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

Chapter 67: Yuan Shu Increases His Troops, Talents Come to Him

In late May of the second year of Jian'an, Cao Cao submitted a memorial to the emperor, saying that Yuan Shu was a usurper and a traitor, and that his army should be attacked.

He wanted to use the emperor's edict to summon all the princes in the world to fight against it together.

When the emperor heard this, he thought that Yuan Shu was disrespectful to the court, so he immediately issued an edict, ordering Liu Bei, Lu Bu, Sun Ce, Chen Yu and others to attack him together.

As soon as this edict was issued, Cao Cao sent the counselor Wang Yu as an envoy to go south to inform Sun Ce of the edict.

At the same time, three envoys were sent to inform Liu Bei, Lu Bu and Chen Yu to prepare to join forces to attack Yuan Shu!
At this time, Yuan Shu had just led his army back to Shouchun City and was extremely depressed.

Because Lu Bu had previously gone south to plunder, he followed Yuan Huan's advice and personally led an expedition to expel Lu Bu.

As a result, Lu Bu did not fight with him at all. Not only did he not fight, he also wrote a letter personally to mock Yuan Shu.

Yuan Shu was already angry with Lu Bu. When he saw the letter, he could no longer tolerate it and directly led his troops to pursue Lu Bu.

As a result, they chased to the side of the Huai River and saw that Lu Bu had already crossed the river.

Fearing the power of Lu Bu's cavalry, Yuan Shu did not dare to pursue and could only allow Lu Bu to mock him again!
That's such a frustrating and uncomfortable feeling in my heart!

As a result, as soon as he arrived in Shouchun City, Yuan Shu received a letter saying that Cao Cao had submitted a memorial to the emperor, asking the surrounding princes to join in attacking him.

Upon receiving this letter, Yuan Shu was furious. He summoned all his officials, threw the silk book to the ground, and said angrily:

"Cao Aman is extremely rude. I just ascended the throne and have not yet questioned him, but this man is the first to attack me!"

"Now they want to unite the army to attack our army from four directions. What should we do?"

Seeing Yuan Shu's anger, all the ministers lowered their heads and remained silent.

Only Yan Xiang and others could not stop sighing.

I thought to myself, I advised you not to declare yourself emperor before, but you didn't listen. Now that the real emperor has issued an edict, you come and ask me what to do. Aren't you asking for trouble?
But even though they sighed, they also knew that now was not the time to sigh, so they were silent for a while, and Yan Xiang stepped out and said:
"Your Majesty, the current situation is that the enemy outnumbers us, so we have no choice but to divide our forces to fight them!"

"I think Cao Cao's move is to use the four families to tie down our army, so that our army cannot take care of both ends!"

"People like Liu Bei and Lu Bu are not of one mind, so they are not worth worrying about."

"You can send a general to garrison Shouchun, and my lord, go to Runan to resist Cao Cao's army!"

"If you can drive back Cao's army, the other four routes will retreat on their own!"

Hearing this, Yuan Shu nodded in response, and immediately left generals Ji Ling, Chen Lan, Lei Bu and others to guard Shouchun, and led Zhang Xun, Chen Ji and others to lead cavalry and infantry to reinforce Runan!
While Cao Cao and Yuan Shu were taking actions, Old Liu was naturally not idle either.

Since the capture of Pei County that day, Qin Zhen advised Liu Bei to move the base camp from Pei County to the south.

Liu Bei thought that Xiang County was larger and much more suitable for garrisoning than Pei County, so he ordered Guan Yu to lead everyone south that day.

When Guan Yu received the order, he summoned Mi Zhu, Xu Shu and others to discuss the matter.

When everyone heard that Liu Bei had established a firm foothold in Xiang County with the assistance of Qin Zhen, they were ecstatic.

Although most of them have experienced many ups and downs with Liu Bei.

But this feeling of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel is something that others cannot understand.

Everyone immediately began to prepare to move the base camp.

However, the relocation of the base camp is not like an ordinary march where you can just go at any time.

Apart from anything else, the families of civil and military officials, as well as the baggage and money in the palace, all need to be properly arranged.

Fortunately, everyone was capable and after seven or eight days of preparation, they set out south with a large army.

As there were many children among them, they could not travel fast, and it took them nearly ten days to arrive in Xiang County.

After settling his ministers in this way, Liu Bei finally gained a new piece of territory.

But as the territory expanded, various problems also arose.

The first and foremost issue is governance.

Since Liu Bei had few civil and military officials under his command, he was able to easily govern Pei County.

But now their territory is no longer just Pei County.

After capturing Xiang County, Liu Bei followed Qin Zhen's plan and had Chen Dao, Zhang Fei and others accept the surrender of Xiao County, Linluo, Fuli, Zhi County and Dan County one after another.

Afterwards, Lu Bu went south and helped capture Zhuyi, Jinxian and Guyang along the way.

When Guan Yu went south, he also accepted the surrender of Zhuqiu and Fengxian.

All of a sudden, with Liu Bei's old territory of Pei County and his new base camp Xiang County, Liu Bei's territory instantly expanded to twelve counties!

Faced with this situation, Lao Liu was both happy and worried.

Having a bigger territory is certainly a good thing, but he doesn’t have enough talent!

At present, he has more than ten civil and military officials under his command.

The number of people seems to be quite a lot, but we can't just give them all the positions!
Moreover, the team under his command are all talented people. It would be a waste of their talents to send them to guard a small county. Naturally, he is reluctant to do so.

In addition to governance, how to defend is also a big problem.

Furthermore, they also need to discuss what they should do next.

So Liu Bei called Qin Zhen over again and explained the problem to him again.

Faced with these three problems, Qin Zhen thought about the problem of insufficient talent for a while and offered three solutions to Lao Liu.

First, let Jian Yong inspect the county and look for capable people who can be used in the county. At the same time, gauge public opinion and take action against the officials who originally oppressed the people in order to stabilize the situation.

Second, post a notice to recruit talents, and spread the news in various counties at the same time, so that talents can come and apply on their own. Only the most talented will be promoted!

Third, set up training classes for military cadres, and bring all officers above the rank of general to attend night classes to train in military affairs and reading and literacy!
After listening to these three suggestions, Liu Bei naturally had no objection to the first two, but he was a little worried about the third one:
"The military advisor said that our army can hold classes, which is fine."

"But even if they learn to read and write, it will not solve the problem of lack of talent!"

It’s not that Lao Liu doesn’t want his subordinates to learn to read and write, it’s just that the literacy rate in this era is terrifyingly low!
At that time, printing and paper were not yet popular, and ordinary people were basically illiterate. The same was true in Lao Liu's army. There were not many literate officers in the entire army.

In Lao Liu's opinion, it is too late for these people to study now. It is okay to train soldiers, but if they want to learn to a level that can be used, it will probably take a lot of time!
But when Qin Zhen heard this, he shook his head and said:

"The talent our army needs is not some great scholar who can debate the classics, but an officer who can read official documents and garrison a small city!"

"The trouble in our army today is not the scarcity of literary talent, but the incompetence of our generals!"

"He has no talent, so we should give him some. He will be of great use to us after our army captures Huainan in the future!"

Seeing that Old Liu was afraid of trouble when training generals, Qin Zhen shook his head secretly.

We have only just begun!

Training generals is only his first step. After taking Huainan, he will further promote military education and ideological education!

Only in this way can they have an iron army.

This is also Qin Zhen’s basic idea.

If you want to change an era, what you need to do is not to make some amazing inventions, education is the foundation!

As a time traveler, he never expected to change the times in his lifetime.

What he can do is to sow the seeds of ideas and continuously promote productivity growth!
Compared to education, those epoch-making weapons are just tools. No matter how much effort is put into their research and development, they cannot change the essence of the times!
After all, whether it is war or development, the root is still people!

Only by changing people can we gain more power for change and gradually change the world.

If they were not weak enough now, he would even prepare to make money by making paper and salt!
He now has to steadily implement the things that were difficult or dared not to do in Caoying before.

Huainan is their base for cultivating talents and developing industries.

Training these generals is for now and for the future.

Seeing Qin Zhen so determined, Lao Liu naturally had no objection, so he moved on to the second question.

Regarding the question of how to defend the garrison, Qin Zhen directly said to Liu Bei:

"Although we currently have more than 30,000 soldiers, most of them are surrendered soldiers. We must first train them!"

"There is no need to station troops for the time being. The only thing to worry about is Yuan Shu's troops. You can let Xiahou Bo lead a thousand men to garrison Guyang. If the enemy makes any unusual movements, you are not allowed to engage in battle. Just report it!"

"Don't worry about Cao Cao and Lu Bu for now!"

"In addition, our army captured some soldiers from the Xianzhen Camp outside of Lu County. We can let Chen Dao lead them and use them as the foundation to build an elite force!"

After hearing what Qin Zhen said, Old Liu nodded repeatedly:
"Military Advisor, this suggestion is feasible. Our army should train an elite force!"

In fact, Lao Liu had no idea what elite troops were. He had only seen the White Horse Volunteers under Gongsun Zan.

But after seeing the Xianzhen Camp last time, Lao Liu was so jealous!

Now that they have the opportunity, they will naturally follow suit and build up their elite forces.

Thinking about it, Liu Bei asked again:

"What do you think is the best name for this army, military advisor?"

Qin Zhen heard this and said tentatively:

"I wonder what you think of calling them the White Li Elite Soldiers?"

He was just trying, but Liu Bei's eyes lit up and he said:

"The name Bai Li is very good. This is the right name for our army!"

Seeing Old Liu like this, Qin Zhen thought to himself, this is good, Liu Bei's Bai Li Army can be considered to have been established ahead of schedule!

He knew that Liu Bei originally had a troop of Danyang soldiers sent by Tao Qian.

This is also the foundation of the Bai Li Army in the future. Now with the addition of the blood of the Xianzhen Camp, the combat power is probably incredible!

Liu Bei solved two problems in a row, and then said:

"One more thing. Now that our army has taken Pei State, I wonder what our army should do next?"

In the past, if he had taken over Pei State, he would probably have been like a headless fly, focusing on development first.

But now that Qin Zhen is in charge of the overall situation, they have to prepare in advance.

But when Qin Zhen heard this, he smiled and said:
"Now that our army has finally gained a piece of land and gained the upper hand, we should not move again!"

"You can wait and see for a while, and wait for changes in the Central Plains before taking action!"

He naturally knew Liu Bei's urgency, but now they had finally hidden behind others and accumulated strength.

The best thing to do is not to take the initiative to jump out and cause trouble, but to wait until others take action and then stab you in the back!
Having said this, he thought for a while and then smiled:

"Don't worry, my lord. There are people who are more anxious than us!"

Just as Guo Jia would think of him when he heard his plan.

Qin Zhen was also making plans based on his understanding of Guo Jia and Lao Cao!

In his opinion, the one who is anxious now is not them, but Lao Cao!

There is no need for them to take action at this time.

After listening to the explanation, Liu Bei left with satisfaction.

As a result, Liu Bei's army entered a period of preparation, training soldiers and recruiting talents.

Thanks to Jian Yong's efforts, a lot of civil servants were recruited, but none of them were well-known talents.
After waiting for such a long time, Qin Zhen had given up hope.

But just as June began, they welcomed two talented people to join them, and one of them was named Zhuge Jin!

(End of this chapter)