The revival of the Han Dynasty must start with Dong Zhuo

Chapter 282: Small Country with Few People
Jia Xu:?
Liu Xie:?
"Is there anything wrong with what I said? Why is Wenhe like this?"

Jia Xu was helpless: "Your Majesty, where does the court get the money to reward the soldiers in large quantities?"

"The Battle of Anyi was indeed a brilliant one, and we also recovered a lot of supplies left by Yuan Shao. But we didn't seize the treasury or the land. Your Majesty, please don't be too generous."

The Battle of Anyi was ultimately a defensive battle.

Even though the results of the battle were gratifying, with many young and strong men captured and a lot of supplies seized, and even directly maintaining the stability of the court and the authority of the emperor, and changing the situation in the world from the "strategic offense" of the Guandong princes to "strategic defense", which was of great significance, it still could not change the fact that it was essentially a defensive battlefield.

A defensive war, on the other hand, means there won’t be much profit.

Liu Xie suddenly remembered.

The opportunity for the implementation of the military system was after the Grand Tutor won the Battle of Hedong. The court could not pay the soldiers with money and food, so it could only use land to "pay off the debt."

After several battles.

For example, the Battle of Jincheng captured Liangzhou.

Ziwu Valley launched a surprise attack on Hanzhong.

Smuggling across Yinping to seize Chengdu...

These wars were all campaigns for the imperial court to recover its homeland and were offensive campaigns.

Once an offensive battle is won, it means taking over the treasury and occupying the territory. In this way, there will be more money and food, and more land to support the war.

on the contrary.

A defensive war, even if fought beautifully, has no substantial benefits and is not enough to reward the soldiers.

……

Seeing Liu Xie's face turn ugly, Jia Xu thought that what he said was not to Liu Xie's liking, so he quickly proposed to the emperor: "The horse policy of Liangzhou, the salt policy of Hedong, and the Shu brocade, copper, iron, and tea of ​​Yizhou are all extremely profitable. If the emperor is eager to reward the soldiers, it is better to impose heavy taxes on them to make up for the deficit of the court."

……

Although Liu Xie knew that Jia Xu had no ill intentions, he immediately rejected Jia Xu's idea of ​​"making the people suffer."

The imperial court has always been like this.

When they are short of money, they think about raising taxes.

Since they dare not take action on the taxes and land rents, they will start with the commercial taxes.

When they could no longer make money from commercial taxes, they turned their attention to other exorbitant levies and taxes.

When the heavy taxes and levies could no longer meet the court's expenses, they had no choice but to resort to the desperate measure of drinking poison to quench their thirst, and began to impose taxes and land rents, which undermined the foundation of the country.

Now that the Han Dynasty has been reborn from the ashes, Liu Xie wants to change this bad habit of the court.

"Wenhe, do you know what happened in the sixth year of Emperor Zhaodi's reign?"

Jia Xu thought for a while and remembered that an earth-shattering event did happen that year!

"I remember that Emperor Xiao Zhao held the Salt and Iron Conference that year."

"Exactly."

Salt and Iron Conference!

The imperial court at that time summoned more than 60 virtuous and talented writers from all over the country to the capital Chang'an to discuss the people's livelihood with government officials headed by the Imperial Censor Sang Hongyang.

At the Salt and Iron Conference, the virtuous and talented scholars comprehensively criticized the political and economic policies formulated during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han.

In terms of economy, he demanded "abolishing the salt and iron, liquor monopoly, and equalizing the taxation." He opposed "talking about profit," believing that the implementation of government-run policies such as salt and iron was "competing with the people for profit," and violated the ancient sages' creed of "valuing virtue over profit, valuing righteousness over wealth."

What’s funny is that they are obviously a group of Confucian scholars, but they used the Legalist theory of emphasizing the basics and suppressing the details, and believed that government-run industry and commerce are “not the primary task of governing the country”, and accused the government of running industry and commerce of “competing with merchants for market profits”…

However, this group of virtuous writers are not just talking nonsense.

They had in their hands three of the most acute and contradictory issues in society at that time, and they used them as weapons to attack Sang Hongyang.

These three questions are:

the first!

The imperial court's state-run system of salt and iron resulted in an absolute monopoly, high prices, poor quality, forced buying and selling, and numerous drawbacks.

second!

The government forcibly purchased grain and built up reserves, which led to collusion between officials and businessmen and soaring prices!
third!

The government's comprehensive intervention in the salt, iron, food and goods industries gave rise to a large number of corrupt and powerful forces who used the name of state-owned enterprises to pursue personal gain.

Three sharp knives, each one sharp, pierced straight into Sang Hongyang's heart!

Even Sang Hongyang failed to solve these three problems, otherwise the imperial court at that time would not have abolished the national liquor monopoly and the iron officials within the pass after the Salt and Iron Conference.

However, the fact that the problem could not be solved did not mean that Sang Hongyang, who was in charge of the economic lifeline of the Han Dynasty at the time, would sit idly by and wait for death.

He also asked these virtuous writers three questions:

One!

"The operation of a country always requires financial expenditure. It is not enough to rely on ordinary land taxes alone! If the country cannot implement a monopoly system to gain profits, how can the operation of the empire be maintained?"

Second!

"Once there is a war or a natural disaster, additional expenditures will be required. Where will the money come from?"

Third!

"If the central government does not keep money firmly in its own hands and form an overwhelming force over the localities, what will the central government do if the local forces rise up in rebellion?"

This is the famous question asked by Sang Hongyang.

Just as Sang Hongyang did not solve the three problems of virtuous literature, virtuous literature also did not solve Sang Hongyang's problem.

When Jia Xu heard Liu Xie suddenly bring up this matter, he didn't know what the emperor was going to do.

Unexpectedly, Liu Xie did not directly express his thoughts, but threw the question to Jia Xu -

"Yiwenhe, who do you think is right?"

Jia Xu scratched the back of his head in embarrassment: "Your Majesty, do you want to hear the truth or a lie?" "Of course the truth."

"Then please don't be angry..."

Liu Xie laughed in silence: "When have I ever been angry about state affairs? Wenhe has not seen me for a long time, and I am unfamiliar with him?"

Jia Xu gave an awkward chuckle.

"Your Majesty, if you want to hear the truth, I will tell you the truth."

"In my opinion, there is no answer to this question."

Liu Xie raised his eyebrows: "Wenhe is playing tricks on me?"

"Of course not."

Jia Xu explained carefully: "The reason why there is no answer is because there are two answers."

"If I were just an ordinary citizen...I would naturally agree with what the wise and virtuous scholars have said. I hope the court will not compete with the people for profit. It should not block the sea and the lakes to make it easier for the people to use them, and it should not ban knives and coins to make it easier for the people to use them."

"But if I were the Minister of the Chancellery, an official of the imperial court, I would start to agree with Sang Hongyang's theory, thinking that strengthening the country is more important than enriching the people, and we should not lose the big picture for the sake of small gains, or stop eating for the sake of choking."

Are both parties right?
We are all!

But the prerequisite is to think about the problem from the other party's perspective.

A strong country or enriching the people?
What is the answer to this question?
Jia Xu didn't know.

That’s why Jia Xu said that there is no answer to this question.

"Yes."

Unexpectedly, after hearing Jia Xu's answer which was not an answer, Liu Xie not only did not get angry, but smiled lightly.

"There's no answer to that question."

"Whoever stands on the side, everyone has a say."

"Unless, as Laozi advocates, a small country with few people, this problem can be solved!"

Jia Xu tilted his head, somewhat not understanding what the emperor said.

Seeing this, Liu Xie had no choice but to give an example -

"Now there are two people who want to divide ten stones of rice."

"Each person only needs three dan of rice to be full. So there will be four dan of rice left."

"But at this time, one of them got married and took back three stones of rice with the advantage of numbers, so one of the parties actually occupied six stones of rice."

"After a while, the couple gave birth to another child. They needed nine stones of rice to survive, so they could only compete with the other person's three stones of rice."

"For this, the couple had a very legitimate reason, the reason being that they couldn't let their children starve to death."

"At this time, another person also quit, and his reason was more reasonable than the former one! After all, you can't let yourself starve to death, right?"

"So at this time, Laozi proposed a theory - a small country with few people."

"If we are going to end up in such trouble, it is better to keep only these two people and only keep six stones of rice, so that there will be no more disputes."

"Wenhe thinks this method is feasible?"

Jia Xu nodded and then shook his head.

"A small country with few people can certainly solve internal problems, but how can it solve external problems?"

"Didn't the small countries during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period eventually get swallowed up by a few hegemonic countries? Small countries with few people just sounds good, but how can we really follow suit?"

It doesn't matter if it's a small country with few people.

But only if you don't have a big country with a big appetite as a neighbor...

Regarding this point, countless small countries during the Spring and Autumn Period have given the answer with blood and tears.

Especially...the Han Dynasty had also suffered this loss!
The early Han Dynasty implemented Huang-Lao techniques to recuperate and restore the people's strength, but the Huns really came in to beat you!

Therefore, a small country with few people is nothing more than a beautiful fantasy of Lao Tzu.

This made Jia Xu even more confused: "Why did the emperor suddenly mention this? Is he also going to follow the example of 'small country with few people'?"

"How can it be."

Liu Xie shook his head.

"What I want to do is exactly the opposite of a small country with few people."

The antonym of a small country with few people is a strong country with rich people!
When Jia Xu heard this, he already had a vague idea of ​​what the emperor wanted to do.

"My idea of ​​a small country with few people is actually a matter of subtraction. We must always maintain six stones of rice and always maintain two people."

"But my goal of strengthening the country and enriching the people is to add to it!"

"If there are ten shi of rice when there are two of us, then when there are three of us, I will produce twenty shi of rice!"

"Otherwise, no matter how you divide it, there will never be enough rice!"

Although Jia Xu had a premonition, when Liu Xie actually said it, he smiled bitterly.

If a small country with few people is seeking its own death.

That is pure fantasy to make the country strong and the people rich!

It is easy to keep the grain level at six stone forever. The worst that can happen is that everyone just lies down and does nothing... But if you want the grain level to keep growing forever, isn't that just wishful thinking?
Seeing Jia Xu's doubt, Liu Xie smiled mysteriously.

"Wenhe, do you know why I put arithmetic in the last question of the imperial examination?"

arithmetic?

Isn't that for the sake of war?

But when Jia Xu looked at Liu Xie's mysterious smile, he always felt that things were not as simple as he thought.

(End of this chapter)