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

Chapter 492: Re-moval of Marquis and Imperialist Actions
It would have been fine if Chen Lin hadn't mentioned this, but once Xu Fan mentioned it, he couldn't help but get angry and said, "Look at the good things they have done. The court let them manage the bank and gave them the most generous salary. Which of them doesn't have a fiefdom or a kingdom? They are already the richest people in the world. 99% of the people in the Han Dynasty can't compare to them, but they are still greedy and have created tens of billions of bad debts for the court. How dare they come to beg for mercy!

They always say that the court doesn't give them the opportunity to display their talents. Now they are asked to manage a bank, to do things according to the rules and obey the orders of the court. If they can't do such a simple thing, what else can they do well? If they are really asked to manage a county or a prefecture, they will poke a hole in the sky. "

Chen Lin said with a bitter face: "These old brothers have been leading troops outside for many years, and lack of discipline for this person at home, so it is inevitable that there will be such a situation where the wife is not virtuous and the son is not filial. But these children are not bad by nature, and they can be educated."

Chen Lin said this with a bit of reluctance. In his opinion, the debt of tens of billions was already a huge hole. It was only because of Dahan's wealth that he could afford it. To be honest, he didn't want to get involved in this matter. But Chen Lin had no choice. His old brother of several decades knelt in front of him, begging him to save him with tears and snot.

Chen Chui said: "It is inevitable that the economic crisis will cause bad debts, but fortunately, there are collaterals. The court can recover a lot of losses by taking back this workshop. After the crisis is resolved and the economy improves, the bad debts may only be a few billion, which will not have much impact on the court."

Chen Chui is now a little thankful that he is a blacksmith and his son is also a blacksmith. Although after he became one of the Nine Ministers of the Han Dynasty, many old brothers said that they should arrange a good position for his son and that staying in the steel plant was not in line with their family's status.

But Chen Chui is a relatively conservative person. He always feels that blacksmithing is their family's ancestral craft that cannot be lost. Therefore, his son has worked in Chenjun Iron and Steel Plant for ten years without moving. Now it seems that it is safer to make a living by relying on the craft. Otherwise, taking these crooked detours and shortcuts will lead to trouble.

Xu Fan said coldly: "Then the court should thank them for bringing thousands of workshops to the court, or these workshops will be handed over to you, Chen Chui, to manage. The court does not require you to make money, as long as you pay off these tens of billions of bad debts."

Chen Chui didn't dare to say anything. Although these workshops went bankrupt due to the economic crisis, the first workshops to go bankrupt during the economic crisis must be the ones with the highest production costs, the worst efficiency, and the smallest scale. It is basically impossible for such workshops to start to recover.

Wu Sheng advised: "Your Majesty, please give them a chance to mend their ways. If Wu Guang continues to treat them like this, I'm afraid few of them will survive. These old brothers have made great contributions to the establishment of the Han Dynasty. If the court treats these heroes so harshly, it will be detrimental to your Majesty's reputation."

Wu Sheng was better off, as his son was a military commander and the atmosphere in the army was purer. His son was not involved in this turmoil, but he had an unvirtuous wife. His wife had two nephews who were managers of money houses, so he could only come here to beg for mercy, hoping that Xu Fan would show leniency.

"If my reputation was worse, I could recover these hundreds of billions. I wouldn't care about the fame at all." Xu Fan said unhappily.

He has two thousand years of historical knowledge more than people of this era, and has seen everything in history books. He wants to use his fame to bind his hands and feet, and become a clay or wooden Buddha to watch over them. Several benevolent kings in later history came into being in this way.

Song Renzong's reputation for benevolence was so great that even the people of Liao cried when they heard the news of his death (I always feel that this is a bit exaggerated. How could those historians who recorded history know the situation in the Liao mainland, but they recorded it this way, so let's just believe it for the time being). However, the consequence was that the Song Dynasty's treasury was empty for three consecutive years. By the time Shenzong succeeded to the throne, the treasury was so poor that rats could escape from it. Song Shenzong had no choice but to strongly support Wang Anshi's reforms, because if the reforms were not made, the Song Dynasty would not be able to survive.

The Ming Dynasty also had a benevolent emperor, but if you look closely, the Ming Dynasty's shift from expansion to contraction was all started by this benevolent emperor. This is because he was burdened by his reputation and didn't even dare to do anything.

But if these people really think so, it would be a bit of a daydream. He accumulates a good reputation and credit in order to do things, not the other way around.

Deng Zong said anxiously: "Your Majesty must not damage your reputation for these rubbish. They are not worth it. And even if your Majesty's reputation is damaged, these tens of billions cannot be recovered. Exile them to Southeast Asia and let them pay for their mistakes in Southeast Asia."

Xu Fan thought for a long time, and finally sighed helplessly. After all, he was not a great man, and he could not turn the blade inward completely. In recent years, for the reform of the Han Dynasty, he had offended all the nobles, gentry, and merchants of the six countries. If he lost the basic support of the elders of Chen County, he might have to go back to Chen County to find the righteous army.

"If something is done wrong, we must punish it, otherwise the laws of our Han Dynasty will become a piece of waste paper."

Then Xu Fan looked at Wu Sheng and said, "This year's meeting of princes will be started by you. All the princes whose families have committed crimes will be transferred to Nanyang to become princes, and they will open up new homes for the people of the entire Han Dynasty to pay for their crimes."

20 years ago, when the Han Dynasty was just founded, it had no foundation in the counties of the Central Plains. It needed to guard against the nobles of the six countries and the powerful landlords in the counties and towns. Xu Fan could only trust the meritorious officials of the Han army, so he enfeoffed the meritorious officials to the counties of the Han Dynasty and used them to suppress the Central Plains. But after more than 20 years of continuous purges, the nobles of the six countries and those powerful landlords have experienced multiple rounds of purges and have been sent to the frontiers to cultivate land. Now not many people dare to set their sights on land. The land owned by the court has occupied seven layers of the entire Han Dynasty. Only a few landlords can escape multiple rounds of purges and still retain a large amount of land in their hands, but these landlords have become the focus of surveillance by the Han Dynasty court. These lands will continue to be enfeoffed to their descendants until they are split into self-cultivating farmers.

Now, 20 years later, the fiefs of the original meritorious officials have become very conspicuous. They have become the new local tyrants of the Han Dynasty. The Han Dynasty no longer needs them to suppress the Central Plains. Instead, these people have become a problem for the governance of local counties. Relocating these marquises is the most beneficial choice for the Han Dynasty and its people.

Wu Sheng smiled bitterly and said, "Yes!"

This is the condition that the emperor will not pursue their descendants who have committed crimes, and they have no right to object. This condition is not too bad. Although they have to start all over again, at least their lives and titles are saved. After a few more decades of hard work, their family can still continue and their wealth is preserved.

On the 17th day of the sixth month in the 20th year of the Han calendar, in Anxi City, Tianzhu.

In a wilderness outside the city, dozens of kings and city lords from all over India, and even envoys from the Kushan Empire, the overlord of India, came here.

Hu Hai, the owner of the Tianzhu Trading Company, invited these kings and city lords to watch the military exercises of the Han army. The reason why so many people came was because Hu Hai killed a chicken to scare the monkeys in advance.

Half a year ago, Xu Fan gave the Tianzhu Trading Company the task of selling three million pieces of cloth. Even if Hu Hai and his men took over the task reluctantly, they dared not violate the emperor's decree. They could only use merchant ships to transport the cloth to Tianzhu and find a way to sell it.

But 300 million pieces of cloth were too much. Hu Hai and his men had been selling silk in India, absorbing a large amount of gold, silver and gems from India. But now 300 million pieces of cloth suddenly rushed into the Indian market. The amount was too much, so much that India could no longer bear it, and the Indian cloth market was completely overwhelmed.

At this time, India was still in the process of transition from slavery to feudalism, and the main structure of its economy was still serfdom. Under this economic system, 70% to 80% of the people in India were slaves, and only those million-level Kshatriyas and Brahmins had real consumption power. It was okay to let them consume some silk, but it was a bit too much to ask them to consume millions of pieces of cloth. More importantly, after two rounds of silk plundering, a large amount of gold, silver, and gems in India were plundered by Indian trading companies and brought to the Han Dynasty.

The local equivalents of India were precious metals such as gold, silver and copper. The slave economy was already fragile, and Indian trading companies took away a large number of precious metals from India, causing the entire Indian civilization to fall into severe deflation. Economic development was hit hard, and even the Kshatriyas and Brahmin lords had no money to buy silk.

In this already bad economic situation, the Indian trading company dumped another 300 million pieces of low-priced cloth into India. A large number of textile factories in India closed down, and textile workers lost their source of livelihood, leading to unrest in cities and countries throughout India.

This completely ignited the anger of the Indian Kshatriyas and Brahmins. They were the rulers of this land. The actions of the Indian trading company were shaking their rule, which was something the Indian Kshatriyas and Brahmins could not accept. Coupled with Hu Hai's actions of destroying Buddhism, it aroused dissatisfaction among the entire Indian Brahmins.

However, the strong military force of the Han people made them afraid to act rashly. Finally, these Kshatriyas and Brahmins came up with a solution to prohibit the appearance of Han silk and cloth in their territory. Any silk cloth coming out of Anxi County would be directly confiscated by the local nobles, then piled in the open air and burned with torches to express their determination not to use Han cloth (of course, only God knows how much was actually burned). This behavior has greatly stimulated the national pride of India. Because the dumping behavior of the Indian trading company not only harmed the interests of the Kshatriyas and Brahmins, but also the interests of the local Vaishya weavers in India.

You should know that India's handicraft industry was also very developed. The earliest cotton cloth was woven by the Indians. These cotton cloths were equivalent to Indian silk. At the beginning, a piece of cotton cloth could be sold to a rich man for tens of thousands of dollars.

But now the cotton cloth of the Han Dynasty is not only finer than theirs, but also only costs 1000 coins a piece, which is only one-third of the price of their cloth. Even the price of linen is only half of that of India.

The price war of the Tianzhu Trading Company was driving people to death, pushing the patience of the Tianzhu people to the limit. This led to fierce resistance such as banning Hanbu operations and burning Hanbu everywhere.

But the talents of the Indian trading companies don’t care about whether the rule of the Kshatriyas and Brahmins in India is stable.
They only knew that they had not completed even one third of the tasks assigned to them by the emperor. These Indians actually dared to disobey the emperor's edict, which was an unforgivable crime.

So after discussing, all the shopkeepers of the Tianzhu Trading Company decided to choose a chicken and kill it in order to completely shock all the kings and city lords of Tianzhu, and let them know that the emperor's orders could not be violated by foreign rulers like them, and that those who dared not obey the emperor's orders would be killed.

After much deliberation, they finally chose Jiduo State in the north of Anxi County as the chicken.

So Zhang Yong led hundreds of cannons, five thousand musketeers, and twenty thousand Indian troops and marched towards the capital of the Jiduo Kingdom, Shewang City.

Under the fierce attack of hundreds of artillery pieces, Shewang City could only resist for less than ten days before the capital was breached. The king died in the artillery fire and his head was chopped off by Zhang Yong and hung on the city wall to warn all the nobles of Tianzhu. In the next month, Zhang Yong led an army of more than 20,000 to sweep across more than a dozen cities in the entire Jiduo Kingdom.

The Jiduo Kingdom, which was still a powerful country in the north of India, disappeared. This military operation, code-named "killing the chicken to scare the monkey", was extremely successful.

The kings and city lords of India were frightened by the artillery of the Han people. They only had a few cities, and they could not withstand the artillery attack of the Han people. If they attracted the thundering army of the Han people, they would be afraid that they would lose their lives. It was not worth it to sacrifice their lives for a little Han cloth. So the movement against Han cloth disappeared.

Even the people of the Kushan Empire were frightened. Their king sent envoys to the door, claiming that he was also a vassal of the Han Dynasty. If the people of the Indian Trading Company dared to invade Kushan, they would definitely go to the vassal conference in Chang'an to accuse the Indian Trading Company of its illegal behavior.

Compared to these Indians, the nobles of the Kushan Empire suffered the most from artillery fire, and they knew the power of artillery better. Although they had already submitted to the emperor of the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty was still wary of them. They were not given artillery, muskets, or explosives. If a fight really broke out on the land of India, the nobles of the Kushan Empire would not dare to guarantee that they could defeat the Indian trading company.

Fortunately, the Tianzhu Trading Company only wanted to sell cloth and had no intention of invading the Kushan Empire. The negotiations between the two sides were relatively peaceful. The people of the Tianzhu Trading Company asked the Kushan Empire to be more obedient and that this area would belong to their Tianzhu Trading Company in the future.

However, Hu Hai and his men were not satisfied with this. They dispatched 300 troops and hundreds of artillery pieces, fought a battle, destroyed a country, and only sold million pieces of cloth. Wasn't it too wasteful?
So Hu Hai proposed to upgrade the killing chicken to scare the monkey to version 2.0, inviting all the so-called kings and city lords of Tianzhu to Anxi County, so that they can personally experience the power of the Han artillery and muskets. I think this will better complete the emperor's mission.

Hu Hai's proposal was agreed by all the shopkeepers of Tianzhu Trading Company, and this scene happened today.

Hundreds of cannons were neatly arranged in the artillery positions. In order to increase the power, Hu Hai and his men even moved ten of the heaviest naval guns here, and aimed all of them at a small hill not far away.

"Fire!" Zhang Yong yelled.

"Boom, boom, boom!" Hundreds of artillery pieces fired continuously, with shells fired at the hills several kilometers away. These shells were also filled with explosives and were extremely powerful.

The light from the exploding shells flickered fiercely on the hilltop, the entire mountain began to cover with dust, and the sound of the fierce artillery fire was like the roar of countless thunders.

The Indian kings and city lords were frightened. Although their subordinates had reported to them many times that the Han people had a thunderous weapon that could blow anything that could resist it into powder, these people had always thought it was just an exaggeration. However, they did not expect that after seeing it with their own eyes, it was even more exaggerated than the rumors. A mountain was destroyed by such a weapon, which was more powerful than the gods' artifacts. How could they fight against it?
After seeing the power of these cannons, all the Indian kings and city lords who went against the Han people would be seeking death.

Hu Hai was very satisfied with the expressions of the people present. He coughed to attract everyone's attention and said, "We Han people came here to bring cheap goods to the people of Tianzhu, but there are always some fools who do things that make both of us unhappy. At the beginning, the Lord of Anxi wanted to become a pirate and rob us, so we had to go ashore to clean up the pirates on this land.

This year, we, the Han people, clearly wanted to sell cheap cloth to the people of India to improve their quality of life, but King Jiduo wanted to hinder this free trade, so we had no choice but to chop off his head. "

Then Hu Hai looked at the rulers and city lords of Tianzhu with a half-smile and said, "You don't have any intention of hindering free trade, right?"

The rulers of Tianzhu shook their heads and said, "No, no, we welcome free trade the most, and we like Han silk the most. We wish that the whole country could be covered with Han silk."

Hu Hai nodded and smiled, "That's good. Since you like our goods so much, we will not let you down. Come and sign this contract. From now on, you will be friends of our Tianzhu Trading Company. If you have any problems that you cannot solve in the future, you can also come to our Tianzhu Trading Company to help you solve them."

The Indian rulers and city lords looked at the Indian and Chinese contracts, which actually required them to buy cloth from the Han Dynasty. A city lord had to buy about 30 pieces of silk and other kinds of cloth. A country lord had to buy about 100 million pieces, and even the Kushan Empire stipulated that it had to buy million pieces of cloth.

The Kushan envoy said in dissatisfaction: "Your Indian trading company is forcing people to buy and sell like this. Our country will definitely go to the meeting of princes to sue you."

Hu Hai looked at the Kushan envoy with a fake smile and said, "The emperor ordered my Tianzhu Trading Company to sell cloth in Tianzhu. Does your king want to disobey the emperor's order? Or your king does not want to work for the emperor and does not even listen to the emperor's orders. Then there is no need for your Kushan country to exist. After going to the princes' meeting, the envoy thinks that the emperor knows your behavior. Will my Tianzhu Trading Company replace you?"

The envoy said: "Our people are naturally extremely happy to be able to serve the emperor."

Under the coercion of Hu Hai, various forces in India ordered 1100 million pieces of cloth, and the Indians felt the actions of imperialism for the first time.

(End of this chapter)