Chapter 249 Raising a Central Plains
Seeing that everyone was amazed and proud of such a feat and did not pay any attention to the problem of food shortage they had mentioned before, Chen Gong and Guo Yuan sighed in unison.
I knew this would be the case.
"My Lord, you know how these nearly 30 million extra people came from. Purchasing and relocating them cost a lot of money and grain."
"Moreover, the settlement of these people is also very expensive. Villages, houses, roads, supplies, etc. all need to be prepared. It takes at least three or four years for a person to farm in order to make a profit."
"We can hold on, purely thanks to the Lord's ability and the solid foundation we have laid in the past. But this step is indeed a bit too big."
Tian Ze said: "That shouldn't be the case! The population attraction will slow down in the future, so there should be a surplus of food."
"But because of the locust plague, there is no food in the Central Plains!" Guo Yuan said.
"If we ignore the tens of millions of people in the Central Plains, it is estimated that at least 30% of them will die directly or indirectly due to lack of food."
In fact, what Guoyuan said was a bit conservative.
Because of Tian Ze's actions to attract people, the population in the Central Plains became much smaller and the resources became relatively abundant.
This would have been a good thing, but the problem was that the princes found that Tian Ze was too strong. The enormous pressure made them almost devote all their efforts to military development for the sake of their own ambitions.
The wealth distributed by Tian Ze was basically concentrated in the hands of the wealthy and powerful families, and then used by the princes they supported.
They don't care about the unrest among the people and the problem of exhausting the resources, they all want to fight to support the war. They are all hoarding guns and waiting to rob their neighbors of their food.
If you have enough money to pay for a 100,000-man army for a year, you dare to recruit 200,000 troops. If you don't have money and food, you can only rob or make the people suffer.
Originally, things were better because there were people like Tao Qian and Han Fu who stored grain, but now all the people who stored grain are gone, and Tian Ze is the only one left who has so much grain that it is impossible to snatch it away.
Yuan Shao and Cao Cao both had armies of no less than 300,000 men, but their treasuries probably didn’t even have enough food and wages for a year.
If they continue like this, they will be finished sooner or later, but who dares to lay off the army? If they hold on, there may still be a chance. Once they lay off the army, it won’t take long for the territory to be gone.
Moreover, there are also noble families who serve as their blood bags. After all, once Yuan Shao and his men are finished, they will definitely not care about their influence before they die and will definitely start to snatch food directly.
These noble families know how to compromise, but they will never take the initiative to help these princes, let alone help the local people overcome difficulties.
So a situation was formed where the princes had money and food to fight, but the people were starving everywhere. The more troops the princes had, the faster the people died.
"At least three million people." Chen Gong emphasized.
"But after selling these grains, we shouldn't be short of money in the future." Cheng Yu keenly noticed the loophole.
"The price of grain in the Central Plains is currently around 30,000 coins per stone. Although it is a little lower than before, it is still enough to make a lot of money."
You know, when the locust plague broke out, the price of grain in the Central Plains had already risen to 50,000 coins per stone. Now it is falling instead of rising, which must be caused by the large-scale sale of their grain.
Mi Zhu stepped out and said, "It is true that grain prices in the Central Plains remain high, but the actual prices are not that exaggerated."
"The reason why 30,000 coins per stone appeared is actually because Dong Zhuo before and Yuan Shao, Cao Cao and other princes and the noble families under their rule minted a large number of inferior coins."
"The copper coins they use have a very low copper content. We exchange them directly based on the copper content. The so-called 30,000 coins per stone is only about 3,000 coins in the standard five-zhu coin under our rule."
The trick of currency depreciation and inflation is not just something that will be used in later generations, it has been played out in this era a long time ago.
There are countless coins and notes, such as Emperor Wu's "White Deer Coin", Dong Zhuo's "Small Coin", Shu Han's "Zhi Bai Wu Zhu", Eastern Wu's "Da Quan", and so on.
In the end, it is always the poor who suffer, while the princes and powerful families make a fortune.
The princes were constantly fighting and the people were suffering. Even if Tian Ze did not "aid the enemy", these princes had plenty of ways to mobilize enough troops.
"So, it means that we still have to support Zhongyuan, right? And it will probably take several years?" Tian Ze said with a headache.
"In a sense, yes. Unless we don't want the population of the Central Plains." Guo Yuan said. "Don't the South have a lot of food? They can sell it, too?"
"The southern princes are not short of money and food, and they are unwilling to aid the enemy," Cheng Yu explained.
"So we are the only ones who are made the victims in the end."
"We have taken the greatest advantage, and we want to continue taking advantage. If we want to win while preserving the vitality of the Central Plains, we can only suffer this loss," said Chen Gong.
Hearing this, Li Ru confirmed his original guess.
If Tian Ze's initial goal was just the entire territory of the Han Dynasty, he could have started to unify the world now. But Tian Ze's ambition was too big, so he was constrained everywhere and had to restrain his strength to win.
However, in Li Ru's opinion, this has no impact, it is nothing more than a matter of a few years. A good fighter does not have glorious military exploits. This is a winding road, but it is also a road to victory.
Yuan Shao, Cao Cao and others must have gradually figured out this situation, and they were also trying their best to take advantage of Tian Ze's "weakness" to fight for that slim hope for themselves.
A king must have the courage of a king and also bear the responsibilities of a king.
"Strictly speaking, we actually support more than just the Central Plains." Chen Gong looked at Li Ru and Lu Bu with a dim gaze.
Li Ru and Lu Bu instinctively avoided this gaze and looked to the side.
Especially Lu Bu, for some reason, he always felt an inexplicable sense of guilt every time he was stared at by Chen Gong.
Tian Ze waved his hand. Lu Bu's side was a small matter. It was just a few hundred thousand people, and it wouldn't cost much. Besides, Lu Bu would be of great use in the future, and he was also working for him now.
"We still have to spend the food we need. But we have to find a way to increase the yield of food, or else we can't keep going this way."
The so-called pouring from the left hand to the right hand means having everything is purely imaginary.
The basis of everything is food. If productivity is not enough, it is all nonsense, unless food can be created out of thin air.
"My lord, the curved plow should be popularized. Although it will not have a significant effect on increasing grain production in the areas under our rule, it will have a very obvious effect on the Central Plains and the South." Guo Yuan reminded.
In order to attract as many people as possible from all over the world and prevent the princes from becoming too powerful, Tian Ze had always used the curved plow and did not promote it.
Because he had no shortage of oxen and the land under his rule was relatively flat and fertile, he did not have much need for a curved plow.
But this is not the case for other princes.
Tian Ze nodded slightly after hearing this: "We have almost recruited all the people we can. There is no point in suppressing them any more, so let's promote them. Let's also spread some farming techniques and ways to prevent and control locust plagues."
The current situation of the various princes no longer requires Tian Ze to impose special restrictions on food. Given their population size, he cannot recruit many soldiers even if he has more money and food.
Although releasing these technologies will inevitably "help the enemy", it can also reduce a lot of pressure on oneself.
"My lord, we can actually grow more sorghum and other easy-to-grow crops and sell them to the princes in the Central Plains at a low price. These things don't require much effort, but they taste a little worse, but they won't starve people to death."
"In addition, we can also suggest that the princes of the Central Plains plant more soybeans, taro, etc., and take corresponding measures to prevent drought and locust plagues that may come next year..."
Guo Yuan made many suggestions in succession, and the civil officials nodded repeatedly.
Li Ru couldn't help but sigh when he saw this scene.
Compared with Tian Ze, the vision of other princes is really much worse!
The generals felt strange. They had not yet solved the problem of money and food on their side, and they also had to worry about the problem of the people under the enemy's rule not having enough food.
(End of this chapter)
