Luoyang, Wei Xinggong.

Cao Pi's steps were hurried, his face was full of indignation, and he scolded and scolded: "The incompetent man, who lost his teacher and lost his land, actually let Huo Jun break the next Pi." ”

When Sun Ying saw Cao Pi enter the palace, she happily got up and greeted him, and said softly: "What made Your Majesty so angry? ”

Seeing that it was Sun Ying, Cao Pi's anger disappeared slightly, and he said angrily: "Huo Jun defeated Xu Huai's army, and a group of incompetent people scattered and fled, and sat back and watched Xiapi be broken by Huo Jun. ”

And Cao Xiu was still impeaching Jia Kui, and the next Pi was broken because Jia Kui couldn't rescue him. Cao Wenlie can't think about himself? If he hadn't defeated Huo Jun, how could he have lost his life? ”

Huo Jun's defeat of the Wei army at Xu Huai, coupled with the contradictions between Jia and Cao, led to the dispersion and separation of Jia Kui, Cao Xiu, Zang Ba and other departments. That said, but they were not without effort.

When Huo Jun besieged Xiapi, they kept in touch with each other by letters, trying to wait for the Hebei soldiers and horses to go south, and then they led the soldiers and horses to enter together and rescue the trapped Xiapi City.

Unexpectedly, before Huo Jun sent the Hebei reinforcements south, it only took twenty days to break Xiapi with the tunnel method, which made the Wei generals, who had rectified the defeated army, have no time to react, so they had to watch Xiapi City being breached.

Cao Xiu still did not forget the contradiction between himself and Jia Kui, and Shangshu impeached Jia Kui for leading the troops and horses and not saving Picheng. Jia Kui couldn't let Cao Xiu slander himself in vain, so he immediately refuted it and impeached Cao Xiu.

The contradiction between the two sides once again made Cao Pi, who was uncomfortable for the loss of Xiapi City, feel more and more unhappy in his heart, and he couldn't wait to scold Cao Xiu in front of him.

Cao Pi took advantage of the absence of outsiders on the left and right to vent his dissatisfaction in his heart and said: "Cao Xiu is incompetent, he has lost his teacher and humiliated the country, and he is the general of the clan in vain!" ”

"Yin Li and Zang Ba thieves do not change their habits, if they are profitable, they will advance, and if they are unfavorable, they will retreat, the generals will not be able to govern the county, and they will be incompetent in governing the county. The first emperor used Zang and Ma to guard the border, which was a big mistake! ”

In Cao Pi's eyes, if it weren't for Cao Cao's greed to save trouble and the reuse of Zang and Ma to guard the border, the current situation would not have become so ugly.

Zang Ba was loyal, but he was too incompetent and was defeated by Huo Jun repeatedly. Ma Chao was capricious, taking advantage of the chaos in Guanlong, he sent troops to divide Longyou.

Thinking of Ma Chao today, Cao Pi is ashamed and angry!

Under Cao Pi's angry scolding, although the tone was angry, there was a little helplessness in his words. Although Liu Bei is withdrawing from the army today, the chaotic situation between the east and the west has overwhelmed him.

The eldest sister Sun Ying kept comforting Cao Pi and said with relief: "Your Majesty, there is no endless road to heaven. Although the situation is complicated today, it is easier than when the first emperor rebelled. When the first emperor raised his army, Yuan Shao was in the north, Liu Biao was in the south, and Tao Qian was in the east, which was in the land of four wars. ”

"Now Your Majesty sits on the territory of China, with thousands of generals and millions of soldiers, why can't you destroy Liu Bei in the south and surpass the horses in the west?"

Saying that, Sun Ying pulled Cao Pi to sit down on the couch and said, "Your Majesty, although the concubine doesn't know about the military, she knows a little about the battle. For example, the war between the two countries is likened to a children's battle, and the water thieves invaded north again and again, attacking the hinterland of Huaibei and Kansai. Our country has been defending for a long time without fighting, and we should seek an opportunity to march south, plunder the city and destroy its army. ”

"Southern Expedition?"

Hearing this, Cao Pi showed a thoughtful look, obviously with a lot of intentions.

He had long had the idea of going south, but remembering Cao Cao's dying words to let him go south, coupled with Liu Bei's early northern expedition, his plan for the southern expedition was aborted.

Now, like Sun Ying's children's fighting words, just being beaten is not a long-term solution. If you can fight back and burn the flames of war to the territory of the water thieves, even if you can't win a big victory, you can still capture the opponent's city and destroy the production of the water thieves.

And now, with the combat effectiveness of the northern army's foot cavalry, how can ordinary water thieves in the south stop it?

Cao Pi secretly made up his mind and said: "What Ying'er said is reasonable, the words left by the first emperor to 'accumulate national strength and stop the war' are not a long-term strategy. Now we should look for an opportunity to go south to see if we can inflict heavy losses on the old thieves and restore the old land. ”

Sun Ying showed a sweet smile and said: "Although the first emperor has been fighting horses all his life, he was invincible in the world in his early years. But since old age, he was defeated at Jinkou at first, and then defeated in Hanzhong. The battle of Xiangfan, although there are mountains and rivers, but also frustrated Xinye. ”

"One defeat of Liu Bei, two defeats of Huo Jun, is the appearance of old age, and there is no trend of dominating the world in the past, so the words of the first emperor cannot be fully believed. Your Majesty is at the peak of his youth, and the male soldiers under his account are like clouds, how can he not be as good as water thieves, shrimps, soldiers and crabs? ”

After speaking, Sun Ying covered her mouth with a towel and snickered.

"Shrimp soldiers and crab generals?"

Hearing this, Cao Pi rubbed the beauty into his arms, rubbed his chest, and laughed.

While Cao Pi and Sun Ying were frolicking, the attendants hurriedly broke into the palace and interrupted the upcoming hand-to-hand combat uninterestingly.

"Your Majesty~"

Interrupted by his subordinates about to start the battle, Cao Pi was in a bad mood, and asked with a cold face, "Why are you so anxious?" ”

The attendant lowered his head and said, "Your Majesty, Liu Bei led the army to retreat, and let the king of the city lead the troops to pursue, but he was unfortunate and did not ambush the battle!" ”

"What?"

Hearing that Cao Zhang died in battle, Cao Pi was not calm for a moment, and asked, "How can King Rencheng fight?" Could it be that there is a mistake in the military report? ”

"Don't dare to deceive Your Majesty!"

The attendant didn't dare to raise his head, lowered his head and said: "Shang Shutai is here, Sima Fujun's special letter is reported, and the coffin of King Rencheng is already on the way." His body was indestructible, except that his head had been cut off by the water thieves. ”

"This~"

Hearing the news of Cao Zhang's death, Cao Pi was in a trance, and he didn't know what to say.

said that he was not sad, but it was completely false, after all, he was his half-brother and half-mother. But in addition to being sad, I am also relieved.

In the past, Cao Zhi competed with him for the position of prince, and Cao Zhang actually supported Cao Zhi. Although Cao Zhang's death in battle today has an impact on the overall situation of the country, indirectly, it is beneficial to him.

"Your Majesty~"

Seeing that Cao Pi didn't answer, the attendant looked up at Cao Pi's expression, and then lowered his head again.

Cao Pi waved his hand and said sadly: "Posthumously crowned the king of Rencheng as the king of Liang, and ordered Dahonglu to hold the funeral of the king of Rencheng, and choose the nickname, there must be no mistake." ”

"No!"

Everyone died, and Cao Pi was not stingy, and directly posthumously crowned Cao Zhang as the king of Liang.

In one day, the news of Cao Zhang's death in battle was revealed by someone and spread throughout Luoyang City. When Empress Dowager Bian heard the news, she almost fainted from crying.

——

Not to mention that Cao Zhang was buried in a beautiful way, and now Huo Jun is dealing with the government affairs at hand.

Huaiyin, the camp of the Han army.

Huo Jun flipped through a towel handed to him by Liu Zhong and asked: "After years of war, Donghai County is almost unoccupied, even if the people around Xiapi are moved, but if you want to go north to Qingxu, the population here is still too scarce, so what can you do?" ”

Huo Jun has been working hard to restore the vitality of Jianghuai all year round, hoping to build Jianghuai into a base, so as to use Jianghuai as a base. If the population is small and there is no one to serve, the army has no logistics to speak of.

Today, with the capture of Xiapi City, if you don't cut down Shouchun, but take the Yishui Northern Expedition and attack Qingxu, this will be far away from Jianghuai. If there is no stable logistics base for such a use of troops, once the Wei army fights for a long time, it will fall into a shortage of food.

In order to solve the problem of long-distance supply, JAC needs a larger population.

"Governor, it's better to let the original household registration people return to their hometowns!" Jiang Ji said.

"I'm afraid it's not easy!"

Huo Jun put down the towel and said, "Those people have settled in Wuyue for more than ten years, and they have already lived and worked in peace and contentment. If they move north, it may be inconvenient. Not to mention the wishes of the people, the matter of relocating the people and restoring the land now must not only be promised by Yangzhou County, but also approved by Jingshi. ”

Jiang Ji was confident and said: "Jianghuai and Yangzhou both have land, if the governor elaborates on the strategy of the Northern Expedition, it is expected that the prime minister will agree." If the prime minister can agree, can the counties of Yangzhou disagree? ”

There are many interests involved in letting the old people of Jianghuai return to the land.

Under the Southern Han system, each county guard had its own assessment standard, which was formulated by Zhuge Liang according to the actual situation of each state and county. The most important of these criteria is the effective population and the actual amount of taxes.

To return the old people of Jianghuai to the land is to reduce the effective population and the number of taxes paid under the rule of each county. To put it mildly, this will affect their assessment and promotion. To put it more broadly, as the population enters and leaves the country, the state revenue decreases, and the money spent will be more.

"Forced relocation should not be forced."

Huo Jun pondered for a while and said, "As Zitong said, let me go up to Your Majesty and write letters to the prime minister." With the talent of the prime minister, he thinks it is feasible and must have appropriate measures. ”

This matter is no longer something that can be solved within Jianghuai, and Zhuge Liang needs to come forward to deal with it.

After a pause, Huo Jun looked at the people in the big tent and asked, "Do you have different opinions?" ”

"Governor, our army used to use Yuzhou as a land, and went north to plunder a lot of people. Now it is better to return to the old policy, order the big ship sailors to go north, rob and relocate the people of Qingzhou to the south, and move the houses to Huaidong. ”

Gao Xiang still remembered the incident of going north to Yuzhou more than ten years ago, and said: "If the people are plundered to the south, if there is one less family of people for each thief, there will be one more family of people in our army." Between the gains and losses of the people's strength, this will greatly benefit our army. And in the future, they will be supervised into Qingzhou, with Qingren as a guide, why worry about the geography is not familiar. ”

Huo Jun touched his mustache and said with a light smile: "Although this strategy is good, I am afraid that it will damage the name of Your Majesty's benevolence and make the young people afraid of our army." ”

Taking advantage of the naval army, when the pirates plundered the people of Qingzhou, for every loss of people in Qingzhou, there would be one more family of people in the Southern Han Dynasty, which was a good strategy. But the reputation is too stinky, which will not be conducive to Huo Jun's northward journey in the future.

"This matter is easy!"

Jiang Ji stroked his beard and smiled, and said: "There are many people in the world who value profits, so it is better to send the old young people to the north, sneak into the townships and counties, and lure them with wealth and nobility." Those who move south will be exempted from taxes, given grain, rewarded houses, and divided land. In the long run, there will be many poor people who will settle in the south. ”

"When the governor gave money and food to the new young people to go north, luring the villagers and friends to go south, and so on, there must be many people who go south."

"Zitong's strategy is feasible!"

Huo Jun nodded and said: "Not only that, but if you think it is feasible to share the interest and rebate points, if there is a villager who goes south because of one person, he will reward this person with money and food." If the villagers can persuade others to go south, the money and food can be distributed to the above two, layer by layer, interlocking, and the people will not do it? ”

(End of chapter)