This involves a deeper issue.
That is, should a monarch be generous or stingy?
This quality that should belong to the monarch can affect too many things.
For example, when a monarch first rises and is generous to the generals who follow him, he will naturally gain the support of these descendants and even the nobles. At this time, it actually has no impact on the people and common people.
On the contrary, if the monarch is too stingy and petty, he will naturally not be followed by others.
Liu Zheng believed that in the initial stage of development, the Baiya Army must have been generous, even with the generosity of the Jianghu habit, eating meat in big mouths and drinking wine in big bowls. Even these Baiya heroes who were born in the grass and had a mass base made the Baiya Army famous and began to build the first horse farm of the Longyan Dynasty.
However……
Generosity is actually not an invincible weapon. If your generosity does not bring you praise, this quality will begin to damage your interests and reputation.
If you act morally and legitimately generous without being known, you will not escape the infamy that is the opposite of generosity. So, if one hopes to have a reputation for generosity, it is inevitable that some element of luxury will come with it!
For example, the "White Cliff Palace" where Liu Zheng is now!
It seems to be even more magnificent than the Prefect's Mansion. Let's not talk about whether this is feasible in terms of theory or whether it is too disrespectful to the Prefect's Mansion. It can be said that the Baiya Army built such a palace to give their brothers and sisters a "place to settle down", but what did the people think when they saw it?
Let’s talk about the contribution made by the Baiya Army to Baiya Prefecture.
Yes.
Baiyajun's business brought prosperity to the state, and even funded road construction, schools, bridges, and various projects to benefit the people... This did win a lot of people's hearts and support from the people in the early stage. .
But what?
The common people have become accustomed to your generosity, and the gang of people under your command have become accustomed to your generosity.
Slowly, the generosity will begin to escalate.
In the end, in order to continue his reputation of generosity, the monarch will only exhaust his financial resources, which can easily go to an extreme... If he wants to continue his reputation of generosity, he will inevitably increase the burden on the people and impose excessive taxes. Get money at any cost!
This must exist.
The Baiya Army is not Yinzhou.
The places where they can create profits, besides the racecourse, are the various taxes taken from the prefect's mansion...
So, once this happens, you can imagine the mood of the people.
You are extravagant yourself, so you come to exploit us?
At this point, they won't care about what you did to benefit the people, they will only see the superficial existence! This luxurious palace, the high-ranking White Cliff Army, and those noble men in rich robes!
This way.
When the White Cliff Army lost the respect of the people, this kind of generosity became infamous!
Quite the opposite is true.
If Liu Zheng was the leader of the White Cliff Army, he wouldn't care about the reputation of being stingy. He will let others see the frugal side of this place. Even if the income is abundant, it will still be frugal and even stingy. This will actually bring more security to the people. Because of thrift, we have enough military power to deal with wars, and we can accomplish great things without burdening the people. This is true generosity!
There are many such examples in human history.
In the Middle Ages, Pope Giulio ascended to the papacy with the help of his reputation for generosity. But in order to launch a war, he later ignored the name of generosity. King Louis XII of France, also for the war, did not increase taxes on the people, but relied on his long-term savings and "stinginess" to provide for his Additional expenses.
Bai Yajun is indeed very rich...
However, when the world is about to be in chaos, they still fail to practice frugality and fail to give the people a sufficient sense of security!
Then, at this time, generosity has really become a bad virtue!
"Brother Liu, what are you thinking about? Let's go, let's go. Brothers know your reputation and have prepared a banquet for you. Let's drink and drink!"
Du Biao suddenly laughed and came over.
Yang Ke also smiled and invited Liu Zheng.
Liu Zheng could only follow the guests as they came, and followed the two of them to a huge banquet hall. Sure enough, as Liu Zheng thought, the grandeur of this hall was probably similar to the palaces on TV in later generations.
Luxurious, extravagant, golden pillars, various palace lanterns, screens, decorations...
Before Liu Zheng walked in, there was already a group of dancers dancing inside, making sounds of silk and bamboo.
A feeling of singing and dancing, and being drunk and dreaming, came to my face.
Liu Zheng was quite unaccustomed to this and his expression was worried.
Yang Ke said with a smile: "Brothers, we have been together through life and death, and we are what we are today. Aren't you used to it, sir? People in the world, regardless of etiquette, you should be humble."
Du Biao laughed and said: "Brother Liu is also a happy-go-lucky person. Why do you have so many explanations? Come and sit down!"
Liu Zheng smiled bitterly and said nothing.
He finally understood why the Baiya Army owned the best horse farm in the world and was still clinging to the refined salt business. Even if it is extremely risky, they still have to do it. Because their lives are too short of money!
You can make money too much, but you can also spend money too much, so you will be too short of money!
As the old saying goes, it is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it is difficult to go from luxury to frugality. No matter how reckless they were before, when this gorgeous palace was built, it meant that they would never be able to return to their previous life of eating hair and drinking blood.
And this is precisely what Liu Zheng is most worried about.
Bai Yajun is now extremely ill... and it's not just a disease!
The first disease is that the system is not strict, there is no distinction between levels, calling brothers and sisters, and the bad habits of gangs and lakes are too strong!
The second disease is luxury, excessive taxation, isolation from the masses, and alienation from morality!
The third disease is that the army has just been defeated, there is no summary, and the enjoyment is still endless. Treat people's lives as nothing. Otherwise, why didn't any of these "heroes" in front of us go when we were fighting against the Huns? Only Yang Ke led an army of 70,000 people. There is only one reason. They know that this battle will be defeated, and they have no intention of fighting at all. All they have left are cannon fodder from the common people!
But these "senior generals" are still drinking and having fun here!
What Liu Zheng saw in these people at this time was no longer the shadow of the heroes of the Water Margin, but the appearance of the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom...
He drank and thought.
The Baiya dilemma seems to be getting more and more difficult.
He felt a little regretful about Bai Ya and his party.
But now that he is here and he has been assassinated, there is no reason to leave!
…
Yinzhou.
Silver Beach City.
Zheng Yueru has already rushed back.
Qingyang Shuo saw Liu Zheng's autographed letter and smiled lightly: "Young Master wants to take advantage of this war horse contract meeting to sell weapons. Are you a little impatient?"
Zheng Yueru was stunned: "Mr. Qingyang, isn't this the best opportunity?"
Qingyang Shuo sighed and said calmly: "Baiya Army, if you don't get rid of the gangster spirit, you are not worth working with!"
Jiang Xuan and Zheng Yueru looked at each other.
This Baiya Army is famous all over the world, but you actually say it's not good enough to work with?
If it weren't for the fact that Qingyang Shuo was indeed a great talent, they would have started to curse him.
Qingyang Shuo continued: "The Baiya Army has gold and jade on the outside, but it is defeated in the middle. If the young master is plotting against Baiya, and he is soft-spoken, he will not be able to catch it. The Baiya Army only has 20,000 troops left. How can the Prefecture and Liangzhou Prefecture Are you going to take advantage of the situation? By then, the young master will be messed up all over for nothing, and it’s really not worth it!"
Zheng Yueru's face condensed: "Sir, what should we do?"
Jiang Xuan also understood.
After this battle, the White Cliff Army will definitely become the target of public criticism. Even if there is some kind of war horse contract meeting this time, I am afraid it will not stop others from coveting the White Cliff Army.
Under such circumstances, if Liu Zheng stepped in, he would be in a very embarrassing and even dangerous situation!
If you win, you won't get anything, and you will even offend Baiya Prefecture and Liangzhou Prefecture for no reason. Even now, even the queen, Zheng Yuxing, will have a gap in her heart. The most important thing is that Liu Zheng doesn't have the strength yet to be able to defeat Bai Ya, a person who is comparable to Liangzhou Prefecture.
But what about losing?
Then you really can't get anything, and you still have to put in 30,000 troops.
Qingyang Shuo smiled lightly and said: "Although Young Master is a bit radical, he always has his own unique ideas."
"The matter is not without a chance of winning. After all, the young master has done a great job in repelling the Xiongnu. If you can appreciate it based on your merits, if you can get a magistrate, it will be justifiable."
Zheng Yueru and Jiang Xuan looked at each other with great joy.
Zhou Tong is the assistant officer of the state official. From the sixth grade, it is the same level as the state judge. But if you go up to the next level, you will have to go from the fifth level to barely be a magistrate. This is based on official position. In terms of official positions and titles, Liu Dahao's current position is only that of a state magistrate, which is still some distance away from being a fourth-grade prefect. But Liu Dahao can already take charge of the affairs of the two states.
If Liu Zheng could go to Zhizhou, it would be natural for him to take up the post of Baiya.
You know, the current Baiya Prefect Zhang Chengjiang is only one step older than Zhizhou.
Taking office at a higher level is not uncommon in this era.
"Jiang Xuan!"
Qingyang Shuo suddenly said.
Jiang Xuan perked up and said, "The general is here!"
"Whether the young master can walk out of the white cliff alive depends on you this time."
"Immediately take your special agent team to Baiya to rescue the young master!"
"yes!"
