Borrowing a knife to kill?

Zhuge Liang and Xu Shu glanced at each other, very puzzled.

This strategy is often to use others to accomplish what you want to accomplish.

But if you want to do this, you have to bring in a third party.

But now in Jingzhou, how can any third-party forces have such courage to carry out reforms?

With this doubt, Xu Shu asked Shen Chen, "Whose knife did you borrow?" ”

"The knife of the Yizhou people."

A mysterious smile appeared on Shen Chen's face.

Yizhou people's knives?

Zhuge Liang picked up the tea in front of him, took a sip, and asked, "Do you have a suitable candidate?" ”

"Yes."

"Who is it?"

"Knock knock, report!"

Just then, there was a knock and shouting at the door.

All three of them brought escorts, and their own business was not good, so there were no other guests on the second floor.

Shen Chen ordered the guards to guard the stairs and not allow anyone to approach and eavesdrop on secrets.

At this moment, there was a knock on the door and shouting, obviously the guards were reporting that something was wrong, so Shen Chen said, "What's the matter?" ”

The guard outside said, "The shopkeeper said that the dishes are ready." ”

"Send it up."

Shen Chen responded.

"Yui."

The guard opened the door and beckoned outside, "Send it in." ”

"Young owner."

The shopkeeper and a fellow walked in with a smirk and placed the food in their hands on the table.

None of the three spoke.

When they interrupt, the topic is not easy to continue.

When they left and the door closed again, Xu Shu first began to move his chopsticks, and said while eating, "When will the person you are looking for come?" ”

"It doesn't matter when you come, you need a good time."

Shen Chen explained: "Think about it, now that General Zuo has just acted for the state affairs and has not yet fully taken power, how can he drastically reform the military? Therefore, we can only do some tinkering work now, and the major restructuring must wait for stability before it can begin. ”

"Tinkering work?"

Zhuge Liang thought for a while and said, "Since this is the case, let's analyze which places can be moved and which places can't." ”

"First of all, of course, the problem of land and hidden households cannot be moved."

Shen Chen said: "These are the roots of the family, and if we move these two things, the family will fight with us." ”

"Hmm."

Zhuge Liang nodded and said, "And then?" ”

"And then there's the ruler."

Shen Chen said: "The rule of officials can only be slow and not impatient, the officials in Jingzhou are intertwined, and many of them are filled by the children of the big families, so these people can't move, or they can't move lightly." ”

"Hmm."

Zhuge Liang thought for a while, and nodded in agreement.

In the Han Dynasty, there was a "Three Mutual Law", and it was extremely strict, according to the regulations, up to the county to keep the prime minister, down to the county order, chief, Cheng, and Wei, all of which did not use the people of the county.

However, after the Dong Zhuo Rebellion at the end of the Han Dynasty, due to the great weakening of the prestige of the imperial court, few local princes obeyed it anymore.

The most typical example is that under the rule of Liu Biao in Jingzhou, Cai Mao is a native of Xiangyang, Nanjun, Liu Biao appointed him as the Taishou of Nanjun, although Kuai Yue is not from Zhangling, but the county governor cannot use a native of Benzhou, he is Zhangling Taishou.

There is also Huang Zu, who is said to have been born in Jiangxia An Lu Huang, but was appointed as Jiangxia Taishou.

The rest of Huang Jie, Xiang Lang, Xi Zhen, Zhang Cun, and later Kui Jun, Kui Qi, and Fu Qun in the Cao Wei period also violated the Three Mutual Law.

Especially Cai Mao, Kuai Yue, Huang Zu, Fu Qun, Kuai Jun, and Kuai Qi.

Others are all county commanders in their own counties, but a few of them are in their own counties, Fu Qun is even more exaggerated, he is a native of Xiangyang, Jingzhou, Cao Cao asked him to be the assassin of Jingzhou, it can be seen that the three mutual laws in the late Han Dynasty have become a virtual reality and have become a dead letter.

Because of this, in order to appease Sun Quan and let him actively drag down Liu Biao and Liu Bei's forces, Cao Cao gave him the position of Yangzhou Mu, which was in violation of the Three Mutual Laws.

In this case, there are many children of big families in Jingzhou officialdom who serve as officials, and even if outsiders are officials in Jingzhou, they often collude with these big families to form an intricate network of interests.

Therefore, to move the population, land, and government is to be the enemy of the entire Jingzhou family, and in the face of this powerful force, they really have to think twice before acting, and they cannot act recklessly.

Shen Chen said: "Under the condition that the population, land, and officials cannot be moved lightly, there are only three feasible ways for us, first, eliminate the old and weak in the army, and streamline the soldiers. Second, to appease the displaced people and reclaim new land. Third, to soothe the barbarians in Jingnan Mountain and alleviate the Hanyi dispute. ”

Zhuge Liang said: "Let's talk about the reduction of the army first, during the period of King Chu, the number of soldiers and horses increased greatly, with more than 200,000 people, and he became the largest prince in the south. But these soldiers are not elite soldiers, and the military spirit is not very strong, if it is reduced, it is simple, but after the reduction, how can the soldiers survive? Don't you need a lot of land yet? What can Xiaoqing do? ”

Shen Chen muttered: "This is indeed a big problem, if the livelihood of the soldiers is not solved, let them return to their hometowns like this, it will inevitably cause a lot of civil strife." Therefore, we must be cautious, and there is no statistics on the situation in the army, so we will maintain it for the time being, and then let the state government count the state capital's land, soldiers, and household registration before making detailed plans. ”

"No matter how you count it, there will definitely be more people than fields, and there will not be enough food to eat, and those soldiers who have been cut off may go out and loot, and then turmoil will erupt."

Zhuge Liang said: "We must come up with a practical plan, and implement it while counting." ”

Shen Chen said: "You can start from three aspects, one is to increase the production of the fields held by the existing government and the people, the second is to cultivate new fields, and the third is to ensure the survival of these soldiers before the new fields and grain production are increased, you must continue to support them for a period of time after they return to their hometowns." ”

"Then tell me more."

Zhuge Liang said: "How to increase production, how to cultivate new fields. ”

Shen Chen said: "The main thing to increase the yield is southern rice, we found a new rice in Jiaozhi, called Linyi rice or Zhancheng rice, its production cycle is shorter, extremely drought tolerant and born regardless of the land, can cooperate with the southern rice to double crop a year, and the yield per mu is greatly increased." ”

"Lin Yi Rice? I didn't expect Cochin to have such a strange thing. ”

Xu Shu said: "But how is the soil fertility good? The land in the south is not fertile, and the soil is exhausted after one crop in a year, so if it is double cropping, can it really increase production? ”

Shen Chen said with a smile: "It can be cultivated in the soil, Zhancheng rice only needs three to four months to mature, and our southern rice takes five months, and at least three to four months in a year belongs to the slack period." At this time, the manure method is used to accumulate a year's feces and urine for fermentation, and water it in the field when the farm is slack, so as to warm the land and increase the soil fertility. ”

Xu Shu said with a disgusted face: "What you said is feces and urine again, which makes me have no appetite to eat." ”

"That can't be helped."

Shen Chen shrugged his shoulders and said: "And not only human feces and urine, but also the feces of chickens, ducks, pigs, cows, sheep and horses can be, and the method of cultivating soil with manure is available in spring and autumn, and the manure method I invented is like making grain and water into wine, which greatly improves the efficiency of the use of manure, which is how I said to reclaim new fields." ”

"Okay, don't say it, I'm going to throw up if I say it again."

Xu Shu stretched out his hand to stop it.

When eating, a mouth full of feces and feces, who can withstand this.

The three of them stopped talking.

Zhuge Liang narrowed his eyes and fell into thought.

Xu Shu buried his head in eating.

Only Shen Chen supported his chin with one hand, and a trace of sorrow flashed between his eyebrows.

Although he said it easily, Shen Chen also knew that it was difficult to say and do many things.

Cultivating the land naturally does not mean that you can cultivate a field immediately, but you need land with fertile soil.

Most of these lands are now occupied by the big families, and the land of ordinary yeoman farmers and tuntian households is often in the middle field or even under the field, and the land is not very sufficient, so the grain production is very small, and a family of five is fortunate to work hard for 50 acres of land to barely solve the problem of food and clothing.

It is for this reason that Zhuge Liang wanted to carry out drastic reforms and redistribute the land in preparation for the upcoming plan to strengthen the state and enrich the people.

It's just that the resistance to land reform is extremely great, and as a person who is also a member of the big family class, if he does this, he will belong to the betrayal class, not only will his relatives and friends around him put pressure on him, but even the entire Jingzhou Shi clan will not tolerate him.

Therefore, Shen Chen strongly objected.

But if this is not done, then relying on the Champa rice and manure method alone is actually a drop in the bucket, which can only temporarily alleviate the internal contradictions in Jingzhou, but cannot solve the internal contradictions in Jingzhou.

And in addition to the people who are struggling on the line of life and death, the most important thing is military reform and the reduction of soldiers.

These reduced soldiers will become the biggest destabilizing factor.

You must know that there were 2440,000 troops at the peak of Liu Biao's period, and he was known as a million soldiers, which can be said to be in the limelight for a while.

The objective factor that could reach this level was that Shen Chen proposed the Tuntian system, which made Liu Biao's treasury extremely solid, and he could harvest twenty or thirty million stone grain from Nanyang Tuntian every year, so that he could recruit more soldiers.

However, the subjective factors are the two conditions of Jingzhou's population explosion and Liu Biao's failure to lose the Nanyang Basin.

As mentioned before, there were many hidden households in the Three Kingdoms at the end of the Han Dynasty who did not pay taxes, in addition to the hidden households of the big families, there were also hidden households of mountain people who fled into the mountains like "The Story of the Peach Blossom Spring".

Due to the small number of people who paid taxes, Liu Biao's rule seemed to have a population of six or seven million, but in fact, the financial revenue was not much, and it was impossible to support the army.

Later, due to the war in the north, a large number of displaced people moved to the south, and the population of Jingzhou was replenished, which greatly reduced the proportion of hidden households, mountain people, hooligan people, and non-tax-paying population under Liu Biao's rule, and greatly increased the number of people who paid taxes, providing Liu Biao with money, food and soldiers.

In addition, Shen Chen helped Liu Biao defend Nanyang, and suggested that he Tuntian, so that he had the granary of the Nanyang Basin, and the northern refugees who moved south were fully utilized, so their strength grew day by day.

However, this kind of growth is like a fat person who gains weight for a short time, which belongs to false fat, and without exercise, fat cannot be turned into muscle.

Most of the soldiers are from the northern refugees, and the reason why they joined the army is just to eat together, and the sense of belonging to Liu Biao's forces is not strong, and the morale is not very high.

It can't be said to be a rabble, but it can only be regarded as a relatively weak second-line army, and it's okay to fight ordinary thieves, rogues, and the remnants of the Yellow Turbans, and when you encounter a strong front-line army, it's basically no different from delivering food.

Many people say that the casualty rate in ancient times would collapse if it exceeded 10%, although it was not so exaggerated, but these troops under Liu Biao were basically like this.

For example, Cao Cao, Shen Chen, Liu Bei, Sun Quan and other elite soldiers under their command still have a very high will to fight, even if the casualty rate exceeds 30%, as long as the frontal battlefield does not show a large-scale disadvantage, they can often continue to fight and fight to the death.

Therefore, now that Liu Bei is in charge of Jingzhou, in order to train the fat army left over from Liu Biao's period into a muscular army, he has to re-cut the old and weak, retain the strong, and train them to become elite soldiers.

However, if this is done, the entire Jingzhou is now nearly 200,000 horses, and it is estimated that more than half of them will have to be eliminated.

Nearly 100,000 soldiers have returned to their hometowns, and if there is no land to appease these soldiers, these soldiers will become a great hidden danger.

Shen Chen's meaning is that first do not move the land of those big families, but open up sources and reduce expenditures, reclaim new land, disarm and reduce expenditures, and then use the state treasury to temporarily support these veteran soldiers for a period of time, and wait until the Champa rice and manure law are fully promoted in Jingzhou, so as to ensure the food and clothing of soldiers and poor people.

It sounds good, but it's a palliative, not a cure.

Because the greed of the great families is continuous, the more land you cultivate, the more people you absorb, and the more people they will absorb, there will always be a way for them to turn these land populations into hidden estates of the gate lords.

If we fail to solve the fundamental problem and redistribute a large amount of land, it will lead to the people becoming poorer and poorer, and eventually they will not be able to survive.

Another point is that even the symptoms are not completely cured.

Since the end of the Han Dynasty, the weather has changed severely, affected by the Xiaoice River, sometimes cold and sometimes hot, sometimes flooded and sometimes drought, and the people do not have much land in their hands, once they encounter extreme weather, resulting in reduced or no production of fields, it will cause very serious consequences.

For example, even if land reform was carried out in later generations, everyone had land in their hands, and after a few years of natural disasters, there were still starving to death I don't know how many.

Therefore, if you want to solve the problem fundamentally, you still have to slaughter fat sheep and eat big households.

It's just that Shen Chen also knows that now don't look at Liu Bei, he has preliminarily mastered Jingzhou, but the family in Jingzhou is not like the family in Henan and Hebei, after experiencing the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the power is not as good as before, and he was suppressed by Yuan Shao and Cao Cao.

The powerful family in the south is very powerful, and Liu Zhang's several civil strife in Yizhou are the struggle against the powerful family. Sun Ce relied entirely on killing in Jiangdong to subdue him, and in the Sun Quan period, he still had to be swayed by the powerful family, and in his later years, he had to kill many people to maintain his rule.

Liu Biao's situation will be slightly better, because he chose to integrate into the family and marry Cai's daughter, so as to rule Jingzhou with the powerful forces represented by Cai Mao and Kuai Yue.

Now that Liu Bei, as the lord of Jingzhou, immediately takes the Jingzhou family, the situation will become even more intense than Sun Ce and Liu Zhang, and it may cause more serious civil strife, so emotionally speaking, it is right to fight the local tyrants and divide the land, and rationally speaking, the time is not yet ripe, and the power of the family is too strong to be an enemy with them.

Therefore, Shen Chen is just a pastemaker, first tinkering with Jingzhou's internal affairs, and then doing it when the time is ripe in the future.

Shen Chen's gaze looked to the west.

In Yizhou, there is a ruthless person.

After the south is pacified in the future, Zhuge Liang will go to Yizhou to do internal affairs, and let him come to Jingzhou, maybe this problem can be solved.