Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 1607 The Next Hot Spot

"The freshly sheared spring white wool costs 30 Wen for the upper, 25 Wen for the Chinese, and 20 Wen for the lower."

"A fur collar, 400 Wen for the upper straight, 350 Wen for the second time, and 300 Wen for the lower."

"Purple ripe cotton silk is one foot long, with 66 lines on the upper side, 65 lines on the second side, and 64 lines on the lower side."

There is a poem that says "in May, there is snow in the Tianshan Mountains, there are no flowers, only cold", this is true in May, let alone April.

But in Yizhou in the south of the Tianshan Mountains, the spring has already bloomed, and the first wave of grain has been harvested and put into storage. In fact, the climate of the whole Xinjiang is diverse and cannot be generalized. Turpan and Hami are ready for spring sowing.

Illinois is Hami, which is also in an independent geographical unit: the Hami Basin.

In a sense, this is an individual model of the Turpan Basin.

The terrain is also high in the north and low in the south, and there is also a central depression, Shaer Lake, where wells and ditches have also been built to irrigate the farmland.

But since ancient times, the population of Hami has been smaller than that of Turpan, and the reasons are very complicated.It is not only related to terrain and climate, but also related to politics and history. It is difficult to say clearly——

In the fourth year of Qianlong's history, after vigorous immigration, there were only 9600 people, which was not as good as that of the Han, Sui and Tang Dynasties.

In the 26th year of Qianlong, the number increased to more than 1.2.

In the middle period of Daoguang, there were nearly 2 people.

At the beginning of Xuantong, it fell back to 1.3.

Of course, the eastern and northern borders are not bad, but the southern border is even more helpless.Because the Qing government implemented a strict "Han-Hui isolation" policy, prohibiting the inland people from immigrating to southern Xinjiang, making the local area full of "Uyghurs", which also planted the cause and effect for the subsequent Aquba Rebellion.

……

On the first day of April, Zhao Zaiqing came to Yizhou.

He has not been at home for the New Year this year, and his "enterprise spirit" is quite serious. At the end of the first month, he gathered the masters he hired in Dunhuang, took more than [-] camels, pulled a large number of military equipment, and set off in the direction of Gaochang.

The reason behind such a desperate effort is heart-warming: Zhao Zaiqing is anxious to find the sage Gong (jie) to congratulate (account).

"Poor place." The old man in the caravan was fine, but the newcomer saw the dilapidated earthen city and the narrow streets full of sheep dung, and immediately lost his appetite. Not much difference."

"Why are there so many strange words?" An old man slapped him on the ear and neck, and then said mysteriously: "There is a whore with half-closed doors selling by the sheep pen, full of dirty smells, do you want to go?"

The newcomer's eyes lit up, and he said, "Go! Why don't you go! What you want is this smell! Hu Ji, I haven't played it yet."

"That's right." The old man said with a smile, "It's just a place to rest and have fun, why is it so particular?"

The caravan stayed here for two days, and Zhao Zaiqing gave them a day off to have fun by themselves.And he went to the governor's mansion to pay a visit, and brought many commodities that could only be bought in Luoyang and Chang'an to his son-in-law Zhao Feng.

"The sage probably won't leave for Yizhou until next month." Zhao Feng made a pot of tea by himself immediately, and after a few sips, his face was full of intoxication, and he opened his eyes after a while, and said.

"Why next month?" Zhao Zaiqing asked.

"You shouldn't ask this question, but it's okay to tell you." Zhao Feng said: "It's very simple, wait for the snow on Tianshan Mountain to melt, summon the generals in the North Court, and deploy combat missions. They will return east after they are done. What's more, he The elderly may also stay in Gaochang for a longer period of time to see if this year's grassland is going well."

"I see." Zhao Zaiqing murmured.

"What? The money is not enough? Didn't I give you a batch of goods?" Zhao Feng asked.

He should be referring to the fact that the sage sent a batch of Yunnan goods at a low price to the Zhao family, the Kang family, the Tuoba family, and the Zhuge family. It is a disguised subsidy.

"That batch of goods made a lot of money." Zhao Zaiqing said with a wry smile: "But the family has a big business and a lot of expenses. Among other things, my family is in Ling, Liang, Gan, Su, Gua, Sha, Yi, and Xiba states. Warehouses are set up in each, and food, equipment, and military supplies are transferred, and thousands of people are employed? Although the imperial court pays for the freight, how can the money be enough?"

"It's boring to say that." Zhao Feng smiled and said, "Everywhere you go, you sell your goods wantonly and make a lot of money, right? Let's say that purple ripe cotton silk that sells for more than 60 yuan per foot in the city, Are you the one who sold it? There are also Feishu Mianling, Yizhou half-arm section, Feigaobu shirt section, etc. Oh, by the way, you probably won't be empty-handed when you return, right? You have traveled thousands of miles Now, will you bring some goods from the Western Regions? Shipping to the Central Plains, but the price is sky-high."

Zhao Feng did not exaggerate at all.

Ordinary people in Yizhou are nothing more than ordinary people. If you have a little money and want to live a different life, you have to ask these merchants to buy things, such as those silks and satins.

After hearing this, Zhao Zaiqing's expression remained unchanged, and he continued to complain: "The Western Regions have been beaten up like that, how can there be so many goods? Besides, many goods come from Persia, Dashi and even Tianzhu. Today, Zhu goods are still there. Yes, Persian and big food merchants have been intermittently affected, and the people who sell goods have changed from Persians and Sogdians to Uyghurs (Khazar Uyghurs).

"What you said is true." Zhao Feng nodded, and said, "Don't worry, I heard that the sage got a lot of female slaves and wanted to sell a batch to the four of you at a low price. Don't get together to sell them in Luoyang, go south , take a boat to Yangzhou, Suzhou, Runzhou, and Hangzhou, there are many rich people doing business there, and they may be able to sell for a good price."

Zhao Zaiqing was overjoyed, but still looked a little sad.

Zhao Feng glanced at him and said, "Stop hiding it, tell me, what's the matter?"

"Is there any convenient wasteland here?" Zhao Zaiqing asked.

"There must be, but why are you asking this?" Zhao Fengqi asked.

"Last year the sage broke through Shule and got all the treasures of the royal palace, and sold them to merchants, who asked them to deliver grain." Zhao Zaiqing said: "Some people thought it was not worthwhile to transport grain long distances, so they called a group of township party members and sent them to the village. Mozhou secretly found a land, planted his own grain, harvested it, transported it to Shule, and sold it to the imperial court for a huge profit."

"This..." Zhao Feng was a little surprised when he heard that, can he still play like this?
In fact, during the Western Expeditions in the Qing Dynasty in history, many businessmen did this.

At the beginning, they also transported food long distances, but they did not expect this.

But one day, a "little clever ghost" suddenly figured it out. What the court wanted was just grain. I transported grain thousands of miles from Lanzhou, and people ate horses and chewed it. People planted grain, and the result was huge profits—in fact, it was not just businessmen who grew grain. Zuo Zongtang also encouraged soldiers to find places to grow grain, and bought all the proceeds at the market price.

Of course, this situation can only exist when the imperial court buys grain with real money.If what they want is free prostitution, then there is no game.

The Western Expedition of the Qing Dynasty was quite special, and the imperial court's own transportation capacity was mainly used to transport military supplies.

Because of the extensive use of firearms, the logistics and transportation tasks have surged, which is far from comparable to that in the era of cold weapons.

During the period of Napoleon in the West, 4500 carriages were prepared to provide logistical supplies to an army, of which 2500 were for transporting ammunition, which can be seen.

But in the era of cold weapons, the consumption is much smaller.Apart from food, the most important consumables are arrows, but most arrows can be reused and carried by soldiers themselves.

Gao Xianzhi was able to bring [-] troops between Kucha and Talas with ease, but the firearms troops were not so simple. , then don't fight this battle at all.

"I can't do it in Yizhou. Although there is still wasteland, it's all owned." After thinking for a while, Zhao Feng said, "If you find it troublesome to transport grain and want to go to the west to grow grain, I think you can go to Beiting."

"Beiting?" Zhao Zaiqing was a little surprised, and asked, "Are they also going to fight? On my way to Yizhou, I saw that the soldiers from Anton and Fengzhou had all returned home."

"The government soldiers are gone, but Fu Cunshen, Wang Yanzhang, Zhu Jin and others have not left." Zhao Feng said: "East Liaodong will recruit [-] government soldiers to go west this year, join the Beiting camp, and be under the command of Fu Cunshen. After June , they will definitely make a big move.”

"Then go to Beiting." Zhao Zaiqing made up his mind and said.

Zhao Feng was thoughtful.

In fact, it was only for a while that the imperial court bought grain from merchants.After capturing Gaochang and Shule, they sold the property of the robbed royal palace, officials, and wealthy households, and then robbed Bahana and got another windfall.But a windfall is a windfall after all, not a steady stream of steady income. After consumption, you will naturally not buy it again.

But this matter—it’s actually very interesting!

Zhao Feng's head was running at high speed. Wouldn't it be better if the court took part of the money and paid it to the merchants in Luoyang, letting them bring all the necessary things to the Western Regions to farm?
The grain grown in this way is expensive, but it is cheaper than transporting grain from Lingzhou, Liangzhou, and Lanzhou foolishly, right?It's too fucking cheap, okay?

Of course, the cheapest one is Juntun, but this matter...

The second cheapest is to immigrate to land reclamation and then collect taxes.However, in the early stage of immigration, the expenditure on food and other materials will increase sharply.

Therefore, there is still a lot of money to be made by hiring merchants to grow food for many years.

The more Zhao Feng thought about it, the clearer his thoughts became.

It is a fact that warriors do not want to farm.So is there anyone who loves money and is willing to grow grain and sell it?You must know that the enthusiasm of the army is very low, and the output is not high, which is completely different from voluntary.

Now is not the time to worry about expenses, because everything is cheaper than transporting grain for thousands of miles, and it is much lower.

This year is the first year of Tongguang, and the people of Helong will suffer for the third year. After three years, they must be a little tired and need to relax.If the sage still wants to emigrate on a large scale, he must have a new method and a new way.

Thinking of this, Zhao Feng has already decided to sort out his thoughts and present it to the saint, maybe he can win the holy family.

******
After Zhao Zaiqing left the state office, he left the city soon.

He noticed that there were many more people near the base of the city wall, which were full of travel and dust, but there were none when he entered the city.

After a little inquiry, it turned out that they were new immigrants from Henan and Hebei: Zhenzhou, Weizhou, Bianzhou, and Songzhou had [-] households each.This society is waiting for the state government to divide them into various counties to settle in the wasteland.

He had heard from Zhao Feng that Yizhou was sparsely populated, and a group of Khanna artisans, craftsmen from the Central Plains, and families of Huainan rebels had just arrived. The total number of households was only 2300, with a population of more than 11700—the household registration of the former Tang Dynasty had just been restored.

After returning to the station, the remaining caravan members were also discussing this matter.

"The scale of immigration is pitifully small, and it is not as open and closed as Liaodong."

"To be honest, given the conditions of Illinois, it can only feed a few hundred households, and it won't work if there are too many."

"Haha, poor places, that's all."

"Speaking of which, the sage has been smashing Liaodong for these years, almost 20 years?"

"If you don't tell me, you still can't remember it. Is it really 20 years? Well, 20 years ago, I was still peeing and playing with mud."

Zhao Zaiqing was a little startled when he heard this.

It took 20 years to persevere in one place, the saint is really obsessed with Liaodong.

Based on Zhao Zaiqing's knowledge, he felt that no one in Liaodong could withstand the big waves.

The Khitan people can't do it, the Bohai people can't do it, and the Jurchens can't do it either!

There are so many arrogant soldiers who don't need money from the court to guard it. In a few decades, it will be like the Central Plains outside the pass.

To be disrespectful, by the end of the Xia Dynasty, there should be no Hu people entering the customs from Liaodong.Even if there is, it should be living in a bitterly cold place, and the Han army that still maintains a certain combat effectiveness-enters the pass to suppress the "rebels".

The understanding of traditional Chinese should be updated.

And since Liaodong does not need the court to invest a lot of money, what about the Western Regions?Will it be a new generation of Liaodong?

The means should be somewhat different, but judging from the sage's obsession with the border areas, the essence should be similar.

Some people are knowledgeable about the past and the present, and think they are all-knowing and omnipotent. When it comes to the arrangement of the saint in Liaodong, they are very disdainful, thinking that it is a big defeat. The wise kings of the past dynasties would never do this-it is not that they cannot do it, but they are unwilling to do it.

Their core argument is that the government soldiers should be kept under their noses, because once the control of the Gein court declines and the majesty is wiped out, this is the source of disaster.

But Zhao Zaiqing felt that the sage had a bigger mind than them all.Didn't you hear that "the brilliance of a gentleman will be cut off for five generations", and you have read for nothing!

At the time of the former Tang Dynasty, there was no active forced large-scale immigration to the Western Regions. Either sending criminals or recruiting soldiers and their families were all passive behaviors.

Is it the lack of national strength?of course not.The Luoyang Mingtang built by Empress Wu is enough to accommodate [-] households to the Western Regions.

To put it bluntly, they still don't pay attention to it, and subconsciously think that place can be abandoned.

On the contrary, after the defeat of the Western Turks, 7 people from the remnants of Huseruo Khan immigrated from the Western Regions to the Central Plains. Empress Wu ordered the states and counties along the way to pay for it...

The Western Regions should be the next Liaodong, and all kinds of business can still be done.

Two days later, on the third day of April, Zhao Zaiqing headed westward with his supply team and arrived in Gaochang in early May.

(End of this chapter)