The Jagged Emperor of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1079 Emergency Summons

After Liu Chan sent Dong He and Zhuge Jin away, Duzhi Shangshu and Zuo Pushe Liu Ba, who had already received the summons, had already been waiting outside the imperial study for a long time.

Liu Chan summoned Liu Ba at this time, which was the meaning of the question.After all, the army needs to prepare money and food before going to war, and all of this needs to be handled by Liu Ba.

Dong He and Zhuge Jin came out and saw Liu Ba. Dong He stepped forward and asked, "Zi Chu, why are you waiting here?"

Liu Ba bowed his hands to Dong He, and replied: "Your Majesty summoned me just now. I just heard that Da Sima and Lord Zhuge were discussing affairs inside, so I asked me to wait outside."

Dong He snorted and said, "So that's the case. It seems that this time I have to trouble you, a busy man."

Liu Ba asked, "Is there any major event going to happen?"

Zhuge Jin smiled and said, "Seeing that my eldest Sima went to see His Majesty together, can't you guess it?"

Liu Ba snorted, with a displeased look on his face.He is indeed a very straightforward person, always showing his emotions and anger.

Liu Ba said: "It's time to send troops again! If Your Majesty uses troops abroad one after another like this, no matter how full the treasury is, it will be exhausted soon! Besides, Your Majesty can suppress me, Duzhi Shangshu, in Jiangling City nearby, but What will he do with the Prime Minister’s Mansion in Chengdu? A large part of the final decision on food, grass and military pay is in the hands of the Prime Minister.”

A few years ago, Liu Chan had a disagreement with the Prime Minister's Mansion on the distribution of financial power. As a result, the two parties finally reached a power compromise. Most of the financial power, especially the power in terms of food and pay for the army, was still firmly controlled by the Prime Minister's Mansion.

Dong He patted Liu Ba. Liu Ba didn't like to get close to others, so he moved away a little to the side, which made Dong He feel a little embarrassed, and said: "This time the use of troops has nothing to do with the overall situation. Therefore, the consumption of money and food should not be much. If you go to see His Majesty later, you only need to state the matter truthfully."

Then, Dong He and Zhuge Jin bowed their hands to Liu Ba, then turned and left.

Only then did Liu Ba go in to see Liu Chan. Sure enough, he needed to consult Liu Ba about the army's food and pay.

The amount of money and food that Liu Chan asked for this time was indeed not very large as Da Sima Dong He said, and the treasury could indeed provide support very loosely.In addition, at this time, because of the battle between the front line and Cao Weijun in Fengyi County, there are still a lot of materials raised for the war in Yongliang and Liangzhou, which greatly relieved Liu Ba's pressure.

Therefore, Liu Ba didn't think much about Liu Chan's defense this time, and truthfully reported the situation of the state treasury according to Dong He's instructions.After discussing with Liu Chan for an hour, Liu Ba and Liu Chan decided on the matter.

At the same time, Liu Ba also directly reported something to Liu Chan.That is the various money seized from the enemy that Quan Cong, the commander of the navy, transported back to Dahan from Jiaozhou and Linyi. Now it has been transported to the Yangtze River waterway. The amount is astonishing. I believe it will only take about ten days. You can reach Gangneung City.At that time, he will personally take someone to receive it, and I believe that the specific amount will be settled soon.

Of course Liu Chan was very happy about this news, and this greatly relieved the financial pressure of the Shu Han, so he asked Liu Ba to submit a list of those belongings.

After Liu Chan looked at the classification, he found that in addition to a large amount of gold and silver, there were also a large amount of precious items such as jewelry, goldware, silverware, and coral tortoiseshell.

Liu Chan asked: "Is this the second batch of treasures sent back by Quan Cong and others?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, there will be at least two treasures in the future, which will be transported back by sea ships one after another." Liu Ba replied.

Liu Chan nodded and said, "Among the treasures seized by Quan Cong, there are astonishing amounts of all kinds of jewels. If these things want to be used as financial funds, they must either use them directly as military expenses, or invest them in The market is sold. But no matter which of these two methods is adopted, it should eventually enter the domestic market for circulation.”

Liu Ba nodded and said, "Yes. Even if it is used for military expenses, if the army wants to sell it or send it directly to the people in the army, they will still sell it after all, it's just a matter of time."

Liu Chan thought for a while and said: "It is foreseeable that those jewels will not be bought by ordinary people in the end, and will eventually fall into those wealthy families. In this way, as long as the quantity of jewels is sufficient, it is indeed possible for the They release their family savings to the society and increase the flow of funds in the society. But this actually needs to face two big problems.”

Liu Ba obviously didn't think as much as Liu Chan, and didn't quite understand Liu Chan's meaning, so he asked, "What are two big questions?"

Liu Chan said: "The first big problem is that even according to the experience and the reports of the people sent to various places to investigate, the Dahan's economy is not in a state of inflation at this time, but in a state of deflation. This is a kind of The reason may be that the war consumes a lot of private wealth, which leads to the decline in the purchasing power of residents faster than the shortage of materials caused by the large amount of materials consumed by the war.”

Liu Ba snorted, and said, "Your Majesty means that people and horses are becoming less and less able to afford things, right?"

Liu Chan nodded, and said worriedly: "Yes. Deflation, you have to remember the word, this is a fatal state that leads to a country's economic recession. At the same time, the state of inflation, although moderate, can promote growth, but at the same time it is at the cost of compromising the real living standards of residents. Therefore, it may be true that inflation promotes economic growth, but it must not be used as an excuse to promote economic development and ignore inflation. This is also an extremely irresponsible government Bastard behavior."

Liu Ba nodded and said, "Your servant has been educated. In other words, if the amount of jewels is too large, it may lead to a flood of money circulating in the country, right?"

Liu Chan nodded and said: "That's right. This will also lead to the continued decline in the purchasing power of the already fragile residents, and the people's lives will be made worse. What's more, we don't have enough material resources and production capacity in the country to offset it. inflation."

Liu Chan went on to say: "The second point is that those jewelry are luxury goods. No matter how much they consume, they will not be able to generate new wealth for our country and society in the end, and will not be able to promote the improvement of social productivity. So, these things are plain , It is beneficial to our government's finances temporarily, but it will be a financial poison in the future."

Finance is Liu Ba's area of ​​authority. Of course, he was very concerned about it in his heart, and immediately asked: "Then what should we do, Your Majesty?"

(End of this chapter)