Aspirations for Nation and Beauty: Section 56 Food and wealth
But this is not the issue that worries Situ Tai the most. The biggest problem facing Situ Tai is food and financial issues. Like other places in the Eastern Continent, Yanyun County is short of harvest, and the food reserves in various places have been exhausted. If it weren't for the large-scale smuggling transactions between merchants from various places and the Japanese people at sea, the problem would be much more serious.
Situ Tai could only turn a blind eye to the blatant grain smuggling behavior of Yanyun and even the merchants in the East China Sea under the cold and modest suggestion. Sometimes, he had to import large quantities of grain through these merchants To make up for the shortage of their own military rations and food reserves.
Fortunately, the weather in Japan has been smooth and rainy in recent years, and the grain has been harvested year after year. They urgently needed to import large quantities of iron, copper, coal, timber, tung oil, raw lacquer and horses and other strategic materials.
After the Japanese invaded the Ryukyu Islands, Kamchatka Island, and Treasure Island, they raided their own navy. Situ Tai had ordered a sea ban within the area under his control, strictly prohibiting material transactions with the Japanese along the coast, but he has not received any response. effective. First of all, Quanzhou under the control of Situ Yuan had a sharp increase in the volume of trade with the Japanese, quickly replacing Dengzhou, Jinling, and Yuhang as the busiest port for business transactions with the Japanese, and the Milanese and Nanyang countries also participated in the trade with the Japanese. Later, the Nanyang Alliance even became the largest buyer of the Japanese people who trafficked people into slavery, including the Doton and Tanghe occupied areas. A large number of civilians were transported by the Japanese to the countries of the Nanyang Alliance for dumping. smiling.
And this kind of behavior also aroused great repercussions in the Tanghe Empire, which also forced Situ Tai, who was suffering from food shortages and wanted to open the sea ban, to continue to maintain the sea ban, so he had to greatly relax his control in secret. The control of the sea ban, through grain smuggling, a large number of strategic materials were transported into the Japanese land, and at the same time, the grain of the Japanese people also poured in, which greatly alleviated the food shortage in the occupied areas, and the grain in the southern coastal areas of the Central Mainland also began to pass through the Nanyang Alliance. Re-exporting into one's own territory, although the price has risen a lot, objectively, it has actually relieved the pressure of food shortage.
The food problem has indeed been effectively alleviated in the coastal areas, but it still exists in the interior, especially in areas where water transportation is difficult to reach and the traffic conditions are poor. The further strengthening of military power and his own finances are close to bankruptcy, and the waves of protests by businessmen in the East China Sea and Jiangnan control areas have also made him dare not easily increase taxes. So much so that no one cares about Yunzhong Mansion, which was abandoned after the Puer people imitated the evil deeds of the Kaman people in Heishan and Longquan. Even Situ Tai himself deliberately avoided this problem, because his current financial resources are not enough. Solve the current mess in Yunzhongfu.
A loan? To whom? The merchants in Donghai and Jiangnan seemed to be colluding. Not only did they transfer funds and personnel frantically, they also declined their own loan requests. This was clearly a provocation, but before he ascended the throne, he dared not continue The reason is to jeopardize his plan to ascend the throne. Borrowing from Yan Yun and the land nobles of the East China Sea who have always supported him? These land nobles are willing, but this is not a small amount, and they are also powerless. There are probably only Situ Biao and Li Wufeng out there, but Situ Biao is now at the time to expand his power with all his strength, I am afraid that he will not agree to borrow money from him, and Li Wufeng is a guy who is pointing at east and west. Big fish, special fish, although he has a lot of money in his pocket, will he lend it to himself?
Sometimes Situ Tai also thought about simply looking for some excuses to attack those big merchants who did not want to cooperate with him. He didn't believe that they couldn't afford money, but this was a risky thing. It is easy to arouse hostility and resistance from the business circles in various places, and the loss outweighs the gain. Therefore, after several considerations, Situ Tai never dared to take this step.
Glancing at the old man who was still meticulously checking the information sent from various places, Situ Tai sighed softly in his heart. Leng Qian is quite good at analyzing the situation and military affairs, but he is not very good at handling government affairs. He is good at, and he alone can't support the entire political structure under his command, and what he lacks the most is talents who can take care of the daily government affairs in the control area for him. Now he controls the thirteen most important government offices in the eastern part of the empire. In many prefectures and counties, there is no high-level talent who can really take on this important task for him. Except for the positions that are too important to be controlled by their own people, most of the officials in the prefectures and counties are still intact. Exercising their power, how can such jurisdiction be truly in place and effective? Talent, now I am thinking about this question in my dreams, where can I find talents who are both talented and loyal to serve me?
"Your Highness, the gentry of Yunzhong Mansion have united with some gentry of Yanyun County to petition His Highness, asking His Highness to send someone to take over Yunzhong as soon as possible, restore the normal order in Yunzhong, and maintain the territorial integrity of the empire." Leng Qian wrinkled Frowning, he sorted out a large stack of letters and reported them to his lord.
"Huh, at this time, I want to recover the Yunzhong Mansion. What can I use to feed these refugees and refugees? The people of Puer just slapped their butts and left, leaving a mess. They want me to take over, no way! Who wants to go Take over, who will go! Anyway, I won’t go!” When Situtai in the cloud was mentioned, he became furious, and hundreds of thousands of refugees not only poured into the surrounding places such as Beiping and Laizhou, but also those gentry who escaped shouted everywhere, putting pressure on themselves, demanding Take over by yourself as soon as possible, appease the victims and refugees, and restore normal production and living order. But now where do I have any extra strength? It is estimated that in the remote cloud, even the people of Puer can't hold on, so how can I fall into this quagmire casually?
"Your Highness, these guys have already jointly petitioned the imperial capital, and the media in the imperial capital have begun to pay attention to this matter. Now at this critical moment, the guidance of public opinion is very important. Once under the instruction of someone with ulterior motives, public opinion will It may cause great damage to our reputation." Leng Qian was well aware of the difficulty here, and reminded his lord worriedly.
"Then what do you think? We don't have any extra money and food to help them. Once we take over all the responsibilities, we will shoulder them. It's better to pretend we don't know it now and push it away when the time comes." Situ Tai also knew that things were not easy, but he was powerless because of his cash.
"Your Highness, we either have to find a way to squeeze some out of the military rations and food reserves, or we have to find other ways to block the media in the imperial capital." Leng Qian is also aware of his own financial situation, so he can only take a workaround .
"The military rations and reserve rations must not be moved. It is a lesson from the past. The Kamans' southern expedition army is now in trouble and Li Wufeng took the opportunity to beat him up because the logistics and rations can't keep up. We must not repeat the same mistakes. The army is now our only pillar. , I don’t need to say more about this point. But what do you mean by other methods?” Situ Tai had already guessed the other methods mentioned by the other party, but he hoped that the other party would say it.
"Is there any other way, I can only spend a little money to mobilize some connections to seal the mouths of the major mainstream media. As long as it can be delayed for a month or two, His Highness can take over the throne smoothly, and everything will be easy after the righteousness A lot." Leng Qian smiled wryly, this method is the only one that can be used at the moment, as for whether there will be any troubles and mistakes in the middle, that is irrelevant.
"Well, that's all there is to it. In this way, you arrange capable people to deal with it, and you must not make any mistakes. There is no room for mistakes in this crucial point. Uh, besides, Old Leng, do you think we can The merchants and financiers in the imperial capital should think of a way ~IndoMTL.com~ to get some loans, and they will have to survive these two months.”
Situ Tai knew that since he took control of the East China Sea and Jiangnan, he had greatly increased the tax rate and the lijin, which had greatly shaken the confidence of the southeast business class in him, but he had no choice but to expand the army in a large amount and needed financial support. And Yanyun, which he controlled, didn't have much foundation in the first place, so he had to reach out to the merchants, knowing that he was killing chickens to get eggs, but he had to do it. Hoping to use the good news that he might finally win the battle for the throne to make a fortune from the merchants in the imperial capital, so as to solve his current urgent needs.
"Your Highness, I'm afraid this is not easy. Which of the merchants in the imperial capital is not inextricably linked with the upper echelons of the empire? They are much more snobbish than those in Jiangnan and Donghai. The current situation is unclear. I am not sure about getting a loan from them, unless His Highness can use something more realistic as a counterbalance, maybe there is still some hope." Leng Qian was a little embarrassed, this kind of empty-handed white wolf method is not impossible, But it must be backed by the strength behind it. If a group of businessmen are optimistic about their lord, then naturally there is no need to say more, but if they think this transaction is too risky, then they will never use their own money to waste money. Right now, the expedient measure is to exchange what is in your hands, and use huge profits to attract businessmen to gamble.
"You mean •••••••?" Situ Tai's face turned ugly, as if he had thought of something.