June of the second year of Yongjia.
Liu Yu led 10,000 infantry and cavalry into Dongpingling, Jinan County. The powerful officials from various counties in the county surrendered one after another. Of course, many were loyal to the Jin Dynasty and were unwilling to surrender. However, under the attack of Liu Yu's troops, they were all put down in less than half a month. .
At this point, except for Changguang County, the entire Qingzhou has come under Liu Yu's command.
Of course, outside of cities like Linzi, Liu Yu's control is still very weak. The people who really control most of Qingzhou's strength are those powerful families, large and small.
It's not that Liu Yu doesn't want to control these powers, but that even if Liu Yu wants to control them, he is powerless.
He did not have enough officials in his hands. Even if he sent all his subordinates to serve as county officials, he would not be able to truly control local power.
The entire Donglai Army does not have many trustworthy members, and the number of officials it can station is even more limited.
Moreover, as local officials, they also need to have assistant officials and subordinates, who need to be used to complete a series of trivial matters such as government affairs, litigation, governance, and taxation.
In this case, the most basic condition for subordinates is to be literate, and the real scholars in the Western Jin Dynasty are basically from powerful families.
Even if it was a "poor family" as people said at the time, it was still compared to a high-ranking family of nobles.
To ordinary people in counties and counties, these so-called "poor families" are the dominant ones in the counties and villages.
Of course, even if Liu Yu cannot fully control the power of the local counties, he will not care too much. As long as he can control the tens of thousands of troops in his hands and maintain military deterrence against the powerful powers in various places, there is no need to worry at all.
After all, even in the Ming and Qing dynasties of later generations, in most places the imperial power did not go to the countryside, but now we are in the Western Jin Dynasty before the medieval era.
And judging from the historical trajectory, the ability of these Qingzhou tycoons to really get things done is very poor. Otherwise, throughout the Jin Dynasty, they would have been controlled by Hu and Han forces such as Cao Yi, Shi Le, Duan Bu, Murong, etc. So much so that by the Sui and Tang Dynasties of the Second Empire, most of the famous and famous families in Qingzhou were no longer the powerful families of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, but had become the descendants of the Hebei families who migrated with Murong and Tuoba Zhuhu.
As a kind of cooperation, with the cooperation of these powerful local families, Liu Yu does not have to worry too much about the food problem of his tens of thousands of soldiers. After all, these lords who have seized local power do not dare to neglect, even if they exploit ordinary people under their rule What's more, there was nothing Liu Yu could do. After all, surviving at this time was the most important thing, and not many people cared about how he lived.
Just after Liu Yu led his army to conquer Jinan County, he immediately stepped up recruitment and training, and he was in a vigorous state, because he now had Sima Yue, King of the East China Sea, with tens of thousands of troops in the south, and Sima Yue across the river in the north. Ding Shao, the governor of Jizhou, was a party member.
As long as King Sima Yue of the East China Sea wants to attack him, Liu Yu will be trapped between the north and south at any time by the King Sima Yue of the East China Sea and the governor of Jizhou Ding Shao.
As long as Jinan County, which controls rivers and rivers, is lost, the entire Qingzhou will no longer have mountains and rivers to rely on.
This is also one of the reasons why the population and wealth of Qingzhou in ancient China was rich, but for thousands of years, there was almost no great government in the world.
There are almost no dangers in the core area of Qingzhou, and the error tolerance rate is too low. As long as one wave fails, the enemy will go straight to the nest and be taken away in a wave.
However, just as Liu Yu was intensifying his military campaign and expanding his army to as many as 50,000, in preparation for the subsequent attack by Sima Yue, King of the East China Sea, he did not wait for the army of Sima Yue, the King of the East China Sea. messenger.
This messenger was a man from the Yang family in Taishan County, named Yang Xianzhi.
When he learned that Sima Yue sent an envoy not only not to target him, but even to win over Liu Yu, he immediately held a banquet in Dongpingling City to receive the envoy.
When Liu Yu heard such a name, he knew that Yang Xianzhi, who was born in the Taiyang clan, was probably a believer in Tianshi Tao, or that the person who named him was a believer in Tianshi Tao, because various names in the Jin Dynasty contained " People who use the word "spirit" basically believe in the Tao of Heavenly Masters.
Moreover, the Taiyang family is now a well-known high-ranking family in the world. Since the Han Dynasty, there have been frequent officials with two thousand stones. In the Western Jin Dynasty, it reached the peak of the family's power. Yang Hu, the governor of the anti-Wu Dynasty, was the wife of Sima Shi. The Yang family, the Queen of Jin Hui Emperor Yang Xianrong all came from this Taiyang family.
Sure enough, when Liu foresaw this Yang Xianzhi, he felt that this old man was very different from the people he had met before. During the banquet, his conversation and knowledge instantly killed a group of Qingzhou locals, and he talked about all kinds of things. out.
Of course, Liu Yu basically couldn't understand most of what the old man named Yang said.
It is said that the journey from Yanzhou Juancheng to Qingzhou was dusty, but his Eguan Bo sleeves were not messy at all. Together with his well-maintained beard, he really had the air of a famous figure in the Wei and Jin Dynasties.
Anyway, compared with the several old guys from the Qingzhou gentry who were accompanying him, this old man named Yang Xianzhi was the leader in terms of temperament.
Even Ju Xian, who was kidnapped by Liu Yu and brought with him, was completely indifferent in front of Yang Xianzhi. Even after Ju Xian saw Yang Xianzhi, he looked up at him.
Seeing this, Liu Yu couldn't help but laugh angrily. These aristocratic families were ranked one by one in terms of their qualifications. Every day, one was a high-ranking person, and the other was a low-ranking person. It was as if everything in the world could be solved through their clear talk.
But when the barbarians invaded and the Yongjia Rebellion happened, none of these high-ranking celebrities could fight. Instead, they were better at fighting among themselves. Even if there were people with lofty ideals in the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains, as long as they gained military merit and threatened them, they would not be able to fight. It will be ruined by their various embarrassing manipulations.
Liu Yu didn't understand the sour talk of this group of people, and he became even more depressed when he saw the sincere expressions on the faces of his subordinates.
Moreover, after such a long banquet, the old man named Yang Xianzhi seemed to have forgotten the task assigned to him by Sima Yue, King of the East China Sea, and did not even mention the purpose of coming here.
Liu Yu was too lazy to continue watching these people compliment each other and asked directly.
"Yang Gong, I wonder what orders you have brought for Tai Tu when you come here this time?"
Since he did not break up with Sima Yue, the King of the East China Sea, Liu Yu respectfully called Sima Yue, the "eighth king's troublemaker", Taifu.
Yang Xianzhi was chatting happily with a bunch of new fans next to him, but was interrupted by Liu Yu. His face was a little unhappy, as if he just remembered the real purpose of his visit, and he spoke.
"Sima Yuanchao heard that Donglai Liu Jixing was unparalleled in wisdom, bravery, and youthful spirit. This time he and Gou Xi attacked each other. Although Gou Xi was violent, after all, he had no orders from the capital of Tai Province. It was really inappropriate."
Yang Xianzhi called Sima Yue by his cousin's name, stroking his beard with a venerable look.
