Great Han Empire

Chapter 561 Immediately Crossing the Gun
Dong Zhuo was taken aback, and hurriedly called the two of them to Xiangguo's mansion.

"Are you addicted to robbery? Kill and burn everything? Luoyang is in ruins, what good is it for us? Do you think I have to die?" Dong Zhuo pointed at Li Jue and Guo Si and cursed, "Xu Rong He and Yang Feng have already arrived in Gyeonggi, please restrain me, don't let the leopard catch him, and don't provoke him. You are all people who have fought for more than ten years. Can't you see the danger in Luoyang now? Xu Ronghe Once Yang Feng colludes with rebels, cooperates internally and externally, and strikes back, then we will not even be able to return to Chang'an. Do you think that the leopards sent troops to Gyeonggi to help us defend the capital? Sober up, don't die without knowing yourself How did you die?"

Li Jue (jue) accompanied him with a smile on his face, showing disdain, "Xu Rong only has 2 people, and Yang Feng has only 1 people, so 3 people can kill us? Isn't your lord too flattering the Northern Xinjiang soldiers?"

Dong Zhuo sighed, and said, "Look further ahead. The rebellious forces spread across several wealthy states and counties in the southeast. Even if we can defeat them near Gyeonggi, we will not be able to go on an expedition to suppress the rebellion in the short term. That is to say, We can’t get the tax from these rebel states and counties, we can’t get their grain and money. Because of our collection of money and this forced collection, people and merchants in several counties in Gyeonggi fled one after another, which made farming and goods breeding unable to speed up. We cannot be self-sufficient in the short term, so we can neither fight nor delay this battle."

"The situation of the leopards may be worse than ours. This year, northern Xinjiang suffered from snow disasters in winter, but the number of victims is increasing. It is estimated that the little food stored in northern Xinjiang has been exhausted. If the leopards do not try to solve the current crisis , he probably wants to eat the seeds of spring plowing to satisfy his hunger."

"In December, the emperor issued an order to urge him to go south to suppress the rebellion. In order to preserve his strength, he was unwilling. Later, he reluctantly sent Xu Rong to Luoyang to fool me. In the first month, I forced him to move the capital to Chang'an. No response at all. What about now? Don’t push me, he sent three generals to the south in one go, and even tens of thousands of field soldiers. This shows that the snowstorm has rapidly aggravated the crisis in northern Xinjiang. The leopard can no longer bear it , for the stability of northern Xinjiang, he has to do everything he can to help me put down the rebellion."

Dong Zhuo said with a wry smile: "During this time, we have accumulated a lot of treasures in various ways. The house is filled with gold, silver and silk, but these things cannot be eaten. The same is true for the leopard. He asked the imperial court for money and food. Now that he has eaten all the food, he has money left over, but what is the use of that money? Isn’t it just a pile of broken copper and iron? If there is no food, the price of food will increase. The soldiers alone Even with a military salary of [-] qian, Yue could not buy a shi of corn, and the result? As a result, the families of the soldiers would starve, and the soldiers would not want to fight, and they would cause trouble.”

"Where is the grain? In Jizhou, Yanzhou, Xuzhou, Yangzhou, Yuzhou, Jingzhou, Yizhou, in the east and south of Luoyang, in the west and north, there is no grain, and we have eaten up the grain in several counties in Gyeonggi. It’s the reality.” Dong Zhuo patted the desk lightly, and said helplessly, “The leopard is extremely hungry, and he wants to eat people. Now he is eager to send troops south, the purpose is to intimidate rebellion, frighten us, intend to quickly resolve the crisis, and find a way to get from Jizhou and Buy food from other places, and move the victims back to Jizhou and Gyeonggi counties as much as possible. Leopards actually don’t want to fight.”

"What about us? Our purpose is the same as that of leopards. We don't want to fight, we also want food, but we are more unwilling to withdraw from Luoyang, so we can't solve the current crisis. Only leopards can solve it." Dong Zhuo looked at both of them. A general in love said earnestly, "In December, I invited the leopards to go south to defeat the rebellion, but with the development of the matter, my purpose has changed. Although I need to protect the emperor and Luoyang, I want to To achieve this, it is impossible without money, and it is absolutely impossible without food and supplies.”

===

Li Jue and Guo Si understood now.Li Jue asked hesitantly, "What does your lord mean, that we should try our best not to stand out, not to fight, and leave this matter to the leopard to solve?"

"Yes." Dong Zhuo nodded, "It doesn't matter to us how many people die. As long as we keep the emperor, the army, and Luoyang, we will win. After all, moving the capital is the solution to the current crisis. In the future, the rebellion will be wiped out by us, and the emperor will still come back. We stay in Chang'an, backed by the barren western and northern borders. Facing the siege of the rebellion, we will starve to death sooner or later, so how to solve today's crisis is very critical , This is not only related to our survival, the survival of the leopards, the survival of those rebels, but also the survival of the Dahan Sheji. When the Dahan Sheji fell, it would be very difficult for us to survive."

"If there were no leopards, we would have to return to Chang'an soon due to lack of food, and then burn Luoyang and destroy Guandong in order to prevent the rebels from continuing to attack Guanzhong from the west, but now there are leopards, and Northern Xinjiang is also trapped. Things turned around." Dong Zhuo said, "The best way for Leopards to stabilize the northern border is to maintain a three-party check and balance situation. He drove me to Guanzhong, and then suppressed Yuan Shao's gang of rebels outside the capital. , let him control Luoyang, and forcefully suppress the immediate crisis. This way, the war will no longer be fought, and the taxes and grains of various states and counties will be turned over to the national treasury one after another. With this breathing time, we can quickly recover and win over the divisions. States and counties, when we are strong enough, the treasury is full of money and food, and the time is right, we can go out to counter the rebellion. However, at that time, we may not need to counter the rebellion, and the crisis may have gradually subsided over time gone."

Guo Si asked in surprise: "My lord, do you want to give up Luoyang? Give up Luoyang, how will we get out of the customs in the future? What if the leopards and rebels join forces to attack Guanzhong in the future?"

"Of course we can't give up Luoyang." Dong Zhuo smiled, "I didn't say I would give up Luoyang. Now, we must support Leopard and help Leopard do whatever is good for us. Elbow leopards are opposed to leopards. For example, in the army, we try our best to send the main force to Sanfu, Chang'an, Tongguan, and Hanguguan in the west, and send all the troops in the north to Heyang and Xingyang in the east and south. Resist the rebel coalition forces in Heyangcheng area. For example, we can give hundreds of millions of money to Beijiang for disaster relief. If there is no food, no matter how much money I give him, it will be useless, and people will starve to death."

"Leopards want to move refugees back to the Gyeonggi area. This is not acceptable. The more people there are, the greater our crisis. The reason why northern Xinjiang is in today's crisis is because too many disaster victims have flooded into northern Xinjiang in recent years, and Jizhou The reason why I was able to provide food and salaries to the rebel army this time was because Yang Qi had driven the victims to northern Xinjiang in the past few years. As a result, Jizhou not only did not become poor because of the disaster, but became richer and richer." Dong Zhuo sneered, " The population in the Gyeonggi area is already large, and this time I just took the opportunity to drive them out. With fewer people, the population is maintained at a reasonable level, and we have enough money, we can recover very quickly. The problem is difficult, and the leopard will become poorer and poorer, and finally its strength will be greatly reduced, and the threat will be eliminated."

Dong Zhuo pointed to the two of them and said: "The so-called clean-up of Luoyang means that you turn Luoyang, and more people in Yin and Hongnong counties of Henan into refugees, and then drive these refugees to Hedong and Hanoi, which are north of the Yellow River. They even drove them to Yanzhou, Yuzhou, and Jingzhou. Of course, there are many benefits to doing this. First, it can increase our money; second, it can increase the crisis in northern Xinjiang and force the leopards to show their power as soon as possible; Supply as much as possible to Chang'an and the garrison troops in the west, and the northern border troops in the east and south, as well as the troops of Li Su, Lu Bu, Wu Qiuyi, Zhang Yang, etc., will gradually run out of food, so what will they eat? Just eat these vegetables. As for the fourth, of course, it is to prepare for the future. In the future, the country will be stable, and I guarantee that each of you will have millions of acres of fertile land, and your children and grandchildren will not worry about poverty and enjoy all the glory and wealth."

Li Jue and Guo Si suddenly realized, and hurriedly knelt down to thank them.

Dong Zhuo looked at the two seriously, "I repeat, this is Luoyang, not Xijiang. If you make another mistake, I will not be polite. Killing yourself with a knife will only increase your own notoriety, which is a bit of a benefit." Not at all. If you can let someone else take a knife to kill for you and bear a bad name for you, this is called ability, understand?"

===

In February, Luoyang.

Li Wei looked at Dong Zhuo's chubby face, bowed calmly and said, "Master Xiangguo must be in a good mood recently, he has gained weight."

Dong Zhuo laughed and said, "Zhong Yuan, you are much thinner. You have to pay attention to your body and don't be too tired."

"I can't say I'm tired, but I'm too hungry and can't get enough to eat every day." Li Wei forced a smile, "Is there a feast here today, sir? If there is, I'll stay for a meal."

Dong Zhuo smiled and said, "Zhong Yuan is too out of touch. You are just a guest when you come, so of course I'm going to throw a big banquet for you." Then he stroked his long beard and squinted his eyes and asked, "Zhong Yuan, I remember that you were at the end of the year I bought a large amount of food for northern Xinjiang, why don't I even have enough food now? What about the food?"

"Hey..." Li Wei smiled wryly, "My lord, that's why I came here this time. The refugees from the east of the river..."

"Not enough money for disaster relief?" Dong Zhuo waved his hands generously and said, "Don't worry, Zhong Yuan, since General Hussars is willing to help me this time, of course I will help him too. How much do you want? Is 20 million enough? Last year I allocated [-] billion to you for disaster relief, have you used up all of it?"

Li Wei hastily bowed to thank him, "Northern Xinjiang is too difficult, I wonder if my lord can give me more?"

"How much does Zhong Yuan cost?" Dong Zhuo asked.

"How about giving [-] million yuan?" Li Wei immediately regained his spirits, with a bright smile on his face.

Dong Zhuo had a smile on his face and was puzzled in his heart.What does Li Wei need so much money for?Eat it as a meal?Dong Zhuo shook his head.Two hundred million dollars is too much.

Li Wei immediately said: "My lord, it is very difficult for the refugees in Hedong to move back. One is that they are afraid of war, and the other is..." He looked at Dong Zhuo and swallowed the words that came to his mouth.Dong Zhuo's atrocities made the people of Gyeonggi miserable. Even if they starved to death, they would not come back.Li Wei coughed and continued, "There is nothing we can do if the refugees don't want to come back. We have to wait until the spring plowing in April to see if they are willing to go home. However, the question now is not whether the refugees are willing to move back, but The number of refugees fleeing to the east of the river has not decreased, but more and more. People in the east of the river have already starved to death."

"Why?" Dong Zhuo asked pretending to be puzzled.

Li Wei glanced at him intently, and smiled angrily, "Since the emperor moved westward in his chariot, the Northern Army's iron cavalry drove the people from the Kanto region to move westward with the emperor, and those who resisted even broke their houses. After rushing to Tongguan, the defenders of Tongguan refused to let the people of Guandong enter Guanzhong. The people had no choice but to go along Fenglingdu and enter Hedong to avoid disaster. My lord, I really don’t understand. Once the refugees from Hedong riot, what good will it do to Luoyang? "

Dong Zhuo nodded solemnly and said: "The proposal of the minister of the court is indeed unfavorable to Hedong, and I strongly opposed it at the time, but you must know that I have my own difficulties..."

Li Wei cupped his hands and said: "I understand. Mr. Xiangguo is also having a hard time, so I won't mention this matter. I just hope that Mr. He can allocate more money to Hedong for disaster relief. Hedong now has three thousand yuan for a stone of millet, and you can calculate it. How much food can [-] million yuan buy? The millions of refugees and disaster victims in northern Xinjiang need to eat, and [-] million yuan can't manage it for a long time."

"Zhong Yuan, the imperial court can't provide [-] million yuan for disaster relief in Beijiang."

"The imperial court should be able to pay [-] million yuan." Li Wei dragged his voice while looking at Dong Zhuo, smiling very ambiguously, "I heard that Luoyang Zhuling..."

Dong Zhuo looked up to the sky and smiled, "Haha... I can't hide anything from you, okay, okay, just [-] million yuan."

===

The banquet was very rich, and some officials who stayed in the capital participated. Shangshu Zheng Tai, Hua Xin, Henan Yin Zhujun and others were all present.

Dong Zhuo didn't have the heart to drink, and he didn't have the heart to watch the beauties dance, all he was thinking about was food.Li Wei doesn't want food but wants money, so where can he buy food?Judging from the current situation, it is impossible for Jizhou to sell grain to northern Xinjiang, and it is even more impossible for other states and counties to be far away.Although the wealthy families of the Hedong family have food, can Li Wei afford it?Could he have a way to buy these people's food?

Dong Zhuo has been restless about food recently.The princes, nobles, and powerful families in the counties of Gyeonggi, Luoyang, and Chang'an all had food, but Dong Zhuo did not dare to do whatever he wanted at this time, and blatantly robbed it.He can bully the down-and-out rich and powerful families, ordinary wealthy businessmen, and even dare to condone the soldiers to rape and plunder, but he dare not be too presumptuous when encountering prominent dignitaries like the Ma Clan and the Yang Clan.These aristocrats have manors and tungsten castles. It is normal for them to store grain for several years. If they want to buy it, the price is right, and they are of course willing to sell it.But now that the price of food is so high, Dong Zhuo is unwilling to buy it no matter what.If they were to rob or forcefully buy at a low price, they would definitely anger the nobles and scholars in the court. If everyone became rebellious, Dong Zhuo might not even be able to stay in Chang'an City.

The only thing Dong Zhuo can count on now is the food in Yizhou.Yizhou is far away from the capital, and the tax collection time is generally very late.As early as December, Dong Zhuo had already sent people from Guanzhong to Yizhou to ask Yizhou Mu Liu Yan to ask for taxes and grain purchases.From Yizhou to Guanzhong, the road is very difficult to travel through mountains and ridges, and the transportation is even more difficult. Therefore, even if this batch of grain can be transported to Guanzhong, it will take around April, and the quantity will not be too much.

If it can be solved nearby, of course it is a good thing.Dong Zhuo felt itchy, so he called Lang Zhongling Li Ru to his side, whispered in his ear, and told him to find out from Li Wei's mouth.

After the banquet, Li Ru was very polite and accompanied Li Wei to send Zhu Jun home.On the way back to the posthouse, Li Ru asked sideways: "Zhongyuan, there is no food in Hedong. Since you are helping the disaster, you should be asking for food from the imperial court, but why do you ask for money? Is there still food in Hedong?"

Li Wei sighed and said: "It is true that there is no grain in the storehouses of Hedong Mansion, but there is still grain in the hands of wealthy merchants in Hedong and Jinyang. The price of grain in Northern Xinjiang is too high for the common people to afford it, and the officials of our northern Xinjiang prefectures also cannot afford it." I can’t afford it. Two hundred million yuan is a drop in the bucket. As long as I go to northern Xinjiang to announce the sale of grain, the price of grain will double soon. Now the situation is different, we can’t use force to coerce, so we have to find another way.”

"Zhongyuan, what can you do?"

Li Wei hesitated for a moment and said, "I need Master Li's help on this matter. I came to Luoyang not to relocate the victims, nor to ask for relief money. The money was actually given by Master Xiangguo on his own initiative, not by me. of."

"What do you need my help for?" Li Ru smiled, "As long as the rebellion can be quelled quickly and the country can be stabilized, I will help with anything."

Li Wei smiled and said: "Okay, what I'm waiting for is your words, you will definitely help me with this job. I am short of money, I am extremely short of money, so I hope that northern Xinjiang can make money. There is iron and copper in northern Xinjiang. I have the ability to make money, and I can make as much money as I want, but now I lack an imperial edict to allow northern Xinjiang to make money."

Li Ru stared at Li Wei in amazement, his eyes suddenly burst into uncontrollable excitement.

"I know that the free coinage of counties and states will cause confusion in the currency system, increase the price of items, and directly threaten the finances of the big man, but now I have no choice but to coin money." Li Wei explained, "After the rebellion of various states and counties, the imperial court They have lost taxes, and they have cut off all the land and water transportation to northern Xinjiang and the Kanto region, and materials cannot be brought in. In this case, if we want to tide over the difficulties, we must first have money and use more We had a lot of money to buy our much-needed supplies from local dignitaries and other places. We could afford it no matter how expensive it was.”

Li Ru pondered and remained silent, but it could be seen that he agreed with Li Wei's suggestion.

"Emperor Xiaowu of this dynasty ordered the abolition of the county's right to mint money in the fifth year of Yuanshou (118 BC) in order to open up the source of wealth. Instead, the three officials of the imperial court and Shanglin unified the minting of coins. This system has been implemented for more than 300 years. Today, suddenly Restructuring, I'm afraid..." Li Ru said in a very embarrassed way, "I'm afraid there will be a lot of resistance."

("Shanglin Sanguan" refers to Zhongguan (holding the money), distinguishing copper (holding the raw material), and Junshu (holding the fan). official money.)
Li Wei smiled and said: "Now that the emperor, Sangong and Jiuqing are not in Luoyang, the government is actually decided by Mr. Xiangguo. How can there be any resistance? The speed of making money by the three officials in Shanglin is too slow, and the current situation is so tense. If If the three officials of Shanglin and Beijiang mint coins at the same time, the speed of coin minting will be greatly increased, which will be of great benefit to alleviating the current crisis."

Li Ru smiled lightly, "Okay, I'll go to Xiangguo Mansion now."

===

Dong Zhuo was pleasantly surprised after hearing Li Ru's report.

"This Li Zhongyuan, what is he doing? Why didn't you just tell me about such a good thing?" Dong Zhuo laughed while stroking his beard. "Quickly, tell the Shanglin officials in Shanglin Garden to mint money for me immediately, day and night."

"Changing money day and night, there is not enough material to identify the Tongfu." Li Ru said, "Your Excellency, you can urgently write to Niu Fu and Jia Xu, ordering them to transport copper and iron from Hedong to Beijing immediately."

Dong Zhuo said happily: "Okay, you write a warrant for me and give them to them immediately."

Dong Zhuo couldn't restrain his joy, walked back and forth in the room, not letting out a few excited laughter.Get rich.

"Changsheng, I see that in Luoyang city and the imperial palace, there are so many bronze figures and beasts. It's a pity to leave them in the rain. Just move them to Biantong Mansion and melt them down to make coins. Look. Woolen cloth?"

"My lord, this plan is very clever, very clever."

"Also..." Dong Zhuo suddenly thought of something, pointed at Li Ru and said, "When you send the edict to Zhong Yuan tomorrow, you tell him that the [-] million disaster relief money will not be given, and let him forge it himself."

Li Ru smiled and said: "Okay, okay, the lower officials will definitely bring them. However, there must be no restraint in casting money. If too many coins are minted, causing prices to skyrocket, it will be a bad thing. Sir, how much money do you think is more appropriate? "

Dong Zhuo said without hesitation: "100 billion, first cast 100 billion coins."

Li Ru was dumbfounded.

"My lord, 100 billion dollars is impossible, then Gyeonggi and Northern Xinjiang will collapse completely." Li Ru dissuaded him in panic, "If a stone of millet rises to tens of thousands or even 10,000+ dollars, the people will not be able to live. The amount of minted money must be controlled, and we minted this money just for emergency, not..."

"Don't talk about it." Dong Zhuo waved his hand, "We have discussed together many times. If Leopard wants to control the situation in northern Xinjiang, he must properly handle the disaster victims and spring plowing in April. That is to say, After a month, this rebellion should have a result. Don't worry, just mint money. I will leave this matter to you."

===

The next day, Li Wei got his wish and got the imperial decree from the imperial court to allow Northern Xinjiang to cast money.

After Li Wei sent Li Ru away, he immediately called two personal attendants, "One of you is going to Heyang, the other is Xingyang, tell General Xu Rong and General Yang Feng that spring plowing will begin in April, please hurry up. "

===

Records of the Great Han Empire will be released on September 9th. Sohu has made a special topic about it, address:

Please support me a lot, thank you for your love, I am very grateful.

The address of the first batch of bookstores can be seen in the "purchasing method" in the Sohu special topic.

Recommendation: Zichaihen's new work "Great Aspirations".His "Three Thousand Beauties" has been written, and you can read the whole book.

(End of this chapter)