In the early summer of the fifteenth year of Yanxi, the land of Jingzhou was peaceful. Except for the small frictions that continued to break out in the Yangtze River Basin, it was indeed peaceful.
Since the end of the Sixth Northern Expedition in the 13th year of Yanxi, Jingzhou's military and civilians have entered a two-year period of recuperation. However, in terms of agricultural production and people's lives, the weather is basically smooth and the country is peaceful and the people are safe.
As for the aristocratic families in Jingzhou, their lives are not necessarily so good, but, well, they are not too bad either.
Although there was some unpleasant quarrel with the court and Zhang Xi last year because of Huang Chong's incident, in the end both parties took a step back and maintained a tacit understanding, and Huang Chong was able to take office.
Since Huang Chong took office, there has been basically no trouble.
Huang Chong is still a bit like his father, smart and pragmatic. He chose to follow Zhang Xi's advice. After taking office as the prefect of Guiyang, he continued the policies that Kuai Qi had adopted when he was the prefect of Guiyang. There were basically no changes. The big and small families in Jingzhou breathed a sigh of relief.
In addition, Guiyang is located in a remote area. This place is poor. It will be a good harvest if it does not require help from other states and counties. The wealthy families of Jingzhou really have no immediate interests in Guiyang.
In the final analysis, it is still the same sentence. The Jingzhou family does not exclude outsiders from managing Jingzhou. What they exclude is that outsiders managing Jingzhou will harm the interests of the Jingzhou family.
Compared with outsiders, locals who are highly bound to their own interests and know the basics are naturally more likely to be accepted by the Jingzhou family.
But there are some things that the Jingzhou family understands to some extent. The current situation is no longer what it was thirty years ago. If you don't know how to adapt, you will be the one who will be unlucky in the end.
And the aristocratic families that have survived to this day are basically the ones who know how to adapt best.
Therefore, since Huang Chong is keeping his peace and guarding Guiyang County without causing any trouble, a group of Jingzhou aristocratic families are too lazy to trouble him.
Furthermore, something even more troublesome to the Jingzhou family is happening now.
In the first month of the fifteenth year of Yanxi's reign, Emperor Sun Quan of Wu suddenly issued an edict and issued a currency called "Daquan Dangqian" in Soochow specifically to deal with foreign trade.
Just for this name, everyone knows what Sun Quan's plan is, not to mention that the Han Dynasty has already had a precedent of straight money.
As a matter of fact, due to the closure of official trade channels in the early years, there was no one among the Jingzhou aristocratic families who did not participate in this officially endorsed smuggling activity.
After all, smuggling in the past was risky, and the soldiers guarding the border had to be bribed along the way, and the cost was also quite high.
Nowadays, as long as the Jingzhou family and Soochow settle settlements with hundreds of dollars for smuggling, the government will turn a blind eye, and the defenders at various checkpoints will give the green light. With such a good thing, who doesn't want to get a share of the pie? .
Although the Jingzhou Aristocratic Family also hates the direct hundred dollars, but this time it was officially given to the Jingzhou Aristocratic Family at half the price by the Han Dynasty. However, the Jingzhou Aristocratic Family can actually use the direct hundred dollars to extract a value from Soochow. Goods costing hundreds of dollars. After all, they are cutting the wool of Soochow. Which Jingzhou family is not making a lot of money? !
For this good thing, the Jingzhou aristocratic families are still very happy.
But, with the issuance of the so-called "Daquan Dangqian" by Soochow, and the regulations that it can only be used for foreign trade, the good days of the Jingzhou family have come to an end.
Everyone can see clearly that Sun Quan has suffered a loss from Zhi Baiqian, and he plans to retaliate with a tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye, and pay Daquan a thousand, which is ten times more cruel than Zhi Baiqian.
Jingzhou aristocratic families have tasted the benefits of straight money, how could they not know the disadvantages of large springs.
But the problem is, the Jingzhou family is unwilling to accept it, so this matter is not okay.
One is that Jingzhou Mu Zhangxi sent people to tell the major families that if they want to continue to engage in smuggling activities, they must unconditionally accept Daquan as a thousand, otherwise it will be easy for the official level to ban smuggling.
The other is that the official released news that it intends to resume official trade, and at the same time recognizes the effectiveness of Zhibaiqian and Daquan Dangqian.
It's easy to understand that it's easy to admit that Daquan is a Qiansi. After all, this thing was invented by Dahan himself. It's okay not to admit it. But what the hell is it that Daquan is admitting to Qiansi? !
If the Han Dynasty himself recognized the status of Daquan Dangqian as a substitute currency, then where could there be a way for private smuggling to survive? !
Apart from anything else, how could that guy Sun Quan not go all out to suppress private smuggling activities in Soochow to ensure his own value? ! Will the wealthy families in Soochow be willing to play smuggling with the Jingzhou family? ! Wouldn't it be nice to use Daquan as a thousand to harvest the wool of a big man on the official trading platform? !
When that time comes, the Jingzhou family will either give up the benefits brought by the smuggling activities, honestly follow the official trade channels, and accept the fait accompli, or they will accept Daquan as a pawn and continue to maintain the smuggling activities while losing part of the profits.
In fact, there is not much difference between the two. Both must accept Daquan's payment. However, if you go for official trade, you have to pay taxes, but for smuggling, you don't need to pay taxes.
In this comparison, the Jingzhou family had no choice but to hoard a large amount of money to reduce their losses in the smuggling trade. In doing so, they also recognized the use value of Daquan in disguise.
However, generally speaking, the Jingzhou family has indeed suffered a lot from those bastards like Soochow in the past six months. They are greedy and have no restraint at all.
No matter how hard you make money in the early stage, you will feel bad if you lose money in the later stage. This is the truest portrayal of the big families in Jingzhou now.
But unfortunately, the Jingzhou aristocratic families don't have many options for this.
The old methods of inciting, cajoling, creating civil unrest, etc., after the Huang Chong incident, everyone understood that, at least while Zhang Xi was in charge of Jingzhou, it was of no use at all. This old boy held military power.
Take the conventional route and impeach Zhang Xi through court channels, trying to transfer Zhang Xi away from Jingzhou. Don't be kidding, given Zhang Xi's status in the Han Dynasty and his popularity among the top officials, the memorial to impeach him would probably not even reach the level of Shangshu Province. make life difficult for.
Therefore, the Jingzhou aristocratic families found that they really had nothing to do with Zhang Xi. Apart from creating some public opinion to discredit Zhang Xi's character, there seemed to be nothing they could do to vent their anger.
The method of creating public opinion and discrediting Zhang Xi's character also went very poorly.
In the past, aristocratic families used this trick to no avail, because the power to control public opinion was in the hands of aristocratic families. But in this era, the most important thing for a person to be an official is reputation, especially the public evaluation of the place where he governs, which is particularly important.
It is difficult for people with a bad reputation to be reused by the court.
But this trick didn't work well for Zhang Xi.
First of all, Zhang Xi's official position has basically come to an end.
The official position is Minister of War, and the military position is Hussars General. If you go up further, you will probably enter the three provinces and be promoted to general.
In theory, it is impossible for these two positions to be held concurrently. No emperor would rest assured that military power and political power would be handed over to one person, except Zhuge Liang.
Obviously, Zhang Xi does not have the same status as Zhuge Liang in Liu Chan's heart. Naturally, he will not have the opportunity to enter the center. It is of no use to have a local reputation.
Secondly, Zhang Xi's reputation is actually not that good in this time and space.
Of course, people all over the world recognize Zhang Xi as a famous general, but because of the "women's clothing incident", he cheated Guo Huai twice, which led to people all over the world's reputation for Zhang Xi not being too high.
Giving away women's clothing once can be said to be a last resort and a last resort. It can be regarded as a sign of a man who does not stick to trivial matters.
But sending it twice in a row, and tricking the same person, it seems a bit mean to use such a trick.
At least in the Central Plains and Hebei regions, Zhang Xi's reputation is really not very good.
After all, the Central Plains region was Cao Wei's territory in the early years, and the Central Plains region controlled the world's public opinion. Even for people like Guan Yu, the Central Plains family did not think very well of him. While recognizing him as a famous general, they had to add One word of "arrogant" made Zhang Fei even worse. With another word of "violent", one can imagine how much better Zhang Xi's reputation would be.
No matter how much you smear such a person, it seems to be painless to him.
In addition to the third factor, there is a Yuelu Academy in Jingzhou, and one of the founders of this academy is Zhang Xi.
Yuelu Academy never accepts apprentices to teach, but it provides the world's collection of books, allowing students from all over the world to read the collection and exchange knowledge here. It also welcomes celebrities from all over the world to come to Yuelu Academy to give lectures. This is a modern large-scale library.
This academy has been in existence for almost twenty years. I don't know how many students from all over the world, scholars from poor families, and some who were affected by the war, came to Jingzhou to take refuge, and by the way, they enjoyed the benefits of the academy through the famous scholars and scholars who lived in Yuelu Academy.
As the saying goes, the Jingzhou aristocratic family who does not look at the monk's face but the Buddha's face is smearing Zhang Xi. If one-tenth of these students, scholars, famous scholars and great scholars can stand up and defend Zhang Xi with a few sentences, it is enough to help Zhang Xi. Cleaned up.
All in all, the Jingzhou Aristocratic Family was in trouble. They couldn't beat them, they couldn't scold them, they had to swallow the money they lost, and in the end they couldn't even get revenge.
It’s difficult! ! !
(End of chapter)
