I seek economic hegemony in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 385: Want to raise an army of ?
The seventh day of April, Jiangling.

"General, I am dead." Du Yu said. "I heard that I was beaten half to death by the crowd in Jianye City. I was dying before I was cut in half. Under Zhang Xiu's initiative, Jianye has now begun a comprehensive investigation with us. People who are having fornication.”

Li Heng sat at the table and poured a cup of tea for Du Yu: "Chang Chang, the tea leaves were just shipped from Wuling County yesterday. They were picked during the Qingming Festival."

"Wuling County?" Du Yu asked curiously, "Is this tea grown in Nanman?"

"Yes."

Only then did Du Yu come to his senses, picked up a cup and drank it, and couldn't help but sigh: "The fragrance is endless. The barbarians have been growing tea for more than three years, and now many places have begun to pick it."

"Well, there should be a lot of people bringing tea to Gangneung this year."

"In this way, we can transport the tea to Xiangyang, sell it to Cao Wei, and make a lot of money."

"Don't provoke Sima Yi now." Li Heng said with a smile, "I have a hunch that we will be able to use troops against Sun Wu soon. If Sima Yi is provoked now, I am worried that the Xiangyang defense line will be under pressure."

"Then transport the tea to Guanzhong and let the prime minister sell it to the Qiang people or even Hexi to supplement Guanzhong's financial resources."

Li Heng nodded.

"So we must prepare an army of 200,000 troops. We cannot expect to collect many surrendered Wu troops."

This is the consequence of the sudden lengthening of the battle front.

Moreover, after the destruction of Wu, the bureaucracy also increased rapidly. It was necessary to have an effective civil service system to ensure the normal operation of counties and counties.

"Let the arrows fly for a while before shooting. Jianye will be in chaos." Li Heng said lightly, "How about the Jiangling soldiers and horses?"

Du Yu continued: "After we destroy Wu, Jiangxia County in Wuchang will deploy at least 50,000 troops, and Danyang County in Jianye will deploy at least 100,000 troops to prevent the Wei army from taking the opportunity to go south. And we don't have time to regroup our troops."

"Now that Wu Can is dead, what else can we do?" Du Yu asked again.

"Of course Sima Yi doesn't allow it, but he can't prohibit it." As he said that, Li Heng took another sip of tea. In this era without drinks, tea is so precious!

"I just want Cao Wei to sell goods to us."

"Will Sima Yi allow it?"

"What kind of goods can Cao Wei have?" Du Yu thought carefully, "Iron and grain?"

"That's what I think." Li Heng said, "As for Jingzhou's tea sales to the north, I want to wait until after Wu is destroyed to launch a full-scale product dumping on Cao Wei, and require that tea must be purchased with our paper money."

"Yes, especially Xuzhou, there are many irons, Qingzhou also has a lot of cloth and silk, and Jizhou has war horses."

"In this case, Cao Wei must sell us goods so that he can have banknotes in his hands."

"Yes, 200,000." Du Yu sighed, "Add Xiangyang's 70,000 and 270,000 troops. With such a huge military strength, I'm worried that it will impose a heavy burden on people's livelihood!"

So how much money and food does it cost to raise an army of 270,000?
In theory, 162 million stones are consumed in a year, but in reality, 300 million stones may be consumed.

"The additional 20,000 soldiers and horses are all recruited from Jiangxia County and Changsha County. It is expected that another 10,000 soldiers and horses will be added this year. As of now, the total force of Nan County has reached 70,000."

According to this era, one acre of land south of the Yangtze River could produce 1.2 tons of grain per year, requiring 250 million acres of land.

If military and civilian food were distributed according to the 1500-year principle, million acres of land would be needed to grow food to supply the army.

Of course, can you mention the three-to-seven ratio, or the four-to-six ratio? Can!

However, in the era of paper currency issuance, it is easy to ruin people's livelihood.

People's livelihood is the fundamental foundation. Once people's livelihood collapses, the army will collapse. This is basic common sense.

Unless Li Heng wants to build the Han army into a bandit army on the ruins and rely on robbery to maintain it.

But this kind of army can survive in a short period of time, but if it takes a little longer, it will be consumed by the Wei army.

Maintaining the ratio of 28 is considered the most reasonable.

Fifteen million acres of farmland is obviously a bit difficult for people south of the Yangtze River in this era.

After all, even the first southward crossing has not happened yet, and the south of the Yangtze River is a deserted land, which can be seen in Nanjun, Changsha and Jiangxiajun in Jingzhou and Danyang and Wujun in Yangzhou.

And the combined fields and population of these places may not be comparable to Cao Wei's Yuzhou.

The so-called competition between countries is essentially a competition between productivity, resources and systems, and none of them can be eliminated.

Productivity can make resources larger, and a good system can rationally utilize these resources and let them play their due role.

That's why Li Hengcai told Du Yu that the role of tea was to wait until the south of the Yangtze River was recovered, and then launch a dumping strategy against Cao Wei to obtain the most basic supplies to ensure that the resource-poor side could fight against the resource-rich side in the north.

This is a helpless thing. If resources are scarce, we can only use other high-value commodities to hedge.

It can also be seen from this point that war is not just a contest between generals.

The reason why the history books show which generals are the best is because the operations on the rear are too complicated and the generals are passionate enough to turn into stories, which is easier for the public to understand.

Li Heng fell into deep thought.

Du Yu said: "It is feasible to exchange tea from the Central Plains for grain, but once Sima Yi develops a multi-front war, it will inevitably affect the grain trade. When necessary, Sima Yi will use war to destroy our grain in a self-destructive way. check."

"So after destroying Wu, we must carefully manage Jiaozhou!" Li Heng lamented, "When we were recovering Wuling County and other places, I asked Bu Zhi when we could recover Jiaozhou. He said that if Jianye is not destroyed, we can't. Take over Jiaozhou. But if Jianye is destroyed, Jiaozhou will be within the palm of your hand.”

Du Yu said with a smile: "For Bu Zhi, it is in the palm of your hand. We have a general like Bu Zhi, which will be of great benefit to us in the next confrontation between the north and the south!"

"By the way, what's the news about Wang Ling?" Li Heng asked suddenly.

"The situation in Yangzhou is not good. Sima Yi has completed the deployment of troops on the Tongguan front. I got news this morning that Guo Huai was transferred to Chenliu and served as the governor of Yuzhou on the pretext of rectifying the Yuzhou army."

"What's Wang Ling's reaction?"

"Unable to reach the core, unable to detect Wang Ling's intentions."

Li Heng sighed and said: "Stop hiding it, let our people go directly to see Wang Ling. He can't win this game. If there is a chance, help him escape to Jiangling."

"Is there no chance at all?"

"No, Sima Yi not only has the tiger charm to mobilize the country's troops, but also the most elite soldiers and horses of Cao Wei. Now Guo Huai has arrived in Yuzhou again. Sima Yi has completely given up on Guanzhong and only focused on defense. Whether it is Wang Ling or Guanqiu Even Jian can’t shake the Sima family.”

"Okay, I'll make arrangements."

(End of this chapter)