At the end of the fourteenth year of Jian'an, it was just the beginning for Liu Bei and Cao Cao.

Liu Bei has just pacified Yizhou and sat in Chengdu, and it still takes time to govern, such as co-opting the fleeing former Liu Zhang officials, appeasing the people of the Yizhou family, appointing officials and so on.

This process is very long, because with the pacification of Yizhou, there will be a large number of talents to take refuge, which requires the screening of talent ability, according to the aptitude, the northern part of Yizhou, including the subject state of Shu County, Guanghan subject country, 54 counties, hundreds of officials appointed, it will take time.

In the southern part of Yizhou, that is, the area of Yunnan in later generations, Liu Bei did not send anyone to manage it for the time being. At present, the main thing is to send envoys to various places to appease the major families and ethnic minority leaders in the south of Yizhou, divide their official positions, and let them maintain his rule.

Liu Bei took Fa Zheng as the Taishou and Yangwu General of Shu County, Pang Tong as the Yizhou Engaged and Military Division General, Xu Shu as the General Zuo and General An Han, and the three of them jointly signed the affairs of General Zuo's office.

In addition, the Zhaowen general Yin Ji, the left general Xi Cao Peng Liu Ba, the Xingye general Li Yan, and the Guanghan Taishou Zhang Song presided over the reform of Yizhou, such as formulating laws, selecting talents, reassuring the people, dealing with the chaotic party, and so on.

In history, in fact, after Liu Bei defeated Liu Zhang, many people were reluctant to go out to Liu Bei, such as Yang Huai, Gao Pei, Deng Xian, Leng Bao, Zhang Ren, Liu Xuan, Fu Ban, Xiang Cun, etc., among the civil officials, there are also Wang Lei, Yin Pu, Zheng Du and the like.

But now Liu Bei won Yizhou not by defeating Liu Zhang, but by Liu Zhang himself. Then they are now obedient, and they are not betraying the master, but they are defecting to Liu Bei on Liu Zhang's order, so that there is no obstacle in reason, and they come to Shun one after another.

In this way, Wu Yi, Fei Guan, Zhang Yi, Wu Lan and others who surrendered to Liu Bei in the Battle of Zigui, as well as Yan Yan, Zhang Song, Fa Zheng, Meng Da, Pang Xi, Wu Ban, Li Hui, Xu Jing and others who chose to return to Shun in history.

For a time, Liu Bei can be said to be the best of the state officials, making the best use of each other, such as making Zhang Songfa Zhengdingshu, using Xu Jing's fame to recruit talents, and so on.

At least in terms of talents, Liu Bei already has talented people in Jingzhou and Yizhou, and in the team of Wenchen military generals, he is currently able to compete with Cao Cao.

And just when Liu Bei was in full swing to fight the internal affairs of Yizhou, Cao Cao had already pacified the north, and now only Liaoxi and Liaodong remained.

At the end of the fourteenth year of Jian'an, it snowed in the north, and the road was not easy to walk, so Cao Cao garrisoned the Changliao area, waited for the snow to melt, and then conquered the Wuhuan leader in the next year.

In February of the fifteenth year of Jian'an, after the snow melted in spring, Cao Cao's army went north and took Liucheng directly.

At this time, he was solemn, far from being attacked by Cao Cao for thousands of miles as in history, so that he temporarily organized troops and horses to resist, but was beheaded by Zhang Liao's army and collapsed.

But he didn't last long, whether he was attacked or fought head-on, he was not Cao Cao's opponent. The armies of the two sides confronted each other in the vast grassland outside Liucheng, and in just one morning, the Wuhuan cavalry was killed and scattered.

In the era when there were no stirrups and saddles, the cavalry only had high mobility, and in the face of the infantry corps that formed the array, and the infantry with a maximum range of more than 200 meters, the cavalry bow that could only shoot a few tens of meters could not match it, and it suffered a hard loss in long-range means.

This battle showed Cao Cao's extremely strong military ability, and the 80,000 troops marched forward in formation, and after the Wuhuan cavalry approached, 10,000 arrows were fired in unison, scattering the front army of the Wuhuan cavalry. Immediately afterwards, the tiger and leopard cavalry outflanked the left and right, raided the central army of Badun, and directly crushed his two armies in front and middle.

In the midst of the chaos, the tiger and leopard cavalry led by Zhang Liao and Cao Chun were beheaded, the entire Wuhuan cavalry was suddenly in chaos, after a morning of fighting, the rest of the Wuhuan leaders surrendered one after another, and the two Yuan fled to the east again, since then Liaoxi has been pacified, and only Liaodong is left in Youzhou.

Soon after, Gongsun Kang of Liaodong killed Er Yuan and presented his head to Cao Cao, and the hidden dangers of Yuan and the north were completely pacified. After Cao Cao returned to Yecheng in the fifteenth year of Jian'an, he stepped up his pace, sent troops again, and personally led the army to take the land of the annexed state.

At the beginning of the Northern Expedition, Gao Gan surrendered. As a result, the second Yuan was defeated and fled to Liaoxi, Gao Gan felt that Yecheng was empty and rebelled again, and was broken by Xun Yan. Now the main force has returned, and the mighty army of 50,000 or 60,000 has crossed the sheep intestine and conquered the state in person.

Knowing that Cao Cao was in person, Gao Gan knew that he was invincible, so he hurriedly fled in panic, first went to the Southern Xiongnu for help, but was rejected by the leader of the Southern Xiongnu, Hu Chuquan, and finally ran to Hedong, and united Zhang Baiqi, Wei Gu, Fan Xian, Zhang Cheng and other Hedong anti-Cao forces to continue to divide the territory.

In April of the fifteenth year of Jian'an, after Cao Cao pacified and annexed the state, he continued to pursue and attack Hedong. Gao Gan wanted to unite with Guanzhong Ma Chao, Han Sui and others to resist Cao Cao, but Zhang sent Ma Chao to lobby, so that Ma Chao and Han Sui did not send troops to help.

Therefore, under the joint attack of Chang'an Zhong Xuan and Cao Cao, Gao Gan and others were defeated again, and they could only choose to flee to Zuo Fengyi, trying to flee from Chencang or Wuguan to Nanyang, Hanzhong to join Liu Bei.

Liu Bei learned that the soldiers went out of Chencang to respond, but his actions caused Ma Chao, Han Sui and others to be extremely nervous, Ma Chao and Han Sui suspected that Liu Bei was a false way to defeat the enemy, nominally to meet the high cadres, but in fact to attack and annex Liangzhou, so they united, and the two sides confronted each other in Yixian.

Although Liu Bei had sent an envoy to lobby, but the two ignored it, Liu Bei could only give up, according to Pang Tong's plan, he could not be the enemy of Ma Chao Han Sui and other Guanzhong troops at present, so he chose to retreat.

Before retiring from the army, Liu Bei sent someone to inform Gao Gan that Ma Chao, Han Sui and others did not allow him to pass through Chencang Road, and suggested that he go south from Wuguan to Jingzhou.

However, to go south from Wuguan to pass through Chang'an, under the siege of Zhong Xuan, Gao Gan was forced to abandon the soldiers and horses, with a number of horses to escape, when Wuguan passed through Shangluo County, was hunted and killed by Wang Yan, the governor of Shangluo County, since then the land east of the state Hedong, all in the hands of Cao Cao.

Under these circumstances, Cao Cao's prestige and power in the Kwantung region and the court of Chen also reached its peak, so he took advantage of the situation to become the prime minister, and took over the power of the court and the north.

In this way, the situation is in a situation where the world is barely divided.

If the Nanyang Basin is used as the center, then Cao Cao and Liu Bei respectively get the northeast and southwest of the Nanyang Basin as the center. One occupied the Kanto and Northern, and the other occupied Jingzhou and Yizhou.

Han Sui and Ma Chao occupied the northwest corner, and Sun Quan occupied the southeast corner.

In terms of geographical analysis, Liu Bei occupies the largest area, owning about Sichuan Province, Chongqing Municipality, Yunnan Province, Hubei Province, Guizhou Province, Hunan Province and part of Henan Province, about 1.5 million square kilometers.

However, Yunnan Province and Guizhou Province are not substantially occupied, and most of them are hilly and mountainous, and the population under their jurisdiction is mainly in the Chengdu Plain, Jianghan Plain, Nanyang Basin, Hanzhong Basin and other regions, with a total population of more than 10 million, the largest in the territory and the second in terms of population.

Cao Cao's territory was secondary, with about 800,000 square kilometers of Henan Province, part of Anhui and Jiangsu provinces, Shandong Province, Hebei Province, Shanxi Province, part of Liaoning Province and part of Shaanxi Province.

With the exception of Shanxi Province, most of these places are vast plains, and they have all been substantially occupied. Although the territory is smaller than Liu Bei's, the population under his rule is also the largest, reaching more than 20 million, and the overall strength is still the strongest at this time.

Then there is the power of Sun Quan.

Since the cession of Lujiang County, Sun Quan's forces have retreated to the southeast of the Yangtze River, probably a small part of the southern part of the later Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, plus Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong, and Guangxi provinces.

Looking at it this way, if Sun Quan's forces are placed in the next generation, it will not be one or two points strong.

Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai free shipping area, plus Shenzhen and Guangzhou, among the top ten cities in the national economy in later generations, Sun Quan occupied Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Suzhou, and Hangzhou.

It's a pity that it is the end of the Han Dynasty, and the Yangtze River Delta belonged to the land of the Southern Barbarians at that time, let alone Guangzhou and Fujian.

Moreover, Sun Quan in Liangguang and Fujian is not substantially occupied, and his current population is mainly concentrated in the Taihu Lake Basin. In the southeastern hills of Jiangxi and Fujian, the two Guangxi regions are only nominally owned, with a huge territory, and the population under their rule is only four or five million.

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Han Sui Ma Chao's power is the smallest, the territory is part of Shaanxi Province in the later generations, plus half of Gansu and Ningxia, the population under his rule is also small, if you don't count the Qiang people, it may be tens of thousands of households, hundreds of thousands of people.

Of course.

Whether it is Cao Cao's population of more than 20 million, Liu Bei's population of more than 10 million, and Sun Quan's population of 4 or 5 million, they are basically the total population.

There are certainly not so many taxpayers who are really registered in the household register, and many of them are hidden by the family. The actual control of the population of the three may not be more than one-third of the total population, and the army that can be mobilized is the strongest, Cao Cao, followed by Liu Bei, and Sun Quan the weakest.

On the other hand, Han Sui, Ma Chao and others, because of the support of the Qiang people, can raise an army of more than 100,000 or nearly 200,000 at any time, and their strength on paper is stronger than Sun Quan, second only to Cao Cao and Liu Bei.

Therefore, at present, in terms of overall strength, it is still a situation in which Cao and Liu are competing for hegemony, and Han Sui, Ma Chao, and Sun Quan are at the bottom.

In September of the fifteenth year of Jian'an, Liu Bei went to Jiangling.

On this trip, he only brought Fa Zheng and Zhang Song, and did not bring any soldiers and horses, except for the personal guard Chen Zhi who led thousands of Bai Yu soldiers, there were only some Yizhou civil officials who accompanied him.

This time, in addition to analyzing the general trend of the world with Zhuge Liang Shenchen, it is also necessary to carry out the division and division of Yijing officials.

As mentioned before, although the population under Liu Bei's rule is more than 10 million, the actual control of the population is only three or four million, of which at least seven or eight million are more than seven or eight million, either controlled by countless families, or ethnic minorities, and many are officials and servants of wealthy families, and do not belong to the productive population.

In order to solve these problems, large-scale reforms are necessary.

The officials of Yizhou and Jingzhou had too many constraints on the ground, and it was difficult to exert their strength due to the relationship network of people and relatives, so Shen Chen and Zhuge Liang were the first to propose to divide the land and rule, and Zhuge Liang Pang was unified into Xichuan to govern Shu, and Fazheng Zhang Song and others entered Jingzhou to govern Chu.

After the fleet arrived in Jiangling, Shen Chen and Zhuge Liang were already waiting.

From last year to this year, the work of the two of them, as well as Fazheng, Zhang Song, Pang Tong, Xu Shu and others in Jingzhou and Yizhou, was basically to sew and mend, to be a surface craftsman, and to maintain the stability of the surface.

But everyone knows that even if Liu Bei has pacified Jingzhou and Yizhou now, there are still many hidden dangers in the two places, and the big families have embezzled the land population, just like all the roots of the destruction of all dynasties, land annexation will still become a big problem.

If it can't be solved, even if it is the world, it won't last long.

Therefore, rectification must be carried out.

Return the land to the displaced people and strengthen the governance of people's livelihood.

This time, after Liu Bei stabilized Bashu, sent Xu Shu and Zhang Fei to guard Hanzhong, and ordered Pang Tong Guan Yu to sit in Chengdu, he personally rushed to Jiangling to discuss the details with Zhuge Liang Shenchen.

It was late autumn and September, the howling north wind was blowing the vast Yangtze River, the river was rippling, and the ships were swaying with the wind, gradually sailing into the Jiangling wharf.

Shen Chen and Zhuge Liang were already waiting here, and the corners of their clothes were blown by the wind and hunting, and they were waiting for it.

The boat sailed into the dock, Liu Bei took Fazheng Zhang Song and others off the boat, Shen Chen and Zhuge Liang greeted them, and said, "Lord." ”

"Xiaoqing, Kong Ming!"

Liu Bei saw the familiar faces of the two again, and was full of emotion for a while, and said with a smile: "It seems that I have been separated from you for a long time." ”

Shen Chen said with a smile: "Although the lord has only been to Bashu for more than a year, the road is far away, and it is indeed like a world away. ”

"yes."

Liu Bei unconsciously touched the white hair on his sideburns and said, "I have also reached the age of knowing the destiny of heaven, but Xiaoqing is still in the prime of life, and time flies so fast." ”

"Lord, the wharf is windy, let's go to the city."

Zhuge Liang persuaded.

Liu Bei nodded, and everyone went to Jiangling City.

When they arrived at the Jiangling City Mansion, everyone sat in columns, and Liu Bei was in the main position.

After everyone sat down, Liu Bei smiled and said to Fazheng Zhang Song: "Let me introduce you to you, Kong Ming Xiaoqing." ”

Zhuge Liang stood up and arched his hand and said: "Langya Zhuge Liang, the word Kongming." ”

Shen Chen also stood up and said, "Shen Chen in the East China Sea, the word Xiaoqing." ”

Fa Zheng and Zhang Song got up and bowed to them: "Fufeng Fa is righteous and filial, Zhang Song and Zhang Ziqiao of Shu County." ”

Liu Bei said: "This division of land and rule was proposed by Kong Ming and Xiaoqing. ”

Fa Zheng looked at Shen Chen and said with a smile: "The Jingzhou soldier god who once beat Cao Cao and Sun Quan was almost wiped out, Shen Xiaoqing in the East China Sea, really deserves his reputation. ”

Shen Chen nodded his chin slightly and said: "I heard that the lord Dingshu was mostly planned by Mr. Xiaozhi, and even went to Hanzhong in person to persuade Yang Song, which shows that Mr. is resourceful, and the lord can have a gentleman, so he can add wings to the tiger." ”

Zhang Song also said: "On the way here, the lord told me that Mr. Kong Ming planned Jingzhou, and used a false and real plan to make Cai Mao Kuai Yue and others frightened, which shows that Mr. is clever. ”

Zhuge Liang said: "Mr. Ziqiao can speak well and is known for his quick wit. This time, the lord was able to quickly pacify Bashu, that is, Mr. Qiao lobbied Liu Zhang and made him take the initiative to contribute. ”

After the four finished speaking, they looked at each other and laughed.

Although they had never met before, each of them knew that in the future, the four people, including Pang Tong, Xu Shu and others, were likely to become the highest decision-making level under Liu Bei's account.

Therefore, after meeting each other, they will praise each other and get acquainted with their feelings, so that they can be harmonious in the future and work together for Liu Bei.