Chapter 515 The situation is good [Subscription required]

Because they were at war with the Kushans, a map of the entire Kushan territory was hung on the wall of the study.

Cao Cao's eyes fell on the map.

There is a large area in the border area between Kushan and India that is being voluntarily abandoned by Kushan.

They were retreating significantly and re-positioning their defenses.

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were leading the Wei and Tianzhu armies in the pursuit.

During his retreat, Pujes organized several counterattacks, but they were all defeated by Guan and Zhang.

The border of the Kushan Empire was long from north to south and narrow from east to west. After Huang Zhong and Taishi Ci came down from the eastern line, they were only a few hundred miles away from the capital city of Furusha, and their troops headed straight for the heart of the country.

In addition, the important city in the north was conquered by Zhang Liao, and the Wei army was sending reinforcements from the Pamir Mountains in the western regions to support the occupation of Lan's city.

Nearly one-third of the Kushan Empire's northern lands were gradually annexed.

Bo Diao was afraid that he would not be able to sleep at night and would be restless.

Cao Cao reviewed the enemy and our own situation again, and his smile grew even wider.

His gaze continued to move north.

In the direction where Kushan and Kangju border each other is the historic city of Samarkand, the most prosperous place for East-West trade.

Wei Yan and Xu Huang, under Zhang Liao's orders, attacked Kangju in two routes.

When Kangju learned that Wei and Kushan had gone to war and Kushan was defeated, tens of thousands of people were killed in one battle.

Kangju also took the initiative to shrink its defense line.

Wei Yan and Xu Huang did not fight much, but their results were outstanding.

Kangju took the initiative to give way, and its important commercial center in the south, Samarkand, fell under the control of Wei.

Samarkand is a hub between the east and the west, and its geographical location is irreplaceable.

In the past, the Kushan Empire, including neighboring countries such as Parthia, all coveted Samarkand.

But if they restrain each other, they won't stand a chance.

It nominally belonged to Kangju, but was actually influenced and controlled by the Kushans.

Today's Wei is like a troublemaker, reshaping the order on the road to the West.

Cao Cao thought the situation was very good and the letter to the King of Kangju should be arriving soon.

At this stage, he prefers to play the role of a behind-the-scenes manipulator, mainly because there is a war on the front line and he cannot participate, so he relies on writing letters to push and influence the situation. The sense of participation of the behind-the-scenes manipulator manipulating the world comes out.

He sent letters to Kushan and Kangju respectively.

outside the window.

It is midsummer in August and the sun is shining brightly.

In Cao Cao's study, on the corridor near the inner palace, there were five tigers lying down, all soundly sleeping.

There was a draft there.

Yin wanted to stay cool, so he brought his entire family to sleep there, lying on their bellies, snoring loudly.

Yin was sleeping soundly, but his thick tail would still sweep from time to time, looking extremely leisurely.

Not far away, beside the viewing lake, Rui squatted in the shadow of a big tree, staring up at the treetops without blinking.

It found a cicada on a tree and hesitated whether to catch it.

afternoon.

The heads of several families, including Yu Wen, Cai Yong, the Xun family of Yingchuan, and the Chen family, were led by eunuchs into the Tongquetai Palace.

"Please wait here, my dear family heads. I will invite you to see His Majesty later."

The eunuch took them to the pavilion not far from the study to wait.

There was a gentle breeze in the attic.

The eunuch brought us some chilled fruit, which made us feel refreshed in the hot summer.

Yu Wen, who was wearing dark purple Hanfu and looked quite dignified, and Cai Yong, who was wearing a thin linen yellow shirt, stood at the window and looked into Cao Cao's study.

You can see quite a few people inside and outside the study.

Some of them even have disabilities.

One was missing an arm, and his sleeves were empty.

Two others were using crutches.

The strange thing is that no matter who came, Generals Dian and Xu stood at the door of the study without saying a word, but they were quite friendly to these people and talked to them in a low voice.

"Who is Your Majesty meeting?" Yu Wen asked curiously.

Cai Yong sighed: "These are some representatives of soldiers who have retired from battles over the years.

Their injuries were caused by fighting for our Great Wei."

"Your Majesty has revised the merit system this year. Based on the systems of the Qin and Han dynasties, it has further clarified the relevance of military merit, including how to place soldiers at all levels after they retire. This will allow these soldiers to enjoy the rest of their lives in peace."

Yu Wen said "oh" and was somewhat moved.

You must know that since the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the relationship between ordinary soldiers and generals and the ruling class was actually one of slavery and being enslaved.

Soldiers are controlled and serve by generals or even higher-ups.

In the army, generals often beat and scold their soldiers.

The relationship between the two is like that between a slave owner and his slaves.

Similar situations are not isolated cases, but a common phenomenon.

Cao Cao has been pushing forward reforms step by step to improve the status of soldiers. If they are injured in battles for the country, the Wei Dynasty will use the treasury's financial resources to support them for the rest of their lives.

Therefore, the army of the Great Wei had unprecedented cohesion.

Yu Wen, Cai Yong and others waited for more than half an hour before they saw Cao Cao personally come to the door of the study and send the wounded soldiers away.

Several people were immediately brought into the study by the eunuchs, and after the greetings, they sat down.

"It's almost done."

"At the beginning of spring, several of our families jointly sent out a message to summon all the noble families to come, and now they are all here."

Once a year, there is a gathering of various noble families.

Before and after the establishment of the Wei Dynasty, Cao Cao focused on attacking the gentry and the powerful class. But while doing so, he also had to use soft means to leave them a way out, and then organize them together to do something.

This is called shifting conflict.

For example, by allocating resources to them in a unified manner, the gentry benefited from it and made up for some of the losses caused by the Wei Dynasty's rectification of them.

Da Wei benefited from macro-control and achieved growth in economy, resources, etc.

The Yu family, the Xun family, and the Chen family were all supporters of Cao Wei and were also representatives of Cao Wei among the aristocratic families.

They came over to talk to Cao Cao, discussed the time for tea, and then left.

For this gathering of the nobles, the Yu family specially set aside a house for the heads of hundreds of noble families to discuss matters.

Afternoon application time.

People from the Yu, Xun, Cai, and Chen families came from Cao Cao.

When the nobles met, the annual resource allocation began.

The hall was packed with people, including guests from various families.

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"Samarkand is the most prosperous place for trade between the East and the West. In the past, caravans had to pay high taxes when entering and leaving Samarkand."

Yu Wen spoke first:
"I have good news for you all. Samarkand was conquered by our Wei a few days ago and has become ours."

There was a slight commotion in the hall.

"We took Samarkand?"

"So, we don't have to pay the transit tax when we go to Samarkand?"

"That's great. The profit will increase by at least 10%. The tax is the highest when entering and leaving Samarkand."

"Samarkand, was it really conquered by the Wei Dynasty?"

People from each family looked at Yu Wen.

Yu Wen nodded and said proudly, "Your Majesty said it yourself, it is absolutely true.

Our Great Wei's Western Expedition Army has captured Samarkand and brought it under our Great Wei's rule."

“His Majesty also said that Samarkand will be more open in the future and taxes will be reduced across the board.

Merchants from the Great Wei no longer have to pay extra transit taxes."

All the nobles showed expressions of ecstasy.

Samarkand is a treasure trove, a place where all parties meet and everyone is eyeing it. The Wei Dynasty could seize it just by saying so.

This kind of military strength suddenly gave rise to a strong sense of pride and resonance among the nobles who traded with foreign races.

But the subsequent behavior of many nobles was somewhat strange.

"A few years ago, the world was in chaos. To be honest, my Xu family didn't have a single grain of food left. As the head of the family, I only had one piece of clothing to wear every season."

Xu Shu, the head of the Guanzhong Xu family, suddenly changed the subject. It sounded like the Xu family had become impoverished.

"You are lucky. A few years ago, my family donated all the more than 20 cattle we raised to Dawei.

My Wang family was farming, and I almost went up to pull the plow myself." The head of the Qingzhou Wang family said.

"Even the official post station in Peng County, Xuzhou was donated by me, Zhang.

That is the ancestral house passed down by our ancestors. I took the initiative to hand it over in response to Your Majesty.

The county post is now used for office, and it is still the ancestral house of my Zhang family."

Cai Yong had never attended a gathering of aristocratic families before, so he was a little confused when he heard this.

Yu Wen began by saying that Samarkand had now become the territory of the Great Wei.

After hearing this, all the family heads began to cry poor collectively, and each one sounded more miserable than the other.

What is this routine?
Yu Wen lowered his voice and said, "They said that they had no surplus at home. In order to respond to our Great Wei, they almost spent all their wealth in previous years."

"So, it's a retreat to advance. If there are benefits later, you can fight for them boldly. If Your Majesty has the means to restrict them, you can leave room for mediation first."

Cai Yong's eyes were opened:

"Then let's cry louder than them and suppress them all, then we can talk about the next thing."

Yu Wen laughed: "I am not as good as you in this matter. You are talented in poetry and prose, and you are always quick-witted. You can improvise and cry for them to show that you are the poorest, leaving them speechless."

Cai Yong stroked his short beard, cleared his throat, attracted everyone's attention, and said:

"Please stop arguing. If it were a few years ago, my Cai family would have used all our wealth to support the Wei Dynasty.

I donated all my 40,000-volume collection of books, and now my family doesn’t have a single book.”

Yu Wen thought to himself, you are just crying poor.

Cai Yong added: "When my family was in the most difficult times, I went to the grave empty-handed."

The hall suddenly became quiet.

In this era, ancestor worship is given the highest priority. Every family with a little bit of status would offer the best things to their ancestors.

Cai Yong went to the grave empty-handed. Not only did his ancestors have nothing to eat, but even his ancestors had run out of food.

That's the lowest point in poverty, there's no way we can be any poorer.

What Cai Yong said was also full of sarcasm. He was mocking these aristocratic families for fooling people by saying that they had no spare money!
As long as everyone was not as miserable as Cai Yong and still brought things to the grave, no one would say anything.

Yu Wen laughed secretly, and then said that he would adjust the commercial taxes to further encourage traveling merchants.

Since ancient times, trade and speculation have always been highly profitable industries.

For the gentry, the profit from a trade trip was much greater than what they could earn as local landlords.

Cao Cao wanted to unite these remaining aristocratic families, transfer the past internal conflicts to external commercial competition, reduce internal resistance, and improve external circulation.

evening.

The sun is about to set.

Cao Cao walked leisurely from his former study to the inner residence.

When he arrived at Yu Qing's yard, he was stunned.

The scene inside the hall was somewhat strange and unprecedented.

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(End of this chapter)