Chapter 964 Weapons Smuggling
The spiritual soldiers cannot speak.
Luo Su walked alone along the eastern coast.
From time to time he would lift the car curtain to look outside.
The lush green farmlands are rolling in waves in the wind, the farmers working in the fields are sweating profusely, smoke is rising from the well-organized village, the women washing clothes by the stream are hammering hard, and the laughter of children playing is like the wind blowing through bells.
He still remembered the last time he traveled, which was during the Daye period of the Sui Dynasty.
The fields were barren, cracked and without any grass, the grass on both sides of the road was littered with bones, rabbits and foxes roamed in the village that looked like a ghost village, and countless people with their hands bound and shackled were escorted to Liaodong.
The mountains are cold and desolate, the world is filled with weeping blood, heavy mourning and darkness cover the earth, and it seems that it will never be possible to see the light after the darkness.
It’s really good now. All the hard work over the years has been useful. Reading more of these things will make the heart that serves the country and the people become purer.
Luo Su walked through Hebei.
Cross the Yellow River.
Ahead is the Huai River.
This area along the way was the grain-producing area of the Tang Dynasty. After Li Zhi and Wu Zhao moved the imperial capital to Luoyang, the political status of this area has been significantly improved. Now half of the Zhechoufu of the Tang Dynasty are in Hebei and Jianghuai.
After decades of adjustments, Guanzhong returned to its original position, Shandong rose rapidly through the imperial examination system, and the Tang Dynasty transformed from a group with Guanzhong as its core into an empire that truly accommodated talents from all over the world.
Luo Su came to Yangzhou.
Human talent is more important than hard work, and the same is true for a city.
From the moment a city is built, it has a main function, and this function changes with the changes in the world situation and with the changes in mountains, rivers, and streams.
Chang'an used to be the capital, but now it is Luoyang that takes on this function, and its functions have been transferred to Luoyang.
Hangu Pass was once a strategic pass where one man could block the passage of ten thousand. It was destroyed not by weapons but by the diversion of the Yellow River.
The place that currently performs this function is called Tongguan.
But Tongguan is not as good as Hanguguan. It takes at least 100,000 people, or even 200,000 people to defend Tongguan.
As a result, Guanzhong lost its status as a country surrounded by mountains and as stable as Mount Tai. With the support of various factors, abandoning Chang'an was no longer an unacceptable option.
Among these cities, there are important military towns, ordinary residential cities, natural fortresses, and economic cities.
Yangzhou is an economic city.
During the Sui Dynasty, it had declined to the extreme, but its geographical location was there. It was at one end of the Grand Canal and faced Nanjing. Compared with Suzhou, it was not as far south. It was too important to the imperial court, so it had to prosper, and it always prospered.
During the years since the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, even without the court's special reconstruction, it still flourished. It was basically restored at the end of the Zhenguan period. In the tenth year of Li Zhi's reign, the taxes paid were once again ranked first among all states in the world.
The era of promoting one and benefiting two is back.
The booming Hebei and Jianghuai regions made Li Zhi and Wu Zhao make the final decision to move the capital to Luoyang.
In Luoyang, the Grand Canal, which connects the north and the south, would continuously deliver supplies from Shandong to the palace at extremely low costs.
If the cost of building a palace in Chang'an is 10 million coins, then the cost in Luoyang can be reduced to 30 million coins. The advantages of water transportation are far greater than those of land transportation.
Luo Su came here and was later known by the officials of Yangzhou. Upon hearing that the imperial teacher had come to Yangzhou, the officials of Yangzhou almost swarmed out.
Governor of Yangzhou.
Chief Clerk and Sima of the Yangzhou Grand Military Governor's Office.
These people wrote a letter together, leading the civil and military officials of Yangzhou to request Luo Su to attend the banquet.
Luo Su was very concerned about the development of Yangzhou, or rather, he was concerned about the development of the entire area south of the Huai River, but he had no interest in meeting these officials and only selected a few of them.
There are descendants of the Jiangnan Luo family.
There are descendants of the Lu family.
Speaking of the Lu family, they are actually living a very comfortable life now, and are considered to be quite good among the many families in the Tang Dynasty.
Whenever the Luo clan was conquering the grasslands or migrating northward, the Lu clan's large forces followed the Luo clan in their migration, including many people from the main branch and most of the side branches.
Many people in the Lu family died, but many also survived.
Some of them stayed in their hometown of Qi, and some went to the south of the Yangtze River during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, joined the Luo family, and took root in Jianghuai. Later, when the Luo family returned south, a large part of the Lu family in Winter City returned to Qi.
The Lu family is quite special.
The daughters of the Lu family will never have trouble finding a husband. No matter if they are from the royal family or those high-ranking families, no one would think that the Lu family is not from a high-ranking family.
Although the Lu family is indeed not a high-ranking family.
Shandong gentry and the like like to ask for betrothal gifts, but the Lu and Luo families have lived here for a long time and are not into this. However, the Lu family does not agree with the theory that "a daughter who is married off is like spilled water", so they often interfere with their married daughters.
The Lu family rules are very strict, even very rigorous. They strictly control any acts such as rebellion and treason that may lead to the destruction of the family.
It can be said that this has been repeated over and over again.
The Tang Dynasty implemented a policy of emphasizing internal affairs over external affairs. Many noble families left their hometowns and went to Luoyang and Chang'an to live and seek high-ranking officials, but the Lu family remained deeply rooted in their hometown. In Luoyang, they might not be as powerful as those noble families who sought to become generals or ministers, but in the local area, they were the real local tyrants, inconspicuous but extremely powerful.
The group met Luo Su in a carved attic.
Whether it was the Luo family or the Lu family, the moment they saw Luo Su, they all knelt on the ground and said, "Knock to the old ancestor."
Luo Su looked up. Every time he saw the Lu family, he felt it was amazing. An ordinary family could achieve this level. This was the clearest proof that the Luo family had changed the world.
Although there were bad elements in the Lu family, the Lu family, with its extremely strict family traditions, always took the initiative to eliminate these people. It can be said that they had learned the self-revolution within the Luo family to the fullest.
The Ji-Jiang alliance began in ancient times and flourished in the era of King Wu and King Su, leading to the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty. However, it was Luo Su himself who pushed for the formation of the system.
At the beginning, because the blood relationship between the princes of the Ji clan and the emperor was becoming more and more distant, in order to solve this problem, Luo Su creatively proposed a precedent that the emperor would marry the eldest daughter, and other princes would marry sisters. This was called "taking the blood of a different surname to strengthen the kinship of the Ji clan." From here on, the real Ji-Jiang alliance began to frequently intermarry and marry each other.
"The arrival of our ancestors in Yangzhou brought glory to the humble city. It is said that the ancient saints left behind classics. If our ancestors left behind even a few words, they would surely shine with glory and holiness thousands of years later."
The group of people did not stand up, but just knelt on the ground and spoke sincerely.
Luo Su sat on the chair. The spirit soldier brought the tea over. He took a sip and felt it was sweet and sharp. "This time when I came to Yangzhou, I did have some things to tell you. You are all from my family. You are here today for the chance. Please listen to me.
Since the Zhou Dynasty, for 1,700 years, the center of gravity of the world has gradually moved south and east. It is an indisputable fact that Jianghuai is now the most important region for financial and taxation in the world.
This trend will not stop in the future, so if the world wants to prosper in the future, the importance of Jianghuai and Jiangnan should be kept in mind at all times. "
What Luo Su is concerned about is the gradual southward shift of the economy. It's not just the grain output. Speaking of grain alone, the Central Plains and Hebei, these two large plains, will always be the granaries, and the Jianghuai plains are not enough to support the entire world.
However, with the development of Jianghuai and Jiangnan, problems such as miasma, dampness, and wind-heat were solved, and the more livable attributes of the south became apparent. Yangzhou became the most prosperous commercial place in the world, even surpassing the world metropolis Luoyang and the former Chang'an.
Not only Yangzhou, but even Lingnan, which has always been considered a place of exile, has a very prosperous city called Guangzhou.
A small detail can reveal a big picture.
The reason is very simple, which is warmth. People's yearning for warmth is hidden in their genes. Even the Luo family migrated from Winter City to Liaozhou. It was only a thousand miles south and it was much warmer.
…
Luo Su's destination all the way south was not the Jiangnan Luo family, but Lingnan and the Indochina Peninsula.
Guangzhou in Lingnan is a very prosperous city, which seems out of place compared to other places in Lingnan.
There are not many indigenous people in Guangzhou. Since its establishment, the people here were Han people brought here during the Qin Dynasty. Later, during the Han Dynasty, a large number of people migrated here. In addition, some wars broke out here during this period, and many indigenous people took the initiative to leave here.
now.
This is the location of the Annan Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty, one of the four major protectorates. The Tang Dynasty court stationed 6,000 troops here.
The purpose of the existence of the Andong Protectorate was not only to intimidate the southern barbarians hiding in the mountains of Lingnan, but also to monitor the princes and countries that were enfeoffed here by Li Zhi.
And there is that great kingdom - the State of Song!
Under the four great protectorates, there are many princely states, which were granted fiefdoms here when the princes were first enfeoffed.
The jurisdiction of the Annan Protectorate was Guangdong, Guangxi and Qiongzhou in later generations. It was full of high mountains and steep cliffs, known as the Ten Thousand Mountains. With such a complex terrain, the imperial court racked its brains when enfeoffing princes and dukes.
As for the State of Song.
When the Song Dynasty was first established, the King had a long period of hard times. After all, he was the descendant of Queen Concubine Xiao, and was disliked by Wu Zetian. Naturally, it was impossible for him to empty the national treasury when he left the city like the King of Qin, the King of Qi and others did.
However, the imperial court later allowed the Annan Protectorate to recruit many people to build the Song Dynasty. Moreover, Lingnan and the Central Plains were connected by a water system that could transport supplies. The Annan Protectorate was the logistics base developed by the Song Dynasty.
After Luo Su came to Jiangnan, he found something unusual. Many big families in Jiangnan were flowing materials to the south. He got some things from the Luo family in Jiangnan and was very surprised that the people had already started to do this. He went all the way south and arrived at the Annan Protectorate. He found that the development of the Song State was indeed better than he had imagined.
Wars are fought for money and food. The expansion of the Song Dynasty was able to be better and faster than expected because a large amount of resources flowed in. Not only the wealthy families in the south of the Yangtze River, but also the officials of the Annan Protectorate were doing this. In addition to the supply given by the court, they sold more food and weapons to the Song Dynasty.
Many armors and weapons that were discarded by the imperial court were listed and then sold to the pioneering nobles of the Song Dynasty and those who pioneered in Lingnan.
In addition, the big grain merchants in the Central Plains are all selling grain here. The reason is very simple. There are waterways here, so the cost is lower than buying from the inland areas, and the price of military rations is high.
This is a very profitable business, which can be said to be a huge profit with no investment.
This was actually a form of smuggling, because the imperial court could not collect any tax revenue from it. The Jiangnan Luo family knew about this, but did not participate. The Luo family sometimes sold their grain and medicinal materials to grain merchants.
The final destination of a piece of goods is to fall into the hands of the person who pays for it.
Therefore, it is hard to say how much of the Luo family's food and medicinal materials finally fell into the hands of these pioneering nobles.
When he learned all this, Luo Su was not very shocked, but this pattern made him very interested.
Especially after he learned one thing, his interest almost reached its peak.
What happened was that the King of Song actually sold land and borrowed money to fight the war.
A group of merchants from Jiangnan and officials from the Annan Protectorate owned their own land in the Song State, and even mines and forests.
These things were mortgaged to these people by King Song.
The King of Song used the income from these lands in the next ten, twenty or even fifty years to gain more benefits.
This kind of thing is very common among the people. People do business by lending money and expanding production in this way.
But it is surprising that such a thing happened to a prince and some businessmen and officials whose identities and status were completely unequal.
Because according to common sense, there is usually only one final outcome for this kind of thing, and that is that the prince robs his fellow criminals and swallows everything into his own stomach.
Because the two sides are completely unequal.
In this social system where imperial power is supreme, to put it bluntly, no one else has a say, and negotiating conditions is simply a joke.
But the fact is, this deal happened.
Luo Su was very interested in this matter, so he stayed here for a while. For a man like him whose wisdom was unrivaled among human beings, just a little understanding was enough to see the underlying logic.
How could something like this, which goes against common sense, actually happen?
Then.
Luo Su was a little confused. This was a collaboration between a group of fools and a coward.
On the surface, this matter makes sense. If the merchants and bigwigs in the Annan Protectorate are collectively referred to as "the powerful nobles in the Central Plains" and the nobles in the Song Dynasty are referred to as "the powerful nobles in the Song Dynasty", the logic behind this is that these three groups.
The powerful people in the Central Plains believed that the King of Song was a stray dog who was driven out by the Queen Mother. Although he was a prince, he was actually on the brink of death all the time.
Prince?
If the King of Song dared to resist, the Annan Protectorate would let him know what the Central Plains Heavenly Army was. Psychologically, the powerful people in the Central Plains believed that they had an advantage in terms of strength.
Then comes the second key point. The powerful people in Song State are not the diehard supporters of the King of Song. Under the feudal system, the King of Song does not have that strong control over them. These powerful people in Song State have great interests in dealing with the powerful people in the Central Plains, and there are even many marriages and collusion between the inside and the outside. The King of Song is greatly constrained.
But Luo Su believes that this kind of checks and balances is false, like a flower in the mirror or a moon in the water, which will scatter with a single poke.
Does business have power?
Of course.
Money is a powerful force at all times.
But in this era, the power of business is weak, the power of money is not enough, and 90% of the world's power lies in the land.
The people of the land are the force that decides everything.
The princes of the Zhou Dynasty were able to challenge the emperor because they had lands that were not in the emperor's hands.
The aristocratic families were able to challenge the imperial power because they had lands that were out of the imperial control.
In the matter of King Song, King Song was indeed worried all day long during the reign of the Queen Mother, fearing that one day he would be noticed and recalled to the capital Luoyang, where he would be beheaded.
But in politics, there is another law, that is, the person who holds power is the one who stays the longest.
The struggle between ministers and kings, as long as they do not tear each other apart or put each other to death, always ends with the king's final victory. This is the ultimate manifestation of this theory.
A king is like a saint. In a society where imperial power is stable and the throne cannot be usurped, the worst outcome for the king is to lose face and be scolded by others.
If the ministers are not careful, they may lose their lives.
Once the king loses his shame, the outcome of the struggle is doomed.
The same is true for the King of Song. The State of Song belongs to him and he has lived here for a long time. His throne comes from the central court and cannot be shaken by these people.
The Queen is already very old and doesn’t have many years left to live.
The newly appointed emperor would not have any great hatred towards the King of Song, as that was a matter of the previous generation. At that time, once the King of Song reacted, a reckoning would be inevitable.
In other words, this strange balance now only appeared because of the Queen Mother's intimidation of the princes and nobles.
Under such circumstances, anyone who dares to sign a twenty- or fifty-year contract is really crazy.
After understanding these situations, Luo Su could even guess what would happen next.
Once the Song State tore up the contract, these matters would naturally not dare to be reported to the court. No one dared to mention the smuggling issue. Then there was only one option, that is, the Annan Protectorate would accuse the Song State of misconduct and even take the initiative to create some border provocations, and then attack the Song State with the Annan Protectorate's army.
If we win, it will be possible to control the State of Song in the future.
But if you lose, all will be lost.
After studying this model, Luo Su no longer paid attention to it. The formation of all social relations has its own special social background, and he would not interfere in these matters.
It is easy to guess the reason why the Luo family of Jiangnan is secretly involved in this. This current model is indeed helping the Song State to expand rapidly. Since ancient times, money has moved people's hearts. In the process of the Jiangnan gentry being excluded by the Central Plains, they turned to the south to seek benefits and retreat, which is a very realistic pursuit.
That's right.
Luo Su realized that these Jiangnan gentry acquired land in the Song State most likely in order to escape. If Nanyang really developed, they would escape to Nanyang if the Tang Dynasty failed to cope with the situation.
This is similar to what happened when the Luo family, unable to sense Queen Su, feared that their clan would be wiped out after their decline, so they fled to the Winter City in Liaodong.
Things always change with reality. Once the imperial edict comes down, you can only kneel down and wait for death. There is nowhere to run.
The only way to escape is through the grassland, but it is too difficult to cross the grassland and you may die on the way.
Now, with the expansion of the Tang Dynasty to the surrounding areas, many people have this opportunity. It turns out that in this world, besides the Central Plains, there are lands suitable for human survival, and they are so far away from the Tang Dynasty.
After Luo Su came to Nanyang, he looked at the water flow conditions here, and also looked at the continuous mountains in Guangdong, Guangxi and Kuaiji.
This is actually a natural separatist area. The water and heat conditions in the Indochina Peninsula are so good that they are enough to support a huge empire. If this country can also gain Guangdong and Guangxi, it will gain a barrier against the north.
but.
Luo Su stood on the mountain, looking at the endless land, "There is no chance."
No chance.
Ever since the Tang Dynasty set foot here and began to assimilate its culture, there will never be another opportunity like this here.
Luo Su was in Guangzhou and wrote a letter to Luoyang. It was not to Wu Zhao, but to Taiping. He planned to open the letter after Taiping ascended the throne.
Among them is the content about preventing the surrounding closed countries from developing independent consciousness.
"In the southwestern mountainous areas of the empire, there are many chieftains who have been passed down for many years. These chieftains are incompatible with the customs of the Han people, which has led to de facto independence here.
Now, the same situation has occurred in the feudal states. If these powerful people stay in the local area for a long time and form a de facto political isolation from the Central Plains, it will inevitably lead to political alienation.
This issue requires special attention.
If this issue is not taken seriously, the division of the feudal states is foreseeable.
Secession and establishment of an independent nation is only the first step. After the separation, if one is at a disadvantage in the competition with the court, then one will proceed to the next step, which is to begin to expel everything related to the court culturally.
Eventually, a set of ideas centered on localism will emerge. Once this kind of localism emerges, it will take a lot of effort to integrate it again, and the effect may not be significant. "
Luo Su was very clear about this.
After the unification of the Zhou Dynasty, nobles all over the world spoke the same language, performed the same rituals, and worshipped the same supreme god. That was the first great unification.
But in the gradual differentiation, almost all countries began to develop their own national ideology in combination with local characteristics.
The biggest changes occurred in the Wu and Yue states, where people had already cut their hair and tattooed themselves.
Among them, Qi, Chu, Qin and other border countries have undergone changes to varying degrees. This is when Luo was holding high the banner of the Xia Dynasty. Even so, the barriers between the countries became very serious.
The Qin and Han dynasties integrated the various states of the world for the second time and eventually formed the Han people.
The reason why the Western Regions are so difficult to deal with now and why the centrifugal tendency is so serious is actually because the Western Regions are quite localized, and that is localization from beliefs to culture, and they have embarked on a distinctive path for the Chinese people that is different from that of the Central Plains.
There are temples in the Western Regions, so it’s not a big problem.
But in the Song State, Luo Su felt that there was a huge problem. Once the Song State was oppressed from the north, the rulers from the Tang Dynasty would take the initiative to integrate into the local community.
Although Luo Su promoted feudalism, he did not promote division.
Even if due to practical reasons we have to rule this vast territory separately, internal communication must never stop and no barriers should be created internally.
The former Roman Empire was divided into two parts, Eastern and Western Rome, but all people considered themselves to be of the same ethnic group, and they called themselves Romans.
Between the two political entities, there was mutual communication between officials and emperors, not to mention mutual communication among the people. When they were reviving the empire, they wanted to revive not just one of them, but both, the entire Roman territory.
In the Central Plains, all past divisions were caused by wars. Several political and military entities that could not annex each other were confronting each other, which eventually led to the reality of division.
If such a division lasts long enough, it will really lead to differentiation, and even gradually become two ethnic groups, just like the Han people who went to the grassland and were assimilated into nomads. A hundred years later, who would still know their origins?
They have a new name, from Han people to Xiongnu, Xianbei, or Hu people from a certain Donghu ethnic group.
The six kingdoms were actually a necessary division.
But what Luo Su wanted was to split the country but not the ethnic group. "When dealing with the feudal states, strengthening the communication between the ruling classes is a necessary political means.
At the same time, high-quality officials should be selected from the vassal states to serve in the central court, and some of them may even be granted titles of nobility and become prime ministers. At the same time, officials from the Central Plains should be sent to the vassal states to serve as temporary officials.
Increasing bilateral exchanges is the task that the new dynasty should accomplish, and it is the political task that the suzerain state should accomplish.”
Luo Su came out from Luoyang just to see what the world has become. Many years have passed since the policies were issued, and now they have begun to ferment.
Even a saint cannot know what a policy will become after it reaches the lower levels.
Release policies, implement locally, provide feedback, make adjustments, and re-release policies.
This is how we govern our country.
After this trip, Luo Su found what happened in Lingnan and Central South very interesting. It could be said that it was somewhat beyond his expectations.
After exploring the nature of the world, Luo Su concluded that those businessmen would eventually fail, but he also had a guess about this pattern.
That is, what if one day, the power wielded by these businessmen exceeds the wealth that the land can produce?
Although agriculture has always been the foundation of a country and the basis of survival since thousands of years ago.
Although business makes money quickly, any wise ruler knows that only when the people are well fed can the country be stable, and most of the country's energy should be focused on agriculture.
But Luo Su could naturally see that the proportion of commerce in taxes was getting higher and higher, and the power held by merchants was getting stronger and stronger. Although the social status of merchants had not improved, in fact, the nobles who once relied entirely on land were now beginning to use business to give their families more room for maneuver.
This actually represents a future trend.
When did this trend emerge?
With just a brief thought, Luo Su saw the root of everything, starting from the increasing grain output per acre of land, from the construction of water conservancy projects and the improvement of agricultural tools.
It starts with fewer and fewer people needed to farm one acre of land.
It starts with more and more people not needing to farm.
What if food production could increase again?
There is a kind of rice in Indochina, which grows in Song Dynasty!
(End of this chapter)
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