Volume 2: The King's Way Chapter 151: Crossing the River with the People
Because the Jiangdong army stopped in Wan County and had no food supply route to Shouchun, Cao Cao was unable to borrow food from Bai Tu.
Another half month later, although Cao Cao and Liu Bei successively sent food and grass, they saw that Huainan had no harvest. Both Guangling and Shouchun were still ignoring all kinds of strategies and were determined to defend to the death.
Moreover, under the influence of Zhong's founding of the country, Yuan Shu's army did become much more brave. Ji Ling even fought with Zhang Fei for more than thirty rounds before he was defeated and fled - his military strength was far superior to before.
Cao Cao and Liu Bei, not to mention that they were not sure of taking Shouchun before the food supply ran out, if they continued like this, even if Yuan Shu opened the gates and surrendered now, would they be able to accept it?
There are 1.5 million people in Huainan alone, plus parts of Yuzhou and Jingzhou. Even now, Yuan Shu has a population of more than 3 million. In a good year, this is war potential, and in a bad year... this is 3 million hungry mouths to be fed!
Even if Yuan Shu surrenders now, Cao Cao and Liu Bei can't save this disaster...
When the world was peaceful, local governments were still able to store some grain. However, with the advent of war, they were busy collecting military rations and the local government's ability to resist natural disasters was greatly reduced.
Finally, in November of the second year of Jian'an, Cao Cao and Liu Bei withdrew their troops one after another...
Not only did they evacuate from outside Shouchun City, they even withdrew their troops from Huainan. Cao Cao had already conquered most of Runan, and the northern part of Guangling County that Liu Bei had conquered was also completely withdrawn.
Judging from the current situation, we can save the spring ploughing next year - staying here at this time is almost like going deep into the desert, and we have to rely entirely on supplies from the rear!
When Liu Bei was leaving, he cried bitterly to the people, expressing his willingness to leave with him. Even if he starved to death on the road, he would not the people lack food.
However, on the one hand, it is difficult to leave one's hometown, and many people still want to rely on old grains, grass roots, tree bark, etc. to endure. On the other hand, there are issues of trust and the speed of information dissemination, so only a small number of people are willing to leave!
Eventually, he led 70,000 to 80,000 people across the Huai River and returned to Xia Pi. This was praised as a great story and greatly boosted Liu Bei's popularity among the people.
At the same time, Bai Tu in Jiangdong was heartbroken when he saw the disaster of the people in Huainan reported by Bufengwei. After Cao Cao and Liu Bei withdrew their troops, he resolutely sent troops to Xunyang Ferry, Ruxukou and Guazhou.
Anxian also occupied Shiting to the north, so there was no need to force the dangerous Jiashidao Road.
Normally speaking, going to war at this time would definitely be a disadvantage, but... if Bai Tu only wanted to occupy these three ports, there would not be much of an obstacle.
To the north of Xunyangdu is Qichun City, Ruxukou is next to Chaohu Lake, to the north of Chaohu Lake is Hefei, and to the north of Guazhou is naturally Guangling City...
These three are all big cities, Qichun is slightly inferior, and the other two can be said to be strong cities behind walls, which are difficult to conquer without a hard fight.
Bai Tu did not intend to attack the enemy, but instead displayed the spirit of caring for his compatriots and loving them without boundaries, and helped the people in Huainan who were defending against the disaster to cross the river to the east!
In addition to the already controlled An County, there are four places along the north bank of the Yangtze River and the downstream section between Huainan and Jiangdong that are under Bai Tu's control.
In December, Bai Tu deployed a large number of scouts in Huainan, not to investigate the enemy situation, but only to announce the news - as long as the people of Huainan arrived at the Yangzhou army camps in Xunyangdu, Shiting, Chaohu, and Guazhou, they could get relief food and go to Jiangdong to avoid disaster.
It is difficult for a large army to pass through the Jiashi Road, but for the scattered civilians and refugees, the "easy to defend and difficult to attack" strategy is ineffective unless the road is truly dead-end and dangerous.
Historically, after Cao Cao occupied Huainan, he wanted to forcibly relocate the people. As a result, the people were frightened and moved south to Jiangdong in large numbers. In comparison, Yuan Shu's control is even worse now, and... except for Jiangdong, neither Xuzhou nor Yuzhou can afford to support so many victims!
Bai Tu not only promised that in the disaster year, he would ensure that every household would have "young and strong people working and the whole family having food", but also promised that after recovering Huainan, he would arrange for everyone to return home...
It was not until the Three Kingdoms period that the warlords understood that the true strength of a force was not how much arable land it occupied or how many weapons and horses it had, but how much labor it had!
Taking Jiangdong alone as an example, the fertile land most easily covered by water conservancy projects is the northern part of the former Yuzhang, which is now Poyang County, as well as the northern part of Wu County and the plains near Zhenze.
After the two water conservancy projects are completed and fully reclaimed, the arable land will reach 1.5 million hectares. According to the Han system, one hectare is 50 mu, and if one household cultivates 100 mu, the land can support 750,000 households if it is returned to the people - more than the current total population of Jiangdong. Even if all the unregistered households are dug out, there may not be so many people.
And if it were to be taken over by the government, with sufficient oxen and several types of plows suitable for leveling large fields developed, it would require hundreds of thousands of young and strong men to cultivate the land here. The income would be enough to allow Bai Xiang to be exempted from grain taxes in other areas like other time travelers!
Therefore, "people" are the real foundation. Bai Tu was like a hamster before, saving so much relief food, wasn't it just for "people"?
Even if the people are unwilling to leave and still need to consider it, they can still receive food rations enough for their family for a few days at the Baitu garrison. They will be the best propagandists!
With Bai Tu's popularity and the relief grain that was really "distributed" to the public, for a time, not only the villagers living outside the city, but even people in big cities like Hefei and Guangling had people sneaking out of the city.
After Yuan Shu got the news, he angrily ordered that all cities in Jiangbei be put under martial law and patrols be strengthened. If any unruly people were lured, they could be killed on the spot...
However, for Lu Mian, Shu Shao and others who were actually in charge, it was obvious that they could not fully implement the orders of their lord... or "His Majesty"!
The current drought leaves them with very little room for maneuver. It is easy to stop the refugees from fleeing to Baitu, but... what happens next?
Yuan Shu only asked them to do their best to intercept the people, but did not allocate any food for disaster relief, and did not even have a disaster relief plan.
Are you going to watch them starve to death?
As for killing on the spot, Lu Mian and Shu Shao tacitly pretended not to hear anything.
Not to mention that Yuan Shu's direct descendants from Nanyang are concentrated in Shouchun. Most of the defenders in cities like Qichun, Guangling, Hefei... are from the local area. If they really dare to do this, a mutiny will occur in minutes.
And their own moral bottom line does not allow them to do this...
Generally speaking, at times like this, you just need to throw dirty water on your opponent - it's difficult to do it yourself, but it's easy !
You can say that Bai Tu sent people to Jiangdong as slaves, the old, weak, women and children will starve to death, and the young and strong will be shackled to go mining. Even more bold, you can directly say that Bai Tu wants to use human flesh as relief food...
In fact, Yuan Shu did provide this kind of guidance and propaganda, but... the effect was really too small!
The golden words of "Killing one person is like killing my father" still echo in my ears. On one side is Yuan Shu, who is tyrannical and tyrannical in Huainan, and on the other side is Bai Tu, who cares about the people and is benevolent and brave. The multiple-choice question of "who to believe" is too simple...
The disaster prevention situation in Guangling City where Shu Shao was located was slightly better, so he took the initiative to open the granaries and release grain to the people, which temporarily calmed the people of Guangling County a little.
However, because of the misappropriation of military rations, he was criticized by Yuan Shu, who directly sent someone to call Shu Shao back...
While Yuan Shu was in great confusion, over 300,000 civilians crossed the river to the east throughout the entire month of December, equivalent to the population of more than half of an ordinary county!
Moreover, Bai Tu understood that many of the people in Huainan still had grain stored in their homes, and... they were still looking forward to next year's harvest.
When the drought continues, more people will flee...
