Three Kingdoms

  Chapter 1045 New information brought by the caravan

   This year, many things happened.

  Fei Qian ran back and forth, and finally resolved the crisis in Yinshan. The Black Mountain Army has encountered unprecedented setbacks and blows, and Zhao Yun is gathering the remaining people in Montenegro.

  The political struggle in Guanzhong was in full swing. Not long after Fei Qian returned to Pingyang, he received some information, one of which was something about Guanzhong from Xu Shu.

  The plague in Guanzhong gradually declined after experiencing a huge outbreak. Xu Shu naturally didn't understand the reason, but Fei Qian could generally guess it.

  The outbreak of the plague is probably related to the war. A large number of corpses were not processed in time, and they were piled together to rot and deteriorate, nourishing an astronomical number of viruses, and spreading them through rats and mosquitoes. The germs of this plague have always liked humid and warm environments the most, and it rained a while ago, and the temperature increased, which just provided a great space for these plague germs to multiply.

But now, the rain has basically stopped. Although the temperature is gradually warming up, the air is gradually drying up. It is difficult for germs to survive when exposed to such an environment. Therefore, the risk of mutual infection is gradually decreasing, and the plague has naturally gradually subsided. …

  But the damage caused by the plague to Guanzhong is not only germs and death, but also the decline after the population has dropped sharply. In order to avoid wars and plagues, some people began to flee, and the population in Guanzhong gradually became thinner, and the prosperity was no longer there.

   "This year's autumn harvest..." Fei Qian pinched the downy beard on his chin, looked at the information and muttered to himself.

   Xun Chen was on the side, thought that Fei Qian was asking him, so he cupped his hands and replied: "Hui Junhou, Zhuang Hexi people in Pingyang, this year's autumn harvest must be good."

  Fei Qian nodded, but said: "I mean this fall, there may be a famine in this pass..."

   "..." Xun Chen was silent for a while, and then said, "If the court ministers in Guanzhong don't come forward to clean up...if this continues, I'm afraid it will be as the king said..."

"Minister of the court?" Fei Qian said with a smile, the current situation in Guanzhong is chaotic, everyone is desperately grabbing benefits, but no one has the heart to clean up Nongsang. Guandong...The Marquis of Linjin naturally refused, saying that his legs were inconvenient, and he recommended Ma Tai to be sent as an envoy... Guanzhong is wrangling over this matter, who has the leisure to deal with Nongsang?"

   "Tricking?" Jia Xu was dumbfounded, then nodded and sighed.

Although Fei Qian had not been away from Pingyang for a very long time, he had piled up a lot of official duties unknowingly. After returning to Pingyang, he never had a moment of leisure, just sitting in the hall with Jia Xu and Xun Chen, drowning in the wooden slips. after.

   Feiqian said: "It's all useless things. It's the way it is in the court. It's worth ignoring it... But this information is quite interesting... Cao Mengde in Yanzhou is buying grain and grass on a large scale, and the price of grain on the ground remains high..."

  Hearing this, Xun Chen and Jia Xu couldn't help but stop writing, looked at each other, and said in unison: "Cao Yanzhou wants Xuzhou?"

  The situation in Jizhou, Yanzhou, and Yuzhou is changing, and there is no stopping.

  Before Yuan Shu sought Yanzhou, but was beaten badly by Cao Cao and had to move to Yangzhou. Sun Ce and Zhou Yu showed their talents and began to lead the army alone, fighting in Jiangdong.

   Cao Cao, who gained a firm foothold in Yanzhou, defeated Yuan Shu, and received the Qingzhou Yellow Turban, and his power rose sharply for a while. In order to digest these Qingzhou yellow turbans, and to obtain more sources of military food, Cao Cao twitched his eyebrows, glanced around with his small eyes, and finally focused on Xuzhou...

  This is the history Fei Qian knows, but Xun Chen and Jia Xu deduce from such a piece of information that Cao Cao is going to attack Xuzhou. This wisdom has to be admired by Fei Qian. What are you collecting food for? How much food and grass will there be when there is no harvest? Normally, the army should also rest and reduce consumption as much as possible, so Cao Cao's actions showed an abnormality.

  Although at this moment, for Cao Cao, there is indeed no other good place to choose, but it is not possible for ordinary people to deduce the correct conclusion from the outside to the inside.

Jizhou in the north is the territory of Boss Yuan. Although Cao Cao has some strength now, compared with Yuan Shao, there is still some gap in this. Turned against Yuan Shao so early.

Yuzhou in the south has just had a big battle with Yuan Shu, and has just been ransacked, and there is nothing good left. Further south is the territory of Jingzhou. Well, can you not mess with it or don't go to death for the time being.

In the west, Henan Yin was fired by Dong Zhuo, and then Li Jue and Guo Si waited for the second time. In addition, he heard that there was a plague, and Cao Cao didn't want to be contaminated. Is there any benefit to take, so The only direction is Xuzhou in the east...

"I think so too..." Fei Qian nodded and said, "Cao Mengde is ambitious, and he is not like Yi Yi... What do you two think about the battle of Xuzhou?" Of course, the information Fei Qian has is not Cao Cao himself. It was delivered by Feiqian's caravan extending in all directions.

  Now the caravan under Fei Qian has only been dominated by the Cui family at the beginning, and now it has evolved into three, each with its own direction and division of labor.

The Cui family still went north, Shangdang, Taiyuan, and Jizhou, and the Baishi tribe of the Qiang people went west, to the Wuwei Tianshui area, and perhaps to a part of the Western Regions, while the south line was from the original Jingxiang. The Huang family formed a caravan to travel between Jingxiang and Bingzhou.

Not to mention Bingbei, within the scope of Fei Qian's control, it is relatively calm, and for the time being, it is not likely that anyone would dare to jump out and make trouble with Fei Qian. In addition, Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan in Jizhou have been in a state of war all the time. The demand for all kinds of leather products is relatively large, and the Feiqian caravan is well fed to Yuan Shao's Xu Youguo Tu and others, so Yuan Shao generally does not specifically target Feiqian.

  In any case, most of the Qiang people are active on the western front. Baishi Qiang has inherent advantages, so there is no big problem, and he can bring some rare items from time to time, such as wine...

   On the southern line, Yuan Shu, who was originally in Yuzhou, has now shifted its strategic focus to the Yangzhou area in the east of the Yangtze River. In Yanzhou, Cao Cao was jealous, but firstly, he still had a little friendship, and secondly, he hoped that Feiqian could sell more horses here. Therefore, basically no one dared to touch the Huang's caravan in Yanzhou. .

  Therefore, Feiqian's three-way caravan traveled smoothly, and also brought a lot of information that Feiqian needed.

   Like this one on hand...

  Xuzhou is a good place.

  The pool is full of fish, the barn is full of grain, Tao Qian is a big coward, and he will give gold, silver and land when he meets. This is the description in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but what about the actual situation...

  In this turbulent era, can a good old man in the novel stay in a place like Xuzhou for so long?

  Although it is said that there is no large-scale war in Xuzhou at present, there are also a lot of indigenous gentry in Xuzhou. Tao Qian not only can suppress the bullets in that place, but also does well. How can there be no two brushes?

  Some time ago, Fei Qian also learned that Tao Qian sent people to pay tribute to Chang'an...

This kind of behavior is very intriguing, because it can be inferred from the time that this tribute team from Xuzhou did not start after getting Zhong Shao to come to power, but should be when Li Jue and Guo Si took control of the court. He had already traveled before he was disrupted by Fei Qian and Zhong Shao. After all, it would take a lot of time to cross the entire Central Plains from the Xuzhou border in the east, and then enter Guanzhong.

  When Kanto gathered in Suanzao before, Tao Qian said he was sick and did not come in person, but Zhang Chao, his subordinate, came excitedly...

   Fei Qian didn't understand the mystery of this until a long time later.

   Later Tao Qian saw that Dong Zhuo was finished, and Zhu Jun was repairing in Luoyang, asking for help from various places, and hurriedly sent 3,000 troops to support him...

   Then after Li Jue and Guo Si took control of the government, they sent envoys to pay tribute...

  If Tao Qian is said to be a good person who doesn't understand anything, a pure honest and honest person, I am afraid that Mr. Luo will laugh out loud in the coffin board.

  In this world, people can be naive, but don't think that others are naive.

   "Cao Yanzhou also had no choice but to act..." Xun Chen stroked his beard and said.

Fei Qian can call Cao Cao's name in a big way. One is related to Cai Yong and is relatively close. The other is Fei Qian's current position, which is several levels higher than Cao Cao's so-called General Fenwu. , so it is not wrong to call him directly, but as Xun Chen and Jia Xu, naturally they can only call Cao Cao's official position, and they cannot call Cao Cao's name with Fei Qian.

Xun Chen made a start, and Jia Xu also said: "Cao Yanzhou has newly acquired a large number of Qingzhou yellow scarves, waiting to be fed. However, the land of Yanzhou has been war-torn for a long time, and there is no reserve. If it is not for a place to go... Hehehe... I am afraid that the Qingzhou yellow scarves Immediately reversed..."

   Feiqian nodded, this is something he didn't consider thoroughly. This is the advantage of being with people with high intelligence. If there is something that cannot be considered, they can make up for it.

   Influenced by those experiences in history, Fei Qian didn’t feel how difficult it was for Cao Cao’s rise for a while.

   But thinking about it now, Cao Cao is actually not easy.

   Although the Qingzhou Yellow Turban is good, it is like drinking poisonous wine after a long drought, not so delicious.

  Speaking of which, Cao Cao's situation is much worse than Fei Qian's. Unknowingly, Pingyang has experienced two or three years. Whether it is people's livelihood or farming, whether it is trade or workshops, they are all carried out in a relatively orderly manner. With such a large field and lush crops, this is enough for the people of Pingyang to stay at ease.

With food in hand, don't panic in your heart. Even if you have to appease the refugees one after another these days, you will have to gather Montenegro in the future, but with such a foundation as the cornerstone, everyone still has a bottom line in their hearts. Knowing that even if it is difficult, as long as you endure it This past season, wait until next year's harvest to get better.

  As long as people have hope, no matter what kind of suffering they will try their best to get over it, but Cao Cao is panicking, panicking...

Originally, Cao Cao's East County was also harassed by the Black Mountain Army. It didn't get better until Cao Cao took office, but it didn't take long before Yuan Shu led the attack. With a lot of reserves, and now that the Qingzhou Yellow Turban drags the family to eat, even if there are some trophies from beating Yuan Shu, they can't withstand the consumption of hundreds of thousands of mouths pouring into them day and night!

   If you are in a hurry, dogs will jump over the wall, let alone people.

  So Cao Cao naturally set his sights on Xuzhou, which is relatively weaker in the surrounding area. After all, Xuzhou has not had any major battles during this period, so there must be a lot of food and grass in stock.

   "...Besides," Xun Chen pondered for a moment, then said, "...in Yanzhou, there is a lot of dissatisfaction with the Qingzhou Yellow Turban..."

   "Huh?" Fei Qian asked, "Could it be that the Yanzhou gentry don't want to see these Qingzhou troops surrender?"

  Xun Chen nodded and said: "Yanzhou has always been poisoned by the Yellow Turbans of Qingzhou. Can this new and old hatred be relieved in a day or two? Besides, Cao Yanzhou... the position of Yanzhou..."

  Xun Chen glanced at Fei Qian, and then said: "...It's a private transfer, how much..."

  Fei Qian knew what Xun Chen meant, so he nodded slightly.

  The Han Dynasty was indeed a very interesting dynasty. This official position was divided into several grades. Even if it is the same title, there may be some differences between upper and lower levels due to different circumstances.

  The most low-ranking ones are those like Cao Cao, who were appointed by other high-ranking officials Zhuo pull out and privately. This was normal behavior in the Han Dynasty, and it was not inappropriate, because in fact, the prefects, governors, and state shepherds all over the country had such rights. Even the commander of a small county had the right to promote some people to official positions. This is not a problem. The problem is that these promoted officials still need to be formally appointed by the court for the second time, but Cao Cao has not...

  Some time ago, there was chaos in Guanzhong, and no one cared about it.

   Right now, although there are people in the imperial court, they don't care about it.

  So the appointment of Cao Cao, in the eyes of some gentry Qingliu old stubborn, this is just a temporary official, an agent, if you say no, it will be gone...

   Similar to this top-down private appointment, there is also a bottom-up recommendation officer. For example, the prefect of a certain county died suddenly due to illness, and no one was in charge, so the local county officials negotiated and recommended a person to be the prefect. Of course, such an official also needs to be officially appointed by the court.

  So what Xun Chen meant was that even though Cao Cao is now called the governor and holds the seal of the prefect of the county, there are still some people in the Yanzhou gentry who don't take him seriously.

  Jia Xu was on the side, and added: "...In this way, Cao Yanzhou is in trouble..."

  At this point, Fei Qian couldn't help but said with interest: "...Wenhe, what's the explanation for this statement?"

  (end of this chapter)