Chapter 190: Han Ran's Countermeasures [Two in One]
"King!"
"Your Majesty..."
When Han Wangran woke up, his ears were filled with such voices calling him.
He slowly opened his eyes, and then he realized that there were several people standing beside the bed, including Wei Qing Zhao Kuo, Queen Zhou, his eldest son Han Yu, who was still about nine years old, and his five-year-old second son Han Fei.
"Is this...what's wrong?"
Han Wangran struggled to get up. Seeing this, Queen Zhou quickly helped him up.
On the side, Wei Qing Zhao Kuo carefully considered his words and explained: "I heard that the king became furious after hearing about the evil deeds of the merchants of Wei State. The doctor in the palace diagnosed that the king had been overworked for a long time.
, the blood vessels are not smooth, due to the sudden anger attacking the heart, so the energy is lost..."
Maybe it was because he had just woken up, but Han Wangran still felt dizzy. He lay on the bed to sort out his thoughts: "Merchant from Wei State... Oh, so that's what happened."
He gradually remembered what had made him furious before he fainted: that is, the merchants of Wei State jointly targeted his merchants in South Korea, causing South Korea to lose its market in Qi State.
Even when he recalled this incident, Han Wangran still felt indignant.
After thinking about it, Han Wangran ordered: "Summon Prime Minister Shen, Kaifangdi, and Han Kui, and have them enter the palace immediately to see me."
After hearing this, Wei Qing Zhao Kuo hesitated for a moment and advised: "Your Majesty, you have just woken up, so you should rest for a while..."
Beside, Queen Zhou also echoed the persuasion with red eyes.
Faced with the persuasion of the two of them, Han Wangran shook his head and said firmly: "I know my body well... The matter of the Wei merchants is a serious matter and cannot be delayed. Zhao Kuo, please send someone to summon him as soon as possible.
!”
Seeing Han Wangran's insistence, Zhao Kuo had no choice but to nod and send someone to summon Shen Buhai. The three of them opened the floor, Han Kui, so that apart from the servants and maids waiting nearby, only Han Wangran and Queen Zhou were left in the palace.
, and the two young masters Han Yu and Han Fei.
Han Wangran managed to comfort Queen Zhou, whose eyes were red.
To be fair, Queen Zhou is not Han Ran's beloved woman, or for a monarch like Han Ran, the word "beloved" is too extravagant for him - he only cares about his ancestors' inheritance, the country and the country, and has few children and private interests.
Affection.
But even so, people are not grass and trees, how can they be ruthless? Even though Han Ran had some prejudices against Queen Zhou before, after more than ten or twenty years of getting along with him, he was used to having this woman in his life, even if his father
When Wang Han and Wang Qi first chose this marriage for him, they actually only valued the power of Queen Zhou's natal family, that is, the Zhou family.
"I'm fine, the queen doesn't have to worry." Han Ran comforted him with a smile.
Seeing the smile on Han Ran's face, Queen Zhou forced a smile, but immediately, two tears could not stop flowing down.
Once upon a time, the Zhou family was actually very dissatisfied with this marriage. First of all, like most women of this era, her marriage to Han Ran was just a way of marriage for the Korean nobles to cling to the royal family, and the royal family to win over the nobles.
Secondly, when Zhou married Han Ran, it was the period when three powerful officials, Han Wu, Han Hu, and Han Geng, controlled state affairs and made Han Ran a puppet.
At that time, Han Ran, in order to avoid making Han Wu, Han Hu, and Han Geng suspicious, he pretended to have no ambitions, played with birds all day long, and did not care about state affairs. He kept pretending for more than ten years.
Although his act of keeping a low profile successfully deceived Han Wu, Han Hu and Han Geng, at the same time, it also made Zhou extremely disappointed with her husband: she could not imagine that her husband was willing to become the puppet of his ministers, even though she had He made suggestions and asked his natal family, the Zhou family, to help him regain the royal power.
Due to disappointment in her husband, Zhou naturally gradually became cold towards Han Ran in the following years.
What he didn't expect was that the strange bird was already a blockbuster. One day a few years ago, Han Ran, with almost only Zhao Kuo and some of his guards to help him, eradicated Kang Gong Han Hu and Li Hou Han Wu in one breath. His confidant, Wu'an Shou Zhu Man, regained the royal power with lightning speed.
It was then that Mrs. Zhou suddenly realized that her husband was by no means a mediocre lord, but a strong lord who was good at forbearance.
Since then, Mrs. Zhou has extremely regretted her indifference to her husband, fearing that her husband would abandon her because of the weak relationship between the couple. However, Han Wangran did not do that after regaining the royal power.
This made Zhou happy, but also a little sad, because she was smart enough to guess that the reason why Han Ran ignored her was probably because of her relationship with the Zhou family - he needed the support of the Zhou family. .
But in order to make up for her past mistakes, Zhou pretended not to know the matter and did her best to fulfill her duties as a wife. This made the relationship between the couple recover rapidly in recent years, and they gave birth to their second son, Han Fei.
Today, Mrs. Zhou is most worried about her husband's physical condition, because she has heard that her husband, Han Ran, handles government affairs in this palace for more than eight hours a day. Who can bear this in the long run?
Even the doctors in the palace often warned Ms. Zhou, asking her to look for opportunities to persuade Han Wangran to take a rest so that the latter would not get sick from overwork. At first, Ms. Zhou thought those doctors were unfounded. After all, her husband was only thirty-four or five years old this year. , when she was young and strong, she did not expect that her husband would faint in the palace today. She was so frightened that she quickly came to visit with her two sons.
"The king is diligent in state affairs. This is a good deed. However, state affairs do not happen overnight. In my humble opinion, the king still needs to listen to the advice of the palace doctors and get more rest..." Zhou said with a choked tone and a worried look on his face.
Hearing this, Han Wangran said with a smile: "The queen is worrying too much. I am just angry and angry, not physically ill... As for getting more rest, I really don't dare to slack off."
In view of the fact that the relationship between the couple has improved in recent years, Han Wangran did not mind revealing some of his thoughts in front of Queen Zhou: "The widow and Wei Wang Zhao Run are no less than the former king Jian and Qi Wang Xi living side by side..."
The late king Jian in his mouth was Han Jian, the elder brother of his father, Han Qi, who was also his uncle. He was once known as the wise king and wise ruler of Korea. Xidu was afraid of his three-point rival.
Unfortunately, Han Jian passed away at a young age. I remember that when King Lu Xi of Qi sent people to express his condolences, he said: The collapse of Han Jian in the middle is a great blessing for Qi and a great misfortune for Korea.
The Koreans once said that if the late king Han Jian was still alive, how could Qi be allowed to dominate?
Although this is a bit exaggerated, it cannot be denied that Han Jian is indeed better than his younger brother Han Qi, the later Korean monarch Han Wangqi. If he had not died young, even if Qi State had already had Qi King Lu Xi It would be difficult for such a hero to defeat South Korea and win the title of hegemon of the Central Plains.
But now, the old kings of various countries have passed away one after another, and new kings have gradually begun to emerge.
Among the new kings of these countries, the one that Han Ran cared about and feared the most was probably the monarch of Wei, Zhao Run. In fact, some people compared him to Zhao Run to Han Jian and Lu Xi back then.
"Zhao Run's talent is far better than that of me, but even so, he never slackens on state affairs... Even if he is like this, how can I dare to slack off?" Han Wangran comforted him with a smile.
Hearing this, Ms. Zhou had tears in her eyes and nodded slightly to express her support for her husband's belief.
At this moment, there was a sound of footsteps outside the palace. Han Ran and Zhou turned their heads and noticed that Wei Qing Zhao Kuo had led Shen Buhai, Zhang Zhangdi and Han Kui to the palace.
Waiting at the inner door.
After looking at each other, Queen Zhou said to her husband: "Your Majesty, please discuss state affairs with a few adults. I will leave for now... Your Majesty, please take care of yourself."
After that, she greeted Han Yu, and Han Fei's two sons bowed to their father and left.
Compared with the eldest son, Han Yu, who bowed politely, the second son, Han Fei, looked at his father on the couch with wide eyes and suddenly asked in a sweet voice: "Father, are you going to die?"
As soon as these words came out, the expressions of everyone in the palace changed. Even Queen Zhou had a look of anger on her face, her face was sullen, her mouth was pursed, and she was about to scold him.
However, Han Ran smiled and rubbed his youngest son's head, and said with relief: "Father will not die."
Queen Zhou hesitated to speak, but in the end, she didn't say much. She just glanced at her young son with some resentment. Judging from the expression on her face, she probably turned around to teach this young son who was so arrogant.
Watching the Zhou family leading Han Yu and Han Fei's two sons away - especially watching the younger son Han Fei turn around and leave with one step at a time, Han Wangran suddenly thought of his sworn brother Lihou Han Wu.
Although Han Wu, the Marquis of Li, was once one of the powerful ministers who emptied the royal power, the relationship between the two brothers was very good. Therefore, Han Wu also told Han Wangran about his childhood: When the late king Han Jian was ill, he was a child.
Han Wu went to visit him and asked similar questions.
At that time, Han Jian also comforted Han Wu with a smile, saying that nothing would happen to him, but only three months later, this outstanding virtuous emperor in Korean history passed away.
At that time, Han Wu saw his father for the last time in his life, and he still remembers it to this day.
Just because he heard this story told by his sworn brother Han Wu, when his youngest son asked a similar question today with a worried look on his face, even Han Ran was in a daze: Am I going to follow in the footsteps of the late king Han Jian?
Just when he was in a trance, Wei Qing Zhao Kuo had led Shen Buhai, Zhang Kaidi and Han Kui to the bed. Seeing that Han Ran was in a trance, he reminded him with concern: "Your Majesty, the three adults have arrived.
.”
"oh."
King Han suddenly woke up from a dream and was about to lift up the quilt and sit up when he saw Prime Minister Shen Buhai quickly stopping him and saying, "Your Majesty, it is better to rest on the couch. I will give you my words here."
This statement was recognized by Zhao Kuo, Kai Kai and Han Kui.
Seeing this, Han Wangran then motioned to the servants in the palace to bring in some mattresses and asked Shen Buhai and the others to sit beside the couch.
After sitting down, Prime Minister Shen Buhai was the first to persuade: "Your Majesty, you really need to take care of yourself..."
Han Wangran smiled slightly, waved his hand and said: "Children's words are unbridled, so don't take your application seriously."
Shen Buhai shook his head and said: "Old Minister, it was not because of the words of the Second Young Master, but because of the diagnosis of the palace doctor, saying that the king had been overworked for a long time and had poor Qi and blood, so he was so angry that he fainted to the ground... Although the Queen is
Women, but they know the truth, and the veterans also believe that handling state affairs is not something that can be done overnight."
Han Wangran nodded, but he still did not take Shen Buhai's advice to heart. After all, what he cared about most at the moment was how to solve the Wei merchants' issue as soon as possible.
Seeing Han Wangran mention this matter, he opened his mouth and said: "When I learned that the king had fainted, General Baoyuan also came to the palace to visit. Later, when he and his ministers were waiting in the side hall, they also talked about this matter, and...
Master Han Kui can't argue." Having said this, he glanced at Han Kui.
"Oh?" Han Wangran looked at Han Kui after hearing this.
Han Kui, like Han Hu, Han Wu, and Han Geng, was also a descendant of a branch of the royal family. In terms of seniority, King Han had to call Han Kui his uncle.
This person is quite talented, but he does not have the ambition to steal the royal power like Han Hu, Han Wu, and Han Geng - of course, he does not have the power like these three people.
To be fair, Shen Buhai, Kaifangdi, and Han Kui are currently the three ministers that Han Wangran relies on most in terms of internal governance.
By the way, among these three people, the one with the best character is Kaifangdi, followed by Shen Buhai, and finally Han Kui. The reason is that Kaifangdi is too upright, so he is not popular among people.
; And Shen Buhai, once
He has done nepotism, but he is still a disciple of Legalism; as for Han Kui, not only did his brothers and nephews annex land in his hometown, causing public resentment, but he also had character flaws, such as retribution, narrow-mindedness, etc.
.
But it cannot be denied that after eliminating these shortcomings, these three people are among the best in governing the country.
Seeing Han Wangran looking at him, Han Kui raised his hand and said sternly: "General Baoyuan thinks that Wei's merchants are expelling our merchants from Qi, and even pursuing them to our own country is really bullying."
There are too many people!... Therefore, Bao Yuan hopes to mobilize troops to arrest all those merchants and their subordinates..."
"That's inappropriate." Han Wangran frowned.
After hearing this, Han Kui also nodded and said: "I also think this is inappropriate, but General Baoyuan is too hot-tempered and refuses to listen to advice."
Han Wangran nodded and said that he would summon Baoyuan later.
At this time, Shen Buhai stroked his beard and said: "Although General Baoyuan has a bad temper, what he said does have some truth... At the moment, the merchants of Wei State are expelling our merchants from Qi State.
Bringing a large amount of goods to our country..." At this point, he sighed with shame: "I am ashamed, I never imagined that this move would have such a bad impact on our country."
The move he was talking about was the incident of Wei merchants dumping a large amount of goods into the Korean mainland.
It must be said that this is the limitation of knowledge. Even a wise Legalist like Shen Buhai had never thought of the dangers of dumping trade before.
Because logically speaking, Wei State dumped a large amount of goods to South Korea, which greatly increased South Korea's resources. This should be a good thing.
But the fact is exactly the opposite. After a large amount of Wei goods poured into South Korea, in a short period of time, they defeated local Korean merchants with their low prices, resulting in local Korean merchants having a large amount of goods piled up in their hands.
Unable to sell, it seriously affected South Korea's original economic and trade system.
Goods that can be stored for a long time, such as sheepskin, wool, and wine, are considered good, but goods that are not easy to store, such as lambs and fresh dates, will be lost.
What's even worse is that the despicable and treacherous merchants of Wei State also tried to destroy the price of rice in South Korea: it was clear that Wei State did not transport a lot of rice to South Korea, but they pretended to start a price war with South Korean rice merchants, which scared some people.
Korean rice merchants hurriedly sold the accumulated rice grains before the rice from Wei State arrived, causing the price of rice on the market to fall sharply.
Don’t think that a sharp drop in rice prices is a good thing. You must know that a sharp drop in rice prices actually harms the interests of farmers. As for rice merchants, especially those with great financial resources, they can completely hoard rice grains.
, quietly waiting for the price of rice on the market to rise.
The ultimate direct harm of this is that the market gradually begins to lack food, causing rice prices to rise crazily after falling. Although rice merchants make a lot of money from this, ordinary people have to pay several times the price to purchase it.
These grains - this is equivalent to harming the interests of the common people and aggravating class conflicts.
At this time, it is necessary to balance the price of rice through state regulation, so that the disadvantaged farmer groups will not suffer serious losses, causing more farmers to give up farming because they cannot make a living, and find other ways to make a living, which will increase the domestic farming population.
reduction; we also cannot allow some black-minded rice merchants who are obsessed with profit and attempt to make huge profits by hoarding grain and grass to get profits that should not belong to them.
"Is it a big impact?" After listening to Shen Buhai's detailed account, Han Wangran asked with a frown.
Shen Buhai nodded and said: "I don't know who offered this plan to the King of Wei, but this plan is quite sinister, maybe it is a descendant of my Legal family... Under the offensive of Wei merchants, our local merchants were retreating steadily.
, I got the news a few days ago
, several county towns in Julu County have been captured by Wei merchants. Ignorant people rushed to buy Wei's cheap goods, causing local shops in the county to make ends meet, and many of them closed their shops. If things go on like this, the country will not be able to survive.
country……"
"A merchant's war?"
Han Wangran murmured something. He had never thought before that the power of merchants could be so terrifying, so terrifying that it could destroy a country.
But it's no wonder. After all, in this era, how many people in the world can see through this?
"...That's why General Baoyuan made that suggestion to arrest those hateful Wei merchants." Kaifeng added matter-of-factly.
"But this matter is not appropriate." Han Kui immediately shook his head and said, "Merchant matters should be settled by business affairs. How can we send out troops for this? Doesn't this give Wei an excuse to send troops? In fact, even the world may
They will also laugh at me because there is no one in Korea."
After hearing this, Shen Buhai and Kaidi remained silent because everything Han Kui said made sense.
The problem is that they are really inexperienced in facing this unprecedented businessman's war and don't know how to resist it.
But then again, as Han Kui said, they really can't send out troops to expel and arrest those Wei merchants. After all, although the behavior of those Wei merchants is bad, their essence is not out of the category of "business" -
-The State of Wei did not send out troops because of this incident, let alone put swords on the necks of civilians in Qi and South Korea to force them to purchase goods from the State of Wei.
When Wei Guo still stood still, how could South Korea take the lead in committing unjust acts, dispatching troops, and using "force" to intervene in "commercial affairs"? - This is definitely not justified!
If South Korea really does this, and Wei Guo will use this matter as an excuse to attack South Korea in the future, I am afraid not many people in the world will side with South Korea.
Since it is absolutely forbidden to use force, then we can only think of countermeasures and use business to solve business as Han Kui said!
After pondering for a long time, Han Wangran said in a deep voice: "Wei's intention is very obvious. It is nothing more than to defeat our merchants, severely damage our economy, and make our country unable to succeed and unable to continue the confrontation with Wei in northern Xinjiang.
...However, if Zhao Run thinks that he can defeat Korea with this method alone, I can only think that he is an idiot and talking about dreams!"
Having said this, he looked serious and said seriously: "Since the Wei people prevent our country from doing business with the Qi people, then we, the Koreans, will start trade with the Hu Di tribe in the north. Although the Hu Di tribe in the northern plateau is far inferior to us in the Central Plains
Rich, but they also have the materials that Korea needs today, especially war horses and slaves..."
"Hu Di from the Northern Plateau?"
Shen Buhai stroked his beard thoughtfully.
Indeed, although the Central Plains once collectively referred to Donghu, Chidi and other foreign ethnic groups that were once distributed on the northern border of South Korea as Beidi, in fact, there are still more powerful foreign ethnic groups further to the north. However, due to various reasons, those powerful
The foreign races did not come to invade the Central Plains, and they even knew very little about the affairs of the Central Plains.
Originally, as a proud Central Plains country, South Korea did not disdain to trade with these foreign ethnic groups, but now that they have been forced to a dead end by the Wei State, they can only lose face and try to negotiate and communicate with those foreign ethnic groups.
See if there can be any breakthrough.
After all, in the Central Plains, Korean merchants were really no match for Wei merchants.
"Let Shanggu County come forward..." Han Wangran said subconsciously.
The reason why I say this is because Shanggu County in South Korea has the best relationship with foreign races in the whole of Korea. This is due to the former Sanggu Governor Ma She. He advocated dividing the foreign races, which not only attracted some foreigners who were friendly to Korea, but also attacked others.
——Under this decision, many foreign warriors with different looks from the Central Plains appeared in the Shanggu Army, especially the Shanggu cavalry, half of whom were Lou Fanren, and they were very brave warriors.
However, halfway through, Han Wangran's words came to an abrupt end because he suddenly thought that Ma She, the former guardian of Shanggu, had already passed away.
After thinking for a moment, he thought of a person who could replace the former Shanggu guard Ma She, that is, Yuyang guard Qin Kai - he was also a famous Central Plains general who was difficult to defeat in the eyes of foreigners.
"What about at home?" he asked openly.
Han Wangran thought for a while and said: "In the counties and cities within our country, the court calls on the domestic nobles to come forward to resist the merchants of Wei State... As for the rest, we need the help of Qi State."
Hearing this, Kaandi and Han Kui looked at each other in confusion. They did not think that Qi State had the guts to risk angering Wei State to help them.
And at this moment, Han Wangran smiled and said: "It doesn't matter, I already have an idea in my mind."
Since Qi is afraid of Wei and does not dare to assist, then all it takes is to dispel or reduce Qi's fear of Wei.