Three Kingdoms: I am not Cao Rui

Sow in spring, grow in summer, harvest in autumn, and store in winter.

As time went by, things inside and outside the Great Wei Dynasty proceeded in an orderly manner.

But the laws of nature are always difficult to avoid.

In the eleventh month of winter in the tenth year of the Taihe era, Xu Xuan, the governor of Jizhou, died of illness in Yecheng, Jizhou, while in office.

In the second month of spring in the eleventh year of the Taihe era, Minister Chen Qun passed away in Luoyang.

In the seventh month of autumn in the eleventh year of the Taihe reign, Chen Jiao, the Imperial Censor, died of illness in Luoyang.

Such is the way of the world: no matter how high one's official position or how illustrious one's title, one cannot escape the passage of time.

The old guard is gone, and new ones must rise.

Chen Qun's son, Chen Tai, the Prefect of Xiangyang, inherited his father's title of Marquis of Yingyin. He was transferred from his post as Prefect of Xiangyang to Governor of Yingzhou, becoming a powerful regional official at the age of forty. He inherited his father's political legacy, though not to the same extent as his father's influence at forty, thus experiencing a slight decline in rank. Liu Jing, the former Governor of Yingzhou, was slightly promoted and transferred to Governor of Jizhou, taking control of the heart of Hebei.

After Chen Jiao's death, his fiefdom was divided among his two sons according to his will. After the war against Wu, Chen Jiao's fiefdom was also increased. Therefore, his eldest son Chen Ben was enfeoffed as a Marquis of a Township with a fiefdom of nine hundred households, and his second son Chen Qian was enfeoffed as a Marquis of a Pavilion with a fiefdom of six hundred households.

Chen Qian had served in the Privy Council for several years before becoming a Privy Councillor in the Guanzhong Office. In comparison, his elder brother Chen Ben's career was clearly much better.

In the latter half of the tenth year of the Taihe era, Chen Ben led a fleet to sea again. However, his original mission to relocate people to Wa (Japan) was suspended due to a widespread reshuffling of officials within the Great Wei Dynasty. During this voyage, Chen Ben mapped the entire nautical voyage from Qingzhou to Baekje and then to southeastern Wa, according to the layout of the Great Wei map.

At the end of the tenth year of the Taihe era, Chen Ben returned to Luoyang via Qingzhou and Yanzhou, presented Cao Rui with all the nautical charts obtained during this voyage, and strongly recommended that the court first relocate the people to Zhouhu Island, rather than directly to the land of Wa (Japan).

According to Chen Ben, Juho Island is located in the southern sea of ​​Mahan, one of the Three Han states. It is a vast area with natural mountainous terrain, suitable for farming and animal husbandry. Moreover, the local population is about ten thousand, short in stature, and accustomed to raising pigs and cattle. They often travel by boat to and from the Three Han states. The Great Wei could occupy this place as a port and transit point for ships bound for Japan, facilitating cross-sea transportation.

Cao Rui initially didn't know what benefits this Zhouhu Island could offer that would prompt Chen Ben to recommend it so strongly. However, upon seeing the nautical chart presented by Chen Ben, Cao Rui immediately understood what this place was.

It's just Jeju Island!
As a transit point on the route from Qingzhou to Japan, this place can greatly improve shipping efficiency, facilitate the transfer of goods and funds, and shorten the route by nearly 40%.

Shorter routes mean safer sailing, more frequent voyages, and more convenient transportation.

Therefore, Cao Rui agreed to Chen Ben's request to relocate people to Hu Island in Minzhou instead of Japan.

The Imperial Secretariat proposed relocating 5,000 households from Jizhou, 2,000 households from Yanzhou, 2,000 households from Yuzhou, and 1,000 households from Qingzhou, totaling 10,000 households, to Zhouhu Island, affecting approximately 40,000 people. The court awarded each of these 10,000 households 10,000 coins and exempted them from rent and taxes for ten years, but corvée labor remained. At the turn of the tenth and eleventh years of the Taihe era, this reward was quite attractive. The local government also purchased the original land of these people at a fair price, so the people were not disadvantaged.

For the Great Wei court, the cost of relocating people to Zhouhu Island was only two or three hundred million coins in total. They might need to spend another one or two hundred million coins to buy grain later, but that was about it.

Three to five hundred million coins is merely the price of a few million catties of copper for the Great Wei Dynasty, which is not a problem to pay for, as the copper production of Danyang County alone can support it.

In March, May, July, and September of the eleventh year of the Taihe era, the relocation of 10,000 households was completed in four phases. The local people of Zhouhu found it difficult to voice any opposition to the Wei dynasty's relocation policy. These people were still in a tribal state, without a written language, and their language was less sophisticated than that of the Three Han states or Japan. Naturally, they offered no organized resistance. Chen Ben even believed that given the local people's weakness, the Wei dynasty could easily occupy the island with just one hundred armored soldiers.

Meanwhile, the local people of Zhouhu gradually discovered that the arrival of the people of Wei had not only failed to plunder their wealth, but their large demand for meat, fish, and labor had also made them increasingly wealthy.

This is a win-win situation.

At the age of twenty-nine, Chen Ben became the Protector of the State with a salary of two thousand shi (a unit of grain), while still holding the original position of Imperial Inspector of the Coast. He had become a rising political star in the Great Wei after Jiang Wei and Xiahou Xuan, and was also responsible for continuing to relocate people to Japan and maintaining the sea routes.

Of course, just as many scholars and officials in the Central Plains looked down on Jiangnan and Youzhou, Yingzhou, Qinzhou, and Liangzhou, Chen Ben, a Protector of the Prefecture with a salary of two thousand shi (a unit of grain), was indeed considered ordinary by them. However, the closer officials were to the emperor, the more they knew the emperor's interest in territorial expansion, and naturally, they could not underestimate such a position.

According to the emperor, there are many copper, silver, and gold mines in Japan. Although it is unknown where the emperor obtained this information, no one actually went to the emperor to verify the source of the information.

During these two years, the situation in the Great Wei was generally stable. When Shuozhou was established, thanks to the presence of the Central Army Cavalry and the relatively fair distribution of resources by Tian Yu, no major problems arose, and Shuozhou was successfully established. Tian Yu, the governor of Shuozhou and the Protector General of Wuhuan, was stationed in Shuofang City.

Only Jiaozhou in the south experienced some turmoil. After Guanqiu Jian was stationed in Panyu, which is the place that is now Guangzhou, Jiaozhou was too remote and difficult to govern. Therefore, he only replaced the governors of the northernmost and easternmost Cangwu and Nanhai prefectures, and established a new Zhuyai prefecture in Zhuyai Prefecture, with Sima Fu as the governor of Zhuyai.

The remaining five prefectures of Yulin, Hepu, Jiaozhi, Jiuzhen, and Rinan retained their original prefects and remained unchanged.

The reforms in the various prefectures of Jiangnan are being implemented slowly. Even though Sima Yi and the officials of the Jiangnan Regional Government and the prefectures of Yang, Jiang, Xiang, and Jiao are working together to push this matter forward, it is impossible to complete so many reforms within the original three-year timeframe. Therefore, Sima Yi has also accepted the summons from Luoyang and is preparing to return to Luoyang, which he has been away from for five or six years, to report to the emperor in person on the progress of the Jiangnan Regional Government's administration.

Besides Sima Yi, those who arrived in Luoyang at the same time included Cao Zhen, the Prince of Hejian; princes of the imperial clan who were serving in other states; Lu Xun, the Prince of Chencang; Dong Zhou, the Prince of Xinye; and Jiang Ji, the Duke of Ping'a and Governor of Yangzhou. Among the three princes and ten dukes, only Guanqiu Jian, the Governor of Jiaozhou, General of the Army, and Duke of Wenxi, was not summoned because his location was too far away.

The matter of bringing so many nobles back to Luoyang was no small matter; it was a matter of national mourning.

In the late summer of the twelfth year of the Taihe reign (1361), Empress Dowager Guo passed away in the North Palace of Luoyang at the age of fifty-six. She was posthumously honored with the title Wende. (End of Chapter)