Zhao Yu knew the importance of money in his previous life, so he was trapped on that ship for several years. However, it was still based on personal self-interest at that time, and even so, it made him understand that it is difficult to move an inch without money. And when he traveled to the end of the Song Dynasty, he understood the pain of not having money, from the initial dozens of people, to hundreds of people, to the current ruling half of the tens of millions of people, lack of money is almost always accompanied.

However, in the process of building the country from weak to strong, Zhao Yu also realized that even in a close war, the winning side is often the side with the best financial organization, regardless of ancient and modern. He also found that the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was regarded as a treasure book in the Qing Dynasty, and he followed Li Chengliang from Nurhachi's youth and came into contact with "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"; When it comes to starting a business and fighting the world, I recommend it to my nephews and generals, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has always been a pillow book and military bibliography of Qing Dynasty generals, and Huang Taiji even sees "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" as the art of war.

Of course, Zhao Yu knew that "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was a romance, in which three points were real and seven points were false, but because its language was lively and lively, not obscure, and the story was strong and fascinating, it was very suitable for ordinary generals who did not have a high level of education, and he also used it as a primary model for military education to educate his guards.

However, Zhao Hao has a deeper understanding of the interpretation of the content, which reflects not only military tricks, but also the secrets of war finance. It can be said that the competition between the three countries is, first of all, a financial competition, and secondly, a military struggle, and whoever can establish a more durable and effective financial system will be able to defeat other competitors.

As we all know, the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms era belonged to a typical period of war. After Dong Zhuo's rebellion, the financial system of the entire Eastern Han Empire completely collapsed. This year, the entire Central Plains was in chaos: Yuan Shu, Yuan Shao, Lu Bu, Gongsun Zhan and others each dominated one side and fought more than once. This was also the most brutal period in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when every warlord struggled desperately to annex other families and become the ultimate victor. In order to support the troops, the governors and generals in various places first implemented a predatory fiscal policy.

As the first promoter of the destruction of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Dong Zhuo was also a typical representative of the implementation of predatory fiscal policies. Once he conquered the city, his army would loot the city's wealth. Based on past experience, there is a greater emphasis on currency. He thinks that as long as he has money, he can buy everything. After he kidnapped the emperor, he abolished the five-baht coin and minted another small coin for circulation, hoping to hold a larger number of minted coins.

In peacetime, this practice can directly extract large amounts of wealth from the people. But during the war, Dong Zhuo's approach ultimately failed because the people had abandoned the currency. But whether it is to loot money or mint more copper coins, there is only one ultimate goal - military rations. With military rations, more soldiers can be recruited and combat effectiveness can be formed. But in times of war, many people are unable to cultivate their fields and produce enough food. At this time, no matter how high the price is, it is impossible to buy military rations, so what is the use of coins?

After Dong Zhuo was stabbed to death by Lu Bu, the generals Guo Yan and Li Dao continued to make trouble. At that time, the price of goods had risen to 500,000 yuan per stone of millet and 200,000 yuan per stone of beans and wheat, about 10,000 times the price of goods in peacetime. Due to the lack of food, there were even instances of cannibalism: piles of bones, rotting human flesh and mutilated corpses were everywhere.

It is precisely because Dong Zhuo, Guo Yan, Li Dao and others wantonly plundered the western region that the peasants were unable to grow grain, and as for the once prosperous Chang'an City, there was nothing left, not even people could see it, and the entire Guanzhong Plain became a wasteland. As the food was depleted, the army also became victims, and the combat effectiveness declined, and eventually the warlords in the northwest were wiped out by the warlords in the east, and it was this tyrannical practice that contributed to their defeat.

In the Central Plains in the east, the two Yuans, Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, who competed with Cao Cao for the world, also did not know the importance of logistics. During the war for hegemony, their military spending was improvised, and it was mainly plundered. At that time, there was still a large area of water in the Central Plains, and there were abundant aquatic products, which could temporarily solve the food supply for the army. But once it enters a state of war, these aquatic products cannot become a burden. As a result, Yuan Shao's army had to rely on wild dates on the roadside to survive, while Yuan Shu's army looked for shells to satisfy their hunger.

During the warlord melee, the monetary economy had also stopped, and China had returned to the era of barter. When the war becomes protracted, whoever is the first to react and move from a predatory fiscal policy to a sustainable productive fiscal policy will be the beneficiary. And the first to discover the secret of war finances was Cao Cao.

While everyone was focused on the military, Cao Cao emphasized agriculture. He recruited displaced people from all over the world, placed them in the empty fields around Xudu for farming, and obtained millions of stone of grain, providing sufficient food security for the army. Later, this experience was replicated everywhere. After the success of Xuchang Tuntian, he spread his experience to the whole country, and the annual grain output has reached tens of millions of stones.

After the capital of Yecheng was settled, due to the stability of the situation, in addition to tuntian, Cao Cao institutionalized the taxation of ordinary farmland: ordinary cultivated land required a rent of four liters per mu, and each household paid two horses of silk and two catties of cotton every year, and other taxes were not allowed to be levied without authorization. From then on, tuntian became the norm, and he emerged from the powerful northern warlords. This seemingly casual move became a key step in his unification of the north.

Cao Cao was also the first to realize this law: during the war, the person who is best at raising military expenses will become the final winner, and after the unification of the north, Cao's Wei State has reached the point where everyone talks about developing the economy and discussing how to get more food. At this stage, there are many capable ministers who are proficient in various types of business, and economic acumen has become one of the necessary qualities of a strategist.

In the competition between the three countries, Cao Wei was also the party that attached the most importance to grain production. In order to produce food quickly, the government recruited a large number of displaced people to cultivate the land, known as tunhu. According to the rules of the time, if the tunhu had its own cattle, the grain for farming would be divided in half with the government; If there are no cattle in the tunhu, the government will provide the cattle, then the grain grown will be divided by the tunhu in 40%, and the remaining 60% will be given to the government. The government guaranteed that the cantonmentaries did not pay other taxes and did not serve in the military. On the contrary, the life of the tunhu is more comfortable than that of ordinary farmers.

Jiangdong's economic damage in the war was small, which meant that Sun Wu did not urgently need Tuntian; The greater power of the gate lords meant that the emperor's orders could not be carried out so thoroughly, and the administrative efficiency was even lower. However, the Sun-Wu regime still carried out a certain amount of tuntian work. Due to the unification of the north by the Cao clan, the Jianghuai area became the main battlefield for hegemony, and Sun Wu's financial needs were also increasing, so Lu Xun asked for Tuntian. Sun Quan personally worked and encouraged farming, which also achieved certain results.

Among the Three Kingdoms, Shu Han had the smallest territory, and there was also a brief period of Tuntian. Prime Minister Zhuge Liang Ping Nanban opened up the Yunnan market; He also worked vigorously in Sichuan as a farmer; In Shaanxi, there were also plans to carry out tuntian for conquest, and Jiang Wei carried out tuntian in Gansu. However, the grain of Shu was wasted in the Northern Expedition for many years, most of these wars were fruitless, and almost every time the troops were withdrawn, they were trapped by the shortage of food and the difficulty of transporting grain. And Shu lacked the material basis to deal with the crisis, and in the end, Shu Han became the first country to perish......

Zhao Hao's fortune history began with two Yuan warships that he introduced into the shoals, and then he captured Guangzhou and Quanzhou, which can also be said to be a disguised plundering of finances. At that time, he was even very comfortable with this kind of quick business, and even had the idea of becoming a pirate once he could not gain a foothold in Qiongzhou, specializing in this kind of business without capital.

The same is true of the Xing Dynasty, after losing a large part of the country, the financial expenses can only rely on the assets and donations of patriots when they escape, and with the passage of exile, it will be exhausted, and without the support of money, let alone recruiting new troops, food will become a problem. Fortunately, Zhao Hao woke up early, knowing that it was difficult to obtain stable financial income only by looting and donating, and the Xing Dynasty was like a rogue and would perish sooner or later, so Zhao Yu had been planning to move the Xing Dynasty to Qiongzhou after succeeding to the throne.

But this road is also very difficult. Zhao Yu knew very well that he had inherited the mantle of the Great Song Dynasty and obtained the 'right to rule' of the previous dynasty, but he also inherited many problems accumulated by the previous dynasty's regime. Although it is only a government-in-exile, the internal structure of the regime is intertwined and has formed a huge inertia, and such a regime cannot redesign the political and economic system, but can only make some changes on the basis of the previous dynasty, and the regime can only be maintained, not innovative.

After Zhao Yu weakened the power of the prime minister and established the dominant position of the imperial power by relying on the support of the loyal commander's army and close ministers, he thought that if he wanted to maintain the independent state of the imperial power, he had to control the financial power, so as to further influence the direction of the imperial court. Therefore, he took advantage of Lu Xiufu's eagerness to solve the financial difficulties, and semi-forced an agreement with him, obtained a share of the salt tax and attracted the population to carry out economic policies such as Mintun.

At the same time, Zhao Yu took advantage of the privileges of the bureau to smuggle and amass a lot of wealth through smuggling and sea trade. However, the financial revenue obtained by the imperial court has always been in a state of starvation and cannot be sustained, and it must rely on borrowing from the inner treasury to maintain its operation, so he took the opportunity to let the total division participate in the financial affairs of the imperial court, control the direction of money and goods, and force the imperial court to compromise with him on political issues.

Of course, having money in his hands also allowed Zhao Yu to strengthen his private army, the Imperial Protector and the Affairs Bureau, win over the ministers in the court, grasp the personnel power, further consolidate his position, and make him more convinced of the truth that finance is king......