After Li Yi's retreat, Puyang was already an empty city, and it was useless for Cao Cao to ask for it, so he ordered the army to withdraw to Juancheng.

In early October, Tao Qian led his troops and horses to successfully recover Xuzhou.

In mid-October, Cao Cao withdrew his troops to Changyi.

At this time, Man Chong, who went to Kanto to ask for help, returned to Changyi with Yuan Shao's letter. Shao was very sympathetic to Cao Cao's situation and offered to help, but on the condition that Cao Cao must send his family to Luoyang.

Cao Cao was at the end of his rope and immediately planned to accept Yuan Shao's suggestion.

Cheng Yu, Xi Zhicai and others tried their best to dissuade them.

Cheng Yu said: "Yuan Shao is ambitious and has the intention of annexing the world, but he is not resourceful enough to achieve it at all, and there will be a disaster in the future." If the lord follows him, the consequences are self-evident. The lord has the power of a dragon and a tiger, and the material of the sky, can he charge into battle for such a mortal person? Although the Central Plains is dilapidated, there are still six counties of land in the hands of the lord, tens of thousands of elites, with the strategy of the lord, plus the help of Zhicai and us, we will be able to achieve the cause of the king. Please consider carefully. As long as we work together, even the country and the society are in the pocket of the lord. ”

Cao Cao thought about it for a long time, and finally gave up the idea of taking refuge in Yuan Shao, and continued to grit his teeth and insist.

………………

In November, Mu Taoqian of Xuzhou fell seriously ill.

Xuzhou is worried, once Tao Qian dies, the situation in Xuzhou will be in danger again.

Who succeeds Xuzhou has become the top priority related to the survival of Xuzhou.

Now in Xuzhou, there are only two officials who are qualified to succeed Xuzhou Mu, one is Zhao Yu, the Taishou of Guangling County, and the other is Liu Bei, the former Taishou of Pingyuan.

It turned out that in August, Liu Bei had to accept the appeasement of the Jicheng court because of the serious locust plague in Pingyuan County. But he himself did not stay to join the Northern Xinjiang Army, but before Tai Shi Ci crossed the river to the south, he fled from Gaotang with a group of cronies and took refuge in Xuzhou.

When Liu Bei arrived in Xuzhou, he was just in time for Tao Qian to take the opportunity to recover Xuzhou with reinforcements, took refuge under Tao Qian, got Tao Qian's reuse, and was appointed by Tao Qian as a special driver in Xuzhou.

Liu Bei is both civil and military, and he is a descendant of the clan, if he succeeds him as Xuzhou Mu, the Son of Heaven and the imperial court will not object. Once the Son of Heaven officially decrees, who else in Xuzhou will dare to disagree?

Liu Bei arrived in Xuzhou in August, and with Tao Qian's three-month campaign, he made great contributions to the recovery of Xuzhou, and Xuzhou was willing to support him to succeed Xuzhou herdsmen very much.

In December, Tao Qian died of illness, and Liu Bei succeeded him as Xuzhou pastor.

When the news reached Jicheng, Li Yi was speechless for a long time. He never thought that he had changed history so much, but Liu Bei turned around and still became a pastor in Xuzhou.

………………

The first month of the second year of Xingping of the Han Kingdom (195 AD).

Liu Jing, Zhen Jiang, Wang Chan, Mi Zhen and Gan Qian were in labor successively, Liu Jing and Zhen Jiang each gave birth to a boy, while Wang Chan, Mi Zhen and Gan Qian each gave birth to a daughter.

Li Yi is very happy, now he has eleven children, and if he changes in the next generation, he can already form a complete football team. Well, it seems that I have to continue to work hard and leave my wives as a substitute for the football team.

The ministers of the imperial court and the officials of various prefectures and counties in Hebei went to the general's palace to congratulate them.

At the beginning of the new year, Li Yi was happy with two sons and three daughters, and the General's Mansion was immersed in joy, but as the fast horses galloped in, Li Yi's mood became worse and worse.

At the end of the first month, Liu Bei, the new pastor of Xuzhou, sent a letter to tell the truth about the recent situation in Xuzhou, saying that he absolutely respected the son of today and obeyed all the instructions of the imperial court. At the same time, he begged the general to plead for him, and hoped that the general would send troops to Yanzhou to help kill Cao Cao and avenge the death of Tao Qian and hundreds of thousands of innocent people in Xuzhou.

Li Yi held the suicide note written by Tao Qian before his death, and was grief-stricken. This old man's ability is not very good, but he is definitely a good person, and he went to Xuzhou to help him quell the rebellion, and he got along very happily. It's not bad for himself, even if he dug his corner and brought the Mi family and the Zhuge family to Northern Xinjiang, he didn't say anything. This made Li Yi always feel that he owed him a favor. But today Tao Qian has passed away, and there is no chance to repay him.

Li Yi convened hundreds of officials of the Jicheng court to discuss the strategy of sending troops to Yanzhou.

"What is the situation with the relief of displaced people? So far, can anyone freeze to death and starve to death? Li Yi is most concerned about the displaced people, and he hopes that the army will be able to properly settle the displaced people who have fled to Hebei before crossing the river to the south.

"The governments are opening warehouses to release grain and make every effort to help the displaced people, so we have not yet received a report that a large number of displaced people have frozen to death and starved to death." "After the beginning of spring, we plan to requisition millions of displaced people and dig ditches to connect several rivers that run through Jizhou, including the Qinghe, Zhangshui, Hutuo and Lushui rivers. ”

"You agreed to Ding Li's proposal?" Li Yi asked with a little surprise, "Can Hebei's financial endowment support it?" ”

"It is indeed costly to excavate a ditch along with the north and south of Jizhou, but now it has to be dug if you don't dig it." Zhong Miao smiled bitterly.

There are too many displaced people in Jizhou, and there is a serious shortage of land, so it is impossible to settle them in Tuntian. According to the preliminary estimates of the prefectures, there are about 2 million displaced people who have no land to cultivate, and the amount of relief food consumed by these people is very staggering.

In order to alleviate Hebei's food crisis and raise as much grain as possible for relief, there is only one way to do so, and that is to let the people of the three prefectures of Hebei who should be serving as forced labor cultivate their fields with peace of mind, and let them use the surplus grain at home to pay for forced labor. All the grain collected was used to provide relief to the displaced people, and these displaced people served as conscripts in place of the people of Hebei.

In this way, Hebei's food crisis can be effectively alleviated, the people of Hebei can temporarily get rid of their heavy forced labor, and the displaced people can always have enough to eat.

However, because there were too many displaced people and the total amount of forced labor was too large, whether it was repairing the city or dredging the ditches, it would not take so many people, so after careful consideration and careful calculation, the imperial court decided to make full use of the strength of these displaced people and dig the "Zhongxing Canal" that runs through more than a dozen large and small rivers in the north and south of Jizhou in advance.

"The excavation of the Zhongxing Canal costs a lot, although the problem of the people and the conscription is solved, but the problem of money is solved?" Li Yi looked at Zhong Xuan and the others, and said very seriously, "If you propose to increase taxes, I will definitely not agree." ”

Zhong Miao quietly glanced at Cai Yong.

Cai Yong is now a Taifu, his age, qualifications and fame are very great, plus he is Li Yi's grandfather, Li Yi respects him very much, generally he says something that he doesn't like, Li Yi will not get angry, but listen carefully and think about it repeatedly.

Now many times, those people under Li Yi, if they encounter tricky things, let Cai Yong come forward to talk to Li Yi in detail.

Cai Yong coughed lightly a few times, and then said in a slow voice: "General, in recent years, we have vigorously promoted the policy of attaching equal importance to agriculture and industry in various parts of northern Xinjiang, encouraging all strata to do business and get rich, and the trade of goods and colonies has developed rapidly. If there are more businessmen and richer, should taxes also be changed? The merchant is too rich, which is not a good thing for the imperial court. The reason why Emperor Xiaowu implemented the edict back then was that the general had forgotten it? ”

Li Yi was stunned, didn't his father-in-law know his plan to vigorously develop industry and commerce in northern Xinjiang? Last year, he had a conclusion about this, why did he bring it up again at this time?

Although he had doubts in his heart, Li Yi did not hesitate and categorically vetoed: "No, this thing will definitely not work." Although the current merchants are rich, they are still very different from the merchants in the era of Emperor Xiaowu. Dong Zhuo promulgated the decree that year, which dealt a great blow to Shangjiadi. It's only been a few years since this happened, and we all have calculations in our hearts if the businessman can get rich. The tax system must not be adjusted, and there is no need to discuss this matter. ”

Cai Yong and some officials of the imperial court looked at each other with a look of embarrassment.

"Then, in order to save money, the general will not send troops to Yanzhou this year." Cai Yong stroked his long beard and said word by word.

Li Yi was stunned for a moment, then his face sank, and he said very dissatisfied: "Last year, you strongly asked me to send troops to Yanzhou, but because of the continuous disasters and the tide of displaced people, the plan to send troops was forced to be canceled. Now the situation in the Central Plains is very favorable to us, but you ask me to give up sending troops, why? If I don't kill a butcher like Cao Cao, if I don't get rid of this rebellion, will the people of the world scold me? ”

Cai Yong smiled slightly and said, "General, the situation in the Central Plains seems to be very favorable to us, but the situation in the world is becoming more and more unfavorable to us. Today, Yuan Shao, Cao Cao and Gongsun Zan are in the Central Plains, each owning a state, with a population of millions and 100,000 soldiers. Under the strong pressure of Hebei, they are huddled together, we attack one side, and the other two sides will definitely help each other and fight against Hebei together. ”

Moreover, Yuan Shao launched a rebellion last year with Han Sui and Ma Teng in Xiliang, Liu Yan in Yizhou, and some people in Chang'an. Yuan Shao's purpose in occupying Guanzhong was very simple, he wanted to rely on the danger of Guanzhong and the wealth of Yuzhou to confront the imperial court and try to dominate the world. ”

"But when the situation has developed to this day, and the Central Plains has become the general's bag, is Yuan Shao still stubborn and resolutely opposes the need to rebuild the imperial system today?"

"We can assume that if the general sends troops to Yanzhou, what will Yuan Shao do? There is no doubt that he will send troops to help Cao Cao, and he will unite Liu Biao in Jingzhou, Han Sui Ma Teng in Xiliang, and even Liu Yan in Yizhou, and attack Guanzhong and Guanxi in the west to contain Yue Fei's forces. At the same time, he will also unite with Yuan Shu of Yangzhou to attack Xuzhou and contain Liu Bei's forces. Unite Gongsun Zan and Cao Cao, and then drag us to the battlefield of Yanzhou. ”

"General, imagine what kind of situation we will be in Hebei once such a situation occurs? It was the siege of Hebei by the princes of the whole world. Although Hebei is strong, can it cope with such a situation? (To be continued.) )