Liu Bei has been an official for 12 years, and the basic reasons for gains and losses are still easy to understand.

Just now, it was only because I was too tired for two days and two nights in a row that I woke up and my mind was not clear, so I was confused about the current situation.

After being sorted out by Zhuge Jin's outline, Liu Bei quickly recognized the reality and found that the original problem could be summarized so clearly and completely.

Those messes that let him think about it with his own brain, and only feel complicated and complicated, were like this by Zhuge Jin, and they seemed to be all organized, and there were only a few core issues left.

"So now, for our army, there are actually fewer casualties than expected, more combat power has been preserved, and more prisoners have been captured, but it is more disadvantaged than expected in terms of seizing food." Liu Bei touched his mustache and concluded thoughtfully.

In the popular saying of later generations, that is the unexpected variable of all this, so that the situation Liu Bei faced has become higher than his initial plan, the upper limit has become higher, and the lower limit has also become lower.

The original plan was more like a stable drought and flood guarantee.

After the plan can't catch up with the changes, it becomes "the bigger the wind and waves, the more expensive the fish", handle it well, win more, and if you don't handle it well, you have to lose the capital.

It's still necessary to find a way to get food!

And try to redeem the families of the soldiers who were detained!

As for the military issues, I don't dare to say that it is a sure end now, but at least there is no need to worry about Yuan Shu organizing a new large-scale offensive in the short term.

Even if Yuan Shu still had to deal with him, more than half of the 40,000 troops attacking Huaiyin had been dispersed, and some of the 5,000 defenders of Guangling had been lost.

Well, the only variable is on Guan Yu's side, see if he can cheat or force Ji Ling to retreat, so that Ji Ling will completely die and go back to guard Xuyi.

But Liu Bei felt that the military aspect was not a big problem, and Guan Yu could handle it.

But how do you get food? Liu Bei was so depressed that he almost grabbed his hair.

He couldn't help but cast a pitiful look at Zhuge Jin, and was even a little embarrassed to ask.

A guest has already helped him so much.

Internal affairs money and food, this is an area that the other party has not been exposed to before, so it's a bit too much to ask, right?

Fortunately, Liu Bei quickly remembered that ten days ago, he had sent Mi Zhu away to prepare for the military quartermaster.

Liu Bei euphemistically inquired: "By the way, Zizhong is still in Haixi?" What has he been up to lately? ”

Zhuge Jin told Liu Bei about the progress of the logistics preparations on the Haixi side: "Zizhong originally wanted to find Kong Beihai to buy grain, and from Jimo to Haixi by sea. But later I heard that before the siege of Huaiyin, Kong Beihai had been destroyed by Yuan Tan.

Zizhong made another plan to go to Huiji Wang Lang to buy grain, and it may take more than a month to come back - by the way, the general can send a fast boat to Huiji to look for it, if he can be notified, he does not need to go back to Haixi on the return trip, he can go directly to Guangling, or he can save five or six days of unjust travel, and arrive earlier. When he set out, he could not have imagined that our army could take Guangling so quickly. ”

When Liu Bei heard that there was food in Huiji, his heart finally became hot, and he felt that he had more help, and muttered to himself: "I don't know how much surplus grain Wang Jingxing can buy, and whether it is enough to make up for the gap in Guangling's grain storage......"

Zhuge Jin directly interrupted the other party's fantasy: "It is definitely not enough, Wang Lang is also on guard against Sun Ce now, and he must leave military rations for the subsequent possible campaign." Although Sun Ce is still fighting with Xu Gong of Wu County at the moment, with Xu Gong's incompetence, I am afraid that within a month or two, all parts of Wu County will be controlled by Sun Ce.

Even if winter is not suitable for the use of troops, next year, when the farming is idle after spring ploughing, with Sun Ce's wolf ambition, he will definitely attack Wang Lang. In addition, with Sun Ce's vigilance against Wang Lang, it is okay for us to buy grain from Wang Lang once, and we can smuggle it while he is unprepared.

If this is the case twice or three times, most of the south bank of the Yangtze River waterway is the boundary of Sun Ce, and only Dantu County on the other side of Guangling is still in the hands of Liu Xuan. And Sun Ce is nominally a subordinate of Yuan Shu, and we are at war with Yuan Shu, won't Sun Ce intercept and seize the merchant ships that we buy grain from? ”

This is like a basin of cold water, allowing Liu Bei to recognize the reality: looking for Wang Lang is to save the emergency but not the poor.

Today's maritime transport is also very risky, and if you want to be safe, you can only sail close to the coast, and if you sail close to the coast more than once in enemy-occupied areas, you may be intercepted by armed forces the second time. Sailing to a distance where the coastline is out of sight in order to avoid interception may capsize in wind and waves.

At the beginning, Zhuge Jin came up with this idea, and the original intention was also to solve the military rations during the attack on Guangling, not to let Liu Bei point to Wang Lang to eat for half a year. It's just that later the plan couldn't catch up with the change, and Guangling's sneak attack was successful, and before Wang Lang could eat the grain he bought, the battle was over.

After hearing these words, Liu Bei almost despaired again.

The mustache on his upper lip was no longer enough for him to pull his hair, and if no one stopped him, he didn't know if he would pull himself into a strong hairstyle.

Fortunately, Zhuge Jin is still kind and kind, and he can't see his friends pulling their hair. So he took the initiative to share some of the solutions he thought of in the past few days with Liu Bei.

After all, Zhuge Jin knew how critical the situation was ten days earlier than Liu Bei, so he had ten more days to think about countermeasures, and even had time to do a little experiment.

At this moment, out of forbearance, he first told Liu Bei a little bit of the bottom: "General, don't be impatient, the grain of Guangling is at least enough for our army to eat for two months, and it will definitely be able to buy back the grain from Wang Lang, and it is barely enough to eat all together until Layue."

If you reduce the ration of soldiers and soldiers, drink two meals of gruel a day, and add some herbs and vegetables, it is not impossible to survive until the New Year - of course, this must ensure that Yuan Shu will not attack in the future, and the soldiers do not need to practice and fight, and can only eat less when they are free, otherwise their physical strength will not be able to bear it.

Therefore, as long as our army finds another way to solve the problem of the grain harvested from the first month of next year to the end of the spring famine and the summer grain, it will be able to tide over this difficulty. ”

Zhuge Jin also saw that Liu Bei lacked quantitative analysis of the problem, so he first helped the other party sort out the severity of the problem from the data level, so that the opponent knew it.

People in this era are too sensitive to numbers, and the question of money and food is too general. is completely incomparable with Zhuge Jin, who has been a gold medal mathematics lecturer in later generations.

Liu Bei was still very anxious just now, and after listening to Zhuge Jin's few words, he made the numbers and time nodes clear, and then he was a little more settled, and couldn't help but ask urgently: "Then after the first month of next year, how can we open up sources and reduce expenditure?" ”

Zhuge Jin carefully analyzed: "I was in Haixi a few days ago, and I had nothing to do, but I also spent time inspecting the farming affairs of the people in Huainan, and I had some experience.

Before the first examination for Taishan County, he also traveled all over the world, and in his early years, he also traveled with the author of "Four People's Moon Order" and Anping Cui Wei. My family has a lot of books of all kinds, and I also have a slight understanding of the differences between the north and the south in agriculture. ”

Zhuge Jin first laid out his own source of knowledge and found an excuse, so as not to surprise the other party at his omniscience and omnipotence.

"Simin Yue Ling" is an important agricultural book in the late Han Dynasty, and it is also the most comprehensive work of workers and peasants before the appearance of "Qi Min Yaoshu" in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and "Simin Yue Ling" also includes a lot of handicraft content.

Its author, Cui Wei, a native of Anping, Jizhou, has been dead for more than 20 years, but Zhuge Jin said that his father Zhuge Jue had seen each other when he was a young student, which is also completely reasonable and can never be a goof.

In Zhuge Jin's mouth, his father was able to sit with Cui Wei and discuss and inspire each other, so it is completely reasonable for his Zhuge family to understand a little about the logistics of workers and peasants.

In just a few words, Liu Bei was dizzy when he heard it: "How can the people of the Zhuge family understand everything?" Even these off-the-beaten-path studies have been involved? It's unfathomable......"