Speaking of which, in order to raise military rations for the winter and relief food to prevent Qiang and Di rebellions, Xia Houxuan sent Xia Houxian and Liangzhou governor Wang Hun to raise food from the wealthy families in the six counties in the west of Yongzhou and the wealthy families in various places in Liangzhou respectively. After the successful gathering of wealthy families in the two places, Xia Houxian and Wang Hun reported some good news to Xia Houxuan within one month:
Except for a few wealthy families, most of the large wealthy families in the six counties of Yongzhou and Liangzhou have more or less transferred part of their grain from Wubao, totaling about 17.8 million dendrobium. At this moment, grain and grass are flowing from various places. Transported to those military camps in various places that directly obey the orders of Zhengxi Mansion!
After Xia Houxuan read the letter, he was overjoyed. The 17.8 million hu of grain, plus the 600,000 hu of dendrobium that he had conquered from the wealthy Sanfu clan some time ago, added up to 24.5 million hu of dendrobium. Mo It is said to be used for disaster relief. Even if it supports an army of 100,000 people, it can basically last for a whole year!
Although Xia Houxuan was constrained by Guo Huai and his reputation was not as strong as Guo Huai's, he was Guo Huai's boss after all. He also directly controlled an army of 40,000 to 50,000 men, and like Guo Huai, he was a general with the power of life and death.
Faced with the life-or-death General Jiji, the wealthy clans felt pain, but they still had the sense to hand over a lot of the remaining food in the fort.
If Xia Houxuan is offended, and he is charged with disobeying military orders and delaying the war in the northwest, then even a strong city, let alone a wealthy family, will not be able to be saved.
Xia Houxuan was so happy that he immediately ordered that the surplus grain stored in various places be collected and distributed reasonably according to the needs of the people in the poor counties in the northwest.
Xia Houxuan, who has learned a lot of medical science from Huigu, strongly agrees with this sentence in the Huangdi Neijing.
If we have to wait until a disaster breaks out and people starve to death before going to provide food relief, I am afraid that the chaos then will not be solved by just distributing food.
A few days later, just as Xia Houxuan's food relief work was just beginning, a message suddenly reached Zhengxi Mansion:
Guo Huai strongly resisted Xiahou Xuan's practice of releasing grain unconditionally, especially to the Qiang, Di and other foreign people!
In fact, Xia Houxuan had already guessed that such a day would come. Regarding the matter of collecting and distributing grain, he did not discuss it with Guo Huai in advance because he was afraid of Guo Huai's obstruction.
As the Governor of Yongliang, he was the supreme commander in chief of the northwest. The matter of raising grain could also be said to be a military operation prepared in advance to prepare for the Shu captives.
But Xia Houxuan jumped over Guo Huai to release grain. In Guo Huai's eyes, this was equivalent to Xia Houxuan slapping him in the face as the governor of Yongzhou who was in charge of Yongzhou's government affairs.
As a close confidant of the Sima family, Guo Huai has been the de facto "King of the Northwest" for many years. He has always been responsible for all major military and political affairs.
But since Xia Houxuan came to Chang'an, he not only secretly arranged for the brothers Qian Jia and Qian Hong to divide a lot of the military power of the third auxiliary, but recently sent Xia Houba to Longxi, unknowingly occupying half of the power of the two northwest states.
These methods were carried out by Xia Houxuan secretly and quietly. It was not a day's work. Being able to win over people's hearts was Xia Houxuan's skill. Moreover, Guo Huai had no way to do these things and could only suffer the consequences of being dumb.
But now Xia Houxuan has begun to bypass himself, the governor who specializes in government affairs, and directly get involved in serious political affairs such as grain distribution. This makes Guo Huai feel extremely angry, and he also finds a reason to provoke.
As Xia Houxuan expected, within two days, the aggressive Guo Huai came to the door in person.
Guo Huai, a wily and calculating person, naturally could not fall out with Xiahou Xuan directly, at least not openly in front of everyone. He came to Zhengxi Mansion for a visit to discuss the military strategy of Yu Shu.
The moment Guo Huai entered the government office, Xia Houxuan saw that Guo Huai's arrival was not good. Xia Houxuan planned to solve this problem alone, so he dismissed other people present on the grounds that the discussion was confidential.
As soon as he entered the inner hall, Xia Houxuan felt an unusual atmosphere. This was a murderous aura that he had only experienced on the battlefield.
Could it be that Guo Huai dared to kill himself here? Xia Houxuan immediately laughed at this idea. Even if Guo Huai wanted to do this, he would never be so stupid as to be so obvious.
But Guo Huai's unconcealable anger still made the meeting a little more unstable. After the two sat down, there was no exchange of greetings. After about half a moment, Guo Huai started to question straight to the point:
"Captain Xiahou, may I ask what your intention is in providing grain to the Qiang and Di tribes this time? Do you want to win people's hearts? Or do you want to make the bandits self-respect?!"
Xia Houxuan saw that Guo Huai was so disrespectful when he came up, and it was obvious that he was really angry this time. Faced with Guo Huai's difficult question, Xia Houxuan did not answer directly. He pondered for a while, and then explained in a neither humble nor overbearing manner:
"What Guo Shijun said is wrong. Xuan is the general of the country. He is in charge of one side and he is extremely favored. How can he win people's hearts? Although the Qiang and Di tribes are known as foreign tribes, they have already submitted to Wang Hua since the Han Dynasty. Well, the food, clothing, and language of the people there are no different from those of our Han people. Whenever there is a war, they often help me, the Wei Dynasty. From this point of view, the Qiang and Di tribes are not what Guo Shijun calls 'Kou', on the contrary, should have been my subjects of the Wei Dynasty for a long time. Now the people are in trouble and have no food to survive the winter. As parents and officials, do you and I have to watch them starve to death or take risks?"
Guo Huai was originally wise, brave, and thoughtful. This provocation was just because Xia Houxuan had taken away too much power from him in Yongliang Prefecture. Now that he heard Xia Houxuan's impeccable words, it was natural that he would not have another attack. After snorting coldly, he asked again:
"Although what the governor said is correct, the governor is in charge of military affairs and his subordinates are in charge of government affairs. They should each perform their own duties, but the governor kept silent and gave the grain and grass to the Qiang Di. How can I, the governor of Yongzhou, give this to the Qiangdi people?" The court will give an explanation?"
When Xia Houxuan heard what Guo Huai said, a smile appeared on his face:
"Shijun Guo, have you ever seen me consume a grain of grain in the official warehouse of Yongzhou?"
"this......"
Hearing this, Guo Huai suddenly became speechless. The food distributed by Xia Houxuan this time was indeed all obtained by force from the powerful Wubao in every possible way. These local tycoons are the tributaries of various clans, and they have always relied on the clan officials in the court who are related to each other. However, Xia Houxuan and the general Cao Shuang's faction represent the two forces of the royal family and the poor. Naturally, they are not afraid of offending these local wealthy families.
But Guo Huai was different. Most of these powerful locals who spanned counties and counties, occupied people's fields, and lived in Wubao were the nephews, brothers, relatives and friends of the ministers of the Sima faction in the court. If I forcibly take food from their mouths for Qiang Di, I am afraid that my popularity in Yongzhou and my connections in the court will be cut off.
Therefore, it is impossible for Guo Huai to offend powerful people for Qiang Di like Xia Houxuan. But now, Guo Huai, who is the umbrella of Yongzhou's powerful people, failed to protect the powerful people's food, and his prestige has been greatly reduced. Xia Houxuan also used this to win over the hearts and minds of the Han, Qiang, and Di people who were short of food in Yongzhou.
Under this situation, Guo Huai lost completely this time.
Not only that, the officers and men in the Yongzhou army, regardless of whether they are high or low, basically have family and friends living in the counties and counties of Yongzhou. Now that Xia Houxuan has sent food to their families and friends, there must be many soldiers in the Yongliang army secretly falling in love with Xia Houxuan.
The more Guo Huai thought about it, the angrier he became, but the end was already done and he had nothing to do. He looked at Xia Houxuan, who was sitting in the main seat with a calm demeanor and a warm smile, and the anger in his heart accumulated to the extreme. His eyes were almost bursting with fire, and he even wanted to rush over and punch Xia Houxuan at this moment, but the remaining reason in his consciousness prevented him from doing so.
In the end, Guo Huai suppressed his anger, snorted coldly, and left the government office of Zhengxi Mansion unwillingly.
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Youzhou, Ji County.
Guanqiu Jian was in the mansion of Youzhou Governor and General Du Liao, looking thoughtfully at the territory map of the Gaoguli Kingdom on the Liaodong march map on his desk.
It was only after he came to Youzhou that he had a fragmented understanding of the country.
I heard that the kingdom of Gaoguli had a territory of only three thousand miles in radius, with a total of more than ten counties and more than sixty counties. The person in charge of the army in the large counties is called Laisa, which is equivalent to the governor; the small towns have Taoist envoys, which are equivalent to the governor.
During the reign of the first emperor, after the defeat of Gongsun Yuan, all the counties in Liaodong were merged into the territory of the Wei Dynasty.
But after Sima Yi conquered Liaodong, he not only massacred more than 10,000 soldiers and civilians in the city, but also moved all the population there to the Central Plains. Liaodong began to become extremely empty since then.
Later, Emperor Ming died, and both Wu and Shu invaded the country frequently. The Imperial Tutor Sima Yi and the General Cao Shuang were busy fighting for power and gain, so they had no time to care about the dilapidated Liaodong.
Seeing that there was an opportunity to take advantage of it, the Gaowei Palace of King Dongchuan of Gaoguli sent thousands of people south to Liaodong to conduct tentative harassment. Several small towns in Liaodong were already extremely empty, so this test naturally gave the Gaowei Palace a taste of it. Lots of sweetness.
The King of Dongchuan saw that he was at war with the so-called powerful Wei State and won the battle so easily. From then on, he became proud and arrogant.
The high-ranking palace, who was so happy with his achievements, thought that he had the strength to dominate the world. From then on, he had the idea of going south to compete with the powerful countries of the Central Plains.
The civil and military officials of the Gaoguli Manchu Dynasty had little idea of the great power of the Wei Dynasty. In recent years, they heard that Wu and Shu had repeatedly attacked the Wei Dynasty, and that Emperor Ming of Wei was arrogant and extravagant, while the new emperor was young and ignorant. Therefore, they were all in favor of the high-ranking palace. The great dream of the Western Expedition.
Among all the dynasties, only Lu Delai, the great general, was well-informed and understood that Gao Gouli's provocation of Wei was tantamount to striking an egg against a stone. He was worried when he saw that King Dongchuan was bent on making an enemy of the Wei Dynasty. However, despite his repeated admonitions, the high-ranking palace officials ignored him.
On this day, De Lai was at court and heard that Gao Wei Gong was once again discussing with several ministers and Lasa about conquering Wei. He was worried in his heart and could not help but advise:
"Your Majesty, the Wei State has a strong army and is said to have hundreds of armors..."
As soon as Dongchuan Wang Gaozonggong heard what he said, his face was full of disdain, and he retorted:
"It's said to be a millionaire, right? My dear, can you say a few fresh words for me to listen to?"
A Laisa who was trying to make great achievements next to the high-ranking palace also asked teasingly:
"Yes, Da Dui Lu. If the Wei State is really so powerful, then why did the Wei State not take any action when I captured two counties on the border? I think it was Da Dui Lu who was afraid that I would make a great contribution and take your place. !”
De Lai, who was dedicated to serving his country, heard these heart-warming words and was completely chilled by the high-ranking palace. This time, he no longer pestered the high-ranking palace with earnest words and repeated remonstrances. Instead, he gave a full salute to the high-ranking palace with a determined look, and then strode out of this cold and dark palace.
