After reviewing the farming situation of the entire Shujin industrial chain, Li Su spent more than ten days to inspect the iron smelting in Shu County, Zigong well salt in Jianwei, and even the newly opened Nanman trade industries. Finally, he had a comprehensive and profound understanding of the economic progress of his leaving Shu.

Unfortunately, the scale of the well salt industry is similar to the news he heard when he passed by Jianwei in early May this year. In the future, there is no good news about qualitative changes except for continuing to dig deep into the promising natural gas harbor wells and slightly expanding production capacity.

The iron smelting industry and the search for new species in the South Barbarians have made no progress yet.

The caravan sent from Yongchang to explore the way south in the first half of this year has not brought back anything. The Yunnan anthracite mine in Jianning County was found. The coal seam is also shallow and can be dug directly in the open air. In theory, as long as the coal there is brought back, the metallurgical process in Shu can be directly upgraded from charcoal steelmaking to coal steelmaking.

However, the transportation from the coal mine to the last dozens of miles of high mountain forest area in Tushuibian has not been resolved. There were no settlements and docks along Tushui in the area where the coal mine was located, and all of these had to be done now. In the summer, Nanzhong was too hot to build a large-scale construction, so construction was just started in late autumn, so it would be nice to have to rush to repair the work before the spring of the following year.

Li Su asked the relevant officials, and they all felt that they would probably have to wait until the troops led by Guan Yu returned to Shu to bring explosively a large wave of good news.

The news of Guan Yu's victory in pacifying Yueli County spread throughout Shu as early as early October, but after his troops finished their combat missions, they still insisted on staying in Nanzhong for training, pacifying small riots and helping local construction.

Because the climate in the south and central China determines that winter is the coolest and most pleasant season of the year, and it is also the most suitable season for soldiers from the north to stay there.

Let Guan Yu lead some troops to train troops in Nanzhong, cooperate with local construction projects, and reduce the pressure on the transportation of grain from Nanzhong to the local area. This is also a series of strategic plans that Li Su and Liu Bei had set when Shu was pacified.

However, according to the original plan, if the Northern Expedition was to begin the spring of next year, Guan Yu could come back in advance to prepare for the war. Now that the Northern Expedition has been delayed until the beginning of the year after, Guan Yu is very clear about the righteousness of practicing troops in Nanzhong for a few more months and carrying out construction for a few more months, so as to minimize the food pressure in the north, and strive to live until the end of January next year, and then go north along Tushui and Lushui to return to Jianwei to avoid the poisonous miasma during the warm spring season.

At the end of October, when Liu Bei's camp was about to raise 300,000 shi of military rations from Shu and traded with Sun Jian, it even more meant that the grain reserves in Shu would be reduced by a large amount. After Guan Yu received the messenger's notice, he increasingly expressed that he would let tens of thousands of people eat more than a few more months in Nanzhong, saving more than 100,000 shi of grain expenses for the official warehouse in the Chengdu Plain.

It has to be said that Guan Yu and even Gao Shun, who was under his command, had a relatively noble dedication. For the interests of the country's Northern Expedition and the plan of unification, he stayed in a wilderness to celebrate the New Year and the Spring Festival in Chengdu, the country of Tianfu, could not return to Chengdu to celebrate the New Year's Eve and the Shangyuan Festival.

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It was useless for Li Su to be eager for success, so he had to wait quietly for his comrades to make progress.

He is now like a martial arts master with full internal energy, but he lacks a cause to open up the Ren and Du meridians.

...

The time soon entered the twelfth month of 192. Before Li Su could come to Guan Yu to bring him good news, he waited for Liu Bei to return to Chengdu first.

After Li Su left, Liu Bei was preparing to take care of his health in Nanzheng and recovered quite quickly. After more than 20 days, he could walk in person.

At the beginning, I just used a crutch to help, so as not to be able to support the right leg, which was cut by some muscles by Hua Tuo. After two or three days of adaptation, I didn’t even need to be crutched. I just couldn’t run, but I had no problem riding a horse. As long as the bumps were not too strong, it would not hurt.

After confirming that he was fine, Liu Bei asked someone to reward Hua Tuo with twenty horse-hoofed golden cakes as Sichuan. Of course, Hua Tuo refused with great integrity, but asked Liu Bei to engrave and publish his medical book "Qingnang Shu".

Although he did not get cash, Liu Bei still gave Hua Tuo the title of Guannei Marquis, and the military government of the King of Hanzhong spent his title and salary.

Liu Bei insisted on riding a horse and taking a boat, and returned to Chengdu at the beginning of the twelfth lunar month.

Because of the hard work along the way, I had to rest for ten days and half a month after arriving in Chengdu, so that my legs that were not healed were slowed down. So I didn’t indulge in alcohol and sex at the first time, nor did I go to Li Su’s mansion to see if there were any extravagant new things. I just worked diligently in government affairs every day and had regular work and rest routines.

On the third day after Liu Bei returned to Chengdu, he received the news that Zhao Yun sent back from the front line of Yidu County. It seemed that Sun Jian was not very satisfied with the price Li Su had cut for Zhou Yu before. Sun Jian himself felt that he was too embarrassed and was cut too hard, so he wanted to carry it back a little and find the place.

Liu Bei did not force himself. He knew that actual interests were much more important than face. After all, Sun Jian was also a prince. If he recognized Huangkouru like Zhou Yu, he would not be happy to discuss the conditions for going back without increasing the amount.

If your side takes advantage, you must give the other party a symbolic face to the "final decision-making person". Therefore, Liu Bei allowed him to loosen a little within 100% of the original transaction price, and give it if it should be. Moreover, Liu Bei immediately pretended to behave as a prefect Zhao Yun changed from Yidu to Changsha Prefect, so that he would lead his troops to hand over once the transaction was reached, forming a de facto occupation of Changsha County.

The messenger Clippers and Clippers took more than half a month to deliver the round trip. Finally, Zhao Yun reached a delivery with Sun Jian in the middle of the twelfth lunar month.

It was equivalent to the conditions offered by Zhou Yu at the beginning, and Li Su cut the contract to a 30% discount, and finally fulfilled the contract at a price of nearly 40% discount. In addition to the 35,000 wide Shu brocade and 400,000 shi of military rations, Zhao Yun gave several items when actually delivering it:

He gave Sun Jian five hundred pairs of iron armor and five hundred horse-slaying swords, all of which were the old goods brought out by Liu Bei's camp when he was from Luoyang treasury. He picked the one with the worst maintenance condition and the most rust. In name, these iron armors cost tens of thousands of dollars each, and the weapons totaled tens of millions of dollars.

Then he picked up 500 relatively thin and slow-moving war horses from Liu Bei's army. After all, the conditions for raising horses in Shu were not good. Some of the war horses brought by Liu Bei from Youzhou and even the subsequent seizures of the Western Liang army were not well raised. They packed some of them with inferior quality and gave Sun Jian a long face. For Sun Jian, he had only one thousand cavalry. No matter how bad Liu Bei's 500 horses were, they could at least expand the cavalry under Sun Jian's command by 50%, which is not small in proportion.

Finally, Liu Bei asked Zhao Yun to replace all the ships when he was transported in Yidu. Don’t use new and good ships that would expose technical advantages, especially those sand ships with stable fin surfaces below the waterline, and do not use them. Instead, search for old civilian ships in Yidu and Bajun areas, so that after the goods were transported to Lujiang County, most of the ships and goods were directly handed over to Sun Jian.

Of course, about 20% of the ship must be left to carry 5,000 escort soldiers and sailors from their side to return.

On the 18th day of the 12th lunar month, Zhao Yun led his troops into Changsha City after the goods passed through the border between Jiangxia County and Lujiang County. Sun Jian also told his subordinates not to resist or to destroy the peaceful handover, but to try to take away the fine and soft property that could be taken away reasonably when evacuating.

Moreover, Sun Jian has done enough superficial work, and he also announced in an "energy" manner that Changsha County has been attacked by bandits from the original remnants of the Luoxiao Mountains, and the government's rule and private tax collection have gradually collapsed. Because Sun Jian himself was re-appointed as the governor of Yangzhou, there was no one to defend the Changsha enclave, and he asked the leader of the Hanzhong Wang Xuanxian Sect, the leader of the Liemon Alliance, to help pacify it.

On the 24th day of the 12th lunar month, the news that Changsha County was abandoned by Sun Jian and asked Zhao Yun to lead his troops to move in was spread to Liu Biaoer, who had realized it later.

In contrast, although Liu Bei was far away in Chengdu, he knew all the results only three days later than Liu Biao. Who made Liu Bei's messenger run faster and set off the road at the first time?

Liu Biao was very surprised when he heard this because he had contacted Sun Jian before and found that Sun Jian seemed to have had the intention of "to completely give up Changsha", and hinted whether Liu Biao was willing to pay.

But Liu Biao felt that he was the governor of Jingzhou and took over Changsha with justification, so he didn't want to give any benefits. On the one hand, he suppressed the price much more ruthless than Liu Bei. On the other hand, he also hoped to follow the diplomatic channels of the court and asked Huangfu Song, Yang Biaoma, and the Japanese decree of the new Changsha prefect to directly and legally accept Changsha.

Moreover, Liu Biao's foundation was shallow after all, and he had less than two years of actual power in Jingzhou, and he had no farming to save money and grain. Even if he wanted to buy it, he could not compare with Liu Bei's wealth.

After Changsha was taken away by Liu Bei, Liu Biao was quite unhappy and immediately sent a Jinzhou as an envoy to Yiji. He traveled day and night with fast ships to Chengdu to meet Liu Bei to negotiate - why did he destroy the original alliance to challenge Dong, and why did he seize more territory in Jingzhou without his consent?

However, before leaving, Yi Ji was not optimistic about Liu Biao's request for mission, so he told Liu Biao a sincere heartfelt words:

"Encourt, although Sun Polu is despicable, he was trying to attack Dong Xianfeng after all, and he has been in a position of being incompatible with Li Jue and Guo Si. The journey is long and he cannot personally fight against the thieves. He now acts as if he does not trust the court controlled by Li Jue and Guo Si, and then refuses the new Changsha prefect who has been appointed by the court, and invites generals from the surrounding alliance to quell the Changsha rebellion.

If we attack Sun Jian from this point of view, it would seem that we support Li Jue and Guo Si will control the court. It would be okay for me to argue with the King of Hanzhong, but I am afraid that the lord will become more and more in the bad reputation of "not completely drawing a line with Li Jue and Guo Si."

After hearing Yi Ji's persuasion, Liu Biao was only hesitant, but he was unwilling to accept it and still overwhelmed this concern: "Things cannot be said that. Now Li Jue and Guo Si are indeed still in a rebellious way. The world's misunderstanding of Jue's ambitions is mainly when Wang Yun was killed in early July.

After that, Huangfu Song and Yang Biao still retained old ministers, and their official positions were much higher than Li Jue. How could it be said that the court was hostage by Li Jue? A while ago, we heard that Sun Jian was going to sell Changsha, so we quickly asked Huangfu Cheqi and Yang Taiwei to choose the new prefect Han Xuan. That was the decision made by loyal ministers and righteous men such as Huangfu Cheqi after teaching the emperor. It was the emperor's true thought. How could it be considered a treacherous minister's life be deceived? Just use this to accuse Liu Bei of this. See how he answered, at least he would give back the few counties in Changsha."

It has to be said that although Liu Biao is a man of politeness and a good person, he is worthy of being a famous official, he is still relatively stupid and decisive in terms of diplomatic talents.

In history, he sent Han Song to the court after the decisive battle of Cao Yuan. As a result, before Han Song left, he had a message to him before "If the court was appointed as an official, Song would be a member of the court and would no longer die as a general." He still insisted on sending him. After Han Song came back, he did indeed yell Cao Cao. Liu Biao wanted to kill him at first, but he relied on later reminding him that he had said it first before giving up.

At this moment, he insisted on sending Yiji to negotiate with Liu Bei about the question of "whether the emperor's current life is a life-threatening situation." Yiji clearly reminded him that there are risks in righteousness and are easily criticized as being the wrong team, but he still insisted on "shot a shot with dates or no dates". No matter how much actual gains he can get, he always feels uncomfortable if he should spray it if he should.

Who made Liu Biao always feel that "the work that moves the mouth is at most is ineffective and there will be no losses. Why do you let your subordinates have idle meals?"
Chapter completed!