Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 1361 Economic Connection
As the weather turned cold and the fighting ceased, Shao Shude started what he was best at and also the most important part.

Before starting this work, we first need to clarify a question: what is there in the Northeast?
To be more precise, what is in the Northeast is what the Central Plains needs in large quantities-the word "a large number" is the key point.

See the big from the small, everything starts with diet.

"If your Majesty stays in Liaodong in winter, you may have a feast of fish." Kang Mao, a Sogdian who once revolted on the battlefield in western Liaoning and killed the governor of Khitan Bocuoshui, said with a flattering smile.

"Have you ever been to the Bohai Sea?" Shao Shude asked casually while holding a jug to watch carefully.

"My minister was doing business in Bohai country in the early years." Kang Maoyong said: "Khitan and Bohai have this custom. At the turn of winter and spring, fish are caught on the river and a fish feast is made."

Kang Maoyong is the newly established Xianzhou Sihu to participate in the military, from the eighth rank.

Xianzhou is the Fuyu Prefecture of the former Bohai State.

Shao Shude felt that the population of one prefecture in Bohai State was only as large as that of one county in Henan. It was really unnecessary for Fuyu Prefecture to set up two prefectures, so he merged Xianzhou and Fuzhou into Xianzhou.

"What is a head fish?" Shao Shude asked.

"The head fish is also called the cow fish, which is said to be as big as a cow." Kang Maoyong said: "Maybe it is as expensive as a cow."

"Is he right?" Shao Shude looked at Yue Liduo in his arms and asked.

"There are many sayings about the head fish, and it is also said that it is the first fish to be hooked. It is a Khitan custom to use the number of hooked fish to predict whether the year will be good or bad. Those who can participate in the head fish banquet are usually nobles from various ministries, and the banquet will offer sacrifices to heaven and earth. , Ancestor." Yue Liduo said softly.

After finishing speaking, he struggled and hesitated, and poured Shao Shude a glass of wine with his own hands.

Shao Shude took it with a smile.

He held Yueli Duo in his arms, knowing how stiff her body was when she did this.

This woman probably never served others.Even her husband, A Baoji, holds, loves, and respects her, pampering her too much.But after being roughly used by him a few times, this woman also began to serve others, so it can be seen that there is nothing she can't learn--A Baoji should be very relieved to see that Yue Liduo will care about men.

Overall, Shao Shude is very satisfied with Yue Liduo.

The Xing Road is narrow and cramped, not allowing square rails.In the dense forest, he was killed several times so that he threw away his helmet and armor, and returned with all the elite soldiers, but very few escaped.

"I'm afraid I won't be able to catch up with the head fish feast." Shao Shude laughed.

In his opinion, this head fish banquet has a strong political meaning, it is a standard political gathering, and it is the same thing as the heaven worship conference held many times in his early years-different geographical environments have created different customs, but the essence is the same.

"If Your Majesty can't catch up with the first fish feast, there will be a first goose feast later." After pouring the wine, Yue Liduo felt a strange feeling in her heart, as if she had broken some shackles. Forget it, she picked up another cup of milk dregs and handed it to Shao Shude.

"This goose is definitely not that goose." Shao Shude said.

Kang Mao used this question well, and he wanted to talk again, but was secretly held back by Xiao Dilu.

"Your Majesty." Yue Liduo said: "When the spring comes, the rivers will thaw, and the geese will fly north and south. The Khitan Khan will come to the riverside, and his servants will beat the flat drums to startle the geese and geese. The geese do not only refer to swans, but also wild ducks and the like. At this time, the raised birds of prey are usually released to catch geese or geese, or the khans and nobles lead their bows and shoot them. Khan himself caught it."

Shao Shude nodded repeatedly.

These customs should have been passed down in later generations, and many countries in Liao and Jin continued to use them.

In history, A Baoji used to go fishing on the Yalu River to declare his conquest of Xijing on the Bohai Sea. It can be seen that the status of fishermen is quite high in the Northeast.

"What if Dahan didn't catch any fish?" Shao Shude asked.

In fact, the Air Force is the norm for anglers.He didn't believe that the fishing skills of the Khan and the chief were so high, and it was normal if they couldn't catch them.

"It can be replaced by carp." Yueli Duo replied.

Shao Shude laughed.

Isn't this the same as fishing for a day without seeing anything, and going to the vegetable market to buy fish before going home?

After laughing, he picked up the wine bowl, drank it all in one gulp, and said: "Beauty offers wine, and the wine is more mellow."

Yueli Duo smiled slightly.

She's still not used to it.In her opinion, this kind of praise from a man is an insult to her—a woman is only capable of serving people in Israel, and she feels very sad, although she has sufficient capital to serve people in Israel.

In the past, A Baoji had suffered a lot, but later she stopped praising her in this area, and said that she was wise, smart, and decisive, so as not to offend her.However, when Shao Sheng said that, Yue Liduo could only pretend to be happy, and dared not act.

"Your Majesty, drinking too much alcohol will hurt your health." Yu Lu saw that my aunt brought a bowl of milk porridge with her big belly, and said, "This concubine cooked it with her own hands. The dew in late autumn is heavy, so drink it to warm your body."

Horse, cow, goat's milk, wild vegetables and rice, the milk porridge cooked is white and fragrant, and it smells really good.

"I have a heart." Shao Shude nodded lightly, telling her to put down the milk porridge.

Yue Liduo glanced at her sister-in-law.A few years ago, Aogu, who was good at pretending to be a ghost, could not serve others.Alas, under the collapse of the country and the death of the family, everyone has changed their appearance.

"Okay, it's time to talk about business." Shao Shude cleared his throat, and said, "Everyone has lived in Liaoze and Bohai Sea for a long time, so maybe tell me, what is there that people in the Central Plains can't put it down and can't live without?"

"There are wild delicacies, such as ginseng." Someone said.

"Ginseng is really good." Shao Shude praised: "Although Zelu also has Codonopsis ginseng, I may not be able to sell it at a high price, but it is still an exchange."

After finishing speaking, let Cui Yan write it down.

"People in Mohe like to raise pigs. They eat their meat, wear their skins, and smear their bodies with pig ointment in winter to keep out the wind and cold." Someone said.

Shao Shude nodded again.

Being good at raising pigs is an important feature of the Tungus ethnic group—Heishui Wubu is a typical wild Jurchen, "their animals are suitable for pigs, and the rich have hundreds of mouths."

If you say they are poor, they are really poor, so poor that they are scumbags.However, people in the Central Plains cannot afford the extravagant behavior of covering their bodies with pig paste to keep out the cold. Pig paste is an important raw material for making steamed cakes and is very valuable.

"Pigs can only be sold locally, it's a pity." Shao Shude said: "Cui Qing will write it down for now."

Even cattle and sheep will lose fat after traveling long distances. Pigs are sold from the northeast to the Central Plains. How much fat is left?
"Leading horses are very famous. In the past, merchants from Bohai often traveled south to Qingzhou to sell them."

Shao Shude picked up the milk porridge and ate it, listening silently.

Seeing Gu Gu watching with a smile, Yu Lu looked at Yue Liduo from the corner of his eyes from time to time.She used to like Yue Liduo very much, and thought she was her brother's good wife, but now she looks at her as an eyesore, and she really hates it.

"There are many horses in China." Shao Shude swallowed a mouthful of porridge and sighed, "However, we can send a batch to Sinong Temple as a genetic reserve."

The words of the saint made it difficult for the chiefs to understand. They had never read Wang Yong's "On Bloodlines", and they did not know the preciousness of genetic resources.

"People in Bohai are good at raising dogs and love to eat dog meat, especially in winter." Someone said weakly.

Shao Shude: "..."

Although there are no dog lovers at this time, this statement becomes more and more outrageous.

He imagined that a Bohai merchant brought hundreds of dogs to the Central Plains to sell. The picture was so beautiful.

"Your Majesty, Mohe once paid tribute to the Central Plains white rabbit skin and night cat skin."

"What is a night cat?" Shao Shude asked.

The man was dumbfounded, maybe he knew this kind of animal, but he couldn't accurately describe the name of the Central Plains.

"Your Majesty, it's a civet cat." Yue Liduo said: "Actually, the Central Plains doesn't like clothes and furs. If you can do it, then there is a lot to do in the fur business."

"The people of Mohe use birch trees as horns to blow their horns, make the sound of yelling, and call deer and shoot them. Even in Fuyu Prefecture, there are countless deer. Abao... After Yeluyi acquired Fuyu Prefecture, he ordered Liu Rengong to donate three deer skins every year. Thousands of sheets, to make leather armor, shoes and boots." She continued.

"It's not bad." Shao Shude's eyes lit up.

In ancient times, leather armor was mainly made of cow's back hide, because the cuticle of the cow's skin is thick, hard and has strong protection.But cowhide is not common, and most of the leather armor is actually made of multi-layered pigskin and sheepskin.

The leather of the horse's crotch and buttocks is also good.According to the rules on the grassland, after a horse dies, the meat can be eaten, but the skin must be handed over.In the early Tang Dynasty, one of the main tributes of the Tiande Army and Zhenwu Army was horse crotch leather.

Although the protective power of leather armor is not as good as that of iron armor, it is still a kind of armor that can be equipped at low cost and in large quantities. Sometimes, the cost of leather armor will soar, and the cost performance will drop. The main reason is that the supply of Central Plains cattle is not enough. It is not cheap, especially during the period of war, when agriculture collapsed, cowhide was even more difficult to find.

The quality of buckskin armor should exceed that of cowhide, sheepskin, and pigskin armor.Moreover, there are so many deer herds in Northeast China at this time, and a large amount of high-quality leather can be continuously provided for a long time in the future.

Moreover, there are more than one kind of deer in Bohai.

People in the Central Plains may have never seen the huge red deer and moose, and there are quite a few of them.

Seeing Shao Shude listening carefully, Yue Liduo said again: "I read history books——"

Shao Shude looked at her in surprise.

Yue Liduo smiled proudly, and continued: "In the sixth year of Kaiyuan, Mohe sent envoys to send whale salamander eyes, mink, white rabbit and cat skins."

Whale salamanders are whales. After the Bohai people caught the whales, they presented them to the Tang court.

"In May of the 18th year of Kaiyuan, Bohai sent envoys to present five seal skins."

"Sable skins, night cat skins, tiger skins, bear skins, leopard skins, fox skins, deer skins, beaver skins, whale salamanders and other things are common tributes in the Bohai Sea. Even the eight tribes of Khitan often donate such things. Items." Yue Liduo said.

"What I want is not a tribute." Shao Shude waved his hand and said, "What I want is a commodity that can be provided in large quantities and for a long time, so that the rich households and officials in the Central Plains cannot live without it. Yue Liduo, you are right, There are many leathers in Liaoze and Bohai, but people in the Central Plains buy too few."

Although leather jackets are good at keeping out the cold, they have no advantage over cotton jackets and sweaters.Its characteristic is windproof. When riding a horse in winter, it would be nice to have a leather jacket.

The key lies in consumption habits.

You have commodities, but there is no such market in the Central Plains, so you can only do nothing.Do you want me to bring the goods myself?But this kind of thing is very sensitive, because fur has a strong color of barbarians in the culture, and not many people may be willing to wear it.

"Write it down first." Shao Shude said to Cui Wei.

"Your Majesty..." Seeing Yue Liduo talking non-stop, Yu Lu saw that the girl was so angry that the child was about to be born, so she said quickly: "Your Majesty loves seafood. The South China Sea kumbu is really famous. I heard that in the former Tang Dynasty, the palace often Distributing this item to the prime minister is still a treasure, with a price but no market. South China Sea, Suibin, Longyuan, Tingli, Anbian, Anyuan, Huaiyuan, and Dongping prefectures have fish schools migrating every year, and there are huge numbers of them. If you can catch them, it will be no less than a good grain harvest.”

Shao Shude glanced at her approvingly.

What Aunt Yu Lujian was talking about was salmon.

There are generally two migration routes for salmon. One is from the Sea of ​​Okhotsk to Heilongjiang, Ussuri River, Songhua River and other rivers; the other is to enter the Sea of ​​Japan along the coast of Sakhalin Island, and then swim back into Tumen River, Hunchun River, Suifen River and some rivers in North Korea that lead to the sea.

How many of them are there?According to Russian records in the 17th century, the density of salmon migrating in the Heilongjiang River was so high that people could walk on it. Of course, this may be a bit exaggerated.

However, during the salmon fishing season in Heilongjiang, the density was once so high that the oars could not be broken, which shows the huge number of salmon.

"There are also crabs from the Bohai Sea. The red color is as big as a bowl, and the claws are huge and thick. It is rumored that they can kill people in the sea." Yu Lu Jiangu said again.

"It's a piece of fertile land." Shao Shude sighed after hearing this.

In fact, this is virgin land.Not only is the land black, but there are also mountains, forests, rivers, grasslands, and coastal areas, as well as undeveloped resources accumulated over tens of millions of years.

He remembered that there was a small island in the Thousand Islands, named Iturup Island, and there were fifteen hundred bears on it, an astonishing number.

There are thousands of rivers on Sakhalin Island, and countless fish migrate every year. In the 21st century, there was a sudden cold wave, and the temperature of the sea water dropped by 1-2 degrees in a short period of time. Many fish's mobility decreased and they were pushed to the shore by the waves.The Russians couldn't eat it at all, so they directly dispatched a large number of bulldozers to push the fish down and bury it.

In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, more than 100 million tons of cod die of old age every year, while the annual output of cod in the world, including artificial breeding, is only 800 million tons.

The production of seafood in the cold sea area is far beyond that of the warm water sea area, not in the same order of magnitude.The nutrition and calories of cold-water sea fish exceed that of warm-water sea fish, and the nutrition of warm-water sea fish exceeds that of freshwater fish...

To develop the resources of Bohai State and connect it with the Central Plains, the sea is indispensable.

"I really want to go over there and have a look." Shao Shude stood up, wishing he could fly over there.

In fact, many people don't understand why he must attack Bohai Kingdom, even Chen Cheng has some criticisms.

But there are some things he can't tell others, and no one will believe him.

Fortunately, he is the founding king and can act arbitrarily.Martial arts man, isn't it normal for me to be militaristic, should you care?
Of course, those who are familiar with him know that his ability to build and operate is not bad compared to resorting to military action.

Now he is even more worried about the development of the Bohai Fifteen Prefectures than the Bohai Dashi, and he does everything possible to check the pulse of its economy, trying to connect it with the Central Plains.

The closer the economic connection, the greater the interests, and the larger the population, the less likely the future kings will abandon it.

Especially when there are 300 million Han Chinese in the hometown of Bohai Kingdom, who can give up when it is absolutely necessary?

Don't talk about economic interests, some frontier states and counties in the Central Plains have Mao's economic interests, and the imperial court will lose money there, okay?But who dares to give up?

It is understandable that Annan was abandoned before the Song Dynasty, because the Wuguan area was really desolate.It would be unbelievable to give up in the Ming Dynasty, because the south has been greatly developed.

Bohai Sea, if the Shenzhou, Andongfu, Yingzhou and other places connected to it have a large population and the cattle and sheep are wild, it is entirely possible to keep it.

It will be safer if we can maintain a certain degree of economic ties with the Central Plains.

It's a pity that the capital is not in Beijing, otherwise the chances are greater.

"Decree, the Nanya Privy Council set up the Shenzhou Court in Shenzhou to recruit recruits for training as a source of soldiers for the Imperial Army." Shao Shude got on his horse after finishing his order.

He is going to hunt with Yin Anzhi, Tianxiong Army and other nobles to enhance their relationship.

(End of this chapter)