Chapter 130 Invincible Place
Youzhou, Ji County.
After being away for a long time, and although they hardly fought any battles but just followed the other princes and waved flags and cheered, the soldiers under Tian Ze were still quite tired.
After arriving in Ji County, Tian Ze gave them a vacation for a while and let them go home to rest.
Tian Ze did not dare to delay for even a moment. He just washed up that night and slept with Mi Zhen in his arms.
The next day, he immediately summoned his civil and military officials to discuss the matter together.
At this time, among the military generals, Zhang Liao, Zhang He, Taishi Ci, Zhou Tai, Qu Yi, and Guan Hai were still fighting against the Eastern Xianbei in the northeastern plain, while Xu Rong, Zang Ba, and Ling Cao were pacifying the refugees and guarding the remaining states.
As for the civil officials, Zhang Zhao, Guo Yuan, Man Chong, Mi Zhu and Tian Chou were all busy in various places with the resettlement of refugees and the development of the Northeast Plain.
Nearly half of Tian Ze's forces were tied up by many internal matters and were unable to come.
Seeing this situation, Tian Ze couldn't help but sigh.
It seems that, as Guo Jia said, this is indeed not a good time to take Jizhou and completely eliminate Yuan Shao.
"Gongtai, what have you gained during this period?" Tian Ze asked with a smile as he looked at the busy crowd.
"My lord, thanks to Zang Ba's outstanding performance in Qingzhou and the convenience of your identity in the alliance, we have recruited more than five million refugees in the past year!"
"Now, we have about 21 million people under our rule!" Chen Gong took a deep breath and excitedly said this number that shocked him.
You know, even during the heyday of the Han Dynasty, the population on the surface was only about 60 million. Even if many hidden households were included, the total population could not exceed 80 million.
The population under Tazawa's rule now exceeds a quarter.
When this number was mentioned, even Tian Ze felt it was a bit dreamy.
"More than 20 million people!" Tian Ze murmured to himself, with uncontrollable excitement in his eyes.
Even when the Eastern Han Dynasty was founded, the population was probably about the same!
Although these populations were mainly obtained by sucking the "blood stasis" of the Eastern Han Dynasty, it is still enough to be proud of.
However, everything has two sides. Although Tian Ze's action rapidly strengthened his own strength, it also largely solved the problems of refugees and land annexation in the world.
Because of the decrease in population, the food shortage problem in the world at this time was greatly alleviated compared to the end of the Han Dynasty.
The most prominent manifestation was that there were fewer bandits causing chaos in various places, more people were content to farm, and the treasuries of various princes were filled with too much grain.
The adverse impact of the large number of refugees is extremely terrifying and is growing almost exponentially.
The refugees in one village cannot survive and run to another village to cause trouble, which will make it impossible for the other village to farm in peace. Everyone will be in danger and they will soon become refugees in two villages.
If this continues, the damage will snowball and be incalculable.
Although Tian Ze's act of attracting refugees was out of selfish motives, it also created immeasurable merits.
As a result, the princes of this period did not suffer from the same food shortage and hardship as in the previous period, and they could recruit soldiers and horses. To some extent, it could be regarded as aiding the enemy.
"What about the resettlement of these people?" Tian Ze asked.
"It is estimated that it will take more than three months to properly resettle them, and about a year to barely digest them."
"Most of them were settled in Xingzhou, and the rest were scattered in the other six states except Youzhou and Liaozhou." Chen Gong said.
The population distribution in Kyushu under Tian Ze's rule is extremely uneven. Liaozhou has too many people, so there is only outflow but no inflow. Xingzhou, which occupies the core area of the Northeast Plain, urgently needs a large population for development and is the main direction of population migration.
Because Youzhou was adjacent to the war zone, Tianze did not settle too many people there, which also helped to avoid exposing its own strength to a certain extent.
Tian Ze knew the principle of making a fortune in silence, so he chose to isolate Youzhou from the outside world as much as possible. While strictly inspecting the borders of Youzhou adjacent to Bingzhou and Jizhou, he also inspected the borders of Youzhou with Xingzhou and Liaozhou.
Although I know that even if I do this, I probably won't be able to keep it a secret for long, but I'd rather keep it a secret for a while.
Especially at this moment, when the world is in chaos and the princes have not yet completely torn their faces apart and fought to the death. Once exposed too early, it will inevitably become the target of public criticism and be besieged by the princes.
"How is the defense of Youzhou?"
Cheng Yu pointed to the map of Youzhou on the wall and said, "In order to ensure the safety of Youzhou, we have taken into account the possibility of invasion from the Western Xianbei, Central Xianbei, and Southern Xiongnu, and the recent movement in Jizhou."
"We will concentrate our forces mainly in Dai County, Shanggu County, and Zhuo County, totaling 60,000 troops. In addition, there are nearly 50,000 troops stationed in various states."
"How many troops do we have left to mobilize?" Tian Ze asked.
"About eighty thousand."
"How many soldiers does Jizhou have?"
Cheng Yu frowned slightly: "Jizhou should have more than 100,000 soldiers and horses now."
"But Jizhou has a prosperous population and abundant food and grass. According to the data on the surface, there are more than 5 million civilians. If we recruit soldiers with all our strength, it should not be a problem to mobilize 300,000 troops."
After hearing this, Tian Ze completely gave up.
He knew that what Cheng Yu said was conservative. With the capabilities of the Jizhou family, as long as he attacked, this group of people would be forced into a corner, and it would not be a problem for him to mobilize an army of 500,000.
He also had some understanding of the ratio of soldiers to civilians at the end of the Han Dynasty. By the end of the Three Kingdoms period, the ratio of soldiers to civilians in Wei, Shu and Wu could reach about 1:10.
Moreover, Jizhou has a solid foundation and is not short of money and food. Even if all the young and strong men are sent to the battlefield, it is estimated that they can hold out for one or two years. "Expand the army!" Tian Ze gritted his teeth.
"We are now more than capable of defending but less capable of conquering. In this case, we will not fight in Jizhou and focus on development first. We now have nearly 50 million people. We will first expand the army to and then plan for the future."
"Yes!" Cheng Yu said excitedly.
But I still feel a little regretful. If the lord had more courage, it would be great to directly expand the army to one million.
Tian Ze naturally knew Cheng Yu's thoughts, but Liaodong had developed too fast in recent years. Although the pressure on money and grain was not great, the people's hearts and strength needed to be stabilized, the newly settled refugees needed to rest, and the Northeast Plain needed to be developed.
The 500,000-strong army is already close to the bottom line of Chen Gong and others.
Moreover, the army's training management and subsequent maintenance and layoffs are all problems. It is impossible to recruit too many troops. The soldier-to-civilian ratio of 1 to 40 is already relatively high.
What's more, an army that is too large will also bring many problems and challenges, which the generals and commanders may find difficult to bear.
Tian Ze and Yuan Shao took different paths. Yuan Shao was able to raise a large army without caring about people's livelihood because he adopted a model of deep cooperation with aristocratic families, and his goal was only to unify the world.
The development models of the princes in the late Han Dynasty were different, but fundamentally they all dealt with the relationship with the aristocratic families, and can be roughly classified into three models.
The first one is a deep cooperation model that mainly relies on the aristocratic families, represented by Yuan Shao, Liu Biao, Sun Quan, etc.
The advantage is that the interests of the aristocratic family are deeply tied to one's own, the power under one's command can grow rapidly and the rule is relatively stable.
The disadvantage is that there are conflicts of interest between the noble families, and they cannot fully serve the princes. When the wind is favorable, they are prone to internal hindrance, and when the wind is unfavorable, they are prone to give up and surrender. In the long run, there are too many hidden dangers.
Because the aristocratic families are not concerned about whether the princes can win, but what they can get.
When Yuan Shao was in a good situation, internal struggles were extremely fierce, which led to any decision-making requiring careful consideration and compromise, and extremely low efficiency. After Liu Biao died, Jingzhou surrendered without resistance.
Sun Quan was also nearly in the same situation before the Battle of Chibi, and it was all thanks to Zhou Yu's survival and factors such as plague and natural dangers. Later, when he expanded abroad, he repeatedly failed to attack Hefei, largely because the noble families under his rule were unwilling to do their best and the internal struggle between the Jiangdong faction and the Jiangbei faction.
In the long run, the Jin Dynasty of the Sima family is a typical negative example.
The second is a semi-cooperative model of moderately allying with the aristocratic families, both winning them over and secretly suppressing and restricting them. The representative forces are Cao Cao in the early and middle periods and Liu Bei in part of the period.
The advantages are that the development speed and stability under governance are relatively high, and the party still retains relatively strong control, and the decision-making efficiency and execution are relatively high.
The disadvantage is that it is difficult to operate, requires high political ability of the princes themselves, and it is difficult to obtain full support from the noble families when dealing with the first mode. It also has some of the defects of the first mode. When Cao Cao and Yuan Shao were fighting, many of the noble families under his command wanted to surrender to the enemy, but fortunately, the military power was still in Cao Cao's hands.
The third type is the solo model in which there is little or no cooperation with the aristocratic families, represented by Sun Ce and Gongsun Zan.
The advantage is absolute initiative and control, but the disadvantage is that this is basically a dead end, especially not suitable for fighting for hegemony in troubled times. You will be at an absolute disadvantage at the beginning, unless you can dominate the world with absolute power.
Gongsun Zan is a typical example of the opposite. He was very powerful at the beginning and Yuan Shao almost died at his hands. But once he was defeated, he was basically finished.
Because of the support of the aristocratic families, Yuan Shao became stronger and stronger, but because he had no foundation, he became weaker and weaker, and the gap between the two sides became larger and larger.
In fact, Tian Ze speculated that Yuan Shao during the Battle of Guandu should have wanted to switch from the first mode to the second mode.
Because at that time he had an absolute advantage, Cao Cao was on his last legs, and unifying the north and the whole country was within reach. Even if he lost, he could just come back again, since he had a strong foundation.
At that time, Cao Cao was surrounded by enemies, internally unstable, and there were rebellions everywhere. Even if he kept losing, he could eventually wear Cao Cao down.
Moreover, after several years of development, he has already gained control of a certain amount of military power, and has suffered enough from the infighting among the aristocratic families. He has been restricted everywhere and has missed many opportunities.
But he failed. The Yingchuan families under his command collectively surrendered to Cao Cao, and Zhang He, Gao Lan and others were also ostracized and betrayed by local families.
But in fact, he had not lost at that time. The key to his loss was that he did not live long enough and in the end he did not make up his mind who to make his queen.
Tian Ze undoubtedly chose the third mode, but he was absolutely sure because he had too much time to develop, and he had magic to help him, so he had a solid foundation, and he had no shortage of talents, land, population, and food.
In terms of development, all other princes combined are not as strong as him, because the noble families are all selfish. So he does not need to rush into a quick battle or go all in, but can achieve the final victory by slowly consuming and eroding.
All in one has risks after all, and you can still lose even if you use a flying dragon to hit your face. What's more, Tian Ze has his own goal of governing the world, so it's better to be cautious.
"How's the progress on Wenyuan's side?" Tian Ze continued to ask.
"The Northeast Plain is basically under our control. Only a few stubborn Xianbei tribes are left fleeing everywhere, but they are not a big problem. They can be completely resolved in less than three months."
"Because the Great Xianbei Mountain is too high and long, the advancement speed is a little slow, but the war can be ended before the end of the year. The Great Wall, checkpoints and fortresses in various places can also be initially built and completed, so the lord's important matters will not be delayed." Cheng Yu said.
"Zi Bu, Zi Ni and others are planning farmland and pastures in the Northeast Plain, and are planning village construction and resettlement of refugees."
"However, there are mostly swamp forests there. It will take a long time and involve a lot of energy to develop it. It may take a million people ten years to develop it." Chen Gong said with some hesitation.
Although he was more inclined to the development of the Northeast Plain, he still told Tian Ze the situation and difficulties truthfully.
Tian Ze's magic can adjust the soil quality and create excellent arable land, but it cannot change the terrain on a large scale. Therefore, the importance of the Northeast Plain, which has an extremely favorable geographical environment, is still beyond doubt.
However, the swamp forests everywhere are too difficult to develop. Even with Liaodong's organizational mobilization capabilities, it would take nearly ten years to invest millions of refugees, and the continued investment during this period would be a terrifying number.
"It's okay. Qin built the Zhengguo Canal and destroyed the six kingdoms. The development of the Northeast Plain is imperative. I can afford these costs." Tian Ze said solemnly.
The Northeast Plain may be a burden for a while, but it not only means that they will be invincible and can increase military and food supplies without restraint, but it will also benefit the present and future generations.
(End of this chapter)
