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

Chapter 284: Difficult Food Stamps and Reasonable Court

The fourth day of July in the fourth year of Han Dynasty.

After Tian Guang and others fled to the Han Dynasty, Ge Ying sent a large number of spies to Qi State, but what these spies brought was not good news. After Xiang Yu destroyed Tian Heng, the situation in Qi State changed three times a day.

July 7, the fourth year of Han Dynasty.

Xiang Yu's general Zhong Lizhen led 5000 soldiers to conquer Jimo, and then the counties of Jiaodong Kingdom surrendered. The Jiaodong Kingdom, which had existed for two years, was destroyed in less than ten days. This was not beyond Ge Ying's expectation.

What really surprised Ge Ying was that after Xiang Yu destroyed the Jiaodong Kingdom, because he discovered the collusion between the Qi aristocrats and Tian Heng, he actually launched a purge against the Qi aristocrats, and a large number of the Qi aristocrats fled to the Han Dynasty.

And Tian Guang was even more sad and angry when he found out about this. Xiang Yu purged people according to their relationship with the Tian family. The more relatives of the Tian family were purged, the cleaner they were. In other words, Xiang Yu killed all Tian Guang's relatives. .

However, Tian Guang didn't even have many soldiers in his hands, and he couldn't take revenge, so he led these nobles and powerful men to kneel down at the Zhendong General's Mansion and cry, asking the big man to make the decision for them.

Ge Ying was so noisy that he had no choice but to come out to see them.

Seeing a group of big men crying here, Ge Ying instinctively said irritably: "You know how to cry. Crying can kill Xiang Yu. If you want to be a man, just take your sword and fight Xiang Yu and avenge yourself."

"General, Xiang Yu is cruel and unkind, and now he is killing the people of our country of Qi. General, please inform the emperor to make decisions for the people of our country of Qi." Tian Guang knelt in front of Ge Ying and said.

But in the Prime Minister's Mansion of the Han Dynasty, there were countless Han officials busy coming in and out.

Ge Ying and the others may not care about the nobles and power of Qi, but they have to care about the emperor's reputation. If Xiang Yu is allowed to act recklessly in Qi and the Han Dynasty does not stop him, it is really possible that, as Tian Guang said, the emperor's order will not be able to get out of Guanzhong. .

"Please also ask the general to inform the emperor to make decisions for our people in Qi." The nobles of Qi who escaped from Qi State said in unison.

"Thank you, general." Tian Guang said forcefully as he led the nobles of Qi State.

Ge Ying and Zhang He both looked at Tian Jie with dissatisfaction. What do you mean by the Emperor of Zhou who refuses to issue government orders and treats His Majesty as a puppet?

Then Ge Ying sent envoys to warn Xiang Yu, and at the same time sent people to report what happened in Qi to the emperor and the court.

The current Northern Expedition is extremely consuming. In less than half a year, tens of millions of stones of grain and grass have been transported from Guanzhong to Jiuyuan County. However, of these tens of millions of stones of grain and grass, only 300 million stones are left after arriving in Jiuyuan County. This is still the foundation of the Qin Zhidao laid by the First Emperor. If we follow the consumption in the period when there was no Zhidao, if we want to transport 300 million shi of grain to Jiuyuan County, 3000 million shi will be consumed on the road. The logistics cost in this era is too high.

So Ge Ying said: "I will send an envoy to warn Xiang Yu, and at the same time report what happened in Qi to the court and the emperor. As for the emperor's decision, it is beyond my control. You can wait for the news."

Zhou Zhang said: "How much food and money does a track carriage that travels thousands of miles cost?"

The 27th day of the seventh month in the fourth year of the Han Dynasty.

Zhou Zhang nodded.

Tian Guang is now focusing on using his righteousness to suppress Ge Ying.

Tian Jie immediately said: "The Emperor is the common ruler of the world who we all support, and he is also the monarch of our people in Qi. Now Xiang Yu is killing innocent people indiscriminately. Only the Emperor in the world can stop Xiang Yu's actions. If the Emperor continues to commit such atrocities, If we don’t deal with it, I’m afraid that all the princes in the world will not care about the emperor’s orders. When the time comes, the emperor’s orders will not be able to get out of Guanzhong, and the world will enter the Warring States Period again.”

It's okay to divide the land and property. Why kill people and kill the whole clan? Why do it so cruelly?

Shi Xiaohe, the chief minister of the Prime Minister's Office, said: "We have left the Lantian Granary."

But the two of them were also embarrassed by Xiang Yu's atrocities. They really wanted to run to Xiang Yu and say: "This is not how you fight against nobles and powerful men."

Xiao He took out a memorial and said: "The young master ordered Qin Bo to propose rebuilding the Qin track carriage. This can reduce the number of civilians by 90% and the time of transporting grain and grass five times."

Zhou Zhang, the Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty, said with a tired face: "Has the new batch of grain been transported?"

Ge Ying didn't like Xiang Yu, but he also disliked the tyranny of these Qi nobles. They dared to betray Xiang Yu but didn't dare to, and now he wanted to drag them into trouble.

At this time, the sun in Guanzhong was blazing, the heat was scorching, and a ball of fire seemed to flow in the air. Even Ba Shang's cry of cicadas began to sound weak.

Xiao He said: "According to Qin Shaofu's idea, if the track is laid on the Qin Straight Road, it only needs to have enough trees. The trees can be cut down in the Qinling Mountains, and then carpenters can be used to make the track. The technology is not difficult. A 1-mile track is about 100 million yuan. According to the maintenance cost of the steel plant, it costs 10 yuan to maintain on the track every year.”

After hearing this, Zhou Zhang immediately shook his head and said: "This is not a track. It is simply a gold-swallowing giant beast. I, a big man, cannot afford to repair it. If I don't repair it, I won't repair it."

According to the calculation, one mile of track costs about 1 million yuan, and a thousand miles of straight road costs more than one billion. This amount of money can be barely tolerated by the Han Dynasty court. It can save 100% of the common people and several million stones of food. The cost of this track This saves more than half of the cost, and it is worth the money.

But if the Han court had to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a road every year, even a court as aggressive as the Qin Dynasty could not bear it. Now Zhou Zhang understood why Bao Qin demolished his wooden rails. Even the First Emperor could not bear this kind of continuous consumption.

Zhou Zhang said: "How is the distribution of food stamps going? The people have no complaints, right?"

Food stamps are a new policy created by Zhou Zhang for the sake of food, and it is also a policy of last resort.

This Han-Hungarian war has been going on for more than three months. Guanzhong has transported tens of millions of shi of grain to Jiuyuan County, and Aocang has transported 15 million shi of grain to Pingcheng. The Han Dynasty's surplus grain from last year can be It is said that all of it was consumed in this war, and the Han Dynasty's granary fell below the warning line again.

And this is not over yet. There is no corvee in the Han Dynasty. If you want to hire people, you have to spend money on food. According to the current policy of the Han Dynasty, each commoner's daily salary is 10 kilograms of grain or 8 yuan.

The daily salary of these millions of civilians is tens of millions of catties of grain, and the salary of these civilians is an expense of close to thousands of dan, which is an unbearable burden for the Han Dynasty's precarious grain depot.

And this is not over yet. Guanzhong, which is rich in grain products, can provide this amount, but places like Shangjun, which already rely on government relief, cannot provide this grain at all, and there are thousands of miles of grain roads from Chang'an City to Jiuyuan County. , these poor places account for the vast majority. If you want to give the people a salary, you have to re-transport food to poor places like Shangjun, because it is impossible for the people to come to Guanzhong to get their salary back.

But transporting grain to Shangjun and Jiuyuan County is a huge expense, not even much less than the expense of the army.

In order to solve this problem, Zhou Zhang discussed with the three officials and nine ministers of the entire Han Dynasty for several days, and finally came up with a food stamp system. If every civilian earned enough 1 stone of food, the court would give him a one-stone food stamp. certificate.

Folks can take this food stamp and exchange it for one stone of grain in their hometown, or agricultural tools, cloth, wheelbarrows, carriages and other production tools produced by the Han Dynasty's Shaofu with the same value as the Han Dynasty, so as to reduce the cost of food. The most important thing is Yes, these farm tools and cloth are goods that can be produced by the imperial government, and their size is more convenient to transport to places like Shangjun than food.

At the same time, he also wants to buy back some private grain in this way. For example, a wheelbarrow cost 300 yuan. It was difficult for the villagers to buy the full amount of food stamps in their hands, so they had to sell a certain amount of grain to the court to buy a wheelbarrow. This was considered a modified agricultural tool brought to the village.

Zhou Zhang was extremely cautious about this new policy. He first piloted it in Guanzhong, and at the same time ordered Wu Guang to send a censor to supervise the whole process.

And the effect is indeed good. The people in Guanzhong have had a good harvest. This year's food seems to be no worse than last year, and it will be another good harvest year. There is no shortage of food in the people's homes, and the cloth, sickles, iron tools, iron plows, etc. produced by the Han Dynasty Cheap and good quality are also what they need.

Seeing that the autumn harvest is coming, farmers' homes are indeed short of sickles, windmills, threshers and other agricultural tools. People use the food stamps in their hands to buy Dahan's goods, forming a positive interaction. Not to mention, Lantian Granary also recycled 300 million shi of food. .

With such a good start, Zhou Zhang fully extended the food stamp system to the counties and counties surrounding the two grain roads. Xiao He said: "The people in Guanzhong are okay. They trust the court and are willing to keep food stamps in their hands. There are even people who save food stamps to buy large items such as waterwheels and windmills."

Zhou Zhang then smiled and nodded.

Xiao He continued: "It's just that the people in the border counties are still a little suspicious of the imperial court. After receiving the food stamps in their hands, they will quickly exchange them for cloth and iron items. Prefect Cao and the others want the imperial court to transport more cloth and iron items to meet the people's exchange needs."

For food stamps to be operational, there must be a storage center belonging to the Han Dynasty, and almost every county must have one, so as to meet the exchange requirements of farmers. Only the Han Dynasty could create such a huge logistics network. , so Zhou Zhang built a warehouse in each county of these two grain roads.

In order to fight for the interests of their people, Cao Xing, the governor of border counties, wrote to the court to replenish goods almost every month.

Zhou Zhang said with a helpless smile: "These governors are still afraid of receiving a bunch of food stamps when they collect taxes."

In order to deal with those poor counties with poor logistics, and also to allow the people to hold food stamps with peace of mind, when giving them food stamps, the Han officials told them that these food stamps can be deducted from taxes, and using the food stamps to deduct taxes, one stone can be used. The tax is converted into nine buckets.

This policy of the imperial court took care of the farmers, but it frightened the governors like Cao Xing. The imperial court issued a pile of blank papers but asked them to collect them. They were uneasy with the food stamps in their hands, and many even refused to accept them. It can be seen that even Zhou Zhang's prestige is insufficient if he wants to promote food stamps and make them accepted by the people and officials all over the world.

But when Xu Fan learned about this, he was surprised to find that it was similar to a bank note. He didn't expect that Dahan's finance had advanced to such an extent. It was half credit and half physical currency.

This was a good thing for the Han Dynasty. Of course Xu Fan strongly supported it. He first reprimanded those magistrates who refused food stamps and ordered them to accept food stamps. Anyone who dared to violate this order would be dismissed from office and go to the Hanli Academy for education. .

This is a credit currency issued by the Han Dynasty himself. If you want to circulate it, you can't slap yourself in the face. I, Xu Fan, am not Zhu Yuanzhang.

Some people in Xu Fan looked down on Zhu Yuanzhang. Although he had the lowest status among the emperors in the past, he was a king with perfect military scores, a passing political standard, and a failing economy. Without any economic acumen, he is largely responsible for the Ming Dynasty, the poorest court in 5000 years.

Moreover, his series of tricks are too similar to his current boss. Xu Fan, who was born as a wage earner, personally hates this kind of person.

Xu Fan wrote to Zhou Zhang and told Zhou Zhang to build too many warehouses, which would be difficult for even a big man to manage. He wanted to streamline several high-value goods that were easy to store. Food stamps could be anchored by three goods: grain, cloth and sugar.

Xu Fan was worried that the imperial court had too many goods and would build a bunch of shops. Xu Fan knew what the government-owned shops would look like. He didn't want to raise a bunch of little mice.

At the same time, he told Zhou Zhang that Dahan's sugar must be purchased with food stamps, in order to speed up the circulation of food stamps.

Xiao He said with a smile: "After all, this is a new thing. It is understandable that the county magistrates and magistrates everywhere are nervous. As long as they find that food stamps can be tax-deducted this year, they will accept it."

Zhou Zhang nodded. After all, the source of taxation in the world is the imperial court. If the imperial court accepts it, the governors and magistrates of the world will accept it. If these governors and magistrates accept it, the people of the world will naturally accept it.

"Prime Minister, there is an urgent military situation." A Han official said in a panic, holding up a letter.

Zhou Zhang took it, opened the letter inside, his face became ugly and said: "Xiang Yu is getting more and more excessive, and the court needs to prepare. I am writing to Your Majesty, saying that great changes have occurred in Qi State, and please end the war between Han and Hungary as soon as possible. "

In Zhou Zhang's view, the Huns were just scabies, and Xiang Yu of Qi was the real problem. If the war with the Huns was not ended, if Xiang Yu invaded the Central Plains, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Xiao He said: "No."

The words are divided into two parts.

Neishi County, Qin Zhidao.

A huge transport team was traveling on this primitive highway. There were baggage carriages, ox carts, and a large number of wheelbarrows in this team, which were filled with grain. Even the wheelbarrows were piled high.

July is a hot day, the sun is extremely bright, and every citizen in the baggage team is so hot that they are sweating. The manager of the Han Dynasty looked at the sky and found that the sky was clear and there was no cloud at all.

He cursed: "The sun is really hot to death. Let's take a break for half an hour to hide from the sun."

"promise!"

After the order was given, the peasants quickly pulled their cattle carts and carriages under the shade of the trees. At the same time, they took out wooden trays to get clean water for their cattle and horses. Wealthy people would even put a little coarse salt for these cattle and horses to eat.

Li Changjiang Tao shook his head and said: "What a sin. In the past, people didn't have salt to eat, but now they give it to animals."

Although he said this, when he fetched water, he still put some coarse salt in it to feed his cattle.

Since the popularization of sun-drying salt technology, salt fields have been established in coastal counties and counties in Dahan. Salt fields have no technical difficulties at all. It can be said that the investment is small and the benefits are large. The area of ​​Dahan's salt fields has expanded by one million acres in the past year, and in July, the production capacity of salt fields highest month.

Kuaiji salt, Donghai salt, Julu salt, and Guangyang salt have all appeared one after another. The price of coarse salt has plummeted to one-tenth of the previous price. Only the high-quality Hedong well salt and Shuzhong well salt can barely maintain high prices.

Fusu smiled and said: "This is the benevolence of the emperor, otherwise we and other common people can have such cheap salt?"

Then Fusu sighed: "I didn't expect that being a civilian husband would be so hard."

There is no longer compulsory corvee service in the Han Dynasty. Originally, under Fusu's conditions, there was no need to be a civil servant at all. However, Fusu believed that the reason why Da Qin Jiangshan turned the world against him was because of excessive corvee service, so he also wanted to be a civil servant. Experience the hard work of being a civilian husband.

Li Changjiang Tao said: "This is not a hard work. We only need to transport the grain to Shangjun. We are less than a hundred miles away from home. When the Qin Dynasty broke out, the First Emperor also wanted to fight the Huns. I am still young. We It took more than half a year to transport food from Guanzhong to Jiuyuan County, and there was nothing. I don’t know how many people died during this thousands of miles.”

"And later the First Emperor asked us to build a straight road. I have also built this road. Zhao Li doesn't know how many people starved to death on the straight road. Even the little old man almost died here."

Fusu asked: "The imperial court will provide food for the common people. I remember that heavy labor is one bucket of eight liters per day. How can I starve to death?"

Jiang Tao said: "Although the imperial court stipulates this, it cannot withstand the corruption and oppression of Qin officials. Half of the grain in our hands is considered good. Moreover, this grain is either moldy or contains a lot of sand and gravel. These Qin officials simply don't care about it." Let’s face it, we don’t know how many people died of illness due to eating moldy food, and the little old man only saved his life because of the money brought by his family.”

Then Jiang Tao said with hatred: "So it is simply unacceptable to say that Qin will be destroyed without violence."

Fusu couldn't help but smile bitterly when he saw Jiang Tao with a look of hatred on his face. These were the old Qin people in Guanzhong. Even they hated Da Qin so much, and the world of Da Qin was not unjust.

Jiang Tao continued: "The Han court was still benevolent and reasonable. It said that without corvee, there would be no corvee. They asked us people to do things and actually gave us food. The old man has lived for half his life. Only the Han court hired people to do work and paid food every day. There are still 10 kilograms of grain, and I, an old cow, can also earn 30 kilograms of grain. Such a good thing was only available in the Han Dynasty. "

In order to recruit enough cattle and horses to transport grain, each cow and horse could get 30 kilograms of grain per day, and if they died from exhaustion during the labor service, the court would compensate them. This is why Li Changjiang Tao would bring his own cattle to transport grain.

And this is also a good thing for big men. They don't need to raise too many cattle and horses in normal times, they can just recruit them in wartime.

(End of this chapter)