The Jagged Cavalry of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 257 Chapter 256
When Yuan Shao was in Jizhou, he received a secret report saying that King Wuhuan Tadun had gathered 10,000+ cavalry to go south to invade Youzhou and avenge the thousands of Wuhuan cavalry who had been beheaded by Yuan Jun.

When the news came, the whole Jizhou was shaken. If the Wuhuan people really drove more than [-] troops to the south, then Youzhou would face annihilation. Not only that, even Yuan Shao's foundation would be shaken accordingly.

Yuan Shao had 30 soldiers, most of them infantry, and only [-] cavalry. To face an army of more than [-] Wuhuan people, all of whom were cavalry, would feel a bit difficult.

However, Yuan Shao, who was enjoying himself in the spring breeze, was not afraid at all, and instead threatened to fight the Wuhuan people to the death.

Fortunately, he was persuaded by Tian Feng, and then offered a clever plan, sending people to send a large amount of gold, silver and jewelry, which temporarily resolved the crisis.

Tadun got a lot of gold, silver and jewels, so he didn't go south to Youzhou at all. After all, he had to pay a price to plunder. Wuhuan's population was not large in the first place. If a large number of people were lost in the plunder, it would not be worth the loss. up.

Yuan Shaohu was in Hebei, and his strength was strong, and Tadun knew it well, but because of the face of the tribal leaders of Wuhuan in the three counties of Shanggu, Yuyang, and Youbeiping, he had to send troops.Now that he had received a huge amount of compensation, Ta Dun was also satisfied, and distributed part of it to the Wuhuan leaders of the three counties, assuming that those Wuhuan people who died in battle were sacrificed in the plunder.

However, in Yuan Shao's heart, he hated the Wuhuan people very much. When he first came to Youzhou, he faced such a test. After weighing the pros and cons, he immediately ordered his second son, Yuan Xi, to lead [-] soldiers to station in Jicheng. , Guard against the Wuhuan people.

Hebei is initially set, and Bingzhou and Youzhou need time to recover, especially Youzhou, which needs more time to operate. No matter how ambitious Yuan Shao is, no matter how ambitious he is, no matter how much he wants to cross the Yellow River south and compete with Zhang Yan in the Central Plains, he still has to slow down. First, stabilize the situation in Hebei.

Therefore, under the advice of Tian Feng, Jushou, Shenpei and others, Yuan Shao carried out a series of measures to stabilize the situation in Hebei.

As the saying goes, before soldiers and horses move, food and grass move first. The first thing is to solve the problem of food for people. There are thousands of miles of fertile fields in Jizhou, Youzhou, and Bingzhou. There are also many places that can be cultivated. up the curtain.

However, most of Yuan Shao's farms were military camps. After all, he had 30 soldiers in his hands. These soldiers were all young and middle-aged, and they were good labor. If they were not used, they would be wasted.

In addition to opening up military settlements, civilian settlements were also encouraged. The difference is that the grain income of military settlements is all handed over to the army, which is self-sufficient, while civilian settlements mainly collect taxes.In order to stimulate the villages, Tian Feng even suggested that Yuan Shao reduce taxes to attract a large number of people to work in the fields.

After experiencing the Yellow Turban Rebellion, after a long period of development, Jizhou has already restored its former stability. The stability of law and order will naturally attract a large number of people. Therefore, there are still more than 30 households in Jizhou, about More than 180 million people.

In addition, there are more than 60 people in Bingzhou, and more than 80 people in Youzhou, plus more than 20 people in Qingzhou Pingyuan County. Yuan Shao's sphere of influence has a population of more than 300 million people. The huge population base has become Yuan Shao's strong capital. If there are people and land, there will be no shortage of food. As long as he encourages farming, within three years, Hebei will be full of grain and fodder, and coins will overflow.

Therefore, Yuan Shao also stopped the pace of expansion in a timely manner, but calmed down and devoted himself to the management of Hebei. Based on this, he prepared to rest for a few years before competing in the Central Plains.

As a result, an order to garrison land was issued by Yuan Shao himself to all states and counties, and a wave of garrison land was set off on the land north of the Yellow River.

The news from Hebei quickly spread to Pengcheng. Zhang Yan was slightly relieved when he learned that Yuan Shao was devoted to farming and had no plans to go south.

As long as Yuan Shao'an is born, Zhang Yan doesn't have to worry anymore, and he can farm the land with confidence.

Zhang Yan has been farming for some time, and has initially seen results, and he has also started to implement the method of farming with military and civilian settlements.

However, although the area under Zhang Yan’s jurisdiction is vast, the total population is several 10 fewer than that of Yuan Shao in Hebei. According to the latest census last year, the total population of the area under Zhang Yan’s jurisdiction is only about 260 million.

Although the population is not as large as Yuan Shao's, Zhang Yan is not worried, because the area under his jurisdiction is densely covered with water networks. As long as they are used rationally, water can be diverted into the fields for irrigation, thus effectively resisting drought.

In the following period of time, Zhang Yan only roughly intervened in some political affairs, while he delegated all his powers and let someone he trusted take full responsibility.

For example, Zhang Yan asked Chen Qun, the chief farmer, to take full charge of farming affairs, and gave Chen Qun a lot of power. Only in this way, Chen Qun could do it without any influence.

Facts have proved that Chen Qun is very competent. With such a heavy burden on his shoulders, he was stunned. After two years, he built 380 canals, enough to irrigate 30 hectares of good farmland.In addition, he also presided over the reclamation of [-] mu of wasteland, and successfully implemented military settlements.

These credits are all attributed to Chen Qun. During the autumn harvest, the granary was full for the first time.

For this reason, Zhang Yan specially asked the emperor Liu Xie to grant Chen Qun the title of Loyalty Bo and a thousand households in the city.

Autumn went to summer, and another three years passed in a blink of an eye, and the time suddenly came to July of the third year of Jian'an.

Since the farm was established, the grain output has been increasing year by year in the past three years, and the original granary is no longer enough to store it. In order to avoid the occurrence of rotten sesame seeds and damage to the grain, Zhang Yan, in the area under his jurisdiction, Three large warehouses were set up.

One of the big warehouses was set up in Xinfeng County, Yongzhou, which became the food guarantee for the army and people in Guanzhong, and the second big warehouse was set up in Ao Cang in Xingyang.

Ao Cang has existed since ancient times. It was an important granary in ancient times and was set up by the Qin Dynasty.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, wars were frequent in the Central Plains, especially in nearby Xingyang.After Qin Shihuang unified China, he set up warehouses and valleys in Aoshan to deal with possible wars at any time.In addition, Ao Cang was also a transfer station for ancient water transport, transferring Shandong grain from the Yellow River to Chang'an and Luoyang (Shandong grain from water transport was often stranded due to the weak water transport capacity in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River, and the grain was unloaded in Ao Cang After that, it can be stored, and it can also go overland to Liangjing).During the Western Han Dynasty, the government rebuilt it again, and set up Ao Cangguan to manage the warehouse affairs, directly under the central government.At that time, Aocang was at the center of Guanzhong and Shandong, and had abundant grain reserves, so its strategic value was extremely important.

Therefore, Zhang Yan set up Ao Cang here, hoarding all the grain here, and using it as a strategic location to radiate Luoyang.

The third granary was set up in Moling City in Jinling County to radiate Jiangdong to meet the needs of the war.

In the past three years, Sun Ce has gradually expanded his territory in Jiangdong. After defeating Jiao Ji, he defeated Zu Lang and Yan Baihu in a row, occupied Danyang County and Wu County, and even subdued the tribes of Zu Lang and Yan Baihu , the power has greatly increased.

However, it seems that Sun Ce has occupied Jiangdong, but in fact it is only in appearance. After all, there are many mountains in Jiangdong, and Sun Ce's tough methods are disgusted by the people of Shanyue. Shanyue keeps rebelling and fighting endlessly with Sun Ce, basically forming a confrontation stage.

Yuan Shao in Hebei was also quite honest during the past three years, devoting himself to the development of farming business, with sufficient food and fodder, strong soldiers and horses, and often had the intention of going south.

In contrast, Liu Biao in Jingzhou has always maintained a friendly relationship with Zhang Yan. However, when a piece of news came out, the friendly relationship between Liu Biao and Zhang Yan suddenly fell to the bottom!

Jin Yiwei came to report that there was a rebellion in Jiangxia County under the rule of Liu Biao. The leaders were Zhang Wu and Chen Sun. Had no choice but to go east along the Yangtze River.

Huang Zu sent his son Huang She to lead Gan Ning and Su Fei to pursue Zhang Wu and Chen Sun. The two armies fought fiercely in Qichun and Xiazhi successively. Zhang Wu and Chen Sun were defeated one after another, so they boarded a boat. With more than a thousand remnants of soldiers, they went eastward along the river and directly entered Xunyang County in Lujiang County, which was ruled by Zhang Yan.

It stands to reason that Huang She should stop and stop chasing him. At least he should notify the Xunyang guard first, and then go after him after obtaining permission.

But Huang She didn't do that. Instead, he led the crowd downstream, followed Zhang Wu, Chen Sun and others to Xunyang and landed.

The army guarding the river didn't know why, and suddenly saw Liu Biao's army coming. They thought it was Huang She who was going to attack Xunyang, so they fought with them.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Chen Wu and Chen Sun led the crowd to surrender to the guards stationed in Xunyang in a hurry, and said that Liu Biao's army had entered.

For a time, the magistrate of Xunyang County and the lieutenant of Xunyang County, led by a school lieutenant, gathered more than a thousand soldiers and horses to resist Liu Biao's army.

The two armies didn't say much, and then they started fighting. Gan Ning, Huang She's general, took the lead and led hundreds of elite soldiers. He defeated Zhang Yan's army and killed a school lieutenant. All died in the chaos.

The news spread instantly. Lu Su, the prefect of Lujiang, thought that Liu Biao intended to capture Lujiang, so he immediately wrote two letters. One was sent to Shaopi, asking Huya General Zhang Liao to lead his army to resist, and the other was sent to Pengcheng. Zhang Yan made a decision.

When the news came, Zhang Yan was also very angry, but after figuring out the ins and outs of the matter, he immediately ordered Zhang Liao to repel the Huangshe army, and sent Gao Shun to lead the army to capture Zhang Wu and Chen Sun, and then sent Fu Wan as an envoy , Go to Jingzhou Xingshi to inquire about the crime!

After the order was issued, several Jin Yiwei went to deliver the news as quickly as possible.

At the same time, Zhang Liao had already led an army of [-] to Shucheng, the county town of Lujiang County. After a brief meeting with Lu Su, he realized that Huang She's army was arrested because they failed to capture Zhang Wu and Chen Sun. Forced to retreat back to Jiangxia.

Zhang Liao thought that this was Liu Biao's intentional fault finding, and he had to fight back, otherwise, how could the dead soldiers rest in peace.

Lu Su also supported Zhang Liao's opinion, and together with Zhang Liao, he went to Xunyang to attack Jiangxia for revenge.

(End of this chapter)