The revival of the Han Dynasty must start with Dong Zhuo

Zhuge Liang accepted Jiang Wei and Deng Ai as his disciples, and naturally hoped to take them to Annan or even Kushan to teach them personally.

Jiang Wei's father, Jiang Jiong, was naturally overjoyed and agreed without hesitation.

However, Deng Ai's father died early, and he had been living with his widowed mother. So everyone was worried that Deng Ai's mother would oppose this.

But Deng Ai's mother was unexpectedly generous.

"Mencius' mother moved her residence three times for Mencius' education, and only then did she cultivate Mencius into a great scholar...Now that my son can follow Mr. Zhuge, it saves his mother a lot of hard work. How can I not agree?"

Deng Ai knelt down beside his mother with tears in his eyes and said, "One day, I will come to greet you with a carriage pulled by six horses!"

For a time, the scholars in Jingzhou all praised this incident. At the same time, Sima Hui also assured Deng Ai that he would take care of his mother for him, so that Deng Ai could rest assured and study hard under Zhuge Liang.

……

After everyone had completed their preparations, they finally entered Shu from Jingzhou.

Yang Xiu led Liu Zhang, Wu Yi and other Shu officials to welcome him in Jiangzhou.

When he saw Zhuge Liang, Yang Xiu felt like he had seen a savior!
"With Kong Ming here, I finally don't have to worry about Shu anymore!"

Seeing the deep weariness between Yang Xiu's brows, Zhuge Liang also teased: "Dezu is also very busy in the Ministry of Personnel, how come he is so tired after only being in Shu for a few months?"

Yang Xiu smiled bitterly and said, "When the central government does things, at least it has something to rely on."

"Even if there are things I can't handle, I have Zhongda, Xun Lingjun, Jia Zhongshu, and even the emperor to help me."

"But now, everyone in Shu is crossing the river by feeling the stones. Who knows, they might fall into the ditch. Isn't it exhausting?"

"Oh?"

Zhuge Liang is amazing!
"How can it be called crossing the river by feeling the stones? The emperor only asked Dezu to come and appease the officials. How come Dezu said it was such a big and difficult matter?"

"How can it be that simple?"

Yang Xiu seemed to have met a rare person to whom he could vent his grievances. He held Zhuge Liang's hand and started to chatter non-stop.

"Kong Ming should have heard about what happened at that time."

"The Kushans declared war on the Han Dynasty and stopped trade between the Han and Kushans, causing officials in Shu to write to the emperor, asking the court to send troops immediately!"

"Well... that's what happened."

"No! That's not the case at all!"

Yang Xiu pointed to his head and said, "Kong Ming! Think about it carefully. Which official is not a seasoned one? How could they just follow the crowd and write a letter?"

"The reason is that after the Kushans stopped trading, there was indeed a big mess in Shu! The officials in Shu were driven to desperation!"

Zhuge Liang gently waved his feather fan and listened attentively to Yang Xiu's story.

“I only found out after I came here.”

"You know, Shu is a land of abundance. There is no shortage of food."

"Plus, the emperor was wise and brave back then, allowing Liu Huangshu to conquer Shu quickly and avoid a large-scale war. The surplus grain in many local government vaults was really piled up to rot!"

"After you opened up the Annan Protectorate, the situation in Shu improved."

"But soon, merchants in Shu found that the profit from grain was not that high. After all, it was said that the Kushans were not short of grain either."

"But things like Shu brocade are in great demand in Kushan!"

"In order to make a profit, these merchants recruited many common people to work in their workshops to produce Shu brocade!"

"Now that the Kushans have suddenly stopped trading, the people have lost their livelihoods, and there is a lot of public outcry. Do you think the officials can be calm?"

"After all, which official would not want the first riot since the emperor revived the Han Dynasty to happen on his own small piece of land, right?"

"Well……"

But Zhuge Liang soon discovered something was wrong——

"According to Dezu, the extra income from people working in the workshops is a surplus, and it should not affect the harvest from their own land."

"In addition, under the equal-field system, the sale of land is strictly controlled. It is impossible for them to sell all the land just for the benefit of the workshop and become landless."

"If trade is cut off, it will only hurt the surplus profits. The court's equal distribution of land is enough for them to live on. Why are they still complaining?"

Yang Xiu let out a "tsk" sound!
"Kong Ming's confusion was also what surprised me when I first arrived in Shu."

"After visiting the place, I finally understood some things—"

"Kong Ming, the common people cannot always be satisfied with just having enough food and clothing."

"?"

Zhuge Liang showed a puzzled look for the first time: "What are you talking about?"

Yang Xiu waved his hand, signaling Zhuge Liang to put his ear close to him.

"From what I just said, Kong Ming should be able to understand something, that is, the people of Shu are extremely rich!"

"Although not as wealthy as the people in Guanzhong, the people here are indeed relatively wealthy compared to the people in Jiangdong, which has just ended the war, and the people in Hebei and Central Plains, which are rising!"

"Kong Ming might as well think about what people would do once they become rich."

"First and foremost, we need to build bigger houses, wear better clothes, and give our children a better education."

"All of these require money to support them."

"Houses and clothes are easy to deal with, they can be sold or pawned at any time...but when it comes to children, how can we lower our standards so easily?"

Zhuge Liang finally understood.

The people in Shu are generally wealthy.

Once you become rich, you will yearn for a better life.

But a better life often requires more money to support it.

Originally, relying on the trade with Kushan, there should be no shortage of money, and the future is simply bright!
But now a disaster has suddenly occurred, the Kushans are going to become enemies of the Han Dynasty, and the wealth of the people in Shu can be said to have regressed ten years overnight!
It is easy to go from simplicity to luxury, but it is difficult to go from luxury to frugality.

The problems that follow are actually no less serious than a natural disaster!

And most importantly...

Not to mention the history of the Han Dynasty, such a thing has never happened in the history of China.

After all, since ancient times, it has never been the turn of ordinary people to become rich, because half of your wealth will be taken away by the landlords, officials, and emperors. How could you possibly have such a happy worry...

But now, the officials of the Han Dynasty have to start thinking about this problem!

Zhuge Liang finally understood why Yang Xiu looked so haggard.

The emperor casually threw this problem at him, which really made it difficult for Yang Xiu...

"So how did Dezu solve it?"

Zhuge Liang looked at Yang Xiu expectantly.

Although Yang Xiu sounded serious, he had not heard of any real riots in Shu on the way here.

This shows that Yang Xiu solved... at least partially solved some of the difficulties facing Shu.

"How else can we solve this problem?"

Yang Xiu scratched his head and said, "The emperor gave me some advice when I came here."

"Since Shu's goods cannot be produced and sold, we can only find buyers ourselves."

"And the best buyers are the people of Shu!" "But this is easier said than done!"

"To put it simply, it means increasing the monthly wages of the people working in the workshops. However, once the monthly wages are increased, the cost of Shu brocade will rise, and the price will become higher, which in turn will make it impossible for the people to afford Shu brocade!"

"I've thought about it and decided that we should either improve the craftsmanship to reduce the production cost of Shu brocade to make up for the increase in the monthly salary of the people... or we should defeat the Kushan Empire as soon as possible and resume trade between the two places!"

Technology and war!

But Yang Xiu was not an expert in these two things!
So now that he saw these two true experts, Zhuge Liang, coming here, Yang Xiu felt relieved!

"Now the government is forcing the workshop owners to increase the monthly wages for the people... But this is just a temporary solution and it won't last long! After all, it's like the government is helping the people cut the flesh of those people! But once they force them to death, the workshop will close down and that will be the end of them!"

Yang Xiu was in a state of headache: "I have finally figured it out since I came to Shu."

"If you want to make the people of the Han Dynasty prosperous, there are only two ways."

"One is to improve skills, the other is to start a war."

"Now that I think about it, these are the two things that the emperor has mainly done since he ascended the throne."

"Fortunately, nowadays... Hebei has the Beiting Protectorate, Liaozhou, and Waguo! Jiangdong has the Nanyang Protectorate, and Guanlong has the Western Regions Protectorate. These places will not have any major problems in the future. Only the Kushan Empire has caused the Shu area to become like this! It's really annoying!"

With the traditional Han area as the center, the emperor has found a vast market for almost every region!

However, once problems arose in the market, problems arose in the Handi area.

The improvement of skills is something no one can predict for sure.

But for the Han people, warfare is a skill that they are most familiar with!
"Kong Ming! Either you help improve the craftsmanship of weaving Shu brocade, or you go and destroy the Kushan Empire!"

"Otherwise, Shu will be in chaos sooner or later, and then go back to ten years ago overnight!"

Yang Xiu has basically done everything he can.

Including cutting meat with a knife, Yang Xiu also did it.

For the rest, we can only rely on Zhuge Liang and others!
After hearing the whole story, Zhuge Liang realized how difficult the situation in Shu was.

but……

Zhuge Liang suddenly chuckled at this moment.

"Dezu, have you noticed that the emperor is leading the Han people further and further away?"

"At first I thought that after the emperor pacified Jiangdong, he would be a little lazy."

"After all, the achievements of the current emperor in restoring the Han Dynasty three times are comparable to those of Emperor Guangwu."

"Add to that all the unprecedented civil governance, including pacifying the grasslands, recovering Liaodong, expanding southern Xinjiang, and returning to the Western Regions...Even Gaozu's achievements are not necessarily much better than those of the current emperor."

"It's just for the sake of respecting the elders. Plus, some people are a little bit afraid of the emperor's current prestige, so they didn't make a big fuss about it! Otherwise, the emperor's reputation would probably reach a level that has never been seen before or since!"

"The emperor has reached this point, the Han Dynasty has reached this point... Even I think that the emperor and the Han Dynasty have reached a point where there is no further progress! The only thing they can do now is to continue to expand their territory by waging war."

"But today I finally understood that what we thought was the end was just what the emperor thought was the beginning."

"What the emperor should do is not to pacify the chaotic world, nor to let the people live in peace."

"What the emperor has to do is something more difficult than settling the people of the Han Dynasty down!"

That is to make the people of the Han Dynasty prosperous!

Although the emperor never said such words in public.

But we can get a glimpse of this from the plight of the people in Shu.

As the emperor often said, "Judge by deeds, not by heart."

Instead of saying this every day and repeating it at the beginning of every court meeting, the emperor would be better off doing these things step by step and in a down-to-earth manner.

Some things have changed, but the emperor didn't say it, so not many people noticed.

Or, the emperor was waiting for someone to tell this to the world in person!
Yang Xiu also reacted at this moment.

After being stunned, he also shook his head.

"Kong Ming, I am convinced."

"I feel like the donkey in front of the emperor! I am being dangled by the carrot that the emperor hangs in front of me!"

“Every time I feel like I’m about to catch up with the emperor’s goal, the emperor moves it a little further.”

"I had thought that after becoming a vassal, I would go to my fiefdom and raise hundreds of wives and concubines to live a happy life, but now I think... it's going to be difficult!"

"Haha."

That being said.

But no matter whether it was Zhuge Liang or Yang Xiu, at this moment, they did not look discouraged, but were full of high spirits!

Different from people like Jia Xu, Lu Bu, Liu Bei, and Cao Cao.

They are all still young!

Moreover, they themselves are the top talents of the Han Dynasty!
If they are "at risk of nowhere" or have lost interest in life at this age, that would be the greatest cruelty to them!

Now there is an emperor hanging a carrot in front of them to tempt them to move forward. It is truly a case of "one willing to fight and the other willing to be beaten"!

Zhuge Liang bowed to Yang Xiu and said, "I already know what's going on in Shu."

"I just happened to have some different insights these days, maybe I can improve the loom again."

"If it really doesn't work, I hope Dezu won't blame me. After all, the Kushan war is the most important thing right now!"

"That's natural!"

Yang Xiu did not force Zhuge Liang, but told him the truth in detail.

"Anyway, Kong Ming must be quick!"

"As long as we can resume trade with Kushan, many problems in Shu can be easily solved!"

"it is good!"

But Zhuge Liang also reminded——

"Now the imperial court has set up the Nanyang Protectorate in Nanyang, and several vassal states have been established in Nanyang."

"If Dezu is willing, you can also recruit some Shu people to go to Southeast Asia!"

"If Nanyang could one day be like Kushan, with millions or even tens of millions of people living there, would you still be afraid of such a thing happening?"

However, as he spoke, Zhuge Liang's voice gradually became quieter.

Even Yang Xiu fell into a brief silence.

"It seems that the emperor has already planned all this?"

The corner of Yang Xiu's mouth twitched.

"Forget it! Why should we worry about long-term matters? Your Majesty has already prepared everything!"

"It would be better to finish this war quickly, then marry dozens of concubines, give birth to hundreds of children and send them to Southeast Asia to open up wasteland!"

Zhuge Liang originally wanted to complain a few words.

But when I think about the fact that having children is really the fundamental problem to solve all the difficulties nowadays, I can't help but say——

"Dezu's insight is brilliant! He is truly far ahead of the rest!" (End of this chapter)