Chu and Han contend for the throne

Chapter 500 Looting Guanzhong ([-])
A few days later, Bi Shu and Bai Lixian returned directly to Luoyang from Liaodong, and Xiang Zhuang immediately called together a group of civil and military officials to hold the first court meeting after the capital was moved.

The new palace in Luoyang was rebuilt and expanded from the original Lu Ze's prefect's mansion. He was complaining by Xiang Zhuang's pillow every day, but Xiang Zhuang turned a deaf ear to it.

Even Ling Yinxiang said: "Your Majesty, this palace is a bit rough. Did you call thousands of craftsmen and tens of thousands of civilians to build a new palace? Don't compare it with the palace in Ziling. Let the king live more comfortably." Xiang Ta said so, and the ministers who participated in the court discussion also echoed.

"Let's not mention this matter for now." Xiang Zhuang refused without hesitation. Of course, Xiang Zhuang would like to live more comfortably if conditions permit, but is now the time to have fun?

"Let's talk about the business first." Xiang Zhuang said, "After moving the capital to Luoyang, various affairs are innumerable, and it will not be a matter of one day to sort them out, especially if the affairs of Sanchuan County and the five counties of Wei State are all in order. It will take some time to get on the right track, at least until next year's autumn grain harvest, it is absolutely impossible to use foreign troops."

Xiang Ta, Xiang Tuo, Bi Shu, Gao Chu, Wu She, and Bai Lixian nodded silently.

Moving is indeed a big event. Even if a small family moves from one place to another, there will be a lot of problems, such as the location of the new home, the repair of the house, the purchase of furniture and land, and the other is to follow the Dealing with neighbors, familiarizing with the local customs, etc., is a big basket.

This is true for the relocation of small households, let alone the relocation of the country's capital.

Xiang Zhuang went on to say: "How the transition will take place during this time, all the love ministers will tell you."

Gao Chu first said: "Your Majesty, I think the top priority is to suppress the bandits. The bandits in Wei State are too rampant. If they are not wiped out as soon as possible, it will seriously affect the stability and development of the five counties of Wei State."

Gao Chu had already reported the banditry to Xiang Zhuang alone, but no one else knew about it, so Xiang Zhuang said, "From the beginning, you told everyone about the banditry in Wei."

Gao Chu explained the cause and current situation of the banditry in the Wei state.

The banditry in Wei State is very complicated. Some of them took over the mountains as kings because they couldn’t bear Peng Yue’s brutal rule, and some went to the mountains after the fall of Qi State and Liang State, but more of them fled from the Mianshui battlefield. The defeated soldiers who came over, because the main roads back to Guanzhong were blocked by the Chu army, they had no choice but to flee to Weidi and become bandits.

In ancient times, Guanzhong’s natural dangers were not to be bragged about. Apart from Hangu Pass, Wuguan and Hanzhong, there was no other way to go. Liu Banggui was the king of Han, so he could only venture into Mount Yao. Fleeing back to Sanchuan County after a narrow escape?And not long after fleeing to Mianchi, he died.

If Liu Bang is like this, one can imagine those defeated soldiers who fled from the battlefield.

Now the situation has eased a little. If you can prepare enough dry food, you will have a chance to return to Guanzhong. However, these rout soldiers have already missed the deadline for the replacement of soldiers. According to the law, they will be beheaded, and even their hometown will be affected. relatives, so these rout soldiers gave up the thought of returning to Guanzhong, and simply fell into the weeds in Weidi.

Baili Xiandao: "I didn't expect the bandits in Wei to be so rampant. However, if they are handled well, these bandits may still be a big help to me, Da Chu."

Xiang Tuo didn't believe it: "The military commander's words are wrong, how can the bandits be a help?"

"Why can't it be a help?" Bailixian said, "Just now Liang Guogong also said that the bandits in Wei State are all defeated Han troops who escaped from the Mianshui battlefield. Most of these bandits are strong and strong men, and there are a lot of them It may be more than [-], if these bandits can be incorporated into registered households, the farming of Liang Kingdom will be improved immediately!"

Xiang Zhuang's heart moved slightly when he heard the words, this is a good idea to turn waste into treasure.

"Taking the robbers into registered households?" Xiang Ta said disapprovingly, "How is this possible?"

Bai Lixian smiled slightly, and then said: "Dare to ask Ling Yin, what is the reason why these bandits are bandits?"

Xiang He said without hesitation: "That goes without saying, of course it is for survival."

"That's right, the reason why these bandits are bandits is to survive." Bai Lixian nodded lightly, and then said, "Then, if the king lends them a registered household now, then give each of them a hundred acres of land. Ling Yin thinks that these bandits will choose to continue to be bandits, or will they choose to clean up and start a new life?"

"Give them a household loan, and then give them a hundred acres of land?" Xiang Tuo shouted, "Isn't this a capital bandit?"

Bailixian said: "Taiwei, if these bandits have become registered households, how can there be such a thing as being a bandit?"

Xiang Ta and Xiang Tuo were speechless, and Xiang Zhuang looked around at Bi Shu, Wu She and Gao Chu and asked, "What do you think?"

Wu She was silent, but Gao Chu nodded lightly and said, "Your Majesty, I think you can try it. In fact, many bandits have already married wives and had children in the local area, and integrated with the Wei people. On the surface, they They are no different from ordinary people, but they are still engaged in the business of robbing houses and houses in secret."

After pondering for a while, Bi Shu said: "But among these bandits, there are also many years-old bandits. If they only lend to a registered household and then lend a hundred acres of land, I'm afraid it will be difficult to convince them. Come to the government soldiers, adopt the strategy of suppression and appeasement, and go to the county government to borrow money within a time limit, otherwise, there will be no mercy!"

Bai Lixian smiled and said: "As expected of a general, he hit the nail on the head with one word."

Xiang Zhuang then said to Gao Chu: "At the beginning, when you go back, you will order all the counties to post the notices. The deadline is three months. If the bandits in the counties can borrow within three months, they will be exempted from punishment and issued to official households. Another hundred mu of land will be given, and in addition, three years of money, grain and tax exemption will be exempted, but if you fail to make it within the time limit, we will send troops to wipe them out!"

"Here!" Gao Chu got up from his seat on his knees, and responded abruptly.

"Okay." Xiang Zhuang nodded lightly, and said again, "One more thing. Wumuya just sent news from Guanzhong that Baimo plans to set up an official to specialize in salt and iron. In addition, there seems to be a dispute between Han and Yuezhi people. Hey, Bai Mo has ordered the closure of all checkpoints leading to Hexi, strictly prohibiting merchants in Guanzhong from selling salt and iron to Hexi."

When he first received this secret letter, Xiang Zhuang thought that Wumuya had made a mistake, because in his memory, Hexi was the Qinghai of the later generations, although most of the area was occupied by the Qiangdi tribes, large and small. However, the Hexi Corridor occupied by the Yuezhi people also has salt lakes, so how could the Yuezhi people be short of salt?
Later, after Qu Bucai’s explanation, I finally understood that in ancient times, transportation was inconvenient, news flow was not smooth, and production technologies such as iron smelting, salt making, and weaving were even more difficult to spread. Therefore, Qiang, Di, Yuezhi, Xiongnu, Donghu, etc. The barbarian tribes didn't know how to dry salt at all, let alone cook salt, so they relied heavily on the Central Plains for table salt.

There is a saying, this is called guarding Baoshan to live a hard life.

"Salt and iron franchise?" Xiang Ta, Xiang Tuo and Wu She didn't respond, but Bi Shu and Bai Lixian's expressions changed slightly.

Bai Lixian shook his feather fan lightly, smiled and said to Bi Shu: "Learning swords, you brother is really not easy. If the salt and iron franchise can really be put into practice, the treasury of the Han Kingdom can be restored in a very short period of time. With great enrichment, the huge deficit brought by the defeat of Mianshui can almost be overcome, right?"

Bi Shu also said sincerely: "Yes, this is indeed a trick."

Xiang Tuo was confused and said: "Why, is the salt and iron franchise very powerful?"

Bai Lixian smiled and said: "Taiwei, the salt and iron franchise is not very powerful, but it is very profitable. You only need to look at how rich the salt merchants in Ziling are to know."

Out of the consideration of encouraging industry and commerce and expanding business, Xiangzhuang did not implement the national policy of salt and iron monopoly, but handed over these two huge cakes to private individuals for management. Of course, ordinary merchants absolutely do not have this qualification. All the merchants entering the key fields such as salt, iron and grain are red-capped merchants like the Qin family in Badong.

Seeing that Bi Shu, Bai Lixian and the others had nothing to say, Xiang Zhuang couldn't help but said, "Learning swordsman, Ziliang, don't you think this is a good opportunity to loot the pass?"

"Well, ransacking Guanzhong?" Xiang Ta and Wu She looked at each other in blank dismay.

Bai Lixian and Bi Shu looked at each other, but they didn't know what Xiang Zhuang meant.

Gao Chu and Xiang Tuo were very excited and said, "Why, is Your Majesty going to use troops against Guanzhong again?"

"Using soldiers?" Xiang Zhuang was stunned for a moment, then shook his hands again and again and said, "No, no, it's not what you think. The widow is talking about business disputes, not military ones."

"Business dispute?" Gao Chu and Xiang Tuo were still confused.

Xiang Ta and Wu She didn't know what to say, but Bi Shu and Bai Lixian seemed to have some understanding.

For the ancients of this era, financial war is of course a completely unknown field, but there have already been original academic researches on the essence of financial war. Financial war sounds mysterious, but in fact it is buying cheap and selling dear. Lixian has a lot of knowledge, so he has naturally dabbled in this area of ​​knowledge.

Xiang Zhuang's involvement in the financial field is also extremely superficial, but for this era, his financial knowledge can be regarded as the level of a master. At least Xiang Zhuang has learned about the financial turmoil in [-] from the Internet. Know the operation methods of Wall Street financial predators looting several major emerging economies in Asia.

The method is to first buy a large number of currencies of various countries, speculate on the exchange rate, wait for the exchange rate to rise to a certain height, and then release a large amount of the currencies of various countries that were bought in advance, and earn the difference from it. A very small amount of U.S. dollars entered the market to buy bottoms and collect corpses, thus easily controlling various assets in various Asian countries.

Of course, finance does not exist at all in this era, but there must be a market, and since Qin Shihuang unified the currency system, all countries in China have a unified currency, that is, the upper currency gold and the lower currency five baht coins, with a unified currency Therefore, Xiang Zhuang's crazy idea of ​​looting Guanzhong economically has a basis for realization.

(End of this chapter)