"Shall we give it or not?" Zhang Lu asked Yan Pudao.

Yan Pu asked Zhang Ludao: "Just take out 500,000 taels of silver from our meagre land, does the lord think this matter is really so easy?" ”

"I'm embarrassed too! Such a heavy tax on my head is tantamount to a mountain, and I have never collected such a heavy tax on my subjects in so many years! Zhang Lu stood up as he spoke, pacing up the steps without stopping, with a sad face on his face.

Yan Pu then analyzed: "Guan Yun's long soldiers are strong and strong, and the soldiers are wide and we can't afford to be guilty, since the ancient way, the weak and the strong eat the heroes, and now Guan Yu is strong, this is an ambitious guy, he will not be as enterprising as Dong Zhuo, he is ambitious in the Quartet, but everyone looks at the world, now there are still many princes in the Quartet, and I don't think it will soon arouse his interest in a small place like ours!" ”

When Zhang Lu heard this, he asked Yan Pu: "If we refuse to pay this money, will Guan Yu use this as an excuse to raise troops to attack?" How can we be his opponents, and the former princes of the Eighteen Roads have nothing to do with this kid, let alone us? ”

"The lord doesn't have to worry about this matter, don't worry, if Guan Yunchang wants to raise troops to attack, there is no benefit at all, just imagine how much benefit he will get even if he wins this projectile land? What's more, the terrain of our place is so dangerous, it is not suitable for a large army to fight at all, and he Guan Yunchang's advantages cannot be brought into play, so it is impossible for him to use force against us easily, at least not so quickly! Yan Pu analyzed Zhang Lu.

Zhang Lu's tightly knit brows slightly widened after hearing this, and then he said to Yan Pu: "I heard that Guan Yu is busy with some reforms under his rule now, but why did he come to such a hand, is it because the reform is in urgent need of money?" What kind of medicine is he selling in this gourd? ”

When Zhang Lu said this, Yan Pu was first taken aback, then weighed it and said: "If I guessed correctly, the reform does require money, which is true, but I am afraid it is not so simple to reach out to the princes, it seems that he wants to get a foreign wealth to pave the way for the reform!" As a prince, if you give it, it will be considered as a sponsorship for him. If you don't give it to me, Guan Yu, this kid will remember that he will use this to raise troops and crusade in the future, and he will have the name of a teacher! ”

Zhang Lu was stunned when he heard this: "In this way, if we don't give him Guan Yu, won't we have to make a note for us?" ”

Yan Pu then persuaded: "Don't worry, the lord has a lot of princes to clean up, in fact, there are many princes that Guan Yu has to clean up, we are not worth him to raise troops immediately, what the lord has to do is to strengthen the deployment and strength of troops at the critical passes, and do a good job of defense to prevent Guan Yu from sneaking attack!" ”

Zhang Lu nodded after hearing this, and decided to take Yan Pu's words

But he said that the text was sent to Liu Zhang in Yizhou, and Liu Zhang was drinking in the palace in Chengdu for fun, and he was really surprised to hear the news, this Liu Zhang, the word Jiyu. Jiangxia Jingling people. One of the warlords in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. Stepfather Liu Yan served as the pastor of Yizhou, Liu Zhang was cowardly and suspicious, Liu Zhang was Liu Yan's youngest son, and his mother Fei was the aunt of Fei Guan, who later married Liu Zhang's daughter.

In 188 A.D. (the fifth year of Zhongping), Liu Yan proposed to Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty to set up a state pastor to manage the military and political power of various places, and he served as the Yizhou pastor, while Liu Zhang and his brother Liu Fan and Liu Dan all stayed in the capital, and only Liu Mao followed Liu Yan into Shu. Liu Zhang later served as the lieutenant of Fengche. After receiving an edict from the imperial court to Liu Yan, Liu Yan left him behind and did not return to the court.

In 194 A.D. (the first year of Xingping), Liu Fan conspired with Ma Teng to attack the powerful minister Li Dao in Chang'an, and was killed along with Liu Dan after the leak, while Liu Zhang was spared. Liu Yan's world friend Lang Pang Xi protected several of Liu Yan's grandsons and sent them to Yizhou. Liu Yan had to move to Chengdu because of the pain of his death and the fire in Mianzhu City. Died of a back-to-back gangrene.

After Liu Yan's death, Yizhou officials Zhao Wei and others hoped to use Liu Zhang's Wenren. So he was recommended to succeed to the Yizhou Assassin History, and was edicted by the imperial court to be the pastor of Yizhou, and at the same time appointed Zhao Wei as the general of Zhengshu Zhonglang. The generals Shen Mi, Lou Fa, and Gan Ning rose up against Liu Zhang, and after being defeated by Zhao Wei, they went to Jingzhou.

Before that, Jingzhou Mu Liu Biao wrote a letter to accuse Liu Yan of transgressing his identity, and compared with the Son of Heaven in terms of car utensils and clothes, so Zhao Wei stationed troops in the cheeks to guard against Liu Biao. At that time, tens of thousands of people from Nanyang and Sanfu were exiled to Yizhou. Liu Yan took all of them into his subordinates and called them "Dongzhou soldiers". Liu Zhang has a weak and tolerant temperament and lacks prestige and strategy. The invasion of Shuzhou was tyrannical and became a disaster for the people, and Liu Zhang had no ability to stop it. The old scholars complained and rebelled. Zhao Wei was very popular with the people and soldiers in Bazhong, and Liu Zhang handed over the power to him. Zhao Wei saw that the people were not in harmony, so he secretly colluded with the noble families in the state.

Later, Zhao Wei rebelled, and Shu responded in many places, but fortunately, Liu Yan had previously contained the "Dongzhou soldiers" established by Jingzhou and Sanfu refugees to fight to the death, so that the rebellion was quelled and Zhao Wei was killed in Jiangzhou.

Liu Zhang was cowardly, Zhang Lu of Hanzhong, who was originally attached to Liu Yan, was arrogant and did not listen to Liu Zhang's orders, so Liu Zhang killed Zhang Lu's mother and brother, and the two sides became enemies, Liu Zhang sent Pang Xi to attack Zhang Lu, but was broken by Zhang Lu many times.

The population of Yizhou is 5.42 million, of which 1.08 million are in Ba County (Jiangzhou, Langzhong, and Fuling all belong to this county); Guanghan (Mianzhu, Zitong, and Jiameng all belong to the county) 500,000, Shu County (Chengdu) 350,000, Qianwei 610,000, and Qiqi 260,000; Yueshan 620,000 Yizhou County: 110,000, 1.89 million in Yongchang, Dianchi Lake, can be said to be a fertile field for thousands of miles, Wuhua Tianbao has a large population, known as the country of abundance, a vast area and a large population, which could have made a big difference, but as the master of Yizhou, Liu Zhang is weak by nature, and lacks management skills, not only does not have a good development idea, but also lacks management of his subordinate civil and military generals, resulting in the government team of Yizhou is very chaotic, the government's management efficiency is very low, and the people under the rule have many complaints about it

At the moment, Liu Zhang received the imperial court's levy document, in view of Liu Zhang's Han family relatives, Liu Bei's words in the document were more tactful, Liu Zhang learned that it was the imperial court's collection of the document and did not dare to slack off, he was originally a Han family member, for this document he looked at and looked, and lamented in his heart: 800,000 taels of silver, the court is difficult to read that I am a member of the Han family and hope that I can lend 800,000 taels of silver, but now how can the treasury get so many silver taels?

Liu Zhang thought about it again and again and decided to be called to carry it out, and he delegated the task of 800,000 taels of silver to each county, and each county had an average of 100,000 taels, and soon this decree was sent to each county. After all, under Liu Zhang's rule, there are many people and he can cope with the task of 800,000 yuan, so he immediately decided to implement this document of the imperial court.

However, it was said that Liu Bei and his entourage issued a document in Yongzhou, and then conducted an actual survey of the project under their rule, and the first cadre and others quickly made the design of the project, and then the group finished explaining the affairs of Yongzhou, and then went to Hanoi.

In addition, the taxation work of Ma Teng in Luoyang has completed the registration and confirmation of large households in Luoyang, and the non-stop planning has carried out the substantive collection work. These landlords and old wealth thoroughly comprehended Ma Teng's power, but also know the energy of Ma Teng's background, Ma Teng hit a nail in the matter of expropriation last time, this time he also learned smart, in order to avoid the recurrence of the last situation and in order to avoid their own passivity, in view of the arduousness of this operation, compared with the complexity of the last time, Ma Teng personally led 5,000 troops to Luoyang Lingfu this time, and under the escort of Wen Ping and Ma Chao, he led the army to Luoyang Lingfu.

The mobilization of these 5,000 fresh troops was also personally approved by Guan Yu. Now the imperial court has new regulations on the transfer of troops, stipulating that all troop transfers of more than 5,000 people must be approved by Guan Yu himself, without Guan Yu's approval, no one is allowed to transfer without Guan Yu's approval, even if it is the military commander in charge, in order to avoid unexpected mutinies, but also to avoid accidents, Guan Yu will firmly control the military power in his own hands, in addition to Guan Yu also has control over the promotion of military personnel, stipulating that the appointment of generals above the fourth rank in the army is nominated by the supervisor, and the final approval is determined by Guan Yu. In this way, Guan Yu can personally determine the generals to be promoted. Moreover, it is determined that this general is absolutely loyal to himself, so that the politics of the generals used are all qualified. In this way, Guan Yu completely realized his control over the army

Ma Teng's proposal was personally approved by Guan Yu, which also gave Ma Teng's work full of anger, Ma Teng was full of pride and confidence in this work, he immediately drove into Luoyang Lingfu with five thousand elite soldiers, Ma Teng's army drove into Luoyang Lingfu, accompanied by Henan Yin Liang Xi, Henan Taiwei Han Hao, began to collect taxes one by one according to the names of the big households on the roster, Luoyang Ling Chen Xin was assigned by Ma Teng to knock on the door of the big households to report to the big households. Chen Xin was helpless but forced to knock on the door of Ma Teng's prestige, and the big households learned that Ma Teng was serious this time, and many people chose to close the door and close the door to refuse Ma Teng's arrival to ask for taxes, Ma Teng saw this and then commanded the army to knock the gate open, and the army commander drove straight into it and immediately controlled the whole situation. The landlords and old fortunes were frightened, and finally had to pay the money truthfully according to the amount on the roster.

Ma Teng changed his previous style and began to implement domineering forced expropriation, the landlords and old wealth saw that the situation reversed and knew that it was futile to resist again, so they had no choice but to pay the taxes that should be paid, and later these landlords and old wealth simply stopped doing useless resistance but obediently offered the taxes to avoid unnecessary losses, these people deeply felt Ma Teng's domineering, and knew that this lord could not afford to offend so he had to obediently obey!

It was Luoyang that made Chen Xin really feel the pressure, and now he is the most nervous, even more nervous than those landlords and old money! But seeing that he was sweating on his forehead in the process of tax collection, he was even more honestly afraid, and when the tax collection work was over, Chen Xin was really relieved, Ma Teng quickly completed the tax collection task according to the previous roster, 3 million taels of silver was collected, and the entire tax collection work completed most of the goal, and at this time it was only in April, less than half a year, Ma Teng's tax collection work started well.

Ma Teng completed the work with 3 million silver returned to Luoyang, and then reported to Guan Yu, Guan Yu was really happy to hear Ma Teng's work report, fully affirmed Ma Teng's tax collection work, was very satisfied with Ma Teng's work progress, and immediately gave a commendation, Kua Ma Teng did a great job in this matter, promoted the work effectively, and also appreciated the members of the tax collection team, and also rewarded Ma Teng with some items, and the 3 million silver collected was all enriched into the treasury. Guan Yu expressed satisfaction with Ma Teng's work, after all, the task of 3 million silver was completed quickly, as the saying goes, "wealth is the mother of the government" can not carry out any work without money, with this heart has the bottom, it can be said that Ma Teng's work has paved the way for the entire reform, in view of this, Guan Yu decided to promote Ma Teng to be a product, in order to encourage

Ma Tengrong was promoted to Zhengyipin, and suddenly became a member of the imperial court, which was also his dream. Ma Teng finally entered the ranks with his own ability this time, the most important thing is that Ma Teng stood in line on the position of right and wrong this time, vigorously promoted the collection of taxes, and achieved practical results, and won the first credit for the reform, which even Guan Yu recognized very much, and Guan Yu recognized Ma Teng's work ability very much. Of course, Guan Yu also tested Ma Teng from this matter, and through this matter, Ma Teng also won Guan Yu's trust, which is the most rare.

Ma Teng's tax collection came to an end, Liu Bei's visit and research also ended successfully and returned to Luoyang, Liu Bei and others returned to Luoyang to be warmly received by Guan Yu, this day the gong sounded the road and the drums sounded in unison, and then saw Guan Yu wearing a square hat and robe, embroidered eight treasures neatly draped neatly in Luoyang City to welcome Liu Bei and others to return, Liu Bei and others were like a victorious triumphant division was greeted by Guan Yu to the Prime Minister's Mansion. Along the way, Guan Yu held Liu Bei's hand and chatted while walking, and walked straight to the prime minister's mansion.

Guan Yu, the prime minister's mansion in Luoyang, personally presided over the ascension to listen to Liu Bei and Zhu Jun's work report on the westward trip, and this westward trip Liu Bei successfully completed the release of the tax documents of Zhang Lu, Liu Zhang, Han Sui, and Liu Biao, and successfully completed the investigation and preliminary design of the four city defenses of Liangzhou, Fufeng, Chang'an, and Hanoi, completed the planning and design of the Guanzhong water conservancy project, and listened to the local government work report on economic and social development in accordance with Guan Yu's arrangement, and successfully fed back the results to Guan Yu. Guan Yu felt excited as he listened. Liu Bei's trip was fully affirmed, and everything was carried out according to his established plan. This was another exciting news after Ma Teng, and then Liu Bei reviewed the situation report that Liu Bei fed back to him.

On this day, Guan Yu arranged a reception banquet for Liu Bei, and then couldn't wait to review the situation report, the more he looked, the more excited he felt, the more he looked, the more he felt encouraged, and Guan Yu was deeply satisfied with the situation in Liangzhou and Yongzhou. He was sincerely happy with the achievements made by Zhang Ji and Chen Gong, and the two of them lived up to his trust, worked hard to restore production, improve the economy, and vigorously promoted the development of various undertakings in accordance with the established policy given by Guan Yu to them. Guan Yu looked at these situation reports until late at night, and still felt that it was not enjoyable. The soldiers are desperate and strategists work hard, it seems that reform is hopeful!

Guan Yu is full of confidence in the future reform, if his reform works this year, maybe only one year, if everything is achieved in accordance with the goals proposed by the reform, then it is not modest to say that Guan Yu's strength will be greatly improved after a year, and he will undoubtedly become the best among the princes of the world, once this goal is achieved, Guan Yu can then sweep the Quartet with his army to dominate the world, in order to come early Guan Yu will go further to continue to promote the grand cause of reform, Although some achievements have been made now, it is still the first step in the Long March, and this realization makes Guan Yu look at the achievements made more calmly.

At this time, the reform work has entered April, and other work of the reform has been carried out one after another, especially agricultural production and water conservancy projects and urban defense restoration, etc., when the reform work is in full swing, Guan Yu walked out of the Prime Minister's Mansion and began to personally inspect and supervise the development of various tasks

In April, Luoyang spring flowers bloomed, willows breeze, a thriving scene, this day Guan Yu in the main Bo Yang Xiu, Lang Zhang Fan, secretary Cai Wenji, personal bodyguard Lian'er accompanied by Luoyang's equipment production work was investigated, Guan Yu first listened to the Taichang Qing Guan Yu agricultural equipment production and military equipment production work report, after listening to the report, Guan Yu personally came to Luoyang's factory to inspect the production situation.

Guan Yu in the seed Gao, Wen Ping, Ren Jun, Zhao Yan, Wang Lian and other people accompanied by the production of agricultural equipment to the factory in Luoyang to investigate, Guan Yu in the crowd of the only agricultural equipment production factory in Luoyang, now the spring ploughing has been carried out one after another, so the demand for agricultural equipment is imminent, in accordance with the agricultural reform in the agricultural actively develop advanced agricultural tools, the production and manufacture of farming hoes, knocks, pickaxes, harrows, plows, sickles, axes, hammers and ju, scissors and other tools, vigorously promote the plough, Compared with the previous plough, the curved plow has several major improvements. First of all, the straight and long wheels are changed to curved wheels and short wheels, and the plow disc that can rotate freely is installed at the head of the wheel, so that not only the plow frame becomes lighter. Moreover, it is easy to turn around and turn, and the operation is flexible, saving manpower and animal power. Vigorously popularize the cocoon car, which is a kind of animal power seed machine. The total investment of these two projects is 60,000 taels of silver. The imperial court decided to produce 1 million of the above-mentioned production tools and 3,000 cylinder cars, with a total investment of 150,000 taels of silver. The investment in the entire agricultural production tools reached 210,000 taels, and Guan Yu attached great importance to the production of agricultural production tools, especially the production of spring ploughing equipment. (To be continued......)