The superior's every move has a deep meaning, although this is not all in the middle, it is not far away.

These affairs handled by Wang Yu's class, except for Ma Dai's suddenness and relatively casual handling, other actions were all far-reaching.

Farewell to the Ma Dai brothers and sisters in Changle, Wang Yu led the army to continue eastward, and encountered cities along the way, all of which were imitated when they were in Yecheng, the whole army was clothed, and the whole army showed off its strength. Hearing the good news first, and seeing such a mighty lion with his own eyes, the morale of the people naturally rose, and some doubts in his heart dissipated.

It is said that the good news has come out, Wang Yu does not need to work so hard, although the ceremony similar to the military parade does not cost much, but to maintain order, organize the people, there is also a lot of tossing, with the fame of the hussars, quite a bit of a superfluous move.

But in fact, Wang Yu's move is also targeted, and during the Northern Xinjiang War, there have been rumors surging in secret.

In the beginning, the content of the rumors focused mainly on the success or failure of the Great War. As the overlord of the grassland, Xianbei is still very loud in the Central Plains, especially in Hebei, 100,000 Xianbei iron cavalry, plus Wuhuan from the side, and the strength of Youzhou itself, in terms of numbers alone, is far more than the Northern Expeditionary Army.

Qingzhou's new policy has the idea of opening up the people, but after all, the implementation time is too short, and rumors still have a considerable market even in the 21st century, so it is difficult to completely eradicate them.

The army marching north, the emptiness of the homeland, the great enemy, and the presence of foreign enemies are all enough to make the people in the territory panic, if it were not for the measures of open government affairs in the new policy, maybe there would really be some chaos or something.

Although the war has had twists and turns. But the process was much faster than many expected, and before the first month of the new year, the latest good news came back, and it is said that the previous rumors should be self-defeating. It's right to disappear by yourself.

As a result, the rumors also kept pace with the times and were directly replaced by another tone. First of all, although the hussars won the battle, but after all, they were outnumbered and suffered considerable casualties, and then mentioned the situation in the Central Plains, if there is no hint that the Central Plains war is imminent, the hussars may not even have time to rest, and they will fight the superior enemy again, and the prospect is dangerous and unpredictable.

These are considered mainstream. There are also some content that is different. The correlation is not small. For example, after Cao Cao won Guanzhong, how his strength expanded, and how strong the strength of the Xiliang rebels and Qianghu was. Jiangdong Sun Ce is so mighty and so on.

Cao Cao won Guanzhong and received half of Dong Zhuo's descendants, as well as the Guanzhong Weirong troops under Duan Xuan, but the rumors said almost all of them.

The strength of the Xiliang army, the rumors directly used a comparative way to explain that in the past few decades at the end of the Han Dynasty, Guanzhong has been in turmoil, and at the most serious time, the imperial court was already discussing the issue of giving up Sanfu, you know. When discussing this issue, the Yellow Turban Rebellion had not yet begun, which showed how strong the Xiliang Army was.

As for Sun Ce's might and strength, it is easier to explain that now that the Jiangdong Army is fighting vigorously in Jiangxia, Huang Zu has no place to live when he sees it, and he abandons Jiangxia, isn't this powerful? The rumor-mongers also made it clear that the Jiangdong Army's attack on Jingzhou was from the downstream to the upstream, which was very difficult.

Of course, the Intelligence Department has taken precautions against this, but these rumor-mongers are very professional, and they have adopted a pattern of sectional rumor-mongering, and even if the personnel of the Intelligence Department have found clues, it is difficult to directly judge whether the intention of the initiator is to spread rumors, or whether they are simply gossip about these current events.

The New Deal has an entry for open speech, and although it is conducive to enhancing the vitality of society, it has become an obstacle in dealing with rumors.

Of course, this is no way to do it, there is no policy in the world that is perfect, all-encompassing, Wang Yu's class came back, all the way to show off his martial arts, on the one hand, to let the soldiers enjoy some welfare, enjoy the applause and cheers of the people, enhance the sense of honor, on the other hand, it is to deal with these rumors.

One of the rumors is true, the war is imminent, and the situation facing Qingzhou is indeed very tense. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that the Xiliang Army suddenly slowed down the pace of the offensive for unknown reasons, and Gao Gan was very familiar with current affairs, maybe the army would have entered the state and fought with the Xiliang Army.

Once the army goes through this, the rumors may not all be dispelled, but the audience will definitely be much smaller.

With the continuous implementation of the New Deal, the proportion of those who have lost their interests in the territory is gradually decreasing, after all, the New Deal is based on the public benefit as the program, and the damage is only those wealthy families, even the latter, if they are willing to put down the shelf, bow their arrogant heads to take a good look at the reality, they can also find a way to integrate into the new era.

Those who are stubborn are a minority after all, and only these people are so happy to sing the rumors of Qingzhou.

Of course, Wang Yu's response will not be limited to this, and the Intelligence Department is now making arrangements in full swing, on the one hand, strengthening internal supervision, in order to extinguish the rumors in time when they first appear, and on the other hand, stepping up the investigation to see who is behind the sacred.

There is no result in the investigation for the time being, but the general scope should be determined, it must be the power of a certain prince, among which Cao Cao is naturally the most suspicious.

"Come and don't be rude, Cao Cao has made so many small moves, we naturally have to reciprocate, send a message to Wenhe and Zizhong, the economic war should be escalated!"

Wang Yu met Diao Chan in Fanyang, and the first thing he said was not a gentle soft word about the reunion between husband and wife after a long absence, but a murderous military order.

"Yes." Diao Chan didn't care, just like an ordinary staff, he bowed down to accept the order.

Frankly speaking, this is not the married life she imagined, in Wang Yun's mansion back then, her highest dream was to be lucky, not to be given to an old man like Wang Yun, and not to be given to a reckless man who doesn't know how to pity the fragrance and cherish the jade, but to a scholar who knows how to be knowledgeable, it is the joy of heaven.

As for a singer who is given as a gift and is not even as good as a concubine, whether she can enjoy the piano and song mentioned in the book, and whether the husband sings and sings with the wife, it is not within her consideration. Fate can't be in your own hands at all, how can you think about it so long-term, and what's the use of thinking about it so long-term?

After meeting Wang Yu, her fate took a strange turn. Step by step, it became the state she never thought of today. Diao Chan is very content and cherishes, before she met Wang Yu, she was just a commodity in Wang Yun's hands. The high-level playthings of the scholars, and now, she is a human being, the family of Wang Yu, the general of the Han hussars.

In this kind of work, Diao Chan feels that his life is more valuable, no longer relying on his own appearance and various skills to please men, but relying on his own mind, dealing with the text, and analyzing the intelligence. He deserves his place in this general's palace.

What's not to be satisfied with here?

"Do you need the Department of Commerce to cooperate this time? Do you want a total lockdown? ”

The hands of Qianqian who used to play the piano. Now he has picked up pen and ink. Diao Chan wanted to turn Wang Yu's order into words, and asked as he wrote. With their current status as a couple. It is difficult to completely distinguish between housework and government affairs, Zhuge Liang's duties in the army are performed by Diao Chan and Cai Yan at home, and he is also his wife and secretary.

The work of monopolizing the salt market had already begun to be planned when Wang Yu had just recruited Mi Zhu, and it was for profit at that time. But later, Wang Yu defeated Yuan Shao, obtained most of Jizhou, and had enough resources to implement the new policy, and the matter of salt politics became a trivial matter. I couldn't take care of it for a while.

The profit of salt and iron, even in later generations, is still the majority of the economic field, belonging to the profiteering commodity, Wang Yu has never been in charge of housework, naturally more concerned about steel casting and smelting, but although the Mi family has a lot of business, but the foundation of the start is on this salt.

In later generations, there are two Huai salt, the saying that the world is going down, it is said that the profit of the salt industry in the two Huai areas is abundant, Mi Zhu's hometown Donghai Qu County, is one of the important strongholds of the two Huai salt merchants later.

Starting from this, Mi Zhu attaches great importance to this task, although Wang Yu left this matter behind him, and threw a lot of affairs over, which overwhelmed him, but Mi Zhu has never forgotten the integration of Yanzheng and has been advancing.

When Wang Yu was in Xuzhou, when he was majestic, Mi Zhu's business department staff followed behind to enclose the land. The Mi family is prosperous because of salt, and there are many people in the family who are proficient in this way, not only he is an expert, but even Mi Fang has a deep study of this. Led by the latter, they swept the coastal strip where the salt works were most suitable for construction.

On the Jizhou side, Gongsun Zhan attached great importance to face, and he didn't care about the business at all, and Mi Zhu reached an agreement as soon as he negotiated casually. Just when Wang Yu waved his army to the north and fought a series of battles in Youzhou and Saiwai, Mi Zhu had quietly completed the layout of Yanzheng.

As long as people don't eat salt for a few days, they will be weak, and no matter how long it is, they will be riddled with various diseases, which is a very important material. Having monopolized all the salt works north of the river, the commercial division's ability to make a profit naturally increased substantially.

Such a big movement, not to mention Guoyuan and others who stayed in Gaotang, even Jia Xu, who was focused on military affairs, and Tian Feng, who was running around, were startled, turned their eyes back, and sent a message to Mi Zhu to ask what was going on.

As soon as Mi Zhu explained, everyone suddenly exclaimed that the lord was far-sighted, and he had already had such a far-reaching layout, and at the same time, he was also amazed by Mi Zhu's silent means of moisturizing things.

Everyone is a well-educated person, and of course Huan Kuan's theory of salt and iron has been read, and of course he will not be unaware of the importance of these two materials. However, Wang Yu's advance arrangement was too early, and Mi Zhu almost did not use the power of the shogunate in the process of integrating salt affairs, and it became a matter of silence, which made people have to be surprised.

Guo Yuan and the others are quite satisfied with this, Qingzhou has not stopped fighting in the south and north in the past few years, and it is difficult to be majestic, but only these housekeepers know that it is hard. There is a saying: when the army moves, the gold is ten thousand taels, and in a sense, the prestige of the hussars will also cause great pressure on the finances.

Wang Yu's training and training are diligent, and the supply of military salaries for the hussars is quite rich, coupled with all kinds of sophisticated equipment, don't look at the absolute number of the army is not so amazing, there are only 60,000 or 70,000 soldiers in total, but the cost is more terrifying than 200,000, or even 300,000 or even 300,000 troops.

Is there a tendency to popularize iron armor in ordinary armies? Not to mention the full-body plate armor and horse armor equipped with Iron Rider equipment. Compared with these two big heads, what kind of strong crossbows, ballistas, sea ships, weapons and paper armor or something, you don't even need to mention it.

The sharpness of the armor is the guarantee of victory, and Guo Yuan and others are all knowledgeable, so they naturally will not complain indiscriminately, but the financial pressure is also real, and everyone must work hard to open up financial resources.

The benefits of salt and iron have always been the most abundant, and the supply of Qingzhou iron has basically been consumed by the army and Tuntian. If the subsidy can't be subsidized, where can we talk about the input? But salt is completely different, the cost of this material is very low, but the beginning of the construction of salt works has consumed. Later, it was a bit of labor, but when it was sold, it was a huge profit.

And Jia Xu and Tian Feng's vision is more than that, they are keenly aware that this salt can also be used for many articles, such as transportation restrictions, and price increases.

Salt is not only available in coastal areas, but it is cheaper and more suitable for large-scale production. In any era or region, the increase in the price of such necessities will have an impact on social stability. Because it raises the cost of living for people.

Jia Xu and Tian Feng are not ordinary scholars. is also familiar with Guan Zhong's three strategies of Xingqi back then. Of course, I know how the economic war should be carried out, Wang Yu and Mi Zhu have already laid out the situation, isn't it a waste not to use it? The two of them invariably wrote to Wang Yu. Ask him to order the use of salt as a weapon to impose economic sanctions on Cao Cao's territory, mainly to increase the export price of salt.

Wang Yu is naturally no stranger to economic warfare, so he immediately waved his hand and let Jia Xu do it. In this mode of war, of course, the people will suffer first, but Jia Xu is not an ordinary person, he was once called a poisoner, and he has no such scruples at all. The order was issued like a stream, dealing a heavy blow to the economy of Luoyang and other Cao Cao's jurisdictions.

Cao Cao really didn't care about finding trouble in Qingzhou at that time, or guarding against Qingzhou's invasion, but went all out to promote the Chang'an strategy, and together with Sun Ce and Yuan Shu, he attacked Jingzhou.

Cao Cao's ability to govern is not bad, although he is not as big as Qingzhou's actions, but in Luoyang, Yingchuan, Chenliu and other places, he is also in Tuntian, which is the most stable place outside Qingzhou, and the social order is even better than Jiangdong.

Sun Ce fought very well, but his ability to govern was very ordinary, and Jiangdong had also been at war in recent years. He led a large army to attack Jingzhou in front, and beat Huang Zu with a lot of urine and majesty, but behind him, Liu Xuan, Xu Gong, and Yan Baihu's remnants of the party made waves, not to mention, there were still Shanyue in various places from time to time to run out to attack, which was quite chaotic.

As a result, as soon as the economic war in Qingzhou began, all parts of Cao Cao's jurisdiction suddenly became uneasy. This is the same as the strict control of grain prices by the state in later generations, the price of pork can rise, and everyone is vegetarian, but if the price of grain rises in the same proportion as the price of pork, it will definitely be a mess.

The importance of salt and grain is very similar.

Cao Cao's tuntian households were not independent like Qingzhou, but similar to serfs, dependent on the existence of the army, and all the grain they produced had to be handed over in exchange for the basic supply of life.

As soon as the price of salt rises, Cao Jun's purchase volume naturally declines, and many people in charge of purchasing rely on the oil and water earned by their positions, and the price of salt suddenly rises two or three times.

In fact, many officials in charge of procurement, after discovering that the price of salt had skyrocketed, stopped purchasing, asked everywhere about the reasons for the price increase, and tried to find new supply channels. As for the supply of Tuntian Farm, it's just some serfs anyway, let's make do with it first, there was still some stock in the past, and it can last for some time if you save a little money.

Of course, other supply channels can't be found, otherwise how can it be called a monopoly?

Of course, there are no channels at all, and Koto is also a coastal area, and although there are no large-scale salt farms, there are many people who make a living by boiling salt by the sea, but the price is slightly higher. However, Jiangdong's salt is marketed abroad, mainly relying on the Yangtze River waterway, Sun Ce and Huang Zu are in full swing on the Yangtze River, the waterway is almost cut off, and even Jingzhou is buying Qingzhou's salt to eat, not to mention Cao Cao?

Even if Jiangdong's salt could be transported to Jingzhou, when the strategy of dividing the three families gradually surfaced, Liu Biao, who sensed Cao Cao's bad intentions, would not happily let Jiangdong salt cross the border.

This delay was more than a month, the original inventory was quickly depleted, Cao Cao was busy with military affairs, and the procurement officials did not report in time, and by the time Cao Cao finally noticed, the farm had begun to show signs of unrest.

Cao Cao's mood at that time, Wang Yu didn't know, but he was scared into a cold sweat, and his heart and liver trembled was definitely inevitable. In the troubled times, the farms in Tuntian were the guarantee of the army's food and salary, and once something happened, Cao Cao could not escape the fate of total collapse even if he collected more soldiers and horses.

That is, Cao Cao made a quick decision, and directly arrested those procurement officials who deceived and concealed them, announced the crimes, and punished them in public, which appeased the tuntian households who had no salt to eat.

Killing salt officials can only delay the crisis, but it cannot really solve the problem. When Cao Cao began to face this problem, he found that it was Wang Yu, who he had always felt that he was not good at conspiracing, and this shot directly hit his vital point.

He hated it so much, gritted his teeth and scolded angrily. Wang Yu also doesn't know, but he spent nearly three times the price to buy salt, even if he couldn't make Cao Cao hurt his muscles and bones, it could be regarded as a big blood release for him.

This economic war even forced Cao Cao to change his strategic deployment.

Originally, Cao Cao's arrangement was to go westward with all his might, but after Xiahou Yuan was defeated in Sanhu Pavilion, he changed his deployment and bluffed on the western front, and the main force Chen Bing Nanyang was always ready. Cooperate with Sun Ce's offensive. Went south to capture Xiangyang. As a result, because of the salt price crisis. He had to draw troops from Nanyang and go north to Hedong to attack Yuncheng.

Yuncheng is the place where Wang Yu led the Baibo army to attack Weijiawu Fort, and there is a salt lake next to Weijiawu Fort. It is the largest salt-producing area in Sili Prefecture and even in the Central Plains.

Cao Cao conspired against Guanzhong and Jingzhou at the same time, and also had to guard against Lu Bu in the Chen Liu, the strength was already quite cramped, and it didn't matter if he fought in Hedong or not, anyway, after getting Dong Zhuo, it was basically a matter of rumoring here.

But forced by the economic war on Qingzhou's side, Cao Cao could only postpone his southward movement and changed to a strategy based on secretly wooing Jingzhou.

There was no way, Dong Zhuo's troops were also greatly recovered. However, there is still a soldier and horse of Hu Zhen in Hedong, and it is the salt pond that guards - salt is money, and Dong Fatzi is not stupid. Hu Zhen must not be able to defend it, Cao Cao wants to fight, so he can only fight hard, divide the troops in three ways, and fight everywhere? He could only give up attacking Xiangyang for the time being.

In this sense, Wang Yu effectively restrained Cao Cao, but in the whole process, including himself, all the participants felt that their participation was limited and refused to take credit.

Wang Yu just mentioned it casually, and then he didn't ask; Mi Zhu believes that he is acting in accordance with orders, doing his job in his profession, and he has achieved small results, which is also the result of the master's knowledge of people and the proper use of people; Jia Xu also thinks that he is just pushing the boat with the water, at most he just reminded the lord, and it would be too much to take credit for it.

As a result, the credit became a confusing account, and no one would mention it in public. Cao Cao didn't have such a high-level secret agent, and he could spy on the attitude of Wang Yu and other high-level Qingzhou officials, otherwise he would definitely spurt out a mouthful of old blood, shouting that he was born and.

I tossed Lao Tzu in a mess, but it turned out that you didn't come seriously to get me, but you accidentally plotted against Lao Tzu? I really don't treat bean bags as dry food!

Getting the salt pond, or even getting Guanzhong, will not help alleviate the salt shortage in Luoyang, the salt pond is only a saltwater lake after all, not the sea, the production is limited, before the Yellow Turban Rebellion, even the supply of the entire territory of Hedong is a little reluctant, let alone the supply of the entire Sili Prefecture.

What's more, now that hundreds of thousands of Xiliang troops have been added, the salt shortage will only expand, not the opposite.

In Wang Yu's mind, unless Cao Cao found a new supply of salt, he shouldn't be able to play any more small moves with himself before a full-scale war, wouldn't he be afraid that he would raise the price again, or even completely blockade it as Diao Chan proposed?

Thinking about it this way, it may not be Cao Cao who released the rumors. Qingzhou's internal stability is very stable, and the damage of rumors is limited, how could a shrewd person like Cao Mengde engage in such a scheme that outweighs the losses?

"A total lockdown doesn't have to be."

After pondering for a moment, Wang Yu waved his hand: "With the existing conditions, it is too difficult to completely prevent salt from leaving the country, and the profits are high to a certain extent, and some people will take risks." Not to mention anything else, we can't control all the Guangling area, through the territory of the Huainan Army, the salt of Jiangdong and Guangling can still be transported to Yingchuan, and it costs a lot to travel halfway, but it is still the same sentence, as long as there are enough benefits, some people will rush to it. Instead of a total lockdown, it is better to estimate and see how much room for price increases. ”

"Got it." Diao Chan's question was just for confirmation, and after listening to the explanation, he didn't have too many ideas, so he responded and continued to write hard. But if Mi Zhu is here, he will definitely be amazed and feel like a confidant.

The complete blockade is a lose-lose situation, the price increase is the benefit of Qingzhou, Cao Cao continues to lose blood, and the doorway must be clarified.

"If it's not Cao Cao, who would it be?" Wang Yu also didn't have the heart to be complacent, he lowered his head, his eyes wandered on the map on the table, if it wasn't Cao Cao who released the rumors, it would be a bit troublesome. The enemy on the surface is not terrible, but it is the most dangerous to have someone secretly watching around.

His gaze wandered until he saw somewhere, and finally stopped, his brow furrowed.

"Could it be him?"