Expanding and increasing the size of the naval force is the first preparation for the Eastern Expedition.
After arranging the candidates to train the navy, Zhang Xi began to make the second preparation.
The policy of weakening Wu.
Of course, this is a more elegant way of saying it. To put it more bluntly, it is to alienate the officials of Soochow, win over the big families of Soochow, and find ways to attract the people of Soochow to migrate to Jingzhou, or more directly, let Shi Bao from the four counties of Jingnan , find ways to plunder more people from Yuzhang County and Jiaozhou, weaken Soochow, and enrich Jingzhou.
Zhang Xi really didn't need to worry about alienating the officials of Soochow. Ever since Zhang Xi learned that Lu Yi had power in Soochow, he was completely relieved about this matter.
As for Lu Yi's ability to torment people, as long as Sun Quan used him for a day, the Soochow court would be unable to calm down. On the contrary, one day Lu Yi lost power, Zhang Xi would start to worry.
Attracting or even plundering the people of Soochow, Zhang Xi also left it to Shi Bao and Pan Jun to figure out a solution.
Shi Bao is now the governor of Jingnan, and Pan Jun is in charge of Jingzhou. One of them guards Changsha, and the other guards Lingling, both of which are large-scale bordering areas with Soochow.
Among them, Pan Jun is particularly concerned about this matter. He has been poaching people from Jiaozhou in recent years, and has almost hollowed out the entire northern part of Jiaozhou.
On the one hand, it was because of the rebellion in Jiaozhou that lasted until last year when Sun Quan sent Lu Dai again to put down the rebellion in Jiaozhou.
Although Lu Dai successfully put down the rebellion, the Jiaozhou rebellion, which lasted for nearly five years, basically wiped out Jiaozhou.
Jiaozhou, which could originally be said to be a pure land in troubled times, has now entered the post-war reconstruction stage.
Although Lu Dai was very capable, he had too many places to take care of. From the beginning of the war in northern Jiaozhou, Pan Jun began to draw the Latin entrance to Lingling County. By the time Lu Dai was free, the entire northern Jiaozhou had changed from densely populated to , it has become sparsely populated now.
At this point, Pan Jun was not going to stop, and Lu Dai, who was planning to reach out to the eastern part of Jiaozhou to cause trouble, could only send troops to the northern border of Jiaozhou to prevent the loss of people.
On the other hand, Pan Jun also has his own interests to protect.
The Jingnan now is no longer the Jingnan before.
With the continuous transformation and expansion of the Dongting Lake Plain, southern Changsha to eastern Lingling, which were originally considered barbarian lands, have slowly begun to turn into plain farmland.
At the beginning, Zhuge Liang promised Pan Jun that he would have the right to allocate land from silt to farmland. This led to the current situation in Jingnan. The Pan family has become the largest family in Jingnan.
The newly created fields that were converted from silt into fields require a large number of small openings to cultivate them. Moreover, when the fields that are converted from silt into fields are registered with the government, according to regulations, they will be classified as inferior fields within thirty years, and the taxes will be extremely low. This brought a lot of benefits to Pan Jun and the wealthy families who participated in converting silt into farmland.
And this benefit only lasts for thirty years. After thirty years, the court will re-evaluate these transformed fields and classify them. If these thirty years are missed, the benefits will be reduced once taxes are increased.
Therefore, Pan Jun and the Jingnan family are in urgent need of a large number of Dingkou for farming.
In Jingnan, there are three main sources of Dingkou.
One is the landless peasants who the imperial court moved from the north to the south to enrich the farming system in Jingnan.
One is a Wuxi barbarian from around Jingnan who is willing to go out to farm.
The last one is the Soochow people who migrated from Soochow to Jingnan.
The first source of Dingkou is that the imperial court itself is not enough. There are still a large number of vacant farmland, and there are not enough Dingkou to farm. As a result, Jingnan still needs Jiangling County to provide grain and grass support.
The second source of Dingkou is that although Wuxi Man is easy to bully, Shi Bao, the governor of Jingnan, is Wuxi Man’s son-in-law. In addition, Zhang Xi is eyeing this experimental field of ethnic integration, and no one dares to plunder it. Wuxi Man Dingkou's idea.
Besides, plundering is a one-shot deal. These Wuxi barbarians really can't help but fight, but they know how to hide. Once they hide in the mountains again, they can't be found. The difference is that they still lack Dingkou.
Therefore, the easiest place to get Dingkou is Soochow. The Jingnan family, headed by Pan Jun, is holding back its energy to come up with this idea.
And there is another advantage for Dingkou from Soochow, that is, it does not cost much, and they only need to be given a piece of land to house these people. Before the official naturalization of the Han Dynasty, these people from Soochow, You don't even have to pay the poll tax.
Nowadays, Jingnan is famous for its land with few people.
Pan Jun is now facing Lu Dai at the border of Jiaozhou and Lingling County. Anyway, the two countries are now at war, and no one has to worry about it. They are fighting back and forth to grab Dingkou.
Therefore, Zhang Xi's only strategy to weaken Wu was to win over the Jiangdong family, and he had to do it himself.
It's just that Zhang Xi is really not very good at this aspect, so he can only write a letter to ask for advice from Fei Yi and Deng Zhi, who were prosperous in Soochow back then. He wanted to ask these two people what they think about it. Is there any good way for the powerful Soochow family to start?
Deng Zhi didn't give any good ideas, but he still wrote a casual letter to Zhang Xi. The letter elaborated on his personal connections in Soochow and gave it to Zhang Xi, hoping to have some influence on Zhang Xi. helped.
But Fei Yi is much more reliable.
Not only did he write a letter to Zhang Xi, he also sent someone to Zhang Xi.
They are no longer outsiders, they are the current Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Revenue, Zhang Xi’s old acquaintances, Ma Su and Ma Youchang.
Since Ma Di entered the center of the imperial court, he has never had the opportunity to lead troops on an expedition. Therefore, his head is still stuck in his own neck, but he has been given the opportunity to display his political talents.
If it were not for the consideration of the balance of the government, when the candidates of the three provinces and six ministries were adjusted last year, Ma Su might even have been appointed as the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs.
Fei Yi sent Ma Su over. On the one hand, he used Ma Su's identity as a Jingzhou native to advise Zhang Xi. On the other hand, Fei Yi also discussed his ideas for the Soochow family with Ma Su, and some of Ma Su's suggestions , also made Fei Yi believe that Ma Di was the best candidate to succeed him and infiltrate Soochow.
In fact, Ma Su's idea is not too complicated to say.
A few years ago, as Zhang Wen was exiled by Sun Quan, many of Dahan's product sales rights, such as Shu brocade, paper, coal mines, and iron ore, were basically divided up by the four major families in Wuzhong. .
After all, the Zhang family was targeted by Sun Quan and suppressed from time to time. If they did not give up enough benefits, the Zhang family might not be able to gain a foothold in Jiangdong.
This has a negative side for the big man, so he loses a good cooperation partner, and it becomes more difficult to obtain Soochow intelligence.
But, there is a good side. Over the years, Dahan's espionage system has also established a good relationship with the four major families in Jiangdong.
Although he is not as strong as Zhang Wen, he has more channels to obtain some information.
Ma Su's suggestion was to start from this aspect, dump a large amount of Shu brocade and paper to the four major families in Wuzhong, and sell coal and iron ore at high prices.
Dumping paper and Shu brocade at low prices to the four major families in Wuzhong was used to bribe the four major families in Wuzhong, while selling coal and iron ore at high prices was used to drive a wedge between the four major families in Wuzhong and Sun Quan.
After all, Sun Quan is not a fool. Even if he wants to import coal and iron ore from the Nanzhong area of Shu Han, he will not pretend that other people can make armor and weapons by adding these two things together.
In addition to being mentally retarded, Sun Quan would leave such an important matter as the import of coal and iron ore to the Wuzhong family.
Therefore, all the coal and iron ore imports in Soochow are in the hands of Sun Quan and the Sun family.
But now, the prices of consumables such as Shu brocade and paper have dropped, allowing the family to make a lot of money. However, the price of important strategic materials such as coal and iron ore has increased, making Sun Quan have to pay more to get it. What do you want Sun Quan to think.
Resent the big man? !
Of course, but now that the two countries are at war, not completely cutting off the coal and iron ore trade is already considered "letting go" on the Han side, not to mention a mere price increase? !
Isn’t that reasonable? !
Even if Sun Quan resents the big man, if he has the ability, he can raise an army to fight. If he doesn't have the ability, he can only hold back his anger.
But Sun Quan is someone who can hold his breath so easily.
In addition, there are constant internal conflicts and internal instability in Soochow. It would be strange if Sun Quan did not find an opportunity to attack the Wuzhong family and cut off the wings of the Wuzhong family while reaping benefits.
Therefore, Ma Su believed that as long as he did this, he could destroy the relationship between the Wuzhong family and Sun Quan. In addition, with the wooing of paper and Shu brocade, he might not be able to bribe some Wuzhong families to be used by the Han Dynasty.
Zhang Xi was thoughtful after listening to Ma Su's suggestion.
To be honest, Ma Su's suggestion is actually quite good in this era. After all, it is based on profit, and the success rate is still high.
However, Zhang Xi always feels that even if this is successful, it may not have much effect.
After all, whether it is the Wuzhong Family or the Huaisi Group, they are actually very exclusive, and their core interests are in the Jianghuai area.
It is indeed possible to bribe a large aristocratic family, but asking most of the Wuzhong aristocratic families to give up their own interests and become a leading party relying on the value of paper and Shu brocade is far from enough.
How can anyone not know the virtues of aristocratic families these days? !
If the interests of these aristocratic families cannot be fundamentally damaged and they cannot completely fall out with Sun Quan, it is actually meaningless to bribe a few aristocratic families.
The most intuitive example is the Zhang family in Wuzhong. Fei Yi gave them so much money before, and Sun Quan suppressed them like this. They didn't see them abandoning their property in Wuzhong and coming to Jingzhou to seek refuge with the Han Dynasty.
In the final analysis, these people actually know very clearly what is more important than money and family property.
Therefore, Zhang Xi thinks that these wealthy families must suffer from the pain.
There is a way, Zhang Xi vaguely had an idea.
But, it's really just a concept. Zhang Xi doesn't really understand the actual operation, nor does he know how to operate it.
Even this concept has the meaning of killing a thousand enemies and damaging oneself by eight hundred.
This concept is actually just one hundred dollars.
(End of chapter)
