This let Ran Min don’t know whether to be sad or celebrate!
Chapter 69 Cost
After solving the problem of moving Hu people, we will discuss whether to send troops to destroy the generation.
Ministers look at the problem from different angles and in different positions, which leads to serious differences.
Cui Hao and Wang Mengshou’s civilian corps thought that after all kinds of measures taken by the imperial court, all aspects of the development of the empire needed to invest money, and a war should not break out at this time, consuming all the money and food.
Li Nong and Wei Zhengshou’s military commanders felt that the national rebellion was a good opportunity to destroy the generation, and this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity was not missed.
At this time, Cui Hao made a determined effort in his heart and glared at the great Sima Li Nong. "Li Nong, you have to rap here!" Are you fighting a purely military competition? No, this is a national strength contest between the two sides! Do you know how much I have to pay to annex a big country? This is different from Han Wudi’s decades-long war against Xiongnu! "
"This ….." Li Nong leng a then the baggage and take the journey "to your adult you this is somewhat alarmist? When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was Emperor Han, the great man might be on a par with our great Wei, but if the country was replaced by Xianbei, could the Huns be neck and neck at that time? "
"At the peak of the Xiongnu, tribes such as Ding, Hunyu, Qu She, Qian Kun, and Salary Plow in the northwest of the north successively served the Xiongnu more than Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang and led a 320,000-strong army to conquer in Baideng (now northeast of Datong, Shanxi) and were besieged by Xiongnu modu chanyu with more than 400,000 cavalry for seven days and nights!"
"Liu bang is bribing the Huns to escape! After the Han Dynasty adopted Liu Jing’s suggestion to implement the pro-hun policy, the Han clan married a single woman and gave a certain amount of property to the market, allowing the people of both sides to trade. After that, the emperors of Wen and Jing also recuperated along the pro-hun policy, but the Huns were still not satisfied with sending troops to invade the border from time to time! "
"After nearly seventy years of recuperation, the economy and national strength of the Han Dynasty were greatly enhanced before the Huns changed from strategic defense to strategic attack! Can the Huns speak in the same breath on behalf of the country? "
I didn’t expect Li Nong to be so clear about the past of Han Xiongnu, which was beyond Cui Hao’s expectation
However, Cui Hao won’t be defeated like this, but he has a tunnel. "Now that you know this past, you shouldn’t persuade you to play against the generation easily! During the reign of Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty waged three wars against Xiongnu successively: Henan War (also called Monan War), Hexi War and Mobei War, which lasted for fifteen years before and after the large-scale campaign of the Han army, and the cumulative dynamic force reached more than one million times and went deep into the hinterland of Xiongnu for decisive battles! But in the end, the Han Dynasty failed to wipe out the Huns, didn’t it? "
"This is not whether Xianbei people have the Huns strong at that time, but a vast desert north Ma Pingchuan is barren to the court? And Xianbei people mostly cavalry come and go like the wind. I want to find the enemy’s main force to fight a decisive battle in Wei Jun. Moreover, I don’t know how many civilian workers will be sent and how much money and food will be consumed! "
In fact, Ran Min quite agrees with Cui Hao’s opinion.
Ran Min was born as a military commander, and he also wanted to destroy the generation and then unify the whole country. However, Ran Min is the emperor. From the perspective of a monarch, is it really a wise move to send troops to destroy the generation now?
In the war, we have to send military forces and civilian workers, and we have to invest a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources, especially in the grassland war front, which is too long. Wei Guogen can’t send too many troops
You know, war is never a simple military competition. Xiao is heavier than Han Xin in Liu Bang’s heart, and Li Shanchang is heavier than Xu Da in Zhu Yuanzhang’s heart.
If Han Xin and Xu Da are fists, then Xiao and Li Shanchang are the heart of blood, and their ability to engage in money and things is the fundamental determinant.
In the early Han dynasty, the territory was only about 2 million square kilometers. For more than half a century, the poor and weak Han government invaded the surrounding four foreigners, and most of the time it was patient and retreated.
After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne, he changed the image of the Han Dynasty’s external gentleness. He sent troops to conquer Fujian and Vietnam, Xiongnu, South Vietnam, North Korea, Dawan and Southwest China on a large scale, but he did not attack on all sides.
Even more than three border counties such as Wuyuan, Wuwei, Yuer, Wenshan and Le Lang were added in the southeast and northwest of the country, which made the territory of the Han Dynasty soar to about 10,000 square kilometers.
At first, although the former emperors accumulated financial resources, the national treasury was soon in a hurry after several years of war.
In particular, the fierce battle between Xiongnu lasted for 15 years before and after the large-scale campaign, and the cumulative dynamic force reached more than 10 thousand times, which was a great test for the country’s financial strength
Obviously, this kind of large-scale military supplies, long supply line transshipment, and decades of continuous warfare are not affordable for the agricultural economy.
After that, the world did not wonder why the Western Han Dynasty didn’t collapse in the hands of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, just as the Qin Dynasty brought down the Qing Dynasty and Emperor Yangdi brought down the Sui Dynasty.
This question can be asked in another way. What is the biggest difference between Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty and Emperor Yangdi of Qin Dynasty?
Military and political ability may be inseparable, but financial ability is definitely better than that of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty did not put the burden of war on the peasants. His strategy of making money can be summarized into three magic weapons: collecting industrial and commercial tax, salt and iron official camp and recovering coins for casting
At that time, the Western Han Dynasty was a typical country, the poor and the rich, and the merchants were the most important vested interests after several emperors’ recuperation policies.
Huo Zhi Lies in Historical Records describes the commercial prosperity at that time. "Han Xinghai, Liang Chi Shan Ze Ban is the wealthy businessman dajia who can’t get what he wants when he trades in Zhouliutian."
Chang ‘an, the capital of the Han Dynasty, is located in "one third of the land is in the sky, but the number of people is not much, but it is rich in the sixth place". One third of the land and 30% of the population occupy 60% of the wealth.
"A daughter’s family is more powerful than a capital, and the king is happy with it." Because there are too many wealthy businessmen, they can only be called big businessmen if they have a car and a boat.
So because of the war, the financial situation was tight. Emperor Wudi offered his first magic weapon to levy industrial and commercial tax.
In 129 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered the "initial calculation of commercial vehicles" to levy "vehicle and vessel tax" on merchants, which stipulated that "merchants should pay 24 yuan for a vehicle and 12 yuan for a 50-foot ship".
Cars and boats are indispensable means of transportation. This tax order of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty can be said to be aimed at the dead end of business activities
In 119 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered the "initial calculation of money", which is an asset tax. It is stipulated that businessmen’s property should be taxed at 2 yuan every two yuan, with a tax rate of 6%, and craftsmen’s property should be taxed at 4 yuan every four years, with a tax rate of 3%.
Later, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty issued a "notice order" to crack down on those who concealed property and failed to report it, requiring businessmen to declare assets and encouraging those who reported false reports.
Once it is verified that the counterfeiter will be confiscated and fined for one year, and the whistleblower will get half of the confiscated money.
In addition, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty also ordered taxes on horses, cattle and sheep, which was the first time in Chinese history that slaughter tax was levied.
Salt and iron have been the most important livelihood industry since ancient times, and the salt and iron official camp was not implemented in Chishan Zeban in the Western Han Dynasty.
At that time, the salt and iron merchants were the richest in many industries, and they accumulated more than 100 million yuan, all of which were extremely rich. If the salt and iron official camp was implemented, the wealth of these salt and iron merchants should be part of the national income
In 117 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty finally wanted to eat this fat meat. He offered the second magic weapon, salt and iron, and returned it to the official camp.
Sang Hongyang, a master of financial management, planned the Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to order the establishment of Salt Iron Company, and ordered the famous salt merchants and iron merchants at that time to be the first salt iron officials to firmly control the production and sales of salt iron in the hands of the government.
At that time, in addition to salt and iron, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty also implemented the system of liquor monopoly and liquor monopoly, and liquor profits were also monopolized by the government.
These three official camps of people’s livelihood made Emperor Wu of Han quite proud. He once said happily that "the people are not benefiting from the tax, but the heaven is forgiving". I have not increased the tax revenue, which is already sufficient.
In the early years of the Han Dynasty, due to the economic depression, the imperial court adopted a laissez-faire attitude towards coinage, and the princes, counties and countries made coins on their own. As Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty levied industrial and commercial tax and implemented the salt and iron official camp, the indiscriminate casting of coins in various places had a growing financial and economic impact
So Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty offered his third magic weapon to reclaim coins for casting.