Huainan County Shou Yang Hong turned out to be Yuan Shu's long history, a confidant mastermind, and Yuan Shu trusted him very much.

Last time, Cao Xin led the army to attack Shouchun, and joined forces with Chen Lanli, and captured many Yuan Shu's officials at once, and Yang Hong was one of them.

After catching Yang Hong, Cao Xin held a bloody big iron gun in his hand and asked Yang Hong if he would surrender.

Yang Hong gritted his teeth, stiffened his neck, his face turned red, and just when everyone thought that he was going to sacrifice his life for righteousness, Yang Hong lowered his head again, down!

After surrendering, Cao Xin handed over this person to Prime Minister Cao Cheng to dispose of, and with Yang Hong, a subordinate, it would be easier for Cao's army to enter Huainan.

Afterwards, Yang Hong performed well, not only keeping Huainan County in order, but also persuading many of Yuan Shu's subordinates.

Prime Minister Cao Cheng admired Yang Hong very much, and ordered Yang Hong to temporarily take the post of Huainan Taishou, and brought Yang Hong's family to Xudu to settle down.

After Cao Jun left, Yang Hong took charge of Huai'an County affairs and did a good job, but when dealing with civil strife, he often had conflicts with Xiahoudun, which led to more chaos in Huainan County.

In this regard, Cao Xin did not say anything, he needed to see Yang Hong's performance.

"Haha, Yang Junshou is here, and General Ben is preparing to look for you."

Cao Xin laughed.

When I came to the door of the conference hall, I saw an old man wearing a blue cloth robe, a thin body, and a goat's beard slowly walking over, this person was Yang Hong Yang Guangda, in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he was mistakenly written as General Yang, a master who can write and martial arts.

"Meet General Cao, I don't know what General Cao is looking for?"

Yang Hong asked.

"Haha, two things, the first general wants to recruit troops, there are too few people to deter Xiaoxiao, I hope Yang Junshou will arrange people to cooperate with one or two."

"As it should be!"

Yang Hong bowed slightly.

"Second, the problem of grain and grass, I heard General Xiahou say that Shouchun often secretly sent grain and grass to Yuan Shujun, alas, hearing this, the general was very sad, Yuan Shu committed rebellion and established himself as the emperor, he is a proper rebellious minister and thief, and those clans support him is to help and abuse, and it must be strictly prohibited and severely cracked down."

"The general is angry, there is another inside story in this matter, and I ask the general to explain one or two below."

"Oh? What's the inside story, Yang Junshou please tell me in detail. ”

Cao Xin invited Yang Hong to sit down in the council hall and asked the maid to bring tea.

Cao Xin and Jia Xu listened quietly to Yang Hong's explanation.

Yang Hong said that no one would send grain and grass to Yuan Shu for nothing, and the reason why those people risked killing their heads to send grain and grass to Yuan Shu was because there were people on Yuan Shu's side who bought grain and grass at a high price.

"Oh? Trade? ”

Cao Xin was surprised, this point Xiahoudun didn't mention.

"It is precisely that since three years ago, the spring rain in Huainan has been less, and the drought in various places has been serious, resulting in a serious reduction in grain harvest. With little rain in the spring of this year, it is expected that this year's grain output will remain low and famine will inevitably occur.

Yuan Highway purchased grain and grass at a high price for two purposes, one was to store grain, resist disasters, and prevent civil uprisings.

Second, after the grain and grass in Huainan County are taken away, our grain and grass will inevitably be unsustainable, and there will also be hungry people in the county, resulting in turmoil in the people's hearts. ”

Yang Hong sighed lightly.

Cao Xin touched the stubble on his chin.

One of the important reasons for the great chaos in the world at the end of the Han Dynasty is that the earth entered a cold period, also known as the Xiaoice period, during which extreme weather often occurred, such as floods, droughts, hailstorms, locust plagues, frost and snow, earthquakes, plagues and other natural and man-made disasters.

There are many natural disasters, grain production is reduced, there will inevitably be a great famine, and food will become extremely important during this period, so when the princes of the late Han Dynasty attacked each other, they often liked to rob the grain road, set fire to the grain, and deal a fatal blow to the enemy.

Yuan Shu's trick of storing grain looks pretty good, but it is not difficult to crack, and anyone who knows a little bit about the market economy can do it.

"Yang Junshou, how is the spring ploughing in Huainan going?"

Cao Xin asked.

Yang Hong shook his head, "There is less rain in spring, the land moisture is not enough, and it is difficult to germinate when planted, in addition, in recent years, there have been many disasters in Huainan County, many disaster victims and refugees have become mountain bandits, there are more people in the mountains, there are fewer people in the fields, and no one repairs water conservancy, resulting in a large number of fields being abandoned, according to the county reports, the spring plowing situation is less than half of three years ago." ”

"That's a problem."

Cao Xin thought for a while, called Dian Wei, and asked him to pass the order to Liao Hua and Chen Lan, when the two of them were arresting the bandits, they would catch more prisoners, and he would use these prisoners to repair water conservancy and open up wasteland, and grow grain.

"There are craftsmen in the baggage camp who can dig wells, make water drains, and water wheels, and ask Liu Dashi to send people to inspect the water conservancy situation in Huainan counties and prepare to repair water conservancy, Huainan has a developed water system, and water conservancy projects are simpler than Nanyang."

"Yes, General!"

Dian Wei went out to pass the word.

Yang Hong frowned slightly, "I don't know what this water drainage truck is?" ”

"Haha, good things, you'll know when you make them."

The water drainage truck is a small invention he made in Xuzhou Yanzhou Farm, used to solve the problem of land irrigation, these utensils have been popularized in Xuzhou Yanzhou Farm and Nanyang Farm, the effect is good, and it can also solve the drought in Huainan.

"Yang Junshou, solve the problem of spring ploughing, let's talk about Yuan Shu's grain plan, I don't know what the price of Yuan Shu's purchase of grain and grass is?"

Cao Xin asked.

Yang Hong compared a figure, "Due to the severe drought and famine, the price of grain between Jianghuai and Huai is 30% higher than that of other places, and the price of grain purchased by Yuan Shu is 20% higher. Due to the huge profits of selling grain, many people risked killing their heads and transported grain everywhere to sell to Yuan Shu. ”

"Yang Junshou, General Ben is also ready to collect grain, the price is one percent higher than the market price, sell the grain to General Ben, don't catch the bag and don't kill, sell it to Yuan Shu, catch one and kill a family, what about the county Shou's intentions?"

Cao Xin said with a smile.

"General, this method is not bad, but the money and grain in the original county were transferred to Lujiang Danyang by Yuan Shu, and there are not many goods left, only more than 5,000 yuan, I'm afraid it can't compare to Yuan Shu."

Yang Hong frowned.

"Haha, you don't need to pay for it in the county, General Ben will solve the problem of goods by himself."

Speaking of money, he is really rich, and last year, Huitong Commercial Bank, restaurants, and farms brought him 150,000 yuan in income from goods, money, and grain, which was higher than the tax income of the eight counties of Yanzhou last year.

In addition, there is the first compensation in Jingzhou, 600,000 yuan of goods.

Among them, 200,000 stone grain and grass were handed over to Cao Cao, the remaining part was used to reward and subsidize soldiers, part was used to compensate the casualties of soldiers and military families, and the remaining more than 200,000 pieces of grain and grass belonged to him and the Langya army.

Cao Xin was going to transport tens of thousands of stone grains and grass from Nanyang to fight a simple trade war with Yuan Shu to see how long Yuan Shu could last.

After discussing with Yang Hong, Cao Xin summoned Liao Hua to a meeting with Pei Yuanshao and Liu Dashi and gave them three tasks.

The first is to ask Liao Hua to strengthen the patrol between Huainan and Danyang, and strictly prohibit the big families of Huainan County from selling grain and grass to Yuan Shu, and kill one family if they are caught.

The second is to ask Pei Yuanshao to send people to infiltrate Danyang to investigate Yuan Shu's granary and all aspects of grain collection, so as to get in and facilitate subsequent actions.

The third is to ask Liu Dashi to contact Zhang Baiqi and secretly transport 50,000 stone of grain and grass over.

There are still more than 100,000 stone of grain and grass left in Jingzhou, and last year, the grain income in various parts of Nanyang was in a good situation, and they were basically self-sufficient, and the grain was easy to deteriorate after a long backlog, so it was more cost-effective to transport it and sell it and replace it with cloth, salt and iron that were easy to store.

If you can't exchange money, you can stay in Huainan County for disaster relief and take in refugees.

"General, do you still want to do the task that will be calculated?"

Liao Hua asked.

"Naturally, we have to do it, and the plan depends on Yuan Shu's actions, we only see the move when he makes a move, and if he doesn't make a move, we will farm and recruit troops, and pacify the mountain bandits, if Yuan Shu really wants to take back Shouchun, he shouldn't be able to watch us gain a firm foothold in Shouchun."

"Yes, General!"

Several people clenched their fists and withdrew, and went their separate errands.

Cao Xin sat down, drank a cup of tea, looked at Jia Xu and said with a smile,

"Mr. Wenhe, what will Yuan Shu do?"

Jia Xu pondered for a moment.

"Yuan Shu knows that he is invincible, and he will inevitably ask his allies for help, Lu Bu is too busy to take care of himself in Xuzhou, Yuan Shao in Hebei is too far apart, Jiangdong Sun Ce and Jingzhou Liu Biao will not want to see our army gain a firm foothold in Huainan Lujiang, and the two will definitely secretly aid Yuan Shu."

Cao Xin nodded, and sent someone to send a message to Pei Yuanshao, telling him to keep an eye on the movements of Jiangdong and Jingzhou.

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