Now, it seemed that Liu Bei had already occupied the nine counties of Jing and Xiang. With Zhuge Liang's help, he would definitely become stronger. Cao Cao, who had just experienced the Battle of Red Cliff, had lost a lot of strength and could no longer compete with Liu Bei.
Under Cao Zhi's persuasion, Cao Cao also listened to Cao Zhi's suggestion. He did not move and gave up on Jing and Xiang. Instead, he gathered his strength and continued to train his soldiers. He let go of the defense in the south and began to prepare to use force against the Ma Teng in the north.
Cao Zhi could already see that Liu Bei's rise was unstoppable. Instead of letting Cao Ren suffer losses like in history, it would be better to just give up and turn to hoarding troops. While Sun Liu was busy fighting for Jingzhou, he could take the opportunity to take down Mateng in the north.
In Cao Zhi's eyes, he absolutely could not fight to the death with Liu Bei and Sun Quan. The reason was because he thought that Ma Teng from the north and Zhang Lu from the south were the two. Not only Cao Zhi, but Cao Cao also realized that he had always been restrained by the Mateng disaster in the north. As a result, he was always timid and could not truly deal with Sun Quan and Liu Bei. Before the Battle of Red Cliff, this situation might not have been a big deal, but after the Battle of Red Cliff, the Cao army's strength had been greatly reduced, and it had become especially fatal.
In the royal court, Cao Cao first looked around at everyone, then began to summarize the losses of the Battle of Red Cliff.
"In this battle, we had millions of soldiers, but we returned in defeat. The losses were heavy. However, our northern troops didn't lose much. After some repairs in Xinye City, these troops returned to our headquarters. After the battle, we basically lost the Jing State troops that we obtained when we subdued Liu Cong. Thus, overall, our losses weren't particularly heavy.”
Hearing Cao Cao's words, the officials who had been hanging on to their courage all heaved a sigh of relief. For a moment, everyone scrambled to praise the Prime Minister.
"My Great Han Dynasty Prime Minister is blessed by the heavens. No one can hurt you."
"That's right! Sun Liu and the others were lucky to win, but in order to shake the bones and muscles of our Great Han, in the future when the Prime Minister controls the Heavenly Army, the enemy will definitely be captured.”
......
All of the civil and military officials began to flatter Cao Cao.
In reality, the losses in this battle were not too great for Cao Cao's troops. Most of the losses were from Liu Cong's subordinates in Jing State, so it was not a big deal for Cao Cao.
After all, only Cao Cao's troops in the north were the capital he relied on to conquer the world.
The defeated soldiers from the Battle of Red Cliff had basically returned to Ye City. It was because of this that Cao Cao agreed to Cao Zhi's suggestion to let go of Jingzhou and not move.
This was because the Cao army had sent out all their elites when they first set out. The defeat of the Battle of Red Cliff had resulted in the complete annihilation of the Jing state army. Under such circumstances, the Jing state was basically an empty city! It was the price of the Battle of Red Cliff, the fruit of Liu Bei and Sun Quan's victory. It was impossible for them not to take it.
The surviving Cao troops were already exhausted and had no will to fight. Most importantly, they were unable to adapt to the Jing State's terrain in a short period of time. Therefore, they were unable to defend against the joint attack of the Sun and Liu families.
However, Cao Zhi advised Cao Cao to let go of Jing Zhou because he had his own plans.
In history, Cao Cao was still unwilling to let Cao Ren defend Jingzhou. In fact, he could not hold on in the end. In Cao Zhi's opinion, losing the city and losing the soldiers were small matters. The most important thing was that after this battle, Liu Bei would establish a prestige in the hearts of the people, or those who still had hopes for the Han Dynasty. This was the most fatal thing in Cao Zhi's opinion!
Thus, it didn't matter if they lost once. It was just the Battle of Red Cliff, and it didn't matter if they lost hundreds of thousands of Jing state soldiers. At most, they would give Jingzhou to them, and perhaps there would be a chance to stir up the discord between the Sun and Liu families. However, if he continued to defend Jingzhou, then once he lost Jingzhou, those loyal to the Han Dynasty would rise again and spread Cao Cao's bad reputation, damaging the prestige that Cao Cao had already established. This was what Cao Zhi did not want to see the most.
Now, Cao Zhi felt that since he was back in Ye City, it was time to develop his own economy. Seeing that everyone was flattering Cao Cao, Cao Zhi was unmoved. He stood up from his seat and walked to the center of the court. He bowed to Cao Cao and said,"Father, your son has something to say.”
"Oh?" Seeing Cao Zhi, Cao Cao raised his eyebrows. In his heart, Cao Zhi was already a very qualified strategist, so he hurriedly said,"So it's Zijian. If Zijian has any suggestions, feel free to say them!”
When the other officials saw Cao Zhi take his seat, they all looked serious. After the Battle of Red Cliff, Cao Zhi's image in the hearts of these officials had also risen. Now, they were all holding their breaths and staring at Cao Zhi, waiting to see what Cao Zhi would suggest.
Cao Zhi felt everyone's attention, but he was unmoved. He looked at Cao Cao and bowed,""Your son believes that Red Cliff has just been defeated, and the soldiers are weak and the horses are exhausted. In ten years, or five years, the rise of the Sun and Liu families will be difficult to suppress. The situation is particularly unfavorable for us, and it is no longer suitable for us to start another war. Moreover, because of the war in the north a few years ago, there were already disaster victims everywhere, and the people were in dire straits. The people were filled with complaints, so your son believed that the best policy now was to stop fighting and focus on developing the economy.”
Hearing Cao Zhi's words, Cao Cao nodded.
"My son is right. But how does my son plan to develop his economy?”
Hearing this, Cao Zhi's eyes lit up. He knew that the main event was coming, so he continued,""Your son believes that we should focus on reforming the garrison system.”
"Oh? How?"
When Cao Cao heard that Cao Zhi was going to start with the land, he had some doubts. The land system had been around for a long time and would not change easily. Since Cao Zhi wanted to change the land system, he must have his own plans. Cao Cao was interested.
"Your son believes that the most important thing now is to release the productivity of the land, which is to reform the garrison system. Although the garrison system has been implemented since the Western Han Dynasty, the exploitation of the garrison system is relatively heavy, causing most of the peasants to be bound to the land. The peasants are not allowed to leave the garrison as they wish, and it is difficult for them to have freedom like slaves. No one was willing to do such a thing.”
"There is also another point. The reason why the father and minister implemented the large-scale garrison system is because they took note of the characteristics of the many desolate people in the north. But later on, the garrison system had changed.”
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