Guo Jia's hand suppressed Cao Cao's subordinates, giving him some prestige at last. Xiahou Dun and others did not dare to underestimate Guo Jia, and Kong Rong felt that he was disgraced. He was too embarrassed to continue to stay here, and walked away in disgrace. .
Finally, Xun You told Cao Cao's subordinates about the drought and asked them to make every effort to ensure food production in the next six months!
Everyone agreed and went to complete their tasks!
Cao Cao, Xun Yu, and Guo Jia were left in the hall!
Xun You said with a smile: "Fengxiao has become more knowledgeable in the past few years, and even my brother looks up to you with admiration!"
Cao Cao also sighed: "Stones can float on the water. Today is really an eye-opener for Cao!"
Guo Jia worriedly said: "Even ordinary people in Youzhou know about this kind of thing. In Qingzhou, even celebrities like Kong Rong have not heard of it, so they have never thought about the problems involved. An ordinary person's knowledge is worse than How can we defeat Lei Gong, a famous scholar like Kong Rong?"
Cao Cao said: "That's not the case. We were just too focused on Lei Gong's military strength and did not collect this information. At worst, I will ask the spies in Youzhou to pay more attention to the strange things happening in Da Gan!"
But Guo Jia shook his head and said: "My lord, this is not a question of knowledge, but the gap in national power between the two countries. Even Kong Rong's knowledge is not as good as that of an ordinary citizen in Daqian. This is the gap between Daqian and Dahan." .
If we want to catch up with Lei Gong, we must start to reform now. If we don’t change, we will definitely die. Only by reform can we seize a glimmer of hope. Copying Lei Gong’s policies is a way to quickly increase our strength, like Lei Gong’s land equalization system!”
Xun Yu said: "This cannot be learned. If we dare to equalize land, the noble families in Qingzhou will definitely rebel and drive us out!"
Cao Cao also nodded in agreement with Xun Yu's words. When he was young, Cao Cao was not afraid of the powerful. At that time, he killed many powerful people in Luoyang City with a five-color stick. However, the powerful people soon taught Cao Cao how to behave. The better his political achievements, the smaller his official position. In the end, he was deposed. If his father, Cao Song, was not also powerful, his life would not have been saved.
Of course, Cao Cao is not afraid of them now, but he understands their strength and will not act rashly. The important thing is that Cao Cao still needs them to support his army of 100,000. It is difficult for him to be tough when facing his financial backer, Cao Cao!
But Guo Jia smiled and said: "I have a different view than Wen Ruo. Only now is the good time for military land. Now we are equalizing the land ourselves, and the initiative is in our hands. What if we wait for Lei Gong to help us equalize the land? , I don’t know how many Qingzhou nobles will survive. As long as you explain it clearly to them, they will understand the lord. If you don’t understand it well, the lord can go to Cuizhouping and take his fellow villagers to visit them, so that They know the consequences of Lei Gong coming to Qingzhou!"
Cao Cao said with great joy: "Seconds! Sure enough, now is a great time for the army to equalize the land!"
Xun said: "I'm afraid it's hard to let go of good wealth!"
Guo Jia said solemnly: "Jun Tian is just the first step for us to chase Lei Gong. If we don't dare to take this step, then we should simply disband the army and flee to the wilderness!"
"According to my estimate, Daqian can produce about 300 million shi of grain every year. Lei Gong collects 30% of the field tax, which means that the annual grain harvest alone is nearly 100 million shi. The grain income alone is more than ten times that of the late emperor's time! Now Lei Gong captured Jizhou again. In less than three years, Daqian's grain output will exceed 500 million shi, and grain will no longer be Lei Gong's flaw.
The annual land tax collected by Lei Gong exceeds 150 million dan. This grain is the guarantee for Lei Gong's hundreds of thousands of troops to fight. I wonder how much grain Qingzhou can harvest to support 100,000 troops for how many months?"
Xun You was speechless. Qingzhou collected 1 million shi of grain taxes last year, as well as tens of millions of other taxes! But the soldiers who settled in the countryside collected millions of shi of grain. These grains and taxes have already been collected. It has surpassed the peak period of Qingzhou. If every state in the Han Dynasty was like Qingzhou during the Ling Emperor's time, the Ling Emperor would not have been unable to assemble an army of 100,000 to suppress the rebellion.
Xun You was also somewhat complacent, thinking that he could restore Qingzhou's vitality in just one year, but now when he compared the taxes and taxes of Da Gan, he felt extremely ashamed. The gap was so big that no wonder Fengxiao was reluctant to stay in Qingzhou!
Cao Cao gritted his teeth and said: "No matter how difficult it is to equalize the land, we will continue to promote it so that Lei Gong can't continue to widen the gap with us!"
Guo Jiadao: "Qingzhou has about 120 million acres of land. If these fields can produce 120 million shi of grain, we can harvest 30 to 40 million shi of grain. Although this is not as good as Thunder God, at least it is Not as desperate as before!"
"We need to increase the tax 20 times to collect taxes!" Xun You felt dizzy. Even with the pressure of Lei Gong, he knew that it was impossible to steal so much food from the hands of the powerful nobles!
Guo Jiadao: "This means we have to find a way to get them to take out these grains. We must do what Lei Gong can do. If we can't do it, we will die!"
Xun You worried: "This is too radical!"
Cao Cao said: "We don't have much time left. If we don't radicalize, we will have no real life. If we radicalize, we will escape death! Now we can only rely on filial piety to give it a try!"
Guo Jiadao: "The purpose of collecting these grains is to organize an army to resist the Thunder Lord, and it will eventually be spent on them. In the future, the noble families in Qingzhou and even the entire Han Dynasty will have to change. They will become like the nobles and tyrants in the Warring States Period. From farming to studying to inheriting families, Fight for farming and heirloom! Spend all the food and money on themselves, so they won’t object!”
"Now the Thunder Lord may invade the Central Plains at any time. If the lord cannot accumulate strength in the past few years and resist the Thunder Lord's attack, everything we have done will be in vain."
Although Guo Jia did not convince Xun Yu, he did convince Cao Cao. The data provided by Guo Jia made Cao Cao realize that the gap between himself and Lei Gong was too big. If he did not change, he would really be dead.
Guo Jia continued: "In addition to grain, in industry and commerce, we mainly do salt and iron government operations. I found that the salt in Qingzhou has been completely occupied by Jizhou salt. This is not a good thing. Every pound of Jizhou salt we eat, the strength of Lei Gong Just grow by one point!”
Cao Cao was embarrassed. He was responsible for the proliferation of private salt in Qingzhou. It wasn't because he didn't work hard, but it was because Jizhou salt was too cheap. It cost three yuan a pound. In Cao Cao's opinion, it was already free of charge. Why not take advantage of this advantage, so Cao Cao went to Jizhou to buy salt, and then sold it to Qingzhou and other places in the Han Dynasty. In less than a year, his small treasury made more than 30 million yuan, which gave him a lot of money.
Guo Jia didn't know this and continued: "Lei Gong owns woolen cloth and can make tens of billions of dollars every year! We don't have wool in Qingzhou, but we do have salt as a specialty. The reason why Jizhou salt is cheap is because it uses sun-dried salt.
Technology, this technology is not difficult to learn. We only need to use cement to create some water-tight salt fields. The sun will help us dry out the salt later. It can be said that the cost is close to zero. This is Lei Gong. Why can Jizhou be sold for three yuan per catty?
Salt, our coastline in Qingzhou is larger than that of Jizhou, and we also have a tradition of salt industry. If we can monopolize the salt industry of the entire Han Dynasty, we should be able to make billions of dollars a year!"
After speaking, Guo Jia gave Cao Cao and Xun Yu a picture, which was a picture of Jizhou salt fields.
With this painting, Cao Cao finally understood why Jizhou salt was so cheap! And now this sale belongs to them in Qingzhou
Cao Cao was excited when he heard this: "Fengxiao, you are truly an unparalleled scholar in the country!"
But Guo Jia shook his head and said: "What kind of unparalleled national scholar is this? I am just a fan of Yaren!"
Guo Jia continued: "We have also established a state-owned iron smelting plant. Now almost all Lei Gong's men are equipped with iron armor. Without the iron smelting plant, there is no way we can be Lei Gong's opponent!"
Cao Cao and Xun may have agreed with the establishment of an ironworks. The last time they fought against Lei Gong, they were defeated and returned. Equipment was one of the most important reasons.