My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 433 Youzhou is given to you for free, but you may not be able to hold it
After receiving the order, Zhuge Jin, Zhao Yun and Mi Zhu headed north from Hefei to take up their posts that same day.

Most of the other generals under Zhuge Jin were already in the north, so there was no need for temporary transfers.

For example, Taishi Ci and Zhou Yu, who had been responsible for assisting Yuan Tan in defense since last year, did not participate in the decisive battle with Cao Cao in the Xuhuai battlefield. After Zhuge Jin arrived at the place, he only needed to convey Liu Bei's order and change the affiliation.

In terms of civil servants and advisers, although it seemed that Zhuge Jin was alone in taking up the post, he actually had a wealth of human resources at his disposal.

Because the civil servants of Liu Bei's camp who were originally deployed in Langya County, Donghai County of Xuzhou and the newly occupied Taishan County of Yanzhou were naturally placed under his jurisdiction and did not require additional special dispatch.

The post of Langya Prefect was previously held by Lu Su. In the future, Lu Su will naturally become Zhuge Jin's deputy and help Zhuge Jin manage Langya, Donghai, Taishan and other territories that were originally directly under the jurisdiction of Liu Bei's camp.

Lu Su's future positioning, level and authority will be similar to those of Chen Deng, who controls the three southern counties of Xuzhou plus Xiaopei.

Similarly, Gao Shun, Chen Gong and others were in a similar situation to Lu Su. After the Battle of Xuhuai, they were stationed in Langya and Taishan counties. After Zhuge Jin took over, they were also retained in their original positions and were directly under Zhuge Jin's jurisdiction.

However, Zhang Liao, who was stationed in Pei County, was still under the jurisdiction of Guan Yu in Pengcheng, responsible for guarding the bulge in the west of Guan Yu's army. Considering that Zhang Liao and Guan Yu were half from Bingzhou, Guan Yu could better control him, so this arrangement was not bad.

……

On the day of departure, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang would of course come to see him off.

Liu Bei was going to personally escort him from Hefei to Shouchun. Along the way, he also told Zhuge Jin to take care of himself, to communicate promptly if there were any difficulties, and not to worry about making hasty decisions and making the final decision if there was an emergency.

Zhuge Jin listened to his master's sincere words and stopped being hypocritical. He took the opportunity to ask Liu Bei for a promise: "My lord, the military difficulties are secondary when we go to the north. The key is to support the garrison in Youzhou, so we must drastically reform the civil affairs and find another source of income.

If you are assured, you can allow me to adapt to local conditions and implement new fiscal policies at will. Some taxes that are not suitable for Youzhou should be reduced or abolished. Some new taxes should be introduced, and they may be different from the laws of the Han Dynasty. I can guarantee that these reforms will not affect the south for the time being, but no matter what I do in Youzhou, my lord must support it. "

Liu Bei quickly agreed: "Of course, you can leave all the specific matters to Zi Zhong. You just need to design the system and let Zi Zhong implement it. No matter what, I will support you."

Zhuge Liang, who was standing by, heard his lord supporting his elder brother so much, and was afraid that Liu Bei was just making a promise out of trust in him and did not really understand the difficulties, so he also helped his elder brother explain:

"My lord is so trustworthy, I should thank you on behalf of my brother. These past two days, I have also privately calculated that it will be difficult for my elder brother and Zilong to raise military supplies and food and feed the soldiers in the north when they go to Youzhou.

In the previous decades of the Han Dynasty, the Youzhou army relied on the people of Jizhou to raise money and food nearby. Even during the four years when Gongsun Zan fought against Yuan Shao, Gongsun Zan had the strength to suppress the war and bring the war to Jizhou in the early stage, so that Gongsun Zan could plunder the money and food of the Jizhou population to support the war.

After Gongsun Zan was pushed north of the Yishui defense line, his army collapsed within two years, and the so-called grain stored in Yijing Tower was only enough for the garrison to eat all year round.

After that, Youzhou and Ji both returned to Yuan Shao, and since Yuan Shao had a relatively harmonious relationship with Wuhuan, the Youzhou army was able to rest and comfort its soldiers.

After Cao Cao gained control of Jizhou, Jiao Chu's quick surrender and collapse of Daijun and Shanggu was largely due to the fact that the Youzhou army had difficulty in supporting themselves, and it cannot be simply attributed to Jiao Chu's fickleness.

After my eldest brother left, we might be able to rely on the sea route to transport money, gold, silver, and precious goods, but we couldn't rely on the sea route to meet all the food shortages. Even if we went through the Bohai Bay and transported food from the north bank of Qingzhou, Qingzhou might not have that much surplus food, and the shipping cost was too high.

I think the only way is to open up more farmland in Youzhou, or find other ways to find a source of food and fodder. Then Zi Zhong can just transport money from the south and use the money to buy food to subsidize the military. Maybe there is still hope. This is not an easy task, so don't underestimate it, brother."

These insights were also what Zhuge Liang had just figured out in the past two days after he confirmed that his elder brother would be transferred by the lord to coordinate northern affairs. Zhuge Liang had not thought of this when he was discussing personnel arrangements that day.

This is not surprising. After all, everything is about people first and things second. First think about how to change and arrange the good people's affairs, and then let specific people do specific things. No matter how intelligent Zhuge Liang was, he had to think about problems step by step.

In just two days, he was able to say these words to his elder brother before leaving, reminding Zhuge Jin of the programmatic suggestion that "money can be exported, but food should be purchased locally as much as possible", which was already very good.

Even with the improvements and great progress made by Zhuge Jin and Mi Zhu over the past six or seven years, the maritime transportation in the Han Dynasty still could not compare with the maritime transportation conditions of the later Ming Dynasty. Shipbuilding may have caught up with the level of the Song Dynasty, but the scale and foundation were not as good as those of the Song Dynasty.

In history, it was not until the end of the Ming Dynasty that the conditions for "transporting grain by sea" were met, and the Song Dynasty could not do it. It can be seen that it was impossible to rely on sea transportation to meet the food rations of hundreds of thousands or even more people in the long run. Liu Bei's army had previously transported grain from the south to the north by sea, but that was temporary and was a deployment during the war. The number of people supported ranged from as few as 7,000 to as many as 10,000 or 20,000.

It is not the same concept as the army that Zhao Yun will maintain in Youzhou for a long time in the future.

Mi Zhu, who was traveling with Zhuge Jin, was originally very confident about his new position and was still immersed in the joy of being promoted from prefect to governor. After hearing what Zhuge Liang said, he felt a sense of crisis and could not help but ask humbly:
"Is it really so difficult to support tens of thousands of troops in Youzhou? How did Gongsun Zan survive by relying on Youzhou before he suppressed Yuan Shao? Could he have suppressed Yuan Shao and looted a large amount of money and food from Jizhou to support his troops from the beginning?"

Facing this question, Zhuge Liang did not answer for a moment. Liu Bei, who had just been listening attentively, raised his hand to stop Mi Zhu from asking further questions and answered him personally:

"Kong Ming may not be able to think of the answer to this question. You have never been to Youzhou before, so it is not surprising that you don't know about it. But I can answer you. I was in Youzhou at that time and served under Brother Bogui...

Alas, the military discipline of Brother Bogui's army has always been poor. When they were in Youzhou, they mostly relied on looting to survive. However, Brother Bogui was above Youzhou Mu Liu Yu at that time. Liu Yu had a very high prestige. When he was alive, he could order the people of Jizhou to send money and food to the Youzhou army. Liu Yu also used money to reward Wuhuan and let Qiu Liju and others surrender and fight for him.

Brother Bogui didn't rob the Han people very often, but mostly intercepted the money and grain that Liu Youzhou had collected from Jizhou and other places for his own use. Or after Liu Youzhou rewarded the Wuhuan, he would kill the escorts or the people sent by the Wuhuan to take back the money and grain.

Therefore, the Han people in Youzhou at that time also supported Bogui, because he did not need to rob the Han people directly, but passed them through the Wuhuan people. The money and food of the Han people were given to the Wuhuan, and he took them back from the Wuhuan.

However, after Brother Bogui killed Liu Youzhou, he could no longer live like this. After that, he was quickly suppressed by Yuan Shao and eventually perished. At that time, I never thought deeply about it, and I just thought that Brother Bogui died of cruelty.

Now it seems that according to Kong Ming's thinking, Brother Bogui's final frantic struggle and his need to cruelly harm the people were mostly related to the fact that Youzhou could not support itself. Since Emperor Guangwu, for more than 180 years, Youzhou had to rely on the neighboring states in the south for money and food to support itself. This was the norm. When it did not use money and food from the south, it was an exception.

Jizhou is in Cao Cao's hands, and Ziyu is in charge of Youzhou alone. Food is a big problem. Moreover, our army cannot rob the people like Brother Bogui did, and the Hu people cannot rob for a long time. It's difficult...too difficult. Does Ziyu have a way to break the situation?"

Zhuge Jin was very cautious and did not pat his chest directly: "There is no perfect method at present. I need to go to the place, actually see it, and understand the situation before I can make a judgment. Therefore, I only ask the lord to give me absolute authorization so that I can adapt to local conditions and the times."

Liu Bei nodded solemnly immediately: "In such a difficult situation, what Ziyu is going to do is unprecedented, so he naturally has to use extraordinary methods -

Let's put it this way, as long as you don't rob the people under your rule, all other methods of collecting money and grain are up to you, and I will recognize them all in the future! Even if the Yellow River is like a belt, this promise will not change. "

Liu Bei made the promise solemnly. It was obvious that he had not realized how troublesome this problem would be.

After analyzing it in detail today with brothers Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Liang, I finally understood everything.

So after he finished speaking, Liu Bei couldn't help but curse:
"I was wondering why nephew Xiansi was so enthusiastic about handing over the military and political power in the eastern part of Youzhou! He has not officially surrendered to our army, and the mourning period for brother Benchu has not yet ended, but he is willing to hand over Youzhou first!

It turns out that he can hold Qingzhou with a surplus in his hands. After losing Jizhou in Youzhou, he will have to pay money and food to hold it! Xiansi is already at the end of his strength. He knows that if he doesn't let go, Youzhou will only benefit Cao thieves!"

Zhao Yun and Mi Zhu couldn't help laughing when they heard their lord actually cursing. Fortunately, they had good ability to control their emotions and quickly held back without showing it.

However, they were a little worried about their future on this journey north.

If a normal person were the leader, Zhao Yun would have doubted whether he could get through without robbing the people and levying heavy taxes. It turned out that the pit ahead was so big.

Fortunately, the leader this time is his brother-in-law Zhuge Ziyu.

We can only hope that Ziyu can use some magical skills to turn stones into gold so that we can feed the soldiers and civilians of Youzhou.

"There should be a miraculous method, right? When Ziyu was in Yuzhang, wasn't it also within a few years that the people in the poor mountain valleys were well-fed and well-clothed, and the Shanyue tribes also surrendered sincerely and were willing to fight to the death for the lord?
Now with some magic from the immortals, it seems possible to make the Wuhuan people surrender as sincerely as the Shanyue people did in the past. After all, his surname is Zhuge, there is always a way. " Zhao Yun comforted himself.

(End of this chapter)