Wang Zhang's method of amassing money was deeply praised by Kong Qian. the student surpasses the master.
First, it is throttling.
Wang Zhang, who has been engaged in financial work for a long time, has developed a keen eye, discerning every detail, and is good at discovering details, and then focusing on the big ones and letting go of the small ones to reduce financial expenditures.
What is big? war. In addition, all public expenditures must be reduced.
Secondly, it is open source.
Money should not only be saved, but also earned.
According to the practice at that time, when people paid taxes and grain to the government, they had to pay an extra 2% of "sparrow consumption", but Wang Zhang ordered the increase to 20%, which was called "saving consumption", which increased it ten times;
At that time, the "Duan Mo Qian" was 80 to a hundred. Regarding "Duan Mo" and "Zu Mo", we have already described it in detail in the previous article. In short, 80 Wenqian was circulated as 100 Wenqian, and the government recognized it. Wang Zhang created the "Provincial Mo", that is, when the people pay taxes to the government, they will use 80 yuan as 100 yuan, and when the government needs to pay the people, they will use 77 yuan as 100 yuan. One out and one in, 3.75%. handling fee;
Mathematics question, intuitive feeling is 3% handling fee, that is (80-77) ÷ 100 × 100%. In fact, this has nothing to do with 100. A little analysis: the government uses 77 yuan to exchange the people for 80 yuan, and loses 3 yuan for every 80 yuan. Instead of losing 3 coins for every 100 coins, it should be (80-77)÷80×100%=3.75%. 3 points is too gentle, and Wang Zhang is more ruthless than you think.
Third, in order to protect the profits of the government's monopoly operation, Wang Zhang, Shi Hongzhao, Yang Bin and other departments jointly worked together to formulate what can be called the most stringent anti-smuggling order in history, strictly prohibiting private salt, illicit wine, and illicit alum trading. Anyone who sells a grain of salt, a drop of wine, or a lump of alum shall be beheaded;
Fourth, wage deductions.
The object of Wang Zhang’s deductions was civilian officials. Naturally, the military pay for soldiers must be paid in full, while for civilian officials’ salaries, not only must they be replaced with inferior ones, but they must also be withheld, which is called “overestimation”;
Finally, whenever there is a land dispute among the people, local officials must be ordered to conduct a state-wide re-inspection. The name is to strictly investigate property disputes, but in reality it is an opportunity to investigate "hidden land". To put it bluntly, it is to track down tax evasion.
In short, after Wang Zhang's set of punch combinations, the national treasury was indeed full, but the people were miserable. Historical records record that "the world was in deep trouble" and "the people suffered greatly".
3.2 Grudges with the Civil Service Group
In terms of attitude towards civil servants, Wang Zhang was in step with Shi Hongzhao and Yang Bin. They were all very contemptuous and disgusted. Wang Zhang has publicly stated many times, "What is the use of the country in raising these literati? Give him an abacus and he can't use it, so what else can he do?"
For example, the "overestimation" mentioned above is Wang Zhang's exploitation of the civil servant group. At that time, officials' salaries were composed of various forms, such as cash, silk, and grain; and grain was also divided into three, six, and nine grades, and different prices were converted according to the quality of the grain.
When Wang Zhang distributed grain, he distributed high-quality grain to the army and low-quality grain to civilian officials. Although the grains distributed were of poor quality, they were converted into high-quality grains. On top of this, Wang Zhang also deliberately inflated the valuation. This is the "overestimation" mentioned above.
The practice of "high valuation" offended the entire civil service group.
After sorting and summarizing, it can be seen that although Shi Hongzhao, Yang Bin, and Wang Zhang all disliked the civil servant group, their political demands only limited and weakened the power and influence of the civil servant group, and did not rise to the level of a life-and-death political struggle. There was no plan to physically eliminate the civil service group. Although Shi Hongzhao had the urge to kill Su Fengji, it had nothing to do with politics and was entirely a personal grudge.
Similarly, the civil servant group headed by Su Fengji also hated the military general group. However, it is impossible to limit the power of the military generals group. How can it be possible for the country to use military forces everywhere and emphasize civility over military force?
Su Fengji also launched a tentative attack on the general group, using Li Tao to ask for directions. This question revealed the military commander's strong backer - Queen Mother Li.
Fortunately, Li Tao was tough and didn't expose Su Fengji, the mastermind behind the scenes. After this small trial, the military general group was in full swing, while the civilian official group remained silent.
However, the blows to the civil servant group are coming one after another. Liu Chengyou began to cultivate his own party members, namely the "Uncle Clan Xiao", which was an emerging political force and the nouveau riche among the nouveau riche.
These upstarts wanted to seize power, cut the profit pie of the Later Han Dynasty, and get a piece of the political gluttony. In other words, they want to shake the interests of the civil servants group and the military generals group and take advantage of them. Their only capital is the secret support of Empress Dowager Li and the Emperor.
The power structure has been broken, and the most uneasy group is the civil servant group, because it is easier to snatch meat from their mouths.
Su Fengji reached the most critical moment. After thinking calmly, Su Fengji quickly found out the key to the problem:
1. The "small uncle clan" is unstoppable. Although Li Ye, Yan Jinqing, Nie Wenjin, Houzan, Guo Yunming and others are all unknown and small roles, behind them are Empress Dowager Li and Liu Chengyou, so they will be in the next political struggle , it must exist like cheating, and it cannot be underestimated. It can even be said that they must be the final winner.
2. The attack scope of "the uncle's ethnic group is small" is very wide, not only targeting the civil servant group, but also the flourishing military general group. The Later Han Dynasty is about to usher in a major reshuffle.
As a result, Su Fengji immediately made the right choice: to side with the "little uncle" and guide him to bite the general group.
The reason why the generals group was able to dominate in the Later Han Dynasty was because of Empress Dowager Li's favoritism. When Empress Dowager Li also began to cultivate the "uncle", the military generals group became the stepmother, and the "uncle" was the biological son.
However, in order to completely overthrow the military commanders group, it is not enough to make Empress Dowager Li "transfer to others", but also to make her completely hate and abandon the military commanders group.
Su Fengji was waiting for this opportunity. This opportunity will come quickly.
Shi Hongzhao and other ministers who had entrusted them with the responsibility did not get rid of the historical law of relying on merit and pride. They relied on the achievements of the founding of the country and were arrogant. They never paid attention to the young master Liu Chengyou. In addition, due to their nature, they had many deficiencies in their conduct. As " In the "Li Tao Case", Empress Dowager Li's favoritism made Shi Hongzhao and others even more arrogant and took the initiative to dig a fire pit for themselves.
The rapid rise of the "small uncle ethnic group" also aroused the vigilance of the military general group. However, unlike Su Fengji's calm analysis, Shi Hongzhao and other general groups still adopted a simple and crude way to deal with it. They did not even realize that "the small uncle ethnic group" "The driving forces behind the rise are Queen Mother Li and Liu Chengyou, or they are aware of it but don't take it seriously.
