Among the two counties in Jingnan under the control of Ji Han, the prefect of Wuling County was Xi Hong and the prefect of Lingling County was Pan Jun.
In terms of territory, Wuling County is larger, but Wuling County is almost surrounded by Wuxi barbarians, and the local security is unstable. In addition, there are many mountainous areas, and the arable area is less. If it is not located at a key point connecting Jiangling, it has an important strategic location. , Wuling County is basically no different from remote mountainous areas.
Correspondingly, although there are many mountains in Lingling County, the east side of Lingling County is close to Changsha. In this time and space, Pan Jun was inspired by Zhang Xi and had a different view on converting silt into fields. After more than ten years of continuous transformation by Pan Jun, the swampland on the east side of Lingling County has become a large area of fertile farmland.
The south side of Lingling County is even closer to Jiaozhou. Not to mention the flat terrain, there is a lot of arable area. Therefore, from an economic perspective, the value of Lingling County is much greater than that of Wuling County.
As the governor of Lingling, Pan Jun has been operating here for more than ten years. Almost everyone in the county is Pan Jun's confidant. Moreover, the Pan family in Xiangyang also moved south with the whole family and took root in Lingling County. It is the core of the Pan family. The interests are all in Lingling County.
The Pan family lineage is now deeply rooted in Lingling County, and it seems to have become a top aristocratic family.
Although Pan Jun has been quite obedient over the years and has shown due respect to the court. But the last time Soochow attacked Jingnan, Pan Jun's performance had already made Zhuge Liang wary.
At that time, Pan Jun not only concealed the movements of Wu troops in Guiyang and Changsha, but also showed a certain degree of hesitation after the war started.
If Chen Dao hadn't quickly led the Northern Army to Wuling, it's really hard to say whether Pan Jun would have chosen to surrender to Soochow in the end.
After all, in the eyes of these aristocratic families, it doesn't matter who the master is; preserving family interests and family industry is the most important thing.
Now, Zhuge Liang intends to abandon the two counties of Jingnan and order all the county soldiers and officials to move north to defend Jiangling. It is really hard to say what Pan Jun will think.
Moreover, as Pan Jun is a great scholar in Jingzhou, Pan's influence in Jingzhou is also very important.
Since the battle of Chibi, the four major families in Jingzhou, the Kuai family and the Cai family have moved north one after another. Although a branch of the family has been left in Xiangyang, the decline in influence is foreseeable.
Also taking advantage of this opportunity, the Ma family, the Xi family, and the Pan family in Xiangyang emerged one after another, and they were faintly threatening to replace the Kuai family and the Cai family in Jingzhou.
And the Pan family, under the leadership of Pan Jun, took a different approach. Instead of competing for interests with these aristocratic families in Xiangyang, they chose to leave and go to Lingling County to dominate, and then in turn affect the structure of Jingzhou aristocratic families, and then influence The political situation in Jingzhou.
This move quite meant to put one's life in danger, but the result of the exchange was that neither the Ma family nor the Xi family could fully become a family on par with the Pang family and the Huang family. The family is the only one in the family, and there is a vague tendency to catch up from behind.
Therefore, even if Pan Jun showed such an unstable posture, Zhuge Liang still could not remove Pan Jun from the position of Lingling Prefect. Even if he was transferred from Lingling County through promotion and covert promotion, if the successor Lingling Prefect was not named Pan, he would not be replaced by Pan Jun. Or if he doesn't have a direct relationship with the Pan family, he can't even hope to secure his position as the prefect of Lingling County.
Zhuge Liang also had to treat Pan Jun with caution.
"Pan Chengming is an old friend of Ma Jichang. Maybe he can write a letter to Ma Jichang and ask him to secretly go to Lingling to meet Pan Chengming and explain the pros and cons in detail. Maybe he can make him agree to this strategy." Zhuge Liang said cautiously.
But the problem is that Zhuge Liang himself has no confidence in what he said, let alone Zhang Xi.
Yes, Ma Liang and Pan Jun do have a good personal relationship. Not only do they belong to a large family in Jingzhou, but Ma Liang's daughter is also married to Pan Jun's son. But these days, the bigger the family, the bigger the friend. I believe that all the children of the aristocratic families feel the same in their hearts. There is a rod weighing.
Don't look back. Ma Liang went to persuade him but failed. Instead, he revealed the arrangement in advance, which aroused Pan Jun's resentment. Although it would not make Pan Jun feel rebellious, if he sincerely refused to listen to orders, the soldiers of Lingling County would probably also It's not that easy to tune out.
Therefore, Zhang Xi just shook his head slightly and said, "This matter needs to be lured with benefits!"
For these children of aristocratic families, it is useless for you to tell them about your righteousness, and even if you cannot tell them at all, the most direct way is to give enough benefits to the Pan family so that they can actively participate in this plan.
Therefore, Zhang Xi’s suggestion is to be generous to others.
What Pan is most concerned about is that their property in Lingling County will be harmed due to this strategy, so what Zhuge Liang needs to do is to protect Pan's interests in Lingling County.
This requires Zhuge Liang to personally write a secret letter to Pan Jun, in the name of the Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty, to acknowledge to Pan Jun the ownership of the land that Pan has occupied in Lingling County over the years. At the same time, Zhuge Liang can promise Pan Jun in the letter that he will allow In the future, Pan will take the initiative in transforming Jingnan swamps into fertile land.
Zhang Xi believes that Pan Jun will understand the true meaning of this and will carefully weigh the pros and cons.
But Zhuge Liang couldn't make up his mind.
According to Zhang Xi's suggestion, Pan's land ownership in Lingling County must first be recognized. This is not a small matter.
You know, the Pan family has been developing in Lingling County for more than ten years and has occupied a quarter of all the land in Lingling County. This is already quite terrifying for a county.
But because more than half of this land was new land obtained by Pan Jun after transforming the silt fields in eastern Lingling, without Pan Jun's transformation, it would be impossible to harvest food from these lands. Lingjun turned a blind eye to the occupation of land.
But in essence, there is no official process for Pan's occupation of these lands. If Zhuge Liang is willing, he can always send people to inspect and confiscate these lands under the banner of inspecting the acres. But now Zhang Xi wants Zhuge Liang to admit that these lands belong to Pan. It belongs to the family, and then there will be no excuse to take it back in the future.
This is not a question of thirty or fifty acres of land, but a question of several hundred hectares.
One thing to say is that Zhuge Liang did not hold back his good intentions. He just wanted to use the Pan family to transform the land and then seize it directly. However, he was unable to take care of it for a while. Otherwise, how could Zhuge Liang allow a family to be so wanton in the prefecture and county? of annexed land.
But Zhang Xi thinks this is not good.
The matter of converting silt into fields requires a lot of initial investment, and people really need to invest real money. In addition, generally speaking, converting silt into fields also increases the arable area, and it will not infringe on the people who own the original fields. In Zhang Xi's view, Pan's behavior is worthy of encouragement. Administrative means cannot be used to solve all problems, otherwise no one will be willing to stand up for such things in the future.
Therefore, recognition is not a big deal. Besides, if the government recognizes that these fields belong to the Pan family and draws a fish scale atlas, the Pan family will have to pay taxes in accordance with the law, which will also give the court a considerable financial income.
It is not completely without benefit to the court.
When Zhuge Liang heard what Zhang Xi said, he felt a little relieved. Also, without Pan's early investment of a lot of money and grain in the transformation, these places would still be swamps and would not be able to be cultivated at all.
Okay, even if this matter is understandable, and Zhuge Liang is willing to admit it, why should Pan be allowed to take the lead in the Jingnan land reclamation project? !
Isn't this a change of law that allows the Pan family to annex land in Jingnan? !
Another thing, isn't Pan Jun worried that once he agrees with Zhuge Liang's strategy, the Pan family will never have a chance to return to Lingling? !
As for the first question, it was actually the same as the second question. The explanation given by Zhang Xi was to let Pan choose whether to bet on this game.
Without gambling, Zhuge Liang's strategy will not change. Lingling County's soldiers will definitely demand to be transferred north. Even if Pan Jun does not cooperate and delays the time, after Wuling County's soldiers are transferred north, even if Lingling County should not be transferred, in the future Jingnan is also unable to support a single tree.
At that time, Pan Jun will inevitably fall into an isolated and helpless situation. He can either choose to obey the order and lead the county soldiers northward, or choose to surrender to Soochow.
But when he arrived in Soochow, it was hard to say whether he, Pan Jun, could continue to make waves in Lingling County.
It didn't matter before. Lingling County was not a good place. It was full of remote areas with mountains, rivers, swamps and swamps.
But now, after the Jiangdong aristocratic families have tasted the benefits of converting silt and reclaiming land near Changsha, how could they let go of this opportunity to obtain fertile land.
At that time, it is hard to say whether the Pan family can still maintain this quarter of the cultivated land area in Lingling County.
If Pan Jun is willing to gamble, it would be equivalent to temporarily giving up the land in Lingling County, temporarily retreating north, waiting for the success of the Han Dynasty's Northern Expedition to the Central Plains, and freeing up his hands to re-conquer the four counties of Jingnan, and he will inevitably surround Changsha and Lingling County. Carry out land reclamation work.
And when that time comes, Pan will be in charge of the land reclamation work in Jingnan, and will surely achieve the greatest benefits.
At that time, the Pan family was no longer the first aristocratic family in Lingling. It was very likely that they would directly become the first aristocratic family in Jingnan, a super aristocratic family with the capital to be on par with the Pang family and the Huang family in Xiangyang.
Anyway, the opportunity is right in front of Pan Jun. Whether he takes the gamble or not depends on whether he has confidence in the big man.
It is precisely because of this that Zhuge Liang is a little undecided.
Zhuge Liang didn't know whether Pan Jun had confidence in the Han Dynasty, but Zhuge Liang really had confidence. He firmly believed that sooner or later, he would regain the four counties of Jingnan.
At that time, do we really want to sit back and watch Pan grow? !
The Jingzhou family is already very difficult to control. That is to say, Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong have a close relationship with the Jingzhou Huang family and the Pang family. With the two of them here, the Jingzhou Huang family and the Pang family will always be stable.
But if there is another Jingzhou Pan family, if there is an emergency, who will suppress them? !
In response to Zhuge Liang's worries, Zhang Xi smiled slightly and told Zhuge Liang his answer - Huang and Pang.
Now the Pan family is able to enjoy themselves in Lingling County simply because the Huang family and the Pan family do not want to go to Jingnan to wade into troubled waters. After all, half of the territory of Jingnan belongs to Soochow. Once the two families get into trouble, Jingnan will definitely fall into the flames of war. .
Although the benefits are large, the risks are also high. Pan Jun himself has fought in the Lingling Defense War twice.
But once the Han Dynasty regains the four counties of Jingnan and connects them into one, there will be no external pressure.
At that time, will Pang and Huang still watch helplessly as Pan presides over the land reclamation work in Jingnan and monopolizes Jingnan's interests? !
Anyway, Zhang Xi didn't believe that the Pang family and the Huang family would be willing to see the rise of the Pan family. Zhuge Liang didn't need to worry about it. These two aristocratic families would naturally compete with the Pan family.
At that time, what Zhuge Liang will have to consider is not the issue of suppressing the Pan family, but how to balance the power within the three major families and strive for the best interests of the court and the government.
(End of chapter)
