This time, Guan Yu served as the assassin of Xuzhou, but the person who assisted him was no longer Xu Shu. In order to resist Yuan Shao's southward movement, Luan Yi needed to keep him in the army for consultation, so it was inconvenient for Xu Shu to be sent abroad for a few years.

In order to ensure that Guan Yu's governance was not lost, Luan Yi appointed Jia Xu, a powerful strategist, as the governor of Xuzhou and the patriarch of the diocese of Xuzhou.

Guan Yu is still quite convinced of Jia Xu's ability, so as to avoid the situation that Guan Gong is arrogant and does not listen to persuasion. Subsequently, in order to further strengthen the administrative efficiency of Xuzhou, Luan Yi also appointed Xun You as a special driver in Xuzhou to assist.

In this way, Xuzhou is equivalent to double insurance.

In addition, because of the place of a hundred battles in Xuzhou, Jiangdong Sun Ce may send troops here at any time to attack the diocese from both sides with Yuan Shao of Hebei.

So, Luan Yi then transferred the digital generals to Xuzhou to help Guan Yu again. They are: Zhang Liao, Zang Ba, Cao Ren and Tai Shici. Among them, Zhang Liao and Zang Ba are military generals under Lu Bu's account in Qingzhou, Cao Rennai is Cao Cao's old general, and Tai Shici is the original team of the church. It's just that discerning people know in their hearts that his actions are to split up the old forces of Lü Bu and Cao Cao, break them up and gradually divide them into other jurisdictions, so as to consolidate his position in the court and the church.

Originally, Luan Yi thought that a straightforward Lu Bu would express his dissatisfaction, at least complain. What he didn't expect was that Lu Bu didn't complain at all. took the initiative to say that the current Qingzhou is the Qingzhou of the Holy Mother, and the generals in Qingzhou are also the generals of the Holy Mother, not his Lu Bu's. As the spokesperson of Our Lady in the world, the church can mobilize anyone in Qingzhou to go anywhere at will, even if he asks Lu Bu to go to the front line as a pawn, he has no regrets.

At the same time, he also said that Zhang Liao and Guan Yu were friends, and it was appropriate to transfer Zhang Liao to Xuzhou to lead the troops.

Luan Yi then remembered that Zhang Liao and Guan Yu were very eye-to-eye in history, and the two had different camps, but they had a good personal relationship. Today, history has changed beyond recognition, but out of the indescribable meaning of human beings, the two still feel that they hate each other after meeting for the first time, and they are very close to each other.

Now, he is transferred to Guan Yu's side, and stationed at the forefront of Xuzhou, which can make him famous all over the world, Xiaoyaojin, complements each other even more.

Compared with Lu Bu's outspoken surrender, Luan Yi knew that Cao Cao had some thoughts in his heart, but he didn't dare to express them because of the situation he was in.

In this regard, Luan Yi didn't bother to explain anything to Cao Cao, after all, the initiative of reality was in his hands, and he was the master of the current situation, so he couldn't be angry with Cao Cao, a prisoner.

After arranging the government and military affairs of Yuzhou, Luan Yi took Cao Cao, the Shuai Templar Warrior Army, and the Templar Battalion to Xuzhou and embarked on the road back to Jinan.

Although Cao Cao had long heard that the people of the Diocese of Our Lady lived and worked in peace and contentment, the economy was developed, and the market was prosperous. I had also been in Yanzhou during the war before, and I had seen the return of the diocese. But at that time, Yanzhou was in a state of war, and the people were not prosperous at that time out of the protection of their personal assets, and there was not much special about it.

Now, after the army passed through the territory of Xuzhou and witnessed the diocese of Xuzhou in the realm of peace, it was still greatly shocked.

Hearing is false, seeing is believing. The standard of living of the people of the parish is a hundred, a thousand times better than he heard and imagined.

At this time, it was the spring ploughing season in the fourth year of Shengyuan, and there were people everywhere singing cheerful hymns, sweating like rain in the land, and working hard.

The faces of the people were full of smiles from the heart, their faces were round and full, without revealing a single dish, and their eyes were sparkling and radiant. Although they are working in the fields, the clothes they wear are not dilapidated, and many of them do not even have patches on their clothes, although they are all low-priced Shandong satin, but compared with the clothes of the people in other states and counties, "three years of new, three years of old, and another three years of sewing and mending", it is more than a star and a half......

In short, all kinds of signs show that although the people of Xuzhou cannot be said to be rich, they can also be regarded as passable. Such an achievement can be called a miracle for the rulers in troubled times.

What surprised him even more was still behind, the army entered Xuzhou and came to Yutai, after leading Cao Cao to appreciate the underground granary of Yutai, the soldiers and horses boarded the boat from the canal horse, all the way north, the more north along the way, the better the life of the people. Especially on both sides of the canal, there are no less than 100 large and small gatherings, merchants gather, people rushing to the market rub shoulders one after another, there are everything sold in the market, as large as all kinds of furniture, calligraphy and painting books, as small as jade, goldware, glazed utensils, everything. In particular, the market near the port is no worse than the Luoyang East Market in those years.

The canal went all the way to the north, and when it reached the territory of Jinan, not to mention the prosperity. In this land, anyone who has a little craftsmanship and can bear hardships and stand hard work can win a good income.

Cao Cao saw with his own eyes that many people in Dongpingling County were very non-official and non-eunuchs, riding high-headed horses and wearing high-quality brocade robes. stepped forward to ask his identity, and replied: The eighth-level craftsman of the XX workshop.

Cao Cao didn't know what an eighth-level craftsman meant, so he asked Luan Yi.

Luan Yi told him that the church's large workshop in Luokou holds three skill level exams every March. All craftsmen from the Great Han can come and participate.

The level of skill assessment is from one to nine, with level 9 being the highest. Craftsmen who come to participate in the assessment need to start from the first level of the examination and climb up the first level. Take the exam three times a year, which means that you can be promoted to three levels in a year. If you are skilled, you can get to the ninth level in three years.

Among them, the craftsmen who take the exams from grades 1 to 8 need to make things of the corresponding category according to the questions given by the examiners. Again, the score is given according to whether the size of the thing meets the standard and whether it is beautiful. Those who pass will be entered into the church membership, and those who do not have a church membership will be registered, and at the same time, they can also obtain a craftsman level certificate issued by the Church of Our Lady. This certificate is recognized by the major chambers of commerce in the diocese, and the higher the level of the certificate, the easier it is to work with a high income.

When you reach the ninth level, the exam starts to get complicated, and in addition to the normal handicraft, it depends on whether you create something valuable to society. Up to now, there are very few ninth-level craftsman qualification certificates for the church method, and only eight people, including Zheng Hun, Pu Yuan, and Liu Ye, have obtained such qualifications.

It shows the extraordinaryness of the identity of the ninth-level craftsman. The eighth-level craftsman under the ninth-level craftsman is also the existence that stands at the pinnacle of the hundred crafts. They are also valuable talents that the major chambers of commerce compete for, so their income is very considerable, even higher than that of the imperial court.

After seeing the rich life of the people of Jinan, at the end of the journey, Cao Cao threw out the question he was curious about, "Ziqi, since the diocese is so rich, then the treasury of the imperial court should be very rich, right?" ”

Luan Yi smiled and shook his head, "Quite the opposite. After years of war, the court could not make ends meet, and it was very nervous. Seventy percent of the taxes paid at the end of last year had already been spent, and now there are only 70 million dollars left on the books, which is only enough to last for three months, but there is still nearly a year before the end of the year. It seems that in the second half of the year, I can only rely on borrowing money to survive. ”

"How is that possible?" Cao Cao couldn't believe it.

"The facts are here, if you don't believe it, I'll take the account book and show it to you."

Cao Cao asked in surprise: "Haven't Ziqi heard that the country is rich and the people are strong?" The people are rich, and the treasury is poor! If there are local tyrants who have evil intentions and want to be unfavorable to the imperial court, and the imperial court has no food and salary to mobilize soldiers and horses, how can this be good? ”

"Brother Meng De, in the past, we all said that the country is rich and the people are strong. But in fact, the imperial courts of successive dynasties have constantly exploited wealth from the people, but is the country really rich? No, they have never been rich, the treasury is empty every year, and the people have no food. Why is this so? On the one hand, the people have no hope for life, and even if they get more food every year, they have to be stripped away by the imperial court. It's like this every year, it's strange that they have motivation. Without motivation, the output of food is naturally very small; On the other hand, the local tyrants took the land from the impoverished people and took it for themselves, and they either bribed the local officials, or bullied others and evaded taxes by various means, so that the imperial court held the fertile land of the world, but the taxes in their hands were only a few scattered. With these two points, the Han Dynasty has been established for hundreds of years, and even if it is as strong as Emperor Wu, the treasury has never been abundant. Therefore, the road of enriching the country and strengthening the people will not work. ”

Local tyrants can be said to do everything they can to evade taxes, and it is impossible to prevent them. Cao Cao also has a deep understanding of this.

Luan Yi continued: "Therefore, I have always disagreed with the phrase 'the country is rich and the people are strong'. I agree more with the principle that 'when the people are rich, the country is strong'. We must admit that the people of Dahan are lovely and easily content. As long as they are fed and warm, they will feel that there is hope in life, and for this hope they will be more industrious and simpler, and in this way they will produce a steady stream of wealth, and the country will be the real beneficiary in the end. While the people live a good life, they will be grateful for the kindness of the state, and they will engrave the 'kingdom' in their hearts, and in order to protect their existing good life, they will be willing to pay with their lives to guard the ruler who has given them all good things. At the same time, if the people are rich, they will not sell their land to Haoqiang. Compared with Haoqiang, the people are powerless individuals after all, and it is much easier to collect taxes from them than to beg Haoqiang to pay taxes. It is true that each of them does not pay much tax, but I can't bear the large number of them. Therefore, the truth is that the people are rich and the country is strong. ”

"What Ziqi said is not unreasonable." Cao Cao thought for a while, but felt that it was wrong, and said: "But according to Ziqi, the people are rich, and the treasury should also be abundant, why can't you make ends meet now?" ”