At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

Page 323

In addition, it strongly criticized the custom of drowning female infants that prevailed in some places. Whenever a female infant was found to be drowned in a place, the local grassroots officials would be removed from their posts to investigate and deal with them, and severely punished.

In order to protect baby girls, Guo Peng even increased the rewards for giving birth to baby girls to the same level as male babies, and severely punished those who drowned baby girls, so as to protect the survival rate of baby girls.

Guo Peng also has a solution for those refugees who are poor and cannot afford to marry a wife.

He integrated the hundreds of thousands of foreign female population looted through war into the Han nationality, and then distributed these bachelors who could not marry wives to settle down.

Then let local grassroots officials register them as citizens on the spot, grant them land and houses, and encourage them to have children, so as to increase the local labor force.

Every year, Guo Peng will also give special subsidies to families with many children under his rule, giving preferential treatment of tax reduction and extra rewards, and the treatment is even close to that of military families.

For women who have successfully given birth to two or three or even four or five children, they are commended with great fanfare and rewarded generously, which is a typical example.

In addition, in order to increase the success rate and survival rate of women's childbirth, Guo Peng began to gradually set up special childbirth centers in the villages under his rule, and sent experienced doctors or steady wives to stay in the village and give them salaries, which can be regarded as government employment. personnel.

Then call on women not to give birth at home, but to give birth in a fertility center. With the help of special personnel, try to ensure sanitary conditions as much as possible, so as to increase the success rate of childbirth and the survival rate of mother and child.

Women's reproductive success rate and mother-child survival rate in townships and villages are important performance evaluation criteria for county officials, township officials, and village officials, which affect their promotion to a considerable extent.

In order to implement this policy, Guo Peng also set up a special fund to distribute it every year.

There is basically no opposition to such a policy of encouraging births, and everyone supports it. Therefore, the population under Guo Peng’s rule has increased year after year, and many places have seen "prosperous population", "playing with white hair and hanging hair", and "many children in the countryside". situation.

This makes it hard to imagine that a few years ago, these places were still full of yellow scarves, continuous wars, wars, warlords everywhere, bandits and thieves everywhere, the people were in dire straits, and the land was deserted.

After Guo Peng cleared the chaos, within a few years, such a situation of smooth government and harmonious people has emerged, which cannot but be surprising and gratifying.

When Zhou Yu heard about it, he praised Guo Peng's benevolent government very much, thinking that this kind of governance was what the ancients pursued, and that "playing with white hair and hanging hair" was the rule of benevolent kings in ancient times.

Having said that, Zhou Yu agrees with such benevolent government, but feels very pressured by the situation brought about by such benevolent government.

In this era, 15 years is basically a generation. Of course, Guo Peng ruled the Central Plains and Hebei for less than 15 years.

The number of Han people in Jiangdong is too small, and the population that Sun Ce can count now is only more than 100 million. The population is also obtained, but it is only 200 million.

The population of Sun Ce in Jiangdong is only more than 100 million, and the total is only more than 50 million. The two counties of Jiujiang and Lujiang under Guo Peng's rule have a population of [-].

For Guo Peng, this is even a border county. If the large counties in the hinterland of the Central Plains have no less population than Lujiang and Jiujiang, what kind of situation will it be?

If Sun Ce can annex Jiujiang and Lujiang, his strength will increase by 50.00%, and another [-] soldiers will be added.

Guo Peng's loss of this 50 population seems tragic, but it is actually just a drop in the bucket.

According to the calculations of Zhou Yu and Sun Ce's confidant Lu Fan, they all believed that the population of the Central Plains and Hebei under Guo Peng's rule had exceeded 3000 million.

These areas are the elite areas of the Han Dynasty. Although the densely populated areas were ravaged by war, they were wiped out and protected by Guo Peng very early. The population should not have plummeted like a cliff.

Guo Peng, who has inherited a considerable part of the vitality of the elite area, coupled with the benevolent government and the policy of encouraging births these years, the population he has controlled should not be less than that of Guanghe six years ago.

Population is strength, confidence, war potential and mobilization power. A population of 3000 million is not enough for Guo Peng to raise 30 soldiers?

Guo Peng's current number of soldiers is estimated to have exceeded 30. Raising one soldier for 100 people is not considered militaristic, but relatively easy.

Sun Ce is called militarism.

With a population of more than one million, nearly [-] troops were tossed out. Of course, some of the Shanyue population and soldiers were plundered by Sun Ce's conquest.

This time the Northern Expedition dispatched [-] soldiers in one go, almost all of Jiangdong's main forces. Once defeated, the consequences would be disastrous.

But both Zhou Yu and Sun Ce understand that this is an inevitable move, a battle that has to be fought. If they don't plunder the population to occupy the territory now, are they waiting to be annexed by Guo Peng?

Jiujiang County and Lujiang County are too important to Jiangdong, they must be captured.

After winning it, if Guo Peng uses a large army to fight for it, he will fight. If he really can't win, he will move the people of Jiujiang and Lujiang away.

Bring the population back to Jiangdong, and continue to actively defend and attack by relying on the Yangtze River waterway, so that even if Guo Peng gets the land, he will not get people, and he will be empty of people and money.

Sun Ce's calculations were loud, but he didn't care much about Guo Peng's preparations.

When they are about to arrive in Hefei City, first follow Zhou Yu's arrangement and order [-] troops to land and form an army formation. When they arrive at the foot of Hefei City, they can immediately start a war. Create conditions for more troops to land.

Chapter 585. 590 The fourth Sun Quan looked at the city of Hefei in a daze

Zhou Yu's arrangement is naturally correct, land in advance, arrange the army formation, and when they meet the Wei army, they can immediately become combat power.

If you wait until the city of Hefei to start, unless the speed of Wu Jun's landing can exceed the speed of Wei Jun's cavalry gathering, otherwise it is making yourself unhappy.

Zhou Yu was still quite cautious, considering that Guo Peng's army was invincible all over the world in the north, and he had heard from some merchants from the north that the main force of the Wei army often wandered around the hinterland of the Central Plains in groups.

Although he didn't know why, Zhou Yu always felt that Guo Peng would not let Wei Jun do boring things.

Guo Peng is such a strong and shrewd person, from weak to strong, he is cautious, constantly planning to become stronger, constantly overthrowing opponents who are stronger, more advantageous and more famous than himself, and finally becomes the overlord of the North, the number one prince of the Han Dynasty, what will he do? Are you not ready?

Zhou Yu has thought about it this way, but he still believes that people are not sages and sages. No matter how strong a person is, he has weaknesses, and there are also things he is not good at.

A wise man has a lot of worries, and there is bound to be a loss. Even if Guo Peng is a rare wise man, it is not impossible to capsize, right?

Guo Peng has never fought a water battle, and Zhou Yu is sure of this. He doesn't even have a navy under his command. Without a navy, he can't compete with Jiangdong's navy.

Under such a premise, Guo Peng had no other choice but to defend the city.

Zhou Yu really believed that Guo Peng had no way to fight against the navy, but could only defend passively and stick to Hefei.

However, in terms of military strength, Sun Ce's army is more than that of the Jiujiang garrison, and in terms of combat effectiveness, they are both elite divisions. No matter how Zhou Yu thinks, he can't think of a reason for Sun Ce's defeat.

Sun Ce is so good at attacking, daring to attack, full of vigor, unstoppable sharpness, and always full of motivation to lead everyone forward.

Such a charismatic leader will surely lead Wu to a better tomorrow.

This is also Zhou Yu's greatest expectation.

With this in mind, Zhou Yu followed Sun Ce and faced Wei Jun who was in Hefei.

At this time, Zhang Liao and Zhang Wenyuan, the commander-in-chief of the Wei Army in the southeast, were dispatching troops and generals in the renovated city of Hefei to arrange offensive tasks.

What he is most worried about now is not that he is about to face Sun Ce's main attack, but that he is very worried about whether Xu Huang can kill Cheng Pu's navy as planned, and he is very worried that Xu Huang will lose the chain.

That is a newcomer after all.

Although Guo Peng has always been bold in recruiting new recruits, he was also given the power of prefect after he was captured, but he was finally dissuaded by the officials.

But Guo Peng just admired him, and now he has been promoted to be the commander-in-chief, and his command position is even higher than that of Yu Jin, who has more seniority than him.

It is conceivable that Guo Peng is so eclectic and free-wheeling in employing people.

Even so, could Guo Peng really arrange for Xu Huang to guard such an important place in Lujiang County without caring about Xu Huang's ability at all?

More than 20 villagers and millions of stones of rice and grain are all grain and fodder stored as a frontier base for advancing Jiangdong in the future. If something is lost, Guo Peng doesn't know how angry he will be.

Xu Huang, Xu Gongming, you must not lose the chain!

Zhang Liao kept praying to heaven.

Even the subordinates came to report that the Sun Wu navy was close to the cordon and didn't care much.

"How is the trebuchet ready?"

"Ready."

The subordinate replied.

Zhang Liao nodded.

"Are the generals of all armies stationed in the positions they have arranged in advance and are they ready?"

"Yes, everything is ready."

The subordinate answered again.

Zhang Liao nodded again, stood up, picked up the iron helmet and put it on his head, took a deep breath, and walked forward with the saber in his hand.

"Go and have a look, maybe you can see Sun Wu Navy Master now."

To be honest, Zhang Liao is quite interested in the navy.

As a northerner, even a person who grew up on the grassland, he had no concept of Jiangnan water towns at all, and he didn't start studying navy until he was appointed as the Jiujiang garrison.

Through the research on the navy, he found that there are really many ways of the navy.

Especially when he noticed that as long as Hefei was captured, the Jiangdong navy could directly attack the hinterland of the Central Plains along the waterway, and the Wei army lacked countermeasures, he was even more surprised.

If it weren't for Guo Peng's early preparations, and the improvement of the trebuchet, which can play a greater role on the battlefield, and the blessing of this special combat environment, he really has no confidence in defeating Sun Wu's huge navy. Lose.

In the Sun Wu Navy, there are many tall buildings to small and nimble boats. The scale is huge, and when they are all close together, it gives Zhang Liao a very different visual impact.

With such power, if there is a real fight, it will not be easy without Guo Peng's preparations for him.

Of course, it doesn't mean it's really easy right now.

As one of the few senior generals of the non-Yuancong group, and even suppressed the veteran Yu Jin, Zhang Liao was under a lot of pressure to become the supreme commander of the [-] southeast front army.

In order to protect Zhang Liao's safety, Guo Peng even dispatched [-] tiger guards from the most elite of his personal guards in the Wei army to be his personal guards to protect Zhang Liao's safety.

This is the second case in the entire army, the first being Cao Ren.

Even Zhao Yunlejin and Xia Houyuan, the three top-ranked generals, failed to get the Tiger Guards to serve as personal guards.

Cao Ren was Guo Peng's family general at any rate. Since Guo Peng raised his army, he had followed Guo Peng loyally.

But Zhang Liao was a surrendered general who fought with Lu Bu, but he was treated like this.

It can be seen that Guo Peng trusts and values ​​Zhang Liao.

Zhang Liao could already foresee how the veteran Yuan Cong generals in the army thought of him, and he could also predict that someone would gossip in Guo Peng's ear.

After all, I was born as a general, with taints, but was reused so much, it is only natural that Yuan Cong generals are unhappy.

However, as Zhang Liao himself, he must make achievements worthy of Guo Peng's trust. Only in this way can he stand up and not lose face of Guo Peng.

This battle is not only for himself, but also for Guo Peng.

My lord, how can I work hard to repay your trust in me?

Zhang Liao gazed affectionately towards the northwest for a while, and then turned his cold gaze to the faintly visible tall ship in the distance.

Just use your lives and blood to repay the Lord's trust in me!

Zhang Liao would say this, and he would do the same, because Zhang Wenyuan is a person who looks the same.

Zhang Liao immediately ordered the whole army to prepare for war.

He set up a blocking army on the shore, led by the partial general Cheng Lian, with a number of 1, responsible for blocking the [-] Sun Wu army advancing with the fleet.

When Zhang Liao learned that Sun Wu's army was marching in coordination with infantry and navy, he immediately felt that Guo Peng was really far-sighted and had researched water warfare.

Before, Guo Peng wrote to him and told him that the Wu people were afraid of the northern heavy infantry group, so they must adopt the way of infantry and navy going hand in hand.

Use the navy to cover the infantry, use the infantry to cooperate with the navy, and when necessary, rely on the river and rely on warships to fight, which can offset the impact of the heavy infantry group on them to the greatest extent.

This is a very clever tactic.

Zhang Liao ordered Cheng Lian to lead two thousand cavalry to attack Sun Wu's infantry. Cheng Lian led the army forward and attacked Sun Wu's infantry with cavalry and shooting.

Under the command of generals Xu Kun and Zhou Tai, the Sun Wu infantry formed an formation immediately, with their backs against the river bank, and cooperated with the crossbowmen on the building boats to fight back, making it impossible for Cheng Lian to lead the cavalry to approach the Sun Wu infantry.

Several times the attack failed, and the soldiers were lost. Cheng Lian saw the situation and knew that it was pointless to continue the attack, so he immediately led his army back.

When Sun Ce and Zhou Yu on the boat saw this scene, they immediately showed happy smiles.

The cavalry of the Wei army could not threaten Sun Wu's marching mode and could not stop their marching. This was Sun Wu's great success.

Continue to advance all the way in this way, advance directly to the city of Hefei, and then offset the advantages of the Wei army in this way of coordinated operations, and fight offensive and defensive battles.

After confirming the correctness of this tactic, Wu Jun's advance will be smoother and more powerful.

Zhang Liao nodded after receiving Cheng Lian's report, and asked him to lead his troops back to rest and prepare, so that other troops could be ready to attack Sun Wu's army at any time.

Thirty new counterweight trebuchets have been prepared and are arrayed outside the city. In addition, the Wei army outside the city has also assembled and formed a formation. As soon as Sun Wu's navy arrives, it is time to implement the tactics.

Zhang Liao will personally serve as the commander of the trebuchet team and personally direct the trebuchets to launch the attack.

Sun Ce didn't know it, Zhou Yu didn't know it, his generals didn't know it, and the Wu army's pawns who approached with great arrogance didn't know it either.

Wei Jun's biggest advantage is that Wu Jun doesn't know.

They thought that Wei Jun had no better way, so they never took precautions.

Sun Ce and Zhou Yu confidently and boldly commanded the navy to advance, let the infantry that had already landed seize the position, formed an army formation as a cover, and the Sun Wu army on the cover ship continued to land, and joined the defense force formed on the shore to fight against the Wei army that was waiting in full formation. .

When they saw the majestic and tall Hefei City Wall a little farther away, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu were a little lost for a while.

They have been to Jiangdong for a long time, and it has been a long time since they have not come to Jiangbei. The ordinary, low and dilapidated city of Hefei in the past has turned into a different look.