It seems that many people don’t understand ancient financial revenue. I am tired of issuing single chapters...
In ancient times when money supply was scarce, the bulk of fiscal revenue was always in kind. To be more precise, this kind of thing was approximately equal to grain.
You can think about when ancient my country began to advocate collecting cash instead of collecting taxes in kind.
When the emperor used grain to offset part of the salary paid to all officials, whether it was as small as a region or as large as the entire country, the bulk of the fiscal revenue could only be grain.
To distribute money to the sergeants, currency is definitely not enough, and a large amount of food must be used to offset it. This is determined by the nature of fiscal revenue.
Marshal Shao distributed rewards to the sergeants, as you can see in the previous article, and even used cattle and sheep to compensate for the rewards.
Let’s talk about Shuzhong.
To formally rule a place, you have to follow the rules, that is, obtain local goods through taxes.
After the Han River was diverted due to the earthquake in the Western Han Dynasty, grain in Sichuan could not be transported abroad at low cost. This meant that a large part of Sichuan's fiscal revenue would be deposited locally and could not be transported out.
It's not impossible to use it.
It is the localization of the army mentioned in the article. Local people are recruited as soldiers, and their families are also in the local area. Logistics and military salaries are provided by the local area...or foreign troops are sent to Sichuan and their families are moved there, so that they can be used.
There is no essential difference between the two.
I believe everyone knows what the risks of doing this are.
In fact, in various vassal towns in the late Tang Dynasty, the appearance of the outer town army was because the ruling center could not provide enough money and food, so it had to be like this. If there was a choice, the vassal commander would like to cancel the outer town army and take back all military power.
In addition, Shu people must not only have the few copper coins and silk they pay for taxes, but also a lot left at home. How do you get this part?
The first is to break the rules, levy excessive taxes, collect taxes predatoryly, and collect as much copper coins and silk as possible, which can accumulate a large amount of wealth in a short period of time. For example, they did this in the Later Tang and Northern Song Dynasties. I don't care whether the Shu people complain or not.
The second is to support the agents and ask for money from them. That is, we only accept high-value items such as copper coins and silk. You can keep the food for yourself and I don’t want it. Let the agents find their own solutions and bear the bad reputation themselves. The advantage is
your.
In the war years, with inconvenient transportation and geographical isolation, Shuzhong was generally the last to be unified, so there is a saying that "the world is at peace, but Shu is not at peace".
You can’t use a large portion of a place’s fiscal revenue to other places. Instead, you have to invest resources to maintain its rule. Is it worth it?
I have written before that it is best to conquer Shu in person. Even if you cannot conquer Shu in person, you must let your eldest son take command, even if it is only in name.
After conquering the land of Shu, his son temporarily stayed there to govern and calm people's hearts. He could use various methods, such as marrying the big families in Shu, promoting officials personally, etc. Of course, there must be a prerequisite, that is, the army must be in his own hands. This also allows him to
The reason why his son takes charge.
Or use some of the sergeants brought over as the backbone to recruit Shu people to form a new army. Logistics and military pay will all be solved locally, and the army will be localized.
Generally speaking, under the atmosphere of the late Tang Dynasty, it was absolutely forbidden to localize the army, as it could easily be controlled by others.
But if the controller is the eldest son, then there is no big problem unless you don't want him to succeed.