He originally intended to surrender to Wei, so why did he end up restoring Han?

Chapter 105 198 Years (Part 2)

This is definitely not a normal situation. Logically speaking, people with a special skill are the least afraid of environmental changes because they have skills that ordinary people cannot replace. Warlords, powerful families, local tyrants, and bandits from all over the country would give these people some face, lest they not have anyone to do their technical work for them.

However, these people are now appearing in groups on the streets of various cities, hoping that others will give them some supplies to survive. This is by no means a good omen.

Just as the group began racking their brains to figure out how to settle these people, the bankrupt artisans suddenly vanished as if they had never existed. The officials sent out searched the entire city but couldn't find where they had gone. This didn't put their minds at ease; instead, it made everyone even more anxious.

The appearance of a group of young and strong refugees isn't scary; what's scary is that they appeared, did nothing wrong, and then disappeared without a trace. Where did they go? Could they have joined forces to do something big?

With these questions in mind, Sun Ce's advisors quickly reported this unusual situation to him. At the time, Sun Ce was considering whether to first eliminate Hua Xin in Yuzhang and earn some extra money with a major victory to make up for his somewhat strained finances. After listening to his subordinates' report, Sun Ce's anger, which had been suppressed for several months, directly took over his intellectual domain.

His first order was to thoroughly investigate why so many technicians had become refugees and who was causing trouble on his territory. He then ordered Zhou Yu to immediately blockade Jianghang to prevent these technicians from fleeing to other places.

The Jiangdong region was not developed during this era, and the technical personnel there were extremely rare. They were truly one less to be found once they left. If they all left, there would be no point in fighting anymore. They wouldn't even be able to produce weapons and equipment, and they could just close their eyes and wait to die.

To everyone's surprise, the reason why these craftsmen went bankrupt was not difficult to find out, because the culprit who caused all this had no intention of hiding himself. He was still walking openly in the sunlight, without any concern about encountering danger in Jiangdong.

However, despite their arrogance, the investigators were powerless against them because they were merchants from Xuzhou.

After learning about the situation, Zhou Yu and others realized that Jiangdong was now caught in a very serious economic war.

They had anticipated that Liu Bei would use the treaty to open trade with their envoys, but they never expected it to happen so quickly, and this economic war was clearly more difficult and brutal than they had imagined.

The goods produced by Liu Bei were so cheap and of such high quality that, in a manner akin to dumping, the blacksmiths and saltworkers of Jiangdong were soon driven out of business and forced to close their shops and become refugees.

Upon receiving the message, Sun Ce immediately overturned the table in front of him and shouted, "Damn Liu Bei! I knew he was up to no good! You all take my warrant and lead a troop of men. I'm going to ransack these bastards' homes and execute them!"

Zhou Yu and the others hurriedly stepped forward to dissuade him: "My lord, please calm down. Although these people are despicable and cunning, now is not the best time to deal with them. Please bear with the insults for a while longer. We can make a plan after we find out where these craftsmen have gone."

Sun Ce glared with bloodshot eyes and said in a chilling tone, "Am I just going to willingly suffer this humiliation?"

Zhou Yu and the others did not speak, but simply nodded heavily.

There's really no way to turn against Liu Bei right now. Jiangdong's livelihood depends on salt and ironware, which are transported by merchants from Xuzhou. If they were to get rid of them all at once, and their own ironware production hadn't recovered, then when Liu Bei marched south, Sun Ce would have to consider where to run.

Fortunately, Sun Ce was still the valiant and extraordinary little tyrant. He quickly adjusted his mindset, "Since that's the case, let's focus on figuring out the ins and outs of these things first, and let those bastards be arrogant for a few more days."

Upon receiving the mission, Zhou Yu quickly completed the blockade of the river and began to thoroughly search for the whereabouts of these people, effectively closing off Jiangdong. Of course, this blockade only targeted personnel; supplies could still flow normally.

He soon noticed something unusual: the merchant ships on the river hadn't even docked yet, but the shore was already packed with people waiting to greet them. Zhou Yu's investigators didn't dare get too close, only standing at a distance and watching.

What the investigators found upon closer inspection was remarkable; they recognized many of the people among them—business agents for prominent local families in Jiangdong. These families, after all, prided themselves on being scholars and farmers, and were completely uninvolved in commercial activities.

The representatives of these prominent families warmly welcomed the Xuzhou merchants who had arrived. The group stood on the dock chatting and laughing from time to time. The atmosphere was very harmonious, like old friends who hadn't seen each other for many years.

Because of the distance, the investigators had no way of knowing the specific content of their conversation, but they did notice other places.

How could the number of private armies of the powerful families in Jiangdong have increased so much? And they are all well-equipped. If you didn't see them carrying their own banners, you would believe that these armies were the imperial guards of Luoyang in the past.

Things have come to this point, and even a tough guy like Zhou Yu is starting to get scared. At first, he only noticed the abnormal tax data, then he discovered that a large number of technical personnel had become migrants, and now he has found that the quality and number of private soldiers from the Jiangdong gentry have increased significantly.

The problems remained unresolved, and the investigation only uncovered more and more issues. Even if Di Renjie were to arrive, he would have to remain hidden and investigate discreetly. But even under such complex circumstances, Zhou Yu did not give up. Instead, he followed the clues and began to investigate the aristocratic families.

The four great families of Jiangdong were the first to make contact with Xuzhou. However, due to their size and the fact that Liu Bei and others were worried that allowing these families to become too powerful would actually make their subsequent work more difficult. Lu Wan instructed these merchants to give some consideration to the smaller, second-tier families during their trade with the great families, in an effort to break the four great families' dominance in Jiangdong.

The businessmen below also implemented the policy very well, and kept marveling at the high level of General Lu's abilities, as he showed absolutely no favoritism towards his own people.

In addition, the Jian'an tax certificates from Xuzhou also followed the merchants to Jiangdong. The people of Jiangdong had never seen such novel things before, so they all waited and saw what tricks the people of Xuzhou would play.

As a result, these Xuzhou merchants immediately declared that they only accepted tax certificates and not to bring any other miscellaneous currencies, as they were too lazy to accept them.

What? You mean where to find tax coupons? That's easy. We have money exchange staff here. As long as you bring your money, you can exchange it for tax coupons after it's been appraised at the currency exchange.

If you feel unsure, you can exchange tax coupons for five iron coins. We people from Xuzhou have always been honest and fair in business, dealing with everyone, young and old.

Under such security guarantees, tax vouchers quickly circulated in Jiangdong. This was mainly because Xuzhou had so many flagship products that Jiangdong couldn't find any comparable substitutes. Therefore, doing business with the people of Xuzhou became an unavoidable choice.

Correspondingly, a large amount of metal currency flowed into the treasury of Xuzhou, becoming the backing for Lu Wan to continue issuing tax certificates.

Lu Su's economic offensive against Jiangdong hadn't actually been fully unleashed. If you calculate carefully, by the time Sun Ce realized things were going wrong, Xuzhou had only resorted to dumping and currency substitution. The truly lethal tactics hadn't even been used yet, and Sun Ce in Jiangdong was already on the verge of collapse from his efforts.

The others wanted to slow things down, lest they suddenly cause chaos in Jiangdong and end up with nothing to show for their efforts, only to have it all handed over to Liu Biao. However, Lu Wan, unusually, did not share the same opinion as his colleagues, because he was well aware of the current state of Jiangdong.

If you choke him, his eyes roll back; if you let go, he breathes out hot air.

Lu Wan, who was familiar with Jiangdong, never expected that the most crucial and fatal move in the economic war against Jiangdong would be launched by Sun Ce himself.

As time went on, the problems in Jiangdong not only failed to be resolved, but seemed to be escalating. Sun Ce suddenly realized that he did not have enough resources to reward his troops; the largest amount in the entire treasury was Jian'an tax vouchers from Xuzhou.

Moreover, because of the previous dispatch of troops to farm, the relationship between the military and civilians in Jiangdong was also very tense. The people did not think that these people came to help them farm. On the contrary, in their view, these Sun family troops came to seize their land!

All the able-bodied men of Jiangdong were conscripted by Sun Ce's army to work as laborers and were killed. As a result, Sun Ce acted quickly and immediately seized the land and made these soldiers farm it. What else could this be but plunder and extortion?

This idea reached its peak, especially during harvest time. After the soldiers harvested the grain, they transported it all away, leaving nothing for the people. Even the most understanding people now believed that Sun Ce was trying to seize their land and property in this way.

The common people were naturally unhappy about being wronged, but seeing the soldiers' gleaming weapons also made them fearful. No one wanted to be used as a scapegoat.

However, if direct resistance is not feasible, nonviolent non-cooperation can still be employed.

Simply put, it's tax resistance. When it's time to pay taxes, they don't go. When the tax officials come knocking, they just shrug and show up empty-handed. In reality, all the grain has been transported to some cellar and hidden away. After all, the tax collectors can't really turn the whole village upside down to search for it.

If taxes aren't collected, the treasury will be empty of supplies, and without supplies, rations and wages cannot be paid out.

This was not something that could be solved simply by issuing Jian'an tax coupons, because the farmers had all hoarded their grain and hadn't put it on the market to sell, so grain prices in Jiangdong had risen significantly. Issuing Jian'an tax coupons alone couldn't cover such a large grain expenditure, and the grain stored up by Sun Ce through military settlements was intended for future warfare and couldn't be used recklessly.

Now it was time for Sun Ce to make a decision: how to acquire enough supplies for the army?

Then, among all the countermeasures, Sun Ce resolutely chose the one with the most bullet comments.

He knew very well that only the soldiers his father had left him were truly his support, while the others from Jiangdong were merely feigning obedience under his military pressure.

Moreover, he had already suffered enough humiliation over the past few months. Since things had reached the point of shame, Sun Ce no longer needed to pretend to be a virtuous gentleman.

In order to maintain the normal expenditures of the army and the bureaucracy, Sun Ce promulgated a new tax law that completely tore away the false fig leaf between him and the people of Jiangdong.

This is what's known as the tax-farming system!

This means that the government "contracts" the right to collect taxes in a certain area to powerful local magnates or merchants for a fixed amount. The contractors pay a fixed amount of taxes to the government, and the government no longer cares how much they collect from the people.

Sun Ce's subordinates were basically opposed to this tax law, but when Sun Ce asked them if they had any other solutions, they all became mute and couldn't say a word.

Sun Ce was forced into a corner. His most important task now was to ensure that his army could fight and that his civil service staff could function properly.

Although the tax farming system has many harmful consequences, it is a quick way to make money. He can immediately collect taxes from the contractors for a year or even several years, which can immediately solve his financial problems.

As for why he didn't use the method of raising tax rates, it can only be said that this method is obviously worse. The people aren't incapable of resistance; what if they simply ran away if tax rates were raised?

The tax farming system was different. The contractors were mostly local powerful families who were rooted in the area. The common people couldn't escape even if they wanted to, because they might not even know the terrain as well as these powerful families.

Furthermore, Sun Ce could use the tax farming authority to bind these most unstable local forces to his regime. With the powerful clans gaining the legal right to plunder, they would naturally be more supportive of Sun Ce's rule, which could stabilize the internal situation in the short term.

The bidding process is very simple: the highest bidder wins. As long as the price is high enough, you can collect taxes wherever you want without having to worry about anything else.

The first thing sold off was the salt and iron monopoly in Jiangdong. Since these two industries in Jiangdong had been effectively destroyed by the people of Xuzhou, whoever wanted them could have them. As expected, the auction ended with a group of Xuzhou merchants winning the Jiangdong salt and iron monopoly. Even at this point, Sun Ce was still mocking the Xuzhou people for their lack of foresight, not realizing that this industry originally belonged to Xuzhou?

Next came the liquor tax and the market tax. These were easy to understand; as the names suggest, they were heavy taxes levied on liquor. Once the contractors paid Sun Ce, they could sell the liquor at exorbitant prices without any repercussions. The market tax was the same; merchants who came to this place, whether passing through or setting up stalls, had to pay taxes first.

At the same time, Sun Ce also increased the amount of exorbitant taxes, auctioned off the marine fishing grounds, and required fishermen to pay taxes whether they fished or not. In addition, there were various other levies and taxes, such as the settlement tax and military supplies tax.

It can be said that Sun Ce has gone to great lengths to get money for his men.

Sun Ce was not unaware that this method was merely a short-sighted solution, but he believed that as long as he achieved a great victory in Yuzhang and gained more territory, the problems in Jiangdong would be easily solved.