My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 71: The Zuo Family Fell, Zhuge Eats His Fill

Zhuge Jin also hoped that after he had just boasted to Gan Ning and Chen Heng, Chen Dao in the front would be able to cooperate a little and immediately report back the good news.

But unfortunately, there is no such dramatic development in the real world. The environment does not cooperate with Zhuge Jin to act so arrogant, so he can only endure it for the time being.

After taking care of the rewards and punishments, the distribution of prisoners, and assigning the tasks of troop training to the generals, Zhuge Jin finally had some free time to deal with the reception work in Chaisang.

From the moment the troops entered the city, less than half a day had passed.
There are so many complicated and confusing things piled up there, enough to make Brother Zhuge very upset.

Zhuge Jin drank a bowl of sobering fish soup, dismissed the celebration banquet, drank some hot water to rinse his mouth, took a few deep breaths,

Then he took the treasury accounts of Chaisang County and began to formulate a takeover plan.

Zhuge Liang was also completely inexperienced in this area, as he had only been helping his elder brother for eight days. Most of the things were new to him, and it was his first time trying them.

After Zhuge Jin made a plan, he ordered: "Aliang, you will check the accounts of money and grain in the treasury. You will also check the temple and register the bronze statues.

As for the work of calculating the losses of the people and comforting the people, I will handle it myself - you are still young, you are smart in mathematics, but you are still a little bit behind in dealing with people. So I will take care of the people's affairs, and you will take care of the money. It won't be too late to slowly get familiar with the other things later."

Zhuge Jin paid great attention to gradual progress. He knew that people were more complicated than numbers. He let Aliang use his strengths first, starting from easy to difficult, which also helped him build confidence.

Zhuge Liang also knew that his elder brother was doing this for his own good, so he immediately accepted the task.

He turned around and was about to leave when Zhuge Jin remembered something and stopped his brother to ask, "By the way, have Azhi and Alan finished learning the Nine Chapters in the past two years? Did you let them read the secret scrolls I gave you after you finished learning them?"

Zhuge Liang responded immediately: "My elder and second sisters don't have the heart to learn these things. They are only interested in the recipes and health care mentioned in the scrolls. They glanced at the secret scrolls of mathematics and didn't understand them at all, so they went back to read the Nine Chapters to supplement their basics."

Zhuge Jin shook his head helplessly: "How can we, the Zhuge family, be ignorant? From now on, they don't have to worry about the household chores. We will have more maids in our house, and we will leave them to Master Lian to look after.

Azhi and Alan should have some talent, it would be a pity to waste it. Let them follow you and start from the basics, don't do things that are in the spotlight, just focus on dealing with the account books, and you will be more relaxed. You only need to take a general look at these money and grain accounts and know how they work. You won't need to take care of them often in the future."

Zhuge Jin had a very clear positioning for his younger brother. Zhuge Liang could not be completely unfamiliar with those clerical tasks and not even understand the operating principles, otherwise he would be easily deceived in the future.

But Zhuge Liang definitely didn't need to do repetitive work himself, even if it was repetitive mathematical calculations. He would only need to learn for a month or two at the introductory stage, and then he would no longer be needed.

Money and grain have their own owners. Historically, Zhuge Liang later employed people like Yang Yi to manage the logistics and grain accounts.

Zhuge Liang took the order and left. From that day on, the carefree days of the Zhuge sisters were put under a tight restraint. The eldest brother would set goals and progress for them, telling them which stages of mathematics learning goals they needed to complete.

Zhuge Jin still has some modern values and habits. In his opinion, it is very normal for women to set their sights on accounting as their first step into the workplace or even officialdom. These positions require less interaction with people and only deal with numbers in account books, so there will be fewer opponents.

Moreover, if his sisters could be trained, Zhuge Jin would be able to save more time in the future in competing wits and courage with his subordinates.

After all, biological sisters generally won’t be greedy for the family’s money, so both sides can spend less energy on being on guard against each other.

……

A day passed quickly in busyness.

The Zhuge brothers also roughly completed the corresponding statistical and appeasement work.

On Zhuge Jin's side, the people in Chaisang City finally accepted the new ruler again. At least on the surface, they settled down and suppressed all kinds of unrest.

Everyone also vaguely knew that the rebels had been driven away. The troops of Zhuge Fujun (Zhuge Xuan) who returned this time were a formal royal army. They were no longer the self-proclaimed troops of the princes, but had a clear decree from the emperor.

At least the occupying forces specifically emphasized this distinction in their propaganda.

This must also be emphasized, because Zhuge Jin knew that the people of Chaisang had been forced by Zuo Rong to fight against Zhuge Xuan for a year in the name of surrendering to Zhu Hao.

In Zhu Hao's propaganda during his lifetime, he emphasized that he was the prefect appointed by the emperor and that Zhuge Xuan was a fake position. This impression has been more or less accepted by the people. If he wants to reverse it now, it will definitely take time and effort, otherwise the people will be confused.

In order to prevent the people from being confused, Zhuge Jin did not knock down the old people at once when he was promoting the matter. He only made people focus on emphasizing that Zuo Rong was a rebel and he killed his master Zhu Hao.

As for the deceased Zhu Hao, Zhuge Jin did not say that he was a completely bad guy. After all, he was dead and posed no threat.

Zhuge Jin had people spread the word that Zhu Hao was a bad judge of people, trying to quench thirst with poison, employing people indiscriminately, and letting thieves into the house.

On the other hand, it emphasizes:
“Although Zhu Hao was appointed by the Emperor’s edict, that edict was issued two years ago when the Emperor was still coerced by the remnants of Dong Zhuo from the Western Liang Army.

So that was not the original intention of the wise and intelligent emperor, but the treacherous generals who held the emperor hostage. The edict that conferred the title of Zhuge Xuan was issued by the emperor after he returned to the east, and it was his true intention after he got rid of the traitors Jue Si. "

It is very appropriate to say this now, because Li Jue and Guo Si were just labeled as traitors by the emperor not long ago.

As a result, the effectiveness of the imperial edicts issued during the period when the rebels held the emperor hostage naturally plummeted.

Just two months ago, after Cao Cao stabilized Liu Xie in Xudu, he asked for Liu Xie's will and sent Pei Mao, the Minister of Justice, to Hongnong to appease Duan Wei, the only one in the Xiliang Army who had committed a relatively minor crime.

He announced that Duan Wei was pardoned for all his mistakes during his time in the Western Liang Army, indicating that he was also coerced. Then he ordered Duan Wei to be fully responsible for the military affairs in Guanxi, to be the General of Anxi, and to coordinate the operations against the rebels Li Jue and Guo Si.

Before Zhuge Jin came to Yuzhang, he thought that this punitive order would be very valuable and could be used indirectly, so he copied a lot of it in advance.

At this moment, it can be used to attack the legal effect of Zhu Hao's original appointment and win the hearts of the people more quickly.

Of course, he also knew that this kind of publicity work would not be accomplished overnight.

If we can accomplish this in Chaisang City alone within ten days or half a month, and ensure that people's minds can be completely changed before the Lantern Festival next year, that would be great.

If we want to spread the news to all the counties in Yuzhang, even to those counties where Zuo Rong does not have heavy military garrisons, it will take at least one or two months.

However, since Haihun and Nanchang counties were heavily guarded by the rebel army, it was destined that propaganda could not be carried out, and it had to be done slowly in coordination with military progress.

……

After Zhuge Jin arranged the work of pacifying the people, Zhuge Liang also reported the latest actual figures of money and grain inventory. He had not had time to check the bills, but the actual inventory in the warehouse could be counted in one day.

Based on the actual inventory, Zhuge Liang was pleasantly surprised to find that the military grain depot in Chaisang actually stored at least 70,000 to 80,000 dan of military grain, which was enough to feed Zuo Rong's Chaisang garrison for about a year, which was considered relatively wealthy.

Now that Zhuge's army has also joined in, the total number of people is close to eight thousand, which is still enough to feed them for nine months, so it is more than enough to destroy Zuo Rong.

Zhuge Jin had come from Guangling before, and the food supplies he brought with him were not much, only enough to feed the troops for more than a month.

Liu Bei was famous for his food shortage in Guangling, so when he borrowed troops, he hoped that they could get food locally when they arrived in Yuzhang.

Now, the military food crisis has been completely resolved.

"These bastards from the Zao family have plundered so much of the people's wealth! They even hoarded so much food! Fortunately, it all belongs to us.

"But Chaisang only has a small army, yet he has kept so much food. Haihun and Nanchang have even more troops, so I wonder how much they have stored."

When Zhuge Jin saw the number, he cursed with a lucky smile.

After checking the food reserves, he felt relieved and went to check the money, cloth and other stocks.

It turned out that there was a lot of cloth. There were about 60,000 pieces of worthless coarse cloth such as linen and ramie in the warehouse, and more than 14,000 pieces of silk and satin.

It seems that the people of Chaisang have been plundered severely by the Zuo family in the past two years. I wonder how much money they have robbed from rich families.

The only thing that surprised Zhuge Jin was that there were very few copper coins in the warehouse, less than four million coins - you have to know that during the reign of Emperor Ling of Han, it cost four million coins to buy a county magistrate, and in fact the term of office was not long, which was equivalent to the rent of the official position.

If the rent for a county magistrate is four million, then the money he extorts from the people after taking office must be far more than four million, otherwise he will not be able to make back his investment.

Chaisang is also an important waterway port city on the Yangtze River. It serves as a waterway connection between the entire Jiangxi region and the outside world. Only four million in the treasury is too little.

Moreover, Zhuge Jin had good knowledge of geography in his previous life. He knew that Jiangxi has been a place rich in mineral resources since ancient times. Later geography textbooks said that Jiangxi has "tungsten in the south and copper in the north, and rare earths everywhere."

Rare earths and tungsten were useless in the Han Dynasty and were not mined, but copper could be mined.

During the years when Zhuge Jin was a teacher, I glanced at the data in the teaching materials and it seemed that Jiangxi's copper accounted for 20% of the country's copper. It was mainly in Dexing County, Shangrao (which belonged to Poyang County during the Han Dynasty) on the border of Zhejiang and Jiangxi and on the banks of the Le'an River.

In addition, the Dexing copper mine is a chalcopyrite mine with associated gold and silver, and the reserves of each account for about 10% of the country's total. I can't remember the exact amount. Anyway, gold, silver and copper can be mined together.

Although the place is in a mountainous area with inconvenient transportation, the Le'an River will eventually flow into Poyang Lake. In the future, when the Zhuge family has time, they can explore the shipping conditions of the Le'an River and do some water transportation infrastructure to see if they can dig out the mines in Dexing.

However, the government's current rule in Yuzhang County only extended eastward to the county seat of Poyang County. Dexing was still a mountainous settlement over a hundred miles east of the county seat, populated by the Shanyue people who refused to submit to the king's rule.

The local area also borders the neighboring county's Shanyue leader Zulang. Before the Zhuge family has the strength to deal with the Shanyue, it would be better for them not to provoke them and take over all the mature Han territories first.

Zhuge Jin's mind was full of random thoughts, and it took him a long time to realize that he was distracted.

Just now he was just shocked by the small amount of copper coins in the Chaisang treasury, and then he thought of these: A major commercial town, and a distribution center for a county with rich copper resources, how could it be short of copper!
So he quickly regained his composure and continued to review his brother's report, and soon discovered the problem:
The list reported by Zhuge Liang also showed that the newly built monasteries and pagodas in Chaisang City alone, if the three largest Buddha statues were found, it was estimated that the total weight would be more than 100,000 kilograms, and they were all cast in bronze.

One catty is worth ten taels, and one tael is worth ten coins. Tens of thousands of catties are equivalent to more than ten million copper coins. The Zao family looted a large amount of copperware and copper coins in the city and melted them into Buddha statues.

Time was tight today, so Zhuge Liang only counted the largest Buddha statues, and they were already that heavy. The other small bronze statues had not yet been collected.

It is estimated that bronze statues weighing less than a thousand pounds would be hidden by the defeated enemy troops, and those weighing less than two or three hundred pounds could even be taken away when escaping.

"This work still needs to be thoroughly investigated. The bronze statues that were privately kept by the people of Chaisang were all stolen property by Zuo Rong. They must be returned to their original owners. Anyone who dares to hide them is an accomplice of the thief! So many have been found in Chaisang City, and I wonder how many more there are in Nanchang."

As Zhuge Jin gave orders, he sighed and gained a deeper understanding of the financial resources and potential of the counties in Yuzhang.

After the two brothers chatted for a while, Zhuge Jin came up with an idea and suggested:
"Aliang, I think we need time to convert the people and win over the counties. We also need to train the county soldiers captured and defected in these two battles to ensure their loyalty and military discipline, and then we can have the final battle with Zuo Rong's main force. What do you think?"

Zhuge Liang also agreed with this and nodded, saying, "Indeed, we should not be impatient now. Zuo Rong has been entrenched in the area for nearly two years. If we give him two more months, his strength will not be significantly improved. He has basically already coerced all the people he can coerce.

For us, if we have one or two more months, we may be able to double our current strength. Time is on our side."

Zhuge Jin finally made a decision: "I originally planned to go south to join my uncle and Yunchang, but now I have changed my mind after seeing the situation in Chaisang. Xi'an County is a poor and remote place with a sparse population. My uncle had no choice but to stay there because the rich and prosperous places were occupied by Zuo Rong, leaving him homeless.

It would be better to send someone to deliver a letter to my uncle immediately, asking Yunchang to escort him north to Chaisang to join us. In the next two months, he can temporarily set up the Yuzhang Prefecture Office in Chaisang County, so that our army can concentrate its forces and avoid being divided, surrounded and forced into battle by Zuo Rong. "

Zhuge Liang thought about it and felt that his elder brother's idea was right, but he was still young and had more sympathy than his elder brother, so he reminded him:
"It's right to let my uncle go north, but Xi'an County and the other two counties on the Xiushui River, Ai County and Yongxiu, have been dependent on my uncle for a long time. If we give up now, will Zuo Rong's troops go there to retaliate?"

Zhuge Jin frowned, took out the map and took a look: "How about this, after Shuzhi finishes the battle of Lushan, I will transfer him to Yongxiu County, which is at the bottom of Xiushui River and directly confronts the enemy's Haihun County.

As long as he left troops in Yongxiu and blocked the Xiushui River, Zuo Rong would not have to go through the trouble of taking a detour by land to retaliate against Xi'an and Ai County in the rear. The local area was so poor that he would lose money if he went there, so how much would he gain by retaliating against the people?

Moreover, Shu Zhi only needed to defend the city, so he didn't necessarily need to take the 300 Bai Li soldiers with him. He could even take fewer elite soldiers from Danyang. It would be enough to just give him more county soldiers.

The main elite forces should be concentrated as much as possible, and then handed over to Yun Chang for command, for the final decisive battle. "

Zhuge Liang thought this idea was sound, so he took the order and wrote the letter.

However, all of this will have to wait until Chen Dao has time before it can be officially implemented.

Fortunately, Chen Dao did not keep the Zhuge brothers waiting for too long and sent back the latest news of the Battle of Lushan that night.

-

PS: There will be three updates today, totaling 10,000 words.

(End of this chapter)