Liu Bei's series of rewards are actually purposeful.

Wang Yan and Lu Kai, during the Nanzhong Rebellion, adhered to loyalty, blocked the rebels, and were able to hold on to the state and county when the three counties were all opposed, and repelled the attacks of the rebels.

Of course, there are other factors to consider.

Wang Yan and Lu Kai are actually from a big family in Yongchang County, and Liu Bei also took a fancy to this and hoped to maintain the stability of Yongchang County by reusing the two.

After all, Yongchang County is too remote, and if you don't do this, it is difficult to ensure that Yongchang County belongs to Liu Bei's group.

On the one hand, Ma Zhong's promotion to the Taishou of Qiqi County was to praise Ma Zhong's meritorious service in quelling the rebellion in Qiqi County, and he showed good ability to unify the army and govern the local area in the counterinsurgency. On the other hand, it was also because Ma Zhong was recommended by Zhang Xi that Liu Bei gave Zhang Xi this face.

In the same way, Li Hui made military exploits second only to Zhang Xi in the southward counterinsurgency, and he was a native of Jianning, plus he took refuge in Liu Bei in the early days, and at the same time, he also had the credit of demoting Ma Chao in his early years, which was half of his own person, so Liu Bei not only gave Jianning the position of Taishou, but also worshiped Li Hui as the general of Anhan.

As for Meng Huo, Liu Bei didn't plan to give Meng Huo any reward, after all, Meng Huo was a party to the rebellion, although it was anyway later, but it was already an extrajudicial favor to give him and his family the right to participate in the distribution of copper mines, so what reward do you still use? !

But later, because Zhang Xi placed more than 100,000 Yi people in the southwest of the original Jianning County, for the sake of stability, Zhuge Liang suggested that Liu Bei split Jianning County and establish a new Xinggu County to settle and manage these Yi people. And in order to appease these Yi people, Meng Shu, who has a high reputation among the Yi people, became the most suitable Taishou of Xinggu County.

Based on such considerations, Liu Bei had to accept Zhuge Liang's suggestion and appoint Meng Shu as the Taishou of Xinggu County.

And Ma Tanma is still Zhuge Liang's suggestion, because a large amount of iron ore was found near Lushui in Yueshan County, which was the Panzhihua iron ore area in later generations.

Coupled with a large number of gold and silver mines in the upper and lower reaches of Lushui, who can rest assured if there is no one watching them? !

And Ma Jian made suggestions with Zhang Xi this time, and Zhang Xi wrote to Liu Bei, and also affirmed Ma Tan's ability to govern, plus Ma Tan is Ma Liang's younger brother and is from a Jingzhou family.

As for Zhang Xi, Liu Bei still trusted Zhang Xi very much, not only quickly quelled the rebellion in Nanzhong, but also brought enough benefits to Liu Bei's group, so Zhang Xi was appointed as the governor of the capital with the rank of general of Xinghan, and the prime minister of Nanzhong Military Administration, Liu Bei couldn't be more relieved.

This is Liu Bei's arrangement for Nanzhong, after a reward, the stability of Nanzhong was temporarily guaranteed, and Zhuge Liang was also sent to Nanzhong to preside over the distribution of minerals.

However, when Zhuge Liang arrived in Nanzhong, when Zhang Xi discussed with Zhuge Liang, he did not talk about these minerals for the first time, but took out the definition of Nanzhong in his heart and discussed it with Zhuge Liang.

Zhang Xi plans to build Nanzhong into a mineral and raw material supply base for Liu Bei Group.

Needless to say, in such a large area as Nanzhong, valuable minerals are basically distributed in recent years, but it is only a matter of how many reserves and the difficulty of mining.

This place must be developed with a lot of manpower and material resources.

In addition, Zhang Xi felt that the development of Nanzhong was not enough, the cultivable area was not high, and the terrain was complex, most of which were hilly and mountainous, and if he took the path of traditional farming and small-scale farmer garden planting, he would not even be able to achieve the possibility of self-sufficiency.

After all, with the development of the mine, there will definitely be a relatively large increase in the population of Nanzhong, and Zhang Xi plans to implement a series of measures in the next step to induce the Yi people who are still hiding in the mountains to go out of the mountains.

With the current cultivated land area in Nanzhong, it is really a very difficult thing to feed such a large population, and it is necessary to transfer grain relief from Shuzhong to make it possible for the people of Nanzhong to live.

It can be allowed to subsidize Nanzhong for a long time, not to mention that Liu Bei Group has to consider the issue of grain allocation, even the families in Shuzhong will not accept it, and after a long time, the contradiction between Nanzhong and Shuzhong will slowly increase.

Therefore, Zhang Xi felt that only by letting the Shuzhong families willingly support Nanzhong could this kind of thing last for a long time.

Copper mine is a good thing, in order to mine copper ore, the Shuzhong family will be willing to take the initiative to invest in manpower in a short period of time to support the construction of Nanzhong.

But a copper mine is not enough, there will always be a time when this thing is mined, or when the income from the copper mine is not enough to satisfy the Shuzhong family, the Shuzhong family will never support Nanzhong with money and grain.

Therefore, Zhang Xi felt that on the one hand, he had to find a long-term economic aid for Nanzhong, and on the other hand, he could not limit his attention to the Shuzhong family.

For a long period of economic resources, Zhang Xi originally took a fancy to rape flowers, after all, there was a shortage of oil everywhere in these years.

But Zhuge Liang's arrival made Zhang Xi realize that rape flowers are not only planted in Nanzhong, but can also be planted in other places, although this thing is a good cash crop, it is not unique to Nanzhong.

Therefore, Zhang Xi can only focus on planting sugarcane and obtaining sucrose.

Sucrose has been there since then, and it used to be called stone honey, but later there was also a thing called sand syrup, which is similar to granular sugar. Zhang Ji once used sand syrup into medicine and boiled it into pills.

Shi Xie also once paid tribute to Sun Quan "sugar cane dumplings", which is a clear sucrose product.

However, this stuff is really scarce, and it is only produced in a small part of Nanchu and Cochin, so most of the time, it is something that only the nobility can enjoy.

But the reason why this thing is scarce is really because no one deliberately grows this thing, after all, sugar, although it is very good, is not food, nor salt, can be eaten or not.

But the fact that sugar can become a major economic commodity in future generations shows its potential value.

Who doesn't love sweet sugar?!

Before, it wasn't needed, it wasn't accessible. How many of the nobles you have come into contact with don't like sugar?!

Therefore, Zhang Xi believes that as long as sugarcane is planted on a large scale in Nanzhong to obtain sucrose, there is no need to worry about the sales of sucrose.

In today's era, although because of the lack of sweetness of sugarcane and the backward sugar production process, sucrose is destined to be impossible to completely take the civilian route, and can only be popularized in Chengdu and other big cities at most, and ordinary civilians in some remote areas are still unable to afford the expensive condiment of sucrose.

But because of this, once the sugar takes the high-end route, it is not the volume to win, once the price of sugar goes up, only a Yizhou market is enough for these Yizhou families to invest a lot of manpower and material resources to do this.

Not to mention that Liu Bei still has Jingzhou in his hands, and the wealthy families in Jingzhou can't grow sugarcane in Jingzhou, right?!

Not to mention that the Han Dynasty has a vast territory, and now it is only because of the war that the three families are separated, once they can be reunified, then this market is big, and the Yizhou family can lie at home and count the money to play.

Even in the current situation, not to mention Sun Quan in the east, Cao Cao in the north, and the wealthy families in Yizhou have a way to sell sugar, but they need to trust people in the middle, and they don't make enough money.

The interests in this are big enough, it is impossible for the Yizhou families not to see it, and it is even possible that in order to obtain greater benefits, they do not need Zhuge Liang's painstaking persuasion, and the Yizhou families all wish that Liu Bei would hurry up the Northern Expedition, kill Sun Quan, and get Cao Wei, so that their cane sugar can be sold to the north, and even to the countries of the Western Regions.

Even if you get it right, you don't have to worry that the Yizhou family will continue to be a surrender faction.

After all, sugarcane, although the requirements for land are not high, but the requirements for sunshine and temperature are quite high, and only part of Nanzhong and Jiaozhou can be planted.

The Yizhou families will never allow the families from other places to enter Yizhou to rob their vested interests.

At that time, even if someone smuggles into Yinping, maybe Qian Zhou will be the first to stand up and encourage Liu Chan, and quickly move south to Nanzhong to guard the land and protect the country.

Of course, Zhang Xi just thought about the last sentence in his mind and didn't tell Zhuge Liang, but Zhang Xi said everything about the previous things.

Regarding Zhang Xi's idea, Zhuge Liang can only say that he thinks too well, but Zhuge Liang also knows that the virtues of the families in this era are not much better in nature.

Although Eli's expulsion is not in line with the basic values of this era, it is unexpectedly useful in this era of war.

Therefore, in fact, Zhuge Liang did not object to Zhang Xi's sugarcane plantation in Nanzhong in principle.

But Zhuge Liang also has his own concerns. Why do you have to borrow the power of the family?!

The families in these years have been very difficult to control, Zhuge Liang has been trying his best all these years to help Liu Bei weaken these families, if this group of families is allowed to control the entire process from planting sugarcane to making sucrose, and obtain a lot of extra money, will it pose a greater threat to the rule of Liu Bei's group? !

In this regard, Zhang Xi said that Zhuge Liang thought too much.

First, we don't have the money, we don't have people, and we can't afford to build such a big plantation.

Second, the families of these years, with money, food, and people, what they need is just an opportunity and an ambition, and if they want to rebel, they may rebel at any time.

The real threat to the family is not whether they have money and food, but whether they have people in their hands, and they have hidden countless people and land, which can help them cultivate and become rebels if necessary.

Therefore, whether the family has mastered the technology of sugar production and whether they will rebel is not directly related. Instead of worrying about this, it is better to find a way to let the family spit out all the hidden population, which is the real way to solve the problem of the family's growth from the root.

And this Zhuge Liang said, let's discuss it later, this is not a problem that can be solved in a short time.

(End of chapter)