Vol 2 Chapter 2892: The inside story of the grain and grass war between Qin and Wei, Cao Cao cannot

Chapter 2892 The inside story of the Qin and Wei grain wars, Cao Youwan can’t be clear

Chapter 2888: The inside story of the grain and grass war between Qin and Wei, Cao Youwan cannot be cleared

 Cao Cao himself was an expert in the use of fire. In the first five of the six wars in the Central Plains, he used fire attacks. Among them, there were two surprise attacks and burning of the enemy's granaries, so he would naturally be wary of the enemy burning his own granaries.

 You can only commit a thief for a thousand days, so how can you guard against a thief for a thousand days?

In order to solve this problem once and for all, and to cope with the upcoming Qin army's offensive, Cao Cao finally decided to learn from the Qin Dynasty in the construction of grain depots, spending a lot of money to build all large-scale grain and grass underground, thus minimizing the need for management and fire prevention. Attacked by fire.

 Food is the most important thing for people. No matter what period of time, having a full meal is the most important thing.

Therefore, after high-yield grains were widely promoted and all countries got rid of the plight of food shortages, they basically built granaries to store food. Daqin was the first country to build underground granaries on a large scale.

Although underground granaries first appeared in the Han Dynasty, they were only used on a small scale in the northern regions with severe cold climates. Underground granaries would not be built in areas with warm climates such as Guandong, Guanxi, and Jiangnan.

 Originally, the construction cost of underground granaries is much higher than that of above-ground granaries.

 But if this is the case, why does Da Qin continue to build it on a large scale?

 This is naturally due to the various advantages of underground granaries.

By building granaries underground, food can be stored for a longer period of time in a low-temperature, low-oxygen, and insulated environment. This ensures that the food does not deteriorate to the greatest extent, and the closed environment is easy to manage and safe.

 After the granary is built underground, even if it is attacked by fire, only part of it will be burned due to the segmented storage. It is difficult to ignite all the grain at once.

 So, apart from being more labor-intensive, material and financial, there are basically no shortcomings in building an underground granary. The only thing that needs to be paid attention to is to do a good job in moisture-proofing.

It is precisely because of the various advantages of underground granaries, and the amount of grain reserves in Daqin is extremely large, and after they are built, they can be used continuously for hundreds of years, which is equivalent to solving the grain storage problem once and for all, so Ying Hao would rather spend more money. , at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, large-scale underground granaries were built.

In addition to the above reasons, Ying Hao also had an additional conspiracy. Da Qin's various policies have been imitated by various countries, so he wanted other countries to learn from Da Qin's construction of underground granaries, thereby indirectly consuming the national power of various countries.

 But obviously, Liu Xiu, Zhu Di, Cao Cao and others are not stupid. They still understand the principle of using good steel on the blade, so naturally they are not easily fooled.

With the completion of large-scale underground granaries in Qin Dynasty, when they learned about the benefits of underground granaries, Liu Xiu, Liu Yu and other southern princes inevitably became excited.

Even though they knew that this might be Ying Hao's conspiracy, the southern princes still took the initiative to imitate it. However, due to the national strength and the lack of urgent need for underground granaries in the south, the scale and progress of the project were not very urgent.

As for Zhu Di and Zhao Kuangyin in the Central Plains, they felt that they had the money to build underground granaries, so it was better to build more equipment. Moreover, the war did not know when it would come, and it might not be too late to build underground grain and grass at this time.

Among the three major princes in the Central Plains, only Cao Cao wanted to build it, but due to the poverty of Wei State, he really couldn't afford it, so he had no choice but to give up.

It was not until the second year of Shenwu that the Qin Dynasty carried out a large-scale military expansion. Cao Cao, who realized that the war was close at hand, had to think deeply about the problems he would face after various wars came, and built defense lines in the four western counties and generals. The construction of large granaries underground was a countermeasure devised by Cao Cao to deal with the Qin army's offensive.

Yanzhou is a vast area. Except for some fortified cities, it is almost defensible. Therefore, the transportation of granaries and the safety of backward supply lines will be the first problem faced by Cao's army after the war.

Of course, the most important point is that the spies of the Qin Army's Heibingtai almost infiltrated Cao Wei into a sieve. Even if Cao Wei's above-ground granaries were built in the city, the safety was still too poor. Who knows what would happen to them. .

 At this time, the advantages of safety in the closed environment of underground granaries are particularly important.

Based on this consideration, it was clear that Cao Wei was under great financial pressure due to its extreme military expansion. After gritting his teeth, Cao Cao decided to build five large underground granaries in the five cities of Xuchang, Chenliu, Puyang, Changyi, and Qiao County.

 Cao Cao's decision was unanimously opposed by his advisers except Fan Li and Chen Gong. There are probably two reasons:

 First, Cao Wei was already poor;

 Second, if the Qin army fails to repair the enemy and attacks, all the early investment will be in vain.

However, Cao Cao insisted on building an underground granary against all opinions, because only by building the granary underground could he confidently and boldly confront the Qin army on the front line.

But what the opposition said is not unreasonable. Manpower and material resources can be easily solved, but the key is financial resources. With Cao Wei's national strength, it is obvious that he cannot afford so much money.

At this time, Fan Li gave Cao Cao an idea, asking Cao Cao to borrow money from the Song and Wu countries in the name of Cao Wei to build underground grain depots. After the repairs were completed, the principal plus interest would be returned to the two countries in five years.

 As for whether the money can be repaid after five years?

If Cao Wei could persist with the Qin army's offensive for five years, even if he could repay Song Wu Liangguo, he probably wouldn't want it, because the value Cao Wei has exerted in the past five years has already exceeded a hundred times the total value of the loan. Isn't it worth considering this small amount of money? significance.

If Cao Wei had failed to resist and was defeated by the Qin army and his country was destroyed, there would naturally be no need to pay it back.

Cao Cao adopted Fan Li's strategy and urgently built five large underground grain depots in Yanzhou by borrowing money from Song and Wu.

Ying Hao hoped that all countries would follow Qin's example and build underground granaries. His original intention was to use this to consume the enemy's national power. However, Cao Wei even borrowed the money to build the granaries. No matter how much money was spent, it would not be enough for Cao Wei. Once Cao Wei's After the five large underground grain depots were built, the Qin army could no longer choke Cao's army in terms of grain and grass.

After realizing this, Guo Jia, the commander of Heibingtai, urgently formulated a sabotage plan for Cao Wei's underground granary project. However, Cao Cao expected that the Qin army would definitely send people to sabotage it, so he sent Cao Qiudao to personally sit at the project site as a supervisor. As a result, several sabotage actions by Black Ice Platform were in vain.

Finally, after a construction period of nearly two years, the five underground granaries of Cao Wei were completed on December 26, the third year of Shenwu. However, just four months later, the Qin army sent troops to attack the Ming Dynasty and provoked a war in the Central Plains.

 During this period, Cao Wei not only had to carry grain and grass, but also had to do a good job in preventing moisture and fire. The time was still very tight, but fortunately they made it in time.

I have to say that Cao Cao is still quite powerful. Apart from Liu Xiu, he should be the one with the strongest comprehensive ability. Cao Wei obviously didn't even have the money to build an underground granary, and he didn't even know if it could be built before the war. However, in order to prevent being targeted during the war, Cao Cao had to build large granaries underground. Courage is extremely rare.

It was also a series of correct preparations made by Cao Cao before the war that allowed Cao Wei to persist for a full three months even when the Qin army was besieged on all sides and suppressed almost the entire time.

On the other hand, Yang Guang, who lives next door, had little power to fight back when Li Jing knocked on his door. He was led by the nose throughout the whole process. In just two months, he ended up with his life and country destroyed and his reputation ruined.

Compared with Yang Guang, Cao Cao was much stronger, but it was a pity that he had bad luck. He started in the poor and weak Yanzhou, and there were strong enemies all around. He could neither develop nor fight, so Cao Wei was so luxurious. The civil and military forces could only hold on to a mere eleven counties, struggling to the death.

Cao Cao valued the two advantages of underground grain storage the most, which were safety and fire protection.

It was built in an underground grain depot within the city and was equally well defended. Once attacked, relying on the easy-to-defend terrain on the ground and underground, a hundred people could theoretically block thousands of people. It would be easy to hold on until reinforcements arrived.

There are still 100,000 Cao soldiers in Chenliu City. It is impossible to mobilize several thousand people in the city to forcibly attack Cao Wei's underground grain depot.

 Even if you can gather thousands of people, it is not easy to burn the grain and grass unless you know the password in advance, have a map, and the key to open the warehouse door.

It is precisely because of this that when Cao Hong saw how big the fire was in the granary, he insisted that someone inside must have leaked the secret and led the way, otherwise the fire would never have been so big. After all, Cao Jun was in the granary. Fireproofing and moisture-proofing are pretty good.

Cao Ren looked in the direction of the grain depot with a frosty face, and said coldly: "Zilian, I am organizing people to put out the fire now. You can take people to dig out this spy for me."

Cao Hong pointed at the fire and cried without tears, and asked two questions about his soul: "Can this fire be saved? Even if it is saved, how much food and grass will be left?"

As soon as these words came out, Cao Ren was immediately speechless. After a long silence, he said: "How much food and grass can be saved is better than burning it all."

Looking at Cao Ren's leaving figure, Cao Hong shook his head and immediately led people to carry out Cao Ren's teachings.

Cao Ren asked Cao Hong to dig out the spies. This task was actually not difficult, because there was only one person in the entire Cao army who knew the password, had the diagram, and the key, and that was Cao Youwan.

 So, regardless of whether Cao Youdi is a traitor or not, this fire has nothing to do with him.

At the same time that Cao Hong rushed to arrest Cao Youwan, Cao Youwan also learned about the fire in the grain depot from his brother Cao Youwen.

“Brother, do you think this fire was an accident?”

Hearing his brother's question, Cao Youwan immediately retorted: "Impossible. I personally arranged the fire prevention in the grain depot. It is impossible for an accidental fire to occur. Even if there is an accident, it is impossible to burn such a big fire all at once. This is definitely It was arson."

 Speaking, Cao Youwan also showed doubts and said to himself: "There is a spy in our army. Who could this person be?"

Looking at his nervous younger brother, Cao Youwen was on the verge of tears and said, "Brother, don't you think our brothers are in a dangerous situation now?"

"What's the danger? We didn't do it?" Cao Youwan asked confused.

"But you were the person in charge of the grain depot before. Now that something happened to the grain depot, Cao Ren and Cao Hong will definitely doubt you. I am your brother, and I will definitely be listed as a suspected opponent." Cao Youwen said with a bitter smile.

Hearing what his brother said, Cao Youwan was completely dumbfounded. Oh my conscience, this really had nothing to do with him. But now that Cao Ren was suspicious, he couldn't explain it clearly even with his mouth full of words.

“What can we do? What can we do?”

Cao Youwan was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot, but Cao Youwen asked extremely calmly: "Brother, I know you are anxious, but don't be anxious first. Calm down and think carefully about who else around you can be contacted." The secret of the grain depot?”

Hearing this, Cao Youwan opened his mouth and said without thinking, "Brother, you are here."

　　　…”

Hearing this, Cao You couldn't help but take a deep breath. Don't be angry. He has long been used to having such a younger brother.

"If you weren't my brother, I would have killed you long ago."

Cao Youwen suppressed the anger in his heart and gritted his teeth: "Think about it, who else could there be besides you and me?"

 Seeing that his brother was really angry, Cao Youwan did not dare to speak out of his mind. He quickly tried to remember who else could have access to these secrets through him.

After some recollection, Cao Youwan said with an uncertain face: "My deputy general Li Da may have come into contact, but I'm not sure if it was him."

"Then what are you waiting for? No matter if it's him or not, it can only be him now, otherwise both of us brothers will die."

After saying that, Cao Youwen immediately took his younger brother and went straight to the residence of Cao Youwan's deputy general Li Da, and let Cao Ren, who came to arrest them, pounce on them.

At this time, two uninvited guests came to Li Da's residence. It was Ah Qing and Huang Shang who were responsible for leading the team to burn grain;