Chapter 305: The Way to a Strong Nation, a War is Coming The Shanyue people were no strangers to every Jiangdong noble or commoner. When people in later generations talked about the Shanyue people, they always thought that they were a foreign force, but the Shanyue people were essentially bandits. Its main components are people who fled to the mountains to avoid taxes and a small number of Yue people. These people's main mode of production is agriculture, and they grow grains like ordinary Han people. However, due to the steep terrain, these people refused to defend the dangerous area and used the copper and iron in the mountains to forge their own weapons and armor, thus forming a huge armed force. Now they are used to garrison Kuaiji Zulang, who was once a member of the Shanyue generals. These people elected their leaders through force, with small groups gathering thousands of people and large groups gathering tens of thousands. There are probably tens of millions of them in total, entrenched in the major mountainous areas of Jiangdong. In the original course, Shanyue was to Jiangdong what Nanman was to Shu Han.

It took Sun Quan more than twenty years to gradually eliminate the threat posed by the Shanyue. Hearing that Qin Zhen was going to mobilize troops against Shanyue, Gu Yong's face became more worried: "Your Excellency, it is all right for you to attack the Shanyue people, but Jiangdong has been pacified and the summer grain has not yet been collected." "If we send too few troops, it may be difficult to achieve results. If we send too many troops, there will be a shortage of food and grass, which may shake the foundation!" Although Gu Yong is also a talented person in internal affairs, he still finds it a bit too much to have a boss like Qin Zhen. Because Qin Zhen's work style is extremely vigorous and efficient, quite similar to that of Qin Shihuang, he always wants to accomplish the most things in the shortest time. But now Jiangdong has just stabilized, the people have not yet been resettled, and there is a lot of work to be done. It is hard to say whether it will be effective if we take the initiative to send troops to conquer the Shanyue now. It will also be quite detrimental to economic development! Qin Zhen naturally knew Gu Yong's suffering and couldn't help but smile: "Brother Yuan Tan, you have misunderstood. I want to send troops to Shanyue, not to attack them in the mountains!" "But I am thinking that our army is short of food and grass this year, and they also have food and grass to cultivate." "It is almost summer now. If our army goes to the desired place in advance and builds fences, it can be divided and surrounded." "When the grain is about to ripen, the soldiers will cut it down and starve the Shanyue people out of the mountains to survive." "When we fight again, our army will be well-trained and well-fed, and we will be able to win the battle in one go." "In this way, our army can harvest military rations, quell the threat from Shanyue, and absorb more people. Isn't this killing three birds with one stone?" His strategy originally came from Zhuge Ke, the son of Zhuge Jin in history. This strategy almost wiped out the roots of the Shanyue people in Jiangdong and obtained a large number of elite troops. He thought that Jiangdong currently had more than 50,000 soldiers and horses, and to implement the policy, he only needed to keep more than 10,000 of them on hand for stability. The rest of the troops have nothing to do for the time being, so it would be better to go into the mountains and attack the Shanyue! In this way, by the time of autumn harvest this year, they will be able to harvest a large amount of food and population, which is a sure profit! When Gu Yong heard this, he couldn't help but look sideways, stroked his beard and pondered: "If that's the case, we won't need to consume much food and grass, and we can probably get it done!" As he spoke, he narrowed his eyes again, and suddenly reacted: "I see. Could this be what the Lord of the Mansion was talking about, regarding servants?"

"Use the barbarians captured during the campaign against the Shanyue to exchange for my Han slaves?" He suddenly realized why Qin Zhen had just emphasized that Han people should be taxed double the amount as slaves. Because among the Shanyue people there were quite a number of Yi people, who could not speak their language and were difficult to educate. After capturing these captives, Qin Zhen could neither kill them nor release them, so he could only treat them as slaves. However, these people were not Han people and did not have to pay double taxes. Therefore, in order to save money, the gentry would naturally free the Han slaves and use barbarian slaves instead. This would not only bring them some income, but also liberate the Han slaves, killing two birds with one stone! Thinking about this, Gu Yong's worries disappeared without a trace, and he nodded and smiled: "How wonderful! Acting this way can solve the dilemma by itself. This is truly good governance!" He was worried that the abolition of slavery would lead to rebellion among the gentry and that Jiangdong would fall into chaos again. But if there is a new source of slaves, then it will be fine. There are slaves everywhere, and there is not much difference between the Han people and the barbarians. As a member of the noble family, he felt he could accept it, so other noble families obviously would not resist. It can be said that Qin Zhen solved the problem with a method he had never thought of, and he couldn't help but admire him! Looking at Gu Yong's changing expression, Qin Zhen naturally felt a sense of emotion. It is really like the saying goes, the world is bustling with people, all for the sake of profit! As long as the interests of all parties can be balanced, there is no country that cannot be governed. However, once this opening is made, a large number of foreign slaves will probably appear in the Han Dynasty. After all, the economic value that slaves can bring far exceeds all treasures. Now that he has opened this gap, the trend of interests will cause future rulers to constantly launch wars for slaves. Until society progresses to the point where slavery needs to be abolished, or the dynasty changes. Otherwise, with the University of Tokyo's thousand-year-long technological dominance, almost no nation can stop the University of Tokyo's expansion. Of course, he did not judge whether this was good or bad, and left the merits and demerits to future generations to judge. But one thing is certain, conflicts that can be transferred abroad should not be handled within the Han Dynasty. Involution will only bring internal friction, and only outward expansion is the right thing to do! Thinking of this, he looked at Lu Xun who hadn't said a word and said: "Bo Yan said nothing. Could it be that he felt that this was not feasible?" Upon hearing this, Lu Xun looked as if he had just woken up from a dream and said: "No, your proposal is a great boon to Jiangdong." "I was just thinking about the way the Lord governs the country. It's really thought-provoking." "It seems that all the princes in the world today, after taking over a piece of land, all try to pacify the various places as quickly as possible and recruit soldiers and horses for expansion!" "The government's policies are completely different. He seems to prefer to be outward-looking, but his results are no worse than theirs!" "When I see you act like this, I feel refreshed and always think about the reason behind it!" Of course, he did not disagree with Qin Zhen's strategy. On the contrary, he felt that Qin Zhen's strategy was extremely effective.

But there was one thing he couldn't figure out. In the past, the policies of governing the country were mainly based on benevolence, striving to subdue the barbarians and educate the people. But Qin Zhen acted in the opposite way. He did not talk about benevolent governance, and even tolerated crimes. He only sought practical benefits. It seems to be contrary to the moral standards of Confucianism, but it can solve the problem. This made him feel that there seemed to be something wrong with the words of the saints that he had learned in the past. When Qin Zhen heard him say this, he smiled slightly and nodded secretly. The fact that Lu Xun thought this way clearly showed that he was aware of the difference between Confucian culture and the culture of a powerful country. Confucian culture is introverted, emphasizing bullying one's own people and restraining oneself. However, the culture of a strong country is extroverted, focusing on a bandit logic and bullying outsiders. This logic may seem shameless, but it led to the rapid rise of a number of powerful countries in later generations. What he has to do is to guide the changes in the current culture until the Han Dynasty is completely transformed. Since Lu Xun was able to realize this, he was obviously a good candidate. "Bo Yan can have such insights, which shows that his future is limitless!" "Since both of you think this is feasible, then our army can move!" At that moment, he said a few words and asked Gu Yong to draft a document to convey his ideas to the gentry of Wu County. So in May of the fourth year of Jian'an, that is, after Qin Zhen became the prefect of Wujun, Wujun launched a vigorous reform movement. As the government announced Qin Zhen's order to all counties, the people immediately applauded and told each other the news. It seemed that everyone was celebrating the policy of allocating land tax according to the amount of land issued by the new governor! In contrast, the aristocratic families in Wu County seemed somewhat silent. Faced with the policy of measuring land, the major aristocratic families chose to cooperate unconditionally. Of course, there were some who resisted, but most of them were just small landowners. After Qin Zhen exiled four families, the resistance in the entire Wu County suddenly died down. In June, Qin Zhen sent letters to all counties, announcing that the six counties in Jiangdong would implement the policy of dividing the land tax by the land. For a time, the people of the six counties cheered, and a large number of tenants gave up their rent and became citizens. Within a month, the population of the six counties increased by more than 100,000 people. Correspondingly, a large amount of occupied land was also discovered. Faced with this situation, different county magistrates handled it in different ways. For example, Lu Su, Zhuge Jin, Yu Fan and others chose to reclaim the land and not pursue responsibility. However, Taishi Ci, Zhao Yun and others chose to kill the chicken to scare the monkey. A total of 23 wealthy and powerful families were dealt with in succession, and thousands of people were exiled to join the army. Naturally, these solutions were suggested by Qin Zhen himself in a letter. Because compared with Wujun, Danyang, Yuzhang and other places, Luling, Kuaiji and other counties were not acquired through war and had a dense population. In these places, the powerful families with considerable power may not necessarily be convinced by them.

Therefore, it is necessary to go through a cleansing and blood transfusion before the situation can be completely stabilized. This policy obviously caused a lot of trouble in Kuaiji, Luling and other places. At that time, there were tens of thousands of rebels from aristocratic families, and at the same time, they also won over hundreds of thousands of Shanyue people. At one time, a large number of complaint documents were sent to Shouchun like snowflakes. Among them, there were officials who privately impeached Qin Zhen for his disorderly government, which caused rumors of rebellion in Jiangdong. Faced with this situation, Liu Bei suppressed all his concerns and even wrote a letter to Qin Zhen himself, saying: "Your policy of allocating land tax to each acre in Jiangdong is indeed a good policy. You don't need to worry too much." "I have discussed with Yao Qing, Yuan Ying and others, and will gradually implement it in Huainan, Xuzhou and other places next year!" "As for the matter of the Jiangnan rebellion, I have already entrusted it to you. Don't disappoint me!" This letter clearly expressed a clear attitude towards the chaos in Jiangdong, which was to quell it with force. After receiving the letter, Qin Zhen immediately sent letters to various places, mobilized troops and generals, and led Zhao Yun and Taishi Ci to suppress the rebellion. Wei Yan, He Qi, Sun Ben, Sun Fu, Xu Kun and other generals were dispatched to lead troops into the mountains to divide the Shanyue people and prevent them from responding. On this basis, Qin Zhen invited many scholars from Jiangdong to serve in the government to stabilize the situation. Such as Zhu Huan of the Zhu family, Lu Xun of the Lu family, Zhang Yun of the Zhang family, and Wu Fen of the Wu family. In addition, Sun Ce's former officials Quan Rou and Shi Yi, as well as people from Kuaiji such as Kan Ze and Liu Zan, also came to surrender. In less than a month, under his soft and hard approach, the rebellion in Kuaiji was put down, and the powerful families did not dare to get angry and complain. The situation in Jiangdong returned to normal again, and a large number of people returned home. At that time, the population of Jiangdong exceeded million, and a large number of labor forces were liberated. When Qin Zhen saw this, he followed the story of Huainan and settled the people while building workshops. Hundreds of workshops were built at the same time, heralding the beginning of Jiangnan's industry. In order to ensure timely benefits, he built a large number of sea salt factories in Louxian and Haiyan. Even between the two cities, a new port was opened, named Haishi. This port also became a gathering place for merchants from the entire Jiangdong region, with merchant ships coming and going every day. Over time, it became a new city, and this city was Shanghai in later generations. Of course, these are all stories for later. Just as Qin Zhen was making drastic moves in the south, a war broke out in the north. Compared with the sneak attack on Yecheng in the original story, Cao Cao in this timeline was more proactive. In April of the fourth year of Jian'an, Cao Cao led his troops into Hedong County and confronted Yuan Shao's army head-on. In this battle, Cao Cao defeated Gao Gan in one fell swoop, killed the county governor Wang Yi, and seized control of Hedong County. This move was tantamount to declaring war on Yuan Shao directly, so Yuan Shao personally led his army south and fought against Cao Cao in Hedong.

In June, Yuan Shao followed Ju Su's advice and ordered his general Guo Yuan to go south to attract Cao Cao's attention. He personally led his troops on a forced march, intending to launch a surprise attack on Hanoi and cut off Cao Cao's retreat route. Unexpectedly, Cao Cao learned about this in advance and ordered Zhong Yao and Ma Chao to ambush at Fen River. He personally led Xiahou Yuan and sent cavalry to march 200 miles a day to reinforce Hanoi. After this arrangement, when Guo Yuan was crossing the Fen River, he was attacked by Ma Chao halfway across the river and was eventually defeated and beheaded. Yuan Shao led his troops to Hanoi and attempted a surprise attack, but was met with a head-on attack from Cao Cao. Faced with this situation, Yuan Shao had no choice but to return to Yecheng and at the same time mobilize troops to prepare for a decisive battle with Cao Cao. After Cao Cao won the victory, he ordered Zhong Yao to defend Hedong and led his troops to rush towards Xuchang. For a time, the whole world fell into turmoil again, and a war was about to break out. . (End of this chapter)