Chapter 284: Horse Banning Strategy
Eagle Tower, in the eastern suburbs of Xiangyang.

It is the brilliant spring and summer again, with lush vegetation and the hottest days of summer yet to come, making it a perfect time for outings and picnics.

On the Eagle Tower, Liu Biao sat in the main seat, looking up at the group of eagles circling in the sky.

Compared with last year, there are obviously more than ten more.

But there were more than a dozen missing guests on the stage.

During this period, Liu Qi's position became increasingly stable. In order to stop Liu Biao from having other ideas, he submitted a petition to the court, recommending Liu Cong as the governor of Jiuzhen County and exiled him to Jiaozhou.

Today, Liu Biao was accompanied at the banquet by only his third son Liu Xiu, son-in-law Wang Kai, as well as the famous Xiangyang scholar Xu Si and Liu Bei's envoy Jian Yong.

Incense was burning in all directions on the stage, and the spring breeze blew, and the aroma surrounded the stage, with a rich and fragrant smell.

After a group of geishas left, Liu Biao raised his hands and clapped them lightly, and servants brought two plates of Guanzhong gold coins.

Jian Yong and Xu Si looked at each other. The gold coins in Guanzhong had already begun to circulate to Jingzhou through Nanxiang.

The original purchase cost 50,000 gold, but many items were already priced at a premium.

Guanzhong was unwilling to pay with real gold, so they had to use these exquisite gold coins to pay, which was indeed a loss for some wealthy merchants and big families.

It's not like they haven't seen the gold coins of the Hu merchants before. The gold coins of the Hu merchants were also converted into five-zhu coins based on their weight and gold content during transactions.

The official exchange rate between gold and Wuzhu coins once fluctuated. Due to the devaluation of Wuzhu coins and the non-circulation of gold, the exchange rate of one gold and ten thousand coins changed to one gold and twenty thousand coins.

At present, Jingzhou, a city with prosperous business, is naturally not short of people with a keen sense of smell. Everyone knows that there are huge profits behind the exquisite gold coins.

This kind of profit is not that dangerous. It is nothing more than Guanzhong using gold coins and new five-zhu coins to exchange gold, copper and old coins in a market way.

However, if this kind of gold coins continue to circulate externally, there will be a sense of crisis that the lifeline is being strangled by Guanzhong.

Liu Biao had become increasingly thinner in the past six months. Looking at the two plates of gold coins, he said to Xu Si and Jian Yong, "The Hu merchants from Nanhai saw the gold coins minted by the Grand Marshal in the market in Xiangyang, so they were quite yearning for Guanzhong. However, after Yang Lu died suddenly of illness, Guanzhong strictly prohibited officials and people from all counties from traveling without reason, and also prohibited Hu merchants from entering the pass."

At this time, Xu Si bowed and said, "Sir, the Hu merchant also sent someone to ask for help from the Crown Prince. We speculate that the Hu merchant covets the coin-making skills of Guanzhong, so we reject them as well."

Are the Hu merchants the only ones who covet Guanzhong’s coin-minting skills?
Jian Yong said nothing, and listened to Liu Biao's calm voice as he continued, "Hu Shang's thoughts could not be hidden from us, so how could they be hidden from the Grand Marshal?"

At this time, Xu Si interrupted again with a bow: "Sir, the Hu merchants sell mostly luxury goods. As far as I know, the Grand Marshal is simple by nature and has never liked luxury. If you ask the Grand Marshal for a customs document, he will not refuse for the sake of the Crown Prince, but he will be unhappy. Now that all parties are vying to please you, you want to do the opposite. I don't know why."

Liu Biao's smile faded, and he stared at Xu Si with a dead look: "You mean, with a population of one million and two hundred thousand soldiers in armor in Jingzhou, we should also bow down and show our good will? As far as I know, there is a shortage of food in Guanzhong, and the soldiers and civilians have to live on wild vegetables, mulberry trees, and wild vegetables. Now you want to supply rice in large quantities, isn't this raising a tiger to cause trouble?"

"Your Excellency's words make sense."

Xu Si didn't even have basic etiquette this time. He sat upright with his chin slightly raised, his nose facing Liu Biao: "Now the tigers and wolves in Guanzhong are bending over to eat grass. Is it because the Grand Marshal is afraid of the wealth and power of Jingzhou? Or is it that the officials and people of Guanzhong are born to like eating wild mulberries?"

"The Dan River is not conducive to shipping north now. Shangluo, at its northern end, has accumulated no less than 7,000 ships!"

"If we don't sell the grain, and the Grand Marshal leads his troops to take it, who can resist?"

Xu Si pointed his arm in the direction of Jiangxia and asked, "Sun Quan can send troops to attack us at any time. Do we expect Huang Zu to resist Sun Quan in the east and send troops to help in the south?"

"Haha, I'm not an ignorant kid, don't try to fool me with such words."

Liu Biao's gray beard trembled: "Guanzhong is short of food, and the officers and soldiers are exhausted. They can only strike once! Stop them, and their offensive will collapse! Seeing him fail, the heroes of Guanlong will rise up. With internal and external difficulties and the people short of food, how can he last long!"

"When the food in Guanzhong is abundant, more than 100,000 troops will come along Wuguan Road. With sufficient stamina and sharp military force, who can resist us?"

Liu Biao pointed at the two plates of gold coins and said, "This is his ambition. In the future, all the money circulating in Qin and Chu will come from his hands. The people know him but not me. The day of decline is not far away!"

Seeing that Liu Biao was quite excited, his words were very righteous.

Xu Si smiled and said, "As you said, Guanzhong can only withstand one attack. However, considering the manpower and resources of Jingchu, it is difficult to resist such a full-strength attack!"

He glanced at Jian Yong and questioned Liu Biao, "Last year, the Grand Marshal killed Cai Mao at the foot of Wanshan Mountain. His force was still weak. Why didn't you fight him to the death?"

After saying this, Xu Si turned to Jian Yong and said, "Xianhe is not an outsider, so you can give me a fair answer. Xianhe, tell me, last year when the prince was in power, he was unwilling to perish together with the Grand Marshal; how come today, he is encouraging the prince to become a mortal enemy with the Grand Marshal?"

Seeing Liu Biao also looking at him, Jian Yong smiled at Xu Si and said, "As the saying goes, this time is different, then the prince had other concerns. Seeing that the Grand Marshal was small but strong, he intended to keep him as a foreign vassal. He never thought that the Grand Marshal would enter Guanzhong alone, like a dragon entering the sea, and it would be impossible to stop him. Until today, the Grand Marshal is truly a powerful man in the world. Your concerns are reasonable, and Xu Shigong's concerns are also reasonable."

"You do know how to say it."

Xu Si glanced at Jian Yong and raised his cup to express his intention to Liu: "My Lord, drink it up."

Liu Biao raised his cup and looked at the wine with lowered brows. Jian Yong also raised his cup and smiled, explaining: "It's not that I'm trying to please you, but the Grand Marshal is beyond the imagination of ordinary people. We are all ordinary people, and it's normal to have insufficient concerns. Why should we regret it?"

"Xianhe is eloquent."

Liu Biao made a comment and then looked at Xu Si who didn't give him any face: "You are also a good man."

After that, the three of them drank together.

Xu Si did not comment on Liu Biao's comments, and now all Liu Biao's teeth were pulled out.

Otherwise he really wouldn't dare to be so "straightforward", let alone tell it in person.

After drinking a glass of wine, Liu Xiu stood up and walked between the tables, pouring wine for the three people.

Liu Biao then said: "Originally, 50,000 jin was 50,000 jin of gold, which is 500 million coins. The Grand Marshal introduced gold coins, which became 800 million coins."

Liu Biao looked somewhat envious of this way of spending money.

At this time, Jian Yong waited for Liu Xiu to finish pouring the wine, then said with a smile: "If you think it is not good, you can tell the people of Jingzhou that from now on, we will accept gold instead of coins."

Liu Biao smiled and said, "Merchants compete for profits, and this is not something an old man like me can control." Then he glanced at Xu Si, but Xu Si ignored him.

There is no need to go against Liu Biao in everything. Some things should be done too much or too little.

There are also some things that are obvious without the need for debate.

For example, Cao Cao killed the entire family. Even a heavyweight prince like Lu Bu had his entire family killed. When Cao Cao became more powerful in the future, how could he let go of the families of other princes?

As for Black Bear, he only killed Wang Yun's entire clan and did not expand the punishment. If he did punish them severely, he only sent people to sprinkle some salt on the clan's fields and cast a curse.

The real ruthless action was taken by the powerful people in Taiyuan and Hedong who joined the rebellion... Even so, they only sent all of them into Guanzhong, and they also selected the best and strongest people from the powerful families who joined the rebellion in the two counties, and selected 6,000 death-defying soldiers.

In the future, these suicide soldiers can retire only if they have killed enough people; otherwise, during their service, their fathers will die and their sons will take over, and their elder brothers will die and their younger brothers will have to fill the 6,000 suicide soldiers.

Shiploads of supplies arrived in Nanxiang, and after unloading and inspection, they were moved to bamboo shed warehouses and waited for transportation to the north after the Danshui Canal was reopened.

And boxes of exquisite gold coins quickly spread to all parts of Jingzhou.

On the banks of the Yu River in the eastern suburbs of Wancheng, Liu Bei was sitting under a big mulberry tree, concentrating on weaving white flags.

His hands were nimble, and in no time he had tied a foot-long white flag.

The white flag can be used as a helmet ornament, hung around the waist as an ornament, or used as a decoration for weapons or other things.

Liu Bei would give white flags that he had hand-woven in his spare time to all the soldiers who fought bravely in the army.

As a result, all his personal guards wore white flag helmets. When fighting with Cao's army, when Cao's army saw the white flag soldiers, any of them who had some experience and knowledge would retreat on their own initiative.

Liu Bei made a lot of them on a daily basis, but he never distributed them indiscriminately. He would rather let the extra white flags gather dust in the warehouse than use them cheaply.

He smoothed the newly tied white flag and put it into the wooden box, only to find that Xu Shu and Zhao Yun had come together.

The spring farming in Nanyang went smoothly. Even the abandoned fields were reclaimed. Because of river irrigation and various water conservancy facilities left by the big families in Nanyang, Liu Bei did not need to allocate much manpower to meet this year's farmland water needs.

After Liu Bei collected the other materials, he asked, "What brings Yuan Zhi here?"

"I am here to prevent flooding."

Xu Shu handed over a bamboo scroll and said, "There are signs that the drought in Hebei is spreading to the Central Plains. Rainfall is inevitable. If there is less rain in Hebei and the Central Plains, there may be more rain in Jingchu and Wuyue."

“Flood prevention?”

Liu Bei opened the bamboo slips, which contained Xu Shu's statistics on the fields that had been reclaimed this year. All of them were fields near rivers and easy to irrigate.

In order to facilitate farming and development as well as subsequent transportation, military and civilian settlements were also built along rivers of varying sizes.

However, their core military officers were almost all from the north. They had never experienced the rainstorms and floods in the south, nor had they seen what Nanyang looked like when it was flooded.

Therefore, we have no idea about the flood-damaged areas near the river. It is possible that many people, for convenience, established military settlements along the river when they reclaimed land this year.

There are many advantages to living near a river, such as convenient water supply and loading and unloading of supplies.

After reading it, Liu Bei calmed down and said, "This matter cannot be ignored. I'll trouble the military advisor to inspect all places and be sure to consult with the local elders."

"Here."

Xu Shu bowed and said, "Merchants from Jingchu have flocked to Nanxiang, and the price of horses in Nanxiang has risen significantly, which is quite strange."

"How weird?"

"It is difficult to find out at the moment. I would like to sell you 500 poor horses. With these 500 poor horses, we can find out more."

Xu Shu looked puzzled and said uncertainly: "According to my investigation, about 700,000 to 800,000 dan of Hunan rice was transported to Nanxiang in the past two months, and the gold coins obtained from the sale were used to buy horses. Almost all the horses that flowed out of Guanzhong were official horses. These people who sold Hunan rice bought all the horses, and the price of horses increased day by day."

After a pause, Xu Shu continued, "At first I suspected that General Fubo was trading grain for horses. Now I suspect it was someone from Jiangdong, but I have no evidence."

Liu Bei was about to lie down, but now he rolled over and sat up: "Military Advisor, what you mean is that the four counties in southern Jing are still dissatisfied with Liu Qi and are colluding with Sun Quan?"

"Yes, less than half a year after Liu Jingsheng recruited Huan Jie to serve in the shogunate, Huan Jie returned home due to illness and never served under General Fubo. It can be seen that the people in southern Jing never forgot the court."

Xu Shu patiently explained that the scholars in southern Jing could not be accused of colluding with Jiangdong, but they were still foolishly obeying the court.

Even if the thief Cao holds the emperor hostage to control the princes, that is still the imperial court, where the emperor is.

The Jiangdong Army is currently cooperating with the Xudu court. They recognize the Emperor of Xudu and Sikong Cao Cao. The Sun and Cao families have also concluded a marriage alliance.

Therefore, it was not difficult for Sun Quan to instigate and drive the scholars in southern Jing after the Xudu court wrote a blank edict to Sun Quan.

Liu Bei frowned and looked at Zhao Yun: "What's the matter, Zilong?"

"I will cooperate with the military advisor to investigate the issue of horses flowing out of Guanzhong. If it is the thieves from Jiangdong who are using Jingnan to steal and buy horses, I will rob and kill them on the way."

Zhao Yun had thick eyebrows and big eyes, and said seriously: "Hei Da Sima has no intention of selling horses to Jiangdong. We have made an alliance, and we have the obligation to uphold Hei Da Sima's strategy of banning horses."

"A strategy to ban horses?"

Liu Bei chuckled after hearing this. This was just one of the conditions for the alliance between the parties, and the restriction was on the horses that Cao Cao had.

However, it is reasonable to include Jiangdong.

After thinking for a while, Liu Bei looked at Xu Shu and said, "Military Advisor, do this with Zilong. Don't be stingy with the horses."

(End of this chapter)