Inside the Deyang Palace, Liu Hong was hunched over a table, intently writing and drawing on a piece of paper with a brush.

Zhao Zhong, who was standing nearby, turned his head and "accidentally" saw the first few large characters on the page:

"Economy, circulation!"

"Sigh, the economy is tough!"

Liu Hong stared at the blank page and sighed inwardly.

In ancient China, from the late Han Dynasty to the Northern and Southern Dynasties, due to the low level of intensive farming, the "manor economy" was an absolutely dominant economic model.

The so-called manor economy refers to the practice of landlords bringing together their land, peasants, and various workshops under their names to engage in production and management, achieving self-sufficiency. It is a model of centralized large-scale production during the feudal period.

Compared to small-scale farming, this type of estate economy has a stronger ability to resist risks and natural disasters, and is better able to withstand pressures from the external environment.

This explains the phenomenon that "in Eastern Wu, powerful families turned their gates into markets, cattle and sheep filled the fields, and servants formed armies."

However, precisely because of this, the drawbacks of the manor economy are particularly evident.

Because the prerequisite for a manor economy is that it must be based on a high degree of concentration of land and production, which in turn means that land consolidation is inevitable.

Land consolidation leads to a large number of self-cultivating farmers losing their land and becoming "serfs" of landlords and powerful families.

A large amount of resources and population were controlled by landlords and powerful families, which directly affected the country's tax revenue and manpower, and continuously weakened the country's overall strength.

Therefore, the only way for Liu Hong to completely eliminate or reduce the harm of the manor economy is to promote and develop the small-scale peasant economy.

Even if it cannot completely replace them, we must achieve coexistence of the two and combine their advantages.

Now that we have the curved plow, people in the agricultural college are constantly researching and improving the "intensive farming" planting model to enhance the risk resistance of self-employed farmers.

It wasn't until the Tang Dynasty, with the advent of the curved plow, that intensive farming was truly perfected, creating favorable conditions for small-scale farming and reducing their vulnerability and risk resistance.

Then, it wasn't until the Song Dynasty that the economy of the Central Plains truly took off.

Therefore, the emergence of these two things directly improved farmers' productivity, laid the foundation for Liu Hong's next move, and gave Liu Hong some confidence to implement his transformation plan.

Transforming and developing a new economic model is undoubtedly a very large and extremely difficult project. The most important aspect of this is to revitalize the economy and get it running smoothly.

As everyone knows, money in your hands is nothing more than a pile of paper and a string of numbers. Only when it is spent can its value be realized. Only when money circulates can it stimulate consumption and production, continuously create value, and thus improve people's living standards and the overall economic strength of the country.

What Liu Hong needs to do now is to get those people to take out their money and then make the money circulate.

Trade is only a superficial method; only the combination of production, supply, and demand is fundamental.

After much deliberation, and considering the current situation of spring plowing, Liu Hong picked up a brush and wrote a large character for "money" in the middle of the paper.

Around the central character for "money," Liu Hong wrote the characters for "grain" on top of it.

Next, Liu Hong continued to write down labor force (someone grows crops), farm tools (growing crops requires tools), factories, workshops (manufacturing tools), materials (iron, wood, etc.), auxiliary materials (coal, etc.)... forming a circle that surrounded the character "money" in the middle.

Finally, Liu Hong connected them together, forming a close-knit network of relationships.

Putting down his brush, Liu Hong picked up his masterpiece, examined it carefully, and nodded in satisfaction.

"Zhao Zhong!"

"Yes, sir!"

Upon hearing the emperor's summons, Zhao Zhong hurriedly bowed and came to Liu Hong's side.

Liu Hong smiled and then handed the blueprints to Zhao Zhong.

"Take a look at my masterpiece!! What do you think?"

"promise!"

Zhao Zhong carefully took the blueprints and began to examine them closely.

Looking at the intricate network of relationships on the drawing, Zhao Zhong's eyes followed the circles on the drawing back and forth.

Finally, Zhao Zhong's gaze settled on the character "money" in the middle, and he fell into a state of deep thought. At the same time, Zhao Zhong also recalled what he had seen and heard in the Mi family and the Zhen family.

A short while later, Zhao Zhong suddenly thought of something, and a glint appeared in his eyes.

However, Liu Hong clearly saw Zhao Zhong's micro-expressions.

Then Liu Hong looked at Zhao Zhong with a smile, "Hehe~, so, what did you figure out?"

"Your Majesty! This servant is of limited knowledge and fears I may not have spoken well..."

Although Zhao Zhong had a sudden realization, he didn't know how to express it, so he hesitated when he heard Liu Hong's question.

Liu Hong chuckled, "It's fine, just say it the way you understand it, in the simplest way!"

"promise!"

As Zhao Zhonggong responded, he quickly went through his own thoughts in his mind.

"Your Majesty, in my humble opinion, grain, factories, tools... these things, when connected together, are like a wheel, and money is the axle in the middle. The wheel embodies the value of money, while money supports the formation of the wheel. Only in this way can the wheel roll forward..."

"Huh?"

After listening to Zhao Zhong's description, Liu Hong couldn't help but let out a soft "hmm" and looked up at Zhao Zhong with some surprise.

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