The elite did not migrate south

Chapter 725 Downfall
After pacifying the situation here, Liu Shi set off for the Kingdom of Kucha.

Compared with the Kingdom of Yanqi, the situation there is more serious.

Because Baishan has already started contacting kings from all over the country, preparing to join forces to give King Yanqi a severe blow.

If we don't go there soon, the coalition forces will appear.

Of course, the final size of this coalition force will not exceed 5,000 people, and its combat effectiveness will probably not be too high.

But there are only a few people in Shazhou, and they can't stand the turmoil.

Going from Yanqi to Kucha is much better than going from Gaochang to Yanqi.

It’s not just because the journey is shorter, but because there are cities along the way where you can rest and meet pedestrians.

The overall strength of Kucha was much stronger than that of the Yanqi Kingdom at that time, both in terms of territory and population.

After leaving the Kingdom of Yanqi, they arrived in the sphere of influence of Kucha.

The first city we came to was Wulei City, which was once very famous because a protectorate was once established here, but that was a long time ago.

After resting here for a while, Liu Shi continued to move forward and soon arrived at the city of Kucha.

The city of Kucha looks much larger than the city of Yanqi because it has three layers, inner and outer.

Baishan, like Long An, also led everyone to greet them.

Baishan is much younger than Longan and looks stronger.

He also hurried to pay his respects to the new chief historian.

Liu Shi, without dismounting, demanded sternly, "Baishan! Are you contacting the other states and agreeing to attack Yanqi together?"

Hearing Liu Shi's words, Bai Shan looked up and said in astonishment, "How could I dare to do this? I wonder who the Chief Secretary heard this from?"

Liu Shi did not explain anything to him and followed him into the city.

The city of Kucha was extremely large, and the royal palace was even more luxurious.

There is a difference between the cities of Kucha and Yanqi because the people of Kucha went to the Later Han Dynasty many times and imitated the style of the Later Han Dynasty in the construction of cities and palaces. Therefore, the palace here does look more like a palace.

Liu Shi originally thought that Bai Shan was a rebellious person.

Unexpectedly, this man's attitude was very respectful, his words were appropriate, and he was calm beyond his age.

After sitting down, Baishan explained seriously, "You don't know, but back then, Kucha was extremely powerful, with 20,000 soldiers and nearly 100,000 registered residents!"

"It is the strongest among all the countries in the Western Regions."

"But in my father's and my hands, Kucha has become increasingly weak."

"The King of Yanqi has long coveted the cities of Wulei and others. Seeing that I was young, he wanted to take the cities from me."

Baishan also has its own set of rhetoric.

However, Liu Shi knew very well why the Kingdom of Kucha had declined.

The reason why the Kingdom of Kucha became so powerful was because it had a very close relationship with the Later Han Dynasty and had frequent exchanges. They had a large number of merchants who would go to the Central Plains every year to transport all kinds of things and trade in order to maintain their powerful influence in the local area.

They even recruited mercenaries to protect their caravans.

However, until the end of the Later Han Dynasty, the world was in chaos.
The Qiang-Hu Rebellion was the first to break the tranquility of the trade routes, and since then, trade between the two sides has been greatly hindered.

Once interests decrease, civil unrest and conflict will naturally arise.

From then on, Kucha began to decline.

Of course, this is only a temporary decline.

Bai Shan almost cried as he accused Long An of many of his actions with tears in his eyes.

Liu Shi comforted him, "Okay, I already know everything."

"I'm from Long An. He has already promised me that he will no longer oppose you and will not think of raising an army again."

"You too, stop thinking about launching an attack, and don't even think about contacting other countries to fight together!"

"How dare you."

Seeing the honest look of the man in front of him, Liu Shi didn't want to scold him any more.

He informed him of the establishment of Shazhou and the upcoming arrival of many people, and also told him that the trade routes would be fully restored and that Liu Song would govern Shazhou.

Hearing this, Baishan was ecstatic.

The reason why Kucha was in such a state of decline was because there were problems with its trade. If it could be restored to its original state, then what would happen to Yanqi?

He said he would give his full support to Liu Shi.

Liu Shi also discovered at this moment that the road blockage was actually a disaster for the countries in the Western Regions.

Many small countries have become accustomed to conducting trade activities with the Central Plains, and regard such trade activities as an important means of maintaining their regime. However, the interruption at this moment has directly led to many troubles for them.

It was not just the Kingdom of Kucha that fell into decline. In fact, many small countries such as Yanqi were also affected to varying degrees.

It was just because the Kingdom of Kucha was the most powerful that it suffered the greatest impact.

What Liu Song is going to promote here is what they are all looking forward to.

Liu Shi quickly returned to Loulan.

Here, he also met many of his subordinates.

In the following days, he sent officials everywhere to inform the court of the latest news, while also thinking about how to govern these areas.

While Liu Shi and Deng Zhong were busy in Shazhou, the Shu clans were also slowly heading towards Liangzhou. The Shu people finally reached Liangzhou.

But this approach may not be what they want.

These big families in Shu thought that this was the end of their journey, but what they never expected was that after arriving in Liangzhou, they would quickly head north to Shazhou.

They didn't know when a sand state appeared in the world.

Along the way, their cries never stopped. Some people could not bear the hardship of the journey and even chose to commit suicide.

Their miserable cries were unbearable.
But this did not move the soldiers escorting them. If they cried too hard, the knights would come forward and whip them with horsewhips, and these people would not dare to cry anymore and would continue on their journey.

The road is so long that the group of people can't see the end in sight.

It feels a bit like those refugees from the disaster.

In Luoyang, Cao Mao was discussing important matters in Shazhou with many eunuchs.

Shazhou was officially established, and the major families in Shu had already started transportation.

Next, the temple will have to transport a large amount of resources there.

The burden on the national treasury will increase again.

But fortunately, a lot of things were seized in Shu this time, and these things were enough to make Shu no longer need the government's aid for the time being.

After taking action against the powerful families in Wu and Shu, Cao Mao did not ask them to send the seized supplies to Luoyang, but ordered them to use them locally.

In this way, the consumption of materials on the road is reduced twice.

Wu and Shu no longer need the national treasury to bear the pressure, so there is no big problem in giving a little help to Shazhou.

As a cavalry officer, Lu Kang participated in such a discussion for the first time.

He sat next to Zhang Hua, and the two discussed policies together.

Zhong Hui looked at them with displeasure in his eyes.

During the negotiations, everyone came up with two new policies.

The first one is about the issue of education, that is, to set up more school officials in Shazhou and let those Shu people serve as school officials and other positions there.

The second is about trade, and we need to restore the original business routes.

After completing the discussion, everyone stood up and said goodbye.

Zhong Hui did not leave, he stayed here.

After everyone had left, Zhong Hui looked at Cao Mao.

When Cao Mao saw that Zhong Hui did not leave, he stayed there as well.

"Your Majesty, I have an important matter to report."

Cao Mao smiled. Could it be that he was going to impeach Zhang Hua and Lu Kang?
He asked, "What's the matter?"

Zhong Hui then said, "Your Majesty, it's a tax issue."

"Oh?"

Cao Mao was a little surprised. "What's the problem with taxes?"

"A while ago, I was discussing important matters with several Shangshulangs, and I suddenly learned that, despite cultivating the same land, the yields of the Central Plains and the border counties are different. According to the land reward order, ordinary people can cultivate their own farmland, but, Your Majesty, we impose the same tax on them. This creates a problem: even if the farmland is the same size, there will be a huge imbalance due to the different locations."

"I believe that appropriate improvements can be made. Border counties should not be treated the same as the Central Plains. Otherwise, border counties will always need aid from the imperial court and will never be as prosperous as the Central Plains."

Cao Mao nodded and quickly said, "Zhong Shiji is a great talent! You are absolutely right!"

He praised it a few more times. Although he did not write a poem, he gave a lot of praise.

Zhong Hui shook his head. "Your Majesty, this is nothing. The main problem is that the current tax system is disorganized, complicated, and has never created a good situation."

"Perhaps the ministers in the future can pay more attention to this matter and see if there is a way to solve it."

Cao Mao immediately stood up and took Zhong Hui's hand, "Shi Ji, to be honest, I have been thinking about this question a lot."

"You said we could just collect taxes based on the grain produced by the farmland, but you're still collecting taxes based on the number of people."

Zhong Hui was shocked. "Your Majesty wants to ban oral arithmetic?"

"Your Majesty, if this continues, the national treasury will undoubtedly face serious problems and will be difficult to sustain."

Cao Mao didn't say anything.

At this moment, what he was thinking about was the distribution of land tax.

Because the government collected taxes based on the number of people, those who were bankrupt but still had to pay taxes would become slaves or tenants for powerful families for fear of being killed.

Many families choose to abandon their babies because they cannot afford the head tax. If the children do not get married early when they grow up, they will have to pay more head tax.

There are notorious baby pits outside many cities.

Those bankrupt farmers had no choice but to become tenants, not because they only knew how to farm, but because after going bankrupt, they could no longer afford to pay the poll tax, and if they didn't pay the poll tax, they would be punished. So they had no choice but to become tenants, and were hidden away by the powerful families.
The poll tax was an extremely important factor in suppressing population growth.

Later, after Emperor Yongzheng implemented the system of equalizing land tax and tax, the population experienced explosive growth.

Of course, this would greatly harm the powerful landlords who own large amounts of arable land.

However, Cao Mao didn't care.

(End of this chapter)