Let's go back and talk about the Jiangdong Army.

Sun Ce listened to Zhou Yu's persuasion, and led the Jiangdong army to turn around and go south, however, it took almost half a month to reach Hefei, because the 100,000 Yuan troops who accompanied the army were surrendered, and there were more than 200,000 old and young women and children, which seriously slowed down the speed of the march, with so many women and children, they could only march less than ten miles a day.

In addition to the slow pace of the march, an even more serious problem arose.

Grain! The military rations that Zhou Yu transported from Chaisang were about to run out!

Sun Ce knew that Jiangdong lacked a population, let alone strong men, and knew that the benefits of bringing the population back to Jiangdong far outweighed the disadvantages, but he didn't know that it would be so difficult to bring 100,000 strong men back to Jiangdong with more than 200,000 old and young women and children!

Although Lu Fan's ration standard for Yuan Jun's soldiers was very low, and the old and young women and children could only receive a bowl of gruel every day, and they could only barely hang their lives, but even so, more than 300,000 mouths had to eat, and the daily consumption was also very large.

After being stationed in camp that day, Lu Fan found Sun Ce.

When Lu Fan entered the account, Sun Ce was discussing the matter of military rations with Zhou Yu.

After half a month of recuperation, Sun Ce's injury has improved greatly, although he is still unable to stay, let alone ride a horse, but he can at least sit up and eat.

Seeing Lu Fan coming in, Sun Ce smiled and said, "Ziheng is here for military rations?" ”

Lu Fan was surprised and said, "Could it be that the lord can not predict the prophet? ”

Sun Ce laughed and said: "A certain can't, but the public can do it." ”

Lu Fan saluted and said to Zhou Yu: "Since the public knows what he wants, he must have a countermeasure, right?" ”

Zhou Yu said with a smile: "Ziheng rest assured, the military rations delivered from Chaisang last time are only the first batch of military rations, and there will be 50,000 stone of military rations that will arrive in the future, if nothing else, it will arrive in a few days." ”

After speaking, Zhou Yu said to Sun Ce again: "But Bofu, this batch of grain is the last batch of stored grain, Hua Xin said, the treasury of the whole county of Yuzhang has been emptied, so how to use this batch of military food can be well planned, otherwise, no matter how much grain will be eaten, it will be troublesome." ”

Lu Fan also said: "My lord, this is what I want to talk about next. ”

"You have to plan it well." Sun Ce nodded and asked Lu Fandao, "Does Ziheng have a good plan?" ”

Lu Fan smiled bitterly: "I'm ashamed, I only know that I can't sit and eat empty, but I really don't have a good plan." ”

Sun Ce asked Zhou Yu again: "What about you, do you have a good plan?" ”

Zhou Yu shook his head and said: "Bo Fu, you don't know, a certain person likes to read military books since he was a child, but he is not a certain director of internal affairs. ”

Sun Ce was disappointed when he heard this, but Zhou Yu changed his tone and continued: "However, I know that there is a great sage, and his person has Jiang Shang's talent, especially good at governance, this person must have a good strategy." ”

Sun Ce asked anxiously: "Gongjin, who is this person?" Where are you? ”

Zhou Yu replied: "This person's surname is Zhang Mingzhao, the word Zibu, and the name of Pengcheng, Xuzhou." ”

"Pengcheng people?" Sun Ce's gaze immediately dimmed, and he said, "It's hard to quench your thirst in the far water, what can I do?" ”

Zhou Yu smiled and said: "Don't worry about Bo Fu, in the early years of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Zhang Zhao moved his family to Yangzhou to avoid trouble, and temporarily accommodated himself in Hefei City, if nothing else, this person should still be in Hefei." ”

"Good, you should look for it!" Sun Ce slapped the bed and was about to get up, but unexpectedly pulled the wound, and under the severe pain, he suddenly snorted and fell back to the soft couch.

"Bo Fu is in a hurry." Zhou Yu hurriedly persuaded Sun Ce and said, "If Zhang Zhao is still in Hefei City, if he takes a trip, he will definitely invite this person out of the mountain for Bo Fu." ”

Sun Ce hurriedly said: "In this way, so-and-so will wait for the good news of the public." ”

"I'll go back when I go." Zhou Yu gave Sun Ce and Lu Fan a long look, got up and left.

Zhou Yu went for a day, Sun Ce stayed in the big tent and really lived like a year, in retrospect, he met the girl in Anhui County by chance, and then went to visit but couldn't, and he didn't seem to be so eager.

It wasn't until dusk that Zhou Yu finally came back, and sure enough, he brought back one person.

This man is about 40 years old, with a long beard under his chin, and a tall figure.

Without waiting for Zhou Yu's introduction, Sun Ce struggled to sit up from the sickbed and bowed his hand: "If you are not mistaken, this gentleman must be the current Mr. Jiang Shang, Zhang Zhao, and Mr. Zhang Zibu, right?" ”

"I'm ashamed." Zhang Zhaochang shook the ground and said, "I don't dare to be a general so ridiculous." ”

As soon as he heard that the person who came was really Zhang Zhao, Sun Ce was very happy, and said to Zhou Yu in a loud voice: "Gongjin, please take a seat with Mr. Zibu." ”

After speaking, he raised his head and beckoned Jia Hua: "Jia Hua, hurry up and cook tea for Mr. Zibu, I want the old tea of Jishan!" Mr. Zibu is going to try a certain collection of old tea from Huiji Mountain. ”

The latter sentence was said to Zhang Zhao.

After some politeness, I finally got to the point.

"The general takes the people of the world as his heart, and he does not hesitate to starve his soldiers, but also takes out the only military food to feed the hungry people in Huainan, which is really admired by the subordinates, and compared with Yuan Shu and others, it is even more superior!" Before the official opening, Zhang Zhaoxian really praised Sun Ce, which is also the proper meaning of the question.

Sun Ce naturally had to be modest: "Mr. has an overreputation, and he is not willing to be ashamed." ”

"The general deserves it." Zhang Zhao smiled slightly, and said, "However, please forgive me for saying bluntly, it is not a good strategy for the general to take the soldiers and the old and young women and children like this, from Hefei to Liyang for 300 miles, with the speed of the old and young women and children, it will take at least more than a month, and it will take at least another month to cross the river from Liyang. ”

Sun Ce's face turned pale when he heard this, and only then did he realize that the problem was even more serious than he expected.

Zhang Zhao didn't finish speaking, and continued: "Now it has entered the beginning of May, and May and June are the hurricane-prone seasons, once they encounter hurricanes, it will be particularly delayed, and they still need to be resettled after crossing the river, and the resettlement of more than 300,000 soldiers and civilians is not a trivial matter, even if everything goes smoothly, it will take several months, and if everything does not go well, it may not be able to settle down in a few years." ”

Sun Ce's face became more and more embarrassed, but he knew that what Zhang Zhao said was true.

Resettlement inevitably involves land disputes, and Danyang and Wu counties have fertile land, but there are few ownerless lands.

Yuzhang and Huiji have a large number of ownerless lands, but they are located in remote areas, and it is difficult to resettle, regardless of anything else, it is very difficult to arrange just seeds, farm tools and ploughing cattle for immigrants, and most of the remote places are barren, and within five years, the government treasury will not only have no grain input, but I am afraid that they will have to take out food to help the immigrants, otherwise the immigrants will starve to death in large numbers.

Sun Ce made Zhang Zhao a little discouraged, why don't you throw away the old and young women and children, and only take the strong man back?

But Sun Ce is just thinking about this, not to mention that if he really does something, the people will be lost, Sun Ce really wants to decide to leave the old and young women and children, those Yuan Jun Zhuang are afraid that they will run out overnight, because most of the more than 200,000 old and young women and children are the wives and children of these 100,000 Yuan Jun Zhuang men.

After a short breath, Zhang Zhao continued: "I would like to ask the general, how can the general support these old and young women and children during this short resettlement period of half a year or several years?" Although Jiangdong Prefecture has a lot of grain in stock, I'm afraid it can't withstand such years of consumption, right? ”

Hearing Zhang Zhao say this, Sun Ce breathed a sigh of relief, because he knew that the reason why Zhang Zhao said this must have been confident and had a way to deal with it.

At that moment, Sun Ce arched his hand on the sickbed and said, "Please give me advice." ”

Zhang Zhao returned the salute and said: "General, everything has advantages and disadvantages, on the contrary, there are disadvantages and there are advantages, if it is not handled properly, 100,000 strong men and more than 200,000 old and young women and children will become a great burden, but if it is handled properly, not only will it not become a burden to Jiangdong, but it can bring great benefits to the general." ”

Sun Ce and Zhou Yu glanced at each other, and said sincerely: "Please also tell Mr. Share." ”

Zhang Zhao also said: "I secretly think that it is very inappropriate to distribute the rations to the prisoners of war and the old and young women and children of the Yuan army according to the law of the army, and it should be replaced by work instead of food. ”

Zhou Yu and Lu Fan's eyes suddenly lit up when they heard this.

The so-called substitution of food by work means that from now on, whether it is the prisoners of war of the Yuan army, or the old and young women and children who accompany the army, they will no longer be given rations, and if they don't want to go hungry, they must go to work! In this way, Sun Ce could get 100,000 laborers in the blink of an eye, which is not only more than 200,000 old, young, women and children, but also a huge labor.

Sun Ce was a little confused, and asked, "What kind of work do they have to work instead of food?" ”

Zhang Zhao was obviously prepared, and immediately took out a silk book map from his big sleeve, and with the help of Zhou Yu, spread it out in front of Sun Ce's sickbed, Sun Ce motioned Jia Hua to come and help him up, and then poked his head to take a look, only to see that this silk book map was Huainan County and Lujiang County.

Zhang Zhao drew a circle around Chaohu Lake below Hefei and said: "General, please see, the land along Chaohu Lake is fertile, irrigation is convenient, since the Chu State is the land of fish and rice, but since Yuan Shu Mu Yangzhou, all kinds of perverse practices, and so on, so that the people's livelihood is withered, and today, the residents along the Chaohu Lake have fled completely, and the land has been abandoned for many years. ”

"Wonderful!" Sun Ce patted the edge of the couch and shouted, "If you use 100,000 strong men plus more than 200,000 old and young women and children as laborers to recultivate the barren land along the Chaohu Lake, then 10,000 hectares of fertile land will be at your fingertips!" ”

Zhang Zhao smiled and said: "In addition to recultivating wasteland, you can also enclose the lake to create fields, how can the two add up to ten thousand hectares?" And the acres of the obtained fields are all high-yield paddy fields, and the output of the next year can be conservatively estimated, and the yield per mu can also be two stones! At this point, the general can get 10,000 hectares of fertile land, plus at least 2 million stone grain per year, and then use troops in Jiangbei, and there is no need to worry about the shortage of military food. ”

Sun Ce was excited by the vision outlined by Zhang Zhao, and he couldn't wait to do it now.

Lu Fan keenly discovered the problem and asked Zhang Zhao: "After the barren land is restored, after the new field is built, it will not grow rice by itself, dare to ask Mr., where do the seeds, ploughing cattle and farming tools needed for farming come from?" Also, it is already May, and after the new fields are built, it will be at least ** month, and it will be too late to sow autumn grain anyway, so from now until next year's spring grain is beaten, how can the rations of 100,000 strong men plus more than 200,000 old and young women and children be supplied? ”