Northern Dynasties

Chapter 1316: Difficulties in Sustaining a Business

Hou Andu was originally a subordinate of the first lord Chen Baxian. He was brave and courageous, and had made many military achievements in various wars in the north and the south. He was very famous. Especially when Chen Baxian went west from Jingkou to attack Wang Sengbian, Hou Andu not only planned the plan, but also explained the pros and cons and urged Chen Baxian to make up his mind when he hesitated.

Although Chen Chang is now the ruler of the country, he lacks the strategy and courage that a ruler should have. In addition, Hou Andu himself is rather averse to forming an alliance with the northerners, and has been suppressing his dissatisfaction with the court for a long time, so naturally he came together with King Linchuan.

At this time, Chen Qian asked everyone for their opinions, and Hou Andu immediately expressed his thoughts, but the Wuzhong tyrants present were far from being as bold and courageous as Hou Andu. Although they were dissatisfied with the court's policies, they only complained privately, and were far from the point of rising up and causing chaos in the court.

So when Hou Andu made this statement, everyone present changed color and shook their heads, saying that things had not come to this point and they should remain calm.

"Mr. Hou has been with the First Lord for a long time and is concerned about national affairs. Seeing the country in danger, it is inevitable that he is excited and speaks heroically. The countrymen are virtuous and simple, which is of course a blessing for the country, but the crisis the country is facing now cannot be resolved by swallowing anger, and it must not be taken lightly! One person's plan is short-sighted, and everyone's plan is long-term. It is really appropriate to discuss the long-term now, and everyone can speak freely!"

Hearing that most people present did not agree with Hou Andu's proposal, Chen Qian couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

Although after he returned to Wuxing, he united the local sentiments and forces around himself, making his own foundation more solid, these local scholars also had their own opinions and habits.

They are not like the soldiers led by the first lord Chen Baxian in Jingkou, who could rush to Jiankang on the same day with just a single order. In order to integrate these villagers into a truly usable force, it still requires a process and various means.

Hou Andu's proposal was certainly what he had in mind, but it was also a test to see if people's hearts were ready. But from the reactions of these people, it was obvious that although they had many complaints about the court, they had not yet reached the point where they would risk their lives to fight back. Or perhaps the current prospects were not clear, and it was not worth their investment.

Chen Qian suppressed his disappointment, glanced at Hou Andu who was excited and about to speak, then turned to look at a middle-aged man at the table and asked, "Marquis Shen is also a minister of state and a role model of local righteousness. What do you think of the current situation?"

The middle-aged man was named Shen Ke, a native of Wuxing Wukang. In his early years, he and the first lord Chen Baxian were colleagues in Lingnan. When Chen Baxian led his army to Jiaozhou to quell the rebellion, he let his family follow Shen Ke back home. They had a deep friendship that was so close that they entrusted their wives and children to each other.

Later, when Chen Baxian went north to defend the throne and eventually established Jiangdong, Shen Ke also played a significant role, especially in the process of recovering the Three Wus, Shen Ke and Chen Qian also cooperated well. When Chen Qian retreated to Wuxing, Shen Ke also gave up the high official position and generous salary granted by the court, followed Chen Qian back and served as the chief of Zhenzhou, helping to govern Wuxing, and could be said to be Chen Qian's right-hand man.

But in addition to this, the Wuxing Shen family, from which Shen Ke was born, was also a long-established local tyrant family in Jiangdong. As early as the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there was a Wuxing tyrant named Shen Chong who followed Wang Dun in the rebellion. After several generations of development in the Southern Dynasties, not only did the local power become stronger, but the development of cultural reputation was also quite fruitful. The reason why Shen Ke returned to his hometown, in addition to his friendship with Chen Qian, was also because he was not optimistic about the current king Chen Chang, so he returned to defend his hometown.

Shen Ke knew a lot about Chen Qian's idea of ​​using the power of the Three Wus to regain control of the government, but he had a slightly different opinion on this. They had communicated with each other before, and when he heard Chen Qian asking him the question in public again, he knew that Chen Qian hoped that he could guide the local sentiments and at least give up some overly conservative and prejudiced views.

After a brief pause, Shen Ke spoke up, "The internal and external politics of the court are indeed very wrong now. The safety of the country depends on other countries. The officials in the court are all lacking in good ideas. They are just meat eaters! If Jiankang is not at peace, the Three Wus will be in chaos. Jiangdong will be one, and no one can stay out of it!"

He first criticized the officials in power in the court, and then emphasized the integrity of Jiangdong, which was absolutely politically correct. Then he changed the subject and said, "The current state of the country is in such a critical state that it is not up to us, the elders of Jiangdong, to decide. It depends on when the Tang ruler Li will come to take action!

"Looking at Li's tactics, whenever it is difficult to take them by force, he always uses roundabout tactics and feigns to compromise. He and his old enemy in Hebei are irreconcilable, so they can still stop fighting and negotiate peace. However, when his will and strength are ready, he will not delay any longer, but march straight in and defeat them in one battle. He is swift and resolute, and extremely cruel!"

The Wuzhong tyrants present had various complaints about the Northern Tartars, but they did not have a deep understanding of this powerful opponent. After hearing Shen Ke's description of Lord Tang's style of doing things, they could not help but take a deep breath and asked, "According to Lord Shen, is the Tang family just pretending to be nice to us now, or are they waiting for the right time to take advantage of us?"

"The Tang Kingdom has just annexed Hebei and is still waiting for recuperation and reconciliation. It may not have the intention to plot against Jiangdong right now. That's why the Tang Lord returned Nanchuan and replaced it with Guangling. Although the danger has not increased, the predicament is stronger!" Hearing Shen Ke say that the Tang Kingdom's current strategy is still feigning compliance, everyone couldn't help but secretly breathe a sigh of relief. For them, as long as it is not an imminent crisis, there is no need to worry too much.

But before they could relax for long, Shen Ke's next words made them look worried again: "Although the Tang army has not yet crossed the river in large numbers, their strategy has already covered Wuxiang! At the current market, cloth is as cheap as dirt, and everyone has piles of cloth in piles. The cloth from Dongyang is shipped north by ship, and the price after entering Beijing is not even worth the voyage!

Although the wealthy people in Jiangbei have no land or property in our hometown, they can still extort a lot of money from our hometown! The children in the hometown prefer luxury to property, and they donate all their family wealth to compete for the goods of the invaded. Now, if the people of Wu want to buy the goods of the invaded, it is difficult to buy them in the market with money or cloth. Only by pawning all the goods in the three Wus can they get two or three out of ten! When they return to their hometown, people will compete with each other again. In a few years, the people's strength will be completely destroyed and their wealth will be gone! "

Shen Ke's words were by no means alarmist. The Hou Jing Rebellion that lasted for several years caused tremendous damage to the people's livelihood and economy in the south of the Yangtze River. All kinds of production activities almost came to a standstill. After waiting for the unrest to end with great difficulty, production should have been quickly resumed.

However, the Southern Chen Dynasty was established on the mess of the remnant Liang. Before and after the founding of the country, Chen Baxian was busy dealing with external challenges and internal turmoil, and there was almost no construction in the people's livelihood and economy. This means that the ownership of the means of production in Jiangdong society has not changed at all and is still in the hands of the powerful and wealthy. How can the common people restore production when they don't even have the basic means of production?

Because the powerful and wealthy have gained control of a large amount of means of production during the turmoil, they have a greater say in the pace of recovery of social vitality and the direction of its development.

Previously, Li Tai proposed to Southern Chen to open up mutual trade. On the one hand, it was to find a market for Shannan’s various outputs and strengthen the interaction between regions. On the other hand, it was also to hope that a large amount of basic daily necessities would flow into Jiangdong at relatively low prices, which would help improve the people’s livelihood in Jiangdong and enable Jiangdong society to quickly recover its vitality.

But many times, the overall feedback of a society often does not follow the original intention of the designer. Especially now that the Tang Dynasty has not yet taken control of Jiangdong, it is indirectly influencing it through trade, which inevitably leads to some uncontrollable variables.

The influx of numerous commodities certainly solved the urgent problem of material shortage in Jiangdong, but it also made the powerful and wealthy who controlled the means of production no longer keen on resuming production. For example, the powerful landlords around Jiankang could easily obtain various commodities regardless of whether their respective manors had any output, which not only met their own needs but also allowed them to resell them to other places.

The Three Wus suffered less damage and maintained their production scale, but their output had to be sold in the market after meeting basic needs, and then continue to expand their production scale. However, this cycle was interrupted by the continuous flow of commercial goods from the south, which also greatly hit the production enthusiasm of the Three Wus.

On the one hand, Shannan's products were produced on a large scale, with a very good control over cost and quality, which were far beyond the reach of the large and small individual manors in Jiangdong. On the other hand, with technological innovations such as the large spinning wheel, the various costs such as time and labor costs were greatly reduced in producing the same products. In addition, there was the Yangtze River, a convenient waterway in all seasons, which made the Three Wus completely uncompetitive in the same market.

Without sufficient profit inflow, the powerful people in the Three Wus had no choice but to further reduce the scale of production, which in turn caused their self-sufficiency rate of goods to further decrease. Driven by the extravagant trend in Jiankang, the demand of these powerful people for external goods also increased further.

However, the currency of Southern Chen was in chaos. If one wanted to participate in the mutual trade, one could only sell one's own goods first in exchange for the Wanguo Qian, the currency used exclusively for foreign trade in the Tang Dynasty. The goods in Wuzhong had already performed weakly in the market. With this inflow and outflow, one would have to endure several percent exploitation.

This resulted in the situation where the powerful people in Jiangdong owned thousands of acres of land but left it to waste, while they themselves ate up all the land, and the poor families had no place to live, and were unable to wear clothes or eat enough food. The reason for this phenomenon is also very simple, that is, the distribution of means of production is uneven, those who are willing to produce do not have the means, and those who have the means of production are not willing to produce.

This phenomenon is a reflection of the long-standing social ills of the Southern Dynasties, so that the mutual trade, which could have improved the livelihood of the people in Jiangdong, was distorted during its operation, thus exacerbating this phenomenon.

The root cause is the greed of the Jiangdong tyrants. The monopoly of the means of production has led to the shrinking of the scale of production, which in turn has led to the shrinking of the economic volume. When faced with strong trade shocks, they have become increasingly powerless to resist. However, in the eyes of the tyrants, this is a long-planned attack by the northern barbarians against the people of Jiangdong!