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

Chapter 429: The prosperous times and the resurgent Huns

Although the idea of ​​the merchants and farmers was good, the Minister of the Imperial Household Chen Chui stopped them, saying, "It is better to let things take their own course. With the waterproof cloth and the steam engine, the grain supply in Guanzhong will increase again this year. The price of wheat in Guanzhong has finally increased by a few coins in the past two years, but it has fallen to the protective price of the court. Without the court's guaranteed purchase, the price of grain in Guanzhong would definitely fall below 50 coins this year. A good harvest cannot increase income, and the court's subsidy can only benefit the grain merchants."

The reason why Chen Chui stopped Shangnong's idea was that, on the one hand, low grain prices hurt farmers, and on the other hand, he was worried that Shangnong's policy would disrupt the policy of renewal of workshops under the Shaofu.

In the past two years, the efficiency of Dahan's steam engines has been further improved. At the same time, various high-efficiency machine tools have been developed, and the cost of producing steam engines has been further reduced. Steam engines have begun to completely replace hydraulic engines as the source of Dahan's power.

The workshops under the Shaofu submitted requests for replacement of steam engines one after another. Even with three shifts, the major steam engine workshops in Chang'an were still in short supply. The textile machines, grinding machines, and trains with high profits were not produced in time.

Where would they have the time and energy to produce a water pump that is doomed to lose money? Even now, the price of a water pump is still several years' income for a farmer. How many farmers can afford it?

Xu Fan thought for a moment and said, "It's just that the world's food supply exceeds demand. Increasing food production capacity is not an urgent matter. The supply of steam engines still mainly depends on major workshops."

Xiao He and others were also auditing the industrial data of each county, but after looking at a few counties, his brows furrowed.

Judging from the data, industries in various counties of the Han Dynasty were thriving, and taxes generally increased by 1% to 2%. The Han Dynasty had escaped the economic crisis and was once again on the track of prosperity.

But there are also hidden worries. These county governors of the Han Dynasty did not learn the lessons of the last economic crisis and they started to acquire industries again.

Different from Xu Fan's and Zhou Zhang's ideas, Xiao He believed that the court should do the court's business, and the main responsibility of the local county magistrate was to manage the people, rather than keeping an eye on the workshop like merchants to see how much money they made in a year.

Because local workshops had to rely on the court to cover their losses, and when they made money, the local government's coffers were enriched. They did not need transfer payments from the court, so it was easy for them to become independent and escape from the court's control.

So Xiao He rebuked with a sullen face: "In the past two years, you have opened hundreds of flour mills of all sizes. The industry is too homogeneous. I don't see any unique competitiveness or technological advantages in your workshops. Now the economy is on the rise and it looks prosperous, but as long as there is another crisis, these workshops will collapse in large numbers. What happened in the textile industry can't teach you a lesson.

Xiao He's rebuke made everyone feel nervous. They wanted to refute, but they didn't know how. The textile industry seemed to be booming at the beginning, but who knew that such a serious crisis would come. The court had to rely on streamlining the Han officials to reduce the debt. Until now, they still owed more than 20 billion in debt.

The heaviest responsibility was still on all of them. It would be a lie to say that they were not afraid, but one should not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Relying on the 30% tax left by the court, they could only barely make ends meet. They could not even get some benefits. If they wanted to achieve political achievements, they had to apply to the court, which not only took a long time, but also had strict supervision and a high probability of failure. After much thought, these county magistrates still felt that it was most cost-effective to develop the county magistrates' workshops.
Half a day later, Shu County Governor Guan Ying said, "The flour industry is different from the textile industry. People can live without clothes, but they can't live without food. The current population of our Han Dynasty is close to 5 million, and it is increasing by 000 to million every year. The demand for flour will continue to grow with the population, and there shouldn't be a capacity crisis like the textile industry."

Xiao He scolded: "As long as you keep increasing the number of flour mills and stone mills, no matter how many people there are, they will not be able to keep up with your greedy hearts."

Zhang Qiang whispered, "The court has said that it wants to develop the industry, and we are just following the court's orders. Now the flour mill's profit exceeds 30%, and it will pay off in just three years. There won't be any big problems."

Obviously, Zhang Qiang and other prefects were dissatisfied with Xiao He's accusations. They used their own savings to develop the workshop. It was fine for them to be beaten and fined if they lost money, but now they are still being criticized for making money, which is too much.

Xiao He wanted to say something else, but Xu Fan stopped him, saying, "The court had already agreed with them that the workshops in the counties would be managed by them. If they fail to manage well, the court will punish them. Let's not talk about this anymore."

Influenced by later generations, Xu Fan believed that problems would easily arise if a court did not control some workshops.

Government-run workshops certainly have all kinds of problems, but do the workshop owners have no problems themselves?
Xu Fan remembered that it was a well-known event. An up master he liked very much made a video about hoping that China's railways would have high profits and large cargo carrying capacity, and called on people to learn from them.

When he watched this video, he thought it made a lot of sense, but a few months later, things went off track.

Afterwards, countless people dug up the fact that the rail infrastructure was aging, and even derailment had become commonplace.

But these workshops that have achieved a monopoly don't care about these things at all, and are unwilling to repair the tracks, and cut the number of craftsmen to a minimum. In the end, even if they caused a huge disaster, they didn't care, and just threw a few coins to solve the problem.

But in fact, the problem was not solved at all, it just made the whole society pay for their mistakes.

Isn't this just like the Donglin Party in the late Ming Dynasty? In order to save a few taxes, they dragged the whole world to their grave.

Therefore, in Xu Fan's opinion, these two forces are both bastards and there is no difference between them. The only good thing is that if there is a problem in the workshop under the local county magistrate, the imperial court can take the opportunity to punish the local county magistrate.

Just like the streamlining of Han officials in the past two years, if there were no large-scale losses in local workshops, this kind of thing would not have been possible.

Since the emperor had spoken, Xiao He naturally had nothing to say.

After reading it, Xu Fan said with satisfaction: "Everyone has done a good job this year. I estimate that the tax revenue of the Han Dynasty this year should exceed 120 million gold, which is a new high. You have achieved such outstanding results while streamlining the Han officials. This year, everyone can be said to have both hard work and merit."

"The Prime Minister has set aside a budget from the court's tax revenue this year to reward outstanding Han officials for their outstanding contributions."

In the past two years, the Han Dynasty has reduced the number of Han officials by 20,000, and there have been complaints from those below. It is indeed necessary to appease them. The big stick has been hit, and now it is time to give them some sweet rewards.

Xiao He said: "No!"

The county magistrate was delighted when he heard this. The reward was secondary. It meant that the political atmosphere in the court should be relatively relaxed in the next few years.

The plan kept Zhang Cang and his subordinates busy for three days, and they finally compiled the tax revenue of the Han Dynasty for the year, which was then published in the Han Monthly Report for people all over the world to review.

As soon as this figure was announced, it caused a sensation in the entire Chang'an City. The land tax of the Han Dynasty reached an unprecedented 2 million, which was almost twice that of the Qin Dynasty. The tax reached a record high of 1 million gold, and this was also what the people of the world were most concerned about.

This tax figure was 11 gold higher than that in the 22th year of the Han Dynasty, setting a new historical high again. This figure made the people of Chang'an breathe a sigh of relief.

The increase in taxes showed that the Han Dynasty was still in its heyday. The economic crisis of the past two years was just an occasional cold for the Han Dynasty. Once the cold was healed, everything would return to normal and everyone could drink and watch plays as usual.

Chang'an City, Cuizhuxuan Teahouse.

The gossipers in Chang'an City took the latest issue of the Han Monthly and analyzed the economic data carefully, one by one, more seriously and thoroughly than Prime Minister Xiao He.

Tea Doctor Wei Chen pointed to the data of several major steam equipment factories in Shaofu and said: "Look at these five steam workshops. Each of them has a turnover of over 5 million yuan, and the profit is over 3 million yuan. Steam engines have become the trend of our Han Dynasty. According to the words of the emperor, the Han Dynasty is about to enter the era of steam.

Steam engines will cover every corner of our Han Dynasty, but we can also think like this. As long as steam engines have not covered all the counties of our Han Dynasty, our Han Dynasty's economic boom will not stop. According to this year's tax growth rate, if Prime Minister Xiao serves two full terms, our Han Dynasty's tax revenue will exceed 200 million gold. By then, our Han Dynasty will be more prosperous than it is now, and we may even be able to achieve the prosperous era that the emperor expects. "

"According to the emperor's standards, to achieve a well-off society, one must have meat for three meals a day, children at home must be able to go to school, and sick people must be able to receive medical treatment. My Chang'an City has achieved a well-off society, but other places in the world are far behind. Even the countryside around Chang'an City cannot meet this standard, let alone the entire world. I think that even in our lifetime, we will not be able to see the world enter a well-off society."

"Then you can lower the standard a bit. It's hard to have meat for three meals a day, but it's not hard to have meat every few days. It's very hard to get everyone to go to middle school, but it's not hard to go to elementary school for a few years and recognize a few hundred characters. Now the Han Dynasty is promoting the plan of having elementary schools in every village. I think it will be realized in less than 10 years. Seeing a doctor is indeed a problem. Even in Chang'an City, anyone with a disease can easily drag down a family. If this rule is removed, a well-off and prosperous era should be achieved in ten or twenty years."

Soon all the tea drinkers came out and began to talk about their ideas on how to achieve a well-off society. They formulated 1, 2, 3 steps, and they were so powerful that they all became the Prime Minister Yun of the Han Dynasty.

In a corner of the teahouse, two Hu merchants were watching all this silently.

Zhang Yuan also held a copy of the Han Monthly Report in his hand and sighed, "The Han Dynasty is unprecedentedly powerful. Even the tyrannical Qin Dynasty was far inferior to the Han Dynasty. We in the Xiongnu Kingdom can't even avoid starvation, but the Han Dynasty is already dreaming of a prosperous and prosperous era. The gap between the two sides is too big.

We must complete the task of reconciliation with the Han Dynasty this time, otherwise the Xiongnu may not be safe even in Kangju. "To be honest, after arriving in Chang'an, Zhang Yuan regretted very much that he had surrendered to the Xiongnu when the world was in turmoil. At that time, he thought he had escaped to a safe place, but he did not expect that the world would stabilize again in less than three years.

Moreover, the stable Han Dynasty actually pointed the spearhead at the Xiongnu. Under the attack of the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu lost even the desert. He fled to the Western Regions with all the Xiongnu people and barely saved his life. But now looking at the life of his so-called Xiongnu counselor, it is not even as good as the life of ordinary people in the Han Dynasty. At least he couldn't drink tea so calmly in the Western Regions.

The military official said with a hint of fear: "This may not be the real taxation of the Han people. Maybe it is to intimidate us."

Junchen didn't understand the concept of 120 million gold, but he knew that 10 million dan of grain was an amount that the entire Xiongnu nation could not finish eating even after 20 or years, while it was only the annual land tax of the Han people.

Zhang Yuan shook his head and said, "The Han Dynasty is now invincible. They don't need to intimidate anyone. Judging from the actions of the Han Emperor in recent years, he is more focused on the internal development of the Han Dynasty."

Zhang Yuan and Jun Chen were envoys from the Xiongnu who were invited to come to Chang'an to attend the Han Dynasty's meeting of princes.

After the Xiongnu lost the northern desert, Maodun's eldest son Jiju succeeded as the new Khan of the Xiongnu in the Wusun Kingdom.

The Xiongnu were in great danger at that time. When the tribes and countries in the Western Regions learned that the Han people had defeated Maodun Chanyu, the Xiongnu had lost the desert, and millions of Xiongnu were captured by the Han people, the Jizhou tribe had become a lost dog.

As a result, the Huns in the Western Regions became the target of attacks by various countries. At that time, the Huns were already in a critical moment of life and death. With just one defeat, the name Huns would disappear into thin air and vanish in the long river of history.

But historically, the Huns were already in their heyday at this time. Although their backbone had been broken by the Han Dynasty, they had also learned the advanced equipment and military system of the Han Dynasty.

In terms of the army's combat effectiveness, the Xiongnu cavalry under Ji Zhou were more powerful than the Xiongnu cavalry in history.

Ji Zhou himself was a rare outstanding politician and military strategist among the Xiongnu. The prosperity of the Xiongnu in history was achieved under his leadership. Although the Xiongnu were defeated now, they were not something that the slave states in the Western Regions could deal with.

Facing the powerful enemy, Ji Zhou led tens of thousands of Hun cavalry, concentrated his forces, and successively defeated the powerful countries in the Western Regions, Dayuan, Kangju, Daxia, and more than a dozen tribes and small countries under them, and established the Huns' reputation of being invincible with less than ten thousand but more than ten thousand. All countries and tribes in the Western Regions surrendered to the Huns' cavalry. Under the leadership of Ji Zhou, the Huns established a powerful country with a length and width of 5000 miles in the north of the Western Regions.

But the Huns were not without hidden worries. Less than a year after the new Hun Empire was established in the Western Regions, the Han people invaded the Western Regions again. Although they were still thousands of miles away from the Hun Empire, the Hun nobles who fled to the Western Regions were still terrified. They were worried that the Han people would continue to hunt them down.

In addition to this, the Huns had a second hidden worry. Although they had established a powerful empire and once again had millions of tribesmen and a dozen small dependent countries.

But their core force was too small, and there were only 60,000 Huns who fled to the Western Regions.

It is very difficult to rule a country of millions of people with only 60,000 people, especially the people in the Western Regions, who are completely different from them. Although the Huns have flat faces, bulbous noses, and curly hair, they are still yellow people.

However, most of the people in the Western Regions are white. They are naturally completely different from the Huns. "If they are not of our race, their hearts must be different." This statement applies not only to the Han Dynasty, but also to the Huns.

How to maintain the Xiongnu's rule in the Western Regions? If the above two problems are not solved, the crisis of Xiongnu's extinction will still exist.

At this time, Ji Zhou showed his foresight as an excellent politician. After knowing that Ji Bu led his army to invade the Western Regions, he immediately sent envoys to express his intention of peace and friendship.

At that time, Ji Bu was still trying to occupy the Shule area, and naturally did not want to be an enemy of the Xiongnu, so the two sides began to communicate and even reached a trade agreement, agreeing to protect their respective caravans in the Western Regions.

Now Ji Bu and Ji Zhou are the overlords of the east and west ends of the Western Regions. What they have agreed upon is the axiom of the Western Regions. As a result, the Silk Road in the Western Regions was completely opened up. The silk purchased by Ji Bu from Chang'an can directly reach the Kangju area thousands of miles away from Chang'an.

The Huns also earned a lot of commercial taxes from the silk trade. They even formed caravans and brought gems from the Kangju region to Chang'an, thousands of miles away. They sold the gems to wealthy merchants in Chang'an at hundreds of times the price, and then sold silk from Chang'an to kings and nobles in Central Asia at hundreds of times the price.

This year, the amount of silk flowing into the Western Regions has exceeded one million pieces, and now the Western Regions has become one of the most important trade routes in Guanzhong.

After the relationship between the two sides became close, Ji Zhou sent envoys to express to Ji Bu that the Han and the Huns were brothers of the same race and origin, and that it was his father's excessive ambition in the past that led to constant fighting between the Han and the Huns.

Now in the Western Regions, the Han and the Xiongnu are outsiders, and the two sides should coexist peacefully and develop together in the Western Regions. At the same time, he expressed to Ji Bu that the Xiongnu wanted to pay homage to the emperor of the Han Dynasty.

The reason why Ji Zhou gave up the hatred for his father's murder and wanted to live in peace with the Han Dynasty was not only because he was worried about the powerful military force of the Han people, but also because he wanted to take this opportunity to contact his fellow tribesmen in the desert. There were too few Huns in the Western Regions, making it difficult for them to maintain a stable rule. If he had hundreds of thousands of Huns, the Hun Empire could conquer a larger territory to the west, and the Huns' rule in the Western Regions would be more stable. To achieve this, the Han Dynasty must let the Huns from the desert come to the Western Regions.

Ji Zhou and his adviser Zang Yan discussed for a long time and came to the conclusion that as long as the Huns kept a low profile and acknowledged that they were a member of the Han civilization, they could describe their expansion in the Western Regions as the expansion of Han civilization. At the same time, they sent envoys to Chang'an City, saying that they wanted to civilize the Western Regions but lacked manpower and needed the help of the Han Dynasty.

Given the Han emperor's character as a great Han chauvinist, it is very likely that he would support the expansion of the Huns in the Western Regions and send their people to the Western Regions.

So Ji Zhou sent his eldest son Junchen and the Han Chinese adviser Zhang Yuan as envoys to the Han Dynasty's Chang'an City to express to the Han Emperor their intention to civilize the Western Regions.

Also coming with them were envoys from the Great Yuezhi. The Great Yuezhi were much luckier than the Xiongnu. After defeating the Great Xia, they did not continue to migrate westward. The king of the Great Yuezhi heard that there was a richer and more powerful country in the south called Shentu, which was said to have existed for thousands of years.

The King of Dayuezhi at that time sent thousands of cavalrymen to launch a tentative attack. He was really worried that the country in the south would be as strong as the Han Dynasty. So he planned to rob a group of people and continue to move westward.

But the people of Dayuezhi did not expect that just thousands of cavalrymen could travel thousands of miles, capture more than a dozen cities of the Sindhu people, and capture hundreds of thousands of Sindhu people.

The weakness of the Sindhu people was beyond their imagination, and the nobles of the Yuezhi were ecstatic. Such a weak nation and a weak country was the land given to them by God to conquer.

So the Yuezhi people were able to change the direction of their attack, and hundreds of thousands of their troops attacked southwards. The Sindhu people also showed their usual fighting power, and they were defeated in the face of the attack of the Yuezhi people. In three years, a powerful Maurya Dynasty was destroyed by the Yuezhi people, and the entire northern Sindhu was occupied by the Yuezhi people. They named their new empire Kushan.

But soon after the establishment of the Kushan Empire, news came from the Western Regions that their allies, the Huns, had been annexed by the Han people. Only a small group of Huns escaped to the Wusun territory. Then the great demon king Ji Bu, who terrified them, came to the Western Regions.

This made the nobles of the Kushan Empire feel full of crisis. The Han people were too greedy. Even though Sindhu was thousands of miles away from the Han mainland, they dared not guarantee that the Han people would not attack here.

After all, the Han people's greed for land has reached a crazy level. They even want areas like Hexi where half of the land is Gobi Desert. Only the Han emperor can do such a thing as rich people snatching beggars' begging jobs. Now the wealth of Sindhu is no less than that of the Han mainland. Who knows what the Han emperor will think.

So the Kushans sent envoys to re-alliance with the Huns and provided a large amount of supplies to help the Huns gain a foothold in the north. At the same time, they also learned from the Huns and sent envoys to submit to the Han people.

When Xu Fan heard the news of the surrender of the Huns and Kushans, he was overjoyed and agreed to allow them to participate in the princes' meeting in Chang'an City as one of the vassal forces of the Han Dynasty.

After annexing the desert, there was no strong military force around the Han Dynasty. Security was guaranteed, and Xu Fan had no intention of annexing these two forces. One reason was that the place was too far away. The Western Regions were tens of thousands of miles away from Chang'an. Going to Kangju and Shentu was even more difficult. Although Tang Seng did not travel 108,000 miles to Tianzhu, it took him more than ten years.

The most important thing is that the Han Dynasty is surrounded by the South Sea, the Japanese islands, and the Indian continent. There are some primitive people in these areas, which are easier for the Han Dynasty to conquer. Why spend so much effort to attack the Xiongnu? The Niu Niu built the British Empire by bullying the weak and fearing the strong. They fought against some primitive countries and relied on these countries to replenish their blood. Later, they began to fight against powerful countries, and the British Empire began to decline.

Although there are certainly more than one reason for their decline, the long-term fight against the powerful empire that led to a massive consumption of their own strength is definitely the main factor.

So for Xu Fan, as long as the Huns and Kushans still maintained the cultural traditions of the Han Dynasty and recognized themselves as a branch of Han civilization, he would support their expansion.

(End of this chapter)