Time flies, and in a blink of an eye, three years have passed by.

It has to be mentioned that war is not a bad thing sometimes. Just like the theory of deterrence in the dark forest, Shu, Wu and Wei are at risk of being eliminated, so the entire Central Plains and China land were struggling to develop themselves.

The one who lags the most behind is Cao Pi who has the most resources and is in Yecheng. There are many places where there are people. The Central Plains families are full of aristocratic families, but they are the most crowded. No matter how big or small the aristocratic families are, they all want to climb up. As an emperor, Cao Pi often plays not a dictator, but a distributor. How to distribute interests and ensure that the most aristocratic families can stand on their own chariot is a problem he has always faced.

In the past three years, Wang Hou's allies in the Central Plains became his target. First, the five generals of Zang Ba of the Taishan Army, who still had military power in Qingzhou. Taking advantage of the third Battle of Ruxukou, the Taishan Army was regarded as a vanguard by Cao Pi and forced him to attack Yangzhou for a time. They were sniped by the Wu army. Tens of thousands of Taishan Army were killed and injured, and even the veteran Sun Guan died and died in the battlefield. Qingzhou's separatist military power was completely lifted by Cao Pi.

In this supply war, Cao Pi's logistical pressure was mainly suppressed by Xuzhou. As the top leader of Xuzhou's military and political affairs, the Chen family also suffered an extraordinary blow. Under the suppression of the Kanto gentry who were united in a group, the first tribe in Haidong also began to decline rapidly.

But even so, Cao Pi still did not cut off Wang Hou's tentacles in the Central Plains, because whether it was the Central Plains family that took over the Qingzhou cotton fields, or the Central Plains gentry who took over the Xuzhou salt field and the fishing grounds, if they wanted to monetize these resources, they had to be built through Liaodong in China, processed and sold them, and then exchanged them for gold, silver, copper coins, brocade, silk, and jade, and turned into real property.

The same goes for saying that it is easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but it is difficult to go from extravagance to frugality! Before Wang Hou, the feudal manor system, major families were actually quite simple, and they could live a self-sufficient life. But now! People are eating iron pot stew, adding Bashu pepper, Western Region pepper and cinnamon, do you buy it?

People wear Shu brocade embroidery and Khotan jade on their waists. The incense they use is frankincense and myrrh from India. They are dressed brightly and beautifully, fashionable and noble, do you use it?

The four-wheeled carriage uses Nanyang mahogany, the Western Regions wines used in Persian wine pots, and the Qingzhou molasses wine is also used in the Han Dynasty to treat guests. Are you shabby or not!

Even Cao Pi himself cannot completely eliminate these commercial networks that are densely spread in his territory. From the Cao Cao era to the Cao Pi era, the secret to the extension of Wang Hou's tentacles is that you really need not pay taxes!

The cooperation of major chambers of commerce that went to the Central Plains in Liaodong could not be poured into it, so it was difficult for outsiders to interfere in their business networks. Nearly half of the profits were paid to the court. Now 70% of Yecheng's income comes from commercial taxes. Cao Pi's move can cause the consequences of the whole body. Almost all domestic chambers of commerce were tax-resistant and the gentry masters had nowhere to buy them. The treasury income dropped sharply by 70%. Who can withstand it?

However, it has to be admitted that Cao Pi's method of winning over the people was particularly outstanding. In three years, he completely unified the authority of the Central Plains, exploited the lower-class people, encircled the military farms, and divided the land and gained the land to the gentry in the country. Now all forces in the Central Plains are basically in his hands. He can command the 400,000 Cao Wei army as his arm, and his strength is the strongest in the entire Three Kingdoms era.

Cao Pi's Eastern Wei was taking advantage of his capital to integrate the power within the territory, while Wang Hou and Cao Zhang's Western Wei tried their best to explore the outside world. Behind it was supported by a large group of black-hearted merchants such as Wang Hou. Now the Western Regions have basically been defeated by Cao Zhang, and their power is equivalent to the sum of the Tang Dynasty's Anxiong Protectorate and the Beiting Protectorate.

Moreover, when fighting a foreign war, the feeling of conquest is really addictive. One way to the south, breaking a country and erecting a stone tablet, which reads that Cao Zhang would destroy a certain country and expand the territory for the Great Wei. This was beautiful for Cao Zhang. Wang Hou asked him to stop at the Pamir Mountains, pack up the troops and prepare to destroy Shu. He was fine. This end agreed, and the other end led his army to go through the Pamir Plateau, contact Dayuan, Kangju and one of the four ancient countries on the Silk Road, and started to work.

If he continues to fight like this, Wang Houzhen doubts whether Cao Zhang can fight to Rome together.

Of course, not only Cao Wei was developing, but in three years, Shu Han and Sun Wu also took the lane of rapid development, because of Wang Hou.

In Shu Han, Wang Hou was directly engaged in business with Liaodong. It seemed that Wang Hou was not like his own enemy. In addition to not exporting weapons, as long as Zhuge Liang and Shu Han could take out money and goods, even strategic materials that could indirectly affect the direction of the war, such as iron and animal, could sell them as soon as possible.

In fact, this is not good for Shu Han. If the large amount of grain is imported, the domestic grain production will definitely be affected. If high-end cloth and spice tea are used to exchange daily necessities, the handicrafts in Shu will also suffer a heavy blow, especially if you buy it in Liaodong, it is very likely that the high-ranking gentry of Shu Han will rely on Liaodong.

This is the same as Liu Bei's winning people's hearts at Xiameng Pass when he entered Sichuan, but Liu Bei is a little more intelligent. He relies on selling his face and seducing people's hearts by making money, while Wang Hou is really making money.

Unfortunately, even if he knew that Wang Hou was not kind-hearted, Zhuge Liang could only drink poison to quench his thirst, because Shu Han was too short of population.

The registered household registration is about 200,000, and the total population is only 900,000. Even if the slaves of local noble families are subdued, there will be a population of 1.5 million to survive. The political environment of Shu Han is full of crisis, and all the men will go to the army, so naturally there will be no labor force to go to the fields to produce food.

But Zhuge Liang could not disband his troops. If he had self-produced and defended this acre of three-point land, the development speed would never be as fast as the giant Cao Wei, who had a huge capital, would have been separating Jiangnan and Sun Wu, who had a household registration of more than 4 million, could leave him behind. He still had to station troops. On the one hand, he would defend the security of the regime, and on the other hand, he needed to provide military supplies to explore the Southern Central.

The plunder and conquered population is always faster than natural breeding, so even if the trade with Wanghou is poisonous wine, Prime Minister Zhuge could only accept it with his nose. The left-behind women picked tea and raised silkworms, and weaved the particularly exquisite Shu brocade exports in exchange for military rations. Then they rushed south, constantly attacked the barbarians in the mountains, gathered their fierce and warlike population, and paid taxes to Chengdu by setting up counties in their area.

In this era, the dividends of the Five Barbarians were still there. In three years, the seven captures of Meng Huo and Wang Houzhen did not know whether it had happened. However, in the entire Nanzhong, most of Yunnan and some of the Guizhou plains were conquered by Prime Minister Zhuge, and the territory of China advanced a large scale to the west.

The Wudang Flying Army trained also added a total of 50,000 troops to the Shu army, and the combat effectiveness of these hunting nations even surpassed that of the nomadic peoples compiled by Wang Hou. Compared with three years ago, the strength of Shu Kingdom has made great progress.

Compared with Wei and Shu, the second-year-old Wu Kingdom has not changed much. After all, just in terms of territory, Sun Quan's territory is even larger than that of the Central Plains, and when he goes south, it is the sea, and it is impossible to expand! In recent years, Sun Quan has only completely annexed the ethnic minorities such as Shanyue and Minyue in his territory, and expanded the original number of Wu troops of 200,000 to nearly 300,000.

In the competition in the general military power competition, no matter which country or any force has reached its peak for the time being.

However, this peak-level development is like a huge powder keg, brewing the battle clouds above the land of China more and more intensely.

Whoever waits for it is going first!
Chapter completed!