The Wuchang Prefecture Yamen is already in chaos, with nearly a hundred civil servants busy packing up various supplies and documents. The boxes in the yard are piled up like mountains. In ten days, the state Yamen will officially move back to Xiangyang. Although many people are reluctant to leave, everyone knows that the state Yamen’s move back to Xiangyang is the beginning of the revival of Jingzhou, which makes everyone’s hearts full of hope.

In the prefectural yamen hall, Lu Suzheng and Chief Xu Shu had the first negotiation. Although more than 50,000 soldiers were released back to Jiangdong, hundreds of officers with more than 100 generals were not released. Especially Taishi Ci, Lu Meng and Xu Sheng, three major generals, were still under house arrest in Wuchang City, which gave Jiangdong no negotiation advantage.

What's more, the four counties, including Qichun County, Lujiang County, Yuzhang County and Jiujiang County, are currently occupied by the Jiangxia army. If Jingzhou takes a rush to fight eastward, Jiangdong will even be at risk of destroying the country. The situation is extremely severe for Jiangdong, making Lusu dare not relax at all.

Xu Shu is an honest and frank person. Unlike Jia Xu's words, he is unpredictable. Therefore, the pressure in Lu Su's heart is a little less, which also makes him secretly grateful to Liu Jing for his arrangements in negotiating opponents, so that both sides can meet with sincerity.

"I heard a rumor in the city that the provincial governor would ask Jiangdong to lift the inland river ban and sea ban. Is that true?" Lu Su asked cautiously.

Xu Shu smiled, "This is a way to relax trade. There is indeed this requirement. Of course, as a reciprocal, Jiangdong merchants can also come to Jingzhou to conduct various trades. I think this is beneficial to both sides. This is a good thing. Why does Zijing worry?"

Lu Su smiled bitterly, "Which is said, Jiangxia's money is far better than Jiangdong's money. Once Jiangxia money pours into Jiangdong in large quantities, Jiangdong may suffer a catastrophe, so"

Before Lu Su could continue, Xu Shu waved his hand and said, "Zijing, you can't say that. If it comes to copper mines, the copper mine in Liyang in Jiangdong is much larger than that in Jiangxia. As far as I know, Jiangdong's copper output is twice that of Jiangxia. The key is the ingredients for minting coins. Jiangxia is 90% copper, while Jiangdong only has 60% of that. This is why Jiangdong coins cannot compete with Jiangxia coins. Jiangdong should review itself and improve the formula for minting coins in time. Otherwise, even if trade is not relaxed, Jiangdong will be occupied by Jiangxia coins sooner or later."

At this time, Jiang Wan, an employee at the side, also added: "In fact, the liberalization of trade is just an additional condition. It should be said that it is beneficial to both sides. Why should Duke Lu care about this issue?"

Lu Su sighed in his heart and stopped mentioning this matter. After all, Wu Hou still needs to be approved by him in the end. Lu Su pondered for a moment and said, "Please continue talking about it!"

Xu Shu nodded and continued: "What I mentioned just now is the trade issue, and then war compensation, which is about food compensation. My military advisor also mentioned it to Zijing last time, and Zijing should not have forgotten it!"

Lu Su's heart beat faster! Of course he would not forget that it was one million stones of grain. How could Jiangdong afford it? Lu Su hurriedly said: "Mr. Jia did mention it last time. Only one million stones of grain can Jiangdong not afford it. He hopes to reduce it."

"this"

Xu Shu thought for a while and said, "I might as well tell Zijing frankly that we have five formal conditions, plus the additional conditions for opening up trade, and food compensation is only the first condition. If this issue cannot be agreed upon, the next four issues will probably be even more difficult to discuss."

Lu Su felt very passive, and he talked about one condition at a time. In the end, it would probably become a sky-high price that Jiangdong could not bear. He could only smile bitterly and said, "Can you please list all the conditions so that I can have a clear idea in my heart, and then we will talk about it one by one."

"Can!"

Xu Shu said frankly: "First is food compensation, secondly, hostage arrangements, again, land negotiations, fourthly, warship retention, fifthly, written guarantees that Jiangdong will no longer expedition the west, and then an additional clause to liberalize trade. There are five big and one small in total, and I'm afraid there will be no talks in one day or two."

At noon, Jiang Wan accompanied Lu Su to dinner, while Xu Shu hurried to Liu Jing's official room. Liu Jing's official room was also messy and busy. Dong Yun was leading five or six people to pack and organize documents, various books and drawings outside.

But the inside was very quiet. Liu Jing sat at the table to review various military and political documents. The documents accumulated due to the battle with the Jiangdong Army were almost processed. He had only a few tricky things left. At this time, Xu Shu walked in and said with a smile: "Does the provincial governor have time to listen to the Weichen report on the negotiations?"

Liu Jing smiled, put down his pen, took out two papers from the wooden box next to him and said, "Yuan Zhi came right, I just happened to want you to discuss it. It is your handling plan in these two papers. Let's talk about my affairs first, and then we will talk about negotiations."

Xu Shu nodded. He knew that this was just a more euphemistic statement from the provincial governor, and in fact he disagreed with their handling plan. He smiled and said, "I listen with utmost respect!"

"Sit down!"

Liu Jing asked Xu Shu to sit down and opened two documents. He felt that the two documents needed to be considered again. He handed the documents to Xu Shu. "The first is the resettlement of the mine slaves in Lutongshan. Yuan Zhi suggested giving 20,000 mine slaves freedom. I think it is inappropriate, because the original decision was to serve three years, and now it has only been a year. This is a negation of last year's decision. I think it must be maintained for the three-year period. Yuan Zhi thinks?"

Xu Shu smiled bitterly and said, "Actually, I am considering it from the long run, because many of these miners have gradually become skilled copper smiths. I have conducted investigations. If they are free, at least 50% of them are willing to stay. If their families can be brought in, then 70% of them are willing to stay. In this way, they will transform from mine slaves to miners, becoming a profession, which is conducive to Jiangxia's stability."

Liu Jing nodded, "I agree with your statement, but from the perspective of maintaining authority, I should try not to change the decisions made. We can provide certain relaxation in other aspects, such as improving food and accommodation conditions, receiving certain rewards, changing the name to miners, shortening working hours, allowing communication with family members, etc., and even signing a contract with them to allow them to start mining with peace of mind, but the three-year period cannot be changed. After all, they are prisoners of war. In addition, prisoners in prisons in various places will also go to mine to replenish their manpower."

Xu Shu had no choice but to agree, "Okay! Weicun drafted a new plan."

Liu Jing said again: "There is also Huang Zhong's 30,000 new army. I have already negotiated with Cao Cao. As a condition to release Cao Ren and Xiahou Yuan, he promised to transfer the 30,000 new army's families to us. I have asked Huang Zhong to prepare the list and give it to Cao Cao. It is estimated that large-scale immigration will arrive soon. The land of Anlu County can be allocated to these new army families, describing it as military households, and allocated at 120 acres per household, and the tax is reduced by half. This is a relatively urgent matter. I hope you can arrange personnel to go to Anlu County immediately to make preparations for the preliminary preparations."

Xu Shu nodded silently. He knew that there were a lot of trivial things to do. Fortunately, they already had the experience of resettling immigrants, so that Pang Shanmin and Kuai Qi could be responsible for the matter.

"I remember, I will arrange people immediately."

Liu Jing explained these two things, and felt much more relaxed. He smiled and said, "After talking about these two things, let's talk about Jiangdong! What is Lu Su's attitude?"

This is today's theme. Xu Shu hurriedly said: "The talks with Lu Su today were not going well. In addition to agreeing to sign a written guarantee for the never-ending expedition, the other conditions are very different. In terms of opening up trade, he needs to ask the Marquis of Wu for advice, and the river ban and sea ban can be completely relaxed."

"What about the Jingzhou naval army taking advantage of the road to enter the sea?" Liu Jing asked, "What is his attitude?"

"This one, he said there needs to be some restrictions on the number of fleets and cannot be docked."

Liu Jing sneered, "It seems that Lu Su is not confused either, so how are the other ones talking about?"

"As for food compensation, they cannot bear the weight of a million stones. They hope to cut it by half and send hostages to Jingzhou to study. Lu Su means that Wu Hou only has one son now, and he is only half a year old. He hopes to replace the proton with the sister of Wu Hou marrying the governor of the state."

"It's only half a year old!"

Liu Jing couldn't help laughing. He didn't expect this one. He knew that Sun Quan's son was young, but he didn't expect that he was only half a year old.

Sun Quan is already twenty-seven or eight years old, and he only has a son now. It is really meaningless to have a half-year-old son. Liu Jing thought for a while and said, "It is okay to cancel one proton, and it is okay to reduce the grain compensation by half, but the inland river ban must be liberalized."

Xu Shu hesitated for a moment. Liu Jing only gave him a negotiation condition last night. He was not very clear about the rest of the matter, especially the compensation for one million stones of grain. He felt it was unrealistic. In addition, he also felt it was unlikely to transfer the four counties to Jingzhou. The key was that he did not know Liu Jing's bottom line and principles, which made it difficult for him to deal with.

"Qi Bingzhou Governor, I am a little confused about the negotiations. What can be concessions and what cannot be concessions? I have no bottom line in my heart, and I hope the prefecture will make it clear."

Liu Jing laughed, "Of course I will tell you this. I wanted to touch their bottom first today, but now if you want to know, I will tell you."

Liu Jing walked a few steps behind his back: "First of all, we must grasp a degree, so that Jiangdong cannot attack us any more, and at the same time, we must be able to resist Cao's army's southward journey, so we cannot suppress Jiangdong too harshly. The bottom line of food compensation is 300,000 stones, which can be delivered in three years;

The warship cannot make more than 1,000 stones within five years. The most important thing is land. Qichun County directly threatened Jiangxia and must be placed to Jingzhou. The border of Jiujiang County is too close to Chaisang. Pengze Lake must be placed to Jingzhou. In addition, Yuzhang County is close to Changsha County and Jiangxia County, which poses too great a threat to us. Therefore, Yuzhang County must also be placed to Jingzhou, which means returning Lujiang County and Jiujiang County to Jiangdong, and Qichun County and Yuzhang County to Jingzhou."

Xu Shu thought about it and found that except for the ability to reach an agreement with Lu Su immediately on food compensation, the other terms were far from Lu Su's requirements.

Especially for the land, Jiangdong asked all four counties to return them, but Liu Jing was only willing to return them to the two counties. Helplessly, Xu Shu could only nod and agree, "I understand, I will continue to talk in the afternoon."

At this time, Xu Shu remembered another incident and asked: "In addition, regarding the marriage between the two families, is the governor of the Zhou Dynasty willing to marry the sister of Wu Hou?"
Chapter completed!