the merchant of Daiki, who came three years ago, told me that if I walked west from Izumo, I would see the sea again for another year and five months. Ladies and gentlemen, there is still so much remaining land between heaven and earth waiting for us to conquer and occupy, what is the end of the sea? What we do know is that there are many islands in the sea, some of which are about the same size as Qingzhou, but what else is behind the islands? Could there be a bigger land mass waiting for us?

The exploration is endless, and for the time being, Karasuma in Liaoxi and the Xiongnu in Xihe are the two mountains that prevent us from expanding our city to the north, conquer them, and make them subject to the jurisdiction and constraints of our law, and the caravans and travelers who travel far north will no longer suffer from plunder. Behind Karasuma and the Xiongnu there is a larger territory waiting for us to explore and conquer. In contrast, the land occupied by the Xiongnu is just a projectile, in order to obtain a greater living space for the Han nation, a war with the Xiongnu is inevitable, this is for the public, for the private. ”

Liu Bei took a breath and said with a smile: "Why can Qingzhou allow all the foreign races to belong and accept our rule with peace of mind? There are two reasons for this: one is the principle that all of us are equal, and the other reason is that I Liu Bei has a reputation for being fierce and will not be soft on the enemies who offend Qingzhou. Now, three years after the Xihe War, Yu Fuluo is living a very nourishing life. Personally, I'm a little cautious, hoping to have another fight with Yu Fuluo and let him know our true strength. I hope you will be able to satisfy this little selfish desire. If you feel that you have used too many soldiers in this battle, I am willing to reduce my strength by 30% and bring only 60,000 men into battle. What do you think? ”

When it came to Liu Bei's personal face, Frustrated Shou and Gao Tanglong were immediately silent, and the other elders were also uneasy.

Kong Rong didn't interject all the time, he couldn't stand it anymore, coughed lightly, and said: "Although it is said that the commander of the three armies cannot be moved lightly, but if you attack like this, is there no relationship between the upper and lower levels?" Since Princess Xuande took charge of Qingzhou, she has paid out of her own pocket for Qingzhou, how many roads have been built, how many cities have been built, and how many taxes have you paid? If even this small request can't be met, all the officials in Qingzhou can die. However, this kind of thing can only be done occasionally, after this battle, Xuande Gong can not leave Qingzhou lightly, if Xuande Gong can approve this matter, I will agree with you to go out in person. ”

Liu Bei smiled slyly and replied vaguely: "This time, that time." ”

He stood up in frustration and said, "Since Wen Jugong (Kong Rong) said this, I also agree." If the lord and father-in-law are recruited, the number of troops should not be reduced. Zitai (Tian Chou) is familiar with the geography outside the Saiwai, Yuan Zhi (Xu Shu) is good at making decisions, Gongjin (Zhou Yu) is good at commanding, the lord takes the three of them there, and the generals are dispatched by the lord. ”

Liu Bei grinned and smiled silently: "Since there are three people, Zitai, Yuan Zhi, and Gongjin, I don't have to pick and choose other generals, call Yunchang (Zhang Fei) and Yide (Guan Yu) to come, Dian Wei to bring the Guards Legion, and the Jizhou Legion to participate in the battle and call Gao Ran to go, these few people are enough." ”

Frustrated and replied briskly: "In this case, tomorrow, the lord will set off, the army will march slowly all the way, and Xianghuan will be the last supply point for our army." I let the absent generals chase all the way and rendezvous with the lord in Xianghuan. ”

Liu Bei chuckled: "Why do you have to leave tomorrow?" Zhou Yu, Dian Wei, Gao Lan, and Zhang Fei are all in the camp, and I will be able to leave in the near future. ”