Chapter 362 Population dispute

If you want to plunder the population of Liang, food is necessary. Otherwise, if you deceive so many Liang people and finally let them starve to the wilderness, wouldn’t that be a sin?

Xiang Zhuang asked Xiang, "Ziyi, has the summer grain harvest been harvested this year?"

Xiang said: "As early as more than half a month ago, the summer grain was collected." After saying this, Xiang reminded Xiang Zhuang again, "But the king, since the previous year, the tax on our Great Chu has been changed to gold coins, and no longer levy food, and it will not be collected until after the autumn. Therefore, even if the summer grain is generally harvested, Taicang cannot get half a grain of food."

Nowadays, the industry and commerce of Chu have become extremely developed. With the development of industry and commerce and the prosperity of industry and commerce, it has become possible for Chu to collect gold coins in a unified manner. Of course, at this stage, it is only limited to the five counties in Jiangdong. The six counties in Bashu and Jingxiang that have just been incorporated into the Chu State, and it is impossible to replace physical taxation with gold coins in a short period of time.

The advantage of replacing physical taxation with gold coins is that the loss in the middle link is greatly reduced, because if the food is directly collected, not only does it require a large number of carriages and horses to ship, but also a large amount of labor. These labors also require food and food consumption. If it is changed to collecting gold coins, only one minor official is enough. The disadvantage is that from then on, there will be only gold coins in the treasury. If the country needs food, it will have to use gold coins to buy it from the private sector.

"I know that as long as the people have food in their hands, it's enough." Xiang Zhuang smiled slightly. With Mrs. Qin, a red-topped businessman, he was afraid that he would not be able to buy the surplus grain in the hands of the people. Mrs. Qin is the successor of the widow Qing's robe. With her business acumen and the power of the Qin family, within half a month, food would be transported from Bashu to Zhiling.

Xiang Zhuang said again: "You don't have to worry about food. You should think about how to plunder people, right?"

Xiang said: "This is not difficult. You just need to send someone to Liangdi to spread the news. The people in Liangdi have almost stopped eating now. As long as there is food, they will definitely be willing to come."

"Okay, then I'll leave this to you." Xiang Zhuang nodded happily.

When everyone dispersed, Xiang Zhuang called Qu Bucai out again and reminded him: "Old Qu, let your people keep a close eye on Xianyang and Luoyang. No matter whether there is a major event or not, you must report it to me every day. The latest chapter of the Holy Temple."

"Here!" Qu Bucai bowed and took the order.

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When Xiang Zhuang was planning to plunder the population from Liangdi, Han Xin's army had already arrived in Chengqiu. Chengqiu was more than a hundred miles away from Dingtao, but Zhao Yan had already taken Shentu Jia to wait by the roadside.

"Zhao Yan, I have heard of you." Han Xin turned over and dismounted and helped Zhao Yan up.

"Shame." Zhao Yan looked embarrassed. After all, his current identity is still Liang Chen.

In order to alleviate this embarrassing atmosphere, Lou Jing behind Han Xin smiled and said, "As the saying goes, good birds choose trees to live in, good ministers choose masters to work, and the King of Liang is cruel, and he is really not a wise ruler. It is wise to abandon Liang and return to Qi."

Han Xin smiled and said, "Zi Jin, from now on, you will be my military advisor."

Zhao Yan said embarrassedly: "I hope the King of Qi can treat the people of Liang well, so I am very lucky."

Han Xin held Zhao Yan's right hand and said as he walked, "From now on, the people of Liang will be the people of our Great Qi, and I will be my sons. I should treat them well." After that, Han Xin's eyes flashed over the face of Shen Tu Jia, who was standing behind Zhao Yan, and asked, "This must be General Shen Tu, who is the bravest of the three armies, right?"

Shen Tu Jia quickly bowed and said respectfully: "I will meet the King of Qi at the end of the day."

"Okay, very good." Seeing Shen Tu Jia's majestic figure and calm expression, Han Xin couldn't help but nodded in praise, and said, "You are still the lieutenant of the Daqi Guardian Army, and are dedicated to the security of the military advisor."

As soon as he finished speaking, another personal soldier brought a roll of maps forward. Zhao Yan took the map and spread it out with the help of Shentu Jia. Then he said to Han Xin: "King, this is a map of the five counties and seventy-two counties in Liangdi."

Han Xin took the map with both hands, and his mood was a little excited. In the 36 pre-Qin counties, Han Xin had already obtained the ten counties of Jibei, Linzi, Jiaodong, Langya, Xue, Chen, Dong, Dang, Yingchuan, and Nanyang, and one of the three parts of the world! As long as he destroyed Zhao, Yan and Han, he could obtain fifteen counties, and the world was almost in control.

Zhao Yan sighed and said, "King, the situation in Liangdi is not optimistic."

Zhao Yan knew very well that Han Xin was in the mood now, and he was indeed a bit disappointed to tell him about these things, but the situation in Liangdi was indeed not optimistic. Moreover, Zhao Yan also wanted to see if Han Xin was really pretending to be the people. If Han Xin was also a tyrant like Peng Yue, and he didn't care about the lives and death of the people, it would be better to go and rest.

"Oh?" Han Xin frowned slightly and said, "Tell me."

Zhao Yan nodded and said with a serious expression: "Under Peng Yue's rule, Liangdi, Yao's military service, had a heavy land tax, and the people were already in trouble. This time, the 100,000 troops invaded Jingxiang, even the 100,000 troops caused the Liangdi to be harmed. Nearly half of the people had lost the overnight food. If they did not find a way to provide assistance, a large-scale famine would definitely break out in Liangdi."

Han Xin's expression also became serious and he asked, "Zi Jin, according to your estimate, how much food is needed?"

Zhao Yan said: "There are more than 1.8 million people in the five counties and seventy-two counties in Liangdi, and at least 800,000 people are short of food. If you want to help these refugees survive until autumn grain is harvested, you will need at least 500,000 stones of food!" Five hundred thousand stones of food feeds 800,000 people. Even if you only cook porridge, you can only last for three months. This is the least.

Han Xin frowned in an instant. There were still 500,000 stones of grain in Taicang, Linzi, but that was military ration and it must not be used automatically. The storing of grain in Taicang cannot be moved. So, collecting grain from the people of Qi is obviously not possible. Wang Ling, Lou Jing and the others will never agree, and Han Xin himself is not willing.

So, where should we raise the 500,000 stone of grain?

Lou Jing next to him suddenly pulled the corner of Han Xin's clothes gently and said, "King, State Zhao has food."

Han Xin woke up as if he was dreaming and said to Zhao Yan: "Zi Jin, let me leave the food matter to me, but it takes time for me to raise food, as little as ten days or as much as half a month. The first batch of food can be shipped. During this period, I have to trouble you to take care of me, at least not let the situation in Liangdi get out of control."

Zhao Yan bowed and said solemnly: "I should do my best."

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Ziling, Lingyin's Mansion.

More than 200 students from the Imperial Academy have been summoned, and Xiang He is giving them a lecture.

Nowadays, the national examination of Chu State has been formalized and determined to be once every three years. The examination subjects are still eight subjects. Those who pass all the eight subjects will be awarded the lowest level of official title, and then they will enter the Imperial Academy to continue their studies. Generally, after studying in the Imperial Academy for three years, they will be sent to the county and county to serve as assistant officials, and if they perform well, they will be promoted.

A screen was placed in the hall, and a map of Liang Kingdom was hung on it.

Xiang pointed to the map and said, "According to the information provided by Eumu Cliff, Liang State has about 1.8 million people, and at least 800,000 people were lobbed by the Liang army. The targets of your lobbying are these 800,000 people. You will divide them into 20 teams and go to the most severely affected counties and counties, lobbying the people there to flee south to Chu!"

After a pause, Xiang said again: "This imperial court does not expect you to bring back all 800,000 people who were affected by the disaster, but you must bring back at least 300,000 people to this imperial court, especially women, children and strong men. The more the better, have you heard it clearly?"

"I heard it clearly!" More than two hundred students answered with a loud voice.

Xiang Zhuang said: "Okay, then let's prepare for each of you."

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In Pengcheng, there are also people who are also planning to get some benefits from Liang State, and this person is Kuai Che, the prime minister of Huainan State.

Kuai Che had never relaxed his attention to the surrounding situation. Since Liang King Peng Yue raised his troops, the spies of Huainan Kingdom have been constantly sending the latest news back to Pengcheng. When he learned that Peng Yue was defeated by Luyeze and the 100,000 troops were destroyed, Kuai Che was also surprised. However, he was surprised, he also knew that the opportunity for Huainan Kingdom to get involved in Liangdi was here.

However, the subsequent development of the situation was once again beyond Kuai Che's expectations.

Xiang Zhuang signed a king's order, and forced Zhou Bo's 200,000 troops back to Wancheng. As a result, Kuai Che's Ruyi's plan was lost. He originally pointed out that the Han army would fight fiercely with the Qi army in Liang. When the Han and Qi army were both defeated, the Huainan army would clean up the mess. In this way, the five counties in Liang were obtained without any effort!

But now, the Han army retreated to Wancheng, and the Qi army alone had won Liang land.

If the land cannot be taken away, Kuai Che thought about whether he would plunder some people from Liang?

However, King Yingbu of Huainan seemed to have no interest in plundering the population of Liang land.

"King, what is the foundation of a country? It's the population!" Kuai Che explained patiently, "If the population is large, there will be more land taxes and more strong men, there will be more military sources. If the king wants to dominate the world, he will need more money and food, and more army will also need more people. Now is a good opportunity to plunder the population of Liang, so he must not miss it."

Ying Bu shook his head and said disapprovingly: "Forget this, it's not appropriate to have a feud with Qi at the moment."

Kuai Che was stunned when he heard this, and he couldn't help but feel a little discouraged. Ying Bu had no idea that since he was captured by Han Xin and released him last time, he had no trust in Kuai Che. In fact, Kuai Che was quite good. General Zhao Zhen wanted to take advantage of Ying Bu's chance to help the prince to take over the throne, but Ying Bu found an excuse to kill him, and even the prince was deposed.

After leaving the palace, Kuai Che couldn't help but sigh to the sky. Now the king of Huainan has changed drastically. He is addicted to wine and sex every day, and only trusts slandered ministers and villains. There is no hope for Huainan.

Thinking about the current situation in Qi, Kuai Che couldn't help feeling more and more sad. I remember that when Liu Bang and Xiang Yu fought, Kuai Che advised Han Xin to support him and compete with Chu and Han. At that time, Han Xin rejected Kuai Che and sent 300,000 troops to help Liu Bang defeat Xiang Yu at Gaixia.

However, the times have changed, and the situation that Kuai Che had expected back then has become true today.

After Han Xin captured the five counties of Liang, he became a three-legged tripod with Liu Bang in Guanzhong and Xiangzhuang in Jiangdong. Moreover, the Chu State is now busy digesting and absorbing Jingxiang, Bashu. Liu Bang is also busy cleaning up internal hidden dangers. Han Xin can just free up his hands to deal with Zhao, Yan and South Korea in Hebei. Just when Han Xin destroys Han, Zhaoyan, the world will become a tripod.


Chapter completed!