Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 720 The road is blocked

When Lu Lingqi saw Yang Feng's scarred and bitter face, she wondered why every time she saw this woman, it seemed like everyone owed her money?
However, Lu Lingqi's mentality has changed a lot since the death of her parents. She can understand Yang Feng's mentality to some extent. Besides, the other party took back the bodies of her parents. After all, she owed the other party a favor, so she came over to meet her and said: "Yang Feng The commander is well, your husband is waiting, please follow me."

Yang Feng nodded slightly, "Then it will be hard work."

Lu Lingqi looked at Yang and found that Yang Feng had no intention of introducing her, so she turned around and took steps, leading Yang Feng into the house.

Zhang Liao must have something important to do until Yang Feng came, so naturally he would not follow him, so he stayed where he was and waited. He felt Yang's secretly looking eyes and only tilted his head slightly, which made Yang quickly lower his head in fright.

When Yang Feng entered, she saw Yuan Xi concentrating on writing on the bamboo slips. She glanced at it from a distance and had to admit that Yuan Xi's handwriting was very good, better than anyone she had ever seen.

Thinking of this, Yang Feng felt very resentful. To be honest, she still couldn't understand Yuan Xi. His behavior was different from anyone she had ever seen and heard. Although his family background was prominent, his achievements in the past few years were not as good as those of others. It can't be explained by the words "disciples of the Yuan family".

But there is only one thing that Yang Feng can be sure of, that is, Yuan Xi and his father Zhang Jiao are both people with great ambitions, but they hide them deeply.

What kind of thoughts did he have to get to where he is today?

Seeing Yang Feng come in, Yuan Xi put down his pen, stood up and said, "Thank you for your hard work, Commander Yang."

"A lot of changes happened in Hongnong this time. They should all be caused by Commander Yang, right?"

"What exactly happened?"

Yang Feng briefly told what he had done in Hongnong, and finally said: "I have also found someone to deliver the envoy's letter to Han Sui, but as for what happened after that, I don't know."

After hearing this, Yuan Xi smiled and said: "So, the woman outside is the bride who was originally going to marry Ma Chao?"

Yang Feng heard this and said alertly: "What do you want to do?"

"I'm warning you not to take advantage of her."

Yuan Xi smiled and said: "Don't worry, I won't be like this."

"Commander Yang, do you want to know what happened to Hongnong after you left?"

Yang Feng was startled, "I came all the way and didn't stop much. How do you know what happened a few days later?"

Yuan Xi smiled and said nothing. Seeing his hateful look, Yang Feng realized that in addition to his own Taiping Dao, Yuan Xi also had an independent spy organization!

This intelligence system can not only transmit important news from far away places, but also transmit it so fast that it may be imitating the transmission method of the inn, but it is more secretive.

Yang Feng's guess was correct. Yuan Xi had already started to build this intelligence network before recruiting the Black Mountain Army soldiers.

Initially, Montenegro was used as the center to train hidden spies. These people have been reviewed at all levels. They are strong-willed and hidden in various places. They are no different from ordinary people. They have a clear division of labor and can deliver the information as quickly as possible. return.

However, the cost of such an intelligence network is extremely high. There are hundreds of such intelligence points, and the horses and logistics used are quite large, not to mention the food and salary for the spies and their families.

However, in Yuan Xi's view, such an investment is undoubtedly cost-effective. After all, in this era, whoever can master more information can take the initiative.

Unlike Cao Cao, Yuan Xi chose to take the route of elite soldiers. The cost of soldiers includes training, food, armor, weapons, and rations to feed their families. When all these are added together, it is an extremely huge number compared to other princes.

With the same expenditure, Cao Cao could recruit several times as many soldiers. The most important factor was determined by the different people's livelihood policies of the two sides.

In the Three Kingdoms of later generations, the reason why Cao Cao frequently raised hundreds of thousands of troops was that although there were civilians among them, Cao Cao's frequency of sending troops was indeed much higher than that of others.

Some people say that this is because Cao Cao occupied a large and wealthy land in the Central Plains after defeating Yuan Shao. This is indeed partly possible, but it is definitely not the main reason.

Because during the Cao Wei period, after years of war, Cao Wei's economic system actually collapsed completely.

Some people in later generations made excuses for the Zhibaician promoted by the Shu Kingdom, but they ignored an important factor. The Zhibaician had a corresponding currency standard, which was Shu Brocade.

At that time, Zhuge Liang vigorously developed sericulture production, and Shu brocade became a commodity in foreign trade and a source of military expenditures.

Just like the currencies of later generations have standard objects, strictly speaking, Zhibai money is similar to the gold standard, which can be said to be the Shu brocade standard.

As for whether Shu brocade can be used as a guarantee for Shu's currency, it can only be said that in the history of Shu, although Jiang Wei's period was almost militancy, Shu's economy has always maintained a relatively stable limit, and the people are not willing to send troops. This matter is far less resistant than the local nobles in Shu.

The main evidence comes from the comparison between the three countries.

At the same time, the currency system of the Wei State completely collapsed. The common people and nobles were all bartering. What were the standard goods used in the exchanges between Wei people and the court? Shu Brocade.

Because of its good and stable quality, Shu Brocade was loved by the Three Kingdoms, especially among the nobles, and became an important standard for goods exchange.

Cao Pi was still suffering from a headache, so he specially summoned the ministers and nobles to persuade them to use brocade produced locally in Wei.

Compared with the Wei State, whose economy had completely collapsed, the situation in the Wu State was better. At that time, Jiangdong was full of miasma and mountainous people. The farming technology was very backward, and there were no cattle for farming. This is why the Central Plains gentry looked down on the Jiangdong gentry. .

However, with the war in the Central Plains, a large number of people from Jiangbei fled to Jiangdong, bringing with them a large amount of production technology, and Jiangdong's economy began to develop rapidly.

But even so, Jiangdong's currency system is no different. Daquan Wuqian is an obvious example.

Sun Ce issued two kinds of ultra-high-denomination money, Daquan Two Thousand and Daquan Five Thousand, but did not set a standard. Therefore, when they appeared, prices rose wildly. As a result, even the dependents of senior officials of the Wu court were killed. Everyone began to go hungry, people were panicked for a while, the crime rate soared, and the social economy was about to collapse.

In the end, Jiangdong's currency depreciated so ridiculously. Take when Lu Meng conquered Jingzhou as an example, Sun Quan ordered a reward of [-] million. However, when converted, the money was actually not as much as a fortune teller's daily income, and in the end he could only offset it with goods.

Thousands of years later, this situation also appeared again under the leadership of a certain reactionary regime leader. Considering his relationship with the instigator, Sun Quan, it can be said that the tradition is in the same vein.

Therefore, due to the wars during the Three Kingdoms period, the economy of the three countries was not very good, but if you have to be taller among the short ones, Shu is the most normal one.

But since Cao Wei's economy has collapsed, why can he still suppress Shu?
Is it simply because of the vast territory and large number of people?
Of course not. Cao Wei's income mainly came from five items, land rent, tariffs, fines, official business, and mandatory foreign tribute.

The bulk of this is naturally land rent.

According to records, after Cao Cao welcomed Emperor Xian to Xuchang, he implemented farming near Xuchang with the principle of strengthening the army and having enough food. As a result, he recruited people to farm and promised to harvest millions of dendrobium grains that year.

The question is, why can we get so much food?
The answer lies in the household registration numbers.

Take Yanzhou as an example. In just a dozen years after Cao Cao acquired Yanzhou, the household registration in Yanzhou dropped sharply from 72 to [-].

Although there was war and epidemics, the death toll was definitely not that high. The reason was still the farming system.

Soldiers and civilians stationed in the fields are not included in the household registration.

Compared with the common people under Cao Wei's rule, ten taxes were paid to one, farmers in the fields were taxed five to ten, military households paid all taxes, and rations were distributed uniformly.

Not only that, in order to ensure fertility, the widows of soldiers who died in battle would also be forced by Cao Wei to remarry after their husbands died.

Strictly speaking, this approach has returned to a slave-owning society, but it has effectively guaranteed Cao Wei's supply of troops and food.

Therefore, Cao Cao's farming system was a crushing existence for other people in this era. Although it overdrawn the future and caused many sequelae, as long as the world was unified, production could be resumed.

This is why today, Cao Cao, who has implemented the farming system for several years, can pull out tens of thousands of troops at any time. This is because this set of things essentially imitates the military mobilization implemented by Qin and Zhao during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The system leaves no escape route. If you win, you can conquer the world. If you lose, you will completely collapse.

This approach would not be possible for Yuan Shao and his subsequent successor Yuan Shang in Jizhou.

Because Yuan Shao had a tacit understanding with the Hebei gentry in order to settle in Jizhou, his policies were mainly to implement benevolent government and protect people's livelihood, which in disguise also protected the interests of the gentry who had more land.

The successor Yuan Shang had an unstable foothold and needed the support of the Jizhou nobles, so he would naturally not implement such extreme policies as the farming system. Therefore, although Jizhou had a profound foundation, the speed of recruiting troops was far behind Cao Cao.

As for the Yanzhou nobles who might have opposed Cao Cao in Yanzhou, they were naturally killed by Cao Cao before and after the Yanzhou Rebellion.

The most ironic thing about this incident is that the aristocratic family has occupied the land of ordinary people, forcing them to become homeless and become slaves and vassals. Naturally, the people hate them deeply.

But after Cao Cao arrived and got rid of the Yanzhou nobles, the people of Yanzhou even had time to be happy. They changed from landlord slaves to farm slaves, and their situation became even worse.

The Yanzhou nobles were very dissatisfied, so they united with the Zhang Miao brothers to support Lu Bu and confront Cao Cao, which caused a lot of trouble to Cao Cao. Therefore, Cao Cao later changed his policy. While establishing the farmland system, he used benefits to appease and bribe the nobles.

This is the truth about how 70 households in Yanzhou were transformed into [-] households. What is hidden behind this is that countless people have become slaves and servants, and their names have been removed from the household registration.

Now that Cao Cao has occupied Yuzhou and Sili in addition to Yanzhou, the recruitment speed has been greatly accelerated. Although many people have died, the rapid replacement is Yuan Xi's biggest headache at the moment.

When Yuan Xi took control of Youzhou, he also eliminated some stubborn landlords and nobles in advance, but his main purpose was to recover the land. He could not learn such things as the farming system.

Therefore, he could only spend his limited money on elite soldiers and technological reforms. He believed that with the knowledge of future generations, he should be able to find a different path from Cao Cao.

(End of this chapter)