At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

Cao Ang shouted that he was full of official authority, and instantly made these officials who had just relaxed tense up again.

Indeed, the economic depression cannot be blamed on them, but once civil turmoil occurs, it is their responsibility.

If this causes social losses, they will be even more unable to escape. One counts as one, and Cao Ang as the leader will all be punished.

The officials have calmed down, and the next step is the second step.

It is necessary to appease these people who are extremely afraid and think that they will be punished, let them know that they will not be punished, and relieve the tension and anxiety of the people.

At the critical moment, Cao Ang showed strong determination and action.

First of all, he decided to postpone the matter of the court's debts, and asked the officials in charge of the Ministry of Finance to actively cooperate and report to the central government first.

Here, small businesses are allowed to go bankrupt, let them stop losses, record them, and then let them go home and wait for news.

The debt belongs to the imperial court and the Central Ministry of Finance. Cao Ang has no control over such matters, and even Guo Peng here cannot intervene immediately, and can only wait for the imperial court's decision.

So leave the troublesome matter to the Central Ministry of Finance and the emperor. They will first stabilize the local sentiment and restore normal production and living order.

Cao Ang quickly ordered that the entire Zhenxi City be divided into eight districts, and the eight main officials of the Duhufu were each in charge of one district, and preached and posted notices in the districts to inform the people of the reason and truth of this matter.

No one will be caught, no one will be punished, this is the first priority!

The reason for this happening is that the defeat of the Anxi Kingdom caused serious damage to the Anxi merchants, so they stopped coming. All in all, it is the fault of the Anxi people who are too useless, not our Wei people's fault!

Thousands of mistakes are because Anxi people are too useless, we have not made mistakes, so please don't worry!

Spread such a statement throughout the city, and even the entire Zhenxi Protectorate, and let everyone know.

Use the method of diverting contradictions to shift everyone's attention to the Anxi people, so as to ease the contradictions and gain time to solve the problem.

Give the Central Ministry of Finance and the Zhenxi Protectorate a little respite, let them coordinate and argue with each other, and try to solve the problem.

Just do it.

For the sake of their official positions and future, the officials of the Zhenxi Protectorate's Mansion exploded into action. They rushed to the area they were in charge of, preached vigorously, posted notices everywhere, and announced the truth of the matter with drums and gongs.

It's the Parthians' fault!

Not our fault!

Thousands of mistakes are resting in peace, we are implicated, we are innocent!

Busy from noon to sunset, they finally managed to initially control the situation in Zhenxi City, allowing everyone to blame Anxi on his head and unify their voices.

Those merchants who can't sustain themselves are also allowed to close their stores and go home to live, while waiting for news.

Cao Ang came forward to assure them that they would not be questioned, would not be punished, and had no additional responsibilities other than repaying the loan!

Because it's not their fault!

Because the thousands of mistakes are the fault of the Parthians who are too useless, as long as they fight hard enough to beat the Romans back, wouldn't it be over?

Pooh!A bunch of trash!

So everyone shared the same hatred, and vented all their grievances, fears and worries to the Anxi Kingdom thousands of miles away. The whole city scolded the Anxi people for their waste, and Zhenxi City really regained its calm and harmony.

Of course, those Anxi merchants who came here to take refuge before were really trembling, hiding at home and not daring to come out.

I was afraid that people would know that I was an Anxi man, and then I would not be able to reason after being beaten up.

I am even more afraid of being asked to compensate the merchants in Wei State who have suffered losses.

Of course, it is not without the officials of Zhenxi Protectorate's Mansion that they confiscated the properties of Anxi merchants to subsidize the losses of merchants in Wei State. This behavior was rejected by Cao Ang.

We are officials, not robbers. We know that such a thing has nothing to do with Anxi merchants, but we still do this, which will damage the reputation of the country.

The big man does something and does not do it. In order to alleviate the conflict, it is the limit to throw the blame on the Anxi people. It is unnecessary to further damage their property and personal safety.

If this is done, it will affect the Anxi Kingdom's reluctance to come to Wei State for trade after it returns to normal in the future. Wouldn't it be a greater loss for the country?

Cao Ang rejected such behavior.

But it didn't end there.

This is just the first step in a chain reaction.

Hotels and restaurants collapsed, and some people downstream who had commercial cooperation with them also lost their source of business.

The Anxi merchants stopped coming, and the demand plummeted. Some people who made handicrafts, made wine, and provided food and vegetables to restaurants and hotels in the city also had no business.

The economic model of Zhenxi Protectorate or the entire Wei Empire is relatively simple.

It is mainly agriculture, and some commerce and handicrafts have been developed on top of agriculture.

Tuntian farms are scattered around the city, carrying the main population and main production tasks. There are some commercial shops in the city, relying on agricultural products to operate business. They spend money to order products from the farms outside the city to meet their needs. need.

That's what happens in good times.

Farmers outside the city and merchants in the city formed an alliance of interests, supplying goods while giving money.

When supply exceeds demand, farmers will also try to expand the scope of cultivation under the organization and encouragement of the government, and reclaim more wasteland to meet the needs of merchants in the city.

As a result, the economic depression came, the merchants collapsed, and the products produced by the farmers were not bought, so they could only be kept at home and stare blankly.

The food can still be stored, and it is not a problem to store it for a few years. It can always be eaten up, and if it cannot be sold, it will not be sold.

But vegetables and fruits are not easy to store, they are expensive, and they occupy the land for growing food. Once they are not eaten in time before they rot, it will be a blood loss, and the loss is not even a little bit.

Grain is the main food these days, and the people who can eat vegetables and fruits have never been ordinary people, but rich people, not to mention that the productivity of the Western Regions is far lower than that of the Central Plains.

Farmers in the agriculturally developed areas of the Central Plains are no longer a problem of food and clothing, and they can eat meat and fish every now and then to satisfy their cravings. Farmers in the Western Regions can only eat vegetables, fruits and meat during the festivals. They usually eat grain and salted vegetables to fill their stomachs.

They don't want to eat vegetables and fruits at all. They usually sell them to merchants in the city for foreign merchants. They use them to make money. They are almost equal to cash crops. It is a waste of cash crops to eat by themselves.

Not to mention the shelf life is very problematic.

As a result, many old farmers went to the city and yelled at the merchants in the city, saying that they were heartless, useless, outrageous, and so on.

But the merchants pushed [-]—it was all the fault of the Anxi people, and they have no money now.

The old farmer had no choice but to curse and admit that he was unlucky in the end.

After all, food is mainly produced, and vegetables and fruits are a minority.

Eat it, and you won't lose much.

No one buys the excess agricultural products, so they can only eat and solve it themselves. There is no problem with the stomach, and they can eat enough to prevent them from starving to death, but the farmers have no money left.

Without money, there is no way to expand production and promote consumption, which further leads to economic recession in the city, and more merchants encounter a crisis of declining business volume.

The overall economic trend has begun to decline, and a vicious circle has formed. The economic development momentum of Zhenxi Duhufu has been hit so hard that it cannot be revived.

As a result, large merchants with relatively strong capital and who will not encounter operating crises in the short term also complained.

They scolded themselves for being greedy, scolded the Anxi people for being useless and useless, and secretly said that those officials who encouraged them to do business were too impatient.

Now there is no business to do, the cost has to be pointed out constantly, the profit is pitifully small, and even maintaining the operation is not an easy task.

All in all, a lot of resentment.

From the day when the rumors were suppressed, Cao Ang realized that his psychological preparation for the economic depression was far from enough to cope with such a severe impact.

Troubles came to him one after another, chasing after his buttocks one after another, kicking his ass and forcing him to keep moving forward, making him flustered.

Even if part of the conflict was diverted by using the Parthians, the huge pressure was still on him, making him unable to breathe.

All kinds of unexpected news and unexpected situations will test his adaptability.

He couldn't even eat well, or he didn't have the time and thought to eat a good meal at all, he was as busy as an ant on a hot pot, and couldn't stop at all.

Zhenxi Protectorate is facing the biggest crisis since its establishment.

Chapter 1544 One thousand four hundred and sixty four Cao Ang's courage and responsibility

This crisis has nothing to do with military politics, but it is equally destructive and not much better than a political and military crisis.

For Cao Ang, it was just as dangerous, and if he was a little careless, he would be torn to pieces.

The only good thing is that the mainstream of the economy of the Wei Empire is still a self-sufficient agricultural economy. No matter how chaotic the business is, the supply of food is still stable, and the price remains unchanged.

So no matter how panicked people are, there will be no real turmoil.

The government has food and money, and everyone has something to eat.

The widespread agricultural areas around the city provided a good buffer zone for the economic crisis, absorbed a large number of agricultural population, and made it possible for the commodity economy of the Wei Empire to have a soft landing.

When the business in the city encounters a crisis and cannot support so many people, people will return to the countryside and eat in the fields without starving to death, and there will be no major troubles.

In other words, no matter how serious this wave of troubles is, for the three prefectures of the Western Regions and the two prefectures of Yongliang and Liangzhou, at most, it would be tantamount to breaking a dog and eating shit, and breaking a front tooth.

Pain is pain, but it is not enough to break your neck and lose your life.

The unbalanced and inadequate business development of the Wei Empire caused the economic depression to fail to have a more profound impact, because there was nothing far-reaching worth being impacted.

Sometimes it is not necessarily a bad thing if it cannot develop.

Even so, the impact of this wave of economic depression also gave Cao Ang a great mental shock in just one month.

If it weren't for Guo Peng being here to encourage his countermeasures, he might not be able to hold on.

There were wailing and begging for help everywhere.

One side said that the business could not go on, the other side said that the things were rotten and no one would buy them, one side cried out that there was no food to eat, and the other side yelled that they could not survive, and the whole family simply committed suicide.

Money is money, money is lacking everywhere, and there is no place that is not short of money. Cao Ang can't wait to break a five baht coin into three petals and use it, and he can't wait for big money to produce small money, so that there will be endless descendants.

Panicked voices filled the ears of Cao Ang and the officials, making Cao Ang and the officials, who had experienced such an impact for the first time, panic all day long. They really thought that the end of the world was coming and the world would fall into turmoil again.

Two or three officials with poor psychological quality even fell ill and couldn't get up on the bed, closed the door to thank guests, and closed themselves off.

Of course, this wave will pass if it survives.

The impact of this wave of economic depression is limited after all. The mourning of a few people and the widespread panic cannot affect the majority of people to continue to eat.

The strong agricultural foundation of the Wei Empire can provide a good foundation for a soft landing for this wave of depression, and everyone can't finish it.

A month later, people gradually realized that there were very few merchants in the Anxi Kingdom, but the merchants from the Guishuang Kingdom still came as usual.

The business is still going on, and the things that should be sold are still sold out. The loss is huge, but it is not really so bad that there is no food to eat.

In addition, Cao Ang has always appeared in the public eye as a responsible image, and he is not in a hurry. People gradually believe that this is really not a big problem, but that Anxi is too useless.

This time the economic depression can survive, Cao Ang's role is really great.

He held on.

Even in the most dangerous time, Cao Ang flatly rejected Cao Xiu's suggestion of sending troops into the city to assist in management.

He always controlled the problem within the administrative scope, and at most only used the police in his hands to manage law and order, showing strong administrative management ability and psychological quality.

Once troops are sent into the city to announce a curfew and a wartime rationing system to manage the city, it means that Cao Ang's administrative methods have failed, and it has reached the point where troops have to be sent into the city.

That was undoubtedly a huge setback for Cao Ang.

This kind of behavior will also make people think that something is really wrong, so that the army will enter the city, and the panic will continue to intensify.

What the economic crisis cannot do, panic can do, and it can amplify this kind of problem infinitely.

The fact that the army does not enter the city proves that everything is still under control and there are no major problems. Everyone should eat and drink, do whatever they want, and live the same life.

On this point, Cao Ang did a good job.

Witnessing Cao Ang's actions throughout the process, Guo Peng is very satisfied and appreciates Cao Ang's courage and responsibility, and he has grown up to be good enough.

So Guo Peng praised Cao Ang generously.

At this time, it was already March of the second year of Xingyuan, and one and a half months had passed since Guo Peng arrived in Zhenxi City.

Officials from the Ministry of Finance predicted that this wave of economic turmoil would have a great impact on the Zhenxi Protectorate, which would reduce the revenue of the Zhenxi Protectorate.

Especially business taxes.

As for how much it will be reduced, they predict that at least [-]% will start, [-]% is also very likely, and [-]% is not a strange thing.

And there is no possibility of recovery in the short term.

Unless the merchants of the Anxi Kingdom come back immediately and immediately start the same trade with the Wei Empire as before, otherwise such days will continue, and there is no future in sight.

And if this continues, more and more merchants will choose to stop operations to stop losses, and avoid falling into the same situation as other bankrupt merchants with nothing left.

This is a great blow to the confidence of people engaged in business in the private sector.