Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 481 475. Return to Jiangling

Feng Xi's return is a big event, and this Eastern Expedition is also a war, so Huang Quan, Ma Liang and others naturally have to personally welcome the Eastern Expedition Army.

"Is this Japanese really so short?"

Feng Xi also told everyone what he had seen and heard during the welcoming banquet. The situation in this foreign country was indeed quite curious. Although the ancient books recorded the situation of the Wa Island, no one had actually seen it in person. So it would be strange if Huang Quan and Ma Liang did not feel curious after hearing Feng Xi's vivid description.

"But this small foreign country actually wants to establish itself as a god. Even the traitor Zhang Jue doesn't dare to do so."

After listening to Feng Xi's talk about Yamatai and Himiko's plan, Huang Quan and others couldn't help but reprimand them. After all, Zhang Jiao's rebellion was only to question the legitimacy of Emperor Ling of Han, and he never said that he wanted to become a creator god or something like that.

"He is just arrogant. By the way, how is Cao Wei doing during the two months I have been away on the expedition?"

Feng Xi waved his hand and was too lazy to say more about the situation on the Japanese island. After all, the situation there had not been completely settled yet, and many of his methods could not be told to others.

"Thanks to your propaganda and the flow of merchants, more and more people from Cao Wei want to escape to our side. Nearly 10,000 people have come here in the past few months."

Huang Quan touched his long beard, feeling quite proud.

Feng Xi knew that this number should actually be higher, but Cao Wei was founded by abducting people. Whether it was Hanzhong or Nanyang, Cao Wei had forcibly relocated people. As a country that had started out this way, Cao Wei would naturally be careful about the flow of local population, so Feng Xi guessed that many people were probably stopped by Cao Wei before they could come.

Hebei has always been a place that has been exploited by Cao Wei, so no matter in the original timeline or now, riots by the Hebei farmers are common. In addition to the previous defeat in Hanzhong, Cao Cao's death from illness, and the defeat in Fancheng, although the rebellion in Hebei is still under control, Cao Wei is actually unable to completely suppress the restless people.

After all, they can't beat you, so it's okay to run away, right?
Under this idea, many people who could not survive because of the high tax rate of Cao Wei fled to the south. Compared with the situation of 60% tax in most cases of Cao Wei, the tax rate in Jingzhou was only half of that. Because the agricultural output after the improvement increased by more than ten times compared with the previous one, even if the tax rate was reduced by 10% or 20%, the actual income still increased exponentially.

"The propaganda war against Cao Wei cannot be stopped. Even if they ban our newspapers, merchants can still spread the news."

In this era, there were unspoken rules for merchants, so Lu Meng set a bad example. No one checked merchants much, and Lu Meng's behavior was almost the same as swearing by the Luo River.

However, no matter how much they checked, at most they could only ban some material things. They couldn't open people's brains and delete the things inside, right? Therefore, the things that Feng Xi published in newspapers and periodicals would more or less flow into Wei State. In fact, the more things were banned by Wei State, the more people wanted to read newspapers and other things in Jingzhou.

"Now that our Han has conquered Izu and Wadao, it's time to digest what we have gained. I guess the Wei army is still on high alert, fearing that we may launch a northern expedition at any time."

Now that the Eastern Expedition was over, Feng Xi did not plan to continue. There was no rubber in Southeast Asia at present, so it was meaningless to continue to expand to the southeast, and it would be time-consuming and laborious. In terms of natural resources, the sphere of influence controlled by the Han army was enough. At most, the navy would have nothing to do and go to Luzon to explore for gold mines. For example, the Sado Silver Mine in the Japanese island was completely undeveloped. These things would take the Han army some time to digest slowly.

As for the Wei State, let them be nervous. The Han Army is now the dominant party. When to march north and when to attack are all decided by the Han Army. Cao Wei can only passively defend.

There was no other way. How could Cao Wei attack without defense? Let the elite cavalry take the Guanzhong Valley Road? Or let the cavalry cross the river? Obviously, neither was realistic.

Feng Xi was not in a hurry either. The Han Dynasty had rested for more than a year, and by the time Cao Pi ascended to heaven, Cao Wei would be in chaos.

In the days that followed, Feng Xi mainly stayed in Jiangling to deal with some matters in Yizhou and Wadao. It must be said that Ma Su was very capable. After receiving Feng Xi's hint, he ordered the locals to pretend to be bandits and burned a lot of ancient books and documents.

At the same time, as the Han army came and went, more and more Han people and even people from the south began to migrate to Wa Island. The official language of Wa Island was Mandarin from beginning to end. At the same time, Ma Su also forced those villages hiding in the mountains to migrate to the surrounding cities according to Feng Xi's request.

After all, there are few people in the Japanese islands, and a city has less than 10,000 people. If it were placed in the Central Plains, it would not be worthy of being called a city. In this way, with a larger population, it would be easier to deploy them uniformly. In addition, due to the war during the previous Eastern Expedition, the Japanese men went through several rounds of conscription and war, and suffered heavy casualties. There were countless orphans and widows, which just happened to be a good opportunity for those old bachelors who immigrated there.

At the same time, because Jingzhou implemented literacy education very early, there were a lot of people who could teach Chinese and literacy, even if we didn't talk about advanced things, so it wouldn't be a big problem to transfer some of them to the Japanese island.

The situation in Izu is even easier than that in Wa Island. The natives of Izu Island have no cultural heritage and were assimilated by the Han people very quickly. The first batch of tribes have already begun to transform from traditional hunting to farming. It is estimated that within ten years, the land of Izu Island will become an overseas paradise again.

In contrast, the development of the Central Plains was slower, especially in Central Sichuan. Central Sichuan was full of factions, and because Chengdu was the political center of the Han Dynasty, the implementation of many policies was very troublesome, and Zhuge Liang had to compromise with the various factions, which was not as convenient as Jingzhou, Jiaozhou, and even Jiangdong.

As mentioned before, Jingzhou has been through years of war and chaos, and it is no longer a paradise. Most of the noble families have fled. And the so-called noble families in Jiaozhou have been dealt with by Feng Xi, and almost all of them have been replaced. These newly rising noble families have no ability at all. They can bully ordinary people, but they are not qualified to fight against the government.

As for Jiangdong, it was already the defeated party, and after Li Yan followed Feng Xi's request and destroyed several small families, the resistance it encountered was obviously much less.

In the final comparison, it was Sichuan, which has always been known as the land of abundance, that became the lagging one among the four states of the Han Dynasty.

But Feng Xi didn't care. Originally, Sichuan was to contain Guanzhong and attack Liangzhou. If they really wanted to fight a tough battle, they would have to rely on Jingzhou and Yangzhou. In the original timeline, they had no choice but to go north several times. Now they have a choice.

(End of this chapter)