Cao Cao said: "My lord, the big-eared thief and Sun Quan don't look benevolent on the surface, but it's actually very dark, when I was in Tuntian, others said that I was shaved and plucked by the people, and the two of them wanted to shave the people and pull them out." ”

An Xiaoyu said: "What do you mean?"

Cao Cao said: "If you listen to me tell you in detail, you will know the hypocrisy of Sun Quan and Liu Bei." ”

In the troubled times of the Later Han Dynasty, the heroes either dug graves and raised soldiers for self-respect, or looted the people's fat and ointment to make the people "cannibal", Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, who only ate mulberry and river mussels for their subordinates, died, Dong Zhuo Gongsun Zhan, who built the city and stored grain, also died, and Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan, who stood up on the shoulders of the heroes, were able to become the back waves of Yuan Shao, Liu Biao, Liu Zhang and others on the beach, and they also had a certain economic acumen.

In addition to sending his "Captain Touching Jin" and "Faqiu Zhonglang General" to dig graves and make money from the dead, Cao Cao mainly relied on Tuntian to feed his huge army.

In the first year of Emperor Xingping of the Han Dynasty, the economy of the Han Empire had collapsed: "It is more than 500,000 yuan in the valley of the year, and people cannibalize each other." ”

The big river has no water and the small river is dry, the landlord's family has no surplus food, and the soldiers can't fight if they can't eat enough, so Cao Cao had to lay off the staff: "It's a new recruit of the soldiers." ”

Layoffs as soon as there is no food, this kind of thing can no longer be done, so Cao Cao was so anxious that his hair fell off one by one, and 300,000 yellow turbans were surrendered.

It is unknown whether Cao Cao had a headache at that time, and he was still at a loss after patting his head as a railing, and at this time two economists stood up and presented him with a plan to stabilize the country.

These two economists, one is called Zao Yi and the other is Han Hao. They thought of a solution to Cao Cao's problem, and it was this method that helped Cao Cao gain a firm foothold in the Central Plains, and even if he lost the war against Liu Bei and Sun Quan, he would not be completely defeated and left homeless.

The method that Zao Yi and Han Hao came up with for Cao Cao was very simple, so simple that there were only two words: "Tuntian".

Of course, Tuntian was not Cao Cao's first creation, nor did he end with Cao Cao, but he was undoubtedly the best one.

In the first year of Jian'an, Cao Cao officially ordered a large-scale Tuntian movement in the territory: "The art of Fu Ding Guo lies in strengthening the army and having enough food, the Qin people are eager to agriculture and the world, and filial piety is to set the Western Regions with Tuntian, which is also a good style of the ancestors." ”

Cao Cao was effective in Tuntian that year: "It is the year to recruit people to Tuntian and make a promise, and get a million grains." So the state and county set up the field official, where the valley is located. Conquering the Quartet, there was no labor to transport grain, so he exterminated the thieves and leveled the world. ”

Cao Cao's tuntian system was once criticized, because some people said that he collected taxes too harshly: "six officials and four people", that is, Cao Cao took 60 catties of grain when he laid down 100 catties.

Even during the period of Emperor Huan and Emperor Ling, the implementation was also "fifteen taxes one" or even "thirty taxes one", and now Cao Cao wants to take away more than half, so many people think that Cao Cao is picking the wool of the common people.

But to talk about the economy regardless of the background of the times is to play hooliganism.

In the troubled times of the Later Han Dynasty, a pound of grain can determine the life and death of a family, Cao Cao provided land for ploughing cattle and farm tools, and then collected 60% of the grain, which was already magnanimous and beneficial to the people, so the people at that time were still grateful to Cao Cao.

Cao Cao's method is to hide grain in the people, Tibet soldiers in the people, and wealth in the people, so the Central Plains has been relatively stable, on the other hand, Liu Bei and Sun Quan's remote areas and even the hinterland, are very unstoppable, the original country of abundance was made by Liu Bei's father and son "Yizhou fatigue" and "people's vegetables".

Liu Bei and Sun Quan's economic policies turned the people into bald heads?

said that Cao Cao picked up wool, it is estimated that the people of the Central Plains at that time would not agree, and Liu Bei and Sun Quan, the brothers-in-law and uncle, picked up wool, which was really knocking on the bones and sucking the marrow, and turned the people of Eastern Wu and Western Shu into bald and strong.

Liu Bei is a person that everyone is familiar with, one is that he is "very benevolent", and the other is that he is very good at enjoyment: "I don't like to read, I like dogs and horses, music, and beautiful clothes." ”

Based on this alone, we have reason to believe that Liu Bei is indeed a relative of the Han family, because this is simply carved out of the same mold as Liu Bang, Emperor Gao of the Han Dynasty.

Liu was too poor, so after obtaining Xichuan, the country of abundance, the poor were very generous: "Zhuge Liang, Fazheng, Fei and Guan Yu were given 500 catties of gold, 1,000 catties of silver, 50 million catties of money, 1,000 horses of brocade, and the rest of the awards were different." ”

These gold and silver money and silk are Liu Bei's bonuses through formal procedures, after Jingzhou Group entered Sichuan, it has already grabbed a lot of money, the first attack on Liu Zhang, prepare for an appointment with the scholars: "If the matter is decided, the treasury is full of things, and there is no foresight." "And pull out Chengdu, the scholars are all willing to fight, go to the treasures to compete for treasures. ”

The subordinates are crazy to rob, Liu Bei's pockets are also empty, and in the future, he will compete with Cao Cao for Hanzhong and even the Central Plains, and he will destroy his uncle Sun Quan, at this time Liu Bei has decided not to marry Sun Xiaomei but to marry Wu Yi's sister, such a large-scale war must cost money, so Liu Bei also began to worry about his livelihood like Cao Cao.

Cao Cao has Zao Yi and Han Hao under him, and Liu Bei also has a capable person, this capable man is called Liu Ba, and he is an arrogant guy who dares to look down on Zhang Fei.

Liu Ba's father was Jiangxia Taishou and Dangkou general Liu Xiang, because he exploited the people too much, and the people rose up to kill him.

Liu Ba is the son of a famous corrupt official in the late Han Dynasty, and it is just now that he exploited the genetics of the people, so Liu Ba came up with a desperate plan for a roll of his eyes, and said to Liu Bei: "Yi Er, but when you cast a hundred coins, level all things, and make the officials the official market." ”

Under the economic conditions of the late Han Dynasty under the gold standard and copper standard, he used a pound of copper to make a hundred times the value of currency, and also forced the common people to use it, and officials at all levels took "a hundred big money" to force the purchase of the people's things, so that the assets of the people of Shu shrank by 99 percent at once.

It's okay for big families to say that the small people who only have one or two copper plates a day are miserable. This is like the later gold and silver yuan coupons, which used to buy a cow for 100 yuan, but later only a pack of matches for 10,000 yuan.

At this time, some readers may not understand: "Isn't it very convenient to use a large dollar of the same weight for a hundred?"

We still have to look at the problem in the context of the time: in the gold standard financial system at that time, copper and money can actually be equated, that is, copper has both circulation value and practical value.

For example, a big dollar and a half taels of copper, that is because half a tael of copper is basically equal to a big dollar, and now half a tael of copper has become a hundred big coins, and you have to buy people's materials according to the face value, if you don't sell them to him, you will go to prison or even be killed.

To give the simplest example: the people of Xichuan had a sheep worth a hundred dollars, which was bought by Liu Bei's subordinates with a "hundred dollars". This Xichuan common man had no sheep at home, so he wanted to buy it on Cao Cao's territory, but when "a hundred big money" arrived in the hinterland of the Central Plains, it could only be spent as a big money. People still follow the rules of the Han Dynasty, and big money is "as heavy as its text".

So the hundred sheep of the people of Xichuan became one after Liu Bei turned his hand like this.

If the people under Liu Bei's rule are miserable enough, then you haven't seen how ruthless the Three Kingdoms heroes are - Liu Bei's cheap uncle is more ruthless than his brother-in-law: Sun Quan directly cast "Daquan Dangqian".

That is to say, if Dongwu and Xishu recognize each other's currency, then Liu Bei should be a hundred dollars, and when he arrives in Dongwu, he can only exchange ten for one, although Dongwu's "Daquan is a thousand" is a little heavier, but it still suffers.

But the common people at that time were not stupid, and Cao Cao in the Central Plains was not stupid, and the coins of Eastern Wu and Xishu arrived in the Central Plains, or by weight, so that in addition to Cao Cao's rule, the people of the other two countries could only cry without tears.

"Tongzhi Food and Goods" recorded such an incident: "Lu Meng Dingjingzhou, Sun Quan gave 100 million money, the money is too expensive, but it has an empty name. ”

Readers who are familiar with that period of history know that Lü Mengding Jingzhou was the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an, and Sun Quan's casting of "Daquan Dangqian" was the first year of Chiwu, and the time is not right.

Historical data take this as an example, in fact, I want to say: "The 100 million yuan that Sun Quan rewarded Lu Meng has shrunk a thousand times after 18 years, and has become 100,000 'big springs as thousands'."

To mint new coins, everyone must take out the old coins to exchange, and these Soochow coins with a face value of 100 million can only be used as 100,000 when they are spent elsewhere.

Even the family property of the descendants of the hero Lu Meng has shrunk by a thousand times, and ordinary people can even more imagine.

Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan's approach, we can see the difference in nature. At the same time, we can also see that Cao Wei is strong and Sun Liu is weak, and it is not only the territory and military strength that are weak, but also the political foresight and economic acumen.

Cao Cao's approach is that we all eat meat together, I will make the case board and the pot stove, and then I will eat the large pieces, and you will eat the small pieces, and the difference between the large pieces and the small pieces is not very large.

Liu Bei's approach is that let's make cakes together, you make rice, flour, firewood, charcoal, I will eat 99% after baking, and give you 1%.

Sun Quan's approach went further than Liu Bei: I want to swallow nine hundred and ninety-nine thousandths.

If we were to be placed in the Three Kingdoms period of the Later Han Dynasty, in the face of Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan's wool economic policy, whose territory would you choose to survive and develop?

From the perspective of the people at that time, the economic war of the Three Kingdoms of the Later Han Dynasty was actually a happy family and two sorrows, and as for who was happy and who was sad, the common people must have a fair judgment.

It must be the common people under the rule of Cao Wei who are happy, and the people who are worried about Shu Han and Eastern Wu who were originally displaced and have no food and clothing.

Cao Cao gave the people land and means of production, a bumper harvest, he gave him a little more, a bad harvest, he gave him a little less, even if only a thousand catties of grain were produced in a hundred acres of land, I could still have 400 catties left, and a family of three had porridge to drink.

This is the difference between a proportional tax and a fixed tax: "everyone is hungry together, and everyone is hungry together".

If Cao Cao's rule was that regardless of the harvest year and disaster year, how much grain must be handed over to an acre of land, it is estimated that the common people would have gone to Liu Bei and Sun Quan to spend a lot of money to be a hundred and a thousand in Daquan.

After listening to Cao Cao's words, Sun Quan's embarrassed face turned purple, but his mouth was very hard, and he quibbled: "We Dongwu are not like you, there are large areas of fertile land, and our Jiangnan is full of water towns. ”