Overlord!

As a administrative center, Jiankang admittedly had the disadvantage of being relatively far from the north, but its advantages in terms of taxation were too great.

Among the three counties in Jiangdong, Wu County is currently better developed. There is no open land in Wu County, and the other counties also have vast farmland and developed water conservancy. The state has used a lot of manpower and material resources to transform the swamps and wetlands around Taihu Lake into fertile soil and lakes, and water conservancy has been very developed.

In fact, this area was a very fertile land as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, with thousands of miles of fertile fields and a land of abundance, so it supported the hegemony of the Wu State.

Wuxi, Changzhou and other places have exactly the same climate as Wuxian, and all they need is strong government regulation. In the past, the governance centers of the Qin and Han Dynasties were all in the north. They neither found the climate suitable for farming, nor were they willing to use hundreds of thousands of people to repair it.

If Jiangnan had had the will of the Qin State to build the Zhengguo Canal, Wu County would have become the economic center of the world.

You must know that before the construction of the Zheng Guo Canal, the land in Guanzhong of the Qin State was also covered with saline-alkali siltation, and the grain production was far lower than that in the east. When the Zheng Guo Canal was built and the river water rich in sediment was used to irrigate the area, the feat of harvesting one bell (six stones) per mu was achieved.

Jiangnan is much more convenient for development than Guanzhong. The main areas to prevent salinization here are Qiantang and Yuhang. For counties like Wuxi and Piling that are adjacent to Wu County, as long as the country is dredged and the muddy water is dredged into a large lake, it is easy to create a situation where Suhu is mature and the world is full.

The reason why this place was developed in later generations was not because the sun dried up all the water. The main reason was because the scholars from Nandu and the southern government vigorously developed the area and built water conservancy projects.

Wu County, the richest county under Sun Ce's rule, still has such potential, and the other three counties of Danyang, Kuaiji, and Wuxing have unlimited potential for agricultural development.

Especially Danyang, this large county, under Sun Quan's governance, was able to produce enough food for one county, enough to supply the prosperous scene of several counties in the entire Jiangdong.

Nowadays, under Sun Ce's development, farmland is constantly being reclaimed, and the level of agriculture continues to develop.

A wealthy family has thousands of acres of fertile farmland, which produces tens of thousands of kilo of grain a year.

Such abundant food is naturally enough to free more people from farmland to engage in civil, military, industry and commerce.

Tens of thousands of stones of grain, even if the army were open to eating, would be enough to feed thousands of troops for a year.

Therefore, a large family often gathers more than a thousand people to run workshops, smelt copper and iron, boil the sea into salt, form caravans, etc.

All of this has led to the continuous increase of national taxes in Jiangnan. Whether it is agricultural taxes paid on farmland, or municipal taxes paid by industry and commerce, municipal shipping taxes, etc., they are increasing every year.

This is a good thing in an absolute sense. Whether it is for the people, the country or the entire nation, it is a beautiful thing worthy of praise.

It shows that the country is developing vigorously, the world's wealth continues to expand, people's lives are increasing day by day, the country is becoming stronger and stronger, and the entire nation is on the fast lane of development.

Bu Zhi continued: "In addition to the household tax and industry and commerce, Haiyan, workshops and animal husbandry have also benefited greatly, each with hundreds of thousands of dollars and hundreds of thousands of dollars."

There have always been government-run workshops in Jiangdong, as well as government-run textile temple supervisors, etc. Although the number is not large, only tens of thousands, the profits are still very considerable, with an income of hundreds of thousands.

If a powerful family among the people could employ tens of thousands of people, they would certainly be able to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The same situation applies to Haiyan. Although there is no official salt and iron operation in Jiangdong, a large number of salt fields are in the hands of the government. Merchants can use salt leads to sell salt in the salt fields. Selling salt leads is also a very generous income.

Only the income of the pastoral supervisor is relatively small. Selling out cattle and draft horses is not a huge profit, so the income is only more than 100,000 yuan.

But more than 100,000 yuan is also hundreds of millions of money, enough to supply the needs of 10,000 troops for a year.

Sun Ce was very satisfied with the treasury accumulation of the three envoys, so he turned to the ministers and said: "Each state recruits elite soldiers and selects brave men. Money and food will be allocated from the treasury of the three envoys, and each state will claim its share of the recruitment."

Zhang Zhao was the first to speak and said for everyone: "After the previous salary adjustment, the salary of a soldier in the army is now one min per month. The soldier Cao has calculated that each soldier has weapons, uniforms, equipment, tents, etc. , the expenses for three years are equivalent to more than 20 min per year on average, and two min per month. Therefore, even if calculated in terms of soldiers, the monthly expenditure is no less than 3 min, and the annual expenditure is nearly 100,000. Four million coins."

"However, the army obviously also accounts for a large proportion of generals. Calculating the number of 100,000 soldiers in the whole year may not be less than 5 million yuan. Based on this calculation, at most 60% of the Third Division's treasury will be paid to the army, and 120,000 soldiers will be recruited."

The military expenditure is 6 million, with a slight surplus left to pay officials and recruitment fees.

But there is no need to think about large-scale water conservancy and infrastructure construction.

This is natural. These are troubled times, and military conquests are the main focus, so military expenditures must account for the majority.

Under the current circumstances, it would be very difficult for the government to maintain a fiscal surplus without borrowing money from merchants to fight wars due to a fiscal deficit. It has been proved that our rulers and ministers are very temperate, and the south of the Yangtze River is rich and prosperous.

After all, none of the important weapons of the military is cheap, and every item of military expenditure is extremely expensive.

A set of black armor costs 38,000 yuan, which is nearly 40 yuan, plus the annual rewards, military uniforms, military tents, swords, equipment, war horses, etc., the average monthly price is no less than 3 yuan. That is simplification It cannot be streamlined, and other expenses such as food, cloth, fodder, etc. are not included in this at all.

It can be said that in order to calm this troubled times, Jiangdong has resorted to military force.

But the good thing is that Jiangdong is still in the process of development. According to the current situation, tax revenue will increase every year, and the balance will be more and more in the future. There may even be surplus wealth to develop farmland, water conservancy, and industrial and commercial roads.

Of course, once there is a war, the treasury will be emptied again.

Sun Ce also hopes that the sooner the war can be ended, the better!

Therefore, he planned to expand the army to the extreme, and said: "Then let's use the army size of 120,000 as the upper limit. We are still short of 40,000."

With the surrender of Xuzhou, Yuzhou, Qingzhou, Yanzhou and other places, as well as the surrender of some Cao's troops, especially the surrender of the troops of Li Dian, Zang Ba and others, there are now more than 72,000 generals and soldiers in Jiangdong.

There is still a shortfall of 48,000.

Yuzhou is a populous state, and a large number of Cao's soldiers fled back to their hometown, such as Xu Chu's clan and guests.

Xu Chu's brother Xu Ding led more than a thousand troops and fled back to Qiao County in the chaos.

Xu Ding was also a general of Cao Wei. Historically, he followed Xu Chu to fight in Cao Ying and reached the rank of General Zhenwei. Among Xu Chu's guests and township party members, there were many people like Xu Ding, all of whom were tiger warriors. In Cao's camp, there were dozens of generals and marquises, and more than a hundred captains and captains.

As Cao Cao lost Yuzhou, many people simply gave up following Cao Cao.

Princes like Chen Deng who only serve to occupy Jizhou are still very common in this era.

At the same time, since Sun Ce served as the shepherd of Yuzhou, Yu Fan, who was appointed by him as the governor of Yuzhou, was the first to speak and said: "The land of Cai Ru has produced elite soldiers since ancient times. The young man from Huaisi is famous for his heroes. Therefore, I believe that if there is enough money, Yuzhou will at least We can recruit 20,000 troops." Sun Ce smiled and praised his kindness, and said: "You are worthy of being the treasure of Gu Mansion. You can always support the situation for Gu Mansion at critical moments."

Sun Ce also recognized Yu Fan's heroic words.

After all, Yuzhou has been the most prosperous area since ancient times. Among the three most prosperous counties in the world, Nanyang, Runan, and Yingchuan, two are in Yuzhou.

At the beginning, Sun Ce only relied on Wu Commandery and recruited more than 20,000 troops. The land of Yuzhou must be more abundant.

Today's princes all have their own inner circle, and they basically rely on their inner circle to support their own strength.

Cao Cao's heart is undoubtedly in Yuzhou. From the first year of Jian'an (196) to the seventh year of Jian'an (202), Cao Cao stabilized Yuzhou and then began to farm. Yuzhou has not experienced much war.

Although last year's war resulted in more than 100,000 casualties in the Yan and Henan areas, it was definitely not to the extent of devastation and empty houses. After all, the military discipline of the Jiangdong army was still very reliable.

Except when they attacked Xu County, Lu Meng, a general with the rank of general from Jiangdong, went to the city to fight in person. As a result, the rebels and bandits could not be restrained. Apart from looting the city, the army did not disturb the people at other times. .

Moreover, Sun Ce adopted Zhang Hong's advice very early, distributed grain to alleviate poverty, and moved the people to strengthen Yan and Henan. The number of ordinary people in the area who died due to the war was relatively small.

This makes Yuzhou have at least millions of residents, and as Yu Fan said, Cai Ru's land has many elite soldiers since ancient times. Powerful families such as Li Tong and Xu Chu each gathered thousands of soldiers, and there are also a large number of famous knights and knights, such as Zhao Yan, Liang Xi, Xu Shu and others!

These celebrities, generals, and knights are all under Sun Ce's rule now. Both Jingzhou and Yuzhou have gradually been pacified. These celebrities living in the south must have returned to their hometowns one after another and been used by Sun Ce.

The Yingchuan area is full of beautiful people and outstanding people. Dozens or even hundreds of heroes with the talents of captains and school captains have emerged.

After Yu Fan expressed his stance, Jingzhou Mu Zhang Hong also spoke immediately and said: "Jingzhou can recruit another 10,000 elite soldiers."

Regardless of the fact that the main targets of this Northern Expedition were Yanzhou and Yuzhou, in fact, during this Northern Expedition, apart from Yuzhou, Jingzhou was the one that gained the most.

Zhou Yu's army came out of Xiangyang, wiped out Cao Hong in one fell swoop, and restored all the land in Nanyang.

It has to be said that Cao Hong is also very capable. He led thousands of troops to guard the largest county in the world, but he did not dare to divide his troops at all. As a result, he failed to mobilize tens of thousands of people and was defeated by Zhou Yu in one fell swoop.

Zhou Yu's Northern Expedition was one of the easiest in history.

Since Nanyang, the largest county in the world, was easily captured without a brutal battle, Jingzhou's population expanded rapidly.

Moreover, the land of Jingnan is gradually coming under control. Under Lu Su's promotion, there have been rumors in Jiankang City recently that the government will recruit troops from the foreign barbarians to make all ethnic groups serve and establish households together.

Zhang Hong also planned to try to recruit troops from various ethnic groups in Jingnan.

The North and the South should work together and recruit together, and it should be easy to recruit more than 10,000 elite soldiers.

Later, Chen Qun, the governor of Yanzhou, said: "Yanzhou has just been established, and the people are hungry. I would like to recruit five thousand soldiers to alleviate the lack of people's livelihood."

Yanzhou was nominally one of Sun Ce's biggest gains from this Northern Expedition.

But in fact, Yanzhou is already very dilapidated. It is hard to say whether it has a population of one million. After all, when Cao Cao and Lu Bu conquered Yanzhou, they destroyed thousands of miles of bare land and hundreds of thousands of dollars of stone and rice. The people were killed and injured, and Cao Cao even led animals to eat them. People, so that Cheng Yu lost the hope of the world.

Cheng Yu also decisively did not surrender to Sun Ce, but led his army to Yuan Shao.

He was originally ordered by Cao Cao to fight against Yuan Shao on the eastern front.

After Cao Cao's central army was defeated by Yuan Shao, the left and right armies separated, and tens of thousands of people on the right army fled in panic.

The remaining 30,000 people all surrendered to Yuan Shao.

This scale is comparable to the surrender of Yuan Shao's men in the Battle of Guandu in history.

Yuan Shao's army of more than 100,000 people surrendered more than 80,000 on the spot, but Cao Cao killed them all.

Yuan Shao may have various shortcomings, but he is still better than Cao Cao in terms of magnanimity. Moreover, he had enough food and supplies, so he accepted Cheng Yu's surrender, and Cheng Yu surrendered most of the other generals on his behalf.

Cheng Yu was also desperate. He knew very well that if he dared to defect to Jiangdong, Sun Ce would kill him to win people's hearts.

After all, when Man Chong was sent to Jiangdong as an envoy, Sun Ce once said bluntly, "Cao Cao has been alone for a long time!" Sun Ce liquidated several major crimes of Cao Cao, one of which was leading beasts to eat people. There were also broken coffins, exposed corpses and massacres of people. Cheng Yu can still quibble with other matters, but it is really difficult for Cheng Yu to clear himself of this man-eating man.

It was precisely because of the atrocities committed by Cao Cao and Cheng Yu that even though Jiangdong captured most of Chenliu County, the largest county in Yanzhou, and a small number of counties in Jiyin, Shanyang, Rencheng, and Taishan, the population of Yanzhou was still small.

This time, the Yanzhou governor counted only more than 50,000 households, and most of them were lower-level households and did not pay household taxes.

Recruiting 5,000 soldiers from 50,000 households can be said to be very harsh.

But considering that there are still refugees, rangers, bandits and bandits, the population of Yanzhou will still increase with the continuous recruitment.

Chen Qun said that one of the important reasons why he relied on recruiting troops to alleviate the people's lack of livelihood was that he wanted to bring back a large amount of money from Jiankang to recruit people.

An ordinary soldier received a monthly salary of one thousand yuan. This salary was two hundred yuan more than the defenders at Juyanguan at the peak of the Han Dynasty, but the prices were not comparable.

It takes three hundred dollars to buy a pig in Juyan Fortress, and a few dozen dollars to buy a chicken, but three hundred dollars in Jiangdong is enough to buy ten stones of grain, which is enough for the whole family.

The price of rice in Jiangdong is low and the price of meat is slightly expensive. If you want to raise a wife and children, it is obviously more suitable to live in Jiangdong.

Moreover, in addition to cheap food prices in Jiangdong, daily necessities such as cloth, sea salt, and ironware are also relatively cheap.

To put it more bluntly, even marrying a wife, keeping concubines, and buying slaves are more affordable in Jiangdong.

These favorable conditions for salary and recruitment of soldiers can easily attract heroes from the north to go south, and make bandits and refugees return home. (End of chapter)