I am not an ant thief in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 510, Drought is coming

At the beginning of April in the second year of Jian'an (197 AD)!
Bingzhou, Jinyang, Southern Expedition Headquarters!
The main goal of this Southern Expedition is to conquer Luoyang City and Chang'an City.So Xu Wei sat in Jinyang and commanded the army to fight.

But Xu Wei didn't expect that the bad news from Yanzhou would arrive before the battle started.

Xu Wei looked at Huang Lao's Flying Pigeon and said helplessly: "Yanzhou is about to suffer another drought. This drought is really not coming at the right time!"

Wang Ge on the side said in surprise: "You said Yanzhou is suffering another drought? Impossible! Yanzhou has just ended a three-year drought, and God has to breathe a sigh of relief!"

Xu Wei said with a bitter face: "Yanzhou has not had a drop of water since spring plowing, and this is a precursor to drought. According to the practice of the past few years, drought is a high probability event!"

Xu Wei knew that natural disasters and man-made disasters never stopped at the end of the Han Dynasty. He had no expectations for this year's weather at all. As long as there is any sign of disaster, there must be worse news behind it.

Xu Wei asked Jia Xu, "How long has it been since it rained in Bingzhou? Is there a sign of drought?"

The message from Huanglong made Xu Wei suddenly realize that he had been in Bingzhou for half a month, and it seemed that there was not a drop of water in this half month, and the temperature was higher than in previous years.

Jia Xu is not very clear, he is not an official of Bingzhou, he and Xu Wei came to Bingzhou, and they have been dealing with military affairs.

But he still said immediately: "Your subordinate, just ask the local people!"

Soon Jia Xu came over and said: "The local people also said that there was no rain in Taiyuan County for about a month, and the river water this year is much less than in previous years. As for other counties and counties in Bingzhou, this is not clear to me!"

Xu Wei sighed and said, "It means that the scope of this drought is very wide, even Bingzhou will suffer from drought! I just don't know how the situation of Youzhou and Jizhou is. If these two prefectures are also affected, then the extent of this drought will The scope will be extremely vast, and most of the Han country will be covered!"

Xu Wei immediately said to Jia Xu: "Send these news to Niu Gui, so that the prefects and county magistrates of all counties and counties in Hebei will pay attention to the drought in Hebei, and make preparations for disaster prevention and fighting!"

Jia Xu nodded and said, "No!"

After 5 days like this, Feige, the prefect and county magistrate from all over Hebei, sent letters and spread the local news to Jinyang, but it was not good news. All counties and counties reported that there was less rain, and the closer to Yanzhou, the more rain. Not much, but the weather in Youzhou and Liaodong is still normal, which is a blessing among misfortunes. At least the granary in Liaodong has been saved. Even if the grain production is reduced this year, it will still be enough for the people in Hebei to eat.

Xu Wei looked at the big Han map in front of him. The positions of the various armies of Dagan had been marked on it. They were ready to attack Yuzhou and Sili before he gave an order.

But at this time Xu Wei was a little hesitant. If there was no news of the drought, he would naturally wipe out Yuan Tan's forces without hesitation.

But now it seems that the scope of this drought is extremely wide. If a war is launched at this time, the number of people who starve to death may be dozens of times more than those who died in battle.

Why did the Han people in history have a population of more than [-] million, and after a hundred years of wars, there are no more than [-] million people? It is because in the case of continuous natural disasters, the princes of the Han Dynasty not only did not let go of the war, but also had many outlets to take advantage of. The Scourge deals a fatal blow to its opponent.

Just like Cao Cao in history, he ran out of food several times during battles, but he defeated his opponents by being ruthless. Cao Cao's opponents ran out of food, and the army collapsed, but even if Cao Cao ate rice and meat, he killed the officials. , but also to fight the war, it was with this ruthlessness that Cao Cao wiped out all the princes in the Central Plains.

But the evil consequences are also extremely large. Every place occupied by Cao Cao must be like locusts crossing the border, eating up all the food. Naturally, the common people do not survive one out of ten, and the surviving common people also hated Cao Cao to the bone, which caused constant turmoil in Cao Cao's later period, and even rebelled in places like Nanyang County, which he occupied for more than ten years.

It is also because there are too many princes like Cao Cao that the common people of the Han Dynasty suffered heavy casualties under the joint action of natural disasters and man-made disasters, and even the Central Plains were uninhabited.

And the princes like Liu Bei who ran out of food when the army didn't rob the people became different.

Back then Xu Wei didn't like Cao Cao, but liked princes like Liu Bei, so when he played Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he always played Liu Bei.

But what is the difference between what I am doing now and Cao Cao?How many people will be killed if hundreds of thousands of troops rush to the Central Plains at this time?
But it is very difficult to stop the war. Not to mention that the arrow is on the string and has to be launched, it is said that stopping the war now is the morale of the army, and it will also be greatly affected.

Sure enough, it is easy to become Cao Cao, but it is very difficult to become a person like Liu Bei.

Seeing Xu Wei's delay, Jia Xu asked, "Don't worry about the generals at the front when you are in power?"

Xu Wei smiled wryly and said, "I was thinking, the Central Plains is about to suffer another drought, how many innocent people will be killed when we launch a war?"

Hearing this, Wang Ge was shocked and said: "We have been in power for more than half a year to prepare for a big battle. Now the soldiers are in full swing, and the food and grass on the front line are piled up like a mountain. We spent tens of billions of money on these preparations. Stop this war now, and our early preparations will be in vain! This will even affect the morale of the front line!"

Wang Ge has been in power with them for ten years, and he knows that although they are in power, they are decisive in killing the powerful and nobles, but they treat the people with a bit of benevolence. When the natural disaster broke out in the Central Plains, it caused millions of refugees. This has nothing to do with them Relationship.

But it was the ruling party who cared about the life and death of these people, exhausted the granary in Mayi, and made millions of people hungry, which made the millions of people in the Central Plains alive.

He is really worried that the ruling will be benevolent to women, so stop the war at this time!
When Jia Xu heard Xu Wei's words, he immediately persuaded him: "The government thinks that my big granary is enough to feed the people of Sili and Yuzhou. You are worried that they will starve to death in the war, but you don't know how many people in Sili and Yuzhou starved to death this year! According to the information I got, tens of thousands of people in Yuan Tan’s territory starved to death this year, hundreds of thousands of people fled to Jingzhou alone, and Sili also fled hundreds of thousands of people to our Hebei.”

"Look, this man is just a dude. Last year, the whole man had a bumper harvest, but Yuzhou and Sili still starved to death. You are in power! Do you think that if you don't capture Yuzhou and Sili this year, many people will die in these two places!"

"It's impossible. You never thought about Yuan Tan's viciousness. He can starve people to death even in a good harvest year. If it was a drought year, the people in Yuzhou and Sili would have starved to death long ago. If you don't attack Yuzhou this year, I'm afraid that Yuzhou will be deserted for thousands of miles, and more people will starve to death by then!"

Xu Wei was awakened by the words that there were no people in the thousands of miles. He really couldn't have too much expectations for a son like Yuan Tan who came from a wealthy family.Instead of waiting for Yuan Tan to come to help the people, let him come!

So Xu Wei said firmly: "Send the order, on April [-]th, all armies will attack Sili and Yuzhou at the same time!"

(End of this chapter)