Chapter 646: Patrolling Guandong
"Prime Minister! Is this your hometown?"
In Langya Kingdom, Ma Di pushed Zhuge Liang's four-wheeled cart and followed him to Yangdu.
This small town is now dilapidated and sparsely populated. But even so, the Han army was still full of respect for it.
Because this is the Prime Minister's hometown.
Zhuge Liang sat on the four-wheeled vehicle, looking calmly at this familiar but unfamiliar town, with the light of memories in his eyes.
"In the past, my uncle and I had to move our family south due to the war in the north. When we left, Yangdu was still prosperous. After so many years..."
Regarding the ruin of his hometown, Zhuge Liang just shook his head and sighed softly.
The Zhuge family was once glorious, but it has declined in Zhuge Liang's generation. But even so, if it hadn't been for the disaster in Xuzhou, Zhuge Liang's future would not be bad.
As a result, the Zhuge family had to move south due to the war in Xuzhou. As a result, the whole family was separated when passing through Guangling, and Zhuge Liang and Zhuge Jin were separated in Han and Wu.
"Prime Minister, although Yangdu is ruined, it will prosper again sooner or later. As long as we Han people dominate the world, this place will never continue to decline." Ma Su smiled and said to Zhuge Liang from the side, and at the same time, he also looked at the hometown of Prime Minister Zhuge Liang. Full of curiosity.
This place can be regarded as a place of outstanding people if it can cultivate people who will last through the ages.
"I think so too. Ever since I started farming in Nanyang, I have had the desire to end the troubled times. After all, in these troubled times, the wealthy families still have the ability to survive, but ordinary Guizhou people are left with a dead end."
Zhuge Liang shook his head gently, shook his feather fan and spoke slowly.
"It's just that if the late emperor hadn't visited the thatched cottage three times, Liang would probably have been a farmer in Nanyang."
"Forget it, let's not talk about this anymore. Just come back to my hometown and visit. The Han Dynasty has not yet been unified and the people are still in embarrassment, so we should not delay government affairs."
With that said, Zhuge Liang had put away his thoughts of nostalgia, waved his hand and ordered him to set off back to the camp. Although there are still some members of the Zhuge family in Yangdu, Zhuge Liang has no intention of visiting them.
After all, he doesn't want some unworthy people to be in high positions because of himself. That would only add pressure to the people, be detrimental to the country, and inconsistent with his concept of ruling the country by law.
In this way, Zhuge Liang only stayed in Yangdu for two days and ended the trip with a brief review of his hometown. And next, Zhuge Liang's journey is still very long.
Returning to Langya's hometown this time is not a simple return to his hometown. This time Zhuge Liang came to Guandong with a heavy burden, and planned to personally lead people to patrol the Central Plains.
Among the three states in the Central Plains, only Yanzhou was captured by the Han army through military operations. Apart from this, all the other prefectures and counties in the Central Plains were surrendered by Cao Wei himself after giving up and having no choice.
This resulted in Ji Han making very rapid progress, but his foundation in Guandong was very weak. In addition, the court did not expect that the progress would be so fast at the beginning, and did not prepare so many officials in advance.
At this moment, Chang'an was already working overtime to prepare for officials to come and take over. Before that, Zhuge Liang had to patrol towns in various states and counties to prevent civil strife.
And this time when he was patrolling Guandong, in addition to inspecting the situation in various places, Zhuge Liang also had the idea of shocking the right-wingers in various places. So while patrolling the town, Zhuge Liang also dragged Ma Su and Prince Liu Xuan along.
A group of officials and generals, in the name of the prince patrolling the three states, patrolled the towns in Yan, Yu and Xu. Through Ma Su's reputation, Liu Xu's name and Zhuge Liang's skills, the small thoughts of the Central Plains counties were gradually wiped out.
Moreover, after the Prince's car inspection to Xuzhou, he also discovered an unexpected gain. Chen Su, son of Chen Deng, an old acquaintance of Liu Bei's in the past, took his family from Hebei and defected.
At this time, Hebei was already in chaos, and most of the descendants of Liu Bei's old acquaintances in the Central Plains began to go south and defect to him.
After all, everyone is aiming for progress. Since Cao Wei's ship is about to sink, it is understandable that they choose to change ships and continue to make progress. With this group of officials who have defected, the work of the Prime Minister's Office in Kanto can be carried out more smoothly.
The last stop of Zhuge Liang's tour of Guandong was Hefei, the most important town in Huainan.
The prince's chariot and officials from the Prime Minister's Mansion slowly entered Hefei City under the protection of 20,000 Han troops. Looking up from here, you can even see the Soochow outpost in the distance.
"Speaking of which, Prime Minister, your brother is also a tough guy. Thousands of people would rather give Hefei to our Han army than surrender to Soochow." Ma Di suddenly said, thinking of Zhuge Dan's actions and the little story he had compiled before. Composition, I felt a little guilty for a while.
After all, this is the Prime Minister's clan. Before, they were enemies and could be arranged as they pleased. But now Zhuge Dan suddenly surrendered the city. If he came to settle accounts with Ma Di, Ma Di would feel a little wrong.
Especially since Zhuge Dan surrendered the city of Hefei, if not for Zhuge Dan, the entire Huainan might have fallen into the hands of Soochow. I'm afraid it will take a lot of effort to take it back by then.
"It's not surprising. I look down upon Jiangdong thieves." Zhuge Liang was not surprised by this. He gently shook his feather fan and said calmly.
"Gong Xiu's name is Gong Quan. He has outstanding talents and is arrogant. Soochow has gone against the grain and has done nothing for many years. How could Gong Xiu be willing to surrender to them?"
Soochow had suffered successive defeats in foreign wars and was completely humiliated. Now Sun Quan is going the opposite direction and proclaiming himself emperor regardless of destiny. Let alone Zhuge Dan, he can't even afford to let Sima Yi come.
"But... is this really Huainan? I remember that when I went south, this place was still very prosperous."
Zhuge Liang stood on Hefei City and looked northward to Shouchun. Wherever you look, you can see vast swaths of deserted fields and very few people.
Even in Shouchun, there were very few people. Even if there are some cultivated fields, they are all military camps left here by Cao Wei.
The entire Huainan area was so desolate that everyone could hardly believe it.
"Prime Minister, during the Later Han Dynasty, Nanyang and Runan each had a registered population of two million, making them a veritable land of plenty. But now..." At this time, Deng Ai, who had been following Ma Su, suddenly spoke.
"Since the Battle of Chibi, the puppet Wei Dynasty has begun to organize the migration of people from Huainan to the Central Plains. From Hefei to Shouchun, large tracts of cultivated land in Huainan and Huaibei were destroyed by man."
"The purpose of all this is just to prevent the Wu army from getting food locally in the future."
"Isn't this nonsense? Do you need to guard against Soochow's little combat power?" Ma Su frowned and immediately raised an objection.
"They can't even cross Hefei, why do they need to move everyone from Huaibei?"