Once the gun is fired, the gold is ten thousand, which means that once the war begins, it will cost a lot of money at every moment, and it is true that the war is very expensive, that is, the most common bullets, even if the price of one is not high, but it is used more, it is a very terrible cost.
Of course, this belongs to modern warfare, and the use of modern weapons, so there will be many people who think that the cost of ancient warfare will not be very high, because they do not have to consume ammunition or anything to fight wars, but is this really the case?
Figure 1
In fact, this is not the case, even the war consumption of the feudal era is very huge, grain, grass, weapons, equipment, for the previous underdeveloped era, these are very expensive.
Because of this, many countries in ancient times could not easily go to war, and there were not a few countries that could not afford to raise troops.
For the sake of military pay, even Cao Cao, the most powerful in the Three Kingdoms period, had to use disgraceful means for it, that is, tomb robbery. And the forces led by Cao Cao are still relatively rich, and the poorest must be Liu Bei, who started from scratch, so what did Liu Bei do for military pay? The means used were not more disdainful than Cao Cao's.
The military salary was urgent, and Cao Cao became a tomb robber
In the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao dispatched 400,000 troops to attack Wu and Shu, although it failed, but the main reason was that his men were all from the north, and it was difficult to accept the southern environment, plus the boats and cars were tired, and finally retreated to the north.
Even so, wu and Shu still regarded the state of Wei as the number one enemy, even if the state of Wei experienced this battle and was seriously injured, which also showed how strong the strength of the state of Wei really was.
Figure 2
At that time, the north was very chaotic, and the area was also very large, Cao Cao not only ruled the north for a long time, but also took time to deal with these two countries in the south, how huge the military strength was, and such a huge army, the cost was also very large, the north was very barren at that time, what did Cao Cao rely on to raise such a large army?
This has to mention Cao Cao's cleverness, there is not much else in the north, that is, there is a lot of land.
When Cao Cao did not fight in peacetime, he let his subordinates go down to plant land, and the advantage of this was that the problem of insufficient grain and grass was well solved, and when the army was fighting, there was no need to worry about the shortage of reserve grain and grass, and the soldiers had no worries.
But just by virtue of these, it is still impossible to completely solve the economic problem, after all, fighting a war requires not only grain and grass, but also money, although Cao Cao's power is huge, but at this time, the problem of the foundation has emerged, his power is not like some countries, with accumulated wealth, which makes Cao Cao very uncomfortable.
But if Cao Cao could do this, how could he be defeated by the problem of military pay?
At the beginning, Cao Cao was still relatively wealthy, and the Cao family was also a famous family in the Eastern Han Dynasty, when Cao Cao started by recruiting thousands of people and horses with these properties in his family, went to fight Dong Zhuo, and became one of the princes at that time. But relying on those family properties is certainly not able to last too long, so Cao Cao can only make some ill-gotten gains under such circumstances.
Figure 3
We all know that the ancients had a habit after death, that is, they liked to bury some valuables, especially some Wang Qiang nobles, and the number of funerary items was even more amazing. For example, Qin Shi Huang built his own mausoleum during his reign, which took more than 20 years and used countless gold and silver treasures.
This gave Cao Cao the opportunity to make a fortune, for this reason, he also specially set up the industry of touching the gold lieutenant, which was specifically responsible for tomb robbery, it can be said that in the territory of the Wei state at that time, the status of the lieutenant who touched the gold was also very high, everyone belonged to the official government, and the tomb robbery was not in any unseemly industry, after all, this was for Cao Cao.
Cao Cao thus became the grandfather of the tomb robbery industry, and his military salary problem was also solved, and he could go to war and attack the city and plunder the land.
Tomb robber grandfather
Cao Cao in the tomb robbery industry can really be called the grandfather, although Cao Cao robbed the tomb to subsidize the military, to feed his own army, but this behavior is still disgraceful, and Cao Cao himself also understands that the act of tomb robbery is very disgraceful, so he specially set up an institution to rationalize this behavior.
Figure 4
Therefore, a group of people were recruited to serve him, and the person in charge of it was General Faqiu Zhonglang, who specialized in managing the following tomb robbers, and these subordinates could not be without a name, and they could not all be called tomb robbers, so Cao Cao also arranged a position for these people, called Captain Touching Gold, and Touching Gold means people looking for wealth, just like this, an official tomb robbery squad was established.
Of course, Cao Cao's tomb robbery is not everything, and the tombs of some ordinary people Cao Cao will not be excavated specifically, after all, such tombs do not have any wealth to find.
Most of the tombs stolen by his tomb robber squad are imperial nobles or powerful princes, most of which will accompany the burial of a lot of wealth, and it is easy to find, after all, their descendants also need to be worshipped.
And this also gave Cao Cao a lot of help, otherwise the north was so big, in the Three Kingdoms period when the means of transportation was so backward, he wanted to find a needle in a haystack on his own.
But even if these high-value tombs, Cao Cao's theft is also divided into priorities, according to historical records, the Western Han nobles are the most abundant funerary after death, so cao cao robbery tombs are mostly based on the Western Han Dynasty, which can also be seen how professional Cao Cao's tomb robbery is, worthy of being the grandfather of the tomb robbery.
The most famous tomb of Cao Cao is the tomb of King Liang of Mangzhongshan, which is the tomb of a prince of the Western Han Dynasty, and the scale is very large, even the thirteen tombs in Beijing are far less than the scale of his mausoleum.
Figure 5
This person's name was Liu Wu, his grandfather was Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the Western Han Dynasty, and his father and brother were also the emperors of the Western Han Dynasty, and their status was very respected.
Cao Cao's theft of this tomb was simply a fortune, and the treasure obtained was enough for his army to use for a long time.
According to historical records, Liu Wu's period was the period of Wenjing's rule, the heyday of the Western Han Dynasty, and his brother and father were the founders of Wenjing's rule, so it is understandable that his mausoleum is so grand.
And the reason why Cao Cao also has a saying, that is, Cao Cao's father was killed in Xuzhou, Cao Cao was also angry, allowing his subordinates to burn and loot, and even rob the tomb, and therefore, let Cao Cao discover the huge profits of tomb robbery, so he set up a tomb robbery agency to rob the tomb, many people may say that this kind of behavior is not a hero, and Cao Cao's evaluation in history has never been a hero, but a tyrant.
Heroes refer to those who act mostly brightly and honestly, and The Tyrant xiong can do whatever it takes to succeed, which is also Cao Cao's character, when Cao Cao fell, he went to the old people to take refuge, because he heard some words, there were some misunderstandings, Cao Cao did not hesitate to kill this family, and also said a sentence that has been passed down through the ages: It is better to let me bear the people of the world than to let the people of the world bear me, which means that he can fail the people of the world for his own safety, and not let others touch his interests.
Figure 6
I would like to ask, what else can such a person not do, even if the tomb robbery is no longer disgraceful, as long as he can get what he needs, why not? Not only Cao Cao, but even Liu Bei, who is known as the Prince of Benevolence and Righteousness, also made some shameless means for military salaries, and Cao Cao's way of stealing tombs to obtain military salaries was much kinder than Liu Bei's.
Grave robbery shameful? The Shu state's means were even worse than those of the Wei state
The reason why Cao Cao can rely on tomb robbery is mainly because he dominates the north, has a territory that the other two countries cannot compare, plus many countries are set to the north, and most of the mausoleums are buried in the north, Cao Cao can rely on tomb robbery to maintain expenses, and the Shu state lives in Yizhou, and the territory is small and pitiful.
Even under Zhuge Liang's continuous conquest and efforts, there were only three provinces in the land, such a small place, the tombs were naturally very few, so the possibility of relying on tomb robbery to get rich was gone.
Although Shudi is rich and has always been called the country of Tianfu, it is only agriculture, so only the people are relatively rich, and the Shu kingdom led by Liu Bei is still very poor as a whole, and Liu Bei has always been known as the prince of benevolence and righteousness, and naturally cannot exploit the people on a large scale, otherwise it is easy to lose the hearts of the people.
And Liu Bei, as a figure who can be at the same level as Cao Cao, how can he be embarrassed by this, naturally he also has a method, but this method is very disgraceful, more spurned than Cao Cao's tomb robbery.
Figure 7
Liu Bei initially relied on the development of his wife Lady Mi's family, it was Lady Mi's two brothers who thought that it would become a great instrument, and only then did they pour out their family wealth to support Liu Bei, Liu Bei did not disappoint them, the power became stronger little by little, but the power became stronger at the same time, money also became something that could not be avoided, the people of Shudi at that time used five baht money, and Liu Bei minted some less valuable currency in order to get more wealth, exchanged with the people, in this cycle, over time, the people had no money in their hands, Liu Bei had a lot of money, There is also money to develop and go to war with other countries.
The real magnate, Jiangdong Wuguo
Compared with Cao Cao and Liu Bei, the two self-made people, Sun Quan can be said to have inherited the power of his brother Sun Ce, is a real rich son, not only that, Jiangdong itself is also very rich, first of all, there are few wars here, the development of the people is also very good, followed by local resources, the development of copper mines and salt farms in the State of Wu is very good, the state has money, the people's taxes are also very small, Sun Quan therefore has no military salary to worry about, after all, it is too rich.
The so-called extreme things must be reversed, too rich will also have some problems, such as embezzlement, the phenomenon of corruption in the State of Wu is very serious, even small officials can be greedy for a lot of property, but these problems are still nothing compared with Wei Shu's problems.
In this comparison, Cao Cao stole tombs for military pay, Liu Bei fooled the people's money for military pay, and only Sun Quan's State of Wu did not need to worry about the problem of military pay. Therefore, the fall of the State of Wu later than the State of Wei and the State of Shu seems to have something to do with this reason.
Figure 8
But this is the war, although Sun Quan has a rich land, but it is not out of thin air, it is his brother who fights with strength, and Liu Bei and Cao Cao do not have such a good environment, and can only be said to be unlucky.
Economic problems are a relatively important issue at any time, even in the era of feudal dynasties, the lifeblood of the country is also the economy, whether a country is strong or not, not only to see the military strength, but also to see the economic strength, as well as the living standards of the people, if the people of a country can not even eat enough, even if the military strength is strong, it is difficult to exist.
Even in such a chaotic world as the Three Kingdoms, it is difficult to survive without money, even if it is as strong as Cao Cao, he has to worry about money, and he cannot rely on plundering the property of the people, so the result can only be self-destruction, and the people's will is very important.
Liu Bei obviously understood this truth, so even if he attacked the people, he did not dare to plunder in an honorable manner, and could only use some means. This is also a helpless move, without military pay, even the army can not be fed, let alone fight.
Figure 9
From this point of view, Cao Cao robbed the tomb, Liu Bei pit money is actually not so difficult to understand, after all, in that era the winner is the king, and the winner has the right to speak.
Cruel facts, bad things will eventually be exposed
Cao Cao's behavior is shameful, Liu Bei's behavior is even more inferior, it can be said that these two behaviors will never be allowed now, but in the past, why did no one stop it, and no one criticized it?
Obviously, because Cao Cao and Liu Bei's forces at that time were strong enough, so strong that no one dared to say no. This is the rule since ancient times, just like the change of dynasties, it is accompanied by bloodshed, countless people suffer from the disaster of innocence, only you are strong enough to control your own destiny.
Cao Cao failed, Liu Bei failed, what they did for us can only be seen, and how many such dark things in history we do not know, in the past we can not stop, the future hope that everyone does not do this kind of thing, success there is no shortcut, so long things can be found now, let alone now?