Chapter 100: The First Plan

In the days when Cao Cao marched into Liyang, Xu was calm. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info Cao Pi is still waiting for the best time with the clothes and ribbons in his arms. For Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, who faced off on both sides of the Yellow River in June and July, there will certainly be no major war this year. Because August is the autumn harvest season, for Yuan Shao, who has just broken Gongsun Zan and completely pacified the four states, this year's taxes are particularly important, if this year does not collect enough taxes as grain and grass, Yuan Shao does not have the capital to go south to the Central Plains.

Compared with Yuan Shao, Cao Cao's situation will be better, although he is not supported by the vast land of the four northern states like Yuan Shao, and he also has to send the money of hundreds of officials in the court, and the food is not enough. Fortunately, Cao Cao has already started the tuntian system, and there is no need to send people to count the grain from various counties and counties like Yuan Shao, and the people of Ren Jun, the general of the Diannong, can complete these things, as for the people's taxes, it is very low, and it is not bad to be able to feed the three princes and nine kings in the court, not to mention that the palace also has the emperor, concubines, relatives, and people from Huangmen Temple.

Therefore, Cao Pi expected that Yuan Shao would temporarily withdraw his troops during the autumn harvest, and Cao Cao would also choose this time to return to Xudu, and then sweep away Liu Bei and Zhang Xiu with a thunderous momentum.

What Cao Pi needs to do now is to wait for Cao Cao to come back, and then take the edict with his clothes and belt to set off a bloody storm. Of course, we can't forget to take that group of younger brothers back and forth between Juntun and Mintun.

Two months passed very quickly, the rice ripening season Cao Cao has returned to Xudu, there is no doubt, the paddy fields of Juntun and Mintun have been harvested, a total of nearly 3 million hu, the yield per mu is more than twice that of corn.

In the face of such a yield, everyone was stunned, although they had seen the increase in rice production last year, but all the paddy fields in Juntun were such a yield or Cao Cao's advisers and generals were greatly surprised, Xun Yu and Xun You even began to think about whether they could give tax exemption to the people of Yuzhou and Yanzhou, and at the same time they were also considering whether the taxes of the local clans should be greatly reduced, so that more clans could enter Henan and Yanzhou and enrich the population.

Of course, some people are happy, and naturally some people will be sad, just when Xun Yu and Xun You were planning to reduce taxes, Dong Cheng, Fu Wan, and Yang Biao suddenly fell ill and no longer went to court, listening to Liu Ye say that the best yield per mu of their paddy field harvest is only sixty percent of the output of Cao Pi's paddy field, and its yield is only less than thirty percent higher than that of corn.

Cao Cao was even more proud when he saw this harvest, and he was more confident in the battle with Yuan Shao. At the same time, he felt a little pity, if there had been this harvest a few years earlier, the number of sergeants under his command would have been at least doubled, and now that the big war was imminent, it was too late to recruit and train.

However, Cao Cao still made some moves, such as recruiting people to reclaim all the places in Yuzhou that were more suitable for planting paddy fields, and at the same time completely giving up the land for growing corn, of which 30% of the land was sold to local clans at a low price, and 7 percent was given to poor peasants, and at the same time exempted poor peasants from taxes, so that they could produce with peace of mind. This time, the poor and rich in Yuzhou are all happy.

Then Cao Cao's strategist named Mao Jue offered a plan to let Cao Cao set up an official grain shop in Xudu and put Sancheng rice on the market for sale, because before this year, The price of rice in Yuzhou and Yanzhou is 2.5 times that of corn, and Mao Jue believes that if one million tons of rice are sold, then the price of rice will be the same as that of corn, so that not only can the people eat rice with a better taste, but the price of rice will also be reduced, so that whether it is rice shipped from Jingzhou or locally produced rice, it will stabilize at a normal value, which is conducive to the stability of prices.

Cao Cao praised it when he heard this, and immediately did so, and as for corn, it did not suffer much impact, after all, there were still many hungry people in these years, and the price of corn did not decrease because of the increase in rice production, because in the counties outside Yingchuan, many people still feed on corn. One million mu of rice can suppress the price of rice in Yuzhou, but it cannot depreciate the value of corn.

In fact, Mao Jue's suggestion has been played as early as the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, this method of stabilizing prices is called "leveling", there is no shortage of such smart people in any era, Sang Hongyang's "leveling" and later Song Dynasty Wang Anshi's "market law" are all means of stabilizing prices and anti-monopoly, compared with the market economics of later generations is not much behind.

This also shows the importance of reading from the side, and you can't get along with martial arts. Of course, Cao Pi would not care about this kind of thing, because now is not the time for him to care about it. What he had to do was to make use of the edict after Cao Cao harvested the rice and before he went to Xuzhou, and three days before Cao Cao returned to the army, he filled the edict with the coat and belt, and at the same time took the edict to find a person named Dong Fang.

At the same time that Cao Jun was transporting most of the rice into the warehouse, in front of the Cao Mansion in the city of Xudu, Dong Fang, who was wearing a cloak and holding a white silk full of blood characters, was yelling despite the scolding and pushing of the guards guarding the door:

"Sikong! Sikong! Dong Cheng is going to cut off the jobs of the people of Xudu! ”

"Dong Cheng's old thief can't grow rice, and some edicts to bewitch the Son of Heaven will harm Sikong and Gongzi!"

"The little servant knows that if something happens to Sikong and Gongzi, our people won't be able to eat rice!"

Did this call attract all the pedestrians on the street, and an idler shouted: "Huh! This white silk is written to the general of the chariot cavalry, the captain of Changshui, the partial general, the general of the left, and the attack on Cao..."The defenders of the Cao Mansion who scolded Dong Fang at the door were illiterate, and when they heard someone say this, they immediately asked their companions to watch Dong Fang and went into the mansion to report to him.

Many people heard the call of the idle man, and immediately discussed:

"Yikes! General Che Cai, isn't it Dong Cheng! Captain Changshui is a kind of album! Last year, they also impeached Sikong Gongzi, saying that Gongzi was a gossip to confuse the public and wanted to punish the crime! ”

"Wasn't that the end of last year? This year, the rice seems to be sent by God, I heard that Sikong is going to open a shop, and the price of rice sold in it is the same as corn. ”

"I only heard that at the feet of the Son of Heaven, the people can live well, but I haven't heard that there are officials who are willing to make the people suffer! What's all this about? ”

"Yes! What's all this about? Lao Tzu couldn't afford to eat rice all his life, and now he is out of the woods! I'm going to make a fuss in front of the palace! Let the Son of Heaven give me a word! A tall idler suddenly shouted.

Many people didn't speak out anymore when they shouted, but many idlers echoed the scholar:

"That's right! Make a fuss! Just sit outside the palace! Lao Tzu doesn't believe that good people haven't been rewarded these days! ”

"That's right! Just sit! Fill the open space in front of the palace where horse-drawn carriages are parked! ”

"This Lao Tzu has lived in Xudu for more than five years, and the military masters inside and outside Xudu are quite commonplace, we ask for Sikong's life, and it will be fine!"

As soon as the idlers made a noise, the people just sat and did not break into the palace when they heard it, and the army was still in their hands, and it was about their own food, so many people also followed, and for a while, many people were so anxious to go to the palace. And in the crowd on the street, Noriman in a robe watched all this with a smile on his face.

The door of Sikong Mansion had been opened at this time, and Xu Chu came out and personally took Dong Fang into Cao's Mansion.