Chapter 670 Advice
Chapter 670 Advice
Before the first batch of disaster relief food arrived, refugees appeared in Qingzhou.
Ordinary people will not wait until all the food is eaten up before running away. That is not fleeing famine, but seeking death.
In fact, the decision should be made after estimating whether the grain supply will last until next autumn harvest.
By now, the refugee army was no longer as disorganized and undisciplined as it was during the Zhang Chang Rebellion. The refugee leaders were usually officials, generals, or nobles, and they used their own soldiers, followers, and farmhands as the backbone, gathered their fellow villagers, and took their belongings, livestock, food, and weapons to escape the famine together.
The combat effectiveness of such a refugee army is much stronger, and this is the case with the first batch of refugee troops from Qingzhou that went south to Xuzhou.
Fortunately, most people were still waiting for relief from the court and did not act rashly.
A large number of refugees also appeared in Hebei, crossing counties and rushing towards Henan, where there was food.
The Yicong Army's base in Liyang issued three warnings in one day, reporting that a large number of refugees from Hebei were crowding on the banks of the Yellow River, looking for boats and rafts to cross the river.
The government troops on the south bank of the Yellow River were urgently mobilized, and they took their troops with them to defend the river.
Local tyrants also sent out some troops to assist the government and patrol the Yellow River. To be honest, they were also afraid of the refugee army. The grains in the fields would be harvested next month. What if the refugees ate them all?
Lu Zhi, the commander of the Right Army of the General's Office, has gone north to Yecheng to appease the local gentry and powerful people, asking them to hold on a little longer and not easily give up the forts and manors they have managed for many years, which would disrupt the social order in Hebei.
Li Chong brought troops gathered from wealthy families in various counties. After the first batch of relief grain arrived in Anyang, he quickly distributed a number of rewards to stabilize the morale of the army. Then he led the troops to tour the counties and suppress the lawless elements who took the opportunity to cause chaos. In fact, there were no lawless elements. Most of them were just Hu and Han people who were panicked when they saw that their food reserves were becoming scarce.
The adverse effects of the locust plague in July are gradually fermenting.
As the general and secretary of the imperial court, Shao Xun also had to handle state affairs.
Wang Yan handled general affairs directly in Luoyang, and important matters would be sent to Bianliang via express horses at the post station for his review.
The disaster was so severe that I heard that the emperor had reduced his three meals a day to two meals a day - before that he only had "coarse rice and coarse meals".
My stomach was growling with hunger and I became much calmer all of a sudden.
Shao Xun once heard that hunger is a very terrible emotion engraved in human genes. Most people simply cannot bear it. It is more unbearable than knife wounds, sword wounds, or even broken hands and feet.
It was normal for Sima Chi to be defeated by hunger since he did not have a will of steel, but it was a bit ugly to do so.
But how can I say it? Sima Chi was treated better than Emperor Xian of Han. At least so far he had not suffered any hardship. At most he had just suffered a mental shock.
Shao Xun picked up the pen several times, put it down several times, and finally decided to allocate 100,000 hu of grain to Luoyang.
Although he doesn't think much of this place now, it's too ugly and unnecessary to let people starve to death on a large scale.
Of the thirteen counties of Liang State, excluding the four counties affected by the disaster, the remaining nine counties collected a total of more than 186 hu of grain and beans.
When he saw this number, Shao Xun happily walked around the room twice.
In the past few years, the government only exploited the wealthy families in Yuzhou and did not levy taxes much within the Liang State. This time, taxes were levied on a large scale.
In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, a tax system was actually established, stipulating that each household should pay an annual rent of four hu - but in fact it was never implemented at all. From this time until the beginning of the Five Dynasties, the various countries did not have a strict budget system. In fact, they all adopted a fiscal policy of "expenditure according to revenue", that is, they levied taxes according to the amount of money needed, rather than "expenditure according to revenue".
This time, Shao Xun required each household to pay a rent of seven hu, which was nearly two years' tax revenue, and basically took out about one-third of the people's stored grain. According to experience, there would be one year's surplus grain after three years of farming. Henan has not had any extreme disasters in the past seven years, with only two minor droughts and one minor flood, so the people still had some savings.
Next year, let the people of Liang take a break and increase their food reserves to deal with sudden disasters.
In addition to food, what made Shao Xun most happy was the smooth operation of the grassroots bureaucratic system.
This time, the tax was levied directly, rather than being distributed to each powerful family like a tax farmer. Therefore, the grain collected was collected in both small and large amounts, and was collected entirely on a household basis.
Seven years ago, the disaster victims were gathered and resettled, and the grass-roots organizations of the Liang counties were rebuilt. Counties, townships, camps (li), and teams (villages) were clearly visible at a glance. They were no longer fortresses and manors that were black holes of household registration.
Before this grassroots organization became corrupt and degenerate, it was the capital he relied on to fight.
Having tasted the sweetness, Shao Xun was quite interested in continuing to sort out the counties of Liang State.
Next, he will conduct a thorough cleanup of Chenliu, Runan, Liang, Jiyang, Yangping and other counties to further consolidate his foundation - if there are sufficient local administrative officials.
******
On August 18th, the army had been on the march for three days. Before the last batch of troops left the camp and headed west, Wang Que'er went to Guanfeng Hall to say goodbye.
"Twenty-six thousand troops are now in your hands. You must be cautious." Shao Xun said as he stood in the Yuri Pavilion behind the Guanfeng Palace, strolling and observing the fruit trees.
"I will follow Master Shao's orders." Wang Que'er responded calmly with no expression of sadness or joy.
Shao Xun stopped and looked at the student carefully, then said with a smile, "He has some qualities of a great general."
After saying that, he lowered his head to look at the rows of lush vegetable plots.
After bringing his parents over, Shao Xun finally experienced the feeling of turning the imperial garden into a vegetable field.
In fact, he likes it very much.
What is the first generation of "upstarts" pretending to be? Princess Xiangcheng "reformed" him for a long time, but failed to turn him into a so-called noble. Wang Que'er was one of the most important generals in the Liang State system, and in fact, he gradually became famous throughout the north.
The student who still had many shortcomings in Shao Xun's eyes was now a great general worshipped by many warriors - during the Yewang retreat two years ago, ordinary people could not have achieved such a result, so Wang Que'er really had some skills.
In fact, his record is really good. As a main general, he has never been defeated. If you have to say, the Battle of Yewang can be said to be a failure, after all, he failed to capture the city and had to withdraw his troops.
Shao Xun knew that during the Five Dynasties there was a great general named Fu Cunshen, who commanded one or two hundred battles in his lifetime and never lost a single one.
Li Shenfu also never lost a battle, and Gu Quanwu only lost once.
These people all started out as small soldiers and worked their way up to become the kings of the roll. They are very experienced and are good at commanding.
Wang Que'er also started as a spearman and rose through the ranks step by step.
Shao Xun described his leadership style as "making light of heavy tasks", which means that when faced with overwhelming pressure, he was not affected at all and did what he had to do. Even when the situation was extremely unfavorable and it was the last moment, he would still carry out reasonable command step by step, without any deviation in his movements or panic.
In this way, even if they suffer a defeat, it will not be a crime of war, and all their troops will not be lost.
Among the first batch of more than one hundred student soldiers, the most outstanding one was Wang Que'er.
Hou Feihu and Jin Zheng are both a little bit lacking in this aspect.
In the later issues, there is no character like Wang Que'er.
If we have to say that there is someone who is close to him, it is Hou Feihu. But he still needs to transform and further improve himself, which depends on his luck.
At this level, you have already mastered all the knowledge in the textbooks, and now it all depends on your comprehension.
Commanding a war requires a lot of talent.
Kim Jong is actually not bad either.
If his style is used in the right place, he can fight a beautiful battle with great courage and perseverance, and take bold risks, sometimes even a miraculous victory - of course, sometimes there will be an epic defeat.
"We failed to capture Yewang the year before last. Can you help me capture the city this year?" Shao Xun picked a melon from the field, washed it with water, cut it into several pieces, and invited Wang Que'er to sit down.
Wang Que'er did not answer directly, but only looked at Shao Xun and said, "It depends on how determined Master Shao is."
Shao Xun laughed and said, "Heyang has more than 10,000 soldiers, including the Zhuosheng Army, the Heilang Army, and the Heyang Dingzhuang. You can take 26,000 of them with you, and I will also transfer the Youzhou Tuqi Supervisor to you. That will be more than 40,000 auxiliary troops. After you leave, I will continue to recruit soldiers and horses, and the number will not be less than 20,000. What do you think?"
"With these 60,000 soldiers, we may be able to capture Henei," said Wang Que'er.
Until now, he still dared not make a guarantee, because he was still unclear about the situation on the enemy side. He had to rush to the front line in person and observe carefully before he could have a clear idea.
"There may be changes in Shangdang." Shao Xun reminded: "Don't be too conservative when making plans."
He knew that the student did not like to take ambiguity into account, which would make the overall battle plan too conservative.
"Okay." Wang Que'er nodded, and seemed to be thinking about how to take advantage of this favorable factor.
But even if Master Shao reminded him, he would not put all his hopes on it.
He only believed in the power that he could fully control so as not to make mistakes at critical moments.
"Although many people have criticized Doctor Pan's strategy, there is one thing that is correct. After this year, Hanoi and even Shangdang will not be so easy to capture." Shao Xun said, "It is difficult for us, and it is also difficult for the enemy. I have been encouraging agriculture and sericulture in Henan for so many years, and Yuzhou has not suffered much disaster. It can be said that the situation is in my favor. You have to help me turn the situation into victory."
More money and food, better equipment, and more troops are advantages. But having advantages does not necessarily mean victory. It requires people to execute and operate, so there is a possibility of failure.
It is not easy to find a general who can transform superior national strength into victory on the battlefield, and it is not something that can be done by just picking anyone.
"Where does Master Shao want to fight?" Wang Que'er asked.
"Tens of thousands of troops are still not enough to destroy the Xiongnu." Shao Xun said, "The enemies in Henei and Ji County must be wiped out, and Shangdang must be taken away for me. At worst -"
At this point, he thought for a moment and said, "I want to share the dangers of Taihang with the Xiongnu."
Wang Que'er roughly understood the bottom line, which was actually the last sentence: sharing the danger of Taihang with the Huns.
"Li Zhong may not be able to help you, you have to rely on yourself." Shao Xun invited Wang Que'er to eat melons and said, "I will try my best to raise food and equipment. Yu Yuangui has been in Yingchuan for many days, and almost all the nobles from far and near have gone there, so he should be able to raise a lot of food. Don't worry about food and grass, just focus on killing the enemy."
"Okay." Wang Que'er replied.
"Go ahead." Shao Xun waved his hand and said, "After you go to Heyang, I will station troops on the river and provide support at any time."
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(End of this chapter)