Chinese New Year

Chapter 570 Governor
In the morning mist, the loud crowing of roosters was heard.

The person on the couch mumbled a few words in a daze, turned over and continued to sleep.

The other person gradually woke up, yawned, and quietly savored the tranquility of the early morning.

There was a creaking sound of a wooden door being pushed open outside.

A woman got up, opened the chicken coop, and called the chickens to eat.

The chickens rushed out in a rush, occasionally mixed with the sound of flapping wings and clucking as they fought for food.

The big yellow dog lay under the fence, barked twice, then whimpered in pain and stopped barking.

There was a continuous "crackling" sound coming from the kitchen separated by a wall. The curling smoke rose up from the chimney. When it rose to the treetops, it was blown by the wind and came in through the gap in the window.

The old man sleeping inside sat up, sniffed lightly, and said with a smile: "There is porridge to eat."

The man outside was still lying dead. After being woken up by the old man, he even grumbled in dissatisfaction, and reached out to touch his temple, with a trace of pain between his eyebrows. This looked like a hangover and headache.

The old man stood up, put on his clothes, opened the door of the main room and looked outside.

The courtyard was in chaos and extremely noisy.

When the farmers and soldiers saw this, they all saluted and then continued with the work at hand.

The old man walked out of the courtyard and walked to the willow tree beside the main road. He looked at the calm river and admired the lush green flowers and plants. After a long while, he sighed with satisfaction: "If I could retire here, I would still enjoy the wildness."

"Mr. Ji is wrong." Another man staggered out of the fence, looked around, and said, "Look at these farmers. They have to carry hoes and leave home before dawn and return at dusk. I can't stand this kind of physical exertion."

"Youyu, you are still young." Ji Zhan laughed and said, "When you reach my age, your mindset and thoughts will be different. Planting vegetables in the spring, growing melons and beans in the summer, cutting cattails in the autumn, and eating turnips in the winter. Isn't this a good life?"

"Not good." Xie Kun shook his head decisively.

A woman carrying a bamboo basket appeared not far away. She was a little dark, but her chest was bulging and she had a big butt that was good for giving birth. Xie Kun's eyes lit up involuntarily and he whistled.

"Hiss——" It didn't work, there was a little air leakage.

Ji Zhan laughed out loud.

Xie Kun was a little embarrassed, but only a little. When facing women, he was particularly thick-skinned. Relying on his family status and excellent talent, he often frightened women and took advantage of them.

"Youyu, what do you think of this place?" Ji Zhan asked.

Xie Kun put away his lustful expression and looked at it carefully.

By this time the mist had dissipated somewhat, so he simply walked around the yard and said, "The land is wide and flat, with many ponds, which will be useful for irrigating farmland."

"From a distance, the japonica rice is growing very well, and it is obvious that it has been carefully cared for."

"Every household has a pond in front of its door and a river behind it. There are mulberry trees beside the pond and taro in the water. There are also fish in the pond, which are very plump and delicious when caught in winter."

"There are cattails and reeds by the river, which can be cut and used as mats."

"There is a bamboo forest behind the house, where you can harvest bamboo shoots and make bamboo utensils."

"The rivers are connected in all directions. Mr. Ji, please look, the river behind the village is connected to the rivers to the west and east of the village. It may not be able to carry large ships, but we can get some small boats to carry food, meat, fruits, vegetables, weapons and armor. Isn't it better than ox carts?"

"There are mountains a hundred miles to the west. There are mountain products and tea can be grown there."

"Mr. Ji, I have looked around and it seems to me that this is a treasure land."

Ji Zhan listened, nodded slightly, then sighed and said, "It's a pity that there is no one."

Since the Rebellion of the Eight Kings, people from the north have continued to migrate south. All in all, there were always more than 300,000 people in ten years.

These people brought knowledge, technology and culture to the South, which was of great significance.

But there is still a shortage of people.

If there were sufficient manpower, Jiangnan could develop more land, produce more money, grain, livestock, and weapons, build more warships and vehicles, and train more naval and land soldiers.

Of course, compared to the lack of people, Jiangnan’s bigger problem is its lack of enterprising spirit and its preference for staying in a corner.

There is nothing wrong with living in a corner, and Ji Zhan does not think it is a big problem. But the premise of living in a corner is that you have enough ability to block the enemy and protect the land of Jiangnan.

The King of Langya has been in the south for many years. After years of management, with the support of scholars who have moved south and relatively enlightened southern wealthy families like them, he has basically established a firm foothold.

Even the Jiangdong natives who were dissatisfied with the King of Langya would not oppose it openly now - except for a rebellion that broke out at the end of last year, it has been stable for many years. To put it bluntly, even in the Eastern Wu era, Jiangdong needed a leader. This leader could be a member of the Sun clan or a descendant of the Sima clan, it didn't matter, as long as he could guarantee the interests of the local people.

There are certainly conflicts, but with the active mediation and mediation of Wang Dao and others, they are generally within the controllable range.

Over the years, a political situation gradually formed in Jiangdong with Sima Rui as the common leader and the scholars who had migrated south and the Jiangdong nobles trying their best to make peace.

Such a system is doomed to be loose, inefficient, and isolated.

As for the Jiangdong nobles, they were hoping that Sima Rui would quickly cut ties with the Luoyang court and stop interfering in the war in the north. Wouldn't it be better for everyone to just live their own lives behind closed doors?

You took out the secret decree of the emperor and appointed this and that. Strictly speaking, it is problematic, but don’t we all admit it? The most important thing for the world is harmony among people.

Wouldn't it be better to let Shao Xun fight the Xiongnu and both sides suffer losses? If the Luoyang court is gone, we support you to be the regent or even go further. If the Luoyang court is still there, then we will maintain the status quo.

The Jin Dynasty has lost all its prestige after being manipulated by the Xiongnu and Shao Xun. Why are you still clinging to it? It's hard to understand.

This is the psychological state of the Jiangdong scholars - perhaps it is different for each individual, after all, everyone has different personalities and values, but this is the overall consciousness that is presented.

Ji Zhan was very clear about this and he generally supported it, but there were differences on the details.

He believed that in order to maintain the situation in the south of the Yangtze River, the Huai River line was crucial - in fact, this was also the consensus and bottom line of the Eastern Wu era. The struggle between Wei and Wu in the Shouchun area was extremely fierce.

Fortunately, his opinion was supported by the scholars who had moved south, led by Wang Dao. Therefore, he was quickly appointed as the "Commander-in-Chief of the Military Affairs of Yangzhou and Jiangbei", governing Shouchun and governing the defense of the area north of Yangzhou and Jiangbei.

This will be on the way to taking office.

"Governor, Sima Xie, the porridge is ready." A personal soldier came over to remind them.

"Okay." Ji Zhan nodded, and returned to the courtyard of the house with Xie Kun to eat glutinous rice porridge.

No one spoke while eating, but everyone was thinking about their own things.

Soldiers and horses had already started marching on the road outside the courtyard.

There were not many people, only about 10,000. Most of them were private soldiers of the wealthy families in Jiangdong, and a small number were refugees from the south and the northern gentry.

As Shao Xun made rapid progress in Hebei, people inside and outside Jianye became nervous and began to slowly mobilize - if they were not nervous and did not take action at this time, they would be fools.

The primary goal of the mobilization is to consolidate the defense line in the Huai River area, which is the lifeline of Jiangnan and the top priority.

Ji Zhan was in charge of the Shouchun front line.

"Youyu." After finishing his porridge, Ji Zhan stood up and said, "The Xie family is a famous family in Chen County. Have you sent back any news?"

"Yes." Xie Kun said, "Ruyin and Chenjun are extremely empty. If we use the fleet to go upstream, we can directly attack Shao Xun's lair."

Ji Zhan waved his hand and said, "The king has not given permission to start a war without authorization, so let's wait."

"There's news from Pengcheng that an envoy from Shao Xun has arrived, asking for food, medicine, and equipment. The army will arrive soon." Xie Kun said, "Even now, Your Majesty is still hesitating?"

"It's easy to start a war, but it's not that easy to stop it." Ji Zhan said, "After arriving in Shouchun, do your own thing first. Encourage farming, repair the city defenses, train the fleet, and reorganize the army. If you do these well, you can remain unchanged in the face of all changes."

Xie Kun probably understood something.

In their hearts, the Jiangdong scholars as a whole were not very willing to come into conflict with Shao Xun, even though now was a good opportunity: with the navy heading north, they would not need to leave the river and go deep into the inland hinterland, but could directly destroy the farmlands and villages near the river, which happened to be the densely populated area where Shao Xun had resettled the refugees.

How confusing!
There's no telling when a war might break out in Xuzhou, but Jianye is still hesitating, which is really foolish.

"However," Ji Zhan added, "sometimes you don't necessarily need to take action directly to achieve your goal."

"Mr. Ji is saying..." Xie Kun seemed to have thought of something and asked subconsciously.

"Yes." Ji Zhan nodded and said, "The fleet enters the Huai River and is stationed near Yingkou and Wokou for training. What do you think will happen?"

"When the fleet arrives, Ruyin and Qiaopei will be shaken." Xie Kun said, "Shao Xun's hard-earned rear is in danger and is under attack from both sides."

"This is the hardship of Henan, a land surrounded by enemies." Ji Zhan said, "There are thousands of miles of fertile land, food and soldiers. If we still use the four walls as a country, what will happen? How can Shao Xun take all the good things?"

"Let's go, get to Shouchun as soon as possible, I have to inspect the counties." Ji Zhan patted Xie Kun's shoulder and said, "I don't know what's going on in the west."

"Du Tao is about to be annihilated. Wang Chuzhong requested to attack Wancheng, but Jianye probably disagrees..." The two men gradually walked away and their voices gradually became inaudible.

(End of this chapter)