The Duke of Shu Han began guarding Jingzhou in place of Guan Yu.

Chapter 84 Getting what you want

Yang Yi's sneer remained unchanged:

"Could it be that you can persuade the King to change his mind and appoint me as the Minister of the Imperial Secretariat in place of Fa Xiaozhi?"

How dare you say that!
Mi Wei secretly complained, but he already had a plan in mind:

"The Ministry of Personnel is indeed a vital hub of the nation, but its officials are low-ranking and their salaries are meager; those who hold this position are only worth a thousand bushels of grain."

"I believe that Lord Yang is a man of great talent, and no one less than a rank of two thousand shi is worthy of him!"

Upon hearing this, Yang Yi intended to continue mocking the other party for their short-sightedness.

The prestige of the Minister of the Imperial Secretariat cannot be judged solely by the level of his rank and salary.
However, seeing Mi Wei's smiling face, it was clear that he had come prepared.

A thought suddenly struck him: "The Prefect of Xiangyang?"

"Master Yang has the keen eye of a torch!" Mi Wei exclaimed.

"As everyone knows, General Guan commands Xiangyang from afar, but his ambitions lie in Wan and Luo."

"The future governor of Xiangyang will most likely be another wise and virtuous person."

"Although Yang Gong is competent for this position, he must avoid his hometown."

"But Lord Deng Bomiao has no such concerns."

"And as soon as Lord Deng makes a move, wouldn't Lord Yang's opportunity come in Jiangxia?"

When Yang Yi heard Deng Zhi's name, he immediately understood.

However, having served in official positions for many years, he would not be easily misled by such empty promises.

“I am indeed tempted by the position of two thousand shi.”

"However, the importance of Xiangyang and Fancheng is known throughout the land. Why should Cao Wei abandon them?"

"Based on your previous unfounded speculation?"

However, Miwei is not dwelling on this topic today.

"Then let's just consider Master Yang's words as empty talk!"

"While it may be a fantasy, it might still bring some tangible benefits to Master Yang!"

Yang Yi's eyes narrowed slightly.

Then I heard Mi Wei say:
“Since the beginning of this dynasty, the position of Prefectural Assistant has long been usurped by the various departments under the Prefectural Government.”

"Whether a prefectural assistant can hold a real position depends entirely on whether the prefect will grant him the honor."

"As far as I know, Lord Deng had already served as a 2,000-stone official in Sichuan and was known locally for his integrity, strictness, and good governance."

“He had been in Jiangxia for less than a month, and had already sorted things out from top to bottom.”

"This is a good thing for Jiangxia County."

"But this also prevented Yang Gong from getting involved in the slightest."

Upon hearing this, Yang Yi rolled her eyes on the spot.

But Mi Wei's next sentence made him squint again.

"But I can make it possible for Lord Yang to legitimately intervene in county affairs!"

"As Yang Gong just said, building a city is like marching an army. It requires a large number of conscripted laborers, rammed earth construction, and the stockpiling of grain."

“These matters have already been taken care of by the various departments of the prefecture and government. As the saying goes, each person has their own job, so it is not up to Lord Yang to comment.”

"But what about building a dry dock to store ships?"

"Because the people of Jiangling had already decided to defend the city for the next two years, the Jiangxia Prefecture has been coordinating and preparing for the construction of the city in recent days."

"If General Guan were to suddenly change course at this moment, the prefectural government would surely be overwhelmed... I wonder if Prefect Yang, the prefectural assistant, would lend a helping hand?"

Upon hearing this, Yang Yi's eyes narrowed into slits.

He certainly hadn't heard of the postmodern workplace absurdity that "new projects equal new budgets."

However, using various pretexts to seize power and benefits is nothing new.

A morally upright person like Deng Zhi would probably look down on him.

But Yang Yi didn't care about that.

Is having your own future important?

not to mention.

Miwei was simply doing two things that were originally going to be done anyway.

It's just a matter of changing the order.

It can't even be called a pretext.

Why not?
After a few breaths of silence, Yang Yi exhaled a breath of stale air and said:
"When you achieve great success and fame in the future, I hope you will not forget the words we spoke today!"

It's done!

Mi Wei was secretly delighted.

He wasn't afraid that Yang Yi had any requests, but he was afraid that he couldn't please him.

In retrospect, Zhang Yi's understanding of Yang Yi's temperament was remarkably accurate.

It was a perfect strike.

As for the promise Yang Yi requested, Mi Wei was not afraid that he could not fulfill it.

Because he had long been regarded by Zhuge Liang as someone who was being carried out undercover.

It will be of great use sooner or later.

It's just that Yang Yi is currently down on his luck, and he's not sure what to do!
So he sincerely replied:

"We will never forget the kindness of Lord Yang!"

……

With Yang Yi's support, things quickly took a turn for the better.

First, he wrote a letter to Guan Yu in his capacity as a former subordinate of Guan Yu, strongly advocating the necessity of prioritizing water conservancy over mountainous terrain.

Then, during his time off (since he had nothing to do every day anyway), he visited friends all over Gangneung and tirelessly reiterated this point of view.

Several debates with the scholars took place during this period.

This finally brought the topic to a fever pitch.

At this point, Zhang Yi, Pan Jun, and other intelligent people who already had a tacit understanding...

They all followed suit, using their own methods to support Mi Wei and Yang Yi. Furthermore, Guan Ping, a general on the front lines, unconditionally supported Mi Wei.

So, just as the spring planting season ended in early April.

Guan Yu officially granted Mi Wei permission to build a shipyard this summer to stockpile ships.

As promised, Mi Wei recommended Yang Yi as the military advisor of the Western Commandery of Jiangxia.

This would allow Yang Yi to legitimately take over the affairs of building docks and stockpiling ships.

Everything is ready, let's get started!
……

A busy summer.

By the end of June.

The summer heat has not yet subsided, but the water level has already risen.

The great river carries silt and sand downstream from its upper reaches.

Various news, both good and bad, followed one after another.

First, let's talk about Jingzhou.

Under Mi Wei's strong leadership.

A shipyard large enough to accommodate hundreds of warships of various sizes was built in the northern suburbs of Shicheng.

It should be noted that after the Han River enters the Nanyang Basin from Danjiangkou in the upper reaches, it generally becomes wider as it flows downstream.

By the time we reached the Xiangfan section of the river, the waterway was already able to meet normal navigation requirements.

When it reaches the Shicheng section (south of Zhongxiang City in later years), the river channel is not only wide, but the current is also slow and deep.

It is an excellent inland river port.

With docks in place, warships naturally followed suit.

It's nothing more than repairing the old while creating the new.

Small warships were mostly built by hiring local craftsmen.

Large warships have long construction cycles.

However, they could trade with Jiangdong, exchanging goods.

With the help of Liao Hua, the governor of Nan Commandery, and Ma Liang, the governor of Wuling Commandery, Mi Wei acquired five "fighting ships".

That is, small and medium-sized warships equipped with parapets.

Mi Wei had witnessed the power of this ship during the Battle of Wuling and had long coveted it.

My wish has finally come true.

It is said that Liao Hua also received two larger warships to reinforce the river defenses.

Miwei also coveted those water fortresses.

However, we also know that large ships are not suitable for the upper reaches of the Han River, so we don't insist on it.

It can be said that, despite a summer of hard work, Guan Yu's army did not recover to its peak strength.

But at least the size of the warships has been restored to 70-80%.

In the future, whether it is to consolidate the river channels or to support the Northern Expedition, we will have sufficient confidence.

In addition, the river channel was unobstructed.

The movements of Cao Cao's army in Xiangfan were finally brought into full control.

But to be honest, this is somewhat unsatisfactory.

Because Cao Ren showed no signs of withdrawing from Xiangfan!
On the contrary, according to scout reports, after the start of summer.

Cao Ren also conducted several large-scale military sweeps around Xiangyang to eliminate bandits and consolidate the local area.

This is getting a bit difficult to manage!
Fortunately, not long after, the scouts learned that Cao Ren was going to lead his troops out in the sweltering heat.

This is because there was a famine in the area around Xiangfan this year, which led to rampant banditry and affected Xinye in Nanyang.

There is a subtle connection between this and the bandit groups in Liangjia and Luhun north of Nanyang last year.

They have no choice but to suppress them.

In other words, Cao Ren was also in a predicament where he was too busy taking care of himself to fight external battles.

That's consistent with Mi Wei's previous assertion.

At least I didn't embarrass myself.

Besides Jingzhou, news from Yizhou was also mixed.

The good news is that Liu Bei's carriage returned to Shu.

With the addition of the heroic actions of Li Yan, the prefect of Jianwei, the unrest in the south was finally quelled.

However, Liu Bei fell ill as soon as he returned to Chengdu.

To be honest, when Miwei learned of this news, although he was worried, he was not surprised at all.

After all, her age is a factor.

In the original history, after Liu Bei ended the Battle of Hanzhong...

At least he recuperated for more than a year before heading south to contest Jingzhou.

In this life, he had just returned to Chengdu and hadn't even had a few months to rest before he had to rush south to support Jiangling.

I traveled tens of thousands of miles in total.

With such constant travel and advanced age, it's no wonder she's getting sick.

For a time, people in Chengdu were filled with anxiety.

It's quite similar to Luoyang at the end of last winter.

Fortunately, Chengdu still had a Zhuge Liang.

Zhuge Liang was titled Military Advisor General, but in reality, he was equivalent to Liu Bei's chief minister.

After his reorganization, morale quickly stabilized.

He even reminded Wei Yan of Hanzhong and Zhang Yi, the prefect of Zitong, to be careful and keep an eye on the movements in the Yongliang direction.

When Mi Wei learned of this from Mi Zhu's letter, he felt a great sense of relief.

Months of hard work finally paid off.

(End of this chapter)