Han officials

Chapter 93 A good man never suffers a loss in front of him [23]

Let’s not talk about how Li Min used Wei Zhe’s deeds to educate his son.

In the Liaodong prefectural government's mansion, Wei Zhe felt a headache when he looked at the Liaodong County's "Household Registration Book".

Speaking of which, Wei Zhe felt much more relaxed when he took office as the prefect of Liaodong this time.

Unlike when he first took office as the prefect of Lelang, Wei Zhe is now well-known in Liaodong.

Whether in terms of fame or strength, Wei Zhe can be regarded as the most powerful prefect in the history of Liaodong County.

Therefore, whether he was cleaning up the county government or punishing and killing the powerful people in the county, he was not actually doing it to establish his authority.

Wei Zhe wanted to kill them simply because they deserved to be killed.

Do you really think that Xuanchu Wei sells salted fish just to make money?

To be honest, Wei Zhe never expected that even though he had acted so obviously in Lelang, there were still people who dared to continue colluding with Goguryeo and even sell weapons to the Wuhuan in Liaodong.

Tsk tsk~ I don’t know if they are really not afraid of death, or if they think Wei Zhe is kind-hearted!
Of course, the most critical issue is still the population issue!
"Alas! Looks like we still have to recruit refugees!" After a while, Wei Zhe closed the "Collection Book" and said helplessly, "Zini, transfer another twenty battalions of troops from Daifang. Everything else will proceed as usual."

Upon hearing this, Guo Yuan immediately bowed his head and accepted the order, then hurried away.

There is no other way. If we act quickly now, we will still have time to replant spring millet and not delay this year's harvest.

After all, after killing a group of powerful people, the thing Liaodong County has the most is cultivated land and fertile farmland!

After Guo Yuan left, Xi Zhicai continued to look at the various files in silence.

By the way, because of his contribution in defeating Han, Xi Zhicai was promoted from the magistrate of Daifang to the chief historian of Liaodong County.

However, even he did not expect that Liaodong County, known as the first county in Liaodong, would be so flashy and impractical.

If he had not read the archives in the county government, he would never have believed that Liaodong County had only 80,000 people.

Haha~ Xi Zhicai didn’t know how to comment on this number for a moment.

Well, there are probably more than this many people in one county of Yingchuan Commandery.

But this is the fact. Right now, the official household register of Liaodong County shows only 64,158 households and 81,714 people!
As for how many people there are actually in Liaodong County, that is another matter.

Anyway, after Wei Zhe killed a group of powerful people, 20,000 people suddenly appeared in Liaodong County.

Just as Wei Zhe was feeling a headache, Xi Zhicai closed the bamboo slips and said with a wry smile, "My lord, perhaps it's no wonder that Liaodong is so powerful. During the Western Han Dynasty, Liaodong Commandery governed eighteen counties, so it had a population of 280,000, the highest in Liaodong."

"However, during the reign of Emperor An of this dynasty, the three counties of Gaoxian, Houcheng, and Liaoyang were first transferred to Xuantu Commandery. Later, the three counties of Xiandu, Fang, and Wuliu were assigned to Liaodong as a vassal state."

"Plus, during the previous dynasty, Anci County was destroyed by Goguryeo, and now there are only eleven cities left. It's already a good thing that so many people are left."

Wei Zhe sighed upon hearing this. How could he not know this history? After all, this was how the Wei family became people of Xuanchu County.

But knowing is one thing, and comprehending is another.

Wei Zhe, now the governor of Liaodong, felt that Emperor An had weakened Liaodong County too much.

You must know that the location of Liaodong County can be called the key to Liaodong, which is an extremely important place.

How could their strength, at such a crucial point, not increase but decrease? No wonder Goguryeo has become increasingly rampant in recent years!
Wei Zhe sighed deeply, "Without the people, there are no soldiers. Without soldiers, there is no power. How can we defend Liaodong and crush Goguryeo?"

After these words were spoken, Xi Zhicai also fell silent.

If there was no two-year military order, it would be fine. They would slowly accumulate strength and eventually destroy Goguryeo.

But now? Haha~ I'm afraid two years won't be enough to recruit refugees.

Although Qingzhou has a population of more than four million, it is not the Three Kingdoms period after all.

Even though the Yellow Turban Rebellion turned the people of Qingzhou into refugees, it was only a part of them.

Five hundred thousand refugees, this is the rough figure Wei Zhe estimated based on his experience in recent years.

As for why Qingzhou was almost empty later, leaving only the strongholds of the powerful, it was mainly because Qingzhou had no strong leader. Kong Rong, who had the greatest hope of becoming the governor of Qingzhou, was too ambitious and was eliminated early. This made Qingzhou a battlefield where various princes fought each other. After several years of chaos, countless people in Qingzhou were forced to leave their homes.

You know, the Qilu Plain is a fertile land in the Central Plains, but in the end it became a wasteland with countless ruins everywhere.

Therefore, in the original history, when Liu Yu was the governor of Youzhou, because of his lenient policies, more than one million people from Qingzhou came to submit to him, which greatly increased the population of Youzhou.

The following year, however, the Yellow Turbans of Qingzhou were able to gather 300,000 men and attack Bohai, attempting to link up with the Black Mountain Army. Unfortunately, they were ultimately defeated by Gongsun Zan's 20,000 infantry and cavalry, resulting in countless casualties. Despite this, two years later, when Cao Cao subdued the Yellow Turbans of Qingzhou, they numbered over one million, including their families. Cao Cao selected 300,000 of these strong and capable men to form the "Qingzhou Army," thus establishing a fully independent army under his command.

It can be said that during the Three Kingdoms period, at least 2.5 million Qingzhou people were displaced and fled to other places.

As for the 1.5 million people who remained in Qingzhou, they were either swallowed up by the powerful or turned into bones.

Alas~ If Kong Rong had been more capable back then, the people of Qingzhou wouldn't have lived such a miserable life.

So the problem Wei Zhe is facing now is very troublesome, very troublesome! Not just ordinary troublesome!
Because he lacks both people and time.

All the problems accumulated by his predecessors fell on his shoulders, which almost formed a vicious circle.

Even though Xi Zhicai and Wei Zhe thought hard for a long time, they still had no clue.

To be honest, if things had been postponed for a few years, Wei Zhe wouldn't have found it so difficult.

But no matter how troublesome things are, life must go on.

So in the following days, Wei Zhe continued to eliminate county officials and strengthen his control over Liaodong County, while inspecting various counties in Liaodong, trying to find a way to break the deadlock.

At the same time, Taishi Ci was also in a dilemma.

……

It is said that the "Liaodong vassal state" was actually established very recently.

During the Western Han Dynasty, there were only four Han counties in Liaodong. It was not until the first year of Jianguang in this dynasty (121 AD) that the Luoyang court tried to use the Wuhuan to control the Xianbei. They moved the surrendered Wuhuan people to the five counties of Youzhou, each according to their own customs.

The so-called vassal states retained their country titles but belonged to the Han Dynasty, hence the term vassal states.

Therefore, the establishment of the Liaodong vassal state was actually entirely for the purpose of managing the Wuhuan people in Liaodong.

However, all other Wuhuan tribes that surrendered were under the jurisdiction of the four county governors, with the exception of Liaodong.

I don’t know what the Liaodong governor did to make the Luoyang court uneasy.

In the end, the Liaodong governor not only lost the right to manage the Wuhuan in Liaodong, but also had six counties taken away from him. Although located in the prosperous area of Liaodong, its strength has greatly declined since then.

Among the six counties under the jurisdiction of the Liaodong vassal state, except for [Xiangdu County], [Fang County] and [Wuli County] which originally belonged to Liaodong County, [Changliao County], [Bintu County] and [Tuhe County] originally belonged to Liaoxi County.

It can be said that the court was completely located between Liaodong County and Liaoxi County, and a vassal state of Liaodong was separated.

For example, Changli County, the seat of the Liaodong vassal state, was originally the territory of Liaoxi County.

Hahaha~ So Taishi Ci is in big trouble this time!

Why do I say this? Because entering Changli County, the seat of the Liaodong vassal state, from Liaodong Commandery is essentially entering Liaodong from Liaoxi. In simple terms, it requires crossing the entire Liaoze Lake.

After all, the three eastern counties and three western counties of the Liaodong vassal state were established right next to the Liaoze Lake.

So when Taishi Ci crossed the Liao River and arrived at Xiandu County, he gradually became speechless.

The county is located near dangerous water, so it is called "Xiang Du".

In fact, as the most barren place in Liaodong, there are not many people in Xiandu City.

Almost all the people walking on the road carried swords and knives, their faces frosted. Apart from the common people in linen, the most common people were the merchants traveling back and forth.

However, he had chosen the path himself, and Taishi Ci had no intention of deserting. After being received with great respect by the officials of Xiandu County, he prepared to continue his journey that afternoon.

After all, the capital of the Liaodong vassal state was in Changli County, not Xiandu County.

However, Xianduling, upon seeing this, hurriedly stopped Taishi Ci and said anxiously, "Captain, we can't be impatient. If we enter Liaoze without making adequate preparations, our lives will be in danger!"

As soon as these words were spoken, Taishi Ci couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"Fearing for one's life? What a joke!"

"Even if there are jackals, wolves, tigers, desperate bandits, and evil thieves, what does it matter? Just kill them!"

Taishi Ci is not bragging, he really has this confidence.

However, the next words from Xiandu County caused Taishi Ci's expression to change drastically. He immediately stopped talking about leaving and began to prepare in Xiandu County...

(End of this chapter)