At this moment, Zhong Yao has already crossed the Yangtze River with his administrative team to Danyang County to take up his post.
According to common sense, he needs to sort out the political affairs of Danyang County within one to two months, straighten out Danyang County, and create a good environment for Guan Yu to fight.
On the other side, the former general Qin Mi, who served as the governor of Lujiang County, had prepared a lot of military supplies for Guan Yu's army. Wang Shang, the governor of Jiujiang County, had also prepared a lot of military supplies for Guan Yu's army, all of which were transported to Lujiang County for the army to use.
Qin Mi and Wang Shang were both Liu Bei's old subordinates. They were assigned to serve as county guards in Lujiang County and Jiujiang County in the past few years.
The task Liu Bei gave them at that time was not to develop Lujiang County and Jiujiang County well, but to develop agricultural production with all their strength, build Lujiang County and Jiujiang County into the advance base of the army, and prepare as much grain as possible.
In the future, when the army goes south, it will not be possible to transport food from near Luoyang, so the closer the better.
So after they went south, they obeyed Liu Bei's orders and implemented the slave restriction order in Jiujiang County and Lujiang County, released a large amount of land, released a large number of slaves and organized them into farms, and then encouraged farmers to farm, and personally led the team to follow up agricultural production and turn agriculture into
Production is more important than anything else.
Over the past few years, there have been several good grain harvests in succession, and both counties have a lot of grain reserves, which can barely be regarded as qualified advance bases.
So when Guan Yu went south, although time was a little tight, they were still able to provide the army with a year's worth of food for the campaign, so that Guan Yu's army did not need to transport food from farther away for the campaign.
This is a lucky thing for both logistics and frontline troops.
Of course, Guan Yu didn't think this battle needed to last a year.
His mission is not to completely wipe out the Shanyue Group, but to wipe out the Yellow Turban Army. If the Shanyue Group is completely wiped out, Guan Yu will find it difficult and unable to cope with it, and may need support.
But if you just deal with the Yellow Turban Army, it will be relatively simple.
When going south, Guan Yu also made some systematic understanding of the enemy based on the self-cultivation of a general, and found many local people to ask about the enemy's specific situation.
He learned that the power of the Shanyue Group was complex and consisted of many small power groups that were not unified internally. They were similar to the Bingzhou bandits, so he only needed to deal with those small groups that had close contacts with the Yellow Turban Army and cooperated with each other.
If the entire Shanyue gang wants to be wiped out, there are only two ways to do it. Either encirclement and suppression and full-scale confrontation, or Liu Bei's method of solving the Bingzhou bandits, first taking control of Yangzhou, and then using policies to dismantle the Shanyue Group's foundation for existence.
Recruitment is a waste of time.
However, for now, forced encirclement and suppression may be more realistic, because the Luoyang court did not have a deep political foundation in Yangzhou. If it wanted to promote policies, its biggest enemy was not Shanyue's distrust, but the obstruction of local insects.
With the obstruction of these insects, it is almost impossible to give them policy benefits and solve the problem through peaceful means. The Sun Wu regime also managed to solve the Shanyue problem at the end of the regime through decades of encirclement and suppression.
.
Starting from Sun Ce, they fought against the Shanyue Group and suppressed them for decades. They successively obtained no less than 100,000 men from the Shanyue Group itself and entered the army, becoming an important part of Sun Wu's army.
This is enough to prove that during the decades of development of the Shanyue gang, the population has actually been quite large.
Probably no less than the number of bandits in Bingzhou.
This is also a huge human resource. If it can be properly utilized, it will be of great benefit to the development of Jiangnan.
At present, the land south of the Yangtze River is full of undeveloped areas, full of primitive jungles, vast swamps, and numerous mosquito swarms that can form black air all over the mountains and plains. These places are simply not suitable for large-scale and long-term survival of humans.
If humans want to escape from here alive, it depends on whether they can bring enough mugwort.
Although Lujiang County and Jiujiang County belong to Yangzhou, they do not belong to Jiangnan. The degree of development is higher than that of the real Jiangnan, such as Danyang County.
So when Guan Yu garrisoned Lujiang County, the governor Qin Mi told him a lot about his knowledge of Danyang County.
"Danyang County is not a very deserted county. It can be regarded as one of the top prosperous counties in the entire Yangzhou. The population is larger than the counties further south. However, it is also the county with the most mountains.
Rather confusing.
During the Pre-Qin Dynasty, the people of Danyang County were famous for their bravery and fierceness, and it became one of the best recruiting places in the history of the dynasties.
It’s around Danyang, so it’s particularly good at fighting.”
After hearing this, Guan Yu raised his eyebrows.
"In this case, doesn't it mean that those people from Shanyue can also be regarded as a type of Danyang soldiers?"
"It's not unreasonable to say so."
Qin Mi said slowly: "The people of Shanyue include bankrupt farmers in Danyang County, as well as natives who originally lived there. It is said that they are descendants of the remnants of the Wu Kingdom and the Yue Kingdom, and there are also many refugees who fled from other counties.
They are all called Shanyue, but if you really want to talk about it, most of them are actually Han people."
"So that's the case. No wonder he is so good at fighting that no government in the past dynasties has been able to destroy him."
Guan Yu thought for a while and sighed again.
"But then again, how similar are these Shanyue people to the Bingzhou bandits before? They all couldn't survive anymore, and they chose to become thieves because they had no choice but to make a living, fill their stomachs, and survive. Wherever they are,
Officials must practice benevolent governance and don't push them too hard, otherwise they won't get to this point."
"Such a matter is too involved and is beyond the control of you and me. Let the general make the decision."
Qin Mi smiled and said: "This time we go south to fight, the logistics supplies are fully prepared. When does Guan Zhennan plan to go south? Or should we wait for the beginning of spring before going south? With the current climate in Jiangnan, it is appropriate to go south after the beginning of spring, otherwise it will be too much.
When it gets cold, diseases are likely to occur."
Guan Yu looked up at the sky and looked at the slowly falling snowflakes.
"This year's winter seems to be colder than in previous years. I heard that it is humid and muggy in the south, and it usually doesn't snow?"
Qin Mi shook his head.
"That's not necessarily true. It snowed here last winter. I heard it also snowed in Danyang. People who came back from Danyang for business said they thought it wouldn't snow or get cold in Jiangnan, and they wanted to escape the severe cold.
The results all indicate that Danyang is colder than Lujiang."
"That's quite suitable for the Northerners to fight."
Guan Yu narrowed his eyes and said slowly: "If it is humid and muggy, it will not be suitable for the Northerners to attack. If the weather is severely cold, there will be no difference between the north and the south. Mr. Qin Fu, has the army prepared enough winter clothing?"
Qin Mi nodded.
"According to the requirements sent by the General's Mansion, all supplies have been prepared, and 30% of the supplies are left in case of emergency."
Guan Yu was overjoyed when he heard this.
"good!"
After saying that, he reached out his hand and caught a few naughty snowflakes.
"When the General was on his Northern Expedition to Youzhou, when talking about the Northern Expedition to the Grasslands, someone once suggested that the General start the Northern Expedition after the beginning of spring. The General said that the beginning of spring would affect spring plowing and affect Youzhou's agricultural production throughout the year, which would be very detrimental to Youzhou.
People's livelihood, I deeply believe that.
If we wait until spring before heading south, it will inevitably affect the spring plowing in Danyang County. If the spring plowing cannot be carried out smoothly, more farmers will be unable to make a living and have to sell their sons and daughters to survive. This is not what we who are marching and fighting want to see.
,So, if it can be solved in winter, it should be solved in winter.
Also, when Qin Mansion recruits civilians to transport food and fodder for the army, you must also provide them with enough warm clothing to prevent them from frostbite. They are the backbone of each family. If they die from injuries, the entire family will be destroyed.
Yes, the general doesn’t want to see such a thing, and I don’t want to see it either.”
After Qin Mi heard this, he immediately looked at Guan Yu with admiration.
A general who should value his military exploits above all else could actually have such sympathy and concern for ordinary people?
"Guan Zhennan, please rest assured. This is my responsibility. The General's Office also has relevant orders. I will personally be responsible for the affairs of the people. If there is anything wrong, I will make it clear to the General's Office."
"good."
Guan Yu nodded, took a deep breath, and said: "In seven days, we will go south to Danyang!"