Johime Three Kingdoms

Chapter 493 Changes outside Chu
"In order to conquer Yizhou, which is not hostile, your country has recruited so many civilians. The King of Chu has always loved the people like his own son. I think... it will cost a lot, right?" Qin Mi worked tirelessly to find out some information.

The target of the inquiry now is the official who greeted him in Xiling.

It’s none other than Mi Heng, the sweet-mouthed and nice-spoken Mi Heng!

"Lord Qin, be careful what you say... love the people as your sons? If a Chu official claims this and is heard by someone, he will definitely be impeached to the court. Even a great scholar cannot afford to suffer the crime." Mi Heng glanced at him. He glanced at it and said in a tone that looked like a country bumpkin.

When Qin Mi heard this, he suddenly became angry - what did I say?Didn’t you praise your King Chu for “loving the people like a son”?Why can't I even afford the punishment for being a Grand Bachelor of the Imperial Palace? Why didn't you just say you were going to kill me?
"My king said that the most important thing in being an official is the spirit of service! My king's saying 'Killing a person is like killing my father' is so admirable. Whoever dares to say 'love the people like a son' should not be punished for being disrespectful." ?
Oh, by the way, if it is an uncivilized land where the masters regard the people as pigs and dogs, it would not be bad for the subordinate officials to boast that they 'love the people as sons and daughters'. After all, they treat their master's livestock as their children. "Mi Heng said in a very Yin Yang family spirit.

Qin Mi was so angry that he almost couldn't breathe, but it was hard to refute. Firstly, Bai Tu's promotion was excessive and uncomfortable, and could not be criticized morally. Secondly... the situation was stronger than the person. Mi Heng directly pointed out the foundation of Chu State, how could he dare to refute?
If he really refuted it from principle, I'm afraid Chu State would kick him out directly.

Of course, in fact, even if Bai Tu did mention the spirit of service, but with thousands of years of inertia here, how could he suddenly be blamed for saying "love the people like sons"?
The only one who would use this kind of thing to use as leverage is actually Ni Heng...

However, it is true that core senior officials, as well as middle-level officials who are developing and want to make progress, will consciously avoid terms such as "loving the people like sons," "common people," and "white men." Words such as "gang" that have derived derogatory connotations must not appear in official posts or be uttered in official situations.

Mi Heng has indeed fought well...

Half a year ago, Lu Kang mentioned "herdsmen" once, not the people who herd herds, but the "herdsmen" in "Guanzi Herdsmen" - comparing the common people to the goal of herding, which means managing the common people.

After all, Lu Kang was old, and sometimes his brain was not so fast when he spoke. He used this word in the court meeting as soon as he was bald, and Mi Heng grabbed him...

Bai Tu was afraid that Lu Kang would be angry, so he stopped Mi Heng.

However... Lu Kang, who calmed down, apologized to Bai Tu and other officials during the court meeting and punished himself with three months' salary.

Even though Lu Kanggui was a Grand Scholar of the Imperial Palace, he set an example for all officials, and at the same time, it also made Mi Heng's reputation even more infamous... ah no, it's to the next level!

Lu Jun hated Mi Heng because he had harmed his father's face. He even wanted to find someone to put a sack on him, but instead he was taught a lesson by his father Lu Kang.

In the words of Lao Lu: "If you weren't such a traitor, I wouldn't have to set this example!"

Poor Lu Jun is already middle-aged and is said to be aggrieved. I don’t know why...

Lu Kang could see clearly that he had already reached his current position, and he cared less about his personal appearance - no matter how much he harmed his face, he was still the founding father of the Chu State, and the temple was built under the white picture. It will be lower than the top three, and it should be listed in a separate article when writing the history of Chu!

On the contrary, by taking the initiative to plead guilty, he complied with the king's wishes and set an example for the king. In the future... a hundred years later, the king will remember Lu's kindness more.

After all, Lu Jun...

From now on, we have to rely on "humanity"!

This was indeed the case. Bai Tu accepted Lu Kang's plea, but in the next two months, he found various reasons to continuously reward Lu Kang and Lu Jun.

Bai Tu also understands that the concept in his heart cannot be changed overnight. If it can be done, it must be changed in a more comfortable direction.

For example, after Bai Tu traveled through ten years, he became more and more accepting that he was nobler than others...

It was precisely because he was aware of this change that Bai Tu tried his best to restrain his external expression.

The most difficult thing to restrain is to control a distraught mind, but "keeping your mouth shut" is the first step and a good start.

Mi Heng is really confident when facing Qin Mi now - I, Mi Heng, am the man who asked the Grand Master to apologize in public!
"The king of Chu is glorious forever, Mi has been taught." Qin Mi said after taking a few deep breaths and cupping his hands.

Mi Heng is not afraid of making him angry.

After all, it was the king who asked him to pick up the envoy from Yizhou...

Who in the court doesn’t know who I am? (proud face)

Are you asking me to come to receive you because you expect me to entertain you well?
"Well, I heard that the Marquis of Shu treated the people harshly in Yizhou. The people of Yizhou even became blind at night because of the lack of meat. It's really sad! The Marquis of Shu is because he has learned more." Mi Heng responded with a nasal sound. voice, and said contemptuously.

Qin Mi began to take a deep breath again, but at the same time he did not dare to refute.

This also reminded him that Yizhou was no match for Chu.

In the previous battle at Yingou Mountain, Yan Yan had already analyzed the reason why the Jiangzhou Army had no power to counterattack. For this reason, he also applied to the Marquis of Shu to increase military expenditures.

However, because Liu Zhang himself had limited control over Yizhou, he knew that this move was related to the success or failure of the Shu army, but he still had many constraints.

In fact, the elites of Wei State, as well as the troops of Qihou and Zhenghou, have already paid attention to this aspect, especially Wei State - Wuhuan and Xianbei in the north have a lot of cattle and sheep, and they plunder one or two tribes at will. Even if there are tens of millions of cattle and sheep, even if it is not enough to suppress the price of meat among the people like Chu State, the army still has no shortage of meat!
In Xuzhou and Qingzhou, the Marquis of Qi also vigorously developed the fishery, following the example of Chu State in developing the sea...

This can also be seen from the fact that as the Chu State gradually became stronger and stronger, aristocratic families "imported" manpower everywhere, which brought about some chain reactions that are hard to say whether they are "advantages" or "disadvantages"!

Although most of the princes under the rule are "Han people" in a broad sense, and there are regional and cultural differences between them, after all, they share the same culture and race, and with Chu studies as the core unifying force, it is still easy to completely absorb them, at least Compared with the increase in population, it is also cost-effective to add some burdens to the Ministry of Rites.

However, to a certain extent, this also played a role in "showing off" wealth to aristocratic families in other areas.

If you want to know the "noble family", the most important thing is the land and the population. Under normal circumstances, the land and the population that have been vassals for a long time will not be sold on a large scale, unless...they give too much!

As for the wealthy families who do not have a strong foundation and value strength more than inheritance, let alone-except for the Chu State, the wealthy families in other regions have had several generations of family property, which has been lost to the Chu State's new aristocrats in the past few years. Especially in the past two or three years, it has been easily surpassed.

What’s even more frightening is that after the goods are circulated, they are basically cut off.

Although it is still the mainstream for princes from all over the world to actively import "Chu goods", but gradually "people of insight" are discovering... Is our family wealth shrinking?

And we are still begging the State of Chu to reduce our family wealth?
While all kinds of Chu State's ordnance, salt, sugar, brocade, food and other materials were flowing into our country, our country's gold, silver, copper, iron, and even population were being lost at a faster rate.

For a while, the princes from all over the country are still unable to turn around, but sooner or later they will react - it is not a question of whether Chu State collects taxes or not, but that we should collect taxes for Chu State!
More importantly, as the manpower of the Chu State becomes more and more valuable, aristocratic families from all over the country have truly felt the "wealth" of the Chu State. Even if they try hard to understand, they cannot understand that a "untouchable" can be broken into bones and refined into oil. It shouldn’t be worth so much!

Even not only the wealthy families in other areas, but also the common people are accepting this - the nouveau riche in the Chu country's workshops have begun to actively promote to the outside world, "The life in the Chu country is good, really good, the life in the Chu country is great, really good" "Dibang", the means include but are not limited to spreading "Chu Di Divine Drama" and "Chu Di Divine Comedy".

Originally, the Ministry of Rites did secretly raise a group of performance troupes that specialized in performing in the countryside outside of Chu State, but now... more performance troupes and opera troupes that the upstarts took the initiative to support with money appeared.

Just to attract people to immigrate - directly "get" civilians from other places who take the initiative to come to Chu State, which can save a lot of money for the local wealthy families!

However, these "showing off wealth" are also "revealing wealth".

The more imbalanced the aristocratic families in various places are, the smaller the obstacles will be to other princes who want to "innovate after the example of Chu". Sooner or later, the local nobles will even force them to "innovate after the example of Chu"!
Of course, "Chu-like innovation" does not mean that it is effective, not to mention the technical support required. Even the Chu State is suffering from its own labor costs...

And for those who lag behind Chu State, even if the labor cost is not as high as that of Chu State, some will be driven up. The increased labor cost will also bring huge constraints to their development. After all, no matter how expensive Chu State’s manpower is, , at least Chu State is also rich, which is also the inertia of the strong to stay strong.

When Qin Mi and Ni Heng went to Jiangling, and then continued along the river from Jiangling to Wuchang and Jinling, they did not give up observing the situation in Chu along the way, and tried to find out useful information during the conversation.

During this period, Qin Mi also doubted whether Mi Heng came to greet him or came with the mission of pissing him off.

If it was the latter, Qin Mi would rather Chu sent someone to cook him...

Although Mi Heng is a member of the Great Yin Yang Family (Dag Wu), he is not unguarded and has not revealed the secret to him. What he really has to say is [-]% true and [-]% false.

However, Mi Heng did tell the truth when it came to the logistical investment in the battle. After all, this kind of thing would be easy to judge in the future, as it was all basic information about the Chu State.

Even Wei Guo and Qi Hou should have found out about it a long time ago.

However, Qin Mi's first reaction was disbelief - this was much higher than before there were no ships and trackers!

If it were done by Yizhou Prefecture, it wouldn't require such a huge expense...

Apart from this, according to Chu State's labor cost standards, if an ordinary civilian man works on the water conservancy project in Wudang County for five years, he has worked hard and suffered enough, and returns to his hometown after five years, he will at least be a capable person. A wealthy household who buys a few sets of new satin clothes every year, can eat a lot of fish and meat, and allows his children to study.

Of course, this kind of "rich family" can afford servants in other places, but not only cannot they buy them, but they can't afford them in Chu...

(End of this chapter)