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

Chapter 392: Representatives of the Prosperous Era and the First Extension of Favor

At the end of August in the ninth year of the Han Dynasty, the Grand Canal, which had been under construction for more than four years, was fully opened one year ahead of schedule. This event became the biggest hot event in the second half of the Han Dynasty.

After the Grand Canal was opened, the main arteries of the most prosperous Chen County, Donghai County, and Kuaiji County in the Han Dynasty were opened up, and transport ships with a capacity of 5000 tons could also be used for transportation in the canal. The cargo carrying capacity of the canal was directly increased by dozens of times.

The transport ships that were struggling to move along the Honggou Canal disappeared, and were replaced by transport ships with a carrying capacity 10 times larger.

This busy waterway was once again operating healthily, and Chen County, Donghai County, and Kuaiji County all benefited from it. The workshops in Chen County could even receive orders from Hebei Province.

As soon as the Grand Canal was opened, it brought remarkable economic benefits. Xiao He and Cao Shen, who organized the construction of the canal, gained a very high reputation. Merchants and people in the Huaihe River area praised them and called them wise ministers in prosperous times.

The Han Monthly, Legal Monthly and other newspapers and periodicals all devoted 2-3 issues to the political, economic and military impact of the Grand Canal, and its significance to the Han Dynasty. They also praised Xiao He and Cao Shen as the contemporary Li Bing and Zheng Guo of the Han Dynasty.

All the civil and military officials in the Han Dynasty court praised Xiao He and Cao Shen highly, and some even wrote to the court to reward and employ such meritorious officials.

The idea of ​​the civil and military officials of the Han Dynasty was very simple: they did not want the emperor and the prime minister to cause any more trouble.

It can be said that the Han Dynasty now has no strong enemies outside and no hidden dangers inside.

After the tax reform, the court's tax revenue is expected to explode again this year, possibly increasing by about 1%, and exceeding one million gold for the first time. This is an extremely exaggerated number. Even the tyrannical Qin Dynasty, which was known for its extreme plunder, collected only about 30 gold in taxes each year.

The fiscal revenue of the Han Dynasty was three times that of the Qin Dynasty. However, even with such high taxes, the living standards of the lower-class people in the Han Dynasty were far better than those in the Qin Dynasty. Not only were there no heavy corvee labor, but taxes were also reduced by half.

At this time, the government granaries of the Han Dynasty were piled high with grain, and the civilian granaries were also full of grain. According to the statistics of Zhang Cang, the chief planner, the amount of grain in the government granaries and civilian granaries was enough to feed all the people of the Han Dynasty for three years. The three-meal system was fully popularized in the Han Dynasty. In any place in the Han Dynasty, as long as the people were willing to work hard, they would have enough food.

Zhang Cang proudly published this news in the Great Han Monthly Report, and announced to all the people of the Great Han in the monthly report that the Great Han was the first court in three generations to eliminate hunger, and that people would never starve to death in the Great Han again.

The first step towards a world of great harmony is to completely resolve famine, and the Han Dynasty has already done it.

Now the Han Dynasty is leading the people of the world towards the second step of the Great Harmony World, a well-off society. The prosperous era of the Han Dynasty has arrived.

Zhang Cang's statement about the prosperity of the Han Dynasty was recognized by the people, the court and even the cultural circles of the Han Dynasty.

Ordinary people generally feel that their lives are getting better and better, and richer year by year, so they naturally agree with the term "prosperous times".

Not to mention the cultural circle. Compared with the First Emperor who burned books and buried scholars, the Han court's support for education was obvious to all. Nearly 20 gold were invested in education every year.

Every village in the Han Dynasty had a primary school, every county had at least one middle school, and there were more than ten high-level institutions. The number of scholars in the world was dozens of times more than that in the pre-Qin period. During these ten years, the various schools of thought experienced a rapid revival, and various new ideas and new trends continued to emerge.

There was also a fair selection system like the imperial examination, as well as the huge job market of the hundreds of vassal states under the Han Dynasty. The academic community all recognized that the Han Dynasty brought about the second heyday of a hundred schools of thought.

The civil and military officials of the Han Dynasty did not want to make any more trouble, because they knew that if they continued to make trouble, the Han Dynasty would no longer have any enemies, and the emperor and the prime minister would only be attacking themselves.

When Zhang Cang compared the financial data of the Qin Dynasty and the Han Dynasty, the powerful gentry of the Han Dynasty almost cried.

Taxes on ordinary people were reduced and there was no corvee labor, but the Han Dynasty's finances were three times that of the tyrannical Qin Dynasty.

Where did you get this three times the amount? It is so difficult to become a landlord in the Han Dynasty.

You could be targeted by the emperor at any time and have armed tax collectors come to your house to warn you. If you dare to pay less taxes, the tax collectors will send soldiers to surround your mansion, warn you twice, and then exile your entire family to the frontier.

It’s too horrible. Just for paying a little less tax, the whole family will be exiled. Even the tyrannical Qin Dynasty did not dare to do such a horrible thing.

After the tax collectors betrayed the public disclosure of property, they simply gave up and didn't care about other people's opinions at all. They even dared to investigate their own people. In addition, in order to encourage the tax collectors, the emperor rewarded them with a 10% share of profits for any punitive tax. In order to collect taxes, they really dared to kill.

Faced with this situation, they are even more eager to announce the arrival of a prosperous era.

The prosperous times represent the achievements of their hard work over the years. The prosperous times represent that the policies implemented by the Han Dynasty court over the years are perfect and do not need any more reforms or turmoil. The prosperous times represent the political correctness of the Han Dynasty court and the greatest interest of all of them.

Therefore, the civil and military officials of the Han Dynasty praised Xiao He and Cao Shen, and wanted to nominate them as representatives of Han officials in the prosperous period to announce the arrival of a new era.

Xu Fan did not refuse, and appointed Xiao He as Marquis of Zan with a fief of 3,000 households, and appointed Cao Shen as a fief of 1,000 households.

At the same time, a new department at the level of nine ministers was established, called the Tongzhengsi, to manage the country's transportation facilities such as highways, tracks, bridges, canals, post stations, and docks.

Xiao He was appointed as the left director of the Tongzhengsi, and Cao Shen as the right director. He then ordered the two to plan the transportation development plan for the entire world.

It can be said that the Tongzhengsi was a powerful department as soon as it was established.

On August 15th, Shanggu King Chen Yu died of illness.

This marked the beginning of the aging of the first generation of Han princes and the beginning of a time of renewal and replacement among the Han princes.

The emperor ordered Zhang Liang, the acting prime minister, to express condolences to the Shanggu Kingdom on behalf of the imperial court.

Zhang Liang led a battalion of Han troops to visit Shanggu State. On behalf of the Han court, he first recognized Chen Yu's eldest son as the new ruler of Shanggu State.

However, the ten remaining sons of Chen Yu, including the legitimate second son, were not given a vacancy. Instead, according to the imperial decree, they were all granted the title of Marquis of Che. Each of them was given a county as his fiefdom. The vast territory of Shanggu State to the north of Yanshan Mountain became the new Shanggu State.

At the same time, the court appointed Chai Wu as the prefect of Shanggu County and stationed a battalion of soldiers in Shanggu County, announcing that the court had officially taken over Shanggu County's territory in the Central Plains.

The first time the Enfeoffment Order was implemented in the Han Dynasty, it caused a huge response among the princes, and the second largest vassal state in the world fell apart overnight (the first was Wei).

Although the new Shanggu Kingdom occupied half of the territory, everyone knew that the land in the Central Plains was completely different from the grasslands in the desert. Although the new Shanggu Kingdom seemed to have a large land area, its richness was far less than that of the Central Plains.

The eldest sons of Wei and Liang were extremely angry, because they had many brothers. The two countries had more than 20 counties in total, and each of them could not even manage one county. If they were to extend their favor once, they would be degraded from being the rulers of the country to being marquises.

Especially in Liang State. Wei Bao, the ruler of Liang State, was greedy for beauty and had more than 20 wives and concubines. Liang State was established for only a few years, but he had already given birth to more than 30 children, and there were more than 20 offspring alone. With so many offspring, it was impossible for two of them to share one county. The most important thing was that Wei Bao was strong and the speed at which he gave birth to offspring had not slowed down. Judging from the current situation, it is hard to say whether they could be given a township when they succeeded to the throne.

Faced with this situation, Wei Bao's illegitimate sons really didn't know whether to be happy or sad.

Of course, the princes outside the borders of the Han Dynasty first looked at the princes in the Central Plains with gloating, but they were also a little worried in their hearts. If this kind of Enfeoffment Order was implemented in their vassal states, they might be worse than Wei Bao. Wei Bao's Liang State at least had several counties, and it was a wealthy place in the Central Plains.

Even though their vassal states had been established for several years, they were called vassal states in a nice way, but in reality they were not even as good as a county in the Han Dynasty.

If the Enfeoffment Order were used again in their vassal states, it would be difficult for them to maintain their rule for three generations.

But another part of the princes and concubines' sons hoped very much that the Enfeoffment Order would come to Liaodong, Qianzhong and Nanzhong. Without it, it would be difficult for them to even be rich, because these newly-appointed princes used all their resources on development and their actual wealth was all in this land.

It was extremely difficult for those heirs who had no inheritance rights to obtain any money, which made the illegitimate sons extremely dissatisfied.

They followed their father in establishing vassal states and gradually developed them into a wealthy family business. However, they ended up having no share of such a huge family business.

You have to know that they also contributed to the establishment of this vassal state, and these illegitimate sons believed that they had a natural right of inheritance.

In short, because of the decree of Shanggu State, the vassal states in all directions were in turmoil. Concubines who were whispering in the emperor's ear were everywhere, and the open and secret struggles between the eldest son and the illegitimate son became public. The open and secret struggles in the harems of the vassal states led to the vassal states of the Han Dynasty blaming Chen Yu for dying at any other time, and making their families restless.

September, the ninth year of the Han calendar.

After dealing with the Shanggu Kingdom and the Enfeoffment Affairs, Prime Minister Zhang Liang did not return to Chang'an, but turned to Guangyang County and arrived in Liaodong by sea.

On behalf of Emperor Xu Fan, he inspected and comforted the princes of Liaodong, and on behalf of the emperor and the court, he convened a meeting of the princes of Liaodong in the local area.

This was also the second time that court representatives set foot on the land of Liaodong after the Han Dynasty acquired the territory of Liaodong, and the first time that a meeting of all the Liaodong princes was held in Liaodong.

After receiving the order, the Liaodong princes from all directions began to gather in Pyongyang City.

September 17th.

Zhang Liang went to Liaodong from the vassal state of Xu Chongzhao.

Zhang Liang was extremely surprised to see the Xu State dock on the boat, because he knew from the court reports that Liaodong was a barren land. Even though it had developed greatly in recent years, this vast land had a population of only more than 200 million (only the population of the Liaodong princes was counted). It was not comparable to a county in the Central Plains.

But from the current situation, there are dozens of ships at this dock, and the dock is made of stone. The facilities are also extremely complete. It is a prosperous port city.

"Xu Chongzhao greets Prime Minister Zhang!" As Zhang Liang's team just stepped onto the dock, Xu Chongzhao came to greet them.

Zhang Liang said calmly, "Lord Xu is too polite."

Then Zhang Liang looked around the dock. Behind the port was an extremely prosperous city. He could see taverns, inns, bustling markets, and even a fish processing factory.

From this dock, we can see that the prosperity of Xu State is not much inferior to that of the Central Plains.

Zhang Liang praised him, saying, "Lord Xu is quite capable of governing a local government. If he had stayed in the Han Dynasty, he might have been one of the Three Dukes and ruled the country."

Xu Chongzhao laughed and said, "I am a reckless man, how can I know how to govern the country? This is all thanks to Prime Minister Tian Qi."

From the fact that Xu Fan has educated his subordinates time and again, even to the extent of taking advantage of every opportunity, it can be understood that the quality of his subordinates is really not very high.

Leading troops to fight can be done by relying on battlefield experience, but it is difficult to govern the world in this way. More importantly, without Xu Fan's instructions, almost no one would take the initiative to learn.

Under normal circumstances, the princes of the Han Dynasty adopted a policy of laissez-faire. Apart from collecting taxes and maintaining the most basic order, they did not care about anything else. It was not that they did not want to, but that they did not have the ability to do so.

The favorable geographical location and people of Liaodong were also suitable for their philosophy of governing by inaction. The various princes of Liaodong developed surprisingly well under this philosophy.

First of all, the timing in Liaodong was extremely good. The Han Dynasty attacked from all sides and defeated any forces that posed a slight threat. It could be said that the Han Dynasty dominated the entire world.

This safe environment resulted in the fact that the princes of Liaodong had no powerful enemies. Without powerful enemies, there was naturally no need to gather resources to resist the enemies. This was the natural environment for the princes of Liaodong to rule by inaction.

The geographical advantage of the policy of "ruling by inaction" is the vast Liaodong, which is sparsely populated and undeveloped. Each vassal state can be said to be a small country with a small population. There is no need to compete for resources, and the immigrants who come here will benefit from actively reclaiming the land. Therefore, the environment of the Liaodong vassal states is suitable for the policy of "ruling by inaction".

Finally, it is the harmony among people. Liaodong is the place with the largest number of Qi people except Qi. There are even more scholars in Qi in Liaodong than in Qi.

First, there was the tyrannical Qin's enclosure, and then there was Xiang Yu's purge and the Han's purge. This series of blows caused a large number of Qi scholars to either flee or be demoted to Liaodong. It is no exaggeration to say that the cultural heritage of Qi is in Liaodong.

Most of the scholars in Qi State studied Huang-Lao. When the princes of the Han Dynasty led their soldiers to this wild continent, they could fight, but they were useless in governing the world.

They could only hire local scholars to assist them in governing the world, and most of the scholars they hired were scholars of the Huang-Lao school. There were about fifty vassal states in the whole Liaodong, and the prime ministers and important official positions of these vassal states were almost all occupied by scholars of the Huang-Lao school.

It even formed an exclusionary effect, where students of the Agricultural School, the Mohist School, and even the Legalist School were able to survive on this land because of their technical attributes.

When Confucian scholars came to this land, they either submitted to Huang-Lao or became a teacher to educate the barbarians.

If Confucian scholars wanted to challenge the Huang-Lao school's position politically, they would be crushed to pieces.

Of course, the Huang-Lao faction had such a high status in Liaodong because they indeed governed the vassal states very well. The vassal states of the Han Dynasty were extremely satisfied with such a political alliance and did not want to change the situation.

Moreover, the political philosophy of the Huang-Lao school is very suitable for these princes. It is natural that they cannot admit that they do not know how to govern the country, but if they try to do so, they will be exposed. If they adopt the policy of inaction, they don't need to do it themselves. This is their natural governance philosophy.

With the blessing of the right time, place and people, Liaodong became the base camp of the Huang-Lao school.

Zhang Liang nodded and said, "Tian Qi is indeed the master of Qi."

Xu Chongzhao thought for a moment and asked, "Prime Minister, the princes' meeting is always held in Chang'an City without any special reason. Why is it held in Liaodong this year?"

Zhang Liang glanced at Xu Chongzhao and said, "The emperor is worried that Liaodong's debt is too heavy, and some princes will not be able to bear the debt, which will affect the reputation of the court."

When Xu Chongzhao heard this, he could only smile awkwardly.

This story begins with Liu Bang raising funds to build a shipyard.

In May, Liu Bang returned from Chang'an and brought a large number of craftsmen to build a shipyard in Pei State that was comparable to the Guangyang Shipyard. This event caused a sensation among the princes of Liaodong.

Because the conditions in Liaodong were bad, and there were no cash crops like sugarcane like in the south, these princes had no shortage of food, but they didn't have much money. Many of them even owed foreign debts. It was Xu Fan who saw that they had made a lot of contributions in the Battle of Mobei, so the Han court helped them take over some of their debts.

But it can also be seen from here that the princes of Liaodong are really no match for their comrades in the south, and they are all losers.

They didn't have the money to build a large workshop, but Liu Bang suddenly made such a big move. Everyone thought that Liu Bang was eloquent and tricked the emperor into building a shipyard for him.

Later they found out that there was a place like the Bill Exchange in Chang'an City. As long as they came up with a business plan, they could find rich people to invest in them.

Knowing that there is such a good place, what else would these Liaodong princes, who have been poor for several years, want?

First, he went to Liu Bang to learn from him, and then asked his subordinates to go to Chang'an City with his seal and plan, and then asked his old comrades for help, asking them to help him get the IPO listed.

In less than half a year, these Liaodong princes absorbed 10 billion in wealth from the Chang'an Bill Exchange.

Including Liu Bang's shipyard, Liaodong will have three shipyards, seven docks, and 7 whaling teams to be established.

Recently, it was reported that Lu Chen was going to unite more than 10 princes in Liaodong to build a rail network connecting the major princes in Liaodong. The funds raised for this project alone are expected to exceed billion yuan.

This made Xu Fan furious. Damn it! I worked so hard to grow these chives, and I let you harvest them a bit because you are brothers, but you cut off their roots.

So Zhang Liang came to Liaodong this time to convene a meeting of princes. He mainly came to Liaodong on behalf of Xu Fan to warn these Liaodong princes.

(End of this chapter)