Three Kingdoms: I switched to Liu Bei, why are you crying, Cao Cao?

Chapter 31: Stockpiling food and fodder, ulterior motives

"The military advisor wants me to stockpile food? Why?"

If Liu Bei could understand the first thing, he felt the second thing was a little confusing.

Just now, Qin Zhen, knowing that there was not enough food, continued to increase his troops.

But now he is asked to stockpile food, which is obviously illogical.

However, Qin Zhen sighed slightly when he heard this:

"This grain is not for expanding the army, but for disaster relief!"

"Disaster relief!"

Liu Bei was stunned when he heard this, while Xu Shu glared and said:

"What are you talking about, Zixuan? Is there going to be a disaster here?"

Qin Zhen shook his head and said:
"It's not this place, but the land south of the Huai River. There will be a severe drought this year!"

"If our army wants to capture this place, we must stockpile a large amount of food!"

"Otherwise, even if we seize this place, it will be of no use!"

As mentioned earlier, Qin Zhen had a very good memory. He remembered the details of historical records and the time when every recorded disaster occurred.

In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, droughts occurred frequently. The two most horrific ones were the first one, the great drought in Sanfu, which caused a large number of people in Guanzhong to lack food and countless people starved to death.

The second time was this year’s severe drought in Huainan!
You should know that Runan, Peiguo, Jiujiang and other places are densely populated, with a total population of more than three million!

It was this severe drought that caused the people in the Jianghuai area to live in misery, eat each other's children, and many places were completely deserted!
Cao Cao's famous "Song of the Grassland" was written during this period, in which the line "White bones are exposed in the wild, no rooster crows for a thousand miles, only one out of a hundred people is left alive, the thought of it breaks one's heart" is particularly apt.

It was also after this disaster that a large number of common people and nobles fled south, which directly led to the destruction of Huainan and indirectly led to the rise of Eastern Wu.

Otherwise, with Huainan's huge population base, it would be able to crush Dongwu.

Now that they want to seize Huainan, they naturally have to do everything they can to preserve Huainan's vitality.

Hearing the seriousness in Qin Zhen's words, Liu Bei's expression also became solemn:
"Zixuan, can you really be sure that there will be a major disaster in Huainan this year?"

"Of course I'm sure!"

Qin Zhen nodded and said:
"I observed the sky at night and saw two stars accompanying the moon in the south."

"Based on its location, it must be in Huainan!"

"We know that Huainan will definitely face a severe drought this year. It's not too late to start stockpiling food now!"

It's not that he wants to show off and bring up the name of observing the night sky, but people of this era actually believe in this!

In addition, he had learned a lot from Cai Yong in the past, so he had a lot of knowledge when he talked about it now.

As soon as he finished speaking, Xu Shu continued:
"My Lord, Zixuan's predictions of celestial phenomena have always been accurate!"

"Back then, Zixuan predicted a severe drought in the Three Prefectures and asked Cao Mengde to store grain. It was because Cao Mengde stored grain in advance that his subordinates had enough money and grain, and saved hundreds of thousands of lives in Guanzhong to fill the gap in Luoyang!"

"Now that they are saying that Huainan will have a severe drought, there must be some basis for it!"

Seeing Xu Shu also helping out, Liu Bei's expression became more serious and he said:
"Since there will be a severe drought, our army should prepare in advance!"

"But our army is already short of money and food, how can we store food?"

"That's a problem!"

Talking about the people's problems, Xu Shu was naturally very concerned. After thinking for a while, he raised his mouth and said:

"But I think since Zixuan can raise this question, there must be a solution!"

When Liu Bei heard this, he looked at Qin Zhen again and said:

"What solution does the military advisor have?"

"It's not that difficult actually. The key lies with Mi Zizhong!"

Qin Zhen said to Liu Bei:

"I heard that the Mi family in Donghai is very wealthy, with nearly 10,000 servants and hundreds of millions of assets."

"All we need to do is ask Mi Zizhong to help us and give us 10,000 gold to buy food, and then we can stockpile a large amount of food and grass!"

"Take out 10,000 gold to buy food?"

Liu Bei was startled at first, then he said with a bitter look:
"This is not possible. Our army has received a lot of financial support from Zi Zhong before, and we have not yet repaid him. How can we have the nerve to ask him for another ten thousand gold!" Ten thousand gold, simply converted into hundreds of millions of five-zhu coins!

Considering the size of the Mi family, it is not impossible to come up with the money if they grit their teeth.

But the problem is that with so much money, the Mi family might suffer heavy losses!
Even if Mi Zhu is willing, Old Liu doesn't have the face to ask for it!
However, Lao Liu obviously misunderstood Qin Zhen's intention. Qin Zhen just smiled and said:

"You have misunderstood, my lord. There is no such thing as free funding in this world!"

"Let Mi Zizhong pay for it, just buy it on your behalf."

"Our army doesn't want it for nothing."

"You must know that Jingzhou, Yanzhou and other places all had bumper harvests last year, and Xuzhou also had a lot of grain stored."

"Especially in Jingzhou, where millet costs less than 250 coins per dan, 10,000 gold coins can buy nearly 400,000 dan of grain!"

"After purchasing these grains, you can store them in Mi's shops across the country."

"After our army captures Huainan, we can use the money to buy food and grass. Even if the price of each stone is increased by 50 coins, Mi can make thousands of gold!"

"Comparatively speaking, what our army needs now is time, not money and food!"

"Our army must purchase large quantities of food before the drought becomes apparent and food prices rise."

"Let Mi Zizhong purchase food in advance because we are afraid that when our army has money, we won't be able to buy food!"

"This move is beneficial not only to the victims, but also to our army and the Mi family. I believe that with Mi Zizhong's vision, he will not fail to see these benefits!"

"You may go and discuss this matter yourself. If Zi Zhong really disagrees, you may ask him to come find me!"

The reason why he dared to propose this method was because Mi Zhu was a very courageous person!

In fact, there were many such courageous businessmen in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

Mi Zhu was one of the best among them. He was able to lend a helping hand to Liu Bei when he was in the most desperate time, and even married his sister to Liu Bei directly. This shows his investment vision and courage.

If he knew about this business opportunity now, Mi Zhu might even give out more, let alone 10,000 gold!
When Old Liu heard what Qin Zhen said, he could only hesitate and say:
"If that's the case, maybe we can give it a try!"

"But how can I explain this news?"

The problem now is that it was Qin Zhen who brought up the severe drought in Huainan.

Mi Zhu didn't know Qin Zhen's identity.

If we directly say that it was the military advisor Wang He who proposed it, Mi Zhu would definitely not believe it!

Seeing this, Qin Zhen curled his lips and smiled:

"You can tell me the truth, my lord. Zi Zhong is not an outsider!"

"Even if you know my identity, you won't tell anyone!"

I have to say, sometimes, reputation is really important.

Why did Zhuge Liang compare himself to Guan Zhong and Yue Yi?

In addition to having the ability, he also wants to make a name for himself.

And now, his own name is a golden signboard!
Sometimes, you need to remain anonymous, and sometimes, you need to be brought out for endorsement.

I think knowing his true identity would give Mi Zhu more confidence in doing things.

Seeing that Qin Zhen had made arrangements for everything, Liu Bei was completely relieved. He stopped talking and started talking about other topics with the two of them.

However, whether it was the world situation or the governance of people's livelihood, Qin Zhen had unique insights.

When Liu Bei saw this, he admired Qin Zhen's talent even more.

That night, the county government held a banquet. Afterwards, Lao Liu was still not satisfied and pulled Qin Zhen to talk all night long and sleep together, but Qin Zhen politely declined.

When Liu Bei saw this, he didn't want to keep Qin Zhen any longer, so he ordered people to escort Qin Zhen back home.

At this point, Liu Bei had a military advisor and was finally on the right track.

In terms of civil affairs, he was assisted by Qin Zhen, Mi Zhu, Sun Qian, Jian Yong and others; in terms of military affairs, he had Xu Shu, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and other generals who trained the troops. All of them were in a state of preparation, ready for battle, and looking very prosperous.

At Qin Zhen's suggestion, Liu Bei also wrote a letter personally to invite Lu Bu to send troops.

Thus, a letter with ulterior motives headed all the way to Xia Pi.

(End of this chapter)