Among the princes, the big fish eats the small fish, and the small fish eats the shrimps. After years of fighting, there are not many princes who can still make their own decisions, and there are only a handful of them that Liu Xin can use to show off his "muscles".
Xin now had two choices, one was to continue southward from the three counties in the south of the Yangtze River and annex the entire Jiaozhou, the other was to send his troops northward to eat Liu Yao.
Compared with the three counties in the south of the Yangtze River, the seven counties in Jiaozhou are even more vast and sparsely populated. The total population does not exceed one million, and the population of several counties is less than 100,000. Therefore, historically, they have not been controlled by the princes.
It has not become the center of the world's struggle for hegemony.
Liu Yao was the nominal shepherd of Yangzhou, but he only controlled the two counties of Jiujiang and Danyang. Surrounded by powerful enemies, life was very difficult. Even under such circumstances, Liu Yao never gave up on unifying Yangzhou.
At the end of last year, he even sent several envoys to Xiangyang to ask Liu Xin for the three counties of Jiangnan. Of course, Liu Yao's request for the three counties of Jiangnan was not without conditions. He took the initiative to ask for the three counties of Jiangnan.
Yangzhou will obey Liu Xin's orders from now on.
Of course, Liu Xin could not accept Liu Yao's request, and Liu Xin also saw Liu Yao's wishful thinking. Liu Yao is now surrounded by powerful enemies. Let alone others, Yuan Shu alone will sooner or later have a fight with him.
A big war broke out. If he nominally surrendered to Liu Xin, Yuan Shu would have to weigh his plans to attack him again. In other words, Liu Yao's request for the three counties of Jiangnan was false, and he wanted to have a relationship with Liu Xin, so he recruited Liu
It is true that this big flag is filled with tiger skin.
Of course Liu Xin would not be fooled by him. Even if Liu Xin could not see through it himself, so many of his wise men would remind him in time. So Liu Xin did not hesitate to expel the envoys sent by Liu Yao from Xiangyang. Not only
In this way, Guo Jia, Cheng Yu and others also suggested that Liu Xin should use troops against Liu Yao first, put on a posture of sweeping the world, put pressure on Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, and force them to take action.
Liu Xin naturally accepted their suggestions. However, Liu Xin also had his own plan. He wanted to use troops in both directions, Liu Yao and Jiaozhou. This was a decision Liu Xin made after carefully studying the territory map of the Han Dynasty.
Because Liu Xin discovered that Jiaozhou on this Han territory map included Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan and a large area of northern and central Vietnam in later generations, and Liu Xin was interested in this land that would later belong to northern and central Vietnam. Only
By controlling this area, the entire Beibu Gulf would become the inland sea of the Han Dynasty. For Liu Xin, who came from a later generation and had a strong maritime awareness, taking Jiaozhou was even more tempting than taking Liu Yao.
Whether it is using troops against Liu Yao or against Jiaozhou, the three counties in Jiangnan will be at the forefront. Therefore, Liu Xin’s trip to the three counties in Jiangnan this time is not just for sightseeing or to understand the sentiments of the people, but to
There he sat and commanded these two important battles.
The first stop of Liu Xin's trip to the three counties in the south of the Yangtze River was Jiangxia. Jiangxia City is the gateway to the east of Jingzhou. Ever since Liu Xin took back control of Jiangxia from Huang Zu, he has been working hard to develop it into a city second only to Xiangyang.
He Wancheng is the third largest city in Jingzhou. In the military camps around the city, regular legions of the Han Dynasty are stationed all year round. However, the garrison of the Han legions is often rotated. Currently, the 20,000 infantrymen of the Fourth Legion are stationed in Jiangxia.
It was led by the partial general Lei Tong.
Lei Tong did not appear in the team to greet Liu Xin. Liu Xin had already begun to implement the separation of military and political affairs. Without his order, the generals in the major legions would not dare to leave their posts without authorization. The person who came to greet Liu Xin was Jiangxia Prefect Han
Song, Wang Wei, the captain of Jiangxia, and Su Fei, the captain of the navy.
Today's prefect no longer controls the army, but government affairs are equally important, especially frontline cities like Jiangxia, which need a stable situation. Therefore, after Liu Xin returned to Xiangyang from Guanzhong, he transferred Han Song to Jiangxia.
The local army has been completely reorganized. There are captains in counties and county captains in counties. Their ranks are half a level lower than those of prefects and county magistrates respectively, but they are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War and are not subordinate to each other. The local armies of each county and county are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War.
The number of people varies. In an important town like Jiangxia, the number of people will naturally be larger, reaching 3,000.
After this reorganization, not only the equipment of the local army has been upgraded, but the mental outlook and training level have also been completely renewed, because many of the middle and lower-level officers of these local armies are from the regular army. Jiangxia Captain Wang Wei was transferred from the Second Army.
The strength of the local army that came over was strengthened, and the regular army was liberated.
Jiangxia was originally the base camp of Jingzhou Navy. However, the current Jingzhou Navy has been renamed as Dahan Navy, and the main bases of the navy have been moved to Changsha and Wujun. Changsha has Yunmeng Daze, and Wujun has Taihu Lake.
, Also, it is closer to the sea. Liu Xin feels that only these places can train real naval forces. Therefore, under normal circumstances, Jiangxia's water stronghold is basically empty, with only dozens of guard sergeants and three soldiers.
Five small boats patrolling the river. Su Fei appeared here because he was ordered to bring several large boats to take Liu Xin and others across the river.
Liu Xin didn't like greetings and escorts, so he didn't ask Han Song to inform the gentry and officials in Jiangxia City. There were only Han Song and Wang Wei outside the city gate, and Su Fei each brought a few soldiers to wait there. Liu Xin was not satisfied with this
Very satisfied with the arrangement, he turned around and gave a few instructions, took Ju Sue, Xu Chu, and a dozen personal guards to escort the carriage into the city, while the rest of the personal guards went to camp by the river.
As the gateway to the east of Jingzhou, Jiangxia City is very solidly built. Likewise, because this is the front line, Jiangxia, which once played an important role in Jingzhou, is now less prosperous than Xiangyang, even cities like Zhangling.
.Despite this, Lu Qiling still clamored to go to the street to play.
Along the way, Liu Xin always passed through the county without entering. Of course, he entered Jiangxia City now not to rest and improve, but to take this opportunity to understand Yuan Shu's recent movements. It is still early in the day and he is not in a hurry. The child must be
They couldn't sit still. And Diao Chan was not as interested in government affairs as Ma Yun and Bian Yu. So Liu Xin waved his hand generously and "released" them all. Within the reach of Liu Xin's influence
Within the scope, the security everywhere is pretty good, and there are several personal guards following, so there is no need to worry about any danger.
Diao Chan and the others happily left the post house, and Liu Xin and others sat down. Han Song handed over several documents, which recorded the living conditions of the people in Yuan Shu's jurisdiction in the Lujiang and Runan areas. This was Liu Xin's.
They were specially asked to collect it. In fact, these contents were also involved in the intelligence collected by Phantom Secret Agent, but Liu Xin just wanted to verify it through the information provided by Han Song.
Putting down the documents in his hand, Liu Xin frowned and said, "Yuan Shu is indeed expanding his army aggressively. What exactly does he want to do? With his financial resources, I'm afraid he can't afford such a huge army."
Han Song cupped his hands and said: "Back to my lord, as far as I know, the aristocratic families in Lujiang, Runan, and Qiaojun have given Yuan Shu considerable support."
Liu Xin turned to look at Jushou, and saw Jushou nodded silently, proving that what Han Song said was true.
Han Song was born into a poor family. Although he was successful in his studies, he could not work as an official for a long time. Later, he became disheartened and fled into the mountains. If Liu Xin had not sent people to invite him several times, he would still be in the mountains with birds and beasts.
Han Song didn't have a good impression of these aristocratic families. He quietly glanced at Liu Xin and saw that there was no expression on Liu Xin's face. After a slight hesitation, he continued: "Because of the support of these aristocratic families, Yuan Shu
He was able to resort to military violence, but it made the people of these three counties miserable. As the general manager of the four states and the regent of the government, how can I ignore it?"
Jushu scolded from the side: "How dare you speak to the lord like this!"
Liu Xin waved her hand and said: "De Gao, you also know that Yuan Shu will not obey Liu's orders. In your opinion, how should Liu deal with it?"
Han Song cupped his hands and said: "My lord has a lot of troops. We should do our best to get rid of Yuan Shu, a person who only cares about his own interests and does not care about the sufferings of the people!"
Liu Xin said calmly: "Is this what you mean?"
Han Song was stunned and said: "If my lord can relieve the sufferings of the people in the three counties, it will not only be the expectation of my subordinates, but also the expectation of the people of Jiangxia."
Over the years, the three counties of Xiangyang, Nanjun, and Nanyang in northern Jingzhou have developed rapidly, while the two counties of Jiangxia and Nanxiang have lagged behind, and cannot even keep up with the development momentum of the four counties in Jingnan. The main reason is that Yuan Shu has always been loyal to Liu Xin
Stay vigilant, the trade routes here are not smooth, and commerce is now the two major economic pillars in Liu Xin's hands alongside agriculture. Therefore, Han Song said that the people of Jiangxia expected him to defeat Yuan Shu and capture Lujiang, Runan, etc.
The three counties are not unreasonable.
Liu Xin laughed and said: "When the war started, many lives were lost. Liu would not use weapons unless it was absolutely necessary. Yuan Jiujiu has not done his evil deeds yet. If Liu rashly raises troops and his troops are unknown, this matter will be discussed later.
.De Gao, you go back to the Yamen to handle official business first."
Although Han Song couldn't stand those rich people, he still respected Liu Xin very much. Because Liu Xin was unassuming and had no airs. This time Liu Xin came to Jiangxia, not only did she not want everyone to line up to welcome her, she even declined
Han Song offered to let them live temporarily in the prefect's mansion and insisted on living in the post house. Since Liu Xin had already said it, let him go back to handle official duties first. No matter how much he wanted to say, he did not want to disobey Liu Xin.
Meaning. Han Song quickly bowed and resigned.
Jushou looked at Han Song's back and said with a smile: "If it is true as Han Song said, and the lord is now popular, he might as well take action against Yuan Shu."
Liu Xin glanced at Ju Shou in surprise and pondered: "Does Gongyu also think that the time is ripe to attack Yuan Shu?"
Ju Shou asked back: "My lord ordered his subordinates to collect information about the aristocratic families who funded Yuan Shu, Cao Cao and others. Don't you have some plans?"
Liu Xin laughed loudly and said: "Well, my dear, I can't hide anything from you. However, the time is not ripe yet. What I have to wait for is for Yuan Shu to mess with me first!"