I seek economic hegemony in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 63: Tempting with interests and deterring with force

Yang Yi asked: "Are you sure that Lord Wei will change his strategy?"

It is not an option to continue attacking like this desperately.

Yang Yi even doubted the correctness of this strategy.

In the battle situation in April, the Han army gathered east of Xieshui, and the main force was located in Wuzhangyuan.

To advance can be attacked, and retreat can be defended.

Now they are surrounded, but they can only defend.

If we can only defend, we will lose the ability of the large army to stretch, and the enemy will continue to increase its troops.

Not only will it be consumed, but it will also be trapped to death.

"Yang Changshi, you must be clear about one thing."

"What's the matter?" Yang Yi felt a little unhappy that Li Heng actually dared to speak to her in an educational tone.

Which onion are you?
Li Heng ignored him whether Yang Yi was happy or not, and said bluntly: "You must understand why Sima Yi never went to war before, but now he goes out in full force."

"He is worried about our army taking root here and becoming self-sufficient. This is what you said before."

"Yes, but when they find that even if Luoyang recruits reinforcements, they can't effectively consume us, what will they do? Continue the attack?"

Yang Yi fell silent.

There is a real case of this, which was only more than ten years ago.

Liu Bei and Cao Cao fought for Hanzhong.

Cao Cao wanted to seize Bashu, so he first went south from Guanzhong to Hanzhong.

If Liu Bei wants to keep Yizhou, he must capture Guanzhong.

The two sides started fighting.

Cao Cao never fought in the end.

What should I do if I haven’t had a fight?

Continue to increase troops?
It's obviously impossible. If we continue to increase our troops, we may destroy ourselves.

Because between Wei and Han, it was not a local war, but the three kingdoms of Wei, Han and Wu fighting for hegemony. Behind Cao Cao was an extremely huge force.

Continuing to increase troops will, firstly, affect people's livelihood by recruiting troops, secondly, it will increase tax expenditures, and thirdly, it may affect other lines of defense.

This is not a simple matter of addition and subtraction.

Therefore, Cao Cao could only retreat to Guanzhong, set up defenses in the Qishan area, and turned Guanzhong into a front line to prevent Ji Han from going north.

Cao Cao can only judge the situation, but Cao Rui can keep shaking people like a village leader?
Naturally impossible.

Of course, this does not mean that Cao Rui cannot continue to increase troops. Recruiting, deploying, and sending troops to the front line requires a lot of time, which is different from clicking the mouse in a game.

Moreover, there are conflicts among various parties that need to be coordinated during this process.

If Cao Rui wants to increase his troops, he must first stabilize the situation in Guanzhong.

How to stabilize?

Temporarily accepting the fact that Ji Han had gained a firm foothold, he then mobilized civilians and troops to build the city, completely pushing the battle into a confrontation between the two military camps.

This means temporarily stabilizing the situation on the Western Front while he goes back to operate more resources.

In layman's terms, it's an exchange of space for time.

The same is true for Ji Han.

This is the core point of Li Heng's strategy, to seize the chokehold, enter a protracted confrontation, and compete for subsequent internal strength.

Yang Yi continued to remain silent, acquiescing to Li Heng's statement.

"When Lord Wei found that he could not shake us, he would start building fortresses. Lord Wei must have thought that Wei had more people and was more powerful than us, so he built fortresses." Li Heng said, "The current war of attrition has been going on for nearly two months. , played five games.”

Yang Yi kept a straight face, but listened carefully, fearing that she would miss a word.

"In the future, we may fight once a month, or once every two months or three months. The war of attrition will last longer, and Cao Wei will become more patient. This change is a forced one." Zhuge Liang smiled. Said: "Well said, what a forced change."

After speaking, he said to Yang Yi: "Mr. Wei, start arranging pensions and treating the wounded. This matter must be done quickly."

"Here."

"In addition, for each person who died in the battle, ten more pieces of cloth will be added. For those who are seriously injured, five more pieces of cloth will be added to determine the number based on the severity of the injury."

Yang Yi said: "Prime Minister, there may not be that much cloth left. Now in winter, the water conservancy spinning wheel can no longer move."

"Don't worry, Yang Changshi. Xiaguan has made a new spinning wheel. It does not require water power, but manpower can."

“Isn’t manpower the same as it used to be?”

"One person can weave three pieces a day."

"No water power?"

"No hydraulics."

Yang Yi was slightly stunned and asked: "How to do it?"

"Why does Yang Changshi need to ask such details? I have already made the textile loom, and more are being made at the Chencang County Manufacturing Factory. You can just follow the Prime Minister's instructions."

Li Heng spoke to Yang Yi in this tone. Yang Yi was so angry that she almost exploded on the spot, but she couldn't get angry.

Zhuge Liang on the side couldn't help but reveal a smile.

This was the first time he saw someone making Yang Yi so angry but Yang Yi couldn't refute.

In the past, Yang Yi had to criticize everyone. Zhuge Liang reminded Yang Yi many times that Yang Yi still went his own way.

This time I hit the wall.

Yang Yi held back and said: "Prime Minister, I will go and deal with it first."

"Well, thank you for your hard work, Mr. Wei."

Yang Yi left the camp, and Zhuge Liang suddenly asked: "Ji'an, did you meet Du Yu a few months ago?"

coming.

Li Heng had been mentally prepared for a long time. How could the prime minister not know that he had met Du Yu?
Li Heng said: "Yes, Prime Minister, I met Du Jun and sold him some paper in exchange for two thousand shi of grain. I originally wanted to exchange for some more grain, but now I'm afraid it will be a little difficult."

"Do you know who Du Yu sold the paper to?"

"I heard about the Tianshui Zhao family."

Zhuge Liang thought for a moment and then asked, "Can I get some contact from them?"

Li Heng knew what Zhuge Liang meant and wooed the Tianshui Zhao family.

Because they will advance westward to Longyou next year, there will inevitably be strong resistance from Longyou.

If we can win over the support of some local aristocratic families, the resistance will be much smaller.

He stood up and said: "Prime Minister, if you want to win over the Tianshui Zhao family, you need to not only provide them with some immediate benefits, but also long-term benefits."

"How do you say that?"

"If they only have immediate interests, they will temporarily compromise and keep in touch with us, but they do not recognize us. But when faced with a huge crisis, they will weigh the long-term pros and cons and abandon us."

Zhuge Liang nodded and asked: "Then how do you think we can achieve long-term benefits?"

"The first is to use military force to deter them and let them know that even if they fight against us, Tianshui will still be taken back by my big man in the end. If they can cooperate with us, it will be beneficial to both parties; the second is to promise long-term benefits. We currently have paper and The cloth makes Tianshui Zhao our spokesperson in Longyou."

Spokesperson?
Zhuge Liang thought this word was very interesting, and he asked again: "What is the spokesperson you are talking about?"

"Our paper and cloth are sold to Zhao at low prices and not to anyone else. The official calculated that a piece of paper costs [-] yuan and we sell it to Zhao for [-] yuan. How much is Zhao willing to sell it for in Longyou? , it’s their business, we no longer sell paper in Longyou, and the same goes for cloth.”

"Jian's intention is to benefit the Zhao family?"

"Yes, we can use force to intimidate and lure with benefits. If Zhao can promise to help us next year, we can regain Longyou with twice the result with half the effort."

(End of this chapter)