Snowflakes were falling quietly. The flying snowflakes, one after another, like dandelions in the sky, and like countless young and indescribable lives, trembled, rose and fell in the vast night sky.

It's so pleasant, it's so magical.

It was as if a huge white wing was covering the earth in the dark, and before I knew it, it was already white.

At this time, the warm spring snow does not have a trace of chill, but the leisurely snowflakes bring a poetic tranquility to this early spring night.

But gradually, there were no more white catkins in the sky.

The snow stopped.

When the spring day is getting stronger, when the spring breeze blows to Liangzhou and Wuwei, the snow stops.

Cao Chong wore a brocade robe in his posthumous life, seeing that there was no more snow in the sky, the expression on his face did not change, but the brilliance in his eyes flashed, as if he thought of something.

At this time, it was not someone else in front of Cao Chong, but Guo Xiao.

Originally, Guo Xiao stayed in Luoyang to make armor for Cao Chong.

After Cao Chong's steel filling method, the output of steel has been greatly increased, and Cao Chong's steel heavy armor has been completed a lot.

But that's not all.

Guo Xiao came this time and brought 100 truckloads of grain and grass, not only that, not only 100 catties of grain and grass, but also news.

News about Youzhou.

Cao Chong held this bamboo slip in his hand at this time, looking at the snow scene outside the window, as if he was thinking.

"Second brother, it's a good means."

Even though Cao Chong stumbled Cao Pi in Youzhou, which made Cao Pi's trip to Youzhou much more difficult, he didn't expect Cao Pi's ability to be really strong.

In other words, that Gongsun Gong is indeed incapable.

Although he killed Gongsun Yuan, grasped the power of the Gongsun family, and tried his best to prevent Cao Pi, but Cao Pi is a poisonous snake, how can a poisonous snake be subdued? How can you be on guard?

On the contrary, Cao Pi relied on the respite time in Youzhou to subdue many of Gongsun Gong's cronies, if it weren't for Cao Chong's people to remind him, maybe Gongsun Gong was sold and didn't know.

But even so, Gongsun Gong was also greatly injured.

Being dug into the corner of the wall is not only digging people, but also the treasures of the Gongsun family.

It's just that less than a month after arriving in Youzhou, Cao Pi did these things, and it seems that it is unrealistic to rely on Gongsun Gong to drag Cao Pi.

But Cao Chong had no choice.

Fortunately, although Gongsun Gong's vitality was greatly damaged, the generations of Gongsun Gong's family in Youzhou would not be disintegrated by these people in an instant.

The emaciated camel is bigger than the horse, not to mention that the Gongsun family is not dead.

If you want to completely solve the problem of the Gongsun family, it is not so simple.

You must know that Youzhou is not far from the Xianbei Royal Court.

Thinking of this, Cao Chong's mood to deal with Qiang Hu became even more urgent.

Only by subduing this Qianghu can the road to the Xianbei royal court be unimpeded.

And only when he arrived at the Xianbei Royal Court, some of Cao Chong's ideas could be truly realized.

Of course, these are too long-term things, and at this stage, what is in front of Cao Chong is still the problem of the family.

After thinking about this, Cao Chong fixed his eyes on Guo Xiao.

"It's been a long journey, and it's been hard."

Guo Xiao hurriedly bowed to Cao Chong and said, "This is the minister's business, why work hard." ”

Cao Chong smiled and said, "In that case, you go down to rest first, and when I want to summon you, I will summon you." ”

Guo Xiao nodded and said, "No! ”

Watching Guo Xiao gradually retreat, and finally disappearing from sight, Cao Chong pulled his legs and got up.

In the lobby of the governor's mansion, there were three cushions, all of which were sitting people, and the three of them were talking and laughing with each other, but from time to time they drifted in the direction of the door, as if they were waiting for the people above.

And these three people can't be others, it is Duan Cheng, Zhang Shu, and Cao Song.

It can be regarded as the troika of the four troikas of Wuwei, plus the power in Cao Chong's hands, don't just talk about a Jia family, even if you add another Jia family, there are not many problems.

While the three were talking, a clear laugh came from the doorway, and the three of them looked at each other and stood up together.

"I'll wait to see the prince."

What appeared from the door was Cao Chong, who had just met Guo Xiao.

"Let you wait, let Ben Hou not go away, and I hope that you will have a lot of adults, don't mind."

People are in good spirits on happy occasions, Duan Cheng laughed, and joked to Zhang Shu Cao Song: "The prince is a busy man, my time is not worth it, what will happen if I wait a little longer?" ”

Zhang Shu and Cao Song were able to come, obviously Duan Cheng said that the two of them were moved.

Everyone present knew Cao Chong's role, so a smile bloomed on their faces, and they hurriedly complimented Cao Chong.

"Extremely, the prince has all kinds of opportunities, and he is different from us."

"Besides, staying in the Prince's Mansion for a while is something that many people can't ask for, so how can I care?"

Sure enough, when it comes to face, these families really don't have it.

For the sake of interests, if Cao Chong falls in love with their wives and daughters now, maybe these people will not hesitate to offer them.

In their eyes, isn't it just a wife of chaff and a daughter of their own?

If the wife is gone, you can marry again, and the daughter will marry in the past, but she is close to the Marquis of Luoyang.

exchanging his wife and daughter for Luoyang Hou's favor and marriage relationship is something that many people can't do if they want to.

For example, Duan Cheng explicitly and implied for a long time that he wanted to marry his three daughters to Cao Chong, but Cao Chong soon refused.

Duan Cheng's three daughters, Cao Chong, have seen it, but they are extraordinary, if they are used to warm the quilt, the three of them are naturally the best choice.

It's a pity that Cao Chong had other ideas in his heart, so he politely rejected Duan Cheng.

Duan Cheng felt a pity in his heart, but he didn't dwell on it, in his opinion, the most important thing now was not to tie up with Cao Chong, but to do the Jia family.

After the Jia family is gone, it is not too late to deal with the relationship with Luoyang Hou.

Most of them also have this meaning.

Among the family, especially the century-old family, there may not be many others, but there are definitely many people, especially the women of the family, they have been raised by the family since they were children, just to dedicate themselves to the family, and marry someone like Cao Chong, whether it is a wife or a concubine.

They have no choice at all.

Duan Cheng's daughter Cao Chong did not accept it, so it was naturally impossible to accept the daughters of these two families.

Cao Chong sat on the main seat, and in front of him, there were already drinks and dishes in his list.

Cao Chong clapped his hands, and immediately two teams of blue-clothed dancers danced in, and the sound of dance music also sounded at this time.

Fine wine, dragon liver and phoenix gall, plus beautiful women and dances, can be regarded as the specifications of the first-class banquets of this era.

Of course, according to Cao Chong's scale, it can only be regarded as the best specification for a small banquet.

"Let's not talk about the business for the time being, Ben Hou will give you a cup first."

Cao Chong picked up the wine glass, stood up, arched his hand at Duan Cheng and Cao Song, and then covered his sleeves and drank the wine in his hand.

Cao Chong toasted, Duan Cheng and Cao Song were naturally not far behind, and they all got up to toast Cao Chong.

After some staggering, two red clouds also rose on Cao Chong's face.

The wine that Cao Chong drank with these people was all the spirits that Cao Chong brought from Yecheng, and the degree was not something that ordinary people could afford.

Wine is the most able to bring people closer to each other, and Cao Chong quickly got along with the three of them.

Although Duan Cheng drank a lot of wine, he had a good amount of alcohol since he was a child, and in addition, he was still thinking about business in his heart, and he would not get drunk directly.

"Junhou, I've drunk so much wine, I should talk about business."

When Duan Cheng said this, Zhang Shu and Cao Song immediately nodded.

Cao Chong smiled and said, "Since you are so anxious, then, let's get down to business first." ”

"The prince is wise."

Wise?

It's just that you're in a hurry.

Cao Chong's face did not change, and asked Duan Cheng: "Duan joins the army, you know the Jia family best, do you know where the lifeblood of the Jia family is?" ”

The lifeblood of the Jia family?

Of course, Duan Cheng knew, so he didn't think about it, and immediately said to Cao Chong: "It's Gu Zang's five baht money." ”

Guzang five baht money?

Cao Chong was stunned, but Duan Cheng explained to Cao Chong.

"The reason why the Jia family is strong is not that he has more land, no, if you talk about land, the Zhang family, the Duan family, the Cao family, each family has a lot of land under their names, and it is not much less than his Jia family, but most of them are not in Guzang, the reason why the Jia family can become Wuwei is the first family in the entire Liangzhou, just because Guzang has five baht."

"You mean, the Jia family mints coins by themselves?"

Duan Cheng said with hatred in his eyes: "That's the case, Jia Quan, the old horseman, stipulates that all in Wuwei business, you must use Guzang five baht, otherwise they are not allowed to trade, originally I thought that his Jia family would not be able to last for a few days, but I didn't expect those businessmen to be afraid of the prestige of the Jia family, and actually agreed, so in just a few years, not only Wuwei is more Gu Zang five baht, but even the entire Liangzhou, and even the state, there are Gu Zang five baht popular. ”

"The Jia family relies on this Gu Zang five baht to control Wuwei and even the entire Liangzhou."

After listening to Duan Cheng's words, Cao Chong's eyes lit up.

This is what Cao Chong did not see in the classics.

It's not that this thing isn't big enough, it's that people in this era don't know the power of money.

It wasn't until the appearance of Cai Ji that this era knew the power of money, otherwise, Duan Cheng would not have said that Guzang's five baht was the lifeblood of the Jia family.

The Donglai five baht of Donglai Caiji was more popular than the official coinage in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

Generally speaking, for a currency to be issued, there must be two things to protect it: political power and credit.

There is no regime that cannot make the currency acceptable to the people at the beginning, and there is no guarantee of strong creditworthiness, and without credit (mainly enough hard currency, such as today's US gold reserves), who else would dare to use your money?

Moreover, once a currency is branded by that regime, it lives and dies with it.

So from the very beginning, Donglai Wuzhu was branded with Cai Ji and shared the glory and disgrace with Cai Ji.

And it just so happened that at that time, Cai Ji had a relatively stable regime, and the salt and grain in his hands were the most lethal weapons.

At the end of the Han Dynasty, when materials were scarce, hard currency was not gold and silver, let alone the small money that flooded the market, but a necessity for human survival: salt and grain.

Because Cai Ji has a stable regime, she can force her to use the five plants of Donglai under her rule, and Donglai is the place where businessmen from all over the world gather, and merchants are the people who have the fastest exchange of materials, in order to exchange for salt and grain, they must have enough Donglai five plants, and they can't temporarily go to the state warehouse every time to exchange money, right?

So they are happy to even only accept the five plants of Donglai, so that everyone in the world knows that only the five plants of Donglai can get salt, grain, weapons, cloth, etc. from the hands of merchants from Donglai, and within a year or two these merchants will bring the five plants of Donglai to all corners of the country, the so-called "hoarding and curiosity" and the family and the merchants are the most sensitive people, they know the importance of salt grain and merchants in troubled times, so in order to get a lot of materials from the hands of the merchants, they will also have a large number of Donglai five plants in their hands, so within two or three years, The world is full of Donglai five plants.

Once the Donglai five plants are passed in the world, then, Cai Ji will be invincible to a large extent, for three reasons: one is economically, just like our bank deposits, in order to trade, people cannot go to the state warehouse to redeem grain as soon as they have Donglai five plants (even if it is a run, it is impossible to redeem them all), especially the merchants and families, they have a large amount of copper coins in their hands.

Therefore, Cai Ji's state warehouse does not need to have too much salt and grain storage, as long as there is enough backup, and the remaining money and grain Cai Ji can be used completely, which is equivalent to the people of the world saving an indefinite, gratuitous, interest-free huge deposit in Cai Ji, in terms of the base of the world's people, what an astronomical amount will this make!!

In general, the exchange of salt grain for Donglai five plants cannot always be fixed, and they generally fluctuate in a small range, but they can't withstand a large base in a small range!

Assuming that the five plants of Donglai drop by 0.1 points, how much will the people of the world lose, and how much will Cai Ji be?

This is another astronomical amount, which is what economics calls "seigniorage". The second is the political significance, Donglai Wuzhu and Cai Ji coexist, once the people and the family are Donglai Wuzhu, they can't watch their money depreciate or even become waste, assuming that Cai Ji fails in the hegemony, then, there will be a run, and the exchange of salt and grain will definitely stop, in this case, it is not Cai Ji who has suffered heavy losses (just like now, the depreciation is the dollar, and the loss is China), so the family will not sit idly by and watch this happen, so once Donglai Wuzhu is popular in the world, Then it will kidnap the family and even the people of the world on Cai Ji's chariot, and at the same time it will become a means to choke the lifeblood of the family and jam the throat of the family, of course, this can only be a means of deterrence, not a means of struggle, after all, it is the credit of the currency itself that is hit by the arbitrary change of the exchange rate.

In the troubled times at the end of the Han Dynasty, there were reasons for the emptiness of the treasury at the end of the Han Dynasty and the collapse of the credit of the Han five baht. Third, militarily, the economic foundation determines the superstructure, and with enough money and the ambition to compete for hegemony, there is no need to worry about the lack of iron cavalry. There is also a blow to the enemy's morale, and the soldiers use the money from the east to buy salt and grain, and generally fight Donglai, which is a serious blow to morale.

Similarly, the Jia family's Guzang's five baht is the same as Donglai's five baht. I want to talk about "Cao Wei" with more like-minded people, pay attention to "excellent reading literature" on WeChat, talk about life, and find confidants~