When two people fight each other, it is a fight. The winner gets glory; the loser gets loneliness.
When the fight changed from two people to two groups, it turned into a war.
Strict military discipline, excellent equipment, powerful siege equipment, etc., all are designed to defeat the opponent's group of people.
After defeating the opponent's group of people, you can obtain the opponent's land, population, money, food, etc.
After the winner of the war enjoys the joy of victory, he will begin to face some subsequent troubles.
For example, soldiers who surrendered.
Soldiers are also human beings, and as humans they need to eat. The main reason why so many civilians became rebels in the late Eastern Han Dynasty was because they could not afford to eat.
Starving to death is also death, and rebellion is also death. However, compared to starving to death, rebellion still has hope of survival, and rebellion can also allow one to have a full meal before death.
When rebellion and starvation were faced by the people in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, it is not surprising that most people chose to rebel.
Bai Qi killed 400,000 surrendered soldiers of Zhao State, and Xiang Yu killed 200,000 surrendered soldiers of Qin Army. In addition to worrying that these surrendered soldiers would rebel again, I am afraid that the other main reason was that there was no food for these surrendered soldiers.
Liu Bei, who had won a great victory, was not happy for long before he began to worry.
When Liu Bei led his people to Xu Hu's camp and saw the money, grain, and weapons stored in the warehouses of the camp, they almost jumped with joy.
Especially when Liu Bei saw the tens of thousands of grains in the warehouse, he was overjoyed.
Because of these tens of thousands of grains, the more than 600 soldiers under Liu Bei will not have to worry about food problems for nearly a year.
But when Liu Bei saw the 6,000 young men who surrendered after this war and the more than 20,000 people who surrendered from other places later, Liu Bei felt that these tens of thousands of grains were too little.
It is easy to get these people who have become rebels to surrender, but it is very difficult to get them to return home.
How to bring these sudden increase of nearly 30,000 people back has become a problem that Liu Bei needs to solve urgently.
When Liu Bei told Pingyuan County Prime Minister Chen Ji about this matter, hoping that Chen Ji could provide some food, Chen Ji used his intelligence very well and politely said that there was nothing he could do about the matter and let Liu Bei, the Pingyuan County Magistrate, solve it by himself.
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After all, this is a battle fought by your Pingyuan County magistrate. Of course you have to deal with the prisoners you captured. Of course you have to jump out of the hole you dug. The behavior of digging a hole yourself and letting others jump is unreasonable and unfair.
Moral, easily hated by others.
Of course, there is a kind of person who can dig a hole for others to jump into. You can't say that he is unreasonable or immoral, and you don't dare to hate him. This kind of person is a leader, a superior, and the person who controls how much money you can get.
When Liu Bei asked Chen Meng to figure out how to make these nearly 30,000 people return home, Chen Meng could only agree with a smile.
Liu Bei is Chen Meng's eldest brother and Chen Meng's superior. Therefore, Chen Meng will not say that Liu Bei is unreasonable, will not say that Liu Bei is immoral, and will not hold grudges against Liu Bei. Instead, he will be very happy.
Chen Meng was accustomed to this kind of thing in his later generations. Every time the leader handed over a poor class to Chen Meng, Chen Meng would be grateful to the leader. Because the leader said, this is a test for Chen Meng, and it is the leader's responsibility.
I believe in Chen Meng’s strength.
When Chen Meng heard that Liu Bei also said that he entrusted such an important task to him because he believed in his own strength, Chen Meng suddenly discovered a truth. It turns out that from ancient times to the present, the function of leadership has never changed. It has become just
Just people.
These nearly 30,000 people are now without homes, fields, farm tools, and cattle. And most of them are not even from Pingyuan County, and some are not even from Qingzhou.
After learning that 30,000 people did not have farm tools, Chen Meng was also very surprised. Because Chen Meng knew very well that when these people rebelled, most of the weapons in their hands were farm tools.
After Chen Meng inquired, he learned that it was Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and others who had confiscated all the farm tools.
When Chen Menglai found his second brother and third brother and saw that the two were planning to remake these farm tools into weapons, Chen Meng did not hesitate and severely stopped the two of them from this stupid approach.
Then Chen Meng immediately sent people to move all the farm tools away, regardless of the objections of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, and even invited his eldest brother Liu Bei out, leaving none of them behind.
The reason why these farm tools were snatched from Guan Yu and Zhang Fei's hands was because Chen Meng thought of a way to solve the problem of 30,000 people, and these farm tools were what he needed most.
The day after he got the farm tools, Chen Meng came to Liu Bei with a written edict. The edict was written:
1. Granting of fields. Every man over 15 years old will be granted 40 acres of open field for growing grains, and 20 acres for women. The open fields should be ownerless wasteland. The more you cultivate, the more fields you will get.
2. The cultivated fields belong to the farmers, but they are not allowed to trade. After old age and death, the fields are returned to the government.
3. Farm tools. If you are willing to reclaim farmland in Pingyuan County, you will be given a set of farm tools.
4. Cattle. Those who do not have oxen can rent oxen from the government for free in the first year. After that, those who rent oxen need to provide money or food.
5. All taxes paid by farmers will be implemented according to the existing system.
The purpose of Chen Meng's edict is also very obvious, which is to allow these 30,000 people to farm in Pingyuan County, so that there is land for the tillers.
Liu Bei read this edict no less than ten times, and after pondering for a moment, he said:
"It's already April, and the spring plowing has passed. We can only wait for the autumn plowing. So where will the food for these 30,000 people come from before next summer's harvest?"
Liu Bei raised a very realistic and important question.
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were generally two periods of farming, one was spring plowing and the other was autumn plowing. The time for spring plowing was generally January, February, and March, but the planting time was also different depending on the location and the crops.
From the end of the first year to February, if there is a drenching rain, farmers can plant spring wheat, grass, millet, peas and other crops. In March, if there is a drenching rain, farmers can plant japonica rice in low-level fields.
Rice is grown in fields with abundant water resources.
Autumn plowing usually starts in August. The main food crops for autumn plowing are barley and wheat. Depending on the level of the field, the plowing time will also be different. For example, lower-level fields are planted first during the white dew, and then planted at the autumnal equinox.
For medium fields, plant higher fields ten days after the autumnal equinox.
However, it is now April, the spring plowing has long passed, and the autumn plowing has not yet come.
Even if this edict is issued, these 30,000 people are willing to open up the fields. What will happen if these 30,000 people have to eat? When the food grown by these people matures, what should we do if rebels come to rob it? This is the most practical problem.
, is also the issue that these 30,000 people are most concerned about.