Overlord!

Chapter 124 Tributary Wealth
The daytime and nocturnal term that Zhang Hong mentioned is just an exaggeration habitually of literati.

As a matter of fact, the army was full of cars and carts, and the road to Luoyang was nearly a thousand miles away. The transportation of money, food, silk and silk was huge, and it was impossible to delay on the road for too long.

The key to paying tribute is to choose capable and capable officials, good generals and talents, assess the situation and make marching plans.

In this era, there is no satellite monitoring, and the control over the city is very weak. As long as people are selected, even if the two sides face each other along the Yellow River in the battle of Guandu, with strict control, Liu Bei can lead a large number of troops and cross hundreds of thousands of troops all the way from the north of the Yellow River. Li, ran to the south of Xudu to openly harass Cao Cao's enemy rear.

And Zhang Hong also talked about this issue immediately, saying: "Through Lujiang County, it is Runan and Yingchuan. This is Yuzhou. It was slaughtered by generals such as Li Jue, Guo Si, and Jia Xu. The places where the army passed were killed They have been kidnapped and killed, and there are ghosts and ghosts within hundreds of miles. Cao Cao's heart is in Yanzhou, and his control over this place is very weak."

"During the Battle of Yanzhou, Guo Gong, the governor of Yuzhou, led tens of thousands of people to surround Juancheng, the prefecture of Dongjun County, and made an appointment with Lu Bu to conspire Yanzhou. He relied on Xun Yu to speak for Cao Cao, so Guo Gong led his troops away. Tens of thousands of them The crowd attacked all the way from Yuzhou to Yanzhou, and Cao Cao's troops didn't realize it until they reached the city of Juancheng in Yanzhou County."

"Thousands of people in the tribute team from the east of the Yangtze River passed Runan and Yingchuan in hiding. It is impossible for Cao Cao to notice."

After listening to Zhang Hong's deployment, Sun Ce nodded slightly. In the battle of Yanzhou, although Guo Gong took advantage of the rebellion of the whole county in Yanzhou and caught Xiahou Dun and Xun Yu by surprise, he didn't find out until Dongjun was ruled. It is conceivable that Cao Cao's control over Yanzhou is really poor.

But now Yanzhou and Yuzhou are the areas he has just conquered, especially Yuzhou. He has not been in peace for a long time, and the people have not been attached, so the level of control must be lower.

Regarding this situation, Sun Ce said with a smile: "Even if you are unlucky, if you are detected by Cao Cao's subordinates, the worst thing is to fight with him. There are thousands of tribute troops in Jiangdong, and you are afraid that Cao Cao's garrison in Yingchuan is only a few thousand." people?"

The biggest problem Cao Cao faced was the lack of food and grass. The troops he could garrison in Yingchuan and Runan were very limited, and the troops he could use to attack the tribute troops were bound to be even more stretched.

It was a battle involving thousands of people, Jiangdong's professional warriors may not be weaker than Cao Cao's Qingzhou soldiers.

Unless Cao Cao transferred tens of thousands of main forces from Yanzhou to surround and kill the tributary envoys, it would be possible to destroy the tributary team.

But transferring troops from Yanzhou to Yuzhou, crossing the two states, is not something that can be achieved quickly.By the time Cao Cao's main force arrived, the tribute team had already left its territory.

Hearing Sun Ce's heroic words, the others were also in high spirits. Zhang Hong said, "The only thing left is to determine who will be the envoy."

Sun Ce thought for a while, and said: "The person who is going to send an envoy must be good at the art of combining verticality, be able to speak boldly and inspire people's hearts."

This kind of talent, Sun Ce really has one under his command, and that is Gao Cheng of five sense organs.

Gao Cheng used to be the magistrate of Shicheng County. He united heroes and had a strong ambition.
The position of the five sense organs is responsible for the meritorious service and various affairs.Its status is similar to that of Gongcao, but its responsibilities are not as good as Gongcao Fanju, and can consult various matters.The main job is to be in charge of the spring and autumn sacrifices, and during the sacrifices, he ranks ahead of the meritorious officials.

To promote him to this position is to regard Gao Cheng as his absolute confidant.

And with Gao Cheng's spirit, he was the first to join Sun Ce among Jiangdong's chief officials, and he would definitely not rebel.

Therefore, it is perfect for him to take on the important task and be the chief envoy of the tribute team.

The deputy envoy of the tribute, Sun Ce said without hesitation: "Liu You, the captain of Qiandian Nong, is the captain of Fengzheng, and let him command the baggage, chariots and horses of the tribute team."

Liu You is the first hero who shouted that the one who can secure the world must be Sun Langye.

Loyalty is also unquestionable, and more importantly, there is nothing left to do with the farming affairs he is in charge of.

With the revival of Jiangdong, the farmland is being gradually cancelled, and the soldiers are being resettled in batches, and the rest can be left to Lu Meng, his deputy.

Lu Meng is 17 years old this year. At this age, Sun Ce and Li Shimin have already started to lead the army and conquer the world.

In fact, Sun Ce's most preferred tributary deputy envoy was Lu Meng, who could manage the luggage and lead troops to fight.

With him as deputy envoy, there is no need to assign a general to the tribute team.

But this little guy's temper was too violent now, and he dared to kill with a knife at a young age. Sun Ce was worried that he would really go outside the border and could not control his violent temper, so he took the initiative to fight with Cao Cao's troops.

So after weighing, Sun Ce still chose Liu You.

In the end, the guard of the tribute team was the school lieutenant Chen Wu, and the deputy was school lieutenant Zheng Bao.

Both Chen Wu and Zheng Bao were from Lujiang, and their subordinates also had a large number of soldiers recruited from Lujiang. They were their guards, and it was very convenient to pass through Lujiang.

And Chen Wu commanded a cavalry, as a scout, cruising for defense, and investigating the enemy's situation.

There are only so many envoys and sergeants sent, and the scale of the tribute cannot be reduced anyway.

Sun Ce expects the emperor Liu Xie to have [-] troops and [-] shi to store grain. That is the goal of the entire Jiangnan transportation, that is, the transportation of Yizhou, Jingzhou, and Yangzhou.

But to achieve this goal, the goal of Jiangdong's first tribute cannot be lower, at least it should be between [-] shi and [-] shi.

It is indeed a stretch for the three counties of Jiangdong to take out so much food at one time.

So far, the three counties in Jiangdong are still mainly based on Wu County's taxation, and even have to allocate a lot of money, grain and silk to subsidize the governance of the other two counties.

The key to this is the promotion of Jiangdong Tongbao. In the later stage of seigniorage, unparalleled wealth can indeed be harvested.

However, to promote this kind of currency in the early stage and spread it to Xintuo County, it also requires countless resources to invest.

Moreover, the two counties of Danyang and Kuaiji are not as peaceful as Wu County. They have experienced a lot of wars before. Danyang County has provided tens of thousands of elite soldiers to various forces, from Xuzhou Mu Taoqian to Cao Cao, Liu Yao, and even Sun Ce Wu Jing has nearly ten thousand Danyang soldiers under his command.

Of the [-] Danyang elite soldiers, those who were transferred were all young and strong men from Danyang County, the strong men of a family.

This has greatly affected the production of Danyang County. The people's livelihood is famine, but the mountains are more and more vertical and horizontal. Not only does Tongbao need to maintain commerce, but also a large amount of grain and silk are needed to alleviate the hunger of people's livelihood.

Although this put enormous pressure on Sun Ce, it was also a great opportunity.Because Wu Jun was having a bumper harvest, grain, silk, and even the sea salt produced continuously were all hard currency in Sun Ce's hands.

In the entire Jiangdong, only Sun Ce can give so much wealth to help Danyang and Kuaiji, so this can make the value of Tongbao greatly recognized in the two counties.

This is even enough for Sun Ce to ban private private castings in advance, especially the private private castings in Danyang.

Therefore, the Jiangdong ministers also have the kind of isolationists who think that it is better to develop themselves steadily than to pay tribute to the emperor so much wealth.Leaving tens of thousands of stones of grain and recruiting three thousand more soldiers, isn't it more real than those magnates?
The emperor's soldiers are strong and his horses are strong!
Although this sentence is a simple truth, the fact is that none of the people who say this kind of words have ever become emperors.

Using brutal means to kill the world without kindness and righteousness will only make the three armies hesitate in the end.

If you only rely on the butcher's knife, you will become the grass-headed king in troubled times. Today you support your troops with self-respect, and tomorrow your generals will dare to rebel.Too many princes in the late Han Dynasty, such as Zhang Yang, Niu Fu, Ruo Rong, Ding Yuan and even Dong Zhuo were all killed by their subordinates because of this.

Sun Ce didn't want to sleep in the middle of the night, and a group of warriors and Hao Daer under his command rebelled, and his head was beheaded in his sleep.

So even if you are struggling, you have to exchange tribute for yourself to gain the legal rationality to govern one side.

Regarding the amount of grain to be mobilized, Zhang Zhao, the chief minister in charge of the government affairs, frowned.

Last year, [-] shi of grain was transferred as military rations to aid in the war. This year, more than [-] shi were allocated to alleviate the famine in the two counties and maintain the officials of the two counties.

Sun Ce newly expanded the two counties, and at the same time as the expansion of the territory, the first problem that came with it was the sharp increase in the number of officials and the continuous increase in salary expenditures.

Now that the new grain has just been planted and the early rice has not been harvested, there is really not much grain to be mobilized.In the matter of losing Fu, if you lose less, it will not be enough to accomplish things, and if you lose more, Jiangdong will not be enough. It is by no means empty talk.

At this time, Zhang Hong, who was still in charge of military affairs, helped Sun Ce to solve his problems, saying: "Maybe the tribute materials can be transferred from the army. He Qi's troops have stopped the conquest, and they have broken through the mountains, recovered Dongye, and forced Wang Lang and Zhan Qiang to surrender." Waiting for more than a dozen departments, they obtained more than a thousand catties of gold, more than [-] stones of grain, and more than two thousand cattle and sheep."

"I thought that the oxen and horses could be used for the carts, and then [-] shi of grain from the treasury, together with coarse salt, silk, etc., could be paid as tribute."

He Qi had food there, but obviously it would not be sent to Luoyang.

Zhang Hong is not crazy, he will not send food from Fujian all the way to Luoyang, even if there is the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, it is not used in this way.

What he meant was to use He Qi's grain to provide the salaries of officials and soldiers in the southern counties of Kuaiji, and to subsidize the famine in Kuaiji County.

In this way, the materials in the treasury were replaced, and food was raised from the northern treasury and transported to Luoyang.

Calculated by transporting [-] shi of grain, [-] carts are needed.This scale is not large, only about one-third of Bao Xin's luggage when he was begging Dong.Barely able to lose like Liu Biao, the Military Assets Committee, continuously.

After solving the most important grain problem, the remaining Zhang Zhao said: "The most lacking thing in the imperial court is silk. Wang Yi, the prefect of Hedong, only contributed a small amount of silk and silk, so he was granted the title of Marquis of Anyang Ting. And silk is My Jiangdong specialty can be donated in large quantities."

Sun Ce nodded. In fact, he was completely willing to offer silk.

Although the industrialized Textile Department is limited by the supply of materials, it is not a big problem to provide [-] bolts of silk in two days. Due to the limited raw silk, Chengjin is the priority.

With so much wealth, sending tens of thousands of horses to the court is just a few days' output for Sun Ce.

The problem still lies in the transportation. It is not an easy task to transport so much cloth.

In addition to cloth and silk, all kinds of gold, silver and jade, coral tortoise shell, pearl and emerald are indispensable in the tribute.

Of course, in order to highlight the value, there are also a lot of sea salt and spices.

These are either Jiangdong specialties, or items that Jiangdong can produce in large quantities, but they are priceless in the Central Plains.

Through this tribute, the reputation of Jiangdong Chengjin and Haiyan may be established.

But this requires everything to maintain scale.

After all, the scale of a specialty product is also an extremely important factor in whether it can have an impact.

Imagine that everyone in the imperial court wears Chengjin and eats sea salt. With the tonality of these officials and scholar-bureaucrats, no matter what they say, they have to write a few poems to praise them and show their nobility.

And if you boast, I will compose a poem, and the influence and popularity will accumulate over time.

Zhang Hong made some calculations and said, "If there is no war, and we only need to maintain the needs of the current troops, we can save about [-] chariots, and the Jiangdong tribute can be distributed according to this."

Sun Ce nodded, and said to Zhang Zhao, "Let Chang Shi be in charge of coordinating the treasury."

Zhang Zhao immediately agreed, and then proceeded intensively.

The tribute team finally set off smoothly in April, consisting of 1000 zi chariots, which should have been allocated to [-] civilian husbands, but in order to save consumption, [-] people were drawn from the [-] guard troops to help pull the zi chariots.A total of [-] soldiers and [-] civilian husbands.

This can barely guarantee that in the tribute in May, after leaving the grain needed for the return trip, [-] shi of grain can be presented to the emperor.

The scale of this grain is obviously not as good as the grain that Jingzhou Mu Liu Biao can provide to the court.But in terms of other wealth, Jiangdong has invested heavily.

It includes 1000 stones of sea salt, [-] catties of gold, [-] bolts of silk, more than [-] bolts of brocade, and more than ten carts of precious items such as pearls, jade, coral and emeralds.

These wealth are enough to enrich Taicang, keep the emperor from being manipulated by anyone, and distribute salaries to officials and troops.

This will greatly enhance the independence of the emperor and the authority of the emperor.

Of course, the slogan of Kuangfu Hanshi was shouted by people and ghosts alike.

But I haven't seen anyone who can really do this.

It is already the consensus of people of insight that the Han Dynasty cannot be revived.With his army of only a few thousand and at most ten thousand, the upper limit is to keep himself from being annexed, and to level the world?Stop wishful thinking.

Of course, Sun Ce was not very worried that the authority of the emperor would affect him.After all, Emperor Zhou had stayed in Haojing for hundreds of years, and he had never seen any scholar go to him.On the contrary, there are a lot of talents in various hegemony forces and vassal states.

Sun Ce is now planning to attract talents with Huan and Wen Baye.There are many scholars in the world who have such ambitions. Since the Han Dynasty cannot be revived, they should assist a prince to achieve the king's foundation.

If we say that the situation of Zhou Tianzi is slightly different from that of Liu Xie.The emperor of the Tang Dynasty that night couldn't be more similar to Liu Xie. Under so many feudal towns, there are countless heroes, talents and scholars.Who would give up the power of his assistant and go to the emperor?

Sun Ce's purpose is very clear, which is to try to let the Han Emperor maintain a little bit of authority. He may not become his own vassal, but he must not become someone else's puppet.

(End of this chapter)