At this time, Xiangyang was not the later state-controlled Xiangyang, and it was completely inferior to Jiangling.
Chen Yuan said: "My lord, Jiangling is the capital of Jingzhou, a place where powerful people gather. If we enter Jiangling, we will definitely be restricted by many powerful people, and there will be many changes in our actions. Instead, it is better to station in Xiangyang first and use the land of Xiangyang as our foundation.
Eradicating the clan thieves in Nanjun will, on the one hand, deter the mighty Nanjun, and on the other hand, it will allow us to train our troops. When the clan thieves are put down, and my lord marches into Jiangling with force, who dares to disobey?"
There was another purpose that Chen Yuan did not mention.
He felt that Jiangling was too far south and would not be conducive to the future Northern Expedition.
Therefore, in Chen Yuan's mind, the future state governance must be moved to Xiangyang.
Not only is it conducive to accepting refugees, but it is also conducive to the future Northern Expedition.
Liu Bei was thoughtful.
Chen Yuan's move had no intention of pacifying the clan traitors according to Liu Biao's method in history.
How did Liu Biao do it?
He asked Kuai Yue to send people to lure fifty-five clan traitors to the banquet, kill them all, and attack their tribes together.
This method will make other clan thieves dissatisfied.
Because the method you used is too dirty.
Moreover, the reason why Kuai Yue helped Liu Biao was because Liu Biao gave up a lot of benefits to the Kuai family and Cai family.
To put it bluntly, Liu Biao compromised with the powerful Jingzhou power.
Therefore, the situation in Jingzhou later was that Liu Biao and Jingzhou's powerful people ruled Jingzhou together.
What consequences did this have?
As a result, Liu Biao was trapped in Jingzhou for more than 20 years without ever leaving Jingzhou.
Did Liu Biao not want to go out?
No, he thought.
If Liu Biao had not been ambitious, he would not have ridden into Jingzhou alone. Wouldn't it be good for him to be a lieutenant in the Northern Army in Luoyang? Why risk his life to enter Jingzhou alone?
Since you have great ambitions, why don't you leave Jingzhou?
It's because of the constraints imposed by Jingzhou's power.
The powerful people in Jingzhou are actually similar to those in Huaiyang, Jiangnan, and even the powerful people in Sichuan.
They have no idea of unifying the world, as long as they can maintain their own interests.
This is also the reason why there were many surrender factions in these places later.
Because they surrendered, their interests would not suffer much.
On the contrary, war will cause them greater losses.
If it were you, you would surrender.
Chen Yuan would definitely not let Liu Bei follow Liu Biao's old path, otherwise he would be trapped and die in Jingzhou.
To describe it in one word, it is a housekeeper dog.
Although this word is actually used to describe Liu Zhang.
But from Chen Yuan's point of view, it would not be against the law at all when used on Liu Biao.
Because Liu Biao spent his whole life wandering around Jingzhou without taking a step outside.
As the saying goes, success depends on Kuai Cai, and failure depends on Kuai Cai.
After listening to Chen Yuan's words, Liu Bei thought for a while and then looked at Gu Yong and Xi Zhicai: "Yuantan, Zhicai, what do you two think?"
Xi Zhicai and Gu Yong started thinking after hearing what Chen Yuan said.
Hearing Liu Bei's question at this time, Gu Yong was the first to speak: "Zichu, as you said, we will station ourselves in Xiangyang first, but Xiangyang has a sparse population, where can we send food and grass?"
Not to mention the Jiangxia Huang family, if they can be deceived the first time, they will never be able to deceive them the second time.
Because as long as Liu Bei and others show their flag in Xiangyang, the Huang family of Jiangxia will know that Zhang Hu and Chen Sheng have failed.
In the whole of Xiangyang, there was not much food originally, but now there are still 30,000 bandits, and together with the original people, there are as many as 100,000 people.
This food consumption is not a small amount.
Xi Zhicai coughed and said, "Zichu, do you have any information about the clan thieves in Nanjun?"
The two most important things in a war are food and intelligence.
Gu Yong and Xi Zhicai both brought it up.
Only by solving these two problems can they gain a foothold in Xiangyang and then eradicate the clan traitors one by one.
If it can't be solved, it's better to go to Gangneung.
Although they have to be constrained by powerful forces, Gu Yong and Xi Zhi are confident of dealing with them.
Chen Yuan naturally considered these two issues.
"First of all, it is an intelligence issue. I have asked Xianhe to go ahead of us. I think Xianhe now knows something about the situation in Nanjun and even Jingzhou, so we only need to call Xianhe to Xiangyang and ask."
Everyone else nodded.
They all know a little about Xianhe's abilities. It's nonsense to say that Jian Yong has any political and military strategies, but Jian Yong's diplomatic ability is not weak.
Although this guy is a little disrespectful to vulgar etiquette, he is extremely friendly and makes anyone feel comfortable getting along with him.
It is perfect for such a person to serve as a diplomat in this era.
Because he can find out a lot of information.
"As for food and grass? We can now combine war support with large-scale production."
"We all know that war supports war. What does large-scale production mean?"
Speaking of this, Chen Yuan became excited.
"My suggestion is that we only select 3,000 of the 30,000 thieves to be incorporated into our Jingzhou Army, and all the rest will be converted into civilians on the spot. They will be governed by the law of Baojia according to our method in Youzhou.
Organize them to cultivate land and fish and hunt to supplement our food supply."
"Moreover, we can also buy grain and grass. Now that the grain has just been harvested, whether it is in the hands of the private sector or powerful people, there will definitely be no shortage of grain, and the price will not be too expensive. We should be able to purchase a batch."
As for why Chen Yuan threw away the grain in the government treasury, it was because the grain had long been occupied by Zhang Hu and Chen Sheng, and now it belonged to them.
But Xiangyang is now a county town, and there is not a lot of food. In addition, what Zhang Hu and Chen Sheng obtained from the Huang family in Jiangxia is only two thousand dan.
One stone weighs one hundred and twenty kilograms of grain, and two thousand stone is only over two hundred thousand kilograms.
A normal soldier consumes about five liters of food a day, which is one and a half pounds.
After reorganization, Liu Bei had 6,000 soldiers and consumed 9,000 jins of food every day.
The 240,000 kilograms of grain can be eaten sparingly and can last for a month.
After a month, they ran out of ammunition and food.
There are still about ten months until next year's harvest, which means Liu Bei and the others still need at least 20,000 shi of food.
Twenty thousand shi of food is neither too much nor too little.
The powerful people in Nanjun can definitely take it out, but if you want to get food out of their mouths, you have to spend a lot of money.
Liu Bei didn't have that much money.
Therefore, the only solution for the present is to support war through war and rely on self-reliance, as Chen Yuan said.
Regarding the issue of war, with so many strong generals and dramatists around, Chen Yuan didn't need to worry about it.
With Liu Bei's current strength, it would not be easy to defeat just a few clan thieves.
Therefore, Chen Yuan took Gu Yong to prepare for large-scale production.
At that time, Liu Bei divided the labor, and Xi Zhicai served as the right military advisor and accompanied the army on the expedition.
Chen Yuan was appointed by Liu Bei as Jingzhou Biejia and Zuo Military Advisor, which established Chen Yuan's position as Liu Bei's first minister, possessing both civil and military skills.
Gu Yong was appointed to be in charge of governance, giving Gu Yong the second position as a government official.