Volume 1: Kyoto Wind and Cloud Chapter 62: The Great Wealth Delusion of Ancient Times

  Zhang Ren, Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei are all great generals who are not inferior to Huang Zhong and Yan Yan. In just one month's time, they were able to train the proud and fierce soldiers of the Imperial Guard to this extent, which is really not easy. However, although the soldiers did not make a sound, Liu Zhang could see that they were worried. Since ancient times, corvée labor and large-scale projects have been symbols of death. When Qin Shi Huang built the Epang Palace and the Great Wall, and when Sui Yangdi built the Grand Canal, countless people died, and these soldiers also feared that they would not return from their journey.

  Liu Zhang could hardly be unaware of the sentiments of his soldiers, and he stood on the high platform smiling and asked: "Are you worried that my demands for the military camp are too high, resulting in some deaths among you?"

  The soldiers looked at Liu Zhang, although they didn't say a word, but the expressions on their faces had already revealed their most basic thoughts. Liu Zhang looked at the bitter faces of the soldiers below and continued to say: "You can rest assured that if I wasn't confident, would I have let you build the military camp? Maybe you don't believe it, but facts will educate you. You are soldiers, my orders do not need to be doubted, just execute, execute, and execute! I will assign tasks to your generals, if there is any opinion, now is the opportunity to speak out! Of course, if someone is unwilling to stay, they can also leave!"

  The soldiers looked at each other, they had been holding on for so long, and it was hard for them to leave. They were still worried that Liu Zhang would exhaust them to death. At this time, a small soldier asked loudly: "General, it's not that I don't trust you, but I really don't understand how you plan to build the military camp? If we want to build a stone camp, it's obviously not suitable for us. Such a project is too big for us!"

  When someone raised a question, Liu Zhang was overjoyed, he was afraid that no one would speak. Liu Zhang smiled and said: "This soldier, I admire your courage very much. I can tell you that I will use a new method to build the military camp, using this method to build the military camp is easier than building with mud, but it will be more solid than stone houses! As your commander, I will lead you on a different path, this path will lead to honor, not death! Of course, there will be deaths, but they will never die in vain! Who else has questions?

  Liu Zhang had already shared his idea with Zhang Ren and the others. Although it seemed a bit far-fetched, Zhang Ren and the others believed that as long as Liu Zhang was determined to do something, he would succeed nine times out of ten. Just like Liu Zhang's military training methods, which looked somewhat childish but produced extraordinary results.

  Liu Zhang scanned the crowd, seeing that the expressions on the faces of the soldiers were much better than at the beginning. He couldn't help but smile and say: "Since everyone has no objections now, let's proceed according to my orders! If there are any problems, you can ask your main general. Next, start building the military camp! Zhang Fei, Zhang Ren, Zhao Yun, Huang Xu, follow my orders and start dividing the work!"

  Liu's order was given, and Zhang Ren and others began to act. Zhang Ren's task was to flatten the ground in the valley, Zhang Fei's task was to lay the foundation in the valley, Zhao Yun's task was to guard the valley, and Huang Xu's task was to build a simple military camp and transport cement and bricks. Of course, the tasks were not fixed, and they rotated every day according to their degree of hardship.

  The soldiers saw that Liu Zhang's method of building a military camp was indeed different from the past, and they believed his words. When the cement and bricks were transported back to the valley, these soldiers did not know how to use these things to build houses. However, Liu Zhang was not in a hurry, as the foundation of the house was very important, and if it was not compacted, it would cause no small trouble. Moreover, the military camp that Liu Zhang wanted to establish was an existence similar to a military school.

  The valley was not small, but Liu Zhang's men were numerous. In such a small place, 5,000 people tamped the earth and laid the foundation, quickly making the ground in the valley flat. Liu Zhang ordered his men to mix cement with water, spreading it bit by bit on the surface of the valley. The next day, when the cement on the surface had dried, the soldiers were all stunned, even Zhang Ren and others were dumbfounded!

  Miracle! Looking at the ground that seemed to be paved with a whole piece of giant stone, all soldiers and generals secretly admired Liu Zhang in their hearts. Although cement is a very common thing in later generations, it was undoubtedly a shocking divine object in the Han Dynasty. The soldiers were convinced. Liu Zhang's actions made them understand that not everything can be measured by age.

  In later constructions, Liu Zhang did not need to explain anything to the soldiers, because the magic of cement made them blindly confident in Liu Zhang. In the eyes of the soldiers, Liu Zhang was an all-powerful god, and what they had to do was offer him incomparable obedience.

  When 20,000 people are engaged in the construction of a project, as long as the division of labor is reasonable, the progress can be described with the words "extremely fast", especially for building such simple houses. Of course, without steel reinforcement, Liu Zhang didn't dare to build too high, the soldiers' barracks were just a small three-story tile house, each room could sleep ten people.

  Two months later, the barracks were finally completed! Looking at the newly built barracks, Liu Zhang suddenly felt like he was back in his university days in his previous life, except that the buildings were a bit shorter. Originally, Liu Zhang still wanted to find someone to build some bunk beds and let the soldiers move in, but the soldiers couldn't resist the temptation of these three-story small foreign-style houses and insisted on moving in first, even if it meant sleeping on the floor.

  The valley's movement couldn't be hidden from those with intentions, and on the second day after the military camp was built, Liu Zhang was summoned to the palace by Emperor Wu of Jin. To tell the truth, Emperor Wu didn't have high hopes for Liu Zhang to train any elite soldiers, as for the Youzhou army, Emperor Wu believed they were trained by Huang Zhong and Yan Yan, after all these two had a military background, but Zhao Yun's achievements in the Western Garden made Emperor Wu look at him with new eyes, and the intelligence passed on from Liu Zhang also left Emperor Wu somewhat surprised, especially after the completion of the military camp.

  For the emperor, Liu Zhang did not hide anything and told Liu Hong everything about the cement. However, Liu Hong came up with a sentence that had great potential. Liu Zhang didn't understand what Liu Hong meant, so Liu Hong carefully explained it to him. This explanation left Liu Zhang stunned - it turned out that Liu Hong had already thought of how to make a fortune using cement! Looking at Liu Hong's eyes shining with gold, Liu Zhang felt somewhat helpless. This guy shouldn't be an emperor, he should be a businessman. However, neither Liu Hong nor Liu Zhang could become businessmen, which made Liu Hong feel a bit disappointed.

  Chinese emperors have had all sorts of hobbies, some loved to hold power, some loved to interfere with trivial matters, and others loved to travel. The more elegant ones liked poetry, calligraphy, while the more vulgar ones liked pleasure, beauties, and having children. But Liu Hong was absolutely an exception in Chinese imperial history - he loved money!

  Some people say that everyone likes money, and many emperors love money. However, Liu Hong is different from them. Emperors like Chongzhen and Jiaqing loved money because they lacked it, while Li Shimin and Liu Bang loved money because they didn't have enough to use. But Liu Hong loved money simply because he liked it, making him the most unique and extreme emperor in Chinese history when it comes to loving wealth!

  To amass wealth, Liu Hong took a new historical road of industrialization, diversification and extreme shamelessness. He liked to engage in industrialized operations, and it was not his purpose to make a fortune at once, but rather to make a lifetime of fortunes. Take tributes as an example, the Eastern Han was then the world's superpower, and every year some countries would send envoys to trade with the Great Han, and those envoys always had some national treasures and rare jewels in their hands to curry favor with the Son of Heaven.

  The usual procedure for tributes was to first submit a list, check it and then send it to the national treasury, becoming state-owned assets. The emperor would then dispatch someone to retrieve what he wanted, with some having to go through relevant departmental reviews before reaching the emperor's hands. Liu Hong found this troublesome, so he took a cut of the tribute before it entered the warehouse, directly sending it to the imperial palace, euphemistically called "cautious expenses". The tributes came year after year, and the cautious expenses were never lacking, allowing Liu Hong to obtain his first pot of gold in life.

  After Liu Hong took the road of industrialization, he began to focus on Tianfu, or agricultural tax. In ancient China, agricultural taxes often accounted for half of the total fiscal revenue. Liu Hong's move shows that his IQ in financial matters is not ordinary. The specific approach was first to tell a big lie to the people across the country, saying that he wanted to renovate and expand the imperial palace, and in order to avoid a fiscal deficit, he would increase the rate of agricultural tax. With tens of millions of acres of land nationwide, collecting an additional 10 cents per acre would amount to hundreds of millions each year.

  Liu Hong then told a second lie, saying that the imperial palace was short of wood and asking local officials to send as much as they had. The local officials, of course, did not dare not to comply, and delivered the wood to the capital on time and in full quantity. However, the eunuchs responsible for inspecting the wood used an unscrupulous gaze to pick out faults, and generally speaking, eight or nine out of ten batches would be deemed unqualified. What to do with the unqualified wood? Liu Hong's sinister plan emerged. The local governments had to sell it back to the central government at one-tenth of the original price, and then the central government would resell it to the local governments at market price. Liu Hong and his eunuchs made a handsome profit from this scheme. It wasn't until several years later, when not an inch of the imperial palace had been moved, that the local officials realized they had been duped by the emperor.

  When the whole nation was still being deceived and reflecting on their mistakes, Liu Hong's second step of diversification had already begun to take action. This time he did real estate investment. He took a large part of his first pot of gold and second pot of gold back to his hometown to buy land, build houses, and conduct large-scale real estate investments. Land has been the most popular financial product since ancient times, Liu Hong was wealthy and had a unique vision, plus his own strong administrative resources advantage, in just a few years, he made another fortune.

  Even with land taxes and tribute, Liu Hong can squeeze out profits, let alone the cement that Liu Zhang has come up with. With Liu Hong's business acumen, he can see that as long as the cement is operated properly, it will definitely make money. Although this money is small change in Liu Hong's eyes, for a greedy person like him, as long as it's money, he won't let it go. And for Liu Zhang, cement is a strategic material, and he doesn't want to reveal it. Liu Hong covets the sales prospects of cement, so naturally, Liu Zhang will shift his gaze elsewhere. After careful consideration, an idea pops into Liu Zhang's head: since Liu Hong wants to make money, how can he not take advantage of this opportunity?