This year's Xiangyang is particularly sultry, even if the autumn harvest has passed, but there is still a sense of dryness and heat, but here is still good, the entire southern part of the Chinese land has many droughts, especially in Xishu and some parts of the south and central parts of the most severe zhòng, followed by the Jiaozhou area and the Huaihe region.

Soon after Wang Xu returned to Xiangyang from Jiaozhou in June, he received disaster reports from various places one after another, but fortunately, most local officials responded effectively and dealt with the disaster in a timely manner, so it did not cause too strict consequences, but even so, it greatly affected the autumn harvest in these areas.

Fortunately, the reserves of the treasury are still relatively sufficient, and under the strict supervision of Wang Xu and the rapid handling of Tian Feng, Fu Zhu and others, there was no large-scale famine, but it only made the people feel a little worse, but this is already excellent, compared to the scene when the famine was encountered in the early years, it is almost negligible.

What is really difficult to do is Jiaozhou, the treasury over there is already empty, and suddenly encountered such a drought, which is really unprepared, not to mention the people, even the army's food supply has been in crisis, even if Changsha, one of the five major grain areas, does its best to fund, it can't make up for the big gap.

Since the capture of Xishu that year, in order to facilitate management and storage, the entire Jingyi force has already been rectified, Xiangyang needless to say, as the capital of the city, it is the largest and most core storage place of the entire force, in addition to four places can be called large granaries, used to disperse the storage of grain.

One is Xichuan Chengdu, as the land of abundance, the grain production of the Chengdu Plain is extremely huge, and it is also the economic and political center of Yizhou. There is nothing wrong with being one of the big granaries.

One is Hanzhong. The geographical location of Hanzhong is extremely important. It is an important grain storage point.

One is Chang'an, the richness of the land of Sanfu, which is an important grain production area, and it is difficult to think of setting up grain storage points.

The last one is Changsha in Jingnan, as the place where the Jingyi power arose, Changsha has always hoarded a large number of grain and grass materials.

The annual tax collected by each county must be pooled together except for some of its own reserve quotas. However, it is unrealistic to gather all of them in Xiangyang, not to mention the limited storage capacity, and it is also very difficult to transport, and it is not conducive to solving the supply and demand of grain for the army and some other affairs nearby.

Of course, these granaries are not under the jurisdiction of local officials, and all of them are under the unified management of officials stationed in the DPRK and China, and these people are only responsible to the DPRK and China.

Therefore, Changsha's grain storage capacity is not abundant, but in the face of the grain shortage of half of Jiaozhou, it is also weak, after all, there is almost no grain storage in Jiaozhou. In the face of such a great drought, I was completely powerless. One can only count on assistance.

Liu Min and Wang Su, who were re-activated by Wang Xu, did their best, and after receiving the filing report submitted by Sinong Temple, they soon reported to Wang Xu, expecting Wang Xu to order the opening of the Xiangyang treasury, subsidize the shortfall, and stabilize the hearts of the people in Jiaozhou.

Unexpectedly, this was greatly opposed by Dasi Nong Kuailiang and Diannong General Wen Ping and others, the reason is also extremely simple, the number is too huge, if you fully support Jiaozhou, it will make the grain reserves strictly below the warning line, with the current situation, in their opinion, it is very undesirable.

"King Chu, it's not that the ministers are inconsiderate of the people, but now they are really powerless to do it, since the army went south to Jiaozhou, and Jiangdong and Jiaozhou Shijia after more than half a year of battle, Jiaozhou's grain stocks have been exhausted, and now there is such a large area of drought, there has lost the ability to save itself, if we fully assist, our food stocks will be in crisis, and even can not guarantee the army's sufficient supplies in the future!"

As a general, Wen Ping is responsible for the logistics and food supply of the entire army system, and his first consideration is the army.

"What does General Wen mean by this?" Wang Su's face did not change, and calmly retorted: "There are priorities, and now that the people are in danger, they should solve the current suffering first, and as for the future, they should think about countermeasures!" The army also comes from the people, and if the people are abandoned, who will be willing to fight to the death for the king in the future. ”

"The people of Jiaozhou are still bent on favoring the brothers of the Nashi family, why should we let our brothers go hungry and let others be fed and clothed?" Wen Ping glared angrily.

Liu Min then took over the words: "The people don't know the things of the world, they are just at the mercy, and now the lord conquers the world with benevolence and righteousness, if he doesn't care about the feelings of the people, won't it be difficult to move forward in the future?" Since General Guo Wen knows the situation in Jiaozhou, he should also know that if he does not have the support of the people, Wang Shang'an can completely level Jiaozhou? But if he does not save him, he will entrap the king in unrighteousness. ”

"Huh! This word is different! Kuai Liang shook his head and interrupted: "As I said just now, there are priorities, and it is unjust not to save the people of Jiaozhou, but is it righteous to give up your own people?" In the following opinion, it is the best policy to ensure your own needs first, and then consider helping others, so that Changsha can do its best to rescue Jiaozhou, which is already benevolent and righteous. ”

Wang Xu sat on the throne and listened to the dispute between the two sides, only to know that the current situation was not optimistic.

Earlier, in his impression, the grain in the treasury has always been too much to eat, but he didn't expect that now it has reached such a situation, not that there is not much grain in stock, but that the consumption is too large!

The hundreds of thousands of troops in Jingzhou, as well as the logistics personnel, officials and officials, the amount consumed to maintain this huge institution is simply astronomical, and he didn't understand why those ancient emperors often recuperated for more than ten years, and only raised troops once or twice, the reason is completely because the bigger and stronger it is, the greater the consumption, if you occupy a county, rest for a year, and you can fight again in the next year.

However, with the expansion of the region, the increase of population, and the complexity of management affairs, the amount of consumption is completely increasing in geometric multiples.

Today, Xiangyang's treasury supports the entire management system, as well as the daily use of several corps in Nanyang and Xiangyang, if a large amount of support is provided to Jiaozhou, it will inevitably make the treasury empty, and it is difficult to ensure sufficient quantity for turnover and use.

The Changsha grain depot has to support Xu Huang's Southern Army, as well as the military use of the county governments in Jingnan, and now it is trying its best to support Jiaozhou, and it is impossible to satisfy the huge group of people.

Wang Xu had a headache, rubbed his temples, couldn't help but interrupt the dispute of everyone in the court, and asked, "Can Chengdu, Hanzhong, and Chang'an transfer some grain?" ”

In charge of the treasury grain storage and other affairs is the Lieutenant Temple. Chen Deng served as the highest official of the Lieutenant Temple. One of the nine kings, Zhi Jinwu. Originally, he didn't plan to speak, and he didn't want to participate in everyone's disputes, because only he knew best, and there was no way to fight for a reason on this issue.

But now that he heard Wang Xu's inquiry, he had to stand up and bow down: "Back to the king, there are also many areas in Yizhou and Nanzhong that have suffered from severe drought, although the local counties have dealt with it decently. There are also certain reserves for emergency relief, but due to the severity of the disaster, it is impossible to fully bear it, the Chengdu treasury has opened a warehouse for disaster relief, and the strategy of fighting for the Qiang people in the west is being implemented, and the food consumption is large, so it is impossible to take care of the matter of Jiaozhou. ”

In addition, the grain in Hanzhong and Chang'an could not be moved, although the two places had abundant grain stocks, but they supported the daily consumption of half of the main army. In particular, the Northern Army and the Western Army led by Wei Yan and Huang Zhong have been in the past year. Go all out to help Han Sui fight Ma Teng's forces, and the consumption is very large, so although there is food to be adjusted over there, I am only afraid of ......"

Chen Deng didn't finish his words, but Wang Xu didn't understand anything, and immediately waved his hand: "Since this is the case, you can't move over there, whether it's the Xiliang War or the supply and demand of several legions in the north, you can't make the slightest difference, that's the gateway land, survival is fundamental!" ”

"When is this the way to go?" Zhang Jing sat in the court hall and was already impatient with listening, got up and replied: "Your Majesty, since it is so difficult now, and there is a reason to save Jiaozhou, then just go out and grab it, where there is more food, grab it!" The northern region has a bumper harvest this year, so it is better to fight with Cao Cao, anyway, his main force is now trapped in the north of the fierce battle, and we do not seek to go deeper, and we will withdraw after laying the granary of Chen Liu. ”

"Great idea!" Zhou Zhi's eyes lit up, lest the world be chaotic and said: "We fought to the death with Jiangdong in Jiaozhou, Cao Cao was in the middle of the calculation, that breath happened to be out of the ground, now it is better to unite Jiangdong to send troops together, anyway, his Huainan area in Jiangdong is also in a famine, take advantage of this to relieve the pressure." ”

"I can't do it! I can't help it! Kuai Liang was shocked when he heard this, and hurriedly dissuaded: "The food is no longer enough, if we raise troops on a large scale, if we win, it will be good, if we lose, won't it make matters worse?" The amount of food that a large army has to consume when it goes out on an expedition is not a small amount, far more than standing still. ”

"I'm also afraid, I'm afraid, then this matter can't be solved, and everyone doesn't have to argue about anything, what's the point of listening to nonsense all the time? Even if you sit here for ten days and half a month, it's in vain. Zhou Zhi retorted with an unhappy face.

Kuai Liang is not a stupid person, seeing that the generals present have already danced a little brows, quite moved, knowing that he can't explain it clearly with these militants, he no longer argues with Zhou Zhi at the moment, and hurriedly said his true thoughts: "Your Majesty, in fact, the ministers think that if they really refuse to give up Jiaozhou, there is only one way to work. ”

"Tell me about it!" Wang Xu nodded noncommittally.

"The minister thinks that if the king insists on giving relief to Jiaozhou, he can start from two aspects, one is to reduce the food subsidy for the people of Jiaozhou, reduce it by half, as long as they can survive, and then borrow grain from the unaffected people and wealthy households in various prefectures and counties, and promise to increase the amount of repayment in the future, so that they can cope with it safely." Kuai Liang said, his brows couldn't help frowning deeply, and he said helplessly: "The reason why the minister didn't build this method just now is because this move will overdraft the treasury and be detrimental to future development, if there is a large-scale all-out war in the next two years, there may be a crisis!" ”

"That's how it works!" Wang Xu almost didn't hesitate, and nodded on the spot.

It's not that he doesn't know the severity, but if he wants to give up the people of several counties in Jiaozhou, he can't do it, which violates his principles, although in this court, it is just a few seemingly inconspicuous words, but it can be implemented on the people of Jiaozhou, but the impact is far-reaching, if you really want to give up, you can imagine that there must be corpses all over there, and even the tragic scene of cannibalism is not strange, thinking that there may be innocent children, weak and young are killed, cooked and eaten alive, he can't give up that heart.

Moreover, in the long run, abandoning Jiaozhou will not only cause a great loss of prestige, but also lose the support of the people of Jiaozhou, which is disastrous for the long-term strategy, and it is conceivable that Cao Cao, Sun Jian and others will inevitably spare no effort to encourage the people, so that they will be hated by them and fall into the quagmire. (To be continued......)