Chapter 427: Annihilation of Northern Han, Military Reform

Richard had expected that silver coins would be sought after after they were issued, and he was even happy to see it happen. Compared with the wealthy families hoarding copper coins, Richard would rather they hoard gold and silver.

After all, ordinary people hardly use precious metals such as gold and silver, while copper coins are the most widely circulated coins. Ordinary people only use copper coins in their daily lives.

Even these people may not use silver coins in their lifetime, so the silver coins collected and hoarded by those wealthy families, powerful people, and officials and gentry have no effect on the common people.

On the contrary, in order to collect these silver coins, those wealthy families, powerful people, and officials and gentry need to take out copper coins to exchange. Without these people hoarding copper coins, there will naturally be more copper coins circulating in the market.

As for whether it will affect trade, Richard believes that it will not. Commodity transactions are carried out between big businessmen, and almost all big businessmen have backstages.

In the past, the imperial court produced millions of copper coins every year, but after they flowed into the market, the coins in the market were still insufficient. However, now that only a few hundred thousand silver coins have been sold, the shortage of money in the market has been alleviated a lot.

In fact, for copper coins and silver coins, this is also a behavior of bad coins driving out good coins. In comparison, silver coins are good coins and copper coins are bad coins. People will spontaneously collect silver coins instead of chasing copper coins.

After seeing this situation, Richard and Guo Rong are ready to increase the suppression of silver coins. Now the imperial court can suppress 700,000 silver coins a year, and because of the scarcity of silver coins, the original profit of only 15% has directly become 35%.

The value of a silver coin is one guan, but the actual purchasing power is 1.2 guan or even 1.3 guan. The fiscal revenue of the imperial court has increased by more than 100,000 guan at once. And it will be like this for a long time, and it will continue until the number of silver coins is sufficient.

But the problem is that silver coins have been in short supply for a long time, coupled with the Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road that will be reopened in the future. At that time, it will inevitably be accompanied by a large outflow of silver coins.

The outflow of silver coins will also bring a large amount of materials into the country, and a large amount of silver and gold will also flow in. Generally speaking, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

The court had accumulated a large amount of silver in the past, and all of this silver was transported to the Baoquan Bureau to suppress silver coins.

"Mr.'s silver coin law is really useful, and it has increased the national treasury's income by millions of guan at once!" Guo Rong said with conviction.

"It looks okay now, but future generations may not necessarily abide by it!" Richard said lightly: "All we can do is try our best to set up a perfect system."

The court did not include silver in the scope of currency before. This time, silver was made into currency, and all the silver in the court's Taifu was directly turned into circulated currency. It increased the court's income by millions of guan.

At the same time, Richard and Guo Rong ordered the mines to be nationalized. This practice has been normal operation throughout the dynasties, and these belong to the emperor's private property, not the court's money.

Richard and Guo Rong formulated the Taifu and Shaofu system to separate the national treasury from the emperor's inner treasury. The advantage of this is that the emperor cannot use the money of the national treasury to enjoy it at will.

At the same time, national taxes were stipulated, of which agricultural taxes and commercial taxes were paid to the national treasury 80% and to the inner treasury 20%. Mountains, rivers, and lakes, that is, mineral taxes, were paid to the inner treasury 50% and the national treasury 50%.

There were so many mines that the emperor could not manage them at all, so he could only let the court collect taxes and then divide the taxes 50-50. The Baoquan Bureau was controlled by the royal family, and the profits from suppressing silver coins were enjoyed exclusively by the royal family. However, the court could also enjoy the premium of silver coins.

Richard formulated a complete system, but it is unknown how many years these systems can run.

With the Zhou Kingdom taking back the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, the connection between the Northern Han and the Khitan was cut off. The Northern Han originally occupied only the surrounding areas of Taiyuan, which is equivalent to the central and northern parts of Shanxi Province today.

However, after Guo Rong went north and defeated the Khitan, he also gave the Northern Han a few big slaps, occupied Yanmen Pass and part of Xinzhou, and completely blocked the Northern Han in the Taiyuan Basin.

Now the Northern Han only has the Taiyuan Basin and several states near Jinyang City.

Although Li Yun did not launch a major war against the Northern Han, he often harassed the Northern Han, making it impossible for them to farm.

The territory of the Northern Han is surrounded by mountains, which makes Jinyang easy to defend and difficult to attack, but also limits the development of Jinyang. Because only the area near the Taiyuan Basin is easy to farm, and other places are mountainous.

Even if the Northern Han can be broken by force, it will inevitably cause huge casualties due to its strong defense. Therefore, Guo Rong decided to adopt a harassment tactic, that is, to send a small force to plunder Jinyang while the Northern Han is plowing in spring.

These soldiers will forcibly abduct the people of Jinyang and then settle them in Youzhou. After the rule of the Khitan, coupled with factors such as war, the population of the Sixteen States of Yanyun is insufficient. This kind of harassment operation can not only weaken the strength of the Northern Han, but also increase the population of the Sixteen States of Yanyun.

This kind of fighting method may not seem to have much effect each time, with at most a dozen people, but in the long run, the number of people plundered will be considerable. More importantly, a large area of ​​land in the Northern Han Dynasty has become barren, which is an unbearable blow to the Northern Han Dynasty, which is already a small country with few people.

A large number of spring farmlands in the Northern Han Dynasty were destroyed, and the population was plundered. After finally waiting for the autumn harvest, Li Yun once again sent a large number of soldiers to attack the Northern Han Dynasty.

This time, the attack on the Northern Han Dynasty was not to kill the enemy's living forces, but to rob food. Even if not much food could be robbed, it would force the Northern Han Dynasty to fortify its walls and clear the fields.

The Northern Han Dynasty was originally short of food. Once the city was cleared of food, it would inevitably cause a shortage of food in the city. If the city was not cleared of food, the food would be taken away by Li Yun. It would be better if the Northern Han Dynasty sent a large army to fight Li Yun. The Northern Han Dynasty had at most 30,000 troops, of which only more than 10,000 were elite soldiers.

Guo Rong had 30,000 troops left in Youzhou, plus the army guarding the south of the Northern Han Dynasty and the Dingnan Army. The Northern Han Dynasty can be said to be surrounded by enemies. If it were not for the mountains and rivers, the Northern Han Dynasty would have been destroyed long ago.

And if the Northern Han Dynasty abandoned the city and fought with Li Yun, Li Yun would wake up with a smile in his dreams. This was a merit of destroying a country, and he might even be crowned a king.

Liu Jun wanted to counterattack Li Yun's attack several times, but the Northern Han Dynasty, without the support of the Khitan, had no power to fight back against the Zhou Dynasty.

He wanted to resist, but the Northern Han army was defeated in succession and could only be trapped in Jinyang in the end.

Li Yun's blunt-knife-cutting-flesh tactics lasted only a year, and the territory of Northern Han became desolate, the population was sparse, and the fields were barren.

Originally, the population of Northern Han was not large, only 500,000 or 600,000. During this year, people kept fleeing Northern Han, and now the population of Northern Han is likely to be less than 400,000.

Coupled with continuous harassment, Jinyang City has been short of food and grass. In order to maintain the food of the army, Liu Jun could only plunder the food of those people. This caused a large number of people to flee Northern Han.

Li Yun received all these fleeing people, even if there were spies from Northern Han among them. A large amount of wasteland in the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun was distributed, and the population was also increasing rapidly.

After more than a year, the national strength of Northern Han became increasingly weak, and many of the original 30,000 troops began to seek other ways out.

Just after the spring of the second year, there were still a few months before the summer grain harvest, and many people had no surplus food. Li Yun directly asked people to publicize in Northern Han that Youzhou opened its warehouses to release grain, and all refugees and displaced people could obtain 20 acres of land in Youzhou for reclamation, and the government provided agricultural tools and food.

So a large number of Northern Han people who could not survive began to flee in large numbers. Liu Jun wanted to stop them, but many soldiers also ran away. Anyone can see that Northern Han is already on the decline.

In this situation, Guo Rong immediately ordered Li Yun to attack Northern Han.

At this time, Northern Han had little strength, and Li Yun's army could be said to be unstoppable.

Many cities surrendered, and soon the army advanced to the city of Jinyang. At this time, only Jinyang City was left in Northern Han.

Facing the high-spirited Zhou army outside the city, there were only 10,000 defenders in Jinyang City, but the food and grass in the city were also insufficient, and the morale in the city was low. Li Yun asked people to build a platform with earth outside the city, and then set up hundreds of catapults on the high platform, throwing stones or kerosene tanks into the city day and night.

At the same time, archers were ordered to shoot arrows into the city, and all arrows were tied with letters of persuasion to surrender.

Guo Rong ordered that only surrender could save lives, and if great merits were achieved, he would be rewarded. After defeating the Khitan and regaining the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, Guo Rong's reputation was extremely high, and many people were willing to believe him.

Liu Jun, the emperor of the Northern Han Dynasty, also recognized the Khitan emperor as his uncle. The relationship between the local people and the Khitan was not good, and now that they recognized a foreign race as their uncle, their sense of identity with the Northern Han Dynasty became even weaker.

Now that they have received Guo Rong's promise, many soldiers are floating in their minds and are unwilling to fight again. At the same time, many local tyrants and aristocratic families have other thoughts in their hearts.

In just three days, soldiers in Jinyang City mutinied and opened the city gates. Li Yun's army took the opportunity to attack the city, and a large number of Northern Han soldiers laid down their weapons and surrendered. On the other side, Liu Jun saw that the situation was over and had to surrender.

Li Yun sent people to send Liu Jun's family to Kaifeng, and at the same time, he petitioned the court to send officials to the Northern Han to receive the Northern Han's legacy.

After Fengwu Youzhou, the loyalty of the Zhou army has been greatly improved. If it were in the past, in a war like this to destroy a country, only the emperor would be relieved if he led the army in person. He was afraid that his generals would turn around and establish their own country after leading the army.

This time, Li Yun destroyed the Northern Han and had the merit of destroying the country, but he still did not dare to usurp the slightest bit. The Northern Han treasury in Jinyang City was directly sealed by him. Soldiers entering the city were not violated. These soldiers have walked out of the chaos of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms and began to move towards a unified dynasty.

When Guo Rong learned that Li Yun led his army to attack and destroy the Northern Han, he was very happy, so he named Li Yun the Duke of Xinyang, added a thousand households of food, and added the title of General of the State, and the title of Shangzhuguo.

It can be said that Li Yun directly became the first military general of the Zhou Dynasty.

After the Northern Han Dynasty was pacified, Richard sent officials to the Northern Han Dynasty to take over and transport a large amount of food and supplies to help the Northern Han Dynasty resume production.

At this time, the Northern Han Dynasty had less than 300,000 people left, and a large number of people fled. Fortunately, the war did not last too long and the casualties were not large. After the court sent officials to come, it quickly returned to normal.

At the same time, Richard directly implemented equal land in the Northern Han Dynasty. At this time, the population of the Northern Han Dynasty was small, a large number of fields were barren, and the aristocratic families were even more powerless to resist. It was a good time to implement equal land.

Richard distributed land to these people, and at the same time, he distributed a lot of vacant wasteland to soldiers. Richard was going to implement the Fubing system here.

The chaos of the Five Dynasties had not yet subsided, and Taiyuan was beyond Yanmen Pass to the north, which was the grassland Khitan. A large number of soldiers needed to be stationed here all year round. If recruiting soldiers or stationing imperial guards. It would inevitably cost a lot of money and food.

The best way is the Fubing system. As for the military household system of the Ming Dynasty, there are too many shortcomings. More importantly, the military household system of the Weisuo collapsed too quickly. After all, soldiers not only have to fight, but also have to bear higher taxes than farmers. For these domineering warriors in the Five Dynasties, if you promote the military households of the Weisuo today, they will dare to rebel tomorrow.

The military household system implemented by Zhu Yuanzhang looks like a variant of the Fubing system. The military households are allocated land, and then each household needs to send one person to serve as a soldier. The Fubing system is the same.

But the difference is that the military household system is not responsible for money and food. The land they cultivate and the grain they earn need to be handed over to the state as taxes, and part of it is used as military food, which is self-sufficient.

It seems that this system is very good. The military households are completely self-sufficient. The court does not need to allocate a penny to feed a million troops. It can be said that Zhu Yuanzhang is too smart in his calculations. But people are not fools. If you implement the military household system like this, not only will you have to go to war, but the taxes will be higher than those of farmers. Who is willing to fight?

Because the military households were hereditary, they had very little room for advancement. They had to cultivate land and fight, but there were no rewards. The social status of the military households was low. In addition, the officials of the garrisons controlled almost everything of the local military households. Under this system of both, it would be strange if the military households had a strong fighting spirit and good combat capabilities.

The result was that within a few decades of the founding of the country, the garrisons system collapsed rapidly.

On the contrary, the fubing system was much better. The fubing system also granted fubing land. Fubing needed to cultivate land. During war, they had to prepare their own weapons and horses to go to war. However, the fubing system was exempt from taxes. They only needed to serve in the military, and no other labor and taxes had to be paid.

This attracted a lot of people.

The reason for the corruption of the fubing system was the corruption of the equal-field system. The destruction of the equal-field system, in the early days of the country, the population was sparse, and the equal-field system could be continuously promoted, but when the population gradually increased, the equal-field system could not be implemented.

And the fubing had no land, so it naturally did not exist.

Finally, in the middle Tang Dynasty, the fubing system was corrupted and the only way to use the recruitment system was to use it.

This time, Richard planned to improve the military system and re-establish it in some places.