Great Wei Overlord

Chapter 869 Ran Ming's battle for popular support
Chapter 875 Ran Ming's battle for popular support

Xiangyang is located in the southern part of the Nanyang Basin. The terrain is dangerous. Xiangyang and Fancheng are interdependent with the Han River in the north and south.To mention Xiangyang, we have to mention the 38-year battle for Xiangyang between Mongolia and the Southern Song Dynasty.Although Xiangyang was lost in the end, Xiangyang is worthy of his title of iron strike.

Ran Ming read the information overnight, and just after dawn, he dragged his exhausted body to the General Staff Headquarters.The staff officers who are on duty at this time, according to the military reports from various armies, basically every minute of the military reports, the staff officers will display the military dynamics on the sand table.Red represents the flag of Wei State, and blue represents the Jin army.

So far, the fastest progress is the Zhennan Army under Zhang Wen. At this time, six Mabu battalions of Zhennan Army surrounded Xiangyang, and four of them surrounded Xiangfan.Fifteen newly assembled new troops also arrived on the battlefield within half a month.Combined with comprehensive information, the progress in all aspects is not bad.

After a while, the newly promoted chief of the general staff, Ji Wei, got the news that Ran Ming was coming to the general staff headquarters, and immediately rushed to the general staff headquarters.

Ran Ming stretched out his hand to stop the Chief of Staff Ji Gu who was about to bow down to Ran Ming, and said with a smile: "I have learned that all the pre-war preparations for the armies of our Wei State have been completed, and now we have to see if the sky is on our side. This side!"

"Your Majesty, now we have to wait for the latest news from Xie Ai's department." Ji Li said with a smile on his face, "Once the general of Zhenxi Xie Ai has made a breakthrough in Bashu, it's time for our million-strong army to move out!"

"The situation is not so optimistic!" Ran Ming was stunned for a moment and said: "In this battle, we are not treating Hu people, we need to consider as many comprehensive factors as possible. Jin is also launching the maximum military mobilization, and it is expected that more than If 60 young men are drafted into the army, Jin will have more than 80 soldiers."

Ji Xuan said in a loud voice: "Your Majesty is overthinking. The total number of the Jin army is 50, of which more than 20 are directly under the Shu King Huanwen. Sima Dan can control no more than 60 troops, even if he can form [-] new troops. Army, those rookies who have never seen blood, even if they have millions, why should they be afraid!"

"The 60 soldiers of the new Jin army, I really didn't pay attention to them. I believe that our Wei army sergeants can definitely look down upon these new troops." Ran Ming said in a deep voice: "What I worry about is actually not on the battlefield. , but the aftermath of the war!"

"The aftermath problem!"

"That's right!" Ran Ming nodded and said, "Our country of Wei will mobilize the whole country this year, and the food production will be reduced by at least one-third. The impact of the country of Jin will be even greater, and their food production will even be affected by two-thirds. Even if this If we don’t fight a battle, the 80 troops alone can drag down the state of Jin. Then the problem arises, the people of the state of Jin are the same as the people of our state of Wei. The same blood is flowing, the same words are spoken, although each has its own master and has to fight, but I really don't want to see the corpses of my descendants of the Han family strewn across the field."

The staff officer next to Ji Lichong said: "Quickly calculate, if the Jin country reduces its grain production by half, how big will their food shortage be."

After a while, a staff officer said: "Reporting to Your Majesty, the chief of the general staff, the humble position has been calculated. Once the grain production of the Jin Kingdom is reduced by half, then their grain can only last for half a year. It is expected that there will be a large area of ​​food shortage by the end of October. If To fill this gap, we need to spend 500 shi of grain per day on the basis of ensuring that the average person is [-] taels per day, and if it lasts until next year's autumn harvest, then [-] million shi of grain will be needed!"

Hearing this, Ji Li realized the seriousness of the problem.The state of Wei was very well prepared, that is, if 500 million shi of grain was transported to the south of the Yangtze River without helping the people, if it was poured better by water, the loss would not be large.But if it is transported by land, at least 300 million shi of grain needs to be prepared in order to transport it there, that is 800 million shi of grain.

If there is no food, I am afraid that there will be hunger everywhere.

This is a situation that Wei Guo does not want to see, and Ran Ming will never see this situation either.Ran Ming knew that the war between Jin and Wei was not at the military level. At the military level, Wei could easily defeat Jin, or completely defeat Jin.The most important thing is the competition for people's hearts.

The Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties were the peak period of family politics. At this time, the power of the family was even stronger than that of the Tang Dynasty. They not only owned their own fields, shops, servants, tenants, but also their own soldiers and private soldiers.Every huge powerful family is actually equivalent to the king of a vassal state.

It is definitely not an easy task to get them to give up their rights.Don't think that there is some kind of class struggle at this time, and whoever does it will die.Don't think that the children of the gentry are not welcomed by the common people. In fact, these children of the gentry have very high connections and prestige.Just like Liu Kun, one of the 24 friends of Shi Chong’s Jingu Garden in history, Liu Kun in his early years followed Shi Chong, who was famous for his extravagance in history. Shi Chong had an extremely luxurious villa in Jingujian, which became a gathering place for these people They often drink and write poems here.Liu Kun usually drinks and takes drugs (takes cold food powder), and plays with women.In today's terms, Liu Kun is simply a second-generation ancestor who eats and drinks.

However, when the country was ruined and the family was destroyed, Liu Kun left Luoyang with more than a thousand people and came to Jinyang.There, Liu Kun comforted the people and resumed production, which gradually made Jinyang angry.As a force surrounded by Hu people, Jinyang is like an isolated island, but Liu Kun relied on his prestige and talent to resist the former Zhao for nearly ten years.So is Zuti.Zu Ti was born in the Fanyang Zu family.When he was a teenager, Zu Ti loved martial arts and reported injustice.After the fall of Luoyang, he fled to the south of the Yangtze River like all the people who moved south.But he only relied on the rations of 300 people given by Emperor Sima Rui of Jin and Yuan Dynasties, and the value of [-] horses was about more than [-] million yuan.However, Zu Ti relied on this material to pacify Yuzhou. Just when he wanted to plot Hebei, Emperor Sima Rui of Jin and Yuan worried that Zu Ti's prestige was too great, so he sent people to seize power out of control.

There is nothing wrong with the noble children of the noble family in the Southern and Northern Dynasties who like empty talk and a comfortable life, but once they face threats, they will also stand up and shoulder their responsibilities.Diqin's million-strong army went south, and it was a clear proof that they returned in defeat.Although in this time and space, the Xie family will definitely not be like it was in history, but Ran Ming can't guarantee that history will play a joke on him.

Without Xie An in the state of Jin, maybe there will be some kind of pervert who can turn the whole situation around with his own efforts.

In fact, Ran Ming's guess was right, Xie An couldn't have appeared in Jin country, and he couldn't turn the tide for Jin country like in history, but there was still a new talent in Jin country, that is Xiao Lezi from Lanling Xiao family.

When the State of Wei declared war on the State of Jin in the early years, Xiao Lezi proposed to Sima Dan an idea, that is to infiltrate into the State of Wei.The border between Wei and Jin is thousands of miles long. Ever since the two countries declared war and were in a state of war, people from Jin would flee to Wei with their families.

Most of these people are real people, but some of them are soldiers of Sima Dan's imperial guards who got in among them.Xiangcheng in Ruyin County, also known as Huaibei in later generations, was originally the garrison of the Confederate Army.However, as the war approached at this time, it became a gathering place for refugees.

Surrounding Xiangcheng, Xiao County, Feng County and more than a dozen cities, countless refugee resettlement sites have been established.Ran Ming issued a decree to all the border cities not to refuse refugees to cross the border, and to all refugees who lack food and clothing, they must do their best to provide relief.

The people who fled from the state of Jin were busy building barracks, repairing roads, reclaiming farmland, and building water conservancy under the leadership of the officials.Although many people are still dressed in rags, they have smiles on their faces and are full of hope for the future, which is very different from the numbness of the people all over Jin.

Years of disasters, wars and horses are in chaos, and the heavy burden makes the people overwhelmed.Many places in the state of Jin do not say that there are no people for thousands of miles, and it is normal for hundreds of miles to be uninhabited. The prosperous towns in the past were abandoned one by one.But the Wei State was different. It seemed that there was no need for it. As long as the place was suitable for living and farming, all kinds of houses would rise from the ground, forming large and small fortresses.

The construction of Tunpu requires a lot of wood, stone, and goods.Around these forts, various shops and workshops are also being built, and they are all busy businessmen transporting grain and goods. It is conceivable that these places will form prosperous villages and towns in the future.

Lumber mills, quarries, various factories, mines, and livestock factories can be seen everywhere, and businessmen and gentry recruiting workers can be seen everywhere.It seems that overnight, the entire Wei State entered a wave of large-scale construction.Coupled with a large number of people gathering, merchants coming and going, one word: "prosperity!" Two words: "popularity!"

In normal times, the people who want to farm should give them land to plant, and the work they want to do should be given to them to work, anyway, as much as possible to meet their conditions.But now it is different. Hundreds of thousands of people flooded into Xiangshan, most of them are old and weak.

In ancient times, productivity was very low, and a family of people needed at least [-] mu of dry land to support themselves. The land grant law of the Wei State stipulated that males should be granted [-] acres of land and females [-] acres.Excluding the land occupied by the gentry and nobles, a county can have millions of mu of fertile land, and only more than [-] households are resettled.As the most economically developed eastern region of Wei State, the reclamation of wasteland here is very intensive, and large-scale reclamation of wasteland is no longer possible.

Although the officials in Xiangcheng are also very dedicated, they also feel overwhelmed.Thousands of people cross the border every day. These hungry and crazy people kneel on the ground begging for food and drink. The money, food and various supplies are very expensive. The county treasury and several Changping warehouses are very expensive. The bottom is coming soon.

In the face of hundreds of thousands of people who are about to go crazy from hunger, these officials are very experienced and know that if something goes wrong, they will be like dry wood, and they will catch fire at one point.The people of this era are not like the Ming and Qing Dynasties who were turned into sheep. They are ruthless people who dare to risk their lives when they are extremely hungry.

No, Xiangcheng's food supply is about to bottom out.Prefect Wen Hui hurriedly went to see Zhengnan General Shi Yue and asked for his help.

Most of the official positions in ancient times overlapped, which is actually the same as in modern times. If they are at the same level, there is a big difference between being a regular or not.The same level, different positions, the difference is also very big.

The prefect of the county and the governor of the state are actually at the same level, usually the fourth rank.General Zhengnan belongs to General Four Zheng, and he can be regarded as a military officer of the second rank.Ordinarily, a fourth-rank eunuch would not dare to show off in front of a dignified second-rank military officer.However, Wen Hui was born in the Wen family of Taiyuan, and he also has the title of servant censor on his head.This censor is also a second-rank official, but the censor can impeach officials big and small at any time.

Now, not only did Wen Hui dare to show off with Shi Yue, but he also had a lot of airs.When Wen Hui saw Shi Yue, he squeezed his voice and said arrogantly: "According to the holy decree, the prefect needs to help the refugees at all costs. Now that all the treasuries in the county have bottomed out, we need to ask General Zhengnan to allocate a batch of food for relief. Refugees!"

After hearing Wen Hui's words, Shi Yue was a little pleased.Fu secretly said: "Okay, Prefect Wen, you don't know what's going on, and you don't even know what time it is. After the war, you actually came here to ask for food."

In fact, Shi Yue still had a lot of food in his hand, which was enough for all the soldiers of the Southern Conscript Army to feed for more than seven months. It was fine to distribute some temporarily to Wen Hui, but Shi Yue was annoyed by Wen Hui's attitude.If Wen Hui could speak nicely, it would not be impossible for Shi Yue to distribute thousands of shi or even tens of thousands of shi to Wen Hui.

It was true that Shi Yue was a general, but since he was demoted for 12 years, he has already regarded himself as Wei Chen in his heart, and there is no inner barrier anymore.What's more, he also became General Zhengnan, a well-known general of Wei State.What's more, the war is just around the corner, it's not a time of peace, this time is when martial arts are noble and culture is cheap.

Shi Yue also spoke in an official tone, and said slowly: "Mr. Wen is the only one who makes amends. The more he wants to help Mr. Wen, it's just that the war is going on, and the food in the army cannot be moved lightly!"

The meeting between Prefect Wen and General Shi naturally broke up unhappy.In order to avoid the formation of a de facto feudal town in Wei State, Ran Ming started with the system.The troops stationed in various places have no right to intervene in local affairs at ordinary times. At the same time, the local prefects and governors have no right to intervene in military affairs. The two sides do not interfere with each other.

Therefore, Prefect Wen is not afraid of offending General Shi, and General Shi is not afraid of offending Prefect Wen.During this period, the local officials of the Wei State were not like the Song Dynasty. They were in charge of the money and food of the military power and could rely on the army's hind legs.Prefect Wen had no choice but to seek help from various gentry families.

But Ruyin County is different from other places.Huang Yi once wrote a martial arts novel called "Legend of the Borderlands". Although this novel is fabricated, there is one thing that is written correctly.Between Huai River and Surabaya River, there is a large piece of deserted land that spans hundreds of miles, full of ruins and deserted villages, like a ghost land: the Han people in the south call it "Border Wasteland", and the Hu people in the North regard it as "Ou Tuo". .Although the name is different, it must be the most unique place in today's world: because it is not only a place where good people bind their feet, but also a paradise for those who lick blood.

Just as Huang Yi described, there will not be any gentry families involved here. Similarly, even if they are powerful, they have limited strength in terms of money and food. They need to support their own private soldiers, and they don't have much savings themselves. Prefect Wen is not without appeal Under his call, most of the gentry in Ruyin also gave up their money. However, with the rise of business in the Wei state, farmers had a choice. When the burden was too great, a large number of tenants chose to work, and they were unwilling to rent and plant land from the landlord. field.Therefore, in order to retain tenants, landlords had to compete with merchants for the population. Most landlords chose to give up tenants. Generally, land rents fell below [-]%, and even more so, around [-]%.

Moreover, a large amount of Nanyang rice poured into Wei State, resulting in very low grain prices, and the profits of the landlords were naturally very small.The landlord's life is not easy, even if he wants to support Wen Hui, he is powerless.Wen Hui tried his best to talk, and finally got more than five thousand shi of grain.Those merchants in the Wei state were very rich. Even if there was no food, they could buy it with money.But Wen Hui didn't dare to mess around, as long as the bigger merchants not only pay taxes to the country, but also Ran Ming's dry stocks, to clean them up is to steal money from Ran Ming, unless Wen Hui's head is flooded, he dare not Move those merchants easily.

In desperation, all they had to do was ask for help from the Emergency Reporting Center and at the same time reduce the food supply of the refugees.From the beginning, three meals a day, one meat for three days, although it was only half a foot long dried fish per person, or fatty pork that the people of Wei State did not eat, but the life of the people of Jin State was hard, let alone ordinary The common people, even small and medium-sized landlords, cannot guarantee a daily supply of meat. They are very satisfied with Wei's hospitality. Although they do not accept free lunch and need to work hard to get food, these refugees are very grateful to Wei. country.

(End of this chapter)