Just when Gao Congjie of Nanping decided to please Zhang Zhao, Meng Shu, who was entrenched in the land of Bashu, was also nervously inquiring about the outcome of the war between Zhou and Tang.
However, for Meng Shu, who was living in the southwest at this time, it was too difficult to get news from the southeast.
They originally got the news from Gao Congjie in Nanping. However, after Gao Congjie decided to please Zhang Zhao, he did not report the situation to Meng Shu.
Therefore, it was not until Zhang Zhao's squadron returned to the court and almost reached Kaifeng Mansion in Tokyo that Meng Shu received the news that the war situation was extremely unfavorable to the Southern Tang Dynasty.
But this was enough. Because of the distance, Meng Shu could not wait for complete and accurate information before planning.
And according to the current situation, there are only two options: direct destruction of the Southern Tang Dynasty or surrender.
At the same time, Meng Shu's own situation was not optimistic. After the failure of the enterprising war in Guanzhong, Zhang Qianzhao brought more than 30,000 people with him, but only a few thousand returned.
An Siqian's more than 10,000 troops were completely wiped out, and even An Siqian himself died in the battle.
Only Sun Hanshao reluctantly brought back more than 10,000 elite Shu troops who entered Fengxiang Mansion. After that, Meng Chang urgently closed all the passes out of Sichuan, and people slowly calmed down.
But this move is not completely beneficial to Meng Shu. A very simple reason is that if sealing off the surrounding areas is completely beneficial to Shu, any regime in Sichuan in history can choose to completely seal itself off.
If the plank road is burned down and the sword pavilion is blocked, will there really be no heaven left?
But in fact it is not, because since the Western Han Dynasty, the most important economic activity in Shu is brocade weaving, and the largest buyers of brocade and silk in Shu are often Guanzhong and the Central Plains.
Now that Meng Chang has blocked the road out of Shu for seven or eight months, the amount of brocade and silk in the treasury has accumulated to a terrifying figure, and it is still increasing.
This thing cannot be used by ordinary people, let alone suitable for wearing.
No one wears brocade or satin clothes to work in the fields, otherwise the clothes will be scratched in a short time.
It is obviously impossible for officials and wealthy households in Shu to digest so much Shu brocade alone, not to mention that they are the largest manufacturers of this stuff.
Therefore, after being closed for seven or eight months, the price of Shu brocade fell to a terrible level.
This has greatly reduced the income of people near the Chengdu Plain. If it is not open to the outside world, mulberry farmers, raw silk processors and even a large number of weavers engaged in manufacturing around Chengdu will lose their jobs.
This was a result that the Meng Shu court could not bear at all.
And this has almost become an unsolvable problem for Meng Shu and even the separatist Shu regimes in the past dynasties. That is, the population of the Chengdu Plain is completely unable to digest the brocade and silk produced in Shu.
For example, during the Shu Han regime during the Three Kingdoms period, although Zhuge Liang left Qishan seven times, his trade with Shu brocade with Cao Wei and Soochow did not stop. He even opened a southwest trade route to sell Shu brocade to South Asia.
So at that time, although Shuzhong mobilized troops one after another, few people opposed it.
During the Jiang Wei period, Jiang Boyue was not as capable as Zhuge Liang, and could not replace defense with an active offensive posture out of Qishan Mountain, so he could only carry out focused attack mode, and other places needed to be defended by blocking plank roads and other methods.
At the same time, Cao Wei also reacted and restricted the sales of Shu Brocade.
As a result, the people in Shu were filled with resentment, and everyone was dissatisfied with Jiang Wei.
Because the Shu brocade could not be sold, everyone suffered heavy losses. As soon as the remnants of the Wei army entered Bazi in western Sichuan, powerful families and aristocratic families surrendered one after another.
Moreover, when the Panzhihua Iron Mine was not discovered in Sichuan, the entire Sichuan was extremely short of metal, and there was not even enough copper to cast copper coins.
As for the iron coins in Sichuan, that is even more of a joke. Not to mention, they are all made of very low-grade iron. Except for the fact that their physical properties are very different from the iron of later generations, they cannot be called iron at all. What's more, even iron coins are not available now. not yet.
In this case, brocade cloth naturally became currency in the sense of circulation, and money was just a unit of measurement.
In other words, circulating cloth is just a matter of converting it into money.
And when this kind of currency accumulates in large quantities and cannot be exported and cannot really be turned into 'money', the depreciation rate of Shuzhong's currency will be rapidly accelerated.
And the currency begins to depreciate, which will also disintegrate Meng Shu's economic foundation at an extremely fast speed.
Moreover, Sichuan not only lacks precious metals, but also lacks porcelain and spices, especially spices. Sichuan only produces one spice, which is Sichuan pepper.
Except for Sichuan peppercorns, almost all spices need to be imported. However, after being blocked for seven or eight months, bay leaves, cardamom, etc. in Sichuan are already worth gold. After a while, the price of pepper may reach the sky.
As a result, the silkworm farmers and weavers in Sichuan worked hard for a day, and the brocade silk weaved immediately depreciated in value, and it was not even enough to exchange for food for a family of three.
And the more we weave, the faster it depreciates. We still have to stop weaving. If we weave, we will finally make some money. If we don’t weave, we can only drink the northwest wind.
Under this crazy 'money printing', a large number of handicraft people are on the verge of bankruptcy.
Farmers are also miserable. The little money saved by their ancestors for generations has been wiped out in the blink of an eye due to rapid inflation. The food at home is only enough for themselves, but the price of salt and sugar outside has risen like crazy.
Powerful households are also dissatisfied. They need to export Shu brocade in exchange for the finest porcelain from the Central Plains, the finest rock sugar, white sugar, various spices, the finest bronze mirrors, new furniture, and even more beautiful singing, dancing, and music. Even books etc.
At the same time, exotic glass cups, ivory products, olive oil, and various gemstones from the Silk Road are also indispensable.
It can be said that the economy in Sichuan from top to bottom has been unable to hold on until now.
In addition, there are more than 10,000 Shu troops and more than 10,000 civilians detained in the Zhouguan Pass. Especially the more than 10,000 Shu troops are basically Meng Shu's own forbidden army and the Shannan Xidao Ya soldiers of Xingyuan Prefecture.
If Meng Chang doesn't make a gesture, I'm afraid that mobilizing the imperial army in the future will not be so smooth, and the military morale of Xingyuan Mansion (Hanzhong) in Shannan West Road cannot be lost.
Asking for it, or at least making a gesture of asking for it, is imperative.
Therefore, as soon as Meng Chang learned about the unfavorable news about the war in the Southern Tang Dynasty, he immediately summoned the prime minister Mu Zhaoyi, Tongping Zhangshi, the minister Li Hao, and the deputy privy envoy Han Baozheng to discuss the relationship with the Zhou Dynasty. .
However, in fact, there was not much room for negotiation. It was just whether to use brocade and silk or to become a vassal, to exchange for the soldiers in Zhou State and to restore trade routes. In other words, to be a vassal and to compensate.
Finally, everyone discussed and sent Li Xiaofeng, the eldest son of his servant Li Hao, as an envoy to Zhou to test the Zhou Lord's attitude towards Shu.
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Li Hao was originally from Qianxian County in Guanzhong. In the past, Li Maozhen captured Qianxian County and during the chaos in Guanzhong, Li Hao's family fled. His father, younger brother, and younger sister all died in the rebellion, and his mother was separated from him.
Li Hao was spotted by Liu Zhijun, a powerful general from the rear Liang Dynasty who had just defected to Li Maozhen at that time, and later became Liu Zhijun's son-in-law. Later, Liu Zhijun defected to Wang Shu, and Li Hao followed him into Shu.
There is also a story that happened later. After Li Hao became rich and powerful in Shu, he missed his mother who was separated in Guanzhong, so he sent his confidants to look for her. Unexpectedly, she actually found her.
Then Li Hao personally went to the junction of Shuzhong and Guanzhong to greet his mother. After nineteen years apart, mother and son hugged each other and cried, and were finally reunited.
In troubled times like the Five Dynasties, this could be said to be a miracle.
After the discussion was over, Li Hao took his eldest son Li Xiaofeng home to discuss the matter. After hearing this, his mother also walked out with the support of the maid, took Li Hao's hand and began to cry.
"I enjoy the blessing of being a great man, wearing gold and silver, and delicacies from mountains and seas. Unfortunately, your father was killed in a military disaster in his early years. He was buried with your younger brother and younger sister in Fengtian (Qian County). It is located in the south of Liangshan, outside a small village, surrounded by a large river. , there are many sycamore trees around.
If you go to Fengtian, you will definitely find them. From then on, you will worship them every year, and they will not be like ghosts in the lonely grave! "
Although Li Hao was ridiculed by later generations of literati for being a worldly scholar and being extravagant, he was indeed a filial son. He burst into tears when he heard the words, and held his mother's hand and agreed one by one.
In fact, in Li Hao's heart, he has always regretted what happened back then, because before Li Maozhen's troops fell into Qian County, Li Hao had time to inform his family, but he completely forgot in fear.
For so many years, Li Hao always saw his father, brother, and sister lying in a pool of blood when he returned to his dreams at midnight. He felt in his heart that he was extremely responsible for the death of his relatives.
As a person from Guanzhong, he felt deeply guilty for the death of his relatives, and under the influence of his mother, Li Hao was actually one of the Mencius and Shu officials who longed for the unification of the world, so he had no intention of revising the surrender table. Not shy.
Whether it is Wang Shu or the current Meng Shu, Li Hao believes that they are nothing more than temporary separatist regimes. As long as the Holy Lord from the Central Plains emerges, the world will be unified sooner or later.
Li's mother was old and couldn't bear it after crying for a while. Li Hao and his son were afraid that her body would be broken from crying, so they quickly helped her and went into the house.
As soon as they left, a small maid, who looked to be about thirteen or fourteen years old, took the opportunity to sneak out from the back door of Li's house.
Not far from Li's house, there is a large pharmacy with a bustling crowd. There is a huge plaque hanging above the pharmacy, with the three characters "You Ci Tang" written on it. The owner of the pharmacy is Han Baosheng, a famous doctor in Sichuan and a bachelor of Hanlin Academy.
However, unlike the crowds outside, the Youci Hall was quiet, and Zhao Erlang was writing and drawing on a piece of paper.
There were four strong men in front of him. After four copies of the ghost-like note were written, Zhao Erlang personally placed them in the hands of these four people.
"The third grade of A is urgent. It will be sent to Guanzhong immediately and handed over to thousands of households in Guanzhong."
If a later generation comes here, they will find that the ghost talismans written by Zhao Erlang are basically Chinese Pinyin. This is the biggest reliance of Zhang Zhoujin Yiwei.
The Chinese Pinyin that no one can understand ensures that the message will not be deciphered. Even if someone deciphers the rules of Hanyu Pinyin, it will be useless because the pronunciation is based on the Mandarin of later generations.
The information sent back by Zhao Erlang was the secret about the location of the graves of Li Hao's father and younger siblings.
Zhang Zhou's Jinyiwei spy system in Shuzhong relies on three lines.
There is a hidden line that only Zhang Zhao and a few others know, and one that is known to everyone in Meng and Shu. There is an open line of espionage mixed in with the business.
And Zhao Erlang's secret line, relying on Han Baosheng, is the most important intelligence transmission force.
Because the first one is activated at the most critical moment, the second one is obvious, and their third one is the one that really works.
"Qianhu, my boss said that he would like to withdraw one hundred guan from the medicine hall's account tomorrow to use it for an outing."
Zhao Erlang had just rested for a while when his subordinates came to report.
The last family member was Han Baosheng. Although this brother of Lady Han Qi had superb medical skills and was a confidant of the Lord of Shu, he was just too greedy.
A glint flashed in Zhao Erlang's eyes, "We have to go outing every ten days, and it costs hundreds of dollars to go out. It seems that our superiors think they can take us for granted. Let's go down and prepare. It's time to put a tight spell on our superiors. ”
