Chapter 259 Tian Ze's Internal Troubles The winter of the fourth year of Chuping was not very cold, and the snow was much less than in previous years. However, the hearts of the princes all over the world turned cold. Tian Ze did not hesitate to share some knowledge on preventing and dealing with drought and locust plagues. Moreover, they had many people under their command who were good at observing the weather and understood farming. The winter temperature is relatively high and the snow accumulation is relatively small. There is not enough melted snow water to replenish the soil and rivers, and the temperature is not low enough to kill locust eggs. The possibility of severe drought and locust plagues in the coming year will increase. What Tian Ze reminded me might be true! All the princes realized this and began to prepare various measures without any doubt to deal with the natural disaster that was likely to come next. The winter days, which were supposed to be a time for rest and recuperation, have become exceptionally lively. After truly facing the gap in strength between himself and the soldiers of Tian Ze's army, Yuan Shao has been using this slack farming time to train his troops with all his strength, even at the cost of a large amount of money and food. After learning about this, Cao Cao and Liu Bei followed suit and also began their vigorous military training.
Behind this, of course, the food support provided by Tian Ze is indispensable. In order to stabilize the population, Yuan Shao and his men sold grain in the fields and marshes, and when food was not in short supply, they distributed a lot of grain to the people. However, it was only enough to fill their stomachs and ensure that people would not starve to death. Most of the withheld grain was divided up between them and the wealthy and powerful families, making them quite wealthy. This act of "aiding the enemy" was often criticized by Cheng Yu. However, Tian Ze did not care. In Tian Ze's eyes, all the princes in the world, including Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, were not enemies, but whetstones and helpers. Compared to "raising a tiger to cause trouble", Tian Ze was more worried about the decline of the population in the Central Plains. There was no need to deplete the vitality of the Han people in order to accelerate a doomed victory. Sun Ce in Jiangdong was also full of a sense of crisis at this time. Taking advantage of the fact that there was no snow in Jiangdong, he led his army to attack cities and capture strongholds without stopping, striving to completely capture Yuzhang County before the beginning of spring next year and cut off the possibility of Liu Bei invading Yangzhou to the east. The Central Plains and the southeastern region are really experiencing severe involution. In contrast, Liu Yan was comfortably hosting a banquet for his ministers in the imperial palace in Chengdu, eating hot pot and singing songs, looking so cool. Gongsun Zan also stopped his attack, enjoyed the money and food provided by Tian Ze, and began to rest in peace. Li Jue and Guo Si were still making trouble in Chang'an. Not only did they attack each other and fight among themselves, they were also unable to control their subordinates, allowing them to plunder at will, causing chaos in Guanzhong and the people to scatter. Tian Ze set up a large number of refugee resettlement sites in the southern border of Bingzhou. He watched the two men commit suicide with a smile and accepted a large number of people. In addition to the civilians who fled, many generals under Li Jue and Guo Si came to these resettlement sites to earn extra money. You steal the people from my territory and sell them for money, and I steal the people from your territory and sell them for money. The Sili area, which was originally relatively peaceful, suddenly became a place of internal turmoil. The pockets of Li Jue, Guo Si and the generals under their command became fatter, but Sili, which was originally sparsely populated, became even more depressed. A large number of county towns and villages were completely deserted, and there was no crowing of roosters for thousands of miles. Fortunately, not many people died. The greedy Xiliang officials and soldiers even turned their attention to the surrounding areas of Luoyang and began to plunder the people under Cao Cao's rule. After learning about this, Cao Cao cursed: "You are a coward, don't make plans with me!" If these two people are allowed to continue like this, Si Li will be ruined even without Tian Ze having to do anything.
It’s easy to imagine what Sili will become after the population is sold out by this group of short-sighted people. Xun Yu and Xi Zhicai were extremely bitter at this time. In fact, they also bear a lot of responsibility for the rebellion of Li Jue and Guo Si. They had already seen that Li Jue and Guo Si were not capable of accomplishing anything, and they had secretly fanned the flames in order to create such a situation so that they could easily seize the Sili area. But who would have thought that the situation would have come to this point, Tian Ze was really too powerful. Despite such a good opportunity, they did not have the chance to occupy this place, which only created a good opportunity for Tian Ze. Unfortunately, the characteristics of the Xiliang Army made it impossible to control the evil they had planted in the first place. Now they couldn't make amends even if they wanted to, and they had completely failed. By now, Li Jue and Guo Si have been beaten to a pulp. Given the character of the Xiliang soldiers, they can't be contained at all unless they or Tian Ze take action and put pressure on them. But they didn't have the strength, and Tian Ze was so shrewd and cunning that he couldn't make a move. At this time, Cao Cao had completely given up hope on Li Jue and Guo Si, his "allies", and began to study the terrain of Sili, thinking about how to quickly seize the key areas and fight against Tian Ze. The ministers under Tian Ze were also very busy at this time. Not only did they have to properly resettle the refugees from Jizhou and Bingzhou, but more importantly, they had to study the fourth "Five-Year Plan". Before we knew it, fifteen years had passed since Tian Ze started his career, and five years had passed since Dong Zhuo's rebellion. As expected, Tian Ze once again achieved the goals of the third "Five-Year Plan" at a super node, conquered three states, developed the Northeast Plain, and attracted a population of nearly 30 million, directly establishing a situation that overlooked the world in one fell swoop. All aspects under his rule were gradually improving, but at the same time, they inevitably encountered a relatively slow period of development, and the speed of development began to decline significantly compared with the past. The expansion of the official team led to the rapid growth of the Twelve Ministries, and various government orders were constantly refined and the rules were gradually improved. We already have everything we need, and it is no longer possible to develop at the same rapid pace as before. Moreover, many hidden dangers and internal contradictions during the period of rapid development were exposed at this time. Many of the foundation-laying measures that were once put in place have now become obstacles to development. Tian Ze had to take action to solve the problem, but he did not dare to be too drastic and could only digest it slowly. For example, the many villages and fields in the Liaodong Mountains. The development of the Northeast Plain and the capture of Jizhou and Bingzhou made remote Liaodong no longer suitable as a major grain producing area. Especially in the villages along the mountains and rivers, there is a certain amount of loss in the transportation of the grown grain. Although it may not seem large, it is a considerable loss when accumulated. Moreover, considering such a long transportation line, it is not cost-effective. Tian Ze naturally had to adjust the focus of development and gradually move the population out of the mountains. Not to mention moving all of them to Bingzhou and Jizhou, but at least to Zhuojun, Guangyangjun and other places in Youzhou. The same is true for the extra population in Jizhou and Gaozhou. This requires a lot of hard work. Many of the people in the mountains are "old men" under Tian Ze. Some of them have lived here for more than ten years and have taken root there. It is not easy for them to migrate. The remaining counties and villages also had to adjust their industrial structure and no longer set grain production as their goal. They only needed to ensure grain self-sufficiency. Most of the young and strong people turned to factories to engage in work such as weapon manufacturing and copper coin casting. Moreover, with the increase in population and territory, various operational problems began to emerge within the Twelve Ministries, administrative efficiency continued to decline, and internal reform and adjustment were urgently needed. However, many of the once meritorious officials have now become vested beneficiaries, and reforms and adjustments will inevitably infringe upon their interests.
Although Tian Ze, relying on his own prestige and the abilities of Chen Gong and others, could also directly "decide with one word" and tear down and rebuild part of the system. But breaking the rules that one has established will inevitably create hidden dangers again and hurt the hearts of officials and scholars. Now that Tian Ze has entered the stage of ruling the world, he can no longer act recklessly as he did when he first conquered the world. With the development of power, this situation is inevitable, and Tian Ze has made mental preparations, so when formulating various rules, Tian Ze asked Chen Gong and others to consider the long-term as much as possible. It is difficult to straighten the tree once it has grown crooked. But the circumstances are different and there are still significant limitations. Many of the rules that were originally designed to cope with the current situation and to improve efficiency are no longer suitable for the current situation. Chen Gong and others could only adopt the method of boiling a frog in warm water and make modifications and improvements bit by bit. This is a silent war, which is just as important as a real war, or even more important. The emergence of the Three Kingdoms was closely related to the fierce political struggle within Cao Wei. This trend is now slowly emerging under Tian Ze's rule, with the increasingly frequent quarrels between Chen Gong and Cheng Yu and others being a manifestation of this. What they represent now is not only themselves, but also the countless officials and soldiers behind them. Most of Tian Ze's subordinates are loyal and capable ministers, but they also have party differences and their own interests, which need to be sorted out and balanced. Unifying the Han Dynasty is not Tian Ze's end point, but the starting point. This is one of the reasons why Tian Ze is not in a hurry to conquer. He wanted to use the new benefits generated by the war during the conquest to sort out and resolve internal problems as quickly as possible, and while still being able to make the pie bigger, take the opportunity to divide the pie better. (End of this chapter)