Prime Minister

Chapter 1173: Pingliang Prefecture Strategy (2 chapters in 1)

Chapter 1173: Pingliang Prefecture Strategy (Two chapters combined into one)

After Wang Shao left, Zhang Yue immediately ordered someone to summon Fan Yu to his house, and he put on his clothes and wrote a memorial, and then had a long talk with Wang Shao. He also had some ideas about how to advance Xihe Road in the future.

Zhang Yue wrote that if Xihe wanted to take Liangzhou, it was important to have elite soldiers and sufficient food. After the implementation of the military strategy, all the soldiers in Xihe Road and Shaanxi Road were under the control of the general.

The soldiers are now more skilled and trained than before.

When he wrote this, an outsider reported that Fan Yu had arrived at Zhang Yue's house, and Zhang Yue immediately summoned him to see him.

When Fan Yu came to visit, he just bowed and didn't say anything. He knew that his frequent political comments touched upon Zhang Yue's policies, which displeased the other party.

It was night time and he was about to go to bed early, but unexpectedly Zhang Yue suddenly called him into his house.

Fan Yu thought he would definitely be criticized by the other party, so he prepared himself mentally.

Zhang Yue took a look at Fan Yu. He had an impression of him beforehand. He thought he was a madman. Zhang Yue didn't have a good impression of madmen. Not only Zhang Yue, but even the officials rejected madmen.

But then again, arrogant people usually have talent.

Confucius said that if you can't find the first-rate talents who follow the middle way, then you should look for the second-rate talents such as the crazy and the arrogant. The crazy are aggressive, while the arrogant will not do anything.

"I came to you last night to consult you about the border affairs in Shaanxi. It was Wang Zichun who recommended you. Don't be shy, just speak frankly!"

When Fan Yu heard this, he suddenly realized that Zhang Yue was not trying to make things difficult for him.

Did he blame Zhang Yue wrongly? As the saying goes, a prime minister can tolerate a lot of things. How could Zhang Yue hold a grudge against him because of his daily opinions on state affairs?

Maybe I am judging others by my own standards?

Zhang Yue saw Fan Yu's expression and said as if he knew what Fan Xiang was thinking: "You talked about state affairs in private, so I know the truth."

"But I am not forbidding people to speak out. Criticism must be based on true insights and be beneficial to the government. Such nonsense disrupts the government!"

Zhang Yue is not trying to provoke others. Our society allows healthy criticism, but those who complain and try to stir up trouble must be dealt with.

However, Fan Yu was provoked by Zhang Yue and immediately said, "I am not the kind of person who would complain. I have already wanted to report to the Prime Minister."

Zhang Yue said: "This is a true insightful opinion. I am all ears."

Fan Yu then spoke the truth one by one, and Zhang Yue listened carefully for a long time.

After Fan Yu had expressed all that was in his mind, he felt rather uneasy, but he still maintained a somewhat reckless demeanor.

Fan Yu is really talented. He even thought of some things before me... Zhang Yue pondered for a moment and said, "How about I let you be the transport envoy of Qinfeng Road?"

Jumping from the position of Censor to the position of Qinfeng Road Transport Commissioner in one go? Such a high-ranking official? It was a meteoric rise, something Fan Yu could never have dreamed of.

Upon hearing this, Fan Yu's expression changed drastically and he asked, "Are you serious, Prime Minister?"

Zhang Yue raised his eyebrows when he heard this. Fan Yu's face changed immediately and he immediately fell to the ground and said, "If the Prime Minister has any orders, I will not refuse even if it means death!"

You changed too fast. I still like your arrogant and unruly look just now... Zhang Yue said: "I have also benefited a lot from your father's legacy, so I want to give you a chance."

"I believe in Wang Zichun's judgment, and I also believe in my own judgment. As for what you just said, I will carefully implement it when I take up my post in Xihe Road."

After Fan Yu left, Zhang Yue wrote what the other party said in his own proposal.

The next day.

When Zhang Yue stepped into the hall, Wang Gui was already waiting there.

Zhang Yue and Wang Gui chatted after exchanging greetings.

After the incident with Wang Zhongxiu, Zhang Yue became even more respectful to Wang Gui.

To be honest, before Wang Gui and himself had a private disagreement in the Secretariat, Zhang Yue did have the idea of ​​bringing Wang Gui down.

But now that he thought about it carefully, Zhang Yue gave up this plan and instead took the initiative to make peace with Wang Gui.

why?

Because after one Wang Gui left, another one would come. In order to maintain checks and balances, the government would definitely not allow Zhang Yue to have all the power.

What if you really drive Wang Gui away and replace him with someone more powerful than Wang Gui?

Wang Gui was different from Yuan Jiang. Yuan Jiang was rather stupid and often contradicted him and opposed his ideas in front of the emperor. However, Wang Gui was careful in handling matters that disagreed with his own opinions.

The most important thing is that Wang Gui has no opinions. After all, he is a "ruler" unlike Zhang Yue who is a local worker. As a minister of the three orders, Wang Gui seems to be at a loss when encountering major events and has no opinions. At this time, everything is decided by Zhang Yue, who seems to be so wise and capable.

What a great foil.

Of course, Wang Gui's lack of opinions did not mean that he had no ideas about power politics. The other party was very strict in personnel matters, even tit-for-tat, to avoid being sidelined by Zhang Yue in this regard.

Now that Zhang Yue has something to restrain Wang Gui, he takes the initiative to reconcile with Wang Gui.

A big shot once said that when people interact with each other, they should first demonstrate their value, then draw a bottom line, and finally release goodwill.

Zhang Yue was the same, always seeking unity through struggle. There were always conflicts among the ministers in the court, and there were often conflicts between him and the emperor, which was inevitable.

As long as the processing costs are relatively high, everyone will be relatively tolerant.

Zhang Yue said: "Teacher, I plan to open a cotton business on Qinfeng Road."

Wang Gui asked, "What is the rule?"

Zhang Yue said: "Now the court is promoting cotton planting in all parts of Shaanxi, and the people are intercropping cotton with grain. For example, they plant five acres of sorghum and one acre of cotton. Because cotton planting can offset taxes, the court's purchase price is not bad, so the people are still happy."

"But this is not a long-term solution. Because cotton fields are cultivated by families, it is impossible to form a large scale. I plan to set up a business to do this. However, there are very few idle fields in Shaanxi Province, and almost all of them have been reclaimed."

Wang Gui smiled and said, "Yes, as the saying goes, barren land is not cultivated, but once cultivated, people will fight for it."

"When the common people cultivate wasteland, they must first prepare enough food for a year, so that they can eat for a year and then have a harvest the next year. If the wasteland is cultivated, it will be easy for the local big families to fight with the government to take it away, so the common people are not willing to cultivate wasteland."

As Wang Gui spoke, Zhang Yue laughed in agreement.

"Not to mention the wasteland, the same is true for business. Anything that is profitable will definitely be targeted."

"So the matter of cultivating cotton fields was still the work of the imperial court. The beji cloth spun from cotton will be even better than silk in the future. That is the tax."

Cloth was a natural currency. For example, taxes paid by the imperial court were all paid in the form of silk.

Wang Gui asked, "Where can we find idle land?"

Zhang Yue said: "Among all the roads, only Xihe Road is full of idle farmland."

Wang Gui asked: "It takes manpower to reclaim wasteland. Where will the manpower come from?"

Zhang Yue said: "We have more manpower. The cultivated aborigines have been taught to farm. As for the wild aborigines, we can lure them down the mountain with benefits."

"As long as they come down from the mountains, they can be allowed to cultivate cotton fields. The court will not only obtain relatively cheap labor, but can also further register them as ordinary citizens."

Wang Gui said: "This is a good business."

Zhang Yue said, "I plan to open a cotton business in Xihe Road according to the law and the design of the exchange, and the business will be based on shares. It will be the same as before."

The dividends Wang Gui received from the Exchange and Xihe Road Exchange every year were almost as much as his income as prime minister, and all of them would be his pension in the future.

Now that he has added another cotton business, he is naturally happy.

Wang Gui nodded and said, "As long as it is beneficial to the country and the people, we will do it."

The official palace.

Zhang Yue was the first to come out and said, "I have written my memorial overnight and now present it to Your Majesty for the strategy of Pingliang Prefecture!"

The emperor had waited a whole night for Zhang Yue's memorial, and now when he heard the name of Pingliangzhou Ce, he felt very encouraged.

After Shi Deyi presented it to the emperor, the emperor couldn't wait to read it.

"Is the household registration system being implemented in Xihe Road?"

Zhang Yue said: "That's right."

"There are at least two million wild aborigines in Xihe Road. If we want to pacify Liangzhou, we must first fully mobilize Xihe Road."

This is the advice Fan Yu gave to Zhang Yue.

The number of Han people who migrated from Xihe Road, including the garrison troops, officials, and exiled prisoners, is less than 300,000 so far.

After ten years of development, the number of cultivated people in Xihe Road exceeded 500,000. The cultivated people were registered as common people by the Song Dynasty, and were granted land. They could be recruited as archers or directly incorporated into the Song army at any time.

In addition to the Han people and the civilized aborigines, there were nearly two million savages living scattered in the mountains. For the Song Dynasty, it was impossible to control the entire Xihe Road, so it was only necessary to occupy the key points.

The middle area is where the civilized aborigines and the Han people live together, while the mountains and remote areas are all inhabited by the savages. The savages still have a tribal system, they only obey orders but not announcements, and they usually come down the mountains to trade with the Han people.

Now Zhang Yue wants to let these savages come down the mountain, accept the policy of household registration and become subjects of the Song Dynasty from now on.

If the previous method was to recruit some cultivated aborigines through the cultivation of cotton fields, then Zhang Yue now operated the cotton fields in the guise of business, with the cultivated aborigines recruiting savage aborigines to work in the fields. The court promised to make a profit from the cotton fields, and then sell them to textile merchants and dyers in Qinzhou to earn the difference.

These things were done by the newly established business that Zhang Yue and Wang Gui just mentioned, and the court and the local Han people also held shares. At present, the entire Shaanxi Road and Qingtang, Uighur, and Dangxiang are all accumulating cotton cloth.

As long as there is a stable output of raw cotton, it can be sold through cotton cloth.

The imperial court controlled the means of production and sold them to merchants with almost zero risk, which was a business that was sure to make a profit.

There are currently four major types of cotton in the world: upland cotton, sea island cotton, kapok and herbaceous cotton.

At present, the cotton in the Song Dynasty is mostly produced by kapok trees in Lingnan and Lianghuai areas, while the cotton grown in Shaanxi is a combination of grass cotton and kapok. Regardless of whether it is grass cotton or kapok, the yield is still a bit low, and the fibers are not white enough or long enough.

The upland cotton that is now widely used in the cotton textile industry originated in Mexico and was not introduced to China until the 19th century.

However, the Song Dynasty was stronger than the Europeans. The Europeans of the same era still believed that cotton was something that sheep grew on trees. The main competitors of the Song Dynasty were India and Persia.

But in the future, they would probably not be able to rival the large-scale cotton textile industry of the Song Dynasty.

We have always been good at bringing prices down.

In order to import raw cotton from various places, Xihe Road had to use the waterways from Taohe River, Huangshui River to the Yellow River. After capturing Lanzhou, a transit hub was obtained.

But this alone was not enough. It was also necessary to open up the Hexi Corridor, capture Liangzhou, and truly connect with the Western Regions so that the Song Dynasty's goods could truly reach the hands of Western Region merchants, while also cutting off the Dangxiang's trade benefits.

From then on, silk and cotton cloth (Beji cloth) became the hard currency used by the Song Dynasty in the Western Regions, thus reopening the Silk Road.

After looking at Zhang Yue's plan, the government decided that using the benefits of cotton fields to lure the aboriginals down the mountain and register as citizens would increase the population tax in Xihe Road and at the same time recruit civilians and soldiers, which would come in handy in the future attack on Liangzhou.

The official thought the case was feasible, but... it would take time.

At the same time, the government also watched that Zhang Yue was carrying out tax reforms in Xihe Road and the entire Qinfeng Road, eliminating and reducing the extra consumption of local clerks, thus achieving the goal of benefiting the people and enriching the country.

For the government, Zhang Yue’s two strategies were not bad, but their common shortcoming was that they were “slow”.

Zhang Yue said: "For the imperial court, attacking Liangzhou is the goal, and reforming the system is just a means."

"But for me, reform is the goal, and attacking Liangzhou is just a means."

"I want to reform Xihe Road and Qinfeng Road for the purpose of attacking Liangzhou."

What was the purpose of Wang Anshi’s reform?

Enrich the country and strengthen the army, equalize the rich and the poor, and suppress annexation. Wang Anshi's reform later proposed "regulating the world", but it was too general.

Zhang Yue was the one who attacked the Dangxiang.

By attacking the Dangxiang, the internal system was reformed. Now, from attacking the Dangxiang to attacking Liangzhou, and then reforming Xihe Road.

Zhang Yue said: "Your Majesty, looking back at the dynasties throughout history, in the first few decades of the Central Plains dynasties, there were always wise rulers and virtuous ministers who strived for external expansion. However, after a few decades when the expansion reached its peak, the rulers and ministers began to maintain the status quo, emphasize the system, and seek to ease the situation."

"After several decades, the country began to suffer from many problems and began to seek reforms. However, if the reforms were not good, like Wang Mang's, the country would be destroyed immediately. If the reforms were good, like the Xining reign of our dynasty, the country's prosperity would only last for a dozen or so years."

Zhang Yue's words were extremely bold, and all the ministers looked at him in awe.

The emperor was both happy and worried. He was happy that Zhang Yue was willing to speak frankly and point out the country's current ills. But he was worried that it was true as the other party said, that what he and Wang Anshi had done would only prolong the country's prosperity for a dozen or dozens of years. What should he do?

The emperor asked, "What is your brilliant plan?"

Zhang Yue thought to himself that the Qin, Jin and Sui dynasties were too short-lived to be included in this list, but the same was true for the Han, Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties, and even the neighboring Liao Dynasty.

At the beginning, they were very good at fighting and expanding their territory everywhere. When they reached the peak and the losses from wars were greater than the gains, they began to defend the status quo and built fortresses on the borders.

Later, internal problems arose. Wang Mang, Wang Anshi, Li Longji, Zhang Juzheng and the later Westernization Movement were all aimed at reviving the country.

But there were many failures, and successes only lasted a short time before they all declined.

Why didn't the cycle break?

The problem is that it is done behind closed doors.

Behind closed doors, without external input and output, it is a zero-sum game. No matter how it is changed, it is nothing more than those with more take a little and give to those with less, and those with less take a little more. It seems fair, but every time the knife is moved, there will be losses.

There are only two ways to go global: war and trade, which are input and output.

If you want to stop your own people from fighting, you have to rob others. In the early days of the organization, when it was constantly expanding through wars and victories, it was a scene of wise rulers and virtuous ministers.

A county can produce one of the top three or five figures in ancient and modern times.

War is the quickest way to respond and resolve organizational problems.

Keep fighting and expanding, and you can avoid internal conflicts temporarily. This is what happened during the Yuan Dynasty in history. Once the expansion stopped, the empire was over and it ended very quickly.

The Qing Dynasty was much smarter and used Confucianism and Legalism to prolong the country's prosperity. Even with the decline of its military power, it was able to maintain its status for a period of time.

Therefore, apart from war, the only means of long-term stability is business.

This is just like a martial arts competition. If you practice on your own, you can brag that you are the best in the world, but only by competing with others can you know who is better.

Standing is the winner, lying is the loser, it is obvious. What the winner says is the truth.

We cannot pursue temporary stability by closing our country to the outside world.

This is why Zhang Yue insisted on conquering Liangzhou and reopening the Silk Road. Reform without a purpose is a trick without a principle. It must be oriented towards external output, whether it is war or trade.

You can't cultivate immortality and enlightenment by closing the door. You must go out and save all living beings. You can change yourself by changing others, and helping others is saving yourself.

The emperor listened to Zhang Yue's words. He and Zhang Yue had different goals, but in the end they reached the same destination.

Changing the taxation system and official system of Qinfeng Road would be a painful undertaking, but it had to be done in order to seize Liangzhou.

The emperor looked at Zhang Yue's third strategy for pacifying Liangzhou, which was to bribe and instigate rebellion against the Renduo tribe in Liangzhou and the Uighurs in Ganzhou.

Inciting the Renduo tribe to revolt is what Xihe Road has been doing.

Once Liangzhou is captured, the Song Dynasty's commercial profits in Xihe Road will double, which can be used to benefit the Renduo tribe and Ganzhou Uighurs in the future, and is also a means to separate them from the Dangxiang camp.

The Dangxiang people were immoral in their business and often intercepted the goods of merchants from the Western Regions and forced them to buy or sell. Therefore, merchants from the Western Regions did not like to go through the Hexi Corridor, but instead chose to go the long way and take the route of Qingtang City.

Therefore, the Renduo tribe and the Ganzhou Uighurs who followed the Dangxiang people could not get any share of the meat, but it was the exact opposite in the Song Dynasty.

Zhang Yue attaches great importance to the business environment of Xihe Road.

After reading it, the emperor said, "Mr. Zhang has surprised me as always. I agree to all three of these! But who should I appoint to take on this task now?"

Zhang Yue said: "Your Majesty, Deputy Envoy Wang Hou is qualified for the job!"

Li Xian was transferred back to the capital. Zhang Yue knew the emperor's suspicion. Li Xian had been in power in Xihe Road for too long. The other party did not trust even his confidants, so he transferred Li Xian back to the capital to prevent him from gaining power in the local area.

Now that there is no governor, the position will be left vacant.

In fact, in addition to Li Xian, others who can take over include Zhang Zhi and Zhang Qie.

However, Zhang Zhi had been seriously injured since the battle of Mingsha City and had been bedridden ever since then, while Zhang Qie was not favored by the emperor, and Zhang Yue did not recommend him.

So Zhang Yue recommended Wang Hou.

Hearing Wang Hou's name, the emperor frowned and said, "Wang Hou can be a deputy general, but he is not strong enough to be a commander."

Zhang Yue thought to himself, you know, it's very difficult for me if you keep changing coaches like this.

Zhang Yue said: "Although Wang Hou is not a long-term strategist, he is steady and prudent. It is better to take Liangzhou slowly rather than hastily. This man can lead the army without any mistakes."

"I also recommend Fan Yu as the transport commissioner of Qinfeng Road, and Sun Lu as the inspector of Qinfeng Road!"

The emperor said without hesitation: "As you requested, I will approve it."