My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 729: In the past two and a half years, everyone has been beating up the four barbarians
Zhuge Liang pacified Jianning County, divided his troops, enclosed land, and declared his rule in various counties.

This work was finally completed at the end of March and the beginning of April in the 16th year of Jian'an.

As for completely demarcating the counties of Jiaozhi County, it was delayed until the summer of that year.

Considering the scorching heat in Jiaozhi in midsummer, this work had to be interrupted for a while during the process of advancement, so that most of the garrisons that could not tolerate the heat would at least retreat to the Dianchi Basin to spend the summer, and then move south again in the cool autumn.

After all, the area around the Dianchi Lake Basin is considered to be the most pleasant climate in the entire southern central region and the most suitable place for the survival of the northern Han people.

In later generations, Kunming was known as the "Spring City". It has mild weather all year round, with neither severe cold in winter nor scorching heat in summer. This reputation is not in vain.

In the process of pacifying the various barbarian leaders, Zhuge Liang himself had to stay in Dianchi County for a short period of time. Afterwards, he was impressed by the good local climate and environment, and decisively decided to officially move the seat of Jianning County from Wei County to Dianchi County.

(Note: Wei County is Qujing in later generations. The county seat of Jianning County was there before. However, when Yong Kai rebelled, he did not use Wei County as the core of his rule.)

This was also the southernmost county that Zhuge Liang had ever reached in his life. From then on, Zhuge Liang returned northwards and never went so deep into southern Xinjiang again.

Before leaving, Zhuge Liang issued an order that he had never issued in history, which was to allow a Han army of 5,000 to 10,000 people to be stationed around Dianchi County all year round.

These troops do not need to maintain long-term military training, but can be half-military and half-agricultural, maintaining themselves as garrison soldiers. In history, after Zhuge Liang pacified Nanzhong and completely defeated the local barbarian kings, he completely returned the local autonomy and garrison rights to the barbarian kings and generals, and did not leave any troops to garrison.

This butterfly effect deviation obviously occurs because in history, when Zhuge Liang reached the vicinity of the Dianchi Lake Basin, it was already late autumn and early winter (he crossed the Lu River in May and reached Weixian and the Dianchi Lake Basin in October), so Zhuge Liang himself did not know the climate in spring and summer around the Dianchi Lake Basin and did not dare to act rashly.

After all, no one can imagine something they have not experienced. Even with Zhuge Liang's wisdom, it is impossible for him to realize that "with the summer climate in the Kunming Basin, the Han people can actually live here all year round" by fantasy.

In this life, because of the extra battle against Shi Xie of Jiaozhi, the final stage of enclosure and cleanup was delayed for a few days. Zhuge Liang felt firsthand how cool the Kunming Basin was in early summer, and made a more correct decision than in the same period of history.

The addition of these 5,000 to 10,000 long-term troops would obviously allow the Han people to flourish in the heart of Yunnan in later generations, teach the Han people's farming, fishing and hunting techniques to the local barbarians more quickly, speed up the sinicization of their production and lifestyles, and naturally and objectively accelerate the process of "changing the natives to the Han people."

Perhaps the whole process would cost more than controlling Nanzhong in history, but the long-term benefits are very obvious. Zhuge Liang was also able to be recorded in history as the greatest contributor to "transforming the natives in Yunnan and Guizhou and completely sinicizing the Southwest Yi" based on this achievement.

In later generations, not only Chengdu and other places had to build Wuhou Temples, but even Kunming could not escape the fate and also had to have one.

After maintaining a long-term garrison in Dianchi County, these soldiers could also go south to Jiaozhi every winter to speed up the integration of the native barbarians of Jiaozhi County, and withdraw along the Red River Valley when the weather got hot.

During the months when the Han armed forces were not in Jiaozhi, they temporarily relied on the local minor officials in Jiaozhi to govern themselves.

Before Zhuge Liang left, he quickly selected a group of relatively reliable local grassroots officials who were loyal to the court and did not have close ties with the Shi Xie family. He asked them to temporarily maintain and implement the court's policies.

In this way, within a few years, Jiaozhi will be completely integrated into Liu Bei's camp and become a normal county-level administrative division dominated by the Han people.

During the process of pacifying the south, Zhuge Liang only mobilized an army of about 20,000 people most of the time, and only in the five months from October of the 15th year of Jian'an to February of the following year did he mobilize 30,000 people.

After March of the 16th year of Jian'an, the maintenance force was reduced to 10,000 troops. The army could be self-sufficient by relying on local grain production capacity and develop its own productivity without having to rely on supplies from the northern part of Yizhou.

The cost of pacifying Nan as a whole would not hinder the northern counties of Yizhou’s preparations for the Northern Expedition.

The vast majority of the fiscal surplus produced by Yizhou's Ba County, Hanzhong County, and Guanghan County, as well as a small part of the fiscal surplus of Shu County, can still be transported eastward out of Sichuan through the Yangtze River and Han River water systems to the main battlefield in Jingzhou to support the Northern Expedition.

Only the fiscal revenue of several counties in the southern part of Shu County and the entire territory of Qianwei County was used for the great cause of pacifying the south, and it was spread over two or three years. The expenditure curve was very stable, without delaying the main work at all, and without causing the burden of the local people to be a roller coaster-like pressure.

In fact, for the common people in the Eastern Han Dynasty, even if the government imposed heavy labor service and taxes, as long as stability was maintained, most people would think that this was a benevolent policy.

What the people fear most is that the rulers act on impulse. One year, the taxes and levies may seem light, but the next year, the burden may suddenly increase several times. At this time, the people who have poor risk resistance and no savings may break down in this sudden year of increased pressure and cause trouble.

Zhuge Liang is obviously the best among all the rulers throughout history in terms of careful budgeting and making the government spending curve as smooth as possible.

Under his governance, when the two and a half years of truce ended, Shu was not burdened by any additional expenses, leading to public resentment.

It was also possible to export large quantities of military supplies and money and food, turning at least 80,000 surrendered soldiers who had no combat effectiveness left over from Liu Zhang's period into real combat-ready soldiers.

At least 40,000 surrendered prisoners of war were also selected from the Nanzhong region and Jiaozhi County. After about half a year of military discipline training, these soldiers, who were already outstanding in martial arts, physical fitness, and off-road ability, immediately became brave and courageous fighters with stable morale.

All in all, after two and a half years of governing Shu, Zhuge Liang was able to give Liu Bei's camp an additional 120,000 combat troops compared to before the truce.

From the perspective of enriching the country and strengthening the military alone, this efficiency is already extremely exaggerated.

In the 14th year of Jian'an, when the Battle of Jingbei ended and turned into a truce, the size of the remaining combat troops on both sides of Cao and Liu was approximately 410,000 to 420,000 troops for Cao and 460,000 to 470,000 troops for Liu Bei.

At that time, the total number of Liu Bei's troops had surpassed Cao's troops by more than 10%, and the absolute difference was about 50,000.

Now Zhuge Liang helped Liu Bei to conjure up another 120,000 soldiers. If we ignore the changes in war potential in other regions, it would be 420,000 against 600,000. The numerical advantage of Liu Bei's army has expanded from 10% to 1/3. This advantage is enough to launch a full-scale Northern Expedition.

Of course, it is impossible for Cao Cao to be completely idle during these two and a half years. Cao Cao will also try every means to grasp every life-saving straw to restore and strengthen his combat power.

Except for Yizhou, the areas under Liu Bei's camp would not be idle either.

Zhuge Jin, Guan Yu, Zhao Yun and other civil and military officials will also use various methods to govern the territories under their jurisdiction and improve the war potential of their own camp in terms of quantity and quality.

……

Three flowers bloom, each showing its own beauty.

While Zhuge Liang was busy digesting Liu Zhang's legacy and exploring his war potential in Shu.

From the spring of the 14th year of Jian'an to the summer and autumn of the 16th year of Jian'an, during these two and a half years, the main energy of Cao Cao's camp was concentrated on recovering from the war wounds in the Central Plains, recuperating and expanding military farms.

Although the population potential in the heartland of the Central Plains has reached its limit, the years of war have resulted in many refugees not being registered as regular citizens and remaining in a state of escape and hiding.

As the war temporarily turned into a truce, the border tug-of-war between the two major camps ended, the spheres of influence became stable, and the people who had been displaced by the war were also re-identified by Cao Cao.

It is impossible to conduct a thorough investigation of this kind, but it is still possible to ensure that more than half of the refugees are re-registered and to catch the big ones and let the small ones go.

Moreover, some people were forced to move to the rear by Cao's army after the fall of Nanyang County and the change of control of several counties in Linhuai, Runan County. After these people arrived at their new residence, they were naturally organized by Cao Cao, put into farming again, and managed in a militarized manner as much as possible.

In two and a half years, it was possible to clear out hundreds of thousands of hidden and relocated households. Moreover, these hidden and relocated households were mainly added to the Guanzhong area and the Heluo Basin, which was also a foregone conclusion.

Among the territories ruled by Cao Cao, the most chaotic and the last to restore order were the geographical units where Chang'an and Luoyang, the two former capitals of the Han Dynasty, were located.

Luoyang had not been systematically rebuilt for many years after being destroyed by Dong Zhuo. Chang'an had also been plagued by Li Jue and Guo Si for many years. Later, there was a melee among the generals in Guanzhong, and the number of local people was reduced to only a few hundred thousand households.

But in fact, it was impossible for the population to die so quickly and so completely. Many more people did not die directly, but lost the control of the government. After Cao Cao ceased fighting, he focused on thoroughly investigating and restoring production in these two areas.

In addition, when the Nanyang Basin was lost, the population that Cao Cao moved from Nanyang was mainly moved to Luoyang and Chang'an.

Considering that Cao Cao had moved the emperor back to Luoyang before the truce, Xudu, the former "temporary residence", was downgraded to the capital of Yuzhou (before the emperor was in Xudu, Yuzhou had another capital. But now that the emperor has returned to Luoyang due to the butterfly effect, Xu County has been transferred to the capital of the state)

Therefore, the Guanzhong and Heluo plains are considered the fastest-growing territories under Cao Cao's rule in the past two years.

The population base of these two places was originally very small, but now it has almost doubled. Outside of Guanzhong and Heluo, there is no population development to speak of, and the growth points have basically been sucked away by the two former capitals.

This was also a wise decision made by Cao Cao considering the confrontation between him and Liu Bei. Guanzhong and Heluo had become his last great rear base, with mountains and rivers to rely on. Therefore, the resources that could be cultivated and developed were first absorbed from these two areas.

At most, by adding Bingzhou and Hedong, we can also share a little bit of construction resources, because this area will still have Taihang Mountains to rely on in the future.

It is just like many countries with broad strategic depth in later generations, which, when faced with strong external enemies, need to build up military potential in the rear to improve their tolerance rate.

This kind of thing is the same for everyone. Not only did the Russians develop the Ural Mountains Industrial Zone, but our country also carried out the Third Front Construction in history.

For Cao Cao, the land east of Hulao Pass will basically be the location for the decisive battle of the large army in the future. These states and counties are all located on the North China Plain, and the defending side has no terrain advantage at all.

Of course, tasks such as internal affairs rectification, clearing out hidden households, resettling relocated people, and expanding military farms could not occupy all of Cao Cao's camp's administrative energy.

After all, Cao Cao still has an army of 400,000 to support. Even in peacetime, most of these troops can be converted into military settlements, where they can farm and support themselves, and even save up military rations for future wars.

But even if a small part of these 400,000 people were taken out to engage in some military speculation, certain benefits could be gained, and the cost would be completely controllable - this kind of military action was actually the same in nature as Zhuge Liang's expeditions in Nanzhong, with low-cost investment and the goal of conquering the barbarians to support the war.

Liu Bei's camp now occupied the southwest, southeast, and northeast corners of the Han Dynasty. If Cao Cao's camp wanted to plunder the people and war horses and livestock from the four barbarians, they could only do so in the northwest.

In the end, Cao Cao actually chose to focus on taking back the Hetao area, while also taking into account the Yanmen and Yinshan areas north of Bingzhou.

As for the Qiang people in Xiliang, they will just turn a blind eye to it for the time being.

There was not enough time, a total of only two and a half years of truce, and food had to be eaten bite by bite. In the early Eastern Han Dynasty, the Hetao region once fell into the hands of the Southern Xiongnu. After the Southern Xiongnu was defeated, the Xianbei and Qiang people also occupied a part of it.

Originally in history, it was quite difficult and costly for Cao Wei to conquer a large number of the Five Barbarians for its own use.

However, in this life, due to the butterfly effect brought about by the escalating arms race between Cao and Liu, Cao Cao was much more successful in regaining Hetao and did not suffer many casualties.

After the Battle of Jingbei, the veterans who had been baptized by bloody battles in the south were pulled back to Guanzhong, and after a short rest, they attacked northwards and soon defeated the Hetao Qiang people and the Xianbei.

This was not because Cao Cao was cheating, but because during the confrontation between Cao and Liu, both sides had mastered the technology of double-sided metal stirrups and high-bridge saddles, while the Xianbei and Qiang people of the same period had no such cavalry weapons at all.

Originally in history, double-sided metal stirrups and high-bridge saddles were not invented until the Southern and Northern Dynasties, from the late Eastern Jin Dynasty to the early Liu Song Dynasty.

The technology of the Hu people was behind that of the Han people at that time. After the Han people invented new equipment, they took advantage of their advantage of being the first to drink water and took the military initiative for nearly a generation.

Therefore, before Emperor Wu of Song Liu Yu founded the country and at the beginning of the founding of the country, Liu Song had such a great military advantage over Northern Wei. The Northern Wei had much more cavalry, but faced with Liu Yu's northern expedition, the Queyue Formation Poqi, they were still beaten to a pulp.

However, any military technology will spread. Even with the speed of information flow in the early Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Northern Wei people would only suffer for one generation at most. After Liu Yu's death and his son Emperor Wen of Song Liu Yilong came to power, when Liu Song wanted to march north again, the Northern Wei's Hu cavalry had completely caught up with Liu Song in terms of technology.

The Northern Wei had more horse-breeding land and more cavalry, and the scale of their crushing force pushed the Liu Song back to Guazhou Ferry.

Therefore, when Liu Bei and Cao Cao were engaged in an arms race in the Central Plains, they learned from each other and upgraded their military technology crazily. After a short truce, they used the technology they had developed to crush the four barbarians, and immediately beat the four barbarians to the ground.

The situation of the Hetao Xianbei and Hetao Qiang people is actually the same as that of Meng Huo's Nanman and Shi Xie's Jiaozhi soldiers. They were all offline for too long, and when they reconnected to the Hell difficulty and lost the protection of the Novice Village, they were immediately shocked by the strength of the enemy.

The speed of information dissemination and diffusion in the Eastern Han Dynasty today would only be slower than during the confrontation between the Northern Wei Dynasty and the Liu Song Dynasty in history. Moreover, the Xianbei and Qiang people had a lower level of education than the Northern Wei people and learned more slowly.

The Han princes all shared the same culture and knowledge, so they could learn things and explore technology relatively quickly. Innovations in mechanical structures could be imitated in two or three years as long as they had seen them on the battlefield or had captured them. Innovations in processes, formulas, and materials might take eight to ten years or even longer.

But with the cultural level of the Hu people, it may take ten years to imitate a mechanical structure that has been seen by the naked eye. In history, Liu Song was able to shorten the time difference of military technology advantage to nearly a generation, and Cao Cao could certainly maintain a technological lead over the Hu people for at least a generation.

Then the Xianbei/Qiang barbarian kings such as Kebi Neng, Fuluo Han and Budugen were shocked to find: When did Cao Cao's cavalry on the grassland become so powerful?
Within just two years, these barbarian kings were either defeated by Cao Cao or captured and surrendered for reorganization.

Cao Cao took into consideration that the older generation of generals in the Cao family had passed away, and only Cao Ren and Cao Hong were left struggling to support the clan, so he urgently needed to train the younger generation.

Therefore, in the past two years, when clearing the low-difficulty dungeon of Hetao Hu Ren, Cao Xiu, who had always been guarding Guanzhong, was mainly allowed to gain military merits and experience.

He also sent Cao Zhen, who had suffered a great loss at the hands of Zhang Fei in the previous Battle of Runan. Cao Xiu and Cao Zhen fought in turns, and accumulated merits together.

As long as Cao Xiu and Cao Zhen made some achievements, such as recovering Shangjun, Beidi or even a county in Wuyuan County, Cao Cao would recommend them for additional titles or promotions.

If one could eventually recover the entire territory of a county, he would be directly granted the title of county marquis.

In this way, when the Hetao area is completely restored, the Cao family can at least produce four more county marquises, because Shangjun, Beidi and Wuyuan can each produce a marquis. In addition, Cao Cao can also reclaim the fertile Yinchuan Basin and Ningxia region in later generations and contribute a marquis to the Cao family.

In addition, on the east bank of this section of the Yellow River, close to Bingzhou, some counties in Pingyang County were previously controlled by the Southern Xiongnu. If the Cao family could completely control it, theoretically they could also produce another marquis, and no one in the Luoyang court would object.

Finally, after two and a half years of training and gaining experience, Cao Cao basically recovered the entire Hetao area and advanced all the way to Wuyuan and Yinshan.

He subdued several Xianbei and Qiang barbarian kings, such as Kebi Neng, Fuluo Han, and Budugen, seized their war horses, mobilized their cattle and sheep livestock resources, or forced them to become vassal troops.

Cao Xiu and Cao Zhen were also successfully granted the title of county marquis and promoted to the high position of general of the four towns.

As for Cao Ren, Cao Hong, and Xiahou Dun, who originally held the high position of Four Expedition Generals, after these two and a half years, they would naturally be promoted at least one level, and now they have reached the level of Front, Back, Left, and Right Generals.

You know, in the original history, Cao Ren was not promoted to General of the Southern Expedition until the Battle of Xiangfan in the 218rd year of Jian'an ( AD), and Xiahou Dun was also promoted to General of the Front by then.

And now it is only the 16th year of Jian'an, which means that these people have generally accelerated their promotion to the level of generals in seven or eight years, or even reached high positions that they had never achieved in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

If Cao Cao wanted to forcibly appoint officials, no one in the Luoyang court would be able to stop him. As long as Liu Bei did not attack, those civil servants in Luoyang would be powerless against Cao Cao, who held the knife.

Cao Cao did this because he was increasingly worried that the Cao family's rule was unsustainable and that someone would cause trouble, so he had to intensify the use of his own family members in the military.

This perverse behavior has not yet been triggered, but it has also accumulated secret resentment against Cao Cao. For example, the hostility of Geng Ji, Wei Huang, Ji Ping and others towards Cao Cao in history did not develop until around the 23rd year of Jian'an, and finally broke out in the form of the "Xu Du Mutiny".

Now, these people's hostility towards Cao Cao was due to the case of Empress Fu's father Fu Wan, and they were very dissatisfied with Cao Cao's forced relocation. In the past two and a half years, Cao Cao has intensified his efforts to cultivate his confidants, and the hostility of Wei Huang and others has accumulated to the point of breaking out, which is five or six years earlier than the same period in history.

They only regretted that they had no military power and could not rebel against Cao. But as long as Liu Bei attacked, these people would definitely make trouble behind Cao Cao's back. It can be said that Cao Cao cultivated his confidants and helped Cao Xiu and Cao Zhen gain military merits, which was a double-edged sword.

It seems that a lot of benefits have been gained on paper, but in fact it has also laid out equal hidden dangers.

Finally, I have to mention that among Cao Cao's biological sons, Cao Pi had no military strategy, and Cao Zhi also had no military strategy. In addition, Cao Zhi was too young. Even in the 16th year of Jian'an, he was only 19 years old and could not go to the battlefield at all.

However, Cao Cao's third son, Cao Zhang, was already 20 years old when the truce was called in the 14th year of Jian'an, and he was 22 or 23 years old in the 16th year of Jian'an.

Historically, Cao Zhang never had the opportunity to demonstrate his military prowess in his early years. He only came to prominence around the Battle of Hanzhong, when he was already 30 years old.

In this life, the Battle of Hanzhong started twelve years earlier, so Cao Zhang had no chance to catch up. But at least Cao Zhang could share the credit for the recovery of Hetao.

When he was 20 years old, he followed his cousin Cao Xiu to fight. At that time, Cao Cao only appointed him as a cavalry captain to show fairness.

Cao Zhang was also quite capable. He equipped one cavalry unit with 800 of the most elite iron-clad tiger and leopard cavalry, all of which were equipped with double-sided metal stirrups and high-bridge saddles. The scale of the troops was almost the same as that of Huo Qubing when he first fought against the Huns.

When Cao Zhang followed Cao Xiu to kill a Qiang tribe chieftain during the recovery of Beidi County, he was promoted to military commander directly for his military merits because he was Cao Cao's biological son. Later, he was promoted to captain directly for his minor merits.

When Cao Xiu returned to garrison and Cao Zhen became the commander-in-chief, Cao Zhang also continued to fight with them.

Anyway, in the past two and a half years, wherever there was an opportunity to gain military merit in dealing with the Hu people, Cao Zhang would appear there precisely to gild himself.

In the first year, he was promoted from Quchang to Junsima and then to Duwei. At the beginning of the second year, he was promoted to Zhonglang Jiang. At the end of the year, he was already a Lieutenant General. At the beginning of the third year, he officially became a miscellaneous general.

In just two and a half years, he was promoted from a completely new officer to a general, which was considered the fastest military promotion in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Cao Cao's propaganda machine was also in full swing, portraying the 23-year-old Cao Zhang as a figure like Wei, Huo, and Dou, and as the terminator of the Hu people who terrorized the grasslands.

There is no other way. The prime minister has only one son who is good at fighting. If not him, who else should he cultivate? Should he continue to cultivate his son-in-law Sun Quan?

……

In a nutshell, in the past two and a half years, Cao Cao made a lot of money by settling the relocated people, identifying hidden households and conquering Hetao.

Strictly speaking, the benefits of using troops in Hetao, Wuyuan and Yinshan were greater than those of Zhuge Liang's southern expedition to the Nanman. However, if we take into account Zhuge Liang's governance of other counties in Shu and his assimilation of the surrendered army and territory left by Liu Zhang, then the total benefits of Zhuge Liang's governance of Shu are definitely greater.

Simply put, Zhuge Liang's pacification of the Southern Barbarians could increase Liu Bei's effective combat power by about 40,000, and Cao Cao's control of the entire Hetao area could free up 50,000 to 60,000 combat forces.

However, the combat power gained by Zhuge Liang's governance of the entire Shu area was about 120,000 people, which was more than twice the gain Cao Cao gained by taking over the entire Hetao area.

Cao Cao used the technological advantage gained from the arms race to bully the barbarians, and there was no way to stop him. Liu Bei could only compete with Cao Cao in bullying other barbarians.

You bully me and I bully you too, let's see who bullies faster and gets more benefits.

Cao Cao’s total income was only about 50,000 to 60,000 people.

Liu Bei's total income was far more than Zhuge Liang's 120,000.

The profits that Zhuge Jin, Guan Yu and Zhao Yun gained in Guandong from bullying the "barbarians" in the northeast and southeast corners of the Han Dynasty were definitely not small when added together.

In the southeast, the Shanyue tribe was limited in size after all. Moreover, Liu Bei had controlled Yangzhou for many years, and he had almost digested what needed to be digested, and the remaining ones were hard bones.

The Shanyue in Kuaiji and Danyang counties had already been naturalized, leaving only some barbarians in the southernmost mountainous area of Yuzhang County, the Wuling Mountains near Nanhai County, and the entire Minzhong County area. As for Yizhou on the other side of Minzhong County, it has no economic value for immigration and reclamation for the time being, only some exploration value for species exchange and discovery.

But in the northeast, Zhao Yun has a lot to offer. Previously, Liu Bei's camp had not killed Gongsun Du's son Gongsun Kang. Gongsun Kang fled to his brother-in-law, Fuyu Wang Wei Choutai, and brought some talents and technology with him.

After several years of sinicization, the Buyeo Kingdom has gradually been assimilated into the Han culture, and its agricultural productivity has also grown, which is much more advanced than the production methods of the original fishing and hunting ethnic groups.

Zhao Yun had fattened up his enemies, so he would naturally start to slaughter them. Even if there were some difficulties in logistics and post-conquest governance, Zhuge Jin would find a way to help Zhao Yun solve them.

Zhao Yun only needs to worry about the knife-wielding matters, and Zhuge Jin will lay the groundwork and take care of the rest.

(End of this chapter)