Chapter 306: Luoyang Fundraising
Since Dong Zhuo was attacked again in Luoyang and fled to Chang'an in the first year of Guangxi, Henan Yin and Hongnong County west of Huayin have been in a relatively unmanaged state.
Part of the area outside the eight passes of Luoyang is divided by surrounding areas. For example, in Yanzhou where Cao Cao was located, the jurisdiction area was extended towards Hulao Pass.
However, most of the capital's territories cannot be properly controlled unless a force actually enters Luoyang.
The natural barrier of the Yellow River and the mountains, as well as the division between Hongnong and Hedong due to the uplift of the Loess Plateau, completely isolated these two counties from other places.
Even though the governor of Hongnong County was mediocre, Henan Yin Sima Fang tended to protect himself as he did after witnessing the changes in Yuzhou, and these two places were still not directly brought under the control of any force.
It is not entirely true to say that the surrounding neighboring forces have no idea about this.
However, Luoyang served as the capital of the Han Dynasty for more than a hundred years. It represented not only the capital area's total population of nearly one million households, but also its unique political status.
Occupying this place seems to be able to curb the trend of population outflow from Luoyang, and to widen the gap with other parties by relying on the advantage in population numbers, rather than just seeking development by dividing up the migrant population.
However, if anyone easily makes such a move without an absolutely reasonable explanation behind it, it will inevitably be suspected of usurpation.
Perhaps it was to avoid being attacked by a group of people, or perhaps it was because the military strength was indeed insufficient and not enough to occupy such a large territory. In the past few years, Liu Biao, Yuan Shu, Cao Cao and Qiao Yan who were around did not make such a risky move.
If I must say, there is actually a man named Wang Kuang from Henei County who lives next to this lawless area.
But this man couldn't even control the outflow of people from his own territory. When Qiao Yan instructed the cooperating families in Hedong County to recruit people from Henei County, Wang Kuang lost at least one-fifth of his population. How could he further occupy Luoyang?
Yuan Shao might have felt speechless about this outpost, but he really didn't want to fulfill the other party's intention to resign to ensure safety.
And now, Qiao Yan has this natural reason and sufficient strength.
The drought and locust plague in the capital area cannot be properly handled by Sima Fang alone, as the population density here is still quite high. He still needs her assistance.
Also, because such a shocking change had just happened in Yuzhou, she needed to supervise the war situation in Yingchuan and restrain the expansion of Yanzhou's power. She had to set up another front-line node between Chang'an and Yuzhou Yanzhou.
So what place is more suitable than Luoyang?
Probably not.
Although nearly five years have passed, many people in Luoyang still remember the scene when the Bingzhou Army led by Qiao Yan was the first to enter Luoyang and expel Dong Zhuo.
I also remember the floating bridge built on the Yellow River between Sili Henan Yin and Hedong County.
Now, the Grand Marshal of the Chang'an court has gone around in circles and finally returned to this place, which makes people feel a sense of wonderful cycle.
Although the once prosperous gold and horse markets in and around Luoyang City were abandoned several years ago, and the various markets in the city area have also gradually declined, these places still have some shadows of the past.
When Qiao Yan's temporary office was set up at the former location of the Imperial College, people could not help but think of the scene when she was intercepted by Yang Xiu on the street near the Imperial College.
However, the people of Chang'an did not see Qiao Yan so soon. The first ones to arrive were Sima Fang, Zhuge Xuan and the prefect of Hongnong County.
These three will have to cooperate with Qiao Yan in the work he is doing here, so naturally they have to meet their immediate superiors first.
Thinking that Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi were both on the ship heading to Liaodong at this time, and Zhuge Liang's uncle and Sima Yi's father were cooperating here to assist Qiao Yan in completing the responsibility of reorganizing the other half of Sili. When he saw these two people coming here one after another after cleaning up their offices, a subtle expression flashed across Qiao Yan's face.
But when she started talking to the two of them, she clearly didn't reveal any clues.
"It is already mid-to-late May. It is a bit too early to expand the scope of digging wells and building canals. It may also be too late to build a new batch of palm leaf fans. We can only use the fastest method to first utilize all the water resources that can be mobilized in the two counties, and then kill all the locusts here as soon as possible."
"I will ask the water conservancy team from Guanzhong to come here for the previous matter."
Fu Shou and Bi Lan are both locals from Luoyang, so it is not too difficult for them to cooperate in carrying out work here.
Earlier they completed the hydrological statistics of the Wei River in Guanzhong. Now they have come to the area that covers the Wei River and Luo River basins. Now that a complete set of coordinated operating systems has been formed, they should be able to start work here quickly.
"It should be fine for you two to handle the latter matter. While the locust eradication work is underway, re-count the number of households in Sili and hand it over to me."
As the central area sandwiched between the eastern and western courts, even though there is Sima Fang as the chief, it is nothing but a pipe dream to expect the people here to migrate in an orderly manner.
Before Dong Zhuo's rebellion, the population of Luoyang itself was more than five times that of Chang'an. When the capital area was added, the number was even more impressive.
At most, the people who moved out will have new household registration in the local area, but the handover in Luoyang is meaningless.
Now you can use——
One is that during a locust plague, fire sources need to be set up at intervals on each ridge to attract locusts, so that the area of the field can be re-counted.
One is to implement the method of exchanging locust eggs and locusts for food here, and register some relatively poor migrant populations.
Sima Fang, who was originally here, lacked the manpower to do these two tasks. With the arrival of Qiao Yan's troops, it became possible to carry them out.
"Originally, we lacked more than just soldiers. We also lacked food for the exchange that Grand Marshal mentioned. I wanted to ask Chang'an for help earlier, but I gave up the idea when I thought about the situation in Guanzhong. Now that Grand Marshal can directly bring it up, I feel more at ease."
Sima Fang's words made Qiao Yan look at him with a half-smile.
It seems not difficult to give an answer as to whether he gave up this plan because he was concerned about the consumption in Guanzhong, or whether he behaved like this because he was trying to stay in a relatively neutral state temporarily.
Anyway, this guy always behaves like a cunning old man.
But in the current situation, everyone has his own way of survival, and there is actually nothing wrong with Sima Fang's way of survival.
Besides, he had no problem with superficial work.
Since Sima Yi was already working under Qiao Yan, she would not make things difficult for Sima Fang.
As long as there are enough troops to suppress the forces that the other party has built up in Henan Yin and make them dare not act rashly, Qiao Yan and him can continue to cooperate.
After completing the household registration in Luoyang, it will be time for her to print and distribute "Jijiupian" here and observe the various performances as a pilot project.
The overall literacy data of the people in Luoyang should be much better than other places. This place was not previously under the control of Qiao Yan, so it can not only provide a suitable group, but also see the adaptability of those new territories to this set of development measures.
Since she had already arranged an office space in Nan Guo, Luoyang, she was also prepared to record everything that happened there.
Sima Fang asked, "From what I heard from the Grand Marshal, it seems that there is no plan to recruit large numbers of people in Luoyang at the moment?"
"Don't be in a hurry, lest it cause some unrest, which would be difficult to resolve."
As to whether the unrest was caused by the people of Luoyang being dissatisfied with the new force stationed there and launching conscription so quickly, or by the people of Chang'an feeling a stronger sense of oppression from the Grand Marshal due to her drastic actions in Luoyang, that is a matter of opinion.
Before they received the exact news from Luoyang, the first people they encountered were Yuan Yao and others who entered the Sili territory from Yuzhou and entered Chang'an through the Xiaohan Road.
Although they had received the news of Yuan Shu's death and Qiao Yan's prompt decision to send troops long before, when they actually saw Yuan Shu's coffin and his son appear in Chang'an, they still felt a trance at the change of the situation.
The death of Yuan Shu, because of his behavior, makes people feel that it is an inevitable thing that will happen sooner or later, and there is also a sense of déjà vu that an era is beginning to end.
The person who came to Chang'an with Yuan Yao could not be Guo Jia, who was still walking around Luoyang City with Qiao Yan at that time, nor could it be Yuan Huan, who was still left in Yingchuan, but Xun Yu.
From Xun Yu's mouth, they finally understood everything that had happened in Yuzhou.
Except for the time when Xun Yu and Qiao Yan were inspecting Hongnong County together, where the letter sent from Yuzhou came from was concealed in Xun Yu's words, and the rest of the situations were allowed to be told to others with Qiao Yan's permission.
Including the decision she made after rushing to support Huanyuan Pass, and how she defeated Xiahou Dun by taking advantage of the information gap when her own side had fewer people.
Afterwards, with a risky but ingenious operation, time was delayed until Zhao Yun and Huang Zhong's troops rushed to Yingchuan from Guanzhong and Jingzhou respectively, and saved the area of Yingchuan.
"The Grand Marshal has never let us down when it comes to making decisions at critical moments. But after the Yuzhou incident, Cao Mengde's strength must have increased greatly, and he is on the side of Yecheng. Will it cause trouble for us?" Chen Ji asked.
Yingchuan did not fall into the hands of the enemy, which was undoubtedly good news for Yingchuan scholars like Chen Ji.
Although the boundary between Yingchuan and Runan is unclear, which makes people a little worried that Cao's army will directly break the agreement and invade Yingchuan, but think about it, Qiao Yan dares to make such an arrangement, and has the record of defeating Cao Cao's general Xiahou Dun, so there shouldn't be any problems.
What's more, Qiao Yan is temporarily stationed in Luoyang and can provide support to Yingchuan at any time.
Even thinking in a better direction, is there a possibility that she wanted to use Yingchuan to contain the main force of Cao's army, while she cut into Yanzhou East County from the other end?
Parts of Dongjun of Yanzhou and Weijun of Jizhou are connected. In other words, these places are not far from Yecheng, so there is an opportunity to launch a surprise attack.
Although I know that the possibility is quite small, after all, when the battle line is stretched too long and deep into the enemy's hinterland, it is easy for the enemy's resistance to break the original advantage, but people have lived to this age, and they still have to have some expectations for such things.
It was in this May that Zhao Qi, who served as the Minister of Rites and the President of the Chang'an Academy of Painting, chose to retire due to his advanced age. He only held a teaching position in the Painting Academy. Anyway, all matters here were now on the right track and did not require him to spend too much effort.
This is the natural law of birth, aging, sickness and death.
However, when Chen Ji saw Zhao Qi off from officialdom, he still felt that although he was a little old, he still wanted to see the world return to a unified state.
And this hope can obviously only be placed on Qiao Yan.
This confrontation in Yuzhou allowed Chen Ji to see more clearly Qiao Yan's ability to deal with combat crises.
Indeed, only people like this can give Chang'an City a more reliable future.
But that's what he thought, but some people didn't think so.
Just as Qiao Yan guessed, when a court has been established for a long time, the unity that was originally shown under a forced state of solidarity will begin to crack as long as there is a real conflict of interest.
The Pingyu meeting, which seemed like walking on thin ice to Chen Ji, was just a show by Qiao Yan and Cao Cao in the eyes of these people. After all, the two had a friendship in their early years. Even Cao Cao's second son, Cao Pi, was still studying in the Leping Academy founded by Qiao Yan.
In Chen Ji's view, the garrison in Luoyang was very necessary. In the eyes of these people, it was nothing more than a collusion between Qiao Yan and Cao Cao, allowing her to set up her own small court in Luoyang. Who knows whether he will make more outrageous actions in the future, or even develop to the point where he seeks benefits for both the Luoyang court and the Yecheng court.
In Chen Ji's view, the arrangement for Yingchuan was appropriate enough and it was the utmost benevolence towards Yuan Shu. However, in the eyes of these people, it was full of false sympathy.
The typical representative of these people came to Yuan Yao at this time.
Yuan Yao looked at Liu Yang who appeared in front of him with some confusion.
He had heard the other person's name.
After Liu He's death, Liu Yang went from being an unknown second son of the governor of Youzhou to the prospective heir in the Chang'an court. It can be said that his net worth increased a hundredfold in a short period of time.
However, this person never actually entered the court, so at most his name was known to the public, but people did not think that he had any admirable qualities.
But when Liu Yang opened his mouth, Yuan Yao was stunned.
Liu Yang said, "The Grand Marshal's handling of this matter is really not fair. Your father, the legitimate son of the Yuan family of Runan, had his body transported to Chang'an in such a hasty manner, and even you had to leave your homeland and come here. If my father personally gave the order, he would definitely take back Runan County and let you take over the position of Yuzhou Mu."
"No! It should be said that if my father had known that there was such a conflict between Yuzhou and Yanzhou, he should have sent people to help Yuzhou to set up defenses to prevent Yanzhou from taking advantage of the situation."
He sighed, "Alas, I knew that the Grand Marshal and Cao Cao had a close relationship in my early years, and I didn't remind your father about this matter earlier... Never mind, let's not talk about this matter. You have just arrived in Chang'an. If there is anything you still need, just come to me directly. If I can help you, I will definitely lend a hand."
"I don't know what position my father wants to place you in, but I think it will not be low, and it must be suitable for your status."
Yuan Yao gave an awkward smile: "..."
Wait, aren’t there something wrong with some of the things this prince said?
It seems... it seems like he is saying bad things about the Grand Marshal?
No way, it’s only his second day in Chang’an, why does he have to face such an exciting situation!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
