Although the dispute between Taixue became more and more intense, for the entire court, the overall situation was getting better and better.
In March of the third year of Yanxi, with the spring tide rising again, the Wu people launched another offensive. It was still the same three-pronged attack as last year. The distribution of troops was almost the same. The generals commanding the army had not changed. Even the march route was exactly the same. The soldiers on the border were already used to this. However, after last year's battle, the Wu army had obviously realized that it was not feasible to break through the Han army's defenses head-on, so they changed their thinking and switched from siege of the city to plundering the population, and the direction of the main attack also shifted from Huainan to Nanyang.
Lu Xun, the governor-general, took advantage of the rising tide of the Mianshui River. Ships came and went like the wind in the river. Whenever they saw people inhabited by people, they would send soldiers ashore to plunder people and property. Once the Han army came to help, they would immediately take ships to avoid the battle and move the proceeds to Going back to the south bank, repeating this cycle is very disturbing. Fortunately, Chen Chong had already sent additional new troops southward in February. As a result, Nanfu's troops were able to deploy defenses everywhere and defend the city north of the bank. Therefore, the Wu people did not dare to go deep into Mianbei. In a few months, they were able to plunder more than 3,000 troops. Just people.
Not to mention the war situation in Huainan, by the end of last year, the relocation of people from Huaibei had also come to an end, and a large amount of money and grain saved by the imperial court began to be transferred to Huainan. Zhuge Liang thus built dikes on both sides of Shaopei to raise the water level of Feishui and trained naval forces in Shaopei. At the same time, he built a large dock at the north entrance where Chao Lake connected with Shishui, named Youchaowu. There is a Chao dock surrounded by water on three sides, with a canal inside, which not only blocks the main water supply, but also allows small ships such as swans to come and go from Shuimen to Chao Lake to harass. If the Wu people did not capture it, they would not be able to sail the building ships into Hefei, and they would not be able to use their naval superiority. This is indeed the case. After Lu Meng led his army to come here for the second time, he and Zhuge Liang were in a stalemate for several months. Although both sides suffered injuries to each other, they were never able to break through the front line of Youchaowu.
The only progress made was on Sima Yi's west route. After the setback in Yanxi's second year, he had a clearer understanding of the situation in Ningzhou, and his course of action also changed significantly. He no longer stormed the Dianchi Lake where Wang Ping was located, but instead concentrated on civil affairs. In order to solve the problem of transporting grain, Sima Yi marched to Nanzhong and set up camps. On the one hand, he captured and killed the local Nanman leaders, while on the other hand, he reduced taxes and equalized the land for the common people. At the same time, he imposed strict security measures and punished lawbreakers. By the end of the third year of Yanxi's reign, although Sima Yi did not formally engage in battle with the Han army, he had already taken deep root in Nanzhong and expanded his army to more than 20,000 troops. The momentum was extremely alarming. Under this situation, Wang Ping no longer dared to defend Dianchi Lake, and then moved his army to Qiongdu. This could only prevent Sima Yi from continuing to expand northward, and the imperial court actually lost its influence over Nanzhong.
But overall, the changes between South and China have nothing to do with the overall situation. The gap in national power between the North and the South is still widening. Especially Chen Chong's governance of Hebei. By the end of the third year of Yanxi's reign, the New Deal was fully on track. After executing the order to abolish the dock, Chen Chong ordered the governors of all counties in Hebei to start farming again in Hebei. Without the backing of Wubao, except for a small number of nobles who still had a sense of luck, most of them did not dare to fight against the New Deal. They were just bribing officials with money, hoping to get some easing in the land. However, Chen Chong attached great importance to this field trip and would never allow anyone to bend the law for personal gain. During the process of transferring land, the local county government and the Chen government were often involved in the joint investigation. Afterwards, envoys from the Prime Minister's Office were dispatched to conduct random inspections. If one party made any mistakes or omissions, the persons involved would be held accountable. As a result, within the first ten days of May, fourteen corruption cases were reported in Jizhou alone, and all criminals were sent to farmland. After hearing the news, local officials were all frightened and did not dare to give any clues.
It is worth mentioning that in cases of privately concealing land, not only nobles were involved, but also some clans and meritorious officials were involved. For example, Liu Si, the son of Liu Deran, the Marquis of Pingshu, and Liu Duan, the son of Liu Xuan, the Marquis of Fangcheng, all privately annexed thousands of acres of fertile land, and the amount far exceeded the land limit regulations. Different from the ordinary Hebei gentry, these people had experienced excessive farming before, and the imperial court personally divided the fiefdoms. However, they ended up colluding with the local wealthy families, which can be said to be breaking the law. After the news reached the Prime Minister's Palace, Chen Chong was extremely disappointed. He specifically ordered that these people be reduced by half of their landholdings, and the excess land quotas were distributed to local refugees. This caused a lot of controversy in the court, saying that it was too much punishment. Done.
But by February of the fourth year of Yanxi, Hebei's Tiandu Order was coming to an end. The Prime Minister's Office initially sorted out the number of taxed fields, and was surprised to find that, in addition to the acres that had been recorded in the register, there were actually 6.1 million and 3,000 acres of newly taxed fields this time, and 1.77 million hidden households were found. Another 8,000 people, it can be said to be a remarkable achievement. In the face of such facts, all objections seemed meaningless. Soon, there was a chorus of praises both inside and outside the court.
At the end of the year, the Prime Minister's Office took advantage of the situation and counted the population of each state and county again. The results are also very good. Although the country has not yet taken back the three prefectures of Jing, Yang, and Jiao, and the country has not yet thoroughly checked the hidden households, the registered population has reached more than 22 million. And last year alone, the country had one million births. Seeing these figures, Chen Chong was very pleased. He thought that now that the national treasury was full, maybe after two more years of military training, the time would be ripe for unification.
At this time, Chen Chong was already sixty-three. Working in the office all year round, coupled with the eyebrow injury caused by the Baibo thief in his early years, his eye disease has rapidly worsened in the past two years. When reading letters by the lamp at night, he would often feel his eyes become drowsy after reading them for a while, as if there was a hazy veil in front of his eyes. This brought a lot of trouble to his life. Every time he looked in the mirror to fix his makeup, he would often cut his beard and beard wrongly. When he used a short knife to repair his sideburns, he would accidentally scratch himself. This forced him to ask his wife Dong Bai to help him take care of it. At this time, he showed a child-like bewilderment and could not sit still, as if he was being tortured.
After finishing the cleaning, he looked at himself dimly in the bronze mirror. For one or two trance-like moments, he seemed to see his younger self smiling in the mirror. This made Chen Chong feel lost: at the moment when his body's vitality was rapidly losing, he realized more and more clearly that he was heading towards irreversible decline.
Many young people may wonder, why do older people covet immortality? Chen Chong now fully understands: Just as a person who once saw the light can no longer endure the darkness, a person who has heard the fairy music can no longer appreciate the extraordinary. And since a person has been young and has traveled across the vast land, he can no longer tolerate himself becoming a frail old man and gradually rotting into bones in the world of mortals. Therefore, a young man often does not realize the value of life because he has never lost it. The old man will be greedy for all things that exist in the world, love every moment of joy in the remaining years, and try every means to retain and enjoy them. Chen Chong suddenly thought of Zhong Yao. He was ten years older than him and was older than himself when he died. It must be for this reason that he was not willing to delegate power.
Whenever he had this moment of empathy with the First Emperor, Chen Chong sincerely admired his great ancestor Liu Bang. I am afraid there will never be another emperor like him who could be free and easy to despise death. Chen Chong also made up his mind to follow his example and do his best. Be such a person.
It's the Chinese New Year time again, with scattered graupel snow floating in the sky, and the plum blossoms in the mansion are also in bloom. There was a festive atmosphere all over Luoyang City, so Chen Chong and Dong Bai organized some banquets in the mansion. In addition to his children, there were also his son-in-law He Yan, disciples Pang Tong, Lu Yi, Zhao Qiu, etc. people. There were about five or six tables of men and women, basically Prime Minister Chen Chong's relatives and friends during the festival.
Although there were not many people, Chen Chong was still very happy. For the first time, he feasted with everyone until late at night. When curfew was approaching, everyone left in scattered pieces. While Chen Chong was cleaning the room with his wife, someone suddenly knocked on the door. When he opened it, he found that it was his disciple Pang Tong. Chen Chong couldn't help but laugh and said: "Why, you can't walk anymore? If Shiyuan doesn't mind, I have a side cabin here that can let you make do with it for the night."
The clinker Pang Tong looked cautious. After he entered the room, he first looked around behind him, and then said to Dong Bai: "Master, I have something important to discuss with the teacher. Please stay out of the way first."
Pang Tong was upright and open-minded by nature, and he usually dealt with military and national affairs indifferently. Now, in front of him, he actually showed such a serious look, and Chen Chong was secretly surprised. Although he didn't know the reason, UU Reading wwwuukan also knew that his disciple would not make a fuss, so he let his wife leave first. Zhao Qiu was guarding the door while he made a pot of tea, sat across from Pang Tong, and asked: "Anyone?" It’s no big deal, but it doesn’t matter.”
Pang Tong looked at Chen Chong for a moment and then asked, "Teacher, have you heard about the recent rumors?"
"What rumors?"
"Those who came from the Han Dynasty should be painted high. Painting high is a strong court, and they are also prime ministers."
When Chen Chong heard this, his tea-pouring hand shook slightly, almost spilling the tea. He wanted to cover up the past, but after thinking about it, it was unnecessary in front of his disciples, so he put down the teapot and said to Pang Tong: "This is nonsense. I will not do such a mess, and naturally I will not worry about it."
This was the answer that Pang Tong had expected. He leaned forward slightly and said to Chen Chong: "Teacher, you don't have to worry about this, but where is the Queen Mother? Where is the Emperor? Where are the nobles left behind by the late Emperor? The Imperial Academy is in trouble With this situation, everyone in the world is talking about it! Who doesn't know that there must be someone behind the scenes who is adding fuel to the flames! If the teacher doesn't make a plan, I'm afraid he will be like Chen Fan and be killed by villains in the future!"
Chen Chong raised his eyes and asked, "What are your plans?"
Pang Tongli stood up and said: "At worst, we can learn from Huo Guang, get rid of the Queen Mother, and replace her with an emperor!"
Chen Chong stared at Pang Tong silently for a moment, until Pang Tong sat down uneasily, and then he continued: "You were drunk and told me some nonsense, and I didn't remember it." Pang Tong wanted to say something more, but Chen Chong immediately waved his hand. Stopping, he patted his knees and said with a smile: "As a human being, I never take the initiative to make amends for wrongs, and I don't want to think about being poked in the spine by future generations when I am old!" He paused and poured Pang Tong another cup of hot tea. , said softly: "Shiyuan, if you do it for my own good, don't say these anymore. No matter I am here or not, if you, Kong Ming, Bo Yue and others are still here, I believe everything will be better."
