My father Liu Xuande

Chapter 193 Aftermath in Qu County
Even with such great merit, and having caught Cao Cao's eye because of his request for reinforcements, Chen Jiao still didn't become a county magistrate for several years.

Now Liu Feng has actually recommended him directly as the magistrate of Qu County, which shows how much trouble he has avoided.

Upon hearing these words, Xu Xuan's eyes widened in surprise.

He could hardly believe that Chen Jiao, a person from the same clan who was married, would be so highly recommended by the young master.

Xu Xuan felt a little jealous, but he didn't hold a grudge.

That's just Xu Xuan's personality; he'll speak out if he doesn't like something, but he'll stick to the issue, not the person.

The reason he kept targeting Chen Jiao was essentially because Chen Jiao was married to someone from the same clan and refused to divorce his wife. This could be considered a different kind of approach of targeting the issue rather than the person.

"Mr. Baojian".

Just as Xu Xuan was thinking about how to expose Chen Jiao's true colors to Liu Feng, he suddenly heard Liu Feng calling him.

"Young master, your subordinate is here."

Liu Feng said cheerfully, "Mr. Baojian is upright and righteous, and hates evil as if it were his enemy. He is a suitable candidate for the position of Prefectural and State Official. I intend to recommend him to my father for the position of Prefectural and State Official. What do you think?"

Although the position of "Jun Guo Cong Shi" (郡国从事) was merely a high-ranking official in the state or prefecture with a salary of 600 shi (石), in terms of real power, it was in charge of the county magistrate and was one of the important means for the state or prefecture to assess local performance.

Even more coincidentally, Qu County belongs to Donghai, and isn't the Donghai official in charge of evaluating the magistrates of the counties and prefectures in Donghai?

In this way, although Xu Xuan's rank was lower than Chen Jiao's, he actually surpassed him in terms of real power, which made Xu Xuan very happy.

Moreover, after serving as an official in a prefecture or state, Xu Xuan could be promoted to county magistrate or even county governor.

If Chen Jiao hadn't achieved anything significant during his tenure in Qu County, their careers wouldn't have diverged by much.

Although Chen Jiao's expression remained calm, his eyes revealed an unconcealable sense of frustration, while Xu Xuan's face was full of gratitude.

Liu Feng found it amusing. He knew that Xu Xuan wasn't obsessed with officialdom, but he was simply at odds with Chen Jiao.

In the original timeline, these two people were at odds for their entire lives, and even though Chen Jiao clearly had a higher official rank and title, he could never do anything to the other.

During Cao Pi's reign, Xu Xuan, who was originally no longer able to keep up with Chen Jiao, unexpectedly caught Cao Pi's eye during the southern expedition against the King of Wu of Wei, and the two were once again on par.

By the time of Cao Rui, Chen Jiao was merely someone who dared to oppose Sima Yi and was not the one entrusted with the care of the young emperor, while Xu Xuan was regarded by Emperor Ming as a talent capable of shouldering the heavy responsibility of entrusting the care of the young emperor.

It's just that Xu Xuan died early; otherwise, he could at least have reached the same level as Jiang Ji and Chen Qun.

Seeing Xu Xuan glaring at Chen Jiao, while the latter looked down at his nose, seemingly oblivious to everything around him, Liu Feng shook his head and chuckled.

It seems that in this timeline, Xu Xuan and Chen Jiao will continue their rivalry.

Soon, Taishi Ci and his men gathered their troops and settled the surrendered soldiers. They then went to the Mi residence to report back.

Liu Feng immediately summoned them.

"Greetings, young master!"

Taishi Ci and the others, despite being clad in iron armor, still knelt on one knee and performed a military salute.

"Please rise, teacher; and please rise, generals as well."

Liu Feng was very polite, and the title of "General" secretly pleased Dong Xi and Jiang Qin.

Gan Ning and Pan Zhang, on the other hand, were beaming with joy, showing no sign of guilt whatsoever.

In terms of military rank, both of them were only commanders of separate divisions.

However, due to his naturally proud nature, he accepted all of Liu Feng's flattery.

Surprisingly, Pan Zhang and Gan Ning got along quite well, but Gan Ning's closest confidant was actually Taishi Ci.

It's unclear whether it was because they were both extremely skilled archers, but Gan Ning actually admired Taishi Ci and they got along well.

Each general reported on the results of their mission, the resettlement of prisoners, and the distribution of rewards.

Putting aside everything else, the treatment of Liu Feng's Xuzhou army alone was absolutely unparalleled in the Han Dynasty at that time, of course, this refers to the regular troops.

As for the core troops that were the most cherished by various warlords, such as Gongsun Zan's White Horse Cavalry, Yuan Shao's Halberdiers, Cao Cao's Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, and the core elite of the Qingzhou Army, their treatment was still somewhat inferior.

However, from another perspective, Liu Feng could be said to have been nurturing all his troops as his core elite force.

"teacher."

Liu Feng called out to Taishi Ci, "You may select two hundred men from the Guangling Army as cavalry reserves. All the warhorses captured this time will also be allocated to you. I will allocate another one hundred warhorses to you within the year."

Upon hearing this, Taishi Ci was overjoyed and quickly stood up to express his gratitude.

Liu Feng waved his hand. The reason he was so confident was that Zang Ba, the governor, had several hundred warhorses that were about to return. Since these warhorses were made from frost sugar and snow salt by Liu Feng, they should naturally belong to him.

This should be a perfectly reasonable thing, right?
"Wen Gui, the same goes for your unit. You can select the bravest and most valiant warriors from the Guangling Army and expand the Ironclad Army to two thousand men. I will also provide you with two hundred more sets of ironclad armor within the year."

Liu Feng's words made Pan Zhang jump up excitedly. With a force of two thousand men, Pan Zhang's military rank would definitely be promoted, at the very least to the rank of captain.

"Zhang thanks the young master for his great kindness!"

Liu Feng waved his hand, signaling Pan Zhang to get up.

He then looked at Dong Xi, Gan Ning, and Jiang Qin: "Yuan Dai, Xing Ba, and Gong Yi, each of your units can be expanded to a thousand men. All the large and small ships captured this time will be allocated to you. However, I must warn you beforehand that although you are forming independent armies, you must cooperate more closely. The navy is different from the army. Without diligent training and drills, and with only temporary coordination, combat effectiveness will decrease rather than increase. You are all naval heroes, so you must not be complacent."

"Yes! I will obey your orders, young master!"

Dong Xi, Gan Ning, and Jiang Qin also stood up and kowtowed to Liu Feng on one knee in gratitude.

In particular, Dong Xi and Gan Ning, both of whom were newly surrendered, were treated as trusted confidants by Liu Feng. He expanded the army, rewarded and rewarded them, and treated them all equally.

This allowed Dong Xi and Gan Ning to integrate into the Xuzhou army without any awkwardness.

"There is another thing: online trolls need to get used to not only rivers, but also the ocean."

The "ocean" mentioned by Liu Feng here is not the ocean voyage of later generations, but actually a voyage in coastal waters.

The navigation technology during the Eastern Han Dynasty was actually quite advanced. During Sun Quan's time, it reached as far north as Liaodong, as far east as Japan and Taiwan, and as far south as the Indochina Peninsula.

This is also the source of Liu Feng's confidence in making this request.

"As for the allocation of ships, you can discuss it yourselves and then report it to the state government for approval."

Ships on rivers and ships on the ocean are two different kinds of ships. Putting aside everything else, one is freshwater and the other is saltwater, and that difference alone is quite significant. Not to mention that the waves at sea are several times, or even ten times, more than those on rivers.

Dong Xi and the others all agreed, and even Gan Ning was as docile as a cat. After all, he had just received a big fruit and was too happy to be angry.

Liu Feng was extremely satisfied. He knew these salt tycoons were incredibly wealthy, but he never imagined they could be this rich.

Historically, the Mi family was able to provide a dowry of one hundred million in cash, along with two or three thousand strong servants, to support Liu Bei in his final days.

Although these salt magnates were individually no match for the Mi family, when they came together, they were equivalent to several Mi families in size.

It's no wonder that during peaceful times, there was a saying that most of Xuzhou's wealth was in Donghai, and most of Donghai's wealth was in Qu County.

When discussing the restoration of Pengcheng Kingdom with Mi Zhu, Liu Feng even hinted that the other party could first use the dowry to support the finances of Pengcheng Kingdom.

Mi Zhu was surprised but still agreed, though Liu Feng was still quite embarrassed.

If I had known I could make such a fortune, I wouldn't have brought it up in the first place.

With such a large sum of money, Liu Feng did not intend to expand his army. What he wanted most was to use this money and supplies to restore Pengcheng, Xiapi, and Donghai, the counties that had been ravaged by Cao Cao.

With this money invested now, in one or two years at the very least, and three or four years at most, Xuzhou's income can increase by at least 50%, and if we're optimistic, it could even double.

At the same time, the output of military supplies will also increase significantly. Within one year, the output of iron armor can be increased to 300 sets per year, within two years to 450 sets, and within three years to 600 sets.

After pacifying Qu County, Liu Feng left Chen Jiao as acting magistrate, assisted by Xu Xuan. Zhou Tai, Jiang Qin, Gan Ning, Dong Xi, and others temporarily stationed troops outside Qu County, leading Taishi Ci's cavalry and Pan Zhang's five hundred armored soldiers, escorting over four thousand surrendered rebels, along with a large amount of valuable goods such as gold, silver, jewels, and silk, towards Tancheng. Other heavy items, such as Wuzhu coins and grain, would be transported slowly by waterway to Tancheng, Pengcheng, and Guangling by Zhou Tai, Jiang Qin, Gan Ning, and Dong Xi.

There was no other way; the grain was too heavy, and the only way to minimize consumption was to travel by water.

On the way, they met their second uncle, who was leading two thousand men on their way to Tancheng.

Seeing that Liu Feng was safe and sound, Guan Yu's expression did not change, but Liu Feng could clearly feel his relief and joy.

After showing concern for Liu Feng, the Second Master originally intended to continue his journey to Qu County.

Liu Feng naturally didn't want his second uncle to make another wasted trip, so he used the excuse of having too many prisoners and not enough manpower to ask Guan Yu to escort him back to Tancheng first.

After considering it for a moment, Guan Yu, though willing to carry out Liu Bei's orders, was indeed worried about Liu Feng, so at Liu Feng's request, he turned back with his troops.

At the same time, Guan Yu and Liu Feng simultaneously sent letters to Tancheng to request instructions from Liu Bei.

Although the distance is only so short, whether or not one asks for permission makes a very crucial difference.

Even if Liu Bei probably wouldn't care, there's always a chance of something going wrong.

When Liu Feng and Guan Yu returned to Tancheng, they were surprised to find that Liu Bei had personally come out of the city to welcome them.

"Feng'er, you did very well this time."

Even though Liu Bei often praised Liu Feng, he was particularly serious this time.

The reason is simple: the eldest son gave too much.

The unearthed assets alone are worth over 600 million, including 200 million worth of gold and silver. There's also over 600,000 units of grain. Considering that at the beginning of the year, the Mi and Chen families did their best to help, they only managed to gather 100,000 units of grain. This is six times more than that.

Moreover, according to the interrogation of prisoners, these people had also stockpiled a considerable amount of grain in the mountain fortresses such as Qushan, conservatively estimated to be over 100,000 shi (a unit of dry measure). Just considering that these people's soldiers and salt workers alone supported thousands of people, as well as the tenant farmers and salt workers who farmed and boiled salt for them, they naturally needed a large amount of grain.

Now that Liu Feng has returned safely and the rebellion in Qu County has been quelled, Guan Yu naturally no longer needs to go to Qu County and can stay in Tancheng instead.

At the same time, Liu Bei also granted Liu Feng's request and separately recommended Chen Jiao as the magistrate of Qu County and Xu Xuan as the Donghai official, to be temporarily stationed in Qu County to oversee the aftermath of the rebellion of the salt merchants in Qu County.

Xu Xuan was an upright and incorruptible man who hated evil and was extremely honest. Liu Feng was very relieved to have him handle the final matter.

"Feng'er, what do you think we should do with this money and grain?"

Liu Bei smiled broadly; in less than a year, it felt like a dream.

What a wonderful dream this is!
At the beginning of last year, I was still holed up in Qingzhou, holding the official position of the Prefect of Pingyuan, but Yuan Tan had already driven me across the Yellow River and I was now living in the State of Qi.

Back then, I had only a few hundred bushels of grain and less than a thousand soldiers. I never imagined I would be so successful now.

With their current strength, Liu Bei is confident he can hold his own against Yuan Tan, let alone Yuan Shao himself, even if Yuan Shao personally marched south.

“Father, I still think it’s most worthwhile to use it for land reclamation.”

Liu Feng strongly urged Liu Bei to continue farming, saying that Xuzhou currently had plenty of manpower, land, grain, and capital, and Pengcheng also had iron and coal mines, as well as being a hub for water and land transportation, making it a truly blessed land.

Originally, Xuzhou was easy to attack but difficult to defend. Now, the two mountain valleys to the north, the natural barrier of Rencheng to the west, and the states of Lu and Pei are all in Xuzhou's hands. The entire hinterland of Xuzhou is now sheltered and has become a great rear area.

In addition, with the situation unusually stable, if they could take the opportunity to cultivate the land for two or three years, Xuzhou could even turn around and head north to Hebei to actively seek trouble with Yuan Shao.

Liu Bei hesitated. It wasn't that he was unwilling to establish military farms; it was a good thing to gather refugees and save the people.

Liu Bei was hesitant about whether or not to invest such a huge amount of resources in farming.

Liu Feng pressed on, "Father, do you still remember my advice last time? Now, Xuzhou is surrounded by war, making it the best time to recruit people. After this period, Cao Cao will defeat Lü Bu, Yuan Shao will defeat Gongsun Zan, Yuan Tan will annex Kong Rong, and Sun Ce will sweep across Jiangdong. At that time, all the warlords will realize the emptiness of their own population, and it will be as difficult as climbing to heaven for Xuzhou to recruit people."

"Take Yanzhou as an example. Before the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Yanzhou had 800,000 households and a population of over 4 million. But now, after the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Yanzhou is embroiled in internal strife, and it may not even reach a million people."

The struggle between Cao Cao and Lü Bu in Yanzhou was extremely fierce, compounded by various natural disasters. At one point, the price of grain in Yanzhou even reached an astronomical level of 150,000 coins per shi (a unit of dry measure).

Of course, this price was also a case of having a price but no market. Which grain merchant in the surrounding area would dare to sell grain to Yanzhou at this time? If they did, they would just be fat pigs to be robbed.

The number of people robbed, killed, and starved to death in the entire Yanzhou far exceeded the total number of people killed during the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the warlords' campaign against Dong Zhuo, and the civil war in Yanzhou.

After this battle, Yanzhou, which was originally extremely powerful and controlled four of the eighteen warlords, collapsed and never regained its former glory.

Cao Cao later relied mainly on the four kingdoms of Liang, Pei, Chen and Lu in Yu Province, as well as the military-agricultural settlements in Yingchuan Commandery, which consumed most of Cao Cao's efforts and resources, to resist Yuan Shao.

At that time, the relationship between Yanzhou and Cao Cao was only slightly better than that between Xuzhou and Cao Cao.

Therefore, after the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao was unable to take over Hebei. Instead, after his disastrous defeat at the Battle of Red Cliffs, he almost suffered a major setback.

After Cao Cao was granted the title of Duke, he was willing to deeply offend the gentry of Henan to establish his fiefdom in Hebei. The main reason for this was to counterbalance the Henan gentry. At the same time, Cao Cao's extremely poor relationship with the people of Henan was also an important factor.

“Father, the population decline in Yanzhou is not entirely due to death.”

Liu Feng continued, "Among them, at least two or three hundred thousand are displaced and have become refugees in the surrounding prefectures."

At this point, Liu Feng revealed a somewhat sinister smile: "If we were to announce the establishment of military farms in Pengcheng now, how many people do you think would flock to Yanzhou?"

As the art of war says, "To eat one cup of enemy food is to gain the advantage of ten cups of your own."

"In fact, governing a country is the same; it is far better to outmaneuver ten enemies than to kill ten people."

Liu Feng's reasoning was simple and easy to understand, and Liu Bei understood it immediately.

But he still hesitated a little: "Isn't this... a bit too cruel? Cao Mengde is a very vengeful person, and he's particularly petty."

Liu Feng, however, was unconcerned: "Father, only when Yanzhou is weak and powerless will Cao Mengde remain rational and clear-headed. If Yanzhou is strong and well-equipped, even if Xun Wenruo, Cheng Zhongde, Xi Zhicai, and Xiahou Yuanrang all advised against it, it would be useless. Cao Mengde would definitely come to cause trouble for Xuzhou and launch an invasion."

"This plan of mine is precisely for the sake of reconciliation between Yan and Xu."

Liu Bei blinked. "Your father is Cao Cao's best friend. How come you seem to know Cao Mengde's temperament better than your father?"
Upon careful consideration, Liu Bei realized that, given Cao Cao's personality, Liu Feng's assessment was indeed extremely accurate.

"Alright, in that case, the burden that Zizhong will have to bear is not just a little bit."

Liu Bei stroked his beard lightly, frowning, "We need to transfer some people over there, otherwise he definitely won't be able to handle it all by himself."

Liu Feng nodded in agreement: "Father, Zijing has been managing the military farms in the three counties of Tanxi for some time now without any mistakes. He can be transferred to at least Pengcheng as the overall person in charge. In addition, the Zhuge brothers of Langya, and the Chen brothers of Xiapi, Chen Wan and Chen Ying, are all capable people. There are also Zang Xuangao's son Zang Ai, Sun Guan's son Sun Yu, and Chang Xi's son Chang Rong. In my opinion, they all have the talent to manage a county. They can be put to good use."

Zang Ba had two sons and a daughter, who, along with his wives and concubines, remained in Tancheng.

Although Liu Bei did not make any demands, his Taishan followers followed suit and left their families in Tancheng as hostages when they went out to lead troops.

However, these people had nothing to do in Tancheng, especially Zang Ai, Sun Yu, Chang Rong and others, who were all quite capable.

Since that's the case, why not make use of it? Surely Zang Ba and his ilk would be very happy and at ease to see their offspring integrated into the Xuzhou officialdom.
"Oh?"

Liu Feng's reminder made Liu Bei think of these people as well.

Despite being known as the Taishan Bandits, Zang Ba and his six brothers were all literate and educated.

In particular, Zang Ba's father was a high-ranking official in the county, and he was raised from childhood to be a member of the gentry. However, Zang Ba himself preferred the path of a powerful and influential figure, and it was only thanks to his powerful and influential personality that he saved his father's life.

“Okay, let them go and assist Zizhong.”

Liu Bei nodded, and even went on to say something similar: "Lord Chen will be arriving soon. We can ask him for recommendations of famous scholars in Yuzhou. I will follow any suggestions he may have."

The "Chen Gong" mentioned by Liu Bei is naturally Chen Ji, the father of Chen Qun and the idol of Chen Deng.

Yuzhou is in a very unstable situation, especially Yingchuan County, which is adjacent to Sili. This year, it was swept away again by Zhang Ji and the Xiliang army, and its situation is extremely dire.

A large number of scholars from Yuzhou fled again, this time and space, to Jingzhou.

Things should be different in this time and space. Xuzhou should be a good choice, but I don't know how many people will flee to Xuzhou.

Putting aside other things, most of the talented people like Du Xi, Du Ji, Zhao Yan, and Fan Qin came from Yuzhou.

(End of this chapter)