Chapter 384 The local faction rises again

Chapter 384 The local faction rises again

Chapter 384 The local faction is rising again?

"Does the Han Dynasty already have so many soldiers and horses?" Ma Su was a little surprised when he heard this number.

When he first crossed over, the Shu Han army only had 120,000 soldiers at full count. This includes the troops and horses stationed in the entire Shu region, most of which cannot be moved.

At that time, the actual mobile strength available for foreign operations was less than 60,000, which was extremely scarce.

No wonder in just six years, the number of soldiers in Shu Han has more than doubled. If there is sufficient food and fodder, the Shu Han can mobilize even more than 100,000 troops.

I have to admit that Shu Han did get rich!

"This does not include the tens of thousands of Wei soldiers you captured in Nanyang. The number of troops available for deployment now is 200,000." Wu Yi explained to Ma Su with a smile, looking very happy.

"Now the Chancellor is discussing sending people to Nanyang to be responsible for rectifying and digesting these surrendered soldiers. After the tens of thousands of prisoners of war are integrated and digested, the number of Han soldiers can reach up to 250,000."

"In the next Northern Expedition, we won't have to face such a huge numerical disadvantage anymore. Our Han Heavenly Soldiers will come out of Qinchuan and start a decisive battle with the Wei army on the Guanzhong Plain!"

I recall that during the first Northern Expedition, their group of veterans were all frightened during the preparations due to their numerical disadvantage. When attacking Longyou, Wu Yi even had to attack the city with fewer troops than the defenders in the city.

Wu Yi never wanted to experience that uncomfortable and difficult feeling again in his life.

"This time, we strong men can let go and fight a rich war."

"That's true!" Ma Su felt the same, but still asked uneasily,

"But such a large-scale mobilization of troops and horses will consume a lot of food and fodder. We have been fighting in Shu for many years, can we have enough food and fodder?"

Although Ma Su had just extorted 1 million grain from Sun Quan, it was not the big deal after all. Transporting these millions of grain and fodder from Nanyang to Yongzhou will consume a lot. It is hard to say how long the actual supply can last to the front line.

Since the fifth year of Jianxing in the Shu Han Dynasty, the Northern Expedition has been going on continuously. There are wars every year, and grain and fodder are also consumed every year. This time, after a year of war in Nanyang Guanzhong, a big war immediately and seamlessly started, and Ma Su began to worry about the problem of food and fodder.

Don't let the food run out before you can commit suicide by then.

"You have to go to the Chancellor's Desk to ask about this. The answer Fei Yi gave me just now is that it's not a big problem." Wu Yi didn't understand this and simply shook his head and replied.

"Okay, I'll go find Shangshu Ling and ask." Ma Di nodded slightly, but still couldn't let go and decided to ask in person.

After all, the prime minister is not in charge of Shuzhong now, so Ma Su is still worried about losing control.

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Since Zhuge Liang personally supervised Yongliang and led the Prime Minister's Office team to sit in Jixian County, the highest decision-making body in Chengdu has changed from the Prime Minister's Office to the Shangshu Taiwan.

Fei Yi, the former governor of Yongzhou, was appointed Shangshu Ling, and he and Jiang Wan, the chief minister of the Prime Minister's Office, recorded Shangshu affairs. During the two years since Zhuge Liang left Chengdu, the two of them were responsible for all affairs in the Shu Han rear area.

Ma Di came to the Chancellor's Desk and soon found Jiang Wan and Fei Yi. However, what surprised Ma Su was that there were several local people in the Chancery, and Qiao Zhou was among them!

Why is Qiao Zhou here? Aren’t the locals already beaten and unable to take care of themselves? How come so many people can sneak into the Chancery now?

Obviously this situation made Ma Su a little suspicious. He had not been back to Shuzhong for two years and was a little unfamiliar with Chengdu.

But at this moment, Fei Yi also saw Ma Su coming and quickly stood up to greet him.

"Youchang, long time no see. You haven't been back to Chengdu for almost two years, right?" Fei Yi stepped forward, took Ma Su's hand and said with a smile,

"You guys really don't even care about your children for the sake of the Northern Expedition. Last year, His Majesty heard that your boy had no one to take care of him at home, so he summoned him to the palace to study with the prince."

"A real man should take it as his own duty to save the world. If his family and country are not prosperous, how can he care about the love of his children." Ma Su shook his head and covered up the topic without leaving any trace.

Fei Yi had very good eyesight and obviously saw that Ma Su had something to ask, so he said,

"With your character as a cavalry general, you must have something important to do when you come to the Chancellor this time, right? Anyway, if you can help, I, Fei Yi, will never refuse."

"Ahem... It's nothing serious. I just wanted to ask if the provisions for the next Northern Expedition are ready?" Ma Su pondered for a moment and asked softly.

"There is no problem with this. The grain is definitely enough." Fei Yi replied immediately, very confident about this.

"Sichuan has had good weather and good weather in the past two years, with bumper harvests every year. Coupled with the cooperation and cooperation of the local faction, the grain preparations have gone very smoothly."

"At the time of next year's autumn harvest, Shu will be able to prepare at least half a year's worth of food for more than 100,000 people. Even if the war lasts for a long time, Shu's grain will be able to last until the next autumn harvest at least."

The past two years can be said to be the smoothest time in Yizhou. Because the local powerful families were uprooted, the imperial decrees began to be smoothly implemented throughout Yizhou.

With the smooth flow of government orders and the clear administration of officials, Shu has had good harvests year after year, and taxes have even exceeded those when the prime minister was in power. Therefore, although Ma Su fought in the high-intensity war in Nanyang for a year, Fei Yi still dared to promise that there would never be any shortage of food on the front line.

"Also, the Prime Minister put into use the latest researched grain transport equipment "Flowing Horse" two days ago. This has greatly reduced the loss of transportation from Hanzhong to the front line." Fei Yi immediately thought of something again, and then found a drawing Give it to Ma Su.

I have said many times before that the biggest logistics problem of the Northern Expedition is actually Shudao Logistics. Because the road to Shu was difficult and extremely long, a large amount of grain was wasted in transportation.

However, this problem was solved after Prime Minister Zhuge had been in Yongzhou for two years and had repeatedly explored the flow rate and river course of the Baoxie Road before developing the Liuma. This small boat, which is similar to an ancient version of an assault boat, can travel unimpeded on the river, allowing the Baoxie Dao waterway to finally gain strength again.

According to Fei Yi's calculations, after Liuma is put into use, the logistics loss of Shu Road can be reduced by at least 30%. In this way, the grain from Shu could be transported to the front line more efficiently to supply the Han army in the Northern Expedition.

After Fei Yi provided a series of ledgers and data, Ma Su breathed a sigh of relief. Obviously, the benefits of purging the local faction in the past two years have begun to work, and the taxation of the Shu Han has been greatly developed.

After the local faction's power was greatly reduced, many of the hidden population came back. After a series of land clearances and censuses, the total population of Yizhou reached two million.

It seems that I have been worrying too much. The abilities of Shuhan Four Phases are indeed worthy of trust.

After feeling relieved about the logistics of the Northern Expedition, Ma Di frowned again, and suddenly pulled Fei Yi outside the Shangshu table, pointed at the officials inside and asked.

"Speaking of which, why did Qiao Zhou appear at the Chancellery? I saw several local officials serving there. What is the situation?"

"Did the local faction put pressure on you again after the Prime Minister and I went to Yongzhou?"