Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 792 Treat others with sincerity

Liu Biao thought about the sentence in Yuan Xi's letter about wanting the three major families in Jingzhou to send people as envoys to Jianghuai. It did not specify names, but just said that the more the merrier.

This is not a mission, this is an official mission!

Yuan Xi's move seemed to be an obvious poaching, but in fact it scratched Liu Biao's itch, because Yuan Xi's move gave Liu Biao an excuse to distract the power of several major families.

Again, Liu Biao, like Yuan Shao, has no shortage of talents under his command. On the contrary, the number of families in Jingzhou has exceeded Liu Biao's ability. What he lacks is people who are loyal to him.

Liu Biao supported the Cai family and the Kuai family to rise to power. The other major families must be dissatisfied. If the main members of the family can be allowed to go to Jianghuai to serve as officials, they can take this opportunity to sell each family a favor, secretly. The purpose is to weaken his voice in Jingzhou, so that there will be fewer incidents when the successor is handed over in the future.

Liu Biaogen could also use this to get closer to Yuan Xi, and all he had to do was pay for some nobles that he didn't really need. It was really a matter of killing two birds with one stone!

Only then did Liu Biao realize that this was Yuan Xi's hint. If he wanted to join forces with him, he would have to pay a price, and the talent mentioned in the letter was a test of his sincerity!

The brilliance of this method is that the other party is obviously negotiating terms with him, but in fact it also helps him. Yuan Xi is short of people, but Liu Biao suffers from the excessive local power in Jingzhou. Both of them get what they need. In fact, It’s quite a clever method!

Liu Biao was deeply aware of Fang Chengfu's sophistication. He also had a detailed understanding of what Yuan Xi had done in the past few years. If he didn't take action, he would definitely achieve his goal. A large part of the reason was that the conditions he proposed did not harm Yuan Xi. The interests of the allies are, on the contrary, the allies are happy to see the results.

He couldn't help but sigh deeply, he really made a mistake. Among Yuan Benchu's three sons, this one was the one who was the most hidden and the one who could best inherit Yuan Shao's mantle. The other sons only had his form but not his spirit.

He looked at Liu Bei in front of him and thought that he was also a heroic figure. There were not many people in the world who could convince him. This was a man who would take softness but not hardness. Only by treating him with sincerity and virtue would he be temporarily convinced and for Used by oneself.

Thinking of this, Liu Biao chuckled and said, "I roughly understand the meaning of Yuan Shijun's letter. He is very interested in people from the three tribes and wants them to go to Shouchun to serve as officials."

"This is a good thing. I will contact the three tribes tomorrow to see if they want it. If they don't want it, I won't force it. If they want it, I will send someone to send it by ship."

Seeing Liu Biao agreeing so happily, Liu Bei quickly stood up and thanked him. His heart felt light. He was not sure about coming this time, but the matter was resolved satisfactorily, which made him extremely happy. After all, he owed Yuan Xi a lot of favors, and now he could Helping him accomplish something is a way of returning a favor.

Liu Biao continued: "Xiandi has great ambitions. No matter what he does in the future, I will believe in Xiandi's talent and virtue."

"There is nothing else in Jingzhou, but there are many people who are suitable for counselors and officials. If I am short of people, I can go and recruit them. If I can't find anyone, I can also recommend them on my behalf. As long as the other party is willing, I will never stop them. "

After hearing this, Liu Bei stood up and cried, "Bei deeply appreciates my brother's great kindness and kindness, and will never dare to do anything to disgrace my brother!"

Liu Biao laughed, raised his glass and said: "My dear brother, don't be too polite. Maybe in the future, I will be in trouble and want to entrust you to my dear brother. I'm in a good mood today, so I'll have a good drink all night!"

The two parties were having a good time, and the host and guest were enjoying themselves. The next day, Liu Biao sent people to the three families to convey the words in Yuan Xi's letter. The three families listened, and many of them were moved.

After all, Yuan Xi's reputation in the world is extremely loud now, and he is also believed by many people to have the ability to compete for the world. In this regard, he is much stronger than Liu Biao, so many people are starting to get excited.

However, the three families did not yet know Liu Biao's true intentions, so they were still waiting and watching. Liu Biao was not in a hurry, waiting for the three families to send people to Shouchun to contact and test, and at the same time wrote to Yuan Xi to explain the situation.

He could calm down now, because Yuan Xi said this in his heart, which had already shown his willingness to talk about joining forces with Liu Biao. Under this premise, Yuan Xi and Jiangdong, who were previously afraid of Liu Biao, joined forces to attack Jingzhou. The chance was already low, so Liu Biao could afford to wait.

But Liu Biao knew it, but Kuai Yue in Shouchun didn't, and Jiangdong didn't know either, so both sides were very anxious now.

What made Kuai more anxious was that Yuan Xi's reaction was completely different from what he had expected before setting off. Logically speaking, the Kuai family was already the closest and most powerful people to Liu Biao. Did the other party's attitude mean that they didn't want to talk to him?

He thought about it and felt that he still needed to find a breakthrough. Finally, Kuai Yue thought of the relationship between the Kuai family and the Zhuge family, so he personally visited Zhuge Liang. While seeking relatives, he wanted Zhuge Liang to help open up the joints.

This is true for Kuai Yue, and even more so for Jiangdong.

Originally, after Jiangdong was defeated, many people were quite unconvinced and kept procrastinating on the peace talks. However, they were completely panicked after hearing about Liu Biao sending envoys to Shouchun.

Jiang Dong and Liu Biao were afraid of the same thing. Liu Biao was afraid of Yuan Xi and Jiangdong joining forces, and Jiang Dong was also afraid of Yuan Xi and Liu Biao joining forces. What's more, the battle between the two sides was extremely tragic. Although Jiang Dong suffered heavy casualties, Yuan Xi's casualties should not be underestimated.

What Jiangdong is most afraid of now is that Yuan Xi will unite with Liu Biao's navy to attack Jiangdong in anger. When the time comes, no one will be confident that they can resist it!

So Sun Quan urgently summoned his subordinates for discussion. Although many Jiangdong officials felt that they were disgraced, they still had to pinch their noses and admit that Jiangdong needed a long period of stability at this time, and during this period it was not suitable to use large-scale weapons, so the first The first priority is to negotiate peace with Yuan Xi as soon as possible.

Moreover, Jiangdong has now lost the opportunity, and he is afraid that Yuan Xi is already preparing to ask for a sky-high price. In this regard, Sun Quan also painfully ceded part of the benefits as compensation for negotiating with Yuan Xi. When Sun Quan talked about the benefits of letting go, his hands in his sleeves were shaking. He was thinking, was it a mistake to not listen to his mother's advice and send troops?

Yuan Xi in Shouchun is actually not easy either. Although he has already discussed with Zhuge Liang and Lu Xun, after this battle, as long as Jiangdong is not mentally retarded, there should be no more wars in the next year. For this reason, Jiangdong may want to cut some flesh in private. Yuan Xi can also use this to get a wave of blood back.

According to Zhuge Liang's proposal, the best situation is to join forces with Liu Biao, have a truce with Jiangdong, and act as a mediator between the two, so that Yuan Xi can obtain the maximum benefit.

To achieve this, Yuan Xi is not in a hurry to take back the towns on the north bank of the Lujiang River, because only in this way can Jiangdong retain a waterway to attack Jingzhou and Jiangxia at any time.

As long as this is possible, Jiangdong's intention to plot Jingzhou will never disappear, and only in this way will Jingzhou always maintain a close relationship with Yuan Xi.

Yuan Xi adopted Zhuge Liang's advice. Now the situation in Jianghuai has turned into a slow-cooking ink painting. There is no rush. Yuan Xi can only wait patiently, but another thing is to let him and Zhuge Liang It's been a lot of thought these past few days.

In order to launch the next war against Cao Cao and Yuan Tan, Yuan Xi needed to raise a considerable amount of food, grass and baggage, which required a lot of money.

Unlike the later Cao family who exhausted their fishing resources, leading to the collapse of Wei's economy, Yuan Xi was looking for a sustainable development path. However, there was no industrial foundation in this era, and the potential of agriculture was really limited. It was already quite difficult to ensure that the people under his rule had enough to eat. It's not easy. If Yuan Xi and Zhuge Liang want to make money from food, they will do more harm than good after all calculations.

Therefore, if this road fails, we can only find other ways. One is to develop technology to improve production efficiency, and the other is to develop commerce to promote circulation and accumulate money.

Nowadays, Yuan Xi's territory mainly consists of two areas, one is the salt and iron from Youzhou, and the other is the minerals from Xuzhou and products from overseas trade routes. Now plus Lujiang, Jiujiang, this is an extremely prosperous place in the Jianghuai region, and the nobles have a lot of savings. What Yuan Xi and Zhuge Liang are planning is to take out the money from these nobles now.

Zhuge Liang sighed: "The most expensive ones are naturally the handicrafts and the luxuries my lord calls them."

"But these things are too labor-intensive, time-consuming and labor-intensive. The cost of raw materials is very high, and the production time is extremely long. If you want to recover the cost, you still have to find a buyer. It is really not suitable for the current situation."

Yuan Xi thought the same thing. He and Zhuge Liang expected to be sick in two or three months. This was the summer flood season, and the water flow in the rivers surged and the flow speed became faster. It was very convenient for transporting troops and grain, and it was very convenient for elite watermen. Yuan Xi of the army is most advantageous.

He sighed: "It's a pity. I originally wanted to sell the five-stone powder. I would mix it with some sugar and sell it to the nobles. It must be very popular."

Zhuge Liang had a straight face, "My lord is a man who conquers the world with benevolence and righteousness, how can he do such a thing?"

"My lord, won't your conscience hurt?"

Yuan Xi said with a playful smile: "How can I have any conscience? Besides, Wu Shi San is so popular now. I just add some sugar. Is it harming them?"

Zhuge Liang said with a straight face: "This matter is not right after all. We will discuss it later. If it were my words, my lord might as well write more poems like the peacock flying to the southeast, then write it on a silk screen, sign it with his name and sell it , the Jianghuai gentry wanted to spend a lot of money to buy it just to save the young master’s face, how much better would it be to just buy it with just five stones?”

Yuan Xi said with a downcast face: "This is a good idea, but it can't be used much. It can only make a small amount of money."

He thought that Zhuge Liang had a very accurate vision. In this era, he was ready to develop a fan economy, but these things were not large-scale. To form a stable income, a stable model was still needed.

In this regard, Zhuge Liang was naturally more suitable than Lu Xun. After all, Lu Xun was the head of a wealthy family. He was somewhat resistant to business, a lowly industry that nobles looked down upon, so Yuan Xi did not force it.

On the contrary, Zhuge Liang was very relaxed. Although he was born into a wealthy family, most of his clansmen died due to massacres in his family, and he was forced to live in other places. He has long lost his former glory.

Zhuge Liang also suffered a lot during his escape. Seeing the hardships of people's livelihood in the world, he often regarded himself as a village man in the mountains. He also understood Yuan Xi's thoughts, so he was also willing to contact businessmen.

In addition, Zhuge Liang has a strong thirst for knowledge. When he encounters something he does not understand, he wants to find out. He is also very interested in the economic theory written by Yuan Xi, so he wants to verify his ideas in the process of exploring business. .

Zhuge Liang said: "The most stable income now is to exchange what is needed between Youzhou, Xuzhou, Jianghuai, and use sea transportation to reduce costs and earn the price difference."

"But now there is a problem. As the scale of waterborne trade expands, the supply of goods is starting to become insufficient."

(End of this chapter)