Northern Dynasties

Chapter 1372: Wealth for Military Use
Since Dugu Xin quelled the Liangzhou rebellion and opened up the Hexi Corridor during the Datong period of the Western Wei Dynasty, trade exchanges between the Guanzhong regime and the Western Regions have started again and developed rapidly. Sifang City, located in Tianshui, was established in this context.

Li Tai's original intention in establishing Sifang City was just to get a share of the Silk Road trade, and to use it to tie the interests of the Longyou tyrants together with his own and strengthen the ties between them.

In the years that followed, Sifang City also fully played this role. This shopping city became more and more prosperous and lively, and became the largest and most important commercial center in Longyou.

As for Li Tai's relationship with the powerful people in Longyou, it was naturally very close. He took away thousands of Longyou warriors in Longyou back then. These people have always been the most core and elite armed forces under his command. Most of them have now grown into middle and lower-level sergeants and generals, becoming the backbone of the government soldier system, and a small number of them have directly become local earls sitting in the prefectures and counties.

Sifang City is a public-private joint management model. Generally, the Tianshui prefect serves as the city lord, and the county chief and two local leaders recommended by the people serve as deputy city lords to be responsible for the daily management of the mall. This is the management model created by Li Tai in the past, and it has been in operation until now.

The current prefect of Tianshui is named Yan Zheng, who was rescued from a temple when Li Tai came to Longyou and later accepted as his disciple. Now he is over 30 years old and has changed his official position many times. He has jumped from a helpless temple slave to the prefect of Tianshui, the shepherd of his hometown.

Yan Zheng knew that the Supreme would come to understand the current business situation of Sifang City, so he spent a lot of effort to organize and summarize all the relevant information. When he came to report, he brought several boxes of books and pictures. He lowered his head a little embarrassedly and said, "All the money and goods in and out of Sifang City must be recorded in books. Although I have sorted them out several times with my assistants, the number of books has not decreased much. This is just a bulk archive, and the specific details still need to be reviewed in the warehouse."

Sifang City involves a large amount of money and goods transactions. Every transaction and the money and goods entering and leaving the warehouse must be recorded. The accumulation naturally forms a huge mountain of documents, and the annual consumption of paper alone is as much as thousands of kilograms. For this reason, Sifang City has also specially prepared several warehouses to store relevant documents, but they can only keep the books and documents of the last two to three years. The rest can only be destroyed after verification.

Although Sifang City would report its business overview to the court every quarter, the specific business conditions could only be directly seen through on-site inspections. Li Tai signaled Yan Zheng and others to stay seated while he picked up a copy of the summary and read it carefully.

Sifang City is a comprehensive commercial city that integrates warehousing, logistics, buying and selling, finance and other functions. It is not just a simple commercial city or logistics port.

This city has many profit channels, including leasing, transportation, information trading, lending, etc. As Longyou's commerce becomes more prosperous, Sifang City's profits are also increasing year by year. Now, only entering the third quarter of this year, Sifang City's profits have totaled more than 1.8 million strings of cash.

One string of money is equivalent to one thousand coins. According to the current prices, a piece of silk costs between three hundred and fifty and four hundred coins, and a stone of grain costs no more than two hundred coins. Of course, this is the price in Guanzhong. The price in Longyou is higher, and many materials simply cannot support such a large-scale exchange. If you force the exchange, the loss caused by the transaction alone will be a very exaggerated proportion.

But even if the price differences in different regions are taken into account, this income is really considerable. It should be noted that in the history of the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the annual tea tax was only 200,000 to 300,000 strings of money. Now, the profit of Sifang City alone is more than 1.8 million strings of money in half a year, and the annual profit is expected to be more than 3 million strings of money, which is equivalent to ten years of tea tax. It can be seen that the profit is so high that it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a golden chicken laying eggs.

Of the annual profit of 3 million strings of cash, about one-sixth was turned over to the government as a trade tax and transaction fee for passing goods. The remaining 2.5 million strings of cash was distributed between officials and civilians in a 30:70 ratio, with 30% turned over to the prefectures and counties in Longyou, and the remaining 70% shared by the people involved in the business.

Yes, the civilians get the lion's share of the profits generated by Sifang City. This may seem a little unbelievable, but it is clear if you look at the shareholding ratio, because the largest shareholder of Sifang City is the current Supreme. After deducting various expenses, 50% of the remaining profits belong to the Supreme.

According to the current profit scale of Sifang City, Li Tai can collect more than 900,000 strings of cash in dividends every year and deposit them into his own treasury, and the rest will be shared by other shareholders.

This profit distribution model was established as early as the Datong period when Sifang City was first established, and has continued to this day. Although the proportion of shares held has changed, most of the participants have made a lot of profit, far exceeding their previous investment, and some have even become rich because of it.

Li Tai formulated such a distribution model in order to circumvent interference from local government. After all, not long after Sifang City was established, Yuwen Dao replaced Dugu Xin to govern Longyou. Li Tai's interests were no longer protected by the Longyou government, and he was even targeted and suppressed. Therefore, bypassing the government's supervision to distribute the interests of Sifang City at that time was also conducive to preserving his interests and influence in Longyou.

In his early years, before he entered Guanzhong, the contradiction between him and Bafu in Shannan became increasingly prominent. Yuwen Dao, who was stationed in Longyou at the time, was mainly used to check and balance him.

At that time, Li Tai further reduced his shareholding ratio in Sifang City, and gave it to Yuwen Dao with half of his own shares plus the shares of other Longyou tyrants to make up 50%, making his presence more covert and ensuring that Yuwen Dao did not interfere with the operation of Sifang City, allowing this shopping mall to develop smoothly to the present.

Of course, Yuwen Dao's non-interference in Sifang City also benefited his descendants a lot. Although his family's shareholding ratio has been reduced again and again after his death and the overthrow of the Yuwen family, they can still receive dividends of up to tens of thousands of strings from Sifang City every year, which is also a very lucrative income.

In the past few years, some people have suggested to Li Tai that the descendants of Yuwen Dao should be kicked out of the shareholder list of Sifang City, but Li Tai refused. There is no need to disrupt a rule that has been running stably for many years. In addition, the descendants of Yuwen Dao are relatively respectful and low-key, so it is better to preserve this legacy of their ancestors.

However, this time when Li Tai came to Longyou, he planned to carry out a thorough reform of Sifang City, making systematic changes from the operating model to the distribution of benefits.

First, the distribution of benefits in Sifang City was problematic to begin with, and Li Tai, as the creator of this set of rules, was naturally aware of this. Previously, it was to circumvent the government's surveillance and control, but now there is no such need, and instead the government needs to provide stronger guidance and control.

For him, a dividend of a few hundred thousand coins is just a matter of course, and it is not worth it to affect his decision-making. Instead, it is far more important to guide and use these benefits more reasonably than simply accumulating wealth.

Secondly, the position of Sifang City in Longyou's business environment is becoming more and more important, which also makes this city have extraordinary strategic value. If used properly, it will also be of great significance to the military and political development of Longyou, and will no longer be limited to commercial profits. "In the near future, we will sort out the personnel of Sifang City and wait for the court to send an envoy here to take over. In the future, the affairs of Sifang City will be supervised by a special envoy, and the county government will no longer need to supervise it."

After looking through the account book, Li Tai spoke to everyone present.

When Yan Zheng and the others heard this, their faces changed. He first responded respectfully, then couldn't help but bow his head and said, "Could it be that I'm not doing a good job, so the master wants to send an envoy here to govern?"

The commerce in Sifang City is becoming more and more prosperous, so much so that now all the political affairs of Tianshui County revolve around this shopping mall. Once the management rights are taken away, the county government will be left with nothing, and both its administrative and financial powers will be sharply reduced.

"The reason why this city was established last year was to help the villagers and promote business. We hoped that everyone who passed through it would benefit from it and benefit both the country and the people. But now the city is run for profit, which is completely contrary to the original intention. All the people who participated in the city are unaware of it and only care about money and profit. It is really disappointing!"

Li Tai knew that this matter was related to the power struggle between the central government and the local governments. As an emperor, he certainly hoped to bring power to the central government as much as possible without affecting the local administration and people's livelihood, so he frowned and snorted coldly.

He was not saying this to take advantage of the situation. In fact, there were indeed some major problems in the operation of Sifang City. Although the prosperous trade had led to a significant increase in revenue, the real profit growth point was not in the operation of trade, but in lending.

Wherever there is commercial operation, there is always a need for capital borrowing. Sifang City has played a certain financial role from the beginning, but with the development of commerce, the scale of lending is also increasing day by day.

Originally, those who undertook this function were often local wealthy families and temples, but the establishment of Sifang City combined the two together, and now it has a tendency to monopolize the usury in Longyou. One third of Sifang City's profits are generated by the lending business, which shows how prosperous this industry is, and this also caught Li Tai off guard.

Although the growth in profits was very gratifying, Li Tai knew that the game of making money from money only looked good, and it would only lead to a dead end in the end. Especially in the Middle Ages, a society without strong productivity support, any financial tricks that were out of touch with reality would only lead to an even uglier death!

In his vision, the future Sifang City should be a complex that takes into account various functions such as finance, commerce, industrial production and military assistance. To put it more bluntly, the Sifang City complex should be used to support certain military operations, and the option of gaining benefits through military colonization is not ruled out.

Li Tai knew that with the development of social productivity, a new round of land annexation would inevitably occur. As this process unfolded, coupled with the continued expansion of the territory of the Tang Empire, the scope of military deployment became wider, and the military system based on the equal-field system would inevitably collapse and perish. Recruiting soldiers and hiring Hu people to fight would also become a more cost-effective way to enter the historical stage.

If one wants to delay this process as much as possible, it is necessary to explore new sources of profit for the soldiers outside of the equal-field system. Pure military plunder is extremely risky and not very sustainable.

However, if trade is combined with military colonization, it is feasible. Especially in the strategy for the Western Regions, the traditional farming and the establishment of tributary rule have various shortcomings. As the intersection between the East and West continents, the Western Regions have huge trade interests to be explored, and the individual strength of many states in the Western Regions is not very strong, which is also convenient for establishing a colonial system.

Li Tai took back the management rights of Sifang City this time, not only because he was dissatisfied with the current business situation of Sifang City, but also because he wanted to use it as a vehicle to carry out this attempt.

Sifang City does not directly participate in military operations, but it has excellent logistics and material distribution capabilities. If this can be converted to military use to a certain extent, it will undoubtedly greatly enhance the war endurance of the Tang Dynasty army, and it will be able to launch larger-scale and longer-distance military operations in Longyou, Hexi and even the Western Regions.

After militarily occupying these areas, the Sifang City can be responsible for the distribution of spoils, the development and utilization of local resources, and even participate in the administrative management of the conquered territories.

In other words, if you are bored of staying in the Tang Dynasty and have some spare money, and want to have a taste of being the best, you can invest in the development plan of Sifang City. When the Tang Dynasty army opens up a new territory in the Western Regions, they can give you an oasis and some people, and let you establish a state in the Western Regions. At the same time, the Tang Dynasty army will continue to provide military protection.

By then, the soldiers guarding the border will no longer have to worry about the poor harvest of those hectares of land in Guanzhong this autumn. The large and small states in the Western Regions will become their new crops, and they can collect protection fees regularly.

Of course, this is just a very simplified model concept. There will be various differences and variables in the actual implementation process. The final result may be very different from the initial expectation, but this can be adjusted in the process.

From Li Tai's perspective, no matter what the final result is, as long as he can strengthen the influence of the Han people in the Western Regions and continue it, it is actually a success.

As for the powerful households who participated in the operation of Sifang City, Li Tai also gave them two choices. First, the future operation and profit distribution of Sifang City must be taken back, and the court will buy back the shares held by these people in the next three to five years.

As for the repurchase method, they can directly give dividends for three to five years to ensure that their interests have a certain continuation period. Or they can invest in industries in inland areas such as Shannan and Jiangdong, or they can follow the pioneering pace of the Tang army and continue to advance into the Western Regions.

In short, if you have confidence in the future policy implementation of the court, then sit tight and move on. If you have little confidence in this, then buy out and get off the bus, and cut ties once and for all.