Brilliant and short-lived strong man general star - Hussar General Huo Tou (5)
Chief Writer: Idle Student
After the Battle of Hexi between Han and Hungary, the entire Xiongnu tribe fell into a hopeless depression. The Han Dynasty's policy of continuous attack and heavy reward and abduction has caused the Xiongnu to set the sun on the western mountains and gradually show signs of disintegration. Some people even sang mournfully: "The loss of me qilian mountain makes my six animals restless; the loss of my yanzhi mountain makes my women colorless." The former sentence is easy to understand, Qilian Mountain is a natural livestock base, its water and grass are rich, known as the first in Asia, its economic significance to the Xiongnu needless to say; the Yanzhi Mountain in the latter sentence is rich in an herbaceous safflower, the name Yanzhi flower, according to Jin Cui Leopard's "Ancient and Modern Notes" volume under the "Grass and Wood Chapter" recorded: "Swallow branch, leaf like thistle, flower like dandelion, out of the West, the native people dye, named Yanzhi." China is also known as red and blue, and dyeing pink as a woman's color is called swallow branch powder. "Swallow powder is rouge powder also." Huo Wentai led an army to capture Hexi, which made it impossible for Xiongnu women to dress themselves and be tolerant of women. The Jin people also said: "The famous wife of the Xiongnu is called 'Fu Shi', and it is said that she is as cute as rouge." It seems that this mournful folk song reflects that the Xiongnu not only suffered a heavy economic blow, but even some psychological depression. Yi Zhixiao realized that if he did not take one or two retaliatory counterattacks, the Huns would have no future. In any case, the wolf of the steppe was reduced to the dog of the Han Dynasty, which the arrogant Yi Zhixiao could not tolerate.
Thus, a year after the Battle of Hexi, that is, in the autumn of 120 BC, the Xiongnu King Zuoxian led tens of thousands of cavalry to invade Right Beiping County, and Yi Zhixiao also led tens of thousands of cavalry across the Mongolian desert and invaded Dingxiang County. The two counties were caught off guard, and more than a thousand soldiers and civilians were killed.
Emperor Liu Che of the Han Dynasty understood Yi Zhixiao's thoughts, this guy just wanted to provoke our army to enter the desert north, and then bully our army's logistical difficulties, and wanted to come to wait for hunger and wait for work. Very good, since you want me to have some color, then I will open a dye shop for you! Isn't it just a desert? You can go to me! It's nothing more than gold paving the way. Yuan will never let you make a comeback in the desert north, if you want to fight, you will fight a big one, beat you to the ground, if possible, it is best to enter the eighteenth layer of hell and never turn over.
Therefore, in the spring of the fourth year of the Yuan Dynasty (119 BC), Emperor Wu of Han consulted with the generals: "Zhao Xin, the Marquis of Qi, was a single plan, and often thought that han soldiers could not stay indifferent and light, and now they are bound to do whatever they want. ”
Obviously, Emperor Wu decided to devote the strength of the country to a final duel with Yi Zhixiao, and the First World War decided the final fate of the two nationalities, so that future generations would no longer have to be burdened by the north and could make great strides forward with peace of mind. In order to raise this huge military expenditure, Emperor Wu of Han began his cruel and genius accumulation (grabbing money), which had roughly four methods:
The first is to reform the currency system and crack down on pirate minting.
Currency issuance has always been the most profitable business in the world, as the world financial tycoon Rothschild said: "As long as I control the currency issuance of a country, I don't care who makes the law." "So, since the advent of the state and the currency, currency wars have been the most brutal, hidden and important economic activity in the world. As we said earlier, since the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty was in ruins and waiting to be revived, so it repeatedly liberalized the minting of currency, but with the increase of national strength, the government began to try to monopolize the right to issue money, and in the sixth year of the Han Jing Emperor (144 BC), the imperial court once again banned the minting of private coins, and those who violated the order were punished with death. Even so, there are still people who grind the edges of copper coins to privately mint coins, and they are repeatedly forbidden.
After Emperor Wu of Han ascended the throne, Liu Che persevered six times of currency reform, constantly groping (Note 1), until 113 BC banned the minting of money by the county state, and set up a water balance lieutenant in Shanglin Garden, which was specially responsible for minting and issuing five-baht coins with good color, moderate weight and difficult to steal (Note 2), and then successfully took the right to mint coins to the central government, and finally monopolized and controlled the monetary inflation of the entire empire. It should be known that the European and American governments did not form a real monetary monopoly until modern times, and the Han Dynasty realized it two thousand years ago, which made the financial resources of China's unified dynasties unprecedentedly strong, and the centralization of power became irreversible.
Since then, Han Zhishuiheng has minted copper coins with 100,000 people every year, and by the end of the Western Han Dynasty, a total of 28 billion yuan was minted, which was quite large; in the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xiufu continued to use this currency until July of the fourth year of Wude of the Tang Dynasty (621 AD). In this way, the five-baht coin has existed for seven hundred years, which can be called the longest-lived currency in the history of the world.
Second, increase the oral endowment.
As we said earlier, the so-called oral endowment is the poll tax, and the Han Dynasty stipulates that adult men and women between the ages of 15 and 56 each pay 120 yuan to the state every year as a war readiness fund for the purchase of cars, horses, and weapons. During the reign of Emperor Wen of Han, it was reduced to 40 yuan. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, due to the huge military expenditure, it was restored to 120 yuan. In addition, minors under the age of fifteen were not required to pay the poll tax, but Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty stipulated that children aged three to fourteen should also pay for money, and 23 yuan per person. And we know that these minors are not able to earn money, which has led to many poor families dare not have more children, but in ancient times contraception was not as perfect as today, there are often many unplanned children, some poor people have no way, they have to kill the newborn children with their own hands, it is simply a sin.
Third, a property tax is levied.
We know that ancient China was a small peasant economy, and most of the state taxation depended on agricultural taxes, and Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty was the first genius to invent the commercial property tax.
In fact, in the early Han Dynasty, there was a property tax, called "Zi Shu", and Yan Shigu's ancient note quoted Qian Yue: "For ten thousand dollars, count one hundred and twenty-seven." This means that the government determines the valuation of property according to the declaration of each person, and collects it at a tax rate of 127 yuan per ten thousand dollars. The tax rate is only 1.27%, which should be really not high, and its main purpose is to count the number of middle class and wealthy class in the empire. According to the Han law, families with a reckoning of more than 100,000 yuan (later changed to 40,000 yuan by Emperor Jing of Han) could choose one son to enter the palace as a lang, and those who had reached a reckoning of more than 5 million yuan could be a constant attendant, often with the emperor (Note 3).
However, Emperor Wu of Han believed that the calculated tax was still too light, and it was a dime a dozen for those big and powerful merchants. At that time, there was no national networked tax filing system, and there was no value-added tax invoice, and the state could only collect some rents on the surface, which was easy to be evaded by large businessmen.
Therefore, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty decided to introduce a new property tax specifically for industry and commerce, called "suanjiao". "Silk" is the silk thread used to wear money, a string is a silk, that is, a thousand dollars. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty stipulated that merchants should be taxed one hundred and twenty yuan for every two thousand dollars (including owning a farmhouse, slaves, etc.), with a tax rate of 6%, which is five times that of the ordinary people; the handicraftsmen should be counted in four hundred and twenty dollars, that is, every four thousand dollars, with a tax rate of 3%, which is 2.5 times that of the ordinary people; if a merchant registered person fraudulently uses the peasant household registration to occupy the field, all the property will be confiscated. This can be said to be a strong act of heavy agriculture and business suppression.
In addition to the property tax, Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty also invented the car and boat tax. He stipulated that civilian carriages should be taxed one hundred and twenty dollars, commercial carriages should be doubled, and ships over five inches would be taxed one hundred and twenty dollars.
It is said that such a tax rate is still not too high, and the collection of these taxes can prevent people from hoarding money and physical assets, thus stimulating the circulation of money and reducing deflation.
As mentioned earlier, the han dynasty implemented a laissez-faire economic policy, and if you suddenly increased the property tax of the merchants and the rich several times, they would naturally evade taxes, conceal their property, and be poorer than Sai; moreover, at that time, there was also a lack of effective financial, financial and accounting technical means to accurately and effectively count personal property. In addition, real estate such as field residential shops is also difficult to value, because there are various factors that are difficult to estimate such as building materials, lots, and fertility, not to mention various antique luxury goods, in short, it is a mess and the operability is very poor. However, Emperor Wu of Han was quite "clever", and he soon invented a good method to save administrative costs, that is, to mobilize the masses to fight the masses, called "accusations", that is, to encourage the people to report and expose the concealment of property, once verified, the defendants will be fined for a year, and all their property will be confiscated, and the whistleblower can get half of his property as a reward, which is too tempting, it is simply the easiest way to get rich. Of course, the county officials generally colluded with the local rich merchants and powerful people, so the implementation of the "writ order" was not satisfactory at first. So Emperor Wu of Han publicly executed the cool official Yizong who resisted the accusation on the charge of "abolishing the grid and being depressed" (obstructing the implementation of the decree), and sent another cool official, Yang Ke (probably in 114 BC), to lead a group of "actuaries" to preside over the world's "confessions" to better organize the masses and mobilize the masses; this moment was immediate, the state confiscated hundreds of millions of dollars from the rich in one go, tens of millions of slaves, hundreds of hectares in large counties, more than 100 acres in small counties, and the confiscated houses also reached an astonishing scale. As a result, a large number of the middle class is facing bankruptcy (the merchants and merchants are above the rate of breaking), which is simply robbing money!
Pictured: Han Dynasty bazaar portrait bricks, reflecting the scene of the flourishing market trade in the Han Dynasty
Of course, we cannot completely negate Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's "edict of retribution", because the money confiscated was used to expand the land in foreign wars; the confiscated slaves were assigned to the official government and became the slaves of the state-owned horse court and iron officials; the confiscated land was issued to ordinary peasants with extremely low land rents through "fake people's public land" and other methods, and these measures eventually made "the middle family below the middle family, the rich and the poor", thus shortening the gap between the rich and the poor in society, accelerating the flow of classes (if the slaves succeed in the war, they become rich), and stimulate market consumption (to keep to pay taxes, It is better to spend it quickly), which has a certain progressive significance (Note 4). In short, Emperor Wudi of Han was very happy and liked to toss the common people, but he mainly tossed the middle and upper classes such as the rich and powerful merchants, and his influence on the lower classes was limited, and he repeatedly rescued the hungry people, "the cost is innumerable", so although Emperor Wudi of han had the trend of "disintegration" (centrifugation of the upper layer), he did not "collapse" (the rebellion of the people) and "disintegrate" like the Qin Dynasty.
Fourth, the implementation of the salt and iron monopoly and the establishment of state monopolies had the greatest impact on later generations, because it came from more money and complained less, and since then it has become the main financial means of Chinese dynasties (Note 5).
Before Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, salt and iron were mostly produced and operated by the people, and the emperor only let the Shaofu collect a tax as an important source of wealth for the imperial family. But later, with the development of the economy, the income of salt and iron became larger and larger, the salt and iron merchants became richer and richer, and the royal family's finances became more and more abundant, and even later exceeded the national treasury income. At this time, Emperor Wu of Han could not sit still, fighting the Xiongnu was so short of money, he had to rely on salt and iron to gain the top. Therefore, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty took the lead in donating salt and iron taxes and transferring them from the imperial treasury to the state treasury to show his selfishness, and called on wealthy merchants throughout the country, especially salt and iron merchants, to also donate money to support the war against Hungary. But I didn't expect that the social response was not good, and everyone ignored the emperor's call. Emperor Wu of Han was angry, and gave you a face to return, according to the ancient law, the profits of the mountains and rivers and ponds belong to the Son of Heaven, and the Son of Heaven is kind and open to your merchants to operate, so that you can make a fortune, but you do not share the worries of the Son of Heaven, do not contribute to the country, then don't blame the country for taking all these benefits back to the country!
Therefore, Emperor Wu of Han ordered: "Those who dare to privately cast iron and boil salt, titanium left toe, and submerge their utensils" ("History of Ping Zhuan"), those who dare to produce salt and iron privately, confiscate the means of production, and let him wear an iron shoe on his left foot; and set up salt and iron servants under the great si nong, and set up salt officials and iron officials in the salt and iron production areas of the counties and counties under the world, so as to gradually nationalize all salt and iron production and operation. As for the salt and iron merchants, they were directly transformed into state officials, so that their "companies" would be directly state-run. In his later years, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty added "equalization", "equal loss" and "liquor and wine", and monopolized the logistics trade of bulk commodities and the production and marketing of alcohol, that is, the state used public power to buy and sell expensive, hoard, manipulate prices, and even force buy and sell, monopolize prices, which completely cut off the road to private merchants' sudden prosperity, and also completely killed the vitality of private commerce, while the treasury finance soared in revenue; the "all-lost" alone made the Central Plains water transport soar from hundreds of thousands of stones to six million stones. The stock of silk also increased to five million horses. At this point, these unconventional methods of denunciation do not need to be implemented.
In short, Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty worked hard to finally raise enough financial and material resources for the expeditionary army. The blood and tears of hundreds of people were exchanged for this huge amount of military expenditure, so Liu Che told the generals, you give a fierce beating, don't care about money, what you have is money. You must understand that you are reluctant to have children, you cannot trap wolves; if you want to use a sharp knife, do not be afraid to cut your own hands. Shuo didn't want to spend any more time with the Xiongnu, and Shuo couldn't afford to spend it anymore, so he wanted to make a final break for the fierce battle between Han and Hungary for more than ten years!
Decisive battle, the final decisive battle, the only decisive battle since the Han and Hungarians! It's the climax of a climax, an epic of epics. After a thousand autumns, after ten thousand years, the whole world will remember this moment. As the decisive battle approached, the blood of Wei Qinghuo and other famous Generals of the Great Han Dynasty boiled, and the blood of the entire empire also boiled.
So for a time, in all corners of the empire, the people were moving, and the feather stars were spreading. Soldiers, civilians, weapons, horses, vehicles, grain and grass... Countless personnel and supplies were transported from all directions to the northern border counties. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty even relocated 725,000 poor people from the Kwantung region to border counties such as Longxi, Beidi, Xihe, Shangjun, and Huiji to support the expedition nearby. Most of these poor people were peasants who had lost their land after the yellow river (southwest of present-day Puyang) broke thirteen years ago (132 BC), and they were allowed to migrate to the northern border counties, one to support the war against hungary, and the second to let them develop new land and rebuild new homes.
This is the real general mobilization of the whole people, excluding the operation manpower within the empire, Emperor Wu dispatched a total of 100,000 cavalry this time, each equipped with the best corn horses in the official horse garden, in addition to the officers and soldiers' own "private subordinate horses" 140,000 horses, perfectly realized "one man and two horses". In this way, the cavalry can rest through the rotation of two horses during the expedition, which not only ensures the speed of the march, but also puts the horses in a state of physical strength at the beginning of the battle.
In addition, Emperor Wu of Han also organized hundreds of thousands of infantry to transport grain and grass in the rear. These hundreds of thousands of infantry are tantamount to a mobile logistics supply base. Such an arrangement can enable the Han army to maintain mobility and ensure durability, which is the same as fighting at the doorstep of the family, the only drawback is that the cost is too large, Liu Che is hollowing out the entire family foundation in an unprecedented war: a dispatch of 100,000 cavalry, an expedition of thousands of miles to the north of the desert, which is unique in the entire history of world war.
Therefore, we must win, and we must win a big victory. Victory is eternal and legendary; defeat is not only a disgrace to the eyes of the people and the loss of fame, but also sorry for the people of the world, and even sorry for the entire history of China, and become a true sinner for eternity.
Note 1: For example, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty invented a virtual currency called dog coin, oh no, called white deerskin coin, this coin is made of the skin of the rare animal white deer in the forest garden, a piece worth 400,000 yuan, almost equivalent to all the family property of the four middle classes, and then stipulates that the princely family hajj Tianzi must use this white deerskin coin to pay tribute, you don't have to be disrespectful, you have to kill the head, you think this is not right, there is belly slander, but also to kill the head!
Note 2: The more common method of stealing and casting in the folk is that after getting a relatively new copper coin, use a hard object to slowly scrape along the edge of the copper coin, and the copper chips scraps scraped off are collected and melted and then cast, and new copper coins can be produced out of thin air. The five-baht coin invented by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty has patterns on both sides, and there are Zhou Guo inside and outside, which can be used as an anti-counterfeiting sign and makes it impossible to grind copper shavings.
Note 3: This is mainly because the han zhilang official had to prepare his own horse saddle and sword and dress (see the "History of Tian Shu Lie" Mr. Chu's supplement), and there was no vacation for many years, and only by donating money to the palace could he exchange it for documents to go out of the palace to rest (see "The Biography of Yang Yun in the Book of Han"). In short, Lang Guan was not a fool of the poor people's children, only the children of rich families could afford it, and Zhang Shizhi, a famous minister during the time of Emperor Wen, could not be promoted because he had been a lang for a long time, and as a result, he had made his brother poor.
Note 4: However, such a severe crackdown on the business and the wealthy class, overcorrection, there is a huge side effect, this side effect is the biggest cause of the demise of the Western Han Empire, the specific situation we will analyze later in Chen Tang.
Note 5: This has also led to the implementation of China's economic control system in ancient and modern times, and the Western liberal capitalist system is simply impossible.
Note 6: After the Yellow River broke through and entered the sea, Emperor Wu of Han organized personnel to block the mouth many times, all of which were blocked and destroyed, and failed to succeed; until ten years later (109 BC), when Emperor Wudi of Han was patrolling Mount Taishan, he saw that the river was flooding and the people were miserable, so he mourned it in the "Song of the Dragon", sent tens of thousands of pawns to block the mouth, and ordered the Qunchen to carry firewood and grass from below the generals, participate in the "flood prevention and rescue", and finally succeeded in blocking the mouth, and from then on the river went north, "The land of Liangchu was restored, and there was no flood." Sima Qian, who coincided with his meeting, also "stopped from negative salary", so he recorded this magnificent scene and passed it on to future generations to inspire future generations, which is the "River Canal Book" for the "History").