My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 298 Then play music and then dance

At the same time, Zhuge Jin and Bu Zhi were discussing the takeover of the counties in the southern mountainous area of Kuaiji.

Thousands of miles upstream of the Yangtze River in Wuchang County, Jiangxia Commandery, there was a celebratory atmosphere in the headquarters of the General of Chariots and Cavalry.

"Keep playing the music! Keep dancing! Don't go home until you are drunk! No one is allowed to be an exception!"

Liu Bei personally held the wine cup and drank it with big gulps. Even Zhang Fei, who was stationed in Baqiu and was in charge of the Yangtze River defense line, was recalled to Wuchang by Liu Bei to drink and celebrate together.

Anyway, Liu Biao's army is no longer a threat to Jingnan, and there are no other unusual movements. Compared with the end of the Jingnan War half a year ago, the security situation in Changsha and Wuling counties has improved a lot.

Zhang Fei didn't have much military affairs to do in Baqiu and Chanling, so he might as well take advantage of Sun Ce's downfall to come back and have fun with his elder brother.

How could Zhang Fei miss such an opportunity? Of course he drank till dawn.

"It's great! That little Sun Ce has finally been defeated! Big brother has nothing to worry about anymore! He got such a good deal, but I heard that he died a heroic death in the end. Let's not think about it anymore, let's drink our own water! If I had known that Cai Mao and Zhang Yun would not dare to say a word in the past six months, I should have done the same as Zilong and gone to Jiangdong to get involved and fight some battles!"

Zhang Fei danced with joy, but felt very unwilling when he thought that he had not gained more military merits. He drank a lot to vent his jealousy, and soon he passed out and fell into a deep sleep.

"Yide is just impatient and drinks so fast. Come on, Kongming, Shiyuan, let's continue! Let's focus on eating and watching the dance! Today's meeting is really enjoyable." Seeing Zhang Fei fall asleep, Liu Bei laughed and pulled Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong to continue drinking slowly.

Pang Tong was also a little drunk. He picked up the wine cup and said half-jokingly, "Is it okay to attack other countries for fun?"

Liu Bei slammed the wine cup on the table and laughed and scolded: "Sun Ce is a traitor, what kind of country is this! King Wu defeated King Zhou and sang before and danced after. Your analogy is inappropriate! I will punish you with three more cups!"

Pang Tong did not refute and just drank it.

Then Liu Bei turned to Zhuge Liang and asked casually, "Sir, have you carefully read the report of victory your brother sent the other day, as well as the request for titles for officials who have made contributions in Yangzhou?"

Zhuge Liang responded, "I have already read it. My Lord, do you think it is inappropriate?"

Liu Bei: "How can it be inappropriate? Ziyu has always been cautious and prudent in employing people. Since you have also seen it, then everything is approved! However, Ziyu only suggested the candidates for the county magistrates of the three counties of Wu and Hui, as well as the county magistrates of several important counties, and some military positions. He did not comment on the prefects of each county. Who should be the prefect of Wu County?"

Liu Bei carefully read the proposal for official positions submitted by Zhuge Jin.

According to Zhuge Jin's suggestion, the county magistrates of the three counties of Wu and Hui were Lu Su of Danyang, Yan Jun of Wu, and Bu Zhi of Kuaiji.

When Lu Su was in Wuhu, he was in charge of the local government of Danyang County and served as Zhuge Jin's deputy. At that time, Zhuge Jin himself was the governor of Danyang, but he had no time to worry about the trivial matters in the local area.

Zhuge Jin was appointed as the governor of Danyang by the emperor two years before the Yidaizhao. Now, he simply occupied the other counties of Danyang controlled by Sun Ce on the basis of the eight counties in the southwest.

Therefore, Liu Bei's camp did not need to set up a new ruling team for Danyang County. It was only necessary to expand the management scope of the original team. This was also the easiest to deal with among the three counties of Wu and Hui.

As for the remaining Kuaiji County, Bu Zhi assisted Wang Lang in handling government affairs, and there has been a running-in period of more than a year. The only difference is that before it only included two counties in central Fujian, but now it has been expanded to the entire twenty counties of Kuaiji.

The situation in Kuaiji was similar to that in Danyang. The only trouble was that Kuaiji County originally had Yu Fan, the county magistrate appointed by Wang Lang. Now that Bu Zhi was actually helping Wang Lang govern, it was necessary to find another position to accommodate Yu Fan.

Liu Bei did not know much about Yu Fan's talents and character, but Zhuge Jin told him in a private letter that this person was known for his integrity and adherence to principles, but his administrative ability was slightly biased.

Liu Bei decided to summon Yu Fan to Wuchang, and after getting to know him personally, he would consider giving him an official position as an advisor and inspector to use his talents.

In the last Wujun, Zhuge Jin appointed Yan Jun as the county magistrate, which was reasonable in terms of rank. Yan Jun had made much less achievements than Bu Zhi at the beginning, but later he also made some noble and fearless achievements by relying on some diplomatic missions before the war with Sun.

This was also Zhuge Jin's usual practice: among Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Liang's classmates, those with the most empty reputation and no real talent were picked out to be responsible for dangerous missions against the enemy.

Among Zhuge Liang's classmates, Meng Jian played this role, and among Zhuge Jin's classmates, it was Yan Jun. Since they have no ability, let them take some risks, so that even if they have no merit, they can still "work in danger", and their promotion can convince the public.

But precisely because Yan Jun's practical and administrative talent was obviously inferior to that of Lu Su and Bu Zhi, Zhuge Jin did not make any suggestions on the candidate for the prefect of Wujun, and this position was left for Liu Bei to reward himself or arrange for his confidants.

Moreover, Zhuge Jin also hinted in his memorial that the future prefect of Wujun would have more real power than the prefect of Kuaiji, and the county magistrate of Wujun would really play a supporting role and would not completely undermine the prefect.

At this moment, Liu Bei asked Zhuge Liang this question because he actually wanted to see if Zhuge Liang had any candidate to recommend for the lucrative position of Wujun prefect.

This also shows how much Liu Bei valued the Zhuge brothers: if Ziyu had a recommendation, he would use Ziyu's recommendation directly. Even if Ziyu did not recommend, he would ask Kongming if he wanted to recommend anyone. If neither of them recommended, Liu Bei would make his own decision. Zhuge Liang certainly understood what Liu Bei meant. He did not know much about the new talents in Wuhui area, and did not want to appoint people based on personal connections, so he replied directly: "I have no suitable candidate to recommend for the vacancy of Wujun Taishou. My lord knows people well and can promote the right talents."

Liu Bei nodded, pondered for a while, picked up the wine glass and drank it all, and sighed: "Then let Zifang be the governor of Wujun! Ziyu and sir, brothers have accompanied me in times of trouble, and now they are both governors and leaders of the military government. Zizhong and Zifang are brothers, aren't they friends in times of trouble?

When Guangling was in danger, Cao and Lu both tried to persuade the Mi family with high positions, but my army was small and my territory was limited, so I could only appoint Zizhong as the governor of Donghai, and there was no other place to place Zifang. Now that the rear is safe, letting Zifang also be a county governor is also worthy of the Mi family. And Zhen'er is pregnant recently, so let the Mi family be happy. "

In the original history, when Liu Bei was in desperate situation after Xuzhou was stolen, Cao Cao and Lu Bu both persuaded the brothers Mi Zhu and Mi Fang to surrender, and promised them both the high position of county governor. Even for Mi Fang, who had no ability, Cao Cao gave him the bait of "Prime Minister of Pengcheng".

Of course, in this life, because history was reversed after the Battle of Guangling, the conditions for persuasion that the Mi brothers received changed slightly, and Lu Bu quickly reconciled with Liu Bei, but the price level offered by other forces when the Mi brothers were recruited remained basically unchanged.

This is equivalent to "someone offered me a high salary to poach me, but I didn't go". In that case, the original employer should at least show some appreciation by giving the employee who did not change jobs a promotion and a raise as a way of appeasing him.

On the other hand, Liu Bei's harem has been affected by some butterfly effects in recent years because the situation has been stable.

In history, Liu Bei had children or his wives and concubines were pregnant before Adou was born, but some of them were lost in the defeat of Runan and even the disastrous defeat at Changbanpo, and some of them were not conceived during the chaos of war.

Now Liu Bei could live a peaceful life every day, his old nest was no longer threatened, and he could have children when he had free time. Finally, in the spring of the sixth year of Jian'an, it was discovered that one of his wives or concubines was pregnant. This was also normal.

Because of historical changes, he would definitely not adopt Liu Feng in this life, so if he had an eldest son, he should have named him starting with "Liu Feng". The name "Liu Chan" would have been given to the second son as expected.

Zhuge Liang was not a time traveler like his brother, so he could not have known about Mi Fang's betrayal in the original history. At this moment, he had no objection to Liu Bei's suggestion and thought it was very appropriate.

Moreover, if Mi Zhen gave birth to a child for Liu Bei in this life, even if Mi Fang became crazy, he would never betray Liu Bei. What would he want?

Sitting in the rich and complete rear base of Wujun, he could at most make some money, and there would be no other harm. Cao Cao or other princes could not attack the vicinity of Wujun to the extent that Mi Fang would defect.

In this life, Mi Fang would probably be a wealthy man with little presence, a governor of a rich county, and spend his life eating, drinking and having fun, harmless to people and animals. Liu Bei also completely repaid Mi Zhu for his support in times of trouble and his financial and human support.

Zhuge Liang then made a pertinent comment: "My Lord, your idea is very good. I also think that Mi Zifang is suitable for the post of governor of Wujun. The Mi family is good at maritime business. Zizhong is in the East China Sea and Zifang is in Wujun. They are located in the south and north of the Yangtze River estuary. Given time, they may make our Han Dynasty's maritime business more prosperous and allow the north and south to exchange what they have."

As for the fact that Mi Fang was a little greedy, Zhuge Liang also noticed it, but he knew that with his elder brother as the "leader of Yangzhou Governor's Office", he would definitely be able to control Mi Fang.

At that time, we will persuade Mi Fang to take the right path. When asking for money, don't try to get it from the hard-earned channels such as land tax and capitation tax, and don't resell strategic materials. As long as we put more effort into the normal operation of maritime merchants, even if they evade commercial taxes, the harm will not be as great as starting from land and capitation taxes. After all, it is a competition for profit among merchants.

After hearing Zhuge Liang's support, Liu Bei formally nodded his approval.

After the integration of Jingnan and Wuhui, Liu Bei's camp expanded its territory by seven counties in the past year or so, almost doubling its size - of course, two of these counties still nominally belonged to Liu Biao, but were gradually brought under his actual control.

Before the battles of Jingnan and Jiangdong, Liu Bei only had six whole counties, namely Guangling, Xiapi, Jiujiang, Lujiang, Yuzhang, and Jiangxia, and half a county each of Danyang and Donghai, totaling seven counties.

After just a year and a half, six more whole counties were added, plus the remaining half of Danyang County, there are now thirteen and a half counties.

The entire territory of Yangzhou was in the hands of Liu Bei. Xuzhou and Jingzhou each occupied only half, which together were equivalent to the strength of two entire states, "two states and thirteen counties".

There were fourteen states in the world (there were fourteen states in the world when Yongzhou and Jiaozhou coexisted, but a few years after Jiaozhou was established, Yongzhou was withdrawn and merged with Liangzhou, so there were only thirteen states coexisting for most of the Eastern Han Dynasty), Liu Bei got two, Cao Cao currently has three and a half, and Yuan Shao got four, but soon some of Yuan Shao's four states will be eaten up by Cao Cao

Liu Biao and Zhang Lu each got half a state, Liu Zhang, Shi Xie, and Ma Teng (Han Sui) each got one state.

So Liu Bei's territory only seems to be large in area, but in terms of the number of states he controls, he is still obviously behind Yuan and Cao, because the south is vast and sparsely populated.

After Liu Bei completed the appointment of Mi Fang, the positions of the fourteen county governors under his rule were also reopened.

The prefects of the three counties of Xuzhou were as follows: Guan Yu, the prefect of Xia Pi, Mi Zhu, the prefect of Donghai, and Chen Deng, the prefect of Guangling.

The prefects of the counties in Yangzhou were as follows: Zhuge Jin, the prefect of Danyang; Mi Fang, the prefect of Wujun; Wang Lang, the prefect of Kuaiji; Zhao Yun, the prefect of Jiujiang; Jian Yong, the prefect of Lujiang; and Zhuge Xuan, the prefect of Yuzhang.

The prefects of various counties in Jingzhou were as follows: Zhuge Liang, the prefect of Jiangxia; Zhang Fei, the prefect of Changsha; Zhao Fan, the prefect of Guiyang; Wu Ju, the prefect of Wuling; and Lai Gong, the prefect of Lingling.

(End of this chapter)