People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 152: The Yellow Turbans Are Great
Liu Yu: "You mean even the Yellow Turbans themselves should be treated the same as the common people in terms of land distribution?"

Merchant: "My Lord Governor, that is true. Even their leader, the bandit chief Xu Chen, is paid a salary. This is known to everyone in Yuyang. It is said that his salary is only one thousand coins a month."

Liu Yu was silent for a moment. In the past, conquering the world meant granting official titles, making promises, rewarding land and granting titles. Why was it different with the Yellow Turbans?

Without the title and fiefdom, who would be willing to fight you with their head on the line? Isn't it all about fame and fortune?

But what he couldn't understand was that even though the Yellow Turbans treated them so poorly, they were all very happy about it.

Even the leader Xu Chen actually paid himself a salary. Although it sounded ridiculous and absurd, Liu Yu couldn't laugh at all. If he thought about it carefully, he found it a little scary.

The human nature of pursuing wealth and glory is the most difficult to restrain. If the Yellow Turbans can be so restrained, then what do they want instead of wealth and glory?
"No, the people are grateful for the Yellow Turbans' actions, but with only a 20% tax, they will never be able to support an army of 10,000 soldiers!" Liu Yu was experienced in government and immediately realized the problem.

Why did most of the Han Dynasty's local soldiers lack armor? Was it because they thought it was too heavy and didn't want to wear it? Or was it because they couldn't afford it?

A piece of good steel weighing more than ten pounds requires a blacksmith to fold and forge it for most of the day. The cost is naturally very high. If you want to make a set of armor, not to mention that the soldiers cannot afford it, the court can only supply it to the elite troops in the central government, and the local soldiers can forget about it.

The Yellow Turbans only collected such a small amount of tax, and it was simply a dream for them to equip so many weapons and armors.

Others might not be able to answer Liu Yu's question, but he asked about the businessman's profession. When he talked about this, the businessman's face became strange.

"The governor of the state doesn't know that although the Yellow Turbans don't collect high taxes, they control almost all commercial transactions under their rule. Most of the people can only buy salt, iron, oxen, iron plows, or other things that need to be traded through a place called the Agricultural Marketing Society of the Yellow Turbans.

According to my estimation, through taxation and control of commerce, the Yellow Turbans could obtain at least 50% of the people's food. Of course, the people also obtained many necessities of life and production through transactions.

In the final analysis, the Yellow Turbans have done almost all the work that merchants originally needed to do, and naturally all the profits belong to the Yellow Turbans.”

As soon as the merchant finished speaking, a few words suddenly popped up in Liu Yu's mind, that is, "Salt and Iron Monopoly". The scholars of the Han Dynasty were definitely not unfamiliar with this. After all, there was a big debate specifically on this thing in this dynasty.

It goes without saying how huge a boost the salt and iron monopoly brought to finances. Without it, Emperor Wu of Han would have found it difficult to support his large-scale military operations on the grasslands.

In the pre-Qin period, Guan Zhong had calculated that among a population of 10 million, there were about 1 million people who needed to pay taxes. If a monthly tax of 30 coins was levied, the total tax revenue would only be 30 million coins. However, the salt and iron monopoly only needed to increase the price by 2 coins per liter, which could generate an additional profit of 60 million coins per month.

Moreover, this "official mountains and seas" policy does not levy taxes directly, so the people do not feel the pain of paying taxes and will not complain.

As a famous scholar who was well-versed in Confucian classics and skilled in governance, how could Liu Yu not know the benefits of this policy of official mountains and seas?

Only then did he realize that there was a reason why the Yellow Turbans had become the giant bandits they were today. They were not some unruly gang. Instead, they knew clearly how to manage the economy, the military, and people's livelihood, and they did a pretty good job.

What the Yellow Turbans are doing now is not just a salt and iron monopoly, but they are trying to control all commercial activities that can be involved.

He asked a few more questions and learned from the merchants that the Yellow Turbans unified the management of all the craftsmen under them and carried out centralized production, thus providing a large number of daily necessities such as cloth, porcelain and pottery, coal, iron farm tools, etc.

As long as the people are always in a relatively stable environment, they will naturally tend to exchange their surplus food for these production necessities.

Although Liu Yu also knew that the Yellow Turbans could only be controlled because their territory was small, the problem was that these measures did support the current development of the Yellow Turbans, which was obviously a headache for him.

At this time, he looked at the merchant again: "Since the Yellow Turbans control all commercial transactions under their rule, how can you go there to do business? If the people have something, they just need to go to the agricultural marketing cooperative to buy it. Why do they need you?"

Qi Zhou and Cheng Xu's expressions also changed, and the way they looked at the merchant became strange.

The businessman's face froze when he heard this, and he was about to turn a blind eye, but when he saw the men's eyes becoming dangerous, he realized that he had to give an explanation, otherwise they might regard him as a spy.

"It's like this. I don't know what's going on with the Yellow Turbans. They produce more goods than normal, so the cost is naturally low. The prices of goods under their rule are much lower than those in other places, especially iron products, where the price difference is huge.

I am just looking for business opportunities to do some reselling business. Apart from that, I have no other activities and have nothing to do with the Yellow Turbans!"

Liu Yu's face darkened when he heard this, but in the end he just nodded without blaming anyone.

Although the salt and iron monopoly was a good tool, the Eastern Han Dynasty gave it up. Otherwise, Emperor Ling would not have resorted to selling official positions and titles.

The most Liu Yu could say was that the merchant was cunning, but he had no reason to blame him.

However, this also made him realize how valuable the Yellow Turbans' products were. Even after deducting the shipping costs and the merchants' profits, the Yellow Turbans' iron products were still sold at a lower price than the market price. This was not an exaggeration.

Now he finally understood how the Yellow Turbans gained their powerful army.

Looking back, he felt that it was not wrong that Gongsun Zan could not defeat the Yellow Turbans. In fact, it was not easy for Gongsun Zan to hold on to his territory in the past two years. The Yellow Turbans had money, food, people's support, perseverance and lofty ambitions. The more Liu Yu understood such an opponent, the more he sweated.

After asking these questions, Liu Yu waved his hand to send the merchant away, and his expression suddenly became serious.

He looked at Qi Zhou and Cheng Xu, and their expressions were not much better.

Although Qi, Zhou, Cheng and Xu were local nobles, their understanding of the Yellow Turbans was mostly military, just like Gongsun Zan's. Now, after hearing Liu Yu's detailed inquiries from the merchants, they came to their senses and became more aware of how terrifying the Yellow Turbans were.

Liu Yu's feelings were even more different. Different people in Youzhou had three completely different perceptions of Xu Chen.

In the eyes of the Youzhou gentry, Xu Chen is an unforgivable butcher of the rich and powerful.

In the eyes of heroes like Gongsun Zan, Xu Chen is a formidable opponent who is difficult to defeat.

In the eyes of the people of Youzhou, Xu Chen and Huang Jin had become sages and heavenly masters who saved people from suffering, at least this was the case wherever Huang Jin had passed.

The most obvious example is in the counties of Zhuojun, where the Yellow Turbans only stayed for a short while. The people there are still obsessed with the Yellow Turbans because of just a few days of interaction there.

Some people secretly spread some of the ideas that naturalism had originally spread to them.

The Yellow Turbans are like a ghost, wandering around the land of Youzhou, constantly bewitching everyone who interacts with them.

"I think the matter of fighting the bandits cannot be delayed any longer. I need you two to supervise the establishment of a new army. Besides, I have several letters written by hand, and I hope you two can deliver them for me."

Liu Yu nodded at Qi Zhou Cheng Xu with a serious expression, and then gave the two a task.

This also made the two of them look moved. If it was just to deliver the letter, why did they have to do it personally? They could just send someone else.

Sure enough, Liu Yu then revealed his real purpose.

“The true strength of the Yellow Turbans cannot be demonstrated by the 10,000 or 20,000 soldiers on the surface. Even if we successfully train a new army, I am afraid it will be difficult to deal with them. Therefore, I intend to unite with the Xianbei and Wuhuan tribes, gather our forces, and then attack the bandits in Xu together.

These letters are my intention to contact them, and you two can also act as messengers to facilitate the result. I have a good relationship with the tribes, so this matter should be successful."

After Liu Yu said this, both of them were encouraged. If they could get strong external support, their hope of defeating the bandits would be much greater.

Thinking of Gongsun Zan's previous sarcasm, they sneered in their hearts at this time.

What strength do you, Gongsun Zan, have? Can you still blame others for looking down on you?
What is strength? Being able to attract several powerful reinforcements with just a few letters is strength. Can you, Gongsun Zan, do it?
The two men answered in unison, and Liu Yu immediately bent over his desk and began to write. However, he had not written for long when he was interrupted by a sudden piece of news. A clerk came in to report the news.

"Report to the governor, the Yellow Turbans made a sudden move a few days ago, gathering more than 10,000 infantry and cavalry to attack Liaodong, and it seems that they are going to attack Su Puyan!"

"what!"

Hearing this, several people were shocked at the same time. Liu Yu even put down his pen and stared at the soldier blankly. It was obvious that he didn't react immediately.

They could not help but be surprised, simply because the timing of the Yellow Turbans' action was too coincidental. They had just been preparing to subdue Su Puyan, and before they had even finished writing the letter, the Yellow Turbans had already attacked Su Puyan.

"The Yellow Turbans reacted quickly. They had already anticipated it before I could take any action." Liu Yu's face looked unhappy. He was caught off guard by the news.

The Yellow Turbans had not made any major moves in the past two years, but they started to move as soon as he arrived. If Liu Yu said this was a coincidence, he would never believe it.

All we can say is that the Yellow Turbans had guessed what they might do and had responded in advance.

Qi Zhou frowned and asked, "Then what should we do? Should we go to support Su Puyan?"

Cheng Xu sighed: "Support, how can we support? The new army has not yet been trained. Even if we want to support, we don't have the ability to do it."

Liu Yu was also in a dilemma. The new army could not be built overnight, but he would not be able to do without rescue. He also had to unite the forces of Su Puyan, so he must lend a helping hand.

After thinking it over, it seems that there is only one person who can be relied on at this time: "Please invite Bogui over, I will have a good talk with him."

(End of this chapter)