Time quietly came to the end of September in the sixth year of Jian'an,

This year, the north was full of wars.

But in the south, the fighting has largely ceased since March, and all the princes of the south have not used force for half a year.

For the people of the south, this is a rare year of recuperation and peace. Moreover, there are no floods, droughts and locust plagues in the south, and it is rare to start from the spring ploughing season, so that the people can farm in peace and stability, and enjoy the autumn harvest.

Jingzhou and Yangzhou have both achieved bumper harvests this year, and Liu Biao is also very satisfied after the situation of persuading farmers to be reported to Xiangyang.

The military rations he had accumulated in Gangneung had already exceeded one million stones.

According to this momentum, if there is a bumper harvest for another two years, and Wu Ju and Lai Gong in the south also pay tribute in full on schedule, it will be easy to save two or three million at that time.

Although Liu Biao was old, in poor health, and had no ambitions, he never thought about who he would fight after accumulating two or three million stone military rations.

But for a miser, being able to save more and more is a joy in itself - even after more than six years in history, these things are given to Cao Cao in vain.

……

On September 28, it was about ten days before Simbi returned to Qingzhou.

Lai Gong's letter to Liu Biao has been sent to Xiangyang.

Lai Gong's swift action also allowed Liu Biao to preempt Yuan Tan and win the crown of "the first prince to be wooed by Liu Bei this year".

After Liu Biao saw it, he didn't react at the first time, thinking that Lai Gong was just sympathetic to the people of Lingling and wanted to reduce transportation losses. Therefore, there is no rush to levy grain to the north first, and I want to intercept part of the tax grain of the year and use it to rectify the traffic on the spot.

However, Liu Biao is old, but he is not confused, he himself didn't understand it for a while, but he still knows and listens. He summoned Kuai Liang, Kuai Yue, Yi and others, and asked them to discuss how to deal with Lai Gong's request.

As soon as Kuai Yue saw this letter, he immediately reacted: "Envoy! It's only the second year that Lai Gong has arrived in Lingling! Only last year, when he first took office, he was ordered to raise money and grain from Lingling once and send it to Gangneung.

Now that he refuses to obey orders so quickly, could it be that he was co-opted by Liu Bei? In the past year, I heard that Liu Bei was also lightly taxed in Changsha County, and he also prospered in industry and commerce, and originally needed to levy and pay for forced labor, but now it has been changed to the government to pay for hiring people and providing rations to the employed, which is a typical Guen City righteousness!

Although he did not mention that he would use the money and grain he had intercepted to improve the roads and rivers, it was common sense that he must have planned to provide rations to the servants, otherwise what would he do with so much food? This is clearly Liu Bei's style! ”

After Liu Biao heard this, he was a little angry, but he was a little unwilling, and he always felt that this was harsh.

And the other faction of Yi nationality, although he also faintly felt that there might be Liu Bei's shadow behind this matter, but Yi nationality had long been unaccustomed to Kuai and Cai's style, and faintly leaned towards Liu Bei, how could he fight without reason at this time?

Liu Biao's trust in the Yi nationality is still very sufficient, because he knows that the Yi nationality has been fighting for his interests in the negotiations with Liu Bei before.

Moreover, in addition to ordinary courtesy exchanges, the Yi individual has not received any huge benefits from Liu Bei, so there is no possibility of being bought, which is rare.

How did Liu Biao know that Yi belonged to the kind of person who brought his own dry food to help Liu Bei speak, and he didn't need Liu Bei to give him huge benefits.

So Yi immediately grabbed some unpleasant parts of Kuai Yue's words, and retorted sternly: "Brother Xenodu, what are you saying!" When did it become a ruse to invite people to buy people's hearts and minds by paying light on the meager endowments, sympathizing with the suffering of the people's labor, and having the government take care of the rations?

Even if the general of the Che Cavalry did this in Changsha and Jiangxia, it was to win people's hearts. Shouldn't we compete with them fairly, and also show more favors to the people, so that the people of Wuling and Lingling can see that they can live better under the rule of the emperor than under the direct rule of the general of the chariot cavalry?

Is it because the competitors have done righteousness that we should turn around and do violent things? ”

Liu Biao is a moral gentleman after all, he still loves the people in his heart, and when Yi Yuan said this, his face really couldn't hang up, so he reprimanded Kuai Yue and asked him to reorganize his language and not talk nonsense.

Liu Biao's state of mind at this moment is estimated to be similar to that when Principal Chang heard a small report such as "Looking at this person's honesty and dedication, he is not a good woman, and he must be a xx element".

Although it is very likely that this is true, it is emotionally unacceptable.

Won't we allow a few honest people?

After thinking about this, Liu Biao also made a decision: "Accurate!" Lai Gong was allowed to intercept Lingling money and grain this year and use it to improve roads and canals. However, I will also send people to check the accounts of the use of money and grain, and promote virtue and politics, so that the people and officials of Lingling will know whose favor they have received!

Regardless of whether Liu Bei is inviting people to buy people's hearts or not, I will accompany them all! Jingzhou has not been in war for nearly ten years, and Jiangling has nearly two million grains, but it can't consume Liu Bei! ”

After hearing Liu Biao's words, Yi Yuan was also comforted in his heart, feeling that this old boss and fellow countryman for many years was still a benevolent lord after all. Although it is pedantic and indecisive, it is still good for the people.

Yi also felt a trace of guilt because of this.

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Kuai Yue had already been reprimanded by Liu Biao, and he didn't have a chance to speak at the moment, so Kuai Liang had no choice but to pick up his brother's point of view, shook his head and sighed and persuaded euphemistically:

"So that the king is confident that Jiangling has abundant money and food, and is not afraid to show kindness to the people. But foolishly thought that the envoy might have underestimated Liu Bei's financial resources.

In the past two years, Zhuge Liang has opened mines and steelmaking in Wuchang and Exian counties, carved and printed books, and made silk tea porcelain.

If you compete with Liu Bei for financial resources to buy people's hearts, I am afraid that it will be in vain in the end. ”

Liu Biao frowned when he heard this, but he didn't plan to change the decision that had already been made, he just wanted to try the water first this time, and it wouldn't cost much food anyway. If it is invalid in the end, Liu Bei's true intention has also been tried, and it is not too late to deal with it when the time comes.

The main reason is that Liu Biao is still relatively generous in terms of money and food, and he can afford to gamble with a little bit of play.

The rest is the question of who will supervise the use of Lai Gong's money and food.

Rationally speaking, you should invite a person who is not easy to collude with Lai Gongxin and deceive his superiors and subordinates together. For example, Cai Mao, Zhang Yun and the Kuai family, now the relationship with Lai Gong is not very good, and it is definitely impossible to collude to deceive Liu Biao.

But Liu Biao also realized that Cai Kui was too greedy to seize power, if they went, maybe it would evolve into Cai Mao continuing to blackmail Lai Gong, even if Lai Gong was fine, he had to shed some blood and fight Cai Mao to get out-

Didn't Liu Biao experience this kind of case last year, when Wu Ju and Lai Gong escorted the original Wuling and Lingling Taishou to the north, some things other than the accounts were used to curry favor with Cai Mao in exchange for Cai Mao's noble hand.

So much so that the ancestral jade album of the Jin Xuan family appeared in Cai Mao's courtyard in Yicheng, and Liu Biao saw it with his own eyes, but he kept silent.

If Cai Mao and his faction are allowed to supervise it again, it may be really self-defeating and directly force Lai Gong to Liu Bei's side.

With such a bad precedent, this time Liu Biao had no choice but to change his path and let Yi go instead.

Yi also said that he would definitely live up to his mission, and would definitely secretly supervise Lai Gong's behavior, and at the same time not stimulate Lai Gong and prevent the other party from falling to Liu Bei.

After receiving the order, Yi Ji hurried south. It takes about ten days to rush from Xiangyang to Lingling, and there is no need to mention it along the way.

……

At the same time that the Yi were ordered to go south and sleep in the open, Xin Bi, Tai Shi Ci and Zhuge Jun, who were adrift on the Yellow Sea, finally landed on the shore in the counties of Langya County on the fifth day of the first month of October.

Until this moment, Zhuxian and Ju County were still under Yuan Tan's rule, and they could not be directly handed over to Liu Beijun.

Therefore, Xin Bi said that he would rush to Linzi first, get the authorization of Yuan Dagongzi, and then come to settle with the defenders of Zhuxian and Juxian. However, he was able to take on some responsibilities and let Tai Shici's troops station in the advanced city and wait slowly.

Tai Shi Ci was not in a hurry, and under the coordination of Xin Bi, he brought thousands of vanguard troops into the city.

borrowed a warehouse from Yuan Jun, and in front of Yuan Tan's defenders, he moved the military aid materials and bright armor and sword halberds that Liu Bei transported to Yuan Tan into the arsenal of the counties first, temporarily affixed a seal, and handed them over to Zhuge Jun to take care of.

After doing all this, Xin Bi quickly went straight to Linzi, and met Yuan Tan three days later.

"The eldest son! Although the subordinates stumbled all the way, there were many delays. Fortunately, relying on the prestige of the lord and the sincerity of the eldest prince, he finally invited the general of the Che Cavalry to send troops to Langya, thinking that he was responding and sent a batch of ordnance to our army. The book is here, please read it for yourself. ”

When Yuan Tan saw Xin Bi, he was also mixed with joy, and he was happy that Xin Bi had a successful trip and finally got things done. Naturally, I was worried that I had lost too much time, and it had been almost three months.

During this time, Cao's offensive in Hebei became more and more rapid, although his own side held Nanpi City to the death. However, the four counties of Guangchuan, Xiuxian, Dongguang and Xinle, which are located east of Nanpi and along the coast of Zhangshui, have all been discarded.

If it weren't for Nanpicheng blocking the Zhangshui River, so that Cao Jun would not dare to risk the grain road being cut off and rashly detour with the main force, I am afraid that the lower reaches of the Zhangshui River Basin would also be lost.

In the previous defensive battle, Yuan Tan was also reluctant to rule the people to be washed by Cao Cao, so he tried to clear the wilderness in advance, and moved the people of the four counties in the upper reaches of Zhangshui to Nanpi as much as possible, and held the cage city to death.

But this kind of thing can only last for a while, not for a lifetime.

Now these people have probably moved in advance with their grain stocks after harvesting winter wheat this summer, and the grain in Nanpi will be enough to eat until next summer's harvest.

Now it is the season of winter wheat planting again, if Cao Jun can not retreat, he can only retreat and wait for the spring next year to plant spring wheat, and the harvest of spring wheat is definitely not as good as winter wheat, and the growth period is too short.

What's even worse is that if Cao Jun has not retreated by the time of spring ploughing next year, the people of Yuan Tan Jianbi Qingye will become a burden. He already regretted his greed for too much, and he didn't want to lose it at all, and as a result, he might lose even more when the time came.

In this case, although Xin Bi was late, he finally brought back good news, and Yuan Tan's expectations for him were very high.

It's a pity that as soon as Xin Bi opened his mouth, he only said one or two additional conditions for reinforcements from Liu Bei's side, and Yuan Tan changed color slightly:

This Simbi can't be an enemy, right? Why are you willing to agree to such conditions?

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