On the fifth day of the fourth month of April (the twelfth day of May in the Gregorian calendar, the lunar calendar is expressed as: Jiaxu year has been 巳月申巳日癸巳时), this day is the International Nurses Day in later generations. On this day, the yellow calendar reads: Great Murder. On this day, Liu Bei marched to Shexian County.

After Zhang Yang was reappointed as the Taishou of Hanoi, Yu Fuluo deliberately released Zhang Yang in order to calm the anger of the Han Dynasty and ease Liu Bei's attack, and Yang Chou then returned to the army to protect Zhang Yang and let him take office, and gave up Shexian. After Liu Bei sent Wang Kuang to be transferred to the state assassin history, Wen Ping was arranged by Wang Kuang's side to lead Pei Yuanshao and Liu Pi to take charge of the military of Bingzhou. Subsequently, Wen sent Pei Yuanshao to garrison Shexian County to ensure the transportation hub with Wei County, and Liu Pi was arranged in Xianghuan to defend against the attack of the Xiongnu.

In three years, Jizhou has recovered very well. In the spring of the third year of the early peace, Liu Bei personally wrote the "Persuading Farmers", exhorting farmers in Jizhou to use new wheat seeds and new agricultural tools to cultivate their fields. He also paid out of his own pocket to buy a large number of seeds and farm tools, which were distributed to farmers in Jizhou for free. At the same time, some retired veterans in Qingzhou were specially rewarded in various counties and counties, and these veterans were called on to teach farmers new farming techniques. Under the no-tax policy, farmers in Jizhou, who became rich back then, quickly taught their relatives and friends their experiences. In the second year, there was a rare bumper harvest in the land of Jizhou, and the people all knew that under Liu Qingzhou's rule, the officials no longer exploited the people, and respected the private property of the people, relying on their own efforts, and now they can live a good life, and Jizhou is under great governance.

Liu Bei's army was walking on the road, and at this moment, it was the summer harvest season, and the fields were faintly crowded, full of busy farmers. At first, the peasants simply straightened up, and watched strangely at the huge army, solemnly maintaining a tight formation, sweating in the summer heat. Approaching Shexian County, there were many retired veterans in the fields, and when they saw the smiling big bear military flag, many veterans hurriedly straightened up their waists from the wheat straw, sorted out their clothes, and respectfully saluted the military flag.

"What's going on? Big brother, why are you saluting? The local farmer in Jizhou asked in surprise.

The veteran watched the big bear flag gradually. Walked away, put down his right arm, and replied respectfully: "That is the military flag of my lord, the lord is personally levying, it must be a full-scale war against the Huns, brother, go to the club (retired soldiers' club) and ask, is there a conscription order?" ”

After the army, the chickens and dogs in the fields jumped. The local farmers in the state spread the news of Liu Bei's arrival, and the retired veterans threw down their hoes and ran to the nearby clubs.

War - the word was spread in the fields of Wei County, for a moment. In the meantime, the reserves of the whole Wei County are looking forward to it.

In the past few years, Liu Bei vigorously prepared for the war, and the people were not idle. Retired veterans, adventurers, and spies formed various small teams, which constantly harassed and plundered the Xiongnu. Those teams that returned with a full load made the ordinary people envious, Liu Bei went out with the army this time, followed him to participate in the plunder, and what he got was definitely much better than digging in the soil.

There was no conscription order - the old one who arrived at the club. The soldiers sighed in disappointment, and the Jizhou Senate sternly issued an order: only farmers who had finished the summer harvest were allowed to form their own teams and go to the grassland to find the harvest.

After a few moments, the veterans agreed with each other to transfer the fields to each other. The harvest in the field is carried out by the remaining veterans in charge of the summer harvest, and the rest of the harvest goes to the remaining veterans except for the rations of the original owner of the field. Some of the veterans who were freed up were equipped with bows and arrows and saddle horses, and followed the army to the grasslands to raid. Soon, Liu Bei's army formed a huge tail. According to their original ranks, those veterans automatically formed a team, followed behind the main army in style, and happily sang military songs.

Zhou Yu followed closely beside Liu Bei and heard the rear team. There was a burst of singing, and he frowned: "My lord, do you need to disperse these people, or send someone to lead them?" ”

Liu Bei, dressed in bright armor, rode leisurely on his horse, and replied, "Gong Jin, do you know where Qingzhou is strong?" ”

Zhou Yu pondered for a moment and asked, "Could it be that it's just these veterans?" ”

Liu Bei smiled: "The strength of Qingzhou does not lie in wealth, not in the advanced bow and arrow, not in the strong armor, the most powerful thing in Qingzhou is that he is a soldier of all the people." Farmers are not taxed, but men, regardless of their strength or infirmity, are required to undergo military training and serve for five years before they can fulfill their obligations to the government. Among them, the strongest entered the regular army, and those who were eliminated entered the local garrison and security forces. The period of service is the time when they receive legal education, and when they finish their service, each of them has a sense of honor and a sense of obeying the law.

The most important thing is that long-term military training has made them have the habit of martial arts in their bones. Someone once joked: When you go to eat in Qingzhou Hotel, don't look at the guests in the hall lying or sitting, waking up or drunk, and their shapes are unsightly. However, at the sound of the bugle, an army will come out of the hotel, and the guests will automatically form a line according to their height. When several teams are brought together, they will automatically form an army and brigade according to their ranks. This is the most powerful place in Qingzhou - strict discipline, good order, and an army that can fight when called upon. ”

Zhou Yu's eyes flashed, and he said: "The adults are just to develop the habit of coming when they are summoned and being able to fight, so they are constantly looking for enemies for them and looking for objects to plunder?" ”

Liu Bei glanced at Zhou Yu and acquiesced to this statement.

After a long time, Liu Bei spoke again and said: "I'll tell you the truth, in the Senate, I can't tell you exactly why I started the war. In fact, this time to fight the Huns, Qingzhou really needs this battle, and it needs this battle more than me, but the reason is too sensational, and I can't say it. ”

Zhou Yu thought for a moment and asked, "But do you need Xihe Meiji as a future horse farm in Qingzhou to prepare for the war?" ”

Liu Bei shook his head, and Zhou Yu asked again: "But because the Huns kept plundering, the army could not be deployed, and countless military supplies were consumed?" ”

Liu Bei shook his head again, Zhou Yu was silent for a while, and then asked: "But the court is in turmoil, and the adults want to cut off the troubles and go all out to the west?" ”

Liu Bei laughed loudly and said, "You can think of this, which means that you have a long-term vision than those elders." Frustration would have thought of this, but he must have thought that we weren't prepared enough, so he discouraged us. The real reason, though: the market. ”

Zhou Yu was surprised, and it took a while to react: "My lord's battle is actually for businessmen." ”

Liu Bei nodded solemnly and said, "Yes, Qingzhou is heavy on business, although it has been vigorously advocated in recent years, the contempt of the Confucian people has not been completely reversed, for example, you didn't think of this." ”

Zhou Yu asked curiously, "Can you explain in detail?" ”

Liu Bei replied: "Haven't you noticed that taxes have been declining in recent years? If there is no tax on agriculture, our tax revenue must depend on merchants, and the existence of the army must be to open up markets for merchants. Qingzhou opened the Xuzhou market and Jingzhou market in the south a few years ago, however, people's financial resources were limited in troubled times. In recent years, Qingdao and Jizhou have had bumper grain harvests, and Youzhou pastures are full of cattle and sheep.

The demand for the outside market is getting smaller and smaller, and the unilateral dumping has led to the accumulation of more and more things produced by the factories and workshops, especially our water mills, steam stamping machines and other equipment are exclusively managed equipment, and it is forbidden to sell them to the outside world. The reduction in their income will inevitably lead to a reduction in the government's finances and taxes, and now that we have reached a moment of crisis, we must take action. ”

Liu Bei pointed to the West River with a horse whip and said: "The last time I came to the West River, I saw the turbulent Fen River, and I was thinking, this place is really a beautiful place, if our army occupies this place, on the Fen River to put up water mills, spinning and weaving clothes, raising sheep and horses, our Qingzhou products, will be greatly increased." In addition, with the Xihe production base, our fleet can go straight to the South Seas and sell excess materials to the Great Qin State, so that Qingzhou's finances and taxes will also rise. With fiscal and tax support, we can raise more troops and herd horses all over the world. ”

Liu Bei is talking about the countermeasures to deal with the overproduction crisis in Qingzhou, and there was no concept of overproduction in that era. However, after several years of development, Qingzhou's production capacity has approached the edge of surplus. In the troubled times, people's purchasing power was not large, and Qingzhou's unilateral dumping made the southern market gradually saturated. At this time, there are only two ways to deal with it, one is war, which is used to digest surplus materials, and the other is to open up new markets. Liu Bei's Xiongnu war, is to attract everyone's main force to the war, after the war, the development of the West River takes two years, which requires the consumption of a lot of materials, and after the development of the West River, the fleet of the South Seas is ready, a market across Europe, Asia and Africa is about to be opened, so that the economy will move towards a virtuous circle.

"The most important thing is that we can reach Fenglingdu along the Fen River downstream, the opposite bank of Fenglingdu is Tongguan, don't look at Cao Mengde's life and death in Hongnong County, once we occupy the West River, down the river, Chang'an City is under our threat, attacking the West River, that is, a roundabout westward ......" Liu Bei stopped talking and glanced at Zhou Yu with a smile.

Zhou Yu was stunned, and then felt ghostly, looked at Liu Bei creepy, and shivered a few times.

On the same day, accompanied by the Qingzhou guards, the Iraqi nationality boarded the ship in Jiangxia and sailed downstream along the river.

"Where did the ship land?" Asked by the I.

"Yangtze River estuary, Dantu County?"

"And then?" Yi asked again.

"Change the sea ship to Lianyun. At that time, Mr. Yi could decide his own itinerary, if he was willing to continue by sea, we would land at Longkou, otherwise, it would be safe to go by land, all the way under the rule of Qingzhou. ”

"Are Dantu also under the rule of Qingzhou?" Yi Yuan heard the signs in his words and asked. At that time, the county seat on the mouth of the Yangtze River was still Dantu County, Nantong and Shanghai, all of which were later formed by the accumulation of sediment.

The guards replied respectfully: "Dantu County is under the jurisdiction of General Sun Ce (Sun Ce), but the Dantu Wharf was also bought by several Qingzhou veterans, who jointly expanded the Dantu Wharf last year, and now, the wharf can accommodate both sea and river boats. ”

Yi said casually: "How could Sun Yuyu allow the Qingzhou veterans to buy the docks?" ”

"The county lieutenant turned out to be from Qingzhou, Sun begged to conquer Jiangdong, and needed to buy a large amount of ordnance from Qingzhou, someone was willing to pay, why did he refuse? Now, not only Dantu, but also the lord wants to go to Nanyang to trade with Daqin, and everyone in Qingzhou knows it. General Sun Qilu went all the way south, and many merchants in Qingzhou were buying coastal ports in joint ventures, and were ready to supply ships when they went south in the future. The guard's face was full of envy: "When I retire, I will also buy a dock with others, haha, at that time, I can sit there and count the money." ”

Yi asked curiously: "Qingzhou businessmen are rich in the world, buy wharves to build ports, if it is profitable, how can it be your turn to be veterans?" ”

The guards said proudly: "Building a wharf is inseparable from masonry, cement and steel, masonry and cement are easy to buy, steel, at that time, the governing commodities can only be bought by us veterans through the club, businessmen want to build wharves, there are no veterans among the partners, okay?" ”

Yi nodded, no longer asked, turned around, and looked at the scenery flying by on the shore, lost in thought.

On the tenth day of the first month of April, Liu Bei arrived at Xianghuan City, and Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and other generals had caught up with the large army.

Qingzhou's military system each corps does not have a permanent corps commander, peacetime corps work by the deputy corps commander is responsible, wartime by the military superintendent issued by the corps commander appointment, each corps commander with their own staff team, arrived in the army, a complete set of wartime command system was established.

Liu Bei rested in Xianghuan City for three days, and after the commanders of the various corps ran in with the troops, he led the army out of Xianghuan City.

"It's spectacular!" Liu Bei rode on a horse, and said with emotion in his heart, this is the most powerful display of strength in Qingzhou, six legions, Guan Yu led the Wind Legion as the vanguard, Zhang Fei led the Taishan Rock Legion as the left wing, Zhou Yu led the Gushan Legion of Bingzhou as the right wing, the Rainstorm Legion, the Lightning Legion and the Guards Legion, and the Auxiliary Legion as the Chinese army, Dian Wei, Gao Lan, Tian Chou, and Xu Shu surrounded Liu Bei, with more than 50,000 combat troops and more than 30,000 auxiliary troops, lined up in a huge phalanx with a width of three kilometers, and set off smoke and dust in the great plains of Bingzhou. Behind the army, more than 20,000 veterans with their own weapons and war horses cleaned the fields behind the army like locusts, and the smell of blood wafted in the air.

"Report, the former army encountered a small Xiongnu tribe, and after fighting, 43 people were killed, 125 people were captured, and a number of war horses and livestock were captured." A Ranger rushed back from the front to report.

Liu Bei waved his hand lightly: "The war horse and the woman will stay, and the rest will be killed, and the corpse will be left for the rear team to deal with." Tell Yun Chang that we are here to fight, and if we encounter resistance, we will kill them all. Whoever captures the war horse belongs to whom, and the rest is thrown to the rear team. This order was conveyed to both the left and right wings. ”

After that, Liu Bei's army swept like a wide broom, fiercely sweeping across the grasslands of Bingzhou, and there was not even a live chicken or duck to be found.

On 15 April, the red-eyed Qingzhou soldiers took a short rest in Jiexiu Xiaozhai, crossed the pontoon bridge in a fierce manner, and pounced on the west bank of the Fen River.