Chapter 209: Interest Rate...
Yecheng in autumn is in an atmosphere of harvest.
This should actually be thanked to Qiao Yan to some extent.
It was because of the battle between Gongsun Zan and Liu Yu in the north that Qiao Yan's support for Liu Yu from Bingzhou greatly reduced the difficulty of Yuan Shao's defense of Jizhou.
Judging from his and his subordinates' perspective, Gongsun Zan would need at least until the New Year to recover from this defeat.
But on second thought, Liu Yu had returned to Youzhou to supervise the war. Given the reputation he had built up through his various measures to stabilize grain prices in Youzhou, it was hard to say whether Gongsun Zan could seize this opportunity to turn the tables.
Yuan Shao thought that it was a good thing that this evil neighbor could be disciplined, but at the same time he couldn't help but feel that the Bingzhou soldiers and generals that Qiao Yan supported Liu Yu were really too capable.
Zhang Liao and Qu Yan, who were sent out from Bingzhou, were both around 20 years old. Anyone who heard about them would have to say that they were really young, just like their immediate superiors.
But when these two fight, there is no ambiguity at all.
Zhang Liao, who had been in charge of the garrison duty of Yanmen County, finally displayed his top command talent in plain warfare on the land of Youzhou. Yuan Shao was extremely jealous and wished he could get such a powerful general into his own pocket.
But envy and jealousy aside, there is still more good news now.
Liu Bei, who was arranged by Yuan Shao to attack Yuan Shu, handed in an answer that made Yuan Shao very satisfied.
Yuan Shu suffered a setback in Liu Bei's attack, but he did not lose completely. Instead, he was in a state of being separated from Liu Bei by a river.
Yuan Shu cannot cause trouble for him, and Liu Bei cannot win for the time being.
This situation is undoubtedly the most advantageous for Yuan Shao.
Even though the news that came later said that Yuan Shu accepted the position of Governor of Yuzhou offered by Dong Zhuo and gained legitimacy in title, Yuan Shao did not feel unhappy about it.
Yuan Shu's previous statement "Shao is not Yuan's son" had offended Yuan Shao greatly, and Yuan Shao really hoped that Yuan Shu would be as unlucky as possible.
He also knew very well what kind of person Yuan Shu was.
Then letting him get to a higher position first and then fall down from there can be said to be very satisfying!
Apart from the external military situation, Yuan Shao was more satisfied with the people's livelihood.
With good weather this year, Hebei's bumper harvest meant that unlike the previous two years, when people in Ji and Qing provinces had fled the state due to the rebellion of the Yellow Turban bandits, many people from Henei and Henan counties in Sili, as well as Youzhou affected by the war, came to surrender.
The superior geographical location of these two states and the benefits brought by Yuan Shao's friendship with the Hebei families finally became clearly demonstrated in the second year of his development here.
Among his civil officials and advisers, there are quite a few who are skilled in managing general affairs.
These people can look at their neighbors and come up with a set of reasonable development processes to apply to the lands of these two states.
For this reason, Yuan Shao slept soundly for several days in a row.
However, it was at this time that he suddenly received a letter from Sili.
He looked at the words on the letter for a long time before he reluctantly moved his eyes away from it and immediately summoned all the advisers under his command.
This news is shocking.
It was no longer something he could solve by simply chatting with any one of them.
We must gather together to discuss the matter!
After everyone arrived, the letter was passed back and forth among several people before it returned to his hands.
He held the letter in his hand and looked at everyone, his tone was particularly solemn: "Qiao Yeshu suddenly sent troops from Liangzhou to attack Chang'an. Although it was affected by the power struggle between Dong Zhuo and Li Jue, wasn't her action too fast?"
He was aware of the troops he had in Jizhou and Qingzhou, so he tentatively compared them to Qiao Yan's Bingzhou and Liangzhou.
It is also possible to compare the Yellow Turban bandits in his territory to the Hu people in Qiao Yan's territory.
He had to take precautions against Gongsun Zan's southward advance in the north, so he let others deal with the trouble of Yuan Shu and had no time to take care of other things.
But what about Qiao Yan?
She has intervened many times in the war in Youzhou.
Although the military food supplies provided by Liu Yu after he recovered several counties greatly reduced the aid provided by Bingzhou, the manpower was still provided by Bingzhou.
But in the direction of Liangzhou, she wiped out the 20,000 people sent by Li Jue, and captured Sanguan, Chencang, Meiwu and Chang'an. What a swift and decisive action!
Other states may not have such a clear understanding of this, but how could Yuan Shao not understand what this meant?
He didn't even bother to care whether Dong Zhuo was dead or alive.
At this moment, he only wanted to know one thing - how did she do it?
Compared to Gongsun Zan, who is at most a warrior, Qiao Yan should be called a threat.
No matter whether it was because of stance issues or conflicts over territorial borders, Yuan Shao was absolutely unwilling to be inferior to others. However, today's battle report made him see an almost insurmountable gap.
There are many good horses in Liangzhou and Bingzhou, and there are also many iron mines in Bingzhou. There is no doubt that its cavalry is much stronger than that of other places.
But cavalry is not just about having horses. The total amount of rations used by men and horses during the march is not a small number.
Because of this, the cavalry needs to be well-maintained as a regular army.
We all control the territories of two states, so why should you be able to afford it?
Thinking about it this way, although there is Taihang Mountain separating us, little news from Bingzhou flows into Jizhou through the Eight Passes of Taihang, but there has indeed been no news of food shortage in Bingzhou.
As for the rebellious Qiang people in Liangzhou, it seems that the only way they can afford to eat is to give up their looting activities.
Yuan Shao also asked this question.
Shen Pei recalled: "When Ziyuan and I went to Bingzhou, we went from Fukou Pass to Shangdang and then to Taiyuan. What we saw along the way was exactly the autumn harvest scene of that year. Thinking about it now, it is quite special."
He looked towards Xu You and asked, "Ziyuan, do you remember that the fields we passed by back then were not just the fields cultivated by the prefectures. We also saw fields owned by aristocratic families, fields owned by villagers in the countryside, and fields cultivated by the prefectures along the way. The scenes everywhere were very similar."
At that time, the wheat fields were so full of ears that people ignored this special thing.
Xu You's memory was not bad either, and he immediately recalled the scene.
This thought made it seem that something was indeed wrong, just as Shen Pei had said.
In Jizhou, in order to prevent the resurgence of the Yellow Turbans, they visited many counties and prefectures, and this was definitely not the case in any of them.
When there is insufficient labor to farm, even if there are still the same number of fields, the crops will certainly not be planted as carefully. Farmers have different farming techniques, so it is inevitable that there will be differences between them. In addition, due to differences in wealth, there are natural differences in crop seeds.
Previously, they thought that Bingzhou had developed a year and a half or even longer ahead of other places, but now they think -
It's more like a farming rule that is implemented from top to bottom.
Perhaps it was because of Qiao Yan's fierce style of action that people subconsciously focused their attention on her combat strength.
However, this action, which seems to be looking at the opponent's greatest strengths, actually represents a biased evaluation of her.
The meaning of Shen Pei's mention of this matter is self-evident.
He said to Yuan Shao, "We should pay more attention to the farming in Bingzhou. Ziyuan and I have been to Bingzhou before, so it's easy to expose our intentions. Please select a few people to go to Bingzhou. It would be great if we can find other things."
There is no doubt that only with food and money can we develop military forces.
They have to put a little more effort into it.
When Shen Pei said this, he couldn't help but think in his heart that if they had only a one and a half year gap with Qiao Yan before, this gap might have been further magnified in the two years after the death of Emperor Ling of Han.
I don’t know if it’s too late to catch up now.
But when Shen Pei saw that Tian Feng took on this responsibility, he felt a little relieved.
Tian Feng's upright character does not affect his meticulousness. With him there, no details should be missed.
At this time, Ju Shou reminded: "I think you should pay attention to the weapons used by the Bingzhou army."
Increasing grain yields per mu and training the quality of the army are not things that can be achieved in a short period of time, but weapons can.
Ju Su continued, "According to the letter, Qiao Bingzhou has repeatedly used long-range crossbows to kill the enemy, thus greatly reducing the consumption of her own troops. My Lord, this is more worthy of our attention than how many troops she can mobilize at the same time."
Enemies that can be hit are easy to deal with.
What to do with enemies you can't defeat?
If they ever face Qiao Yan, this is something they must consider.
Should she use the same method to deal with them as she did with the 20,000 troops sent by Li Jue?
This sentence was not only said by Ju Su to Yuan Shao, but Chen Gong also said the same thing to Cao Cao in Yanzhou at that time.
"The Lord of the Mansion and Qiao Bingzhou have had exchanges with each other, and the Second Young Master is also studying at Leping Academy. However, Yanzhou is a place surrounded by wars. Perhaps one of our neighbors will imitate Qiao Bingzhou's techniques and arm themselves, and then give us a head-on blow."
For example, it was inevitable that Yuan Shao would have some friction with Cao Cao because they were too close to each other.
In the common understanding of Ju Shou and Chen Gong, considering the bed crossbow with their current financial conditions would be a complete waste of time and money.
But the situation with things like the Jue Zhang Crossbow and the Shen Bi Bow is different.
A shooting distance of three or four hundred steps is enough to expand their defense and attack range to a certain extent, and is also enough to effectively shorten the weapons and equipment gap between them and Bingzhou in a short period of time.
This type of crossbow was actually documented in the official arsenal of the Han Dynasty, and there was no need to go to Qiao Yan to learn how to use it.
Relevant records can be found in the government treasuries of Jizhou and Yanzhou.
It would be more convenient for Yuan Shao to look up relevant information.
In addition to the books that Xun Shuang sent to Bingzhou for preservation, a considerable number of classic books and files in Luoyang were transported along with the Han court as it moved from the capital Luoyang to Yecheng.
Even if there was no mechanical genius like Ma Jun, it would not be difficult to mass-produce the Jue Zhang Crossbow.
Yuan Shao listened to what Ju Su said and agreed with it deeply.
When everyone is poor, they can just fight each other in close combat without caring about equipment.
But now Qiao Yan has revealed a fact with her battle record - it's not that everyone is poor, but that others are poor, and she is still rich.
That's a problem!
"This matter..." Yuan Shao looked around the table.
This matter was proposed by Ju Su, so logically he should be responsible for it.
But you have to know that Ju Shou is capable of commanding troops, and if the responsibility of expanding the heavy crossbow equipment is handed over to him, even if Yuan Shao knows what kind of style Ju Shou is, he can't help but feel a little uneasy.
"Gong Ze, Zhong Zhi, I will leave this matter to you two, please make sure it is done for me."
Guo Tu and Xin Ping immediately stood up and responded.
Both of them were from Yingchuan under Yuan Shao. In other words, in Yuan Shao's view, they were not from the same faction as Tian Feng, Ju Shou and others.
The scholars from Hebei controlled part of his military power. In order to maintain the stability of the power under his command, Yuan Shao thought that he should give some balance to those from the Yingchuan faction.
But of course he would not speak so directly about the checks and balances on his generals. After making this arrangement, he turned to Ju Shou and said, "I have another important matter I want to ask Gongyu. Please consider it for me."
Yuan Shao's family background and appearance made him a wise man to everyone who met him, even when he was not overly arrogant.
Ju Su immediately returned the greeting and said, "Please feel free to speak, my lord."
Yuan Shao asked: "Besides the fact that the power under Qiao Yeshu's command is so strong that we need to be extra cautious, what do you think of the emperor being kidnapped and missing by Li Jue again?"
This is equally important to Yuan Shao.
The reason why he was able to maintain a relatively stable development at this time was that in this situation of "one Han in the east and one in the west", the Han in the west was located in a place with a pass like Guanzhong, and was under the control of a Xiliang thief like Dong Zhuo.
So for most people, instead of gambling on whether Emperor Liu Xie could be a wise ruler and whether he could break free from Dong Zhuo's control, it would be better to choose a more direct way to realize their ambitions of entering politics.
Specifically, go to Yecheng.
There was a lack of people to rebuild the court in Yecheng, and Yuan Shao had to deal with the relationship with surrounding forces and internal governance, which also lacked people.
This is also why Xin Pi, Xin Ping, Guo Tu and others came to Jizhou.
But now that Qiao Yan has captured Chang'an, the situation is very different.
By combining the forces of Bingzhou, Liangzhou and Sili, she has already occupied half of the north. After upholding the emperor's righteousness, once she has saved up another year or two, she can march eastward in accordance with the emperor's edict to conquer the rebellious people.
No wonder Yuan Shao felt troubled.
Even though he had the conditions to learn farming techniques from Bingzhou and study the treasury blueprints to develop the Jue Zhang Crossbow, some things are outdated and cannot be made up in half a year or a year.
But what is special now is that Li Jue fled with Liu Xie and their whereabouts are still unknown, leaving Chang'an in a situation of leaderlessness.
Ju Su thought for a moment and replied, "This may be the best news for you, my lord."
Yuan Shao raised his hand and motioned for Ju Su to continue.
Ju Su explained, "If Li Jue had fled with his subordinates, in the face of such a life-and-death situation, his subordinates might not want to flee anymore, and would have taken his head and surrendered to Chang'an, which would have allowed Prince Xie to return smoothly to Qiao Bingzhou's hands. But now he is fleeing alone."
"In your opinion, how will the people who are most likely to be joined by Li Jue react to Qiao Bingzhou's successful expedition?"
If the situation were reversed, Yuan Shao felt that they would most likely choose to show goodwill to Qiao Yan.
You can't just think you're stubborn and go against Qiao Yan after she's shown her strength.
Everyone has a scale to weigh things.
Ju Su continued, "Li Jue may have originally thought that one of the forces would not be afraid of the Bingzhou governor and there was still a possibility of joining forces with him, but in the current situation, others can see more clearly than he, the authority."
"In a situation where he has no way out, he can either live in seclusion with the prince and wait for changes in the world to find an opportunity to cooperate with others and make the hostages in his hands work, or he will be found by the search team first."
"Given the extreme temperament of Liangzhou people, it would be better to kill Prince Xie first and then commit suicide, rather than hoping that Qiao Yan would let him go because he helped her with those ridiculous decisions. There is no guarantee that he will leave more records in history books."
"Of course, we cannot rule out another possibility. He directly brought the prince across the state, arrived in Jizhou, and sent him to us."
This was also the guess made by Huang Wan after Qiao Yan attacked Chang'an.
Upon hearing this possibility, Yuan Shao's previous depressed mood due to Qiao Yan's battle record disappeared.
If this is true, let alone the fact that Li Jue just wants to find shelter, he would have no problem building a shrine for Li Jue!
Ju Su analyzed: "In fact, these situations, to be precise, have one thing in common. It is impossible for Prince Xie to return to Qiao Bingzhou's hands in a short period of time."
"Of course, this does not mean that you are sure to win."
"My Lord, do you think that without the legitimate support of Prince Xie, Qiao Bingzhou would not be able to control the newly conquered Guanzhong?"
Yuan Shao shook his head.
This is not something that can stump Qiao Yan.
With the enemy in Guanzhong, it is indeed not easy to attack and invade from Liangzhou and Bingzhou.
But when Guanzhong was also brought under her control, the routes from Liangzhou and Bingzhou to Guanzhong included the three most obvious routes: the Qinzhi Road in the direction of Bingzhou, the Longshan Road in the direction of Liangzhou, and the Weishui River.
These paths directly connect the three states into a whole.
The expansion of the territory did not require her to add too many defense lines. Instead, most of them were strategic points for external defense.
What she could have might not even be just Guanzhong.
Hedong County of Sili had already sided with her as early as the year when Emperor Ling of Han died, and even provided the salt lake in Hedong County to Bingzhou for use. Before Qiao Yan obtained the Xigong Salt Pond in Liangzhou, this was the largest source of brine in Bingzhou.
In Henei County of Sili, due to the poor governance of the prefect Wang Kuang, there was a situation in which many people in the county left and migrated to Bingzhou in the past few years.
The other Henan Yin and Hongnong Commanderies had long been left unattended as the political center moved to Luoyang.
So what she could control was most likely the entire Sili Xiaowei Department.
In the situation where the power of the Han royal family was declining, it was not impossible for Qiao Yan, who was able to quell the chaos, to control the three states.
The presence or absence of Liu Xie is not the decisive factor.
Ju Su asked again: "Mingsong, do you think there is another possibility? If she fails to find the prince, she will choose to establish another emperor?"
Ju Su's words almost made Yuan Shao explode.
But there were only subordinates in front of him, so Yuan Shao thought to himself that he still had to maintain some image, so he calmed down and replied: "If this is the case, how should we deal with it?"
Ju Su replied, "I suggest that you write a letter to Qiao Bingzhou immediately, stating the necessity for the two parties to join forces to support the emperor."
In other words, it means to persuade Qiao Yan not to look for someone if he can avoid it!
For the sake of people's livelihood, why bother doing such a thankless task? It would be better to give up looking for Liu Xie directly.
After all, how much of this so-called orthodoxy is left after all these robberies?
Qiao Yan controls Liangbing and half of Sili, while Yuan Shao controls Qingzhou and Jizhou. If the two sides can join forces, they will already have one third of the thirteen states of the Han Dynasty, and a powerful one third at that. Why bother to pursue whether it is orthodox or not?
This cooperation can directly conquer the world.
A trace of deep thought flashed across Yuan Shao's face.
Then Ju Su advised: "Please make some concessions in your words. No matter what, we must reach this cooperation first."
Although he was somewhat reluctant, thinking that if the two sides could reach a cooperation, he might not need to let Tian Feng go to Bingzhou to learn from him, Yuan Shao felt that this might be a feasible strategy.
But he had previously offered the title of General of the Cavalry as a bargaining chip, but still failed to win Qiao Yan over to his side... Although he was influenced by the will of Emperor Ling of Han at the time, there was no guarantee that this bargaining chip was not enough to impress people.
Does he really want to give up his position as general?
Shen Pei suddenly spoke up, "Come to think of it, the last time I went to Bingzhou, I remember Qiao Bingzhou avoided us from announcing the decree, and the excuse he gave was that the battle in Luoyang cost an extra 50,000 shi of military rations. So, is it okay to negotiate with him on the chance to return the rations?"
Qiao Yan attacked Chang'an and mobilized a force of 30,000 men. Compared with the number of people, 50,000 shi of military rations is simply a drop in the bucket, but at least it is a measure to reduce the consumption of her troops.
And if we start from the perspective of repaying debts and building relationships, it can be considered that Yuan Shao was the first to lower his posture.
After all, Yuan Shao was well aware of his cousin's failed suggestion and did not propose such an idiotic measure as marrying one of his sons to Qiao Yan.
After thinking it over, he decisively replied, "Just do as Zhengrong said! Ziyuan, please go to Chang'an."
The last time Xu You went to Bingzhou to talk about the appointment of General of Cavalry, there was no friction with Qiao Yan, at least he did not leave any bad impression. It was also a good opportunity to talk with a familiar face.
Yuan Shao thought about the interest again.
What's the point of asking him to count the grains himself? Considering their current worth, he wouldn't necessarily have to do it.
Jizhou's harvest is good this year, so it's no problem to double the amount to pay off the debt!
In order to prevent any changes in the situation, Yuan Shao immediately ordered Xu You and his entourage to rush to Chang'an at full speed. The manpower transporting 100,000 dan of military rations would not be moved for the time being. After Xu You and Qiao Yan reached an agreement, they would decide whether to send the rations from Yecheng to Shangdang, Luoyang or Chang'an.
If we can really achieve the goal of winning over someone, this little expense won't be a big deal.
Xu You could see how seriously Yuan Shao took the matter and did not dare to stop on the road at all.
When he arrived in Chang'an, it only took him five days to travel by horse and carriage.
He dismounted, patted his weak legs, and lamented in his heart that this journey was not easy.
Fortunately, after he reported the news and asked for a meeting, he learned that Qiao Yan had just returned from Wuguan today and happened to be in Chang'an City. Otherwise, he would have to travel a longer distance.
Xu You breathed a sigh of relief.
After seeing Qiao Yan, he bowed to her respectfully.
Although they had not seen each other for only two years, she looked calm at the moment, but when she raised her eyes, Xu You was shocked to feel a murderous aura coming towards him.
Seeing her casually put the pen in her hand on the shelf beside her, she asked, "What is Mr. Ziyuan doing here? Could it be that Yuan Benchu meant to say that he actually wanted to come and attack Dong Zhuo, but was late again?"
Xu You choked.
Qiao Yan didn't give him any face and continued, "Last time he was late for more than two days, this time he was late for more than half a month."
Xu You replied, "Lord Qiao, you are joking. Yuan Qingzhou asked me to come and pay back the grain. Two years ago, Lord Qiao lent us 50,000 dan of military grain. Now we are going to pay you back double the principal and interest to reward you for your hard work in marching for the Han Dynasty."
This opening remark really surprised Qiao Yan.
There is indeed a lot of solicitation in this tone.
only……
"Wait a minute!" She raised her hand to stop Xu You from continuing to say something, and asked, "You said... I will pay you back double the principal and interest?"
Xu You didn't understand why she smiled so subtly at this moment. "Yes, there were many refugees in Jizhou at first, and it was inconvenient to pay. It was really our fault that we delayed it for an extra year, so Yuan Qingzhou returned double the amount to express our apology."
Pay it back double as an apology?
Upon hearing this, Qiao Yan couldn't help but laugh.
No matter how she listened to Xu You's tone, she felt that this strategist who had known Yuan Shao the longest actually had no idea how terrible the debt Yuan Shao owed was.
That Yuan Shao was going too far!
How could he hide such a thing from his capable subordinates?
She turned to Guo Jia and asked, "Fengxiao, I remember you went to Yuan Benchu to sign the IOU. How much is the interest now?"
Upon hearing her words, Guo Jia quickly stood up and made a gesture to beg for mercy, saying, "I think you should spare me, my arithmetic skills have never been very good."
As he spoke, he turned to Xu You and said, "But I heard that Mr. Ziyuan is a wise man. I think there is no difference between this plan and that plan. Why don't you trouble Mr. Ziyuan to calculate it for you?"
"......?" Xu You looked at the two people who were singing the same tune with a confused look on his face.
No matter how he listened, he felt as if it was saying that the 50,000 shi of grain mentioned as interest was not enough.
But this shouldn’t be the case…
If that was true, how did his master agree to it at that time?
Yuan Shao never liked to do any business that would make him lose money.
With this doubt in mind, when the IOU signed and sealed by Yuan Shao appeared in front of him, he read it word by word.
He was indifferent at first, but after muttering a few numbers in his mind, he suddenly became nervous beyond words.
His expression was tense and he stood stiffly in place.
Under Qiao Yan's playful gaze, a drop of cold sweat suddenly slid down his forehead.
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