Da Tang: Father, can I resign?

Chapter 168 Li Ming: Why do we have to fight a war to destroy a country?

"There is a dead deer in the wild, wrapped in white grass~"

On the night of the wedding of Xue Wanche, the Minister of Works, General of the Right Guard, and Commandant of the Imperial Concubine's wife, and Li Ming's aunt, Princess Danyang.

The princess and the groom sat opposite each other at the head of the bed, and she recited this line of poetry from the Pre-Qin period, where accidents were very common, with charming eyes.

The young man who was waiting for his success in literature and martial arts recited the next sentence, "There was a girl in love, and a kind man seduced her."

Then "relax and take off, no longer feel my veil"...

And then, and then…!
"it is good!"

Unexpectedly, Xue Wanche suddenly stood up and rushed out of the bedroom under the bride's puzzled gaze.

When he came back, he was holding a piece of venison wrapped in thatch.

"We don't have any Imperata at home, so we can make do with thatch."

Xue Wanche had a simple and honest smile on his face, and his big eyes were sparkling with pride.

I actually knew that roe deer is a deer, I am so educated...Xue Wanche felt that he was so smart.

Princess Danyang just stared at the stupid face in front of her that she would have to look at for the rest of her life, with her mouth slightly open.

That night, Xue Wanche discovered for the first time that the door of the firewood room in his home was leaking.

…………

"Last night it was all meat. I had indigestion and couldn't even poop..."

Li Ming complained about the dishes from Xue Wanche's wedding yesterday while sitting in an empty shop in the West Market and taking over the first quarter report of Liaodong from Yuchi Xunyu.

Fang Xuanling and Hou Junji have been busy these days. They are either discussing matters in the palace or working in the government offices of the three provinces.

It seems that the court is planning something big.

Li Ming pretended not to know that the Tang Dynasty was preparing to march north to attack Xueyantuo, and studied the reports with Yuchi Xunyu.

This shop was bought by Li Ming when he was reselling silk, and it was his earliest secret base.

Things are different now.

The friends are now gathered at the Chang'an Newspaper Office next to the West Market, and the porridge stall next to the store has been demolished.

It’s not because “when a person dies, his politics ends”. After His Highness Li Ming’s attention was diverted, he stopped providing porridge to the refugees and let them fend for themselves.

The officials of Zhenguan period were also good at learning and had to save face.

They also learned from Li Ming's experience in Liaodong and organized these refugees to work, build roads, and reclaim wasteland.

Work-for-relief will resolve the dilemma.

Although there were still many refugees in Chang'an City, their number had obviously decreased compared with the past, and they would not gather in one place to form a "slum" that ordinary citizens could not enter.

"Hmm...tsk tsk."

Li Ming sat by the window, feeling the cold wind, reading Liaodong's first quarter financial report, and shook his head unsatisfactorily:
"Not bad, but you can try harder."

The rudiments of the accounting system had already emerged in the Tang Dynasty, and grassroots clerks were no strangers to bookkeeping.

"Not bad, so to speak, barely acceptable?"

Yuchi Xunyu didn't quite understand Li Ming's evaluation.

"The output of grain, cloth, salt, iron, livestock, etc. has increased several times, and the population migrating from other places has also doubled.

“The mine is still under exploration and a large amount of high-quality coal and iron ore has been discovered, and foreign trade has also brought in a lot of profits.

"Ming, I can't imagine a better report. Why do you still think it's just average?

"Don't you think the pace of development is not fast enough?"

He felt that Chairman Li Ming was a bit too radical.

We cannot just believe that “the bolder we are, the more productive we will be”; we must follow objective laws and proceed step by step.

"No, it's the profits from foreign trade that are problematic." Li Ming pointed to the last line of the total list.

"Do you suspect the accountant is cooking the books?"

After working at the grassroots level for a long time, Yuchi Xunyu certainly knows the various tricks used by those below to manipulate numbers and fool those above.

He immediately opened the "Foreign Trade Details" in the appendix of the general table, trying to find errors and omissions by cross-checking the figures of each subject.

"That's not the question." Li Ming's hand was on the detailed account list:
"It's the Economic Development Council. Their thinking is wrong."

EDC is the abbreviation of Economic Development Committee.

It is under the jurisdiction of the "Trading Company Department", which manages all the "state-owned enterprises" in the Liaodong military town - called trading companies here.

In the Tang Dynasty, when merchants were at the bottom of the "scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans" hierarchy, it was somewhat abstract for a government official to go into business personally.

However, in Liaodong, the chairman's power is unlimited.

There is no vested interest group that will jump out and say things like “competing with the people for profits”.

Thus, "Datang Group Corporation" was happily established.

The main business covers everything from metal exploration and mining to iron products, grain and cloth trading, etc.

A considerable portion of Liaodong's foreign trade was contributed by these state-owned trading companies.

"Is there a problem with your thinking?"

Yuchi Xunyu looked at the consolidated financial statements of these trading companies with confusion.

After only a few months of opening, the business had generated considerable income.

Not only does it fully cover the operating costs, it also generates considerable profits, and its operations are very healthy.

If there is no problem with the reliability of the data in this financial report, as far as this business is concerned, Yuchi Xunyu can't see where there could be any problems.

"The profit is too high. That's the problem." Li Ming pointed at the report:

"Especially in the trade with Goguryeo, there was too much surplus money, which was not good."

"Is it not good?!" Yuchi Xunyu was completely confused.

Is there anyone in this world who thinks making money is not a good thing?
Especially making money from the enemy country Goguryeo!

Isn’t this double happiness?

Doesn't this show that our Liaodong has strong productivity? Doesn't it produce high-quality goods at low prices? Doesn't it beat those crude and barbaric workshops in Goguryeo?

If it were anyone else, with the little black-haired boy's explosive temper, he would definitely scold the other person so badly that the other person's mother wouldn't even recognize him.

But Brother Ming must have his reasons for saying this.

"Why is this?" Yuchi Xunyu asked sincerely.

Li Ming sighed lightly:

“Because the original intention of establishing these public trading companies is not only to make money to supplement the treasury.

“We also have to shoulder social responsibilities.”

Yuchi Xunyu still didn't understand:
“Isn’t it a social responsibility to share the money earned with people to improve people’s livelihood?”

"If we invest all the money earned from Goguryeo and other prefectures and counties into the Liaodong market, it will only cause disaster to society," Li Ming said seriously.

This disaster is called inflation.

The underlying nature of Liaodong is still an agricultural society with low productivity, and because of geographical barriers, Liaodong is actually a relatively closed market.

When a large amount of capital is suddenly injected into the outside world, and the local productivity cannot match the imported goods.

This will cause prices to soar and the value of the currency to collapse.

Of course, in a small peasant economy society where success is achieved by not starving people to death, inflation is nothing.

Anyway, everyone can farm, so at worst we can just barter without spending any money.

In the Tang Dynasty, rice and cloth were also hard currencies.

But Li Ming obviously does not want to reverse history and cause the monetary system to collapse due to economic overheating.

What's more, Liaodong already has a large number of craftsmen, "reporters" and other practitioners in the secondary and tertiary industries.

If the currency collapses and they can't afford rice, they will rebel.

"so what should I do now?"

After listening to Li Ming's deduction, Yuchi Xunyu couldn't help but sweat profusely.

I didn’t expect that making too much money would lead to such serious consequences!
Governing a country is a science that cannot be taken lightly!
"The solution is simple. It is to let the trading companies keep their money in Goguryeo. This hot money cannot flow into Liaodong at will."

Li Ming said as he thought and tapped the table with his fingers.

Yuchi Xunyu felt that he understood:

"Purchase local specialties such as ginseng, deer antlers, and furs in Goguryeo, then resell them to the Central Plains, and purchase rice, flour and other supplies and then transport them back to Liaodong?"

It has to be said that Yuchi Xunyu's progress is also obvious.

We can now design a triangular trade route to form a complete business closed loop.

But Li Ming still shook his head.

"From a purely business perspective, this is indeed feasible and the profits are quite lucrative.

"But don't forget what I said, my trading company still needs to shoulder social responsibilities."

Yuchi Xunyu was confused:
"Brother Ming, what is the social responsibility you are talking about?"

Li Ming stopped tapping his fingers and looked out the window:
"Destroy Goguryeo."

Destroy Goguryeo?
Just rely on these trading companies?

How to destroy, by using money?

Even if they throw Goguryeo's money back to Goguryeo, it won't cause their prices to skyrocket.

It’s more reliable to blow it with your mouth!
The more Yuchi Xunyu listened, the more confused he became. Even he felt that Brother Ming was a little too crazy.

"Money should be spent in the right place." Li Ming retracted his gaze and looked at Yuchi Xunyu:

"We still need your help here."

"mine?"

"Yes." Li Ming nodded.

"Goguryeo was a land of dense forests and swamps, with inaccessible roads. Local officials and tribal chiefs had great autonomy. Even when the new king Yeon Gaesomun took office, he was unable to tame these local tyrants.

"We can use this hot money to bribe these local tyrants..."

"Let them rebel against Yeon Gaesomun?" Yuchi Xunyu was defeated and won quickly.

“…That’s not that convenient.”

"Then what are you bribing them for?"

"We have obtained their consent so that our trading company can annex land and open mountains for mining on their territory."

This set of "unspoken rules" for companies going overseas is still applicable in developing countries today.

If you want to develop construction or do business locally, it’s useless to deal with the local government; you have to deal with the local tyrants.

Yuchi Xunyu still didn't understand:
"Then?"

Li Ming: "Then the resources will be transported back to Liaodong, and the capital gains will be distributed as dividends, with the lion's share going to the chieftains and local tyrants."

Yuchi Xunyu: "And then?"

Li Ming: "The remaining small amount will be distributed to the local people we employ, at a rate lower than that of Liaodong but slightly higher than that of the local area."

Yuchi Xunyu: "What next? Will this destroy Goguryeo?"

Li Ming: "After tasting the sweetness, the local tyrants will inevitably seize the land of the locals by force and hand over the resources to our trading companies for development, and they will get a share of the pie.

"The locals who have lost their farmland will certainly scramble to get into our farms and mines."

Yuchi Xunyu: "Then we can hire a large number of cheap locals?"

Li Ming: "No, we keep the workers' treatment the same, only employ a small number of people, and always maintain the image that we are doing good things."

Yuchi Xunyu: "Just like when we gave out porridge here?"

Li Ming: "It's like giving away porridge. We just do good things and let the chieftains and the Goguryeo court do evil things.

“Then we told the workers the truth that the money had been taken by the chiefs and officials, otherwise everyone would have received more.

"Compared with the two, one good and one evil, how will the vast landless Goguryeo people view our Red Turban Army? And how will they view their own rulers?"

Yuchi Xunyu suddenly understood:
"Winning the hearts of the people!" If you want to destroy Goguryeo once and for all, the only way is to win the hearts of the people!
No, it’s not just the human heart!
Mingge's move also absorbed the vast labor force of Goguryeo into Liaodong's production system!
At the same time, it grasped the hearts and stomachs of the Goguryeo people!
Isn't this strategy of destroying a country much simpler than going to war?
Otherwise, given the weak natural endowments of Ping and Ying states, how long would it take to swallow up Goguryeo?

"I understand!"

Yuchi Xunyu stood up quickly:

"I will have the Pyongyang Daily start promoting it at full capacity!"

He had to help the Goguryeo people who were ignorant of the truth to obtain the "truth", come into contact with the advanced ideas of Liaodong, and recognize the reactionary nature of the local rulers.

The Goguryeo Run people who had been absorbed and trained before have also stepped onto the public opinion front.

No one understands Goguryeo better than them, and what they write is very down-to-earth, enough to impress Goguryeo readers.

Li Ming looked at his growing friend with approval:

"This is one of your tasks. The second is to direct Aunt Wu to continue to infiltrate Goguryeo and help the trading company to open up the links so that they can smoothly contact the chieftain."

Use state-owned mines and farms to unite the grassroots, and use propaganda materials such as the Pyongyang Daily to attract intellectuals.

With these two approaches working together, no pre-modern agricultural country could withstand it.

What's more, Goguryeo was a country that had just transitioned from a tribal society to an agricultural society, had just experienced great domestic turmoil, had a leader who was not a human being, and was filled with various debuffs.

A "Pyongyang Spring" will soon sweep across the entire Northeast.

Let Li Ming annex Goguryeo without losing a single soldier.

The complete Goguryeo, including the land and the people's hearts.

In his conception, Goguryeo was also the core territory of China.

War is not only costly and destructive to society, it also destroys people's hearts.

This increases the difficulty and time of integrating it into China in the future.

The time window during the Tang Dynasty when the climate was humid and the Northeast was suitable for farming lasted only one or two hundred years.

I may not be able to wait.

If you can use toxic hot money to "buy" the entire country, it would be a huge profit with no investment!

However, this method was only applicable to Goguryeo, which entered an agricultural society and underwent class differentiation.

Change to the loose nomadic civilizations such as the Xueyantuo and Western Turks in the northwest.

This class narrative, along with the production form of "trading company", has no place to play.

Before the emergence of industrial civilization, the desert grassland could only be conquered by fighting.

"Okay, Brother Ming, no problem, Brother Ming." Yuchi Xunyu was full of energy:
"When will I return to Liaodong?"

Li Ming also stood up slowly:
"First, tell me about the situation at Chang'an Newspaper Office."

…………

At present, Li Ming has a spy agency in the north and south of the Tang Dynasty.

One is Chang'an Newspaper Company, and the other is also Chang'an Newspaper Company.

The two just have the same name, but the meanings are completely different.

The branch in Liaodong is a unit of the Intelligence Committee with one team and two names, and is directly under Chairman Li Ming.

Although the two leaders, Yuchi Xunyu and Aunt Wu, may not be very smart and capable, their greatest advantage is loyalty.

As for the head office in Chang'an, the situation is a bit complicated.

"Mr. Ming, hey, are you free today?"

Lai Junchen still looked as wretched as ever, rubbing his hands.

This guy's bloodline awakens briefly and behaves like a human being, except when he is interrogating prisoners in the Dali Temple Prison.

At other times, he acts like a sneaky mouse.

Beside him, Di Renjie was accompanying him, and the two of them seemed to be in harmony but were actually at odds with each other.

Before Li Ming arrived, the two of them were already standing at the door of the newspaper office waiting.

Haha, there are quite a lot of spies deployed... Li Ming chuckled inwardly and responded to Lai Junchen:
"Well, Yuchi Xunyu and I will come over and sit down."

Then he nodded to Di Renjie standing beside him.

Di Renjie looked as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.

When I walked into the newspaper office, it was as busy as usual.

Today's Chang'an Newspaper, in addition to Li Ming's "primary school party members", has also absorbed a large number of young literati and scholars.

After returning from Liaodong, Li Shimin tacitly agreed to Li Ming's opening of a literary institute to cultivate his own literati like Li Tai.

With this golden signboard, a large number of scholars flocked to it and tried to curry favor with the new nobles in the court in the name of exploring literature.

If you can help your master become a successful person, it will be a good thing.

Unexpectedly, Li Ming's style is completely different from Li Tai, who is keen on empty talk.

You really have to work here!
Each person was given a work badge and worked hard at writing news at his workstation.

Although everyone has complaints, the salary is still good.

What's more, you can learn real skills that are not available anywhere else.

So everyone just did it.

In just a month or so, they wrote excellent news reports such as "On the wedding night of the prince consort, the princess exclaimed that it was too rough" and "Minister Cen doesn't like to visit Pingkangfang and only loves this hall in the palace."

This greatly alleviated the burden on editor-in-chief Pei Xingjian.

In addition, Zhang Heng, the director of the printing factory, further improved movable type printing and invented the wooden turntable to facilitate the selection of movable type by category.

With the joint efforts of content and platform, Changan Express has achieved daily updates, further strengthening its brainwashing...propaganda capabilities.

Li Ming picked up a copy of today's newspaper.

In addition to the "regular" reports with sensational headlines, there are several more notices:

A certain official in the East City of Chang'an, who was in partnership with someone in a business venture, was defrauded. The swindler absconded with the money, and he was begging for clues by offering a large sum of money.

There were several notices in a row, all of which were about different people being defrauded by "online fraud" and seeking to recover their property.

Among these victims were businessmen, children of the gentry, and relatives of officials who did not want to reveal their names.

They are all well-known figures in society, and at the very least they are middle class.

This is not surprising.

In an agricultural society, ordinary people were lucky enough to have enough food to eat and afford the rent in the capital.

Where did the spare money come from to be defrauded?
Li Ming snorted, put down the newspaper, and walked into his own study with Di Renjie, Lai Junchen and Yuchi Xunyu.

Everything I just saw was just the surface of the Chang'an Newspaper Agency.

Behind closed doors, the scene inside is completely different.

"Mr. Ming, according to your instructions, we have placed our people in the houses of important officials of the imperial court, either as servants or as vegetable and charcoal sellers."

Lai Junchen reported fluently, with a look of pride on his face, and even patted his horse:
"The success of our work is inseparable from Master Ming's appeal."

This isn't all flattery.

Among the people in Chang'an, just like in Liaodong, Li Ming has already acquired some divinity.

Because he rose so fast.

He started by generously giving out porridge to attract attention, then bravely saved the emperor, started from scratch, beat back the barbarians, distributed land, and built Liaodong...

Each one is an incredible feat.

Not only did Li Ming do all these things alone, but he also did it in just one year!
Combined with the publicity of Chang'an Express, Li Ming's reputation among the people of Chang'an almost became that of a little bodhisattva.

The originally barren land of Liaodong is quickly becoming a paradise on earth in everyone's hearts.

This attracted a large number of loyal fans to Li Ming among the people of Chang'an, who came to join him.

This is equivalent to giving away a huge human resource pool for free, and every one of them is loyal.

Loyalty is the most important quality of an intelligence officer.

Lai Junchen could then carefully select from this pool of human resources and recruit the best as spies.

After training, they were spread into the homes of important officials, forming a huge intelligence network.

It greatly enhanced Li Ming's intelligence capabilities.

It has to be said that Lai Junchen was smart and capable enough, and his ability to get things done far surpassed Yuchi Xunyu.

but……

Li Ming looked away.

Di Renjie nodded and said in a muffled voice:

“It is, and it is very rewarding.”

After returning from Liaodong, Li Ming would come to the newspaper office whenever he had time.

He found that even though he arranged for Di Renjie to restrain Lai Junchen, the old enemies continued to love and hate each other.

However, judging from the actual results, Di Renjie was clearly at a disadvantage in the struggle.

Although Lai Junchen is not necessarily a bad person.

But we can't let the intelligence agencies become his one-man show...

"What did you gain?" Li Ming put aside his thoughts and asked.

Lai Junchen answered first:

"One of my refugee girls is working as a servant in Li Junxian's house."

Buying refugees as slaves became a trend in Chang'an. They were cheap and the slaves were obedient.

Li Ming asked:
"Who is Li Junxian? Is there anything special about him?"

"He is the garrison general guarding Xuanwu Gate. He is one of the spies lurking in other officials' houses. I have been hearing this name a lot recently."

Lai Junchen replied fluently:

"So I planted a spy in there, and unexpectedly, I got something."

Lai Junchen raised the corner of his mouth smugly and lowered his voice mysteriously.

Li Ming frowned slightly:

"Don't be pretentious."

"Ahem." Lai Junchen coughed awkwardly:
"Li Junxian seems to have secretly taken over Zhang Liang's business."

"Zhang Liang?" Li Ming felt that the name sounded familiar.

Lai Junchen's smile widened, and he puffed out his chest proudly:

"Li Junxian took over Zhang Liang's 'adopted sons' and became the emperor's spy!"

"Oh?" Li Ming raised his eyebrows.

He actually planted a spy within my father's spy, and hammered a nail into a nail?!
Oh my god, what a bonanza of intelligence!

That's definitely worth your smug suspense.

You can do it, kid...

Although Lai Junchen's reliability is questionable, his abilities are indeed great.

"The spies discovered that Li Junxian has been mainly investigating two cases recently." Lai Junchen continued to report.

There is actually a sequel?

Li Ming struggled to suppress his surprised expression and asked calmly:
"Which two?"

Don't tell me that my father is secretly using spies to investigate me...

"One is the Jiucheng Palace Incident. Your Majesty seems to suspect that there is someone else behind the incident. There is nothing much to say about this.

"As for the other case..."

Lai Junchen licked his lips, raised his eyes carefully, and observed Li Ming's expression:
"Mr. Ming, it has something to do with you."

(End of this chapter)