Kill someone with a borrowed knife?

Zhuge Liang and Xu Shu looked at each other, very confused.

This strategy is often to use others to accomplish what you want to accomplish.

But if you want to do this, you have to bring in third-party forces.

But now in Jingzhou, how can any third-party force have such courage to carry out reforms?

With this doubt, Xu Shu asked Shen Chen: "Whose sword can I borrow?"

"The knife of Yizhou people."

A mysterious smile appeared on Shen Chen's face.

Yizhou people’s sword?

Zhuge Liang picked up the tea in front of him, took a sip, and asked: "Do you have a suitable candidate?"

"have."

"Who is it?"

It cannot be said that it is a ragtag group, but it can only be regarded as a relatively weak one among the second-line troops. It can defeat ordinary thieves, bandits, and remnants of the Yellow Turban Army. However, when encountering a strong first-line army, it is basically no different from delivering food.

Later, due to the war in the north, a large number of refugees migrated to the south, and the population of Jingzhou was replenished. Under Liu Biao's rule, the proportion of people with hidden families, mountain people, mobs, and non-tax payers was greatly reduced, and the number of people who paid taxes was greatly increased, which provided Liu Biao with money, food, and manpower.

The shopkeeper and a waiter walked in with a flattering smile and put the dishes in their hands on the table.

Shen Chen continued: "With the population, land, and officials unable to move lightly, there are only three possible ways for us. One is to eliminate the old and weak in the army and streamline the soldiers. The other is to appease the refugees and cultivate new fields. Third, appease the barbarians in Jingnan Mountain and ease the dispute between Han and barbarians."

"First of all, the issue of land and shelter cannot be touched."

It is for this reason that Zhuge Liang wanted to carry out drastic reforms and redistribute land to prepare for the upcoming plan to strengthen the state and enrich the people.

Zhuge Liang said: "How to increase production and how to cultivate new fields."

But the subjective factors are still two conditions: the population explosion in Jingzhou and the fact that Liu Biao did not lose the Nanyang Basin.

Shen Chen ordered the guards to guard the stairs and not allow anyone to approach and eavesdrop on the secrets.

Naturally, cultivating land does not mean that you can cultivate it immediately by opening a farmland, but it requires land with fertile soil.

Under such circumstances, there are many children of aristocratic families serving as officials in Jingzhou's officialdom. Even if outsiders serve as officials in Jingzhou, they will often collude with these aristocratic families, forming a complex network of interests.

Many people say that ancient times would collapse if the casualty rate exceeded 10%. Although it is not that exaggerated, this is basically the case for troops like those under Liu Biao.

"Tinker work?"

As mentioned before, there were many hermit households in the Three Kingdoms of the late Han Dynasty who did not pay taxes. In addition to the hermit households of aristocratic families, there were also the hermit households of mountain people who fled into the mountains, like in "Peach Blossom Spring".

Although it sounds good, this is treating the symptoms rather than the root cause.

If the fundamental problem cannot be solved and a large amount of land is redistributed, it will lead to people becoming increasingly poor and eventually unable to survive.

Shen Chen explained: "Think about it, General Zuo has just acted for state affairs and has not yet fully taken power, so how can he drastically reform the military? Therefore, he can only do some tinkering work now, and major reforms must wait until stability is achieved. Only then can we start.”

Others were county magistrates in their own counties, but a few of them were prefects in their own counties. Fu Qun was even more exaggerated. He was from Xiangyang, Jingzhou, and Cao Cao asked him to be the governor of Jingzhou. This shows that the Three Mutual Laws in the late Han Dynasty had become useless. , becomes a piece of paper.

The other Huang She, Xiang Lang, Xi Zhen, Zhang Cun and later Kuai Jun, Kuai Qi and Fu Qun during the Cao Wei period also violated the Three Mutual Laws.

This interruption made it difficult to continue the conversation.

Since the end of the Han Dynasty, the weather has changed seriously. Affected by the small glacier, it is sometimes cold and hot, and sometimes floods and droughts. People do not have much land in their hands. Once extreme weather occurs, resulting in reduced or no production in the fields, it will have serious consequences. .

Shen Chen said: "We can start from three aspects, one is to increase the production of the existing fields held by the government and the people, the other is to cultivate new fields, and the third is to ensure the survival of these soldiers before the new fields and food production are increased. , you have to continue to support them for a period of time after they return from the army."

At this moment, someone knocked on the door and shouted. It was obviously a guard reporting something, so Shen Chen said, "What's the matter?"

Xu Shu stretched out his hand to stop him.

In addition, Shen Chen helped Liu Biao defend Nanyang and suggested that he farm the land, so that he could own the granary of the Nanyang Basin, and the northern refugees who moved south were fully utilized, so his strength grew day by day.

"Young master."

Shen Chen said: "Official administration can only be done slowly and not impatiently. The officials in Jingzhou are intertwined, and many of them are children of aristocratic families. Therefore, these people cannot be moved, or in other words, they cannot be moved lightly."

"only."

Zhuge Liang narrowed his eyes and fell into thought.

You must know that during Liu Biao's period, his army had the largest number of 240,000 to 50,000, and he was known as a hero with a million soldiers. It can be said that he was in the limelight for a while.

Only Shen Chen held his chin with one hand, a hint of sadness flashing between his brows.

Zhuge Liang said: "We must come up with a practical plan and implement it while making statistics."

For example, even though land reform was carried out in later generations and everyone had land, many people still starved to death after several years of natural disasters.

However, there was great resistance to the land reform. As a member of a wealthy family, if he did this, he would be a traitor to the class. Not only would his relatives and friends around him put pressure on him, but even the entire Jingzhou gentry would not be able to tolerate him.

And apart from the people struggling in poverty, the most important thing is military reform and the reduction of soldiers.

Especially Cai Mao, Kuai Yue, Huang Zu, Fu Qun, Kuai Jun, and Kuai Qi.

"It doesn't matter when you come, it just needs a suitable time."

"Dong dong dong, report!"

"Linyi rice? I didn't expect that Jiaozhi actually has such a strange thing."

Another point is that even treating the symptoms is not a complete cure.

Xu Shu buried his head in eating.

Shen Chen responded.

It is also said that Huangzu was born in the Huang family of Anlu, Jiangxia, but he was appointed as the prefect of Jiangxia.

The objective factor that can reach this level is that Shen Chen proposed the farming system, which made Liu Biao's treasury extremely rich. He could harvest 20 to 30 million shi of grain from Nanyang farming every year, which allowed him to recruit more troops.

The powerful families in the south are very powerful. Liu Zhang's several civil strife in Yizhou were fought against the powerful families. Sun Ce relied entirely on killing to subdue him in Jiangdong. During the period of Sun Quan, he was still controlled by the powerful families, and he had to kill him in his later years. Many people were recruited to maintain rule.

However, this kind of growth is like a fat person who gains weight in a short period of time. It is puffy and fat. Without exercise, fat cannot be turned into muscle.

The guard opened the door and greeted outside: "Send him in."

Shen Chen shrugged and added: "And it's not just human feces and urine, but also the feces of chickens, ducks, pigs, cattle, sheep and horses. The method of fertilizing the soil with feces has been around since the Spring and Autumn Period, and the retting method I invented is like Just like turning grain and water into wine, it greatly improves the efficiency of using manure. This is how I talk about opening up new fields."

"Then comes the administration."

Shen Chen smiled and said: "It can conserve soil fertility. It only takes three to four months for Champa rice to mature, while our southern rice takes five months. Over the course of a year, at least three to four months are a period of slack farming. At this time, Use the retting method to accumulate feces and urine for a year to make ferment, and then irrigate it in the fields during slack periods to warm and nourish the land and increase soil fertility."

Therefore, Shen Chen strongly opposed it.

Because of this, in order to appease Sun Quan, Cao Cao asked him to actively hold back Liu Biao and Liu Bei's power, and gave him the position of Yangzhou Shepherd. This was a violation of the Three Mutual Laws and he was trying his best to win over Sun Quan.

None of the three people spoke.

The guard outside said: "The owner said the dishes are ready."

For example, the relatively elite soldiers under Cao Cao, Shen Chen, Liu Bei, Sun Quan and others have a very high fighting will. Even if the casualty rate exceeds 30%, as long as there is no large-scale disadvantage on the frontal battlefield, they can often continue to fight and fight to the death.

Xu Shu said with a look of disgust: "What you said, it's just feces and urine. It makes me lose my appetite for food."

"Um."

Xu Shu said: "But what about the soil fertility? The land in the south is not very fertile. Once a year, the soil fertility is exhausted. If it is double cropping, can it really increase the yield?"

After they left and the door closed again, Xu Shu started to use his chopsticks and said while eating: "When will the person you are looking for come?"

At this moment, there were knocks and shouts outside the door.

The most typical example is that under the rule of Liu Biao in Jingzhou, Cai Mao was from Xiangyang of Nanjun, and Liu Biao appointed him as the prefect of Nanjun. Although Kuai Yue was not from Zhangling, the county chief could not use people from the state, but he was the prefect of Zhangling.

Therefore, now that Liu Bei has taken charge of Jingzhou, in order to train the fat army left over from Liu Biao's period into a muscular army, he has to reduce the old and weak again, retain the strong and strong, and train them to become elite soldiers.

"Um."

All three of them had escorts, and business was not doing well, so there were no other customers on the second floor.

Most of these lands are now occupied by aristocratic families. The land of ordinary farmers and farmers is often middle or even lower fields. The land is not very fertile, so it produces very little grain. A family of five has to work hard to cultivate only 50 acres of lower fields. Barely able to provide enough food and clothing.

However, if we do this, the entire Jingzhou will now have nearly 200,000 troops, and it is estimated that more than half of it will have to be eliminated.

However, after the Dong Zhuo Rebellion at the end of the Han Dynasty, because the authority of the imperial court was greatly weakened, few local princes no longer obeyed it.

Zhuge Liang said: "Let's talk about reducing the army first. During the period of King Chu, the number of soldiers and horses increased greatly, with more than 200,000 followers, making him the largest prince in the south. But these soldiers were not elite, and their military morale was not very strong. , it would be easy to reduce the number, but after the reduction, how will the soldiers survive? A lot of land will be needed? What can Xiaoqing do?"

The three of them stopped talking.

Therefore, by mobilizing population, land, and official administration, they are making enemies of the entire aristocratic families in Jingzhou. Facing this powerful force, they must think twice before acting and not act rashly.

Nearly 100,000 soldiers have retired and returned home. If there is no land to appease these soldiers, these soldiers will become a huge hidden danger. Once they cause trouble, I am afraid that the entire Nanyang will fall into an extremely poor public security environment.

These downsized soldiers will become the biggest factor of instability.

What Shen Chen meant was to not move the land of those wealthy families first, but to increase revenue and reduce expenditure, reclaim new land, reduce the army and reduce expenditures, and then use the state government's finances to support these retired soldiers for a short period of time. After Jingzhou is fully promoted, it will be able to ensure food and clothing for soldiers and poor people.

Because the greed of aristocratic families is continuous, the more land you cultivate and the more people you absorb, they will always have a way to turn these land and people into the hidden property of the powerful families.

Shen Chen pondered: "This is indeed a big problem. If the livelihood of the soldiers is not solved and they are allowed to return home, it will inevitably cause a lot of civil strife. Therefore, we must treat it with caution. We have not yet calculated the situation in the military, so we will temporarily After maintaining it in this way, let the state government calculate the state's land, soldiers, and household registration before making detailed plans."

Zhuge Liang thought for a while and said: "In that case, let's analyze which places can be moved and which places cannot be moved."
To be continued...