My father Liu Xuande

Chapter 174 Father-Son Deal
Chen Deng looked down on Chen Yu so much that he was convinced that Chen Yu would not be able to govern by doing nothing in Guangling and would only hinder the plan to move south to Jiangdong. Naturally, he firmly expressed his opposition.

“Father, you have been too lenient with your father. You are the head of the family now, not your father.”

Chen Gui was seven or eight years older than Chen Yu and was exceptionally talented. Chen Qiu treated him almost like his own son, recommending him for various positions, from filial piety and integrity to outstanding talent, from county magistrate to central government, and then to a post with a salary of two thousand shi (a unit of grain).

This is almost the most impressive resume a member of the aristocratic class.

Moreover, since Chen Qiu was imprisoned and executed, even though Chen Yu was the direct descendant of the Chen family, how could they possibly let Chen Yu take over the family business at such a time?

Therefore, after Chen Qiu's death, the head of the Chen family was Chen Gui, but Chen Yu's lineage remained the direct line and controlled most of the family's resources.

Moreover, out of gratitude and a sense of indebtedness, Chen Gui always indulged Chen Yu, letting Chen Yu do whatever he wanted.

Historically, the Chen family later took advantage of Chen Deng's appointment as the governor of Guangling to allocate half of Guangling County to Chen Yu, allowing him to raise troops and supplies to launch a counterattack against Wu County.

The idea was wonderful, but the reality was harsh.

Chen Yu was unexpectedly defeated when Lu Fan and his men, sent by Sun Ce, landed by sea and were routed in one battle. Sun Ce killed Chen Yu's general Chen Mu and abducted thousands of Chen Yu's family members, as well as local women and children, back to Jiangdong.

Chen Yu escaped by chance and disappeared from history thereafter.

"My son, don't worry."

Chen Gui's temperament was completely different from Chen Deng's. He was not displeased at all by his son's criticism. Instead, he smiled and explained, "Your father did not know about this matter. It was just that your father was eager to pave the way for him."

"However, this matter is indeed my fault. Your Excellency's journey south to Jiangdong is extremely important, and you must have a comprehensive plan in mind. It was truly inappropriate to rashly change generals."

Hearing Chen Gui take all the blame upon himself, Chen Deng knew there was something fishy about it, but he could only helplessly let it go.

The next morning, Liu Bei sent someone to invite Liu Feng over.

When Liu Feng saw the blush on Liu Bei's face, his heart skipped a beat.

Seeing that Liu Bei was hesitant to speak, Liu Feng could only take the initiative to ask, "Father, is there something you need from me?"

Liu Bei coughed twice and slowly recounted the strategy Chen Deng had offered the day before and his desire to expand the army by four thousand.

Upon hearing this, Liu Feng immediately understood.

It must have been Liu Bei's moment of chivalry that led him to immediately agree to Chen Deng's request.

Today, I guess I'm trying to figure out how to cover this 4,000 yuan shortfall.

"My son is always resourceful and wise. Do you have any ideas on how to fill this gap of four thousand?"

Liu Bei looked at Liu Feng with eager eyes, hoping that Liu Feng could come up with a solution that would satisfy both sides.

Liu Feng smiled bitterly to himself. If the cost of these four thousand soldiers was not taken into account, it would be at least 12 million coins, and the food rations would be over 100,000 shi. It was not something that could be easily made up for.

If we consider armor, it becomes even more terrifying.

In the Han Dynasty, a set of leather armor was worth two thousand coins, while a set of iron armor was worth seven to eight thousand coins.

The amount of armor to allocate will determine the cost of additional armor.

The problem is that Xuzhou is out of money.

The reason why Liu Bei and his son waited until now to discuss expanding their army was that they were waiting for this year's grain and money to be deposited into the granary.

Starting in July and August, various counties began collecting various taxes.

In previous years, Xuzhou had a total revenue of five or six hundred million coins that it handed over to the prefecture government. After deducting the various expenses of the prefecture government, it could still have two or three hundred million coins left.

Xuzhou has suffered great losses. Not only has it shrunk to four prefectures, but Donghai, Xiapi, and Langya have also been damaged to varying degrees.

According to Liu Feng's estimate, it would be quite good if Xuzhou could pay the prefectural government three to four hundred million coins this year.

After all, the current population is only about 60% of its peak size, so if we discount the tax burden, it's roughly that amount.

Fortunately, Rencheng, Pei, and Lu will also pay a sum of taxes.

Especially for the states of Lu and Pei, that would be a considerable sum of money and grain.

Taking the State of Lu as an example, although it only had six counties, its population was the same as that of Guangling Commandery. With poll tax as its main source of revenue, it meant that the amount of wealth that Lu could contribute was likely similar to that of Guangling.

Pei State had a population of over 1.2 million and did not experience much warfare; it still has 800,000 to 900,000 people today.

Even if Chen Gui only controlled six counties in the northern part of Pei State, he could still earn about half the tax revenue of Lu State.

If other counties in Pei State were willing to send taxes to Xiang County, then Chen Gui would be able to receive even more wealth.

This is not impossible, although most of the counties in the southern sector have submitted to Yuan Shu, supplying him with grain and taxes. However, the situation is less certain for the counties in the west, primarily Qiao County.

If they send part of their taxes to Xiang County, it will be like Liu Bei has made a profit.

These taxes, taken together, are enough to make up for the losses in Xuzhou.

However, before the tax revenue arrives, no one knows how Qiao County will react.

Therefore, Liu Bei optimistically estimated that he might receive more than 300 million coins in taxes this time, and if he was lucky, he could even exceed 350 million coins.

The reason it was 100 million less than at its peak was because Liu Bei was not as tyrannical as Tao Qian, so the taxes were naturally several times less.

What Liu Bei could actually use was the surplus of about 150 million coins left after deducting various expenditures of the state government from these taxes.

In theory, this money should be turned over to the central imperial court, but no governor would be foolish enough to do so now.

However, Liu Bei expanded his army quite a bit this time: 10,000 men in Guangling, 7,000 men in Lu, Pei, and Rencheng, and 12,000 men in Tancheng, totaling as many as 29,000 men.

Even with the lowest configuration, light infantry alone would cost nearly 90 million coins.

The term "light infantry" naturally refers to unarmored soldiers, meaning soldiers who don't even have leather armor.

If the light infantry were to be armed with 50% armor coverage, Xuzhou would need to prepare 15,000 sets of leather armor for them, which would cost at least another 30 million coins.

As a result, Liu Bei was left with only 30 million coins, instantly becoming penniless again.

Even most of these remaining funds are to be used to continue investing in land reclamation. Any surplus must be kept as reserve funds and cannot be squandered.

Now that Chen Deng has suddenly requested another 4,000 yuan, Xuzhou's finances are not actually at a loss.

Firstly, four thousand light infantry only require twelve million coins. If the armor coverage rate is 50%, then only an additional four million coins are needed for armor.

In this way, the total is only 16 million, which is just half of the surplus.

As for food, Liu Bei can still afford to supply it.

However, this means that Liu Bei's stored grain can only be used for one defensive battle at most, and it is very likely that it will not be able to support the southward march from Guangling to Jiangdong.

From this perspective, Xuzhou could still barely support Chen Deng's expansion of his army, but the cost was severe, as it would seriously weaken the mobility and adaptability of the main force in Tancheng.

But the reasons Chen Deng gave were indeed quite reasonable.

Others may not know, but doesn't Liu Feng know? In a month or two at most, Lü Bu will come to seek refuge in Xuzhou.

In other words, the window of opportunity in Yanzhou is only one or two months away. If we miss it, it will be much more difficult to take Fei and Hua counties than it is now, and it may also anger Cao Cao.

Liu Feng frowned and replied, "If Prefect Chen can afford the rations..."

Liu Bei said awkwardly, "As you know, all of Langya's previous grain reserves have been transported to Tancheng to supply our southward march to Guangling. Langya won't have any extra grain right now, so we can only rely on Tancheng for allocation."

Upon hearing Liu Bei's words, Liu Feng naturally understood his father's meaning completely, and tentatively asked, "Then what does Father mean?"

Liu Bei hesitated for a moment, but finally decided to be frank with his son: "What I mean is, Feng'er, is that you will temporarily reduce the number of men you have recruited by four thousand. Are you willing to accept that?"

Liu Fengxin thought to himself, "As expected."

It's no wonder Liu Bei thought this way. After all, Liu Yao had already asked for help. Guangling only needed to send four to six thousand people across the river, and the remaining ten thousand would cross the river. Together with Liu Yao's tens of thousands of men, they could at least easily rival the Sun family, if not completely wipe them out.

Guangling did not have the same urgency to expand its army as Langya.

To be fair, Liu Bei's request wasn't excessive, and his judgment was indeed correct. Given the current situation, as long as Liu Yao could stabilize Danyang, the situation would remain stable, and reinforcements from Guangling wouldn't even be needed.

Since that's the case, then sacrificing Guangling slightly would be most beneficial to Xuzhou. Looking at his father's eager gaze, Liu Feng sighed helplessly, "Father has given the order, and I will obey."

"Good! Good! Great!"

Liu Bei clapped his hands with joy, but he obviously knew that he had wronged Liu Feng, so he added: "Feng'er, don't be embarrassed. How could your father mistreat you? This time, when I returned from Pei State, I not only took over the administration of the six counties in the northern part of Pei State, but also emptied the ironworks in the Ironworks camp outside Pei County. In addition, there are seven hundred sets of iron armor that Guo Gong seized."

After Liu Bei annihilated Guo Gong, the two sides quickly reached an agreement. The Yuzhou army captured by the Xuzhou army naturally became allies, and Liu Bei gave an order to release them all.

Moreover, since Liu Bei had already decided to become allies with Guo Gong, it was not appropriate to keep the prisoners and equipment. Therefore, he returned all the military equipment except for the iron armor to Guo Gong.

The reason the armor wasn't returned is because it's too precious; you often can't buy something like it even if you have the money.

Guo Gong could accept this, after all, he had been given a large amount of weapons and military equipment, and even all the leather armor had been returned. What more could he ask for?

Although more than three hundred sets of iron armor were indeed quite valuable, they were insignificant compared to securing one's position.

Subsequently, on his way back, Liu Bei passed through Pei State and took away the Ironworks camp outside Pei County. He brought back not only more than 400 sets of finished iron armor and armor plates, but also the craftsmen. He left the Ironworks slaves untouched to continue mining iron ore.

This time, Liu Bei acquired more than 700 sets of iron armor, making a fortune.

This was essentially equivalent to wiping out all the savings of the Liang and Pei kingdoms.

"I will give you a token later, and you can choose two hundred sets to take with you."

Liu Bei frowned as he spoke, clearly distressed.

To his surprise, Liu Feng was still not satisfied and countered, "Four hundred sets."

Liu Bei was immediately furious. "I'm trying to make it up to you, and you're asking for an exorbitant price!"

So he huffed and puffed, "Two hundred sets, take it or leave it!"

Unexpectedly, Liu Feng refused to accept this and argued, "Father, Guangling has given up four thousand soldiers. It is only reasonable for you to give me four hundred sets of iron armor as compensation."

Liu Bei was amused and annoyed, but he couldn't do anything about Liu Feng, so he had no choice but to compromise in the end.

"Only four hundred sets, not one more."

Liu Feng was overjoyed and bowed deeply to Liu Bei in gratitude: "Thank you, Father!"

Liu Bei grunted twice, and that was his agreement.

Seeing the displeasure and pain on Liu Bei's face, Liu Feng remembered something and said to Liu Bei, "Father, I have some good news to report to you."

"Oh?"

Upon hearing this, Liu Bei was taken aback and became somewhat interested: "What good news has my son brought?"

Liu Feng stepped forward and said, "Yesterday, I was chatting with Mr. Xun about the Battle of Yangcheng in Yingchuan, which reminded me of someone."

"The Battle of Yangcheng?"

Liu Bei clearly didn't even know what the Battle of Yangcheng was, so naturally he couldn't guess who Liu Feng was thinking of.

Liu Feng hurriedly explained, "In the past, Sun Ce's father, Sun Wentai, marched north from Changsha in Jingnan, killing two officials with salaries of two thousand shi (a unit of grain), and seized Nanyang Commandery, which he then handed over to Yuan Shu. After that, Yuan Shu recommended Sun Jian as the governor of Yuzhou, allowing him to take control of Yuzhou."

The reason why Yuan Shu's recommendation had such an effect was largely because Runan, the largest province in Yu Province, was Yuan's own territory.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Yuzhou had a population of more than six million, and Runan alone had two million one hundred thousand people, accounting for one-third of Yuzhou.

Even with the support of only Runan County, Sun Jian's position as Governor of Yu Province was secure, not to mention that Yuan Zhong, the Chancellor of Pei State, was a relative of Yuan Shu.

Therefore, Sun Jian quickly stabilized the situation in Yu Province, then stationed his troops in Yangcheng, Yingchuan, and used it as a base to begin attacking Dong Zhuo's army in Luoyang.

It was precisely because Sun Jian's military achievements were so outstanding that he almost single-handedly drove Dong Zhuo out of Luoyang and recovered Henan Yin.

As a result, Sun Jian's victories spurred Yuan Shao to abandon his post in Hebei. He immediately appointed Zhou Yu, one of the three Zhou brothers from Kuaiji, as the governor of Yuzhou and launched a surprise attack on Sun Jian's stronghold, Yangcheng. The two sides then engaged in an extremely fierce battle.

This battle wasn't particularly famous, but it actually sparked many subsequent events.

First, Gongsun Yue, Gongsun Zan's closest brother, fought for Yuan Shu's army in this battle but was accidentally killed by a stray arrow.

Therefore, Gongsun Zan deeply hated Yuan Shao. Even when Yuan Shao gave Gongsun Zan the position of Governor of Bohai, it did not stop Gongsun Zan from turning against him. Moreover, he refused to reconcile with Yuan Shao until his death.

Secondly, the Zhou brothers also incurred a deep hatred with the Sun family as a result, and were eventually wiped out by Sun Ce.

The Zhou brothers were three in number. The youngest brother, Zhou Yu, was recommended by Yuan Shao to be the governor of Yu Province. After being defeated at Yangcheng, he resisted Yuan Shu at Jiujiang in Yang Province, but was ultimately defeated and killed by Xu Gong, the governor of Kuaiji, on his way home.

However, Zhou Yu's elder brother, Zhou Xin, is still alive and is currently in his hometown of Kuaiji County. What's more, Zhou Xin is actually a disciple of Chen Fan.

The Zhou family was also a prominent family, ranking among the top in Kuaiji County, with two to three thousand retainers alone.

Although he suffered heavy losses in Yangcheng, Yuzhou and Jiujiang, Yangzhou, his status and influence among his fellow villagers remained extremely high, and he could be said to have a large following.

To put it bluntly, if something were to go wrong in Kuaiji County, the Zhou family's strong support would be an indispensable asset for Wang Lang.

As a young man, Zhou Xin traveled to the capital and met Chen Fan in Luoyang, whom he later took as his teacher. Later, he served as the governor of Danyang, where he became a thorn in the side of Yuan Shu.

His two brothers held Yinling until the arrival of Sun's army, which drove them across the Yangtze River.

Zhou Xin then held out in Danyang until Sun Ben issued a proclamation that the people of Jiujiang in Yangzhou had to choose between Zhou Xin and Yuan Shu, and anyone who dared to choose Zhou Xin would be executed.

Upon learning of this, Zhou Xin said, "Though I am immoral, what crime have the people committed?"

He then disbanded his army, abandoned Danyang City, and successfully returned to Kuaiji County, where he lived in seclusion at home.

After hearing Liu Feng's explanation, Liu Bei suddenly understood.

"Feng'er, do you mean to have Chen Yi write a letter to Zhou Xin?"

Liu Feng nodded: "That's right, that's exactly what I meant. Chen Yi is the son of Chen Fan. Even if he doesn't know Zhou Xin, Zhou Xin will definitely give him some respect. The Zhou family and the Sun family have a long-standing feud and are deeply rooted in Kuaiji County. If we can contact Zhou Xin in Chen Yi's name and join forces with him to attack Sun Ce from the north and south, it will be of great benefit to our southward advance into Jiangdong."

"Oh?"

Liu Bei became interested: "Is this feasible?"

Liu Feng almost guaranteed, "It will definitely work."

Historically, after Sun Ce conquered Wu Commandery, Zhou Xin, at Wang Lang's request, recruited local militia to resist Sun Ce for Wang Lang.

Zhou Xin, taking advantage of the river and boats, successfully held off Sun Ce for several months and even gained a slight advantage.

Just when Sun Ce was at his wit's end, Sun Jing happened to come up with a plan for him.

Sun Jing was Sun Jian's younger brother and Sun Ce's uncle. Having lived in Wu Commandery for many years, he was extremely familiar with the terrain around the battlefield. He directly suggested that Sun Ce take a side path to flank Wang Lang's army from behind, kill Zhou Xin in battle, and defeat Wang Lang.

Even without Chen Yi's letter, Wang Lang was able to persuade Zhou Xin to fight against Sun Ce.

If Liu Feng writes another letter to Zhou Xin, urging him to make plans early, then the accumulated strength will obviously be greater, and he will be able to hold off Sun Ce for longer.

The only concern is that Zhou Xin's younger brother, Zhou Yu, was killed by Xu Gong, and the two have a blood feud over the killing of their brother.

However, Zhou Xin did not cause trouble for Xu Gong in history. Although the two sides could not join forces to deal with Sun Ce, they did not have internal strife.

If Wang Lang and Zhou Xin can promptly garrison Guling and remind them to pay attention to the defenses of the canals and paths, and protect the rear granary of Gaoqiantun, they can keep Sun Ce out of Wuzhong.

In this way, Sun Ce would at most occupy most of Wu Commandery, making it difficult to expand, and he would immediately find himself surrounded by enemies on all sides. To the south was Wang Lang, to the west was Liu Yao, to the north was Guangling, and within Wu Commandery itself were bandits such as Yan Baihu.

Even if Sun Ce had three heads and six arms, he probably wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

At that point, the initiative would be in Liu Feng's hands. He could freely choose the right time to cross the river without worrying that Liu Yao would be unable to hold out.

After listening to Liu Feng's words, Liu Bei thought about it carefully and realized that it was indeed as Liu Feng had said.

If Zhou Xin can help Wang Lang block Sun Ce's southward advance, then even if Wang Lang occupies most of Wu County, he will only be a bird in a cage.

"My son, rest assured, I will immediately send someone to the State of Lu to ask the Prime Minister of Lu to write a letter to Zhou Xin, urging him to come out of seclusion and assist Liu Yao."

(End of this chapter)