Throughout Chinese history, wars were most frequent under feudal politics; The palace coups were the most numerous, the most violent, and the most brutal; The life of the ruling class is the most corrupt; The peasant uprisings against the government and the people were the largest in number and scale, and the most severe damage to the economy and culture.

In the final analysis, in the past 2,000 years, thousands of people have wanted a happy life, even if it is hard, as long as it is peaceful, how difficult is it to achieve?

Can I prosper forever in this troubled world and continue to maintain a vigorous and upward momentum, not only to reassure the people, but also to reverse history and save the suffering of the Chinese people?

The farther you look, the more you think, and the more you think, the more pressure you have.

The people can cheer for the reduction of taxes this year or later, and they can rejoice in the good hopes, but Meng Jiucheng, who is in a high position, is always awe-inspiring and rarely relaxed.

Because of the food and clothing, because I can eat a few more meats, such a simple happiness is really enviable, but I can no longer enjoy it. With emotion, Meng Jiucheng led the army to Muling Pass.

Although Meng Jiucheng's long-term development strategy is similar to Zhu Chongba's "build a high wall, accumulate grain, and slowly become king". But it is not like a turtle with a shrunken head clinging to an acre and a third of an acre, and does not expand outward.

In fact, this strategy is essentially to try not to compete for the limelight and to develop strength, especially military strength.

The strength is closely related to the size of the site, the size of the population, and the means of operation.

For example, to advance westward, it is to advance the defense line to the Yimeng Mountains to make up for the void formed after Liu Erzu's defeat. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that the base areas are better defended and safer, so as to facilitate better development.

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The Great Wall of Qi is built in the mountains and valleys of the undulating Taiyi Mountains, starting from Pingyin in the west, passing through Feicheng, Jinan, Laiwu, Boshan, Linqu, Yishui, Anqiu, Juxian, Wulian to Jiaozhou into the sea, with a total length of more than 1,200 miles.

From Muling Pass to the west, that is, Yiyuan County, is the junction of the east and west sections of the Great Wall of Qi. Occupy Yiyuan, Laiwu can be forced in the west, and Zizhou can be attacked in the north.

To the east of Laiwu and west of Yiyuan, there is the bluestone pass, which is known as the "first pass of Qilu". It has always been a battleground for soldiers. It is not only the famous pass of the Great Wall of Qi, but also the famous old road of Qilu, and the south gate of Zizhou.

For Meng Jiucheng, the first goal of the westward expansion was to occupy Qingshi Pass, both as a military fortress and as a transportation hub.

As far as the current situation is concerned, it is relatively easy to occupy Qingshi Pass. Because the Jin army was fighting fiercely with Liu Erzu in the Tai'an area, Laiwu and Zizhou did not have many troops, and Zizhou had to face the threat of Li Quan.

Of course, there were also generals who wanted to attack on a large scale within the Red Turban Army, but they only saw the weakness of the Jin State, so they thought that they should strike while the iron was hot, continue to rank the military in the first place, and create a peaceful environment for recovery and development in the future.

This kind of thinking can't be said to be wrong, but it is not considered comprehensively, and it is not the best choice that Meng Jiucheng thinks.

The war has been going on in Shandong for several years, and the people are withering, and the current government in the base area is operating quite hard, and civilian officials such as Meng Jiucheng and Zhu Ming are well aware of this.

Of course, the government can increase taxes and borrow money to maintain overwhelming military superiority and carry out sustained military offensives.

However, this will inevitably increase the burden on the population and slow down the pace of recovery and reconstruction.

Although this is not too excessive, it will not cause great turmoil when people are determined. However, it is destroying the credibility of the government, weakening the enthusiasm of the people for support, and ignoring the lives and deaths of some of the victims.

Meng Jiucheng can play Go, and he uses the terms of Go to describe radical and prudent policies, one is "first in the middle" and the other is "in the middle of the first".

The so-called "first middle and last" is that on the surface, it is the first move, which can force the opponent to respond, but the side not only lacks follow-up means, but has a certain defect and needs to make up the move, but it has become a back hand.

The meaning of "last in the first" is exactly the opposite of "first in the last", which is a chess move, which seems to be a late move, but there are follow-up means, and the end will be the opposite.

In more popular terms, a safe method can also be called "sharpening the knife without cutting firewood". Temporarily slow down the speed of siege and land grabbing, temporarily avoid continuous battles with the Jin army, and focus on "cultivating internal strength".

Train troops, hoard grain, accumulate materials, reclaim the people, and restore local ...... All of this is actually to enhance strength, comprehensive strength.

This is also sharpening the sword, relieving for a while, the soldiers are strong, the materials are abundant, the money and food are worry-free, the people live in peace, the government orders are smooth, and the knife that kills the enemy is extremely sharp, and its power is irresistible

Therefore, when the strategic plan has been basically decided, the reform and construction of internal affairs and systems will become more and more important, and the post-war reconstruction and recovery will become more and more the main theme.

For this reason, although Meng Jiucheng was in Muling Pass, he constantly received letters and reports sent by Zhu Ming, and invested a lot of energy and wisdom in this regard.

Paper money replaces copper coins in the base area, which is an important policy implemented by Meng Jiucheng long ago.

The issuance of paper money is one of the important sources of finance for the modern country, and Meng Jiucheng was forced to implement it at the beginning, although it was suspected of plundering the wealth of the people, but because there were follow-up measures, it did not bring much resistance.

By now, paper money has gained credit in the private sector, and the issuance has begun to increase gradually.

But will the government go bankrupt as a result? In Meng Jiucheng's opinion, it will not. At least after repeated calculations by officials, the conclusion was that it could be maintained.

China is the homeland of paper money, and Jiaozi, which was produced in the Northern Song Dynasty, is the world's earliest paper money, more than 600 years earlier than Europe.

However, by the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Chinese paper money had already died out. Why is China's banknotes, which were once at the forefront of the world, gradually declining?

The simple reason is that paper money is a credit symbol, and it has value only if it represents the credit of money. It can be circulated, which can greatly facilitate and promote the development of the market economy.

And as soon as a banknote loses credit, it becomes a piece of waste paper. The rise of Jiaozi is the result of the great development of China's market economy and commercial credit.

But in the Southern Song Dynasty, the same paper money, Huizi, became the government's destructive plundering of monetary credit.

In a feudal society, the government was highly centralized and lacked a supervision and restraint mechanism, not only had a strong state apparatus, but also had the strength to force society to accept.

It is this power that allows it to be free from the constraints of the market and not to value its own credit so much.

In this absence of external constraints, if there is no self-restraint. It is easy for the government to embark on the path of wanton abuse of power, thereby destroying its own credit, destroying the paper money system, and destroying the development of capitalism in China.

The development of history proves this in the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties.

The court found that paper money is a good thing, no capital, as long as a few words are printed on a piece of paper, you can use it as real money, in exchange for real wealth, and you don't have to carry the infamy of adding endowment, it is really a good deal without capital and profit!

So, the money printing press was running at full speed, providing the emperors with countless banknotes that they could squander at will, and with it, of course, hyperinflation and the demise of discredited banknotes.

In terms of the current base areas, has the credibility of the government reached a level that convinces the people?

In this regard, Meng Jiucheng was cautious, and after the issuance of paper money, he issued a decree that the full amount of gold and silver should be exchanged after maturity (once a year).

At that time, the banknotes issued were all called by the boundary, with a three-year or one-year period, and the new was replaced with the boundary, mainly to prevent counterfeiting.

The reason why Meng Jiucheng chose one year as the boundary first was also to test the waters, establish government credit, and prevent forgery.

At least when the government can redeem all the banknotes as scheduled, he can have greater confidence and issue the second banknotes.

By now, it is almost possible to redeem banknotes. Therefore, despite some objections, Meng Jiucheng was still stubborn, ordered the poll tax of Ju, Mi, and Haizhou to be exempted, and began to make preparations for the repayment of the first boundary banknotes.

This is a previous commitment, and it is also a way to maintain and guarantee the credibility of the government. It seems to be a loss of income, but it has long-term benefits as a result. In the future, if there is a need for borrowing, the government will be able to open up, and the people will be willing to help.

Yin eats grain, well, this is the state now, in Meng Jiucheng's words, it is called rolling "debt management", and there are also some benefits.

For example, in terms of government spending and investment, it is necessary to be cautious in order to improve the effectiveness of use and avoid extravagance and waste.

As for the abolition of the poll tax in other places, it is calculated according to the period of recovery, that is, when this area is under the rule of Meng Jiucheng, and it is reduced year by year, and it will no longer be levied after four years.

This may seem a little strange, for example, Juzhou, which was the earliest to recover and contributed the most, but it is also the fastest and best to recover and rebuild, and the people's affluence is also quite high.

It is incomprehensible that the poll tax has been abolished in such places while the collection of the newly occupied areas has only been delayed.

In fact, if we analyze the various roles played by the levy of a poll tax, we may be able to understand such a policy.

It is undeniable that the poll tax was the main factor limiting population growth in ancient times, and if a family could not afford the cost of having a large number of children, they had to choose to have fewer children, or even if they were born, they could not afford to raise them and starved to death or died of disease.

In other words, if you have the ability, you will have more children and raise more, and if you don't have the ability, you will have fewer children or not raise them, and the phenomenon of drowning girls and babies that was widespread in ancient times has a lot to do with the poll tax.

Therefore, the abolition of the poll tax in Ju, Mi and Haizhou is to take into account the economic situation of the places. The newly occupied areas are more detrimental, but the people can postpone the delivery, but they are not exempted.

At the same time, for the government, the use of a poll tax to restrict the movement of a part of the population is also quite necessary for recovery and reconstruction.

The current Chinese society is far from reaching the point where it needs a large floating population and needs to shake the foundation of "settlement".

In addition to paper money, Meng Jiucheng also issued another generation of currency - grain stamps, which covertly borne part of the financial pressure.

It is normal to borrow grain to repay grain, but the price of grain is completely different at this time and in the future.

As long as the situation gets better and better, and more and more areas are being developed, grain prices can only fall, not rise. This has virtually made the government a solid profit.

And the food stamps of one stone of grain are always worth one stone of grain, and they will not become waste paper, and the people will not have any resistance.

Moreover, the food stamps can be used to offset the tax after two years, which virtually makes the people who have food stamps even more hope that the Red Turban Army will win and be undefeated in order to protect their own interests.

Food stamps can continue to be distributed to the people, and when the time comes, the food stamps will be pegged to gold and silver currency, and a new form will appear, and another paper money will be born.

Of course, this is still far away. However, at present, it has eased the financial pressure, enabled the government to operate normally, and enabled the army to fight abroad.

During the time when Mulingguan was accumulating materials and gathering people, Meng Jiucheng not only kept in contact with Zhu Ming and other officials, but also used letters to guide military production.

So far, with the support of the preferential policy, the quantity and quality of military production have been improved.

But from Meng Jiucheng's point of view, the current military production has entered a bottleneck, and it is not very easy to break through.

If steel is not good, it will be difficult to make muskets; Copper was scarce, and the number of artillery pieces increased slowly; Wrought iron is rolled to make tiger squat cannons, which is time-consuming and laborious, and cannot withstand too much bore pressure......

But there is no way, the accumulation of technology takes time. Some short-term projects are indeed effective, but when it comes to deeper and more complex equipment and processes, it is not so easy to do.

But there is one exception, and that is cement, which does not require too complicated equipment and is easy to find.

Limestone and clay are used as raw materials, and after being combined in a certain proportion, the mature material is calcined in a vertical kiln similar to burnt lime, and then refined to make cement.

Before, Meng Jiucheng felt that the production of weapons and equipment in the military workshop could not meet the demand, and the experimental production of cement was not urgent, obviously he could not distinguish the priorities.

And there are actually two reasons for him to regain cement.

First, after occupying a large area of territory, the military workshop recruited a group of craftsmen, and the problem of manpower shortage was alleviated.

Secondly, Meng Jiucheng also realized that rammed earth construction could no longer keep up with the needs of war.

Not to mention the real artillery, it is the large stone thrower (also known as the return cannon and Xiangyang cannon) used by the Mongolian army in the future, and it has also trapped countless cities, which is by no means able to withstand the cities in the territory of the Red Turban Army now.

And what is more progressive than rammed earth is of course the blue and red brick city walls. Even if it is rammed earth and bricks, the protection of the city will be greatly improved.

And to build a city with bricks, adhesives are indispensable. In ancient times, glutinous rice and other materials were used, although the effect was good, but the high cost made it difficult for Meng Jiucheng to accept.

Therefore, under the premise that Meng Jiucheng had little impact on military production, he wrote a letter to others and handed over the research and manufacturing of cement to others.

If it is very urgent, Meng Jiucheng will also act as a scientific and technological worker once or twice. But now, he has more important work to do. Moreover, he is also a little lazy.