Yecheng, Wei County, Hebei Province.
A few months ago, Cao Cao proclaimed himself king in Wei County and established his country, making Yecheng his capital.
Yecheng, Hebei Province, was once the base where Yuan Shao tried his best to develop. It was much more prosperous than other counties in Hebei Province.
However, Yecheng is not like Luoyang or Chang'an. It is not the ancient capital of the previous dynasties, so there is no royal palace.
At that time, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Cao Cao was eager to go south to conquer Jingxiang and did not have time to take care of these.
We can worry about things like the palace after we return from victory.
Moreover, Cao Cao had great ambitions and did not think that his end was only in Yecheng.
At one time, he thought about pacifying Jingzhou and Yangzhou, capturing Liu Bei and Sun Quan, and then reconsidering the capital.
Setting the capital at Yecheng was only a temporary measure to establish the king and the country.
Unfortunately, things backfired. Cao Cao personally led an army of 250,000 people to the south. Instead of taking any territory, he was defeated by the coalition forces of Sun and Liu one after another!
In the end, he lost countless soldiers and fled back to Xudu in embarrassment.
After this battle, undercurrents surged under his command in Hebei, the Central Plains, and there seemed to be a tendency to subvert.
Fortunately, Guo Jia used many methods and chose to delegate power and compromise with the family, thus ensuring Cao Cao's rule.
It was extremely difficult to stabilize the territory under his command. How could Cao Cao have the energy to build a palace?
If the people revolt after wasting their money and wasting their lives, Cao Cao, the King of Wei, will be done!
Therefore, Yuan Shao's General's Palace in the past was slightly transformed into today's Wei Prince's Palace.
Compared with King Qin's Weiyang Palace, it is naturally much inferior.
However, compared to Liu Bei's Jiangling, Sun Quan's Moling was even better.
In the Palace of the Prince of Wei, Cao Cao dressed in gorgeous and bright clothes and spent the New Year festival with his wife and children.
It is a pity that Cao Cao, the king of Wei in Hebei who controls the Central Plains, does not have any joy in celebrating the festival on his face.
This year has passed. . . Frustrated!
"Why...!"
A sigh expressed Cao Cao's helplessness over the eight years of Jian'an.
According to normal circumstances, shouldn't Liu Zhang be the one who is unhappy?
But Cao Cao could imagine with his toes how comfortable Liu Zhang would be at this moment!
Without having to do anything, he returned to his throne as the world's number one overlord.
Nearly 300,000 elite troops in the four major military regions are conducting drills and are ready to respond to various military confrontations at any time.
Hugging her from left to right, surrounded by top beauties!
The most important thing is age!
Liu Zhang was only thirty years old, but Cao Cao already knew his destiny!
Thinking that a year ago, he still dominated Hebei, the Central Plains, and eight states in the world, but now he was pretending to be fat, occupying Hebei, the Central Plains, for a prestige, Cao Cao couldn't help but sigh heavily again.
"Why...!"
Besides sighing, Cao Cao didn't know how to face the new year.
"King Wei, why are you so depressed during the Spring Festival?"
A cheerful voice came, which cheered up Cao Cao a little.
"Follow me!"
It's Guo Jia!
At this moment, the only one who can make Cao Cao smile is Guo Jia.
"Meet the King of Wei!"
Guo Jia moved closer and quickly bowed his hands.
Upon seeing this, Cao Cao stepped forward and helped him up.
"Fengxiao, there are no outsiders here, no need to be polite!"
"Thank you, King Wei, but etiquette cannot be abolished!"
Even though his behavior is not simple and he is known as a prodigal, Guo Jia has never been dissolute in etiquette.
More than anything, it's just spiritual.
"Fengxiao, how's it going?"
Cao Cao did not dwell on these trivial matters, but showed a look of expectation.
In the battle of Nanjun, all the elite troops of Cao Cao were lost, and he had to give away many courtesy to his vassals and noble families.
At present, the most urgent issue for Cao Jun is to recruit soldiers and reorganize his military strength as soon as possible.
All of this is naturally inseparable from two elements.
The population, money and food under his command.
More importantly, Cao Cao asked Guo Jia to personally check the total population.
Today, I am here to report this matter.
Guo Jia did not delay and immediately told the truth.
"Reporting to the King of Wei, Jizhou, Bingzhou, Youzhou, and Qingzhou in Hebei Province have a combined population of more than 5.5 million."
After hearing this, Cao Cao's eyes suddenly twitched.
"Five and a half million? That's right?"
"I remember very clearly that during the anti-Dong alliance, Jizhou had a population of over three million!"
Guo Jia shook his head helplessly, not knowing how to refute.
What is the use of the anti-Dong alliance? Before the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the population of Jizhou was approaching six million!
Zhang Jiao's base camp was Jizhou, and it was also Jizhou that Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan fought for.
Jizhou has experienced countless wars in the past twenty years, and a large population loss is an inevitable result.
"King Wei, the current population annexation by aristocratic families is serious. In fact, the number is indeed far more than 5.5 million."
"The population we can control in Hebei right now is only 5.5 million."
After a brief digestion, Cao Cao could only forcefully accept this fact, and then asked again.
"What about Zhongyuan? How about it?"
"Reporting to the King of Wei, Yanzhou has a population of 2.1 million, Yuzhou has a population of 3.55 million, and Xuzhou has a population of . . . 1.35 million."
When it comes to Xuzhou, Guo Jia is even more helpless.
Xuzhou originally had a population of more than three million.
Even after several wars, it still has more than two million.
But Cao Cao massacred the city at every turn and killed many innocent people.
This is not the most serious population loss.
Cao Cao's massacre of the city terrified the people of Xuzhou, and hundreds of thousands of people fled to the south of the Yangtze River to avoid disaster!
This is the key to Xuzhou’s serious population loss.
Cao Cao didn't pay attention to Guo Jia's face and was thinking about it in his mind.
Xuzhou had more than one million, but Xuzhou's military and political affairs were all handed over.
Zang Ba currently leads Xuzhou to resist Sun Quan, and Cao Cao has no reason to go to Xuzhou to recruit troops.
That is, the population of Hebei is 5.5 million, and the total population of the two Central Plains states, Yanzhou and Yuzhou, is 5.6 million.
In total, it was only eleven million!
"Hey... I didn't expect that Gudu would be forced to do this!"
The number originally estimated by Cao Cao was more than twice the current answer!
The reality cut him in half!
But Cao Cao did not expect that even greater bad news was still waiting for him.
"King Wei, the situation is even worse!"
"If there are 11 million normal people, we can recruit at least 500,000 soldiers."
"But in the battle of Nanjun, our army lost all its elite troops, which means that all those lost were young men! This number is no less than 400,000!"
"I'm afraid that among the population of more than 11 million, the number of young people is pitifully small..."
If a force wants to develop normally, while recruiting troops, it must leave enough young people to farm the land in their homeland.
How to feed soldiers without food income?
If there are only ten soldiers, they are said to be militaristic. The reason is that all the powerful labor force has been mobilized.
Normally, with twenty people and one soldier, we can develop steadily.
But for today's Hebei in the Central Plains, this twenty-man soldier must be a disaster!
I'm afraid this number needs to be adjusted to thirty, forty, or even fifty!
Thinking of this, Cao Cao couldn't help but cover his forehead and almost died of pain.
