Chapter 228: Locust Plague "Gongtai, now that Bingzhou has been taken, I'm afraid you'll have to bear more responsibilities here." Looking at the sand table of Bingzhou, Tian Ze said with some emotion. Bingzhou occupies an excellent strategic location because it is mostly plateaus, from which one can overlook Jizhou and Sili, which is extremely important for fields and lakes. But overall, Bingzhou is vast but sparsely populated, and is surrounded by powerful enemies. About one-third of the southeastern area is continuous mountain ranges interspersed with many basins. Because it is easy to defend and difficult to attack and has favorable terrain, nearly 70% of Bingzhou's people live here, making it the core of Bingzhou. Other places are mostly uninhabited plateaus or grasslands. "Bingzhou has many plateaus and a large strategic depth. We can start operating it as a safe zone now." "To the north, there is Lü Bu blocking the Xianbei, and there is also the Yinshan Mountains. Just arrange a general to lead 20,000 troops to garrison there." Cheng Yu said, "My Lord, Qian Zhao has performed quite well so far. How about letting him guard the place?" Tadashi nodded. "To the east is Yuan Shao. We have occupied the Taihang Mountains and can provide Zang Ba with another 10,000 troops. With Xu Huang's help, there should be no problem."
"There is the danger of the Yellow River to the south. As long as Li Jue and Guo Si are not crazy, they will not dare to attack. It is not a big problem. Withdraw Zhou Tai and lead 20,000 troops to garrison here." "To the west is Gongsun Zan, who is my close friend. I know him well, so I don't need to worry about him. But just in case, Taishi Ci will lead 10,000 cavalrymen." "In addition, Wenyuan will lead 50,000 soldiers to garrison Bingzhou. This way, we can be sure that nothing goes wrong." Now that the speed of population attraction in the south has slowed down for a long time, so many people are no longer needed, Tian Ze can naturally withdraw some of his troops. As for Taishi Ci, since Yuan Shao had already moved the county seat, it would be of little use for his cavalry to harass around Yecheng. It would be better to ease the garrison pressure on the west side of Bingzhou. Hearing Tian Ze's deployment, everyone nodded. They had discussed this matter long before the Bingzhou battle, except that the person stationed in Yinshan was replaced by Qian Zhao instead of Pang De. "Bingzhou has many plateaus, which are suitable for developing animal husbandry. With Lü Fengxian in the north, we can just snatch some Xianbei people who are good at herding from the Xianbei tribe and settle them here." "Gongtai, you can discuss the specific price with Li Ru. If the conditions are similar, you can agree to it. After all, you will need them in the future." Tian Ze said. In fact, Lu Fengxian was not considered a vassal that Tian Ze recognized, because the civil and military teams under his command were too sloppy and could not support any force at all. But considering that he was good at dealing with the barbarians and had Li Ru to assist him, he accepted it with the idea of paying a huge sum of money for a horse bone. Although it won't have much effect in the short term, it can be regarded as paving the way for the future. After all, the territory he can control in the future is limited, and if he wants to reach out again, he must rely on these people. "Yes!" Chen Gong nodded. "How much money do you estimate it will cost per year to migrate the population to run Bingzhou?" Tian Ze asked. This is his biggest concern. Chen Gong's face looked a little grim: "My Lord, the development of the Northeast Plain still requires manpower, and there are also local people in Bingzhou, why do we need to relocate them?" Bingzhou's economic foundation was too poor and it was too poor to operate it basically from scratch. It was no wonder that Yuan Shao did not want to invest troops in such a place. Chen Gong was really unwilling to spend a lot of effort to manage this place, as it would be a huge project with huge costs. "The population can't all be concentrated in Youzhou and the Northeast Plain. Bingzhou's population is too small now."
"If we don't occupy this area, it will be occupied by foreign races. We must arrange for enough people to settle down. At least three million people need to be relocated here." Hearing Tian Ze's words, Chen Gong's pupils widened instantly. "My Lord, the cost of settling more than three million people in Bingzhou is probably at least 40 billion! This year's fiscal deficit will be serious!" "Hold on! Now is the development period, it will be fine after this period of time." Tian Ze said familiar words. Chen Gong's face darkened when he heard this. When Jia Xu, who was standing by, heard this, he frowned instinctively. Every time these words are spoken, it means a long period of overtime. "My lord, do we have to take over Sili and Liangzhou next? Do we have to manage them as well? I'm afraid the so-called period of time you mentioned is at least five years." Tian Ze's rhetoric had grown on his ears. He watched helplessly as the surplus of money and grain in the treasury for several years fell short of expenditure every year, and he was extremely anxious. If he continued like this, he would not be able to continue his work. Tian Ze was also helpless. He didn't study finance, but he really tried his best to solve the problem of money. "My lord, the natural disasters this year seem to be very serious. Perhaps we can sell some food." Mi Zhu suddenly said. "Natural disaster? Where does it mainly involve?" Tian Ze has been busy fighting during this period and has not paid attention to these things. "Both the Central Plains and Hebei Province suffered from very serious locust plagues, and Youzhou was almost attacked, but fortunately the number was not large, and we organized the people to catch and kill them in time, so no damage was caused." Guo Yuan said. With the assistance of farmers, they have made great progress in preventing and controlling droughts, floods and locusts. The relatively cold environment of Youzhou itself is not suitable for locusts to survive. In addition, they have built a very scientific farmland ecology and raised a lot of chickens, ducks, frogs, etc., so there is basically no need to worry about the problem of local locust infestations. But this time the locusts came from the Central Plains and southern Jizhou, and almost caught them off guard. "Now Yuan Shao, Cao Cao and Liu Bei..." Tian Ze's tone was a little strange, and he didn't know whether to lament or gloat. "The price of grain in the Central Plains and southern Jizhou has risen to 50,000 coins per stone, and is still rising sharply. It is estimated that it will soon exceed 100,000 coins." Mi Zhu said. "We have lowered the population exchange price to 20 dan of grain per person." Chen Gong said calmly. When it is time to take advantage of the situation, he will never show mercy. "However, Yuan Shao, Cao Cao and Liu Bei have always been unwilling to exchange. They only exchanged a large number of them before the locust plague appeared and before we noticed and adjusted the exchange rate. After that, they basically did not move again." "But fortunately, there are many more refugees who have secretly fled to our territory." "They are very far-sighted. If they continue to be replaced, there will be no one left under their rule." Guo Jia said with a dim look. Tian Ze's frantic act of recruiting people all over the world has made the princes, especially those in the Central Plains, realize the importance of population. All the princes were encouraging childbirth and strengthening military discipline training. Although the various princes were not fully aware of how many people Tian Ze had recruited from all over the world, but judging from the southern states alone, the number was no less than six million. If other states were included, the number could be close to tens of millions. While marveling at Tianze's financial resources, they also became more deeply aware of the seriousness of the population problem. Apart from anything else, Yuan Shao was able to hold on to an army of nearly 500,000 before, even though he mobilized almost all of the young and strong men under his rule, but that was when the combined population of Jizhou and Qingzhou was more than 4 million. Once the population continues to decline, what use will all the money and grain be? The money is gone and the person is gone.
Tian Ze just waved his hand and three or four hundred thousand elite soldiers joined the battle, not counting the defenders. The soldiers under their command are not as elite as Tianze's. They need to gather at least an army of 300,000 to be barely qualified to protect themselves, which requires the support of at least nearly three million people. Now, among all the princes in the world, only Yuan Shao, Liu Biao and Liu Yan can achieve this most basic point. If we don't pay attention to the population problem, we will be unable to fight this war and we won't be able to win even if we just outlast it. Although Yuan Shu, the Three Lius and other southern princes were aware of this, their abilities were average and they could not control the aristocratic families under their command, and their foundation was strong, so they continued to traffic in people, but on a much smaller scale. Similarly, Li Jue, Guo Si and Tao Qian were in a similar situation. Two of these three were idiots, and one was waiting to retire. But their population was too small, and they couldn't squeeze out much population. Gongsun Zan was Tian Ze's childhood friend, and Tian Ze had already secretly communicated with him. Although they would have a fight in the future, they would not fall out. Therefore, Tian Ze did not intend to exploit the population of Xiliang, but was only prepared to trade with war horses, cattle, sheep, etc. The most difficult ones to deal with are the three brothers Yuan, Cao and Liu. After stockpiling enough food to feed the army in advance, they are now unwilling to eat or drink. Except for newborns, they refuse to sell anything to others, as if they would rather starve to death than sell anyone. "If you can't buy people, then just sell them for money." Tian Ze said with a headache. There's no way, he is short of money now, and the gap is not small. Zhuge Liang of later generations was able to sell Shu brocade to Cao Wei to raise troops for the Northern Expedition against Cao Wei, so it was not surprising that he did so. The last thing he lacked was food, so he would take this opportunity to make some money. Moreover, he did not want to see too many people starve to death in the Central Plains. Now, except for the south, other princes have been almost exploited by him. Even if he is forced to death, it would be considered good if they could recruit 200,000 people a year. It is not worth it. The population attraction is estimated to be coming to an end soon. There will be no more possibility of making a "population fortune" and we can only develop steadily. (End of this chapter)