The Mythical Version of the Three Kingdoms: The Evil God Arrives

Chapter 336 Yuan Shao: Three hundred thousand troops? Not enough, keep expanding the army!
"Oh, you mean this warship that was converted into a fishing boat." Liu Bei, who was sitting on the edge of the live water tank, patted the fishing net nailed on it. "This is a way that Zichuan suddenly thought of while sailing on the sea to add a meat dish to the people's tables."

"The various fish resources in the sea are extremely abundant." Chen Xi sighed beside him.

Even marine fishing in later generations could develop to that level, let alone this era when there is no marine fishing industry at all.

"But, compared to meat produced by chickens and ducks, fish meat is even less resistant to storage, right?" Zhao Yun certainly knew that there were abundant fish resources in the ocean, but fish meat was also one of the meats that was least resistant to storage.

"We can open a salted fish production factory in Donglai, which can just consume the sea salt that is about to go bankrupt." Chen Xi said with a smile. He, Chen Xi, is a professional when it comes to logistics and production.

"Salted fish?" Zhao Yun was stunned for a moment, "But, can ordinary people afford salted fish?" Zhao Yun was not worried whether Chen Xi's salted fish factory could be opened. There was no place in the world that Chen Xi could not open, unless Chen Xi did not want to open it.

Moreover, as mentioned earlier, opening a salted fish factory can add a meat dish to people's tables and consume their sea salt that is about to explode.

However, Zhao Yun was not worried about these things. He was worried about whether the people could afford it.

Although salted fish is not considered expensive in this era, it is not something that ordinary people can buy at will.

[Xuanyu Taishou] tells a story about salted fish, and the protagonist Yang Xu passed away only two or three years ago.

The salted fish that could be used by the people below to bribe the prefect of Nanyang would not be very valuable at all, even if it was not very high.

In Zhao Yun's impression, salted fish is still something that ordinary people cannot afford or eat.

Hearing Zhao Yun's question, Chen Xi was stunned for a moment before realizing what Zhao Yun was worried about.

"Don't worry, ordinary people can definitely afford the finished salted fish.

After all, the sea salt used for pickling salted fish is produced by ourselves, and the biggest cost is almost zero. "Chen Xi did not mention the sea fish used for pickling, after all, sea fish weigh at least a dozen tons after going around the sea.

"Forget it. If you don't believe me, you will know whether what I said is true or not after the salted fish factory is built."

Seeing that Zhao Yun, Li You and Fa Zheng were still somewhat unconvinced, Chen Xi simply waved his hand and let time prove that he was right.

Zhao Yun and the others did not continue to dwell on it. After all, it was a project that Chen Xi took the initiative to promote, and they had no intention of stopping it.

"By the way, Zichuan, you called me on board. Is there something you want to say?" Zhao Yun asked about another thing. He didn't really come on board to eat fish.

"If there's nothing else, can't I ask you to come up for a meal?" Liu Bei joked from the side.

"Uh..." Zhao Yun's expression was awkward. He really didn't expect that Liu Bei asked him to get on the boat. Was it really just to have a meal?

"Look, this is what I caught myself. Zichuan said this kind of fish is very delicious." Liu Bei said, pointing at the bluefin tuna floating up and down in the live water tank.

"A living giant fish with internal energy leaving its body?" Zhao Yun looked in the direction Liu Bei's finger pointed, and found that it was a giant fish with internal energy leaving its body.

However, it has been sealed now and is just a fish waiting to be slaughtered with the ability to leave the body with internal energy.

Hearing Zhao Yun's exclamation, Li You and Fa Zheng also looked in the direction Liu Bei pointed, and indeed found a big fish that looked a little abnormal.

"Yes, I caught this." Liu Bei said with great pride.

Although he fought with the big fish with internal energy leaving its body for a long time, even his fishing line and fishing rod were taken away by the fish.

But who is Liu Bei? He retained the strength of internal energy and was able to cultivate internal energy out of his body, so Liu Bei went straight into the sea to catch fish.

"Come, try the big fish that I caught that was able to release its internal energy." Liu Bei excitedly stretched out his hand to scoop up the big fish from the live water tank and called out to everyone. Of course, it would be most delicious if they shared it together at this time.

……

"Lord Xuande has already returned from Jiangdong, but Jizhou is not ready yet?" Yang Ji said with considerable resentment as he looked at the intelligence in his hand.

"After all, the Black Mountain Army occupies many valleys in the southern section of Taihang Mountain. Even if Yuan Shao of Jizhou wants to attack, it will take a long time to prepare." Xu Shu said from the side.

"What's there to prepare for? In my opinion, just mobilize the vanguard to send a wave of cloud and rain of arrows to wipe out the area. I don't believe that the Black Mountain Army will not collapse." Yang Ji said disdainfully.

Yuan Shao was afraid that after Ju Yi and the vanguard were transferred away, Gongsun Zan would lead the White Horse Volunteers to attack. After all, apart from the vanguard and the halberd soldiers, there was no army in Jizhou that could stop the White Horse Volunteers.

"I guess they are trying to persuade the Black Mountain Army entrenched in the southern section of Taihang to surrender, just like we did with the Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou.

After all, the Black Mountain Army entrenched here has more than one million people, which is even larger than the Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou.

Moreover, Yuan Benchu ​​should have also taken a fancy to the dozens of Qi-cultivating generals in the Black Mountain Army.

The pressure from us and Gongsun Bogui was too great, so great that even Yuan Benchu, who valued family background, had to recruit generals from the lower classes. "Xu Shu shook his head and said.

In addition to the one million ordinary Black Mountain troops who can supplement the population of Jizhou and the number of soldiers in the army, those Yellow Turban leaders are also very good grassroots officers.

After all, it is enough for grassroots officers to be able to fight, not to mention that most of the Yellow Turban leaders who have survived to the present day have some command ability.

Although Jizhou and Yuan Shao had very strong financial resources, the number of middle and low-level officers and soldiers they had should be among the highest among the princes of the Han Dynasty.

However, when Jizhou was about to be surrounded by Liu Bei and Gongsun Zan from the north and south, Yuan Shao had no choice but to start the military explosion mode.

According to the ancient mobilization rate of 3% to 5%, Jizhou, with a population of about 5.7 million, could only mobilize 300,000 troops at most. If there were more, it would cause unrest in Jizhou.

An army of 300,000 is actually more than enough to face Gongsun Zan alone. After all, Jizhou can only mobilize 300,000 troops, and Youzhou can mobilize even fewer.

Of course, if there is a certain risk of local unrest, Jizhou's strength can still produce tens of thousands of troops.

However, Yuan Shao was not only facing Gongsun Zan, but also Liu Bei who was even more powerful than Gongsun Zan.

The strength of Liu Bei's army was much stronger than Gongsun Zan's in every aspect, and even stronger than Yuan Shao's. Although according to Yuan Shao's advisers, Liu Bei was unlikely to send a large number of troops to cooperate with Gongsun Zan.

Because the main tone of Liu Bei's rule in recent years has been set, the priority of developing people's livelihood is higher than sending troops to Jizhou.

Even if Fenggao wanted to take this opportunity to send troops to Jizhou to weaken Yuan Shao's strength, it could at most send a detachment to assist Gongsun Zan's army.

The powerful Jizhou is different from Cao Cao's previous Yanzhou. It will not collapse after one or two failures.

Under the premise that it is impossible to quickly defeat Yuan Shao's forces in a short period of time, even if Liu Bei wants to send troops, he has to carefully consider whether it is worthwhile.

On the contrary, although Gongsun Zan had Liu Bei's support behind him, even Liu Bei, who had a large number of soldiers and generals, would not send his own troops to support Gongsun Zan on the battlefield.

If the troops under Liu Bei entered the battlefield, they would definitely choose to open up the battlefield alone. This is the pride of being a local lord.

Gongsun Zan could accept Liu Bei's material support, but that did not mean he could accept Liu Bei's military support, as that showed his lack of trust in the military strength under his command.

Yuan Shao's advisers were almost certain that during the war between Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan, Liu Bei would definitely find an opportunity to raid the territory under Yuan Shao's rule.

This also meant that when Yuan Shao was fighting Gongsun Zan, he also had to guard against surprise attacks from Liu Bei.

In Yuan Shao's view, an army of 300,000 was enough to easily win the battle between him and Gongsun Zan.

However, if Liu Bei sent a detachment to raid Jizhou, the 300,000-strong army would not be enough.

What's more, the main theme of Fenggao is to develop people's livelihood, and the news received also shows that the territory under Liu Bei's rule, except for Xuzhou, has indeed entered a period of great construction.

However, Yuan Shao did not dare to bet that Liu Bei would not send a large number of troops. Even Chen Xi and Liu Bei were not sure about this.

If Yuan Shao were to find a flaw, do you think Yang Ji, who is stationed in Licheng, would send troops immediately?

Not only would Yang Ji immediately mobilize his troops to march to Jizhou, he would even mobilize Guan Yu's troops stationed in Yanzhou to directly attack Yecheng. After all, Chenliu, where Guan Yu was stationed, was not far from Yecheng.

When Yuan Shao thought that Yang Ji and Guan Yu were likely to split into two groups and lead an army of more than 50,000 soldiers each to attack Yecheng directly, he felt a chill in his neck and had to touch his neck from time to time to see if it was still there.

Although Yang Ji might not necessarily choose to attack Yecheng directly, he would choose to directly enter the battlefield and disrupt the battle formation of Yuan Shao's army.

Yang Ji was able to do it. As early as at Jie Bridge, Yuan Shao had witnessed Yang Ji's ability to break through the front lines and seize opportunities.

"The 300,000 troops that Jizhou recently deployed are indeed unable to completely defend against our and Gongsun Bogui's pincer attack from the north and south." Yang Ji shook his head.

With Xu Shu sorting out the relevant information, Yang Ji also understood why Yuan Shao in Jizhou had to prepare for so long.

"Three hundred thousand?" Xu Shu's eyebrows jumped when he heard the number reported by Yang Ji. "Has Jizhou already assembled an army of three hundred thousand?"

You have to know that the troops under Liu Bei's command were only a little over 300,000 regular troops, but Yuan Shao turned around and pulled out an army of 300,000. It can only be said that the combination of Yuan Shao and Jizhou is indeed worthy of being a wealthy family.

“Oh, I calculated this number, and I don’t know if it is accurate.

But since Yuan Shao has set his sights on the million Yellow Turbans in Black Mountain, I guess the force that can be mobilized in Jizhou has reached its maximum. " Yang Ji thought about it and explained it to Xu Shu.

"How did you calculate this number?" Xu Shu asked Yang Ji. He was still very curious about how Yang Ji estimated the total number of troops that could be mobilized in a region without any specific intelligence.

“Generally speaking, based on the productivity of this era, the mobilization rate of a region is about three to five percent.”

In fact, Yang Ji himself was not very clear about what this mobilization rate was, he was just using it as a reference. How to calculate it specifically, in this era, probably only Chen Xi knew how to estimate it.

"Three to five percent?" Xu Shu made a rough estimate based on the known intelligence. "Three hundred thousand troops should be the maximum force that can be mobilized without causing unrest in Jizhou, right?"

"Just use this number as a reference, because I don't know whether this number is a simple military mobilization, or it also includes a series of unproductive people such as merchants, craftsmen, officials, etc." Yang Ji spread his hands and said to Xu Shu.

"Or you can go to Chen Zichuan. He should have specific data and calculation formulas." Yang Ji saw that Xu Shu was very interested in this, so he recommended him someone who knew this.

"Zichuan? If I have a chance, I will go to him to ask about the details." Xu Shu nodded, indicating that he would go to Chen Xi to ask for relevant data.

"Now that the situation in Jizhou has been roughly determined, what do you plan to do next?" After putting aside the matter of those who had left their jobs, Xu Shu asked again about how to plan for Jizhou next.

After all, whatever Yuan Shao wanted to do, as long as it did not affect the people of Jizhou, they had every reason to disrupt it and abort Yuan Shao's plan.

Yang Ji thought for a moment and said, "Under the pressure from Yuan Shao's army, Zhang Yan should become the commander-in-chief of the Black Mountain Army."

"Zhang Yan?" Xu Shu frowned and searched for the information in his mind.

“Although the Black Mountain Army in the Taihang Mountains appears to be a single entity, it is actually divided into more than twenty mountaintops.

Even though Zhang Yan is a very capable commander, he alone cannot unite the Black Mountain Army into a group similar to the Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou." Xu Shu shook his head.

"Don't ignore the premise of my judgment just now. Yuan Shao's army cannot be stopped by a scattered Black Mountain Army." Yang Ji reminded Xu Shu not to forget Yuan Shao's army outside Taihang Mountain.

Xu Shu pondered for a while and said, "If there is a threat from Yuan Shao's army outside, the Black Mountain Army can be unified under Zhang Yan's command."

“However, will Yuan Benchu ​​really let the Black Mountain Army unite to fight against them?
You know, Yuan Benchu's target is the Yellow Turban soldiers and their commander of the Black Mountain Army." Xu Shu had his own reasons for not taking into account the pressure Yuan Shao's army brought to the Black Mountain Army.

“Oh, you underestimate the bond between the Yellow Turban leaders.” Yang Ji shook his head.

"Also, Yuanzhi, have you forgotten why those Yellow Turban soldiers followed Zhang Jue in the uprising?"

(End of this chapter)