Chu and Han contend for the throne

Chapter 350 Population Controversy
If you want to plunder Liang's population, food is a must, otherwise, you tricked so many people from Liang to come here, but let them starve to death in the wilderness, wouldn't that be a crime?
At that moment Xiang Zhuang asked Xiang Ta, "Zi Yi, have you already harvested this year's summer grain?"

Xiang Ta said: "As early as more than half a month ago, the summer grain has been harvested." After saying this, Xiang Ta reminded Xiang Zhuang again, "However, my lord, since the year before last, my Dachu's tax has been changed. Gold coins are no longer collected for grain, and it will not be collected until after autumn, so even if the summer grain is generally harvested, Taicang will not get half a grain of grain."

Nowadays, the industry and commerce of Chu State has been extremely developed. With the development of industry and commerce, with the prosperity of industry and commerce, it has become possible for Chu State to uniformly collect gold coins. Of course, at this stage, it is only limited to the five counties in Jiangdong, which have just been merged into Chu State In the six counties of Bashu and Jingxiang, it is impossible to replace tax in kind with gold coins in a short period of time.

The advantage of replacing tax in kind with gold coins is that the loss of intermediate links is greatly reduced, because if the grain is collected directly, not only a large number of vehicles and horses are needed for shipment, but also a lot of labor is required. These labors also need to eat and consume food. To collect gold coins, only one small official is enough; the disadvantage is that there are only gold coins in the treasury, and if the country needs food, it has to be bought by the people with gold coins.

"This widow knows that as long as the people have food in their hands, it will be enough." Xiang Zhuang smiled slightly. With Mrs. Qin, a red-capped businessman, is he afraid that he will not be able to buy the surplus food in the hands of the people?Mrs. Qin is the successor of the widow Qing. With her business acumen and the influence of the Qin family, within half a month, there will be a steady stream of food from Bashu to Ziling.

Xiang Zhuang said again: "You don't have to worry about food, you should think about how to plunder people?"

Xiang He said: "It's not difficult. You just need to send people into Liang to spread the news. The people in Liang are almost exhausted now. As long as they have something to eat, they will definitely be willing to come."

"Okay, then I'll leave this to you." Xiang Zhuang nodded happily.

After the crowd dispersed, Xiang Zhuang called out Qu Bucai again, and said: "Old Qu, tell your people to keep an eye on Xianyang and Luoyang. No matter whether there is a major event or not, you must report to the widow every day."

"Here!" Qu Bucai bowed and bowed, and went to accept the order.

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When Xiang Zhuang was planning to plunder the population from Liang, Han Xin's army had already arrived at Chengqiu, which was more than a hundred li away from Dingtao, but Zhao Yan had already brought Shentujia and was waiting by the roadside.

"Zhao Yan, I have heard of you." Han Xin got off his horse and helped Zhao Yan up.

"Ashamed." Zhao Yan looked embarrassed, his current identity was still Liang Chen after all.

In order to alleviate this awkward atmosphere, Lou Jing behind Han Xin said with a smile: "As the saying goes, a good bird chooses a tree to live in, a good minister chooses a master to do things, Liang Wang is tyrannical, honesty is not a master, and it is wise to abandon Liang and return to Qi. .”

Han Xin smiled and said: "Zijin, from now on, you are my military advisor."

Zhao Yan said embarrassingly: "I hope that King Qi can treat the people of Liang well, and I will be very lucky."

Han Xin held onto Zhao Yan's right hand, and said as he walked, "From now on, the people of Liang will be the people of my Daqi, and they will be the people of my widow, and I will treat him kindly." Shentu Jia glanced at his face, and asked, "This must be General Shentu, the brave champion of the three armies, right?"

Shen Tujia hurriedly cupped his hands and bowed, respectfully said: "The last general, Shentu Jia, see King Qi."

"Okay, very good." Seeing Shentujia's majestic figure and calm expression, Han Xin couldn't help but nodded in approval, and said, "Qing is still the captain of the Daqi Guarding Army, specializing in guarding the safety of military divisions."

As soon as the words fell, another soldier came forward with a roll of maps. Zhao Yan took the map, unfolded it with the help of Shen Tujia, and said to Han Xin: "My lord, this is the map of the 72 counties of the five counties of Liangdi. .”

Han Xin took the map with both hands, and his mood couldn't help being agitated. The 36 prefectures in the pre-Qin period, Han Xin had already conquered the ten counties of Jibei, Linzi, Jiaodong, Langye, Xue, Chen, Dong, Dang, Yingchuan, and Nanyang, one-third of the world. up!As long as Zhao Guo, Yan Guo, and South Korea are destroyed, another fifteen counties can be obtained, and the world is almost under control.

Zhao Yan sighed and said, "Your Majesty, the situation in Liangdi is not optimistic."

Zhao Yan knew very well that Han Xin was in high spirits right now, so telling him these things was really disappointing, but the situation in Liangdi was indeed not optimistic, and Zhao Yan also wanted to see if Han Xin was really pretending to be ordinary people. A tyrant like Peng Yue doesn't care about the life and death of the people at all, so he might as well go to rest.

"Oh?" Han Xin frowned slightly and said, "Tell me about it."

Zhao Yan nodded, and said solemnly: "Liang is under the rule of Peng Yue, Yao slaves and land taxes are extremely heavy, and the people are already very poor. This time, the [-] troops in the conquest of Jingxiang have brought disaster to Liang. , Nearly half of the people have no food for the night, if there is no way to provide relief, a large-scale famine will definitely break out in Liang."

Han Xin's expression also became serious, and he asked, "Zijin, according to your estimate, how much food do you need?"

Zhao Yan said: "There are 72 counties in the five counties of Liangdi, with a population of more than 180 million, and at least 80 people are short of food. If we want to help these refugees survive until the autumn grain is laid, at least 50 shi of grain is needed!" 50 shi of grain feeds 80 Ten thousand people, even if they only cook gruel, they can only last three months, which is the minimum.

Han Xin frowned in an instant. Linzi Taicang still had 50 shi of grain, but it was military grain and could never be used without authorization.Obviously not, Wang Ling and Lou Jing would never agree, and Han Xin himself was not willing either.

So, where should we go to raise the 50 shi of grain?

Lou Jing next to him suddenly tugged at the corner of Han Xin's clothes and said, "Your Majesty, Zhao has food."

Han Xin just woke up like a dream, and immediately said to Zhao Yan: "Zi Jin, leave the matter of food to the widow, but it takes time for the widow to raise the food, at least ten days, at most half a month, the first batch of food can be shipped. For a while, I have to trouble you to take care of one or two for the widow, at least not let the situation in Liang land get out of control."

Zhao Yan cupped his hands and said solemnly: "I will do my best."

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Ziling, Lingyin Mansion.

More than 200 Taixue students have been summoned, and Xiang He is giving them a lecture.

Nowadays, the national examination of Chu State has been standardized, and it is determined to be held every three years. The subjects of the examination are still eight subjects. After three years of study, they will be sent to counties and counties to serve as assistant officials. If they perform well, they will be promoted to rank.

There is a screen in the hall, and a map of Liang Guo is hung on the screen.

Xiang He pointed to the map and said: "According to the information provided by Wumuya, there are about 180 million people in Liang State, and at least 80 people have been looted by Liang Jun. The target of your lobbying is these 80 people. You will divide them into [-] people." Squad, go to the worst-hit counties and counties respectively, and lobby the people there to flee south and return to Chu!"

After a pause, Xiang He said again: "Ben Lingyin doesn't expect you to bring back all 80 people affected by the disaster, but you must bring back at least 30 people to Ben Lingyin, especially women, children and strong men. The better, do you hear everything clearly?"

"Listen clearly!" More than 200 students responded loudly.

Xiang Zhuang said: "Okay, then each prepares to go."

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In Pengcheng, there is another person who is also planning to get some benefits from Liang Guo, and this person is Kuai Che, the Prime Minister of Huainan Kingdom.

Kuai Che has never let go of his attention to the surrounding situation. Ever since Liang Wang Peng Yue raised his troops, the spies of Huainan Kingdom kept sending the latest news back to Pengcheng. Knowing that Peng Yue's army was defeated in Lvyeze and the [-] troops were wiped out, Kuai Che Che was also taken aback, but apart from being surprised, he also knew that the opportunity for Huainan Kingdom to get involved in the land of Liang had come.

However, the next development of the situation was once again beyond Kuai Che's expectations.

Xiang Zhuang sealed the king's decree, and forced Zhou Bo's 20 troops back to Wancheng. Kuai Che's wishful thinking came to naught. He originally pointed out that the Han army would fight fiercely with the Qi army in Liang. After a while, when the Han and Qi armies are both defeated, the Huainan army will go to clean up the mess. In this way, the five counties of Liangdi can be obtained without any effort!

But now, the Han army has retreated to Wancheng, and it is a foregone conclusion that the Qi army will have the Liang land alone.

Since the land could not be seized, Kuai Che wondered if he should plunder some people from Liang land?
However, Wang Yingbu of Huainan seems to have no interest in plundering Liang's population.

"Your Majesty, what is the foundation of a country? It is the population!" Kuai Che patiently explained, "A large population means more land and taxes, and a large number of strong men means more soldiers. If the King wants to compete for world hegemony, he needs more money and food. , more troops need more people, and now is a good opportunity to plunder the population of Liang, so don't miss it."

Ying Bu shook his head, disapprovingly said: "Let's forget about it, it's not suitable to be hostile to Qi State right now."

Kuai Che was dumb when he heard the words, and he couldn't help but feel a little discouraged. Since Yingbo was captured and released by Han Xin last time, he didn't trust Kuai Che very much. In fact, Kuai Che was pretty good. When Bu was captured, he helped the prince to the top, but Yingbo killed him with any excuse, and even the prince was abolished.

After leaving the palace, Kuai Che couldn't help but look up to the sky and sigh, now that the Huainan king's temperament has changed drastically, he is addicted to wine and sex every day, and he only trusts courtiers and villains, Huainan Kingdom has no hope.

Thinking about the current situation in Qi State, Kuai Che couldn't help feeling more and more dejected. I remember that when Liu Bang and Xiang Yu were fighting, Kuai Che persuaded Han Xin to support his own strength and form a three-legged confrontation with Chu and Han. At that time , Han Xin rejected Kuai Che, brazenly sent 30 troops to help Liu Bang defeat Xiang Yu at Gaixia.

However, times have changed, and the situation that Kuai Che expected back then has come true today.

After Han Xin won the five counties of Liangdi, he became a three-legged confrontation with Liu Bang in Guanzhong and Xiangzhuang in Jiangdong. Moreover, Chu State is now busy digesting and absorbing Jingxiang, Bashu, and Liu Bang is also busy cleaning up internal hidden dangers. Han Xin can just Free up your hands to clean up Zhao Guo, Yan Guo, and South Korea in Hebei. When Han Xin destroys Han Zhaoyan, the world will really become a tripod.

(End of this chapter)