Liu He wanted to open up a special battlefield in the Central Plains, that is, near the north of Jingzhou.

The tripartite forces hold a battle here every three years.

The outcome of the battle will determine the division of all territories.

The goal of the battle is the one hundred and eight pieces of jade that Liu He brought, and whoever gets the jade will own the place engraved on it.

In each battle, each party can consider how much jade they have in their hands to participate in the war.

The more jade you take, the more troops you can put into it, and for each additional jade, you can add one more general and a hundred soldiers to the battle.

On the surface, the act of taking out more jade is very risky, because the more jade you put in, the greater the loss once you miss.

But there are pros and cons to everything, and the side that invests more jade can gain an advantage in numbers.

For example, if Cao Cao decided to take out thirty jades, he could have thirty generals and three thousand soldiers in battle.

And if the Sun and Liu families only took out ten jade stones each, even if the two joined forces, only twenty generals and two thousand soldiers would participate in the battle, and they would still be at a disadvantage.

Each battle is limited to three days, and after three days, the three sides will cease fighting at the same time, withdraw from the battlefield, and decide the ownership of the territory according to the jade in their hands.

Of course, the three parties can swap the jade in their hands at any time and at any time, and whoever owns the jade will own the territory, and the other party must not have any objections.

After listening carefully to what Liu He said, Cao Cao could finally be sure that he had not heard it wrong.

He thought for a moment and said in a deep voice: "According to your statement, one jade can only invest a hundred troops, and all the one hundred and eight jade stones added together are only ten thousand and eight hundred people. Thinking that I have hundreds of thousands of soldiers under my command, but can only send a few thousand people into battle, is there something wrong with my sir's idea? ”

Liu He smiled, as if he had expected Cao Cao to say this.

He stood up, walked to the railing, and looked at Xuchang City in the distance, "Gong Cao must think that this limit on the number of people is very unfair to you. Indeed, the strength of Cao Gong is far above our two families, and the strength of only one Yuzhou Tunzha is almost on par with our Shudi, and even the Praetorian Guards in Xuchang City have 100,000 people. ”

Cao Cao couldn't help nodding when he heard this, but he agreed with Liu He's insight, "Mr. Tianji is right, the reason why I, Cao, can resist the joint efforts of the two of you, is precisely because of this family background, and now you let me take the initiative to give up my advantages, just like letting me cut off my own arm, I'm afraid Cao will be difficult to obey." ”

"But how long can you last with this little bit of money?" Liu He said without looking back.

Cao Cao was stunned for a moment, silent.

Liu He's words can be described as hitting the nail on the head, breaking through Cao Cao's weakness that he was most reluctant to mention.

The family is big, and the cost is naturally big.

Cao Cao's hundreds of thousands of troops are indeed not false, but the consumption of food and salary for such a huge army is also amazing.

Cao Cao is in the north, and in terms of territory, even if the Sun and Liu families are added together, it is just a draw with him.

But although the territory is large, in terms of population, Cao Cao's north does not have as much advantage as imagined.

Originally, the population of the Han Dynasty was mostly concentrated in the northern region, but due to years of war, wars broke out frequently in the north, resulting in a very serious population decline.

In this situation, there was a problem that made Cao Cao extremely headache.

If you want to hold such a large territory, you need a large number of troops, and the more troops, the more food and fodder you need.

As the demand for food and forage increases, there is a need for a large number of farmers who specialize in farming.

And where do the farmers come from? Naturally, it came from the common people, but everyone died in the war, and now the remaining population of the north, even if all of them are engaged in farming, is only barely maintained.

If Cao Cao hadn't seen this drawback and vigorously promoted the Tuntian system, I am afraid that he would have been stretched thin and could not withstand such consumption, which is why the so-called captains under Cao Cao would have appeared in the so-called gold-touching captains, but they were just helpless measures taken to expand military supplies.

For Cao Cao, the supply of grain and grass in the north and the proportion of soldiers and peasants have entered a dead circle, if you want to jump out of it, there is only one way, that is, let the soldiers unload their armor and return to the fields, let the people recuperate, and wait until the population grows to a certain extent, this problem will naturally be solved.

It's just that these are easy to say, but difficult to do.

Liu He turned around and said with a smile: "It's rare for Cao Gong to be so refreshing, then I will have something to say." Our tripartite fight to the death is nothing more than to compete for the world, but I want to ask Cao Gong, what does this world refer to? ”

Cao Cao pointed to the jade stones on the ground, "If you follow what Mr. said, these are the world." ”

Liu He sat directly on the ground regardless of his identity, picked up a piece of jade, put it in the palm of his hand, and said as if talking to himself: "You can't eat, you can't drink, you can't bring it when you live, you don't bring it with you when you die, if this is the world, then what's the point of fighting?" ”

Cao Cao thought about it for a while, his face was straight, and he hugged his fists very politely, "Please also ask Mr. for advice." ”

Liu He was not humble, let alone said those useless polite words, he smiled, held up the jade in his hand and said: "The reason why I came with some stones is to advise Cao Gong, we may have been wrong before, we fought back and forth, but we forgot that the real world is not a territory, but a person!" ”

A trace of excitement suddenly flashed on Lu Su's face, as if he had expectations for Liu He's next views.

Cao Cao, on the other hand, always had a gloomy face, but he didn't say anything to refute it, looking at his appearance, he seemed to be willing to listen to Liu He's thoughts again.

Liu He sighed heavily, and said: "Years of war, the country's population has been eight out of ten, I came to investigate the household registration of Yizhou, from the Yellow Turban Rebellion to the present, the number of registered households in Yizhou has changed from 1.78 million households to 630,000 households today, I think the two of you should be very clear, compared to the two of you, Yizhou has been regarded as the smallest place in the war, and there are still only 30% of the population left. ”

"Everyone is dead, in this world, what is there to fight for......" Lu Su read softly thoughtfully.

Liu He nodded in agreement, "That's the reason, Gong Cao might as well imagine that if you are the only one left, even if you live in the palace in Xuchang City, will it still be boring?" ”

Cao Cao was taken aback when he heard this, and suddenly looked nervous, his eyes full of vigilance.