Chapter 138: At the Beginning of Reform, Ask the Military Advisor for Help When in Desperation When it comes to making money, it can be said that it is a knot in Qin Zhen's heart. Because when he was still under Cao Cao's command, he already had the idea of making money. After all, the economic base determines the superstructure. If we want to reform, we must start with the economy. The struggle for hegemony itself is an extremely money-consuming endeavor. Recruiting soldiers, manufacturing weapons, providing relief to the wounded, and raising military supplies, each of these requires huge amounts of money. Trapped by the limitations of this era, almost all the princes made money through plunder and exploitation. Just like Cao Cao, when military funds are insufficient, he has three methods to deal with it: raising taxes, robbing money, and robbing tombs. In this era when productivity is dragged down by backward agriculture, it is almost difficult to break free from this confinement. Therefore, not long ago, after Cao Cao started to cultivate land, Qin Zhen suggested to Cao Cao that the situation in the world was chaotic and commerce was severely damaged, so he should quickly develop commerce and accumulate the foundation for hegemony. At that time, Cao had just taken over Yanzhou and was in charge of the government and the people. He had a lot of things to do. When he heard this, he said: "Farming and weaving are the foundation of a country, while industry and commerce are secondary. I know your talent, but now the people are not settled. You should first govern the people and the government. Don't waste your talent in governing the country!"
The words were said in a very tactful way, which meant: I know you have talent, but you are going in the wrong direction. The problem now is to quickly resettle the people, not to promote business. It’s a good idea, but it’s not realistic now. When Qin Zhen heard this, he naturally did not agree with it. In his opinion, it is precisely because agriculture has been severely damaged that this is the best time to develop business. Because in this era of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce, the economy is basically tied to agriculture. In order to promote the development of productivity, we must first break the basic structure of the small peasant natural economy, concentrate productivity, and vigorously develop manufacturing. Then, through the feedback from the manufacturing industry, agriculture will be further developed, and ultimately productivity will be improved. At that time, people were displaced and the small peasant economy had been completely destroyed. At that time, as long as official intervention and resource allocation were carried out, commercial and agricultural progress could be achieved simultaneously. Therefore, he believed that the perfect military farming model should be that some people farm to support the army, while some people engage in industry and commerce to make money, similar to the base form in later generations, turning the army and the people into a huge economic entity. Such an economy, which entangles the interests of everyone together, can crush any force. With this idea in mind, he naturally argued with Lao Cao. In the end, Lao Cao was persuaded. After all, Lao Cao is considered open-minded and not someone who refuses to listen to reason. But when Qin Zhen wanted to implement it, the resistance was extremely great. When a group of vested interests led by Chen Gong heard that Qin Zhen wanted to unite the refugees to develop handicrafts, they jumped out to accuse Qin Zhen of disrupting politics and bringing disaster to the country. Because for the aristocratic families, neither business nor industry is a good thing. If you gather these refugees together, how can we recruit tenants? You have developed business, and everyone is pursuing profits. Who will farm our land?
To put it bluntly, what Qin Zhen was going to do harmed the fundamental interests of the aristocratic family. Qin Zhen was naturally not afraid of this and responded with a cold brow, but he did scare Lao Cao. He had secured his seat in Yanzhou with the support of Chen Gong and other Yanzhou nobles. If the nobles rebelled, he, Cao Cao, would not be able to withstand it. So, under Lao Cao's earnest persuasion, Qin Zhen's first reform came to nothing. However, Qin Zhen was not the kind of person who would give up easily. He thought that since the refugees wouldn't work, the army would probably work. Then he gave Cao a suggestion, giving him a county, two thousand soldiers and ten million yuan, and returning ten times the profit to Cao in one year. But this time, Cao Cao took the initiative to refuse the request. Lao Cao's reason was very straightforward. You are my strategist and should look at the overall situation. Yanzhou is such a large territory, how is it possible for you to only govern a small county! After being rejected by Cao Cao, Qin Zhen knew that he could not change his mind. The main reason is that the power of the aristocratic families in Yanzhou is too large. In the face of such a large force, reforms cannot be made unless Cao Cao fully supports it. But Lao Cao was also a member of the gentry and had just entered Yanzhou. He would not offend these aristocratic families for a plan that had not yet been realized. Therefore, if he wanted to reform, he had to wait until Cao Cao saw the harm of the gentry and adopted a policy of suppression before making improvements. At this point, Qin Zhen suppressed his desire for reform and planned to wait until conflicts arose between Cao Cao and the gentry before making any changes. What he didn't expect was that Cao Cao did have a conflict with the gentry. But this also increased Lao Cao's suspicion, and even he, the founding father, began to doubt. Things got out of control after that. After he accurately predicted the severe drought in Guanzhong and helped Lao Cao obtain a large number of refugees, Lao Cao seemed to have become a different person and began to continuously weaken his power. In fact, at this time, there were a large number of refugees in Luoyang, which was the best time for reform. It’s a pity that he no longer had the opportunity to reform and could only get rid of it. Therefore, reforming the system and promoting commerce became Qin Zhen's top priority. It is not simply about making money, but about changing the basic economic structure while making money. This matter could not be done before under Lao Cao, and later there was no chance to do it under Lao Liu. Now that Huainan has been taken and there is a drought, a large number of people will be left homeless. This is the best time for him to initiate reforms. So after meeting the Mei brothers, Qin Zhen returned home, took out some pieces of cloth, and began to write his own plan. In fact, for time travelers, making money in ancient times was just like playing. Not to mention a certain Lady Gongsun, who monopolized the business in the two states simply by reselling slaves and products. Take salt, sugar, paper, wine, food, clothing, housing and transportation for example, which one is not a highly profitable industry? But if you really want to change the basic economic structure, you need to choose industries carefully. For example, industries such as salt and sugar are indeed highly profitable industries, but they do not contribute much to the development of productivity. The same goes for wine. If there is not enough food to eat, developing the winemaking industry at this time is like putting yourself on the fire. Only the papermaking industry can greatly promote the dissemination of knowledge and break the knowledge monopoly of the gentry.
Therefore, in Qin Zhen's plan, salt, sugar and wine were just tools to make money. The main industries they developed should be papermaking, textiles and manufacturing. Among them, the textile industry is the mother of industries. One reason is that the textile industry is the simplest and can create huge benefits. Second, it can foster employment relationships, leading to the emergence of capitalism. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, cloth was a hard currency with the same value as gold and silver. If the people want to convert the fruits of their labor into money throughout the year, there are only two ways: either sell grain or sell cloth! It can be said that if they can produce cloth on a large scale, it will be pure profit. There will be a large number of idle peasant women among the current large number of refugees. As long as they prepare tools and raw materials, these peasant women will be the best cheap labor force and can help them complete the primitive accumulation of capital. As for manufacturing, it is the father of industry, especially glass manufacturing, which is a necessary industry for industrial development. Because glass is not a simple luxury item. The manufacture of glass is related to many industries such as smelting, agriculture, energy, and chemical industry. First of all, the firing of glass requires increasing the furnace temperature and lowering the melting point, which is related to energy and soda ash. Replacing firewood with fossil fuels can further develop steel manufacturing and update military equipment. The by-product of producing soda ash using the ammonia-soda process is ammonium chloride, which can be used to produce chemical fertilizers. Secondly, the transparency and high temperature resistance of glass are almost necessary prerequisites for the development of chemistry! Only through continuous observation and experimentation can various chemical substances be continuously produced. The value of these industries far exceeds the economic benefits that glass can achieve. The economic benefits created by glass can continue to drive the expansion of the industry until it promotes the development of the entire industrial process. As for papermaking, it goes without saying that it not only helped to promote the popularization of education, but also helped to plunder the money of the gentry and invest the funds in construction. It can be said to be a panacea. These three items are enough to accumulate sufficient economic foundation for hegemony and reform. Apart from these three items, other luxury goods are additional industries. After thinking for a while, Qin Zhen finished writing the general plan. He then wrote down the technical points of papermaking, glass manufacturing and various by-products. These things are actually not difficult, especially papermaking. He had made it himself before, and now he just needs to improve the process. As for glass, the difficulty actually lies in the production of soda ash, which involves many chemical products. Qin Zhen only knows the chemical formula and substitutes, and the operation naturally requires workers to explore. As for the textile industry, he prepared drawings of new textile machines. This textile machine, which was an illustration in history classes, was improved by Huang Dao Po. It is divided into three parts: the stirring wheel, the vertebral arch, and the three-spindle pedal spinning wheel, which can increase the efficiency of textile production. After finishing these, he came back to find Liu Bei with the plan. After all, the system had to be reformed to make money, which required money, food and manpower, and all of this required Liu Bei's knowledge and approval.
He can take care of everything, but he can't hide it from the big boss. In this way, he walked all the way towards Liu Bei's mansion, but as soon as he arrived, he saw a man walking out in a hurry. Taking a closer look, it was none other than Sun Qian, Sun Gongyou. If we were to say who under Liu Bei's command Qin Zhen was least familiar with, the first person he would name would be Sun Qian. Because although Sun Qian was a minister under Liu Bei, he did not have much in common with him. He was in charge of military affairs, and had direct contact with two people: Jian Yong, who was in charge of intelligence, and Mi Zhu, who was in charge of money and grain. These two people have been dealing with each other for a long time and at least have a good relationship. Only Sun Qian assisted Liu Bei in governing the people's livelihood, was responsible for household registration and management of the people, and rarely interacted with him. But even if you are not familiar with each other, you still have to say hello! So Qin Zhen took one look and asked with a smile: "Where is Mr. Gongyou going?" When Sun Qian heard the voice, he raised his head, and when he saw it was him, he grabbed him and said: "Where did the military advisor come from? I am about to go find him. I have something important to discuss with you!" He looked as if he had seen a savior and grabbed hold of him and wouldn't let go. When Qin Zhen saw his appearance, he was also shocked, but Sun Qian didn't notice it because he lowered his head. Now looking at this gentleman, his eyes are puffy, his face is pale, and he looks like he has not had enough sleep. He has none of the celebrity demeanor he once had. Moreover, he grabbed her hand, so Qin Zhen was startled and said hurriedly: "Sir, if you have anything to ask me, please speak frankly!" Sun Qian naturally pulled him to the side of the road and told him the reason. It turned out that since Liu Fu took office, these civil officials had been assigned tasks by Liu Bei. For example, Liu Fu was in charge of coordinating the affairs of various places and assisted Liu Bei in overall management according to local conditions. For example, Yuan Huan was appointed to inspect the counties and was responsible for stabilizing the situation in each county. For example, Zheng Hun was responsible for water conservancy projects in various places and repairing ditches. Sun Qian was assigned to be responsible for the resettlement of refugees in various places. The advantage of doing this is that each person is responsible for a specific task, making it easier to carry out management tasks. But the downside was that Sun Qian had to take on a large amount of refugee resettlement work. As mentioned earlier, Liu Fu's method of dealing with the disaster was to stabilize the people who could be stabilized and to concentrate those who were about to be displaced in Shouchun for centralized disaster relief. Under his policies, tens of thousands of refugees flocked to Shouchun, Quyang and Yinling. This made Sun Qian very worried!
Because the three counties of Shouchun, Quyang and Yinling were also affected by the disaster. There are more than 100,000 refugees in these three counties alone, with tens of thousands more pouring in now and more to come. Disaster relief is secondary; how to resettle these people is a big problem. We need to consider not only where to resettle them, but also in what form and how to manage them. Housing, water sources, eating, drinking, defecating and urinating, each item is extremely complicated. Although Sun Qian had talent for governance, he had never faced such a situation. When he thought about the large number of refugees arriving in winter, he hurried to the mansion to discuss countermeasures with Liu Bei. It turned out that Liu Bei was also a novice in this regard and he couldn't come up with a proper solution after thinking for a long time. After thinking about it, he suddenly thought of Qin Zhen, and then told Sun Qian, I don’t have any idea either, but the military advisor has a lot of ideas, you go ask the military advisor. Sun Qian knew that Liu Bei was used to seeking help from his military advisor when he was in doubt, so he simply walked out of the mansion. I didn't expect to meet Qin Zhen as soon as I went out. At that moment, he pulled Qin Zhen and complained: "Military Advisor, you must rescue me, otherwise these hundreds of thousands of people will never be properly resettled!" When Qin Zhen heard this, he smiled and said: "Don't worry, sir. I'm here for this very purpose!" (End of this chapter)