Liu Bei raised an army and served as an official for twelve years. The basic principles of gains and losses are easy to understand.
It was just because I was too tired for two consecutive days and nights that I woke up and my mind was unclear, so I was confused about the current situation.
After being sorted out by Zhuge Jin in such an outline, Liu Bei quickly recognized the reality and found that the original problem could be summarized so clearly and completely.
Zhuge Jin listed all the messy things that seemed to be complicated and complicated when he was asked to think about them on his own, and they seemed to be in order, with only a few core issues left.
"So now, for our army, the casualties are actually smaller than expected, more combat power has been preserved, and more prisoners have been captured. Only in terms of grabbing food, it is more disadvantaged than expected." Liu Bei touched the small Beard, concluded thoughtfully.
In the popular parlance of later generations, all these unexpected variables made Liu Bei face a situation where the upper limit became higher and the lower limit became lower than what he had initially planned.
The original plan was more like a stable income guarantee during droughts and floods.
After the plan fails to keep up with the changes, it becomes "the bigger the storm, the more expensive the fish." If you handle it well, you will win more, but if you handle it poorly, you will have to lose your capital.
We still have to find a way to get food!
And try to redeem the detained family members of the soldiers!
As for the military issue, I dare not say that it is definitely over now, but at least there is no need to worry about Yuan Shu organizing a new large-scale offensive in the short term.
Even if Yuan Shu still has to deal with him, more than half of the 40,000 troops attacking Huaiyin have been defeated, and part of the 5,000 defenders in Guangling have been lost. After losing so many troops, Yuan Shu will definitely have to regroup his troops. It can still be done after a few months. of.
Well, the only variable is Guan Yu, whether he can deceive or force Ji Ling to retreat, so that Ji Ling will completely give up and go back to defend Xuyi.
But Liu Bei felt that the military aspect was not a big problem and Guan Yu could handle it.
But how to get food? Liu Bei was so depressed that he almost pulled his hair out.
He couldn't help but cast a pitiful look at Zhuge Jin, and was even a little embarrassed to ask for advice.
He's just a guest, and he's already helped him so much.
Internal affairs, money and food, this is an area that the other party has never touched before. Isn't it a bit too much to ask?
Fortunately, Liu Bei quickly remembered that ten days ago he had sent Mi Zhu away to prepare military supplies.
Liu Bei inquired tactfully: "By the way, Zizhong is still in Haixi? Do you know what he is busy with recently?"
Zhuge Jin then gave Liu Bei a brief summary of the progress of the logistics preparations on the Haixi side: "Zizhong originally wanted to buy grain from Kong Beihai and transport it to Haixi by sea from Jimo and Buqi. But later he heard that before the siege of Huaiyin , Kong Beihai has been destroyed by Yuan Tan.
Zizhong then made another plan to go to Kuaiji Wang Lang to buy grain. It might take more than a month to come back. By the way, the general could send a fast boat to Kuaiji to search. If he could be notified, he would not have to go back to Haixi when he returned. He could go directly to Kuaiji. To Guangling, you might be able to save five or six days of wasted journey and arrive earlier. When he set out, he never imagined that our army could capture Guangling so quickly. "
Liu Bei heard that there was food in Kuaiji, and his heart finally warmed up. He felt that he had been saved a little more, and murmured to himself: "I don't know how much surplus food Wang Jingxing can buy, whether it will be enough to make up for the shortage of food in Guangling..."
Zhuge Jin directly interrupted the other party's fantasy: "It is definitely not enough. Wang Lang is also wary of Sun Ce now and must reserve military supplies for possible subsequent battles. Although Sun Ce is still fighting with Xu Gong from Wu Commandery, with Xu Gong, Incompetent, I am afraid that within a month or two, all parts of Wu County will be controlled by Sun Ce.
Even though winter is not suitable for the use of troops, Sun Ce will definitely attack Wang Lang due to his wolfish ambition next spring when the fields are slack after plowing. In addition, given Sun Ce's vigilance against Wang Lang, it is not bad for us to buy grain from Wang Lang once, and we can also smuggle it in when he is not prepared.
If this happens again and again, most of the south bank of the Yangtze River Channel is Sun Ce's territory. Only Dantu County on the other side of Guangling is still in Liu Yao's hands. And Sun Ce is nominally a subordinate of Yuan Shu, and we are at war with Yuan Shu. Will Sun Ce intercept and seize our merchant ships to buy grain? "
This was like a basin of cold water, making Liu Bei realize the reality: he was looking for Wang Lang to help him in an urgent situation, not to help the poor.
Today's shipping risks are also high. If you want to be safe, you can only sail close to the coast. If you sail close to the coast in enemy-occupied areas more than once, you may be intercepted by armed forces the second time. To avoid being intercepted, sailing so far that the coastline is not visible may cause the ship to capsize due to wind and waves.
When Zhuge Jin came up with this idea, his original intention was to solve the problem of military rations during the attack on Guangling, not to let Liu Bei eat Wang Lang for half a year. However, the plan failed to keep up with the change and Guangling succeeded in a sneak attack. The battle was over before Wang Lang could eat the food he bought.
After hearing these explanations, Liu Bei almost despaired again.
The little mustache on his upper lip was no longer enough for him to pull, and he started to pull his hair. If no one stopped him, he didn't know if he would pull himself into a strong man's hairstyle.
Fortunately, Zhuge Jin is still kind-hearted and doesn't want his friends to pull his hair. So he took the initiative to share with Liu Bei some of the solutions he had thought of in the past few days.
After all, Zhuge Jin knew how critical the situation was ten days earlier than Liu Bei, so he had ten more days to think about countermeasures and even have time to do some experiments.
At this moment, he couldn't bear it, so he first told Liu Bei a little bit: "General, please be patient. The food in Guangling is enough for our army at least for two months. It will definitely last until Wang Lang buys the food from Wang Lang, and we can eat it together." The twelfth lunar month is barely enough.
If we further reduce the ration of soldiers, if they drink two meals a day of gruel and add some vegetables, it is not impossible to survive until the New Year. Of course, this must ensure that Yuan Shu will not attack again in the future, and the soldiers do not need to practice fighting. They can only eat less during their free time. Eat, otherwise your physical strength will not be able to bear it.
Therefore, as long as our army finds another way to provide food from the first month of next year to the end of the spring famine and the summer harvest, we will be able to overcome this difficulty. "
Zhuge Jin also saw that Liu Bei lacked quantitative analysis of the problem, so he first helped him sort out the severity of the problem from the data level so that his opponent could have an idea.
People in this era have too low sensitivity to numbers, and they look at money and food issues too generally. It is completely incomparable to Zhuge Jin, who was a gold medal mathematics lecturer in later generations.
Liu Bei was very anxious just now. After Zhuge Jin explained the figures and time points clearly in a few words, he calmed down a little and couldn't help but ask urgently: "Then how will we increase revenue and reduce expenditure after the first month of next year?"
Zhuge Jin then analyzed carefully: "I was in Haixi a few days ago and had nothing to do. I did spend time inspecting the people's farming in Huainan, and I gained some insights.
Xian was admitted as the Prime Minister of Taishan County, and he also traveled around the world. In his early years, he also made friends with Cui Shi of Anping, the author of "Four People's Monthly Orders". My family has a large collection of various books, and I have some knowledge of the differences in farming between the north and the south. "
Zhuge Jin first laid out the source of his knowledge and found an excuse to prevent the other party from being surprised by his omniscience and omnipotence.
"Four People's Monthly Orders" is an important agricultural book in the late Han Dynasty. It was also the most comprehensive work on workers and peasants before the emergence of "Qi Min Yaoshu" in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Moreover, "Four People's Monthly Orders" also included a lot of handicraft content.
Its author Cui Shi, a native of Anping, Jizhou, has been dead for more than 20 years, but Zhuge Jin said that his father, Zhuge Gui, met each other when he was a young student. This is completely reasonable and there is no way he could be a gangster.
According to Zhuge Jin, his father was able to sit down with Cui Shi and discuss ideas and enlighten each other, so it is completely reasonable that his Zhuge family also knows a little bit about the logistics of workers and peasants.
In just a few words, Liu Bei was dazzled and relaxed: "How come the people of the Zhuge family know everything? Are they even involved in these side studies? It's really unfathomable..."
