In the twelfth year of Hongwu, with the tension between the north and the south, the emperor Sima Shu ordered a blockade of the entire Jiangdong, and the many merchant ships and merchants that had been weaving on the river finally became scarce. At first, Koto didn't feel anything wrong, but as time went on, Koto realized that the situation was not good.

It turns out that in recent years, the northern land has been pursuing a strategy of commodity dumping in Jiangdong, coupled with the monetary policy of the northern region, making the economy of Jiangdong more and more dependent on the commodity import of the northern region. When the Northland suddenly cut off the supply of materials and commodities, the first to be affected were those high-ranking households.

In the Luoyang Imperial Palace, in the imperial study, Sima Shu was discussing with the leaders of the Privy Council about strategic strategies related to Jiangdong. Zu Ti arched his hand and said: "Your Majesty, according to the news from the secret spies, many high-ranking families in Jiangdong have gone bankrupt. Moreover, this wave of bankruptcy is beginning to sweep all strata of Jiangdong, and it won't be long before Jiangdong will be in a mess. ”

"According to the estimation of the Military Administration, maybe there is no need for the imperial court to pay a single soldier, and after a while, Jiangdong himself will be a mess. Congratulations, Your Majesty, the economic war waged by the imperial court is finally coming to fruition. ”

"Well, yes, it's not in vain that the court has spent countless efforts."

Sima Shu was very happy, after all, when this strategy was formulated, even he himself did not know what the outcome would be. After all, he didn't really study economics, and he was 'blindly commanding' with a little bit of knowledge from the Internet in later generations, but fortunately, no one in this time and space knew the economy better than him, and this was how this 'flawed' economic war plan was realized.

"Hehe, at the moment, Jiangdong high-ranking families are experiencing a crazy wave of bankruptcy. They owe more debts than they have their property. Meng Guan also gloated and laughed on the side, "When many families in Jiangdong do business with our merchants in the north, most of them rely on squeezing serfs to produce more tea, grain, silkworm cocoons, cotton and linen and other products to make a profit, and then exchange them for all kinds of luxury goods in the north. ”

"Hahahaha, now the high-ranking families in Jiangdong just look glamorous on the surface, but in fact, they have long been poor. In fact, not only that, but even Jiangdong's finances have been greatly affected. ”

"Your Majesty, what the hell is going on?" Don't look at Zhang Binnai as a wise man in the world, but in fact he doesn't know anything about economic warfare.

"Hmm. This one. How can I say this, in previous years, in order to buy the luxury goods produced in my north, the Jiangdong family did not negotiate with the northland merchants every year to advance a part of the payment, and then wait until the harvest season to offset with various products. And this year, our northland began to strictly block the Yangtze River. So that all the high-ranking families in Jiangdong are not affected. ”

"Other than that. According to the information we inquired. So far, the population of Jiangdong's prefectures and counties has been hidden by the clans as much as more than 700,000, but the total population of Jiangdong is only more than 3 million, and these high-ranking families have occupied so much. ”

"Originally, these hidden people were attached to the Gaomen family, and they would not pay taxes to Jiangdong at all. It will cause a significant reduction in taxes in Jiangdong. And this year, as the major families are unable to make ends meet, the gap in Jiangdong's high financial income is even worse! Coupled with the impact we have had on Jiangdong's economy over the years, not to mention the current Jiangdong war, it won't be long before Jiangdong may not even be able to make money. ”

It was only at this time that everyone present understood what was going on, and it turned out that the luxury goods of the north were too attractive, which led to the trend of luxury comparison in Jiangdong. In order to maintain the so-called 'face', some Jiangdong scholars had to 'pay for food', and as a result, they owed a lot of debts.

With the tension between the north and the south, the merchants of the north began to collect debts on a large scale, and the people of Jiangdong did not think about repaying the debts. But on the one hand, he can't afford to lose that person, and the background of the northland businessman who can come to Jiangdong to do business is not simple, so the Jiangdong family does not dare to repay the account at all!

Therefore, as soon as the imperial court was blockaded this year, it immediately caused a chain reaction, and soon set off a "wave of bankruptcy" in Jiangdong, and in the end, only a few powerful families survived.

"Your Majesty, is Jiangdong just letting it go? Hum! The Jiangdong family should be glad that the imperial court has not recovered Jiangdong, otherwise it will ......," Zhang Bin sneered.

"How can there be no movement, in fact, as early as last year, Jiangdong Sima Rui, at the suggestion of Wang Dao, began to re-examine the population problem, in an attempt to alleviate the financial crisis by this means. But unfortunately, under the interference of the family, this matter was over. ”

"Humph! Those families were already going bankrupt, how could they still allow the population to be checked, these maggots were eager to take the entire population for themselves. "Don't look at Sima Shu and the family over the years, he gets along well with the family, but he finally has a deep prejudice against the family. Now is their most difficult time, how could they possibly hand over their tenants to the Jin Palace.

"Your Majesty, since the situation is very favorable to us, is the military action slowed down first, and then taken in one fell swoop when Jiangdong is in chaos?" Zhang Bin said this because he hoped that the imperial court would achieve the greatest results at the lowest cost.

"Military operations cannot be stopped, and the three-pronged approach of economy, military and politics can ensure that the imperial court achieves the greatest results at the minimum cost. Our strategy for Jiangdong is to divide the military, politics, and economy into two, and the main thing is to achieve the goal of landing the other side by means of economic aggression in the early stage and certain political and military means. ”

"Your Majesty is wise!"

Everyone understands Sima Shu's mind very well, no matter what, Jiangdong is also a part of China, and it is essentially different from the Hu people in the north. If it weren't for this, the imperial court would have waved its troops south, and it was not like now that it was just making the illusion of sending troops, and it had not moved the real thing at all.

Jiangdong, in the palace of the Jin King of Wu County, Sima Rui sat on the top, and he was on the left and right sides of the head with several henchmen, among which Wang Dao sat first on the right hand. Everyone present had sad faces, as if they had encountered something big.

"Out of money? Why is there no money so quickly? Didn't the widow just allocate 500,000 yuan to Jiankang, and it was only a few days of work, why was it gone in the blink of an eye? ”

Sima Rui's face was full of anger, and he threw a document on the ground heavily, and he had no way not to get angry. Jiangdong's annual fiscal revenue is only a few million guan, and the annual surplus is only a few hundred thousand guan except for necessary expenses. He praised it for so many years and saved 1.2 million yuan, but before the war started, nearly half of his savings were spent by the front line.

If it goes on like this, it is estimated that if he doesn't wait for the north to call, he Jiangdong will be messed up first. Originally, Sima Rui was still counting on Wang Dun to block the attack of the north for him in Jiankang, but who knew that the good news did not come, so he asked for money first.

"Money money money, you know you want money all day long! The widow couldn't understand that there were so many battles in the north, and he hadn't heard of anyone reaching out to the emperor to ask for money all day long. Look at you again, it's really a bunch of rice buckets, this battle hasn't started yet, and 500,000 yuan will be spent? How do you spend it? Did you put all the money allocated by the widow in your own pocket? ”

"The king is angry~!" When everyone saw that King Jin was angry, they hurriedly persuaded him.

"Don't think that the widow doesn't know your details, at the moment, every family owes a lot of debts to the merchants of the Northland, who knows if someone has embezzled military funds to fill the hole for their own family!" At present, Sima Rui has been made a little suspicious by the lack of money.

Director Wang frowned slightly when he heard this, he thought that Sima Rui could no longer be suspicious, otherwise, once the seeds of doubt were allowed to take root in the other party's heart, it would be like a thunderbolt from the blue sky to Jiangdong, which was currently in turmoil!

"Your Majesty, listen to your ministers. The 500,000 yuan was indeed spent on the front line, and the minister assured that no one would dare to fight the idea of this money. Wang Dao assured forcefully.

"Humph! Since Maohong is willing to vouch, then you can tell the widow where the money has been spent, and how it has been spent in the blink of an eye! Sima Rui asked angrily.

"The king didn't know that in order to alleviate the shortage of troops, Wang Dun, the general of Zhenxi on the front line, recruited tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, and this expenditure was not small. In addition, in order to improve the morale of the front-line soldiers, General Zhenxi issued a large reward, and the 500,000 yuan added up to the two items were basically spent. Director Wang explained.

"This ......" Sima Rui was speechless when he heard it, he still trusted Director Wang very much, since the other party said so, it means that the money has not been misappropriated elsewhere. But the money was spent too quickly, so fast that Sima Rui felt a little breathless.

"Maohong, you have to calculate, how much money can Jiangdong come up with to support this war now?"

"King Qiqi, if we are in other local provinces, it is estimated that we can still spend 700,000 yuan on the front line." Director Wang pondered for a moment and replied.

"700,000? Hahaha, my big Jiangdong is only 700,000, hahaha, it's so ironic! 700,000 guan, 700,000 guan......" Sima Rui was crazy, and even laughed with tears, "700,000 guan, Maohong, you all talk about it, what is 700,000 guan enough for?!" ”

Sima Rui's words made everyone present ashamed, to say that Jiangdong's territory is not small, basically occupying all the land south of the Yangtze River, and the population is more than three million, but somehow Jiangdong's annual financial income is not enough to spend. Even now, there is no money to support the First World War.

"Ladies and gentlemen, now that Jiangdong has reached the most urgent moment, please reach out to help this king in the face of the same body. In the future, I will never owe you anything! "As a last resort, Sima Rui had no choice but to borrow money from the clans present, otherwise if he didn't have to do it himself, the hundreds of thousands of troops in Jiangdong would collapse first.

As soon as he heard that Sima Rui was going to borrow money, the room that was noisy before suddenly quieted down, whether it was Gu Rong, Dai Yuan, Diao Xie, Zhang Shang, or Xie Kun and Wang Dao, they all watched the tip of their noses turn into a stone statue.

Sima Rui's heart suddenly cooled when he saw it, and at this moment, he finally understood why Sima Shu in the north wanted to suppress the wealthy family at all costs. These guys are all selfish people, they think about their own interests first, and then it is the turn of the country and the nation! (To be continued......)