My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 825 Preparing for the Final Battle

Since April of the first year of Zhangwu, Liu Bei sent out troops again.

Within just four or five months, by the end of August and the beginning of September, the entire Hedong County and the entire Bingzhou were transferred from the control of Cao Cao to the rule of Liu Bei.

Most of the Bingzhou civil and military officers under Xiahou Dun were annihilated, captured, or surrendered, and all the talents of Sun Quan's faction also died. In this round of continuous attacks, a small half of the remaining manpower of Cao's army was once again wiped out.

If we say that when Cao Cao had just retreated to only the three areas of Yongliang, Hedong and Bingzhou, he could still gather 150,000 to 160,000 troops.

By September of the first year of the Zhangwu reign, even with the new troops Cao Cao recruited from conscripted men and local militiamen, his total military strength was only around 100,000.

Moreover, among these last nearly 100,000 people, the proportion of veterans has been diluted over rounds.

The only territory left of Cao Cao was Yongliang.

However, with the end of the wars in Hedong and Bingzhou, Liu Bei's wave of attacks came to a temporary end. Liu Bei would have to spend about half a year preparing logistics and building transport ships step by step before he could deal the final blow to Cao Cao.

This was not Liu Bei's attempt to delay time, but a strategic and logistical necessity.

Because Liu Bei's army was hoping to send troops from Hedong, enter the Yellow River from the Minshui River through Pubanjin, and cross Guanzhong to the west, they had to build a new shipyard and a large number of transport ships as soon as possible in Hedong County and even in the Fenshui River Basin in Bingzhou.

It is necessary to ensure that in the future a large army capable of completely annihilating Cao Cao can be quickly transported away, and also to ensure the logistics support and transportation of food and military supplies when the large army enters Guanzhong to fight.

Shipyards, shipbuilding, these things take time.

Liu Bei's camp's original water transport capacity was blocked by the Sanmenxia Gorge of the Yellow River on the border of Hongnong County, and could not reach the upper reaches of Sanmenxia. The water transport forces on both sides of Sanmenxia had to be rebuilt from scratch and could not communicate with each other.

Of course, in theory, Liu Bei would not have to rely on water transportation to maintain logistics for a long time during the final battle.

Theoretically, Liu Bei had another option, which was to cross the river from Pubanjin in the future and attack Tongguan from behind.

Once Tongguan was opened, Liu Bei would be able to transport military supplies along the 600-mile valley route of Hangu Pass, Xiaohan Road, and Tongguan using oxen and donkey carts.

However, anyone who knows a little bit about the business knows that the cost of water transportation is generally only one twentieth of that of land transportation. Moreover, mountainous areas like the Xiaohan Road are relatively difficult to travel, so the cost is even higher.

Since we can use cheap water by waiting for another half a year or a few months, why not wait? There is no rush anyway.

Moreover, relying on the land transportation of Tongguan Road, at most it could only last until Chang'an was captured in the future. If Cao Cao died in Chang'an, there would be no need to fight further, and everything would be fine.

If Cao's family wanted to flee further and Liu Bei wanted to pursue them further west, it would become even more important to build up water transport capacity in advance.

Because the ships built in the basins of the Weishui and Fenshui rivers can be transferred to the Weishui and Jingshui rivers through the Yellow River after entering Guanzhong in the future, and use the infiltration of these rivers to pacify the north and Longxi.

Therefore, we must take the time to build up the water transport capacity. Good things never come too late.

In addition to shipbuilding, Liu Bei's army had another thing that must be done, which was to stockpile large amounts of military rations in Hedong County and Linfen.

Bingzhou was poor and Hedong had also experienced the baptism of war. When Cao's army was defeated, there was not much grain left for Liu Bei's army to seize.

If we want to take Guanzhong in one battle in the future, we must be prepared to mobilize at least hundreds of thousands of troops and fight for a year, which is also to estimate the enemy's weakness.

To feed hundreds of thousands of people for a year, not to mention complete preparations before the war, at least half of it must be stockpiled in advance and transported to the front line.

All this takes time.

In order to achieve this, Liu Bei's army had actually withdrawn part of the rotation troops to the rear in advance in the final stage of the siege of Jinyang, reducing the size of the local army in Bingzhou.

Before the battle begins, stationing one more soldier in Bingzhou and Hedong means one more mouth to feed.

Since the preparation work would take more than half a year, during this half year, of course, the soldiers who only eat and do not work should be withdrawn to the rear as much as possible to get food.

Only a part of them were left as grain transport soldiers, responsible for the final leg of the land transport.

Liu Bei's army mobilized military rations from Hebei and other places, as well as Huai'an, and gathered them through various waterways to the Yellow River. The rations were first transported to Henei County by water, and then from Henei to Qinshui and Danshui via the Yellow River, going upstream to the upper reaches of Qinshui, and finally taking a land route, passing through the Chenguan Xingshan Road, crossing the Zhongtiao Mountains, and entering the banks of the Weishui River in Hedong.

Guan Yu also took advantage of the last few months of the second half of the year to build a large number of solid camps and temporary granaries in Anyi, Jie County and Puban to store grain shipped from the rear, continuously increase inventory, and report progress to Liu Bei every month.

The transportation loss over the Zhongtiao Mountain alone was considerable. The soldiers responsible for escorting the troops, the animals pulling the carts, and the food and grass consumed alone accounted for nearly 20% of the food that was eventually transported.

Considering that this land route is not too far, with a total of only more than 200 miles and less than 300 miles of land, a 20% consumption is already very exaggerated.

Fortunately, after starting to transport grain, Liu Bei did not just let Guan Yu do it on his own, but also tried his best to optimize the technical means.

Liu Bei now has many talented civil and military men under his command, and Zhuge Liang even took the time to personally inquire about the issue of transportation losses.

It was heard that the military rations transported over 200 miles over Zhongtiao Mountain would be consumed by 20% of the soldiers, civilians and livestock. Zhuge Liang conducted an on-site investigation and made targeted improvements to the carts used. He combined some structural features of the "wooden ox and flowing horse" cart used in Yizhou before, and focused on improving the braking performance of heavy animal-powered carts when going uphill and downhill on mountain roads.

After Zhuge Liang's improvements, even heavy ox carts carrying thousands of pounds could stop at any time and place on a slope that was not too steep, and would not be so tiring to start again. The number of people and livestock equipped for each caravan could also be slightly reduced, indirectly reducing transportation losses.

After all these technical application bottlenecks were resolved, all that was left was to leave everything to time and slowly do the physical work. The surplus grain and grass from Huaiyang and Jizhou were transported to Hedong at a rate of more than 100,000 shi per month, gradually filling up the newly built granaries.

Zhao Yun's cavalry had already withdrawn to Youzhou to avoid consuming too much food in Bingzhou.

But after Zhao Yun withdrew, Zhuge Jin, who was stationed in Luoyang, also thought of an additional way to help the court improve its logistical preparations. He sent a letter thousands of miles away, instructing Zhao Yun and Mi Zhu on how to handle it.

Hadn't Zhao Yun and Mi Zhu already been running a border market in Yuyang County, Youzhou, for many years? They purchased a large number of cattle, sheep, pigs and other livestock from the local area, sold salt and tea, and engaged in the pickling of meat and tanning of leather.

This was done at the time in order to increase meat reserves in Youzhou and reduce Youzhou's dependence on food from the south, so that more troops could be stationed in Youzhou to withstand the attack of the Jizhou army, which was still under Cao Cao's rule at the time.

But now, the situation has changed, Jizhou has completely fallen into Liu Bei's hands, and even Bingzhou has changed hands. Therefore, Youzhou no longer needs so many garrisons.

In order to better coordinate the final battle against Cao Cao, Zhuge Jin and the Zhuge brothers came up with a brilliant idea while chatting and reviewing the situation one day in September. That was to let Zhao Yun reduce the garrison in Youzhou this year and go to Qing and Ji in the south to seek food.

At the same time, the Wuhuan and Xianbei tribes north and west of Youzhou were encouraged to sell cattle, sheep, pigs and other livestock in Yanmen County of Bingzhou instead. Zhuge Jin also made a special request to Liu Bei to set up a large border market in Yanmen County.

As for the manpower needed for the market, especially talents in finance and business management, experienced people were directly transferred from the original border city of Yuyang in Youzhou to help, and Mi Zhu was responsible for selecting the people.

This design made great use of the flexibility of the nomadic tribes on the grassland. The nomadic tribes were originally migrating everywhere, and to go to the border market in Yuyang to sell cattle and sheep, they had to drive the herds a long way.

If there are some tribes whose settlements are closer to the new Yanmen border city, or at least about the same distance from both sides, letting them go to Yanmen will solve the cost problem of the Han people's secondary transportation. The local meat supply in Bingzhou will increase greatly in a short period of time.

However, if this is to be done, there are still several major technical problems that need to be solved.

First of all, Bingzhou had just been recovered by Liu Bei, and there was no time for any construction in the area. At most, it was just a rest and recuperation, allowing the people to recover on their own. Therefore, Bingzhou was still very poor, without any advanced industries, and could not produce any materials that the Hu people needed for trade.

With so many Xianbei tribes coming to sell cattle and sheep, you must have enough goods to sell to them. Otherwise, it would not be convenient to just give them copper coins, gold, silver, or even Shu brocade. It would also easily lead to a reduction in currency and a slight deflation in the local area. Although the impact would not be great, it is best to avoid this problem if possible.

When Liu Bei first heard about the decision to set up the Yanmen border market, he also thought of this problem, but he felt that it didn't matter. Since it couldn't be solved, then don't solve it and it can be tolerated.

But this problem certainly would not be difficult for Zhuge Jin, who had rich knowledge of later generations. After hearing this, Zhuge Jin immediately gave another suggestion.

"Your Majesty, the court can issue salt and tea permits, as well as other permits, to the Xianbei tribes who go to the Yanmen border market to sell cattle and sheep.

They were promised that when they went to the border city of Yuyang to trade next year, they could receive more valuable and in-demand Han goods with the deeds issued by the court, and they could even be promised some interest.

Even a tribe may trade with the imperial court several times within a year. For example, the first time they come to Yanmen, they get the contract and the copy after selling the goods, and then go to Yuyang to trade again a few months later. At that time, they can directly take these copies to pick up the goods in Yuyang. "

After hearing this method of "financial innovation", Liu Bei was naturally amazed and once again sighed that Ziyu had so many brilliant ideas in this regard.

There is no way, people in later generations have seen much more methods in this regard than the ancients. Zhuge Jin was very restrained, only making anti-counterfeiting copy notes like a ticket, and did not make large-scale indiscriminate "Jiaozi/Baochao" and other paper money of later dynasties.

In the later Song Dynasty, salt and tea permits were issued to merchants who transported grain to the border, allowing them to obtain a certain amount of salt and tea monopoly rights. This was a ready-made answer, so Zhuge Jin had no choice but to copy it. He could just make a slight adjustment and use it directly.

As long as the anti-counterfeiting work is done well and the Hu people are told that as long as they trade twice this year, once here and once in Yuyang, they can get the goods directly without worrying about holding them, and they can even get some interest.

Whether it is a few months or a year, there will be interest, the only difference is that the interest rate is lower if it is redeemed quickly, and higher if it is redeemed slowly. So the Hu people will easily accept all of this.

Zhuge Jin's move also contributed to the early emergence of "Shanxi merchants" in the Yanmen area. Of course, the Shanxi merchants controlled by Zhuge Jin were definitely patriotic merchants who helped the court, not the kind of despicable people who colluded with the barbarians on the grasslands and betrayed their own people.

After this operation, from late autumn to winter of that year, taking advantage of the opportunity when the Hu people sold a large number of cattle and sheep for the winter, more than 100,000 extra cattle, sheep, pigs and various livestock were sold to Yanmen.
Then they drove overland to Taiyuan County, and built countless temporary slaughterhouses and "meat processing plants" outside Jinyang City and on the banks of the Fen River. They processed the meat into dried meat and stored it to be used as a supplement for the army's expedition to Guanzhong the following year.

At the same time, in the Weishui River basin in Hedong County, and the lower reaches of the Fenshui River such as Linfen, Guan Yu did not forget to develop the local fishery while building shipyards and supervising the construction of transport ships.

Originally, water transportation and fisheries were not very developed in Jin, and there were not many ships. Now that they have been built on a large scale, the extra ships have been idle for the past six months. So they can get more drift nets and other new fishing gear that have been popularized in the south, expand fishing in the Weishui, Fenshui and Yellow Rivers, and make dried fish to subsidize military supplies for the decisive battle next year.

Large-scale fishing in a short period of time will not damage the ecology. In fact, before mechanized fishing, the amount of fishing caused by human activities was nothing.

However, in order to weaken the enemy as much as possible and strengthen himself, Guan Yu still asked his fishermen to fish as much as possible in the Yellow River, because the Yellow River was shared by Liu Bei and Cao Cao. If their own equipment was upgraded and they fished more, the enemies on the other side would fish less.

In comparison, both the Huai River and the Fen River were completely under the control of Liu Bei's camp. When there was both water in the pot and in the bowl, of course he would give priority to the water in the pot.

Because fish is harder to preserve than beef and mutton jerky and staple food, and drying fish is more complicated and labor-intensive. So Guan Yu took the lead in requiring that beef and mutton be stored as much as possible and eaten during the war. Before the war, fish should be eaten first when eating meat.

The arrogant soldiers stationed in Hedong must have some complaints about having to eat more fish and less meat this winter. After all, the situation of the unification of the world is now certain, and everyone feels that there is no need to be so frugal.

Guan Yu naturally had to set an example for this, so this winter, he personally stationed in Jie County and Anyi to prepare for war, and ate Yellow River carp every day, just like other officers.

Shanxi has a lot of pasta, and eventually it developed into daily carp baked noodles - the only difference is that the noodles used are not dragon beard noodles, but coarser knife-cut noodles.

With everyone working together, after preparations in late autumn and the entire winter, the reserves of ships, food, meat, and dried fish in Hedong increased day by day.

By the end of the busy spring farming season in the second year of Zhangwu, Liu Bei's army had made all material preparations to deal the final blow to Cao Cao.

(End of this chapter)