Three Kingdoms: I am not Liu Bian

Chapter 276 Now that the north is pacified and our troops are well-equipped, we should lead our army deep into the barren lands!
On the 21st day of the ninth month of the first year of the Hanxing era, at noon.

As late autumn draws to a close and the chill deepens, winter is just seven days away, but temperatures are already gradually turning cold. This winter is expected to be a harsh one.

There are no open flames in Yuntai Pavilion. Since the last fire at Yuntai Pavilion, open flames are strictly prohibited in the main building unless absolutely necessary. The warmth provided by the fire wall system is generally sufficient to ward off the severe cold.

On the second floor of Yuntai Pavilion, Liu Bian lay on a soft couch, covered with a fox fur coat. Even during his lunch break, he was not at ease, but was engrossed in reading a report.

The document in his hand was a report from Cao Song, the Grand Minister of Agriculture, stating that the court's tax revenue for this year had been collected.

When he first took power two years ago, the court's annual tax revenue was 51 billion coins. After the Yellow Turban Rebellion last year, the local governors thought that the Han Dynasty was about to collapse, so they embezzled taxes and only paid 37 billion coins into the national treasury.

At that time, Liu Bian did not rush to investigate. Instead, he used the bloody heads of Zhang Ju, the governor of Taishan Commandery, and Zhang Chun, the commandant of Taishan Commandery, who were caught in the rebellion, to show the world and warn the governors and powerful families in various places not to have any crooked thoughts and to honestly hand over all the money that should belong to the national treasury.

Some people honestly paid their back taxes and were not punished by the court, but others continued to embezzle money, clinging to the idea that the Han Dynasty was declining and could not last long, and even secretly recruited private soldiers.

Liu Bian did not rush to take action, but silently memorized all the names.

Afterwards, the imperial court reported frequent victories in Bingzhou and Liangzhou, which made these corrupt tax collectors realize that the mighty Han Dynasty was just dozing off. Even if it was old, it was still a long way from dying.

Most people dutifully paid their taxes, and although they were reprimanded and punished by the court, the emperor did leave them a way out.

The sword at his waist was still stained with blood.

Looking at the fierce army that had just slaughtered the Qiang and Hu tribes of Liangzhou and the Xiongnu of Bingzhou, and the ring-pommel swords still dripping blood in their hands, no one wanted to provoke them.

The prestige that comes with military victory is unparalleled by any other form of prestige.

Most people obediently accepted their demotion as punishment, while a few tried to do something, but the Embroidered Robe Directions in various places were not to be trifled with.

Moreover, there are many people who want to rebel but don't. Most of them are county commanders or county assistants who are the second or third in command of the county and are eager to get a chance to redeem themselves.

What a joke! The emperor only gave him a demotion as punishment. Why would he rebel over a matter of tens of millions of coins for a prefecture?

How many cents of this money will you actually get?
Zhang Ju, the prefect of Taishan, was incredibly audacious. Normally, Taishan Prefecture's annual tax revenue was 6700 million, but they levied exorbitant taxes under the guise of the imperial court, collecting taxes on bandits and peace, and managed to raise the total tax revenue to 1 million.

Of the 1 million, 2000 million went into the national treasury, and of the remaining 8000 million, 2000 million was used to bribe the imperial court and the officials sent by the prefectures and counties to supervise them.

The twelve counties of Taishan Prefecture each received 200 million coins, so the total amount that ended up in the prefecture government was less than 4000 million coins.

The officials under the prefecture want a share of the money. Although each official is recruited by the prefect himself, if they dare not share the money, he will still report them for corruption and use them as fertilizer to build his reputation.

The three officials—the prefect, the commandant, and the assistant prefect—could share approximately 3000 million coins.

The prefect received 1500 million coins, while the prefectural commandant and the prefectural assistant each received 750 million coins.

Even if he served as an official in this prefecture for three years, it would only amount to 2000 million coins. Is it worth risking the lives of three generations of his family to rebel?

This is taking one's own life far too lightly!
Even in the extreme case of Taishan County, where 2000 million coins were spent in just three years, the person was aiming to raise a private army and plot a rebellion.

Most prefectural assistants and military commanders were lucky if they could earn 1000 million in three years, barely enough to cover the money they paid to Emperor Liu Hong for their official positions. Therefore, the vast majority of prefectural assistants and military commanders chose to atone for their crimes by performing meritorious service in order to reduce their punishment.

This year, the imperial court collected 67 billion in taxes, an increase of 16 billion compared to the previous year.

The 6 million comes from the increased production of land converted to farmland due to the repair and construction of water conservancy projects, as well as the production of newly developed farmland during that year.

The figure of 4 million is due to the reduction in corruption after a number of prefects in various regions were reassigned.

The last 6 million represents the revenue from the state-run salt and iron monopolies of the imperial court over the past six months.

If you can sell 6 million in half a year, including sales costs, the income is not bad. However, there are still some people who don't know what's good for them.

Although the imperial court's control over local areas was gradually restored due to the influence of several major military victories, it could not completely restrain the local areas.

The Sili region was under the strictest control, and the only one who didn't know what was good for them was the Wei family of Hedong. Liu Dai, the governor of Hedong, along with a squadron of soldiers from the central army, arrested and imprisoned them all.

However, Liu Bian did not intend to actually kill most of the Wei clan of Hedong. After all, they were Wei Kai's relatives. He would just help him kill a few ringleaders. As for the rest of the nobodies, if Wei Kai couldn't control them, then he shouldn't be the Yellow Gate Attendant. Such a fool was not worthy of the emperor's favor.

As for the other counties in Sili, there were also those who outwardly complied but inwardly defied them, but they were all insignificant small powerful clans. Guo Hong, the Sili Commandant, with 1200 officials and laborers from Zhongdu and the local prefects, could easily deal with them with sticks.

The imperial court had extremely strong control over the three provinces of Yan, Jing, and Yu, almost as strong as that over the Sili province.

This was also related to Liu Bian's use of a large number of people from Yanzhou and Yuzhou as ministers in his former residence. A few people from Jingzhou were also promoted by Liu Bian. Moreover, these three provinces were near Luoyang. Whenever there was any unrest, the imperial army's infantry could arrive in no time, whether by cavalry advancing directly or by infantry sailing downstream.

In the past six months, the Central Army has frequently used the pretext of suppressing bandits and remnants of the Yellow Turban Rebellion to conduct live-fire exercises abroad, and wherever its troops pointed, the enemy was subdued.

Furthermore, the Yuan family of Runan and their relatives, protégés, and former officials were all exterminated or wiped out. These families, whose heads rolled and whose blood even stained the Luo River red for several days, mostly came from various states in the Central Plains.

After two major victories, the people of Liang and Bing prefectures gradually won over the hearts of the people.

Although the common people don't care whether the emperor above them is surnamed Liu, Zhang, or Yuan, when the court has the ability to protect the people, and when the court begins to change and try to ensure that the people have enough to eat, the hearts of the people will naturally turn to them.

Furthermore, the imperial court has established four military camps in Bingzhou. Bingzhou's salt, copper, iron, and other metal resources are mainly located in the northern border counties of Bingzhou, the salt marshes of Xihe and Shuofang counties, the iron mines of Jinyang and Daling counties in Taiyuan county, and the copper mines of Wuyuan county. The proceeds, after verification and accounting by the imperial court, will be prioritized for the military expenses of the four Bingzhou camps. Anyone who dares to embezzle these funds will be met with righteous indignation from the soldiers, who will then furiously kill corrupt officials and disloyal powerful figures—and they will have no one to blame but themselves.

For the sake of the peace of the Han Dynasty, I can only punish the corrupt officials and powerful figures who died tragically, and give these soldiers who committed murder three cups of wine as a warning.

The same applies to Youzhou. Do you want to test the sharpness of General Cao Mengde's sword?

When Liu Bian personally led the campaign against the Yellow Turban Rebellion, he killed a number of powerful and influential families, and the governor of Ji Province became much more obedient. Moreover, Cui Lie, the Minister of Works, was no pushover.

Why did Liu Bian promote Cui Lie to the position of Minister of Works? Was it because Cui Lie was willing to be the emperor's lackey?
He was not the only one willing to be the emperor's dog; Liu Bian valued the old man's sanctimonious appearance.

To outsiders, Cui Lie was a renowned scholar from Hebei, praised by all for his integrity, virtue, and ability!

Cui Lie himself was the foremost aristocratic leader in Hebei!

As a result, Cui Lie had a thorough understanding of the backgrounds of the powerful families in Hebei. In fact, the intelligence and information he provided helped the Embroidered Uniform Guard to plant countless agents within the mansions of these families.

Furthermore, with General Dong Zhuo holding the imperial insignia and stationed in Ji Province to suppress the Black Mountain bandits, the bandit-suppressing army could be turned around at any time to become a large army to quell the rebellion and eliminate the disobedient rebels.

However, the southwestern Yizhou and the southeastern Yangzhou were the areas most vulnerable to the imperial court's control.

Yangzhou relied on the actions of the imperial court during the previous outbreak of the epidemic to win back the hearts of the people that had been gradually lost. However, due to the existence of the Shanyue people, many salt and iron resources were still monopolized by the Shanyue in collusion with local powerful clans.

The mess in southern Yizhou has been a problem that the Han Dynasty has not been able to solve for nearly seventy or eighty years. Even in central and northern Yizhou, there are many barbarian tribes such as the Banshun Man of Ba County, and powerful clans are everywhere. It is already an outstanding achievement that the current governor of Yizhou, Zhao Ang, has been able to stabilize this chaotic situation.

In particular, the southern part of Yizhou is rich in mineral resources, including gold, silver, copper and iron, as well as many salt wells with extremely high salt production and excellent quality, which are controlled by powerful families such as the Zhuo family of Shu County.

The most rampant was the powerful Yong clan of Shifang in Yizhou Commandery, a branch descended from Yong Chi, the Marquis of Shifang.

Yong Huan, the great-grandson of Yong Chi, was stripped of his marquisate in the "Zhoujin Deprivation Incident" in the fifth year of Emperor Xiaowu's Yuanding reign (112 BC). However, his family has remained rooted here to this day, to the point that they have become the leading family in several counties in southern Yizhou.

The Yong clan of Shifang, together with powerful Han Chinese clans such as the Zhu clan of Zangke and the Meng clan of Jianning, and colluding with southwestern Yi tribes such as the Yuexi Yi and Nanzhong Yi, repeatedly refused to pay taxes to the imperial court and seized many mineral resources for themselves.

For decades, even the prefects and magistrates sent by the imperial court had to obey their orders, or they would become their victims the next day.

The southwest is inhabited by many barbarians. The Nanzhong Yi, Yuexi Yi, and other barbarians rebelled and killed the prefects and magistrates. These Han Chinese strongmen rose up in resistance and killed dozens of barbarians. They were even meritorious officials. What reason did the court have to hold them accountable?
They even repeatedly used the pretext of rehabilitating party members to oppose the imperial court and murder the governors of the southern prefectures and the governor of Yizhou sent by the court!
The imperial court did attempt to address this chaotic situation.

However, the southern part of Yizhou is different from the central and northern parts of Yizhou. The south is mostly mountainous and forested, with miasma. When soldiers enter the southern part of Yizhou, six or seven out of ten often fall ill due to the miasma. Those who do not fall ill do not have much fighting power left. They are also unfamiliar with the geography and are not good at fighting in the mountains and forests, so they cannot form an effective mopping-up operation. Instead, they are repeatedly defeated.

If you want to successfully conquer the southern region of Yizhou, you need to spend money to prepare herbs, train troops for mountain warfare, and prepare supplies for long-term garrisoning. It will also take several years to become familiar with the geography.

Even if the imperial court gritted its teeth and spent a sum of money to prepare for the army to be stationed permanently, the rebellion of the Qiang in Liangzhou, the Southern Xiongnu, Wuhuan and Xianbei in Bingzhou and Youzhou forced the court to recall the army again, making it impossible for them to be stationed for a long time.

With no money and a chaotic situation, the imperial court was ultimately unable to allocate resources to southern Yizhou to solve the problem. It could only acknowledge the vested interests of the Han Chinese powerful families and the southwestern barbarians in southern Yizhou and demand that the governors of the southern prefectures adopt a policy of appeasement.

But things are different now; the Han Dynasty is rich this year!

The national treasury currently has 87 billion yuan. Even if officials' salaries and year-end bonuses are paid out at the end of the year, there will still be 67 billion yuan left.

Be conservative and set aside more funds to prepare for natural disasters, build more water conservancy projects, and repair roads. If necessary, the money can be drawn from the internal treasury!
The imperial treasury still has 140 billion coins. Last year, the sales of tea, new sugar and their by-products were extremely high among the powerful and wealthy families. Making money from the rich has yielded considerable profits.

The normal and legal income of the Imperial Treasury was originally around 20 billion a year, but last year it was 38 billion, which means that the Imperial Treasury now has 178 billion!

This is still the case that the royal family is not following the past practice of minting 20 billion coins a year to subsidize the imperial treasury.

Moreover, the new sugar has only been on the market for a few months, and the profits are not yet substantial, nor has it gained the same reputation as fried tea.

But just from tea frying alone, Shaofu made a whopping 15 billion last year, even with tears in his eyes!

Even the lowest grade of roasted tea sells for as much as 500 coins per pound in Luoyang, and in remote Youzhou, Bingzhou, and Liangzhou, it is worth 5000 coins per pound!
A pound of gold is only worth 10000 coins, which means that two pounds of the lowest quality roasted tea can be exchanged for a pound of gold!
High-grade roasted tea, even in Luoyang, can sell for up to 10000 coins per catty. As a decoration for the powerful and wealthy, it is sold to border areas such as Youzhou, where it fetches at least 10 times the price, which is 10 coins per catty!
It should be noted that the imperial court only pays out 20 billion coins a year, but it can earn 15 billion coins just from tea frying. This does not include the income from other silk and cloth products and the stir-fried dishes from the restaurants under the Shaofu (Imperial Household Department). In other words, all the total salaries paid out by the imperial court to officials each year are recovered by the Shaofu.

Of course, the vast majority of the income came from officials from aristocratic families who did not rely on these salaries, but that did not prevent the amount of Wuzhu coins in the imperial treasury from increasing by cartload.

Moreover, it is a fact that the imperial court is now wealthy. Liu Bian would not mind taking 20 billion or even 40 billion coins from the imperial treasury to pacify the southern counties of Yizhou!

The gold, silver, copper, and iron mineral resources and salt wells contained there are worth the imperial court investing heavily in!

Even if we turn the scattered sugarcane cultivation in southern Yizhou into the main business, it will be enough to make up for this expenditure in the imperial treasury in a few years!

Now, the imperial court has reversed the situation that had plagued it for a century due to constant attacks from barbarian tribes.

The Southern Xiongnu were destroyed, the Qiang and Hu tribes suffered heavy losses, the Xianbei were divided and constantly engaged in internal strife, and the Han Dynasty gained an unprecedented period of recuperation!
In other words, the Han Empire has finally freed up its resources!

However, before Liu Bian could convene his senior officials to discuss the pacification of the southern prefectures of Yizhou, an urgent letter from the governor of Yizhou arrived in Luoyang.

Jing Yi, the governor of Yizhou, sent his assistant and the clerk of the Household Department to negotiate with the Yong family of Shifang to collect this year's taxes. However, they were killed by Yong Kai, the sixteen-year-old son of Yong Zhou, the head of the Yong family of Shifang. More than sixty assistants and guards who accompanied them were also killed!

Upon hearing the report, the emperor was furious and immediately summoned senior officials from both inside and outside the court to discuss how to quell the rebellion!
Now that the north is pacified and our military strength is sufficient, we should lead our troops deep into the barren lands, eliminate the treacherous and wicked, and restore the Han dynasty!
(4204 words)
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P.S.: It's the last day! Dear readers, please use any remaining monthly tickets you have to reward the author. I'll continue to work hard and update more next month QAQ~~~
(End of this chapter)