In the fourth year of Chuping, July 193 AD.
After the efforts of the prefect of the three counties and Jia Xu and a group of people and half a year of rest and recuperation, Liu Zhang basically digested the land of the three counties recovered last year.
In half a year, the officials in the three counties have undergone earth-shaking changes.
Liu Zhang strictly governed his subordinates, and no corrupt officials were spared.
In the three counties and thirty-four county towns, officials have been changed almost all over.
Of course, not all of them were corrupt officials, but Liu Zhang rotated them.
If the talents of the big families in each county govern each county, corruption and cover-up will inevitably occur. Therefore, Liu Zhang selected talents from each county, gave full play to their talents, and hired them according to their talents.
Although it caused some turmoil, it laid a good foundation for Yizhou officialdom.
With the efforts of Wang Shang, Qin Xun, and Xun You, the personnel situation in Shu County, Qianwei County, and Ba County has been fully figured out, and Liu Zhang also knows the scale of his command.
After the Ma Xiang Rebellion and Jia Long's persecution over the years, the population of Shu County has dropped sharply from more than 1.3 million to 750,000. This is the number after Liu Zhang repatriated all the soldiers who had previously been surrendered by Jia Long.
Jianwei County itself has a small population, with only more than 400,000 people during the reign of Emperor Ling. After Liu Zhang repatriated the soldiers who had captured Ren Qi's command, the population totaled 330,000.
Compared with Shu County's nearly half loss, this is good news.
Although Bajun was not affected by the Ma Xiang Rebellion, there was a corresponding loss in population. The original population was more than 1.1 million, but according to Xun You's final report, only 800,000 were left.
The place of loss was probably the previous three-party battle between Zhao Wei, Huang Yin, and Yan Yan.
Compared with Shu County, it only lost more than 20% of its population, which can be considered a blessing among misfortunes.
Including the more than 1.2 million people in Liu Zhang's Hanzhong County, Guanghan County, and Guanghan vassal state, the total population reached 3.1 million!
Never underestimate this population of 3.1 million! Cao Cao, who captured millions of Yellow Turban troops, does not yet have so many people under his rule!
When Yanzhou was at its most powerful, there were only four million people. After years of wars, disasters and other reasons, less than two million people are left.
Jizhou, controlled by Yuan Shao, can now compete for the status of a major state in the world, with a population of only over 4 million.
But Yizhou's strength is far more than that. Liu Zhang controlled six counties in Yizhou, only half of them, and there are still six counties that are still autonomous.
When all 12 counties and 118 counties in Yizhou are surrendered, their strength will surely skyrocket again.
Although the population was growing rapidly, Liu Zhang was not in a hurry to recruit troops. Except for the newly surrendered Yan Yan and his 10,000 troops, there was no increase in the organization under his command.
Among them, there are nine people, Huang Zhong, Taishi Ci, Dian Wei, Zhao Yun, Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, Zhang Ren, Yan Yan and Yang Lin. A total of 90,000 soldiers and horses.
There are six people in the establishment of 5,000 people: Gao Shun, Xia Houlan, Lei Tie, Wu Yi, Wu Lan, and Pan Feng, totaling 30,000 people.
The remaining ones, such as Gao Yan, Yang Ren, Yang Ang, etc., as well as the soldiers from various counties and counties combined, totaled nearly 50,000 to 60,000 people.
If Gan Ning can lead Jiang Qin and Zhou Tai back, the number of troops will exceed 200,000 in no time!
Such a huge burden of troops made Liu Zhang fully understand what it meant to be miserable. The huge consumption of food and grass alone was enough to give him a huge headache.
Fortunately, the method of farming has been very mature, and villages and towns have also begun to implement it. After half a year of recuperation, the state pastoral office has gradually become richer.
The half-year period proposed by Jia Xu had arrived, and Liu Zhang immediately summoned his subordinates, civil and military officials, to prepare to discuss the matter of going south.
"Everyone, since the death of Dong Zhuo, the princes of various states in the world have become independent, ignoring the laws of the court, and wantonly attacking and annexing states and counties. Their rebellious intentions have become obvious. As a member of the Han Dynasty and a general of the Han Dynasty, I naturally cannot sit idly by. ignore!"
The first person among the civil servants to stand up was Zhang Song, who was transferred to General Wei's Mansion.
"What my lord said is true. Now that the world is in chaos and the governors of various states have evil intentions, the only loyal minister who truly cares about the Han Dynasty is my lord!"
"Yuan Yuan, Cao Cao, Gongsun Zan, etc. are all ambitious and have no regard for the imperial court. They will do things that will cause outrage and resentment in the near future!"
Liu Zhang couldn't help but nodded, his expression extremely serious.
"What Zi Qiao said is true! How can I sit back and watch these rebels bring trouble to the world as I have received great favor from the late Emperor!"
"My lord, please calm down your thunderous fury for the time being!"
Zhang Song changed his tone and began to persuade Liu Zhang again.
"What do you mean Zi Qiao?"
"My lord, when fighting against foreign forces, we must first pacify the interior! Nowadays, Yizhou is unstable, and the foundation of the rear is unstable! If when we are fighting with the rebels, the rear raises troops to resist, what can we do?"
As his power continued to grow, the days when Liu Zhang had his own way of doing things were gone forever. Many things do not mean that he can do whatever he wants, but he also needs to consider the opinions of the officials.
For example, when going south to conquer the six counties, some big clans were not very supportive. After all, he had only rested for half a year and had just regained some vitality.
"What Zi Qiao said is true, and I am also quite worried about it."
Zhang Song is a typical hawk, and he has always thought about making achievements, so he has always maintained a positive attitude towards the expedition south.
"My lord, there are currently 80,000 elite soldiers stationed in Chengdu. They can pacify Yizhou in one go. Please make a decision, lord!"
Not to mention Zhang Song, Liu Zhang couldn't wait for a long time! Even after pacifying Ba County, he has been planning to attack other states and counties.
Now that Zhang Song had given him a step up, Liu Zhang immediately wanted to take advantage of the situation and send troops, but before he could say anything, someone immediately stood up to oppose him.
"My lord, no!"
Zhang Yi and Wang Lei stood up together to stop Liu Zhang from continuing.
"My Lord, the three counties of Ba, Shu, and Qianwei have just been pacified for half a year, and people's hearts have just stabilized. It is really not appropriate to use troops wantonly."
As soon as Zhang Yi finished speaking, Wang Lei quickly continued his advice.
"My lord, we have been fighting for many years and have a huge burden of food and grass. Although there is some food in the treasury now, it cannot support an army of tens of thousands. Please think again, lord."
Liu Zhang had already reached the point of speaking, but was choked by Wang Lei and Zhang Yi, which was really uncomfortable.
However, he did not rebuke the two of them, because Zhang Yi and Wang Lei did not have any selfish motives and were indeed completely based on the situation in Chengdu.
The six counties in southern Yizhou are not weaker than the six counties currently controlled by Liu Zhang in terms of population and area. They are truly half of Yizhou.
This is equivalent to Liu Zhang facing an enemy who is actually almost the same strength as himself, and cannot be defeated casually.
"This general is also aware of this problem, but now the six southern counties are fighting on their own and are relatively weak. If it takes a long time, they will definitely grow stronger again, which will also cause us great trouble."
It is an indisputable fact that the armed forces of the six counties are not strong. Some counties do not even have 10,000 people. This is also the confidence that Liu Zhang has the ability to conquer.
Seeing that Liu Zhang was stubborn and had a clear intention to go south, Yang Hong also stood up.
"My lord, the six southern counties have insufficient troops, but they are extremely difficult to capture. If we send troops, we need to overcome a series of problems such as climate, terrain, transportation, logistics and supplies. If there is insufficient preparation, we will not only lose troops, but also encourage their arrogance. "
"The six southern counties are different from Bashu and other counties. There are a large number of barbarians living in the mountains there. If the big families in the six counties recruit the southern barbarians to resist us, it will definitely cause us a lot of losses."
