At this time, Huang Quan walked in, glanced at his weak sister on the bed, frowned, sighed in his heart, forced himself to look straight, and turned to Liu Zhang: "My lord, Jiangdong Lu Su is here."
Liu Zhang's face twisted. Huang Yueying's prediction was indeed good. The news of Zhou Yu's demotion came just last time, and now Jiang Dong has really come to negotiate peace.
"No." Liu Zhang said without looking back.
Huang Quan was stunned for a moment, thinking that Liu Zhang disappeared because of Huang Yue's body, and said solemnly: "My lord, now Jingyi Province has just been hit hard, and the agricultural and business needs time to recover and develop. It needs a rest time, and Jiang Dongyan
There is no harm in being harmonious. Isn’t this also the meaning of a military advisor and a former military advisor?”
"Yes, husband, the military and national affairs are the most important thing. Don't worry about me. I will take good care of my body and I will be fine after a while." Huang Yue said softly.
Liu Zhang gently pressed Huang Yue's shoulders, letting her lie down peacefully. He stood up and said to Huang Quan: "Master Huang, don't be fooled by Lu Su. Look at what time it is now. It's already dark. Why is he at this time?"
Said you wanted to see me?"
Huang Quan was stunned.
Liu Zhang breathed a sigh of relief: "Lu Su just saw that we had just been hit hard and urgently needed to negotiate a peace, so he came to test at this time. If I really see him, we will be passive. Do you understand?"
Huang Quan frowned and understood why Lu Su didn't arrive in Chengdu earlier or later, but arrived at dusk. This was not a coincidence.
"Then when do you plan to see him, my lord?"
"In ten days."
"Ten days? But." Huang Quan frowned and said: "It's okay to delay like this. After all, we are empty inside. This is what Lu Su sees. Even if we delay, Lu Su knows that we need to negotiate peace with him.
Yes, my subordinates feel that it is inappropriate to summon him tonight, so why not summon him within three days?"
"Are you afraid that Lu Su will be angry and go away?" Liu Zhang looked at Huang Quan, and Huang Quan looked at Liu Zhang blankly. He really thought so in his heart. These celebrities have always been arrogant. If Liu Zhang didn't see him for a few days,
, Lu Su ran back to Jiangdong in anger, which was not good for anyone.
Liu Zhang looked at Huang Quan, laughed suddenly, patted Huang Quan on the shoulder and said:
"Gong Heng, you are worrying too much. First, Lu Su will not leave, because Lu Su is carrying the expectations of the entire Jiangdong family. Lu Su has just become the governor, and the Jiangdong family finally squeezed Zhou Yu out. First,
If something can't be done, will he lose Lu Su's prestige? Aren't the Jiangdong clan afraid of the backlash from the main militant faction? And given Jiangdong's current predicament, what qualifications do they have to act like a big name?
Besides, Lu Su sees our reality and feels that we urgently need to negotiate peace. This is the view of ordinary princes. On the contrary, Lu Su is smart and does not think so. Because I am Liu Zhang, what is my reputation as Liu Zhang? Haha.
Believe me, Lu Su will never rule out the possibility that we do not want to negotiate peace."
Listening to Liu Zhang's words, Huang Quan suddenly realized that he was indeed thinking too conservatively. Anyone who saw Jing Yi's current situation would think that Jing Yi did not want to fight. However, the leader of this land was Liu Zhang, so the situation was completely different.
Five thousand soldiers and horses once fought against Fucheng, 40,000 soldiers and horses conquered Hanzhong, one hundred thousand soldiers and horses conquered Jingzhou, and they marched northward against Cao Cao regardless of Jingyi's emptiness. Can you be sure that such a person will not attack Jiangdong when Jingyi was severely damaged?
? With Jiangdong’s current weakness, the Sichuan army is not completely incapable of taking it.
That is the nightmare of the Jiangdong family.
Liu Zhang's reputation for going his own way has long been spread. With Lu Su's intelligence, it was impossible not to consider this.
"Send orders to Jingzhou." Liu Zhang said with his hands behind his back: "Wei Wen's army continues to attack Baqiu, Baling, and Chaisang. You can also go to Hukou for a while. We are still hostile to Jiangdong. We can grab whatever we can."
What, I want to see who is more calm."
On the second day, Liu Zhang gathered a large crowd outside the main hall, including civil and military officials, soldiers who had served in suppressing the rebellion, enlightened gentry, common people who had made great achievements or were very typical among the captured families, as well as the consuls and supervisors of craftsmen's houses and workshops in Xicheng, and began to
Great hero in suppressing the rebellion.
Zhang was promoted to General of Chariots and Cavalry, and he was granted the title of Marquis of Township. Wei Yan was made General of Guard and Marquis of Township. Fa Zheng was appointed Military Advisor and Marquis of Township. Fan Lixiang was appointed Shepherd of Jingzhou and Marquis of Township.
Li Yan, Wang Fu, Qin Mi, Zhang Song, Xu Jing, Jiang Wan, Gong Zhi, Dong He, Liang Qiao and other civil servants were all awarded titles and given gold and silver rewards. Deng Xian, Ma Dazhong, Ma Xiaozhong, Li Hui, Qin Ci and others
All generals were promoted and given rewards and silver.
All disabled soldiers who fought against the rebellion were given land and resettlement allowances. Those who were willing to return home were honored to return to their hometowns, and those who wanted to stay in Chengdu stayed in Chengdu. Other meritorious soldiers were given rewards and land, which were managed by their relatives. Those who had no relatives were managed by the government.
Escrow.
All the people who had made great achievements were officially awarded official positions, and the biggest one became the county magistrate directly.
Under the heavy rewards, there were thunderous cheers. It was reasonable for civil and military officials to award rewards, and promotions to the common people were also promised. The most surprising thing was that those soldiers originally thought that they would just accumulate some merit and get some rewards, which would be considered God's mercy.
But he didn't expect to receive land rewards and the right to settle around Chengdu. Some retired soldiers were even given women. With land, money, and women, a retired soldier became a little rich man.
This is completely different from the former soldiers who had to make ends meet or had no choice but to do so, which greatly boosted the morale of the army.
The craftsmen and workshop workers in the craftsmen's houses, as well as the people of Xicheng, who participated in countering the rebellion and disturbing the rebels' sight and hearing, all received rewards. The families of the deceased received land and silver rewards, and posthumous official positions. Three of the living craftsmen and soldiers were officially awarded official positions, along with the shepherds.
Government officials have the same status, and all others receive rewards and additional salaries.
After awarding the civil and military officials, meritorious soldiers, ordinary people and craftsmen, the rest are the enlightened gentry. Among these people, except for the Brazilian Qu family and the Jiangzhou Fei family who really contributed to the suppression of the rebellion, the Yin family and the Jin family temporarily defected, and the others
People really have no merit, they are just protecting themselves.
However, this rebellion involved many families. It was good that these big families could remain stable when the rebels had a chance to win. Moreover, these were the first pioneers of commerce, so Liu Zhang decided to give them some benefits.
"Everyone." Liu Zhang looked at Qu Xi, Yin Bai and the leaders of various tribes. He asked in a deep voice: "You are all meritorious people and the pillars of my Yizhou. If you have any requests, please tell me and I will try my best to satisfy you."
A dozen or so clan leaders and elders looked at each other, and Quxi Yinbai took the lead. They all knelt down to Liu Zhang as agreed upon and said, "We request you to open the Southwest Silk Road."
Liu Zhang, Huang Quan and others were stunned. They did not expect that these people would bring up the old matter again. The original donation of Roman armor, weapons and elephants did not make Liu Zhang tempted, so he asked again this time.
No wonder. The Southwest Silk Road does contain huge business opportunities.
Qu Xi paid homage to Liu Zhang and said, "Sir, we have no other request. We only ask that you order the opening of the Southwest Silk Road, connecting the Nantong to Shendu and the west to the Western Regions. We know that the Mufu government's finances are not optimistic, so we opened the mountain road.
We are willing to jointly contribute half of the capital to build the inn, please allow me to do so."
"Please allow me to do so." Everyone bowed in unison.
Now it is impossible to expand the land. Even the land rewarded by Liu Zhang does not have the right to buy and sell. If you want to own private land, you must buy it through the government at a price five times higher than the market price. Any counterfeiters will be severely punished.
Moreover, the expanded land may not be cultivated by tenant farmers. If you can rent cheap land from the government, who will pay the double tax burden?
Under such circumstances, these enlightened families can only turn the direction of their family's prosperity to business. Even if they still have some old-fashioned ideas, they cannot stop the general trend. Now in Jingyi, if they do not develop business, these families will only be in ruins.
Therefore, everyone hopes to open the Silk Road to gather money.
While Liu Zhang was thinking about it, Fazheng came up to him and said in a deep voice: "My lord, you must not agree to them."
Why didn't Liu Zhang know that the opening of the Southwest Silk Road was very important, but the benefits were obvious. Now these businessmen had no other requests. The opening of the Silk Road was their only request, and he couldn't refuse it outright.
After pondering for a while, Liu Zhang said: "Everyone, let me discuss this matter with various officials, and I will give you a reply within ten days. How about it?"
"Thank you, Sir." Qu Xi and others stood up.
At night, Liu Zhang convened a few core civil and military meetings to discuss the Silk Road. Including Fa Zheng, the civil and military officials were almost unanimously opposed.
"Lord." Huang Quan said: "Opening the Silk Road costs a lot of money. Now that I, Jingyi, am empty, I'm afraid I can't afford it."
"Have all the food, gold and silver been confiscated from the clan used up?" Liu Zhang asked.
"That's not true. In addition to transporting materials to Jiangling, resuming operation of workshops and craftsmen's houses, and restoring order in Chengdu and various counties, there is still more than half a year of expenses left, but this is not enough to open the Southwest Silk Road."
"What if we add in the confiscation of various counties and Jingzhou? We have collected a lot of money from business in the past two years, and the autumn harvest is about to begin. We should also be able to solve the problem of food. Added together, it should be enough to open the Silk Road.
?”
"But we can't leave nothing at all." Huang Quan was a little anxious.
What does it mean to recuperate and recuperate? In addition to raising people, we also need to slowly hoard food, grass, gold and silver, so that a large-scale campaign can be launched in a few years. If we use some of this, how will we fight in a few years? Isn't that rest in vain?
Wang Fu said: "My lord, in addition to money and food, our population in Jingyi has been greatly reduced due to this suppression of the rebellion. If we want to develop business, we must first develop agriculture. Only when the people have enough food can we start business. But now the population is insufficient.
Even if barbarians and Qiang Di were added, there would still be large tracts of farmland uncultivated and food output would not be high.
Opening the Southwest Silk Road through the mountains and forests will inevitably consume a lot of manpower. If young people are sent to open the Silk Road, agriculture will inevitably be in decline, and the gains may not be worth the losses."
Fazheng also said: "What Mr. Huang and Mr. Wang said is not all the difficulties. Opening the Silk Road will have great benefits. We are spending manpower and material resources now, and maybe we can really recover the cost in a few years. But, if we really open the Silk Road
The Silk Road encountered far more obstacles than that."
"What else?" Liu Zhang asked.
Fa Zhengdao: "The Southwest Silk Road was opened hundreds of years earlier than the Northwest Silk Road. Since there were business opportunities, why was it abolished? Is it just because the Han people were at war and business was not prosperous? You must know that in troubled times, more people will take risks and seek wealth.
When Emperor Xiaowu of the Han Dynasty ordered the reopening of the Southwest Silk Road, why was it ultimately not feasible?
All the reasons are because there are countless barbarians, Qiang Di and other foreign races living on these three Southwest Silk Roads. They are unwilling to open the Southwest Silk Road. They will block our opening of the Southwest Silk Road, and they will also block the passage of merchants.
In order to open up this road, Emperor Xiaowu successively wiped out more than a dozen small foreign countries in the southwest, but in the end he failed.
During the Xiaowu period, our Han Dynasty had a strong military, but it also fell into disgrace on the Silk Road. What's more, today, we have strong enemies outside and lack of internal resources. It would be better if we could really open it, but if we spent a lot of manpower and material resources, it was not opened in the end.
It will seriously affect our development in Jingyi."
"Yes, yes." All the officials agreed.
Liu Zhang glanced at the officials and said, "Do you mean to say that there is no possibility of opening the Silk Road?"
"It is indeed unwise to open the Silk Road at this time." Huang Quan said, and all the officials nodded.
"Huh~~" Liu Zhang exhaled a thick breath, which was full of loyalty.
But in his heart, he hopes to open the Silk Road. Outside the Han Dynasty, he not only has armor, swords, and elephant soldiers, but also countless gold and silver, horses, people, and even various high-yielding crop seeds and military training materials that can be absorbed.
Law.
The rise of Europe in history was due to the development of colonization, which brought a steady stream of wealth to Europe.
Although Liu Zhang has no intention of colonizing yet, silk, porcelain, Shu brocade, tea from the Han Dynasty, and even paper and various handicrafts from Shu today can be exchanged for necessary military and civilian supplies.
The slave trade, the influx of gold and silver, and the sale of goods all deeply attracted Liu Zhang.
Today there are four great powers in Europe and Asia, namely the Han Dynasty, Rome, Parthia and Kushan.
Of the four great empires, Rome was the most powerful and richest. The Han Dynasty had declined due to war and was in need of trade to supplement it.
Parthian horse archers, Roman phalanx troops, Kushan elephant soldiers, and their continuous demand for the luxury goods produced by the civilization of the Han Dynasty.
This is really a huge temptation.
Now there are two questions. First, if the Southwest Silk Road is really opened, how long will it take to recover the cost?
Second, whether it is possible to open the Silk Road. The problem of money and food, especially the issue of aliens mentioned by Fa Zheng, is very difficult. Liu Zhang could not think of a solution. If he spends time with those aliens in the deep mountains and old forests, he will not be able to open the Silk Road in a hundred years.
.
Facing the huge temptation to open the Silk Road on one side and the huge difficulties on the other, Liu Zhang had a headache, so he dismissed all the civil and military officials and thought carefully about the difficulties that would be encountered in opening the Silk Road.
Early the next morning, Liu Zhang called Zhang Song over and asked to check the bank's account books.
Liu Zhang asked while flipping through: "How much liquidity does the bank have now?"
After Zhang Song's "training" by Liu Zhang, with his photographic memory and quick thinking, he was already familiar with some economic terms, including "liquid capital".
"A few dozen dollars," Zhang Song replied.
"Nonsense." Liu Zhang slapped the account book on the table and said angrily: "Your bank coordinates so many workshops, and almost all the money saved by official workshops and businesses is in your hands, and I allocated so much money from the Mufu.
, how is it possible that you only have a few dozen dollars? You won’t line your own pockets, right?”
ps: #tyrantliuzhang# It’s so desolate that no one rewards me