Crowned the New Han Dynasty

Chapter 450: The family is rich, but the government is short of food

"Dai County is a county under the rule of Youzhou. According to the regulations of the imperial court, a part of the money and food must be handed over to the state capital. This is understandable, but it must be within the prescribed range. We don't need to go to the extra part. pay."

Chen Zhi immediately made a decision: "If we have to spend more than half of the money and food we have saved so hard to supply Youzhou, how can we improve the local area of ​​that county? Besides, Wang Jun's thoughts are really hard to guess. Before I went north, my great-uncle , Uncle Weng, etc. have all come over to remind me to pay attention to Wang Jun. Now that I have arrived, the information collected shows that this man is unstable. If he violates the law again, providing him with money and food will be an encouragement to him. "

Su Liao said: "I'm afraid that this will quickly anger Wang Jun and lead to suppression by him."

When Chen Zhi heard this, he began to think deeply.

What Su Liao was talking about was a very real issue. Chen Zhi was currently in Dai County. Whenever he thought about something and wanted to make a difference, he had to take Wang Jun's problem into consideration. If he couldn't solve this problem, it wouldn't be sustainable at all. .

Although I have not been in Daijun for a long time, I collected information in advance and did some research on the way. After arriving, I learned about it from files and outside the city. I realized that although Daijun seems desolate and has a small population, it has a lot of development. potential.

The problem is that if Wang Jun's problem cannot be solved, this potential will not be unleashed, but Chen Zhi may be trapped in it.

As he was thinking, someone outside reported that Chen Zi was here.

Chen Zhi knew that Chen Zi had received the news and came to participate in the analysis, so he was led in.

After Chen Zi understood the cause and effect, he said: "Based on the current situation, the Xianbei Civil War should be real. Then what Wang Jun should be busy with now is to prepare for the war. Although Daijun is located on the edge of Youzhou, it is in the north. Connecting the grassland, blocking the Xiongnu to the west, and communicating with Governor Liu Kun, it is the cornerstone of Youzhou's stability, and the bridgehead to resist the Xiongnu and defend the grassland tribes. Wang Jun may not destroy the Great Wall."

Su Liao frowned and said: "Youzhou has a lot of soldiers and horses, Daijun also has garrison troops, and the sword handles and equipment equipped in the army are not comparable to the county. In several counties, including Daijun, a large part of their money and food was turned over to support soldiers and horses, otherwise there would not be the current situation."

When Chen Zhi heard this, he said with emotion: "The counties and counties in this place have become the nourishment for Wang Jun's troops, and Daijun is located as a barrier to Wang Jun's core area. No wonder there are so many refugees and the population is decreasing year by year. "

Since he arrived in Dai County, he has become more and more aware of the importance of population, so his future actions will also be based on this.

In the long run, the scope of Daijun is not small and there is a lot of land. Although the aristocratic families occupy a lot of cultivated fertile land, as long as there is a population, Chen Zhi is confident to expand the scope of cultivated land. But if there is no population, all plans will fail. To become empty.

"To attract the population, stability and security are indispensable," Chen Zhi thought for a moment and said to the two former planners, "I hope that the internal struggles within the county in the future will be limited to the political level. This is the bottom line. We can cooperate with the family within this bottom line to a limited extent, but as long as someone exceeds this bottom line, no matter which side he is from, we will not tolerate it!"

Su Liao and Chen Zi nodded and left without asking any more questions.

They came here to inform him of the news and to find out what Chen Zhi was thinking so that they could formulate a strategy.

After the two left, Chen Zhi called Yang Song over again and said, "Today and tomorrow, more than a hundred people will arrive, some of whom are light warriors. You select some of them and start practicing first. The rest will They will also arrive one after another in the next few days. The first batch of people arriving in Pengcheng should be two hundred, and within seven days, I will make a schedule for you to practice with them."

"Great! Brother-in-law, just wait. I won't let you down!" Yang Song became excited when he heard this. He came with him as the representative of the Yang family. According to Yang Jie's wishes, he should He had a place in Chen Zhi's staff and became Chen Zhi's right-hand man, but as the time of contact increased, he became more and more enthusiastic about military affairs.

After chatting with Yang Song several times, Chen Zhi learned that this in-law had indeed some accomplishments in military affairs, so he decided to go with the flow and decide to see how good he is.

After Yang Song left excitedly, Chen Zhi began to think deeply.

"Everything is difficult at the beginning. The key is that there are still many problems. There are Wang Jun's hidden worries above, the threat of the Huns outside, the clouds of the Xianbei War in the north, and the hidden dangers of aristocratic families internally, plus the Wang Jun of the border army. Tsuen, each of these must be acted upon as soon as possible, but the combined resources, money, food, and manpower required are too many. I simply don’t have that many people now, and the money and food are not enough. Before heading north, I prepared some money. Most of it is income from our own business, but if we continue to invest like this, it will not be a problem after all, and we will be unable to make ends meet.”

The industry Chen Zhi was talking about was actually the many shops, workshops and fields allocated by the Chen family in Pengcheng to Chen Zhi's branch. A large part of them were obtained from the Bai family. Over the past year, they had accumulated a lot.

Before Chen Zhi went back to his hometown, he took out a lot of his family's property and brought them with him. After all, so many people came with them, they wanted to eat, and they couldn't do without money.

Then the Pi Chen family and the father-in-law Yang Jie also had financial support.

"The silver, money and food brought, if properly distributed, will not last for a year, so the issue of open source must be put on the table as soon as possible. Fortunately, there are two Mohists, equivalent to engineers, and many craftsmen. After that, The plan can be put on the table. What we need to do is to understand the characteristics of this generation county, consider which project to use, and produce new trading goods for the Central Plains or grasslands. My one-year operation in Luoyang has left me with many connections. and influence, which can be effectively supplemented to help Daijun's products open up the market..." Yes, Chen Zhi's plan is to first take advantage of the time difference to produce a high value-added product, and then target the high-end market.

NEXCOM's high-end market is very clear, that is, high-class wealthy people and high-class scholars!
This group of people are more interested in leisure and money. After Chen Zhi recovered this time, most of the people he came into contact with are constantly emphasizing demeanor and the meaning of celebrities. What they pursue is also more luxurious. , this is undoubtedly an opportunity.

Interestingly, Chen Zhi himself, after a year of precipitation, has become a representative of the high-end market of the New Han Dynasty. To a certain extent, he has even led the trend more than once.

“But the premise is to understand Dai County’s current financial situation.”

Thinking of this, he couldn't sit still. He simply ate something and went directly to the Yamen. He summoned Wang Zhen, Bi Cao, Cang Cao, etc., who were in charge of finance, and asked them to take out the files again and carefully I read it again carefully.

The more he looked, the more Chen Zhi frowned.

In fact, the tax policy originally formulated by the New Han Dynasty was to "accumulate grain to feed the people." Simply put, it means developing production and accumulating grain. This is undoubtedly beneficial to the people, but under the influence of aristocratic families, there will eventually be some changes. Change.

"Daijun's fiscal revenue is indeed, as Su Liao said, mainly from Guanjin and border trade, as well as mutual markets directly organized by the government, and fleets in cooperation with aristocratic families, but I really didn't expect that Daijun's The food is actually insufficient and needs to be dispatched from other places! No wonder I went to the granary in the city to observe, and the expressions of those people changed. The amount of food stored in the Changping Granary is probably very problematic! "

He really didn't expect that such a county would be short of food!

When Chen Zhi first entered the city, he inspected the granaries, but at that time he expected that the Huns might invade, so he had to prepare for the worst and needed food to defend the city, so he didn't think much about it.

But with the gradual understanding of Dai County's finances, Chen Zhi realized more serious problems.

"Judging from the files, the situation in Daijun is not good. The population is lost and the land is deserted. However, business transactions are increasing, and customs and taxes are also increasing. Otherwise, the land area cannot be valued by Wang Jun, but the food The harvest is getting smaller and smaller year by year, and Changpingcang can hardly sustain it!"

He couldn't help but shake his head as he recalled the previous patrols outside the city.

"But there are actually a lot of fields outside the city. If we really collect land rent, the grain in the granary will not continue to decrease. The main reason is that these fields are owned by aristocratic families and wealthy families, and the money and grain are mainly handed over to the aristocratic families! The harvest of the imperial court The decrease year by year is the result of the continuous annexation of fields outside the city! The family is rich, but the government is short of food! As a result, Changpingcang cannot control the tax source."

The establishment of Changpingcang can be traced back to the third emperor of the New Han Dynasty, Ruizong Liu Chen. This Xiaode Emperor was the fifth son of Liu Chan and reigned for 21 years.

When he was in office, New Han Dynasty had not yet unified the south, but many systems were gradually improved, including the Changpingcang system.

The existence of Changpingcang could, on the one hand, maintain the dynasty's grain reserves, and on the other hand, protect agriculture, stabilize grain price changes in the market, prevent unscrupulous merchants from hoarding, and combat speculation.

But now, the local aristocratic family has become so powerful that it has long squeezed the operating space of Changping warehouse, which in turn has begun to erode warehousing, at least in Dai County.

"With the current grain reserves, it is beyond the limit to maintain the operation of the yamen, not to mention raising troops and improving people's livelihood. Even when the Lu District was in power, we had to buy grain from Wang Jun every few months. Of course, this was also his One of the legitimate excuses for sending money to Wang Jun is that even if I don't send it to Wang Jun, I still have to find a way to reverse the situation. At least for the first year, I still need to buy some food reserves. But where does this money come from? Damn it. What I brought is just a drop in the bucket! Besides, in the name of the government, it is easy to be controlled by superiors. If you plan with all your heart, you may become someone else's wedding dress."

Putting down the file, Chen Zhi pondered for a while, and finally laughed and said: "Well, since the family is so powerful and the yamen is constrained by Wang Jun and the imperial court, then I might as well fight fire with fire and use the family's methods to deal with them. Am I not the same?" Aristocratic family?"

Thinking of this, Chen Zhi ordered: "Go and call She Cao, Shi Bo, and Qian Bo to come over."

　Thanks to ''Xiao Xiao Er'' for the [-] rewards!

　　Sorry, this week is almost over and I haven’t been able to add an update because I have a short-term project on hand and the client’s needs are urgent, so there is too little time for coding.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)