Chapter 185 The Curtain Rises
Nearly a year has passed in a flash, and it is now the fourth year of Chuping. After the various princes experienced several major wars last year and established their own bases, they all chose to recuperate.
Tian Ze was busy dealing with internal affairs, so he postponed the first ranking of the 100 families to two years later, intending to carry it out after verifying the effectiveness of the aristocratic families under his rule in governing the Northeast.
Because of Ju Zheng's operation, many aristocratic families chose to cooperate with the scholars in the Jixia Academy and aristocratic families all over the world. People from hundreds of schools of thought have already entered the market in advance, so this matter is no longer urgent.
After all, in this situation, even if the competition was opened, it would be difficult for the hundreds of families to gather enough manpower to develop the Northeast Plain.
The world has fallen into a rare period of calm, but everyone knows that this is just the calm before the storm, and major wars are brewing.
……
"Military Advisor, we have recruited too many soldiers. We can't afford to support them! Why don't we lay off some of them?"
This was the nth time Wei Xu had raised this question.
There were only more than 300,000 Han people in Bingzhou, but they had to support nearly 50,000 soldiers, which was equivalent to mobilizing all the young and strong people. The money and food were consumed like water over the past year.
Moreover, the cavalry among them can at least play some role. Capturing some barbarians and bringing them back can be considered a side job.
However, those infantrymen were constantly training every day, and so much money, food and meat were being devoured as if they were free. The greedy Wei Xu really couldn't stand it.
Li Ru glanced at the idiot indifferently. The coldness in his eyes made Wei Xu suddenly silent and stopped talking.
Just kidding, when Lu Bu was under Dong Zhuo, he had seen how the man in front of him disciplined his generals. At that time, Li Ru's cough was enough to scare him, and he was not even qualified to let Li Ru take a second look at him.
Seeing this, the other generals remained silent.
In Lu Bu's army, although Lu Bu was the lord, Li Ru, the military advisor, had an equally important status. In many cases, Li Ru's words were more effective than Lu Bu's.
At this time, Lu Bu was also a little worried and said: "Wenyou, what Wei Xu said does make sense. It is not a solution for us to continue to waste our resources and waste our resources!"
Although Lu Bu was cold-hearted by nature, he had some brains. He knew that he and Li Ru would prosper and suffer together, so he respected and relied on Li Ru very much.
Moreover, he had been under Dong Zhuo for a long time and had witnessed Li Ru's terrifying wisdom and strategy. He had already been impressed by him and instinctively chose to obey him.
In fact, to some extent, Li Ru happens to be the most suitable adviser for Lu Bu.
Lu Bu is like a somewhat willful child. Unlike Chen Gong in the novel who is like a patriarch who dotes on his child, Li Ru is more like a majestic teacher.
Lu Bu generally would not refute Li Ru's decisions, but he had an army of 50,000, including 20,000 elite cavalry. Their daily meat supply, training, and food and salary were extremely high. It was said that they were a simplified version of the Youzhou Army.
When he was under Dong Zhuo, the Bingzhou Army had never enjoyed such treatment. The money and food spent over the past year were enough to support more than 100,000 ordinary soldiers.
The most important thing is that Bingzhou has little population! Although the people's livelihood has been pretty good this year, the tax revenue can't support such a large consumption. It would be good if it can be equal to 20%.
The only way to survive was to exchange the Hu people for money and food from Tian Ze. But in the past year or so, almost all the Hu people in Bingzhou have been captured, and this month's income is less than half of last month. If this continues, it will be gone sooner or later.
Li Ru drank a sip of tea and asked calmly, "My Lord, the money and food in our treasury are enough to last through this year."
"What about next year?" Lu Bu said helplessly.
"Next year." Li Ru's eyes darkened: "I'm afraid we may not be able to survive until next year."
"Tian Chengshou will definitely attack before the beginning of autumn this year. At the earliest, there will be movement after the beginning of spring."
Li Ru knew very well that Bingzhou was not a place to start a business. He would recruit as many soldiers as he could based on the money and food he had and try to survive first.
As for the future, there is no time to think about it. It is hard to survive the present. Keeping the money and grain is equivalent to returning them to Tian Ze. How can we do such a stupid thing?
Even if we run out of food, what can we do? We can ask for help. Can Yuan Shao just watch? If he dares not to give me money and food, I will surrender to Tian Ze.
Li Ru had a clear understanding of the military and political situation in Bingzhou.
Upon hearing this, Lu Bu and others looked solemn.
They knew very well how strong Tian Chengshou was. Some time ago, as the Hu people in Bingzhou continued to shrink, they inevitably came into contact with the cavalry under Tian Ze during their expedition. Although both sides were restrained and no conflict occurred, they both felt the strength of the other side through various performances.
What worried Lu Bu the most was that their military strength was too small. Even if they gathered all the young and strong men in the state, they would only have an army of 50,000.
"Military Advisor, you are not kidding." Wei Xulue asked with some fear.
Now, he hoped that Li Ru did this just to scare him. He had finally lived a stable life and made some money, but he hadn't enjoyed it yet, and now he said that Tian Chengshou was going to call.
Li Ru didn't even look at the idiot and said directly.
"The reason why Tian Chengshou and Yuan Benchu had a truce was to stabilize the internal situation. After all, he had just acquired a large number of people and territories, which required time to digest."
"Now, according to the intelligence I have gathered, he has almost digested all the information during this period of time. He can now send out troops again, and he is preparing for battle."
"There are only two routes from Youzhou to the south, one is Bingzhou and the other is Jizhou. Which one do you think he will choose?"
Once these words were spoken, everyone's hope for luck was completely shattered.
Yuan Shao of Jizhou had a deep foundation, hundreds of thousands of soldiers, brave generals like clouds and wise counselors like rain, sufficient food and fodder, and complete weapons and armor.
There is no doubt who Tian Chengshou will attack.
"Wenyou, what plan do you have?" Lu Bu asked with a slight headache.
He had finally returned to Bingzhou and had just conquered Wuyuan County. At this point, his life had reached its peak and he was living a very comfortable life. He really didn't want to wander around anymore.
After wandering in Chang'an for so long, he felt more and more deeply that Bingzhou was his home after he came back.
"There are only three options: fight, surrender, or escape." Li Ru said calmly.
"Whether you surrender or flee, you have to fight first. Since you have to fight, then do your best to contact all parties to fight together."
After learning about the situation under Tian Ze's rule, Li Ru no longer had much hope of winning, and he didn't even dare to think about whether he could counterattack Youzhou after winning.
There are no less than 3 million people in Youzhou, and all the young and strong are undergoing regular military training. With Tian Ze's organizational strength down to the village level, once they attack Youzhou, it will be no problem to mobilize 300,000 or 400,000 troops in a short period of time.
Add to that the forts and checkpoints scattered everywhere, the unfathomable strategic depth, and the unbreakable people's hearts, what can we use to fight?
As long as the opponent doesn't act recklessly, Youzhou will absolutely not be able to be defeated.
And the possibility of Tian Ze getting ahead...
His first commander, Xu Rongke, had been stationed in the vicinity of Ji County with an army of 50,000 and had never moved from beginning to end.
Li Ru had never seen such a steady person.
"Who can we contact?" Lu Bu asked.
"There is no need for us to contact each other. Yuan Shao, Cao Cao and Xianbei will all help us." Li Ru sneered.
The reason they were able to settle in Bingzhou was Yuan Shao's doing, so how could he watch them perish so easily? Even now, the most anxious person was not them, but Yuan Shao.
“But there is a problem involved.”
"what is the problem?"
"Xianbei." A strange look flashed in Li Ru's eyes.
"Fengxian, would you like them to pass through Bingzhou?"
(End of this chapter)
