The first thousand one hundred and ninety-four chapters of the solution
Not long after, Liu Feng hurriedly walked into the inner study, bowed and saluted, "See your Majesty!"
"The prime minister will be free from all gifts!"
Zhu Si asked for a seat and asked, "What good news has the Prime Minister brought me?"
Zhu Si's implication was that he did not want to hear Liu Feng's complaints or the news that he could not raise military salary.
Liu Feng was really in a dilemma, but he had to say it. He could only bite the bullet and said: "Wei Chen brought two pieces of news. One is about raising military salary. We have some clues..."
Before Liu Feng could finish speaking, Zhu Si interrupted him, "What does it mean to have some eyebrows? Please explain clearly, what exactly does eyebrows mean? I don't want to hear lies!"
"Your Majesty, Meimun means that the minister has thought of a way to raise military salary, but his Majesty's approval is needed!"
"any solution?"
"Your Majesty, Weichen is considering collecting donations from merchants. Each of the two hundred merchants will donate one thousand guan, which is 200,000 guan. Plus other taxes and fees, Weichen estimates that he can raise two months' military salary."
Zhu Si was unambiguous. He knew very well the background of the big merchants in Luoyang, which included thirty-three powerful merchants, including Zhu Si himself, as well as the Prime Minister in front of him. Therefore, Liu Feng's method was clearly to let the powerful people pay.
"Don't taxes have any effect?" Zhu Si said a little unhappy.
"Your Majesty, I also hope to receive a large amount of tax revenue, but in fact, the people at the bottom can't even afford tens of pennies and can't afford food. Many, many people go to dig wild vegetables outside the city to make a living.
Their only hope is to collect some taxes from the middle-level people, but not too much to raise enough military salary."
Zhu Si was not a fool. He also came from the bottom. He knew very well that what Liu Feng said was true. He frowned and said, "Will these merchants have money?"
"Your Majesty, we have minted tens of millions of dollars over the years. This money will not flow to Guo Song, so where are they now?"
Liu Feng made it very clear that money is in the hands of the powerful.
"I understand what you mean. Besides raising donations from merchants, is there any other way?"
Zhu Si is not stupid at all. These thirty-three powerful families are the foundation of his rule. If the foundation is shaken, he will no longer be able to survive, so he will never use the knife on his own people unless he has to.
"Your Majesty, we should sort out the big merchants and see if there are any that can donate all the money."
"This method works!"
Zhu Si also immediately thought that not all businesses are run by powerful people. There are also some large businesses that are just dependent on powerful people. They are still independent and can attack some businesses. For example, the silk merchant Zhu Qifa, who claims to be the
My own clan nephew gives me 10,000 guan of filial piety money every year, and I agree to it, so Zhu Qifa can use it for surgery.
He quickly estimated in his mind that he might be able to get a million dollars, and he said happily: "I have long disliked Zhu Qifa, who pretended to be a relative of the emperor."
Liu Feng understood the idea and immediately bowed and said: "Wei Chen understands."
Zhu Si sighed again, "It's okay to make money this way once or twice. What should we do in the future? Does Liu Xiangguo have any good ideas?"
Liu Feng hesitated and said: "Your Majesty, Wei Chen really has a good way to make money in the long term!"
Zhu Si was overjoyed and said, "If you have any good ideas, please tell me!"
"Your Majesty, one tael of gold can be exchanged for 200 guan of gold on the black market, and one tael of silver can be exchanged for 20 guan of gold. We only need to take out 10,000 taels of gold..."
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Zhu Si was startled, "What's going on? Gold and silver have soared?"
This is what Guo Song meant when he told Yang Mi to "use gold as a sword". Using the scarce resources in his hands to exchange for money requires Zhu Si to continuously improve the rarity of gold.
This is indeed a good idea, but Liu Feng did not dare to say that the real reason was that everyone was not optimistic about the Zhu Si Dynasty, so he could only vaguely say: "It is probably due to the impact of the epidemic, and everyone is more afraid."
Zhu Si paced back and forth with his hands behind his hands. Their treasury previously had 320,000 taels of gold. In the second half of last year, they had spent half of it buying grain and salt from Guo Song. Now they still have about 150,000 taels of gold.
Taking out 10,000 taels of gold can be exchanged for two million coins. This method is quite good. It is much better than issuing large amounts of money.
As soon as he thought about it, Zhu Si suddenly understood that this was clearly a disguised attempt to plunder the wealth of the powerful, but the method was more subtle. He needed to think about this method again.
With two ways to support the situation, Zhu Si felt relieved. He nodded and said: "I will think about the gold matter again. Is there any other news? Just now you said there are two news."
Liu Feng sighed and said: "The second news is indeed not good news. The news yesterday afternoon was that an epidemic was discovered in the city!"
This news made Zhu Si so shocked that he almost rolled off the soft couch. He struggled to sit up, and his fat body was almost out of control. The two palace maids quickly supported him from left to right, and finally made him sit up.
"What did you say?"
Zhu Si was extremely shocked and said: "An epidemic was found in the city?"
What Zhu Si fears most is this news. Once the epidemic enters Luoyang, the palace will not be spared, and his life will not be saved.
"What happened? How is the situation now?" Zhu Si's voice trembled.
"How it came in, the reason is unknown. Wei Chen sent people to investigate. There are now at least seven or eight people who have died of the epidemic in the city, but it is estimated that many people have been infected, but have not suffered from the disease. Currently, people in the city are panicked, and the people are all here.
Escape for your life outside the city."
"What...what should I do?" Zhu Si was so anxious that he was spinning in circles. He was completely at a loss what to do.
At this time, a guard reported, "General Hu Ben Wei Xiao is here."
Zhu Si quickly said: "Hurry up and announce the advance!"
After a while, General Xiao Wanding of Huben Guard walked in with an anxious look on his face.
"Your Majesty, I have something urgent to report!"
Xiao Wanding suddenly found Liu Feng standing aside and asked again: "Did Liu Xiangguo come here because of the epidemic?"
Liu Feng nodded, "Exactly!"
Xiao Wanding bowed and said to Zhu Si: "Your Majesty, an epidemic has been discovered in the city, and the army is also very nervous. I ordered the soldiers not to leave the camp, and also strictly prohibited the people from entering the camp. This is OK in the short term, but it will not work in the long term. I want to discuss it with Your Majesty.
Now, how should the military respond to the epidemic?"
Liu Feng couldn't help but sarcastically said: "The general should have rich experience in dealing with epidemics. Do you still need to ask your Majesty for advice?"
The implication of Liu Feng's words is, wasn't it you who caused the epidemic? You still have to ask others?
Since Concubine Xiao was canonized as queen and their son was made crown prince, the conflict between Liu Feng and Xiao Wanding has been reconciled on the surface, but the secret fight between the two still continues.
The fight for control of the inner treasury is the focus of the struggle between the two. Zhu Si's inner treasury is currently managed by Xiao Wanding's nephew Xiao Di.
Liu Feng criticized the Xiao family more than once for stealing property from the internal treasury, but because he could not produce evidence and could not take inventory, he finally dropped the case.
Xiao Wanding also counterattacked. The latest counterattack was to persuade Zhu Si to move the 320,000 taels of gold from the Zuozang Treasury to the inner treasury and put it under Zhu Si's personal control. Zhu Si did so, causing the court controlled by Liu Feng to lose
ballast stone.
But today Xiao Wanding asked Liu Feng for help, hoping that Liu Feng could strengthen the control of the epidemic, so Xiao Wanding's face turned red, but he held back and did not have an attack.
"Thank you, Liu Xiangguo. Although I know more about epidemics, Liu Xiangguo still needs to be in charge of truly preventing and controlling epidemics."
Zhu Si had stabilized from the initial panic, and he also asked: "What good countermeasures does Liu Xiangguo have?"
Liu Feng was confident and said calmly: "The epidemic broke out in Songcheng County and there were heavy deaths. The main reason was that Qiu Jingzhong closed the city gate and prevented the people from escaping. As a result, the epidemic raged in the city and finally got completely out of control. Wei Chen thought that we must first learn from Song Dynasty.
Lessons from cities and counties: evacuate the people in the city to the countryside, allocate government land to them, and let them farm in the countryside. This way, the population in the city will decrease, the source of infection will decrease, the epidemic will weaken, and the risk to the military will be much smaller."
Liu Feng's words may sound reasonable, but in fact they are full of loopholes. If the people are evacuated to the countryside, what will they eat? Where will they live? This requires the court to spend a lot of money and food resources for resettlement, and it cannot be solved by just talking.
Zhu Si hesitated and asked: "What if they refuse to farm and flee to the Jin army?"
Liu Feng smiled slightly and said: "These disease-carrying people can escape to the Jin army camp and defeat the enemy without fighting. Isn't that what your Majesty expects?"
Xiao Wanding, who was standing next to him, also liked the phrase "subjugate the enemy's army without fighting." It was best for the Jin army to defeat itself, so that they could win without fighting and regain the important territory of Weihan.
"Your Majesty, what Liu Xiangguo said makes sense. With our strength, we may not be able to recapture Wei Han, but with help from the epidemic, we have great hope."
Zhu Si nodded, "I agree to issue an evacuation order, but only after the military salary issue is resolved."
Zhu Si was reminding Liu Feng to make enough money first before considering evacuating the people.