At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 251: Crying for poverty and the new power structure

Zhang Liang said helplessly: "Your Majesty, your "Dahan Monthly" is the main reason for this conflict. In life, you only pursue fame and fortune, especially these county governors who already have it. They are even more obsessed with fame. You are promoting Ye like this." Tenghe merchants and farmers are roasting them on the fire. I suggest that in the future we should promote officials below the county magistrate."

Not to mention these governors, even Zhang Liang was jealous of Ye Teng and Shang Nong's propaganda. This made the two of them capable ministers who will go down in history. Even if the Han Dynasty perishes, their deeds will still be spread, and he Zhang Not many people may remember Liang, a great Han prime minister.

Chen Ping also said: "Chen County is now prosperous. Although it cannot be said that there is no contribution from merchants and farmers, the main contribution is the development strategy formulated by His Majesty. Ye Teng of Kuaiji County is only an executor. The governors everywhere know this. , that’s why they are dissatisfied with Ye Teng and Shang Nong.”

Xu Fan said: "I was wrong this time. From now on, Dahan Monthly will encourage lower-level Han officials and ordinary people who have made outstanding achievements in ordinary positions."

Xu Fan recalled that it seemed that some incentives were in the wrong direction.

While Xu Fan and Zhang Liang were discussing, Zhou Zhang made a calculation with an abacus and said happily: "This year, the land tax of my great man has reached 1 million dan, the tax is 2000 jin, and the income of the young government is 26 jin. This is already Taxes are even higher than those in the Qin Dynasty at its peak."

Xu Fan smiled and said: "This is a policy we have formulated that is more reasonable than Great Qin's."

The biggest advantage of dividing the land from one person to another is that taxation is fair. The property owners are taxed more and the gangsters are not taxed. The experience of later generations also shows that such fair taxation is the best way to effectively reduce economic crises and alleviate conflicts. Unfortunately, most countries are unable to do this.

Xu Fan continued to calculate: "If 8000% of the tax is left to the local area, the imperial court can mobilize more than 34 million shi of food. With dan in taxes, the imperial court can do a lot more."

The agricultural era is no different from the industrial era. There is no way to borrow money for development. Instead, every country has to find ways to store all resources to deal with sudden natural and man-made disasters, wars and other accidents.

However, after importing grain from various counties into Aocang, after the consumption on the road, only tens of millions of shi of grain may actually enter Aocang. The cost of transportation in this era is too high, and even Xu Fan, who is tall, feels that it is not worthwhile.

On October 10th, the third year of the Han Dynasty.

Zhou Zhang knew Xu Fan very well. One look at Xu Fan's face and he knew that Xu Fan was thinking about another big project.

Zhang Liang and Chen Ping only found it funny. The Prime Minister was worried that His Majesty would act recklessly and make the same mistakes as the First Emperor. His Majesty was worried that the Han officials would act recklessly and make the same mistakes as the Qin officials. This became a closed spiral loop.

Therefore, it is true that Zhou Zhang is worried about Xu Fan's large-scale construction project. Now the only lands in the world that can still benefit from war are Wei and Qi. The more other forces send out more troops, the worse they will suffer.

Therefore, in addition to its own administrative expenses, education expenses, military expenses, and food reserves, the Han Dynasty had to mobilize materials for the development of agriculture and handicrafts.

Xu Fan said helplessly: "We still need to formulate a budget bill to know how much the court receives and how much it spends every year."

After two days of review, Prime Minister Zhou Zhang teamed up with multiple departments of Jiuqing to calculate the Han Dynasty's one-year financial budget.

Xu Fan originally wanted to calculate it, but found that it was impossible to calculate it in a short time.

If he wants to control the expansion instinct of the Han officials, he can't keep an eye on him alone. He can only leave it to the powerful people in the world. Naturally, they are not good people, but compared with the officials, their local local snakes will not feed these people. To harm one's own interests.

Han Xin and others captured Sishui County. Donghai County was still a positive benefit to the Han Dynasty. The wealth of those powerful nobles could satisfy the rewards of the soldiers, but Shanggu County was really a remote place. After capturing this place, the Han army not only had no benefits, but also gained a few more Wan wanted to help the victims, and Xu Fan's treatment of the Han army had always been the highest among all parties. This was also the guarantee of the Han army's strong combat effectiveness. The reward for these 30,000 soldiers was hundreds of millions of dollars.

After excluding fixed expenses, Dahan's balance for the year was also calculated. The balance of food was 4000 million dan and the money was 12 jin. But there are still 2000 million stones of grain to be imported into Aocang. Zhou Zhang's safety bottom line for Aocang is 1 million stones of grain. Don't think this number is an exaggeration, but it is only two-thirds of the former Qin Dynasty.

Xu Fan continued: "This matter will be left to you, Prime Minister. Every year, this budget must be submitted to the Council of Sages for review and approval. Counties and counties must also have such draft budgets, and the sages of counties and counties will review the court's budget. expenditure."

Ji Xin and his 30,000 soldiers will be rewarded, Han Xin and his 50,000 soldiers will also be rewarded, and Dai Guo will send 20,000 troops. Your Majesty, you must reward Dai Wang and his soldiers, and Aocang will also need to replenish food to prepare for natural and man-made disasters. The court There are not many resources that can really be mobilized. "

Zhou Zhang said with an ugly face: "No!"

He didn't expect Xu Fan to give him such a backhand move, but he couldn't say anything.

He immediately dissuaded him: "This is only the income of the imperial court. You have not counted the expenses of the imperial court. There are 5 officials in the Xianyang imperial court, and 11 craftsmen in Guanzhong. You have also recruited tens of thousands of masters. They The salary is also a large expense, as well as the daily expenses and salary of the standing army, and the supplementary expenses of the arsenals in various places, which the court must reserve.

Officials have the instinct to expand. Look at the Song Dynasty in later generations. Dozens of officials could not do their job well, which directly emptied the finances of the so-called richest dynasty. Sixty years before the founding of a dynasty, this year should It was a prosperous period, and as a result, the Song Dynasty had constant peasant uprisings internally, and externally it could not even defeat the small Xixia. It was considered a great achievement to be able to do this.

Xu Fan asked Zhou Zhang to find three more conveniently located places in the Central Plains to build granaries to store grain. Zhou Zhang thought that he wanted to have a food security bottom line of hundreds of millions of stone. If he used the current method, it would take at least 5 years to accumulate, but if he built a few more granaries , the transfer consumption can be saved by half, and in just three years, the Han Dynasty can reserve hundreds of millions of grains of food, so he agreed.

This may be the benefit of a big country. As long as there is internal peace, there are too many resources that can be mobilized to develop industrialization. Especially Xu Fan experienced the nightmare difficulty in his previous life, but now the Han Dynasty is experiencing the simplest mode.

At the same time, this incident also made Xu Fan realize that the Han Dynasty was going to establish a nationwide bank. If there was such a national bank, the Han Dynasty's tax materials would not need to be collected from everywhere. They would only be concentrated in a few places with easy access to all directions. Granaries are enough, and even storage centers are established in various counties and counties. This will not only mobilize the entire Han Dynasty's materials very quickly, but also greatly reduce consumption.

Just like transporting grain to Aocang, if the Han Dynasty does it by himself, it may consume half of the grain. If it is divided into several granaries and mobilized, the cost will be reduced by half. If each county has its own granary, the cost may not even be a tenth. . As for the lack of consumption, Xu Fan knew that it was almost impossible. As long as there was a granary, rats would follow them everywhere. This kind of thing was impossible to avoid.

On October 11th, the third year of the Han Dynasty.

The much-anticipated imperial examination of the Han Dynasty begins. The examiner of the imperial examination is Kong Yu, one of the Nine Qings. There were tens of thousands of candidates taking part in this imperial examination in the entire city of Chang'an, and the attention of the entire city was attracted by this imperial examination.

But for the senior officials of the Han Dynasty, the imperial examination was just a test for some minor officials. Especially this time, the people who were tested in the imperial examination were technical officials. They had to study for at least one year, which they basically had no use for, so they didn't care about it at all. thing.

For the princes and county guards who came to the Han Dynasty, they were more concerned about what Xu Fan wrote in the "Han Monthly" about the class conflicts and solutions in the counties of the Han Dynasty. Prioritize the development of the characteristic industries of each county, follow the way of heaven, and use rich counties to supplement poor counties. It is said that the finances of the Han Dynasty will be transferred to poor counties.

This is almost common sense to Xu Fan. If the Han Dynasty wants to develop rapidly, it must invest in infrastructure construction. The infrastructure construction in this era is not only the repair of waterways, the construction of docks, but also the construction of canals.

And the princes of various counties and counties know that the imperial court has a balance of 4000 million shi this year and 12 gold. Even if they import 2000 million shi from Aocang, there will still be 2000 million grain. Such a sum of food can solve many of their problems even if it is only a drop in the bucket. . So Cao Xing was the first to find Xu Fan and said, "Your Majesty, the people in my county are suffering."

"In the Central Plains, a field that can harvest one stone of grain is already a lower field, but in my Shangjun, this is already a middle field. I have never seen a field that can harvest three stones of grain in Shangjun. You don't know the topography of Shangjun. There are thousands of ravines and ravines, and it’s obviously the hilltop opposite. It’s impossible to reach them without walking for a day. In summer, heavy rains will wash away all the fields. In other seasons, if you don’t get a drop of rain, you can’t even see the river in Shangjun. A few of them are either Gobi or desert.

Your Majesty, you know that I live by the water and feel uncomfortable if I don’t take a shower for a day. After I went to Shangjun, I took a bath only once in a whole year, and that was before coming to Chang'an. The life of a certain prefect was so difficult, let alone the situation of ordinary people. Without the support of the imperial court, it would be difficult for the local people to survive. "

Although Shangjun in this era was better than in later generations, compared with other counties in the world, the environmental gap may be even greater than in later generations. They also had to face the powerful enemy of the Hu people. It can only be said that living on the frontier in this era was really difficult. .

Xu Fan said: "Your Shangjun must rely on its own characteristics to develop. First of all, you must plant more trees. You are in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River. If you cut down too many trees, it will easily cause soil erosion. In this way, not only will the land in Shangjun be barren, but also It can easily cause flooding downstream.”

Cao Xing said with a bitter face: "The trees cannot be eaten. Your Majesty, you are trying to starve the people in my county to death."

"You don't need to send your land tax to the court. These taxes are used to recruit people to build forts to resist the barbarians. The court will support you with another 100 million stones of grain, which is used to recruit people and plant trees to control the desert. The taxes from Shangjun are not much. I don't know. It’s strange, but if you don’t plant enough trees, the court will punish you.”

Xu Fan remembered that it seemed that starting from the Han Dynasty, the river became more and more out of control, and finally turned into the Yellow River. From now on, environmental management must begin, otherwise the people will suffer from the Yellow River for the next two thousand years.

"Although this amount of food can improve the lives of the people in Shangjun, it is better to teach people how to fish than to teach them how to fish. Please help us find a path for development in Shangjun."

Xu Fan said: "There is less rain in Shangjun. You should develop animal husbandry. Raise more cattle and sheep. The cattle can be sold to Guanzhong to be used as cattle. The sheep can also harvest wool and start a wool textile industry. It happens that you also have advantages. I am a big man. The desert will be a hundred times richer. If you find a way to attract more barbarians as common people, then you will have cattle and sheep, there will be herders, and there will be fewer enemies. It can be said that you kill two birds with one stone."

Xu Fan would not worry about people who are not from my race having different hearts. If he directly absorbs these barbarians into Han people, they would no longer be from his race.

The two Han Dynasties were a little better. Those idiots in the Western Jin Dynasty treated the barbarians and the people of their own country as slaves. They didn't want them to rebel. They really thought they had blood to suppress them. They were weak and could beat the barbarians. These people were Eating too much Wushisan damaged my brain.

As long as they change their living habits, Hu people can become Han people, make green storage fodder, and breed in designated areas. This is very different from farming.

If the north wants to develop, the wool textile industry must be indispensable. At this time, the Huns were also in the wool textile industry, that is, they made felts. Of course, except for the use of barbarians, the Han people disdained this stuff.

But there is not much difficulty in technological development. Use lime water to eliminate cellulite and remove odor, and then spin the wool into wool. The thicker ones can be made into sweaters, and the finer ones can be made into wool cloth. In this way, an industry that can feed tens of millions of people is born. , with a closely connected economic system, the Han Dynasty can naturally integrate with the grassland.

Cao Xing said happily: "Your Majesty, we have agreed that I will wait for you to build a large textile factory. My requirements are not high. As long as the textile factory has one-tenth of the size of Chen County, I will be satisfied."

Xu Fan smiled and scolded: "One-tenth is not greedy."

After Cao Xing's successful example, others also came to Xu Fan. When a group of people came to Xu Fan, Xu Fan simply summoned all the county guards and the sages who came to Chang'an City to discuss together how to distribute the imperial court's financial balance.

Xu Fan was the first to speak: "Most of the problems in the world are about money and food. The Han Dynasty only has so much balance. Everyone, tell us what you want to do and see whose problem is more important. This time I am convening all the people in the world. Sages, because they are the most knowledgeable people in the world, they can definitely tell which thing is more important."

Poor and humble couples suffer from everything. This saying can not only be applied to people, but also to the court. Our Ming Dynasty can be said to be impoverished, and our Song Dynasty can also be said to have caused a political crisis because of lack of money. Other dynasties, as long as they are dynasties At the end of the world, everyone is in an economic crisis. In the final analysis, there is still no money. If you have money, you will have ways to deal with it even if there is a crisis.

After Xu Fan finished speaking, the scene was extremely quiet. This was the first time for the Han Dynasty governors to encounter such a situation. They did not dare to speak easily for fear of making mistakes.

Sages like Jing Yi and Xiang Biao were extremely pleasantly surprised. Last year, they were asked to discuss the formulation of the laws of the Han Dynasty. This made them overjoyed. But this year, even such important state affairs were entrusted to them for discussion.

"I can't imagine that His Majesty would even let us participate in such a thing. Senior officials worth 2000 shi would look at our faces. Our combined power exceeds that of the nine ministers of the imperial court." Jing Yi whispered to Xiang Biao.

Xiang Biao said: "We still underestimated the importance of this sage association. We originally thought it was just a bead embellishment on His Majesty's crown, but now it seems that we are at least His Majesty's emperor's seal."

This Sage Association is obviously not as dispensable as they seem. Instead, its future is limitless. If they can control the Sage Association, then their power is not equivalent to that of the prime minister of the Han Dynasty. Jing Yi and Xiang Biao dare not Think about it no more.

After being silent for a long time, Xu Fan saw that no one spoke and said with a smile: "Since you don't say anything about the court's financial decisions, just follow the court's ideas."

Chen Ying, the governor of Shu County, said: "Your Majesty, Duke Chen led 3 troops to Nanzhong. The granaries for these people were provided by Shuzhong. However, the road in Nanzhong is too rugged. The narrowest point is only five feet. To transport one stone of grain to Chen State will cost ten stones. I ask you to build a road from Shuzhong to Nanzhong."

Zhang Qiang, the governor of Nanjun, immediately retorted: "Wuchi Road, when the Qin State mobilized all its might to open up this point, transporting grain consumes a lot of money, but the road you built is more than a hundred times larger than transporting grain, so it is not cost-effective at all."

The First Emperor was an infrastructure maniac. At that time, he built Chi Road to connect the entire world, but the Five-foot Road was the most famous because the geographical environment here was complex and dangerous. The construction of this road caused countless casualties to the people. In order to build this road, the Qin State sacrificed a lot. They paid a heavy price. If the opposite side of Wuchi Road was a rich country, the people would be able to accept the price. But behind Wuchi Road was a group of barbarians, and the Qin people had nothing to grab even if they wanted to.

This greatly damaged the morale of the Qin army. Even the people in Guanzhong thought it was useless to complain to the First Emperor about building such a road.

Sure enough, dozens of sages frowned when they heard that the Five-foot Road was to be built. This reminded them of the death of the first emperor when he built the Chidao, and the Five-foot Road had the highest death rate among all projects.

The sage from Shu County even said directly: "It is better not to carry out such a project that harms the people. Even if it is completed, what can be done? Make a deal with those savages and build a galloping road for 2 people. How many people will be killed or injured?" Thousands of people are not worth it.”

If this project is really going to start, the people from Shu will definitely be recruited. They suffered heavy casualties for this road in the first place. They don't want to experience such a thing again.

Xiang Biao originally wanted to refute. After all, his son's kingdom was just opposite Wuchi Road, but he thought that everyone disagreed. What he said would definitely affect his prestige. Maybe next time he wouldn't even be a sage, and he didn't do it before. It was inappropriate, but now he found that the sage had so much power and didn't want to lose this power, so he didn't speak out.

It’s no use that so many people are against me and I’m in favor. Xiang Biao can only comfort himself like this
Almost all the sages were right, and Chen Ying's proposal was naturally not passed.

It was a bad start, and the scene became even more silent.

(End of this chapter)