The fourth year of Yongjia, AD 310, May.
Just after summer, Ran Long led 3,000 Qingzhou soldiers to defeat the invading Goguryeo barbarians several times in Lelang County. He beheaded more than 3,000 Goguryeo, Haoqian and other barbarians, and captured more than 6,000 people from various ethnic groups, including the Goguryeo ambassador. There were dozens of officials and generals such as Daxiong, Wu Zhuo and others. The King of Goguryeo only led more than a thousand people to flee back to the north of Baishan Mountain.
After this battle, the reputation of the soldiers of Lelang County was completely established. King Baekje, who was next to Daifang County, originally gathered a large army and planned to take advantage of Goguryeo to invade the two counties and take advantage of them. After seeing the victory or defeat changing hands, he quickly sent people He sent a letter to Zhang Tong, the governor of Lelang, saying that he wanted to assist Zhang Tong in blocking the Goguryeo people.
After nearly two months of continuous fighting, the three thousand Qingzhou troops under Ran Long were exhausted. Liu Yu, who learned of this situation, ordered Ran Long to take up residence in Lelang County. On the one hand, he was renovating and preparing to return. On the other hand, Qingzhou also helped Zhang Tong, the governor of the two counties, to establish his prestige so that he could control the scholars of the two counties.
Originally, these Baekje people who were ready to move were the next target, but after summer, it was no longer the best time to use troops, and the Baekje people were relatively weak and did not pose much of a threat.
Therefore, Ran Long and Zhang Tong finally accepted the surrender of the King of Baekje, and stipulated that they could forget about the previous things as long as they offered some Mahan slaves every once in a while.
At the same time, thousands of slaves captured during this period were also transported to Donglai County by Qingzhou Navy ships, where these slaves will be screened and sent to various islands to dig struvite, except for some of them who are "aware of current affairs". "As the leader of the slaves, in addition to assisting the Qingzhou Army in the custody and management, the fate of the rest of the slaves was already determined when they set foot on those islands.
These islands full of poisonous snakes, insects and birds are their final destination. Except for a few "people who know current affairs", the vast majority of Goguryeo, Haoqian and Wuji slaves will continue to work, digging struvite for Qingzhou's fertile fields until They died of exhaustion and disease on these islands.
Lelang County, on the seaside pier in Suipu.
"Yuan Chang, let's say goodbye."
Zhang Tong, the governor of Lelang, was leading the powerful clan leaders of the two counties to bid farewell to Ran Long, who was about to board the ship back to Qingzhou.
"Mr. Zhang, we will meet again later."
Ran Long bowed his hands and got on the Qingzhou Navy's six-slot ship.
As Ran Long was the last one to board the ship, the Qingzhou Navy ship raised its sails and slowly accelerated towards the west with the help of the east wind.
Looking at the Qingzhou fleet gradually going away, Zhang Tong felt mixed emotions in his heart.
This time, the sudden appearance of 3,000 Qingzhou warriors instantly reversed the situation in which the Goguryeo people had wantonly raided Lelang County. They annihilated thousands of Goguryeo soldiers in one fell swoop, as well as thousands of soldiers of the Qingzhou Army, including basically one or two soldiers. Before the Goguryeo people figured out the situation in Lelang County within this year, they did not dare to go south to invade again. It can be said that after this battle, Zhang Tong instantly gained unprecedented prestige and power. The powerful powers of the two counties are now quite equal to him. Submit.
However, Zhang Tong knew that all this was because of the support of the Qingzhou Army. Without the Qingzhou Army, he might have been plundered by the Goguryeo bandits this year, which would have delayed his farming work. In winter, he and his men would have to go hunting in the ravine. For a living.
Therefore, when Qingzhou Navy Supervisor Yi Zhong brought a message from Qingzhou Governor Liu Yu and was willing to appoint Zhang Tong to serve as the supervisor of the captives under General Zhengdong, Zhang Tong hesitated for a while and agreed.
In this way, Liu Yu was the general who conquered the east, and Zhang Tong also served as the governor and guardian of the general who conquered the east, which showed his surrender attitude.
Although Zhang Tong's self-appointed prefects of Lelang and Daifang counties were under the jurisdiction of the Pingzhou Governor's Department, due to the invasion of the Goguryeo people from the south, these two counties had not seen any officials from the Pingzhou Governor's Department for several years. Abandoned, left to fend for itself.
Although Zhang Tong felt that the official position of asking for prisoners to be governor was a bit unfair, and through conversations with Ran Long, he had concluded that Liu Yu must have different intentions, but now the problem for Lelang and Daifang counties is how to survive. , instead of these short-term righteousness.
Just when Ran Long led the Qingzhou army to board the ship and began to return to Qingzhou, the spring plowing and summer planting that Liu Yu was very concerned about were basically completed.
The drought that Liu Yu was worried about did indeed happen, but most of the situation in Qingzhou was not that serious, and it was not as serious as Bingzhou and Jizhou. Especially after the large-scale use of water-lifting windmills in counties and counties, some of the droughts were also alleviated.
Through the previous spring plowing inspection, Liu Yu took advantage of this opportunity to basically understand the situation in Qingzhou.
There is a county in Qingzhou occupied by Liu Yu today. There are 115,000 registered households and a population of about 700,000. In the same area, the population is only 10% of that of Chong Province with the same area in later generations. Several.
Among them, there are 72,000 ordinary households, 3,000 households of beggar soldiers settled in Jibei County, 9,000 households of refugees from Yanzhou and Jizhou scattered in various counties, and 30,000 households of military soldiers stationed in various counties.
The number of these people has greatly increased compared with what was previously thought. This is not because of the reproduction of the population, but because of several military campaigns in Qingzhou. Liu Yu took the opportunity to eradicate some powerful people and released a lot of hidden people.
Although the current registered population in Qingzhou is 700,000, in fact, according to the guesses of Liu Yu, Hua Xiu and other advisers, the number of hidden household registrations of local powerful people in Qingzhou can be as high as 300,000 or 400,000, which is definitely an eye-popping figure.
Liu Yu now controls a population of 700,000 and supports his 20,000 soldiers and 30,000 auxiliary troops, which already gives him a huge headache.
When he thought about the fact that the Shu Han had a population of one million and supported nearly 100,000 soldiers in history, Liu Yu couldn't help but admire this terrifying ten-to-one militia ratio.
However, Liu Yu is relatively confident in his plan to expand the Qingzhou Army to 30,000 armored soldiers and 50,000 auxiliary troops by next year.
Today's Qingzhou has a total of about six million acres of registered land that can collect taxes and job fields that can support military soldiers. According to the minimum yield of 200 kilograms of millet per acre, which is two shi, that year can produce Twelve million stones. Based on this total output estimate, the taxes included are enough to support ten thousand soldiers.
Of course, this only solves the problem of food. If there is a serious famine, there will still be variables. After all, at this time in the late Western Jin Dynasty, the most indispensable thing is various natural disasters.
In order to cope with the possible food crisis, Liu Yu has strictly controlled the number of craftsmen, leaving only craftsmen who smelt iron, make salt, burn porcelain, prepare and smelt copper. After all, the more craftsmen are occupied, the more land they will cultivate. There are fewer farmers harvesting grain.
In particular, the hugely expensive steel smelting experiments required a large amount of labor in addition to craftsmen and apprentices to complete a series of preparatory work such as logging, burning charcoal, transportation, and mining. After several experiments without success, Liu Yu had to The rationing of materials has been reduced, and we plan to wait until the free time in autumn and winter before increasing the testing intensity.
Moreover, after this series of complex experiments and trial production, Liu Yu has discovered an important problem.
These craftsmen are very good at practical operations, but it is difficult for them to understand some of the suggestions and methods put forward by Liu Yu.
After all, the experience and knowledge of these craftsmen were accumulated through decades of practice, word of mouth and self-exploration. They are very different from the knowledge Liu Yu systematically learned from books.
During frequent communication, Liu Yu found that it was often the younger craftsmen or apprentices who could understand his various suggestions and methods earlier, while the older and more experienced craftsmen often learned later. Feeling, even in the end, it was not what he wanted.
As the saying goes, "It is better to teach a man to fish than to teach him to fish." Liu Yu simply selected a group of young people with the strongest learning ability from all the craftsmen in Qingzhou, and started to teach them the most basic mathematics, chemistry, and physics.
At the beginning, Liu Yu taught in person, but after his scribes completed the basic mathematics, physics, chemistry and other books compiled orally by Liu Yu, Liu Yu directly appointed the scribes who compiled these books to teach teachers this knowledge. .
After all, giving lectures to craftsmen who are basically illiterate is a very life-threatening thing.
Only when he encountered problems that even scribes and lecturers couldn't understand, Liu Yu would personally take action.
Of course, the learning of this knowledge is all done at night, and in order to ensure the quality of learning, the most commonly used tool in these classes is the cane used to beat people.
When Liu Yu saw that a simple angle calculation, the carbon content of iron and steel, the calculation of specific gravity and density, and other small problems could be solved by dozens of skilled craftsmen, he couldn't help but feel discouraged, even if Liu Yu knew Some knowledge that is thousands of years ahead of others, in this case, it is difficult to complete some systematic innovation and change.
Regarding these, Liu Yu also knew that there was no need to rush, so he could only use "carrots and sticks" to get these craftsmen who had high hopes to learn quickly.
Linzi City, in the residence of Qingzhou Governor.
Liu Yu looked at the report that had just been sent up. In addition to the production and training reports of soldiers from various counties, counties and military governments, there were also complaints about the shortage of various materials, whether it was farm tools, livestock, or the loss of weapons, armor, and bows and arrows. .
The needs of tens of thousands of officials and soldiers were like bottomless black holes, swallowing up Liu Yu's poor treasury storage.
But at this time, the various caravans in Qingzhou were also operating extremely bleakly, and even the extremely hard currency of salt, white porcelain and other goods were backlogged.
The reason for this situation is that the situation in the world has become even more chaotic at this time. Except for Youzhou and half of Jizhou controlled by Wang Jun, various outbreaks have broken out in the rest of southern Jizhou, Sili, Yuzhou, Xuzhou, and Yangzhou. The bn of barbarians, refugees, and rebel generals.
In this chaotic situation, even normal farming is no longer possible, let alone commercial operations.
Under this situation, although many refugees poured into Qingzhou, the more intuitive impact is that Qingzhou's various outputs can no longer be exchanged for other needed materials.
It can be said that due to the war in the Central Plains at this time, there were no normal commercial activities. Except for food and weapons, there was nothing that could be called hard currency.
As a result, the supply of medicinal materials, refined iron, copper ingots and other goods that Qingzhou needs will be cut off immediately.
Faced with this situation, Liu Yu couldn't help but sigh again. No wonder the previous history teacher always said in class that long-term wars in ancient times often caused a decline in productivity. Today's "barter" Business seems to be cut off, and a regression without productivity is abnormal.
"Haha, if this continues, it will really be a militancy, and we will go out to seize the counties where the goods are produced." Liu Yu couldn't help but smile bitterly. If Qingzhou's craftsmanship develops by leaps and bounds in the future, he will really have to go out and seize the territory, even on these lands. Endless troubles attached.
"Husband, what did you say?"
Hearing Liu Yu mutter something to himself, Wang Ze, who was sorting out his desk next to him, didn't hear clearly, but asked with his big eyes flashing.
"It's okay, I just feel a little emotional when I see these nannies from all over the world."
After saying that, Liu Yu caressed Wang Ze with some pity.
Now Wang Ze is not only responsible for the affairs of the inner house, but also has some responsibilities in handling internal affairs for Liu Yu.
The Western Jin Dynasty was an era in which children of high-ranking families often held important positions. Liu Yu had no idea who belonged to the high-ranking families and where. Wang, who was from the Wang family in Taiyuan, knew much more about these family matters than Liu Yu.
Therefore, Liu Yu was caught in the study and became a temporary administrative secretary.
The little girl Wang Ze was very happy about Liu Yu's affectionate behavior, feeling that her husband really loved her.
Wang Ze thought that before he married Liu Yu, he thought Liu Yu was a tiger and wolf bandit who ran out of Donglai Mountain. He shed tears several times. If he hadn't been afraid that like his sixth and seventh sisters, he would marry a Hu from the Xianbei Duan tribe. Man, she doesn't want to.
She just didn't expect that after marrying to Qingzhou, her husband would not only be young, but also love her very much. She felt that she was much happier than marrying her sister from Zaosong and Zaotai.
When he thought of this, Wang Ze thought of the maids around him and the rumors outside that told him that Liu Yu was an ambitious rebel who rebelled against the emperor. They also said that sooner or later the emperor of Luo Jing would come to Qingzhou for a crusade. The traitor Liu Yu.
Wang Ze sneered contemptuously in her heart. Based on her recent reading of official documents and newspapers, as well as Liu Yu's conversations with her from time to time, she knew that Qingzhou today was a rare place of peace and happiness in the world, and Luo Jing was already in danger. , the emperor of Luoyang may not be able to protect himself.
If that time comes, the big deal is that she will just become a rebel with Liu Yu.
Liu Yu processed some more paperwork, and finally decided to take little Lolita Wang Ze with him to watch the young guards practice.
According to the schedule, the so-called practice today is actually playing polo. After watching it twice, the little Loli Wang became obsessed with this passionate and violent sport. During the polo practice every five days, she always It’s a must-go for every occasion.
Sure enough, Wang Ze was very happy after hearing this and went to the back to change into Hufu and riding clothes.
At this time, a guard soldier came to Liu Yu and reported something.
After Liu Yu heard this, the expression on his face instantly became surprised.
"What are you talking about? People from the begging army were killed by Taishan County soldiers?"
