Chapter 325: Chapter 187: Governance Strategy

Translator: 549690339

Having established their roles as monarch and minister and laid the foundation for the future establishment of their nation, Lu Yuan suppressed the sadness in his heart and began discussing with Sun Siwen the management of the southern three prefectures.

“Brother Sun, now that the southern three prefectures have just been established, there are many bandits in the area. Although I have deployed troops to suppress them, this is not a long-term solution.”

Lu Yuan mentioned his current headache of dealing with the Miao People’s escape, and said somewhat helplessly: “Now I have 70,000 troops stationed in various prefectures and counties, consuming an unimaginable amount of food and resources daily. This can be sustained for a short period of time, but in the long run, it would be difficult to continue financially.”

Therefore, I hope that after Brother Sun takes office, arrangements can be made quickly for officials to be appointed, population records to be updated, refugees resettled, production resumed, and local order established.”

At the same time, I will also leave troops to assist Brother Sun in establishing a prefectural and county militia to maintain local stability.”

As for the Miao People’s deserters, those who can be recruited should be recruited, and those who cannot be recruited should be eliminated. I can leave 10,000 elite soldiers to assist the three southern prefectures in eradicating bandits.”

Lu Yuan stated his current needs.

That is to establish a stable order in the southern three prefectures so that the troops under his command can be freed up.

After all, the need for troops is not limited to the southern three prefectures alone.

In the northern Wuling Prefecture and even Yueyang Prefecture, there are still large-scale battles involving hundreds of thousands of people taking place.

Especially in Wuling Prefecture.

Now that the southern three prefectures have been pacified, the news must have reached the Poison Sect. Therefore, Zhou Qing’s situation should have been exposed to the enemy.”

Zhou Qing has only 30,000 new recruits who have been trained for less than half a year and about 70,000 civilian workers, totaling 100,000 soldiers.

Although this force looks impressive, it should be noted that there are still 80,000 troops from the Poison Sect in Wuling Prefecture.”

Although the combat capabilities of the Miao People are just average, Zhou Qing’s troops may not be much stronger.”

If the Miao People are bold enough to take a gamble and fight Zhou Qing at this time, then the outcome of this battle is really uncertain.”

Even Lu Yuan thought that the odds of the Miao People winning might be slightly higher.”

The reason is simple: the Miao People, mostly Mountain People, have lived with wild beasts for many years and are naturally fierce. Over the past few years, they have not been too idle following the Poison Sect on their Southern Expedition campaigns, so they do have some battlefield experience.”

In comparison, Zhou Qing’s 30,000 soldiers, who may be slightly better off, are carefully selected and have been trained for a few months. But the remaining 70,000 militia have questionable combat capabilities.”

Therefore, if a real battle erupts, Zhou Qing may not necessarily win.”

So it is urgent to withdraw from the southern three prefectures as soon as possible, taking advantage of the fact that the Poison Sect has not yet made up its mind to fight back.”

Leading troops to reinforce Zhou Qing in the north has now become extremely urgent.”

To achieve this, it is essential to establish a defense force and a rule of law in the newly pacified southern three prefectures.”

Only in this way can we ensure the stability of local security and the pacification of the region.

These tasks depend upon Sun Siwen.

Facing the earnest expectations of both his good friend and his sovereign, Sun Siwen did not flinch or hesitate but directly agreed: “If the general gives orders, his minister dares not to disobey. However, stabilizing the region, recruiting refugees, and restoring production all require a lot of silver tales.”

Although the treasury of Luyang Prefecture is abundant now, there is only a surplus of more than 50,000 silver tales per month.”

This sum is far from sufficient to support the three prefectures.”

Without enough money, none of the above tasks can be accomplished.”

It must be said that Sun Siwen is willing, able, and devoted to getting the job done.”

However, some tasks, especially those related to governance, require a lot of money to be accomplished—especially to be accomplished well.”

Without money, what will you use to pay the local officials’ salaries?

Without money, what will you use to recruit and appease refugees?

Without money, what will you use to restore production?

Without money, what will you use to establish the prefectural and county military and civilian units?

In short, in this world or society, you can’t get things done without money.”

People can’t be expected to generate love out of thin air, can they?

What about the money from Luyang Prefecture and Lu Yuan?

Sun Siwen is well aware of the situation on his end; in order to support the troops, nearly all of the money and grain have been exhausted.”

If it hadn’t been for the support from the court in the past two months, Lu Yuan would have gone bankrupt due to economics, unable to distribute military pay, and morale would have plummeted.”

So the idea is good, but without money, it’s impossible to do all these things.”

“You don’t need to worry about the money and grain.”

Seeing the distressed look on Sun Siwen’s face, Lu Yuan chuckled: “During the conquest of the three southern prefectures, although we didn’t gain much in terms of food and fodder, we did reap a rich harvest of silver.”

Upon counting the wealth of the three prefectures and confiscating the Miao People’s property, a total of more than 8 million silver tales have been collected.”

In addition, there are countless farmland and house land.”

I can leave 5 million silver tales and those land properties for the usage of the three southern prefectures.”

Because they were labeled as traitors by the court, the Miao People of Dongting had a lot of silver in their possession, but they couldn’t spend it.”

Although there were those who sought to profit from the national crisis by bravely selling weapons and grain to the Miao People, such smuggling activities could only deliver limited supplies.”

Therefore, after looting the three southern prefectures, the Miao People of Dongting had most of the silver they had obtained left to gather dust in their treasuries and homes.

As a result, when the southern three prefectures were captured, Lu Yuan didn’t gain much in terms of supplies and resources, if any, but he didn’t lose any silver assets either.

In this regard, it could be said that his financial problems have been greatly alleviated.