The last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty were one of the most turbulent years in the history of our country, during which many warlords appeared, and wars between them brought countless disasters.
Leaving aside the disaster they brought, many people now do not understand, in the ranks of the warlords of that era, where did they get the funds to help them expand their armies and buy supplies? Let's take Liu Bei as an example.
First, first of all, it was naturally the investment of the large households of the rich side at that time. Each of the warlords of the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty was a figure with a head and a face in society, and none of them suddenly became a general who commanded thousands of armies and horses from nothing.
Liu Bei is the same, Liu Bei in the main history was not as depressed as mentioned in the novel at first, through Liu Bei's identity, Liu Bei got to know many famous people in the world at that time.
Near Liu Bei's hometown, many ordinary people rushed to attach themselves to Liu Bei, Zhang Fei was one of them, and later Guan Yu was also.
Before Liu Bei raised his army, he had received donations from many big businessmen, especially in horse equipment, and the people who were willing to do big things with Liu Bei had a certain scale, coupled with the horse weapons donated by these merchants, Liu Bei's warlord power had taken shape, and he also embarked on the road to compete for the world.
In the process of Liu Bei embarking on the road of conquest, he could not help but accept the sponsorship of merchants in other places again, and the most famous ones were the two brothers Mi Fang and Mi Zhu.
When Liu Bei was recruiting Yuan Shu, Liu Bei had experienced a moment of real exhaustion, and as a result, the Mi brothers stood up, and the two of them scattered their family wealth, fully supported Liu Bei's cause, helped Liu Bei survive the difficulties, and at the same time they also became important figures in Liu Bei's camp at that time.
Second, secondly, it is to send people under the fence. Not only Liu Bei, but many warlords in those years had sent people to the fence, Gongsun Zhan, Sun Jian, Liu Dai, etc., and Liu Bei interpreted the people under the fence more vividly.
Liu Bei spent half of his time under the fence after the uprising. First of all, he went to his old friend Gongsun Zhan, and taking the opportunity to rescue Tao Qian, Liu Bei took over Tao Qian's identity and took charge of Xuzhou. Unexpectedly, he was secretly attacked by Lü Bu and defected to Cao Cao, and later Yuan Shao and Liu Qi.
Whenever Liu Bei sent people to the fence, he would definitely get the army and money from these people, because many people wanted to take Liu Bei under their command.
It's just a pity that Liu Bei is not a role that will always be sent to the fence. When Liu Bei went to Xichuan, Liu Zhang had also had the same thoughts, but unfortunately Liu Zhang could not fight Liu Bei at all, and gave up all his family property in Xichuan, and finally helped Liu Bei sit on the throne of Hanzhong.
When Liu Bei gained a firm foothold in a place and formed his own power, he never forgot to collect taxes from the local area.
In particular, when Liu Bei took over Xuzhou from Tao Qian, the wealth of Xuzhou brought Liu Bei a lot of wealth.
After Yuan Shao was eliminated, Liu Bei went to Xinye and other places, and the taxes received from those places were enough for Liu Bei to maintain military expenditure for a period of time.
Therefore, the military expenditure of those warlords at that time was inseparable from three ways: one was the sponsorship of rich merchants, the other was to send people to the fence, and the third was to collect taxes from the areas they ruled.