The Three Kingdoms: Zhaolie, the strategist, and the rise of the Han Dynasty

Chapter 138: The state of vigorous vitality and the flourishing of all things is still before our eyes

Li Yi tentatively extended an olive branch.

Xu Chu and Xu Ding looked at each other.

Xu Ding spoke first and said:

"Don't we brothers want to make contributions to the world and leave a good reputation for posterity?"

"I only regret that I am of low status and cannot support the imperial family and drive out the traitors!"

Although the Xu family is also considered a local powerful family.

But they still cannot compare with the Cao and Xiahou families next door, especially in terms of reputation.

No matter how powerful the Xu family is in the local area, they are ultimately just ordinary people.

And what about Cao Cao next door?

At the age of 19, he was selected as a filial and incorrupt official and became the Northern Commander of Luoyang.

When he was in his early 30s, he became one of the Eight Commandants of the Western Garden, directly under the emperor and taking orders from him alone.

The reason why Cao Cao was able to hold such a high position was simply because he wrote an essay:
——My Taiwei Father

Comparing people to each other can really piss people off.

Xu Chu has always been a man of few words, but when he heard his brother say this, he couldn't help but utter a few words from the bottom of his heart.

"My brother and I have always loved military affairs, but if the world is peaceful, the people live in peace, and the border is tranquil..."

"Why should we learn this useless martial arts and military books?"

"Even if I can't become famous, it's better than fighting bandits every day."

Xu Ding nodded and chimed in:

"Since we are ordinary people, although it is difficult for us to plan for the whole country, we can plan for our hometown."

"So we gathered the clansmen from the village and built a fort to resist the bandits."

"Practice martial arts every day and sharpen yourself constantly, so that you can be useful in the future."

Upon seeing this, Li Yi no longer hesitated and decisively extended an olive branch.

"Since you two brothers have such lofty ambitions, why don't you follow me and follow General Liu?"

"Conquer the world and save the people?"

"If the matter is successful, even if it is small, you can be awarded a title of nobility, honor your wife and children."

"If you are great, you will protect the country and the people, support the royal family, and leave your name forever!"

Xu Ding and Xu Chu were both overjoyed when they heard this.

He left the table immediately, bowed and said:
"Mr. Li's words are exactly what my brother and I are thinking."

"It's not that we don't want to serve our country, it's that we have no way to do so."

"Now we, the royal family, have discussed that if General Liu does not abandon us, we are willing to serve under him."

Li Yi was overjoyed, holding the two men's hands and saying:
"If the two brothers are willing to serve Xuzhou, it will be a blessing from heaven!"

"I thank you both on behalf of General Liu!"

The Xu brothers quickly returned the greeting, expressing their willingness to go through fire and water for General Liu.

After the banquet,

Xu Ding contacted other elders of the Xu family and together they worked out the specific details of surrendering to Xuzhou.

Then Xu Ding and other more prestigious elders of the clan presented Li Yi with a tray of letters.

It records the population, land, food, livestock, weapons, etc. in the fort.

The records are extremely detailed and nothing is left out.

This is Xu's way of showing loyalty.

Li Yi accepted the letter and rewarded Xu Ding and several clan elders generously.

He also ordered the soldiers to take out the cattle, livestock, silk, gold and silver that had been seized, and distribute them to the remaining prestigious elders of the Xu family.

After receiving benefits from Li Yi, the elders of the clan knew that Li Yi was a kind and honest person.

If Xu follows him, he will definitely not suffer any loss.

So they had no more scruples and surrendered to Li Yi one after another.

After Li Yi settled the Xu family members, he sent someone to write a letter to Liu Bei, who was suppressing bandits in the south.

I told him about the fort in Qiao County.

After Liu Bei went south, he marched quickly all the way and caught up with Huang Shao before he even reached Gushi.

Huang Shao fought hastily and was defeated by Liu Bei.

Guan Gong rushed into the formation and killed Huang Shao.

Most of the remaining Yellow Turbans fled in all directions.

Those who failed to escape surrendered to Liu Bei.

Liu Bei settled everyone down and distributed food and fodder to them.

All the Yellow Turban bandits were grateful and said they would never go against General Liu again.

Liu Bei then asked everyone if they were willing to follow him back to Pei State.

If they wished, he could give them land to cultivate.

Everyone was grateful for Liu Bei's kindness and expressed their willingness.

Liu Bei gladly accepted it.

He did not say that he wanted to move these Yellow Turban soldiers to Xuzhou, as he did not want them to leave their homes.

He only told them to go to Pei State and stay in Yu Province.

After surrendering the Yellow Turban rebels and receiving a letter from Li Yi, Liu Bei led Guan Yu and Xu Huang north to the fortress in Qiao County.

Because there were many more Yellow Turban bandits in the army, the marching speed was much slower.

Li Yi waited in the fort for several days before Liu Bei finally arrived.

These days he has been in the fort, accompanying Xu Chu and others in training troops and exchanging training experiences.

Li Yi also learned a lot from it.

Afterwards, Li Yi introduced the Xu brothers to Liu Bei.

When Liu Bei heard this, he was overjoyed and immediately appointed Xu Ding as a colonel and Xu Chu as a commander.

"Now that the bandits have been defeated and many Yellow Turban bandits have been captured, can we go back to Xuzhou?"

Liu Bei asked Li Yi.

Li Yi nodded and said:
"This trip southward not only yielded a large amount of wealth and gold, but also won over the Xu family. We have already exceeded the task that Yi had set before."

"We can head north to Xiaopei first and hand over the captured Yellow Turban bandits to Chen Hanyu, who will then settle them on the land."

"Then he went eastward from Xiaopei and returned to Xiapi."

Liu Bei gladly followed his advice.

Gather the troops and prepare to set off for Xiaopei.

The brothers Xu Ding and Xu Chu brought hundreds of clan members and followed Liu Bei to Xiaopei.

When Chen Gui knew that Liu Bei was coming, he went out of the city to greet him personally.

The current Envoy Liu is no longer the Envoy Liu who first came to Xuzhou.

At that time, Liu Bei wanted to rule Xuzhou, and he particularly wanted to please the Chen family of Xia Pi.

But who is Liu Bei now?

The Left General of the Han Dynasty, appointed Governor of Xuzhou by the Emperor himself.

With all power in his hands, he could no longer be manipulated at will by the other noble families in Xuzhou.

Except for Pei Xiang Chen Gui, all the county magistrates and county heads of other counties came to Xiaopei to pay homage to Liu Bei.

After all, he is their immediate superior. Compared with him, they are just insignificant officials.

You must strive for more opportunities to show your face.

Liu Bei comforted everyone one by one and assessed the performance of each official.

Then they encouraged and rewarded each one, and everyone left satisfied.

Liu Bei handed over the captured Yellow Turban bandits, along with only the farm tools, oxen and seeds, to Chen Gui.

After explaining some matters concerning military farming to him, he hurried back to Xuzhou.

After returning to Xia Pi, Li Yi formally told Liu Bei about his grand strategy to destroy Yuan Shu.

"Huai and Si have a population of one million, fertile land, and many rivers. It is a fertile land."

"Xuzhou is a place surrounded by enemies. If we cannot occupy Huai and Si rivers, we will be rootless."

"Before, I was troubled by many things and never told you the specific strategy for conquering Huainan."

"Now that everything is settled, Yi thinks we can start preparing!"

Li Yi explained his strategic plan to Liu Bei in an orderly and easy-to-understand manner.

Why are Huaisi important to Xuzhou?
Because if you want to use Xuzhou as your base, you must have a large rear base.

Huaishui is such a natural granary.

Later, Deng Ai specialized in farming in the Huai and Si areas.

Not only did it utilize the Huai and Ying rivers to irrigate more than 20,000 mu of fertile fields, it also connected a waterway of more than 300 miles.

The harvest was an annual grain output of three million hu.

Let’s compare it with the Prime Minister’s five northern expeditions. Almost every time he was forced to withdraw due to food shortage.

You can imagine how difficult the situation was at that time.

"Now Xuzhou shipbuilders have been busy building ships since the beginning of the year, if nothing unexpected happens."

“Everything will be launched before April at the latest.”

Li Yi spread out the map and planned the strategic direction in detail for Liu Bei.

"Guangling Chen Yuanlong, Gan Ning, Jiang Qin and others are all intensively training boatmen and sailors."

"We must shift the main battlefield to Yuzhou, and go south along the Yingshui and Woshui rivers to attack Yuan Shu's Shouchun."

"Then I ordered Yuanlong to send troops from Guangling, take the Yangtze River route, and attack Jiujiang from behind."

"Attack from both sides, so that Yuan Shu can't take care of both ends."

Liu Bei listened carefully, and then asked:
"When can we launch a full-scale war and send troops to Huainan?"

"After the autumn harvest."

Li Yi didn't think twice.

It is only the beginning of spring, and this is the time when we should take care of the people and accumulate strength.

With the promotion of military farming throughout Xuzhou, a lot of grain will be harvested in the autumn harvest.

Only in this way can we launch an all-out war against Yuan Shu.

This is also Li Yi's diplomatic style.

Don't fight a battle you are not sure of winning. If you have to fight, fight to the death!
"...Well, there's still more than half a year left."

Liu Bei nodded slightly, stroked his beard and said:

"During this period, you and I must make adequate preparations."

"Happy to oblige."

Li Yi smiled slightly.

Now ships from Xuzhou are falling into the water like dumplings.

Chen Deng was assisted by Gan Ning and others in Guangling, and the number of boatmen and sailors also continued to increase.

They also trained a number of elite soldiers capable of amphibious warfare.

In the army, Zhao Yun, Tian Yu and Qian Zhao were responsible for training the cavalry, while Gao Shun was responsible for training the special forces - the Xianzhen Camp.

The two brothers Xu Chu and Xu Ding were responsible for training the Tiger Guards, who would serve as personal guards and could also be sent into the battlefield when necessary.

As for the remaining troops, they were trained by their own commanders.

For example, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Xu Sheng, Taishi Ci, etc., they were all assigned to different groups of people.

During this period, Li Yi and Liu Bei often brought wine and meat to reward the soldiers and encourage everyone to train well.

As for agriculture, Lu Su, the Captain of Agriculture, Wang Xiu, Kong Rong and others all needed to help.

Kong Rong, in particular, was extremely grateful to Liu Bei for welcoming the emperor to the State of Chen.

In this way, he could pay homage to the emperor from time to time.

Kong Rong also actively helped in the field of military farming.

Don't think he's good at fighting.

But during his several years in Beihai, he repaired the city, promoted schools, established academies, selected talented people, and promoted Confucian scholars.

His political achievements are still impressive.

The most important thing is that he has a high reputation. Even many ordinary people have heard of Kong Beihai's name.

Many common people were happy to serve him.

As for equipment, farm tools, etc., the Iron Camp controlled by the scholars and nobles headed by Mi Zhu was also working at full capacity to build them.

Li Yi took the initiative to find his brother-in-law and told him that he could spare no expense to build armor and weapons.

As for iron ore, in addition to the trade with Qingzhou.

Lu and Pei were also major iron-producing countries.

The iron ore mined there was transported back to Xia Pi by water through the Si River.

Finally, the remaining ships were still ordered to go out to Liaodong for trade.

The main ones selected were the warriors that Taishi Ci brought out to sea last time.

They already have extensive experience in going overseas and can work on their own.

At the same time, he had already established an alliance with Gongsun Du.

Li Yi was also able to trade with him with confidence, so he expanded the scale of his merchant fleet.

In addition to refined salt, we also brought some special products from the Central Plains.

Maltose, salted fish, pearls, silk, etc.

You can buy a large number of horses.

Don’t worry about whether you can afford to raise a horse or not; the horse will not starve to death anyway.

At most, we will not feed you food and turn you into a war horse.

As a work horse, it can also improve transportation efficiency.

Moreover, one of the important reasons why horses were an important strategic resource in ancient times was that they could be used in emergencies.

When necessary, horses can be an important backup food.

It’s not a bad thing to stock up more.

In short, everything is settled.

Wherever Liu Bei and Li Yi went, the people welcomed them wholeheartedly.

It can be said that it is a perfect timing!
Although many years have passed, the scene of thriving vitality and flourishing things is still vivid before our eyes.

Over the past two years, Li Yi and Liu Bei recruited a large number of refugees.

Hundreds of thousands of people were settled in Xuzhou.

Most of them were native people of Xuzhou, who were displaced due to the war.

The addition of these refugees greatly promoted the development of military farming in Xuzhou.

Considering Xuzhou's current rapid development.

After estimation and statistics, Li Yi and other senior officials of Xuzhou wrote to Liu Bei together, suggesting that the army could be expanded by about 10,000 more.

With Xuzhou's current productivity, it can be afforded.

Moreover, this was also to make full preparations for the destruction of Yuan Shu after the autumn harvest.

While Xuzhou was making intensive preparations for war, a small incident occurred.

That is, Liu Biao of Jingzhou suddenly stopped trade with Xuzhou.

It was simply that Liu Biao had a keen political sense and realized that something was not right.

Especially now that the emperor has returned to the east, Liu Bei has been appointed by the court to the high position of Left General.

In addition, Zhao Yun was granted the position of Jiujiang prefect by the court, and the position of Lujiang prefect also fell into the hands of someone in Cao's camp.

This is different from what was promised.

According to Liu Biao's original plan, he continued to provide blood transfusions to Xuzhou in order to interfere in the affairs of Yangzhou.

As a result, the ownership of Lujiang and Jiujiang fell into the hands of Cao and Liu.

Liu Biao didn't even have a sip of soup.

This made Liu Biao very dissatisfied.

Xuzhou also had something to say, saying that it was not that we did not want to give the right to petition in Lujiang to you, Jingzhou.

But the problem is that this is the will of the court, and we can't object to it, don't you think?
Could it be that Brother Jingsheng thinks that the court’s words don’t count?

As a relative of the Han royal family, Liu Biao certainly did not dare to say that the court or the emperor was wrong.

I can only suffer the loss of being dumb.

And then, a series of actions taken by Xuzhou made Liu Biao even more alert.

That is to turn all the trading contents of Jing and Xu states into food and fodder.

Xuzhou's large-scale farming is bound to lead to a military campaign.

Liu Biao predicted that Liu Bei would attack Yangzhou soon.

Once the battle is really successful, Yangzhou will truly fall into Liu Bei's hands.

The power to submit memorials from Lujiang that had been agreed upon previously was not given to Liu Biao.

If Liu Bei were to capture Yangzhou now, Liu Biao would completely lose the opportunity to interfere in Yangzhou's affairs.

Therefore, he resolutely stopped trade with Xuzhou.

However, Xuzhou was not at all panicked.

On Lao Liu's side, Xuzhou has become united and has a common purpose to face the outside world.

However, in Jingzhou, Liu Jingsheng was in a situation of fighting among various factions.

The four great families of Cai, Kuai, Pang and Huang monopolized the power in Jingzhou.

Especially the Huang family in Jiangxia.

You should know that the trade between Xuzhou and Jingzhou was mainly conducted through the Yangtze River waterway between Jiangxia and Guangling.

However, Liu Biao's control over Jiangxia was extremely weak, and all power fell into the hands of the Huang family.

You, Liu Biao, can refuse to trade with Xuzhou and stop your subordinates?

The world is full of goodwill, and the world is all good.

Driven by interests, many elders of the Huang family secretly conducted transactions with Xuzhou.

But Liu Biao was helpless and could do nothing about it.

Especially someone like Huang Zu, who shot and killed Sun Jian, but he actually helped Liu Biao.

The power of Jiangxia is almost entirely in his hands. Relying on the powerful Jingzhou navy, the entire Yangtze River waterway is controlled by the Huang family.

The trade was going well before and everyone made money.

You, Liu Biao, are so good that you just snap your fingers and cut off the trade.

How many people's plans will be disrupted and how many people's cakes will be affected by this?
How much of the goods prepared previously will be unsold?

How are they going to deal with it?
Pour it into the Yangtze River?

Anyway, for these scholars and nobles, dumping the water into the Yangtze River is better than selling it to the common people at a low price.

Therefore, Jiangxia ignored Liu Biao's trade ban and continued to trade with Xuzhou privately.

The wealthy families in other counties and prefectures of Jingzhou also secretly contacted the Huang family, using him as a middleman and asking him to handle the transactions.

Liu Biao couldn't control himself and thought that whether he banned trade or not, these noble families would still trade with them.

I didn't make a penny.

So he resumed trade with Xuzhou.

At least this way I can still make money.

……

Just as Xuzhou was developing rapidly, the Sun family was also developing rapidly in Qu'a, located in the south of Guangling, Xuzhou.

At this time, Sun Ce's uncle Wu Jing and cousin Sun Ben both brought their troops to join him.

Sun Ce's strength has greatly increased.

His childhood friend Zhou Yu also used his family's influence to raise a large amount of food and fodder in Shu County, Lujiang.

According to the original plan, Sun Ce would recuperate in Qu'a for a year in order to attack Wujun the following year.

Destroyed Xu Gong and seized Jiangdong.

Everything is going smoothly now, and Sun Ce's injuries have long since healed.

They currently have 20,000 troops in Jiangdong, thanks to the joining of his uncle Wu Jing.

Wu Jing's army alone has 7,000 people, which is a force that cannot be underestimated.

Sun Ce also relied heavily on him and would always take him and Zhou Yu with him whenever he went out.

After accumulating enough strength, Sun Ce summoned all his generals to discuss matters.

"Last year, we formulated a strategy to attack Xu Gong of Wujun in the early spring of this year."

"How is it now?"

Sun Ce sat high up in the hall, looking at the generals under his command.

Among them, the majority were veteran generals left behind by his father Sun Jian.

As soon as the words fell, the elders, led by Huang Gai, came out one after another and said loudly:

"We are all ready!"

"Please give the order, my lord, to attack Xu Gong from the south!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the other generals also became excited and came out one after another.

"Always be prepared! Please give the order, lord!"

The voice was as loud as a bell, echoing throughout the hall.

A hint of hesitation flashed across Sun Ce's heroic brows, and he did not respond in a hurry.

"What about the North?"

"What about the North?"

Sun Ce's sudden question made everyone present a little confused.

What does this mean, young master?
"Gongjin, you speak."

Sun Ce gave Zhou Yu next to him a look.

Zhou Yu understood, lifted his clothes and came out, saying:

"Recently, we received news that Xuzhou is aggressively expanding its manpower and purchasing food."

……

(End of this chapter)