The land of the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, that is, the area north and south of the Huaihe River and north of the Yangtze River, most of it belongs to Yangzhou and a small part belongs to Xuzhou. It is located in a chokepoint and connects the north and the south. It is a battleground for military strategists.
In addition, the land of the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers is fertile and rich in products. Therefore, it has been a land of fish and rice since ancient times and is rich in grain.
Since Qin Hao promoted new grain varieties, after these years of cultivation and cultivation, all the major princes have sufficient grain varieties, and they have promoted the new grain varieties under their rule, and what followed was the increase in grain production.
Double.
At this time, the major princes finally understood that Dong Zhuo wanted to occupy Nanyang at all costs. If he could monopolize such a weapon as new grains, who else in the world could be his rival?
Due to the doubling of the overall grain production, the food crisis in various places has been greatly reduced. With surplus grain in the hands of the major princes, they are naturally willing to use grain to relieve disasters, thereby occasionally gaining praise and good reputation from the people.
After analysis by later generations, the population of various states in the Han Dynasty has been on a downward trend since the Yellow Turban Uprising, and the rate of decline was rapid. However, after the promotion of high-yield grains, this population plummeting trend slowly stopped.
Although the overall rate is still declining, the rate of decline has been very slow, and some areas have even seen a population rebound, which is definitely a miracle.
The promotion of new grain varieties caused a surge in grain production, and famous experts selected eight major granaries in the world based on the amount of grain produced, namely: Shuzhong, Jiangdong, Jingxiang, Jianghuai, Hetao, Shandong, Heluo, and
Liaodong.
There are four of these eight granaries in the north and south. The grain produced by any one of them can reach one state or even multiple states. Therefore, there is also a rumor that "whoever gets the eight granaries will conquer the world".
The saying that those who get the eight granaries will win the world is not completely unreasonable. After all, in troubled times, food and grass are the most important. Obtaining any one of these eight granaries means that your strength will be greatly increased, and you will naturally have the qualifications to dominate the world.
Therefore, this sentence should actually be reversed. It is not that those who win the eight granaries will win the world, but that if you want to win the world, you must first win the eight granaries.
Currently, five of the eight major granaries have owners:
Hetao and Heluo belong to Qin Hao
Jiangdong returns to Sun Jian
Jianghuai returns to Yuan Shu
Liaodong returned to Nurhaci
Jingxiang, also known as Jingzhou, was divided among three parties: Qin Hao, Huang Zu, and Liu Xiu;
Shandong, that is, parts of Qingzhou and Jizhou, were divided between Yuan Shao, Han Fu, Li Jing, Song Jiang, and Zhu Tianpeng;
Central Shu, that is, Yizhou in the Land of Abundance, was divided among three parties: Liu Ji, Liu Yu, and Li Shimin;
If you want to conquer the world, you must first acquire one of the eight major grain depots, but a place without a master is too chaotic, and an area with a master is not a weak persimmon.
Among the eight major grain depots, Qin Hao occupies two of them, but no one pays attention to him, because Qin Hao is the overlord of the princes, and no one can snatch it from him alone.
Qing Emperor Nurhaci and Jiangdong Tiger Sun Jian were both easy to deal with.
Of course, there is only one exception to this, and that is Yuan Shu, who occupies Jianghuai.
After losing Yuzhou, although Yuan Shu's strength was greatly reduced, he still owned Jianghuai, one of the eight major grain depots, and he naturally became the fat man in the eyes of the surrounding princes.
No one wants to occupy the eight major grain depots, and although Yuan Shu is not weak, in the eyes of people like Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhao Kuangyin, and Sun Jian, he is undoubtedly the easiest persimmon to eat.
In fact, Cao Cao also wanted Jianghuai, but he had not even solved Li Zicheng's problem. Naturally, he was not qualified to compete with the other three companies for Jianghuai until he completely solved the Yanzhou problem.
In addition to Cao Cao, among the three Zhu, Zhao and Sun, Sun Jian has already started a war with Liu Xiu. Naturally, he cannot distract Jianghuai, so Sun Jian is also out.
Currently, only Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhao Kuangyin can compete for Jianghuai. Zhao Kuangyin has only arrived in Yuzhou not long ago and has insufficient background, so Zhu Yuanzhang is more likely to win.
In addition, regarding the competition for Jianghuai, Zhu Yuanzhang also had an advantage that Zhao Kuangyin did not have.
At the beginning, the remaining forces of the Ming Dynasty fled into the Sanshan Mountains, and Zhu Yuanzhang retreated into the Dabie Mountains, part of which belonged to the Jianghuai River.
When Zhu Yuanzhang conquered Xuzhou, he moved the population out of the mountains, but also left some manpower at the base of the Dabie Mountains.
Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang still has some foundation in Jianghuai, but Zhao Kuangyin has no foundation at all. Naturally, Zhu Yuanzhang is more likely to be born.
After learning that Sun Jian had launched an army to attack Liu Xiu, Zhu Yuanzhang did not hesitate and immediately sent Xu Shiji to lead 80,000 troops to attack Yuan Shu.
After Zhao Kuangyin learned about it, he originally wanted to fight for Jianghuai with Zhu Yuanzhang, but his adviser Zhao Pu persuaded him not to act rashly. Yuan Shu was not without the ability to defend his victory. If Zhu Yuanzhang fought with him first, both sides would suffer, and it would be easier to send troops to take over Jianghuai.
Zhao Kuangyin suddenly realized that Yuan Shu had Lian Po under his command, and he knew how powerful Lian Po was. As long as Lian Po was there, Zhu Yuanzhang might not be able to get good results.
In the battle of Yuzhou, Yuan Shu fell into Zhao Kuangyin's counter-intentional plan and misunderstood Lian Po. As a result, he lost the entire Yuzhou, which Yuan Shu would regret endlessly.
Brothers Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao have very similar temperaments. They both have the kind of character that recognizes and corrects mistakes but never admits them.
In the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao did not stop Tian Feng's words, but instead killed Tian Feng after losing.
Yuan Shu was actually similar. After losing Yuzhou, he also had murderous intentions towards Lian Po. Zhao Kuangyin also took advantage of this to add fuel to the flames and wanted to use Yuan Shu's help to get rid of Lian Po, his great enemy, but was stopped by Yan Xiang.
Under Yan Xiang's persuasion, Yuan Shu realized his situation. Without Lian Po, he would not even be able to defend Jianghuai. Only by relying on Lian Po could he possibly retake Yuzhou, so Yuan Shu corrected his mistakes and
After admitting his mistakes, he also pays more attention to and respects Lian Po.
Zhao Kuangyin did not send troops to intervene, but instead sat and watched Zhu Yuanzhang attack Jianghuai.
Yuan Shu was relieved when he saw that Zhao Kuangyin did not send troops, and immediately ordered Lian Po to lead the entire army to defend against the invading Xu Shiji.
In this way, on the Jianghuai battlefield, Xu Shiji and Lian Po faced each other again.
At the same time, on the Yanzhou battlefield, Cao Cao also caught a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Li Zicheng led his own Shan Ming Army and fought a stalemate with Cao Cao in Yanzhou for nearly three years. Although he had an advantage in the early stage and even forced Cao Cao to use human flesh as military rations, his character was still not as tenacious as Cao Cao.
Seeing that all the forces in the four parties were gradually becoming stable, and Zhu Yuanzhang was planning Jianghuai after unifying Xuzhou, only he was tepid in Yanzhou, Li Zicheng couldn't help but feel impatient in his heart.
Li Zicheng, who was impatient, wanted to defeat Cao Cao and unify Yanzhou as soon as possible, so he marched in danger. However, his plan failed and Cao Cao discovered it and set up an ambush.
Cao Cao took all his elite soldiers and generals and fought a decisive battle with Li Zicheng. Not only did he defeat Li Zicheng's main force in one fell swoop, but even Li Zicheng was shot to death by Xia Houyuan with an arrow.