My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 38: Sir, I will never forget your kindness (new book, please vote, collect, and follow up)

After receiving the letter, Liu Bei and Zhang Fei rode at full speed, traveling day and night, and arrived in Ling County from Guangling in three days.

Although we were covered in dust and dirt along the way, we were all very excited.

Guan Yu had also dispatched two thousand soldiers in advance, and went upstream along the Si River from Huaiyin, taking actual control of Ling County and confronting Xiaxiang County controlled by Lu Bu's army eighty miles upstream.

Previously, when Zhuge Jin was on a diplomatic mission and passed by, he found that Lu Bu did not send troops to Ling County. He was probably afraid of accidental firing, or there were more valuable targets worth grabbing, so he did not care about such a small place with no strategic value.

Zhuge Jin did not want to provoke Lu Bu at the time, so he did not occupy Ling County. Now that the negotiations have been concluded and the spoils have been clearly divided, Guan Yu was worried that he would have more trouble later, so he just took it.

It also helped Liu Bei's army to recover hundreds of soldiers and more than 20,000 people from Xuzhou, which was a small supplement.

……

On the morning of the 13th, Liu, Guan and Zhang set out from the west gate of Ling County along the Si River for thirty miles to meet the enemy, and did not stop until they were about to enter the territory of Xiaxiang.

The group waited anxiously until noon, and finally saw a team of carriages and about two hundred cavalrymen coming on the distant horizon.

Although he already knew the result, Liu Bei's nervousness still reached its peak.

Even though they were several miles apart, they desperately searched for Zhuge Jin's shadow in the crowd, but they couldn't find him.

He thought it was because of his poor eyesight, so he patted his third brother a few times and asked Zhang Fei to look carefully.

Guan Yu had squinty eyes and his vision was not very good, Liu Bei was well aware of this. Zhang Fei, on the other hand, always had wide eyes and searched with a wider angle.

Zhang Fei looked for a long time and only found Chen Dao. Fortunately, he was a man of great consideration and comforted him, "Brother, I saw Uncle Zhi! Uncle Zhi is here, so the master must be fine. Maybe he is hiding in the car."

Zhang Fei was right in his guess. Liu, Guan and Zhang rode forward to meet them. Several carriages on the opposite side also stopped quickly. The women in the carriages opened their curtains one after another, and cried with joy to report their safety to their husbands, but they did not get off the carriages.

Obviously, this place was still a dangerous place, and the right thing to do was to hurry away from it. After Liu, Guan, and Zhang met up with their families, they immediately turned their horses around and followed the carriage.

Zhuge Jin was indeed in the last car. Because the other cars were all filled with women, he felt embarrassed to ride in the car with them, so he took a few children with him.

When Liu Bei personally lifted the curtain of the carriage, he saw Guan Ping, who was still a child, sitting next to Zhuge Jin, coaxing a two-year-old girl in his arms.

When Zhuge Jin saw Liu Bei, he quickly motioned for Liu Bei to get in the car and let him take care of the baby.

Liu Bei had no sons in his early years, but he had a daughter. This girl was conceived by Madam Gan after he entered Xuzhou, so according to the time, she is less than two years old now. In history, she was lost when he led the people across the river.

But now Liu Bei probably has no chance to go to Changbanpo.

Liu Bei hurriedly got into the carriage, held his daughter in his arms, and looked her up and down in surprise: "Zi Yu, how could you... Aren't you unmarried? Could it be that you have a child from a concubine?"

What he didn't know was that with the development of media in later generations, even unmarried men would know a little about how to coax children.

Zhuge Jin knew a lot of rare things. The child was bored along the way and volunteered to play with him. It was not that he wanted to snatch the child from Madam Gan.

Liu Bei's daughter also took the initiative to explain that Uncle Zhuge told her and Guan Ping many interesting stories along the way, all of which were about the distant world.

Liu Bei was deeply moved after hearing this: "I never thought that a capable person could do anything and even knew so many anecdotes. Ziyu, you are twenty-one, right? Why haven't you got married yet? You haven't even found concubines or maids?"

Zhuge Jin: "When I was in my hometown of Langya, I was still underage. I have been on the run for the past two years, without a fixed place to live."

Liu Bei said quickly: "After returning from this mission to Xuchang, things will be stable. How about deciding one first? You have been so kind to my brother, I will help you plan this little thing."

Zhuge Jin quickly rejected the idea: "Let's discuss it after we come back. This matter is not urgent."

As soon as he heard Liu Bei's suggestion, a thought flashed through his mind: After completing this mission, I will return to my hometown to get married...

How can he stand with such an unlucky Flagg!

Even if I want to consider women, I should at least wait until I come back from Xuchang and settle down completely before considering it! I can't even get engaged now!

Liu Bei did not insist.

Soon, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei also listened to their wives and concubines' complaints and came over to pay their respects to Zhuge Jin.

Guan Yu clasped his fists and bowed, while Zhang Fei came over and knelt down, and Zhuge Jin couldn't stop him.

In the end, Liu Bei understood them and pulled Zhuge Jin to his knees, saying, "Let him kneel! This is a lesson for us. He was the one who lost our family this time, and Ziyu redeemed them for us. He should apologize, otherwise he won't be able to sleep for a year!"

Zhuge Jin's original intention was just to get a favor by the way, and he didn't think much about anything else.

He knew that according to the original course of history, the families of Liu, Guan and Zhang would be brought back in the end, and he just took advantage of the situation and got the credit for free.

Now, irritated by Zhang Fei's overreaction, he felt very embarrassed inside, so he remembered something and quickly turned around to get two carefully wrapped boxes from the car to ease the embarrassment.

He first reminded Zhang Fei not to get excited, and then opened it.

But even though Zhang Fei was mentally prepared, when he saw what was in the box, he was still furious and clenched his fists, almost ready to smash it.

Fortunately, Zhuge Jin took it away immediately and warned: "Just take a look at it to vent your anger! How can you send it to Xuchang to report for merit if you break it? Chen Yuanlong took the responsibility and secretly lent it to me for three days. Don't cause any trouble." It turned out that the box contained the heads of Xu Dan and Zhang Kuang pickled in lime.

For Zhang Fei, this was like meeting an enemy, how could he not be jealous? It was a humiliation and regret that he would never forget in his life.

That night, it was Xu Dan who led his troops to defend the White Gate Tower and resist Zhang Fei's counterattack. Then Zhang Kuang escaped and informed Lu Bu to speed up the attack. If one of these two thieves was missing, Lu Bu would not be able to steal Xia Pi City.

When Liu Bei heard that this was borrowed by Chen Deng, he quickly pulled Zhang Fei away to stop him from acting impulsively.

Zhang Fei calmed down for a moment before pounding the ground with his fists to vent his anger: "You bastards! You bastards! So you deserve this day!"

Having vented enough, Zhang Fei held his bloody fist and yelled at Zhuge Jin: "Sir, if you need me in the future, as long as I don't object, just ask!"

Liu Bei was speechless when he heard this. He was angry and amused. He thought to himself, "Aren't you trying to sow discord between me and Ziyu? What do you mean by 'big brother doesn't object'?"
But he also knew that Zhang Fei was just that kind of person and had no ill intentions, so he didn't explain much.

Fortunately, Zhuge Jin gave Liu Bei a look in time, and the four of them confirmed that they were both smart people and laughed it off.

……

There is no need to elaborate on the formalities of expressing thanks and gratitude.

After Liu, Guan and Zhang Fei calmed down, Liu Bei ordered Guan Yu and Zhang Fei to talk to their families to find out whether they had suffered from being under Lu Bu's house arrest for the past month.

He took Zhuge Jin with him to check and confirm whether all the negotiation conditions had been agreed to by Lu Bu as planned.

Zhuge Jin then briefly outlined the other contents of the agreement between the two parties, except for the release of the generals.

"In the past two days, Xianhe and Yuanlong pretended to be on each side and negotiated a lot of conditions. Yuanlong also reported it to Lu Bu, who didn't understand and agreed to all of them.

First of all, Lu Bu has allowed the families of our soldiers to return south one after another, and anyone who wants to leave can leave.

There are still more than seven or eight thousand local soldiers in our army, and more than 20,000 family members, including women and children. In the next month or so, they will be able to move south in batches. The general should also ask Gongyou to find a way to settle them.

In addition, because Xu Dan and Zhang Kuang were killed, Lu Bu could not take on all the Danyang soldiers. Most of the Danyang soldiers who remained in Xia Pi were subdued by Gao Shun, but there were still more than a thousand diehard followers of Xu Dan and Zhang Kuang. Keeping them was unstable, so he sent them all to Guangling.

In addition, there are hundreds of local soldiers in Xuzhou, who are also the confidants of Xu and Zhang. Together with the Lingxian garrison, our army can increase the number of combat troops by 2,000. There are also more than 7,000 families of these soldiers. "

All in all, Liu Bei could bring back a total of 20,000 to 30,000 families and children of old soldiers, 2,000 combat soldiers, and 7,000 to 8,000 families of these combat soldiers.

All added up, it makes up for about 40,000 people.

In addition, Ling County was actually occupied by Guan Yu. As a security guarantee for mutual transactions, Liu Bei actually recovered 60,000 people this time.

Although two and a half counties in the central part of Xuzhou were lost (there were also several counties near the sea in Donghai County that were not surrendered and were still in Liu Bei's hands because it was Mi Zhu's hometown), it was still a small recovery.

Guangling had just experienced a great turmoil, and many people fled to Jiangdong, so there was definitely enough idle farmland. An additional 60,000 people could definitely be accommodated.

Moreover, among these 60,000 people, only 40,000 need to be divided into land, and the 20,000 people in Ling County will just continue to live there.

Before this peace agreement, there were only more than 300,000 people left in Liu Bei's ruling area in Guangling. After this wave of recovery, the actual controlled population finally returned to 400,000.

After reforming Yuan Shu's prisoners of war, the number of soldiers was originally 16,000. Now with the addition of 2,000, the total is 18,000.

It is a bit of a burden for 400,000 civilians to support 18,000 soldiers, because young and middle-aged men account for less than one-third of the total population.

This is equivalent to a one in six service ratio.

As for Lu Bu, the two and a half counties under his rule had a population of about 900,000.

If he can formally swallow up Langya Zang Ba in the future, the total population of the controlled area can grow to more than one million. If he swallows up the "Taishan bandits" who are neighbors of Zang Ba, the population can further grow to more than 1.3 million. (Taishan County does not belong to Xuzhou, but to Yanzhou next door, but Cao Cao is currently unable to control it, which is equivalent to an independent state)
By this calculation, if Liu Bei did not expand, the population of his territory would still be only a small half of Lu Bu's, and after a year it might be only one-third of Lu Bu's.

Although the situation has improved a lot compared to the most dangerous time, it is still not optimistic.

After a brief moment of joy, Liu Bei began to worry about the food problem again.

There were suddenly 60,000 more people. Although the 20,000 people in Ling County could be self-sufficient locally, the 30,000 new families and the 10,000 exiled soldiers and their families still needed food to feed them until the summer harvest next year.

Fortunately, Zhuge Jin had already thought of this problem, and this was also part of their negotiation with Lu Bu, so he immediately comforted him:
"General, you don't have to worry too much about the food problem. With Yuan Long's mediation, Lu Bu will let our army's families go south this time, and will not resort to force to plunder the people's property. Those families will more or less be able to support themselves with food for one or two months. The relatively wealthy families among them may even be able to be self-sufficient.

I also reached a trade agreement with Lu Bu's army on fish and food through Yuanlong. I traded 1,000 dan of sea bass, some dried fish, and another fishing technique I had just figured out, in exchange for 30,000 dan of wheat and grain from Lu Bu.

With these 30,000 shi, if we save some food, we can definitely let the new population survive the spring famine. In the winter, we can even do some work in Guangling to restore water conservancy and soil fertility, laying the foundation for next year's spring farming."

Liu Bei was surprised again when he heard this: "Sir, did you teach Lu Bu how to catch fish with a gillnet?"

Liu Bei certainly knew that one thousand dan of fresh sea bass plus some dried fish was definitely not worth 30,000 dan of grain, and was worth more than 10,000 at most. So the remaining 20,000 dan should be because Zhuge Jin sold a very valuable technology and made a one-time buyout deal.

Zhuge Jin signaled Liu Shao to be patient: "Of course I didn't sell the drift nets. I just came up with another way that is not worth much. It is purely to conceal the source of such a huge amount of sea fish for our army. By the way, it is also a bluff and secretly warns Lu Bu to let him know that 'it is meaningless to take the food card for us. We have an inexhaustible supply of sea fish.'

Lu Bu is greedy and untrustworthy, so we can use his untrustworthiness to reach a settlement at first, but bribery can only work temporarily. We need to show our strength and show that we are not afraid of a protracted war. We need to use both kindness and force to hold Lu Bu back in the long run."

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(End of this chapter)