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

Chapter 465, Poisoned Pie Tianzhu
In the 19th year of the Han Dynasty, in May, Chang'an City.

Chang'an City is still prosperous. The wealth brought by the steam engine is rapidly changing the city. There are more and more towns and industrial areas. The roaring steam engines and long chimneys have become the iconic buildings of Chang'an City.

This would naturally be a serious pollutant in later generations, but in this era, chimneys were a symbol of wealth. The more chimneys there were, the more wealth there was. The residents of Chang'an City were extremely proud of these chimneys, because except in Chang'an City, you could not see so many chimneys in other cities.

But this year was not a good year for the Han Dynasty. An earthquake occurred in Longxi in early spring, damaging thousands of houses and causing over a hundred casualties. Fortunately, the buildings in this era were not very tall, and Longxi was one of the poorest places in the Han Dynasty, with most of the houses being straw houses, so the casualties were not too great. The court allocated 50 shi of grain and 3000 million yuan to help the victims in Longxi.

But this year, the Han Dynasty seemed to have suffered from more than one disaster. Since the beginning of spring, there have been only a few small rains in Guanzhong. The precipitation in Guanzhong has decreased, and a large number of canals and rivers have dried up. Spring ploughing and summer harvest have been affected. The Prime Minister's Office of the Han Dynasty issued drought relief orders to all counties in Guanzhong, dispatched 3000 steam pumps to all counties in Guanzhong, and allocated 3 million yuan to all counties to fight drought and disaster relief. Now, steam pumps, water wheels, and windmills are in use in all counties in Guanzhong, and millions of people in Guanzhong are fighting drought and disaster relief on the fields.

But by May, not only did the drought not get better, but the Prime Minister Xiao He of the Han Dynasty became ill and his condition did not improve. After a few days, his condition worsened. Xu Fan had to appoint the fake Prime Minister Ye Teng to take charge of the affairs of the Han Dynasty and organize drought relief tasks.

May 7th, Prime Minister’s Mansion.

Xiao He lay in the bedroom with a pale face. Liu Bang, who came to visit him, sighed and said, "You are only one year older than me. I can still play football, but you are so old. It seems that the prime minister of this great Han Dynasty is not something that ordinary people can do."

Unlike Liu Bang who died of complications from war injuries in history, Liu Bang of this era only engaged in fierce wars for less than three years, and he was not seriously injured on the battlefield. This resulted in him being in very good health and able to do some less intense sports. Compared with Xiao He, who was one year older than him, Liu Bang could be considered young and strong.

Xiao He smiled and said, "For someone as heartless as you, Liu Laosan, it won't be a problem for him to live for a hundred years."

Then he asked curiously: "Now is not the time for the princes' meeting, why did you come to Chang'an City?"

Liu Bang said, "My fourth son Liu Heng will graduate from primary school this year. I want him to come to Chang'an to attend middle school and see if there are any good middle schools. After all, Chang'an has better educational resources. I also want to see Ruyi's academic progress. After all, this year is the most critical year for him. Finally, I want to find a way to give Fei Er a job and see if I can get him a county magistrate, or even a county head."

The princes of the Han Dynasty usually had their eldest son inherit the family business, and the other sons were sent to Chang'an to study, and then made contributions to the Han Dynasty. For example, Liu Bang's eldest son Liu Fei is now the county manager of a commercial bank. He can't be said to be in a high position, but he has a good career. More importantly, the manager of the bank can transfer to the political circle of the Han Dynasty. With Liu Bang's connections, it will not be a problem for Liu Fei to become a county magistrate in the future.

It is difficult to become a county magistrate. After all, there are still a large number of young and capable meritorious officials in the Han Dynasty, and they still occupy these positions. If a younger generation like Liu Fei wants to become a county magistrate with a salary of 2000 stones, unless he has outstanding talents, he can only accumulate experience and wait.

But Liu Bang was not worried. His son Liu Fei was only 28 years old this year and was still in his prime. He had plenty of time to accumulate experience. He was in good health as well and could take care of Liu Fei for another ten or twenty years. Then he could find a way to get him the position of county governor. Then he could give an explanation to the Cao family.

Liu Bang's third son, Liu Ruyi, looked the most like Liu Bang and was also Liu Bang's favorite. Of course, this caused dissatisfaction among Liu Bang's wife, Lu Zhi, so Liu Bang sent Liu Ruyi to Chang'an to study early. Now he is a junior high school student and has to prepare for the high school entrance examination. This time Liu Bang came to Chang'an mainly to see Liu Ruyi and see how his academic performance was going. But from what the teacher had found, Liu Ruyi was better than Liu Bang in academics. Although his grades were not among the best in the academy, they were also excellent.

So Liu Bang said proudly: "Ruyi is also like Naigong in terms of knowledge. The teacher said that he can be admitted to the college, so Naigong didn't even need to recommend him."

"Cough cough cough!" Xiao He couldn't help laughing when he heard such a funny thing.

"This is the funniest joke I've heard this year." Liu Laosan didn't know what was going on. When he went to study in Lu, he was disliked by the teacher and excluded by his classmates because of his naughtiness, so he secretly hated Confucianism. Ruyi's ability to study so well had nothing to do with him. It was because the student surpassed the teacher.

When Liu Bang heard Xiao He coughing, he immediately went up to help him up and said, "Don't be too sad or happy now, take good care of your body."

At this moment, Xiao He's eldest son Xiao Lu hurried in and said, "Father, His Majesty is here to visit you."

Xiao He wanted to struggle to get up, but Liu Bang stopped him and said, "Your Majesty does not value these empty formalities. What are you doing getting up? Just lie down and I will go to greet you."

After that, Liu Bang took Xiao Lu to the front hall to greet him and said, "Your Majesty, I, Liu Bang, and Xiao Lu, pay my respects to you."

Xu Fan waved his hand and said, "No need to be polite."

Then some people asked curiously: "You came to Chang'an City so soon?"

Liu Bang said: "This year is the Ruyi high school entrance examination, and I came here to prepare in advance."

Xu Fan said: "Ruyi's performance is good. He is much better than Aiguo."

Speaking of Xu Fan's second son, Xu Aiguo, he also has a headache. He is naughty and mischievous on weekdays and doesn't like to study. He can only get 60 points in every exam because the teacher gives him face.

Liu Bang said: "The second prince is lively and active. He will definitely become a great general in the future and can guard a place for the Han Dynasty."

Are you kidding? Even if the descendants of the emperor are poor at studying, their future can't be that bad. Even if they can't become the emperor, they can still become a prince and guard a part of the Han Dynasty.

Liu Bang naturally knew about the second prince. After all, the second prince was also a legitimate son and was qualified to inherit the throne of the Han Dynasty. Secondly, the second prince and Liu Ruyi were classmates and they got along very well. This naturally left a deep impression on Liu Bang. But as he said, Xu Aimin was lively and active, and was good at all kinds of sports such as riding, archery, football and even driving, but his academic performance was a mess, and he was among the bottom in the class. Liu Bang was secretly happy in his heart that his son, a rough man, was an excellent student with excellent grades. Although His Majesty and the Queen were both masters of knowledge, they were not as good as himself in cultivating their sons. This made Liu Bang secretly proud.

The two came to Xiao He's study. Just as Xiao He was about to get up, Xu Fan stopped him and said, "The Prime Minister is seriously ill. No need to be polite."

Then he looked at Xiao Lu and asked, "What did the doctor say?"

Xiao Lu said with red eyes: "The doctor has said that father has been overworked and is almost at the end of his life. Now he is relying on ginseng to keep him alive."

Liu Bang immediately said, "There are still some good quality Liaodong ginseng in my treasury. I will send a message later and ask my men to bring it to me."

Xu Fan said to Chen Zhen, "Go to the treasury and find five ginsengs of the best quality and bring them here."

Because Liaodong was developed early in this era, the efficacy of ginseng was discovered very early. It was even one of the pillar industries of the Liaodong princes. Many Liaodong princes developed ginseng breeding bases. They directly rented a piece of forest and sowed seeds. These princes were different from the bosses in later generations. This piece of forest was their foundation, so they were not in a hurry. Even if the people on this land raised it for dozens or hundreds of years, the ginseng was theirs and could benefit their descendants. Therefore, the ginseng cultivated in this way was not much different from the natural ginseng.

Chen Zhen said: "Yes!"

Xiao He smiled bitterly and said, "It is a trouble to your Majesty."

Xu Fan said with a heavy face, "You are also sick because of your hard work in government affairs. It is because I have put too much government affairs on you and neglected the health of you important officials. If there were a doctor to check your health regularly, you would not be so hard-working that you become seriously ill."

Xu Fan also felt a little regretful that he did not establish a system of regular health checks in the back room, otherwise Xiao He would not have been discovered until he fell ill from exhaustion.

"Now, if you have anything to say about your afterlife, tell me."

Xiao He thought for a moment and said, "In April, the princes and merchants in Kuaiji County established a Tianzhu Trading Company. The court should pay attention to it and even monitor them. There are more than a dozen princes in the Tianzhu Trading Company, with dozens of merchant ships. Some princes have also brought private soldiers and artillery into this Tianzhu Trading Company. I estimate that these private soldiers and sailors have exceeded 10,000, with hundreds of artillery and thousands of musketeers. This is already a considerable force that can easily destroy the princes in Nanyang.

It can even be said that they are the most powerful maritime force in the Han Dynasty besides the North Sea Fleet and the South Sea Fleet. More importantly, they have occupied a city in Tianzhu. It seems that they want to monopolize Tianzhu's trade. The court must not let them grow, otherwise they will become a hidden danger to the Han Dynasty if they rule Tianzhu. "It is impossible to conceal such a big thing as the Tianzhu Trading Company. At first, Xiao He did not pay attention to it. After all, there were more than one or two trading companies established in the Han Dynasty. The Tianzhu Trading Company was just a little larger in scale.

But when Xiao He learned that these princes had even joined in with their private soldiers, with hundreds of cannons and more than a thousand musketeers, and they had also captured a city in Tianzhu, this attracted Xiao He's attention. This force could even subvert the small vassal states of the Han Dynasty. However, while Xiao He was still thinking about how to deal with the Tianzhu Trading Company, he fell ill.

Xu Fan was stunned when he heard the news. Isn't this just a replica of the East India Company? Is it a good thing or a bad thing for the Han Dynasty to set up such a trading company?

Xu Fan fell into deep thought for a moment. Logically speaking, the addition of Tianzhu, a large market with tens of millions of people, would be beneficial to the industrialization of the Han Dynasty. The crisis of overcapacity caused by market expansion could be delayed for several years.

But the situation of the Han Dynasty is definitely different from that of Niu Niu. Tianzhu can be the most dazzling pearl of the British Empire, but it cannot be the pearl of the Han Dynasty. Xu Fan estimates that the population of the Han Dynasty is twice that of Tianzhu, and with Tianzhu's system, the number of people who really have the ability to consume is probably less than one million.

Historically, the population of Niuniu was only one twentieth of that of India, so India could become a dumping ground for their goods. It was easy for 20 slaves to support one master, but one slave could not support two masters.

The Han Dynasty's industry can only rely on internal circulation. Even now, the world's population has not yet exceeded 200 million. If we follow Niu Niu's way, even if the Han Dynasty sucks the world's blood dry, it will not be able to complete industrialization.

This is why history says that there were two buds, but they never grew up, because the physique of the Han Dynasty did not have the soil for its growth. The industrialization process of a large country and a small country is completely different. This is why Xu Fan was unwilling to go to Tianzhu even though he knew it was close at hand. The size of the Han Dynasty was too large and could only rely on internal circulation.

Moreover, influenced by later generations, Xu Fan was actually not very willing to colonize India. There were easy-to-digest territories like Southeast Asia, Australia, and America, so why bother fighting against India?

From the perspective of capital interests, Tianzhu is obviously a place ten or a hundred times better than Nanyang. To capital, Nanyang is a piece of rotten land. Apart from a few specialties, it can be said that it has nothing. Although there are millions of indigenous people there, people without purchasing power are worse than cattle and horses to capital. Aboriginal people who cannot even grow crops well are not even qualified to be exploited. To develop Nanyang, they need to invest huge manpower and material resources, and it can be said that they can only earn hard-earned money.

But India is different. There are millions of aristocratic high-end consumer markets and tens of millions of cattle and horses for them to exploit. It is easiest to achieve capital appreciation in such a place. This is the chosen place for capital.

But from the perspective of civilization expansion, Nanyang is ten or a hundred times easier to digest than India. In vast areas like Nanyang, there are only a few small sparks of civilization, and they don't even have a country. As long as the Han people don't treat them as slaves, they will easily accept the Han people. Moreover, the race of Nanyang people is the same as that of the Han people, which means that the Han people don't need to steal people like the West did.

With the same hair and skin color, Xu Fan could claim that they were from the same family. Even with the skin color and hairstyle, few people would not believe it. In addition, with the difference in civilization level, the local natives would probably try to find a Han ancestor. If these places were reclaimed and developed, the Han people could digest them.

The same is true for the other continents. The civilization in America may be a little more advanced, but it is just a modern primitive civilization that has not even invented the wheel. There are too many gaps in the technology tree, which cannot prevent the assimilation of the Han Dynasty. Xu Fan can make this a reality by simply classifying them as Yin and Shang civilization and giving a few antiques to their wizards.

Isn’t there a legend that says that after King Wu of Zhou destroyed the Shang Dynasty, some descendants of the Shang Dynasty were dissatisfied with the rule of the Zhou people, so they crossed the ocean in wooden boats and came to the New World.

Thinking of this, Xu Fan felt that he should look for Shusun Tong and gather more historians to prepare historical evidence. He also needed to find ways to help them make up for the missing parts of the history of the wheel. For example, maybe because they stayed at sea for too long, all the craftsmen who knew how to make wheels died, so they didn't ride wheels when they went to the New World.

But we can't do it as crudely as the Westerners did. Without the bonus of wealth and after demystification, there are too many defects to justify themselves. They can even talk about papyrus that is thousands of years old. Look at our bamboo slips, they are all carbonized, and we have to use special liquid medicine to make out the text on them. The forgery is not professional at all. No wonder everyone has doubts. They boasted too much in the beginning, and now it has begun to backfire on them.

In terms of the expansion of civilization, India is a tough nut to crack. Don’t look at how many jokes mocking India on the Internet in later generations. After all, India is an ancient civilization with thousands of years of history. Although its military power is a little weaker, many ancient civilizations have disappeared from the earth, but India has been able to survive for thousands of years and has continued to survive in later generations. Moreover, even though India has suffered various blows, it is still steadily advancing industrialization. This alone is better than many civilizations. How many countries in later generations have been tripped up by industrialization and cannot advance even if they die? In this respect, India is excellent, surpassing 90% of countries.

Over thousands of years, many invaders have rushed into this land, but in the end it eventually became like India. From the perspective of civilization survival, the Indian civilization was very successful.

If the Han Dynasty colonized India, they would probably be like other invaders from India and never return, assimilated into the same appearance as India. Not to mention that India's four-class racial system was the system Xu Fan hated the most. But he also understood that it was difficult to learn well, and it was very easy to learn badly, and these nobles of the Han Dynasty probably liked this system more.

Therefore, the Indian food is almost impossible for the Han people to digest, and it may even corrupt their healthy bodies. It is not even chicken ribs for them, but only poisonous meat, which is not worth eating.

But the princes and merchants of the Han Dynasty did not think so. In their eyes, Tianzhu was a piece of top-quality fat meat. They could not wait to put this piece of fat meat on the table. The Tianzhu Trading Company was their bowl and chopsticks.

Xiao He noticed that Xu Fan had been thinking for a long time without responding, so he said, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty?"

Xu Fan responded and said, "The situation in Tianzhu is complicated. I need to think about it for a few more days."

Xiao He breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It's good that Your Majesty can take it seriously."

Liu Bang, standing aside, was very disappointed. It was obvious that His Majesty wanted you to take care of his affairs after his death. Why did you worry about government affairs instead of fighting for some benefits for your descendants?

So he could only speak for Xiao He: "Your Majesty, look at this house, does it look like the mansion of the Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty? The mansion of a landlord in Pei State in Liaodong is also bigger than this. Xiao Lu and the other three are now doing nothing because of lack of guidance. Your Majesty, you must not let the loyal and good people feel disappointed."

Xu Fan looked at Xiao He's mansion. It was an ordinary courtyard-style house with extremely simple decorations inside. It was roughly equivalent to a middle-class family in the Han Dynasty. It could be said that it was extremely rare among the officials of the Han Dynasty.

The salaries of the Han nobles were not bad, and the treatment of Han officials was not bad either. Although the emperor advocated frugality and opposed extravagance, he would not require everyone to do so. As long as the legal income was used to improve their lives and their daily lifestyle was not too wasteful, the emperor would not look at them differently. The officials of the Han Dynasty knew that the emperor valued ability rather than moral character beyond ability, so few officials pretended to be simple in front of Xu Fan, because the gains did not outweigh the losses, because you can pretend for a while, but not for a lifetime, and being exposed would be embarrassing.

Xiao He said: "My children and grandchildren have their own blessings. If my descendants are virtuous, they will learn from my frugality and simplicity. They will naturally become talents. If my descendants are not virtuous, no matter how great the wealth and glory is, it will not be preserved."

Xu Fan said, "In our Han Dynasty, meritorious service must be rewarded, and faults must be punished. The Prime Minister has worked hard for the Han Dynasty for nearly ten years, and has tripled the fiscal revenue of the Han Dynasty. His hard work and great contributions will not be enough to convince the people if he is not rewarded. I will make arrangements for Xiao Lu and the others, and the Prime Minister can rest assured and recover from his illness."

Then Xu Fan called Xiao Lu and the others and said, "Take good care of your father and do this well. You will have made a great contribution to the Han Dynasty."

"Yes!" said Xiao Lu and the other two.

After Xu Fan returned to the Yan Palace, he asked someone to find the information of the Tianzhu Trading Company. Only then did he know that two years ago, a monk from Tianzhu fled to South Korea and was taken in by Zhang Buyi. Zhang Buyi then got the road to Tianzhu, and then he found Hu Hai to form a fleet, wanting to sell silk and other goods in Tianzhu, but he didn't expect that the local city lord of Tianzhu was too greedy and actually became a pirate himself. He also didn't know how to be a pirate, so he was defeated by Hu Hai and thousands of people, and Hu Hai and his men occupied the city instead.

After Xu Fan understood the ins and outs of the Tianzhu Trading Company, he summoned Prime Minister Ye Teng and Cao Shen and gave them the information.

After the two of them finished reading, Ye Teng hesitated and asked, "Your Majesty, do you think there is something wrong with the Tianzhu Trading Company?"

For a feudal state in later generations, the emergence of such a large armed group, which was independent of the imperial court and occupied cities overseas, would almost be equivalent to a blatant rebellion.

But the Han Dynasty was different. It was a feudal system, and each prince had his own armed forces. Moreover, after the prosperity of maritime trade, the major ship owners of the Han Dynasty also had their own armed forces. The sailors were semi-professional soldiers, and every ocean-going cargo ship had certain weapons and equipment. As long as they reported to the court and did not act recklessly within the Han territory, the court generally would not intervene.

In Ye Teng's opinion, the Tianzhu Trading Company was larger in scale, and the people inside were either Han princes or Han nobles, all of whom were his own people, so he naturally did not worry about them causing any trouble. As for the cities occupied by Tianzhu, there was nothing worth paying attention to. If you dare to bully us Han people, you deserve to be beaten to death.

As for them occupying land and becoming kings, that is not a big deal. The territories of the princes of the Han Dynasty have expanded every year. The princes of Liaodong did not even let go of several islands in the sea. Ying Bu and Zhao Tuo had a small conflict from time to time because of the border issue, and the lawsuit was brought to the princes' meeting. Han Xin almost included the entire ice field into his own vassal state. The area of ​​his vassal state is larger than that of the Central Plains. The captains in the South China Sea often discovered an uninhabited island, and then reported the nautical charts to the court, requesting the court to grant it a fief. In the past, the Han court would confer barons and lords as a token of its appreciation, but later it was discovered that there were too many deserted islands in the South China Sea. If this continued, the court's titles would be worthless.

So a standard was set: if there were 5000 people on the island, and at least 1000 Han people, then the island would be given a lordship; if there were tens of thousands of people on the island, and Han people immigrated, then the island would be given a baronship. With such a strong contrast, how could occupying a city in Tianzhu count?

(End of this chapter)