Chapter 286 Taking office

Chapter 286 Taking office

Sima Yi finally left with Cao Rui's will, and before leaving, he staged a show of harmony between the king and his ministers. However, in this version of Cao Wei, the emperor and his ministers are in harmony. It is not clear whether they have their own agenda or something else.

At least the superficial friendship between these two foxes is not inferior to that of Zhuge Liang and Liu Chan.

After Sima Yi left, Cao Rui then issued an edict and summoned the ministers for a court meeting. Later, Cao Rui resisted the pressure of a group of wealthy families in Cao Wei and appointed Sima Yi as the general to supervise the military affairs in Guanzhong.

Not only that, Cao Rui also moved more than 100,000 households with registered permanent residence in Guandong to Guanzhong, making Sima Yi responsible for the defense of Guanzhong. Since then, Cao Wei's military focus began to tilt westward, and he would not give in to Western Shu.

As for Soochow... Cao Rui and Sima Yi didn't mention him at all in their discussions about the future situation.

Since the Battle of Chibi, the most fierce battle in Soochow was the Battle of Shiting. Even so, he won the battle when Cao Xiu was out of his mind and made a big mistake.

As for the attack, Soochow will probably have to stop at Hefei City for the rest of its life.

Therefore, a military threat of Soochow's level can be digested by the Huainan War Zone itself, and it cannot be brought to the forefront at all.

Under Sima Yi's mediation, Cao Wei mobilized a large number of manpower and material resources into Guanzhong. Sima Yi personally went to Chang'an and began his transformation of Guanzhong.

When Sima Yi accepted the general and formally supervised Guanzhong, the personnel appointments and dismissals on the Shu Han side were also approved by Liu Chan.

Zhuge Liang was now a highly respected minister and had no title, so Liu Chan took it upon himself to confer the title of Ting Hou on the young Zhuge Zhan. At the same time, he appointed Zhuge Liang as the shepherd of Yongzhou, in charge of all matters of Yongliang.

Ma Su was promoted to General of the North, led as governor of Liangzhou, and supervised all military affairs in Liangzhou. Chen Zhi was appointed as the prefect of Wuwei, and Li Mu was appointed as the prefect of Jincheng, responsible for the farming in Liangzhou.

However, in addition to this, Liu Chan also gave Ma Di the additional power to establish the Western Region Protectorate, which is the power to govern the countries in the Western Region.

After the Western Region Allied Forces were defeated by Ma Di Pingyangqiu, Cao Wei's Western Region Chief Shifu collapsed. After a brief period of chaos, all the countries in the Western Regions submitted orders to the Shu Han when Zhuge Liang occupied the entire territory of Liangzhou.

Brother Han, who among us is following whom? It was all a misunderstanding before, but our buddies from the Western Region still recognize you as our eldest brother!

Now that the Western Regions have surrendered again, Shu Han naturally has to set up institutions to manage them. But because of the current shortage of manpower, Liu Chan had no one to send, so he simply let Ma Di take charge of it.

After all, this is the prince's teacher, and if he is responsible, it is equivalent to the prince being responsible.

In addition, various generals with meritorious deeds were also granted titles and promotions. For example, Jiang Wei, Shu Ji, etc. were all granted the title of marquis and were rewarded with several kilograms of silk.

Everything seems to be going well, but what makes Ma Su a little speechless is that his title is still Marquis of Street Pavilion...

"Is Your Majesty so evil-minded now? Are you planning to have me, Ma Di, tied to a street pavilion?" Back at the mansion, Ma Di could only roll his eyes when faced with a series of rewards.

Although he doesn't care much about the title, why not change it to a more pleasant title like Tinghou? How can this street pavilion ask me to embroider it on the handsome flag and show off in the market?

In future wars, Wei Yan and Wu Yi were all called "General Zhenbei, Nanzheng Houwei", and "Former General Jiyanghou Wu". He was the one who made a "General Conquering the North" and watched the thieves violate the peace.

But complaints are complaints, Ma Su did not hesitate after accepting the canonization, and immediately took up his post with his team.

Liangzhou has seven counties under its jurisdiction and is located in the westernmost part of the Han Dynasty. Although it looks quite big from the map, in fact the only two counties of Wuwei and Jincheng are really valuable.

Several other counties not only have poor soil and sparse populations, but also have poor roads. Except for Dunhuang County, which played a role in controlling the countries in the Western Regions, the other counties were dispensable.

Therefore, although Ma Su was said to be in charge of Liangzhou, he was actually in charge of the three counties of Wuwei, Jincheng and Dunhuang.

However, Zhuge Liang was still very kind to him. Not only did the Hu cavalry he recruited not move, but all the Wei troops in Liangzhou that surrendered were handed over to him. So when Ma Su arrived in Wuwei and took office, he took a brief inventory of the soldiers in his hand, and suddenly found that there were already 30,000 soldiers.

"Holy shit! This is the first time I have been able to lead so many soldiers for a long time!" Ma Di was a little unbelievable. You must know that it is every man's dream to lead thousands of troops and rebuke Fang Qiu.

"See you, envoy!" Chen Zhi, Li Mu, Jiang Wei, Shu Ji, Yao Hu and other members of Ma Su's team saluted Ma Su together.

"Get up, I won't do these false pretense, let's get straight to the point." Ma Di waved his hand, asked everyone to take their seats, and then said straight to the point.

"Your Majesty appointed me to supervise Liangzhou mainly for three things. Liangzhou's farming, the Western Regions Protector's Mansion, and the issues of the Qiang and Hu people in the east."

"These three things are not easy. Now let's take a look at the situation in Liangzhou and then make the next plan."

After listening to Ma Su's words, Li Mu immediately stood up and reported to Ma Su.

"Your Majesty, the household registration census in Liangzhou has been completed, and the population loss is very serious. The combined population of Jincheng County and Wuwei County is only more than 200,000. Even if hidden households are included, it will definitely not reach 300,000."

"The combined population of other counties is less than 100,000, and the population of Liangzhou as a whole is only 300,000. Not all of them are Han people, so it is not that easy to farm."

"Although most of the local aristocratic families have heard about the name of the envoy and are willing to cooperate with us in farming. However, there are not many places in Liangzhou suitable for farming. Most of the places are wastelands that are not suitable for farming."

Since Li Mu followed Ma Su to Longxi County, he stayed in that county for three years. Three years of experience as a county guard and the experience of following Ma Su in governing local wealthy families made him very experienced in farming.

So following Ma Di to Liangzhou, he immediately checked the household registration and land deeds. When Ma Su asked, Li Mu could just speak without any preparation.

After listening to Li Mu's series of reports, Ma Su frowned.

"The cultivated land in Liangzhou is not enough to develop farming? Counting the aristocratic families... Oh no, what about the unclaimed land?"

"I've calculated it, but it's not enough." Li Mu shook his head and said straightforwardly.

"If we simply need more than 100,000 yuan, the cultivated land needed will be enough. But if we need to implement Fubingjuntun, the land in Wuwei and Jincheng is still far from enough."

"And we don't have that big a population. It's too inefficient to just use Qiang people to farm."

The Qiang people in Liangzhou are different from the Qiang people in Longyou. Most of them make a living as nomads and are not good at farming. If Qiang people are forced to farm, even if they farm more than 100,000 people, the benefits will not be as good as Han people farming tens of thousands.

And the most important thing is that Ma Di not only needs to cultivate more than 100,000 people, but also needs to recruit troops and expand the army from Liangzhou.

No matter how you look at it, this is not an easy task.