Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 364: Inspection of military provisions, division of the army into three routes

In December, Nie County, Shangdang.

"Yuan Shu first became a duke, then a king. He is so proud of himself. He may soon replace the Han Dynasty and claim the title of emperor!"

Zhang Yu led the group to inspect the palace in the cold wind, and said to his attendants, "Yuan Shao has just been appointed Duke of Wei. Now that he knows what Yuan Shu has done, I wonder if he will become the King of Wei himself!"

Jia Xu followed closely and said with a smile: "Your Excellency is a marquis, are you jealous of the two Yuans for this?"

"envious?"

Zhang Yu laughed when he heard this and said, "The world has not yet been unified, yet you are promoting the titles of emperor and king. Isn't this the same as what Song Jian did?"

Zhang Yu was not a sage. If he did not want to unify the world or establish a country and become emperor, why would he raise an army to fight for hegemony?

Therefore, it is impossible for Zhang Yu not to envy Yuan Shu's usurpation of the throne to replace the Han Dynasty. However, one must know how to let go. At present, the great cause has not been accomplished. With Zhang Yu's family background, how dare he follow the two Yuans and claim to be king?
"To be honest, your promotion to the rank of prince will be beneficial to both the civil and military officials!"

Xun You walked slowly, stroking his beard, and said, "The officials of Guandong abandoned their relatives and friends, abandoned their hometown, and followed you in the midst of war. What everyone hoped for was nothing more than to cling to the emperor and return home in glory. Now that the two Yuans have usurped the throne, the emperor has issued an edict, and many people hope that you will be promoted. However, you went against the wishes of the civil and military officials, which really disappointed them."

"From the perspective of the situation, you respected the Han Dynasty and punished the disloyalty, so the civil and military officials were attached to you. But now the world is not yet settled, and you claim to be a usurper, the people will surely be alienated. When people are divided, it is difficult to reunite, so this is not something a wise person can do."

In fact, there were two opinions on whether Zhang Yu should be called Duke or not. One voice, based on political interests, hoped that Zhang Yu could be called Duke and promoted; the other voice, based on the situation in the world, advised Zhang Yu not to rush to usurp the title.

What Xun You said today pointed out why there are these two voices.

The world was in chaos, and many people left their homes to follow Zhang Yu, not for the so-called loyalty to the Han Dynasty, but for wealth and honor. Therefore, the higher the position Zhang Yu held, the more official positions he could reward his subordinates. As for the opponents, apart from the civil and military officials who favored the Han Dynasty, there were a few wise men who could see the situation clearly. Now that a war was about to start, in order to unite more people, Zhang Yu had to choose the latter.

"In my opinion, if you can defeat Yuan Shao this time, you will have the potential to unify the world. At that time, you will be able to meet the expectations of everyone and follow the will of heaven and the people's wishes." Guo Tu said.

Hearing this, Zhang Yu joked, "You should leave your hometown and your official position to join me. When you are successful, you can be made the Marquis of Yangdi County, and when you return home in glory, you can establish your own family!"

"Your Excellency, may your cause last for eternity, and it is enough for you to be rich and noble!" Guo Tu said modestly.

"Ha ha!"

Zhang Yu patted Guo Tu on the shoulder and smiled, his behavior full of encouragement.

While walking and chatting, Zhang Yu stopped at the warehouse in front of him and asked, "How many stones of grain does Nie County have, and how many warehouses have been built?"

Seeing Zhang Yu asking questions, Jia Qu stepped out from the crowd, bowed and said, "My Lord, the Nie County Pavilion has 210,000 dan of military rations, and each cellar can store 20,000 dan of rations, which is enough to support 50,000 troops for two months."

Zhang Yu took out the rice from the granary. Seeing that it was of quite old quality, he frowned slightly and handed the rice to his left and right.

"The army goes on expeditions every year, and the expenditure on food and fodder is frequent. The grain stored in the granary this year should have been stored in the past two years. How come the stored rice is so old?" Guo Tu observed carefully and said in surprise.

"Yes!"

Jia Xu reached out to fish out the rice in the bag and saw that it was stale. He looked at Jia Qu suspiciously and asked, "When we were conquering Longyou, the rations were mostly fresh. Why is the rice stale when we are conquering Hebei?"

Seeing everyone's suspicious looks, Jia Qu said calmly, "It is just as Mr. Guo said. The grain that arrived this year is all new grain, and half of the rice in Nie County is three or four years old."

"Why is this so?" Zhang Yu asked as he put the grain into the rice bag.

"My Lord, in the past, the grain officials of the Han Dynasty stole grain and often sold new grain in the market to exchange for old grain in the warehouse. Now in Shanxi, the price of new grain is slightly higher than the old grain that is about to expire. I calculated the expenditure on grain and grass, so I asked the military advisor to exchange the new grain for the old grain, and the proceeds were accumulated in the warehouse!"

Jia Qu pointed at Nie County Pavilion and said, "The grain in the pavilion was only 200,000 dan, but now it has 210,000 dan, of which 10,000 dan are from selling old grain."

During the Qin and Han dynasties, the granaries built by the government could store grain for no more than nine years. For the wealthy, due to storage technology issues, most could only store grain for three or four years. For ordinary people, rice could only be stored for one or two years at most. Therefore, the prices of new and old grains would fluctuate, and new grains would be slightly more popular.

In ancient times, officers and soldiers often cheated their soldiers by selling inferior grain as good grain, selling good grain to wealthy families in exchange for old grain that had been stored for many years, and making a profit from the difference. Some were even more daring, and directly withheld the grain from the soldiers.

However, Jia Qu put his shameful deeds on the table, perhaps out of official considerations, in order to obtain more food and fodder, he took the initiative to exchange new grain for old grain. After all, there were many large families in Taiyuan, Shangdang and Hedong, and they were fully capable of consuming the new grain.

"You are in charge of three mansions in Shangdang, but is it the same in all of them?" Zhang Yu asked. Jia Qu bowed and said, "It is basically the same. There are three mansions in total, and the military rations should be 500,000 dan, but the actual military rations are 530,000 dan. I will use a crude plan to raise 30,000 dan more military rations for you."

Based on the calculation that a soldier was supposed to eat two dan of rice per month, Jia Qu was able to collect an additional 15,000 monthly rations for the army.

With the calculation in mind, Zhang Yu was greatly impressed and said to his attendants: "If all the scholars in the world were like Jia Liangdao, I would have nothing to worry about now!"

Jia Qu was neither sad nor happy. He stood with his hands behind his back, waiting for Zhang Yu to continue questioning.

After a pause, Zhang Yu asked, "If I send troops from Shangdang and attack Handan via Fukou, how many people will it take to transport the soldiers and food from Shangdang to the front line?"

Jia Qu had already prepared a plan, and said, "My Lord, Shangdang to Handan is about 400 to 500 miles away, and 50,000 soldiers and horses need 120,000 dan of grain per month. A civilian can carry six dou of grain, and an animal can carry several dan. If there is a highway, a cart can carry 25 dan. The Jingxing Road is difficult to travel, so it needs to be carried by human labor. Therefore, to supply 50,000 soldiers and horses, at least 60,000 to 70,000 civilians are needed."

"If we want to transport grain from the two states of Shanxi to Shangdang by water and land, we need to send another 70,000 people. The total number of people who have been forced to do corvée and transport grain is no less than 140,000. If we want to transport grain from 50,000 to 60,000, we need at least 150,000 people."

Although the population of Shanxi is only slightly less than the population of Yuan Shao's entire Jizhou, their actual mobilization capabilities, or their food and fodder transportation capabilities, are incomparable.

Except for Guanzhong and Hedong, Shanxi can rely on water transportation, while the rest of the country needs to rely on land transportation. Jizhou, due to its complex water system, can rely more on water transportation. Therefore, if Zhang Yuru confronted Yuan Shao, he would probably not be able to defeat Yuan Shao if he simply competed in terms of food and grass consumption.

Seeing that Jia Qu's calculations were similar to what Zhong Yao had reported a few days ago, Zhang Yu smiled and said to Xun You, "You did not recommend the governor of the palace to me, but recommended a virtuous official of the rank of 2,000 stone."

Xun You nodded slightly and said, "Shangdang has 500,000 dan of grain, Taiyuan has 200,000 dan of grain, and a total of 700,000 dan of grain for the soldiers. If we don't count the civilians, it can provide 60,000 soldiers for half a year. But if we count the civilians transporting grain to the front line, it will only be enough for three or four months."

"enough!"

Zhang Yu said: "If we send out troops in March next year, we can at least last until autumn. If we can get more food, we can at least last until winter. If we fail to defeat Yuan Shao in half a year, we should not hold out for long. We can lead our troops back and look for another opportunity to go on the expedition."

"We hope we can conquer all the counties along the mountain this time. Otherwise, if we return without success, not only will the army be exhausted, but the mobilization of 200,000 households will cause great damage to farming." Lu Fan said with emotion.

Shanxi has a total population of only about two million people, with about 400,000 registered households. Now there are 200,000 soldiers and civilians, and the number of people directly and indirectly affected will be one million. Therefore, if the dispute between Zhang and Yuan fails to achieve results, it will greatly damage the vitality of Shanxi.

If he wanted to continue the expedition to Hebei, he would need to rest for at least two years before he could send out troops again. If he could defeat Yuan Shao, Zhang Yu might not be able to sweep across Hebei, but he could lay a solid foundation for the next expedition to Yuan Shao.

If he was defeated by Yuan Shao, Zhang Yu could only rely on the geographical advantages of Shangdang to hold on. It would take at least many years of recuperation before he could gather another large army to march east.

Zhang Yu looked at his left and right civil and military officials and asked, "Now that the Fukou Pass is open, I intend to send troops from Maocheng to confront Yuan Shao in Handan. I will also send Zhang Yan as a detachment to attack Yan and Zhao from Jingxing. Now that we have arrived at Shangdang, do you have any other opinions?"

"My lord, Shangdang is separated from Yecheng by Linlu. Now you are leading a large army out of Lu County. We might as well send a detachment out of Hukou Pass to take Linlu and attack Yecheng. This can be used to bluff and threaten Yecheng." Guo Tu suggested.

In fact, the traffic between Shangdang and Jizhou is not only the main road Fukouxing, but also a small road called Yangchang Pass. The Yangchang Pass is the road between Yecheng and Huguan, which passes through Linlu (now Linzhou City).

Historically, when Cao Cao attacked Gao Gan, he took the narrow path to take Shangdang, and suffered many setbacks at Hukou Pass before finally breaking through the pass to take Shangdang. Now, we can do the opposite, send an army out of the valley, take Linlu first, and cooperate with the army at Fukouxing.

As for why Zhang Yu could not take the goat trail, it was because the mountain roads were rugged and military supplies were difficult to transport, which was not conducive to Zhang Yu's long-term military operations.

Zhang Yu thought for a while and said, "What Gongze said is feasible. If our army marches out of Fukouxing, Yuan Shao's garrison in Weijun will be weakened. Now we send out a surprise attack through the narrow pass, and perhaps we can achieve something in Weijun."

"Now Zhang Yan is coming out of Changshan, another detachment is coming out of Weijun, and your Excellency's army is coming out of Zhaojun. I wonder how the Youzhou troops will support the army?" Lu Fan asked.

"It's hard to decide for now!"

Jia Xu said: "If Wuhuan does not send troops, Liu He can go south to Hejian to divide Yuan Shao's troops. If Wuhuan sends troops, Gongsun will be in the south, and the north and south will be attacked, so Youzhou needs to be defended first."

Zhang Yu waved his hand and said, "We must not rush to fight against Yuan Shao. If we can mobilize the tens of thousands of troops in Youzhou, Yuan Shao will be attacked from both sides and will surely be defeated by our army. Now we don't know where Yuan Shao has deployed in Youzhou. Even if we send troops to attack him, we must first confront him."

When sending troops to Hebei this time, Zhang Yu made two preparations: one was to break the deadlock from Youzhou, and the other was to decide the outcome with Yuan Shao in Handan.

Looking at the snowflakes gradually rising from the sky, Zhang Yu said to his attendants, "We don't have to worry about food and supplies today. We can return west tomorrow and make arrangements for the expedition."

"promise!"

(End of this chapter)