I, Liu Bian, Sanxing Han Dynasty

Chapter 217 Equal Loss Method

In the Taige area outside Weixingmen, Mi Zhu was waiting for the emperor to summon him. He suppressed the excitement and nervousness in his heart and did not let himself show it.

Mi Zhu looked at Zhen Yan beside him, who was not much better than him.

"Zhong Ran, let's go over what we have learned from these two days of discussions."

Zhen Yan immediately responded: "Good!"

Mi Zhu thought of what he saw and heard in Cao Song's house two days ago——

Cao Song looked serious at that time, and his words are still in his ears: "I didn't accept your gifts in vain, don't say I don't take care of you."

"Your Majesty is a kind and virtuous king who does not want to give more to the people. However, the war in the northwest continues and the national treasury cannot make ends meet. This is why we have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

"The opportunity is here. Whether you can seize it and follow Sang Hongyang's story depends on you."

Mi Zhu and Zhen Yan both said yes.

To be conservative, Mi Zhu felt that he needed a helper who would not hold him back, and who could help him share the firepower if problems arose in the future.

During the contact with Zhen Yan, Mi Zhu understood that Zhen Yan was not as good as him in business ability. He was able to take the Mi family further based on the accumulation of his ancestors, but Zhen Yan was more than conservative and not aggressive enough.

But the reason why the uniform transfer method failed to become customized was not only that Sang Hongyang was involved in the rebellion case because of his disagreement with Huo Guang, but also because of the problems that arose during the implementation process.

……

The implementation steps also have the precedent of Sang Hongyang. First, select a few representative counties and counties to test them first. Once the results are effective, they can be promoted in various places.

In addition, the equalization method will undoubtedly require the establishment of a new group of equalization officials, and regardless of the salary issue, where the relevant personnel will come from is also a problem.

The so-called equal loss method was first proposed by Sang Hongyang, a minister during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. That is, all those who lose to the officials will have their land spared and the local price will be equal to the current price, and the officials will sell it elsewhere. The person is convenient and the official is beneficial.

In addition, the equal loss method itself is to use the government to replace businessmen, buy low and sell high to make profits, directly skipping the link of government-business collusion and becoming a businessman yourself. There is no doubt about the existence of forced buying and selling.

After paying their respects, Mi Zhu found that there were several ministers sitting in the palace, some old and some young.

Both of these issues can theoretically be resolved through supervisory control.

In fact, this is already very good, at least it is not a bad thing.

Cao Song obviously had no intention of introducing the people present to them first, and said directly: "I have written a letter to Your Majesty about what you said. Please tell me in detail."

To put it simply, the money that should be handed over is exchanged for local specialties, and the government acts as an intermediary vendor and sells them elsewhere to earn the price difference.

And Cao Song, whom he did not dare to neglect at all, had someone sitting on top of his seat.

What is more typical is that officials collect things that are not available locally as specialties, thereby making a lot of money at the source.

In this regard, the answer given by Mi Zhu and Zhen Yan is simple-recruitment.

Mi Zhu and Zhen Yan were already prepared and started discussing them one by one.

Take grain prices as an example. In normal years, grain prices in Kansai are higher than those in Kanto. Because of the planting range, the price of rice in the south is lower than that in the north, and the opposite is true for wheat.

After waiting for about an hour, under the leadership of Xiao Huangmen, the two of them were able to enter the Yuntai Palace to meet the emperor.

Food is like this, let alone rare specialties.

To be precise, it is to attract businessmen who have been doing these businesses to participate, which can be regarded as returning to the old business.

……

After Mi Zhu and Zhen Yan finished their introductions, Liu Bian asked, "What do you think, Master Lu?"

What Liu Bian asked was not whether the equal loss method was feasible, but whether these two people were qualified to participate in another matter of Liu Bian's plan. Yes, in fact, before summoning the two of them, it had already been decided that the re-implementation of the Jun Shu method would be put in charge by Cao Song.

Now that the administration of officials has become somewhat clearer, and the manpower of the school affairs department is gradually moving to local areas, Liu Bian is not too worried about the loss of control.

Lu Zhi replied: "Only His Majesty's Holy Judgment!"

He sees no problem.

Liu Bian said: "I have handed over the matter of losing the law to Duke Cao, so you two don't have to be responsible for it."

Even after traveling all over the country for so many years, Mi Zhu was still shocked by Liu Bian's words and his head was buzzing.

Zhen Yan also had a blank mind.

After a short pause, Liu Biancai said again: "I have other important uses for you!"

Only then did Mi Zhu feel that his brain was coming back to him, his heart was pounding, and he quickly bowed: "You will never give up even if you die!"

Zhen Yan reacted a little slowly, but immediately expressed his loyalty.

Mi Zhu and Zhen Yan accompanied Cao Song to propose the equal loss method, which was an unexpected surprise for Liu Bian.

Liu Bian originally wanted to find these two people to explore the local salt and iron industry, and take charge of the briquette business.

Even if the salt and iron cannot be taken back to the country for unified management, the two imperial merchants can still be supported to compete with them.

He also wants a share of the benefits of salt and iron.

I would also like to thank Liu Yu for reminding Liu Bian.

This year, Youzhou has increased a lot of taxes for the imperial court.

In the past, Youzhou had a large annual expenditure due to its long border, and sometimes taxes from Jizhou were even used to make up for the shortfall.

However, since Liu Yu came to power, he appeased the people, developed salt and iron in Yuyang County, and traded with foreigners other than Xianbei.

Although the Xianbei people continued to harass, while maintaining the army, Youzhou not only turned a profit and was able to pay taxes, but the price of food was even as low as 80 yuan, almost half of the price of food in Luoyang.

In addition to Liu Yu's lenient administration, Youzhou was able to recover so quickly, and the benefits of salt and iron were indispensable.

As for briquettes, in fact, in the pre-Qin period, our ancestors discovered the advantages of coal over charcoal, and coal was quickly used in the smelting process.

With the vigorous development of the iron casting industry in the Han Dynasty, in order to solve the problem of coal powder falling on the ironware and affecting the quality during the iron smelting process, coal was broken into powder and mixed with loess to form briquette.

It's just that at this stage, coal cakes are only used for smelting and are rarely used for heating, let alone used in daily life.

Liu Bian decided to let Mi Zhu and Zhen Yan take this as a stepping stone to take the first step towards becoming an imperial merchant.

Including briquette peripheral products - stoves that require iron.

Isn't this a kind of plank road built openly and secretly visited Chen Cang?

……

After Mi Zhu and Zhen Yan left the palace, they followed Xiao Huangmen directly to the Third Department, which had already moved out of the palace, and took the seal ribbon representing the 600-stone Zhonglang.

Fortunately, Zhen Yan had already experienced this as Xiaolian. But for Mi Zhu, this was his new origin, rising from a status between a merchant and a powerful man to a scholar-bureaucrat.

After the two left the Third Department, they were so excited that they took the same carriage back. They kept talking on the way, discussing what to do in the future.

(End of this chapter)