My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 717 South Central Governance Plan
"Congratulations, General Gan! You were able to kill Zhu Bao in the midst of the chaos. The victory of Zangke is just around the corner!"

As the war gradually subsided, most of the Zangke barbarians surrendered one after another, and Yan Yan and Gan Ning finally met successfully on the battlefield.

As soon as they met, Yan Yan congratulated Gan Ning with a sincere tone and a rosy face.

Gan Ning was arrogant and therefore disdained to take advantage of others, so he waved his hands and thanked him repeatedly: "General Yan, you are too kind. I did not kill Zhu Bao myself, but he was killed by my army in the chaos.

The key to today's victory was that the old general held Zhu Bao back for a whole day, exhausting his troops and making them frustrated. He must be credited for the first merit! I just arrived at the battlefield at a lucky time, so I got some credit for the finishing touches."

The two of them praised each other, and the atmosphere was very harmonious. Seeing that Gan Ning did not fight for it, Yan Yan kindly reminded him:
"Xingba disdains to take credit for himself. He may not even care about killing Zhu Bao. But for his subordinates, this is a great achievement. We should investigate carefully to find out who killed him."

Gan Ning was already at the level of a Four-Expedition General. Even if he killed Zhu Bao, he would not be able to be promoted to the level of a Four-Directional General. So for him, it didn't matter.

But he quickly realized that what Yan Yan said made sense. For the grassroots generals and officers below, this achievement could very likely lead to a direct promotion to the next level.

Gan Ning then became serious and asked the soldiers to examine the wounds on the bodies, check the heads, and question those who saw the situation at the time.

After a thorough investigation, it was confirmed that Zhu Bao was killed by a young officer who was not yet an adult.

The officer's name was Ma Zhong, and he was about the same age as Zhang Yi, who had made great contributions a few days ago. His original surname was not Ma, but he changed it to a Chinese surname after being conscripted.

Because his origin is lower than Zhang Yi's and he can lead fewer tribesmen from his own tribe, Ma Zhong is now just a village chief.

Even if a garrison commander had no other military achievements, as long as he killed an enemy general of Zhu Bao's rank in the chaos, even if it was a lucky escape, he would be promoted to a troop commander without any controversy. If he performed other outstanding deeds in the future, he would soon be promoted to a military commander.

After Gan Ning confirmed Ma Zhong's military achievements, he also praised Ma Zhong highly and announced on the spot that he would be promoted to Qu Chang first, allowing him to continue to work hard.

Ma Zhong also looked excited and quickly expressed his determination.

Gan Ning said a few words to comfort Yan Yan, then turned to him and sighed:

"Lord Zhuge's military training plan is indeed a far-sighted plan. Let us use these soldiers who were the last to surrender in the battle of Shu County as the main force to pacify Nanzhong and boost their morale. The effect is surprisingly good."

What Gan Ning actually wanted to say was, "When these troops were under Liu Zhang, they never won a decent victory and finally surrendered. I didn't expect that now we can select so many loyal and righteous people and potential generals from them."

However, Yan Yan was also a surrendered general, and Gan Ning had to take his face into consideration, so he couldn't speak so bluntly. In the end, he modified the words abruptly when they were on the tip of his tongue, making the wording seem a little inappropriate.

Fortunately, Yan Yan knew the situation clearly in his heart, so he didn't take it seriously.

He knew very well what the spirit and energy of most people in Liu Zhang's old army were like, which was completely different from what it is now.

Zhang Yi and Ma Zhong are both young men who have emerged from the trials and tribulations of this year's war.

Zhuge Lingjun can really turn decay into magic.

From improving the treatment of soldiers to strengthening training and rectifying military discipline. In addition, the lord swore an oath in front of the soldiers of both armies to encourage the soldiers with the righteousness of defeating the rebellion and reviving the Han Dynasty.

After all aspects were rectified, the army, which had originally not known why they were fighting and was confused because of unclear rewards and punishments, became disciplined and became more motivated to fight.

……

After the Battle of Guangtan ended and the battlefield was cleaned up, Gan Ning and Yan Yan sent envoys into the city the next day to persuade the city to surrender, and also asked the envoys to take Zhu Bao's head with them.

Originally, the county magistrate Guangtan was Zhu Bao's confidant, but at this point, the army had collapsed, and after seeing Zhu Bao's head, the county magistrate knew the situation and surrendered obediently.

Afterwards, Gan Ning divided his troops and went to Qilan County, the county seat, and followed the same strategy. Five days later, Qilan was back under the control of the Han army. That day was the ninth day of the twelfth lunar month.

Over the next month, Gan Ning issued edicts to various places and gradually took control of the entire county.

The wheel of history quietly entered the fifteenth year of Jian'an.

By the time the last county, Wulian, was actually controlled by the Han army, it was already after the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month.

Don’t blame Gan Ning for being slow, because the area of Zangke County is really vast, equivalent to more than half of Guizhou Province in later generations.

Moreover, this place is mountainous and the roads are difficult to travel. It takes more than half a month to walk from Qilan to other remote counties.

While clearing up the counties, Gan Ning also sent messengers back to Chengdu to report the victory to Zhuge Liang, stating that he would definitely restore order in the counties before the spring plowing in February and would definitely not affect the local people's livelihood and production.

It was already early February when Zhuge Liang received Gan Ning's victory report. He felt very pleased when he saw the letter and immediately told other civil and military officials in Chengdu.

Civil officials such as Fa Zheng, Huang Quan, and Yang Hong congratulated Zhuge Liang.

Fa Zheng sighed, "Your Excellency's effectiveness in managing the army and the people is truly extraordinary and admirable. The troops led by General Gan in this battle were originally cowardly and did not dare to fight when they were under Liu Jiyu's command. Now they are able to fight bravely for the country, which is truly a miracle."

Huang Quan did not want to repeat what others have said, so he expressed his feelings from another perspective: "It was not too difficult to pacify Zangke. The difficult part was to completely end the fighting and restore people's livelihood in such a remote and dangerous place in such a short time.

We can pacify a county during the winter farming off-season without affecting the spring farming next year. The amount of food, fodder and money consumed by the army is also completely within the plan. It is not easy to support the entire war with the surplus of Qianwei alone. When we pacify the other counties in Nanzhong later, we can also learn from the gains and losses of this battle. "

Fa Zheng and Huang Quan were not in Chengdu before. Fa Zheng was originally the prefect of Zitong County, while Huang Quan was in Guanghan County.

They were also called back to Chengdu by Zhuge Liang to report on their work around the end of the year. He thought that if there was a chance this year, he would let them perform on the battlefield and gain some credit for their military advisory work.

Zhuge Liang was most aware of Fa Zheng's contribution to his master's entry into Sichuan. However, Fa Zheng in this life, like Zhang Song, played the role of "Liu Zhang's loyal minister" and finally "surrendered to Liu Bei".
Therefore, when Liu Bei first entered Chengdu, it was not easy for him to directly grant Fa Zheng a high position, as that would expose the loyal and righteous image that Fa Zheng had previously played.

Zhuge Liang knew the inside story, so he could only slowly give Fa Zheng other opportunities in the subsequent process of governing Shu, and use other reasons to help him gradually rise in rank, so that he could eventually catch up with his lord's expectations.

Now, Zhang Song has followed Gan Ning and made some contributions on the battlefield of Zangke County. In order to treat everyone equally, Fa Zheng should give him the corresponding opportunity to perform if he is willing.

As for Huang Quan, he surrendered with Liu Zhang in Chengdu at the end, and there was no hidden reason. Zhuge Liang just observed Huang Quan for a year or two and found that he had certain military talents, so he gave him a chance based on his ability.

At this moment, after hearing the two's congratulations, Zhuge Liang also changed the subject and mentioned the subsequent plan to pacify the south:
"According to the previous plan, after the spring plowing this year, during the slack season, part of our troops stationed in Guanghan for training will be moved to nearby Shu County, and then march westward to Yuexi.

I have also made a preliminary plan for the specific route of advance. We will first go south along the Min River to the gorge of Nan'an County, then turn west along the Mo River, and go south along the Yak Road to attack the key point of Yuexi, Qiongdu.

The chief general has not yet been chosen. If Xingba is unable to return in time, I will select another general to lead the troops. Xiaozhi, are you interested in joining the army as a military advisor?"

Fa Zheng came back just for this matter. When Zhuge Lingjun extended an olive branch to him, he of course took it immediately and expressed his willingness to serve.

Huang Quan, who was standing by, had not yet had a chance to make a contribution, so he was in a more aloof state of mind. He immediately asked Zhuge Liang for advice:

"Your Majesty wants to train the troops by pacifying Nanzhong and to support the war by fighting. We all understand these good intentions. However, the places in Nanzhong with abundant resources are mostly in Jianning and Yongchang. I don't know how your Majesty plans to govern the remote mountainous areas such as Zangke and Yuexi after taking them? How can you make these counties with relatively insufficient resources also do their best?" Huang Quan's words were not malicious, but purely based on the facts. The rich resources in Nanzhong are mainly concentrated in the Yunnan area in later generations. There are basins with a pleasant climate, and agricultural output and other wild animal and plant resources are relatively rich.

In contrast, the later Guizhou Province and the Liangshan area in western Sichuan were not rich in resources during the Eastern Han Dynasty. Zhuge Liang's plan to pacify the south was to be carried out in two steps. The first step was to take over the relatively low-value but relatively close territories.

If we can develop a set of targeted governance plans for these useless places, I believe it will be more conducive to fighting to support the war.

Facing Huang Quan's doubts, Zhuge Liang was obviously well-informed and had done his homework long ago.

He just talked eloquently: "Although the products of Zangke and Yuexi are not as abundant as those of Jianning and Yongchang, they are not completely without value for construction.

My brother had read a lot of books, and he repeatedly studied the "Biographies of the Southwestern Barbarians" written by the ancient sages such as Taishigong, Ban Gu, and Cai Yong, and made notes. I also read my brother's notes, and I visited the people who returned from the south to ask about their local customs and habits.

The bamboo of Yuexi County has been famous since ancient times. In the Records of the Grand Historian, Sima Qian said that when Zhang Qian was in the Western Regions, he saw bamboo canes and Shu cloth, because the Shu-Shendu Road was open to trade and commerce. After we conquered Yuexi County, we could cut down a large number of bamboos for construction. There were also many high-quality iron mines in Yuexi counties, which could be transported to Qianwei for smelting.

On the other hand, it can also improve roads and shipping, making the Shu-Shendu Road more accessible and trade between Shu and the southwestern barbarians and foreign countries smoother. In the long run, huge profits from gold and silver can be obtained to supplement military expenditures.

As for Zangke County, although it has no iron ore or bamboo, it has many giant hardwood trees that can be used for shipbuilding and construction, and there are also many kinds of medicinal materials. In the future, we can guide the people in the south to plant them widely, and then prepare them into ointments to repel poisonous insects and miasma, which will be of great value for the court to finally control southern Xinjiang.

Moreover, Zangke County also controls Qianzhong Road. After it is completely under the control of the court, it will be more convenient for Shunan and Lingling County in Jingzhou to exchange what they have and what they need, which will definitely be of long-term benefit to people's livelihood."

Zhuge Liang focused his explanation on opening up trade, emphasizing how much benefit the development of private commerce would bring to the officials and people of Yizhou and even Jingzhou after the roads were unblocked.

Although the government will not personally organize these trade activities, it can set up checkpoints to collect customs duties and indirectly benefit from the prosperity of business.

After ruling Shu for several years, Zhuge Liang had already figured out a very important trick, which was that when governing Shu, one must not stick to the old ways and must not emphasize the outside world's idea of "promoting agriculture and suppressing commerce."

Because Shu has a very special situation, that is, it was less damaged by war and the population is relatively large. There are still many people and little land, and there is simply not enough land to plant all the crops.

In other words, even if there is enough land to grow crops and even if the fields in Shu can feed so many people, from the perspective of labor efficiency, there is no need to invest so many people in agricultural production.

If the only goal was to keep the people alive, a family could plant 0.3 to mu of paddy fields, which would be enough for the three to five people in the family to barely survive (the Han mu was only of the modern mu, so to Han mu was equivalent to to mu of rice fields in later times).
But the problem is that even if a family has only one male adult, with two female adults and a male adult, they can definitely cultivate 100 acres of land.

One third of the population is engaged in agricultural production, which is enough to ensure that there is enough food in Shu for the local people.

However, Shu has inconvenient external transportation. Even if it produces a lot of low-value-density products, the efficiency of shipping them out to support the unification war in the outside world is still very low, and the transportation losses are too great.

Under such circumstances, it would not be excessive to emphasize commerce and improving transportation conditions in governing Shu.

Even if Yuexi County and Qianghe County themselves are not rich in resources, as long as Zhuge Liang controls these two places, and then improves the road conditions of the Yak Avenue, which is the northern section of the Shu-Shendu Road, and the Qianzhong Road in Qianghe, and improves the water transportation conditions, making the cost of trade lower, then everything will be cost-effective.

Shu was not short of products, but it lacked the channels to transport them out, and the ability to convert local products into gold, silver and other high-value goods. This was different from governing other places.

Fa Zheng and Huang Quan obviously had not fully considered this issue before.

Now that the entire territory of Zangke has been recovered, Zhuge Liang has brought up the old matter again and explained the main points of the matter clearly, which has also unified the thoughts of these senior civil servants who have been in Shu for many years.

There was no way, Fa Zheng and Huang Quan had worked for Liu Zhang for many years. For Liu Zhang's camp, the issue of "the cost of transporting materials out of Shu" was not something they had to consider at all, because Liu Zhang had no intention of transporting the wealth of Shu out for other purposes.

But Zhuge Liang had to consider that he always had to place the issue of "how to integrate Shu with other parts of the world more efficiently" in an important position.

After listening to his ideas, Huang Quan no longer questioned these directional issues.

However, Huang Quan was still somewhat worried about operational issues. He feared that Zhuge Liang might be too ambitious and wasteful, so he kindly reminded him:
"I wonder if your Excellency has actually learned about the topography and transportation conditions of Yuexi and Zangke counties. Yuexi has abundant bamboo, Zangke has abundant giant trees, and fragrant woods, but these things are heavy and difficult to transport. If they are to be transported to the outside world, it would be a waste of time and money."

In response to this question, Zhuge Liang immediately said that he would not force it and would seek truth from facts: "I heard from my brother that in the remote areas of Liaodong, the Fuyu people who cut wood in the mountains all knew how to make rafts and rafts in the river, and could transport thousands of bamboos and wood at a time.

Of course, the river water in Liaodong is relatively less turbulent, while the rivers in Zangke and Yuexi are more dangerous and have a greater drop in elevation, so I think the people in southern China are not used to "rafting".

However, everything can be practiced. We do not need to let the Han people do such dangerous labor, but we can teach and train the barbarians in southern China and let them voluntarily learn how to do this kind of labor.

The government can also provide support, such as improving the water transport conditions in the upper reaches of the Moshui River, Qingyi River, and Yuanshui River, reducing rapids, flattening dangerous shoals, and significantly reducing the freight and loss of large quantities of bamboo and wood. In the long run, I believe these will not be a problem.
The restoration of the Dujiangyan in Shu County was completed this past winter. After the autumn harvest this year, if there is a spare year in winter and there is extra labor service, we can go to Nan'an County in the future to rectify the estuary channel at the confluence of the Minjiang River and the Moshui River (Dadu River) and control the whirlpool.

Nowadays, when merchant ships and grain ships on the Minjiang River arrive in Nan'an County, they have to change boats and take a land route to bypass the confluence of the Moshui River and the Minjiang River. This is because the Moshui River is too turbulent, and the whirlpools and undercurrents when it merges into the Minjiang River are too severe. This estuary happens to be the key to the Yuexi Shu-Shendu Road. In the next few years, we still have a lot to do in terms of managing shipping and water conservancy in Shu."

Zhuge Liang described in one breath a large number of technical means to encourage commerce, logistics and transportation, as well as plans for governance and construction.

The Minjiang River and Moshui River estuaries in Nan'an County that he mentioned needed to be managed. That place is the intersection of Leshan County, Minjiang River and Dadu River in later generations.

Historically, it was not until the Tang Dynasty that the Leshan Giant Buddha was built there. At the same time, when the Buddha statue was being built, a part of the mountain was chiseled away by chance to form a drainage channel. The problem of whirlpools and undercurrents causing injuries to people was gradually solved. Before the Tang Dynasty, it was difficult for ships to pass through there. They were often swept into whirlpools and undercurrents, resulting in the destruction of ships and the death of people.

Zhuge Liang spent two years in Shu County, and he surveyed and investigated the hydrological channels in various places. With his observation skills, it was completely normal for him to know where the pain points of shipping regulation were.

Even Huang Quan, a local, felt refreshed and impressed by the plan. Your plan was really grand, but it was not too ambitious or costly.

Everything Zhuge Lingjun did was based on a careful calculation of the annual fiscal and tax surplus and the surplus of corvée labor. Then he gave idle people something to do and gave people who still had spare energy and wanted to make money a place to make money.

After everything was talked out and plans were made, Fa Zheng and Huang Quan each received orders for the next stage.

Huang Quan was temporarily transferred to survey the relevant water conservancy, waterway and trade route improvements. Zhuge Liang asked him to spend a few months to further refine and implement the plan he had previously proposed to open up the trade route. If possible, it would also make it easier for Fa Zheng to travel along the grain route when he went to pacify Yuexi, and it would also be easier to control the area after the conquest.

Fa Zheng temporarily put aside other government affairs and concentrated on studying military affairs. He would wait until the end of April or the beginning of May, when the busy spring farming season was over, and then he might follow the army to Yuexi.

However, it is quite unfortunate.

Zhuge Liang was originally still hesitating whether to let Gan Ning do more work and return to his army after the battle of Zangke, and he would also lead the pacification army in Yuexi.

But in March, Yan Yan, who was still maintaining and restoring order in Zangke County, suddenly sent back an urgent letter.

The letter mentioned that after General Gan pacified Zangke, he gradually suffered from acclimatization problems. When the weather got hot, he contracted some tropical diseases and suffered from vomiting and diarrhea. He had no choice but to ask for leave and return to Jianwei County.

Zhuge Liang looked at it and shook his head helplessly. He had never expected that Gan Ning would fall ill as soon as he arrived in the tropics. Before, it was relatively cool in Zangke, and he could only stay there for a while in winter. When the spring came and the weather became warmer and there were more insects, he immediately fell down.

Then let Gan Ning come back, and choose another commander to pacify other hot climate areas.

Fortunately, the battle to pacify Zangke had already brought prestige and momentum to Liu Zhang's former surrendered generals, and also selected several young generals.

Gan Ning can be said to have been "helped to get on the horse and seen off". When these old Shu generals became motivated, Gan Ning could retreat bravely and go to the Guandong battlefield in the future to busy himself with the great cause of the Northern Expedition against Cao Wei.

(End of this chapter)