Heroes of the Three Kingdoms also understand this truth, so while confronting each other militarily, they also pay close attention to developing their respective economies and implementing different forms of reforms, especially agriculture, which is actually another form of competition. From now on, it is precisely because of the competitive situation in the Three Kingdoms period that it accelerated the development of the Yangtze River basin and gave them a certain economic strength to compete with the developed Yellow River basin.
During the Three Kingdoms period, the economy of the relatively developed Central Plains was severely damaged because of years of war. According to statistics, at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the population of China was more than 56 million, and only16 million people, less than one third, remained after the three clans returned to Jin. At that time, there was a saying in Cao Cao's poems that "white bones are exposed in the wild, and there is no crying in a thousand miles. People leave a hundred skeletons, and reading them should be heartbroken", which is a true portrayal of the Central Plains and can be confirmed by historical records. In the third grade, compared with the Central Plains, the economy in the southeast and southwest was obviously not fully developed. The population of Shu is only over 900,000, while that of Wu is only 2.3 million, accounting for about one tenth of the soldiers. Not counting tens of thousands of officials at all levels, it is naturally difficult to compete with Cao Wei in strength. War is not only a military confrontation, but also a confrontation of economic strength. Whoever has enough economic strength first has the hope of winning in the military.
Among the important economic reform measures of the three countries, the first one is to cultivate land, that is, to organize troops and farmers to cultivate land, just like our production and construction corps, which is a production system in wartime. The three countries cultivated land successively, but Cao Cao was the most effective, because the Central Plains suffered the most from the war and was seriously short of food. Chang' an Hugu millet sells for 500 thousand. "Residents have no food, and travelers have no food." National livelihood has become a big problem, let alone going to war. Cao Cao took the lead in implementing military camp and private operation, showing great determination, and specially set up independent official systems such as "big farmer" and "standard farmer corps commander", stipulating that villagers would hand over about half of their harvest to the government to supplement rations, and Sima Yi even made it clear that "the key to destroying thieves lies in accumulating grain". They extensively built water conservancy projects and improved agricultural equipment, which enabled agriculture to recover and develop rapidly and provided sufficient rations.
Shu Han, known as the "land of abundance", suffered less damage in the war. When Liu Bei arrived in Shu, he was originally prepared to give a large piece of fertile land to the hero. Zhao Yun discouraged him and said, "Yizhou people should return their farmland to them after a war, so that they can live and work in peace and contentment." This can not only stabilize the people's hearts, but also help to resume the development of production. Liu Bei accepted this opinion. Zhuge Liang also conducted a military camp in Hanzhong, mainly to solve the problem of insufficient transportation of rations during the Northern Expedition. Later, Jiang Wei cultivated land to avoid the suspicion of eunuch Huang Hao.
Probably because Zhuge Liang used to farm in Nanyang, he attached great importance to water conservancy as soon as he entered Sichuan, especially to the maintenance of Dujiangyan, a famous project built in Qin and Han Dynasties. Li Daoyuan's Notes on Water Classics in the Northern Wei Dynasty said: "Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition was the capital of the weir country, and 2,200 people were recruited to protect it, and there were weir officials." At that time, Sichuan's silk industry ranked first in the country and was known as "Shu Brocade". Zhuge Liang realized that "the only capital to defeat the enemy is Jinsui", which is the fist commodity to reach overseas trade with Wei, Wu and even through Yunnan and Myanmar, so he also vigorously developed related handicrafts. Therefore, Chengdu is called "Jinguan City" and "Jincheng".
The tripartite confrontation between the three countries has also promoted the development of the Yangtze River basin. China's civilization has developed mainly in the Yellow River basin for a long time. The war in the Central Plains has caused a large number of talents with rich experience in production and management to flow from the Yellow River basin to the Yangtze River basin in the southeast and southwest, which has enabled the industrial and agricultural technologies of the Central Plains to be applied in rich natural resources and produced obvious results. Most of the talents brought by Liu Bei are "cadres going south". When Cao Cao competed with Sun Quan in Huai River, he ordered local residents to move northward. Unexpectedly, hundreds of thousands of families crossed the south of the Yangtze River and increased the strength of Soochow out of thin air.
Take the three brothers Zhuge Liang as an example. They were all intellectuals in the Central Plains, and later they all made their own decisions. My brother Zhu Gejin is a general of Wu, and his brother Zhuge Dan is an official of Wei. He is General Yangzhou and General Dongzhen. At that time, people said, "Shu is a dragon, Wu is a tiger and Wei is a dog." This is just a ranking, and there is no swearing in it. It can be seen that the flow and distribution of talents have created favorable conditions for promoting the economic development of Shu and Wu. If everyone sticks to their purpose and stays in economically developed areas without the necessary flow of talents, the development of backward areas will be slower.
At that time, there was no so-called "embargo" and "economic sanctions", and the state of war did not have much impact on the commercial and trade activities of the three parties. As is the case today, the most developed commercial trade is Wu Dong. Sun Quan used to be very active in farming, but later people abandoned agriculture to do business, or were drafted into the army, so they abandoned agriculture and left. The reason is also the result of the impact of commodity economy. The southeast coast has a superior geographical position and a tradition of doing business. The commercial trade of Dongwu is the most active among the three countries. For example, drinking tea became popular during the Three Kingdoms period, while Wu's tea industry developed earlier. The same is true of porcelain. Anyone who has eaten kimchi in Sichuan knows that kimchi is a dish that keeps vegetables in a special and easy-to-seal ceramic container, and Sichuanese can't live without it every day. Archaeological excavations confirmed that the earliest pickle jar was handed down from Soochow. Wu's army also has a "military market", which is the military market. "If you stop conquering, you will build a military market. Other troops are satisfied with nothing. " ("Reflection? Pan Zhang biography) A group of businessmen who are embedded in the army always follow them to do business everywhere. Unexpectedly, it later played an unexpected role: when attacking Jingzhou, he made soldiers dress up as businessmen doing business with Shu, put on robes and "cross the river in white." "Without such frequent business and trade exchanges, Monroe's strategy could not be put into practice.
Soochow's business has also been done abroad, not only in neighboring countries in Asia, but also in Africa, as far away as Daqin in Europe, that is, the Roman Empire. It is said that Zhuge Liang's nephew Zhuge Ke captured some black dwarf (dwarfs) while begging for Danyang. A businessman of Daqin in Sun Quan's office said that this is very rare in their country, so Sun Quan sent Liu Xian, a member of Huiji, to Daqin with ten men and ten women. It is said that it will take more than a month for a ship with seven sails to arrive from an overseas port. When xelloss just became Wei Wendi, he sent people to Wu Dongsuo to ask for some rare products, such as Quetouxiang, shellfish, pearls, ivory, rhinoceros horn, hawksbill, peacock, jadeite, fighting duck, long-sounding chicken and so on, most of which were not produced in China. Some ministers suggested that Cao Pi's request should be ignored. Sun Quan readily agreed, saying, "What he wants is like a tile stone to me. I can exchange it for a military horse if I don't use it. Why not make a deal with them? " This is the advantage of Wu Dong's developed overseas trade, and it also shows Wu Dong's business mind and combat readiness concept.
It is particularly worth mentioning that it was Wu Dong's voyage fleet that first opened the link between the mainland and Taiwan Province Province. Taiwan Province Province, formerly known as Yizhou, had no contact with the mainland before, but its nearby island (formerly known as Xuzhou) has been a "servant from time to time" since the Qin and Han Dynasties, and Huiji people often drifted here because of the wind. In the second year of Huanglong (230), Sun Quan sent generals Wei Wen and Zhuge to look for these two islands, and only Yizhou was found. This is the earliest record of Taiwan Province Province in history books. Since then, the relationship between Taiwan Province Province and the mainland has gradually become closer.
The result of economic competition among the three countries has promoted the development of their respective economic advantages. Zuo Si, a famous writer in the Western Jin Dynasty, wrote the famous "San Du Fu" after the unification of the three books, describing the magnificent and prosperous scenes of the three capitals, which shows that the development level is relatively close. Later, the Eastern Jin Dynasty moved to the south, and the culture and technology of the Central Plains further spread to the Yangtze River basin, resulting in the muddy and balanced development of the north and the south.
Speaking of it, Wei is roughly equivalent to the northwest of North China today, and its areas are slightly equivalent to East China, South China and Southwest China. Today, it is still the three major economic zones except the Northeast. Their role in the whole country is also vaguely similar to that in the Three Kingdoms period: the north has political and cultural advantages, the southeast coast has convenient commerce and trade, and the southwest has rich resources. In recent years, the "three regional development strategies of East, West and China" put forward by some economic experts is also the change and development of this pattern. In order to revitalize China in an all-round way, it is necessary for all localities to give full play to their own advantages, promote the flow of talents and make rational distribution. These can still get some inspiration from the history of the Three Kingdoms.