Chapter 312: Nanping Shanyue, plotting against Jiaozhou "So, Cao Cao not only successfully moved the capital this time, but also forced our army to join the war?" Jiangdong, Wujun, Qin Zhen looked at the letter in front of him and smiled at Kong Ming who delivered the letter: "I'm afraid Cao Mengde must have received help from an expert this time, otherwise how could he have accomplished this?" Facing Qin Zhen's sigh, Zhuge Liang said with an expression of deep agreement: "That's why Cao Cao was able to break the situation despite internal and external troubles this time." "Not only is it difficult to resolve the two issues now, but our army is also forced to send troops." "It can be seen that the person who planned for Cao Cao this time is not an ordinary person!" After hearing this, Qin Zhen turned his head and looked at Zhou Yu standing beside him and said with a smile: "I wonder what Gongjin thinks of this battle, and who will win?" Zhou Yu, who was beside him, heard this and said sternly: "Since you have made your decision, why do you have to ask even though you already know the answer?"

After saying this, seeing that Qin Zhen was still smiling at him, he felt helpless: "From Yuan Shao's decision this time, we can see that he is a foolish man." "It is difficult for this man to fight against Cao Cao, let alone with the help of the Lord." "From this perspective, Yuan Shao will definitely lose this battle, and Cao Cao will definitely win!" After he finished speaking, Qin Zhen nodded and said: "Gongjin's opinion is the same as mine. Yuan Shao will most likely lose this battle!" As he said this, he turned back to look at Zhuge Liang and said: "I wonder what Mr. Ming thinks, and what do Zi Yang and the others think?" Seeing him asking questions, Zhuge Liang immediately bowed and answered: "To be honest, sir, Liu Ziyang and others have also discussed this matter." "The result is the same as both of you. Yuan Shao is probably no match for you." "So the lord was worried that the main force of our army could not be moved, and was afraid that the military advisor would lack support, so he asked me to go south to assist in the administration!" That’s right, Zhuge Liang was sent by Liu Bei to help Qin Zhen. The reason for this can be traced back to the previous unrest in Jiangdong. As mentioned earlier, before the beginning of autumn, Qin Zhen discussed with Gu Yong and Lu Xun about the expedition against the Shanyue. At that time, Jiangdong was still stable, and Qin Zhen took the opportunity to implement the tax-sharing system. These nobles were used to living in remote areas and felt that the emperor was far away. When Sun Ce was in power, he often pretended to obey orders but actually disobeyed them. Sun Ce himself was keen on expansion and had no intention of dealing with these remote people. Therefore, over time, the nobles and the Shanyue people colluded with each other and wanted to cause chaos from time to time. Seeing this situation, Qin Zhen took the opportunity of implementing the new policy to incite everyone to rebel.

As a result, this battle not only cleared the southern part of Kuaiji, but also liberated a large number of labor forces. If it were someone else, they would definitely take time to digest it, but Qin Zhen was different. While Lao Cao was making plans in the capital, Qin Zhen turned his attention to the Shanyue people in Danyang. According to the strategy he had previously told Gu Yong, Lu Xun and others, a total of 30,000 troops were mobilized into the mountains. They entered Poyang, She, Yi, Qiantang and other places where the Shanyue people were entrenched and stationed there. While the weather is hot, build defenses and wait for autumn to come. When the Shanyue leaders saw this, they knew that Qin Zhen intended to destroy them, so they went out to fight in an attempt to repel Qin Zhen's troops. Unexpectedly, Qin Zhen's method was completely different from the past. He adopted a defensive stance in the face of the attack! But once they retreated and sent people out to farm, they would be hunted down. For two consecutive months, the Shanyue people did not gain any benefits, but instead Qin Zhen captured a large number of Shanyue people. When Qin Zhen saw this, he handed the strong and healthy people over to Gao Shun for training, and sent the weak ones back to their hometowns to farm. This continued until August, when the autumn harvest season arrived and the generals sent out troops to harvest the grain. At the end of the month, they obtained more than 400,000 shi of grain and captured thousands of civilians. When he arrived here, Qin Zhen obtained a large amount of food and supplies, and began to order a full-scale attack. The Shanyue people in the mountains were already short of food and fodder, and most of them were short of food at this time. Seeing that Qin Zhen was launching an all-out attack, they had no chance of reaching their destination and their army was instantly routed. After this battle, the Shanyue Peng clan was wiped out, and the Danyang bandit leaders Fei Zhan, Li Yu, Wang Hai, Chen Pu and others were beheaded one after another. Qin Zhen wiped out tens of thousands of Shanyue people at the cost of less than 3,000 people. The total number of captured Shanyue soldiers was over 20,000, and the number of civilians was nearly 90,000. With so many laborers at once, Qin Zhen's subordinates were very busy. People like Gu Yong, Lu Xun and others are busy every day. Seeing this, Qin Zhen wrote another letter to Lao Liu, asking him to transfer officials to the south to govern the people. At this time, news came from the north that Yuan Shao had assassinated the king. When Liu Bei saw this, he knew that he could no longer mobilize troops against Cao Cao, so he simply ordered Zang Ba to attack Qingzhou. His main force continued to stay in Huainan to recuperate. Unexpectedly, they received a letter from Qin Zhen, requesting additional manpower. Seeing that Qin Zhen not only suppressed the rebellion, but also wiped out many Shanyue leaders, Liu Bei was overjoyed and said: "I have long heard that the Shanyue people in the south of the Yangtze River are a threat, and the imperial court is unable to control them."

"Why is it that with the military advisor there, it is so easy to attack?" At that time, Zhang Zhao, Zhang Hong and others were by his side. After hearing Qin Zhen's method of governing the Shanyue, they were all surprised. It should be noted that the Shanyue people live deep in the mountains and are extremely difficult to wipe out. It's okay at normal times, but once autumn and winter come, the Shanyue people will come down the mountain to plunder. When their troops arrive, the Shanyue people will retreat back into the mountains. Therefore, even Sun Ce had little way to deal with the Shanyue people. Who would have thought that Qin Zhen would do the opposite and directly attack the Shanyue people. Although the Shanyue people live in the mountains, they still have to farm! Qin Zhen's method of wiping out the Shanyue people was simply a dimensionality reduction attack. So after thinking for a moment, Zhang Zhao suggested to Liu Bei: "The method implemented by Qin Jun is indeed the best policy and can be fully implemented." "If all our military counties and prefectures adopt this strategy, we can wipe out the Shanyue in five years at most." "Not only will all the counties be safe, but you will also gain tens of thousands of soldiers!" Upon hearing this, Liu Bei readily agreed and immediately issued a military order to inform all places to use Qin Zhen's method to fight the enemy. After issuing the military order, he thought that since he had to recuperate, Zhuge Liang had no place to use his talents for the time being, so he might as well transfer him to Qin Zhen! Liu Bei now had more talents in domestic affairs. Chen Qun and Zhang Zhao could basically handle 90% of the things. Not to mention that he now has administrative talents such as Liu Fu and Luo Jun under his command. Although Zhuge Liang was a genius, he was still too young. Rather than continuing to stay by his side, it would be better to transfer him to Qin Zhen to govern. After making the decision, he asked Zhuge Liang to bring Jiang Gan and other young scholars south to help. As a result, after going around in circles, Zhuge Liang returned to Qin Zhen's army. At the same time, under Qin Zhen's persistent persuasion, Zhou Yu finally came out of seclusion. But compared to Kong Ming, Zhou Yu was still somewhat reluctant, with a bit of the attitude of a proud and spoiled young wife. Seeing this, Qin Zhen naturally wouldn't tolerate it, since he was thick-skinned anyway. Although Zhou Yu was a man of great talent, he was thin-skinned and was no match for him. Therefore, even if Zhou Yu had some grudges, he would be completely bullied in front of him. After hearing what Kong Ming meant, Qin Zhen couldn't help thinking: If one can get either Crouching Dragon or Phoenix Chick, the world can be at peace. But now the Phoenix Chick hasn't come yet, but he has already gathered the Yu Liang group. With these two in hand, governing the small Jiangdong wouldn't be a piece of cake, right? Thinking about this, he smiled slightly, shook Zhuge Liang's hand and said; "I was worried that I had no one to use under my command, and Kong Ming came at the right time."

"When I am familiar with Jiangdong's politics, I will need Kong Ming to implement it when I send troops in the future!" Zhuge Liang was naturally delighted to return to Qin Zhen's place, but when he heard that Qin Zhen was going to send troops again, he could not help but exclaimed: "Sir, you have been fighting for more than a year since last year. Why are you sending troops again now?" As he said this, he seemed to have seen another side of Qin Zhen. Before, he only saw Qin Zhen loving the people and governing the country, so he thought that although Qin Zhen was good at fighting, he was not warlike. Now it seems that he, this gentleman, is a war maniac at heart! You know, starting from the second year of Jian'an, Qin Zhen had to go to war almost every few months. This year in particular, Qin Zhen has been fighting almost from January to now! First attack Lu Bu, then attack Sun Ce, then quell the rebellion, and then pacify Shanyue. After finally getting some time to recuperate, Qin Zhen wants to go to war again? No matter where you want to hit, the frequency is a bit too high! However, as soon as he asked the question, he saw Qin Zhen shook his head and smiled, explaining: "We are not going to war anywhere, but to fight against the enemy and clear the way for the pacification of Jiaozhou!" To pacify Jiaozhou was the strategic goal he set for Liu Bei at the very beginning. In fact, if we could be more patient, there would be no need to send troops to pacify Jiaozhou. Because the current Jiaozhou governor Zhang Jin is ambitious but incompetent, if history does not change, he will not live for many more years. In the original story, after Zhang Jin's death, Liu Biao appointed Lai Gong as successor, but he was expelled by Wu Ju. Eventually, Sun Quan sent Bu Zhi to serve as the governor of Jiaozhou and peacefully took over control of Jiaozhou. But now it is at least four years before Zhang Jin’s death! However, Jiaozhou is not as simple as it seems. Its actual control is actually in the hands of the Shi family. The area of ​​Jiaozhou in this era was extremely large, covering Guangdong, Guangxi, Vietnam and other places in later generations. The Shi family was the local tyrant of Jiaozhou. Its head was named Shi Xie, who was the governor of Jiaozhi. There were a total of nine counties in Jiaozhou, and Shi Xie and his brothers occupied four of them. Because of his high prestige in Jiaozhou, Shi Xie was even dubbed the "King of Scholars" by later generations. Because of this, after Shi Xie's death, his son Shi Hui directly betrayed Sun Quan. Therefore, when it comes to pacifying Jiaozhou, Qin Zhen was more inclined to rule by direct force. Starting with the navy, naval bases were first established in Yizhou, Zhuyazhou and other places. After the navy matures, we will use the navy's advantage to land in Jiaozhi and seize Jiaozhou. One advantage of this approach is that once the navy matures, they will be able to plunder a large amount of wealth and population from Southeast Asia. Even after taking Jingzhou and Yizhou, we can try to land on the Indian Peninsula.

He naturally did not expect to seize these territories in his short lifetime. But he believed that as long as he could make this start, future generations would realize the rich land in the South. Sooner or later, the Han army will march westward and seize these arable lands. After all, the Han Dynasty has never lacked the passion to expand its territory. There are only two reasons why it did not expand. Either the dynasty had passed its heyday and was unable to expand; or these lands had no value. Compared to the thousands of kilometers of barren land in the Western Regions, the south is obviously more attractive! According to the nature of the University of Tokyo, wherever you set foot now will be regarded as a unified land in the future. Even if they face disintegration again in the future, there will be people who regard these "homelands" as places that must be fought for. Just like Jiaozhou at this time, it was clearly the land of Baiyue during the Qin Dynasty. But in the Han Dynasty, it became an integral part of the dynasty! Qin Zhen naturally didn't want to miss out on such an opportunity to expand territory! At his current position, he no longer needs too many practical benefits to live. What is most important is actually posthumous reputation and historical contribution. Even if he would be branded as a warmonger in the future, he was willing to fight for more benefits for the Han Dynasty. To achieve this, we must clear the obstacles along the way. So he would try to sail south as soon as the new sea-going ships were built. When Zhuge Liang heard this, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief and said: "So that's how it is. The student is still thinking that the master wants to start another war." "If you just want to defeat the bandits, then that's fine. I will help you with all my might!" He was not worried about Qin Zhen's plan to attack Jiaozhou. After all, Qin Zhen had fought his way through a sea of ​​blood and corpses, so it wouldn't be difficult to attack Jiaozhou. As for whether Jiaozhou can be defended, there is no need to doubt it at all. Not to mention Qin Zhen going there in person, even if he only sent Gan Ning, it would be a bully. But as he said this, Qin Zhen showed a mysterious smile and said: "Oh, by the way, there is one more person Kong Ming must meet!" "Come with me, I will take you there!" After saying this, without waiting for Zhuge Liang to refuse, he pulled Zhuge Liang out of the county government. (End of this chapter)