Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 1445 Sunset Industries
From Haizhou to Luoyang, a total of more than [-] miles, first go west to Xuzhou, then go to Bianzhou by land or by boat, and then go west to Luoyang.

On April [-]th, a group of more than [-] people arrived in Xuzhou. After staying for two days, they waited for a batch of boats, so they scattered and boarded to Bianzhou.

"General Wang, how much is the Bian water used now?" Liu Yin and Wang Shilu were on the same boat, and they had nothing to do, so they asked.

"Why not many?" Wang Shilu glanced at him and said, "Not only Bianshui, but also Woshui, Rushui, Yingshui, Caishui, Huanshui, etc. have been used. In the past, the sage and Zhu Quanzhong competed for Henan. The river network is very impressive. Now that Henan is already a king's land, it is natural to make great use of it."

Liu Yin nodded.

He was also the hero of a party, and he still has vision.The sage fought with Liang Jun, probably because of the dense water network in Henan, he suffered a lot, right?
The place of the Fourth World War in Henan is also a place extending in all directions. No matter which direction you use your troops, it is very fast and convenient.The dense water network can also provide cheap and fast transportation channels. If a hero occupies Henan, these canals can become his weapon in battle.

Of course, if there is no hero, then Henan is dead.

There are no absolutes in the world, it depends on the person.

There are still many boats on the canal.Liu Yin couldn't enjoy watching it, so he stood up and looked at it.

One ship after another staggered by.

With sharp eyes, Liu Yin saw a corner of the wool cloth exposed in the cabin.This kind of thing has appeared even in Lingnan, but the sales volume is not large.After all, winter is not very cold, and the time to wear sweaters is not long, so those who have affluent families will buy them.

In addition to woolen cloth, there are many other commodities, but they are so tightly covered that they cannot be seen clearly.

However, Liu Yin can guess that it is probably leather goods, medicinal materials and the like.

Besides the cargo, he also found something unusual.

"General Wang, why are there so few trackers? Six or seven out of ten boats rely on horse-drawn boats?" Liu Yin turned around and asked humbly.

"One, it's not good to treat people as animals." Wang Shilu Dayi said awe-inspiringly.

Liu Yin looked suddenly enlightened, but he didn't believe it in his heart: Are you talking nonsense?

"Two, the country has a lot of livestock, so there is no need to employ people. Human strength is not as strong as livestock." Wang Shilu said.

Liu Yin was silent this time.

The use of livestock to pull fibers has existed since ancient times. Why is it still not the mainstream? Because of the shortage.

Bullocks, draft horses, and mules are livestock that are suitable for stretching. Do you think you can really get them casually?
In the former Tang Dynasty, there were still a lot of livestock.Liu Yin didn't know that some dynasties in the future had less livestock than the previous Tang Dynasty.

In the Tang Dynasty, officials rode horses to court, and they also rode horses when they went out.

Kou Zhun in the Northern Song Dynasty had such a status that he could only ride a donkey to go home.

That's okay, the key is that the number of donkeys is not enough.Song Renzong conquered Xixia and mobilized [-] donkeys from all over the country to transport the army rations, which is simply unimaginable.

The famous Huaixi Mule Army in the Tang Dynasty had five thousand or eight thousand horses at every turn.And the Wei Bo army who was ordered by the court to conquer them also had tens of thousands of cavalry.

Wang Rong and Li Ke used the battle to quote "one hundred thousand horses". Although it is a bit exaggerated, there are still one hundred thousand horses.

In a highly developed agricultural society, there is not enough livestock. There is only one reason: the people are poor.

And it just so happened that the taxes in the Northern Song Dynasty were heavier than those in the late Tang and Five Dynasties, which was completely on par.The common people are so poor, where do they get the livestock?
"Thirty years ago, the sage was still in Lingzhou, and he sold horses wantonly in order to raise military rewards." Wang Shilu said again: "A horse asks for more than 30 silks. Thirty years have passed, and now a horse only costs 30 silks." , when it’s cheap, it only costs twenty horses. How much is a horse in Guangzhou?”

"If it's a Beidi Jianma, at least it will cost [-] to [-] yuan." Liu Yin said.

Wang Shilu did some calculations, if it was ordinary silk, it would be equivalent to two hundred pieces, which is almost ten times that of Beidi.

"It's too expensive to buy a horse for dozens of horses." Wang Shilu said in surprise: "Who can afford it? You can buy a good farm house."

"How can common people use horses?" Liu Yin laughed.

"This is the problem." Wang Shilu said, "If you want people to be able to afford livestock, you have to lower the price. It's not good to do something with a few tens of pennies. You have to buy horses? The period when horses were most scarce in the Tang Dynasty The time was blackmailed by the Uyghurs, and it was only forty bolts of silk."

After the Anshi Rebellion, Tang Ting's horse breeding system collapsed for a while, and he had to buy horses from Uighurs.

The Uighurs are not fools. Seeing that you lack horses, of course they demand high prices. "In Qianyuan, (Uyghurs) come to the market every year. One horse can be exchanged for forty pieces of silk, and tens of thousands of horses can be moved."

Not only did the Uyghurs sell at high prices, but they also sold tens of thousands of horses at a time. Each horse had forty pieces of silk, which was comparable to robbery—converted into money, it would cost 20 guan.

But Tang Ting slowly took the time to adjust, and began to rebuild pastoral supervisors everywhere.They even raised horses and donkeys in Fujian, and Quanzhou had [-] horses at that time.

The Zhaoyi Jiedushi raised horses near Jinliang Temple in Luzhou. "The horses are as healthy as ducks. The so-called Jinliang breeds in the world cost millions of horses every year."

The horses of Jinliang Temple in Luzhou have even formed a brand, and they sell about [-] horses to the market steadily every year.

In the seventh year of Taihe, Liu Yuanzuo, the governor of Yinzhou, said that Yinzhou had more than [-] horses.

In this year, the price of Datang horses dropped to 15-20 pieces of silk, about 8-10 yuan.

Compared with the Northern Song Dynasty, a horse has dozens of guan, which is still the price of military purchases, and private purchases cost nearly a hundred guan.The prices of donkeys, mules, and cows even far surpassed those of the Five Dynasties, which had frequent wars—this was the price of livestock in a time of peace and prosperity. People can't figure it out, how could they be so incompetent?

After 30 years of painstaking and solitary horse administration in the Xia Dynasty, and exchanges with the grasslands, the price of horses fell every year.Moreover, the overall quality of the horses flooding the market is good, and the price should have been higher than that of Tang horses, but the original price has been basically maintained, which shows that the number of livestock in the society is already quite high.

In an agricultural society, the role of livestock cannot be overstated no matter how high it is.

"How many horses does Daxia have now?" Liu Yin was a little surprised when he saw a very tall and healthy horse, so he asked.

"This... I don't really know. There should be hundreds of thousands of official horses." Wang Shilu thought for a while and said: "The horses raised by the people may not be less than 20, maybe 30? Or even more? No one has counted it, but it is true that athletes riding horses can be seen everywhere in Guanbei, Guannei, Helong, and Zhili. The price of horses next year will be lower than this year, that’s for sure.”

"Why?" Liu Yin asked.

"Khitan horses, Heishuifan horses, and Bohai lead guest horses are all waiting to enter the Central Plains." Wang Shilu said: "The officials and herdsmen should also release a batch of horses. Three to fifty thousand horses is not a problem."

Liu Yin let out a long breath.

Fortunately, I didn't die hard to the end.What's the situation with privately raising 30 million horses?If there are five hundred or one thousand cavalry in the towns in the south of the Lingnan, they can show off their might.Compared with others, it is really infuriating.

"The price of horses is low, and the trackers on the canal will gradually disappear." Wang Shilu pointed to a group of men walking slowly, shouting neatly, as if talking about the sunset industry: "They have to make a living by themselves."

"In fact, not only the price of horses, but also the price of cattle has fallen sharply in recent years." Wang Shilu said again: "I heard that Yingzhou and Shenzhou have selected tens of thousands of calves from the trophies and trained them to get used to farming. But this is just As an emergency measure, Sinong Temple has been cultivating cattle with strong strength and good endurance. The common people have also selected some relatively docile cattle, mated them, and trained them after giving birth to calves. Beef cattle are worthless, while dairy cows are more valuable, and farm cattle are the most valuable , Farming cattle are cheaper, and the common people can afford them, so they can harvest more food, save themselves labor, and when they are recruited for training, they don’t have so many strange things to say.”

Liu Yin opened his mouth wide when he heard the words, and after a long time, he humbly lowered his head again.

He is convinced of what he has done today, even more convinced than defeating him on the battlefield.

They are not people of the same level.

"Actually, I know some foreign merchants..." Liu Yin said.

"Didn't you kill him?" Wang Shilu asked with a smile.

Liu Yin sat down in embarrassment, and said: "He didn't come this year, but he sold more than ten big food horses to Guangzhou in previous years. They were called BMWs. I bought them and raised them in the garden. died."

"Damn!" Wang Shilu was startled, and cursed: "A wasteful thing! The saint is begging for a horse, and you will die!"

"However—" Wang Shilu calmed down his mind and said, "Don't say I won't help you, I will show you a bright way today."

"General, please tell me." Liu Yin also felt that he had messed up something, and was a little panicked.

"If you can get in touch with that sea merchant, you can make him sell horses again, and the court will pay a lot of money to buy them, and even give him an official position." Wang Shilu said: "If this is done, it will definitely be a great achievement."

"Thank you for your advice." Liu Yin was delighted to have found a way to make meritorious service.

******
On the 25th, a group of people arrived in Bianzhou.

Stay for a day, then continue northward, pass through Wansheng Town, Putian Town, Xingze, Heyin, Gongxian, Yanshi, and finally drive along the Caoqu Canal to Xintan in Luoyang City.

After the ship dropped anchor, they also went ashore.

Weiwei Temple took over Liu Yin and others and temporarily detained them in Shendu Garden—there were too many people, more than 300, it would be good to go to the garden of Shendu Garden to help with work first.

Wang Shilu gave his soldiers two days off, and agreed to board a ship outside Xiecheng Canal in the east of the city and return to Haizhou in three days.

It wasn't the first time he came to Luoyang, but it was the first time he arrived in Luoyang by boat.

The convenience of river transportation left a deep impression on him.

He wandered around Xintan.

Here is almost a large-scale commodity distribution center, where businessmen from various states and even countries gather.Any product can be seen, and anyone can see it.

The people showed pride.

The tax collector was beaming.

Scholars are happy to miss Shu.

The sage has been in Beijing for several years, and the prosperity of Tokyo has even risen to a higher level without being affected in the slightest.

Luoyang's location is indeed unique.

If the waterway leading to Xiangyang can be opened, then the goods from the Jianghan area can also be transported in at an unusually low price.

Judging from the current situation of vigorously developing Xiangying, Fuyue and other states, once these places mature, it doesn't matter whether there is Jiangnan for Luoyang. Jianghan can become the granary of Daxia, and even provide a lot of silk. silk, tea.

Good place, I have to buy a house in Luoyang as soon as possible.

On the other hand, it's about time for the sage to set off and come back, right?
(End of this chapter)