Chapter 1316: Difficulties in continuing the business

Chapter 1316: Difficulties in continuing the business

Hou Andu was originally a subordinate of the former lord Chen Baxian. He was also brave and courageous. He had repeatedly made military exploits in various wars between the north and the south. He was very famous. Especially when Chen Baxian went west from Jingkou to attack Wang Sengbian, Hou Andu Not only did they plan what happened, but when Mr. Chen Ba hesitated, he even stated his interests and urged him to make up his mind.

Although Chen Chang is now the king of the country, he does not have the ambition and spirit that a king of a country should have. In addition, Hou Andu himself is relatively disgusted with the alliance with the northerners. His dissatisfaction with the imperial court has been suppressed for a long time, so naturally he and Lin King Chuan came together.

At this time, Chen Qian asked everyone for their opinions. Even if Hou Andu revealed what he was thinking, the powerful Wuzhong people present were far less courageous than Hou Andu. Although they were dissatisfied with the imperial decrees, they only gathered in private to complain, far from rising up and entering the court to cause chaos.

So when Hou Andu made this statement, everyone present changed their expressions and shook their heads repeatedly, saying that they should be calm and calm before the matter has come to this.

"The Duke has been a loyal servant of his ancestors for a long time and is concerned about the country's affairs. When he sees the country in danger, he will inevitably have agitated thoughts and heroic words. The country people are virtuous and the atmosphere is simple. This is certainly a blessing for the family and the country, but the dangers that the country is facing today have already It can't be solved by swallowing your breath, especially if you don't take it lightly! One person thinks about shortcomings, and everyone thinks about their strengths. Now it's time to take a long-term view, and everyone can speak freely. "

Hearing that most of the people present did not agree with Hou Andu's proposition, Chen Qian couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

Although after returning to Wuxing, he united his hometown sentiments and trends around him, making his foundation deeper, these villagers also had their own opinions and habits.

They are not like the soldiers commanded by the late Lord Chen Baxian in Jingkou, who could kill to Jiankang on the same day with just one order. In order to integrate these villagers into a truly usable force, it still requires a process and various means. .

Hou Andu's proposal was certainly what he had in mind, but it was also a test to see if people's hearts were ready for it. But judging from the reactions of these people, it is obvious that although they are dissatisfied with the imperial court, they have not reached the level where they have to fight bravely at the risk of their wealth and life. Or maybe the current prospects are unclear and not worth their heavy investment.

Chen Qian suppressed the disappointment in her heart and glanced at Hou Andu, who was excited and was about to speak. She then looked at a middle-aged man in the table and asked: "Shen Hou is also a good minister of the country and an example of the country's righteousness. What’s your opinion on the current situation?”

The middle-aged man is named Shen Ke, a native of Wukang in Wuxing. In his early years, he and the late leader Chen Baxian were colleagues in Lingnan. When Chen Baxian led the army to Jiaozhou to suppress the rebellion, he asked his family to return home with Shen Ke. They had a deep friendship with each other, trusting their wives and offering their children. .

In the future, Chen Baxian went north to King Qin and finally established Jiangdong, and Shen Ke also took a lot of credit. Especially in the process of regaining Sanwu, Shen Ke and Chen Qian also cooperated tacitly. When Chen Qian withdrew from Wuxing, Shen Ke also gave up the high-ranking official Houlu who was awarded by the imperial court. He returned with Chen Qian and served as the governor of Zhen, helping to govern Wuxing. He could be said to be Chen Qian's right-hand man.

But in addition, the Shen family of Wuxing, where Shen Ke was born, is also a family of old-style local tycoons in Jiangdong. As early as the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Wuxing powerful Shen Chong followed Wang Dun and started chaos. After several generations of development in the Southern Dynasties, not only the local power became more powerful , the development of cultural reputation is also quite fruitful. The reason why Shen Ke returned to his hometown was not only because of his friendship with Chen Qian, but also because he was not very optimistic about the current leader Chen Chang, so he returned to his hometown to stay.

Shen Ke also knew a lot about Chen Qian's plan to use the power of Sanwu Township to regain the power of the government, but he had slightly different views on it. They had communicated with each other before, and now he heard Chen Qian asking him questions in public, She knew that Chen Qian hoped that he could give some guidance to her nostalgia and at least give up some of her overly conservative views.

After pondering for a while, Shen Ke spoke: "There is indeed something wrong with the current affairs of the imperial court both internally and externally. The national security depends on other countries, and all the ministers in the court lack good ideas. They are despicable carnivores! If Jiankang is uneasy, then three things will happen." Wu will be in chaos, and Jiangdong will be united, and those who are unable to stay outside will do so!”

He first criticized the people in power in the imperial court, and then emphasized the integrity of Jiangdong. This was absolutely politically correct, and then he changed the topic and said: "The current situation of the country has become extremely dangerous. I, Mr. Jiangdong, can decide, but it depends on when the Tang Lord Li will come!

Observing Li's tactics, he used twists and turns, made false promises, and made mistakes whenever he was temporarily unable to win. He was at odds with his old enemy in Hebei, so he could still withdraw his troops and make peace. However, when he has the will and strength, he will no longer delay, march straight in, defeat him in one battle, act vigorously and fiercely, and be extremely cruel! "

All the powerful people in Wuzhong present were dissatisfied with Beilu in various ways, but they did not have a deep understanding of this powerful opponent. After hearing Shen Ke's description of Lord Tang's behavior, Everyone couldn't help but secretly take a breath, and immediately asked: "According to what Marquis Shen sees, is the Tang family's treatment of me being arrogant and conciliatory, or is it just waiting for the time?"

"The Tang State has newly conquered Hebei and is still waiting to recover. It may not have the intention to plot Jiangdong at the moment. That's why the Tang Dynasty returned Nanchuan and replaced it with Guangling. Although the danger has not increased, the difficulty is stronger!"

Hearing Shen Ke say that Tang's strategy was still in vain, everyone couldn't help but secretly breathed a sigh of relief. As long as it wasn't an imminent crisis, they didn't have to worry too much.

But before they could relax for long, Shen Ke's next words made them look worried again: "Although the Tang army has not crossed the river in large numbers, its strategy has already covered Wuxiang! At this time, cloth is as cheap as dirt in the market, and whose house does not have piles of cloth? The cloth from Dongyang is shipped north, and the price after entering Beijing is not even worth the voyage!

Although the wealthy guests in Jiangbei have no land or property in our hometown, they can still demand a lot of money from our hometown! The children in the village are more frivolous than property, and they donate all their family property to compete for the goods of the invaded. Now our Wu people want to buy the goods of the invaded, but it is difficult to buy cloth from the street. Only by pawning all the goods in the three Wus can we get two or three tenths of them! When we return to the hometown, people will compete again. In a few years, the people's strength will be destroyed and the people's wealth will be gone!"

Shen Ke's words are by no means alarmist. The Hou Jing Rebellion that lasted for several years caused great damage to the people's livelihood and economy in Jiangnan. All kinds of production activities were almost stagnant. After waiting for the end of the turmoil, production should have been quickly resumed.

However, the Southern Chen Dynasty was established on the mess of Canliang. Before and after the founding of the country, Chen Baxian was busy dealing with external challenges and internal unrest, and there was almost no creation in the livelihood economy. This means that the ownership of the means of production in Jiangdong society has not changed at all and is still in the hands of those powerful and wealthy people. How can the common people restore production when they don't even have basic means of production?

Because the powerful and wealthy people have mastered a large amount of means of production during the unrest, they have a greater say in the rhythm of social vitality recovery and the direction of development.

Before, Li Tai proposed to open a mutual market to the Southern Chen Dynasty. On the one hand, it was to find a market for various outputs in Shannan and strengthen the interaction between regions. On the other hand, it was also hoped that a large amount of basic livelihood materials would flow into Jiangdong at a relatively low price, which would help improve the livelihood of Jiangdong and enable Jiangdong society to quickly restore vitality.

But many times, the overall feedback of a society often does not follow the original intention of the designer, especially now that the Tang Dynasty has not yet controlled Jiangdong, and is indirectly influencing it through trade, which inevitably leads to some uncontrollable variables.

The influx of many commodities certainly solved the urgent problem of the shortage of materials in Jiangdong, but it also made the powerful and wealthy who controlled the means of production no longer keen to resume production. For example, the powerful landlords around Jiankang, regardless of whether their respective manors had output, could easily obtain various commodities, not only to meet their own needs, but also to resell them to other places.

The Three Wus suffered less damage and maintained their production scale, but their output had to be sold in the market after meeting basic needs, and then continue to expand the production scale. But now this cycle has been interrupted by the continuous flow of commercial goods from the south, which has also greatly hit the production enthusiasm of the Three Wus.

On the one hand, Shannan commodities have a large production scale, and the cost and quality can be well controlled, which is far beyond the comparison of the large and small manors in Jiangdong. On the other hand, there are technological innovations such as the spinning wheel. The production of the same commodity, time, labor price and other costs are greatly reduced. In addition, there is a convenient waterway such as the Yangtze River in all seasons, which makes the Three Wus completely uncompetitive in the same market.

Without enough profit inflow, the three Wu tyrants could only further reduce the scale of production, which further reduced their commodity self-sufficiency rate. Driven by the extravagant atmosphere in Jiankang, these tyrants' demand for external commodities also increased.

However, the currency of the Southern Chen Dynasty was chaotic. If they wanted to participate in the mutual trade, they could only sell their own goods first in exchange for the foreign trade currency of the Tang Dynasty. Wuzhong's goods were already weak in the market. With this in and out, they had to bear several tens of millions of exploitations.

This resulted in the Jiangdong tyrants owning thousands of hectares of land but leaving it barren, while they themselves were eating up the mountains and running out of money, and the poor families had no place to stand, and they had no clothes to cover their bodies and no food to fill their stomachs. The reason for this phenomenon is also very simple, that is, the distribution of means of production is uneven, those who are willing to produce have no means, and those who have means of production have low willingness to produce.

This phenomenon is a manifestation of the long-standing social ills of the Southern Dynasty, so that the mutual trade, which could have improved the people's livelihood in Jiangdong, was distorted during the operation, thus exacerbating this phenomenon.

The root cause is the greed of the Jiangdong tyrants. The monopoly of the means of production has led to the shrinking of the scale of production, which in turn has led to the shrinking of the economic volume. When faced with strong trade shocks, they have become increasingly powerless to resist. However, in the eyes of the tyrants, this is a long-planned attack by the northern barbarians against the people of Jiangdong!