Wu Yi recognized the speaker as Cheng Yu. At the wedding at Liu Yan's house in Chengdu that day, it was he who proposed to give Wu Ran to Liu Xin. Wu Yi was a very realistic person. Liu Yan was already dead, and Liu Hao was also
He was made a prisoner, so as soon as Cheng Yu's words came out, he persuaded his sister. Now, Liu Xin asked him to take Wu Ran home, but he was still a little reluctant. When he heard Cheng Yu's words of persuasion, he naturally
He got what he wanted and said hurriedly: "My lord, Mr. Cheng has something to discuss, so I will take my leave first."
Liu Xin nodded and watched him quickly catch up with the group of Yizhou officials in front of him. Then he turned around and asked Cheng Yu: "Zhongde, it's okay as you said. Why not?"
Cheng Yu bowed and said: "Back to my lord, I once learned the art of physiognomy from an expert. Judging from Miss Wu's face, she is indeed a very noble person."
Liu Xin was surprised. In his memory, he had never heard that Cheng Yu would meet. Liu Xin knew that the so-called Wu Ran had a noble appearance simply meant that she remarried Liu Bei in history, and even more so after Liu Bei became emperor.
Was named queen. However, Liu Xin didn't believe in these things, so she looked at Cheng Yu playfully and said: "Zhongde, since you know the art of physiognomy, how about you help me see it?"
Cheng Yu lowered his head, cupped his hands and said, "I don't dare to speak."
Liu Xin smiled and said: "It comes out of your mouth and into my ears. There is no third person here. It doesn't matter if you just say it."
Cheng Yu then said seriously: "My lord has a strange appearance, but his subordinates are not good at academics, so I really can't figure it out through further research. It's just that my lord has a faint aura of a king, and this aura of a king is different. What is it, I don't know."
I can’t tell.”
Liu Xin has always believed that people in ancient times often believed in fate because they did not know enough about things, and used divination and fortune telling to determine their future destiny. However, after hearing Cheng Yu's words, he could not help but be secretly surprised.
The unique kingly aura that Cheng Yu mentioned should refer to his status as the "King of Stealers", if that can be considered a king. Cheng Yu can even see this, maybe he does have some special abilities
Maybe. Although Liu Xin thought so in her heart, her face remained calm and she said with a smile: "The late emperor once named me the King of Xiangyang, but I later resigned him. This is probably where the kingly aura you mentioned comes from.
.As for fate, my understanding is that one-third of it is determined by nature, and seven-cent depends on hard work! Whether it’s divination or fortune telling, just treat it as a pastime, just laugh at it, don’t take it seriously.”
Hearing Liu Xin's words, "One-third is destiny, and seven-tenth depends on hard work." Cheng Yu couldn't help but stand in awe. He was indeed not with the wrong person, and he was even more eager to make contributions. He quickly leaned over and said, "Go back to my lord, there is another one of my subordinates."
Report the matter."
It turned out that when he was in Chengdu, Cheng Yu saw that Wu Ran had a strange appearance, so he asked Wu Yi and found out that someone had also seen Wu Ran's face, and told Liu Yan that Wu Ran was a noble person.
After Liu Yan knew about it, he originally wanted to take Wu Ran as his concubine, but he and Wu Ran's father had always been brothers. Due to their seniority, he had to let his son Liu Mao marry Wu Ran. After Cheng Yu learned about this situation, he became even more upset.
This strengthened his intention to persuade Liu Xin to accept Wu Ran as his concubine.
After years of work as a phantom spy, Liu Xin already knew that Liu Yan desperately wanted to win the position of Yizhou Mu because someone saw the aura of the emperor there. However, in Liu Xin's eyes, these things are still a bit illusory.
Liu Yan did not become an emperor, but he lost his life first.
Looking at Cheng Yu who was still trying to persuade him, Liu Xin waved his hand without any doubt and said: "Zhongde, don't mention this matter again. Although Liu Yan colluded with Dong Zhuo, he was still a clan member of the Han Dynasty.
I have the same clan as me, how could I do something to rob his woman! In this way, the affairs of Liu Hao and Liu Zhang will be left to you. You must reunite them as husband and wife and arrange their lives."
Cheng Yu couldn't help but be greatly disappointed. It would be better to let Wu Yi take his sister home first and figure out a solution later. However, Cheng Yu couldn't persuade Liu Xin anymore, so he had to retreat.
.
Liu Xin looked at his back and couldn't help but feel funny. People like Cheng Yu and Guo Jia were all a bit ambitious and wanted to help themselves rise to the top, but there was no need to find a good-looking woman to achieve their goals. Besides, it was necessary to find a good-looking woman.
Finding a woman with a good face is not easy. Bian Yu in his family should be no worse than Wu Yu in terms of appearance alone. Besides, it is useless no matter how expensive a woman’s appearance is. Liu Hao seems to be a short-lived ghost in history. He married Wu
Amaranth was not able to use it for a few days, and in the end he got an advantage over Liu Bei. And Liu Yan, who had occupied the imperial city of Chengdu for so many years, only knew how to stay in seclusion and had no intention of making progress. In the end, he was frightened to death on the spot.
In history, some of the people who really achieved great things in troubled times were arranged by fate, and not all of them achieved their goals through their own efforts.
After thinking about this clearly, Liu Xin did not take Wu Ran's matter to heart. The first thing he had to do was to arrange for the Yizhou officials to serve. These officials were all retained. They were assigned to various counties in Jingzhou and were familiar with the whole of Jingzhou.
The operation of government affairs, in Liu Xin's words, is to let them do internships first. After all, Jingzhou's system has changed a lot compared with other places.
These officials were not worried about their future because Liu Xin promised to let them return to Yizhou in one month. Moreover, Jingzhou's prosperous trade, developed economy and wealthy life impressed them deeply. In fact, due to the influence of the Yellow Turban Rebellion,
, the entire Eastern Han Dynasty, especially the economic and social life of the northern states, was severely hit. Now the richest people are the three southern states of Xu, Jing, and Yi.
These officials who came to serve in Yizhou all came from local gentry families. In addition, Liu Yan implemented a policy of focusing on agriculture and suppressing business in Yizhou. These officials' families own a large amount of land. The tax policy implemented in Jingzhou will directly damage the country.
The interests of these officials. But Liu Xin is not worried about this. First of all, these officials have no military power. Even if they rebel, they will not make much trouble. Besides, how can people not bow their heads under the low eaves? Their life and death will be taken away from them.
With everything in Liu Xin's hands, how dare you not implement the policies formulated by Liu Xin. Secondly, after these officials stayed in Jingzhou for a month, they will definitely see that Jingzhou's development has far exceeded Yizhou. Who doesn't want to
How about your hometown? Liu Xin has reason to believe that it won't be long before these Yizhou officials will be willing to accept Jingzhou's practices from the bottom of their hearts.
The next day, the envoys who went to recruit the four central and southern counties all sent back news. The governors of these four counties were all young officials promoted by Liu Yan. These people, like Zhu Bao back then, were most devoted to Liu Yan and refused to accept the offer.
Not coming back.
The four central and southern counties are inhabited by Han and barbarians, and the majority of them are barbarians. However, the prefects and officials at all levels are all Han people. These Han prefects have absolute power in the local area and are veritable local overlords. Now Liu Yan
No longer there, they wanted to get rid of Yizhou and establish themselves as kings, who would obey Liu Xin's orders. Moreover, the area was vast and sparsely populated, and the roads were difficult and difficult to navigate. They did not believe that Liu Xin's army could easily reach there.
In fact, Liu Xin has been able to infiltrate into the barbarian tribes through the Three Surnames Alliance, but now he cannot use his troops to attack the four central and southern counties.
After the Battle of Luocheng, Liu Xin gained a new understanding of ancient military struggles. In the past, he had always hoped to strengthen the army and select better soldiers, so he never expanded the size of the army. Now, excluding the navy, his total military strength is still
There are more than 180,000 people, but half of them are recruits who have been in the army for less than a year. In the era of cold weapons, the combat effectiveness of insufficiently trained recruits will be greatly reduced. This can be seen from the performance of the recruits of the Fifth Army in the Battle of Luocheng
You can see the clues.
Liu Xin's biggest enemy now is Dong Zhuo. The number of troops he can mobilize can even reach 500,000, including more than 200,000 elite Xiliang cavalry. This does not include the nomadic Qiang and Southern Huns he may recruit.
Cavalry. At the same time, due to the capture of Shu County, Liu Xin faced pressure from Dong Zhuo's group in three directions. Although historically Dong Zhuo had always been content with being his grand master in Chang'an until he fell into Wang Yun's conspiracy and was
Lu Bu killed him. But now that Diao Chan is not in Wang Yun's house, the chain plan will definitely not be implemented. Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu will not be able to turn against each other for a while. Liu Xin is not sure whether Dong Zhuo will take the initiative to attack Jingzhou, so he must strengthen this
For defense in three directions, the first, second and third legions were deployed in Shujun, Nanyang and Yingchuan respectively.
As a result, the only forces Liu Xin can use are the Fourth Army and the incompletely organized Fifth Army. These two armies are already somewhat stretched to defend against other princes, let alone take the initiative to attack the Central and Southern Four.
County. Of course, Liu Xin now does not have to worry about the four central and southern counties counterattacking his territory. After all, the prefects are all arrogant and have not jointly elected a leader, and they have to be restrained by the local barbarians.
What Liu Xin urgently needs to do now is to recruit soldiers. The society at that time was still a farming society, and the population engaged in agricultural production accounted for the vast majority. However, the situation in Jingzhou was quite special. Due to the rapid development of commerce and handicraft industry, the non-agricultural population was increasing day by day.
, coupled with the recruitment of 100,000 new soldiers last year, recruiting more new soldiers in Jingzhou will inevitably affect next year's agricultural production. Liu Xin knows best that food is the most important thing for the people. Agriculture is fundamental.
This is unshakable, and this is the reason why Jingzhou recruits troops every year after the autumn harvest, so that the peasant families who have lost their labor can reasonably arrange their farm work for the next year.
However, Liu Xin has already figured out that just one or two elite soldiers is not enough. He also needs a sufficient number of elite soldiers to ensure that his territory can have a stable and safe development environment, and at the same time, he can free up his hands to slowly expand his power.
Therefore, the focus of recruiting troops this year will be on the four counties of Yingchuan, Qianwei, Shujun and Guanghan.
Originally, Liu Xin wanted to plan the recruitment of troops, but after receiving the news that the four central and southern counties refused to return, he immediately issued an order to recruit troops.