sovbooks Chapter 1395 Fish and Bear’s Paw
Chapter 1395 Fish and Bear’s Paw
Chapter 1395 Fish and Bear’s Paw
"Shanzhang, Zhuge, Chief Clerk Zhuge wants to see you."
The staff officer on duty today came in to report and stuttered a bit.
Feng Da Sima glanced at the young staff officer and nodded:
"Invite him in."
"Here."
Soon, Zhuge Changshi, with the earnest expectations of the Taiyuan officials, walked in with a beaming smile, led by a young staff officer.
As soon as he stepped over the threshold, Zhuge Qiao couldn't wait to say:
"Brother, it is just as you expected. Those powerful families are all willing to contribute money and food, and they all want to keep the 50,000, uh, prisoners of war in Taiyuan."
"Oh? It seems that you have already done everything, would you please sit down and talk to me in detail?"
Zhuge Qiao took his seat as instructed and was about to speak when he saw Grand Marshal Feng glance at the young advisor who had been standing still and frowned slightly:
"What are you standing there for? You don't know how to serve tea? You want me to give up my seat to you and serve you tea?"
"Ah?" Zhuge Zhan was stunned and subconsciously glanced at Zhuge Qiao, then quickly turned around to pour tea.
Zhuge Qiao coughed, looked at Zhuge Zhan's back, and seemed to be hesitant to speak.
Sima Feng did not seem to notice Zhuge Qiao's expression, and just urged:
"Brother, please tell me about the banquet yesterday."
Zhuge Qiao's mind was drawn back to the past. Thinking of yesterday's banquet, he became more energetic and quickly explained it in detail.
Finally, Zhuge Changshi could not help but say one more sentence in admiration:
"A-di, your predictions are always correct. You are indeed a man of foresight. Ahem..."
Sima Feng glanced at Brother Zhuge.
Tsk!
Brother, actually you don’t have to say the last half sentence.
As Feng Da Sima became the most important minister of the Han Dynasty, especially after the Shangdang Campaign, no one dared to mention anything like foresight or the Ghost King in front of Feng Da Sima for a long time.
At most, they just talk behind people's backs.
Anyway, Mr. Feng can't hear it, so just pretend he doesn't know.
If the brother in front of him was not the prime minister's son, he would probably be reminded of the fear of being dominated by the ruthless Xiao Wenhe.
"Chief, Chief Secretary, please have some tea."
Zhuge Zhan interrupted their conversation.
Sima Feng didn't even look at him, but just waved his hand, and then continued to say to Zhuge Qiao:
"Those people's appetites are always bottomless."
It seemed that he was not surprised by this result at all. "It's good this way. They took the initiative to take the responsibility. It saved me a lot of effort."
In fact, Feng Da Sima originally intended to keep these prisoners of war in Taiyuan.
The large army stationed in Taiyuan is a considerable burden for Taiyuan.
For Taiyuan, where local tyrants still have influence, giving them such benefits will enable them to work better.
Zhuge Qiao also breathed a sigh of relief:
"Yes, with these 50,000 laborers, the following things will be much easier."
There are many people who get benefits but don't want to work hard.
But no one in the Han Dynasty would have the courage to take benefits from King Feng Gui and not work hard.
"So, after this, I'm afraid your performance review will be rated as the highest. Congratulations in advance."
Zhuge Qiao waved his hands quickly and said with a wry smile:
"Don't laugh at me, brother. This is not my ability. I just borrowed your strength."
As long as they can spare no effort to mobilize 50,000 laborers, even if it's just a dog, these local elders will risk their lives to give the local officials the best evaluation of their political achievements.
"Brother, don't underestimate yourself. Even if it's just connections, it's also a kind of ability."
"Besides, if someone else were to do this, I wouldn't necessarily give them the 50,000 laborers, no matter how capable they were."
"After all, not everyone can make me feel at ease. Only a gentleman like you will be given a break by me."
Feng Dasima said something meaningful.
Then he glanced at Zhuge Zhan who was standing beside him.
Finally, he took a sip from the teacup and continued:
"They have such a big appetite that they can eat 50,000 people in one go. They must have a solid foundation! If it were Hedong, they might have been too full."
"But this is also good. Eating these 50,000 people will not only make them shut up, but also make them vomit some things."
Hedong is the most populous county after the war, the heart of the Central Plains, and the place with the most aristocratic families.
Now their strength is actually inferior to Taiyuan. You can imagine how heavy the blow is.
It is obvious that after the Hedong family was brutally ravaged by Feng, this man was ready to extend his evil claws to the powerful people in Taiyuan.
When the honest gentleman Zhuge Changshi heard what Mr. Feng said, even though he was the half-brother of Feng Guiwang, he couldn't help but be startled in his heart:
"Brother, do you have any other plans?"
Feng Da Sima nodded and said with a smile:
"If you want to help me achieve political achievements, why should I invest so much? That's 50,000 laborers!"
"As for shutting up those people in Taiyuan, there's no need to put in so much effort. They don't have that much face in my eyes."
Again, these powerful people in Taiyuan have not undergone the same purge as in Hedong.
In addition, they were very quick to seize opportunities and knelt down immediately when the royal army arrived, which meant that the imperial court had no good opportunity to take action against them.
But this does not mean that Feng Dasima will leave them alone.
Feng Dasima's master's master once concluded that the landlord class has limitations.
This limitation restricts their decision-making and behavior.
For example, heavy reliance on land.
Dependence on land means that they will find ways to annex land and at the same time fix the population to the land.
Over time, these people not only control a large amount of land, but also a large population.
Trying to take people and land away from them would be more painful to them than cutting off their flesh.
But unfortunately, Mr. Feng wanted their land and their people.
"They have no way of cashing out all the money and grain, so they are most likely going to borrow money from the Reserve Bureau for turnover."
The surviving big families in Taiyuan are basically in the process of transforming from old-style powerful families.
When it comes to land, they have a lot.
When it comes to food, they can also provide a lot.
But when it comes to gold, silver, copper, and iron, things that represent "cash flow", the Xinghan Society is far better than them.
Even the most basic and primitive industrial workshops, factories and mines are many times stronger than their small peasant economy.
In the past, food was the hardest currency that could not be harder.
However, a certain country bumpkin had some ulterior motives and began to vigorously develop the primary industry from the beginning of his illegal crossing.
Over the years, the grain production of the Han Dynasty has been increasing year by year.
Although it is a time of war and continuous fighting, the price of food will definitely not cause farmers to suffer losses.
But if there are people who still want to hoard grain and sell it at high prices as they did before, after they have tasted the tyrannical iron fist of Han imperialism, they will soon hang themselves on a tree in the southeast and jump into a clear pool.
So food cannot exchange for so much labor.
Moreover, the court sold labor not only to enrich the national treasury, but also to reward the soldiers at the front.
The soldiers fought desperately on the front line, not just for those few grains of food.
How much does food cost?
Even if you reward me with a room full of food, I can't take it home!
If you give me a hundred or eighty bills, I can just put them in my pocket.
It’s okay not to give money, everyone can accept dividing the land, after all, it is a family business that can be passed down to future generations.
Isn't this the reason why you pick up a knife and fight a thief?
So the question comes back again:
If the local elites want to recruit this group of laborers, they either have to have sufficient cash flow or exchange them for land.
Due to class limitations, the landlords in Taiyuan would definitely not voluntarily give up their land and distribute it to the soldiers.
Unfortunately, they don't have enough cash flow.
The reason why they dare to have such a big appetite is precisely because the representatives of the Taiyuan nobles, the Wang and Guo families, have seats in the Han United Reserve Bureau.
Although they do not have much say, they have the right to borrow money from the Federal Reserve at a low interest rate.
But the problem is that even if the interest rate is low, there must be sufficient collateral.
The most important thing is that most of this money was provided by the Xinghan Society and the Royal Palace.
In the Han United Reserve Bureau, the top three with the greatest say are the Xinghan Society, the Royal Palace, and the Imperial Treasury.
The ranking is in order - it is hard to say what it will be like in the future, but this is the ranking now.
The reason why the imperial treasury ranks only third is because it never pays out any money.
Not only did they not pay any money, but they also had to collect seigniorage on behalf of the court.
It is even necessary to use the outlets of the Han United Reserve Bureau to integrate the taxes of various states and counties.
Of course, it is not just eating without vomiting:
Endorses notes issued by the Federal Reserve.
The reason why the banknotes printed by the Han United Reserve Bureau became popular so quickly was partly due to the endorsement of the Han court.
"In Bingzhou, the most fertile land is in Taiyuan. Many factories and mines in Yanmen rely on this for their food sources."
Feng Da Sima said slowly, "Although we are not afraid that they will cut off the food supply to Yanmen, it is not reassuring to let the food be in the hands of others."
Even the most primitive prototype of an industrial base has a large number of non-agricultural workers.
In an era when transportation was far less convenient than it is in later generations, food supply bases were particularly important.
In particular, these non-agricultural personnel are naturally more disciplined and organized than the small peasant class.
Take the transportation of supplies out of the border as an example. The efficiency of Pingcheng is much higher than that of Taiyuan, and it is not just a little bit higher.
Once Pingcheng's food supply is insufficient and the proletariat goes on a rampage, even if it is just Yanmen County, the destructive power would probably be much greater than that of the Yellow Turban Rebellion.
After all, in addition to discipline and organization, there are workshops and factories and even mines and iron smelting sites in the north of Yanmen Pass...
No matter how far-sighted Mr. Feng is, the class he is in now is naturally weak.
But for the sake of huge profits, Feng believes that this destructive power can be prevented and controlled.
The Zhang's hemp rope produced in Nanxiang is strong and durable and has a good reputation. It was originally made by a man named Feng.
It sells very well!
Military procurement alone is a huge business.
Knowing the astonishing destructive power, Feng personally proposed to the prime minister from the very beginning when he was conducting a pilot project in Nanxiang to use the nearby Chenggu County as a grain supply base.
Even in South China, the Xinghan Society put a lot of effort into building a large number of terraces.
This work has not stopped until now.
The food supply base of the Yanmen factory base is Taiyuan.
Besides, growing crops is hard work and you can’t make a lot of money, so let me do it.
And you, my dear friends, would it not be wonderful to open a factory with your labor and earn a lot of money?
To take a step back, in order to be preventable and controllable, Mr. Feng, who is naturally weak, has no doubt about keeping the food supply in his own hands.
After all, no one can guarantee that one day an observant and smart person won't emerge and discover this destructive power and try to make use of it.
Then one day, someone invented another use for Zhang's hemp rope:
The master of the factory, the mine owner, etc. were hanged on the trees by the roadside.
……
Therefore, if you want Xinghan to pay this money, you have to satisfy Mr. Feng's wish.
The imperial court also needed to take the opportunity to regulate local areas and promote new policies.
As for the royal family, extending imperial power to the countryside was a tireless pursuit.
Everything else is just incidental.
It is a good idea to let the local sages in Taiyuan work hard, and it is also a good idea to help Zhuge Qiao achieve political achievements.
If the local people of Taiyuan want to borrow such a sum of money from the Reserve Bureau, the representatives of the Wang and Guo families in Taiyuan must find a way to show enough sincerity.
Of course, Feng also had a secret purpose that he didn't want to tell anyone:
If we cannot directly transform the Taiyuan landlord class physically and mentally, then we must change their class.
From being unambitious and short-sighted to being as inherently weak as yourself is also a kind of progress.
As our ancestors said, we should make more friends and fewer enemies.
Fifty thousand laborers are the bait set by Mr. Feng, which is already a considerable investment.
After hearing Feng A'di's plan, the upright Zhuge Changshi had a very complicated expression.
He originally thought that, with the war approaching, A'di should be working hard and thinking hard about how to open up the Taihang Mountain Pass and recapture Hebei.
I didn't expect that when the war was making no progress, he still had the mind to rectify Taiyuan?
Or……
A thought suddenly flashed through Zhuge Changshi's mind:
"Brother, could it be that this Eastern Expedition, in fact,
As he spoke, he looked at the door and confirmed that no one was there. The only person standing in the room was his own brother. He then turned his body as close to Feng Da Sima as possible and lowered his voice:
"Actually, they are aiming at Taiyuan? Or Bingzhou?"
People's evaluation of Zhuge Qiao is that "Qiao's talent is not as good as his brother's."
But compared to Zhuge Zhan who was too young, Zhuge Qiao had the opportunity to be personally taught by Zhuge Liang in his early years.
Moreover, he was first arranged by the prime minister to be transported to various places in Hanzhong, and then he was demoted to Nanzhong. He even failed to return in time when the prime minister passed away.
Not to mention what kind of place Nanzhong is, Hanzhong was not a good place before Mr. Feng came up with his poisonous plan.
In the Battle of Hanzhong, it seemed that the former emperor had won and captured Hanzhong, but in fact Cao Cao did not lose much either - Cao Cao had already forcibly relocated the people of Hanzhong.
In Hanzhong at that time, apart from the garrison troops, it was rare to see ordinary people, which shows how desolate it was.
Zhuge Qiao was able to stay in Hanzhong and Nanzhong for so many years, and was exposed to practical work at the grassroots level, so he really suffered a lot.
No matter how unremarkable his abilities are, his experience in governing is unmatched among his peers.
What's more, he just can't compare with Zhuge Ke, not with ordinary people.
So it is not surprising that he could think of this after working his way up from the grassroots level over the years.
When these words were spoken, even Zhuge Zhan, who was standing and listening, suddenly widened his eyes and looked at Sima Feng in disbelief.
"Brother, you...are thinking too little, aren't you?"
Feng Dasima seemed to be in a state of confusion.
"I'm not Yuwen Shu, and Your Majesty is not Yang... Well, I mean, even if I want to take Bingzhou, do I really need to mobilize so many troops and station them in Taiyuan?"
"Who is Yuwen Shu?"
Zhuge Qiao didn't understand what was going on for a moment and asked subconsciously.
I felt something was wrong.
Seeing that his brother was too honest, Zhuge Zhan finally couldn't help but remind him:
"What the headmaster is saying is that my brother doesn't think enough?"
Zhuge Qiao suddenly reacted:
"Brother, are you really aiming for Bingzhou?"
"I am targeting Hebei, and Bingzhou is the next best," Feng Da Sima replied as a matter of course, "otherwise why would I choose Taiyuan to station my army?"
"Also, brother, when you go back, tell those people that I have agreed to this matter, and then you can sign the contract with them as soon as possible to make this matter a done deal."
Feng Dasima tapped the table lightly, as if he was saying something ordinary:
"In this way, if they dare to regret it in the future, I will teach them a lesson."
Zhuge Changshi looked at Feng Da Sima and murmured:
"Brother, there really is a wrong name, but there is no wrong nickname..."
That's enough, brother!
This is the second time. If it weren’t for the fact that I call you brother, believe it or not, I would show you what cruelty and ruthlessness means.
(End of this chapter)